It will also serve as a place, where users can vent about the things they don’t like about their experience, providing RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) with rich feedback loop to make their devices better, according to TechCrunch, which reports that the launch could come as early as tomorrow.

The network will likely be called “MyBlackBerry,” and will look more like a wiki or bulletin board, than a traditional social network, like Facebook. Users will be assigned “social profiles,” and for convenience will will only see information that’s specific to the device you are using.

Not only will this give RIM feedback on its devices, but also the BlackBerry App World, which has been slow to take off. Because users will be able to see each others’ opinions, etc., it may also make the App World more social and viral, which RIM is probably hoping will translate into more downloads.

The Mobile Buyer’s guide can be found on the bureau’s web site here. The guide is the bureau’s first for mobile, perhaps demonstrating how legitimate the space has gotten. It was put together by the mobile advertising committee, which includes 120 companies that are dedicated to expanding mobile as a viable advertising platform, and clearly is targeting those who are already advertising online. Release.

The spokesperson said the move is voluntary and “in keeping with SpinVox’s approach of being as flexible as possible and widening share ownership”. Stock is given routinely on occasions like anniversaries of service, she said, and: “There’s total freedom to opt in or take salary as normal.”

The invitation will raise an eyebrow, coming after SpinVox raised $100 million in March 2008 from Goldman Sachs, along with GLG Partners, Blue Mountain Capital Management and Toscafund Asset Management. That was one of the biggest venture fundings we saw in Europe last year, and took SpinVox’s total venture funding to $200 million since it was founded in 2003. CEO Christina Domecq said it valued SpinVox at “in excess of $500 million”.

Co-founder Daniel Doulton last week told paidContent:UK the company would need more funding to scale the business if it wins two or three more clients like Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), with which it inked a Latin America deal last month.

The Cambridge firm enables voicemail-to-text and spoken SMS services for carriers, plus powers dictation of blog posts, social network updates etc. Though the company has been aggressively pursuing carrier deals, its eventual goal is to provide a hosted voice messaging service, in which particular words could be hyperlinked to advertising.

The company last filed accounts in December 2007, when SpinVox said it made an annual loss of £36.3 million, up from £11.6 million; revenues rose from £436,000 to £2 million. It has since then signed on 12 additional carriers, including Alltel (NYSE: AT) in the US. Previous reports have said the company has considered an IPO. SpinVox is often said to be one of the UK’s leading tech prospects, but one insider told us stock was “worthless”.

The company told TouchArcade it set up a team of young, indie developers that will focus solely on creating dead simple, dirt cheap iPhone games. The first app from 8lb Gorilla will be the action title Zombies & Me; new releases will follow on an almost monthly basis.

The studio lets EA experiment with new, lower-priced IP, without risking the unnecessary waste of resources—though, it will still likely have to promote the games to keep them from getting lost in the crowded App Store—or tarnishing the EA Mobile brand with a game that ultimately flops.

Ericsson’s moves today will only increase the debate on whether WiMax, which is mainly supported by Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) in the U.S., or LTE will be the dominant mobile broadband standard going forward.

Kim Dong Joon, an analyst at Seoul-based Good Morning Shinhan Securities told Bloomberg: “Deployment of WiMax has been slower than expected while LTE’s expansion has been faster. It’s not favorable news for WiMax and it seems Ericsson wants to expand in Korea, which is leading the WiMax technology.”

WiBro, which was launched in June 2006, has struggled to take off in South Korea. At the end of May, KT and SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) had a combined 220,000 registered WiBro customers, and revenues barely hitting 30 billion won (nearly $23 million), http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2906651” title=“according to Joongang Daily”>according to Joongang Daily. The article said the network has most likely failed because of limited coverage. WiBro is only available in and around Seoul, and then via “hotspots” in other major cities nationwide. Consumers have instead adopted 3G, which nearly covers the entire country. But recently KT has released laptops bundled with WiBro in an effort to boost sales, and the Korean government has pledged to prop up the service and hopes to export the technology to other countries. To help further, last December Korea’s Communications Commission decided to allow companies to provide a cheaper mobile phone services using WiBro, which is expected to begin around the end of this year.

Still, while many companies are backing LTE, WiMax is ready and available today. Bloomberg reported that the LTE infrastructure market will reach $5 billion in 2013 after deployment begins in the second half of this year, according to researcher Infonetics Research. That’s only a fraction of the WiMax market, which will total $16.1 billion this year, according to ABI Research.

Just recently Go2 launched a new mobile ad product called “Dynamic Content Marketing”, where it allows front pages on the site to be branded, and have one-click links integrated into the page. In conjunction with Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount Pictures film, it launched a new campaign for the film “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”. The campaign did a take-over go2’s movies home page with Transformers branding. Also, it has an entertainment guide iPhone app.

The Toronto-based company has raised over $39 million in funding since its inception in 2004; it will use the new money for product development (like the launch of its Blackberry-based mobile TV service, PrimeTime2Go). The funding signals a major vote of confidence in the growth potential of mobile video—with recent research showing that individual usage is on the upswing. Release.

Back then, the O2 deal was struck along with other UK carriers, but Vodafone was first to be announced, with an exclusive window…

On Monday, O2 said its arrangement will deliver “@” replies and direct messages to users via SMS for free, under a 600-a-month fair use limit. Outgoing tweets have been textable all along, charged at normal rate.

Vodafone had said that incoming tweet texts would be free only for a limited period, at a 500-a-month limit. The O2 announcement is more poignant - it was O2 subsidiary Manx Telecom that Twitter had used for all UK delivery until co-founder Biz Stone canned the channel in August ‘08, grumbling “it could cost Twitter about $1,000 per user, per year”.

The breakthrough came after Twitter hired its first business development director Kevin Thau, who met European carriers to redraw SMS plans.

People just can’t seem to stop talking about Twitter in the UK; Twitter.com was the fifth most visited social network in May, according to Hitwise, whose stats didn’t even include use through API-dependent tools and mobiles.

The new “LG Application Store” will provide 1,400 applications including 100 free programs, available in 15 languages, and is now open in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. It will reach Europe and the South America by the end of this year, with the number of apps to be offered to increase to more than 2,000 by then, LG said, reports Reuters. It has no plans to launch the store in U.S., not an LG stronghold anyway. Samsung has an app store in beta, available only in the UK.

»  Hey, he’s not using an iPhone either, and he’s on Apple’s board. Speaking of which, that’s a group he needs to talk to after Google’s OS Chrome disclosure, which will eventually go up against OS X. [Yahoo]

»  The Astonishing Tribe is doing some amazing facial recognition work. [Engadget Mobile]

»  DuPont is leading the charge for new mobile barcodes on packaging for goods. [GoMoNews]

»  Rumors still flying over what AT&T (NYSE: T) will charge for tethering the iPhone to a laptop. [Appmodo]

But the increased accelerometer usage won’t just be a boon for device manufacturers; mobile content and gaming companies also benefit from the motion-sensing tech, because it makes their games more realistic (and more fun). “Few consumers know what accelerometers are,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) for iSuppli, in the report. “[But] they do know that when they shake their handsets, they can roll a pair of virtual dice in a game of chance.”

iSuppli also found that accelerometers wouldn’t be limited to smartphones, noting that the motion-sensing capabilities are spreading to other kinds of handsets. As for market penetration, nearly all (18 out of 19) of the new handsets that Sony Ericsson introduced this year had accelerometers; Nokia was next, bundling the sensors into roughly 38 percent of the new phones it has released since January.

TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth told our sister site paidContent:UK last month that the company was in talks to raise additional funds, saying “It doesn’t take much math to work out (that the seed funding is) not going to last a desperately long amount of time.” The company has ambitious plans to expand beyond helping users manage their Twitter conversations to aggregating web-wide updates, including activity on social networks and e-mail. TweetDeck also launched a free iPhone app at the end of June.

That’s not to say that Davis foresees a mad dash for mobile purchases anytime soon, as the credit markets and other recessionary pressures continue to bear down on company’s ability to finance major M&A activity. On the other hand, those same issues are also likely to keep prices down, which should inspire some bargain-hunters. Earlier this month, the Jordan, Edmiston Group said that M&A in the mobile space was up 46 percent. Looking ahead, JEGI sees mobile social nets and mobile content providers as key areas of investment.

—A bigger role for telecoms: The rise of the mobile internet will also spur carriers to buy up services. Case in point: AT&T’s 2008 purchase of Wi-Fi operator Wayport is seen as a way for manage the flow of content and expand their relationships with other companies. For example the Wayport deal expanded the carrier’s Wi-Fi network to nearly 20,000 hotspots in the U.S. by adding locations at some Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels as well as McDonald’s restaurants.“In the wired Internet, the carrier was a dumb pipe,” Jefferies & Co.‘s Robert Jackman told Reuters. “In mobile Internet, carriers will play a bigger role. If you can’t control end-to-end through to the billing relationship, you can’t control the end-customer.”

Initially, the new program will be aimed at Windows Mobile and BlackBerry developers, but will be expanded to other platforms, including Android, as the carrier rolls out phones using that platform. Obviously, Verizon has some pull with developers since it is the largest U.S. carrier with more than 86 million subscribers and is capable of providing a distribution system that would span multiple handset makers.

—The perks: As part of the new program, Verizon will offer developers access to its billing platform and location information. This means, developers will be able to charge subscribers using their Verizon bill, rather than using a credit card or other form of payment. In addition, the app will be able to see where the user is, allowing it to provide more relevant information. These are two things that handset makers can’t necessarily provide. Besides technical offerings, Verizon also promises to speed up the approval process by creating standard online form. (T-Mobile USA started a similar program last year. While there’s a few differences, the two have the same goal in mind: quicker time to market).

—The opportunity: Hughes said Verizon never spent a lot of time building storefronts for smartphones because historically most of the devices were purchased by a user’s company and they weren’t allowed to buy applications or ringtones. In the last year or so, that has changed, and many more of the smartphones are being purchased by consumers, who pay for their own bill.

—More details coming: Hughes would not be more specific on how that apps would be delivered to the consumer, and whether that meant they were going to launch a new app store, or how the revenue would be split with developers—those announcements will be made at the developer conference. But because RIM’s Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie will be speaking at the event, it brings into question whether Verizon will have a role in RIM’s new App World, or if Verizon will be building a competing option. Likewise, Verizon will have to deal with the same thing when Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) rolls out its app store later this year. Hughes: “We don’t think the best experience is to have two mirror image stores on the phone…Verizon will have its own distribution that will court developers and work with Microsoft to pull the developer community into the Verizon experience.”

—Response to iPhone?: Is all of this a response to Apple’s iPhone? Hughes says not really. They’ve been offering content for years—it’s more about the emergence of the smartphone. Verizon is participating in what’s called the “Joint Innovation Lab,” which is a consortium between Verizon, China Mobile, Softbank and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) to create a single global platform for developers. Hughes: “The combo of what we’ll announce on 28th combined with the Joint Innovation Lab will put ourselves at the forefront of developer friendliness.”

Initially, Wi-Fi was looked at as a potential threat to the carrier, which wanted users to pay for data going over their own network. But now, as data plans have begun more prevalent, and users want to conduct heavy-bandwidth applications, Wi-Fi is considered more of a savior than a threat. It’s not clear if that’s what has taken Sprint and Verizon so long to cozy up to Wi-Fi. After all, CDMA handsets can be significantly more expensive compared to their GSM sisters, so it may just have come down to cost.

FierceWireless reports that Sprint Nextel has decided to require its smartphone suppliers to add WiFi into their devices for the carrier. Next year, it will release an updated version of the BlackBerry Tour that will include Wi-Fi, and of course the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre already has it. “Sprint is embracing Wi-Fi in all its major devices going forward,” said Jeff Clemow, the carrier’s director of business product marketing.

Separately, Boy Genius reports that Verizon Wireless has came to the same conclusion. In fact, after all BlackBerry’s after the Tour will sport Wi-Fi, including Storm 2 and the Aries. In addition, Verizon is including Wi-Fi in requirement specifications sent to handset makers with regards to future smartphones.

—Competition? What competition? The new operating system will increase the size of the netbook market, not necessarily cut into Microsoft’s (increasing) share of that business, the executives said. They also invited Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to put its own browser on Chrome OS, although they acknowledged it was unlikely that Microsoft would do that.

—What happens with Android One question is how much Chrome OS will overlap with the company’s existing Android operating system, which was already expected to be put on some netbooks. “There’s a great deal of commonality,” Schmidt said. “Eventually they may merge even closer.” Updated: On Friday, Google VP Andy Rubinclarified, however, that the Chrome OS isn’t going to replace Android on phones. “You need different technology for different solutions,” he said.

—Schmidt’s role on the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) board The FTC is investigating whether Google and Apple are violating antitrust laws because the companies compete and also share two directors, including Schmidt. Schmidt already recuses himself from discussions on the iPhone, which competes with Google’s Android phone operating system. He said Thursday he would talk with Apple about what to do about his position on the Apple board, considering their future competition in computer operating systems. “There is no change at the moment,” he said. Schmidt did not suggest that he was thinking of stepping down.

The move will apply to both channel in the dual-mode store - PC download and mobile download. Some 700,000 tracks had DRM switched off last week, the rest will be converted gradually.

Orange launched Music Store, which has all four majors and a bunch of indies, back in 2005, but it’s basic, lacking many discovery features found elsewhere. Orange may now be in line with many other stores on copy protection, and Orange has a strong commitment to marketing around music, but its store has a way to go on other counts. Orange’s earnings don’t break out its music numbers. Orange’s music head Richard Wheeler left for Virgin Media in April.

Meanwhile, MusicAlly makes the point that, while Orange Music Store will now be DRM-free on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 5800 it carries, Nokia’s own Comes With Music, of course, is DRMed to the hilt.

Orange’s content SVP Herve Payan told me back in January 2008 he expected the store to go DRM-free within six months: “If we don’t remove the DRM, we believe it will be slow growth. Ideally, we will have MP3. The majors are changing.”

Five months later, at home in France, Orange launched an unlimited-downloads subscription service, Musique Max, apparently with no copy locks, before realising it had incorrectly translated its French press release to overstate the extent of DRM in the offering, which uses OMA files for mobile and WMA for PC.

The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Others participating include: GSR Ventures and Keytone Ventures. Borqs has now raised a total of $25.4 million.

The company, which also has U.S. headquarters in Sunnyvale, helps carriers integrate their brand on to the Android platform, and helps build tailored app stores, by leveraging both apps in the Android Market as well other Java apps. So far, it has announced China Mobile as a customer, but it plans on announcing other relationships in the U.S. later this year. On its web site, it said that it was involved in creating the OPhone, a Lenovo device that looks very similar to the iPhone.

Borqs said its expertise let’s mobile operators launch Android-based 3G phones or services in less than six months, reducing the cycle time savings by more than a year.

The figures were shared tonight at a Seattle event called The Naked Truth 2009, which is discussing revenue models for consumer Internet startups. The four presenting startups are Redfin, UrbanSpoon, Picnik and Animoto. While I wasn’t able to make it, TechCrunch, which is in attendance tonight, has the slides here. More numbers from UrbanSpoon after the jump…

UrbanSpoon highlights:

—Traffic: 74 percent of UrbanSpoon’s traffic comes from Google (NSDQ: GOOG), while 99 percent of its mobile traffic occurs on the iPhone.

— Revenue per 100,000 visitors: Web is $2,000 and Mobile is $5,000.

—Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Commercial: resulted in 300 percent growth.

The standard called the Advanced Television Systems Committee-Mobile/Handheld (ATSC-M/H) will be voted on by the full membership this summer, reports broadcastingcable.com. If it passes, the Open Mobile Video Coalition says 70 stations are are on track to launch mobile DTV services later this year, though real consumer devices probably won’t hit the streets until 2010.

Today, cellphones can watch clips on YouTube and other streaming video services. There’s even specific news stations, such as BBC World and Al Jazeera English, which both launched iPhone apps recent, through a London-based company, Livestation, reports Reuters. “This is mobile TV 2.0—completely reinvented and redesigned, and I think it’s going to overtake the old models very very rapidly,” said Livestation’s CEO Matteo Berlucchi.

At the center of the debate is not necessarily technology. Broadcasters, and even other services like Qualcomm’s FLO TV, have an advantage because they are using designated spectrum to deliver it over the air. The downside is that the phone or device has to have a special chipset embedded in it to work, but the quality is much better. Likewise, some streaming video services may not offer the highest quality, especially if the cellular networks get overcrowded.

Rather, the debate is over making money. Forecasts for the market have nose-dived over the past few years. Strategy Analytics now expects the mobile TV broadcasting market to total $280 million next year. Only three years ago the firm forecasted the market to reach $5.4 billion in 2010. “It is a financial disaster,” said John Strand, a consultant who has followed the mobile industry closely for more than 12 years. “It’s a nice product, but the customers won’t pay for it.”

While that may be true, not everyone is expecting to make money via user subscriptions. FLO TV, which is distributed through Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T), expects users to pay about $15 a month for the service. But as Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) rolls out more nationwide coverage, it expects to launch its own direct-to-consumer offering that may be more flexible in pricing. Likewise, broadcasters haven’t settled on a business model for their own mobile digital TV offering, but they think it would be more similar to the traditional TV market, where users would get a set number of free channels, and the service would be ad-supported.

It will remain to be seen if that’s enough, and if consumers would rather watch live TV via a broadcast, or streaming over the cellular network.