For those of you who can't pry their hands off their cell phones from texting your loved ones, beware. You may be setting yourself up for texting tenosynovitis, a condition where the tendons along the thumb and side of the wrists become inflamed - clearly a case where having too much of a good thing can also be bad for you.

Check out the full article after the jump!

At the conclusion of Game Connect: Asia Pacific, the Game Developer's Association of Australia awarded the best game developers from Australia and New Zealand.

As Medieval II took home the most awards last year, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS, PSP) swept up this year's awards with five awards, including Best Game.

Many phones with access to email are now available in the market, and there is no need to spend big bucks to afford a phone with such feature. Given that more people are demanding email on the go, research firm Gartner believes that SMS would soon be a goner.

According to the firm, one of five people will be using mobile email by 2010. 20 million wireless email users today will grow to a whopping 350 million on the same year, said firm's research vice president Monica Blasso. She noticed that the availability of low-cost phones with mobile email functions is driving consumer adaptation.

"Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS," added Robin Simpson, mobile and wireless research director at Gartner Australasia. This is due to mobile email access being offered free as part of mobile phone contracts in Australia, he said.

According to Simpson, low mobile email uptake in Australia can be credited to high costs, but competition between carriers like Hutchison 3 and Virgin Mobile will drop prices rapidly. "The interesting thing is that SMS, if you look at it in terms of actual cost for the data, is really expensive, and where we're heading is you'll get a free email package when you sign up to your monthly plan," he continued.

The battle of rhetorics rages on. Most recently, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific head of smartphone strategy Chris Sorenson told press in a recent visit to Australia that while Apple's iPhone is a "great music phone", it'll be irrelevant to business users because it's a "closed device" and "there's no support for Office documents."

"If you're an enterprise and want to roll out line of business applications, it's just not an option," said Sorenson. "Even using it as a heavy messaging device will be a challenge." Sorenson also added that with Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft is bringing "more of what you can do on a PC, onto the devices. Manufacturers can innovate heavily in their designs, but keep that consistent [Windows] look and feel."

Sorenson also believes that user familiarity with Windows Mobile's interface will help keep the iPhone off the corporate market. Microsoft is currently battling against the dominance of Nokia and RiM in the converged device market.

 

Remember when we introduced you to Ozura? In case you've been out of the loop, Ozura Mobile
is responsible for such games as Lava Kroft, Underground Racer and Beauty Queen. Recently, Ozura Mobile has even announced a partnership with Zingy, Inc. to distribute Ozura's new games such as Antopia, R.A.T.S., Peng The Guin, WWD and others.

What about Zingy Inc.? The US-based company licenses, publishes and distributes all sorts of mobile content. Zingy Inc's Director of Games, Matt McEnerny says that they are very excited about such a partnership. It will give them access to some fantastic titles for all of distribution outlets. Zingy is also hopeful that the relationship with Ozura will put a greater impact on their business.

Ozura believes that their partnership with Zingy will help them distribute their games in a more global market including U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. It's been forecasted that the market for mobile games is going to increase. Revenue generated from mobile content is expected to grow from US$ 7.7 B in 2005 to US$ 36 B in 2010. Ozura is optimistic that it will take advantage of such growth.

I-play and Fishlabs will unveil five 3D games for mobile phones in Q1 2007. This is good news for mobile gamers who've been enjoying Fishlab's existing line of 3D games, such as V-Rally and Star Wars Imperial Ace.

Joining the list of premium 3D games are:

• Galaxy on Fire - space shooter featuring humanoids, aliens and cyborgs caught in an intergalactic battle
• Planet Riders - futuristic racing game set in the third millennium featuring daredevil pilots on board jet racers
• Burning Tires - features a Bluetooth multiplayer mode that takes gamers to 12 racetracks spread over three locations
• Heli Strike - a shoot'em-up game
• Tank Raid - comic-style rail-shooter

I-play will market these games across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

   

 

Ever heard of Tennis Open 2007? If not, then watch out for it on your mobile phone. Sure, there's a lot of future on the mobile platform to watch out for, especially when it comes to games (no Paris Hilton please).  Gameloft, the same mobile maker who teamed up with Paris Hilton Entertainment Inc. to come up with games involving the drunken millionaire-heiress' misadventures, will now feature tennis superstar Lleyton Hewitt as the cover athlete/character in Tennis Open 2007.

And they say it's going to be like some Tony Hawk series alternative, where you rise in rank as you progress in training and tourneys until you become the topnotch racket-swinging dude in the world.

If Paris Hilton caused a sneer in your face when her mobile game was released, we hope Lleyton Hewitt won't. After all, he's hotter than Paris Hilton, achievement-wise, has real charisma as a pro, and gives Australia lots of honor for taking home Grand Slam trophies, Davis Cup, and at least 25 ATP circuit titles in his very young career.

Tennis Open 2007 will be available to 600 phone models in 70 countries.

Map24 mobile is a brand new service that lets you search for maps, points of interest, and have access to a route planner, a navigation and search aid all from your mobile phone or PDA. Map24 has been available for quite a while online for PC users, but only recently has the service been expanded to meet the needs of mobile users who just need to find their way around.

Map24 Mobile runs on most multimedia mobile phones and PDAs as long as you have mobile Internet access. Map coverage is available now for Europe, with North and South America, the Middle East and Australia due for launch shortly.

Chris Wallett, UK managing director of Mapsolute, which owns Map24, said: “More and more people are using online maps for route planning and navigation, and for other uses such as finding venues. Route navigation is becoming more popular in cars, as we’ve seen the growing usage of satellite navigation. With Map24 Mobile, people can now use their mobile phones to plan their journeys and find extremely useful mapping content. It’s free, easy to use and extremely useful whilst you’re on the move.“

Map24 mobile continues to update, not only with coverage for North and South America, the Middle East and Australia due for launch shortly but with Microsoft Outlook integration and the ability to send emails. To use the service you have to register an account with Map24 where a download is provided which links up to your mobile device.

If you really, really have to get down to the bottom of the DHARMA Initiative, or you personally want to show housewife Susan Mayer what love is, you'll probably get your chance via your mobile phone.

Gameloft, one of the leading publishers of cell phone-platformed games, has recently signed an agreement with Touchstone Television to develop and market mobile games based on the hit TV series Lost and Desperate Housewives. "Both Lost and Desperate Housewives have loyal and dedicated fans, and we are excited to be able to bring them more ways to interact and engage with their favorite shows and characters," says Bruce Gersh, senior vice president of business development at ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television. "We look forward to working together with Gameloft to develop games that capture the defining essence of each show."

This will not be the first time Lost was transformed into a game of sorts; fans in the US, UK and Australia can enjoy participating in the multimedia alternate reality (and viral marketing) game The Lost Experience. Neither for Desperate Housewives, with a PC game by Liquid Entertainment set for release in late 2006.