Fans of adventure video games and classic literature will probably be excited to hear that Mayhem Studio will be releasing The Call of Cthulu: Darkness within Book 1 which is based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. To find out more about the game, head on over to the full article.

Nokia has gone into a partnership with Microsoft to deliver Windows Live services on their mobile phones in Europe and in the Middle East. Compatible models consist of the S60 series, specifically the Nokia N73, N80 Internet Edition, N95, N76, and the N93i.

The service, which starts on Wednesday, will deliver Hotmail, Live Messenger, Live Contacts, and Live Spaces by downloading the applicable program into the mobile phone. Countries covered by the service are Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the UK, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The services will expand to other areas next year, but expansion to the U.S. is still iffy.

The service will be free of charge for a certain period. Once the trial period expires, the service will be charging a monthly fee. The new services are part of the steps Windows Live is taking to catch up to the services provided by Yahoo! and Google which offer their own wireless services. The Windows Live services will continue on to Nokia's Series 40 phones.

Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, is giving European mobile phone subscribers a chance to win a Nintendo Wii video game system in exchange for their "worst ever date" stories.

"Terrible dates are something that everyone experiences but few ever really talk about, so this is a chance to celebrate Larryness and engage in some collective laughter therapy courtesy of Nintendo and MySpace," said Paul Maglione, president of Vivendi Games Mobile.

This contest is part of Vivendi's campaign to drum up support for the recently-launched mobile game Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. The game is now available on wireless networks throughout Australia, New Zealand, and across Europe. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail will soon be launching on carriers in North America as well.

Those interested have until August 8 to post their worst date story to the Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail Myspace web page and add Larry as their "top friend." You can click on the Read link to head there. There will be five winners in all - one each from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

We got word that telecommunications company O2, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica, has just secured the exclusive UK rights to offer the Apple iPhone. If you're wondering about the T-Mobile contract, it turns out that it's only good in its home country of Germany and not for the whole of Europe.

The terms of the agreement are still not clear but according to the Times Online, the two companies will have a continuing share of the revenues generated by each iPhone customer. Also, O2's own network will be modified to accommodate the iPhone. The UK has a mobile phone consumer base of 18 million.

Apple is also having on-going negotiations with different companies in other countries in the continent and that more contracts are likely to be signed soon. Those in the know are saying that for France, the iPhone is likely to be distributed by company Orange.

Lastly, it was reported as well that rival phone manufacturers are preparing new lines of mobile phones geared to kill the iPhone fever for Vodafone as well as other telecommunications firms. The Apple iPhone is expected to arrive in UK this December with a price tag of GBP 300 GBP or roughly US$ 604.

Lemon Quest has heard your pleas and granted your wish: now you may play your favorite classic racing game out of your living room and into your mobile phone, wherever you go. SCX, Scalextric in Russia, Mexico and Spain, is released.

We know this isometric race game will have your eyes glued to your mobile unit screen, so watch out. SCX could also be played in a multiplayer mode, with over six players battling against each other to become the very best race car driver. The game tests your skill and ability to find the perfect balance between braking and acceleration.

But if you think the controls are going to be to complicated to make the game too unenjoyable, fear not; it boasts of a simple and effective control system specially designed for mobile handsets. The game even includes brake tension and fuel load, as well as choosing your own pit-stop strategy.

Bet you're excited enough to get into the SCX race. Zip through these screenshots first to see what you're getting.

More SCX screens after the jump!

Wireless multimedia networking company Comverse attended the 3GSM Conference the other day in Barcelona, Spain, to demonstrate a new software that will provide connectivity between Second Life residents and those who are in the real world.

In a nutshell, the technology allows Java-based and Internet-capable phones to log in to SL's virtual world remotely and see who else is playing. The phone can then communicate with SL residents by sending SMS, MMS, and event instant messages.

Here's the interesting part: SL users can walk into virtual Comverse booths and pick up virtual phones to reply. "We're unleashing the virtual world from the PC and allowing it to be available on any terminal. That's the benefit for the end user," said Comverse Chief Technology Officer Daphna Steinmetz.

The attendees of the 3GSM Conference were able to witness first hand how the new technology actually works on mobile phones, especially Comverse phones. The company added that the software will be available in Europe within a few months with one anonymous major carrier about to close a deal.

There is no word about the software's availability to subscribers in North America.

According to a press release, Java mobile porting software company Mobile Distillery will be unveiling version 4 of its Celsius Java ME porting and optimizing software solution at 3GSM 2007, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain from February 12–15.

Celsius is aimed at developers and publishers of Java ME mobile applications and "addresses the time and expense associated with the porting of applications to more than 350 mobile devices." With Celsius, Mobile Distillery aims to dramatically reduce porting time and subsequently accelerate time to market by a factor of two to three, resulting in significant cost savings and a more competitive edge for their customers.

The ability to develop Flash-like applications directly portable to 550 handsets, while increasing the quality of mobile applications by using "high quality" images, sounds, music or data is but one of the features in the new version. It also includes the ability to access U.S. Brew phones in native Brew format using the same Java ME Source Code and access to fully connected applications, from SMS to Http, via BlueTooth or Near Field Communication (NFC).

"A typical mobile application developer needs to adapt his application to one new phone every two days. Celsius makes the porting cycle far simpler by reducing time-to-market costs and the development-porting-testing time required," said Mobile Distillery co-founder and general manager Vincent Berge. "With the turn-key Celsius v4 solution, mobile developers can focus on their added value, while accessing a new range of mobile applications in a few clicks."

The International Mobile Gaming Awards announced yesterday the 25 games that topped out in their annual awardings - 5 more than they previously predicted.

These 25 are the best among the 400 entries during this years' festivities, with a total of 42 countries participating in the IMGA; 46% from Europe, 30% from  Asia, 15% from North America, and 9% coming from the rest of the world.

The IMGA, sponsored this year by major companies like Nokia, NVIDIA, and Orange, aims to provide recognition for the most innovative and creative games around the world, and is divided up into five separate categories, with the top 25 divided within each:

1. Best Interactive Experience Award
2. Best Use of Connectivity
3. Excellence in 3D Award
4. Most Innovative Game Award
5. Best Use of Flash Award

Some of the more interesting concepts shown by the entries included educationally-themed ideas, like ways of teaching foreign languages to the players, or teaching them how to dance. One notable was the use of localization technology (layman's terms: cell sites), with over 100 participants playing an interactive outdoors game (outdoors, video games...that doesn't add up) titled Triangler, developed by the Holland-based TNO research lab.

The top 25 list awaits after this jump!

Two months after the Blackberry 8707v was introduced in Spain, Blackberry is now ready to pump up the PDA scene again with its latest innovation, the Blackberry 8707g.

Set for launch this week, this black beauty supports the usual Blackberry "push" email, phone, text messaging, organiser, browser and other corporate data applications.

It boasts of a QWERTY keyboard, 320x240 color LCD, 64MB of flash memory, built-in speakerphone and Bluetooth (2.0) connectivity. The handset can also be used as a tethered modem, with the ability to access the Internet from laptops.

Earlier, we reported that the BlackBerry 8707v would be out to conquer Spain thanks to Vodafone and Research in Motion (RIM). Now, it appears that RIM has found a new ally in Australian telecommunications company Telstra.

Telstra and RIM recently announced the arrival of the BlackBerry 7130g in the Land Down Under. The phone is both good-looking and jampacked with all sorts of needed features - it's a phone that's also got email, mobile internet, instant messaging and organizer applications. It's blessed with RIM's Breakthrough SureType keyboard technology, tethered Modem support for Ev-DO, ample memory for application and data storage.

As for its aesthetics, it boasts a bright, high resolution LCD screen, polyphonic ringtones, Bluetooth hands-free headset and car kit support, and exceptional battery performance. It works on the following networks: 800/1900 MHz cdmaOne, CDMA2000® 1X and Ev-DO.