Crash Bandicoot decided that Mario isn't the only one with the right to play go-karting with his friends on the virtual race tracks. Vivendi Games Mobile has recently fielded Crash and his friends to compete against one another in 16 different tracks across eight exciting environments for the mobile gaming platform with Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart. For more details about this bite-sized racing title, check out our full article.

So you want to make it big in the gaming industry? Well, before anything else, you could try starting out small. Like joining Nokia's Mobile Games Innovation Challenge.

The company is encouraging people to create some noise in the mobile games world. A total of 70,000 Euro is up for grabs. Find out more on this event after the jump!

Users of phones with Nokia's S60 Touch Interface will have something coming their way to further improve the already rich Internet experience: Microsoft Silverlight. Silverlight's enhanced browser functionality will no doubt make the Symbian OS even prettier. Read more about it in the full article!

Well, it looks like it's official - Google will reportedly unveil early next month the details of its new operating system for smartphones. Exactly what the new development will be is still kept under wraps.

What was previously speculated as a new brand of mobile phone to be produced by the Internet giant was instead a foray into the software aspect of mobile phones. According to reports from Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the company will be bundling familiar Google service software along with the new OS, such as Gmail and Youtube, and will also be open to third-party developers.

While the "Gphone" software won't need a specific device to run it, there have been rumors of Google supposedly talking to HTC and LG, as well as wireless service providers like T-Mobile and Orange, about producing specialized units for it. It was however confirmed in a follow up article by WSJ that Google is already in "advanced discussions" with Verizon Wireless and Sprint on the new mobile units.

Hoping to break into the already established mobile operating system market, Google will be squaring itself off against other acknowledged open platform operating systems, including Symbian/S60, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Palm OS. Hopefully, we'll be hearing more concrete news from the Internet search giant in the following months to come.

The iPhone has sparked a trend in the phone industry with their widely popular touch screen - and not to be bested, the new Nokia S60 Touch Interface will also sport a touch screen that covers almost the entire face of the phone. The product was demonstrated at the Symbian Smartphone Show today.

The S60 Smartphone will have a "complete" Web video experience, featuring support for Flash videos integrated into the browser. This means you can browse YouTube videos on the go. A new toolkit for developers will also ensure third party programs will enter the S60 Touch scene.

It's to be noted that the iPhone and iPod Touch have also been advancing in their web tech. The Nokia S60 phone will be available probably sometime in 2008.

Sling Media has announced that SlingPlayer Mobile is now available in the U.S. for select Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices running S60 3rd edition software on Symbian OS. This comes just as sales of the new HSDPA version of the Nokia N95 begin in the U.S.

With SlingPlayer Mobile, users can view whatever is playing on their TVs on their Nseries and Eseries mobile phones. SlingPlayer Mobile users can also control their home digital video recorder (DVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind and fast forward live TV, or even program new recordings while on the road.

To sweeten things even further, Sling Media is offering Nokia N95 current and future handset owners in the U.S. a discount on Slingbox AV for a limited time. In addition, all U.S. Nokia N95 customers will receive a free version of SlingPlayer Mobile.

Consumers' eyes and attention are keenly fixed on how to crack open the eye-candy iPhone ever since Apple launched it this year. And to tell you the truth, a lot of homebrew applications have been appearing lately showcasing the mobile phone's flexibility and functionality.

Experts, however, warn consumers that this may lead to complex mobile attacks in the future much like the problems PC users are facing right now. Anti-virus Research Director Mikko Hypponen from computer security service provider F-Secure had this to say:

The amount of hype around the iPhone is pretty unbelievable, so it's a given that people will continue to play around with it and find ways around the security features of the phone. It's quite likely that we'll see iPhone malware sooner or later.

The director further explained that despite having a Bluetooth function, the anticipated malware are expected to spread through email because iPhone doesn't use the chip for file transmission. He added that other smart phones based on the OS Symbian have a lot to worry in the future. Hypponen added:

We've seen a little over 370 different examples of malware running on smart phone platforms. Almost all of them target Symbian-based phones, because Symbian is by far the market leader, with over half the smart phones in the world running that operating system.