It's time again for the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA)! Like last year, there will be cash prizes and other amazing opportunities for game developers.

 

The winner will have software licenses from Adobe, Nokia phones and a guaranteed contract for an operator and publisher to market the title. A total of US$ 40,000 will be awarded to winners in the following categories:

• Excellence in Connectivity (multi-platform, social networking)
• Excellence in 3D
• Excellence in Game Play
• Best-licensed IP-based game
• Best Casual Game (Flash, Java, etc.)

The contest is global, and participants can submit their games online at IMGA's official website. The basic platforms developers can use to create their games are, but not limited to, Flash, Java, Brew and I-Mode. The submissions deadline is on September 24. There will be 25 finalists chosen who will then have until January 28 to produce a demo version of their concept for the final judging and winners will be announced in Barcelona.

Head on over to their site for further details, provided at the Read link below. Good luck, developers.

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.

CNN's new mobile service will be making its debut at the 3GSM show in Barcelona later today, February 12. This service is the first fruit of CNN's collaboration with Ericsson and will cost a whopping NOTHING.

Yep, the service will be delivered free to consumers. According to Broadband TV News, the service goes live at 12:00 CET when correspondent Jim Boulden will file a "live via phone" piece for daily news show Business International.

This new mobile internet service will include "In the Field" blogs from the network's international correspondents, a searchable 14-day news archive with over 2,000 stories as well as a breaking news service and an hourly made-for-mobile hourly news update.

CNN mobile will work on all WAP-enabled mobile and handheld devices (it doesn't matter which operator you have a subscription to) and is accessed on the CNNmobile.com website.

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."