A number of computer manufacturers are facing a shortage of laptop batteries because or a recent fire at the LG Chem Ochang plant in South Korea. To find out more about this, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

The mobile industry continues to boom with its uncanny ability to entice the public to get cell phones and constantly upgrade to the latest models. The pace has been so fast in terms of production and sales that there are now 3.3 billion mobile handsets in the world. That's half of the world's total population.

Cell phone maker Nokia has postponed the launch of its N-Gage gaming service. According to reports from Reuters, the N-Gage gaming service was postponed mainly due to software testing delays. The N-Gage gaming service was supposed to launch this month. In another blow to Nokia's Ovi initiative, Warner Music Group has also pulled out its songs from the company's music service due to illegal download concerns.

If you thought Nokia's partnership with YouTube and Reuters was big, you have no idea how much bigger the loop of friends gets for the mobile handset giant. The company has announced through a press release that it now has deals with fellow giants CNN, IBN, Jamba, Sony Pictures, RooftopComedy, ROK, and Versaly Entertainment.

Under the deal, all of these media and film firms will have content on Nokia's Video Center placed on display, ready to be accessed by N-Series phones via 3G, Wi-Fi, or PC.

The alliance expands the Nokia Video Center's content capabilities and gives Nokia N-Series users one simple place to stop and get content in order to satisfy their video cravings. Be it news, copyrighted clips, or user content, users will find something they like here.

When the iPhone hits next month, companies other than Apple might be able to ride on its popularity. According to reports from Reuters, executives at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit said that it could also "draw consumer attention to other pricier, high-end handsets."

"One of the great advantages of iPhone for us is that it will heat up the music (phone) market," said Denny Strigl, chief operating officer at Verizon Communications Inc. "We're already seeing an interest in music on cell phones we didn't see just a quarter ago, and the gearing up the industry is doing in preparation for it."

Reuters notes that mobile phones that combine media management and playback features with the usual data and talk functions have been around for years, but their sales account for only a fraction of the market. One of the main reasons is the oftentimes high price tags of these phones.

At an estimated price of US$ 500 to US$ 600, the iPhone certainly fits this description, but consumers who want an all-in-one, multipurpose gadget may overlook that.

"People are not uncomfortable plopping down a couple of hundred bucks for a music player or an iPod (and) $100 for a voice phone or a PDA," said AT&T's group president for operations support, John Stankey. "If you think about what a customer invests to solve a problem...I might suggest that the price isn't as substantial as it might look."

A lengthy report by Reuters covered a speech session with Electronic Arts' international publishing head Gerhard Florin, where he was quoted as saying, "I believe the biggest fight will be in Europe." Electronic Arts sees an "entertainment race" as a prime factor for determining if the battle over consoles, computers, and mobile phones ends in victory or tragedy.

And Florin believes the greatest chapters of the battle will be written in Europe. "Whoever wins the hardware war in Europe, most likely will be the overall winner," Florin said, pointing out the current war waged by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo over the region.

But more importantly, Florin expounded the realities of advancing technology and delivering entertainment value over at the Reuters Technology, Media, and Telecoms summit held in Paris recently. While he noted that mobile and cell phone users may not be interested in superior technology and graphics, he also mentioned that the industry was now turning its head to the quality of story telling and delivering emotion in games.

According to reports from Reuters, the videogame tie-in for the upcoming movie "Live Free or Die Hard" will not be appearing on any video game consoles this summer. Instead, the movie's video game version will be appearing exclusively on mobile phones.

French mobile game publisher Gameloft has secured the exclusive video game rights to the upcoming Bruce Willis action movie. This comes on the hells of Gameloft's recent acquisition of the mobile game rights to DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third".

The game will reportedly feature 13 levels or fights, car chases and puzzles. Players will take on the role of retired detective John McClane in order to foil a criminal plot put into action by Internet terrorists.

Reuters reports that British Home Secretary John Reid is planning to approach Apple and Sony to join a summit that will focus on fighting crime in Britain. Reid wants mobile phone and mp3 player manufacturers to focus as much on security features for their devices as on other design features.

"New technology, lifestyle changes, new commodities and new gadgets mean that the criminals continually move on," Reid told the BBC's Sunday AM program. "So when we defeat them on mobile phones, they move on to Sat-Navs and then on to iPods." Reuters noted that crime figures released last week showed an 8% increase in the number of street robberies in Britain.

"We already have a close working relationship with mobile phone manufacturers," a Home Office spokesman said on Sunday. "John Reid is likely to approach Apple and Sony in the coming weeks to join this summit." The spokesman also added that during the coming week, they will be drawing up a list of other manufacturers to include for the summit.

    

NTT DoCoMo is one of Japan's biggest wireless operators. So it is only logical that consumers would expect the bigger innovations to come from them. The company delivered indeed last Monday after announcing five new 3G FOMA 904i models capable of motion-sensing gameplay.

Accordingly, the motion-sensing capability has been made possible because of Chokkan Game support. After downloading the games from online sites, consumers can play these mobile titles by using intuitive motions such as tracing a finger and tilting or waiving the handset. Of course, the type of motion is dependent on the game's content.

The new phones sport pre-existing features common to DoCoMo units. But aside from the above mentioned, they will also have the following:

• 2in1 support: This service provides the capabilities of two separate handsets in one single unit. Under a single FOMA card, users are provided with two phone numbers and two i-mode mail addresses, and these are accessed independently by means of a Mode Switching function. Switching between modes changes the phone number, i-mode mail address, address book, mail boxes and call history. When using A Mode, the customer cannot view B Mode, and vice-versa.
• Uta-hodai support: Users can download full music tracks from i-mode sites supporting Uta-hodai for a flat monthly subscription fee. When downloading, users will accrue an i-mode information fee and packet communication charges. DoCoMo suggests that users planning to download a significant volume of data every month consider subscribing to flat-rate data communication billing plans "pake-hodai" or "pake-hodai full."

The D904i, F904i, N904i and SH904i could begin arriving in stores as early as May; at the latest they will be available in June. The P904i will go on sale in June.

There was some buzz in recent weeks that Google may just take that one big step and introduce its own cell phone , marking its entry to the hardware side of the technology market. However, Google bosses around the world denied the rumor in strong unison.

"At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone," says Richard Kimber, managing director of sales and operations in South-East Asia.

The same answer was given by Google chief Vinton Cerf, who said that the better way to go about things was to partner Google with established handset manufacturers. The real aim of the search giant is to introduce its search software to the mobile platform and garner revenues through ads in the same medium.

Kimber described ads in the mobile platform as "very effective," as proven by their partnership with Samsung. Cerf, on the other hand expressed the company's desire to be part of the mobile industry, saying "mobile is an important area for Google and we remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide."

The buzz regarding the Google phone was kindled by a Reuters report by phone analyst Richard Windsor who claimed that he had a source close to Google who had seen a "blackberry-like" phone with a slick frame being worked on by a hundred Google people. The search engine company gave a categorical denial in response.