ACCESS wants a piece of the "mobile widget action," hence they're launching a beta version of NetFront Browser Widgets community site. Available in English and Japanese, the site allows users to download and try free mobile widgets. You'll need, however, to install NetFront Browser Widgets Player, which initially is compatible with Windows Mobile versions 5.0 and 6.0, in order to start using these widgets.

NetFront Browser Widgets is a solution that is based on the NetFront Browser engine and enables widgets for mobile handsets and consumer electronics to be created on the basis of open Web technology. It provides widget players, development tools, and widget content in one package for carriers and device manufacturers, helping businesses to quickly implement a diverse range of widget services.

Tools for widget developers are still not available, but ACCESS wowed to released them in the near future.

If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of mobile technology news?

Russia's largest mobile phone operator MTS has announced a partnership with local version of MySpace to develop and promote solutions for the subscribers of MTS Russia.

Under the terms of the partnership, MTS and MySpace will develop an exclusive service for the subscribers of MTS Russia that will become part of MTS' WAP-portal. In addition, the two companies are planning to launch an MTS-branded community on MySpace Russia website to drive usage and support the partnership.

Commenting on the announcement, MySpace Russia's general director Aleksandr Turkot said: "This partnership with MTS is a key strategic move for MySpace, allowing us to give Russian customers unprecedented access to networking via their mobile phones. Our brands are built on providing high quality communication and networking experience and our partnership will allow us to develop many new exciting services for our customers."

French developer of Linux-based mobile software, Purple Labs, announced that it has completed its acquisition of the mobile client software business of Openwave Systems for about $32 million.

Under the terms of the deal, Purple Labs has acquired the products, software code, patents and customer contracts of the Openwave business. The Linux mobile software developer will continue to invest in the browser and related technologies.

For the quarter ending in March, Openwave had reported $11.1 million in revenues from software license fees and related engineering services. Openwave's browser and messaging products are among the best-selling mobile applications in the world, having already shipped in more than 1.5 billion mobile phones.

There's no doubt HTC Touch Diamond and Samsung i900 Omnia are among the top iPhone competitors. Both devices run the latest version of Windows Mobile (6.1) and both of them have their good and bad sides.

The HTC Diamond may have a better resolution, while Omnia is more solidly built. Likewise, the Diamond's touch-sensitive scroll wheel is arguably better than Omnia's optical joystick… I'll stop here. If you're interested to buy any of the two devices, you should read the full review. Every single aspect is compared — including user interfaces (TouchWiz vs TouchFLO 3D), design and construction, hardware and software controls, file management, multimedia, camera performance, pre-installed software, GPS, and more.

The article is ended with a draw. At the end, it's the personal preferences that will make you choose one device over the other. Here's the link to the full review.

http://www.openatownrisk.com/ used to link to a countdown timer that promised to unveil the weirdest video you've ever seen, but now it just shows a cease and desist letter claiming the supreme court would like to shut down the site for fear of making the masses insane.

Cute. Makes you wonder if they realized that the countdown timer was going to count towards the day of the iPhone 3G launch and therefore make almost no one care what this strange and unusual video would be? iPhone 3G = July 11, not 7, whoops.

Nokia has recently released first E66 and E71 commercials. As an IntoMobile reader, I doubt these clips will help you made your mind about any of the two devices — you probably already know whether you're going to buy either E66 or E71. I'm all for E71 as that QWERTY keyboard is more than useful, once you got used to it.

Enough rant, here comes the E66 commercial…

…and the E71 promo video follows after the jump.

Read the full article

And I was wondering when we'll see the first Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 clone. It's here, and it has quite decent specs, and bit rougher (uglier) lines than the original device. The fake X1 sports the full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 3-inch touchscreen that can display 16 million colors, and a built-in TV tuner. Too bad it's a rip-off and doesn't run Windows Mobile but some Chinese mobile operating system. And no, we don't recommend getting one of these… More images follow after the jump.

Read the full article

Brits are definitely going to be living it up on news that they'll be surfing the wireless web at true HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA) speeds. The UK has just gone live with their first nationwide HSUPA network, bringing broadband-like upload speeds of 1.4Mbps to complement the 7.2Mbps they enjoy on the downstream. And, wireless junkies have T-Mobile to thank for their high-speed mobile connections. Go figure.

Enjoy all that bandwidth, guys. We can't say we aren't just a bit envious…

[Via: Tech Digest]

Like they're not already the largest mobile operator in the world in terms of revenue (China Mobile has more subscribers), Vodafone is acquiring 70% stake in a leading Ghana's telecommunications operator, Ghana Telecom, from the Government of Ghana for $900 million (which would get to keep the remaining 30% of the company).

Ghana Telecom is number 3 mobile player with approximately 17% market share and 1.4 million customers as at 31 March 2008. At the same time, they are leading fixed line and broadband operator with about 99% of the total number of lines and around 90% market share of the retail ADSL market. During last year, Ghana Telecom's revenues grew 9.3% to $290 million.

Vodafone plans to leverage its experience of rapid network deployment in India and other emerging markets and hopes to see Ghana Telecom raising its mobile market share over time to around 25%.

Nokia has a new partner for its clever Ovi scheme - Telenor. Under the agreement, the Nordic operator will enable its customers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Hungary to "experience one of the best Internet services on their devices in the simplest way."

Select Nokia devices will be customized to provide easy access to such services as Nokia Maps, N-Gage, Telenor Music Store and Mobile TV, and more services will follow in the future. The two companies will launch Ovi on Telenor during H2 2008 across a wide range of devices.

Full release is available from here.