From Mobile Syrup, a Canadian news outlet, here comes the bad news for people who must use their mobile devices while driving.

It was not that long ago that this was only speculation. Today the Ontario government officially passed Bill 118, "Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act" that bans people from using hand-held communication and entertainment devices while driving. This law will take effect this fall. The bill states, 'Driving while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device or electronic entertainment device is prohibited. Use of such devices in the hands-free mode is exempted.'

The online publication estimated fines would be up to $500 if you're caught talking, e-mailing or sending text messages. If doing so puts other people in danger, you could be fined up to $1,000, lose six demerit points, have your driver's license suspended, and even do time.

According to Syrup, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said "We want drivers to focus on the task of driving: driving safely must always be a driver's primary task and responsibility: anything less is unacceptable. Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel - it is one of the basic tenets of safe driving."

Many U.S. states and many other countries have done the same. I reported on California's effort, which went into effect last year. As with Ontario, the solution in California is to use a headset or a hands-free device to talk on the phone while driving. That won't satisfy your Urge To Text, but it'll get you past the traffic cops without a ticket. Maybe even save you a trip to the emergency room. Or worse.

CNN has an article good for some comic relief. A pigeon that authorities caught in Colombia was smuggling cell phone parts into a prison. According to CNN:

The bird was carrying the contraband on its back in a little suitcase, the Caracol news outlet said Monday. Heavy rains prevented the plumed smuggler from entering the prison in north central Colombia, said the police chief in Boyaca state, Juan Carlos Polania. Authorities are worried, Polania said, because this is a newly discovered way of smuggling goods into the prison, and officials have no way of combating it. They also are wondering whether any of the many pigeons that live in or near the prison are pulling double duty. As for the miscreant bird, he was taken to an animal shelter in the city of Soraca.

At least give the pigeon's owner some credit for creativity, but even after the parts are assembled, the cell phone has to work, and lately there's been a rush to jam the signals in U.S. jails. Check out this article from WJBF television in Augusta, Georgia. It has an included video that didn't work for me, but maybe you'll hit it lucky.

The FCC frowns on jamming. They nixed a test of the idea recently in Washington, D.C. – and there's been a push to legislate an exception. Cell carriers don't like jamming, either, even if the jamming devices can be shown not to affect reception outside the prison. That's probably because jailed crooks buy lots of lucrative prepaid phone minutes to run their criminal activities. Or maybe they just steal them?

Note: Click on pic to enlarge.

Finally, a real use for social networking. A website called SendMeHome.com lets users register their treasures and offer rewards (or not) to people who return them. The users can also create collaborative blogs about physical objects. To help get users on line, so to speak, the group is making its free service available to 175 million Facebook users with a Facebook app.

According to the service, which started last year, 94 percent of people surveyed said they would return a standard mobile phone if they found one. Isn't that nice of them? Only 88 percent would return an iPhone. By my calculation, that makes iPhones fomenters of theft and corrupters of morals. But I’m biased.

The service works similar to the commercial one, StuffBak, but it's free. The plan is to put a SendMeHome ID on your valuables - cell phones, laptops or what have you – so if they go missing, the finders can easily contact you through the SendMeHome website. You register your item with SendMeHome.com to get an ID number for it. Virtually anything can be registered, including the frivolous. You can mark (permanently!) the ID on the item, cross-stitch it onto garments, or spend four bucks on the website to get special stickers. The service has a deal with an engraver, too, for those inclined to super-permanence.

The IDs are transferable, if you sell or donate the item, and you can reuse them for other stuff if you discard its original target. You can offer a reward, or not. If the item is found, communication about it goes through a website that protects your identity and information. Nice!

For more information, and for a laugh at the less-than-serious other services and some more social networking minutia, check out SendMeHome.com. The company's offering cash prizes for creativity in its "Stories" section. They define creativity as bringing in lots of people to read the stories. Wonder if the Pulitzer committee knows about this.

The venerable New York Times has seen fit to print an analysis of Palm's and Sprint's prospects with the new Pre. The article appeared in print editions March 22, after an online version showed up in the paper's web edition March 21.

My favorite part of the article:

"The Pre is a bet-the-company product," says Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner.

A Palm spokeswoman said it is not the Pre, but Pre's new operating system, WebOS, that is the bet-the-company offering. Palm plans to introduce additional products for WebOS, but has not announced any specifics.

Written by Randall Stross, the article looks at Palm's missteps in underestimating the impact of Apple's iPhone and cursorily examines Sprint's precarious predicament. It's way worth a read, but much as I love the Times, the author missed a couple of points:

The iPhone debuted, everyone whined, on a slow and poor network – AT&T, formerly Cingular, even more formerly AT&T – and succeeded anyway. Sprint's network is much faster as the outset, and the company even claims better coverage in more metropolitan areas (temporarily, says AT&T). So, better network, nice Pre phone features. Watch out, iPhone.

And second, those "other devices" with WebOS might be more appealing to more people than the Pre itself, as well as coming in at a lower price point.

Palm Infocenter is reporting that Palm is no longer processing new registrations for the long-revered alternative email application for PalmOS, ChatterEmail. Curiously, Palm's app store still provides documentation and other information, and no announcement if the app's demise has been posted, so the problem might be temporary. But maybe not.

A user post on the ChatterEmail support forum describes the difficulty: the app's "Buy Now" click now leads to an empty page, and the registration links have disappeared.

Palm bought the application and hired its developer shortly before the Centro became a reality. However, the developer of ChatterEmail, Marc Blanc, left Palm in December. See this thread in TreoCentral's forums. The app enables continuously updated email on PalmOS Treo and Centro smartphones. It supports a wide range of IMAP and POP3 servers and IMAP IDLE (RFC 2177).

The Palm Infocenter article recommended that existing users of the registered versions record their registration information and store a copy of the program somewhere, to prevent potential disaster.

Kinoma, the makers of music and video player software for all flavors of Palm smartphones, has a deal where you can get their software for free (sort of) when you buy flowers or other stuff from FTD Flowers. There's a gotcha, of course: ads.

The deal, operated by TrialPay, offers Kinoma Play for Windows Mobile Treos, Kinoma Player 4 EX for Palm OS Treos and Centro, or Kinoma Producer 4 for Windows or Macintosh. You buy flowers for your sweetheart, your spouse, yourself or whomever, and agree to put up with ads, and the software comes "free" like digital broadcast television: Put up with the ads.

To skip the ads, look here for Kinoma software for Palm phones. On the other hand, if you're going to buy flowers anyway, well, maybe?

UPDATE: Straightening out (I hope) some confusion that I inflicted, the ads I whined about are not in Kinoma's software, nor affixed to the flowers, nor pasted on the vase. They don't appear on your computer or your Treo/Centro, either, unless that's where you read email. The ads land in your email box - and we all know where the delete key is.

Thanks to my friend Jay Reed (yes, we’re both named Jay) for the picture, an image from a recent charity art show.

Amid continuing speculation that they're kicking off a carrier price war, Sprint has quietly dropped their subsidized pricing for three Palm phones. If you're willing to sign their usual interminable contract, you can pocket a Palm Centro for only $49, a Treo 755p for $99, or a Treo 800w for a mere $99. The "deals" are listed on Sprint's website, along with reductions on a bunch of other (gasp!) non-Palm phones.

The lower Centro price is particularly appealing, since the phone contains all of the great functionality of Palm's legendary Palm OS, a half-decent web browser, email, and excellent threaded texting. Threaded means the phone keeps track of text-wise "conversations" for you. For me, that's a welcome feature. At a Sprint local store, I paid $129 for my Centro, but no regrets at all. I have only another year to go to live out its contract. Whew!

Thanks to Julio Santiago for the news tip, accompanied by speculation (and hope) that the new Treo Pro and Palm Pre will fall in line with that price structure and come in at $149 and $199, respectively. With contract, of course. Sprint has an exclusive on the Pre initially, and BestBuy is reportedly in line to sell Sprint-branded Treo Pro phones. I don't care. I'm getting a Pre, even if I have to indenture my cat. And I don't have a cat!

An Arizona environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, is celebrating the success of their program that put the calls of endangered species into cell phone ringtones. The New York Times has dubbed it the "call of the wild."

Started in 2006, the program is celebrating 200,000 ringtone downloads. The group offers dozens of sounds, including a few from species that aren’t ("yet," they said) endangered.

According to the Times' article:

Bumper stickers produce instant reactions, pro and con, said Peter Galvin, the center's conservation director. But with wildlife sounds, Mr. Galvin added, "people don't already have their filters on for how they receive that information."

Read on for the full article

With all this talk about virtual app stores for smartphones, it's refreshing to see a deal come through for brick-and-fluorescent-lights stores. The deal even includes some apps to be sold on memory cards for instant gratification.

Handango, a retailer of smartphone apps globally has cut a deal with Best Buy to bring smartphone apps to BestBuy's retail stores nationwide. Through the partnership, Handango will offer Best Buy Mobile customers a content catalogue of apps, including business and productivity titles as well as entertainment and games. These will be for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, and Symbian S60 smartphones. Nice to see little ol' Palm in that list, eh?

The apps can be purchased using Best Buy's in-store digital "Mobile Genie" system, whatever that is. Handango's In-Hand client, re-branded for BestBuy, will be downloaded onto each device so customers can continue to purchase apps with Handango and Best Buy even after they leave the store.

Quoting Bill Stone, Handango's CEO: "Customers will now be able to purchase top titles a la carte with simple pricing, have them downloaded and installed by BestBuy Mobile's expert staff making it easier than ever to personalize their devices."

There's a short news release about the deal at this link, or just (gasp!) visit a real store instead of an online one.

Rubinstein's efforts are about to bear their first fruits. On Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Palm is due to unveil the long-awaited operating system, code-named Nova, as well as the first of a family of products that will run on it. "People's work and personal lives are melding," Colligan says, adding that Palm is aiming for the "fat middle of the market."

T-Mobile is peddling a digital picture frame that connects to a wireless carrier network for photos to be uploaded. Manufactured by Parrot, of Paris, the frame has its own dedicated T-Mobile phone number and e-mail address.

The $99.99 picture frame works with any mobile phone that can send picture messages - regardless of what network they're connected to. It can receive and display photos sent from a mobile phone using MMS (same thing as SMS, but with photos) or e-mail. For good measure, the frame also features a USB connection and micro-SD card slot. The "Cameo" automatically rotates and resizes the photos it receives, and it can stand vertically or horizontally, as well as hang on the wall.

T-Mobile assesses a $9.99 monthly service charge for unlimited messaging to the frame. For more information check out www.t-mobile.com.

I have my quibbles with T-Mobile, of which I'm no longer a customer since tangling with their out-and-out rude customer service people, but here's a list of the features, courtesy of Parrot:

• Leather, seven-inch frame stands vertically or horizontally - automatically rotates and resizes all photos
• Receives real-time pictures directly to the frame via MMS and e-mail from a camera phone
• Non-T-Mobile customers can send photos to the frame (yayyy!)
• Memory: 64 MB
• 720 x 480 pixel display

The Treo Pro isn't the only high-profile smartphone with cracks in its case. Apple is being sued over hairline cracks in iPhone 3G's casings.

"Although Apple was and is aware that the iPhones were and are defective, and that consumers have experienced repeated instances of cracked housing, Apple has nevertheless allowed the defectively designed iPhones to be sold to the public," the suit says, among other complaints.

There isn't much people won't sue about these days, and I generally translate "class action lawsuit" as "lawyer fee motivated enterprise unrelated to actual consumer concern." But there you have it. I don't have a Treo Pro to complain about, so I'm talking out of turn. I was sure steamed about Palm's failure to support my Treo 700p, but I lucked out and the mega-tardy Maintenance Release for Sprint didn't "brick" my device and actually fixed the biggest bugs. I'd sure be mad if I spotted cracks, though, hairline or otherwise.

Customers shouldn't have to sue to get attention, or to get replacements for defective products. Problems occur, often unpredictably, and an honorable company should address them quickly and honestly. Okay, I'm old-fashioned. Also, pigs should sprout wings, and the check is definitely in the mail.

The Cell Phone Age is making it easier to park your car, at least in downtown Decatur, Georgia. Look for the technology to take hold in other places, too, before you can shake a stick at a no-armed bandit.

The newest thrill in those bandits, also known as parking meters, has been installed on 50 of Decatur's none-too-plentiful parking spaces so far. Parking goes high-tech. Dial the number that's printed on the meter and buy time. Simple! It’s one of the country's first pay-by-phone parking systems, but the aim is not so much to obviate mad dashes and chewing gum purchases in search of quarters. The system is really designed to encourage more parking place turnover and, of course, to rake in more money for the Atlanta burb's coffers.

Decatur also uses an automated system that detects whether a car has moved, preventing drivers from feeding the meter when the time's up. It also radios the city's meter maids ("parking attendants" is the current euphemism) when meters expire and points them toward drivers who park without paying. Mean!

With the pay-by-cell system, inaugurated this month, drivers call a local phone number and enter the parking space number. On the first call, the system sends them a text message inviting them to a Web site, from which I lifted the accompanying picture, to create an account (credit card required). After that, drivers can just call the number each time and draw against their balance to keep the meter maids at bay. The service costs the users a quarter extra - "transaction fee."

The meters cost the city about $200 apiece. Each one has a radio that transmits data and sensors that detect parked cars. The things also accept old-tech coins.

Shopping for yourself or others has become more difficult with the recent extinction of that elusive creature, the "highly trained in-store sales professional." This problem can be particularly frustrating when you're looking for something exotic, like Bluetooth-enabled contraptions such as headsets, speaker phones, and screwdrivers. Okay, not the screwdrivers, yet, but it won't be long.

Where to turn? Don't bother with the "official" website. It's way incomplete. The Bluetooth SIG – that's the group behind the standard – set up the website that it claims will clear up obfuscations that confound the buying public. Actually, it's even worse than a gum-chewing nonentity clerk, and not as nice. The website proposes to "help consumers match their current Bluetooth enabled devices to companion products." The cold hard reality is that the SIG's system knows almost nothing about Palm products, a very misleading situation, especially considering the way the site presents its misinformation.

Read on for the full article

Consumers finally gravitating to smartphones and using the mobile Internet, according to a new study by the Kelsey Group. Titled "Mobile Market View," the study found that 18.9 percent of consumers surveyed had a smartphone, and 49.2 percent planned to buy one within the next two years.

Smartphones are not new. This level of acceptance is. Maybe the increase has something to do with the difficulty of texting with a 10-key candybar phone. Or not. The study also found that these smartphone users had a marked increase in the level of mobile search activity. About 18 percent downloaded or looked at map directions on the handset, an increase from 10.8 percent in 2007. There were also significant increases in the number of mobile subscribers who searched for products, movie and entertainment information. Mobile social networking also went up.

Read on for the full article

Sprint has begun prorating early termination fees, as of Nov. 2. The new plan reduces the carrier's $200 fee by $10 a month, beginning in the sixth month of the contract. So, if you live out 15 months of the contract, the cost to cancel is down to $100. Sprint calls that an industry-low. I call it $100 too high, but at least it's a start.

The carrier's a year or more behind its competitors in changing the policy, spurred by an ongoing lawsuit in California that so far has not gone as the company's would like, to put it mildly. Verizon Wireless began prorating the fees in November 2006. AT&T Mobility wised up in October 2007, and T-Mobile USA joined them in November of last year.

I've reported on this issue on TreoCentral, and there's official information from Sprint's website here.

Contract, schmontract. Sprint is finally joining their competitors in trimming the outrageous fees they charge for early termination of cell phone service contracts. You know the drill: Sign up for umpty years to get your hands on that hot new phone you just have to have. Then you’re stuck. Pay a $200 bailout fee, or just keep on paying every month.

The high cost of canceling Sprint's contract is finally coming down. Maybe it's the fear of lawsuits - a California court ruled the fees a violation of state law and ordered Sprint to refund more than $73 million to customers. Shortly before that, Verizon Wireless agreed to settle an identical lawsuit for $21 million. As of now, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile prorate the termination fee. It declines as you live out more of the contract. Sprint is finally caving.

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Sprint's CEO, Dan Hesse, said Sprint could start lowering the fees as soon as December, pending updates to its billing software.

Read on for the full article

Kinoma's hard at work getting rid of the things people have complained about in Kinoma Play for Windows Mobile smartphones. The company has announced an update for Kinoma Play ($29.95), as well as the free Kinoma FreePlay for Windows Mobile.

The update will install automatically over the air. You can update immediately by opening Kinoma Play's Main screen. Show the menu pod and select Player > Check for Updates. Naturally, the update process depends on your having a data connection through your carrier.

The new and welcome changes include improvements to the program's Scanner function. It's been scanning on startup, uninterruptibly. The updated version lets you configure whether you want that to happen. You'll appreciate this change if you normally use the program to play online media and don't need it to check your memory cards for media files.

Read on for the full article

Kinoma, makers of the feature-laden Kinoma Player, has announced a new product, Kinoma Player 4 for Palm OS. The best part is: it's free.

You read right. Kinoma Player 4 is a free edition of the company's flagship Palm OS product, Kinoma Player 4 EX, now in version 4.5. The free version plays music, of course, plus podcasts and Internet radio. It also displays pictures and shows YouTube videos. Both products include Orb support. That lets you stream your music, video and movies from home - with a few gotchas.

Kinoma brags that they were "the first in the world to support YouTube on mobile devices." Kinoma Player 4 includes the same YouTube support as Kinoma Player 4 EX, so you can play your favorites on your Palm OS Treo or Centro.

Read on for the full article

The GSM Association, a wireless communications group, has teamed with a digital content provider named Mofilm and announced the first Global Mobile Film Festival. That's right, Cannes for Thumbelina's TV.

The festival will be held during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February. Mofilm and the GSMA are calling for entries from filmmakers worldwide. The opportunity is for short films, up to five minutes running time, that are produced with traditional cinematic technology, or films made with mobile devices.

Read on for the full article

The rumor mongers are busy as usual, reading doom for the Treo 700wx into a "While supplies last" flag on Verizon's website. Your mileage might vary, but when I went to Verizon's pages just now to verify the report, I found it clean of any "EOL" indication. Sure, there's that $100 discount if you sign your life away for two years and agree to mortgage your cat to pay Verizon’s rates. But no While Supplies Last sticker.

This doesn't mean the 700wx isn't at the end of its run. Palm has new models to sell, and the new 800w from all accounts improves on the 700wx considerably. There's also the Treo Pro, just shipping, which moves much closer to today's cell phone must-have feature list. But take a look at Palm's website. The 700wx is still alive and well, and available for a mere $649.00. Maybe EOL, but if I bought one at that price I'd be furious if it had as short a model life left as the rumors are claiming.

EOL is business-speak for soon-to-be-discontinued or new-model-on-the-way. A cell phone model reaches End of Life quicker than anything in the known universe - usually much quicker than the 700wx, which has been around for much longer than most cell phone models. That's typical of Palm. I’m content to wait.

The conjecture, of course, is that the 700wx is to be replaced in Verizon's lineup with newer Windows Mobile Treos. Maybe so. There’s plenty of rumor on that issue, too. The big day is October 12, so say the rumors. This week. But why read my cynical take on it here? If Windows Mobile is your thing, cruise on over to our sister site, WMExperts.com and get your fill of 800w rumors, Verizon and otherwise.

If you're roaming around in Yellowstone National Park, you might have noticed that cell phone coverage is spotty, at best. That could improve, but only near tourist areas. Otherwise, it's just you and the grizzlies.

National Park Service officials have released a draft plan for developing wireless services within Yellowstone, including location of some controversial cell towers at tourists' favorite spots, like Old Faithful, the geyser that burps every hour and a half or so–check it out for yourself with this live video webcam. Note: Click on pic at right to enlarge.

The new plan tries to balance civilization and nature by providing cell phone and wireless Internet services where there are hotels and stores in Yellowstone’s developed areas, while limiting towers in the rest of the 3,500-square-mile natural wonder. That means excluding cell towers from the back country, park road corridors and less developed areas. Now really, even while wearing your tourist hat, do you want to look at beautiful nature or cell phone towers? Appreciate the solitude or text someone about your hair? Okay, never mind.

The impact assessment plan, which has been in development for five years, calls for moving a cell tower located near Old Faithful to a less visible site at a water treatment plant. Its placement within sight of the geyser about 10 years ago started a debate over cellular towers in the park. If only the things weren’t so unsightly.

There's more on this from the Associated Press at this link. I got the nice picture from the Park Service’s static webcam.

T-Mobile USA is reported to be planning a launch of its first Google Android phone in barely over a week. The Reuters news agency quoted sources ("people familiar with the matter") that said the mobile operator will probably make an announcement around September 23rd in New York City. Sounds to me like somebody's doing a great job of leaking information.

There had been widespread reports – translate: rumors - that the phone would be delayed. However T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, says it's still on target for a launch in (or by) October.

The rumor mill says the touchscreen-based Android smartphone (That's a YouTube link.) will be supplied by Taiwan's High Tech Computer. HTC did lots of manufacturing under contract to Palm in the good old days, not long in the past. Besides, Android is expected to have some improvements announced in the next few weeks - including a new software development kit (SDK) to answer complaints. Palm has not signed onto the Google Android platform, which is open-source.

Meanwhile SunCom, my cell carrier of choice - the one I hate the least, in other words - has been eaten by none other than T-Mobile. My latest bill came with a courteous note that the SunCom signs are coming down, and T-Mobile is invading the Carolinas. So, maybe I'll be able to report on the Android issue more closely. After I pay my bill.

The University of Kentucky is giving up on students' land-based phones, as students go in for their own cell phones, anyway. The move, effective this semester, saves the university $840,000 - that's $25 a line that the landlines cost.

University said the savings is being passed on to students. Well, sort of. "That's the reason we were able not to raise housing costs for this year," said Ben Crutcher, associate vice president for auxiliary services. Another $100,000 of the savings went for improvements to Internet connections in the dorms.

The university's 5,600 dorm residents still can request a landline, but only seven had done so a day after the academic year began.

Read some of the students' comments, if you want, here.

According to the article, a survey found that 98.2 percent of UK's dorm-bound students in dorms own and prefer to use cell phones. The dorms had 3,060 landline phones. Now they have 260, including hall phones for emergency use.

Add locking and unlocking your front door to the functions you can implement on your mobile phone. Schlage, a company that makes locks and the like, is showing a cell phone controllable entry door lock at the CEDIA Expo trade show in Denver, according to the Associated Press. CEDIA is the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association. Major geeks.

The battery-operated "Z-Wave" lock, which for backup also works with a simple metal key, can be locked or unlocked by entering a four-digit code over the Internet from a computer or a smartphone. No more retracing your steps if you wonder "Did I lock the door?" The wireless transaction is encrypted, according to the company.

A Schlage kit that includes the lock and the wireless bridge sets you back $299. To implement the remote controls, there's a $13 monthly fee. No word on whether batteries are included. The company says the product will be available in late October.

Nice, but I'll just stick with my plain old brass key and apply the $13 monthly savings to something totally frivolous, like rent.

We all vent our rage on inanimate objects sometimes, and next time you get mad at your cell phone, you could get in some practice for the World Championship Mobile Phone Throwing contest. But the competition is beastly. This year's champion thrower in the "freestyle" category is a dog.

According to the event's official (English) website:

For the very first time in Mobile Phone Throwing history the winner is from animal world. The winner is Cara dog and Cara's owner Ulle Tonov, Estonia. Cara threw 30 centimetres, but luckily for her only style matters in this category. Cara got full points from the judges.

That's a throw of only about a foot, but it's the style that counts. Only the style. Estonian and Finnish contestants dominated the winners in the other categories, with Estonian Timmo Lilium taking the men's title with a throw of 85 meters (about 279 feet). The all-time champion is still Mikko Lampi from Finland whose 2005 phone throw was 94.97 meters – a whopping 311.58 feet. Now that's phone rage!

Naturally, the World Championship in Finland is preceded by national championships, and there are strict rules about conduct and judging. Next year's contest, the 11th Annual, will be August 22, 2009 in Punkaharju, in the tourism-worthy Savonlinna region. Start practicing now!

The biggest spenders in advertising are the big cell phone companies. So says Advertising Age, which worries about such things for a living. Ranked by "total U.S. Advertising spending in 2007", AT&T came in first, spending $3.2 billion, second only to Procter & Gamble. Verizon Communications came in a close second, at $3.0 billion, and Sprint Nextel held down the Number 11 spot at $1.9 billion.

T-Mobile USA spent a mere $606 million. Further down Ad Age's list - way further - was Microsoft at $959.5 million, and Apple, $491.8 million. The data for the "Top 100" are here, and there's a convenient summary of the wireless cellular-related numbers, along with some flashy color charts, at RCR Wireless. RCR's data differ from the original source, which is Advertising Age, because they've concentrated on wireless.

I noticed Palm isn't in the big spenders for advertising. Many of its competitors are - even Sprint, which like Palm is losing money. I got the picture from one of Sprint's animated ads. It's on YouTube, but I never saw it on the cable channels I watch.

If all the planets are properly aligned, if you're holding your mouth right and if you avoided walking under that ladder, you might, just might, be able to find a parking space in San Francisco. Or anywhere, really, but San Francisco is about to try to help. With your smartphone.

This fall, the city is planning to fit 6,000 of its 24,000 metered parking places with a wireless sensor that transmits the status of the spot, available or (just my luck) occupied. Nearby drivers will be able to find empty spaces by looking at maps on the screens of their smartphones.

According to this story in the The New York Times:

They may even be able to pay for parking by cellphone, and add to the parking meter from their phones without returning to the car. Solving the parking mess takes on special significance in San Francisco because two years ago a 19-year-old, Boris Albinder, was stabbed to death during a fight over a parking space.

"If the San Francisco experiment works, no one will have to murder anyone over a parking space," said Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose work on the pricing of parking spaces and whether more spaces are good for cities has led to a revolution in ideas about relieving congestion."

Read on for the full article

While stories about Sprint's recent troubles have been plentiful of late, the company may be on the road to better times, and the source for that is unimpeachable: a competitor!

According to the Wall Street Journal, the president of Verizon, Denny Strigl, told investors that Sprint's performance over the last month has improved. Of course, he also said that the improvements haven't impacted Verizon.

Sprint's stock responded to the assessment, rising by 13 percent last week. According to Sprint, the news is all good about the new Samsung Instinct, which has seen strong sales since its introduction June 20. With a new Treo imminent, too, the news might improve even more. Or not.

The struggle is far from over, however, as Sprint still has serious competition from AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Moreover, rumors persist that Deutsche Telekom might buy them out.

With unlocked GSM Centro smartphones now available, Google Maps for mobile with My Location will be available free for Centros, starting tomorrow. Free is a great price!

The app, which can be downloaded beginning tomorrow from Google's website, provides faster access to local maps, along with street-bound driving directions. My Location is specially built for the lost. You'll be available to press the "0" key to find out where you are, even if your Centro doesn't have a GPS system connected.

With position accuracy of approximately 1000 meters (a little over half a mile), the application comes close enough for many purposes - like finding a restaurant while you're traveling. GPS gets you much closer, but costs considerably more than free. There's a neat explanatory video on this page, which also includes instructions on how to get the applications.

Palm's website is now offering unlocked GSM Centro smartphones for $299. The picture shows a white Centro with gray number keys, rather than the green that AT&T's version sports.

The Palm Centro smartphone gives you voice, chat-style messaging, email and web, along with a color touchscreen and even a full keyboard. (So you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your cell phone.) All of this in a phone that's a whole lot smaller than you think. And now Centro is available unlocked for the flexibility you want. It's also GSM ready for happy traveling.

An unlocked phone lets you pick your carrier, so you're not locked into a contract - though the carrier might insist on contracts, just because they can. You do not need to pick a carrier on the buy page if you choose the unlocked version. Palm's also offering free shipping, a big $5.97 benefit.

An unlocked phone won't work without a carrier, but it will behave just fine as a personal digital assistant. Hook it up when you're ready.

The airlines make you turn off your cell phone on the planes, but your phone might get you through the airport and seated a little quicker. Delta Air Lines is now permitting travelers at New York's LaGuardia International Airport to use their cell phones as a boarding pass.

Domestic passengers can download their boarding passes to their mobile phones from the company's web site. When they get to the airport, they skip the check-in lines and go directly to the airport screening area. There, the Transportation Security Administration scans the electronic pass and checks customers' identification. Delta agents also check the phone at the gate before travelers get on the airplane.

Steve Gorman, Delta's executive vice-president of operations:

"Passengers can now quickly check in for their flight while en route to the airport or in a taxi or walking from the parking lot to the terminal. The check-in process now can take place from anywhere, any time within 24 hours of departure."

The idea isn't new, and it's catching on slowly. Last year, Continental Airlines began using mobile-phone barcodes at four U.S. airports, and Northwest Airlines launched a similar system earlier this year at Indianapolis International Airport. Here's a mobile-friendly link to Delta's mobile check-in. Fasten your seat belt!

The UK cellular carrier Orange is providing free cell phone charging for attendees of the famous Glastonbury Music Festival, using free electricity. Powered by a windmill and solar cells, and standing more than 23 feet tall, the company's REcharge Pod is a self sufficient unit that looks like a tent and can charge up to 100 mobile phones at one time. The company expects the pod to accommodate thousands of mobile phones during the three-day "Glasto" festival, which begins June 27.

Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK:

"It is more important than ever that we continue to innovate and demonstrate how mobile technology can help bring people together and make festival life a little bit easier, whilst in-keeping with the traditions of the Glastonbury Festival. Mobiles phones are essential tool for festival survival and with an expected capacity of over 175,000 people spread across a sprawling 900 acres of farmland, keeping in touch with mates around the site, especially when you are covered head to toe in mud, is made that much easier if your phone has battery power."

According to CellularNews, a UK cellular industry publication, the REcharge Pod will be in the Pennard Hill campgrounds, and free for all. The huge list of performers is here. Don't forget to bring your cell phone!

No texting when you should be sleeping. ScienceDaily is reporting results of a sleep study that found teenagers who excessively used their cell phone were more prone to disrupted sleep, restlessness, stress and fatigue. An abstract of a paper detailing the findings is to be presented today at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

Authored by Dr. Gaby Badre of Sahlgren's Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, the study focused on 21 healthy 14-20-year-old subjects with regular working/studying hours and without sleep problems. Of those, a control group made fewer than five calls and five text messages a day. The other half of the subjects made more than 15 calls or 15 text messages a day.

According to the study:

...When compared to subjects with restricted use of cell phones, young people with excessive use of cell phones (both talking and text messaging) have increased restlessness with more careless lifestyles, more consumption of stimulating beverages, difficulty in falling asleep and disrupted sleep, and more susceptibility to stress and fatigue. They behave more like larks than owls, suggesting a delayed biological clock."

A new study released by the European Interactive Advertising Association has identified the most likely customer for mobile video: sports fans. Guess those soccer games are just too tempting.

The EIAA said the study found that among people who watched mobile video, sports enthusiasts outnumbered average mobile users two-fold (12 percent vs. six percent). The study also found that 93 per cent of people who access sports sites own a mobile/PDA/Blackberry and are twice as likely as the average European mobile/PDA/Blackberry user to watch video/film clips on their mobile.

The study's interviews, more than 1,000, were conducted in September 2007, and reported this week in the London phone industry publication Cellular-News.

According to the report, 36 percent of European internet users visit sports websites, spending over 13 hours online each week, a 27-percent increase since 2004. Moreover, mobile TV watching among sports fans has grown by 144 percent since 2006.

Just wait till the Olympic Games get cranked up. Then we'll really see some mobile TV watching!

Google showed off Android, its mobile operating system, during its annual developer conference in San Francisco. The event was reported by FierceMarkets, an online news aggregator. Running on an iPhone-like touchscreen, the system showed off mobile web services, mobile gaming prowess, and map features.

According to the firm's vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra, Android tries to extend the browser to handheld devices. "We believe over time, the browser on mobile devices will be the entry point for many, many applications.”

Google showed Android versions of its Google Maps Street View service, which is assisted by an internal compass and accelerometer, as well as a snippet of a classic arcade game, plus a mobile web content magnifying tool.

According to the company, Android-based devices remain on track to hit retail markets in the second half of 2008. There's a YouTube video of the presentation here.

Give Sprint your email address, and you could win a Palm Centro. Sprint's promising "all the latest information about new Sprint products, services, and exclusive offers" delivered to your email box. Signing up enters you in a drawing for the prizes.

The sweepstakes will have four winners, to be selected in a random drawing on June 30. After jumping through some hoops, the winners get a Palm Centro. Activation fee and phone plans are extra.

Go to this link to enter, but do it soon. June 23 is the last day to enter. The official rules contain information on entering the old-fashioned way - 3x5 card, handwritten info, you know the drill.

People are paying $9 more for a mobile phone, on average, than reported in 2007, according to volume 1 of the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study, which was released May 29.

The increase is the first in two years, bringing the average purchase price cited by customers to $101, the highest average price paid for a wireless device since the study’s inception in 2003. JD Power, a consulting firm, attributed the change to the recent surge in popularity of smartphones, "such as the RIM Blackberry, Palm Treo and recently introduced Apple iPhone, as well as music-enabled handsets." The average reported price paid for a smartphone is $208, compared to $58 for phones with fewer features.

Read on for the full article

The Palm Centro showed up in full-page newspaper ads in southern South America last week, marking the smartphone's arrival, acccording to The Inquirer.

The Inquirer reported:

A month ago, the Centro was launched in Colombia with operators Movistar and Comcel. In Mexico, the Centro is being offered by Telcel and Movistar. Negotiations in Argentina are still in the works so Palm's local branch hasn't yet announced any operator deals and discounted prices…

The Centro is sold as what we call a 'smartphone in disguise,' because the ads target Generation-X users who don't necessarily buy one to keep to-do lists or use the PIM apps, and plenty of whom might not have ever used a PDA before. As such, the ads highlight the phone's 'social' features like messaging friends, doing the occasional web browsing and looking up directions with Google Maps, in addition to more individual features like playing music and videos.

South American Centros are all GSM, in black, red, blue, or white – different colors for various countries and carriers. The phones aren't cheap, either - two or three times the same models' prices in the U.S.

In their blog, the makers of the Kinoma Player music and internet radio (and YouTube and other stuff) player for Palm smartphones, says Sprint's new limit on "unlimited" data plans won't be a problem. Sprint is planning to roll out a five gigabyte per month limit on "unlimited" data plans.

That's five gigs for all incoming and outgoing traffic, and an even lower limit of 300 megabytes while "roaming" off their network. The upcharge begins in July, according to an internal memo leaked on sprintusers.com.

According to Kinoma Notes:

Since Kinoma Player is a data-intensive app, your first question might be, 'Do I need to worry about this?'

Read on for the full article

News that the Palm Centro was being sold in Italy came bundled with the big-whoop announcement that Palm sold its millionth Centro. There was more detail on the millionth Centro being sold than detail on the Centro launch in Italy.

If you crave Italian Centro detail, and I know you do, check out this video posted to YouTube by Cellulare.it Magazine, an online publication that specializes in cell phone gizmos. The magazine is in Italian, but the narrator for the hands-on Centro video speaks English throughout.

Of particular interest, the 5-minute video, created in Milan in March, starts with a direct comparison of a black Centro to the Italian version of Palm's Treo 750. I also found the price interesting: 499 Euros. That's currently a little over $750! I hope the Italian carriers give huge discounts for contracts. I got my Centro for just under $100 (63.29 Euros at today's exchange rate).

Gentlemen, start your smartphones! Astraware and Pazzazz Games have released their new game GTS World Racing for Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. That means Treo and Centro!

The official announcement has just been posted on Astraware's website. The game is a sequel to GTS Racing Challenge.

Fans of classic coin-operated arcade racing games will love the retro style graphics and exhilarating sound effects. Experience the roar of engines as you select your car, race your opponents, set the fastest lap times, score points for most race wins and burn rubber to gain championship victory!

The game features 64 track layouts, three car types with individualized handling characteristics, and four difficulty levels from Easy to Extreme. The game offers four play modes, Single Race, Challenge Cup, Grand Tour, and Championship. See Astraware's GTSWR web page for more information. Don't inhale too much exhaust!

Palm's official blog has a new posting by Paul Loeffler that includes video interview detailing Palm's customer support program.

I sat down with John Moses, Palm's VP of worldwide customer relations, to get a deeper understanding of all the different customer support options that are currently available to Palm users. John shared information about many programs that Palm provides including self-support options, phone support, and other premium services. He also discussed Palm's recently launched web IM chat offering, which allows people to communicate with a Palm agent in real time.

The video is accessible on YouTube directly, at this link. It's embedded in the blog post, too.

The blog post also contains links to all of Palm's customer support facilities, including their Knowledge Library, Help Forums, Voice Support (free for only the first 90 days), and extra-cost services, plus the new real-time Chat line.

The post doesn't mention my favorite source for Palm support, the TreoCentral forums. Even so, if I needed help, I'd look into Palm's Chat option for nearly instant gratification.

Lately, rumors have been so plentiful about a new 3G iPhone from Apple in June (maybe) that the venerable New York Times has published a summary of what is known, not known, and in between.

The new so-called 3G iPhone, which some reports say has already been manufactured in large quantities and shipped to the U.S., boasts (or not) a new round of Palm-killing features, including compatibility with the faster "3-G" networks.

Apple inflicted the iPhone on the world last June. Lately, sales have declined to a mere 600,000 per month, according to the Times article, aptly titled "The Guessing Game Has Begun..." The Times' John Markoff does a great job of summarizing the facts, the rumors, and some of the rampant conjecture. There's even a section on the likely problems that the new device will face.

What's this report doing on a Palm-centric website? Keeping up with the competition. I hope.

HeroCraft Games has announced the release of Hexxagon Labs, the logic game that Jennifer blogged about a couple of weeks ago. The game’s demo can now be downloaded from the company's website. The direct download page is here.

Hexxagon Labs contains over a dozen arenas filled with intellectual challenges. You compete with computerized, artificial intelligence. And isn't all of it artificial anyway? Or you can compete with your friends, artificial or not, and pass the phone back and forth.

Funny chemistry, witty physics, exciting astronomy, the game includes 17 original levels that the company says are hard to solve. The goal of each level is to occupy as many cells on a field as possible, capturing enemy pieces. Your rivals are American and European professors whose brains are implanted in the game's artificial intellect system. Alfred E. Neuman is not one of them, I'll bet.

Before each level you receive astonishing scientific information that gives you the opportunity, when you have the chance, to show off your erudition and amaze acquaintances by your knowledge. The more you play Hexxagon Labs, the smarter you become. Figuratively speaking, that is.

Hexxagon Labs is available for a variety of mobile operating systems including Palm OS and Windows Mobile. If you visit the download page for a Windows Treo, you want the “Pocket PC,” not the “Smartphone” version. All current Centros want the PalmOS version.

Your smartphone is getting another new capability: mowing the lawn. The trick is made possible by a robotic lawn mower that you control with Bluetooth. The mower doesn't really need much control. It does its thing unattended, though it's quite a thrill to watch.

Kyodo America has been making robotic mowers for a while. No biggie, there. The new wrinkle is controllability by Bluetooth signals, for example from your Treo or Centro. The 30-pound, $3,500 robots navigate around the lawn, herded by a guide wire that defines the perimeter. They detect objects and mow around them, and automatically dock to their charging station when their batteries need a boost. The newer models even monitor grass growth to decide when to mow. The latest wrinkle, however, just introduced with the company's Model LB3500, is smartphone control.

Currently, only Palm's Treo 650 is mentioned in the LawnBott's compatibility list, and it's still undergoing testing. But there's always Blackberry. Indeed, Bluetooth usability in the United States won't work fully until the company fixes some incompatibilities with the European system for which the system was developed – a few weeks.

The robotics made the New York Times' fabulously tantalizing Circuits column list last week, but for the whole story, check out the Kyodo's dedicated mower website.

AT&T has added a Feature Pack to give their pre-paid customers the option to use their data network. It's the same unlimited data service as their other plans, and the add-on costs the same.

The company named the new feature "Unlimited MEdia Net for Pay As You Go." That's capital ME, as in first-person singular. Cute, eh? For $19.99 a month - same as on their monthly plans - pre-paid customers can use MEdia Net on an unlimited basis.

The wonders of your smartphone, Treo or Centro, magnify with a data plan. However, take it from me, you definitely want the unlimited version. The data opens up internet radio, "over the air" software updating, and checking the weather with Blazer while you're traveling (raising hand, pointing at self). I'm sure you can think of other uses, too.

If you're on AT&T, with their Pay as You Go plan, you have to dial 611 from your smartphone at the beginning of each month to re-add the Feature Pack to your account. If you're on their older GoPhone Pick Your Plan plan, you can call AT&T Customer Service to switch to Pay As You Go service - and then call them every month to re-up.

Give 'em a day or two to get better organized before you call. When I looked around AT&T's website for some direct links to pass along, I engaged one of their live chat agents for help. I asked where a link might be to the new feature and got this answer: "The pay as you go service does not offer the data service." Guess the news hasn't yet filtered down to whatever planet their help chat is on.

Wake up and smell the coffee - if someone texts you a coffee scented message, that is. The Local, an English-language German news website, is reporting that two German firms have patented a system that can send scented - you read right, scented - text messages between mobile phones.

According to The Local, the chip that does the deed contains around 100 pleasant possibilities, including vanilla, rose, and cinnamon. The chip was developed by the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing Consultancy in Gottingen, along with Oberhausen-based Convisual, a services firm. It's expected to be on the market in one or two years.

No word on when the stinky version will appear. Then you could text a stink bomb to those who deserve one. Or not.

According to the article, Partners in the project announced the patent for the smart card-sized chip on Tuesday. The project has been around eight years in the making.

"People will be able to send the smell of the beach and sunshine to their friends when they're on vacation," Convisual spokesperson Sandra Wiewiorra told The Local on Wednesday... "Users could send flower scents for Mother's Day, for example...."

Users will of course need a scent-savvy phone. The News reported that the inventors are negotiating with some mobile phone providers on marketing and distribution plans for the chips, which could have applications for branded advertisements and adding a "sensory element" to electronic games.

Kinoma, the makers of Kinoma Player for Palm OS, has a deal with TrialPay that gives away their software when you buy flowers for your mom. Mother's Day is Sunday, May 11, so the deal is purposefully timely.

The arrangement gets you Kinoma Player for free if you buy flowers from FTD through TrialPay. A Mountain View, CA, company, TrialPay is an umbrella marketing group that lets you try or buy from various brands - including FTD - and obtain freebies for doing so. Advertisers pay for the free stuff.

Today's entry in Kinoma's blog announced the special. The TrialPay offer is for the full version of Kinoma Player, which normally sells for $24.95. If you were planning to buy flowers anyway, Kinoma Player's a great lagniappe. Besides, the qualifying FTD purchase can be a gift basket or a bunch of chocolates, instead of flowers. Yummm! There are other vendor choices besides FTD, all of them boring.

Kinoma Player is a full-featured music and multimedia player for Treo and Centro smartphones. Although the competing Pocket Tunes comes with Palm Centros, you can install Kinoma Player on your Centro and use it instead of the included player, which on AT&T Centro models is not quite the complete Pocket Tunes Deluxe version. For a tutorial on Pocket Tunes for Centro and details on AT&T's differences, see my Centro Intro series, Part 5.

Alas, I'm not shopping for Mothers' Day gifts, as my maternal unit has gone on to that Big Hair Salon in the Sky. Well, I could send flowers to myself. Or console myself with chocolates.