The Mobile Payment Forum (MPF), a global cross-industry alliance of key organizations from the mobile and financial industries dedicated to the advancement of mobile (m) commerce, announced two new members to its Board of Directors for the 2006 - 2008 term of office. Mark Fruehan, Vice President of Business Development of VeriSign, and Joseph Salesky, CEO of ClairMail, have joined the Board to enhance the development and deployment of global m-commerce solutions.

Avvenu, Inc., the company that provides consumers with remote access and sharing of their personal media, announced the availability of the Avvenu Music Player for Windows Mobile 5. Avvenu’s new mobile music service allows iTunes users to listen to and share their iTunes music library anytime, anywhere, by streaming music directly to Windows Mobile Smartphone devices. The Avvenu Music Player is a web-based service that allows users to listen and share music from their iTunes playlists.

Kyocera Wireless Corp., a leading global manufacturer of CDMA wireless handsets and devices, announced the Kyocera Bluetooth Music Gateway for enhanced mobile music portability to entertainment systems. This compact and easy-to-use universal accessory uses Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology to free digital audio files from personal music players such as cell phones and MP3 players, enabling a wirelessly-controlled full room experience over home and office stereos or Bluetooth headsets.

Samsung Electronics announced at the fourth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei that it has developed a 2.1" LCD panel for high-end mobile devices that will provide qVGA resolution and comes equipped with sensors designed to adjust brightness to optimize ambient lighting. Screen brightness is automatically adjusted to enhance readability under any lighting condition. Designed for use in high-end mobile phones, PDAs and portable media players, the new panel also has a temperature compensation sensor embedded in its LCD driver IC that maintains a steady operational mode regardless of any temperature change in the environment.

Sony Ericsson announced its first mobile phone to support Mobile Services Architecture (MSA), the next-generation Java umbrella standard (JSR-248). The Sony Ericsson Z750 clamshell phone is the first phone based on Sony Ericsson's Java Platform 8 (JP-8), supporting a range of new Sony Ericsson Java programming features including instant messaging / chat and presence based functionality, handling banking, payment transactions, user identification and authentication through secure encryption technology, mapping and other location-aware applications.

Sprint announced that it is delivering customers powerful new pricing and offerings that will make mobile music easier and more affordable to enjoy than ever. Beginning in early April, the Sprint Music Store will offer songs at $ 0.99 - the lowest rate available for over-the-air song downloads purchased in the United States. This price applies to every song in the Sprint Music Store’s library of more than 1.5 million songs.

Oasys Mobile, Inc. a leading provider of premium mobile entertainment and media, announced its game line-up for delivery beginning in the second quarter of 2007. The company will introduce seven new and unique games along with new enhanced versions of four of its top-selling titles. With strong carrier relationships and some of the biggest brands in the industry, Oasys continues to focus on its strength in providing the most compelling gaming and personalization content to the global marketplace. “Our solid relationships with companies like Mattel and many of the leading carriers worldwide will enable Oasys to expand its distribution to numerous audiences and increase revenues for 2007,” said Doug Dyer, CEO, Oasys Mobile.

U-Turn Media Group, a company offering innovative end-to-end solutions for interactive mobile media, announced that it will deploy an interactive mobile portal for FOX23 (KOKI). The portal will allow users to get local video or text stories sent to their cell phone or PDA free of charge. FOX23 Mobile will offer the top news stories of the day, breaking news, breaking weather, sports, entertainment and business stories without a cost to the user. The announcement was made by Jim Walz, President, North America, U-Turn, and Craig Millar, Senior Vice President & General Manager, FOX23.

Wilson Electronics, a leading manufacturer of cell phone amplifiers and antennas, announces release of their new product, the Wilson Signalboost. This new dual-band amplifier works with all Cellular/PCS carriers and has up to 3 watts of output power to increase your cellular signal 10 to 15 times for either voice or data service. "This new Signalboost amplifier has been carefully engineered to significantly improve the performance of your cell phone and laptop data card in both vehicle and home/office applications," said Walt Brooks, Wilson Retail Sales Manager. "Using our new universal-connect signal coupler included with the amplifier, the Signalboost works with all cell phones and laptop data cards and attaches using a Velcro patch.

Movaya, a mobile content distribution and services company, announced the beta launch of Movaya PlugNPlay, a turnkey solution that allows any website, ecommerce site or blog to sell mobile games. “Until today, one of the biggest barriers holding back the sales of mobile games has been the relative lack of effective distribution channels,” says Scott Meyer, Senior VP, Americas, PlayerX. “Movaya PlugNPlay makes it easy for anyone to sell mobile games, from major ecommerce sites to MySpace pages and blogs. That capability will put our products in front of more eyeballs than we can imagine.”