With their wide range of integrated infotainment functions, the premium cars produced by the BMW Group have long since entered the realm of “networked vehicles”. One of the major challenges here lies in how to link up the multimedia devices - which come onto the market in quick succession - to the car in a user-friendly way. Having integrated a mobile device into the car, there needs to be a control system in place inside the passenger compartment which ensures that it can be operated intuitively, without causing distraction and in an ergonomically sound manner. The application itself and customer-specific data remain within the mobile device, while its operation and output are handled by the vehicle’s HMI (Human Machine Interface).

MTI Micro Fuel Cells, the developer of Mobion off-the-grid portable power solutions and a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Incorporated, unveils a new embedded micro fuel cell prototype design for handheld global positioning system ("GPS") devices at the 10th Annual International Small Fuel Cells Conference in Atlanta. MTI Micro will exhibit a micro fuel cell powered GPS prototype at booth number 101, alongside its full range of functional prototypes for use in handheld electronic devices.

During the GSMA Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona, LogMeIn provider of on-demand, remote-connectivity solutions was able to show a preview of its LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile support service for smartphones running the S60 platform on the Symbian operating system. The Rescue Mobile support service enables organizations of all sizes, from the mobile phone carrier to the small business IT service provider, to deliver on-demand, custom remote support.

Digit Wireless, the innovators of Fastap keypad technology, announced its Fastap technology has been certified under the Chinese text-entry standard GF 3006 - 2001 Standard Scheme of Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Input with Universal Keypad by China’s State Language Commission (SLC). This certification enables mobile devices featuring the Fastap keypad language platform to enter the Chinese mobile market through the world’s device manufacturers and Chinese mobile operators to benefit millions of mobile users throughout China. The Fastap Global Language Platform when implemented for the Chinese market increases the performance and efficiency of the Pinyin input method which is the most commonly used input method on today’s mobile phones.

Kirusa, the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a developer of mobile value added services, announced that it has demonstrated the world's first exchange of Voice SMS messages between diverse carriers using different Voice SMS systems. This is the first ever demonstration of Voice SMS interoperability anywhere in the world. The trials were based on the technical specification developed by the GSM Association, the worldwide trade association for the mobile phone industry.

Nuance Communications that its speech recognition solutions are now available in the Tempo E2000, a new 2GB music-enabled mobile phone from Kyocera Wireless that also features video on demand (VOD) as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera. With Nuance speech recognition technology, users are able to dictate commands such as name and number dialing, by pressing a single button. There are also command and control features for the handset such as checking status of the battery level, finding contacts and more.

At the Mobile World Congress Nuance announced a special trial edition of T9 Nav, a mobile discovery solution that provides a fast way to access all features, applications and content on a mobile device in just a few key presses. T9 Nav is simple and powerful mobile discovery software that significantly improves the mobile user experience by allowing users to bypass button-driven menu systems which often require complex combinations of key presses, offering a fast, direct and repeatable way to access features and content on the phone. It intelligently adapts to user behaviour over time, reordering and predicting frequently searched terms using the industry leading, patented algorithms from XT9/T9 software.

Motorola unveiled its first 3G femtocell customer premises equipment (CPE), the first two units from a portfolio of CPEs that will be commercially available in the second half of 2008, as part of the company’s end-to-end femtocell solution. The Motorola end-to-end femtocell solution is designed for high quality of service levels and is enhanced by the Motorola NBBS platform - Motorola’s device management system. NBBS is a highly scaleable service and CPE management system that enables an excellent end user experience while minimizing operator support costs.

Seiko Instruments Inc. (Japan) and Varioptic Lyon (France) - Varioptic and SII announced the signature of a cooperation agreement to develop, manufacture and market Varioptic’s Liquid Lens products. The aim of this agreement is to achieve a significant penetration with Liquid Lens products in the fast growing camera module market and other large volume end equipment markets such as barcodes and webcams. Seiko will use its manufacturing expertise as the number one supplier of Backup button battery and Capacitor to Cellular phone companies to produce Liquid Lens units in very high volume with aggressive cost reduction to ensure liquid lens products maintain their cost advantage for auto-focus.

The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, today announced that "Click," the BBC's flagship technology program, has chosen NFC as one of its five top technologies for 2008. BBC News selected the five technologies from the hundreds of consumer products and technologies on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) International in Las Vegas last month. The television news story ran numerous times on BBC News 24, BBC One, and BBC Breakfast.