• Beginning today, race fans can support the Ryan Newman Foundation by participating in Alltel’s online auction and bidding on authentic racing items from the 2008 Daytona 500 champion. The proceeds from each weekly auction will benefit Newman’s charity, which promotes companion animal welfare and conservation and provides funding to the Rich Vogler Scholarship for students interested in auto racing careers. Alltel Wireless and Newman will donate several pieces of racing memorabilia for open bidding.  Each auction item is autographed by Newman or members of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team and includes a certificate of authenticity.  Items include a pair of racing gloves worn by Newman during several races, a door panel from the No. 12 Alltel Dodge and a crew shirt signed by several members of the No. 12 team.

• Virgin Mobile USA has signed a services agreement for Information Technology (IT) operations and new applications development with IBM. Under the terms of the new services agreement, IBM will begin transitioning Virgin Mobile USA's existing IT infrastructure and application suite into its own environment. Simultaneously and continuing over the course of the next 5 years, IBM will work with Virgin Mobile USA to develop wireless applications and service offerings. As part of the agreement, more than 40 Virgin Mobile USA IT employees will transfer to IBM.

• The Phone Store in San Antonio, Texas, has teamed up with Research In Motion, Rackspace Hosting and Sprint to offer businesses hands-on experience before committing to a purchase.  During a 10-day trial period, companies can take the latest smartphones for a test run. Any company can test five BlackBerry devices programmed with their own phone numbers, e-mails and contacts on the Sprint network. The smartphone also comes with full Managed Microsoft Exchange Hosting and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Hosting from Rackspace, through their e-mail hosting division, Mailtrust. Other software applications on the phones include GPS navigation, news feeds and e-mail attachment support. This Texas launch precedes a national rollout scheduled later this fall.

• Skyfire Labs has added Mike Rowehl as its scalability architect to oversee all scalability initiatives under way in preparation for general availability of the Skyfire product later this year.

• DAPA Technology has opened an office in Orlando to facilitate sales of communications infrastructure to military and government agencies in the Americas. The facility will also be responsible for facilitating sales to existing commercial wireless clients in the region. In related company news, DAPA named Kenneth  Buchanan to vice president. He will report to President and CEO Thierry Carbou and will operate from the company’s new Orlando location.