• Twitter is launching mobile push notifications for @mentions. Whenever an account that a user follows mentions them, they'll immediately receive a notification by SMS or on Twitter's smartphone app. The push notifications will be available first on SMS and Twitter for iPhone. Twitter also is expanding push notifications for messages to the iPhone and says the message notifications are also in the works for Android and Windows Phone. The message notifications are currently available by SMS and on BlackBerry.
• Motorola Mobility has invested an undisclosed amount of money in BlackArrow, a provider of advanced advertising solutions for new television platforms like video-on-demand, DVR and mobile devices. The two companies will develop integrated addressable media and advertising solutions for set-top boxes and mobile devices, as well as cloud-based, hosted video services and IP video delivery. BlackArrow will use the additional capital from the investment for new product development and worldwide deployment of their advertising system to networks and content distributors.
• Skyfire is phasing out its legacy v1.0 product on Windows Mobile and Symbian on Dec. 31. The company said it was a "very difficult decision" to ax the two-year-old product, which used a proxy browser approach. Skyfire says it is in discussions with carriers and OEMs to decide which platform to launch its Skyfire 2.0 app on next after its success on Apple's App Store. "Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 and Nokia's MeeGo platform are both shaping up as platforms with a lot of potential and the recent launch of the new BlackBerry OS 6 with a WebKit browser core makes for interesting potential for a future release of Skyfire 2.0," the company said.
• 3G embedded mobile devices typically have a lower total cost of ownership than their 2G equivalents, according to an Analysys Mason report conducted for the GSM Association (GSMA). Analysys Mason's investigations found that around 90 percent of embedded devices being deployed in some of parts of the market use 2G technologies largely because of the higher upfront costs of 3G modules. The report found that the cost of the module itself comprises between 1 percent and 14 percent of the module's total cost of ownership, so for devices that generate significant traffic, like in-car entertainment systems, the higher cost of a 3G module is more than offset by the lower costs of 3G traffic over the lifetime of the device.
• CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent praised the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) for passing a resolution supporting the FCC to stop traffic pumping schemes, which occur when some local exchange carriers engage in arrangements that result in large increases in one-way terminating traffic to collect exorbitant termination rates. Largent says these arrangements increase termination costs without a corresponding network investment.
• Barcode solutions provider Scanbuy announced new features in its ScanLife app when scanning 1D (UPC) barcodes. New features include digital coupons on every day products, prices and availability from local stores and detailed nutrition information from thousands of food products.
• SkyCross, developer and manufacturer of antennas, has appointed Ben Naskar to the position of chairman and CEO. Naskar succeeds outgoing chairman and acting CEO Dennis McKenna, who had previously announced his plan to retire at the end of 2010. Naskar has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless semiconductor industry. Prior to joining SkyCross, he was a corporate officer, vice president and general manager of the wireless networking unit at Atheros Communications.
• Cisco's new carrier packet transport system purports to be the first platform in the industry to support standards-based multiprotocol label switching transport profile (MPLS-TP), which is interoperable with MPLS offered on routing products. Cisco says the system provides robust resiliency, predictability and comprehensive operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) capabilities.