• Virgin Mobile USA announced results of the first "Virgin Mobile USA Election Issues Poll," a national SMS-based mobile survey that asked about the key contenders and issues in the run-up to November’s Presidential Election. Not surprisingly, considering Virgin Mobile USA's historical focus on the youth-oriented market, more than half of the respondents were under the age of 25 and female and favored Democratic candidates over the lone Republican. When asked whom they expect to vote for through the national poll, conducted in late May, 40% of respondents selected Barack Obama as their top choice. Fellow Democratic contender Hillary Rodham Clinton took second place, at 18%, and John McCain came in a distant third at 8%. Fewer than 5% reported themselves to be undecided. The economy was cited by respondents as the election's most critical issue (25%). The war in Iraq followed closely behind 20%. Respondents eagerly embraced making technology an even greater part of the political process. More than half, 57%, said they would be willing to vote for the next president by cell phone, while about the same amount, 55%, also indicated that being able to cast a vote via text message would make them more likely to participate in an election.

• YouMail, a provider of free, customizable cell phone voicemail service, announced the public beta of visual voicemail for smartphone users. The new mobile platform allows users to access YouMail from their smartphone home screen, enabling them to listen to voicemail messages, forward messages on to other people, or reply via SMS without ever having to dial into their voicemail service. To begin accessing YouMail’s visual voicemail service, users visit http://youmail.com from their cell phone browser and log in with their YouMail user ID. YouMail’s new visual voicemail service works on nearly all smartphones, including handsets like Blackberries, Treos, the iPhone and devices manufactured by Palm, Nokia and others.

• Camila, the hottest group in Latin music right now, launched its first headlining U.S. tour with a 17-city schedule that kicked off in Miami  last week. The group also joined forces with Verizon Wireless to further connect with fans via mobile technology. Verizon Wireless customers who download Camila’s content via their V CAST-enabled handsets will have a chance to win a pair of tickets sent directly to their phones. These mobile tickets will be their entry into the show. 

• Australia's Telstra announced that it has activated an important new feature for the Mobile Packet Core network called 3G Direct Tunnel on their WCDMA/HSPA network. The equipment for this was provided by Ericsson. The 3G Direct Tunnel feature provides a direct connection between the 3G networks radio network controller and gateway GPRS support node, hence capacity increase to Telstra's mobile packet core network. The functionality is implemented in the existing network through software enhancements, with no additional hardware required and will make the network more efficient in its handling of data packets.

• Interop Technologies is now offering content from OpenMarket, provider of mobile messaging and financial payment processing systems for direct-to-consumer mobile commerce, to network service providers that are Interop clients. Interop offers a single point of connection that links the company’s 55 mobile service provider clients with short-code content offerings from OpenMarket and the estimated 400 content providers it represents.

• Amalfi Semiconductor, a developer of high-performance CMOS-based radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal semiconductors, announced the AM8901, a CMOS-based power amplifier chip for GSM/EDGE cellular handsets.  The power amplifier is part of the company’s new Stratos CMOS product family, which is based on a silicon architecture that reduces the battery’s electrical current requirements in cellular phones. The company claims the reduction will let manufacturers deliver phones with more than 20% improvement in usage time, thinner designs and additional functionality, such as mobile TV, MP3 player and video camera. 

• Minibar system provider Bartech teamed with ZigBee specialist Ember to provide hotels with real-time status and charges from in-room minibars, by wirelessly monitoring in-room refreshment centers remotely. Bartech ZigBee-enabled mesh networking systems use Ember’s EM250 system-on-chip (SoC) and EM260 network co-processor along with the EmberZNet PRO platform, which supports the ZigBee PRO Feature Set. It also implements advanced security features using 128-bit keys (link and network keys) to secure all minibar communication throughout its wireless ZigBee networks.

• Cellular South re-upped its contract with Convergys for end-to-end business support  for provisioning, usage mediation, billing and associated customer support. The operator has been using the Convergys solution for the past 5 years. Under terms of a new 2-year licensing agreement, Cellular South will continue to operate the Convergys solution in Cellular South’s data center. Convergys will provide system maintenance and support services, as well as application monitoring services and professional and consulting services.