Later tonight, Research in Motion is expected to open an app store for BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile will get one before Christmas. Apple has the iTunes App Store, Android has the Android Market, Nokia's got its own Ovi Store. But why should it be limited to smartphones when over 80% of the handsets sold daily are simple feature phones?

That's the same question Everypoint wants to address with its Nemo application development platform. Nemo is a branded app creation platform that provides free cloud services, a mobile runtime and developer environment for application developers interested in making their content available to the Internet-enabled, J2ME-based phone users out there.

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Beta testing for ZillionTV is currently under way, the streaming service closely follows the model Roku took with its own set-top box, but applies it to commercial television.

Users pay a one-time fee to activate the ZillionTV set top box and remote, and then hook it up to their broadband connection to begin streaming content. The service then offers viewing tiers: the free, ad-subsidized tier, the rental tier, and the "buy to own" tier. The ad-subsidized tier features interactive ads targeted to the user's preferences. Before watching subsidized programming, for example, the user could have to select the ads they'd most like to see, the ads are also affected by the user's location, viewing habits, and demographics.

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Tru2way is the brand name for the open cable standard architecture that will allow next generation TV hardware to work with any cable provider. The hallmarks of tru2way are interactive services and HD on demand content. Unfortunately, there has yet to be an industry-wide breakthrough in the adoption of tru2way outside of companies such as Panasonic, Comcast, and TiVo.

This week, TiVo announced a deal with streaming on demand and IPTV middleware company SeaChange that promises to bring tru2way-style features to CableCard-equipped TiVo set top boxes in areas where the architecture has not been implemented yet.

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Officially announced in the Summer of 2008, and expected to come to the US in the Fall, the Treo Pro was supposed to raise Palm's suffering margins as it crawled through the end of the year. The device's release was pushed back all the way to the point of inopportunity: after the Pre's unveiling.

Now, the Treo Pro just looks like a Centro update that showed up for the party after everybody has gone home. In the company's third quarter earnings call this week, Palm put the delay of the Treo Pro up there with the economic crisis in terms of severe detriments to the company's bottom line. Today, it has finally been announced, and it will be available through Sprint on March 15.

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Amazon today has officially launched the Kindle application for iPhone and iPod Touch. While Amazon's flagship e-paper reader and Apple's devices are in fundamentally different device classes, bringing the e-book platform to the iPhone completely changes the Kindle brand.

The era of the Kindle as "The iPod of books," is no more. Now that the actual iPod has access to the same library of 240,000 books, it's the era of the Kindle platform.

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The prosecution, representing the IFPI and major content studios, finished up yesterday. They seek 117 million SEK ($12.7 million, €10.1 million) in damages and up to one year imprisonment of Pirate Bay's founders for making infringing content available.

The defense made its closing remarks today, which included a presentation from Pirate Bay founder Karl Lundstrom's lawyer Per Samuelsson. Samuelsson said, "The Pirate Bay is one of thousands of services that all look the same. There is a legal use of the service area. You can use it to find perfectly legal torrent files, with full legal coverage. You can also use the service for illegal means. The service is blind."

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With the recently increased focus on Green technology and intelligent energy consumption, aJile Systems looks to the forthcoming growth in smart infrastructure with its direct execution 32 bit Java system on a chip, announced today.

The aJ-102 is a 32-bit microprocessor that includes a micro-programmed real-time kernel, an integrated DSP processor, a 10/100 Ethernet Controller, a USB OTG controller, a discrete encryption/decryption processor, and LCD controller. This sort of system on a chip is ideally suited for live resource tracking in smart meters, or for home automation.

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Intel filed suit against "Netbook" trademark holder Psion Teklogix late last week, hoping to free up the name for all the companies which make products in the unofficially named netbook device class. Intel contested that Psion Teklogix, a British company that makes handheld computers, hasn't made its trademark netbook in six years, and in that time, the term has become generic.

The company struck back at Intel with a countersuit of copyright infringement and unfair trade practices. Over the weekend, documents detailing Psion's counterclaim were released, where the company claimed it continues to sell its "netBook pro" product well into 2009. Note: the device in question is located in the discontinued products category, and the spec sheet is a fake link.

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Amazon's on-demand video streaming service on the Roku set top box began beta tests in early February, and today has officially been released to the public.

Roku announced today that software updates for its $99 set top box will be rolled out over the course of the week, giving customers access to a library of 40,000 movies on demand that cost between 99¢ and $3.99 per rental.

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"The all-in-one for everyone." Three new additions to Apple's all-in-one desktop iMac were debuted today, in both the 20" and 24" profiles. The sole new 20" model will retail for $1,199, have a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6 MB L2 cache, 2 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM which is expandable to 8 GB, a 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive, and an integrated Nvidia graphics processor (GeForce 9400M).

The 24" model got three new permutations, ranging from $1,499 to $2,199. They can come with a 2.66 GHz, 2.93 GHz, or a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, have 4 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, offer either a 640 GB or 1 TB 7200 rpm SATA drive, and three different Nvidia graphics cards. The base model comes with the same integrated GeForce 9400M as the 20", but the upgraded versions offer either a GeForce GT 120 or a GT 130.

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No matter how inaccurate or stigmatized the term, "netbook" has become the de facto name for those small PCs we see people toting around everywhere. Now could someone please tell that to the companies making them?

This week, mobile processor company VIA introduced a lifestyle site dedicated to the netbook phenomenon called How To Be Mobile, (or "H2BM" if you're filling out a personal ad.) Even here, however, the devices are interchangeably referred to as "Mini-notes, sub-notebooks, and ultraportable laptops," tiptoeing around "netbook."

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CBS' TV.com and NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Hulu have been in the tech news foreground this week, revealing their struggle to meaningfully coexist on the PC screen. Meanwhile, the mobile device screen presents a different set of challenges, which TV.com today has officially addressed.

TV.com has launched an iPhone app that allows users to stream CBS' content over AT&T's mobile wireless signal. This is an accomplishment for several reasons. First, other streaming TV apps for the iPhone (Joost, BBC iPlayer) required a Wi-Fi connection to receive content. Secondly, it utilizes the iPhone's native QuickTime video player by streaming in H.264 and not a proprietary protocol like Joost.

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Today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of 30,000 LG 830 "Spyder" handsets for an inability to maintain a connection to 911.

The recall is based on a report to the commission of a motorist trapped in a disabled car who attempted to dial 911 for help. The phone was unable to keep a usable connection to the emergency service, dropped the call, and could not establish a GPS lock to locate the distressed individual.

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Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold has been one of the most problematic smartphones of the year. The handset was delayed several times for purported 3G network testing, while rumors swirled that the real problem was that the device was overheating.

RIM's Erik Van Drunen told Betanews in July that he had no idea where such rumors were coming from, discounting it as a product of the blogosphere. At that point, RIM would not confirm when the device would actually be released in the US.

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Industry analysis firm In-Stat this week released a worldwide "state of the union" for 4G networks, finding that though WiMAX has a strong lead in deployments, it won't even be competing with LTE when that standard starts to be rolled out.

In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar says, "Most of the operators looking to deploy WiMAX come to it from the fixed network space. These operators are looking to use WiMAX as an enhanced DSL service. Enhanced DSL will combine both the fixed broadband service with some form of nomadic coverage."

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