The mobile Web isn't a future event. It's here today, at least in the United States, according to a 25-page report PEW Internet released this week. The study's findings are hugely significant to companies like Microsoft, which is largely invested in the PC, and Apple or Google, which embrace mobile devices and cloud services.

"Fifty-nine percent of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51 percent of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009," according to the key findings. Some of the numbers will seem low, such as 38 percent accessing the Internet from their cell phones. Just the opposite: PEW looked more broadly at cell phones -- not just smartphones, which in other studies ranked higher for Internet and applications use. PEW captures demographic data that is startlingly revealing, though unsurprising. For example, 65 percent of 18-29 year olds access the Internet from their cell phones.

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Today, Research in Motion's middleware for managing BlackBerry devices in enterprise networks, BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), was upgraded to service pack 2. The upgrade directly addresses the problem presented to IT when an increasing number of users are using their personal BlackBerries for corporate communications.

"People are buying smartphones for that rich personal experience, but then looking to bring that smartphone into the office to take their work with them as well," Santiago Carbonell, Handheld Software Product Manager at RIM said two weeks ago. "What we're working on is building a platform of coexistence between these two lives on one device...However, this means that in the interests of corporate security, some BlackBerry smartphone users can't add their personal email accounts, access Facebook or download third party applications."

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An issue with how the software on wireless equipment provided by Alcatel-Lucent handles advanced 3G data connections is responsible for slower upload speeds on AT&T's network, the two companies admitted on Wednesday.

Speed issues have been reported in several cities including Philadelphia, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. It's not everywhere though: earlier this week, BetaNews' Joe Wilcox reported he was unaffected in the area surrounding his residence in southern California.

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Today, just shy of a month after the first functionally complete version of Symbian^3 was released, the first complete Symbian^3 Product Development Kit (PDK 3.0.0) is available for download, including the full build of the platform and complete source code under the Eclipse Public License.

PDK 3.0.0 contains all of the APIs of Symbian^3, and is the first release to support a full UI ROM execution on ARMv5 platforms.

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Borders said Wednesday that it had launched its own branded e-book store, offering about 1.5 million titles in a variety of formats. The move follows the successful launch of the Kobo and Aluratek e-readers, which have surpassed sales expectations.

The e-book store will be powered by Kobo, which also has created Border's iPhone and iPad apps. Versions for the BlackBerry and Android platforms were also made available Wednesday. All three platforms are free downloads from their respective application stores.

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Google's Android mobile operating system has been released on many different types of devices, but since it is a touch-based OS, pretty much every device has been a so-called "touchphone," a device built around its screen.

But Motorola has been thinking outside of the box with Android, and has released several models that break out of the traditional touchphone form factor. Today, it has ventured even further outside of the touchphone realm and announced a new device that looks very little like any other Android device, the Charm.

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Vancouver-based telecommunications software company CounterPath today announced the availability of Bria 3.1 for both Windows and Mac OS, the latest edition of the company's desktop softphone capable of voice calling, high-definition (1280x720p) video calling, and instant- or SMS-based messaging.

Today's update improves Bria's usability in enterprise settings in a number of ways. Firstly, by including support for a much broader range of infrastructure equipment from major vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and NEC. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, support for multiple accounts has been added, and users can now select on the fly which account to use for voice, IM and HD video calling.

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Download Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Windows from Fileforum now.

Mozilla's popular Firefox web browser has just been released in Beta 1, which introduces a new graphical design for Windows users, support for the HD HTML5 video tag using the WebM format, a new Add-ons manager for all of your Add-ons, Plug-ins, and Themes, improved crash protection and security fixes, and an overall performance upgrade.

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As Google moves toward a release of its web-based Chrome OS later this year, developers are building applications with the ability to detect which way their host device is orientated.

The functionality mimics the screen-swapping action that is becoming a regular feature in today's mobile devices; where motion sensors provide added levels of interactivity. The potential uses are many: such as the obvious switching the interface from portrait to landscape mode, or in gaming where on-screen actions are controlled by the device's position.

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Today, Microsoft has begun beta testing a free and lightweight development tool for the ASP.NET web application framework called WebMatrix.

WebMatrix includes all of the essential tools for building, installing, and running a website in Windows for free and in a package less than 50MB in size. These tools include IIS Developer Express for building and testing ASP.NET sites and applications, SQL Server Compact Edition 4 database engine (which works with .NET-based data APIs and ASP.NET Web apps,) and the ASP.NET programming framework.

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There was a whole lot of buzz over the last couple days about AT&T capping uploads over its 3G network. I decided not to post on the topic, because I had a pretty good idea why AT&T subscribers were seeing slower data uploads: The Fourth of July.

Let's use Occam's Razor for just a moment here. Is it more likely that data slowed down because of some grand AT&T conspiracy or that a larger number of people accessed the network over a long holiday weekend? Network congestion is more likely reason than evil, bastard AT&T executives conspiring to throttle down everyone's upload speeds. C`mon get a life, and a little common sense.

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Today, Compete put to shame Apple CEO Steve Jobs' ridiculous April assertion that "search is not happening on phones." According to the analyst firm, search is indeed happening on mobile phones, and, as I'll explain, it's one major reason why Android has a strategic competitive advantage over iPhone.

Compete announced release of its "Smartphone Intelligence" report, which I have requested copy (After I posted, a Compete spokesperson e-mailed that "we cannot send you the report." But Compete provided additional data that I later incorporated below). Compete asserts that during first quarter, Android and iPhone users discovered two or more new local businesses via search. The keyword is local.

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This morning, Netflix announced that it has signed an agreement with Relativity Media that will bring new releases to Netflix Instant streaming at the same time as they are released to pay TV services like HBO, Showtime, and Starz.

The first new releases that will be covered in the deal between Relativity and Netflix will be Paramount Pictures' "The Fighter," and Universal Studios' "Skyline," Rogue Pictures' "Season of the Witch" and "Movie 43."

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In an effort to appease the changing information consumption habits of its citizens, the Obama Administration this past holiday weekend launched an "app store" of its own, featuring 16 apps on a variety of subjects. While some are mobile websites available for any mobile phone, others are actual apps intended for a specific platform such as BlackBerry, Android, or iPhone.

It should be noted that many of these applications are not new: most have been available on an agency or department's website for some time now. The Administration decided that building a centralized location for them would increase visibility.

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The earliest Bluetooth 3.0-capable devices may have only begun appearing this year, but the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is already advancing the short-range wireless standard by rolling out the core specification of version 4.0 today.

Bluetooth 3.0 introduced an Enhanced Data Rate mode which allowed higher throughput for faster file transfers between devices. Using a technique called AMP, compatible Bluetooth 3.0 radios could establish device-to-device 802.11 Wi-Fi connections for transfer speeds up to 24 Mbps. The basic rate for Bluetooth file transfers is only 721.2 Kbps.

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