Today, handset manufacturer Nokia began the rollout of its revised N-Gage gaming service and its new Share on Ovi media sharing site.

After several delays due to numerous software issues, Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform has begun its rollout with "First Access" being granted to N-81 owners. Users of that particular handset have access to a pre-release version of the N-Gage application and four games, including: Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, Space Impact: Kappa Base, Block Breaker Deluxe, and System Rush: Evolution.

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The $5 price hike will affect the states where it acquired new customers through its buyout of BellSouth.

The change will not affect new customers signing up for the company's slowest tier, which offers download speeds of 768 kbps. But current customers on the three slowest tiers will see their monthly rate go up.

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Using technology acquired from Postini last year, the Mountain View, Calif. search company has begun offering new spam filtering and message archiving options for businesses.

The cost of the program ranges from $3 to $25 per user per year depending on the level of functionality the customer desires. In addition, the features are compatible with any e-mail system, including Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, and Novell Groupwise.

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IBM's open source application server is garnering more momentum with this week's introduction of a new OEM partner, Avada Software, plus a new customer, international money transfer and transaction processing specialist Nexxar Group, Inc.

IBM has already picked up about 600 ISV partners for its Apache Geronimo-based open source application server, a free download known as WebSphere Application Server (WAS) Community Edition (CE), said Brenda Haynes, IBM's director of open source development and strategy, in an inteview with BetaNews.

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Despite a high court order last month finding Baidu not liable for copyright infringement, the recording industry's international representatives are renewing their complaint that it provides "deep links" to pirated MP3s.

Today, the recording industry's international representative agency IFPI is backing the efforts of three record labels that have decided to go forward with legal proceedings in China against that country's leading search engine, Baidu, and its #2 portal Sohu. The suit, according to IFPI, renews allegations from 2006 that the two companies provide "deep links" to unlicensed MP3s, and may profit from at least providing advertising alongside those links.

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Yahoo has updated its open source collaboration server software, Zimbra, now including Blackberry support and Yahoo Maps and search integration. However, if Microsoft acquires Yahoo, will this be the last update we see for Zimbra?

Zimbra is an open source solution that acts as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server, supporting e-mail, calendaring, contacts, tasks, and more. The software was acquired last September by Yahoo in an acquisition valued at $350 million.

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The browser company launched Tuesday its newest version of its mobile browser, redesigning the interface and improving overall speed.

Opera Mobile shouldn't be confused with its Mini product. The mobile version is aimed at the feature and smartphone market, while Opera Mini is a BREW-based browser that can be used by most traditional phones that support Java.

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Apple continued its trend towards flash memory on Tuesday, announcing two new models of both the iPhone and iPod Touch with additional capacity.

Both new models will be available immediately: a 16 GB model of the iPhone for $499 and a 32 GB iPod Touch, also for $499. With the new Touch, it marks the first time a flash-based iPod exceeds the hard-drive models in terms of capacity.

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ICANN has proposed a schedule for the fast-tracking of non-contentious IDN ccTLDs that would allow for new non-Latin Alphabet top-level domains as early as Summer '08.

An internationalized domain name (IDN) will take a Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), or the ".country" name, and allow it to be displayed in non-ASCII characters. This will open the the current ISO 3166-1 standard of domain naming to beyond the 37 current characters. Countries not on the QWERTY or DVORAK keyboard standard have demanded this ability for a long time.

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It's a vast and complex chess game Microsoft has launched, and with Google now wedging its foot in the door, there are more interests at stake now than just theirs and Yahoo's. Our panel of experts examine what's now at stake.

Last Friday, BetaNews spoke at length with a panel of experts analyzing the Microsoft takeover bid for Yahoo. Among the topics we discussed was trying to identify the motivations behind everyone involved at this point -- not just Yahoo and Microsoft but their various allies and partners, their competitors, and all of their customers. What does everyone want to come out of this clash of the titans? Or will customers be happier if all of this just stops?

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A National Association of Broadcasters study contends that mobile digital television has the potential to become a multi-billion-dollar annual industry in America...but only if the standardization process is resolved by February 2009.

Each month the establishment of a standard is delayed, the study asserts, could cost broadcasters $50 million in revenue, and over $200 million in value to mobile digital broadcasting overall. The $9.1 B incremental market value in the study comes from the $2 billion in advertising revenue adjusted by $1.1 billion which would be accrued by participating broadcasters.

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Reprise Media released results of its fourth annual study on companies' use of search marketing to complement their Super Bowl advertising campaign.

With the cost of ads rapidly approaching $3 million per spot, one would figure that a company would want to make the best of that investment. However in many cases, research group Reprise found that these advertisers were failing to cash in.

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Security computer companies recently met in Spain to officially create the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), with the objective of formulating new guidelines for the proper review of anti-malware software.

Originally conceived during the first International CARO workshop in Iceland last year, the organization's first meeting in Spain featured more than 40 security gurus familiar with the basic pitfalls the security industry faces today.

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A report released last week by the US Commerce Dept. congratulates itself and other members of the current administration for enabling the rapid deployment of broadband Internet service, which it now says is available to 92% of the country.

America entered the year 2000 with citizens living in more than 40% of its ZIP codes having no broadband Internet service provider available to them, according to figures released last week by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (PDF available here), an agency of the Commerce Dept. At the end of 2006, that figure had declined to 0.4%; and at the end of last year, citing figures from analyst firm SNL Kagan, high-speed cable Internet service was available to 92% of all US households.

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The Google-backed firm that offers analysis of websites and software says users should steer clear of RealPlayer 10.5 and 11, but Real disputes their analysis.

The site says that Real needs to more conspicuous about its intentions to install the message center application in RealPlayer 10.5, and the Rhapsody Player Engine in RealPlayer 11. It recommends that users install neither version until the issues are fixed.

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