If you think your smartphone is hot stuff today, just wait until Google, $10 million and an army of open source key bashers make their mark.

Google today announced a contest with a total prize pool of $10 million to try to encourage developers to build mobile applications based on the Android technology. Android will provide an operating system, a user interface, middleware and applications for use in future smart phones.

From: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=software_development&articleId=9046441&taxonomyId=63&intsrc=kc_top

And hardware companies are already getting in on the action:

High Tech Computer (HTC) [...] plans to launch 2-3 Android-based mobile phones in the coming year, according to the Chinese-language Commercial Times which quoted remarks made by HTC CEO Peter Chou last week at a meeting with analysts from foreign investment firms in Taiwan.

From: http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20071112PB201.html

 Nimble fingered Brits are making the most of basic text messaging.

Britons are now sending more than one billion text messages per week according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

The figure is 25% higher than a year ago and is set to shatter forecasts for how many text messages have been sent to and from handsets this year.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7075005.stm

Most important for media companies:

Many people were also happy to get news and updates about topics or teams they follow via text messaging.

And looking to the future:

“The UK text volumes show no real signs of abating and the UK sits within the top six of the global league of countries sending text messages…while the trend towards operators offering ‘all-you-can-eat’ tariffs increases, this will act as a catalyst for consumers’ passion for all things mobile.”

Another step towards wifi connectivity as a ubiquitous commodity and a significant one at that:

The fast food chain McDonald’s is to introduce free high speed wireless internet access at most of its 1,200 restaurants by the end of the year in a move which will make it the UK’s biggest provider of such a service.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/06/internet