Category: Mobile

The FCC is working on a plan that would sell a chunk of spectrum in the first half of 2011 that failed to be sold in 2008 because of the strict conditions of use.

The spectrum, which was earmarked for public-safety use, may now have different terms and conditions, if any are to be attached. Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, told Reuters that the FCC could issue a notice of inquiry “early summer” but a final decision has not been made.

An auction would help T-Mobile USA, which doesn’t have the capacity on its current networks to roll out 4G services, like its major rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

The auction may be instrumental because it could come to market much faster than the FCC’s proposal announced earlier this week as part of the National Broadband Plan. However, it represents a drop in the bucket for what’s needed over the long-term. In the FCC’s plan unveiled this week, it has the goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum to be available in 10 years with 300 MHz coming within five. This chunk in the D-block represents only 10 Mhz.

The band was originally intended for police and fire during emergencies after networks failed during such events as 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. Now the FCC is telling emergency officials that public safety workers would have access to the entire band “when necessary, and carriers that hold licenses in that band will be compensated accordingly,” Reuters (NYSE: TRI) reports. The FCC will have to ask Congress to fund the network, which could cost between $12 billion and $16 billion and take 10 years.

Sometimes stuff just shows up here at the Car and Driver offices. Every once in a while one these items, like our web interns, ends up being useful or interesting. Most of this automotive driftwood (excluding the interns) ends up in my office and, while possibly compelling, doesn’t quite fit in the Gearbox section of the magazine. In an effort to share some of the delights (and, eventually, horrors) that clutter my workspace, I present to you Gearbox Surplus.

For our first installment, we have this nice little book from Top Gear: Where’s Stig. If this sounds confusing to you, I will offer a brief summary: Top Gear is a hugely popular motoring programme (as they say in Ol’ Blighty) in the United Kingdom that’s rebroadcast here in the United States on BBC America. The Stig is the show’s anonymous, mute test driver clad in a white helmet and white racing suit.

Where’s Stig is in the style of the Where’s Waldo books, with the Stig hidden in twelve different settings based on memorable Top Gear episodes like the presenters’ trips to Vietnam, the Bonneville Salt Flats, and the North Pole. There are also 20 other items to find in each scene, such as Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May; Top Gear Dog; and even a model of the Dacia Sandero. The detailed illustrations take you on a visual tour of the show’s recurring jokes, so if you love Top Gear, then you will probably enjoy Where’s Stig. It should also be noted that the book has pictures and not words, which might be exactly what you’re looking for in a book. (And we should warn you that there is some mature-ish content in the book that may make it unsuitable for younger Top Gear fanciers.)

Where’s Stig retails for $16.95 and can be found on the publisher’s website.

Related posts:

1. Gearbox Surplus: E-Blade Emergency Wiper Blade
2. A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry’s Self-Destruction – Book Review
3. P.J. O’Rourke: Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-Bending – Book Review

Before you send nasty emails, yes, the above image has been doctored with the magic of Photoshop. (Pretty good, eh?) We might have had real pictures of the newest 2011 Sorento trim level if we’d been at the Atlanta auto show today, but, erm, we must have forgotten to mark the date on our calendars. Kia promises we’ll have official pictures once the car makes it to the New York auto show, which is just two weeks away.

Anyway, here’s what we do know about the 2011 Kia Sorento SX. The trim adds extra equipment, visual dress-up (can’t wait to see it!), and a sharper suspension compared to the LX and EX models. It’s equipped exclusively with the Sorento’s 3.5-liter V-6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission.

The SX dons new front and rear fascias, LED taillights, a chrome exhaust tip, and special silver-painted 18-inch wheels. On top are chrome roof rails; underneath, stainless-steel skid plates. Interior changes include stainless-steel pedal covers, a metallic gauge cluster surround, and extra accent lighting.

Additional standard equipment includes heated leather front seats, an auto-dimming mirror, a 10-speaker Infinity Audio surround-sound system, and a voice-activated navigation system with a backup camera. Most of these add-ons are optional on the LX and EX trims, but standard with the SX level.

The Sorento SX rides half an inch lower than other models and employs “Dual Flow Damper” shock absorbers. Kia says this gives the Sorento a sportier stance and better handling, all without compromising ride quality.

We hope to have official pricing information and photos during the New York show. Until then, check out our second drive of the 2011 Kia Sorento.

Related posts:

1. 2011 Kia Sorento – Second Drive
2. Kia to Build 2011 Sorento in Georgia
3. 2011 Kia Sorento – First Drive Review

Once upon a time, you had to bring travel guides, maps and paper tickets on every trip. Today, you can just take your smartphone and get access to all of this information without having to lug a couple of books and magazines around with you. Today, according to a new study by analytics firm Compete, 38% of smartphone users conduct travel research on their devices and 28% use their phones to book at least some of their trips and travel activities.

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Compete found that the most popular travel-related activity for smartphone owners is finding more information about a destination while they are already traveling (34%). Close to a third of smartphone owners who responded to Compete’s survey also use their phones to check up on the status of their lodging and transportation reservations. For most smartphone owners, this probably means checking up on the status of their flights. A quarter of smartphone owners also use their phones to research lodging, destination and transportation options. Marketers will be happy to hear that 22% of users look for a specific transportation company’s or hotel’s website and 21% use their devices to do research on a specific travel agency’s site.

Interestingly, though, while about a third of smartphone owners use their devices for travel-related activities, only one-fifth of all smartphone owners have installed travel apps on their devices yet. Those who haven’t installed travel apps yet are looking for comprehensive services that can notify their users of unplanned schedule changes (52%), notify users of rate changes (48%) and consolidate all travel reservations into one itinerary. While there are already numerous apps like WorldMate and TripIt that solve these problems, there is clearly an opportunity for these companies to market their apps to a wider audience that isn’t aware of them yet.

Discuss

Today marks the start of production of an all-new Chrysler engine, a 3.6-liter V-6 unit that’s being built in Trenton, Michigan. Chrysler says the Pentastar V-6 is its most advanced powerplant ever. It’s a 24-valve, dual-overhead-camshaft design with variable timing for intake and exhaust valves. The block and head are aluminum, and it can run on either regular-grade gasoline or E85 biofuel.

We’ll first see the engine in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee later this year. In that configuration, the Pentastar V-6 will produce 290 hp at 6350 rpm and 260 lb-ft of torque at 4300 rpm.

By 2014, the 3.6-liter unit will almost entirely replace the 3.5-liter V-6 that currently dominates the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep lineup. That means we’ll see it in updated versions of the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger, as well as other applications. Chrysler hints that the engine could eventually be upgraded with turbocharging, direct injection, or Fiat’s Multiair technology.

Related posts:

1. Chrysler Gets a Reworked Engine Lineup Courtesy of Fiat
2. Chrysler Group to Invest $179 Million in Dundee, MI Engine Plant
3. Petty’s Garage Begins Building Signature Series Dodge Challengers

Palm is dying. They’ve been hemorrhaging money since late last year, and yesterday’s woeful earnings announcement sealed its fate. It didn’t have to be this way. But it’s been coming for a long time. More »

Jerry York died yesterday of a burst aneurysm in his brain.  He was not a friend of mine, barely even an acquaintance, but I admired him greatly and always wished that somebody would hire him to run a major automobile company.

Where the automobile industry was concerned, he was always a bridesmaid never a bride.  He knew them better than they knew themselves and his suggestions and criticisms were always succinct and on the money.  This last is probably especially appropriate because the money side was where he did his best work. When Carroll Shelby was acting as an advisor and contractor to the Iacocca-run Chrysler Corporation, I would meet him for dinner regularly and he would always have something to tell me about Jerry York and all those somethings added up to high praise indeed. I’m sorry he died, but I’m doubly sorry that he died without getting to run his dream of a GM/Renault-Nissan merged corporation.

Related posts:

1. David E.’s Take: What Luxury Should Be
2. David E.’s Take: Why Toyota Should Think Small Again
3. David E.’s Take: GoDaddy Goes Badly

We’ve polled our office for an upcoming feature story on 10 cars to drive before you die, and our list is set. Now we want to know what you have to say. What cars do you think someone has to drive before they die? They can’t be just anything. We used two criteria to narrow our choices: It has to be something that wholly embodies an era or a certain type of car, or a vehicle that provides a singular, mind-blowing experience unmatched anywhere else in the automotive universe. Beyond that, anything goes, as long as it’s a production car. New or old, cheap or out-of-your-mind expensive, sold in the U.S. or never available here.

Post your nominees in the comments below, and you’d better explain why you think a car should make the cut. You don’t need to choose 10, and you don’t need to have driven them—or pretend you have. The top vote-getter between here and our Facebook page will make the honored 11th spot on the list. Now, get crackin’.

Update: Voting is closed. Check out the story here.

No related posts.

Following McLaren Automotive’s grand opening yesterday, the company has released more details on its upcoming supercar, the MP4-12C, and the preliminary numbers look quite promising.

Utilizing the launch-control function of its dual-clutch, seven-speed gearbox (there’s no three-pedal manual available), McLaren claims the car is capable of a 0-to-60-mph time of under 3 seconds and a 0–124 time of under 10 seconds. Those acceleration numbers would make the 600-horsepower 12C quicker than the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (3.4 seconds), the Ferrari 430 Scuderia (3.5), the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 (3.2), and possibly the new Porsche 911 Turbo (2.9). We haven’t tested the new 562-horsepower Ferrari 458 Italia, but our estimate for that car is a 3.3-second run to 60.

Although McLaren wasn’t ready to release the curb weight of the new car (or the kerb weight, for that matter), it did reveal that the dry weight—weight without any fluids—of the lightest version will come in at 2860 pounds. McLaren’s number leads us to expect a curb weight of around 3200 pounds, making it roughly 200 pounds lighter than the less-powerful 458 Italia.

Related posts:

1. 2011 McLaren MP4-12C – Car News
2. 2011 McLaren MP4-12C – Official Photos and Info
3. McLaren Automotive Officially Launched, New Stakeholder to Fund Future Models

Given how bad most people are at driving, I have to wonder why car companies keep giving us tools of distraction — ways to make phone calls when driving, to watch DVDs when driving, etc. Add to that list sharing your geo-location when driving. After adding real-time news headlines to the dashboard of its cars, BMW has added social networking features which can be accessed via the iDrive feature. You can even email your location and destination. Putting aside my snark hat, this feature could actually be useful as it can tell your friends and family where, exactly, you are — though at a cost of $199 a year.

Here’s how it works:

And now watch some stupid human car tricks.

Drivetm

Uploaded by luvnews. – News videos from around the world.

Photo courtesy of The Diesel Driver.

The launch of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the first dedicated AMG car, was his biggest triumph. Now Volker Mornhinweg, 50, is moving within the M-B organization to deal with bigger fish—literally. From April 1, the affable car enthusiast will head the Mercedes-Benz Van division, and thus be in charge of the Sprinter and other “white vans,” as they are called in some European countries.

Mornhinweg’s post will be taken over by Ola Källenius, a Swede ten years his junior. Kallenius is currently heading Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Alabama, plant which produces the M-, R-, and GL-class. Before that, he was director of  Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd. in Brixworth (UK), the racing engineering company formerly known as Ilmor.

If Källenius’s background is any indication, he should continue Mornhinweg’s strategy of sharpening AMG’s profile from making cars that go fast (and loud) in a straight line to athletic machines that you enjoy flogging on the track and in the twisties. But one thing is also clear: AMG will have to continue making money. Källenius faces the challenge of engineering the SLS Roadster (with Magna), and the much-hyped fully electric version. He will also oversee the launch of the new, more efficient turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8, which replaces the current, naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8—a formidable engine that was initiated under former AMG head Ulrich Bruhnke.

Related posts:

1. Mercedes Creates Unique SLS AMG and G55 AMG for Dubai Motor Show
2. 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG – Second Drive
3. AMG-engined 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing: Eight Were Built, One’s Up for Auction

We saw a cartoon recently that shows the attendees of a “Climate Summit”, with a single naysayer yelling out from the back of the crowd “What if it’s a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?”

Well, in the spirit of creating a better world for nothing, we bring to you three iPhone apps that we hope can help do just that.

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In her panel on “Handheld Awesome Detectors: World Changing Mobile Apps” last week at the South By South West festival in Austin, Rachel Weidinger got to talking about a number of iPhone apps that could help us all do just that – change the world. While some, like Ushahidi are certainly world changing, they’re not much use for day to day life, so we decided to let you know about three apps she clued us in on that can help you make world-changing decisions in your simple, everyday life.

Seafood Watch

Seafood Watch, the free iPhone app put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium helps you make sustainable choices when buying fish. But how does it do this?

The app offers a seafood guide, which customizes content according to geographical region, lets you search according to what type of fish you’re considering buying or eating at a restaurant. The guide rates your choices according to a number of criteria, from whether or not it is overfished to how much the methods employed are affecting the environment. The ratings also take your health into account, warning you to avoid certain types of fish because they may contain chemicals.

So, while everyone always says to eat fish because it’s good for you, download this app and it could be good for the environment too.

Locavore

Another bandwagon you have may have seen careening past in recent times, and may have even hopped on yourself (good for you!) is sustainability through eating locally grown and harvested foods. This can be a difficult endeavor at times, though, and Locavore is here to help you. The app sells for $2.99, which is chump change in comparison to those organic, locally-grown, vine-ripe tomatoes, but it’s all for a good cause, right?

Locavore shows where and when certain types of foods are in season, nearby farmers’ markets and links to Wikipedia and Epicurious to help with context on 234 different fruits and vegetables.

GoodGuide

GoodGuide is the more all-encompassing package, looking at more than 60,000 products and rating them according to “health, environmental and social performance”. The guide gives you information about the product your buying, from whether or not it contains carcinogens to how the company handles water management. Here’s a quick explanation from the website on how GoodGuide arrives at its ratings:

GoodGuide aggregates and analyzes data on both product and company performance. The team employs a range of scientific methods–health hazard assessment, environmental impact assessment, and social impact assessment–to identify major impacts to human health, the environment, and society. Each of these categories is then further analyzed within specific issue areas, such as climate change policies, labor concerns, and product toxicity. Currently, GoodGuide’s database includes over 1,100 base criteria through which we evaluate products and companies.

The guide is still in the beta stages – and this is quite an ambitious project – but if you can have and pay attention to this sort of information, then you can get past flashy advertising and get to the bottom of where you’re spending your hard earned money.

Discuss

When I spoke with SpinVox buyer Nuance, as it began planning the future for the voicemail-to-text firm last month, it said it would pitch the service harder to network operators, stop offering new direct consumer accounts, but continue to maintain the service for existing subscribers.

That latter part now appears to be changing. UK users on Thursday started receiving SMS notification (how appropriate) that the service would end in seven days.

Today, Nuance sent me this statement…

“As you know, Nuance acquired SpinVox in December 2009 and, to further align with our commitment to serving our mobile operator customers and partners, we will no longer offer our voice-to-text services directly to consumers.

“SpinVox announced in September 2009 its plans to offer a free service through December 2009, and, while we have enjoyed directly offering consumers a free voicemail-to-text offering, it is our mission to offer our services to consumers as a standard feature in mobile service plans locally and globally.”

SpinVox already had several contracts to supply the service through mobile carriers before it was bought by Nuance, though none in the UK.

Many who first began using SpinVox as paying subscribers remained quite happy with it, despite the company’s financial woes and adverse publicity last year. But, while the brand is rather tainted at this point, the auto-transcription technology itself, when it’s not relying on human operators, remains well thought of, so Nuance is doing the smart thing.

At the same time, we’re hearing word of new layoffs at SpinVox’s Marlow, Cambridge, HQ. Affected staff are having one-to-one meetings this week. One report claims Nuance is “gutting” the company. On this, Nuance tells paidContent:UK…

“Nuance is continuing with the integration and consultation process in relation to the acquisition of SpinVox and therefore it would be inappropriate for Nuance to comment at this stage.”

Last month, Nuance’s EMEA marketing director Alan Ranger told me the future will be a “network operator proposition” rather than a consumer service…

“We’re not going to focus on the direct-to-consumer market. We’ll work on providing operators with a service to their consumers.” On the service’s current users: “We’ll continue to maintain it,” he added. “It won’t be a focus for Nuance.”

An interesting patent of Apple’s relating to a social networking app surfaced recently. Dubbed iGroups, the app aims to solve the pitfalls of traditional social networks, like Facebook, that require users be a member before being able to participate. Instead, iGroups creates a virtual social network based on proximity.

To set the scene, imagine a casual weekend enjoying drinks at a bar. Your device would be able to detect others nearby and allow for easy communication by the tools already built into your device: SMS, email or by phone. If you’re a Mac user, you could loosely term this as Bonjour for your iPhone.

A Network Of Proximity

The idea of a network based on proximity is intriguing considering the technology built into mobile devices that can help facilitate this. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, for instance, both allow for discovering new devices that are within range. But the problem arises when a user leaves. If they are out of range, they are excluded from the network.

iGroups attempts to solve this issue when it first detects other users. At this point, the devices exchange a token (or handshake, if you will). These tokens are tagged. If there happens to be a trusted source at this venue, for example, like a wireless access point or perhaps a website setup for this purpose, devices can exchange tokens with it. Before this gets too technical, let’s agree to call the trusted source “Wilma.”

This accomplishes two important things. The first is that Wilma can match or correlate tokens to determine groups and their members. When my device approaches and exchanges tokens, Wilma now knows what group I’m part of and similarly, I’ll know other group members that have checked in with Wilma. This process allows the network to grow by allowing its users to infer other users through this daisy chain process. Further, tokens can be exchanged through a variety of mechanisms: Wi-Fi if available, Bluetooth if desired or even 3G. By supporting all of these, it becomes much easier to visualize a realistic image of the network and prevents the network from being stifled because users are not exchanging tokens by just one method that not all devices may support.

The second important goal that this serves is solving the issue of users leaving range and thus losing the whole social networking aspect. If a user interacts with Wilma either at the event or afterwards (through something similar to MobileMe, perhaps), the user can see the entire group. Even if they are just uploading exchanged between Fred and their self, the inferring process described earlier will allow the rest of the network to be recreated. As Fred moves on and continues to exchange tokens, even after our user has left, they are still connected to the same event and will appear as part of the group. Mac users? Think of this as being similar to Smart Folders. The group “knows” who its members are by this process of exchanging tokens, even if not all of the users are present at the same time.

It’s worthwhile to mention that any sort of implementation of such a technology would of course be completely optional and protect the privacy of users if they did not wish to participate. Further, the patent sheds light on the fact that the tokens themselves do not contain information that would identify any particular user or device. Merely the tokens act as a way to tag an association with a specific group.

Still, the idea of creating these virtual social networks on the iPhone is appealing. In some regards, there are applications on the market that attempt to deliver similar functionality, like Loopt. However, as mentioned earlier, these solutions still require users to have an account with them which can be problematic if you meet someone and want to exchange information but they are not a member of Facebook or LinkedIn. Instead of waiting for them to sign up and register a profile, iGroups solves the whole problem faster.

This definitely isn’t Apple’s first foray into patents on social interactions, but none of them have seen the light of day. With rumors of iPhone 4.0 around the corner, however, perhaps there is a substantial social component waiting to be unveiled. What do you think about the potential of iGroups?

Starting today, if you visit consumerist.com in your mobile browser, you will get automatically redirected to m.consumerist.com, the cross-platform mobile version of Consumerist. Hooray! If you want to navigate back to the “classic” version, just hit”switch to full site” in the bottom left.

T-Mobile USA is indeed looking for a U.S. partner to help finance a high-speed data network. T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson said Thursday that his company—which has admitted it is losing business because many of its customers cannot even get 3G—is looking “at JV opportunities for additional spectrum” and has talked with both cable companies and also with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). There have been reports since September that T-Mobile USA was in partnership discussions with Clearwire, which is located only a few miles away from its Bellevue, Wash.-area headquarters.

Earlier reports stated that Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel would also be involved in some way, since it owns 51 percent of Clearwire. There have also been reports that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) was considering purchasing Sprint outright. But in his remarks Dotson downplayed any direct combination with that company saying, “What you never want to do is take one company that is going through challenges and take another company going through challenges.”

Other possible partners for T-Mobile USA include MetroPCS and AT&T (NYSE: T).  Deutsche Telekom has also been said to be mulling either an IPO or spinoff of the fourth-largest U.S. carrier.

Related

• Report: Deutsche Telekom May Submit Bid For Sprint To Fix U.S. Business
• Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA Now Reportedly In Talks With Clearwire

Palm’s poor performance was no surprise today since it sent out a warning last month that sales were falling way short of expectations.

But it’s not the company’s weak performance in Q3 that people should worry about. Cash-strapped Palm (NSDQ: PALM) will be busy conducting a turnaround over the next few months as its competitors rush into the market with guns blazing. Already, Palm’s launch on Verizon Wireless took a back-seat to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid as Verizon’s big device launch of the year. Closer to the end of the year, Palm will have to contend with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) as it prepares to launch its flashy new operating system.

Release. | Webcast.

The problem:

As the company warned last month, sales of the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus at Verizon Wireless did not meet expectations. The company blamed most of the problems on not sufficiently training Verizon Wireless retail employees on the product, so that they could recommend it to customers visiting the store. In the past, Verizon has focused strongly on pushing BlackBerry devices and then became occupied for the Motorola Droid launch. But Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein said with the help of Verizon, their employees are currently going from store-to-store to get employees up to date, and that there’s anecdotal evidence that it is working. Palm won’t launch with AT&T (NYSE: T) until later this year.

Unsold inventory:

The big concern in the short-term is the company’s mounds of unsold phones. The company said it shipped 960,000 smartphone during the quarter, which was above analyst’s expectations, however, the company’s sell-through for the quarter remained a dismal 408,000 units, falling 29 percent compared the the previous quarter. With unsold inventory being a problem, the company will have to wait until carriers order more phones. In Q4, revenues could be as low as $150 million, more than less than what it made in Q3. Falling sales in Q4 will mean the company will burn cash, something it doesn’t have a lot of—especially when compared to Microsoft or Google’s handset partners, like Motorola, Samsung or HTC.

Cash Reserves:

The company would not estimate how much cash it will burn in the upcoming quarter, but during the company’s conference call today, an analyst guessed out loud that it could be as much as $200 million. The company said at the end of Q3 it had $592 million in cash and equivalents. Palm said it doesn’t not have any plans to raise additional money because it has enough until the business breaks even.

Lowering spending:

In response to the outlook, Palm said it is revising spending and plans to focus on sales and marketing and field training efforts and that Q4 operating expenses will be lower than Q3. One of the areas is advertising, where it will launch a new 30-second TV campaign during the first two weeks of March Madness, but after that, Rubinstein said they’ll shift to cheaper online advertising in social networks. Cutting expenses is likely the most important thing Palm can do at this time, but with deep-pocket competitors like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft, in the market it will be hard to remain top of mind for consumers.

Q3 Results:

In the third quarter, Palm reported a net loss of $18.5 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $349.9 million—exceeding its own revised forecasts. Last month, it warned that revenues could be as low as $285 to $310 million. However, that’s below analysts’ expectations of $424.7 million (before the warning was issued).

MobiTV has fixed a digital rights management issue that was prohibiting it from offering users the ability to store content on their phone and then play it offline or on other devices. In doing so, MobiTV says there’s now a host of new business models to offer consumers, including subscriptions, rental, content metering, and sharing of content across multiple devices and platforms.

“It was imperative for us, as multi-screen distribution becomes core to our business, to create a solution that allows for consumption of content on multiple screens and platforms, whether someone is on a plane or sitting in front of their home television,” said Cedric Fernandes, MobiTV’s VP of Technology.

No word on when customers will have these options. UPDATE: MobiTV got back to us to say that commercial availability is planned to begin in early Q2 with deployments across multiple carriers and device platforms. The launch comes just in time, if not a little late. There are tons of options for watching video on mobile phones today, ranging from free YouTube clips to even more professional content, like CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile’s TV.com app, which streams full episodes from many of its properties, including CW, Showtime and CNet. Likewise, Qualcomm’s FLO TV subsidiary offers broadcast TV on limited phones on both AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon’s networks.

MobiTV currently provides subscriptions for $9.99 a month for several mobile applications that include more than 35 channels like NBC, FOX News, ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Mobile TV and Comedy Central Channel. It TV app is also sold and distributed through multiple U.S. carriers, including Verizon Wireless and Sprint (NYSE: S). It did not say how pricing might change with download and play-back features.

MobiTV said one of the major stumbling blocks to supporting multiple devices and multiple platforms was the requirement to support several types of DRM, which would be complex and expensive. To eliminate this, MobiTV said it worked closely with its content partners to create one solution that spans multiple devices.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) may have lost its search deal with T-Mobile in the U.S. earlier this month—but it is still picking up search partners—at least in Europe. The company is replacing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) as the exclusive search engine on the mobile portal of Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Espana, the biggest mobile operator in Spain. Under a two-and-half year old partnership with Telefonica, Yahoo was already the exclusive search engine on Telefonica’s mobile portals in 15 other countries. But the partnership notably left out two of Telefonica’s largest markets—Germany and Spain.

In November, Yahoo replaced Google as the default search provider for Telefonica subsidiary O2 Germany—and now it’s closed the loop with its deal in Telefonica’s home country.

Still unclear is what will happen to Yahoo’s 80-plus mobile distribution deals once its search partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) goes into effect. Yahoo will use Bing as its exclusive search platform for PC-based searches. However, the mobile search relationship isn’t exclusive, with Yahoo allowed to choose other partners if it wants to. Discussions are ongoing.

Here’s the announcement.

Related

• O2, Telefonica Add Yahoo’s oneSearch To Mobile Portals
• Yahoo Lands Another Mobile Search Distribution Deal—This Time In Germany