For years Japanese women have endured being groped while in large crowds. Packed commuter trains are notorious prowling areas for men who feel the need to sexually assault random women. According to Tokyo police, 1853 men were arrested for groping passengers on Tokyo trains in 2005. But the harassment on trains is thought to be much higher because many women are too embarrassed to report sexual assault.

To combat this activity, games developer Takahashi released Anti-Groping Appli. If a woman thinks she has been groped, she can use the application to give a message to the perceived offender. The application flashes increasingly threatening messages in bold print on the phone’s screen to show the groper. Phrases include, “Excuse me, did you just grope me?” “Groping is a crime,” and “Shall we head to the police?”

Anti-Groping Appli has gained in popularity and reached No.7 in this week’s top-10 mobile phone applications list compiled by Web publisher Spicy Soft.

“I first downloaded this as a joke,” said Spicy Soft official Michika Izumi. “But I think it could be a lifesaver if I get groped.”

Usually we speak to our mobile phones but this is an instance where mobile phones speak for us. And in this case they speak to protect women from being sexually assaulted.

Spicy Soft

Hisense, a Chinese electronics manufacturer, and Qualcomm, a wireless products developer, announced today that Qualcomm MEMS displays will be put into Hisense phones in 2008. The Qualcomm MEMS displays are being touted as superior in viewing quality and lower in power consumption.

Qualcomm has developed the first direct view MEMS display for mobile devices, an innovation that offers display clarity in a wide range of conditions, including bright sunlight. The displays are able to harness ambient light through technology called interferometric modulation (IMOD). By tapping into background light, the display uses less energy than conventional displays. Batteries drain slower allowing more usage time between those inconvenient recharge periods.

“Mobile phone handsets are an ideal application for our MEMS displays
due to their power savings and excellent outdoor viewing quality,” said
James Cathey, vice president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS
Technologies, Inc. “When it comes to cell phones, consumer expectations are
continually increasing in terms of where they can use their phones, what
types of applications they can run and how long they can use them between
charges. Qualcomm’s MEMS displays rise to the challenge on all these
fronts, furthering the cell phone’s position as a ubiquitous consumer
product.”

“This collaboration with Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. bodes well
for the future of the wireless market and is of great strategic
significance to Hisense,” said Shi Yongchang, general manager of Qingdao
Hisense Communication Co., Ltd. “The technological platform of Qualcomm’s
MEMS display is a real breakthrough in display technology and will lead to
the upgrade of today’s communications technology. We look forward to
launching more innovative products, in cooperation with Qualcomm, to better
serve our customers.”

Qualcomm’s MEMS may be superior to conventional mobile device displays in bright light but when things get darker I don’t see how a display that utilizes ambient light can be an energy saver. The picture may be crisp in a bright setting but how good is it in the dark? I can’t help but think of an old solar calculator I have. It works great when I’m outside and there is a sunny day, but at all the other times I need a number it just collects dust.

Qualcomm
Hisense

KT-Tech, a small start-up company, has revealed its mobile phone videoconferencing application, KTvid. KTvid allows person-to-person videoconferencing in real-time over today’s mainstream cellular networks. The application doesn’t require the high-bandwidth of a 3G cellular network for quality two-way video and audio connectivity so its potential can be realized today. I don’t know how good the picture and sound is but you can be assured that KT-Tech thinks they are high-quality.

“Video has created enormous business opportunities on the Web, but the high cost and low quality of video on today’s cell phones has hindered the adoption of mobile video consumption, real-time video reporting and mobile videoconferencing,” said Rob Lerner, COO of KT-Tech Inc. “We are aiming to lower the barriers to adoption of mobile video by enabling high-quality video on today’s handsets, over today’s cellular networks.”

KT-Tech reveals its videoconferencing application today at the 2007 CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment convention which is being held in San Francisco on October 23-25. If you are at the convention stop by Booth #112 and look at KT-Tech’s product for me. Leave a message in the comments section of this MobileCrunch post and give your opinion as pertaining to the quality of the video and audio, and whatever thoughts you may have.

KT-Tech

AdMob, a mobile advertising company, announced today that it is releasing its first periodic report on data and trends in the mobile market free for download. The report covers the 1.5 billion ads served in the month of September and includes manufacturer, device and country-specific data on AdMob’s top four markets by impressions served. The United States, United Kingdom, India and South Africa are all covered. In the future more countries and handset capability data will be added to the report. New reports will be released free of charge on a periodic basis to create transparency in the growing mobile advertising business.

“AdMob is in the unique position of serving billions of banner and text ads per month for our publisher and advertiser partners,” said Jason Spero, AdMob Vice President Marketing. “AdMob’s leverages our network data to improve targeting and optimize ad serving. We are happy to share this data with the community to empower advertisers and content developers.”

The data was collected using AdMob’s firsthand access into mobile activity which serves billions of banner and text display ads each month to traffic on a wide variety of partner sites, ranging from large media companies like ESPN, CBS and Weather Underground to smaller mobile content sites. In doing so, the mobile advertising company collects data on the activity within the mobile marketplace. For every request, they analyze information available from the user’s mobile browser. From this, the company determines device capabilities and more by using both proprietary and open source methods.

If you are a mobile advertising insider, or interested in advertising on mobile devices, the report may be worth looking at. Traditional media is losing adverting money to the new media, and mobile phones lead the charge in how ads will be seen in the future.

AdMod Report

AT&T announced today that Napster’s entire music catalog of over five million songs will be available to AT&T’s mobile phone customers early next month. The service will expand the company’s offerings beyond the independent music offers through eMusic. This will allow AT&T to compete with Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in the music download arena. AT&T currently allows Napster subscribers to transfer music form their personal computer to their cell phone via a cable or storage card. Both companies hope to improve sales of music by allowing data to be directly downloaded to mobile phones over a WiFi network.

Songs will cost $1.99 each, or $7.49 for five per month. Users who download a song to their phone will get an e-mail allowing them to put a second copy on their personal computer for no extra charge. Apple and Sprint Nextel both sell songs for 99 cents each so it will be interesting to watch and see if AT&T lowers the price of the Napster service in the future. Both companies are hoping that customers won’t be put off by higher charges and make spontaneous price insensitive purchases. The Napster service will not work with Apple’s iPhone, even though AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States.

AT&T
Napster

The United Nations telecommunications agency voted to approve WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, and make it part of the third-generation (3G) of mobile standards. This endorsement should open up global frequencies to make WiMax a worldwide player in the lucrative 3G market.

WiMax has inherent advantages over Wi-Fi and landline data delivery systems. WiMax is able to hand off a signal from antenna to antenna, allowing a device to hold a connection while in motion, which Wi-Fi can’t do. And if data delivery speed is important, WiMax has the fixed-line broadband connections beat. The typical landline offers speeds around 2 megabits per second, while WiMax connects at speeds up to 70 megabits per seconds.

“We’re super, super, super thrilled,” said Sriram Viswanathan, general manager of Intel’s WiMax business and vice president of Intel Capital. “We’ve been at this for the last three years, and it was a very, very extensive amount of work with a lot of players in the industry.”

Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

Electronic Arts will launch Need for Speed: ProStreet for the mobile phone community later this month. This high octane game will be available in Europe on October 26 and in North America on October 30. Players race 16 high performance cars at 11 famous street racing locations. Winners earn cash to upgrade their cars or save money to buy an even faster racer. The mobile version of the game will allow players to uncover rewards during game play that will help them succeed in the console version of Need for Speed: ProStreet. If the mark of a good driver is someone who can text message while driving, a good virtual driver is someone who can play the console and mobile version of Need for Speed: ProStreet at the same time without crashing.

Vivendi Games Mobile announced this week that the new quest-driven puzzle game, Slide N’ Loop, is now here to exercise bored brains. Players must help Zia find four pieces of a magic antique medallion so she can save her village. Slide N’ Loop presents players with 20 different levels of play, each stage adding new elements that are more challenging then the last. Players score points by matching three, four or five tiles of the same colored objects in a row, on no more than three consecutive moves. I think Zia could more easily save her village by rounding up a platoon of marines instead of colored objects. They wouldn’t even have to be space marines. Regular ones could do the job.

If you are a fan of the television show Heroes you will be happy to learn that Heroes: The Official Mobile Game is now ready to be downloaded onto your mobile device from Gameloft. Players take on the obstacles set before them by playing Hiro, Niki and Peter and by utilizing their unique powers. There are 11 levels in four locations taken right from the Heroes universe. Besides saving the world, players uncover hidden information about the show. I hope in the future Hiro Nakamura manipulates the space-time continuum to convince Gameloft to give the mobile version of Heroes a better title. If there is an unofficial version of the game, can’t Hiro hack into that version and erase it from the world’s phones?

I-Play announced this week that its game FIA World Rally Championship has been nominated for the 2007 International Mobile Gaming (IMGA) Excellence in 3D Award. The game features 16 official World Rally Championship locations that gamers must master in both arcade and championship modes. The IMGA Excellence in 3D Award winner will receive $5,000, software licenses from Adobe, phones from Nokia and a guaranteed contract with an operator and a publisher to market the title. I don’t know why I-Play needs another publisher to publish its game, but awards always look good in the reception room.

Taito announced that an updated version of the classic game Jungle Hunt is now available on 30 Sprint Nextel mobile phones and other select models. Jungle Hunt first debuted in 1982 at your local arcade. In the game the player has to navigate a jungle full of dangerous obstacles including crocodiles and falling rocks, all in an effort to rescue the heroine before she is eaten by cannibals. I wonder if the game can be played on a 1980’s vintage cell phone? There is nothing cooler than a giant handset with a telescoping antenna.

That is this week’s MobileCrunch Arcade game roundup. Remember, exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.

Apple announced that in February it will make a developer’s kit available to independent software makers. This will make it easier for developers not associated with Apple or AT&T to create games, navigation systems, screen-shot capture programs and other tools for the iPhone.

A few weeks ago, the iPhone was updated over-the-air and independently developed software was erased in the process. Apple claimed that this was inadvertent and that the update had not intentionally erased anything. Many did not believe the company. MobileCrunch reported last week that a Lawyer Su(ed) Apple Over iPhone Restrictions like the ones that February’s developer’s kit is meant alleviate. It is difficult to say whether the lifting of restrictions on independent developers is due to lawsuits, or if it is something that Apple has been working on ever since its customers started complaining.

Apple still refuses to lift its carrier restrictions, so iPhone customers in the United States are required to carry AT&T. But the lifting of restrictions on independent software developers should make the iPhone user a little happier. Unaffiliated developers can now compete in the open with official Apple developers. By competing in an open market, iPhone software developers will create better and cheaper products for consumers to choose.

Apple

Ericsson, a company which has 45% of the $35 billion market for mobile network equipment and software, announced that its third-quarter profits fell 36%. Ericsson said the lower profits were driven by weaker-than-expected demand in the United States and Europe. Operators in those markets are cutting costs by pooling and renting networks instead of building their own infrastructure.

Ericsson’s president and chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said he decided to announce the drop in profits a week before the company’s earnings conference on October 25. He said that Ericsson would work to improve its internal financial forecasting procedures to avoid further surprises.

“There is no change in the long-term outlook or in the market going forward or in how we see data traffic developing on wireless networks,” Mr. Svanberg said. “But we do need to draw conclusions about how we can better understand the variations that can occur in our industry, and we will improve our early-warning systems.”

Despite attempts to reassure investors, Ericsson shares dropped nearly 24%, to finish trading at 20.10 kronor ($3.11) on the Stockholm exchange. Some investors see Ericsson’s lower profits as evidence that there is a slowdown in demand for third-generation (3G) wireless networks.

A few years after wireless operators started investing billions of dollars to build third-generation networks; operators are beginning to realize that the predicted demand for third-generation technology isn’t as great as hoped. Lower than expected growth is forcing operators to find ways to cut costs.

“What Ericsson is experiencing is affecting the whole industry, not just Ericsson,” said Roland Pitz, an analyst at HVB Bank in Munich. “What we are seeing in Europe especially is that operators are either sharing their networks or renting them out to virtual service providers. The net effect is that the pace of investment in network construction is slowing slightly from what it had been.”

One reason for the decline in expected 3G growth may be due to the aging demographics in Europe and the United States. Fast Internet access and downloadable music videos may be appealing to younger people, but older generations are less likely to want these services. To increase growth, retirees and near-retirees have to be convinced that a mobile phone has more uses to them than just making calls.

Ericsson

MetaCafe has announced it will begin offering video download and streaming to mobile handsets. The offering which will debut next month in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands will also allow users to upload video directly from the handsets themselves.

The new service is offered by way of a partnership with Peerbox whose solution goes beyond video download/upload to include social functionality such as rating, commenting, etc. Peerbox primarily supports handset vendors Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

The exclusive screenshot below shows how the integration from the MetaCafe side will look like.

Unlike YouTube, MetaCafe has not been afraid to experiment. This partnership comes after moves such as a pilot with adap.tv and the Producer Rewards program.