The New York Times is reporting that Apple wants to offer ringtones and other mobile music content for the iPhone and is talking to some of the major labels about the prospect.

Citing a label executive, the Times said Apple is looking to announce something in June. It would make sense for such an unveiling to coincide with Apple's developer conference in early June, which is when CEO Steve Jobs is expected to launch the highly anticipated 3G iPhone.

Apple, of course, isn't commenting on the speculation.

Cellufun, whose mobile virtual world is home to more than 40 casual and community games, has inked a deal to integrate its application into the Facebook community, both online and on the phone.

The integration delivers the first mobile multiplayer gaming experience on Facebook. It also makes Cellufun the only mobile game network that lets users take their games from their phone to Facebook on the PC and back again. All of Cellufun's social features, including scoreboards, leaderboards and multiplayer functionality are integrated into the Facebook app, so the user's stats will be updated both on the PC and the phone regardless of where the game is played.

Cellufun's Facebook app will include all of the WAP games that are on the mobile portal, and the downloadable games can be played through an emulator. The games are connected through the Cellufun server, not played on the Facebook network.

Consumer media equipment company Motorola says young adults are influencing their parents' technology decisions more than ever before, according to a new MediaPost report. Here are some stats quoted from the article, regarding a study of 16 to 27-year-old "millenials:"

- 75% of young adults influence their parents' technology purchases;

- 71% hold sway over cable, DSL and dish-satellite services;

- 62% impact buying a HDTV set and TV programming packages;

- 70% say their "expectations are far greater than their parents'" when it comes to better media experiences and mobile broadband access.

The study also found, interestingly, that millenials expect to be able to pause a TV show in one room and then resume it in the other, and they also expect to be able to transfer a show they're watching on their DVR to their mobile devices.

Round 29: Microsoft Corp has now proposed to buy Yahoo's search business and take a minority stake in the Web pioneer, Reuters reports, according to a source close to the negotiations. That means that this time around, Microsoft may stop short of a full-out merger.

That actually makes sense, because Microsoft's real interest in Yahoo is its advertising platform and related revenue—and you get that by buying out the search platform. Most of Yahoo's other properties, including its content platforms, its e-mail client, instant messaging software, and more, are essentially duplicates of what Microsoft already offers through Windows Live and MSN, and don't necessarily bring in much revenue on their own.

Virgin Mobile has launched a new series of promotions to market to kids on summer break. According to MediaPost, Virgin Mobile is leveraging Gadget Grrl's "Dads 'n' Grads" satellite media television tour, which begins Thursday and runs through June 6. "During the tour, Dana Forbes, a Los Angeles-based media personality known as Gadget Grrl who reviews and recommends devices, will visit 19 TV studios throughout the country."

The tour will highlight both the Samsung Slash and the LG Flare, according to the report. Later, Corinne Nosal, a Virgin Mobile spokeswoman, said that the company "will launch an online marketing promotion called 'Slide Into Summer' centered on the Slash." Virgin Mobile is a popular pre-paid option for cell phones; customers can buy the phones and then buy minutes a la carte, rather than having to sign up for restrictive two-year agreements with monthly fees.

Today Napster said that it has finally released all six million of its tracks in the unprotected MP3 format, following up on its announcement back in January. This means that consumers can buy any song from the company for 99 cents, and then play it in their car, on their cell phone, on their iPod or other portable MP3 player, without any restrictions or the technical compatibility issues that plagued digital rights management (DRM)-encoded tracks.

The company said that all six million MP3s will also come with the appropriate album art. This puts Napster on an even keel with the Amazon MP3 store and eMusic—actually ahead, in fact, since Napster's catalog is more comprehensive than both of those services.

Somewhere in Cupertino, Steve Jobs must be fuming. (Backstory: He's the one who first wrote the letter to the record industry asking for them to drop DRM. Now that the labels have finally acquiesced, with the exception of EMI, they're leaving him out of it in order to bolster his competitors and reduce Apple's influence.)

No, this is not a joke. Comcast is putting money into a file-sharing start-up. Yes, the same Comcast that's being investigated for allegedly blocking its Internet users from downloading content from some P2P sites.

The cable giant said it's investing in GridNetworks, which uses file-sharing to deliver high-def video. In addition to making the investment, Comcast also plans to work with GridNetworks to develop ISP-friendly P2P file-sharing methods, the AP reports.

Samsung, which, along with LG, is working to take handset market share away from Motorola, has launched its first phone with Virgin Mobile USA.

Dubbed the Slash, the slider phone boasts a camera, Bluetooth and a full array of messaging support for IM, texting and e-mail.

The $80 phone is truly designed for quick messaging. It can store up to 499 contacts with up to five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses and a Web site for each entry. Samsung has also preloaded the Slash with customizable Autotext for faster text messaging.

For gamers, there's Gameloft's Jukebox and Superscape Demo already on the deckk, plus access to the VirginXL portal where they can buy more games as well as animated and real-music ringtones and ringback tones.

Qualcomm said it has won 40MHz of wireless spectrum in the U.K. that would be ideal for mobile TV and broadband services, CNET News reports. This indicates that the company could be planning to build a new mobile TV network in Europe.

So far the company is keeping mum about what it will do with the spectrum, the report said, as a company spokesperson confirmed in an e-mail to CNET News, saying that they plan to use it only for testing products and services:

"Qualcomm considers that the L-band spectrum represents at this stage an opportunity to develop, test and explore a variety of emerging business models, innovative wireless services and technologies. However, we have not taken a decision on spectrum use."

Mobile advertising services provider Velti has joined forces with the Montreal-based Vantrix, a mobile content delivery company, in order to support a universal video advertising platform, according to MediaPost:

"With the Vantrix Media Broadcaster device detection and video optimization technology, Velti can stream or provide on demand ad-supported video content on mobile internet sites to a vast array of mobile devices. The new feature helps advertisers to communicate more effectively with mobile users."

Most mobile users are familiar with old-school Internet advertising, shrunken down to a 2-inch screen: in other words, banner ads. There's been more talk about how to display preroll video ads—as with most things mobile, it's a technology issue, since nearly all of today's phones still can't show Adobe Flash.

Macworld asks whether the recent Apple and HBO deal signifies that Apple is finally rethinking its once rigid approach to pricing.

Normally, Apple prices all TV shows at $1.99 per episode—a mandate that eventually caused NBC to walk away from Apple last year. But today, six HBO shows now appear in the iTunes store: The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Rome, Deadwood, The Wire and Flight of the Conchords. And three of those—The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Rome—cost $2.99 per episode; the rest cost $1.99, according to the article.

"Premium shows that demand a premium price," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, in the report. "These are shows that have developed cult followings," he said. Now it remains to be seen what happens next—if users go for the episodes at the higher price, and if Apple begins to offer flexible pricing for the other studios.

And it's still not over. CNN reports that Microsoft is once again talking to Yahoo about an alternative transaction—this time, one that doesn't involve an acquisition, Microsoft said on Sunday.

The report comes two weeks after Microsoft and Yahoo walked away from talks that would have led to an acquisition of Yahoo in a $46 billion deal.

"Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!," a Microsoft statement said Sunday. "Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative .... There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions."

(Image credit: Getty/CNN)

The latest threat in the plot to kill the iPhone's popularity comes from smartphone leader Research In Motion. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that RIM is planning to unveil a touch-screen BlackBerry model sometime in Q3.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal says the new iPhone killer will be called the Thunder (guess you have to go pretty strong after introducing the Bold), and will be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe.

RIM has yet to comment on the report, but we'll keep you posted. If you hear anything, let us know through our new comments feature.

Can't find all those books you picked up during your last self-help craze? Don't have the time or money to spend on a seminar to learn how to become spiritually or financially wealthy? Don't worry. Help is on the way.

The Learning Annex has teamed up with mobile content provider Twistbox to bring help and advice from some of The Learning Annex's 8,000 annual self-help seminars to the mobile phone.

Soon, consumers will have access to snippets in such areas as health, wealth, spirituality, relationships and even advice from psychics, Mobile Entertainment reports. The new partners will take advantage of Twistbox's on- and off-deck distribution platforms to deliver the video-rich content and mobile workshops to users worldwide.

MocoNews reports that Leeds City Council in the UK is trying its hand at a variation on the location-based mobile services (LBS) theme:

"LeedsCast sees nine mobile-detecting pods dotted around the city, each of which sends mobile users invitations to download an application that includes content from LeedsLiveItLoveIt.com, the council's own tourism infosite. Though the detection is done using Bluetooth, the council says content delivery is handled over T-Mobile's broadband network. Content includes listings for restaurants, hotels, attractions, shops and bars."

This is a nifty idea except that it goes against mobile security advice to disable your phone's Bluetooth Discovery mode; it would be great to hear reports from anyone who actually runs into something like this in the wild. It's also a great idea for more narrowly focused events such as conferences and other meet-ups.