Most Americans still get their news from traditional sources like television, according to the Pew Research Center's Biennial News Consumption Survey. FierceMobileContent reports that about 37 percent of U.S. smartphone users say they get news from these devices, quoting figures from the survey.

That means that there's still plenty of room left for growth in terms of consuming newspaper and magazine content on mobile devices. Here are some more statistics from the report:

- About one in 10 owners of iPods or MP3 players said they watch or listen to news-oriented podcasts using these devices;

- Only four percent of total mobile phone subscribers get their news from their cell phones.

Anyone still beholden to the mobile UMD format for movie watching on the go, listen up: Reuters is reporting that Sony announced a new version of its PlayStation Portable handheld games console that can also be used as an Internet telephone, to go on sale in Europe and the United States in mid-October.

Sony said at a video games convention in Leipzig, Germany on Wednesday that the PlayStation Portable 3000 will have a built-in microphone and a new screen which has more colors and is better suited for use outdoors, according to the report. The PSP can already run Skype, but the built-in microphone will make all the difference in using the thing as a phone. "We believe that this will establish the PSP as a viable communication device," said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, at the conference.

The new PSP will retail for about $294 (199 Euros), which is 30 Euros more than what the current version costs in Europe. Sony plans to sell both versions concurrently, and oh yeah, they also play games.

A new report by research firm MultiMedia Intelligence predicts that sales from ringback tones are expected to generate $4.7 billion in revenue for mobile companies, which is triple the revenue the service generates today, according to CNET News.

The research group said in the report that ringback tones are set to become the "most attractive" premium mobile content category for wireless operators, and, incredibly, will fall just short of the revenue generated by mobile game sales.

"Ringback tones are quickly becoming the 'golden child' of the mobile music market, due to a winning combination of consumer popularity, and minimal impact from DRM or piracy," Frank Dickson, chief research officer with MultiMedia Intelligence said in a company statement.

Well, that sure didn't last long. Back in April, Motorola reorganized its handset unit in preparation to spin the division off to a third-party, placing Rod Shaddock at the head of its mobile devices consumer products group. RCR Wireless News is reporting that Shaddock is now leaving the company.

The report said that going forward, John Cipolla will lead the consumer products group and report directly to new co-CEO Sanjay Jha, the company said. Cipolla originally (well, at least since April) was heading up the company's midrange and high-end phone groups. "Motorola said that Shaddock's departure has been in the works since before Jha was appointed head of mobile devices earlier this month." Motorola had reorganized again in July, incidentally. Where it stops, nobody knows.

MocoNews is reporting that Move Networks has announced plans to adapt its high-definition media player, which streams content over the Internet for mobile Internet devices with Moblin Linux software and Intel processors.

"The lines between the TV, the computer and mobile devices are blurring, while user demand for high-quality Internet television programming that they can view on all of these platforms is growing," said Move Networks CEO John Edwards in the report.

Move Networks currently lets ABC, Fox and ESPN deliver HDTV to computers, but obviously the service wants to branch out beyond that, as few people really enjoy watching TV while chained to their home office desks. The report said that the question really is whether mobile Internet and wireless bandwidth be there in time, given that ISPs are already complaining about users who frequently download high definition videos just on the desktop alone.

Alcatel-Lucent is launching the first commercial trial that supports the Open Mobile Alliance's BCAST Smartcard Profile mobile TV content protection standard, according to FierceMobileContent.

BCAST is a SIM-based copy protection system that lets content providers offer services like pay-per-view, pay-per-time and recorded content without fears of rampant piracy. In an application like this, content protection doesn't really limit what the customer can do, at least not yet, so we're not as violently opposed to it as we are DRM-encrypted music tracks, for example.

The report said that Singapore-based operator MobileOne and media firm MediaCorp together are running the trial, which actually began earlier in the month. Samsung is pitching in the handsets.

AT&T has added the LG Invision as the third handset to support AT&T's MediaFLO-backed broadcast mobile TV service, Engadget reports. The service offers smooth, unbroken animation (unlike streamed mobile TV services) but only works with handsets like this one that contain TV tuners and antennas.

The new handset has a landscape-formatted display—you rotate the thing 90 degrees to watch it like a miniature television set—along with a 1.3 megapixel camera and 3G data network support.

It's also the smallest and cheapest mobile TV-compatible handset in AT&T's product line to date, costing just $99 with a two-year contract after rebate, the report said.

Don't forget that you have to pay $15/month extra for mobile TV service on top of voice and on top of data network charges. 24/7 broadcast channels include CBS Mobile, CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MSNBC, MTV, NBC2Go, Nickelodeon, CNN Mobile and Pix.

Nokia announced a deal with the travel book publisher Lonely Planet to sell city guides and maps to Nokia Maps 2.0 users, CNET News reports, relieving travelers of the need to carry large, heavy paperback books with them on a trip.

On its launch, the service will let users download data for more than 100 cities, with more destinations to be added in the future. Each download will cost about $11.75 (7.99 euros) and give users background, directions and maps for major local attractions.

Navteq and TeleAtlas together (the latter of which Nokia bought earlier in the year) provide the backbone for the Nokia Maps service.

(Image credit: Lonely Planet)

MocoNews is reporting that Nokia now plans to integrate several mobile content delivery services into a single offering. The report said that the release is "a little vague on which services will be affected, but it notes that its plans 'concern approximately 200 employees—approximately half in Finland—working in the Services and Software unit."

The company said in a statement that it will also hire more people for its Software and Services unit, indicating that it will be able to relocate or rehire many of the same employees for that division. Despite those changes, Nokia will continue to focus on key internet services like music, games, messaging and location based services, the report said.

In a related analysis, MocoNews highlighted Nokia's recent transformation into a "mobile experience" company, having made investments in everything from mobile music to file sharing and even advertising, although it still has a way to go to catch certain competitors.

Mobile social network MocoSpace just announced the addition of Bebo's first employee and board member (and current investor) Jim Scheinman to its board of directors.

"Scheinman pioneered and shaped the social networking space as an early employee of Friendster and the first employee of Bebo, helping to launch the world's third largest social networking site which was sold to AOL last year for $850 million."

The company said in a statement that Scheinman's role will be to help widen MocoSpace's lead in the mobile social networking space. Currently the site claims 3.5 million unique registered users and nearly two billion monthly page views, which are significantly higher figures than they had reported just two months ago.

Visa has launched a pilot program testing real-time transaction alerts sent to mobile phones via SMS text-messaging and e-mail, MediaPost reports.

The trial contains 2,000 test subjects, including PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia and Wells Fargo in the U.S., along with Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group and Vancity in Canada, the report said.

From the consumer angle, the service would notify cardholders of account activity within seconds of it occurring, the article said. It also means customers could set thresholds that would trigger the alerts, and in case there's some kind of unauthorized activity on the account, users could immediately call the bank and freeze the card.

That's gotta hurt. Instead of setting up shop on parent company News Corporation's own social network, MySpace, Fox News Channel has chosen to network on the site's chief rival, Facebook.

The New York Times' Brian Stelter wonders aloud—pointedly—whether it has anything to do with MySpace's existing MSNBC partnership. But Fox said it's all about audience.

"Facebook is currently the leading social network worldwide," said Joel Cheatwood, the senior vice president for development at Fox News, in the article. "They also have a user that's a little older and a little more sophisticated."

So about Fox's updated Facebook page: it now includes separate discussion boards, a comment wall, reviews, polls, and photo submissions, along with a special video player that lets users watch Fox video content, create playlists, post iReport-style individual videos, and send clips over to Facebook friends.

Fox News also has plenty of mobile content—see http://www.foxnews.com/mobile/ for details—but it doesn't link to their Facebook page on mobile yet.

Mobile virtual network provider Virgin Mobile isn't doing so well as of late, Engadget Mobile reports, with decreasing profits as well as a decreasing ARPU (average revenue per user). However, the blog points out that things can't be all bad since they're still actually turning a profit, which no other MVNO in the U.S. was capable of doing.

The company said that it thinks "it'll turn things around heading into '09 with the addition of Helio to its portfolio, which it confirms will be leveraged to offer new data services and feature-rich handsets, [which are] both concepts that bare-bones Virgin isn't accustomed to offering in the States," according to the blog. Mobile media-focused Helio did offer a nice array of music, video, and social networking services on its phones, so it remains to be seen how Virgin Mobile will leverage that going forward.

Archos is trying a different portable media tactic, PC Magazine reports, with its new Archos 5, Archos 5G, and Archos 7 Internet Media tablets, one of which includes a SIM card slot for use with 3G cellular networks.

The new devices no longer require stylii, and can access the Web via built-in Web browser over Wi-Fi radios. They also play (with an extra plug-in) high-definition, 720p video content—try that on an iPod—and also come with Internet TV and radio plug-ins. They'll be available beginning in September with the 5, and later in the year for the other two, at rather high-end prices ranging from $350 to $550.

CNET News has a somewhat scary report on how recording industry and motion picture lobbyists pushing broadband providers to spy on their customers in order to unveil copyright infringements. That's bad enough, but they're also pointing to how "the concept is working abroad" as an example of why it should be adopted here.

"Despite our best efforts, we can't do this alone," said Shira Perlmutter, a vice president for global legal policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in the report. "We need the help of ISPs. They have the technical ability to manage the flow over their pipes... The good news is that we're beginning to see some of these solutions emerge, in particular in Europe and Asia."

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