Research In Motion announced plans to offer BlackBerry Connect software on five new Microsoft Windows Mobile-based devices from HTC to carriers around the world, including the new HTC S710. BlackBerry Connect on HTC handsets supports push-based wireless email access, wireless email reconciliation and attachment viewing in conjunction with both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service.

TNO announced the launch of Farcast TV allowing anyone to create their own television channel using their mobile phone. Farcast TV is built on the Farcast platform, a next generation content repurposing platform. Farcast TV allows consumers to start their own TV channel filled with content created via a mobile device. Farcast TV can be embedded into any Weblog or Web site creating an enhanced experience for visitors. Farcast TV provides Web site owners with a few lines of code to incorporate into their Web site. Movies can be sent from the consumer’s phone to the TV channel either via MMS or via a dedicated application. TV channel managers can invite customers to contribute to the TV channel or they can even allow anyone to post into their channel. All videos are handled by the Farcast platform.

From Brazil to Pakistan, some of the world’s poorest children will peer across the digital divide this month–reading electronic books, shooting digital video, creating music and chatting with classmates online. Founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology academics, the non-profit “One Laptop per Child” project will roll out nearly 2,500 of its $150-laptops to eight nations in February. The experiment is a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green-and-white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when five million will be built.

Palm demonstrated a new Bluetooth Common Access Card (CAC) solution to more than 450 Army IT decision-makers from around the world. Compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0-based Palm Treo smartphones, the wireless CAC solution combines Palm’s best-in-class mobility with hardware and software from industry-leading Biometric Associates, Inc. (BAI) and Trust Digital.

SanDisk announced that NEC Electronics Corporation has selected the SanDisk iNAND embedded flash drive (EFD) as the solid-state mobile storage solution for a new music phone platform that is based on its latest music playback chip, the AP131 audio processor. This marriage of advanced technologies, said the two companies, could give music lovers greatly increased playback times by lowering power consumption up to 85 percent.

SanDisk introduced the microSD Multi SD Kit, bringing together in one package a microSD flash card with a miniSD adapter and a standard SD adapter. The microSD Multi SD Kit removes confusion for consumers and retailers in selecting the correct card for a mobile phone, because the kit supports all mobile phones with SD-based card slots. According to SanDisk research, 87 percent of the latest mobile phone models with card slots are designed for either microSD, miniSD or standard SD.

SanDisk introduced a 4-GB microSD High Capacity (SDHC) card–the largest capacity of the world’s smallest removable flash memory card. A 4GB microSDHC card can store more than 1,000 digital songs or more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video.

The FBI had more than 300 weapons and laptops lost or stolen in just under four years, and some of the computers contained sensitive or classified information, the U.S. Justice Department inspector general said on Monday in a highly critical report. Fewer had gone missing than before a 2002 report in which Inspector General Glenn Fine’s office reported 354 FBI weapons and 317 laptops lost or stolen over the previous 28 months, but he said the bureau had done too little to address the problem.

Microsoft will announce three new Windows Live services for mobile devices at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona: Live Search on Windows Mobile, Live Search on Java and Windows Live for Windows Mobile. The new services will provide new search and communications capabilities to help people more easily and efficiently access information from their mobile devices, while allowing mobile operators, OEMs and advertising partners to drive new revenue and differentiate their products in the market, Matt Champagne, director of Mobile Product Management for MSN and Windows Live, told eWEEK.

DataViz announced that its mobile Office Suite Documents To Go, is now available for Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone devices. Documents To Go will now allow users of Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone devices to view, edit and create Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on their devices and in their native formats. In addition, users can view Adobe PDF files and decompress zipped email attachments. Other features include support for password protected Word and Excel files and the ability to view, edit and create Excel charts.