Kevin Spacey to headline Mobile World Congress

The headline speaker - or, at least, one of the headline speakers - at next year's GSM Association Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is Kevin Spacey. Yes, the Academy award-winning actor and director. He'll be talking about mobile entertainment and hosting the MOFILM Mobile Short Film Festival, described as the world’s first global mobile film festival. [Press release]

Almost half of US mobile customers use their phones for entertainment

Mobile gaming company Artificial Life has released a survey that shows almost half of US mobile phone users - 46%, in fact - use their handsets for entertainment. When the company just looked at smartphone users, 87.5% accessed entertainment. The survey (of only 200 users, so admittedly it's not particularly accurate) also said that 33% favoured mobile entertainment over other features, including email, mapping and web browsing. [Press release]

Birmingham NEC being renamed 'LG Arena'

In 2005 the Millennium Dome was renamed 'The O2'. Now it’s LG’s turn to have its name on an entertainment venue. The NEC Arena in Birmingham will be renamed the LG Arena this Autumn in a sponsorship deal that will last for the next eight years. The venue is also being renovated, with £28 million being spent – although LG hasn’t mentioned how much the sponsorship itself is costing. [PDF press release]

Entertainment software is 2007's most-popular download

Smartphone software company Handango says entertainment products were last year's most-popular choice of download. Handango says entertainment software accounted for 17% of its 2007 sales - moving to the top of 2007's list from third place in 2006 - with business and professional content dropping from 18% in 2006 to 16% in 2007. [Press release]

2.6 billion mobile tickets by 2011

Over 2.6 billion tickets worth almost $87 billion (£43 billion) will be sent to mobile phones by 2011, according to a new study from Juniper Research. The main users of the new technology are expected to be transport and entertainment organisations, with on-screen barcodes and Near Field Communication devices both being used. [Press release]

Entertainers speak at Mobile World Congress

Robert Redford, Isabella Rossellini and will.i.am have all been at the Mobile World Congress talking about mobile phones as entertainment devices. Robert Redford and Isabella Rossellini both said mobiles are the ideal platform for short films, while will.i.am said the mobile industry will produce the Michael Jacksons and Madonnas of tomorrow. [Sources: HollywoodReporter.com, Billboard.biz]