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]

Nokia considering unlimited game and video services?

There are suggestions that Nokia's "Comes With Music" unlimited music service could be expanded to offer unlimited games or movie downloads in the near future. [Sources: NMA.co.uk; NokNok.tv]

US mobile web usage up almost 30% this year

Mobile solutions company Crisp Wireless has calculated that US mobile web usage is up 29.4% from Q1 (Jan-March) to Q2 (April-June) 2008. 9.45% of overall traffic is coming from search engines, with 82% of mobile search coming via Google. “Movies/Movie Listings” are the most popular search term, followed by searches for US presidential candidate Barack Obama. [Press release]

Motorola launches film service

Motorola has launched a download service that lets UK customers download full-length films to watch on their mobile phones. The deal, which offers titles from Paramount Digital Entertainment, will cost between £5.99 and £8.99 per movie. 40 films are currently available to download to your PC and then transfer to your mobile phone. [Sources: Guardian.co.uk; Pocket-Lint.co.uk]

Orange launches ad-funded download trial

Orange is launching an ad-funded download service on its Orange World mobile internet service. 800,000 Orange customers in the UK will be able to download music to their phone at a discounted rate or completely free. The three-month trial will display advertising banners while customers download their music from a choice of 500 tracks. Advertising company ScreenTonic, which was bought by Microsoft last year, is managing the banner ads for the campaign. In addition, Orange says it's done a deal with film website Icewhole.com to allow customers to download short films for £1.

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]

Movies on phones

Director David Lynch doesn't think you can experience films on phones...

(NB: Some strong language!)