Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

Congratulations’ go out to Konami for winning both the Grand Prix and Operator’s Choice Awards at this year’s International Mobile Gaming Awards. Out of nearly 400 entries, Metal Gear Solid Mobile was golden. (That’s the type of solid metal anyone can appreciate.) The mobile game is based on the classic tactical espionage action game fans have come to expect from the Metal Gear Solid series. The 3D art displays and camera work are so great some of the judges passed out in a state of high excitement. The game allows players to use the camera on their phone to sample real world colors for an in-game camouflage system. So if you don’t mind having your gaming world blending into your reality, get a copy and try not to grind too many gears.

Vollee is bringing The Second Life to your mobile phone. The 3D virtual world platform, created by Linden Lab, will soon be available on 3G handsets via Vollee’s streaming mobile games service. The mobile version of The Second Life reformats the online world to fit on mobile phone screens while mapping the keys on the handsets to commands in-world. Existing residents can log-in and people new to Second Life can try out the online world for the first time. I don’t know if Second Life is really a game or not, I’ll let the experts debate that. But if you want to give the beta version a whirl, pre-register at www.vollee.com/secondlife. Try not to let a virtual mortgage foreclosure get you down.

Glu Mobile has revealed which games it is making available for Nokia’s new N-Gage platform. Two of the games are based on movies from Warner Bros. Pictures. The films are Speed Racer and The Dark Knight, and the games will probably have the word Mobile in the title so you don’t get confused. Glu is also offering Super Slam Ping Pong, a title that is in the same spirit as Glu’s hit game, Super K.O. Boxing!.

Nokia has a game that will have you yelling out, “Fish on, fish on,” at inappropriate moments. Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep is a game that will divide people into those who fish and those who cut bait. If you haven’t guessed by now, this title comes right out of an angler’s dream. But this is not a fishing simulator, it is more like a RPG. As you fish, your character gains experience points that can be spent to improve the character’s fish catching ability. Money is won in tournaments and by completing fishing quests, so that equipment can be upgraded. If you are tired of killing goblins and trolls, whip out your pocket fisherman and see if you can reel in a Great White.

If you enjoy dominoes, Digital Chocolate’s latest addition to its DChoc Café may be for you. Café Dominoes is just what it sounds like it is. You play classic dominoes with up to three opponents. In Career mode, match your skills against an assortment of computer controlled opponents of varying skill levels. As you beat these digital baddies, you gain points for your climb up the rankings ladder. You can earn unlocks that let you accessories your avatar and learn real-world hot drink recipes. Don’t you want to know what goes into a Corretto? If you do, get a copy of Café Dominoes and start laying some tile.

That is this week’s mobile gaming news roundup. Remember to exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.

The mobile phone company T-Mobile will experiment with providing landline services to customers. Starting today, it will offer wired service for $10 a month to its wireless subscribers in the Seattle and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.

Unlimited local and long distance calls can be made with the service which is called, Talk Forever Home Phone. The service will be carried on customer’s high-speed Internet connection, in much the same way voice-over-Internet providers like Vontage Holdings sell phone service.

Customers who sign-up will have to buy a T-Mobile Internet router for $50. The router has two standard phone jacks where corded or cordless phones can be plugged in. An existing home number can be transferred to the new service. Subscribers will also need to be signed up for a wireless plan costing at least $39.99 a month.

Last year, T-Mobile launched the Hotspot AtHome program. This program, which is similar to the Talk Forever Home Phone, places calls over the Internet using special Wi-Fi-equipped phones. HotSpot also costs $10 a month for unlimited calls.

T-Mobile’s new plan is set up to ease the transition from traditional landline to cell phone communication. Both plans allow people to keep their familiar home phones as well as their home number.

T-Mobile isn’t saying how many people have subscribed to HotSpot AtHome, but David Beigie, T-Mobile’s vice president of marketing said it has, “blown away internal estimates.”

Research in Motion, the BlackBerry manufacturer, announced today that it underestimated last year’s fourth-quarter subscription additions by 15 to 20 percent. Last December the company said net subscriber account additions would total 1.82 million, but a more accurate count shows 2.09 million to 2.18 million new subscriptions.

Research in Motion credits the increase to the popularity of smartphones throughout the holiday selling season. BlackBerry is believed to have around 14 million subscribers.

“BlackBerry smartphones proved to be a big hit throughout the holiday selling season and we’re pleased to see RIM’s business momentum continuing in the new year,” said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive. “The seasonal slowdown in net subscriber account additions that we expected in the new year did not occur and our focused execution with partners has continued to produce strong results within both enterprise and consumer segments.”

Research in Motion will report fourth-quarter figures on April 2. The company expects quarterly earnings per share of 66 cents to 70 cents on revenue of $1.80 billion to $1.87 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect a profit of 69 cents per share on revenue on $1.85 billion.

Vivendi launched its new Internet music, ringtone and videogame provider Zaoza today. The service costs 3 euros a month and is expected to attract 500,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Vivendi owns the world’s largest record company, Universal Music. The company also controls France’s number two phone operator SFR and Macoc Telecom, and the pay-TV group Canal Plus.

“This is the only project Vivendi has started which is outside its traditional five areas of business,” Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy told a news conference.

Games like World of Warcraft have helped Vivendi turn around its previously loss making games unit. There is speculation in the mobile gaming community that a mobile version of World of Warcraft is on the drawing board that allows players to switch between PC play and handset play in an integrated way.

Zaoza cost around 10 million euros to develop and launch. The site is expected to be available in Germany and other European countries but no date have been given.

MobileCrunch reported yesterday that Verizon’s new unlimited calling plan could start a price war in the U.S. mobile market. Hours after the announcement by Verizon Wireless, both AT&T and T-Mobile returned fire with unlimited calling plans of their own. Consumers should be happy but stock holders of the telecommunications companies may become a little gun shy.

Verizon’s $99.99 a month unlimited calling plan (which covers all of the United States not just selected areas) was only five hours old when AT&T announced its own unlimited plan. Three hours after AT&T’s announcement, T-Mobile joined the conflict, saying it would introduce a $99.99 plan today. Unlike the Verizon and AT&T plans, T-Mobile’s includes unlimited text and picture messaging, which costs $14.99 per month when added to other T-Mobile plans.

“This is a highly competitive market and we’re committed to moving fast to meet customer needs,” said Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T Mobility.

The number three provider in the United States, Sprint Nextel, currently has an unlimited calling plan of $119.99 a month, but it is limited to residents of Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa and parts of Northern California and Western Nevada. Analysts expect Sprint to announce its own unlimited plan that covers the entire nation.

It is speculated that Sprint’s flat-rate calling plan could undercut the competition by as much as 40%, a move that would intensify the mobile war. Recently, Sprint has seen a defection of customers that has hurt the bottom line. Selling unlimited plans for as little as $60 could bring new recruits back to Sprint.

“Our bigger concern rests with Sprint’s plans and the potential for future additional competitive responses,” Robert W. Baird analyst Will Power wrote in a research note.

Share prices for all the combatants have been on the decline since Verizon fired the first salvo in the mobile pricing war. If Sprint tries to undercut the competition with $80 or $60 plans, the competition will be forced to respond with either lower prices or more services with their pricing packages. This will cut into profits, at least for awhile.

“Our bigger concern rests with Sprint’s plans and the potential for future additional competitive responses,” Robert W. Baird analyst Will Power wrote in a research note.

Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and Adsale Exhibition Services (AES) will be holding the 12th International Exhibition in Vietnam on Telecommunications and Information Technology (Vietnam Telecomp 2008) in HoChiMinh City, SR Vietnam, November 26-29 of this year.

Vietnam Telecomp is the most influential ICT event in Vietnam with strong support from the Vietnam government authorities, industry influencers and players. The exhibition is sponsored by Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and jointly organized by Vietnam’s largest operator VNPT and AES. The event is dedicated to be a gateway for top-notch ICT product and service providers to meet potential buyers and develop business networks in Vietnam.

Vietnam was ranked as the world’s second fastest growing telecom market. The country’s ICT growth rate was double that of the average in Asia and triple that of the world average in 2006. Total broadband Internet subscribers are likely to reach 1 million in 2007, and Vietnam is expecting 6 million new mobile phone subscribers this year.

Last year’s event showcased technology and equipment from global leading companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, Nokia Siemens, NTT DoCoMo, Orange from France Telecom, Qualcomm, PCCW Global, SK Telecom, UTStarcom, ZTE as well as the Vietnamese telecom operators such as EVN, Mobifone, SPT, Viettel, Vinaphone, VNPT and many more.

For more information about Vietnam Telecomp 2008, please contact Ms. Helen Ho or Ms. Cathy Tsang at Tel: (852) 2516 3528 or 2516 3359, Fax: (852) 2516 5024, email: telecom@adsale.com.hk or visit our website: www.2456.com/vnc

Vietnam Telecomp 2008

Verizon Wireless fired the first shot of what may become an unlimited calling plan price war in the United States today. Verizon is offering a national unlimited calling plan with no roaming or long-distance fees for $99.99 a month. While other carriers have what they call “unlimited” plans, Verizon is the first major carrier to make the deal nationwide.

The plan is “likely to have repercussions for years to come,” Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a research report, adding that in the short term, it will force Sprint Nextel Corp. to match the offer.

Sprint has an unlimited plan that costs $119.99 a month that includes unlimited Web use, e-mail and messaging, but is only available to residents of Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa and parts of Northern California. Verizon’s plan doesn’t offer the extras. The small carrier Helio LLC, a company that rents time on Sprint’s network, is offering a $99 a month unlimited plan nationwide which includes unlimited Web use, e-mail and messaging.

Moffett thinks Verizon’s new unlimited plan will make pricing service much easier to understand for the average consumer. Moffett said it is similar to Sprint’s introduction of flat-rate long-distance prices for landline phones made in the 1990s. He said Sprint’s price structure in the 1990s made it easier to compare prices and hastened a rapid decline in prices.

Cell Phones compatible with Japan’s mobile digital TV service have reached the 20 million mark in less than two years since the launch of the service. The Telecommunications Carriers Association said that the 20 million mark was reached in December of 2007, thanks to the shipment of over 1 million handsets during the month.

OneSeg, the digital TV service launched on April 1, 2006, delivers a QVGA (320 pixels-by-240 pixels) resolution simulcast of Japan’s terrestrial TV networks at no cost to the viewer. Cell phone makers have been able to build recording functions into handsets because the broadcasts don’t carry any copy protection software. Mobile phones are able to pick a TV show from an electronic program guide sent with each channel and set the phone to record the show into memory for later viewing.

Cell phones are not the only devices to utilize this technology. Laptops, music and video players, electronic dictionaries and even car navigation systems are able to function as OneSeg receivers. OneSeg is favored in portable devices because the processing speed needed to handle the OneSeg signal is much lower than the speed needed for a conventional high-definition digital TV signal. Standard terrestrial HDTV needs a receiving device that can handle around 20M bps, whereas the maximum OneSeg data rate in about 416k bps.

One day your clothing could power or help to power your handset. Researchers have created a nano-fiber that catches energy from movement making it possible to route that energy for practical uses.

The fibers use the same mechanical principle as a self-winding watch but on a scale measured in billionths of a meter. Nano-generators are able to use energy from sound waves, vibrations and even the human heart to create useable electricity. The fibers are covered with pairs of zinc oxide nano-wires that produce tiny pulses of electricity in response to friction.

The fibers were developed by a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Zhong Lin Wang.

“The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching,” converting the mechanical motion into electrical energy, explained Wang.

“Many of the devices could be put together to produce a higher output,” he said.

The nano-fibers use the “piezoelectric effect”, which is the method of generating power from friction.

There is one slight problem with the nano-fibers. They are coated with zinc oxide, which is sensitive to water. Any clothes made from them couldn’t be washed. If you power your cell phone with a shirt made of this stuff you won’t be very popular in the office. But if your cell phone battery never ran down it might be worth the tradeoff.

To date, mobile phones have been relatively safe from cyber attacks when compared to PCs. Security systems have been able to block most viruses on cell phones, but the mobile industry foresees risks coming from the open software platforms that are looming in the near future. Google is backing the Android open source software which is in competition with LiMo Foundation’s Linux software.

“If Android becomes a fully open platform … and when such a platform becomes more common, risks are greater than with the current platform kings such as Symbian,” said Mikko Hypponen, head of research at security software firm F-Secure.

Apple is planning to open its platform to third party developers this month, which creates potential risks for the iPhone.

“Apple has dealt very elegantly in the past with security issues. There will be issues. Apple will fix them,” said Jan Volzke, global marketing head at McAfee’s mobile unit.

According to research firm Canalys, 65% of all smartphones sold in the fourth quarter used software from Symbian. Apple was the fourth largest vendor with 7% of market share, following Microsoft and RIM.

F-Secure and McAfee are leading security software vendors for the mobile industry. The risk of a cell phone getting infected is small but thousands of phones have seen problems.

“Although the first problems were already quite extensive and appeared all over the world, current smartphones from the largest device makers, particularly Nokia, have got rid of these problems,” said F-Secure’s Hypponen.

Infected phones would shut down or have huge phone bills as the device would make unwanted calls or connected to expensive services.

Users fear that their handsets are open to attack. (See: Rare Mobile Phone Viruses Feared by Public). The perception of safety is a concern for the mobile industry as handsets become more complicated so as to provide more services to the public.

“Concerns about specific mobile security risks or … reliability of services is a crucial issue for operators, particularly in mature markets,” Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice president at McAfee’s mobile unit, said in a statement.

“Consumer fears are growing in tandem with increased mobile functionality,” Kouznetsov said, adding this puts at risk the potential revenue from new services.