Mobile VoIP gains a victory and the iPhone gets some competition

The week in mobile news began over on our sister site Pocket Picks with a good old fashioned court room drama between mobile VoIP service provider Truphone and T-Mobile.

Truphone was in a bit of a mood with T-Mobile for refusing to connect its free VoIP calls. Later in the week, Truphone emerged from the courtroom with a victorious temporary ruling, buoying the company's confidence in cementing its right to provide mobile VoIP services in the future.

Also emerging early in the week was a muted announcement from Google about the rolling out of a Beta for a mobile version of Adsense, a move that in time could have a dramatic effect on the mobile internet as we know it.

The fantastic mobile comic website ROK Comics made a welcome reappearance on Pocket Picks with news of a competition for the best mobile comic offering a $10,000 for the winner. Then things returned to a business like vein with Samsung announcing that it has managed to ascend the mobile ranks to become the second biggest supplier of mobile handsets after Nokia.

There was less welcome news for Samsung with reports that O2 is set to dump its i-mode mobile internet service due to its failure to establish itself among much more competitively priced alternatives. Looks like Samsung will have to rethink its mobile internet strategy if it wants to hold onto that silver medal.

Also looking to rethink mobile internet services was the Japanese NTT DoCoMo, with tests underway to get 'Super 3G' networks up and running over the next couple of years bringing mobile internet speeds up to par with current broadband standards.

And so onto the hot new mobile browsing device on the block, the iPhone, which received yet another IM browser based service this week called FlickIM. It is capable of embedding YouTube videos in its chat windows.

After a (very) brief respite, the iPhone rumour mill jerked into life again with whispers from PC Advisor about a possible September UK release date for the must have gadget. The mail order company Expansys may have a solution for those who just can't wait for two months as it is already advertising SIM unlocked iPhones in its catalogue.

Of course all of this iPhone buzz is stirring up momentum among other companies keen to cash in on the tech awareness the iPhone has raised and as such some pretty fancy gadgets are starting to creep out of the woodwork. The Blackberry got a wi-fi flavour (at long last) and blazing its trail were rumours about T-Mobile's fancy sounding new smartphone.

Neither phone however could stand up to the pretty face that is the (currently) Japanese only nani handset, already dubbed an iPhone killer and with enough bells and whistles to make it a genuine alternative.

And lastly a phone that saves your life if you have a heart attack, a book from National Geographic about mobile phone photography, and crazed lunatic who destroyed nearly seven mobile phone masts in Sydney with a tank (yes you read that correctly).

On that bombshell the Pocket Picks round up draws to a close for this week. Click 'Track It!' for another collection of mobile news next Sunday.