iPhone 3Gs features voice
dialing, better camera

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• MediaCom is partnering with Eyeblaster to serve ads for Lifeline, its campaign management platform.
• Yahoo! Professional Services now features Display Extension and Performance Sales Enablement.
• Vivaki released phase 2 of its "Pool" initiative — an effort to develop more consumer-friendly takes on the standard pre-roll. The offering is called "Lane 2," which among other things promises to "scale and create empowerment."
• Village Voice Media has launched an online local network, primarily for readers aged 18-34. The network already includes both Village Voice websites as well as other local web properties that serve New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix and Miami. It will expand over time.

Mobile:

• Google Maps on Android handsets now lets you search for transit directions by voice.
• The Russian Mobile ad market is expected to reach $31 million in 2009, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
• Yahoo Mobile added nine new countries to its scope: Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Italy. The service is now in 17 countries throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, serving 400 devices with HTML-enabled mobile browsers.
• Apple is adding voice dialing and a better camera to its latest iPhone.

Music:

• Streaming video and music is expected to generate over $78 billion in network-derived and content-derived revenue in the US over the next 6 years.

New and Improved:

• In the experimental future, insects may be able to provide free wifi.

Overseas:

• Some Chinese are using the 'net to express rage or support for a young waitress who fatally stabbed a Communist Party official who attempted to rape her. “It’s about raising the public awareness of democratic ideas — accountability, transparency, citizens’ rights to participate, that the government should serve the people,” said j-school professor Xiao Qiang, at the University of California, Berkeley, who tracks China’s Internet activity.

Publishing:

• Tribune is now offering sponsored columnist content to web publishers in exchange for ad revenue. Columnists include Wolfgang Puck, Arianna Huffington and Liz Smith.
• The Associated Press is trying to arrange lucrative licensing deals with major websites in hopes of squeezing more cashflow out of New Media.

Search:

• Fast Company provides tips on defying Google addiction and getting more productive.
• To combat the popularity of Microsoft's Bing, Google increased the visibility of its Explore Google Search page, which already provided many of Bing's features.
• Ask.com expanded its "AnswerFarm" database to 300 million Q&A pairs (from an initial 100 million). Content was reportedly also improved.

Social Networks:

• A new Twitter add-on minimizes spam on the microblogging site.