The Mobile Marketing Association has arranged over $1 million in funding to launch new global research into the impact of mobile marketing.

The project, which is believed to be the first global research project of its kind, will test real marketing campaigns to determine the economic value of investing in mobile channels compared to traditional marketing channels. It’s been named SMoX.me: Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness.

The Mobile Marketing Association has announced the new members who’ll be joining its EMEA board of directors. 13 new members have been elected by the MMA’s membership to join 11 existing board members who weren’t up for re-election.

In addition, Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO of Out There Media, has been appointed to chair the MMA EMEA board.

Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have updated ‘Our Mobile Planet’, the mobile consumer data resource they created last October. It provides free access to data and research from 40 countries in collaboration with the IAB and Ipsos MediaCT.

As part of the re-launch, Google commissioned new research that looked at internet use on smartphones.

The Mobile Marketing Association has announced an updated version of the MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package, which details the ad formats it’s recommending as industry standards for mobile web and in-app advertising.

It follows a consultation period launched in December.

The Mobile Marketing Association has released a revised version of its mobile advertising guidelines.

It’s asking for feedback on the ‘Universal Mobile Ad Package’ before the final version is released in January 2012.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

This is part 2 of Mobile, Maps & Geolocation - so much more than "Where am I?"

It's a Mobile Monday London panel discussion with Gary Gale, Christopher Osborne, Jeni Tennison, Ian Holt and Harry Wood. Part 1 is available as a separate podcast.

This week's Mobile Monday London event featured a panel discussion about the opportunities for mobile-based geolocation and mapping. The event was supported by UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey.

In this podcast you'll hear the first part of the evening's discussion plus interviews with Nokia's Gary Gale, who chaired the panel, and Ian Holt from Ordnance Survey. Part 2 is available as a separate podcast.

This week's podcast starts with the world's slimmest smartphone (at least for the moment) before introducing a new smartphone company and even more new products from Samsung.

We're also talking about the battle of Instagram vs Vine, the sale of O2 Ireland, mobile retail web usage, the new CEO of BT and a new report about an unexpected health threat to mobile phone users.

Samsung has put a 10x optical zoom lens on a smartphone, Google is acquiring navigation app Waze and the European Commission is getting ready to equip cars with an emergency call system.

We're also talking about a strike threat at O2, the risk of 'showrooming' to high-street retailers, the end of Symbian smartphones and plenty more as well.

We start this week's podcast with Apple's announcement about the new version of its iOS platform - and follow this with a look at the privacy concerns surrounding the US government's PRISM operation.

Next come Samsung's new phones, Ericsson's new contract, a potential end to European roaming charges, some sophisticated mobile malware and plenty of other news stories as well.