In the latest edition of The Fonecast we spoke to Richard Kinder, Vice President of Technology and New Business at Red Bend Software. The company specialises in Mobile Software Management, which is probably best known as a service that enables over-the-air (OTA) updates for mobile phones. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview, which started when we asked Richard for a simple explanation of what MSM and OTA meant.

"Red Bend software has been around for a number of years, and our solutions in the Mobile Software Management space allow the software in a mobile phone to be updated in the consumer’s hands."

Australian web-based email provider FastMail.FM has been acquired by browser company Opera Software. Opera says this acquisition will enable it to expand its current messaging product portfolio and will let it offer a consistent email experience across all products. The Opera desktop browser already includes its own email client.

More than 50 million people currently use the Opera desktop browser; the Opera Mini mobile web browser has more than 55 million users.

Vodafone has been working with Opera to bring the mobile internet to more people in developing markets. The two companies have developed an enhanced version of Opera Mini 5 that's been designed to run on budget handsets using 2G networks.

The Opera Mini 5 browser has been embedded in a range of 20 devices and can also be downloaded to over 250 GPRS supported handsets in Vodafone’s customer base. Opera's browser compresses data, requiring  less processing power on the handset and less network capacity as well. Vodafone is also creating an on-screen browsing experience that'll feature step-by-step, simple instructions in local languages, with a strong emphasis on the use of intuitive icons to help those with lower levels of literacy.

James Rosewell writes:

The mobile techie community has known about mobile networks and indeed some handsets providing unique information about mobile devices and customers for a long time. Collin Mulliner, a graduate student at the Technische Universitat Berlin, has recently bought the issue to the attention of the public during a talk at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver.

In this special extended interview, Suneet Singh Tuli talks to Iain Graham about the PocketSurfer device. They discuss form factors, flat-rate charging for data, roaming charges, convergence, consumer acceptance - and the forthcoming PocketSurfer3.