Accessories distributor Strax has poached staff for its indirect sales team from Orange and Data Select.

Michael Green joins from Orange where he spent five years as category manager responsible for accessories in Orange s own retail stores.

Strax has also appointed Kevin Oliver formerly of Unique Distribution and Data Select. Oliver worked on the supplier side to the retail channels in his previous roles.

Music fans can sign up to musicrecommenders.com for free and receive personalised recommendations every month. The site also offers artist interviews music guides compiled by independent music stores plus store background. Recommended tracks will cost 89p.
Simon Singleton from Pure Groove in London is one of the music recommenders. He says: It s a great program that is evolving into a wonderful musical community.
David Bowie is also contributing every month through features and podcasts.

Two of the three former T-Mobile solus chains have combined forces. Ace Contact is now trading under the Chitter Chatter brand.

The deal signed last month means the Chitter Chatter brand is on the signage of 35 prominent high street locations.

The two businesses have a history of combined deal making since the end of their solus trading deal with T-Mobile.

Fonehouse the other former Front Three chain remains independent. It has 18 stores.

3 parent company Hutchison Whampoa launched a new mobile Internet service last week called the X-Series with Internet brands Sling Media Orb and Google. The X-Series also builds on global deals with Skype Yahoo! and Microsoft.
The X-Series will be priced at
a flat rate subject to fair usage on top of users regular subscriptions. X-Series customers will be able to make and receive unlimited Skype calls with Skype PC users around the world and to any other Skype 3 mobile customer.
Customers that purchase a Slingbox which plugs into the back of a TV will be able to watch their home TV from their mobiles including all terrestrial Freeview cable and satellite channels. They will be able to record pause and play live TV. 3 did not provide a price for the hardware.
Users can also access all types of content stored on their PC at home on their mobile through the new Orb interface.
Access fees include unlimited Skype chat and search services. There will initially be an additional access fee for customers who opt in to higher-bandwidth services like Sling and Orb.
The services will be compatible with the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson W950i at launch.

On November 14 Vodafone announced plans to launch mobile advertising with Internet portal company Yahoo! as its exclusive partner.
Customers will expect to get savings on certain unspecified Vodafone services for the privilege.
In a presentation on the day Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said: Our customers were willing to accept mobile advertising with a couple of conditions: that it would be on an opt-in basis; and that we share the economic benefits that we get from advertisers. Yahoo! is the world leader in display advertising. You ll see the first adverts going out in the April May June timeframe.
However O2 has distanced itself from this business model with Erskine saying the network has conducted trials but isn t ready to introduce a similar scheme yet implying that the revenue isn t there.
We are running trials in the advertising space he said. We are interested but it s absolutely critical we get the customer experience right. I think if you do nothing but just pump adverts at people well the advertisers aren t stupid. Unless we can get revenue streams on the ads it s just an excuse to give away free minutes.

The businessphone MTT 1570 is designed for people who do business on the move such as household contractors taxi drivers and mobile sales forces.
The handset allows the user to take financial transactions anywhere over the GPRS/GSM network. The handset is simply a Siemens C60 with the kit attached on a backpack that allows the user to perform credit and debit transactions through its integrated PIN Pad and smart card reader.
As we move towards a more card-based society merchants should expect to offer the facility of credit or debit card transactions and it is likely that they could lose sales if they are unable to provide this solution. In addition consumers tend to spend more and are inclined to remain loyal when paying by credit or debit cards said Athol Hampson CEO of thebusinessphone.
Thebusinessphone has signed an international distributor agreement with WAY Systems service provider of mobile POS solutions and is also currently in talks with The Carphone Warehouse as well as other independent retailers.

Sony Ericsson is enjoying its biggest ever market share which has grown steadily through 2006 thanks to a strong handset portfolio across both contract and pre-pay and successful branding.
Sony Ericsson was number two in the UK for market share in September and Sony Ericsson hopes its fuller pre-pay range will see it prosper through to Christmas and even take top spot from Nokia.
We re enjoying the battle with the other three top manufacturers at the moment said Sony Ericsson marketing manager Richard Dorman.
We ve done better than we anticipated in the UK. We are pretty confident now our fingers are crossed that we might overtake a certain Finnish manufacturer in the run up to Christmas.
The Sony Ericsson K750i launched last summer is selling well on pre-pay traditionally Sony Ericsson s weak point. Meanwhile it has maintained a steady stream of premium contract devices with Walkman and Cyber-shot branding such as the K800i W850i and W810i.

A Dextra spokesman said: In an effort to allay any undue concerns the company has stressed to staff that the confirmed number of roles under review comprises only two per cent of the whole workforce at the division.

Music download service Napster has launched on O2 Ireland.

A spokesperson said: Napster launched in the US earlier this year so this marks its first steps into the European market on mobile. O2 s i-mode users in Ireland will have access to over three million tracks.

The service will be available from February to O2 Ireland s 1.6 million subscribers. Users can purchase and download songs over-the-air to mobile handsets and to PCs. There is no confirmed date for a UK launch.