ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - news) said on Tuesday it has taken a step toward the long-promised notion of phones replacing credit cards, checks and cash by signing agreements with Wachovia Corp. (NYSE:WB - news) and several other banks.

The agreements will allow customers of its Cingular Wireless arm, which is being rebranded as AT&T, and participating banks to manage their accounts and pay bills electronically by using an application on their cell phones. While the use of mobile phones for transactions is in its nascent stages in the United States, such services are already available in parts of Europe and Asia.In Japan, people commonly shop with their mobile phones by just waving their handset instead of swiping credit cards.

AT&T, having tested mobile banking last year, has said it will not charge extra for the service but expects it to attract more users to its wireless Internet service and potentially help it add new users and keep existing ones.Along with Wachovia, U.S. banks such as BancorpSouth Inc. (NYSE: BXS - news), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE:RF - news) and SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE:STI - news) are offering mobile banking to AT&T customers. The move is part of an effort by wireless companies around to world to boost their revenue and customer loyalty by convincing subscribers to use phones for everything from Web browsing and text messaging to playing music and video.

AT&T said customers can download software from privately held Firethorn Holdings LLC onto their phones. AT&T plans to include the software in new handsets in the second half of this year and is planning a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.Firethorn is also acting as an intermediary between AT&T and the banks.

AT&T said most BancorpSouth customers who tried mobile banking said they would use it to check their balance, and about three quarters said it would help them make better spending decisions. Wachovia operates in 21 U.S. states, while Regions operates in 16 states in the Midwest and South, including Texas. SunTrust provides banking in Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and BancorpSouth operates in eight U.S. states.

AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson talked about the mobile banking service in a keynote speech at the CTIA wireless technology conference on Tuesday. He also commented on combining wireless and fixed-line services. "I’m confident that in the not too distant future the concepts of having different handsets for different networks ….. will be seen as quaint," Stephenson said. For example, cell phone video conference services that AT&T plans to launch in 50 markets this summer could eventually work in conjunction with video conferencing on television screens and desktop computers."You should fully expect in a very short period that the other two screens will be brought into this," said Stephenson. He saw mobile video representing as dramatic a change as the replacement of black-and-white televisions with color. To illustrate the growing ubiquity of mobile phones around the world, Stephenson said that while four babies are born every second in China, about 25 people are signing up for wireless services in the country.

TechAddress: Tell me a bit about your company, what it does and what’s your value proposition?

NewsGator: We like to think of NewsGator as “The RSS Company,” and we have three primary offerings:

For consumers or individuals, we provide RSS aggregators or readers via the Web, Microsoft Outlook, desktop clients (Windows and Mac) and mobile devices among others. More than a million individuals use NewsGator Online (Web), NewsGator Inbox (Outlook), FeedDemon (Windows), NetNewsWire (Mac) and NewsGator Go! (Mobile) to access their news and information via RSS, with synchronization across all the platforms. These products help users improve productivity and stay better informed by bringing information directly to them from across the Web and blogosphere.

For businesses, we offer two centrally managed solutions: NewsGator Enterprise Server (server-based) and NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand (SaaS) to help easily deliver both internal and external RSS feeds to employee intranets, portals, e-mail clients and mobile devices, without a large learning curve for users. The solutions help reduce information overload, improve internal communications, drive greater portal usage, increase knowledge worker productivity and help organizations better leverage investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

Finally, for publishers, media companies and other companies with large Web presences, we provide a range of RSS, personalization and social media tools through the NewsGator Private Label Platform. The solutions help them build increase page views and loyalty within their existing brands.

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

NewsGator: On a macro-level, we are the only RSS company to offer solutions to individuals, businesses and media/publishing companies alike. On a product level the differentiators include:

• Individual/Consumer: Multiple interfaces/devices - all synchronized, a full-featured taxonomy, and an index of more than one million feeds
• Enterprise: Largest share of deployments and seats (Approximately 80-90% of market), widest set of access points (only one to support SharePoint or offer desktop clients), access to external content (via NewsGator Online) and integration with key Microsoft technologies
• Private Label: Only one to provide widgets and other tools beyond a branded RSS reader, deployments outside of newspaper market

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

NewsGator: This is described above, but from the beginning, the philosophy has always been to provide a back-end platform to handle users, feeds and subscriptions and then provide a wide variety of points to access the content - from power users with 200+ feeds to people who need to get relevant content delivered to Outlook or a portal without having the faintest idea what RSS is. Some key features along that point include clippings (find an article from a feed, clip it to a folder, let others subscribe/or subscribe others to that feed), read-state and subscription synchronization between different access points, and ajax-based Web interfaces.

For particular products, there are other features. FeedDemon and NetNewsWire both have three-pane “newspaper” reading windows and are lightning fast. NewsGator Enterprise Server has integration with Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory and other LDAP stores. NewsGator Private Label Platform has widgets called “Buzz” that can be dropped into a site and provide content from the publisher or outside with only a few lines of code. We also provide a wide-range of security features across all of the offerings.

TechAddress: Who’s your target customer or audience?

NewsGator: It depends on the product. Here are some examples:

• Individual/Consumer products: These are targeted to individuals with more casual users going for the free NewsGator Online, power and business users targeted for Inbox and FeedDemon, Mac owners targeted for NetNewsWire and mobile device power users targeted for NewsGator Go!.
• Enterprise products: NewsGator Enterprise Server is targeted to the Fortune 1000 and other large companies (5,000+ users) as well as organizations with 250 or more employees and a high concentration of knowledge workers such as pharmaceutical/chemical manufacturers, law firms, PR/marketing agencies, high tech companies, government and professional services firms. Targets include IT (Advanced Technology or Technology Architects), Corp Comm/Marketing and Librarians/Knowledge Management. NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand is more suited for smaller companies (less than 250 employees), divisions or functional groups of larger organizations without IT staffs supporting them. Targets include Corp Comm/Marketing, Librarians/Knowledge Management as well as business owners such as sales, research etc;
• Private Label: Newspapers, magazines, media companies, online content providers, publishers and B2C companies with a significant Web presence and content.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

NewsGator: Of course. NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand will be coming out later in January. A significant update of NewsGator Enterprise Server will be available in the first half of the year. We’re also part of the “SuiteTwo” project announced by Intel (www.suitetwo.com) which will ship in the next few months. On the consumer side, new versions of Inbox, FeedDemon and NetNewsWire are in the works as well as an even snazzier interface for NewsGator Online. Private Label is also constantly coming out with great new features like the recently announced Hosted Conversations. Subscribe to our blog to keep up-to-date on all major NewsGator developments: http://blogs.newsgator.com/daily/.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

NewsGator: Although RSS is one of the hottest Web 2.0 technologies around, it’s still only being knowingly used by a small percentage of the Internet population (less than 5% according to Forrester). As the technology matures and gains wider adoption, we plan to continually innovate and make it easier for people to access RSS and Web 2.0 content and maintain and even grow our leadership position.

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

NewsGator: Not really, but used the wrong way, RSS can become as bad as e-mail in terms of information overload. If people subscribe to too many feeds it can be problematic. This means that businesses should think about the knowledge management implications of RSS and use best practices when embarking on a corporate initiative.

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

NewsGator: Making it as easy as possible for as many people and companies to take full advantage of the power of RSS.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

NewsGator: The mission is really the same as the guiding principle. From a development standpoint we try to provide solutions and features that the market is asking for and also stay ahead of the curve and innovate in ways that people haven’t even thought was possible.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

NewsGator: NewsGator was founded in 2003 and accepted its first round of funding in June 2004. NewsGator closed its second, third and fourth round of financings in December 2004, April 2005 and June 2006 respectively. The company’s investors include Mobius Ventures and Masthead Venture Partners.

TechAddress: Tell me a bit about your company, what it does and what’s your value proposition?

Group2call: Having constant up-to-date communications with your Customers, Athletic Teams, Organization/Employees or Community just became easier with the release of Group2call’s new feature-rich mass messaging software service. Group2call Inc. primarily offers it’s Voice & Message Broadcast Service as a mass communication tool and we truly believe that what we offer is not only rich in features and functionality but we are also one of the most affordable message broadcast services on the web today.

Group2call makes it extremely simple to broadcast a message: users can type in a message, or record a message using the provided 800 number by phone then watch as their messages are sent out to everyone in their contact list or group. What separates Group2call from other automated phone dialers or phone trees is its many ways of sending a message. Group2call can send messages as voice, SMS, email, convert text-to-speech and can even send emails from personal email applications as a voice message to a phone.

“When we built the software we looked at every possible way to make everyday communication easier,” said Alan Lougher, Group2call’s President. “We replaced the lengthy time and repetitive tasks faced on a daily basis with a simplified solution. For example, outside sporting events in Florida encounter seasonal weather conditions which are a headache for many coaches whose games are canceled due to rain-outs or delays. Prior to using Group2call the team coaches would spend hours calling players and now spend only minutes recording their message and pressing send”.

Group2call, Inc. primarily offers it’s Voice & Message Broadcast Service as a mass communication tool and we truly believe that what we offer is not only rich in features and functionality but we are also one of the most affordable message broadcast services on the web today.

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

Group2call: Message broadcast tools, auto-dialers and phone trees are not new technology, so to start apart from the rest we not only offer complete message delivery through voice, SMS or email but we also leverage this technology to make every day communication easier. For example, we integrate with Google’s Calendar so that your schedule can be delivered to you every morning as a voice message or provide the ability to type your message into a simple email and have that email sent directly to a phone as a spoken message. We also offer an API so customers, through the use of a simple few lines of code, can embed voice broadcasting into their own applications. For example, we worked with the developers of WxMesg, one of the leading weather alert software applications on the market today, and we were able to completely integrate Group2call into their application without even changing one line of code. Instead of being limited to email and 100 characters in an SMS message, their software can now broadcast out complete weather or disaster alerts to regular phones.

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

Group2call: Primarily voice broadcasting but we also offer SMS, email, voice messages sent as email attachments, email to voice, text-to-speech, scheduled messaging and complete API for integration into 3rd party applications.

Some of our key features:

• Send a message as voice, SMS or email

• Record and send personal messages

• Text-to-speech

• Email2Voice

• Personal messages sent as email attachments

• Message sent by time zone

• Call delivery reporting

TechAddress: Who’s your target customer or audience?

Group2call: Any business small or large, schools, sports teams, recreational parks and then we have some customers who just use our service for contacting friends and family. One of our biggest customers are the NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) where we are currently testing it out in the Pacific islands for Tsunami or National disaster alerts. With Group2call they’ll now be able to reach the masses by broadcasting emergency alerts directly to any resident mobile or landline telephone. We are also seeing lots of interest from large corporations based in Florida who are also interested in leveraging our services for mass communications during Hurricane season.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

Group2call: We’re still perfecting the system but we’re constantly looking at new ways to integrate voice broadcasting into existing software applications. Google Calendar was one idea. We also powered www.call-in-sick.com a site which we launched as a gimmick to get our name out there. It gave us major, global publicity and we still get thousands of people calling in sick every day with our service. We are also experimenting using VoiceXML and plan to leverage and integrate this to make our service even easier to use.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

Group2call: An International message broadcast service. We’re currently testing the service in the UK and New Zealand and hope to offer our services in other major countries by end of 2007.

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

Group2call: None so far!

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

Group2call: At Group2call our core purpose is to provide to our customers the highest quality service in terms of innovation, technology and customer service.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

Group2call: Group2call is committed to becoming a world leader in global mobile technology systems and message broadcasting through the development and use of innovative technologies.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

Group2call: Until this day we have been completely self-funded and we hope to stay that way.

TechAddress: If your technology or service is not formally launched yet, when’s the launch date? If you have already launched, when was your launch date?

Group2call: We launched in August 2006.

Location: Headquartered in San Mateo, CA

Launch Date: December 2002

In the company’s own words, what is it? Bitpass was founded in 2002 to provide solutions that remove the roadblocks to digital content commerce and allow digital media and entertainment companies to cash in on their content assets. Today producers and aggregators of digital media want higher returns from investments in content. At the same time, rapidly changing consumer buying and usage behaviors are redefining the digital media marketplace. Bitpass connects digital media producers with this growing market, offering solutions that increase return on content, customers and community.

The Bitpass iMedia Commerce Engine marshals relevant delivery channels—including the web, cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, podcasts and more; manages digital content rights and offers insight into consumer behavior. With Bitpass, media and entertainment companies can focus on innovation rather than technology catch up.

The Bitpass iMedia Commerce Engine offers digital media and entertainment companies a turnkey system built on open web standards and a software-as-a-service platform. The system supports rapid deployment, transparent web and commerce integration, secure financial transactions, consumer behavior tracking and seamless content and data integration. Bitpass provides merchants with best-in-class professional service and complete online and live support.

Bitpass customers are leaders from media publishing, TV, film, radio, community and Internet and include segment-leading firms such as Disney, Microsoft and MSN, Ziff Davis, Time, United Media, CanWest, and Entercom. The company is privately held and based in Menlo Park, California. Bitpass has raised over $13 million in equity financing from leading venture capital firms, including Steamboat Ventures, RRE Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital, Worldview Technology Partners, First Data Corporation and Garage Technology Ventures.

Outside quote about company: Amy Van Hook, Director of Marketing Services for Entercom, says, “Entercom chose Bitpass‘ digital commerce engine for its ease of implementation and its flexibility to support a wide range of purchase types and price points. The BitPass solution allows us to simplify single-purchase downloads, subscriptions and up-sells to all types of digital content.”

Features:
* Universal Wallet, Media and Rewards Account
* Content Catalog and Offer Management
* Subscription, PPV and Retail Capabilities
* Small Payments and Aggregation

Management/Directors:
Douglas Knopper, Chief Executive Officer
Matt Graves, Chief Operations Officer
Kurt Huang, Founder and Vice President, Strategy and Emerging Markets
Gyuchang Jun, Chief Technology Officer
Punkaj K. Jain, Vice President, Engineering
Preston Roper, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing

Relevant Links:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-11-2005/0003594759&EDATE=
http://www.paymentsnews.com/2006/10/bitpass_unveils.html
http://www.twst.com/notes/articles/aey106.html
http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=1098

Limbo 41414: Limbo 41414 is a mobile entertainment company. Mobile as in “take it with you” since you can access our service via the web and via your mobile phone.

We launched Limbo 41414 in October 2005 for one simple reason - to help people get more fun out of their cell phones. Since then, we’ve expanded our service to the web much to the excitement of our members.

We’re creating mobile entertainment - games for people to enjoy in their downtime as well as a way for people to connect with others via SMS and online communities.

We support our mobile entertainment business in a number of ways, by making money from:
1. Companies who use our game as a promotional tool to attract new customers, increase the satisfaction of current customers or simply promote their products via mobile,
2. Media partners who use the programs to increase, retain and entertain their audiences, and
3. Premium SMS auctions in which we charge a fee to play.

Our premier product is the Limbo Auction, an insanely interactive game that combines the components of a sweepstakes and an auction. Basically, players try to guess the lowest unique number. The response has been phenomenal in that players actively engage the game an average of 20 times per Limbo Auction – the average players plays 40 times per month – and in return receive more than twice that number of messages from the sponsor through customize, branded tips and responses sent through our automated system.

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

Limbo 41414: We have no competitors. We’re the first company to offer the Limbo Auction and have a number of patents protecting our IP.

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

Limbo 41414: Our premier product is the Limbo Auction, an insanely interactive game that combines the components of a sweepstakes and an auction. Basically, players try to guess the lowest unique number. The response has been phenomenal in that players actively engage the game an average of 20 times per Limbo Auction – the average players plays 40 times per month – and in return receive more than twice that number of messages from the sponsor through customize, branded tips and responses sent through our automated system.

TechAddress: Who’s your target customer or audience?

Limbo 41414: The beauty of the Limbo Auction is that it transcends demographics and has a truly mass appeal. Therefore, the media through which the game is promoted determines the audience. To date, no one group is dominating.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

Limbo 41414: Sorry, but that’s confidential information. We can tell you that we’re planning to launch additional games and services beyond the Limbo Auction in the very near future.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

Limbo 41414: We’re growing very quickly. Our current goal is to attract 1 million members, and we’re well on our way!

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

Limbo 41414: The technology works well and people can play the game easily. However, oddly enough, the concept is difficult to explain. We try to simply entice people to play because the technology leads them through the process simply and easily.

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

Limbo 41414: We want people to have fun and connect with others. It’s fun: anywhere, anyhow, anytime. And, it’s on their terms.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

Limbo 41414: Our mission is to be the most fun you can have on your cell phone or the web. It’s a lofty goal, but we have lots of good ideas.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

Limbo 41414: We’ve received two rounds of funding. The first was seed money of approximately $2 million and our series B was $7 million. We launched our first product for consumers in January 2006 and continue to actively upgrade our system and add new features.

TechAddress: If your technology or service is not formally launched yet, when’s the launch date? If you have already launched, when was your launch date?

Limbo 41414: We started the company in October 2005 and launched our first consumer product, the Limbo Auction, in January 2006.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. December 8, 2006 – Hobnobster (http://www.hobnobster.com), brainchild of a San Francisco-based company, Feedtext Inc. (http://www.feedtext.com), launches today.

The application is a web and mobile social networking and bookmarking service where individuals get to message, mix and mingle with individuals of their choice by making use of the distinct features and search applets that ensures fast navigation through the member profiles found in the network.

Hobnobster can generate quality connections online and can help individuals stay connected even when on the move with the use of the text-messaging feature of a mobile phone. It addresses the need for mobility with the integration of this particular feature as the main communication platform for members.

“Our aim is to diversify our services in order to accommodate the demand that our market necessitates,” shares Vince T. Yamat, Founder of Feedtext Inc., “acknowledging an individual’s need for mobility and addressing a person’s ability to stay in touch are the two core ideas that serves as foundation for all our products and services.”

Since Hobnobster is a web and mobile application, a message sent from the web directly to the mobile phone of a member ensures a better and immediate interaction. There are options for achieving maximum user experience; a member has the ability to liven things up by sending Icebreakers in the form of a Hobnobster smiley, hug, flower, anonymous and personalized text messages. Importantly, it has not overlooked the issue of privacy; the application will allow members to block messages from unwanted members.

“Hobnobster provides a great way to connect and communicate with select peers, allows our subscribers to brand and promote their own profiles, and offers unique and clever ways to interact with the use of active contact features, complete with web and mobile options, found on the application.” Yamat adds. “It gives you the option to keep track of the profiles, which you’ve found interesting, and bookmark them for future or immediate communication. These bookmarked profiles will be visible to your contacts and visitors. You’ll be able to keep track of profiles that have sent you anonymous messages or, even better, you can make use of the Unmask feature of the application to reveal his or her identity. With all these features, you’ll come to see that it’s fun and safe!”

Hobnobster is the perfect choice for web and mobile social networking needs for individuals who regard multi-faceted interactivity with significance. With this application, the possibilities for a fun web and mobile networking and hook up experience are endless.

Feedtext Inc. is a web and mobile entertainment company that develops consumer and business applications for media companies and wireless carriers in North America. The company also offers other services such as chat, community applications, interactive TV applications and mobile entertainment storefronts.

For more information on the product, please visit the website at www.hobnobster.com or call +1 415.839.0091.

What bloggers have been saying about us so far:

http://mashable.com/2006/12/12/social-scraps-wrike-ajax13-spresent-hobnobster/
http://www.thesmartpda.com/50226711/social_networking_and_sms_combined.php
http://www.datingdames.com/social-networking-with-a-twist/
http://www.thesmartpda.com/50226711/a_hobnobster_update.php

That’s it. Registration just takes a couple minutes and your information is completely private.

TechAddress: Tell me a bit about your company, what it does and what’s your value proposition?

Phonezoo: Phonezoo is helping mobile enthusiasts to easily create, find and share personalized ringtones for free. Phonezoo’s technology combines user-generated content and the power of the community to give the mobile generation a fun, innovative way to customize their mobile phones. The company provides consumers with an easy-to-use service that enables them to turn their existing audio libraries into personalized ringtones they can share with friends and family.

It a nutshell, Phonezoo addresses key pain points for ringtone users: it’s free, it’s easy and it provides safe storage for your favorite ringtones when switching phones.

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

Phonezoo: The biggest differentiator is that Phonezoo is completely free to consumers. Until now, consumers had to pay an average of $2.50 per ringtone and options were limited to the audio segments prepackaged and sold by wireless carriers or the pay-per-ringtone services. Phonezoo built this service with the belief that consumers should be able to create personalized ringtones from their existing music libraries and place shift them to whatever mobile device they want to play it on. Phonezoo doesn’t charge for ringtones; there is no conversion software purchase required, and no hidden fees. With Phonezoo consumers use the existing music and audio files in their own library, or files that are publicly available on the Internet, so there are no charges and no copyright issues.

In addition, the community aspect is a very important differentiator; the idea that you can see the ringtones your friends have made, rate them and comment on them differentiate us from other for-pay websites and software solutions.

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

Phonezoo: Phonezoo offers a community destination comprised of a collection of user-generated ringtones, a service for creating personalized ringtones, and the technology to transfer those ringtones to your mobile device. Phonezoo also offers community based features that allow users to interact with each other and to share the ringtones they have created.

TechAddress: Who’s your target customer or audience?

Phonezoo: All mobile enthusiasts are potential customers, however, the 18–24 year old demographic is our sweet spot. We have completed our own research and have found that when cost is not a barrier, this demographic is interested in creating multiple ringtones for every contact in their address book. Phonezoo’s consumer research shows there is tremendous enthusiasm for free custom ringtones and if ringtones were free, as they are on Phonezoo; 60% would change ringtones daily/weekly, 91% would change at least monthly and 52% would want 6 or more at a time.

At Phonezoo, we understand our target audience and believe that for them a ringtone is a form of self-expression; since everyone hears their ringtones, it says something about them. So the idea of getting new, custom ringtones meets a big consumer need.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

Phonezoo: We are working on offering new holiday ringtones on the site for easy download, and on a MySpace widget so users can add their favorite ringtone to their MySpace page.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

Phonezoo: We continue to add to the service to ensure we are meeting the changing demands of the mobile generation. We have the technology to grow the service beyond ringtones to video ringtones, wallpapers, games etc. We will continue to add features to enhance community and content sharing - not just more content types, but also ways to make the community aspects of the site more interesting and useful.

Also, we’ll be adding support for additional carriers, both in the US and abroad. We have seen a fair amount of interest from people in other countries, and are working to support them.

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

Phonezoo: We haven’t had any negative feedback per se, however the issue of copyright protection has been raised. Our response is that we respect copyrights; a user who sends song to their own phone is fair use. We have designed the service in a way that requires others to upload copyrighted material before sending to their phone in order to prove that they already own this material. We rely on the judgment of the users, and are also working to implement technology to help us protect copyrights even further.

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

Phonezoo: Make it free, make it easy, make it fun for consumers.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

Phonezoo: Same as above, really. Our mission is to make creating and sharing mobile content fun and free.

With Phonezoo, consumers can compose unique ringtones from any segment of any song or audio file they own and they can create completely new and different ringtones from any sound source. Phonezoo’s simple process for creating personalized ringtones makes it quick and easy for users to create ringtones and get them to their phone. Phonezoo has built a service that gives users the ability to tap into the collective creative power of the Phonezoo community to find highly-rated, unique ringtones. Users can share their creations with friends, family and other Phonezoo community members.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

Phonezoo: We secured our A round earlier this year and are in the process of securing our B round.

TechAddress: If your technology or service is not formally launched yet, when’s the launch date? If you have already launched, when was your launch date?

Phonezoo: Phonezoo launched on November 15.