Interactive Mobile @dvertising, which offers GPS-enabled mobile destination guides in partnership with tourism authorities at trade shows, attracted a $500,000 investment from Connecticut Innovations.

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Apple changed the music industry with iTunes. Might smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and RIM or mobile operating-system providers like Apple, Google or Microsoft disrupt the travel industry by weaving themselves into the fabric of travel distribution?

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Dennis Woodside has some simple advice for travel marketers who will have to try to cope with the coming disruption -- "dog-fooding."

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Gowalla, a location-based social-networking service on smartphones, concluded an agreement with the Travel Channel to integrate some of its content.

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SpaFinder launched a free iPhone app that enables travelers to use the smartphone's GPS features to find a nearby spa, access maps, directions and user reviews, check availability and make appointments.

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After a deal inked with mobile-printing specialist PrinterOn, Hilton Garden Inn introduced printing capabilities from smartphones for business travelers.

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Priceline says some of the proceeds from its just-announced $500 million convertible-note offering may be used for corporate acquisitons, leading Susquehanna Financial Group to speculate that Priceline engineered the move because it may have felt it needed to match Expedia's $1 billion warchest for future acquisitions.

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Hotel-deals syndicator Travelscream plans to release at the end of this month a free iPhone app which would enable hotel partners to promote ancillary services, from spa treatments to dining and tours, to hotel guests before, during and after their stays.

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Mobile itinerary-management company WorldMate shook up its executive ranks and is making a push for cobranded deals and advertising agreements with airlines, hotels and GDSs, as well as white-label pacts with smartphone manufacturers.

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Deborah Mills, a well known doctor-cum-author in the travel medicine sector, has switched channels and unveiled a mobile application for those who fall ill on holiday.

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Travel technology firm OpenWays is attempting a major push to the world's hotel chains with a new system which allows customers to open doors with a mobile.

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There is so much focus on Google and Apple in the mobile phone market that it may come as a surprise to hear that Yahoo is the tech firm knocking on the door of the patent office.

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Hot on the heels of research yesterday that indicated an apparent mass reluctance to make bookings on handsets is better news for the mobile travel sector - ticketing is booming.

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An in-depth report into online fraud and how companies are dealing with such activity also claims 78% of consumers will never make a booking on their phone.

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Plenty of praise for a major development by mobile handset manufacturer Nokia to produce what some believe is a serious threat to the sat-nav GPS systems but is probably more of a rearguard against recent similar moves by Google.

The upgraded Ovi maps are being touted as a personal sat-nav (it uses similar tracking technology) coupled with trip planning and other travel-friendly features such as location and activity search and networking.

Missing from the announcement was any mention of Dopplr, the travel social network and trip planning business that Nokia acquired in 2009.

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