Teens spend hours on IM apps

According to the initial findings of TeenTech, the first study in Canada to directly monitor teen home Internet activities, some young teens are spending up to eight hours per day online, reports the Regina Leader Post.

By age 14, online activities jump dramatically to an average of 2.5 hours per day, including sending and receiving an average of 40 instant messages (IMs) per day.

The most avid IM in the pilot phase of the four-year study sent and received an average of 160 messages per day.

According to research firm Informa, marketers will spend more than $11 billion on mobile advertising by 2011, reports the USAToday.

Recognising the opportunity that mobile advertising spend offers, some of the cellphone operators in the US are also starting to experiment with sending text messages promoting new services.

However, if mobile operators want to exploit this marketing opportunity, they must tread lightly so as not to annoy customers with messages they don't want, experts say.

Skype has released an upgrade of its Mac software, in beta, that enables users to conference with up to nine other Skye users and to send SMS messages via the Skype Out feature to any mobile phone number in the world, reports iTWire.

Users select a SkypeOut contact, enter a mobile phone number, or select a Skype contact's mobile phone number in their profile.

Messages are displayed as being sent from the sender's Skype user name: they cannot be replied to using the originating phone number.