On Monday, digital travel guide publisher Schmap will launch the public beta of its solution for the iPhone.

The iPhone offering will incorporate the company's City Guides along with a Local Search service and a new iPhone-specific Rotate 'n Map feature (see image) that automatically updates your map when the iPhone is turned sideways.

Check it out at http://www.schmap.com/iphone … and if you want to try it out before the official beta launch on Monday the 12th, just go to www.schmap.com on your iPhone and enter access code 724627.

Just in case you had any doubts that the Samsung Instinct was targeting the iPhone directly, marketing company M80 recently released a video comparing the Instinct's GPS functionality with that of the iPhone.

And that's just one of a series the company has launched on Sprint's Web site, where they've posted the helpful tag line “Watch the Instinct defeat the iPhone” - just in case you didn't already get the idea…

There's one problem with the whole campaign, though, as Gizmodo's Mark Wilson notes. “The problem isn't that the Instinct is necessarily a bad phone, or that Sprint is a worse service than AT&T,” he writes. “It's that Sprint's series of commercials will cost the company $100 million to promote a message that will most probably be a moot point in one month if/when Apple announces their 3G iPhone…”

Last week, free Wi-Fi for iPhone users (and for laptop-wielding hackers) appeared at AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide - then disappeared soon after, presumably in response to the hacking activity.

Now it's back - and it's official.

“AT&T's website officially states that all iPhone rate plans now include 'access to AT&T's more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots' across the US,” reports Ars Technica's Chris Foresman.

UPDATE: …and now it's gone again. The AT&T site no longer shows the 'access to Wi-Fi' mention among iPhone plans. Looks like some kinda raging internal debate is going on at T about how to handle this…

Clearwire and Sprint today announced plans to combine Sprint's Xohm WiMax offering and Clearwire's WiMax network into a new $14.55 billion company, to be called - shockingly enough - Clearwire. Additional investors in the new company include Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

“For Sprint, which began testing WiMax earlier this year in three markets, the deal eliminates an operational distraction and allows management to return to salvaging its troubled wireless business,” writes the AP's David Twiddy. “It also could quiet critics who consider WiMax experimental and expensive - one estimate had Sprint paying more than $5 billion to roll out the service. Clearwire already has 400,000 subscribers for its WiMax-like technology. It gets new capital, infrastructure and broadband spectrum out of the deal, plus further validation of its technology.”

Last week, Starbucks and AT&T began their nationwide rollout of AT&T Wi-Fi access at Starbucks stores - with the surprise addition of free access to iPhone users with a valid AT&T Wireless phone number.

But the security isn't exactly high-tech… “There's a loophole that allows anyone to get free Wi-Fi if you switch your browser's user agent to Mobile Safari,” according to Karl at BroadbandReports.

To clarify: “In Safari, you can select the iPhone user agent through the Develop menu (which you can enable by navigating to Preferences -> Advanced and checking 'Show Develop menu in menu bar,'” writes Lifehacker's Adam Pash.

“We can't imagine this is a hole that won't get plugged real fast, so get it while the gettin's good,” advises Engadget's Joshua Topolsky…

Canada's Rogers Wireless yesterday issued the following all-too-brief statement from CEO Ted Rogers: “We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the
iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right
now, but stay tuned.”

“It was widely expected that Canada's largest cellphone carrier would land the iPhone as it is the only compatible network in the country, but it was also suspected that Rogers' high data rates stymied any talks between the company and Apple,” notes The Financial Post's David George-Cosh.

“The telco has support for 3G in the form of HSPA, so our guess is that Rogers will skip the v1.0 iPhone altogether and start out with the 3G version expected this summer,” writes Wired's Charlie Sorrel. “Also, the growing possibility that the new iPhone will be sold as a subsidized handset, without the subscription kickbacks to Apple, could be the last change that Rogers needed to sign up.”

Engineers at UC Berkeley yesterday announced a new solution that uses cell phones to make medical imaging available to underdeveloped parts of the world.

“Diagnosis and treatment of an estimated 20 percent of diseases would benefit from medical imaging, yet this advancement has been out of reach for millions of people in the world because the equipment is too costly to maintain,” says Boris Rubinsky, UC Berkeley professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering. “Our system would make imaging technology inexpensive and accessible for these underserved populations.”

“There are three main components in medical imaging devices: data acquisition hardware (connected to the patient), image processing software, and a display device,” explains Medical News Today's Peter Crosta. “If these three component pieces have to be combined into a solitary unit, the cost of the machine is substantially increased. This led Rubinsky and his team to physically separate these components, keeping the processing software required to convert the raw data into an image at an off-site and central location that has the resources to operate and maintain it.”

“The cellular phone technology transmits unprocessed, raw data from the patient site DAD (data acquisition device) to the cutting-edge central facility that has the sophisticated software and hardware required for image reconstruction,” writes The Jerusalem Post's Judy Siegel-Itzkovich. “This data is then returned from the central facility to the cellular phone at the DAD site in the form of an image and displayed on its screen.”

Skype last week released a beta version of Skype for Java-enabled mobile phones, designed for devices from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

“The ability to make Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handset is limited to eight markets: Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Poland, Sweden and the UK,” notes ZDNet's Matthew Broersma. “Users in other countries can use chat, group chat, presence and receive Skype and SkypeIn calls.”

According to the company, the beta testing phase is expected to last several months. “While Skype for your mobile is in beta, it is an important time for us to listen to our users' feedback, be it through surveys or user forums,” says Gareth O'Loughlin, Skype's general manager for mobile and hardware devices. “We need to hear what delights them and where there is still work to be done.”

“What's hard to understand is why it's taken Skype so long to do this,” writes The Register's Bill Ray. “IM+, from Shape Services, has been offering the same capabilities for quite a while, and with Fring, users can even make (genuinely) VoIP calls for free - though that's better restricted to when Wi-Fi is available.”

Google this week announced the introduction of mobile image ads, moving beyond the text-based ads the company launched last fall for mobile devices.

“Previously, only text-based Web ads were available, but now both mobile advertisers and publishers can present branded messages to mobile users and have them appear as they would on a desktop,” writes BizReport's Helen Leggatt. “The image ads are keyword-targeted, priced on a CPC basis and must link to a mobile web page.”

“A number of other companies already display banner ads on mobile Web pages,” notes PC World's Nancy Gohring. “Yahoo, AdMob and Third Screen, which is now owned by AOL, are among companies that display banner ads for advertisers. Microsoft displays banner ads on some of its mobile Web pages, such as MSNBC and other MSN mobile Web pages.”

A recent study of 1,424 U.S. adults by Opinion Research Corporation finds that while most people are still unwilling to try mobile banking, younger people (ages 18-34) are using their cell phones for banking at twice the rate of the general population.

“Meeting the needs of these tech-savvy customers is going to be key for banks to stay competitive - the income of 'Generation Y' is expected to surge over the next 10 years and exceed that of Baby Boomers,” writes the AP's Madlen Read. “So far, although most major banks offer mobile banking services, 89 percent of consumers do not use their cell phones to conduct mobile banking transactions.”

Still, others are more optimistic. “Mobile banking may be lying in wait to take off, according to another report released earlier this month by Juniper Research, which predicts explosive growth in mobile banking applications in a delayed reaction as interest builds up,” writes InformationWeek's W. David Gardner. “Juniper said ten times as many consumers will likely be using mobile banking in 2011 compared to 2007.”

Acer this week demonstrated a new version of its Acer Aspire 5920 laptop with a built-in WiMax module, with the aim of selling the laptop for use with Sprint's Xohm network and similar WiMax services worldwide.

There's some dispute, though, about how exactly it will be sold.

“The notebook will be sold along with WiMax service in a manner similar to the way mobile phones are sold along with service packages, said Trisha Pan, a product marketing manager at Acer, on the sidelines of a WiMax news conference in Taipei,” writes InfoWorld's Dan Nystedt.

On the other hand, Sprint spokesman John Polivka has been responding to blog posts by stating, “Acer and other manufacturers are developing access devices which will work on WiMax networks, such as Sprint's Xohm. Their device is not being sold by Sprint, and it will not be tied to any Sprint service plan. The source may be referring to other providers and their service plans. Sprint Xohm will indeed have subscriptions, versus traditional contracts, based on the customer and not the device. In traditional telecom, each device is a customer. We will accomodate multiple devices under each customer, in home and away subscription packages, though details have yet to be announced.”

So it sounds like, while it was a nice idea on Acer's part, it would be a little unrealistic to start looking forward to free laptops from Sprint…

Republican congressman Chris Cannon and Democractic congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo this week introduced the Wireless Internet Nationwide (WIN) for Families Act, which would require the FCC to auction off unused spectrum for a nationwide network offering free Internet access with family-friendly content filters.

Eshoo says the bill is a response to the results of the 700 MHz auction. “By every measure, the U.S. is losing the international broadband race and our competitiveness as a nation is at stake… the results of the 700 MHz auction disappointed many of us who hoped that a new entrant would emerge,” she said in a statement. “70% of the spectrum auctioned went to only two carriers. While the auction required under this legislation is open to anyone, it is my hope that the bold conditions of requiring free, family friendly service will encourage the entry of a new kind of national broadband service provider.”

Gizmodo's Wilson Rothman, however, isn't optimistic about the bill's prospects. “You want some well-heeled for-profit corporation to pay potentially billions for the privilege of hastily launching a network that it can't charge money for, and let competitors provide devices for it, again for no extra money?” he asks. “I don't think so. I'm not pro-corporation, so much as I am pro-reality.”

“The bill is sure to be opposed by at least some Internet service providers who will chafe at the increased competition from a free nationwide carrier,” adds the Salt Lake Tribune's Matt Canham.

Panasonic this week introduced its first Wi-Fi enabled LUMIX camera, the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ50. The 9.1-megapixel TZ50 has a 10x optical zoom and comes with a year of free Wi-Fi access at T-Mobile HotSpot locations, specifically for the purpose of uploading photos to Google's Picasa Web Albums.

“It's also possible to browse your online library direct from the camera, a neat antidote for those people who never upload their pictures to a computer and always use the camera itself for slideshows,” notes Wired's Charlie Sorrel.

“The Panasonic LUMIX TZ50 also incorporates Panasonic's Intelligent Auto (iA) mode that automatically control exposure, red-eye correction, camera shake, ISO settings, Scene modes, face detection and focus control,” writes Pocket-lint's Stuart Miles.

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson this week announced an agreement to limit royalty rates on patents related to Long Term Evolution (LTE).

“The companies involved have pledged to avoid the bitter patent and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) rows which characterized past mobile technologies,” explains eFluxMedia's Sarah Vasques.

“Disputes among network suppliers over patent-royalty fees have roiled the industry for years and sometimes put wireless phone companies in a difficult spot,” writes the WSJ's Jeffry Bartash. “They have sometimes delayed equipment purchases to avoid becoming caught in the middle.”

“The companies have committed to keeping royalty levels for essential LTE patents in handsets below 10 percent of the sale price, and have agreed a maximum royalty in LTE-enabled notebooks must stay below $10,” writes AfterDawn's James Delahunty.

But as Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman points out, not everyone is on board at this point. “Qualcomm hasn't signed on, and the litigious chipmaker is known to have some significant IP related to 4G,” he notes…

Fring this week announced the beta launch of its mobile VoIP app for the iPhone, allowing users to access Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM on their iPhones.

“Fring creates a single, integrated contact list when a user logs on to the service,” writes InformationWeek's Terry Sweeney. “And as an always-on, always-connected application, Fring offers PC-style 'presence' indicators to display contacts' status - online, away, offline, in a meeting, on their mobiles, for example. Fring's VoIP app for iPhones is free to download and use. Consumers pay for any data they consume under existing service plans with their network provider; there are no hardware or location limitations to Fring's VoIP service.”

There are some serious limitations, though, as I4U News' Shane McGlaun notes. “To use the service, you need to download it from Fring on what it calls an 'open' iPhone,” he writes. “We could assume 'open' to mean unlocked or jailbroke. Perhaps the final version will be built using the Apple SDK for the iPhone, so any user can try the application…”