Since I worked in Africa last year, I have a different view of mobile phone, feature phone and smartphone requirements and Google's latest initiative will be very welcome there, I'm sure. As Google Africa today announced on its Africa blog, Google created and just launched "Gmail SMS". E-Mail has become an important part of everyday life, doesn't matter if it is in the first world or emerging markets, doesn't matter if it is used for personal or business communication and as Google wrote, "there's so much you do with it: apply for a job, make an inquiry, get notifications from your social network, receive photos or an invitation that makes you smile, and just communicate back and forth with your friends".

That's an interesting approach which comes from German Giesecke & Devrient; you remember - the SIM card giant which worked together with Apple on next generation's Nano SIM. This morning, G&D presented the first payment sticker to meet the specifications of the German banking industry. When the sticker is attached to a cell phone or smartphone, contactless payment becomes possible even if the device itself is not NFC-enabled. The SECCOS Mobile payment sticker is certified for the MasterCard contactless payment method PayPass. This allows bank customers worldwide to pay bills at over 350,000 PayPass locations.

Initially announced for the U.S. market, this morning Sony Mobile Germany followed Sony Mobile Italy and announced the upcoming launch of the Xperia ion, Sony's first Xperia LTE Android smartphone which will hit Europe without LTE but with quadband GSM/GPRS/EGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA only. Originally launched with Android 2.3 only, Sony hasn't lost a word which version its ion will run on if it hits European markets later this summer. Like its U.S. counterpart, the Xperia ion has a 4.6" 720p HD display and is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor for fast browsing and content download, which can be stored on the internal 16 GB flash storage.

Unveiled earlier today, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer announced the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, also known as Office 15 or Office 2013. Coming to Windows 8 and Windows RT later this fall, as well as being compatible to Windows 7, the next release features an intuitive design that works beautifully with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets. The new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.

Doesn't matter if we like the new Windows 8 Metro look and feel or we argue about the missing Start button, Windows 8 is Microsoft's future of Windows for all kind of PCs, laptops, tablets and well - even USB sticks! While it's clear that a Windows OS will for sure work on PCs and laptops, the support for ARM based, so called SoC (System on Chip) tablets, is something new but Windows 8 comes with another feature which hasn't caught too much attention yet, something Microsoft simply calls "Windows To Go". Windows To Go allows to install a full version of Windows 8 on a USB stick which then can be booted on any PC. In my humble opinion, this is idea is big and ground breaking.