Three cheers for a free new service that not only alerts you of your cellphone airtime usage, but provides a forecast as well so you can adjust your calling patterns accordingly. Unlike other minute-tracking solutions, MinuteWatcher doesn't require downloading any software to your phone; rather, it automatically signs into your account on your carrier's website, pulls the relevant data, and emails it to you on a preset schedule in graphical or text-only formats. Available immediately for customers of all the major networks, MinuteWatcher seems like a no-brainer to sign up for, unless you're sketchy about giving up some of your personal info like password, phone number, and home address.

[Via PRWeb]

MSNBC.com and Microsoft have teamed up to provide an Action Engine-powered standalone application for mobile devices that allows for quick access to news stories, videos, and photo slideshows without to need to launch a browser. Initially available as a download for a handful of Windows Mobile devices, with support for Java/BREW-enabled phones promised in the coming months, the free applet and corresponding service are ad-supported -- with the first ad spots purchased by, you guessed it, Microsoft. We took the video component through a quick run through on our PPC-6700 (shhh, don't tell Sprint!), and found the viewing experience to be quite pleasant over EV-DO, with smooth frame rates and tinny-but-acceptable audio throughout. That's not to say we'll give up streaming real MSNBC and other unedited content over Orb (again, shhh!), but this mobile app will at least retain a place on our storage card for quick access to headlines and "Today Show" clips.

[Via Business Wire]