—Thumbplay offering UMG mobile content: Thumbplay has agreed to a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) which will see the mobile content provider exclusively launching ringtones and other mobile content from Def Jam recording artist Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter. Customers will have access to ten singles from Jay-Z’s greatest hits in the past ten years (release).

—Sony Ericsson signs on GlobalFun: Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) has signed a deal with Swedish mobile games provider GlobalFun to be one of two main official content acquisition partners for the Play Now Arena and Fun & Downloads services run by the handset maker. The deal follows five years of close cooperation between the two companies (release)

— IHT launches iPhone-friendly site: The International Herald Tribune has launched an iPhone-optimized version of its web site IHT.com. The IHT developer’s blog points out that this is not a native iPhone application, nor do they have plans to build one. There’s also an interesting run down of the hurdles the IHT developers faced trying to build the site.