Santa Monica, Calif. - News. Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace online social network on Tuesday introduced its anticipated Developer Platform, which will allow developers to create applications that run within the social network, a la the popular platform on rival Facebook. While developers were given access to the platform today, end users will not be able to test drive the new applications developed for MySpace until next month. "We are committed to lowering the barrier to entry for developers around the world to build a more collaborative and dynamic Internet, while empowering our members to take control of their online presence in new and exciting ways," said MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe.

Helsinki - Nokia (NASD: NOK) on Tuesday launched its rejiggered N-Gage mobile games service, as well as a mobile social network that lets users share photos and videos, Reuters reported. After several delays, the N-Game games platform was opened on Tuesday to owners of Nokia's N81 multimedia phones; a wider launch is expected later. The Share on Ovi social network was built with technology acquired from U.S.-based Twango, a Nokia spokesperson told Reuters.

Tel Aviv, Israel - MeeMix, a personalized Internet radio community, on Tuesday launched "Mee Game," a personalized music trivia challenge application for the Facebook and Bebo social networks. To play, users enter a favorite artist's name, and a radio station will be created for the game based on MeeMix's taste prediction algorithm. Players will then hear a 30-second song clip and have to guess the artist from four possible answers, with questions becoming harder as players advance.

Redwood City, Calif. - Zazzle, an on-demand retail platform that lets consumers personalize music merchandise and other products, said on Tuesday that it Disney's Hollywood Records will offer its service for artists including Plain White T's and Breaking Benjamin. Redwood City, Calif.-based Zazzle has previously signed similar deals with MySpace, Live Nation and Warner Music Group.

Los Angeles - RDF, the producers of the Fox series "Don't Forget the Lyrics," are creating a companion online game for the show that will allow viewers to upload videos of themselves singing, for consideration to become future contestants on the program. RDF is also working on a mobile game for its "The Two Coreys" series on Fox.

Los Angeles - Vivendi Games' Sierra Entertainment studio on Tuesday released its "The Spiderwick Chronicles" game, based on the upcoming Paramount Pictures film and popular books. The title was developed by Stormfront Studios for Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, DS, PC and mobile phones.

Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) began hearing arguments from music publishers, record labels, and digital music distributors on Monday, on how much songwriters and music publishers should be paid when music is streamed or downloaded, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Following on Heather’s post, I wanted to share some UK data on the proposed Yahoo! and Microsoft deal. First up: webmail services, and as the chart below illustrates, Microsoft has a dominant market share with its Hotmail service. While Gmail (GoogleMail in the UK) has gained some traction, its market share has been flat for the last few months. Last week the combined market share of the Microsoft and Yahoo! services was 13 times that of Google.

Copenhagen - A Danish court has ordered Internet service provider Tele2 to block access to notorious Sweden-based file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, the result of a civil lawsuit brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Reuters reported, citing a story in Danish IT magazine Computerworld.

Beijing - Three of the major record labels have launched new copyright infringement lawsuits against Chinese search providers Baidu (NASD: BIDU), Sohu.com and Yahoo China (NASD: YHOO), following what record label trade group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) called "months of fruitless negotiations." Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong) (NYSE: SNE), and Warner Music Hong Kong (NYSE: WMG) filed claims in a Beijing court asking the search firms to remove links to unauthorized music files hosted on third-party sites.

Dothan, Ala. - Movie Gallery, the nation's second-largest video rental chain behind Blockbuster, on Tuesday announced plans to close an additional 400 underperforming and unprofitable Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores.

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) on Tuesday introduced new iPhone and iPod touch models with increased memory, including a 16GB iPhone ($499) and 32B iPod touch ($499). "For some users, there's never enough memory," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone product marketing. "Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world."

Palo Alto, Calif. - Mozes, the provider of an on-demand mobile marketing platform, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Hurricane Interactive Promotions, a provider of live concert mobile phone promotions.

Dulles, Va. - In the second acquisition for its Platform-A advertising arm in as many days, AOL (NYSE: TWX) on Tuesday said that it has acquired buy.at, an independent affiliate network that provides advertisers and publishers a platform for e-commerce marketing programs.

Santa Monica, Calif. - The Independent Comedy Network (ICN), an online comedy video start-up founded by members of comedy theaters including iO, Westside Eclectic, The PIT and The Magnet, on Tuesday announced its launch.

San Francisco - Vator.tv, a video service launched by former Marketwatch columnist Bambi Francisco that lets entrepreneurs post pitches for funding to venture capitalists, has raised "just over $1 million" in a second seed round of funding, Beet.tv reported.

Emeryville, Calif. - TubeMogul, a provider of video distribution and analytics services, has raised $1.5 million in funding from Bridge Capital Partners, VentureBeat reported.