According to the Wall Street Journal, some of the IT giants are teaming up to stop potential patent-infringement lawsuits against them.

Their plan is to buy up key intellectual property before it falls to other parties who could use it against you. They claim, from their sources, that Verizon, Google, HP, Ericsson and Cisco have joined a group known as the "Allied Security Trust".

The companies will pay $250,000 to join and will put in $5 million into the organization to buy patents. Not one of the companies mentioned commented about the story.

Vodafone has struck a deal with MySpace to launch a brand new platform for your mobile, called Vodafone Music Reporter - allowing fans of its music events a chance to present a MTV show that will be shown online and on mobile.

It will also see interactivity on MySpace profiles and hopes to expand Vodafone’s music activity, which includes summer festivals in the UK and Germany.

Fans from Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK will be able to compete and will be asked to "demonstrate their reporting skills" across the events. To enter the competition, you will need to upload a photo and video review of their favourite recent gig experience - then "friends" of the Vodafone Music Reporter community will decide on who are the best.

The winner will then join an MTV crew for a day of recording and will have a chance to record their report on-site for the show.

I have one word to say - interesting?

Aerosmith fans will now be able to act like Steven Tyler and Joe Perry as Activision released a brand new game under its Guitar Hero series.

Dubbed "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith", dozens flocked the Hard Rock restaurant in Times Square to see the band debut and try out the game for themselves. The game will also feature 30 of the band’s notable hits, like "Love in an Elevator" and "Sweet Emotion" - and will also include songs from other artists that Aerosmith collaborated or performed with.

The game’s controller will have the famous logo of the band emblazoned on the "guitar".

The bundle will be available for all Next-Gen consoles for $99.99, but for the game itself will cost $59.99. A PlayStation 2 version of the game will be sold for $49.99 - but a bundle will cost $89.99.

The company will also release "Guitar Hero : World Tour" during this Christmas season, and will include a drum kit and a microphone. This will bring it in competition with another title "Rock Band" - which is produced by MTV and EA.

Tomorrow, Telstra will be pushing out a new software update to half a million customers that will see their camera being used as a barcode reader. The new software will be supported by a couple of phones on their line-up, including Nokia’s 6120 and N95.

The new software works like this: You would see a barcode and you would scan it and it will direct you to a relevant web page. It will be using two standards - Data Matrix and quick response codes, both internationally recognised standards.

As well, these barcodes can transfer information from business cards to their phone books, scan their travel itineraries to show information about their flights or find reviews of television shows and movies.

Users will not pay a single cent for the extra costs related to the new software - however, in the future, they may place warnings that users may be charged for data - take for example, a song download.

Telstra has confirmed that it will sell the iPhone, in time of the July 11 launch. It will use the Next G network, allowing iPhone handsets to reach around 99% of the population.

Telstra will join Optus and Vodafone in selling the iPhone. However, both finalised their deals in May - as part of international agreements with Singapore Telecommunications and Vodafone respectfully. Sources say that it took this long to get the deal was due to differences between the content services provided on the iPhone.