Funambol Inc., the leading provider of open source push email and mobile sync for the mass market, today announced the world's first open source mobile sync app for the Android G1 phone from T-Mobile USA. The Funambol Android Client syncs contacts from a Google gPhone with a Funambol Server.

Mobile open source player Funambol is certainly giving us plenty to watch these days with its Affero GPL licensing, its use of ad-supported mobile phone access to email and general bet on mobile open source software.

Open source mobile messaging vendor Funambol plans to add micro-banner ads to its online portal myFUNAMBOL. Calling the ads "prominent yet non-intrusive," Funambol representatives say the new advertisements will display in several areas of the email client, including the inbox and message viewing screens.

Funambol, which makes an open source mobile application server, announced last week that it will be creating a mobile messaging system designed specifically for Google’s Android platform.

"Funambol might be known for what they call their “open source mobile email & PIM sync solution,” but now they're going to be celebrated as being the “first major open source software company” to adopt the AGPLv3 license..."

Funambol, the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source, today announced that the AGPLv3 has received formal approval by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Funambol led the process of the license's approval by the OSI after adopting AGPLv3 in November. It was the first company to adopt the license, which closes the "ASP loophole".

Funambol’s move to adopt the new GNU Affero GPLv3 (AGPLv3) has some interesting implications for the mobile open source software player. It will be even more interesting, though, to see whether other open source SaaS players follow Funambol’s lead. What will be the impacts of closing open source software’s loopholes?

Xandros-owned email and groupware vendor Scalix released Scalix ActiveSync 1.0, a push email and synchronization add-on to Scalix Server that implements Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol for wireless message synchronization. Scalix also released Scalix Server 11.4.4, touted for its over 200 improvements.

The future of software is in cloud computing," says Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, a company that provides mobile services. And if free and open source software (FOSS) is going to survive in that emerging market, he says, then the community needs to adjust by promoting greater use of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), a license specifically crafted for software as a service.