GLOBAL – The end of the week means that it’s time for our round-up of the news that we weren’t able to fit in, and the blog posts and articles that simply caught our attention. There’s a bit of a common theme this week, around the ever-increasing growth of the mobile web. There’s more people, better browsers and advice on how to make websites work properly on mobiles.

• The folk at Beta Labs have created a brand new browser for Nokia Series 40 devices. Using patented compression technologies, over the air data is reduced by 90% resulting in faster page loads and – just as importantly – lower data bills. As always, it’s a beta product, so be prepared for possible glitches and crashes. SymbianTweet has more info.
• There’s an interesting article in the New York Times this week on the extent to which America’s mobile industry is out-of-step with the rest of the world. There’s a “a new frontier of global innovation” using small, inexpensive devices that the US is missing out on, according to the writer.
• MobileActive has a video and walkthrough showing how to make your WordPress website more accessible to Mobile Users. They use the WordPress Mobile Pack plug-in to achieve this, but it’s also worth assessing other solutions such as Wapple Architect and Mippin.
• Opera software have released a new report on the State of the Mobile Web showing triple-digit growth in mobile internet use in Africa: “From June 2009 to June 2010, page views in the top 12 countries in Africa increased by 182% year-over-year, unique users increased by 124%, and the amount of data transferred increased by 160%”. We also noted this piece in Business Daily on the explosive growth of the African mobile development industry.
• And finally, David Gilson, at All About Symbian, used an ageing-but-loved Nokia N82 to document a wedding. The model remains a firm favourite among mobile photographers and his efforts show why. He also remarks on the fact that cameraphones allow people to take photographs off-the-cuff in a way that might seem too intrusive or embarrassing with a regular camera.

That’s it for this week. Do be sure to let us know of any interesting extra links in the comments.