"Idol" talk and some speculation

In the season premiere of "American Idol" last week, judge Simon Cowell harshly criticized Seattle as being one of the worst cities — talentwise — the show has visited.

But the Emerald City still may have some starlike qualities if you look behind the scenes and past the glamour.

For years, Seattle's Mobliss was in charge of the back-end wireless systems that made it possible for "American Idol" fans who are also Cingular Wireless subscribers to vote for their favorite performers by text message.

The method was so popular that more than 13.5 million text messages were sent during the third season. But last week, Mobliss confirmed it was no longer one of the key technology providers to Cingular and FremantleMedia, which owns and produces the show with 19 Entertainment.

Mobliss executives said it was by choice. They told Cingular last summer that Mobliss would sell its messaging assets to focus on producing mobile-game titles.

"We worked very successfully with Cingular over the past five years, and in an effort to focus on our mobile-gaming business, which we've been involved in for many years, we choose not to participate in the 'American Idol' program," said Tom Ederer, a vice president at Mobliss, which is owned by Japan-based Index.

So has Seattle lost an 'Idol' connection? Not so fast. Industry insiders speculate the contract will go to SinglePoint, of Bellevue, formerly Wireless Services.

Just as a star refuses to talk about a developing love interest, SinglePoint politely declined to comment, other than to say there have been some inaccuracies about the speculation.

Starting up in China

Less than a year after forming a new investment firm in China, Bellevue-base Ignition Partners has made a small investment in a new venture founded by the chief architect of Google's main rival, Baidu.

The new company, Yeelion, received $5.5 million from Qiming Venture, Ignition Partners and two other unnamed VC companies.

Based in Beijing, online-entertainment company Yeelion has developed a software it calls Koowo, which allows users to search music lyrics.

Qiming is the China investment firm that Ignition formed last February with veterans of Intel Capital and Mobius Venture Capital.

Hear the smelltone?

Japanese wireless company NTT DoCoMo last week introduced a new line of phones from Sony Ericsson, including the SO703i, a cellphone you might call a smell phone.

According to a Reuters report, the "aroma" handset comes with sheets in nine different scents to correspond with different designs.

No word on what the scent choices might be.

Maybe they could work like ringtones to correspond with the breath of various callers: minty fresh when your dental-hygienist girlfriend calls; beer and nacho cheese when your barfly buddy dials you up. Just a thought.

Award season

It's time for the WSA's annual Industry Achievement Awards, with winners to be announced March 21.

The technology trade group's finalists:

• Breakthrough Technology: BioPassword, Inrix, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

• Business Product: Attenex, Tableau Software, Twisted Pair Solutions.

• Consumer Product: Farecast, Logos Bible Software, WhitePages.com.

• Service Provider: PTSO of Washington, SafeHarbor Technology, SolutionsIQ.

• Technology Innovator: Chris Diorio, chairman, Impinj; Bryan Mistele, president and CEO, Inrix; Rob Gilde, vice president, Lockdown Networks.

• Best Use of Technology in Government or Nonprofit: Olympic Public Safety Communications Alliance Network, PTSO of Washington, Tacoma Goodwill.

Download, a column of news bits, observations and miscellany, is gathered by The Seattle Times technology staff. We can be reached at 206-464-2265 or biztech@seattletimes.com.