Follow the Vendee Globe on your mobe

Ellen McArthur's latest boat is packed to the gills with mobile technology to keep fans up-to-date with its progress in the Vendee Globe round-the-world yacht race.

The Offshore Challenges boat will actually be skippered by Nick Moloney in the race which starts on Sunday. The boat has been fitted out with four webcams and a satellite broadband system which sends all the latest information back to Offshore Challenges' control centre. From there it is reformatted for the various iTAGG services.

Steve Procter, CEO at iTAGG, told The Register: "I'm surprised by how much people will pay for quite poor content. Compared to three or four pounds for a ringtone paying less than a pound for a picture of a sporting celebrity seems reasonable."

Procter said pictures of big events during the race could be on people's handsets within minutes. These include instant SMS news - interested punters send a text message to receive the latest news by reply. Or you can sign up to a subscription service which will text your phone every day. Obsessive fans can access a Wap site via mobile or even download a Java application to keep them updated all the time.

The information will be available to mobile users in France and the UK.

iTAGG services previously came to the attentions of El reg when they launched a mobile SMS Good Pub guide. It was road-tested by a Register editor released into the wilds of Essex - he was quickly directed to a nearby hostelry. ®

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