Archive for June, 2007
by Russell Shaw
June 30, 2007 at 3:43 pm · Filed under Privacy + Security
Instant Messaging security solutions provider Akonix Systems said Thursday that their Security Center Research facility tracked 36 malicious code attacks over IM networks in June.
These 36 attacks represent an 80% increase over threats identified in May.
The first half of 2007 yielded 206 IM threats, 79% more than the first six months of 2006.
New worms included Checkout, Impard, MSNHideOptions, Mubla and VB-DVQ.
The problem seems to be inattentiveness to IM security best practices.
Obviously with an intent to sell you Akonix’ security products but with a boots-on-the-ground security perspective that you should not ignore, Akonix vp-marketing Don Montgomery concurs.
“We continue to see businesses placing a high priority on email security but not on IM security,” Montgomery said in a statement. “Earlier this year, nearly all of the respondents to an Enterprise Strategy Group survey could name their email security provider, while almost half could not name their primary vendor for IM. In addition, nearly 30% did not have an IM security solution in place. IM is increasingly becoming a standard medium for internal and external business communications, and demands the same level of day-to-day risk management and policy enforcement as email.”
by Russell Shaw
June 30, 2007 at 3:27 pm · Filed under Software, Mobile Applications
I believe the era of SMS Money Transfer is close to being a dominant force in our mobile economy.
The reason I’ve capped SMS Money Transfer bears out my point. This is actually a branded service of a UK-based company called Anam.
How it works- if you want to transfer money, you, the sender, types in #Cash and then the phone number of the receipient. The message is sent to a person in your address book. The recipient also receives a text message from Anam, asking them to phone a number included in the text message.
You, the sender, are not done yet. You key in a PIN number, and your recipient receives a text saying that you’ve received the amount to be sent.
The big leap forward will be when financial insitutitions sign on board. Possible other markets include remittance activities for various partners, such as cell carriers or utilities.
In just one example, a parent (that could mean you) might wish to SMS money to their child’s cell phone account. (Providing of course, your child’s SMS surcharges aren’t too high).
by Helen Keegan
June 29, 2007 at 8:35 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
A few new North American-centric services that I’ve just been tipped off about via TrendCentral and wondered if any readers here had tried them.
The first is Jott which is billed as a hands-free messaging service. What that means is that it transcribes your voice message into a text message. Seems to me this is a mash-up of Spinvox (of which I’m a HUGE fan) and Morning Papers. It’s a simple idea, you just call a number, dictate your message and Jott does the rest. What would be cleverer still though is if you could also add your friend’s mobile number and then send that message as a text message to them. Particularly useful if you have a broken arm or something and can’t use your hands or if you’re blind and can’t get hold of your friend by voice.
Slifter is a service which helps you find products and promotions at stores near you on the web or on your phone.
It seems there are three ways you can use Slifter:
1. ONLINE at www.slifter.com
2. TEXT MESSAGE
Just text your product query and zip code to 75438. (Ex: “Nikon Coolpix 10001″)
3. MOBILE APPLICATION (it’s Java based and downloadable to your phone)
Includes:
- Mobile Shopping List
- Product Images
- Maps to stores
- Send-to-Friend
There is no cost for using Slifter both on the go and online, although your mobile carrier may assess standard text and data service charges depending on your plan.
Not sure about the name though - is Slifter short for Shoplifter and it’s actually an underground service to aid theft from stores near you?? Just joking, but it is an odd name.
And finally, young people are using a free information “FREE 411″ service reached by dialing the number 1.800.373.3411 (many have the number programmed into their mobiles’ phonebooks). A great potential space for marketers, the service requires users to listen to a short ad before making their information request.
Unfortunately, as all these services are available in the US and/or Canada only, I can’t try them out for size so I’m interested to get your feedback on them if you’ve heard of them and tried them.
by Debi Jones
June 27, 2007 at 9:38 pm · Filed under Devices, Events + Conferences, iPhone
Activity surrounding the much anticipated iPhone launch is coming from all quarters. According to Gizmodo, a line in front of the Apple Store in New York City has already begun. So, what’s the word on iPhone from around the web?
Pictures of the first two guys in line at the NYC Apple Store from Gizmodo.
Gizmodo appears on The Daily Show tomorrow night to explain the iPhone.
The Apple Insider reports that the faithful will be joined on their iPhone sleepover by Apple employees.
The Insider also describes details on how the launch will occur at Apple Stores.
Come Friday morning, all Apple retail stores will open around 10:00 a.m. local time for a 4-hour stint. They’ll then shutter for the same amount of time while prepping for the iPhone premiere, reopening at 6:00 p.m. local time with the gadgets for sale.
“We’ll open the doors again at 6:00 p.m., when you can be one of the first to see, try, and buy the iPhone,” Apple said in a message posted on its retail website. “Be sure to arrive early — iPhone is available on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Engadget reveals the security plan for iPhone deliveries.
FedEx drivers to deliver the goods in teams (one must carry the boxes, the other wields a big stick) for the 6pm store opening.
From BarCamp the first iPhone Dev Camp on July 6 and 7.
What other announcements of note have you heard?
UPDATE: Don’t forget to check out Walt Mossberg’s review of the iPhone following 2 weeks of use around the US.
Watch an actual iPhone countdown clock at mobilejones.com.
by Russell Shaw
June 27, 2007 at 2:45 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS, MMS, iPhone
I’ve been trying to figure out why Apple’s iPhone, which is due to go on sale tomorrow at 6 p.m. everyone’s local time, has no built-in Instant Messaging software.
Not even iChat, which comes with Macs, nor pre-loaded Yahoo!, AOL IM, or even GoogleTalk from Apple’s longtime ally.
Then I realized why. To place pre-loaded IM on the iPhone would run the risk of cannibalizing the SMS fees that will surely be earned by exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier AT&T Wireless.
Not that there is a comprehensive overlap between IM’ers and texters, but there are enough people who go back and forth between these two forms of mobile messaging that it would be advantageous to carrier income models to force such mobile users into SMS.
After all, with SMS you get the opportunity to charge per-message fees. With mobile IM, the bits you toss about, and are tossed to you, just travel as, and are assessed as data. If you have a decent data plan- all iPhone data plans are unlimited- even numerous and lengthy IM exchanges are not going to result in your carrier sticking it to you for more fees.
In the case of SMS on the iPhone, though, the game changes. Excessive SMS use will result in AT&T Wireless starting to assess per-message fees after 200 SMS’ a month. That’s less than seven a day, but look around you at all the young texters out there. Seven a day would be a slow day for them.
by Debi Jones
June 27, 2007 at 3:28 am · Filed under BREW07, Mobile Applications, Awards
And the winners are:
Best Up and Coming Application
Navitime - KDDI (2nd year in a row)
Best Business/Productivity Application
Celltop - Alltel Wireless
Best Location Based Services Application
BiM Active - Bones in Motion
Best Community Application
Juice Caster - Juice Wireless
Best Entertainment Application
NBA AirPlay Live - AirPlay Network
Best Game Application
Brothers in Arms 3D - Gameloft
Best Public Service Application
Wireless Emergency Command System (Kingeye) - Xi’an Kingtone Information Technology Co., Ltd., China
People’s Choice Award
Celltop - Alltel Wireless
Additional finalists were announced on the BREW 2007 Developer Awards page. The countries represented by finalists for awards included: Brazil, China, France, India, Korea, and the USA.
by Russell Shaw
June 26, 2007 at 2:18 pm · Filed under News, iPhone
Just in case you missed it, here’s SMS and subscription-related news about the Apple iPhone:
All iPhone monthly service plans are available for individuals and families and are based on a new two-year service agreement with AT&T. Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36. Family plans are also available.
Well, our tips saying there could be unlimited SMS weren’t quite on the mark. That’s not to say the day isn’t coming.
by Ewan Spence
June 26, 2007 at 5:26 am · Filed under Devices, Mobile Applications
One of the easiest ways to be flash and modern on website design is to provide a ‘mobile’ version of your website. Specifically geared for browsers on machines with limited power, small screens, using mostly HTML with a smattering of CMS – no ajax here. While some high end phones are struggling with how to make a browser that can handle ‘the full web’ this misses the point that people on the move have vastly different requirements to those at their desk with a high resolution monitor.
The key for me when browsing a mobile site isn’t how it looks, but how easily I can get to the information. I’ll sacrifice all the looks, flashy effects and pretty graphics if you can tell me what I need to know, fast. And I want to illustrate that by looking at three sites.
The first is the BBC News website. It’s a touch unwieldy to type (http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm) but it has all the elements of what I look for in a mobile web page. There’s no fancy graphics or layout, you get the headlines of each section, scroll down for the headlines, and can click through to each story. The biggest one for me is that it carries exactly the same text and information (and thumbnail pictures) as the main site. Web 2.0 design guides have content and layout separately, and while some sites do have a ‘mobile style sheet’ that devices can pick up, it’s a bit hit and miss, and you are still pulling down a full page. Having the backend CMS create basic pages is much more efficient for the end user.
Second up is Bloglines, probably one of the most practical 2.0 sites out there – for the four of you not using it, it’s an online RSS reader. No matter where you read it, it’ll always stay up to date. Probably one of the joys of RSS is the complete separation of content from layout (there is effectively no layout in RSS). This means that through Bloglines Mobile (http://mobile.bloglines.com/) I can read though hundreds of sites, on my mobile browser, and know they’ll still have a lovely clean look. And if I need to follow up, I can mark them to be kept and they’ll stay in the list, ready for when I get to my desk.
Finally, the bandwagon that is Twitter launched a mobile version of the short messaging blog site at the start of the year (http://m.twitter.com/). As well as making sure your login is in a cookie so you’re not constantly entering your password at each session (shame on you, Facebook Mobile), there is a cost benefit to using Twitter Mobile than relying on their SMS gateway. Sending a single SMS update to Twitter in the UK is in the region of 12p. And don’t forget many of you will pay to receive SMS messages from Twitter as well. Roll all that up for a short session, and the bandwidth used for this text based version looks more and more attractive the longer you browse.
Oh and an honourable mention to the mobile Gmail page as well.
So, how well does your site work not just on the QVGA screened smartphones, but on the smaller 128×128 screen java powered devices? Are you set to take advantage of all these low powered, high latency devices that are appearing in people’s hands all over the world?
by Nancy Broden
June 25, 2007 at 6:54 pm · Filed under User Interface, Usage + Usability, Events + Conferences, BREW07
Debi Jones’ recent post highlights some of what was new at Qualcomm’s annual BREW conference which wrapped up in San Diego on Friday.
One aspect she didn’t mention was this year’s unprecedented focus on user experience, with panel and breakout sessions over all 3 days on everything from Understanding Users Through Contextual Inquiry to User Centered Design for Mobile Environments and Designing and Evaluating Mobile User Interfaces. Qualcomm also sponsored quick-hit 30-minute sessions where attendees had the opportunity for Q&A in a more informal environment.
The BREW Times, the show’s daily publication, provided a more in-depth look at several user experience related topics such as personalization, user generated content, the problem of feature discovery and mobile social networking, on which I spoke during a Friday afternoon breakout session.
The focus on user experience is not purely altruistic of course - there are high hopes in the industry that mobile social networking and user generated content will provide fresh sources of revenue. Nevertheless, it was clear from the questions I was asked at BREW that the conference is attracting a more diverse audience that is increasingly aware of the importance of a user centered approach to mobile interfaces and seeking out information to this end. This is a good thing for anyone who uses a mobile phone, which is to say, pretty much everyone.
by Debi Jones
June 25, 2007 at 4:46 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Mobile Tech, Events + Conferences, BREW07, touch screens, iPhone, LG Prada
Today mobile messaging allows one to tap out text messages, view images or pictures, hear music or audio clips and even watch the blend of image and audio as videos. In all of these examples, screen view plays a central role. What about those instances when you’re driving, at an event, in a meeting or in the classroom? If the phone in your pocket could provide important notices or messages even when you can’t view the screen that would be an innovation worthy of the phrase Mobile Messaging 2.0.
Immersion brings the sense of touch to mobile messaging and other mobile phone applications. “With the move to glass touch screens on phones, important tactile feedback has been removed” according to Richard Pierson, director of business development, at Immersion Corporation. Pierson continues, “On a touch screen how do you know that a number was actually entered?” Immersion makes use of haptics, a greek word meaning “the sense of touch,” commonly known as vibrations to provide tactile feedback and/or notices that an action has occurred. Haptics was first created for military applications, then later used as force feedback for PC flight simulators and more recently in gaming consoles of all types to create the rumble feel of action.
You’ve had the experience of talking through 10 minutes of uninterrupted silence when suddenly your phone rings and you learn that the other party dropped from the call 2 minutes after the you started. More than once you’ve heard too quite a call and pulled the phone from your ear or pocket to “see” if the call is still connected. And even though it appears connected, you still ask, “are you there?” If your handset manufacturer has the Immersion solution branded VibeTonz on board, then you’ll receive a unique vibration notification that allows you to feel that the call has dropped.
VibeTonz also provides “feel messaging” selected as various emoticons. Sending a “love” emoticon results in the receiver feeling a heartbeat. The smiling emoticon sends what feels like a giggle, rapid short bursts of vibration. The sensation of VibeTonz’s emoticons in vibration is amazingly intuitive. Unfortunately, VibeTonz isn’t a direct to consumer solution as it requires sensors and firmware - mostly firmware. Your handset must come with VibeTonz installed.
VibeTonz are currently available on a few Samsung devices from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Alltel and MetroPCS in the US; SK Telecom in Korea; Orange in France and UK; and T-mobile in Germany and UK. I saw a demo using the LG Prada and rumor has it that Verizon Wireless will launch this device complete with VibeTonz in response to the iPhone.
Watch this site for an in depth podcast with Immersion coming soon.
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