Archive for April, 2008
by Imran Ali
April 27, 2008 at 10:10 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Late last year, QTech’s impressive reQall memeory and productivity service launched in the UK. In recent weeks, the company has extended the functionality of its service with what amounts to a voice-based command line…kinda like Stikkit with a voice interface.
The new set of features introduces some neat multi-model interfaces for interacting with your ’stored memories’. As the diagram to the right shows, voice-based commands program the service with items to be stored and can later be managed additional by a web interface or retrieved by SMS and voice.
Simple phrases uttered into the voice interface bely the service’s power…
- ‘remember to call Ewan tommorow’ will result in a reminder notification being sent to me the following day.
- ‘note: have a great idea for a MM2 post’ followed by a date and time will add a to-do note.
reQall have also added a social dimension, using imported address books to connect items and tasks with others.
reQall’s technology is impressive and works well, encapsulated in a simple user experience. However, I’d like to see some figures on the number and type of users that’re using the service. Is it a universal interface applicable across many contexts or something that a niche - however large - finds more useful.
by Imran Ali
April 25, 2008 at 3:22 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Privacy, HSDPA
UK-based Phorm has attracted criticism like no other company in the recent history of tehcnology, rapidly gaining an image of a company rapaciously consuming the personal rights and privacy of internet users and in the process ensuring its telco partners - British ISPs such as BT, Virgin and TalkTalk - are even less loved than they already are.
Phorm works with its ISP partners at their network’s infrastructural level to analyse the browsing patterns of users and serve targeted, relevant advertising to those users.
Some of the criticism has been unfair - privacy isn’t an absolute and people wil ltrade access to their privacy for some return in value. Criticism has been levelled largely at the lack of transparency and permission, but I think more importantly, that Phorm and its ISP partners aren’t sharing any created value with those creating it!
So what has Phorm to do with mobility? Many of the target partners for companies like Phorm have mobile and wireless ISP arms and it’s likely Phorm-like analytics can be applied to the burgeoning use of the mobile internet via smartphones, HSDPA dongles and maybe even some clever analysis of SMS and voice traffic, though it’s not entirely clear what the user experience of a mobile-Phorm would be?
More importantly, Phorm’s antics have given mobile users a headstart in ensuring that network operators are forced to at least consent them and possibly share some of the newly created value with them. If it’s possible to hate your cellco even more, companies like Phorm will be the ones that could help make it happen!
by Darla Mack
April 22, 2008 at 1:54 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, SMS, emergency services, Messaging, CTIA Wireless
MSNBC reports that the Text Messaging Alert System has been approved and will possibly be in affect sometime in 2010.
Federal regulators approved the service last Wednesday and consumers will have the option to opt out of receiving the messages… but why would you?
The plan stems from the Warning Alert and Response Network Act, a 2006 federal law that requires upgrades to the nation’s emergency alert system. The act tasked the Federal Communications Commission with coming up with new ways to alert the public about emergencies.
Since text messaging has become one of the most popular methods of communication in todays society, it goes without question that this would be the appropriate way to reach out and inform.
According to the regulations, there will be 3 different types of messages in affect. The first being a national alert from the president in regards to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The second would be involve “imminent threats”, such as natural disasters (hurricanes or tornadoes) or university shootings. The third, which some of us are already familiar with, would be reserved for child abduction emergencies or so called Amber Alerts.
“The ability to deliver accurate and timely warnings and alerts through cell phones and other mobile services is an important next step in our efforts to help ensure that the American public has the information they need to take action to protect themselves and their families prior to, and during, disasters and other emergencies,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said following approval of the plan.
Consumers may opt out from receiving these alerts and might possibly not be charged for receiving them.
by Ewan Spence
April 21, 2008 at 9:02 am · Filed under iPhone, Apple, 2008
I wonder just how much a headache the iPod Touch is causing Cupertino? Essentially the Touch is the iPhone without the phone circuit, but it’s also more than that. It’s not the ongoing revenue stream that the iPhone devices are, it’s not out there challenging for column inches in a fight with the telcos and smartphone manufacturers. It’s the forgotten brother of the line up.
Yet it’s arguably exactly the same hardware, and it’s definitely the same platform as the iPhone. Yet iPod Touch users are getting a rough deal at every turn. Flash software updates are being charged for, just to add in the same software that the iPhone carried originally, it seems to be the forgotten product, and as the iPhone gathers all the press and marketing push, the Touch is left forgotten in everything except the financial reports.
The Touch could be, with some focus, a fantastic platform for Apple and the mobile space. It’s well positioned to be the first truly mainstream successful internet tablet. Yet it continues to be crippled. The upcoming iPhone SDK will also allow applications to run on the iPod Touch
The Touch may well have the potential to be a new type of device family, but it could also signal that Apple are losing site of their audience – news that the January 2008 upgrade was going to be chargeable drew (admittedly muted) boo’s from the audience at the MacWorld Keynote… and with the upgrade to allow third party SDK developed applications due to incur a further charge, I wonder if Apple really wanted the iPod Touch in the first place?
When you have a product you should be 100% behind it, or kill it. I wish Cupertino could make its mind up.
by Imran Ali
April 21, 2008 at 6:36 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Technology Review magazine recently profiled a number of interactive TV and modle advertising technologies in its piece on Targeted Ads Designed For You.
Buried amongst the companies and technologies profiled - including Quattro Wireless’ GetMobile and Modiv Media - is the inference of advertising triggered by a mobile handset, but not neccesarily displayed on the handset itself
The article closes with the sugestion that companies such as ioGlobal could develop platform layers that enabled advertisers to target ads sequentially through multiple channels - such as TVs, personal computers and mobile handsets.
Imagine campaigns that use a mobile handset to detect location, but display the advertising media itself on nearby public screens or larger more attention grabbing devices; something that apparently the likes of Access 360 Media are already experimenting with…
by Imran Ali
April 17, 2008 at 3:20 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Looks like cellcos and operators are waking up to the need for people to preserve and curate the mobile media. In recent month’s I’ve written about the need for the mobility of messages and some of the interesting companies, like Treasuremytext, that’re beginning to fulfil this need.
Last week Britain’s O2 network, chose to celebrating its Bluebook service - for saving contacts, photos & texts automatically - by launching the O2 Memory Project…
10 foot high cylinder with eleven cameras placed equidistance around its perimeter. Each of these cameras takes a picture in sequence every five seconds, creating a 360 degree, digital panorama of the outside location very minute. Animated lights on The O2 Memory Project’s exterior shell signal when each camera is about to take a shot. These images are then transmitted to giant screens on the structure’s interior. Visitors can venture inside
to view and interact with the images via thermal images cameras. These cameras allow visitors to ‘direct’ which images are displayed – moving to shift the displayed images back and forwards in time, interacting with the location’s memories with ‘Minority Report’ style gestures.
Fantastic. Lovely to see O2 ploughing money into a lovely piece of interactive art, but in just signing up for Bluebook in the last few minutes, the service has failed to deliver the necessary settings to my O2 Nokia N95. I’m hardly going to trust such suckage with precious data and memories when they can’t even register an existing customer!
True to form, cellcos and telcos - to paraphrase Bart Simpson - singularly suck and blow at the same time when it comes to service design.
Try harder O2. In the meantime, stick with Treasuremytext - my guess is they care more about preserving your memories than screwing you with data revenues.
by Ewan Spence
April 16, 2008 at 6:59 am · Filed under Mobile Tech, iPhone, Apple, Nokia, 2008
The sky is falling the sky is falling, there must be a 3G iPhone around the corner all the tea leaves and chicken [little] entrails say so!
Yes there is more furor around certain dedicated parts of the internet in regards to an update to the iPhone line, especially with the ‘why wasn’t it there in the first place’ 3G connectivity (to which I suspect the answer is a mix of cost, high power consumption, and Apple’s relative inexperience in the mobile market place). And driving that discussion over the last few days has been the drop in price of some one hundred pounds ($195 US) by UK carrier O2 on the 8GB iPhone – bringing it to a respectable (but still overpriced) 169 pounds
Yes I said overpriced, but let me refine that. It’s over-priced for the UK market, where you can pick up the high end Nokia Nseries devices for under 50 pounds in many cases. As we’ve said time and again, the nature of the market in different territories can affect a device and how it is received. The US finally had a phone with a good set of features for the tech crowd, and they loved it.
Please don’t read too much into a price cut of a company that has likely got excess stock on a unit. If there was some devious plot to clear the shelves, don’t you think that the 16GB unit would also have a price cut? Or that the cut would also be given to O2 customers in Ireland?
I’ve no doubt there will be a 3G iPhone in the near future, but Apple are traditionally very good at keeping things quiet, especially when there’s not been a squeak of an FCC filing for a 3G variant (which needs to be done some 90 days before a product release as I recall).
Apple fanboys, seeing patterns when there are none. Gotta love em.
by Debi Jones
April 15, 2008 at 11:08 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
A year ago I received an email from Francois Gossieaux about a new thought leadership blog that would focus on the mobile industry and specifically messaging. Initially I thought it might be another among the countless offers I’ve received to provide content for free “to raise my profile.” When I read that this was a Corante production, and that it was sponsored by Airwide Solutions I became intrigued. Francois was on the phone almost immediately and he quoted a list of other mobile bloggers who I knew and respected. I was quickly convinced that this new blog called Mobile Messaging 2.0 would be a great opportunity and said yes on the spot.
Mobile Messaging 2.0 has provided me with the chance to work and collaborate with the great team of writers assembled by Corante. We’ve covered events around the globe including: Global Mobile Messaging - Monte Carlo, Brew Conference - San Diego, TechCrunch 40 - San Francisco, CTIA Fall - San Francisco, MWC - Barcelona, and CTIA Wireless - Las Vegas, just two weeks ago. I’ve enjoyed the amazing thoughts and writing from my colleagues at MM2, and been privileged to share thoughts, brainstorms and disagreements with them in our weekly editorial conference calls. Over this year,
- Four of the ten most read posts on MM2 were written by me.
- I’ve recruited two of the writers at MM2.
- As Managing Editor, I’ve led our weekly conference calls and our monthly editorial calendar.
- Brought the Carnival of Mobilists to MM2 along with securing the blog’s feature position at TechDispencer, Computerworld’s Blog Network
- Covered conferences and other events
With my separate increasing demands from other projects and even the neglect of mobilejones.com to consider, it’s time to move on. Mobile Messaging 2.0 will continue to be an important addition to anyone’s feed reader who wants to understand the evolving mobile industry, especially as we turned to the new opportunities related to mobile advertising. I’ve very much enjoyed interaction with readers of MM2 and look forward to, now, becoming one of them.
To stay in touch, I can be found at http://mobilejones.com or follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mojosd
by Imran Ali
April 13, 2008 at 9:51 pm · Filed under iPhone, Twitter, Crowdsensing, Activism, Tibet, Flashmob
Seems like last week’s pursuit of the Olympic Flame through San Francisco, by pro-Tibetan protesters, was aided and abetted by local Twitter users.
A digest of Twitters from last Wednesday illustrates how residents of the city torch-spotted and crowdsensed the Renegade Receptacle across the city, helping protesters zero-in on the Combustable Contender. Sadly, the flame Hot-Footed it to safety and the protesters were unable to extinguish the Fiery One.
Flamegate has however ignited global repercussions with various European leaders beginning to decline attendance of Bejing’s opening ceremonies…though our very own Gordon Brown *will* have be around for the closing ceremonies, in order to accept the flame for London 2012.
I did wonder about the irony of the San Franciscan Twitterati standing up for Tibetan freedoms with their Chinese-built iPhones…
by Imran Ali
April 13, 2008 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Though Iqbal Qadir’s talk from TED 2005 is several years old, the central theme of the cellphone as a weapon against poverty is as relevant as ever…
- Connectivity is productivity - even in non-industrialised societies - helping to raise income and welfare.
- Mobility provides the means to encourage development ‘from below’, bypassing state-to-state aid and empowering grassroots communities.
- Taxes generated by private micro-businesses can help to stabilise the government of developing nations.
Next entries �
