Archive for January, 2008
Mobile social networking and instant messaging client, mig33, has received an additional $13.5 million in second round funding recently. Mig33 allows users to chat, make MOIP (Mobile-VOIP) calls, and share images on a cross-carrier platform. Available as a free java application download, the Mig33 client runs on nearly any handset on the market and makes [...]
Continue ReadingMoConDi has announced the successful launch of its new MeYou viral mobile gaming platform for operators. Currently running on three carriers, including Vodaphone and 3 Italy, MeYou allows mobile gamers to purchase games, play them, and send recommendations to friends. The service already has 1.6 million members, with 64% of them already recommending games to [...]
Continue ReadingIssah, the SMS Text News youth reporter (aged 15), is back today with a fascinating look at what the 13-19 year olds in East London think about their mobile network provider. I asked Issah to pose the following question: What mobile network provider do you use and why? (With a follow-up question, will [...]
Continue ReadingI had a note in from a reader who was peering at the SMS Text News shop and wondering if I’d lost my mind or there was a big ‘in’ joke going on.
I assured him that there wasn’t anything strange going on and explained that a little while ago, I had a request from [...]
Link: O2 iPhone Tariffs for Existing Customers via TUAW
O2 have announced that they’re changing iPhone tariffs, bringing them in line with their recently-revised standard offerings (making them a bit more competitive):
£35 per month customers now get 600 anytime minutes (up from 200) and 500 anytime texts a month (up from 200).
£45 per month customers [...]
Continue ReadingVodafone’s Aussie arm is setting about convincing consumers there is such a thing as a free lunch - with the launch of its advertiser-sponsored channel free4me. Presumably that’s a free lunch with a serving of adverts on the side?
Among the big names signed up to the channel, which will house mobile TV shows, competitions and [...]
Continue Reading It’s all change at Helio, the lovechild of Earthlink and SK Telecom, with Sky Dayton has moving from the CEO position to non-executive chairman of the board, and Wonlee Sull switching from president and COO to the job of CEO. Sull has previously worked at head of the Platform R&D Center at SK Telecom.
Helio [...]
Bango have launched a new service that turns your mobile into a library. Their billing/digital fingerprint technologies are being used by Macmillan Publishing for their ‘The Global Reader’ service that aims to give consumers access to books, articles, newspapers and other print content on mobiles easily and inexpensively. Global Reader is mobile-web based [...]
Continue ReadingHas the United Kingdom’s exam board got around to letting students find out their exam grades by text yet? I can’t quite recall. They’re way ahead in Africa — or, in this case, Tanzania. Have a read..
Link: Varsity students to access exam results through `sms`
Tanzania`s university students will from May this year access [...]
I had a note in from Steven Dotsch, top man at Match Capital Partners Ltd to let me know that they’ve just officially launched. Match Capital Partners specialises in raising money for for growing companies with wireless, mobile internet, online media, mobile and fixed telecoms activities requiring funding amounting to at least £1m.
In 2005, [...]
I was sent a note about this text service by SMS Text News reader, Alfie. The service, The Real State of the Union, will apparently turn your mobile handset into a ‘George Bush Lie Detector’. The President is due to do a State of the Union speech shortly — and it will quite [...]
Continue ReadingOne of my New Years Resolutions was to start blogging more from a mobile position. Given that I cover the mobile industry, I find it somewhat ironic that most of my day is currently spent sitting at home in front of a laptop. I could easily pick up the laptop and go, but it’s not [...]
Continue ReadingCloudtrade has opened its new media-sharing service for consumers, and it’s looking like it will be a really popular option for most people. When you sign up for an account, you’re given 1GB of online storage for free, and the ability to easily upload your music, videos, and pictures to your ‘Cloud’. Once you’ve filled [...]
Continue ReadingMYiOTA has announced a service that they have setup for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain next month. Using MYiOTA’s unique technology, attendees can comment on news, get information about the parties, and otherwise stay in the loop at the Mobile World Congress.
MYiOTA’s small application presents the data in a short, SMS-style interface, [...]
Skyfire brought their new mobile browser out of stealth this morning, though an actual download isn’t quite available. The new Skyfire browser will be downloadable for smartphones, with Windows Mobile 6 both Professional and Standard editions being available soon, and a Symbian client coming sometime next month.
This new browser uses proprietary technology to reformat [...]
You read correctly, AT&T, the biggest GSM carrier in the United States, will be once again raising the cost to send or receive a message. Text message rates will go up $0.05 to $0.20 per message, while MMS rates will also increase by a nickel, up to $0.30. Note that these changes only affect subscribers [...]
Continue ReadingBig news. I now own a Nokia N95.
Ok, I know this isn’t very exciting to most of you, but here in Canada, where the mobile industry hasn’t quite caught up, it’s unchartered territory. Ewan often says ‘deary me” when I mention something that’s going on in the mobile world here, yes it’s that bad.
I’ve wanted [...]
Launched back in March 2006, Google Talk for Blackberry changed my perspective on mobile instant messaging forever. For a long time I thought the application was programmed by Google — however I later found it was the brain surgeons at Blackberry who developed it. And boy, what a job they did. It is, without [...]
Continue ReadingInteresting news out of Helsinki: Nokia has decided to get on the acquisition trail and snap up Trolltech, which it reckons will help it “accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business”.
Nokia goes on to say that the deal will help the competitiveness of S60 and [...]
After the O2 ‘we didn’t sell as many iPhones as people expected but we’re still happy about it’ shenanigans, it’s now T-Mobile’s turn to sing a distinctly similar tune. Rene Obermann has been doing the talking, and revealing the German operator has now shifted 70,000 of the devices since launchIt’s not a number that’s gone [...]
Continue ReadingLink: SourceWire | Press Releases - Mobile Phone Tracking proving popular with British mums
Safety-conscious parents are buying mobile phones for children as young as FOUR, it was revealed in a new survey carried out by MobileLocators.com.
Fears about child abduction have left British mums and dads desperate to keep tabs on their youngsters - and as [...]
The developer is currently working on the wordpress client S60 user interface at the moment. It’s getting exciting! I am really looking forward to having something to install on to my Nokia and play with, even if it’s not yet fully functional.
If you’d like to join the beta panel for testing, do [...]
If you’re headed to the World Mobile Congress, or the Mobile World Congress, (I keep saying it the wrong way), then keep your eyes PEELED for Emoze (the mobile email people). Last year, Blackberry spent most of the conference hiding whilst Emoze walked around the place challenging them to an email shoot out (to [...]
Continue ReadingMe again — Sony Ericsson news once more. On the back of my ‘iPhone: next!’ post last week, it’s great to hear that Sony have apparently picked up the bat and are working away on their PlayNow service.
Could be good, could be good.
Link: StrategyEye :: Visual Market Intelligence
Sony Ericsson has struck distribution deals [...]
I got the Sony Ericsson mail in today. I quite enjoy seeing what they’re up to from a consumer perspective. I still have a lot of love for the K800 and the K850 although I haven’t used a Sony for… geez, years. I think my last Sony was the W300 or something [...]
Continue Reading
Ewan on 