I’m checking out IMified.com, a really, really neat ‘instant productivity’ buddy client, available on all IM networks, that helps you get things done (think notes, reminders, to-dos — and if you’re not online, you can apparently opt to be sent a text for your reminders.) Oh, and incidentally, allows you to properly blog via IM.

The implementation is pure genius.

This has immediately become one of my must-have and use-all-the-time services. It’s invaluable for me when I’m out and about using Agile Messenger on the E61.

There’s an issue with MSN support at the minute because MSN are being totally arsey with the IMified chaps. Microsoft need to get real because I just used GoogleTalk instead. No biggie for me.

Stop all the clocks and have a read….

Link: xseries: X-Series Answers 08

3 UK writes: Because X-Series is an unlimited service (subject to fair use policy, of course), you will not be billed for any access to the Internet from your X-Series mobile and it will not show on your account.

We have not intentionally blocked access to services or prevented access to, or downloads from, any particular sites.  However, we have not tested the service or the handsets for applications or uses other than those promoted by 3. 

If you can download clients and access websites or web-based services of your choosing, then this access will be included as part of the Unlimited data offer, other than where we separately offer that same service with a client we have provided (such as Sling and Orb). 

Please be aware that we cannot guarantee access to all sites through our network or that your X-Series handset can support any software other than the software included by 3 or the handset manufacturer. In addition, the manufacturer’s handset warranty may become void if it develops a fault due to any software or applications that are not installed on the handset by the manufacturer.

First off, I am absolutely loving the frank, direct and swift responses coming out of the Three X-Series blog. Absolutely wicked.

Second, my mind is now rested.

Third, my chest is filled with excitement for the industry.

I will not be billed for any access to the internet from my X-Series mobile.

Get in.

Get IN!

Read that and weep Mr & Mrs o2VodafoneOrange.

I have made this a HOT posting. Three is officially HOT.

Now hear this. Two operators in the UK are now offering proper unlimited internet access from their handsets. One is Three. The other is T-Mobile.

If you are with any other mobile operator and you regularly use data — or WANT to use data — you should A) get your head examined and B) swap immediately.

It’s not good enough now. Do you remember my, WHY YOU’RE SCREWING UP THE MOBILE INDUSTRY — (that’s YOU as in the reader) post?

Well I’m going to start calling out people publicly now.

With the confirmation from Three that unlimited means unlimited (fair use, of course), there’s no excuse.

It’s an extra 5 quid for unlimited from Three or an extra 7.50 from T-Mobile.

Two week grace period before I begin publishing names, addresses and inside leg measurements………………

What a brilliant video! That must have taken AGES to put together!

Visit the Vodafone Big Idea site for more gossip or read more here.

(Nice one John)

I found this on the homepage of Youtube (underneath a rather lame, ‘we just made 1.6 billion dollars - thanks’ video from the Youtube founders. I kid you not.

CiperP was reading an article by Jenna Fischer in September’s Esquire Magazine called “10 things you don’t know about women.”

As he notes:

So I decided to celebrate it with a recital from the guys at The Office … filmed entirely on my phone.
I think that makes this the first ever Office Phonisode

Have a look att he video here. He’s got people from his office reading out each line of the article.

Smart. Now, the quality isn’t much — I reckon it must have been filmed on a low quality handset as there’s a lot of blurring/pixelation now and again, but it’s good enough to put on Youtube — and excellent enough to engage with. I imagine he’s filmed it on the mobile and then edited it as necessary on his desktop prior to uploading.

This is a super example of user generated content — via mobile. We’re getting there. 191,500 people have viewed it so far.

I’ve been 3jamming all over the weekend and loving it. I have setup a 3jam between my two younger brothers and my dad — and me, of course. They were a little bemused but they got the concept immediatley. We were sat in the Outback Steakhouse looking like a family of total 100% geeks texting each other.

Oh dear

3jam is group messaging. It’s effectively ‘reply-all’ for SMS. You simply sign-up in a click and get an account then add a few friends. So, for example, I added Hetty and Eddie, while I was testing. I then create a ‘3jam’ with them both by sending them a message.

They receive a text message from, let’s say, +14151001001. (Example number). The message reads —

Ewan: Hey guys, reply back to this and say hi? (3jam with Ewan, Hetty, Eddie)

Hetty then replies to +14151001001 with her message in free text. No commands or anything, just a normal message, e.g.

Hey Ewan, Hi Eddie, how are you both doing?

I receive a text on my handset FROM +14151001001 with that message, so does Eddie.

Eddie then replies. I get the text, so does Hetty. You’re only paying to send your outgoing message — which is then distributed at no charge to you (or to the recipients) to everyone in your ‘jam’. You can save that 3jam number in your phone’s addressbook as ‘3jamHettyEddie’ so if you want to send a text to those two, you can do so by addressing it to that entry.

It was absolutely brilliant. Immediately addictive. Hetty replied back to me right-away and I sent in another text. Eddie was in a meeting so then he replied, having followed our conversation, letting us know he would be out of the meeting shortly. Reaaaaally cool.

You can create other jams though! You might want to add your 5 close work colleagues. Or your poker buddies. Or your football team. Each new 3jam is assigned a unique mobile number — so, for example, your second 3jam would use the unique number +14151001002 for sending/receiving messages.

(These are made up numbers, just for clarity).

I’ve got an idea. I don’t know how this will work, but let’s try it, right? Email me your mobile phone number and I’ll add you into the SMS Text News 3jam. Let’s give it a test, shall we? Email me with the subject ‘3jam’ and stick in your mobile number in the body, and I’ll add you right away. Let’s see how usable it is. I think, actually, it’ll probably get unusable after … what… 9 people? I dunno. Let’s give it a go. Mail me on ewan@smstextnews.com and let’s give it a play.

Heh. But I’ve also been 3jamming with other groups of friends too. I haven’t yet introduced it to Jo and Natalie — but when I do, I reckon they’ll use it like wildfire. Joanne and Natalie are two good friends who are excellent examples of UK mobile consumers. They don’t get a stuff about the technology — they’re more interested in what works and how it can help them extend and develop their relationships and lifestyles. So I am thoroughly interested to see how they react to it.

The chief reason I haven’t introduced them to it is because at the moment, 3jam runs in the UK via a range of +1 American numbers which cost roughly double to send a message to — but, good news, the 3jam team are working hard to get UK numbers operational. When they do, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was extremely popular.

Of course, the main reason for the popularity will be, I’m sure, the fact that you’re saving a substantial amount of expense by sending ONE text which is then distributed at 3jam’s cost to 5, 6 or more friends and so on. I wonder how sustainable this is? Quite, if you’ve got a good amount of cash and you’re able to buy millions of text messages at super traffic rates. By which point, one would hope you’ve signed up hundreds of thousands or millions of users………………. who you can try and convert and upsell ……. well, actually, you’d be a good acquisition target for Bebo Mobile or MySpace Mobile. Or Friendster Mobile. Or anyone else that wants to own a few million mobile users and is happy to fund the cost.

However, if you’re regularly using 3jam — if you’re hammering it and sending TONS of traffic through it, one imagines you’ll have rather good vibes for 3jam. So if they ask you to view a few ads or receive a few marketing messages in order to sustain the service, that’s possibly a go-er. Let’s say you’re costing 3jam £1 a day in text delivery costs (which isn’t too unrealistic — once you’ve tried this, you’ll see how addictive it is), that’d mean they’d need to get £30 worth of marketing exposure or upsale revenue from you each month. Could be workable. Who knows? That’s just me speculating on one possible strategy.

What I do know is that 3jam rocks. It’s phenomenally good — chiefly because you’re saving to much cost AND energy. The system is very quick and ultra easy to use.

I wonder where it’ll go? When the UK number arrives, I’ll be using this like no tomorrow. Meantime I’m using it regularly… just, … my friends are a bit pained by the international text costs right now. If you’re in North America though, you’ve got no excuse. Get yourself a membership and stick your girlfriend and a few friends on a test 3jam and give it a go. Then knock me over an email and let me know how your non-geek friends reacted to it?

And if you want to join the SMS Text News 3jam, then mail me your mobile number/a> and we’ll try it out.

Link: Text-A-Rose Prepaid - Load.com.ph - the FREE prepaid load service provider

You can now send flowers anywhere in the Philippines!

That is smart. If this existed here, I’d be texting roses to everyone’s favourite CEO, Mr Arun Sarin every week.

Thinking of you, and your unusual strategies, Arun, lots of love, Ewan.

Why is there no text a rose service in the UK? Or maybe I missed something.

It’s not often that I remark out loud, ‘**** me that’s wicked!’

I did this afternoon though when I got today’s Sky News mail from Martin Stanford of Sky News. Next week they’re launching a new show weeknights from 8pm which will include the option for the viewing audience to get involved, give their views and ask questions via 3g video call and webcam (as well as the now traditional text messaging, email and phone calls). 

Fascinating!   I’ve reproduced the text here from Martin:

From next Monday, 10th July, I will be anchoring a new look to evenings here at Sky and I welcome your contributions to the programme.

From 8pm each weeknight I’ll be here with two hours of news and conversation. There will be all the elements you expect from Sky News: live reports on the people and places making the news each day and interviews with the key newsmakers and experts.

But this show will be going further to include your experiences and your reaction to the stories we cover. For several years our daytime shows have encouraged you to send us comments by email or text message. For my new show we are going to take that a bit further. We will be inviting some of our viewers to join us by their 3G video mobile or webcam to add their thoughts to the topic under discussion and to put their questions to the key decision makers.

To take part, you can stick to the usual email address (news@sky.com) or text number (84501) but let us have your videomobile number or your user name for your webcam service and we will contact you.

We want you to take an active part in breaking news, by breaking the news that you see and telling us all about it.

I’ll also be keeping in touch with you during the programme. I’ll be updating our programme’s page on the Sky News web site and you’ll be able to contribute there too.

Plus, on Sky News active, you’ll be able to see exactly what is going on in the studio via camera 11, which will be live throughout the programme - even during commercial breaks.

I hope you can join me on Monday at 8pm!

Martin

Check out the details on the Sky News website here.  Sky News have always been innovative — I’m quite a fan of Jeremy Thompson’s Live At Five blog - and I’m really excited at the prospect of viewers being able to genuinely participate via webcam and 3g moblie. 

Here’s how to get in touch with Sky News:-

Email: news@sky.com

Text, within UK: 84501

Text, outside UK: +44 77xx501501

3G Videomobile: email or text us your number and we’ll call you back - and save your bill.

Webcam: This may be obvious from your email address, but tell us the service you use: Yahoo, AOL, MSN etc. Send us the details of your login and we will invite you to join us in webcam conversation.

If Sky News really use 3g video calling, that could really give usage across the country a kick.  I think a lot of people will be moved to try it out — particularly if Sky News is calling you back to save your bill!

This really opens up the opportunity for them to get in touch with any expert or person to give their viewpoint, wherever they are — as long as they’ve a decent 3g signal, they can be on the air visually.  (Instead of being limited to audio only). 

There’s also a super opportunity to become a real-time reporter now.  If you witness something happening, all you need to do is whack a text to the Sky News number (84501 in the UK).  If they like what you’ve said, they can call your 3g mobile and … woosh… within seconds, you’re live to 80 million.  Heh.  Love it! 

It’s a compelling prospect.  I’ll be watching.  Who knows, if they’ve got an issue for discussion about mobile, then I’ll definitely give the 3g video or webcam thing a shot.   

Dare Digital are a bit good.  ;-)   I found about about this from the bottom of the Popbitch newsletter.  Very good target marketing.

Anyway, if you’ve got a spare few minutes, check out digital marketing agency Dare’s Dare School — which according to Mission Secretary Marjorie is apparently their:

‘Graduate recruitment programme for creatives… looking for fresh faced young things to become the next generation of digital creation talent.’

Innovative stuff.   Marjorie is pictured on the left and is a bit of a mobile expert.  ;-)  Her explanation of Bluetooth is one of the best I’ve come across in a while.   Check out this link to see her ‘best ofs’ — the mobile related one is the fourth down.  Click and the video will play. 

Also: Remember the Vodafone May Fly advert?  That was Dare’s work.  Check it out.  You’ll also have seen their work if you recall visiting any recent Sony Ericsson handset websites.

Link: Technology: Mobile Film Ticketing Launched Down Under - The Post Chronicle.

Mobile ticketing solutions provider bCODE announced Monday the launch of its service for Manly Cinemas in Sydney, Australia.

Right, sit down, take a deep breath before continuing.

They’re not doing mobile ticketing with barcodes or RFID.

Instead the ticket is sent by a normal SMS, which, of course, can be received by any mobile handset.

In fact the receiver looks like this:

Gorgeous, eh?  That’d be really cool to see sat in your local cinema.

So, here’s what you do — you buy your movie ticket and then you’re sent a ticket by SMS that looks like this (to the left).

This weird arrangement of text is then read by the bCode reader thus:

The bCODE Reader is a patent-pending state-of-the-art ticket scanning device that could read your bCODE Mobile Ticket from the face of your mobile phone. Provided the bCODE ticket is visible to you, the Reader will be able to electronically read, decode and authenticate the ticket. It is also customisable into different colours, shapes and sizes to suit the various needs of venues and events.

And if there’s ever an issue, I imagine it can easily be typed in.

I like the ubiquity.  It’ll work on almost anything!

Check out www.bcode.com for the gossip.

This is totally wicked. I love it. Sharpexit is a text service which will give you proper excuse to get out of a date, meeting or quit the office early. Ostensibly all you have to do is knock up a text message thus: EXIT 10 (where ‘10′ is the amount of minutes delay before Sharpexit calls you) and text it to 80010. You can also text a 24 hour time like ‘17:30pm’.

Here’s how it works (from the site):

- Your phone will ring in the number of minutes you texted.
- A recorded conversation will start.
- Play along with the scenario which is bound to be an urgent, have-to-leave one.
- Now the simple part - the conversation you just had requires your urgent attention.
- Make your excuses & leave the situation.
- Congratulations, you’ve just made a sharp exit

That is brilliant!

But there’s more! You see when I first visited the site, I thought it was just a text message it sent out. But noooo. It’s actually a call I had a listen and it’s smart. You play along with the recorded message! By default, it’s a lost-my-keys script. It’ll genuine to the person you’re trying to escape from as well because the message leaves gaps for you to go ‘ahhh, er… I dunno, I’m quite busy’… and then a few moments later, the message continues. Sounds like a proper phone call. Heh. I particularly like the ‘help, the mail server has gone down’ one

I found the service just now on the Google Ads of 3gweek.net!

Check Sharpexit out on www.sharpexit.com — the service costs £1 per text.

Wow, online shopping store Reporo.com is brilliant! It really puts paid to the traditional wap-browsing experience which is positively neolithic in comparison.

I came across it when was browsing Paul’s posts at MoDaCo and saw his note. I thought I’d have a look …

It’s an absolutely gorgeous Java applet as well an ultra simple, straight-forward and brilliantly designed website. The applet is right up there with Crickee and Juize as being one of the nicest and easiest to use I’ve ever seen.

I was up and browsing on my Sony Ericsson W550i within 45 seconds of visiting the Reporo.com site. I kid ye not. It was that fast. Here’s an introduction from their site:

Reporo is a great new technology which lets you shop from online stores using your mobile phone.

With Reporo on your phone, you can use your mobile to browse and buy thousands of products from a wide variety of leading retailers - with new shops being added every week.

It’s free, easy to use and simple to setup.

I can see my normal non-mobile-geeky friends using this with no trouble at all.

You simply put in your credit card details on the site then grab your mobile and go shopping. This is the sort of thing I’d do on the train. Or sat waiting at the Chinese Takeaway. I know I *can* use Amazon’s WAP service to order a book. I did, once. It was quite laborious though. Took a while. Lots and lots of page loadings. Reporo.com is just point and click.

Besides this, they’ve got some absolutely stonking special offers on at the moment. Check this out:
- Top 75 chart CDs for 50p each from CDNOW
- Any 2 ringtones for £99p from Partymob.com
- Ministry CDs up to £2.99 (I am definitely about to go and buy some)
- 50% off selected Firebox products
- 10 x roses for £18.99 from Flowersdirect
- An ipod (nano, I imagine) at £119.00 from Think4
- Up to £64 off a digital camera from the Digital camera Company
- 6 x £1 bets for free from Quicksilver Casino

There’s a ton more shops on the service. A major bind for me is that Dominos Pizza no longer deliver to my area. Otherwise I’d have gone and got myself one this evening via Reporo.com.

Perhaps I should have a look at Mankind grooming? Or Figleaves? heh. I could get myself some candles from Candlesent or a new Widescreen from Currys. Moonpig cards are there. So are Oddbins and PC World, The Book People and WHSmith Flowers. Plus Beauty Expert are retailing beauty products (smart, I could use some moisturiser you know), Blackwells are there with a huge book selection whilst Boots Flowers and Active Hotels are also represented.

Hmm. I think it’s a very smart idea to provide the mechanism between the mobile consumer and the store. I’d never order from Ministry on my mobile in a month of Mondays. I think it’s probably a confidence issue — since I’m not a Ministry of Sound customer per se (i.e. not registered on their site), I’d need to mess around typing in address details and whatever if they did offer mobile ordering on their site. I’d much rather shop through something like Reporo.com. Particularly if it’s for ultra boring stuff like moisturiser.

I’m almost a total convert to iTunes, but the Ministry and CDNOW offers are too good to pass up. So I’m off to go and buy some CDs. Maybe some moisturiser. Possibly something on Firebox. I’ll post a note and let u know how I get on.

I’ve no idea where Reporo.com came from! I hadn’t ever come across them before. They seem to have done quite a bit of marketing last year looking at their press section - I must have missed them completely. The site says there are over 15,000 registered users. Kudos to Richard Watney and the rest of the team.

I’m off to go and buy some stuff and try this out.

The Gomobo.com concept absolutely rocks.  I found this via Emily’s post on Textually.org. 

So, the proposition is this: "Stop waiting, skip the line, order your food on the go" (i.e. on the mobile).

GAHH what an arse living in London.  I would definitely, definitely use this.  Total convenience!  Can you imagine being sat in a boring meeting with 10 minutes to go until your lunch? ;-)   A few clicks on your mobile and woosh, your foot-long Subway sandwich is ordered AND paid for!  It just debits straight from your account… no need to mess around with cash.

Love it. I absolutely love it!

If you recall, a few days ago I posted a note about the launch of Abazab.com. I’ve logged in and got the code for my Abazab widget. It’s 420 pixels wide though, which makes it a bit difficult to integrate into this blog permanently — I suspect it’s aimed more at MySpace profiles and the like.

However it’s wicked. It’s a public message box for almost any media.

Check it out below. You’ll see a little movie I made on my Apple iSight and sent to the widget. If you want to send photos or a video or anything to it, simply email it to ewan@zab.bz and it should wrap it to the widget. I haven’t tried this yet, though feel free to give it a go.

And if you’ve got a webcam there, you’ve no excuse, leave me a video message!

I had a note from Shawn McCollum of Wampad to let me know about their mobile service which is garnering quite a bit of attention from a range of quarters. It’s billed as the (mobile) internet speed dial and is quite simply a pull-down box with an array of search options. (Witness my rather amateur screenshot using my Apple iSight on the left)

The major plus offered by Wampad is that there’s a heck of a lot at your fingertips. When you’re on a mobile, it’s often a bit of an arse to make some queries, particularly if you’re having to faff about visiting full-size websites before making your query. So, if you put Wampad in your mobile browser favourites, you’re then one-stop away from querying the usual suspects (google, yahoo, msn) as well as news, shopping, stocks, technorati, imdb, myspace, msn spaces, xanga, flickr, upcoming.org, horoscopes, weather, lottery, movies, flights, wikipedia and wiktionary.

The spelling of W A M P A D, by the way, is really, really simple to type with a mobile keyboard. The arrangement of letters mean that you only need tap 6 times to enter the domain name. Smart.

There’s another search feature called Profiles, explained on the site, thus: -

This is a future enhancement to show a little bit of what’s coming to Wampad. Wampad will eventually allow you to create a login and with that the ability to make a public profile. With this Profile you will be able to add links to your information online like you myspace page, flickr site or just about anything else.

With a fair wind, I could see this being rather popular. I quite like the concept of the local deli putting its Wampad ID on a poster in the shop so that if you ever need the deli’s details, you just whack them into Wampad to get the information. Far more elegant on a mobile than having to do multiple searches through Google. In fact it’s a heck of a lot more elegant and a lot more powerful than sending copious text message queries.

So, check it out on your mobile browser at www.wampad.com and add it to your favourites. (It’ll also work perfectly fine from your desktop). The next time you’re overcome with wanting to query technorati or search flickr, throw up Wampad and give it a go!

abazab’s web-based messaging “widget,” currently in beta at www.abazab.com, allows anyone with a standard camera phone, PDA or computer to send video, photo and voice messages directly to any web page. Community sites gain a rich new way to further engage members with more personal forms of expression and communication. Regardless of location, users can now make spontaneous connections and more easily share rich-media content with their social networks, and get responses to postings more quickly.

Abazab just recently came out of stealth mode and is now ready for beta testing. They’ve a luminary investment team - Draper Fisher Jurveston, Advanced Equities and Geneva Ventures to name but a few, so I’m excited to take a look, have a play and see what they’ve got to offer.

I like the concept. It’ll be absolutely wicked to send a voice message, video or picture directly from my mobile to this blog, for example. Right now I have to do this through intermediary services — this works, but it’s not as ‘connected’ as I’d like. Ergo Abazab has a potential market opportunity, not least with the millions of MySpace accounts out there. The launch release cites this usage example:

Music producer and engineer Jason Slater, a founding member of the rock group Third Eye Blind and other bands, believes abazab will help him connect more closely and immediately with his fan base. “When I’m writing a song or working on a riff, I can post it via abazab and get instant fan feedback. abazab also lets me reach out to my fans and share more of my life, and I get a chance to connect with theirs,” said Slater.

Check out the full text here then rock over to http://www.abazab.com/ and sign-up for the beta.

I had a note earlier from Nick Hancock about his new service, Juvino. It will shortly be launching to the masses, but right now they are seeking 2,000 beta trialists (each offered £2.50 credit free) to test everything out. Got a moment? UK based? Point your web browser here and test it out.

What is Juvino:

Juvino is a new kind of service aimed at helping mobile users save money. It works through the use of some free software that you download onto your phone which then allow you to route calls and text messages through our platform. This means you can easily take advantage of prices that are much lower than those charged by the mobile operators.

How much can you save:

It depends on the mobile tariff you are on and your usage within that tariff. Savings can be up to
o 95% on international calls
o 65% on cross network calls
o 50% on text messages

I’ve just downloaded the applet to my phone and I’m going to try it on the way to the gym!

I was chatting to a colleague this afternoon about the mobile payments industry. He was asking about US players and I mentioned that Textpayme and Obopay came to mind, as well as the huge PayPal Mobile. I sent him a link to the site and also had a look myself. I was surprised to see that the service is live! Where did that come from?! I completely missed the launch!

Check them out: http://www.obopay.com

Now, do you see that little green credit card at the top of the image? That’s got me all excited. You see, when you sign-up for Obopay, you’re sent an Obopay debit card (a Mastercard, it seems) which works directly with your account. WOW!

So, if your friends sends you $100 via Obopay on his mobile… you can immediately go and spend it on a super slap up meal and pay for it with your Obopay debit card. Genius! I can’t wait to get one. What a brilliant addition to the mobile payment service.

Obopay have certainly sat back and thought about the challenges to using mobile payments. It’s all very well being able to send/receive cash via your mobile (by sending a text, for example), but it’s not ACTUALLY that useful there and then, is it? Unless that cash is going right into your bank account. AND you’re wanting to spend that cash via a debit card assigned to that particular bank account. I really like the concept of a real-world debit card that I can use to buy stuff with in the local shop, or online at Amazon.

Case in point: I’ve got a $29 or so sat in my PayPal account at the moment which is comparatively useless to me at the moment. I can’t *do* anything with it that’s useful to me, right now. Yes, I can send some cash to a friend or perhaps I could try and find something to buy-right-now on ebay so I can use up that cash.. or maybe wait until my Napster subscription is due next month — in which case that $29 balance will go toward that.

BUT if I could go and buy a coke or a 6-pack of evian with it at the corner shop.. now you’re talking.

Alas Obopay is only available to US consumers. You need a social security number to sign up. So I’ll have to sit back and lump it here in London for the time being. However, if you’re a US citizen, you’ve no excuse. Go and test it out and qualify for the $10 credit special offer they’re running at the moment.

So bring it on. This looks like an exciting service.

Update: Having a further look I found out that I’m welllllll outttaaaa date .. according to this PDF on their site, Obopay launched the service on March 30! I didn’t see anything about it at all on the web then!

Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch posted this note today about Youtube Mobile which caused me to yell ‘ahh hahh’ out loud to the computer monitor. 

Youtube have announced that they have:

"..Launched a service that allows people to upload videos directly from their mobile phones and PDAs to the YouTube Web site."

The full release is here.

This is seminal for me.  If it works the way I hope it works.  For a while I’ve felt quite limited that I couldn’t easily upload-and-publish videos from my mobile in the same way that I do with images to Flickr or the like.

However I wonder if it’s US only?  I don’t see any notes about it.  I’m hoping that their system will happily accept a video attached in an email from my Sony Ericsson W550i.  I’ll know in a few moments as my test is transmitting to the Youtube service at the moment.

If it’s a go-er and it does work for international users then I am most definitely getting a Nokia N90.  The video quality on that phone, combined with a T-mobile UK Web ‘N’ Walk data plan which is apparently unlimited (I’ve still to look at my bill and check this is the case) is really going to change things for me. 

One annoying issue: my W550i is ‘2g’ … it’s chugging away at GPRS speeds uploading a 10 second video which must be a few hundred kilobytes in size.  Goodness knows what it’ll be like if I try to upload a 3 minute high-res video from a Nokia N90.  Still as long as the data plan is unlimited, speed isn’t too much of a problem.

Bring on easily-uploadable mobile video!

My friends have been chattering about the prospect of Streetwars arriving in London shortly.  Apparently a load of them are going to sign-up to become water-pistol assassins.  Heh.  I think it’s a super idea.

It’s all web-based at the moment, as far as I can see.  It’s the medium of choice of course, however from a mobile perspective, wouldn’t it be wicked if they built some sort of BuddyPing location-based technology into it?  One step further:  Wouldn’t it be wicked if you got your assassination orders via secure text message to your handset?  Complete with a mini MMS profile of your mark? ;-) 

More here: http://www.streetwars.net

Link: NMA.co.uk [100% Interactive Marketing, Media, Mobile and Advertising].

Virgin Mobile has launched a ‘Summer of free texts’ promotion, giving away up to 20bn text messages to its customers until September.

Existing and new subscribers can send up to 1,000 free text messages a month to other Virgin Mobile numbers.

Well, the market is definitely moving! :)  Good news! 

I’ve been in Cannes over the Bank Holiday weekend sunning myself.  I had a super time and avoided looking at anything remotely mobile related.  Back now. 

So, if like Ajit at Futuretext, you’ve received an email from me saying ‘We’ve received your listing’ … don’t worry. 

I’ve been busy this evening going through my bookmarks and blog subscriptions religiously adding people and companies.  I’ve decided to create a directory for the mobile industry.  There’s probably a really good one that I haven’t come across, but since I haven’t found it, I shelled out some cash for the PHPMyDirectory software yesterday.

As if by magic SMS Text News now has it’s own directory, here:

http://directory.smstextnews.com/

It’s by no means comprehensive.  Er, in fact I think it’s only got about 16 entries so far.  You know it’s quite a bit of work adding peoples’ blogs. You need to fill in country names and categories etc.  I didn’t know it was sending emails out to people … so, apologies if you wondered why you got the email.  Oh, and if anyone doesn’t want to be included, no biggie, let me know.

If you’re not in the directory, this is because I haven’t had time to add you.  No other reason.  If you’ve got a spare minute, you can go ahead and submit a listing.  (There’s no charge)

Ajit’s a bit of a sport.  The system automatically sent him a demand for a cheque.  Heh.  How embarrassing.

I have been using Opera Mini for a month or so now across multiple phone handsets.  It’s brilliant.  I thought it definitely deserved mega hot status! 

If you haven’t already experienced it, you can download it over-the-air by visiting http://mini.opera.com in your phone’s crappy browser.  It’ll be installed in no time.

I’m absolutely delighted with the speed and functionality.  I particularly like its bookmark function … but to be honest, the best function is the fact that it works - fast, reliably and you can view normal websites on it nice and easily.

It’s brilliant with Gmail Mobile in particular — I use this a lot when I don’t carry my Blackberry.  Plus I can just about use Typepad.com on it if I need to! 

If you haven’t checked out the funky ‘experience Opera Mini’ flash movies, have a browse here: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/campaign/

I particularly like the ‘Google your future’ concept.  ;-) 

AAaaaaaaaaand you know what, Match.com (although quite a long page) works perfectly via Opera Mini. I was sat in Pizza Express, on the train and walking along Holborn effortlessly checking and replying to messages from a very fit Anaesthetist that I’ve been talking with. 

Download it today!

Opera Mini: A* Mega Hot

Alfie Dennen, ever at the forefront of mobile technology, sent me a note about another service he’s involved with: Peekabootv.com. 

It’s been very much in stealth mode until a day or so ago and it’s now available for one and all to enjoy at http://wap.peekabootv.com via your nearest mobile browser. (See the screenshot to the right).

Similar in concept to 3’s Seemetv offering, Peekabootv.com enables users to generate cash by uploading their own content and allowing others to download it.  For example, I could go out now and start taking some wicked video footage of some skateboarders and upload it to Peekabootv.com — you’d then pay a few pence to view my videos
(a portion of which, I receive back).

It’d be no doubt far more interesting and far more profitable for me as the content owner if there were some sort of skin involved.  I’m thinking naked cheerleader skateboarding, for example.  But I digress.

There’s a lot more to the offering.  If you’ve got a good audience of mobile users, simply give the chaps at Peekabootv.com a call and they’ll implement a custom version for you.  Rather useful if you’re interested in exploiting your existing communities and increasing ARPU at the same time. 

Take out your phone, point it to wap.peekabootv.com and give go…

If I read Justin’s latest email correctly, they’ve now given Mobileglu users the ability to send pictures *to* Flickr as well as view them.  Very cool indeed.  I’ve just re-enabled my flickr account and I’m going to try this out shortly.

I wonder if Justin and the team there couldn’t do something with Doug Richard’s new Hotxt.  It seems that if you combined both Hotxt, Mobileglu and BuddyPing, you’d have a super dooper product set.  In fact it looks like an ultra compelling next step for Hotxt, Juize or Crickee: keep the punters on the application, keep them using it.  Give them more and more reasons to not to click the ‘write new message’ link from the main phone menu.