Carlo spotted this one

Link: Twitter / Prashant Agarwal: Just got busted for taking …

Just got busted for taking a camera phone pict! Ironic considering that venue is sponsored by O2 who sells quarter of camera phones in the UK.

If you’re aware of anyone who might be interested in investing into the largest mobile blogging community in Europe, do speak to Alfie at Moblog:Tech.

They’re embarking on a first round of substantial funding, they’re 100% management-owned, debt free and hauling in revenues like nobody’s business.

They don’t just run moblog.co.uk, they also provide the technology that delivers moblogging for oodles of brands including Island Records, Universal, 3UK, Greenpeace and most notably, Channel 4’s ‘Big Art Mob‘.

Now is a good time to talk to Alfie. Get him via moblog UK or drop me a note and I’ll connect you.

Paris-based Realeyes3D, a leading provider of mobile imaging applications, today announced their handwritten messaging applications for camera phone users had been shipped to more than 30 million camera phones worldwide.

The applications, which has also been licensed via an OEM agreement with Samsung and Sanyo, allow camera phone users to send messages that they create in their own handwriting, using a standard pen and any type of paper. The user simply jots down a message, takes a picture and RealEyes3D’s Digitizer application extracts the message and transmits it to the recipient. Their other offering, W-Postcard, provides the facility to add comments, notes, doodles or drawings to pictures users have already taken with their camera phone, and again transmit it to the recipient using standard MMS technology.

“Realeyes3D’s handwritten messaging applications represent an evolution in person-to-person communication beyond text messaging,” said Benoît Bergeret, co-founder and CEO of Realeyes3D.  “In the fiercely competitive wireless marketplace, operators and handset manufacturers are actively looking for applications that add compelling value to their devices as camera phone adoptions skyrocket.” 

Link: Nokia offers mobile photo printing - vnunet.com

Nokia has launched a photo printing service to allow Nseries users to upload images and place an order directly from their smartphones.

Users can select the images in the phone’s gallery application and insert the postal address and other requested information. The order is then processed by CeWe Color and prints are delivered to the address

Link: TheStar.com - Business - Interactive with an X

Now this is quite neat. There’s a Canadian TV series called ReGenesis, which airs over here in Blighty on the Sci-Fi channel. I must admit I haven’t seen it before, but looking at the plots it looks quite cool. Anyway, leaving my TV habits aside for one minute..

Canadian company Xenophile are helping the producers of ReGenesis to break new ground in mobile interactivity. It’s so groundbreaking that they’ve just won an International Emmy Award for their efforts. Here’s a little snippet from the original article:

After the show ends, a viewer who had signed up online may then receive a personalized SMS text message on their cell phone in real time asking for help from one of the show’s scientists.

After logging on, the viewer gets a video message from the scientist. Clues may lead to a multitude of websites and blogs in a quest to solve the mystery.

A subsequent show is then edited to insert an actual photo or video of what the player had uncovered – with reference by the characters in the show about getting help from their “field agents.”

Wow. Now that is really impressive. Some similar interactive stuff has been done before - 24 having ‘live’ phone numbers featured in the show that get answered on set, and the BBC’s Spooks interactive application on UK digital TV that used to come on after the show had aired spring to mind. But in my mind, this takes interactivity up a step - viewers get the chance to really interact in the series is likely to be a big draw.

Link: Novel ways to put tickets in fans’ hands - USATODAY.com

Your cellphone becomes your ticket, when your carrier sends you a MMS (multimedia messaging service) bar code to be scanned at the door. That’s what’s happening on the 20-city Fergie Verizon VIP Tour. “You could see this deploying at a large scale within the next two to three years,” says Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless’ associate director of music and sponsorships.

Very interesting indeed. I wonder how this is working out in practice.

Link: Mobile Messaging 2.0 » Thoughts On The Morphing SMS and MMS Fee Model: a hosted discussion on mobile messaging, devices, and user practices and trends

Interesting blog post to Mobile Messaging 2.0 from Russell Shaw on the subject of flat rate SMS and MMS plans.

According to a tip turned into a post on Engadget Mobile, AT&T will, starting next Monday, offer a flat monthly SMS/MMS Family Plan for $29.99.

I think this is merely a transitional phase. The current per-SMS message fee model will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Eventually, carriers will simply assess SMS and MMS messages either according to the number of characters in the header and then the message itself- or the number of minutes you spend sending and receiving such messages.

So let’s just say you SMS 200 minutes a month. If that activity doesn’t push you above your calling plan’s parameters, you’ve already paid for the time. If not, that’s when the overages will start to kick in.

What are you thoughts? My first impressions are ‘nice idea, but how is it going to work?’ - in particular with regard to charging for the number of minutes you spend sending and receiving SMS or MMS messages. Most mobile users don’t give a second thought to how long it takes to actually send or receive and SMS to or from the network. Would they think they were being charged for the amount of time it took to write or read one? Would faster typers get more per month than slower typers?

Nice idea, and I’d love to be proved wrong, but.. no. Not going to work. Inclusive SMS and MMS in a bundle, yes. Unlimited, subject to ‘fair use’? Yes. But charging for messaging like voice on a per second/minute basis? Not going to work.

Link: PixDrop Launches The First Free Picture Messaging Service

Had a note in earlier from SMS Text News reader Nate, to let us know about his new service launched today. PixDrop lets people send send free picture messages to Verizon Wireless, AT&T/Cingular, and Sprint users with picture messaging capable handsets.

There’s no registration required - you just have to upload the pic you want to send and enter the number of the person you want to send it to. They’re working on expanding the service to other mobile networks in the US, so if you’re not a subscriber to any of the aforementioned services, watch this space!

Link: moblogUK newsletter, June 2007

moblog have teamed up with Gong Anime Studios to give away some wicked anime related prizes.

The the best anime themed post made to the site before June 15th will win a Sony Ericsson K800i, 2 Runners up will each win a Gong Studios engraved 30GB iPod and free Joost.com accounts.

To enter, just send your anime and manga related pics and vids to 60030 with the subject of ‘gong’, or email them to gong@moblog.net

Link: Government restricts SMS news services

The government has been restricting some SMS news services and blocking certain media websites, said journalists and opposition parties. “SMS news service via mobile networks are facing a legal challenge, and I call on the government to make laws to issue licenses to the companies who want to offer this service,” said Chairman of Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Nasr Taha Mustafa. Mustafa asked the Ministry of Information to settle the problem of the restricted SMS services with al-Nass Mobile and Without Chains Mobile, in accordance with the journalism law.

Looks like another government getting jittery about freedom of speech, following on from the news a month or so ago that Iran is planning to filter MMS traffic.

Just had this in from Alfie at Moblog.

LOL!Twitter is a global community of friends and strangers taking the piss out of one simple question:

What are you doing?

Take one Lolcats, mix with Twitter and pictures, send to www.LOLtwitter.com

Send your LOL!Twitter pics in to the site by emailing or MMS’ing to: LOL@moblg.net

Interesting. I’d never heard of Lolcats before to be honest, so had to do a bit of research. The pic on the right is one I found that’s mobile related - there’s plenty more hilarious examples out there if you have a quick flick through Google.

Link: Japan tries ‘cell phone diet’

With cell phones ubiquitous in Japan and rising concern over expanding waistlines, health care providers have put two-and-two together to help the weight-conscious send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis.

The concept is only on a test run for now, and one little drawback is that dieters have to wait three days to find out how much damage they did by eating the meal they just photographed.

Link: TaliyaNews :. MMS controlling equals eavesdropping – MP

This relates to a story from a few weeks ago about Iran’s plans to censor MMS traffic.

Ramezan-Ali Sadeqzadeh arguing that MMS and SMS messages are private interactions between two parties, added in an interview with IRNA, “There is no legal justification for such practices.”

The first deputy of Parliament’s Mines & Industries Commission added, “Just as it is illegal to eavesdrop the conversation of two people in accordance with the IRI Constitution in any way, save for doing so based on the verdict of a court of justice in order to prove a crime, or to prevent a threat against national security, and similar cases, controlling the MMS and SMS contents, too, need to be based on such a verdict, or after the filing of a complaint by the receiver of the unwanted texts, or pictures, or films.”

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | Phone-in confidence fall hits ITV

ITV has warned a string of high-profile scandals surrounding premium rate phone lines has hit the number of people using the services, knocking revenues. A lack of consumer confidence had led to a 20% fall in income from the phone lines in March and April, it said.

According to ITV’s Chief Exec Michael Grade: “The poor execution of these services across the sector has reduced consumer confidence and is having a material impact on premium rate telephone services revenue”. The company also said that “concerns remain about when consumer confidence in this area will be restored.”

Link: Portio Research

Here’s something you might want to get your hands on if you want some in depth information on pricing trends in the mobile arena. Portio’s report ‘Understanding the Evolution of Pricing Trends in Mobile Services’ covers pricing trends in both voice and data services, and looking at the summary there’s some really good information to be had from getting a copy.

This market analysis should help you to:

Understand the position of price in the product lifecycle
Analyse pricing trends in voice, SMS, MMS, games, ringtones and more
Explore differences between fully-developed, mature markets and developing or emerging markets
Know what to expect in terms of pricing trends and adoption for future new service launches
Understand pricing for early adopters compared to the mass market
Discover which mobile data services have gained value over the years, and which have lost value

More here

Link: real estate marketing | sms text message

Just had a quick note in from Greg at Mobile Visions in New Jersey, to say they’ve just launched their brand new service ‘Cell A House’. Once you’ve finished reading this and checking out the Cell A House site, have a look at this blog entry for a rant and ensuing discussions back in December about the subject of estate agents and mobile technology.

Home buyers who stop to look at a house for sale can send a text message to a 5 digit short code, and receive detailed information and pictures instantly to their mobile phone. Simultaneously, the selling agent is sent and email or text message with the phone number of the potential buyer.

Real estate agents simply log in at the Cell a House website to enter information about their homes for sale, and upload pictures. The service is based on a monthly subscription fee depending on the number of homes to be listed. Cell a House also includes free eye-catching lawn signs containing the home code to send the text message to.

Great stuff!

Link: 160Characters Association

Some interesting statistics here from industry group 160Characters. In a recent survey, they found that 84% of people questioned expect an SMS response within five minutes. However when it came to business texts, only 56% said they’d expect the same five minute response.

Some other interesting statistics that came out were:

- 26% would take between two and five hours to answer a personal email; 31% would wait until the next day.

- 12% don’t use MMS at work, and 60% said they’d never use MMS for business as it’s too slow.

Link: Channel 4 Dispatches’ Binwatch: Send pictures of your bins

Just got a tip from Alfie at Moblog about his new project with Channel 4’s popular current affairs programme Dispatches. They’re looking after a special moblog for a forthcoming documentary called ‘Bin Wars’, which is due to air on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday May 24th.

Binwatch wants to see your bins! Are they overflowing with rubbish? Attracting local vermin? Or perhaps the new system is resulting in a greener approach to your rubbish disposal.

Posting to this moblog is simple, simply send an MMS containing an image or video to 07725202020 with your message and the word bin at the start of the message, then more info about your bin such as where it is located in the UK, how smelly is it, etc.

Complaints about bin collections? Well I never. My local refuse operatives (as they’re apparently called nowadays) didn’t turn up on Friday because there was a bank holiday last week, and then didn’t appear on Saturday either because of the wrong kind of rain.. or something like that.

Come on, what are you waiting for? Get snapping, texting and MMSing pictures of your bins

(note: if you’re younger than about 21, were deprived of UK telly from 1975 til 1994, or have a phobia of elderly men in gold shell suits laden with more bling than Mr T, ignore the next paragraph!)

Jingle jangle, jewellery jewellery.. Welcome boys and girls to SMSTextNews will fix it. Here we go with a letter from Erin at nowthen:

I’d like to invite you to try nowthen (www.nowthen.com ) - a simple, free and addictive social networking service that lets users communicate and express themselves via camera phone snapshots.

nowthen originated as an internal SMS/MMS communication tool used by my coworkers because our team is spread throughout the US and UK. Eventually, we all had such a good time with the photo messaging feature that we decided to make the service available to the public - and here we are!

Fantastic.. it sounds good so far - the words ‘MMS’, ‘free’ and ’social networking’ always make me curious. So how does it work? Over to Erin..

As a nowthen member, simply add friends, MMS your pictures to 07983 111 222 and we’ll instantly forward them to the phones of your nowthen network of friends. Likewise, you can receive your friends’ updates to your phone too. We also provide our users with free web space where they can easily store, share and access their photos. There are no applications to download - just a simple registration process via phone or the Web and users can immediately begin nowthening!

Brilliant! Sounds like it’s got potential to turn into a real killer app for the world of MMS. I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper go yet, but as soon as I find some time I’ll post an update.

Link: News | Orange launches mobile ‘Play-Off’ competition - NMA

Just caught this on New Media Age:

Visitors to Orange World are invited to upload their own 10-15 second videos via MMS or the Orange website. They are then entered into one-on-one competition with a rival in several categories including face-off, dance-off and weird-off. The entrant with the highest number of votes progresses to the next round with several competitions running concurrently.

Interesting concept. If you’re an Orange 3G customer, you can give it a whirl at http://orange.play-off.com/

Link: Iran to Filter ‘Immoral’ Messages on MMS

According to Iranian state television the Telecommunications Ministry will soon begin filtering out ‘immoral’ messages sent using the Multimedia Messaging Service on citizens’ mobile phones.

I wonder how they’re going to do that? I suppose you can use various skin-filter-checker pieces of software to hunt for skin tones. But that’s not going to help with other immoral elements, I’m sure.

That has to be one of the world’s biggest moderation contracts, eh? I wonder if it’s worth phoning up the Telecoms Ministry and asking if they need some help with moderation.

Anyway, here’s a picture of a very-safe-for-work huge cock. You’ll have seen it before, I’m sure…

Link: Telecompaper: “Your One-Stop Source for Telecoms Information!”

Belgian mobile operator BASE is offering MMS at the same price as SMS. MMS to other network operators, with interconnection to Proximus available from May

FINALLY. FINALLY!

If only operators had done this sooner………..

Link: Netimperative - Mr Bean gets ‘snap happy’ mobile campaign

Magnet Harlequin’s mobile division, headed up by Scott Seaborn, has created a new solution called Snap Happy, which makes use of the film posters nationwide.

When the consumer sees a Mr Bean poster with the Snap Happy logo, they take a picture of  the  poster using their mobile phone and send it via MMS to Mr Bean’s special mobile  number  –  07786 200547.

The Snap Happy technology will automatically identify the type of phone they have and then offer them the appropriate free ring tones, wallpaper or video, all exclusively recorded by Mr Bean.

I think this is quite innovative. However I think it’s also a little bit limited in the context of effort. I’m concerned that taking a photo and then sending it to a long number isn’t quite as easy as texting ‘bean’ to 60300, for example.

It’s asking quite a bit from the end-user. However, that being said, it could well perform well. In particular, given the audience the Mr Bean movie is aimed at, it could get a ton of traffic.

You can find Magnet Harlequin here.

Link: Smith Micro Announces Its New ‘Paperless’ Mobile Sweepstakes Generator: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance

Smith Micro announced it’s new Mobile Sweepstakes Generator, an intuitive ‘digital scratch card’ technology that transforms a one way marketing program into a dynamic interactive experience via MMS.

Smith Micro’s Mobile Sweepstakes Generator can power advertising promotions in a secure, imaginative and cost-effective manner by allowing the consumer to engage with the company sponsoring the sweepstakes via their mobile phone. This “paperless sweepstakes” technology not only drives increased SMS cell phone usage for carriers, but also serves as a complimentary channel to more traditional media including print, broadcast, mail and online.

Well… I think this is a good evolution of the medium.

I’ve got a slight issue — it’s very geeky though. It’s not… well, it doesn’t seem as ‘random’ as a physical scratch card. Because I know that MMS has been pre-programmed to either be a ‘winning’ one or not BEFORE I receive it.

I think it’s a paper vs technology thing with me. Very cool nonetheless.

This is a piece of genius.

82ASK, the wickedly good get-an-answer-to-anything-by-text service, has extended the value of their service substantially. It was already excellent, but I can imagine, if you’re a bit lost or if you’re looking for a street or the like, a map would, actually, come in quite handy.

So, now you can do this!

Any questions that require a map related answer are sent a normal text message reply, along with a link to view a WAP page with the map on it. Woosh. Smart!

I’ve copied the whole press release for anyone interested in the techie bits…

Text and answer service provider, 82ASK, today announces a deal with Multimap, one of the world’s leading online mapping and location-based services providers, which will allow consumers to access tailored interactive maps on their mobile phones wherever they are in the UK. The service, powered by 2ergo, the global convergent communication specialist, will enable people to send a text to 82275 requesting a map of any location or landmark and receive a link to this delivered straight to their phone within minutes.

After requesting details for a particular location, users are sent an SMS within 5 minutes alongside their regular ‘answer’ with a link to a branded WAP page containing their map. This page will be delivered using the 2ergo platform, which plays an integral role in ensuring the timely and secure delivery of messages.

The mobile service provides people with a quick and easy way of accessing the maps they need from their handheld devices, without having to install additional applications or search WAP sites. Not only will the service be able to provide people with maps of where particular locations are, but it will also supply step-by-step directions using the text sent along with the link.

Sarah McVittie, CEO of 82ASK said, “The deal with Multimap allows us to significantly extend our product offering to the consumer. Not only can we provide the best quality answers to people’s questions while they are out and about, but we can also now show them the location of the places they want to find.

“Whether you are looking for a pub or a café, a railway station or a school, all you have to do is text 82275 and we will be able to show you where it is. This all ties in with our belief that people should be able to access the information that they need from their mobile phone as easily as possible, eliminating all end-user requirements to “search”.

Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap said, “This is a great opportunity for us to engage with 82ASK’s consumers in an immensely useful and compelling way. By sending them maps pinpointing the exact location of venues and facilities they have requested while they are on the move, via their handheld device, we provide a great value-add, at once helping them to research the options and get to their chosen destination quickly, as well as increasing footfall to businesses’ doors. It’s a win/win situation, and we are pleased to be working with 2ergo and 82ASK to deliver such a useful service to 82ASK’s highly-valued customers.”

David Burns, Head of Enterprise Solutions at 2ergo said, “Using our extensive and robust delivery platform, Multimap and 82ASK can be assured that these time-critical SMS are delivered exactly when and where they need to be. Location and map-based mobile applications are rapidly entering the mainstream, and 2ergo is delighted to be at the forefront of enabling this.”

The service will cost consumers 50p per map in addition to the regular £1 per question asked to 82ASK and works across all networks.

Have you 82ASK‘ed recently? Go on. Ask them how many gerbils would fit inside a Range Rover Sport.

I’m going to give this a go when I’m back from France.