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Ewan MacLeod: The MIR Fallout
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Man Booker Prize flogs books over mobile
Friday, August 22nd, 2008If you’re a bit of a book buff, you’ll soon be able to have a gander at the Man Booker Prize shortlist on your mobile. The Prize has teamed up with GoSpoken to make extracts from the soon-to-be-announced shortlist available by mobile.
Once the shortlist is published next month, Booker fans can SMS a shortcode to get an extract of the book either as text or as an audio clip. If they like the book, they can then order it from their mobile and get the full version either sent to them in the post or download the complete audio book, with the price charged to the user’s phone bill. Sounds like a nice, simple example of how good mobile commerce can work.
Orange employs actors to make fake iPhone queues
Friday, August 22nd, 2008According to a a Reuters report, Orange isn’t having any trouble drumming up interest in the iPhone launch in Poland today - in fact, it’s already got queues forming outside its shops. Nothing new there you might think.
Think again. The queuers are being paid to stand in line. From the article:
“We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone,” a spokesman said.
Apparently, Orange’s iPhone attendees are actors. No word on whether there are genuine customers waiting there too, but Reuters says that T-Mobile, also due to launch the iPhone today, hasn’t seen any queues.
3 Skypephone S2 now in the wild
Friday, August 22nd, 2008If you want to get your hands on 3’s Skypephone S2, the operator’s already taking pre-orders for the device through its website, and it won’t be long til the device is out in the wild (next week online, 1st September in store).
The S2 looks like a series step up from its predecessor, with a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a new carousel interface that sounds like it’s taken more than a passing inspiration from the iPhone’s touch UI. The device has also got better memory - up to 4GB expandable - and a 2.2 inch QVGA screen, as well as all the usual apps like Facebook integrated onto the front of the device.
It’s also retained the best features of the first Skypephone - that’s the free Skype calls and IMs, then. I was rather fond of the first device, despite a few reports that its durability wasn’t up to much, so I’ll be interested to see how its successor shapes up.
O2 running out of Apple iPhones
Friday, August 22nd, 2008According to a notice on O2’s website, there appears to be a bit of a shortage of the Apple devices: there’s no iPhones to be had online according to the operator, and stores are also running a bit short.
The operator says:
We are experiencing unprecedented demand for the device and whilst we are confident that all customers who want iPhone 3G will get one by the end of this summer, initial supply is limited and will be for some weeks. Here is what you need to know:
• We are working closely with Apple to get additional iPhone 3Gs. These will be coming in on a weekly basis. We’ll keep you posted on specific details by updating this web page daily.
• We are currently out of stock of iPhone 3Gs via our on-line stores and customer services but have limited availability in O2 retail stores as at opening time Thursday 21st August.
The site goes onto give a list of all the stores where you can get an iPhone and, to be fair, there’s a truckload of them so if you’re in the market for an iPhone, there’s definitely somewhere near you that’s selling the handset.
This wouldn’t be the old favourite tactic of only releasing limited stock of a device in order to get people running to the shops waving their credit cards in panic, would it?
AOL polishes up mobile AIM
Friday, August 22nd, 2008AOL has spiffed up AIM AIM Express, a Flash based web version that means users can have AIM conversations over the web without having to download any software.
AIM Express sports tabbed IM conversations and text message mode - users can SMS anyone on their buddy list - and the apps works with all the major browsers, including IE, Firefox and Safari (what no Opera?)
AIM has had a spit and polish for Windows Mobile phones, and is now available for version 5 and 6 of the OS. While it’s not earthshattering, it’s good to see AOL looking after the service and tarting it up once in a while - and a Flash version makes a lot of sense for anyone who fancies an IM convo on their work phone without all the hassle of convincing the IT department to let them put software on the device.
4 million HSPA converts a month
Thursday, August 21st, 2008HSPA is taking over the world. According to the GSM Association, there are now 50 million users on HSPA networks around the globe - a massive leap from last’s year’s figure of 11 million connections. The association reckons that new users will be joining HSPA networks at the rate of around 4 million a month by the end of this year.
Apparently, there are now 191 operators with commercial HSPA networks and 740 devices you could connect up to them, should you want to.
If you’re up for more of these stats, the average peak speed is between 3.6Mbps and 7.2Mbps, which the association says means an average end user speed of over 1Mbps. Operators usually say that the real end user speed for a connection is one third of the peak. It would be interesting to get a more real world perspective on the GSMA’s numbers: what’s the average speed you’ve experienced using your HSPA connection? And is it better than your home broadband?
BlackBerry Bold has iPhone 3G issues?
Thursday, August 21st, 2008It looks like the similarities between the BlackBerry Bold and Apple’s iPhone are stronger than we thought: according to one analyst who’s been tinkering with RIM’s latest, the device has been experiencing the same sort of 3G problems as its Apple rival.
Jim Suva of Citigroup wrote in a research note quoted by Barrons that:
We had a few occasional 3G signal dropping troubles at some locations especially on high-rises building streets & on our 34th floor (EDGE picked up immediately but slower internet speeds)
Suva also reckons that the Bold’s been delayed while RIM fixes the problems. 3G connection issues don’t bode well this late in the game, but top marks to RIM for sorting them out before the device hits the market, not after.
