Anonymous Tips
Morning readers, Whatley here, just got this over MSN from a friend of mine at Nokia;
“Hey Whatley, we are buying Symbian and will donate it + S60 to an open source foundation!”
To which my response was a resounding - “Eh?”
You can read the official Nokia press releases here and here
Now, I’m not a developer. I’m [...]
Continue ReadingSince my article last week with rumours that Monstermob had gone bust, I’ve had quite a few emails from interested parties asking if I know anything else. As it’s been a long holiday weekend in the UK, I haven’t had a chance to do any further research - however it appears I won’t be needing [...]
Continue ReadingJust heard a rumour on the Bango forums (via the Mobile Monday London mailing list) that Monstermob have gone bust. If you’ve got any inside information (anonymous sources will be respected and kept so), drop me an email to alex (at) sms text news (dot) com
Monstermob goes bust. Only months after acquisition of Monstermob by [...]
Link: Noodle for cheap calls
Had a tip in from an SMS Text News reader earlier about a service called Noodle. The concept is quite simple - you get a new number which you use instead of your existing mobile number, and everytime you make or receive a call you earn 2p a minute cash. Is it [...]
Link: Pay Point - PAYPOINT ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH SHOP SCAN SAVE®
Got an anonymous tip in about this earlier. Must have missed the press release back in April, or they need a new PR agency, as it didn’t appear on our news story radar. Anyway, better late than never..
Shop Scan Save® is an innovative retail solution [...]
A little bird reckons that a mobile related voicemail messaging service close to my heart is up for sale. Interesting.
Continue ReadingJust had this in via the anonymous tips form. Perhaps some of those more intimately aware of what’s happening at Vodafone could confirm, deny or rebuke as appropriate?
Word on the street is Vodafone are going to start charging for using their home portal. That’s right.
No more free Vodafone LIVE.
Which is quite frankly [...]
who wants to be a millionaire
Originally uploaded by ew4n.
[Update: Njar (see comment) has set us straight: The 07 number simply receives the traffic. The user is sent back a message from a shortcode before being billed the £1 -- as is right and proper.]
I had this sent in this anonymous analysis of the [...]
I’ve getting loads of anonymous tips that I just can’t publish regarding Neomedia (check out the Investors’ Hub topics flying left right and centre). I’ve no idea of the veracity of some of the claims being made.
Can anyone explain to me in a non-actionable manner, what exactly is happening with Neomedia?
I had an anonymous tip in this afternoon pointing my attention to this post on the Electronic Fronteir Foundation’s site.
Link: EFF: DeepLinks
A company called NeoMedia has a patent on reading an “index” (e.g, a bar code) off a product, matching it with information in a database, and then connecting to a remote computer (e.g., a [...]
I had an anonymous tip called in this afternoon about Vodafone. The caller, who works in the UK mobile industry, close to major aggregators, claims that for the last 6 weeks, Vodafone UK have been charging users not just for the MO (the originating message) to a shortcode, but also for the MT (the [...]
Continue ReadingI had a reliable source tell me that MBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction network, is up for sale.
My source’s choice of words:
“Up for sale”
As apposed to:
“About to be acquired”
… is interesting and rather telling. Either someone’s made a brilliant offer, or someone there wants an exit. I couldn’t remember if they were [...]
Got this sent in anonymously in response to various stories on the demise of the Blackberry:
—————–
Blackberry’s were originally, like most new gadgets, the property of the wealthy, influential and in summary all those nobs who want to stand outside a trendy bar in Shoreditch shouting “look at me, aren’t I a completely amazing guy [...]
Got an anonymous tip in this evening about T-Mobile’s upcoming focus group research on Web ‘n Walk. You’re disqualified from participating if you happen to be a programmer, web designer or anyone in the telecoms industry — however one nimble SMS Text News reader has got in under the radar…
This morning I received an [...]
Every day I get quite a few anonymous tips and comments sent in via the Anonymous Tip Form. Most are heresay, nearly all are thoroughly entertaining and almost without exception, unpublishable.
This evening though, I received this comment sent in by someone who is described as a ‘top industry insider’. The comment was [...]
What can you tell me about UK service provider, W2Wave?
I’ve had two anonymous tips on them this week — the last one in this afternoon, telling me that there are market movements on going there.
Have you worked with them? They’ve got what looks like a good client list, appear to [...]
I had a comment added to one of the blog posts this afternoon which, although highly exciting, I can’t publish it directly. It’s a little too incendiary. I emailed the comment’s author (who used to work for the company in question) and explained.
Here is the cut down legal version:
Which UK mobile [...]
Just got this in from Sucker — a transcript of his recent conversation with Orange.
Sucker: Hello, I’d like to upgrade my phone for only the second time in the 7 or 8 years I’ve been an Orange customer.
Orange: Ok, what would you like?
Sucker: A K800 please.
Orange: Sorry, that phone is out of stock sir.
Sucker: [...]
Had a comment in today from a reader who was a little irked by this article in The Guardian by Ronan Fitzgerald.
The reader comments:
Full story in last weeks Guardian - clearly the journalist doesn’t know the difference between location based advertising and advertising based on your profile…..
If you’re into LBS, the article might [...]
Had an anonymous tip — well, an ‘anonymous experience’ actually — sent in this afternoon from ‘Fred’ about Truphone, the voice over IP mobile service. [I've edited and re-written parts of this to keep the person's identity anonymous]. Here it is:
Hi there. I am one of the only people in the United Kingdom with [...]
What UK mobile phone retailer has an undocumented but now stringent unoffifical-but-official policy of deliberately bullshitting it’s returning customers with an overly inflated handset upgrade price in order to convince them to swap to another operator — to push those fat sign-up bonus cheques?
My spy tells me that the company’s management were initially horrified to [...]
Got an anonymous tip on a new mobile payments debit card service launching in the UK shortly. It looks rather swish… that’s all I can say for now.
Continue ReadingWhich mobile related startup failed to secure $$$ funding this month after it’s co-founder turned up drunk to the final investment meeting and tried to pull the two female assistants whilst the investment team looked on. OOOooh dear.
Apparently they’ll get lucky (no pun) next month with another fund.
[Ok, so not that sex, drugs [...]
What internationally reknowned newspaper recently published an SMS helpline number for readers — that, it was discovered only after going to print, bore a striking resemblance to the shortcode for a hot gay SMS chat line?
Continue ReadingTo all those submitting anonymous tips, please, please, someone submit a tip that I can a) give at least a HINT to who’s involved and b) am not liable to get nailed to the wall for publishing?
So far I’ve chosen two rather enlightening stories to publish but I’ve not been able to specifically say [...]
Mrrad on 