Krystal, our Operations Manager is heading to New York on Friday to check out the mobile scene. And do some relaxing, I imagine.
She’s steadfastly refusing to buy an iPhone 3G at the moment. Maybe she will change her mind after a weekend with just her iPod with wifi. You never know.
If you’ve got any mobile related recommendations, let us know. We’ll see if Krystal can take a look.
My Fido Uno unit arrived yesterday, just got it all set up and ready to test! Very exciting!
Stay tuned!
Ok.
So Rogers and Fido (same company) are getting the iPhone. July 11, the BIG day.
I figure, they must have a plan, they MUST have a sensible data plan coming.
And not just this “unlimited browsing” they keep trying to throw at me, I’m talking real honest to goodness data.
So the countdown is on, I’m being optimistic, this could be it, this could be the start of sensible data in Canada!
29 days to go….
Just in…
CellSpin Launches the First Mobile Blogging Service for Twitter and Pownce to Support Audio, Video, Picture and Text Posts
CellSpin enables users to post audio, video, pictures and text ‘tweets’ from 300+ phones worldwide
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 11 /PRNewswire/ — CellSpin (http://www.cellspin.net/) today announced its support for sending ‘tweets’ in all four media types (audio, video, pictures and text) to the popular micro-blogging sites Twitter and Pownce.
Users can post multimedia tweets using the CellSpin mobile application, now available on 300+ mobile phones worldwide, or by using the CellSpin website.
CellSpin lets users move beyond Twitter’s 140-character limit and take their expression to a new level. Pownce users can share whole range of multimedia experiences with their friends on-the-go using CellSpin.
According to Bobby Gurvinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of CellSpin, “We’re really excited that you can now tweet in your own voice and not be limited to text only. You can also share picture tweets and video tweets of your life as you live it, from anywhere in the world on both Pownce and Twitter. This is the next obvious step in the micro-blogging revolution.”
According to Ian Fung, co-founder of CellSpin, “CellSpin makes posting to Twitter and Pownce very easy, and makes it more convenient for users to post multimedia in real-time. This will definitely broaden the base for micro-blogging beyond those who use it only to describe what they had for lunch.”
Good stuff!
We’re sure to see numerous Olympic related text initiatives coming forward in the next couple months, but here’s one that’s just been announced by 4INFO.
SAN MATEO, CA. – (June 10, 2008) — 4INFO, Inc., the leader in SMS publishing and advertising services, announced today that it has developed a comprehensive mobile alerts program to help fans stay abreast of the 2008 Olympic Games in China this summer. Beginning today, anyone with a cell phone can sign up over the phone or online at www.4info.net/olympics to receive alerts on their favorite countries, sports or medal counts. With Beijing 12 hours ahead of the east coast, fans can still stay up to speed on their favorite athletes and events without staying up late or relying on video recordings. 4INFO’s mobile alerts are free and work on any cell phone, offering consumers the flexibility and convenience of getting the key updates they’re eager to hear while they are on the move.
Olympic sports alerts kick off on August 6th, with several soccer matches. The Olympic Games mobile alerts service lasts 18 days, ending with closing ceremonies on August 24th. At any time during the games, users can also conduct a mobile search to get the latest medal updates by sport by texting any SPORT NAME or COUNTRY NAME to 44636 (4info on a phone keypad). This service is free, although text messaging fees from carriers may apply.
2008 Olympic Mobile Alert Service Options Include:
Medal alerts by country
• User receives a daily medal summary for the country of their choice; One message per day, for 18 days
Medal alerts by event
• All 33 sports supported; user receives a daily medal summary by sport/event
Daily medal table
• Daily top 10 summary of countries with the most medals
Olympic news alerts
• User will receive up to three headline daily offering top Olympic news
Search Services Include:
Medal table
• User can text the word: MEDAL to get a daily top 10 summary
Our very own James Whatley, (well we have to share him with SpinVox) implied something big was coming on last week’s Podcast (if you haven’t heard it yet, where have you been!?) and here it is.
TV AND SPINVOX PARTNER TO LAUNCH FIRST EVER INTEGRATED VOICE POWERED CAUSE-RELATED SOCIAL NETWORKING CAMPAIGN ‘STAND BY WHAT YOU SAY’
CAMPAIGN VOICED BY SUPERSTAR KELLY ROWLAND
‘CAUSES’ PROMOTES CAMPAIGN TO ITS 12 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
London/New York – 10 June, 2008 – MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, SpinVox and Causes on Facebook today announced the launch of their joint campaign, ‘Stand by What You Say’. The groundbreaking initiative encourages young people to speak openly about sex, sexual health and HIV/AIDS, with a view to increasing awareness and breaking down the stigma and discrimination which so often accompanies the disease.
The campaign, which uses the SpinVox service to convert voice messages into text, is the first of its kind. It encourages users to pick up the phone and ‘Talk About…’ the pleasures and issues surrounding 21st century sex . Those that speak up are then asked to bolster their support by pledging money to the Staying Alive Foundation, MTV’s HIV and AIDS charity which allocates grants to youth-led organisations who work to raise awareness on a local, grass-roots level. SpinVox itself will be ’standing by what it says’ to match funds raised to the value of $50,000.
‘Stand By What You Say’ aims to empower young people to speak freely about sex. It advocates that only by speaking openly can the stigmas be erased and barriers broken down. An open mind leads to open discussions which ultimately helps promote safe sex and lowers the risk of HIV and AIDS.
Callers are greeted by 2008 Staying Alive Foundation Ambassador Kelly Rowland, who prompts them to leave a message (UK: 0151 266 7700, US: 1513 729 6417 – see full list of numbers at end of release). The voice messages are converted to text and posted on a bespoke Staying Alive Blog www.standbywhatyousay.com by SpinVox. Topics such as ’sex secrets, ‘one night stands’ and ‘condoms’ will act as conversation starters and encourage debate among a global youth audience. Different themes and questions will be posed throughout the campaign to keep the contributions coming.
“MTV is proud to be a part of this innovative campaign”, said Bill Roedy CEO MTV Networks International. It is only by speaking out openly about sex, sexual health and HIV/AIDS, that attitudes can be changed, barriers broken and stigma reduced. ‘STAND BY WHAT YOU SAY’ is the right to talk freely about your first crush, about the craziest place you’ve had sex, about carrying condoms. It’s about talking freely about peer pressure to have sex or choosing not to. By speaking freely and standing by what you say, we are encouraging young people to take the first step in altering the dynamics of the epidemic”.
“Voice-powering a campaign in this way is a world first,” says Christina Domecq, SpinVox co-founder and CEO. “Together with MTV we’re breaking new ground by changing how people can contribute to the Staying Alive Foundation, encouraging them to speak freely, openly and honestly about sex and the issues of HIV/AIDS. Sharing experiences, advice, the good and bad times, but also the ridiculous and humourous moments that happen around sex is a powerful way to involve and educate others, harnessing the power that we all have to change attitudes and so the progression of this disease.”
For more information about the Staying Alive Foundation, visit www.staying-alive.org. Full list of campaign telephone numbers:
UK: 0151 266 7700
US: 1513 729 6417
Canada: 1416 628 8501
Spain: 3493 184 2078
Germany: 4921 123 7061072
France: 3317 666 0863
Ireland: 3531 657 1891
Love it! Love it! Love it! Kudos to SpinVox! I love seeing technology being used to help and make a difference. I urge everyone to call your number and stand by what you say!
We’d like to take a minute to break from all the iPhone hoopla and introduce a new contributor here at SMS Text News, Malcolm Murphy. Malcolm comes to us with a passion for mobile and is eager to contribute here on our blog.
With that, here is his first article for us, Where is the innovation?
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The first mobile phone I ever had (over 10 years ago now) was the Nokia 2110 – the original brick. I would probably recoil in horror if I was asked to use it now, but at the time it was fantastic. I seem to recall that I even carried it in my jeans pocket, however unlikely that seems.
Over the last ten years, I’ve had a lot of different phones, and it used to be interesting and exciting to get a new phone. I have declared on many occasions that my latest phone is the best one ever: the Ericsson R380 and 520 had useful PIM applications and offered the promise of a single device; the Nokia 6210 synchronised reliably with the PC and allowed you to enter multiple numbers per contact (a big deal at the time), the Nokia 6310 added Bluetooth – which was a huge wow factor for me; the Sony T68i redefined the jeans pocket test; the T610 and later the T630 beefed up the speed and had a nicer keyboard.
My first windows mobile phone was the Orange SPV C500, and for the first time I could have all my contacts in my phone. I still think the windows interface to the address book, where it matches T9 style from the home screen, is one of the most useful things ever to happen on a mobile phone.
Around the same time, there was innovation in style from Motorola with the V3, and from Samsung with the D500. When someone in the office got one of these phones, it was an event.
Fast forward to today. Walk into a mobile phone shop and ask them what’s exciting. If it’s an O2 store, they’ll probably say an iPhone. If not, there’s an N95 in your future (at least if the Vodafone, Orange and CPW I wandered into at lunchtime are representative – I think CPW had sold out of iPhones). Yawn.
It’s not that I dislike the N95. True, it fails the pocket test, but what I struggle with is differentiating it from any other S60 phone. Even something like the 7610, which must be four years old now. I know, I know – built in GPS, better screen, camera, more memory, blah blah. That’s not innovation, that’s a list of incremental improvements.
Hold on, you may cry – what about Shozu, Jaiku, Google Maps, and the other great stuff I can do on my N95? The thing is – they are all third party apps, not part of the phone.
It’s not just Nokia. I’m struggling to see any excitement from any phone manufacturer at the moment. It’s all just tweaks and twiddles – a megapixel here, a xenon flash there, an extra half inch on the screen, which may even be a touch screen.
Maybe I’m mobile weary, maybe it’s a sign that the industry is maturing, maybe it’s a sign that a million exciting new phones will be hitting the shops in time for Christmas. In the meantime I’ll carry on quite happily, if a little boringly, with my trusty S60 – an E65 which does pass the pocket test 
– and wait for the next best phone ever.
I just fear I might have to wait a while.
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