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.

Stay tuned!

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….

I’ve thought of using a standard operator mailbox on one number and then diverting calls on no answer to that number but it’s messy to manage and really doesn’t do what I’m looking for. It also suffers from lack of options in message alerts and delivery.

My favourite voice mail provider is Spinvox. I use this on my primary mobile and it replaces the mobile operator’s generic voice mail service. Spinvox converts my messages to text and delivers them to my handset – I’ll be coming back to Spinvox in a future report. However the major problem I have with every voice mail provider I use is that they only support a single number and deliver messages or alerts to that number. What I need is one voice mail provider that will support all my fixed, mobile and VoIP numbers with a single mailbox that will deliver messages and alerts by SMS, speech to text or email, wherever I choose. I want to be able to add numbers to the mailbox so the system recognises them and then set up a simple divert on each number for when I’m unavailable. Fixed and mobile numbers would support this but VoIP adds a further complication. None of the VoIP services I’ve been using support call diversion using the standard codes – 21, 61, 62 etc – so that adds another complication. VoIP seems to be stuck in its own world as far as voice messaging goes.

I don’t want a service that means having a new number and I don’t want a service that generates a new outbound call to whatever destination number I choose. I’m not looking for an enterprise solution – my solution needs to be consumer oriented, inexpensive and simple to use. I’m convinced there would be demand for such a product as so many of us use multiple lines, numbers and devices. Does such a product already exist? And, it has to support UK numbers!

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

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!

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

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!

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.

London, 10th June 2008 – Pedro Sañudo has been appointed new Chief Marketing Officer of Zed Group, the leading global MVAS player in terms of revenue geographical footprint. This appointment reinforces the marketing structure of Zed Group worldwide. As the new Chief Marketing Officer, Sañudo will have responsibility over the 53 countries where the company operates. Based at Zed´s headquarters in Madrid, Sañudo will report to Javier Pérez Dolset, President and CEO of the company.

Sañudo has a degree in Business Administration and a Masters in International Business and Marketing. In joining Zed, he will contribute an in-depth knowledge of the digital entertainment market and a wealth of professional experience in leading worldwide companies.

At the end of the 1990´s, he founded the company Innovadreams (Silicon Valley, US), which was dedicated to bringing international trade opportunities and emerging technologies to start up companies. In 2001 he became the European Direct Marketing Manager at Nintendo Europe (Germany), the worldwide interactive entertainment company, where he led the customer loyalty program and co-directed the company’s on-line marketing strategy. He was then appointed Senior European Marketing Manager of Electronic Arts (EA) Europe, where he consolidated the marketing plans for new media; including the development of more than 30 campaigns covering over 15 regions.

Before joining Zed, Sañudo was European Advertising Director of Yahoo! Europe (UK), where he was responsible for developing a strong integrated and clear brand proposition for the company and its key products.

Congrats Pedro! Looking forward to see what Zed has up their sleeves.

Exciting stuff! Stay tuned…

Alderley Edge, 3rd June 2008 – Mobile marketing company Mediaburst today announces that its finance director, Gary Bury, has been appointed managing director of the company with immediate effect. In his new position, Bury will consolidate the progress made by the company over the past year, particularly as a mobile marketing support company for marketing and advertising agencies, helping them to develop and deploy their digital media strategies.

A qualified accountant, Bury developed his skills with a fast growing group of finance companies in New Zealand. He returned to the UK in 2003 and was appointed finance director of property consultants Ep2 where he was instrumental in improving management reporting systems and grooming the company for an eventual trade sale in April 2005.

Bury joined Mediaburst in January 06 as finance director and became a major shareholder in August 06 and part of a new management team that purchased the business. His remit was extended by the board in November 06 to cover all technical and operations departments. Mediaburst is now a more focused company, delivering products and promotions that bring commercial gain to Mediaburst and value to its customer base of enterprises, marketing agencies and re-sellers.

Bury’s contribution to Mediaburst’s success was recognised at the prestigious Fast Growth Business Awards event this year having been nominated as one of three finalists for the Finance Director of Year Award.

“Mediaburst has made significant progress over the past year as a mobile marketing company and 2008/09 will see the company consolidate and build its business relationships with marketing and advertising agencies,” says Bury. “Mobile messaging campaigns are becoming essential to brands to better interact with consumers and Mediaburst has the expertise and products to help ensure their success.”

Congratulations on the appointment Gary!

Exhibit A, here’s a top quality piece of Marketing material that was taped up at a local Rogers store (no lie, they had these things plastered everywhere)

A $35 bill credit, and we’ve extended your evening to 6PM!

Stop the flipping presses.

Enjoy.

For the regular readers of this column you will know the format is generally I discuss anything I want to and then move on to explain and describe my interactions with the adverts BLYK send me. However this week I will not be able to cover the adverts for the last 14 days, this is due to more problems on BLYK and me going on a short holiday.

Firstly let’s look at the current multiple SMS problem; we are on 29 days and counting….. There is nothing I can further add about this problem that has not been covered by previous editions. All I ask anyone from BLYK reading this column, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sort this issue out ASAP!!!!

Now let’s move onto some NEW problems. Until Friday 30th May, I had no problems receiving BLYK MMS messages and then all of the sudden I received an error message Communication Error, this occurred when the MMS tried to be downloaded. I thought to myself ok no problem there must be an issue with my settings, no problem I did a full system reset and tried to get the settings resent to my phone. As part of receiving the settings BLYK also send you a welcome MMS, and yet again I had the same problem. So I went online sent customer care an email and on the forum, and was informed that there was intermittent problems with Sony Ericsson phones and downloading MMS message. Great another problem to the current list those BLYK members have to endure.

Since I was flying out to Prague and Vienna the next day, I decided to put my account into pause. This is where you stop receiving brand messages, and you can’t use your free balance and simply turns your account in essence into a normal pay as you go orange sim, with once exception with crap roaming. Currently Blyk users can only use their phone in Spain, and brand messages are not sent when abroad and you cannot use your free balance. Hold on exciting news, BLYK have added more countries to their list France, Italy, USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and the best bit you must have credit on your phone. Can you sense the sarcasm? I know Blyk is small and new but surely they can use Orange’s roaming partners? I understand the bit about no brand messages and no free balance, but that your account must have credit is ridiculous and surely against Blyk’s free model. As a result I could not take my phone abroad and receive SMS messages from my friends. Luckily BLYK is not my main line, therefore this did affect me directly however for those who use BLYK as their only number, surely this will affect them.

Since returning back to the UK on Friday, I again tried to reset up BLYK on my phone to no avail, in fact BLYK’s system tried to send me settings over and over again. I am sure this is linked to the multiple text problems, mentioned at the start of this post. Still on my k550i, I cannot set up BLYK; however I now have it working on a spare k750i and my account is unpaused and receiving MMS messages again. If I was an advertiser with BLYK I would be worried, as it seems there is an issue with some Sony Ericsson phone and the ability to receive MMS brand messages.

Finally BLYK has another SMS issue on it’s hands, it seems on the last few days that a problem has manifested itself that messages are coming out of people’s free balance and are not be receiving at all and with no delivery reports no one knows what has got through at all.

Oh dear it’s not good news really for BLYK especially as SMS is the main communication method for Blyk’s target audience and it is very worrying that things are taking such a long time to get fixed. I thought I would publish some comments that have appeared on the Blyk forum of how some of the members are feeling about the current problems.

I have been “testing” Blyk since January…thankfully its not my main number! I never felt the service was reliable enough to make Blyk my main number. Im just growing weary of the failed texts..pity, the Blyk idea is a good one, let down by poor technology.

I know the service is free, and I did consider to change over but at the moment I’m testing and as far as I can tell its not the best.

I think ive been patient…for 6 months! When the service works its great…but it just isnt reliable! Im sick of random texts never being delivered..and I have no way to know which ones make it and which ones dont!! Arghh!!. Please, please just tell me…are delivery reports EVER going to happen…and you cant say “youre looking into it!”. If they are unlikly to ever be part of the Blyk service id rather know now and maybe I can move on.

In direct response to the above quotes here is a response from member care

I am sorry that you are angry about this,
With delivery reports, they will not work at the moment and it is something we are looking into. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but its what’s happening. For the moment though they will not work and probably wont for some time. I’m not saying that they will never be on Blyk but for the moment they wont.
Our tech team are working extremely hard at the moment to fix any issues and personally i am impressed at how hard they are working.
Remember this is the Only service in the UK that gives you free texts and calls with no contract and that Blyk has only been running since September. Now as our Member numbers increase errors that were not around before are now showing. As with anything, new trial and error are a big part of things.
All i can ask is that you show some more of that amazing patients again and wait until these errors are sorted.

I have to agree the model works; it just needs to be backed up by reliable network service, something we just are not getting at the moment.
As you can see things are happening with BLYK very quickly and as a result this column will become weekly, so I can keep you updated with what’s going on with BLYK!

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Thanks Ricky! Remember Blykwatch is going to be published weekly, so stay tuned!

PASADENA, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ — NearU Search (http://www.nearusearch.com/) has inked a deal with Ann Arbor, MI based lottery results provider LotteryUSA (http://www.lotteryusa.com/) to offer the most recent draw information to members via text message. The LottoWatch premium subscription will be available in June across all 50 states.

“This is the promise of mobile convenience. The Internet is great when you have time. But time is so scarce. People are looking for ways to make information come to them. That’s where we come in.” said Heather Mlodinow, NearU Search CEO. LotteryUSA users will be able to sign up for winning number text alerts on the LotteryUSA site.

“LotteryUSA has always been about helping users access the latest lottery results with ease. NearU Search is all about providing convenient, fast, wireless access to a variety of data, making them a perfect partner for bringing LotteryUSA to the Mobile market. We are excited that NearU Search has been able to deliver this solution so quickly.” said LotteryUSA’s Fred Weiss.

Ms. Mlodinow said, “LotteryUSA subscribers will be getting winning number alerts for each lottery draw. Now we’ll be able to spot a winner — look for the gal dancing in the street waving her mobile in one hand and her lottery ticket in the other!”

I like it! I would love to find out instantly if I’m a millionaire, it beats waiting for the 11 o’clock news for the “unofficial” numbers or the newspaper the next morning.

Toronto based Jambo Mobile was founded in 2002, and have since built a reputation as one of Canada’s leading mobile aggregators by focusing on two critical components, the development of successful mobile media strategies and the technologies that power them.

Using mobile solutions that leverage SMS, MMS, WAP and IVR, Jambo Mobile provides their clients with the mobile expertise and insight to connect with the end user.

Jambo Mobile has won numerous accolades, most recently winning the Innovation Gold award at the 2007 Promo! Awards, as well as being chosen to power mobile initiatives for this years Virgin Festivals across Canada as well as handling a $1,000,000 contested features on Mastersgolf.ca

Major clients include:

They’ve come a long way since their First Canadian National SMS Entertainment Campaign in 2003, to being the Wireless Winner at the Digital Marketing Awards in 2006, and they’ve got a lot more up their sleeve.

Keep your eye on Jambo Mobile!

Details below:

FIDO UNOTM is a new wireless service that lets you use your Fido as your home phone, and gives you all the benefits of a mobile phone when you’re not at home. All this with only one phone.

The service uses high-speed Internet service, a wireless Internet router optimized for voice usage, a monthly plan with a FIDO UNO option and a FIDO UNO compatible handset!

At home
You can make unlimited local calls through your wireless Internet connection (Wi-Fi). You won’t be using the minutes in your Fido monthly package.

Away from home
Your Fido switches seamlessly to the Fido network and you start using the minutes in your monthly package.

Interesting! Going to contact Fido for some more info…

U.S. TEXT MESSAGING RATE CHANGE

Please note that effective July 15, 2008, the rate for sending a text message from Canada to the United States is changing to $0.25 (from $0.15). This change also applies to Text messaging options and certain Value packs, as text messages sent to the United States will no longer be included in the options. Pricing does not include applicable taxes.

Ugh. That means International is probably going up to.

Figures.