Have you been bombarded with unwanted SMS? Has it forced you to complain to your operator — or even change your phone number? Did it end up costing you a lot of money?

They’re looking for someone to participate in an interview in London this coming Tuesday. If that’s you, drop me an email and I’ll connect you to the researcher!

I’m ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

The series has been terrifically well received — thank you once more to all the executives from around the industry who’ve complemented us. And hello to the chaps from o2 Innovation who, almost every week, point out that they’re working on something very similar. I do hope this is the case — o2 is historically well regarded for innovation. Do you remember Genie Mobile? Utterly fantastic. In recent years, the company’s BlueVia development team has been leading the charge for developer access to operator APIs. So I’m expecting good things from the o2 Innovation team.

Before we get started, I need to deliver a tip-of-the-hat to the team at Orange who pulled the Film To Go service out of the bag this week. Very good indeed. (Find out why I think it’s rather smart.)

Right, let’s get started.

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Last week I wrote about wanting one number for all my calls both incoming and outgoing. Right now I have five smartphones on my desk, all ‘live’ and active. Managing their various identities is quite a challenge.

When it comes to SMS, though, it’s even more of a minefield.

I can redirect my calls to one voicemail system, or one follow-me number. There are plenty of shit-but-good possibilities with voice.

But SMS?

It’s a total fracking nightmare.

SMS is still the king — and I do mean king. Even in today’s app economy, SMS still has a priority. It’s still the medium that we all fall-back to, isn’t it? You can arse around with Facebook Chat, Google+ Huddles and even email, but when it comes to needing to get a message to someone, beyond making a voice call, you have to use SMS.

This is because SMS breaks through.

It interrupts.

It’s real-time.

We all have confidence in it’s delivery (despite the fact the operators still cannot assure delivery to anywhere near a decent service level).

It’s built directly into the operating system of every single device.

It works the same on every phone. There is ALWAYS an inbox. There is always some kind of alerting function built in.

It’s international. There is universal compatibility whether you’re in Timbuktu, the Maldives or London.

As Apple are fond of saying, it just works.

And the 160 character limit is not a problem. Again, most devices support multiple-message length transmissions.

(BBM, because of it’s lack of cross platform support, simply doesn’t cut it unless you KNOW the other person has a BlackBerry).

So what’s the problem?

Well, first of all, if you have two or more devices, managing your SMS messages is a flipping-fracking-flucking nightmare. It’s simply impossible. I have come across one or two ‘forwarding’ apps that you can install — they’ll then forward any messages received to you. But this completely screws the return path functionality. You can GET the message, but you can’t easily reply to it. And even if I have forwarded all SMS from my BlackBerry to my iPhone, when I reply, I’m going to get tons of ‘Who is this?’ messages in return, because of the different phone number.

Rubbish.

It’s not just about the users with multiple devices though.

Even if you just have one phone, the ability to be able to archive, review, reply and create text messages from your desktop, iPad, iPod Touch, laptop or browser, would be really, really smart. Sometimes I just don’t want to write stuff on my actual phone.

Archive my SMS in Google?
Why can’t you copy every SMS that I receive into Google and attach an ‘SMS’ tag to it? This is precisely what Hullomail does. They send you a copy of every voicemail you’ve ever received. Your voicemail is actually stored IN your Gmail. It’s fantastically useful. It certainly doesn’t have to be Google, but I’d go so far as to suggest that if you’re a multi-geography operator, it’s highly likely that Google would do the development for you as long as you assign them one bod to help with the integration. Likewise I suspect Yahoo would be delighted to offer true SMS integration into their email client as a bonus.

07769658104@vodafone.net
And whatever happened to the ability to send a text via an email? I know some operators still offer this. But why was this facility switched off for so many? I loved this. It was a quick way of getting 160 characters to someone’s phone via the medium of email. Some bright spark decided that it might cannibalise revenues, eh? Idiots. Utter idiots. Don’t worry. They’ve probably either left the company or been promoted to CEO. So it’s worth a look again. I do know that lots of operators have moved to offering the facility via MMS. But.. eww, it’s just so badly implemented.

Real-time device SMS Synchronisation, anyone?
Indeed, if you’ve got a moment and a few million quid of development money, I’d like my SMS messages to be synched across all my devices. Why isn’t this possible? Why hasn’t it been done? Come on!

SMS from the desktop
I want to be able to SMS from my desktop. One bright spark has actually made this work for you if you’re an o2 customer. You can text from your phone’s number using Text Deck Pro on the Mac. But you can’t receive. There’s no inbox. I want to be able to browse all my SMS messages. I want to see what I’ve sent and received since the start of my relationship with the operator. Don’t even consider telling me that this is ‘logistically difficult’, Mr Operator. Just stick them all in Google if your 1TB SATA hard disk solution isn’t good enough.

SMS: The ticket to relevance for operators
Just like the phone number I depend on for my voice calls, SMS is also your ticket to continued relevance. Lose this at your peril.

And you know what, that’s precisely what every single over-the-top player is trying to do. They’re all iterating fast to try and remove our reliance upon SMS. You just need to look at what Apple’s doing with iMessage and Google’s G+ Huddles. Once you make the username (Facebook, iCloud/Apple, Gmail) the unique identifier — properly — the operator is literally moved to a place of irrelevance. Just the bandwidth, thank you very much.

I’d very much like to see operators working on methods to solidify the position of SMS by extending the technology all over the place. First of all, I need to be able to see the back archive. Second, I need to be able to access and write messages from some browser/app. Wouldn’t it be neat to see the Vodafone logo on my Apple desktop? Third, you need to let me do smart things like sync and archive into Google. And I expect to be billed for the privilege. Maybe it’s a quid a month. Maybe it’s a ‘come on’ to get me to swap to a higher range of price plans. Can you imagine going out to market and asking people if they’d like to archive all their SMS messages for £0.50 a month? Folk would love it.

The SMS Mobile Application
I’d LOVE to be able to download the Vodafone SMS application on to my Three iPhone. I’d just have to verify my account and boom, I would be able to get ALL the SMS I normally receive on my BlackBerry via my iPhone too. And I’d be able to write messages from the iPhone via the app that get sent out using my primary Vodafone number, not my iPhone number. This would rock. Voda could send me a push notification of SMS to my iPhone. The integration on an Android phone would be even better.

Ah dear.

Back to reality, eh? The fact that I’m actually getting excited over something so mundane, so easy, so SIMPLE to implement, geez it’s depressing.

Thus ends the fifth Operator Innovation post.

[Note: o2's Bluebook is due a mention. Just a brief mention. You sort-of got this working, folks. Sort-of. But to my utter annoyance, you really didn't go anywhere near as far enough. Come on. What about a proper refresh, eh?]

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Check out the other posts in the Operator Innovation series:

- One number for all my voice calls
- Fancy a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad for £100/month?
- Why can’t my operator talk to my bank when my card declines abroad
- Taxis, baby, Taxis!

So last week I was having a good time with Vodafone. This morning I got this comparatively useless text to let me know that ‘prices are changing’.

This is really good — a text update, I will obviously read it — but the call-to-action? Visit some site that isn’t even linkable from my phone browser? Who composed this text? Don’t you think I’m likely to want to click-through? And when I do click-through, by actually arsing around with selecting/cutting/pasting the address into the browser, will the page render for a mobile browser? Probably not.

Let me see.

I’ll have a look.

Are you a betting reader?

I looked. I typed the URL into the BlackBerry browser and got a glorious, ‘Sorry, the page you are looking for has not been found.’

Oh dear.

I tried it just now on the desktop browser: I get the same error.

So that’s not very useful at all. You’d think that these things get triple-checked before they go out. You know, serious people wearing serious suits, frowning a lot, repeatedly testing stuff? Lots of checklists and perhaps even some kind of user-testing firm on speed-dial to do a quick series of external tests? All to make sure that when the customer gets the message, they actually understand it. And can act upon it.

It does seem to me that Vodafone’s text message marketing is a bit strange — check out this rather cryptic roaming data billing notification I got a little while ago.

For all I know right now, this text might have been notification that Vodafone is increasing their prices by 400%.

Posted via email from MIR Live

You’d have thought that as we are almost entering the year 2011, the UK mobile industry would have collectively got it’s act together regarding text donations.

Alas no.

This ad is currently running on Southwest Trains and is aiming to raise money for ‘Our Heroes’ — that is, the British Forces Foundation serving wounded troops.

The ad’s headline reads ‘Buy our heroes a drink’ and encourages people to text ‘heroes’ to the 70099 shortcode which will cost £3 plus a standard network message. A good headline. Start with the average cost of a pint (or at least the cost most of us would like a pint to be) and then the £3 donation sounds eminently reasonable.

The ad’s footnote points out that at least £2.67 of your £3.00 will go to the Foundation. The rest of the £0.33 goes to the networks and the service providers. Shame on them. It’s downright ridiculous that text donations aren’t subject to some kind of fixed nominal fee — 5p or something like that. 33p is simply crazy. It’s worse from Virgin Mobile though, as the ad points out: Virgin customers will see a full 75p of their £3.00 spunked up against the wall by their operator. I wonder if that’s because Virgin want their share along with whatever network they’re currently piggybacking on top of?

If you ever find yourself wondering why the industry is actually rather backward, text donations are a perfect example. Obviously if you’re donating to the Tsunami Appeal or anything high profile, the operators and the value chain will selflessly waive all fees. But in the cold light of day, anything that’s unlikely to attract mainstream media attention is whacked for it’s pound of flesh by each player — from the operator to the various service providers involved.

There are excuses galore. It’s quite costly to manage the whole billing and collections. We have to pay for the equipment. We have to fund our connection costs. All that jazz. It doesn’t wash. It never has.

Another year goes by. Nothing changes. Highly disappointing.

If you do get the oppportunity to donate a few quid to Our Boys (and Girls) in the Services and, er, of course, the mobile industry, text ‘Heroes’ to 70099. I’ve just done so. (Spend it wisely, Vodafone.)

Update: See the comments below from Chris that points out Vodafone takes zero cut (good man, Vodafone), o2 takes a flat 3.1p per message, whilst the rest of the operators still demand a huge chunk.

I had a note in from reader James to tell me about Ivy4evr, Channel 4′s new ‘explicit SMS drama’. You only have to visit the site to determine that it’s a rather ‘edgy’ concept.

The site explains that our key character, Ivy, has left home because ‘Lilsis’ (is that ‘little sister’ or somebody else, who knows? I’m over 30) has ‘done the dirty on her’. Again, forgive me for not quite knowing that definition. Cheating?

Ivy isn’t quite sure who her friends are anymore (although I suspect Lilsis definitely isn’t?) and therefore, for one week only, she will tell you ‘**everything**‘. They used double-asterisks on the site.

All you have to do to participate is sign-up to get free text updates from Ivy. Then, I imagine, you can reply to her. Or to the production team sitting watching their SMS console. (I only point that out because I’m 30+, and let’s face it, you probably are too. Or you’re heading that way fast.)

The trial episode starts on the 10th of October and finishes on the 16th. There doesn’t appear to be an actual TV show to go along side this project. No. It’s SMS-based.

Very, very interesting. An ‘episode’ based on SMS? Cool. Let’s see how that works…

Anyway I’ve signed up. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Or do you use the gateway provider’s sometimes rather rubbish system to send?

Or is there a really swish third-party system you recommend taking a look at?

Posted via email from MIR Live

If you’ve been having a bit of jiggery-pokery and you think the contraception might have failed; or if you didn’t bother and you’re in a blind panic, you can now text the nurse and ask for one.

Whatever your perspective on teenagers, sex and the easy availability of contraception, this is super news in the context of the SMS medium — it’s absolutely perfect for this type of communication.

You can read more here.

It garnered 115,000 responses. All you had to do was text CEASEFIRE to 81819.

The appeal was carried in half/full page ads in UK newspapers The Guardian, Daily Mail and Sunday Times amongst others.

Smart.

The mobile petition is to be delivered to Downing Street.

Adrian Lovett, Save the Children’s Director of Campaigns, said: “This is an unprecedented response and the message from our text campaign is loud and clear – the British public want an end to the bombing in Gaza. A huge number of the British public care what is happening in Gaza and have taken action. Politicians are well aware of those messages and we will continue to ensure their voices are heard. Right now the fighting is still going on and one child dies in Gaza every three hours. Public support can and must make a change.”

Robert Thurner, Commercial Director at Incentivated, comments: “This campaign proves the ubiquity and popularity of text as an immediate activation channel to traditional media which people respond to 24/7, regardless of their location. It also proves the power of mobile as a viral marketing channel. In this digital age, mobile is unique in allowing us to support the issues which effect us, and to spread the word among others with similar beliefs”.

This is a pretty neat use of mobile. The more charities ‘get’ and understand how to use the mobile medium, the better.

Posted via email from MIR Live

Then you need to go out. Away from your computer.

You’ve got your handset with you but it’s a rubbish one that doesn’t do Google Talk or anything other than phoning or texting (think Motorola RAZR).

How do you continue the conversation?

Pick up the phone, usually.

Or, if you’re in the States, you can try use Google’s new Google Talk by Text function.

They’re really given this some thought.

When you move away from your computer, you can opt to still appear connected — and receive messages from your contacts as normal via text when you’re out and about.

This is BRILLIANT. Texts are delivered anywhere in the world (good old Google) and, what’s more, they’re delivered from independent MSISDNs (or different ‘phone numbers’).

Google have, imaginatively, bought a ton of 406 United States numbers (406 standing for G0O..gle). Heh.

What this means is that since they’ve got an array of phone numbers to play with, they can actually route messages to your contacts on particular dedicated numbers. So, for example, if you’re talking to me by Google Talk and I’m receiving your messages on my phone, I *ALWAYS* receive your messages from, say, 406 911 1919. I can put that in my addressbook now as ‘YourNameGoogleTalk’. When I text that number, the message will be routed into a chat between you and I.

Smart, smart, smart.

It’s unfortunately only working in the States at the moment. I daresay it would be quite easy to buy a block of UK numbers to do this — and they’re pretty cheap nowadays. So I can’t use it. Until I’m in the States and my stupid Sprint phone number works.

Here’s how you get it activated:

We’re just trying it out for cell phones in the United States right now, but you can send texts to your friends with US phone numbers from anywhere in the world. You can start by just typing a phone number into the search box in the chat window on the left, then select “Send SMS.” You can also select the contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.

If you’d like to try it out, let me know, I’ll experiment with you. Drop me a note or get me on ewansms@gmail.com.

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Fine girl friend
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Ooohkay then…

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I must hear the fireworks
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I’m not sure what to respond to this one…
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

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Happy Monday! (Re: published numbers)
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Thank you!

If you’d like to send me some weird and wonderful texts… +447769658104. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

But it turns out my aimless journeys around my over-crowded school can come in handy… And I came across a poster of major intrigue!

I love mobile services which are useful. Finding services, and then realising whether or not they are useful or not is what I like doing; mainly because it is rare that I will find something that has use far beyond making a company or un-named person a lot of money.

So when I found this poster, I was intrigued.

I doubt I’ll need to remind or inform anyone of the current issues with “Knife Crime” especially in London and Schools. And as a teenager myself I monitor the news locally and nationally to see what is happening. I often find that the government and their pleas to stop knife crime are only just pleas. Having Gordon Brown or any MP for that matter, talking about a subject to do with young people, doesn’t reach many people.

I hear you ask, what about this intriguing poster?

It’s advertising an “anonymous” texting service which can be used to inform the Police about people or persons with Knives.

I think this goes above and beyond what Gordon Brown, the Police Chiefs and the number of other people or institutions have said or done recently. It’s all too easy to say, “We need to get knives off of the street” and that we as citizens – of whatever age – should be doing our best to prevent deaths on the street.

I’ll admit, when I was in lower school I knew of someone who carried a knife, or at least a blade of some nature. There was nothing I could do about it, because I knew the consequence of phoning up the police – getting the boy, and specifically his group of cronies onto me – so I didn’t do it. And I know also many other people were highly aware of the issue too, and as far as I know, no one ever phoned up the police.

And why was that?
The Police come into school, sit you down, talk to you, make an issue of it, and highlight that you’ve highlighted an issue, and therefore it all backfires on you!

The beauty of this service is the anonymity that comes along with it. On the poster we’re told that the number is scrambled, and therefore can’t be traced so no one can reply, and whatever happens as a consequence, the texter cannot be held accountable for it.

That’s what I call brilliant.

What I like more about this service is that it’s gone a bit beyond a poster campaign, and little business-type cards are being handed out to all the lower years. Admittedly, I stole borrowed one of these cards (for research purposes, naturally).

This is what our Government should be doing, what they should be talking about and implementing. And if such a service had been in place say three or four years ago when I was a little Year Eight or Year Nine, when I was thinking “Oh bugger, that boy has a knife”, I certainly would have sent a text.

So I have to applaud the common-sense which has finally kicked in, and I hope that someone uses it.

Any questions, comments, suggestions or anything as usual send them to Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com.

It has however hit me; I’m beginning to actually resent my mobile phone. As in, I actually don’t like it anymore.

I don’t mean I don’t like my outdated W810i; I’m actually rather fond of the device. It’s certainly better than most things I’ve come across on my bi-weekly visits to the town centre.  No, I actually don’t like the idea (at least for the moment) of being constantly in touch with the world, or at least my friends all the time.

Last week I was on Half-Term. A pleasant one week break from the mountainous piles of work I have to complete, and everything else that goes along with the joys of A Levels. One would expect I would be embracing the free time, and trying as much as possible to get in contact with all my friends…

I haven’t.

In fact, for the entire week my mobile phone was on silent. Now, I have my mobile on twenty-four seven. I actually cannot recall a day when my mobile has been turned off… It just doesn’t happen. This week though, I’ve become rather lax. I keep leaving my phone away from me (which never happens), and I actually try putting off looking at the device.

Now obviously, this could be due to a number of things; but I’ve come to the conclusion now, that I don’t actually want people being able to contact me all the time; and if they do, I don’t want to know about it.

Now this is an argument my Grandparents used against during the populisation of mobiles; “Why on earth would you want people to contact you when and wherever you are!?!” And to me it was as simple as, well, it’s useful for emergencies, and you never know what good can come out of it.

Could this be a phase? Certainly, and I no doubt expect to falling back in love with my mobile, and the joys of constant communication fairly quickly.

The point though, I’ve come to realise how intrusive it is. I’ve pointed out before the annoyances I’ve found with mobile phones in Public Places, and how I found them highly intrusive. But what about our personal lives?

Last week for example, I had fallen asleep rather early for half-term week (I think around quarter to ten). I woke up an hour later; after I found the DVD I had been watching had restarted its self. So I got up, turned it off, got properly ready for bed, and glanced at my phone quickly. “SMS Received From: [name of friend] Read now?”

Now, had my mobile been on its usual “loud” setting, I would have had my very nice piece of Classical Music alerting me out of my sleep informing me of said message. I would have had my sleep disrupted by a text message! Not good.

I can recall a number of similar instances too… Sunday Dinner, and suddenly that ringtone; and blowing candles out on a birthday cake… Ahh, that ringtone again! Plus there are many, many more occasions where this has happened.

So do I resent my mobile?
Well, if anything, I’ve come to realise how intrusive and how bloody annoying the damn thing can be. It’s a sleep disturber; it’s an invited “guest” to special occasions, and just another way in which personal space can be invaded.

Then again, I love my mobile. It goes everywhere with me. It provides me the means to update Facebook wherever I am; to inform my Mum of after school-sessions of Chemistry I am attending. It enables me to contact friends for social gatherings, and family for when they need me.

Maybe I should just try turning my phone off once in a while? Yes, I could… But I don’t see it happening any time soon.

Saying that though, I wonder how well I would go trying going “Mobile-less” for a week? I reckon I could handle it… Maybe.

Do you think you hold any resent towards your mobile? Or, do you find it too intrusive on your personal life?

Once again, if you would like to e-mail me about anything, send them to Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

I’ve never been a sports manager — in fact I haven’t actually ever played in a sports team during my adult life. But I know lots of folk who have — and I know one or two who are tasked with sorting it all out — and it’s a total arse.

Teamer sorts it all out. Stick in the names of all the possible players and Teamer will query their availability by text and email and help you send immediate announcements to teams. So even if you’re sat in New York on business on Monday morning, you can confirm your availability for Friday’s match.

Smart.

It’s entirely free to use in the UK but there are some fees applicable for the US and Australia.

If you’re a sports team manager or you know someone that is, check out Teamer and let me know how you get on.

(Thanks for the link, Michael)

The study, which was carried out by the Mobile Data Association suggests that the amount of text messages sent in a month could be around 6.5 billion. Along with the text messages, users also send 1.5 million picture messages and video-based text messages every day.

Could this be credited to the fall in tariffs? Or could this because of the evolution of the mobile market as a whole? I sent a total of 433 text messages last month, according to my service provider.

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Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

Perhaps I was missing my calling.

I picked up this note from the Atlanta Journal about how text is being used to help connect church-goers and their minister/priest (and each other). Have a read:

High above the 700-seat sanctuary, Amie Haskins, 27, the director of worship, sat in the church’s control booth receiving their text messages on the church’s cell phone. She screened out some (most were about whether pets would be in heaven — a point she knew Schreiner would be addressing later in the sermon), and typed others into a computer that was connected to Schreiner’s laptop next to him. During Schreiner’s 30-minute sermon, Haskins received 35 questions.

Trust American Churches to have a ‘Director of Worship’. That, I find slightly amusing.

Anyway I really like the use of the medium.

Teach Your Granny to Text & Other Ways to Change the World is a new book available for £6.60 on Amazon.

Here’s the background:

In a unique collaboration between the social change organisation We Are What We Do and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), thousands of children were invited to come up with simple, everyday actions that we can all do to make a difference to the biggest problems facing the world today.

The best 30 actions, which tackle issues ranging from climate change and social exclusion to obesity and animal rights, are featured in a groundbreaking new book, entitled Teach Your Granny to Text & Other Ways to Change the World.

This book is the latest project from We Are What We Do – the organization behind the bestselling Change the World for a Fiver and the “I’m not a plastic bag” project with designer Anya Hindmarch – and has been produced with their trademark originality, creativity and wit. It includes contributions from some of the biggest names in children’s books: Anthony Horowitz who has
provided an exclusive Alex Rider short story to encourage kids to read with a pal; Sam Stern, who has provided a recipe to enable kids to cook a meal from scratch; and Where’s Wally? who makes an exclusive guest appearance to get kids to look closer. The interactive book also includes seeds, maps, stickers and much more.

Kudos to 10 year old Erica Ritchie who came up with the text-a-granny idea:

Erica Ritchie, aged 10, who contributed the title action “Teach your granny to text” explains where her idea came from: “It’s nice for grandparents and children to keep in touch in an easier way than e-mail and writing a letter and quicker and cheaper than a phone call – especially if they live faraway like mine!”

I’d recommend getting your Granny an iPhone as it’ll be an easy task teaching her with that. Don’t even bother trying with the likes of a Motorola.

Steve has been retired since 2006 and is now President of the team.

All good, right?

Mobile services geniuses, Textopoly, are managing the Detroit Red Wings mobile strategy. About a year ago they setup a keyword, REDWINGS, as a demo for the team’s marketing chaps. Text REDWINGS to the Textopoly shortcode and you’ll get a message back letting you know that Steve is coming out of retirement. An excellent proof-of-concept demonstration — and, obviously not accurate.

Well, the other night, a Red Wings team member knocked out an email to people encouraging them to text REDWINGS (the, er, wrong keyword) to sign-up to mobile alerts and the like.

Only, the keyword that Textopoly recommended they use was actually WINGS. That’s shorter, better, easier to type.

Text WINGS and you get signed-up as normal, right?

Text REDWINGS and you get the demo message about Steve. Saying he’s coming out of retirement. Heh!

Well, 250 people texted the wrong shortcode almost immediately upon receiving the email and … woosh: A media frenzy erupts. All over the sports news and ice hockey sites.

Somebody obviously picked up the demo alert. Forwarded. Forwarded it and before anyone knew it, it was making news. Fascinating! What a really good example of the power of the medium.

Obviously Mr Yzerman issued a clarifying statement saying he was amused by the text message but that it was just a mix-up. Heh. Excellent!

It’s about time sports teams really got to grips with the mobile medium — if they need any proof of the viral power and influence that mobile yields, they should take a look at this example. Most of the UK Premier League Soccer teams have got text alerts. In fact, if I recall accurately, Newcastle United has begun sending fans news updates ahead of the media.

Why bother with the mainstream media and their distortion when you can talk directly to your customers fans?

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Red Wings mobile service performs over the coming months.

It was Cristy who wrote the script for Ryan Seacrest, presenter of American Idol, that taught America to text.

American Idol was one of the very first text-enabled live television shows – and that got millions of Americans picking up their handsets and scrolling to the little used ‘text’ function.

Kudos, Cristy!

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

Be it twitter, reality-show votes, ebay update notifications or simply device activations, SMS has ridden the interesting express more than once. But could we have thought they way the Zambians did?
According to a report, thousand of people in Zambia are mourning the death of their President Levy Mwanawasa, through text messages. A number of SMS (Short Message Service) codes have been set up at radio and television stations in Zambia to facilitate mourning at the larger level.

The SMS service, which began on August 19th, 2008 will continue throughout the 21 days of national mourning. Lumai Mubanga, an IT executive, said:

The SMS facility is available on all mobile phones in Zambia, and 90 percent of the people know how to use it. My own observation is that the SMS facility has been used effectively by many, and this platform has allowed many Zambians, even those with little means, to convey their heartfelt condolences to President Mwanawasa’s family.

Interesting use of technology or simply crazy?

The Ottumwa School District believes that parents will be better informed of cancellations, delays, emergencies and other information if distributed through these new venues.

If you live in London, tough.

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When Ewan asked me to review a SMS text based cocktail recipe service, I must admit to jumping at the chance. I love alcohol – the photos of me on Facebook minus eyebrows are a testament to this! So I pointed my browser to http://www.text4cocktails.co.uk/ and had a little look at how it works.

I must admit my designers eye was wincing at the website, but I wasn’t here to critique a website, I am to review the service that it offers. Put simply, you text an SMS shortcode number the word ‘cocktail’ and then the name of the cocktail you’d like to know how to make – then you will receive back the recipe all squeezed into a 160 character SMS. Sounds good – handy if you’re hosting a party and wanting to knock up a quick cocktail, or indeed you work in a bar and get an ‘interesting’ request.

After tracking down the number on the website I asked, for the recipe for a Cosmopolitan – pretty simple bog standard cocktail – pretty much seconds after the text left my outbox, I had the recipe back. This is what I got:

‘Shake 50ml vodka,12.5ml cointreau,100ml cranberry juice,Dash fresh lime juice,Ice,Strain to chilled cocktail glass,Garnish with a lime twist’

Hmm, not bad – a bit brief – but you get the idea. I thought i’d try something a little more complex, a personal favourite, a Mojito:

‘Muddle 10 mint sprigs,Dash of sugar add 25ml lime juice 50ml rum,Ice,Shake,Strain to tall glass,Cracked ice,Top soda water,garnish with mint sprig’

I’m not entirely sure how one would ‘muddle’, not a term I’ve heard before! Again, it shows the limitations of only having 160 characters.

Certainly a good little service that does exactly what it says on tin, the website could do with work, especially to make it more mobile friendly. Perhaps also they could look at longer messages, or perhaps a WAP link with the recipes? Still nice to see something a bit different and fun!

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Nice one Kip!