Posts Tagged ‘text service’

Failed to qualify, Olympics text service could do better

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

I’m a little frustrated by some of the technology coming out of the Olympics.

I’ve loved watching Phelps’ gold rush, Cooke’s cycling gold was equally amazing to witness and, being a rowing nut, I’ve not moved from the TV whilst these events are on. But, some of the interactive services suck royally.

Aside from screaming at the internet and TV when a mistake meant the lightweight women’s double race, scheduled to be shown, was replaced on both with sailing – made all the worse by a friend competing in it – I’ve been most disappointed by the Beeb’s text service to alert you to the top events.

So far I’ve had the sum total of zero texts to alert me that Cooke could be on for a gold in the road race cycling. Zero texts to alert me that men’s 4-, the flagship boat, is about to race. And zero texts to suggest that a swimming gold was being contested.

I’ve registered twice and am getting particularly fed up. How hard could it be to get this service sorted.

I’m also slightly annoyed that AOL has ajusted the medal table to put the US above China (it’s counting medals, not gold medals as all other charts do). i’m now actually routing for China over the US in everything except the three remaining events in which Phelps is swimming. But that’s beside the point.

Vehicle registration text service goes live in UK

Friday, May 30th, 2008

I just picked up the news about Txt2Reg launching here in the UK. I’m sure I’ve seen a similar concept a while back. Anyway, here’s what the website asks on it’s frontpage:

Ever spotted someone in a car you fancied meeting or chatting to?

Our new mobile text service will now give you the chance to contact that person!

Simply register your vehicle for just £1.50 and you are ready to send messages to any car and to receive FREE messages sent to your car!! Registration and use is easy, just follow these simple steps

The only flaw in the plan is that the other person — the blonde in the Porsche that you’re trying to contact — has to have registered her registration plate with Txt2Reg as well, in order to receive your message.

This could well be a significant issue, particularly if a truck driver from Wigan spots said blonde and registers his phone with her registration plate.

If it garners widespread attention, this could become a popular service. There’s quite a lot of possible complications though.


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