blogging break...

I'll be taking a break from abigideaing over the next month as Im off down under to explore Australia...happy christmas and have a great new year!

Yahoo eats del.icio.us

Oooh - del.iciou.us got bought buy Yahoo last Friday. Dunno for how much, but its clear that Yahoo understands how tagging is going to make our web so much easier and intelligent to navigate. I've noticed a couple of months back how my search preference for particular topics was increasingly moving over to del.icio.us. If it was/is a topic related to technology, internet or mobile I would tend to go to del.icio.us first.
The Yahoo acquisition now has the capability to make the del.icio.us experience avaialble to everyone and to grow the topic and tag spread away from the geekish to more mainstream common requests. This in turn will feed a more time sensitive, friend relevant and context targeted search experience which may just be enough to tackle Google?

One other thing - the Yahoo M&A team are doing a damn good job - Oddpost, Flickr, Dialpad, Del.icio.us, all in under 18 months. They dont appear to be paying over the odds, and these targets are all examples of high growth synergistic (is that a word?) complimentary businesses that can add real value (usage data, IPR, engineering and product knowledge) to the Yahoo product stable. Yahoo brings a mass market productisation engine and an exit!

previous posts:
15/06/05 Yahoo buys Dialpad
04/05/05 Intelligent Bookmarks
08/07/04 Yahoo eats Oddpost

Mobile micro payment via SMS - SMSAXS

A neat (and simple) micropayment service that works via SMS in most of Europe (US coming soon). Current tariff rates include 0.49€, 1€ and 3€.






1. Your customer selects an item to purchase and chooses "Pay with smsAXS"
2. Your customers are sent to smsAXSís secure site to enter their mobile numbers. smsAXS accepts, authorizes, and processes payments instantaneously by connecting directly to the major Mobile Network Operators. smsAXS enables you to accept Vodafone, Orange, 02, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile all through one provider.
3. Once your customers are billed a password is sent directly to their mobile phone.
4. When they enter the password in the smsAXS form, they are automatically redirected to your site to collect their item. The smsAXS-hosted pages can be customized to match the look and feel of your website
5. You customers can access the premium content for the entire period of validity agreed on the transaction page (pay-per-view or pay-to-subscribe)

Mobile Flickr - mobup + shozu

"Mobup is a small J2ME application that manages photo uploads on Flickr from your mobile device built using the Flickr APIs. Once installed it gives you the possibility to shoot your photo and add title, tags and description from the same applications with optimal user experience and to post the shooted photo on your blog".

"ShoZu is a FREE cool app that makes uploading images from your camera-phone to your Flickr photostream simple".

SillyAnt - Encrypted mobile voip

"Free download of encrypted voip software for Nokia 6630, 6680 and N90 Symbian phones - realtime, full duplex, encrypted voice-over-IP connection for subscribers of GPRS and 3G networks. The initial version has GSM codec without encryption, but next releases will support elliptic curve cryptography based on private/public keys".

Thanks for the link Ian :-)

Million Dollar Homepage

I realy wish I had thought of this!

Skype clutter

I took a look at the Skype website this morning and was amazed at how much product there is - maybe too much? Recent months have given birth to a number of new OS platform versions, beta versions of the standard windows version, SkypeIn Beta, Skype Zones Beta, Skype Groups, WeeMees, Skype Buttons - ok, you get my point?
Their web designers and product managers do a good job of laying it out clearly and explaining it well but there is a real danger that Skype ends up running ahead of itself and alienating a growing segment of curious mass-market customers who, as a result of the skype PR blanket, are checking them out and seeing if they "get it" in order to sign-up. Skype needs to somehow seperate the key sign-up benefit and process from the peripheral benefit for the more adept and accustomed user. Maybe they should put the additional product options behind the customer sign-in and match the product placement with the activity profile of the sykpe customer? This way, the prospective new user will clearly understand why and how they should sign-up, and they will be able to upsell more services as customers get more confident and explorational with the service. Ebays 10 years of knowledge in web-apps should be put to good use in doing this.

KidsOK

Mobile phone tracking technology allows you to send KidsOK a two-word text whenever you wish, wait a few seconds and receive a pictorial map with the location of your child's mobile marked, without ringing or texting your child's mobile. More info here

DynaTac is back!

When Motorola introduced the DynaTac in 1983, the worlds first commercial mobile phone weighed nearly 1Kg and cost about the same as a car! Now you can pick one up with new components and a colour screen replacement for just under $300 in China. Retrotastic!

Internet big boys muscle into mobile

Good article in the register

BlueBall - this is mad...

reminds me of the Honda ad.... go here

Vodafone 804sh

I don't usually write about specific devices (because so many other blogs do) but I thought I would break with the norm and mention a very neat phone that has quietly been launched by Vodafone KK (Japan).
The Sharp 804sh is a clam-shell design which comes in 4 different colours. It also comes with a number of particulary cool features:
1) Mobile wallet - supports Felica and enables customers to buy things with their mobile phone - debited from their mobile bill (transport tickets, electronic shopping and point of sale goods in specific shops).
2) Integrated compass - for all those Ray Mears fans - this is the phone for you - if you get lost - the phone can tell you north from south and east from west (uses no.3)
3) Finally, the coolest of them all - the Motion Control Sensor (MCS)- this is a very neat little chip in the device which recognises and responds to movements and opens up a whole host of new opportunities for handsets - from new interactive gaming scenarios (pointing a gun, swinging a golf club) to improving the accuracy of location technologies (AGPS cant tell very well what height you're at - e.g. what floor of a building you might be on).

This technology has been on the market since February on 2G devices, but this is the first time it has been incorporated in to a 3g offering. The motion control sensor element potentially represents a strong USP for Vodafone KK over the Christmas sales period and a strong technology advantage given that the IPR is owned jointly by Vodafone and Aichi Steel Corporation.
I demo'd this at the end of last year and although it was in prototype state, the user experience of the MCS technology is extremely impressive - it really makes you smile. I think the impact will initially be in the game space, and it should enable a step-change in the mobile phone gaming experience which will reduce the distance between the mobile and portable game players such as the PSP3, Nintendo DS and iGame(!)

outlook

Konfabulator doesnt think much of the outlook here in Düsseldorf over the next few days...

uConnect VOIP Converter

Just connect one of these in to the back of your PC and you can use any existing telephone to talk on Skype (e.g. analogue, DECT, corldless etc).

Office art

This is what hangs on the walls at Vodafone HQ!

Amazing photography, eery images

Chinese factory - submissions to World Press Photo Competition

IM to Voice

I saw this ad banner for Yahoo Messenger today that reads; "stop typing, start talking". Yahoo are promoting new voice support within their IM client (following DialPad acquisition) and it got me wondering if people will easily migrate from IM to voice? Its a different type of communication with a different associated psychology. How much substitution will happen, or how much additional traffic will be generated will be interesting to watch. Will the IM user base hurl their keyboards out the window and replace them with USB headsets - or will they compliment their heavy IM usage with the occassional phone call.
Yahoo are going to approaching this in reverse to Skype - Skype built a heavy voice usage base and complimented this with IM (I personally found that I discarded my other IM clients in favour of skype because Skype had the the most valuable contacts - probably because Im bothered to call them, rather than IM them). So then, may be we can judge the value of a relationship by the type of communication bearer we use to interact with it?

Mobile RSS

If you can't be without your RSS feeds when away from your PC, then try a RSS feed reader that works on your mobile.

Currently on offer:

Feedburner Mobile RSS Reader (various versions, MIDP 2.0 compatible, Palm OS5, FREE)
Dace Mobile RSS Feed Reader(MIDP 1.0 compatible, $3.14 from Handango)
My Yahoo Mobile - you can read the RSS feeds via WAP that you have set up in your MyYahoo)
Feedalot - (WAP based view of the RSS feeds you have subscribed to at the website)
Ennovation MX RSS+ (Java download, support Chinese)
FreeNews (Blackberry, Treo, Java compatible, Free trial then 20 bucks)
RocketInfo RSS (their website doesnt work, but they claim to offer a mobile reader)
Bloggo (RSS over WAP)
mReader (J2ME)

Cheap international mobile phone calls

Dialabroad, a UK start-up has launched a smart service to enable mobile phone users to make cheap international mobile phone calls. It works like this:

1) You send a text to their short-code - this is premium text that costs you either €5 or €7 (3 or 5 uk pounds). This credits your account with the same amount of calling credit.
2) When you want to dial an international number, you dial the dialabroad number first, then dial your destination. Thats it - simple!

Many of the dialing destinations are free to dial.

My only issue with the website is that some users may misinterpret it to mean cheap/free international phone calls from abroad, instead of to abroad. If you're abroad (say Spain) and use this service to dial back home (UK) , you will incurr the roaming cost from where you are (Spain) back to the UK, which is unlikely to be cheap.

While were on this subject, you should also know that EU commisioner Viviane Reding launched a new EU information website last month to provide greater transparency of international roaming charges to help the consumer get a better deal.

Another good solution for UK mobile users roaming frequently abroad is UK2abroad who provide mail order local SIMs- its very simple, the only slight hassle being that you have to occasionally drop in to a foreign mobile shop to get a top-up.

Mobile encyclopedia - Cellphedia

This is a cell phone application that promotes the sharing of knowledge. It allows users to send and receive encyclopedia-type inquiries between specific, pre-defined groups of users, through Text messaging. Users can register on this site and start building the quick-reference Cellphedia-type encyclopedia entries, by asking other users and answering other users' questions wherever cell phone service is available.

Mobile P2P File Sharing

The first mobile Peer 2 peer file sharing applications for Symbian are beginning to appear
Take a look at Symella.

Thanks for the tip Bruno

Mobile conferencing

LogOn connects all pieces of the conference/exhibition puzzle together using mobile technologies; presenters, exhibitors, organisers, and visitors. They provide a managed service which covers the end to end process from SMS invites, WAP/client based agendas, Conference updates, to Attendee info and SMS Voting.

Loaning to help the developing world

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on their website and then lending money online to that enterprise, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor towards economic independence.

This is a neat model, but it is too early to tell if it works - the site has only been up a couple of months. Clearly, not every single business will be able to repay the loan, but it will need success stories and full loan repayments to ensure repeat loans.

Google Local Mobile

Ive talked too much about Google recently but I kind of cant help it - theyve just launched a beta for Google Local Mobile - which should give mobile industry something to worry about.

Google Talk Video

Festoon Inc (Santa Cruz Networks) have added Google Talk support to their video plug-in so you can now video-chat/call on GTalk.

They also have a neat product called Eyecandy that lets users doing funny backgrounds, effects and overlays. See the demo here

OYBike

The OYBike System is a UK central London street-based rental station network that allows you to hire and return a bicycle via your mobile phone. OYBike operate a pay as you go system and charges start at 30p ($0.50c) for 15 minutes. With worries about public transport security, increasing inner-city congestion charges and increasing petrol prices - these types of services should see increased interest and usage.

the car equivalent in the US is Zipcar

updated gadgetometer

new additions in Blue

1 Apple iPod
1 SE V800
3 Nokia 6600
1 Blackberry 7100v
1 compaq iPaq
1 Dell Laptop
1 Motorola E1000
1 Pentax Optio DigiCam
1 Bosch Fixed-phone
1 Sony DCR-PC55 video camera
1 nokia 3230
1 Vodafone simply (sagem VS1)

Google Customer Services

A few months back, I wrote a post about a suspected bug in Picasa/Hello (google owned) which enabled me to get hold of the jsalmon.blogspot.com web address. It was previously being used by someone else, but the blog registration process via Hello let me get hold of it. I thought this could be a potentially damaging bug/hole so I wrote to Blogger customer services explaining the problem, and expecting them to get back to me (at some point). Its now 3 months since I wrote to them and I haven't heard a thing.
To date, Google hasn't had to provide much in the way of customer services - a significant expenditure for other service related companies. I'm sure they have a few teams looking after cash-cow adword/adsense clients, but most of their other services don't need much currently in the way of support. However I think this may begin to change and Google is going to have to do something about both its support levels and response times. As our internet usage and destination preference increasingly goes Googles way, we become more reliant on the effectiveness of their product experiences, and product integration points. You can address a lot of potential hiccups with good engineering, rigorous testing and thorough beta phases, but there will inevitably be problems and users will complain. Complaints cost money, both in employing people to deal with them and the negative PR that can generated as a result of a serious hiccup. So Google will need to think how it addresses this, firstly to maintain its brand preference and image and secondly to control and minimise its costs. I hope that it addresses this with its traditional levels of innovation and re-engineers the way that Customer Service Centres are rolled out and operate. Maybe it could create an army of Google "Bees", home workers who are connected to Google customers with Google Talk and Gmail, who are geographically distributed across the globe and able to converse in multiple languages. They could be rated by the customer on their response effectiveness and therefore create a customer-managed workforce. I would also hope that they could respond to a request in less than 3 months!

Wall-mounted PC's

This is quite a mad concept - a wall point that acts as a PC!
I like it!


via RedFerret

Mobile vending machines

Vodafone have announced today that they are installing mobile phone vending machines across the Uk in places like train stations, shopping centres, high streets etc.
More in the Telegraph

Win a Nokia n-series

Nokia are running a competition for the best mobile pics. More here

ipod maps and directions

you can now get some neat mapping apps for your iPod
iPodiWay
iSubwaymaps.com

Google Base

Google are apparently developing a new service that works a bit like a online database publisher. The details are a bit murky, but it sounds like it enables users to post stuff (docs, for sale listings, research, info whatever), add search tags, and then allow the internet community to find this stuff. Could have worrying implications for eBay, and a lot of web hosting companies.....
more info at searchenginewatch and google blogoscoped

Mobile phone jammers

Paul Goldings recent post on ringtone pollution, resulting in mobile nausea struck a chord with me following a train journey to Amsterdam last week. The ringtone noise was incessant, and usually always followed by a Dom Joly type "HEELLLLO!" at a painful decibel level. I think the solution is one of these, or a simple education process explaining the virtues of the "silent" mode.

YouTube - P2P video sharing

YouTube does for videos, what Flickr did to Photos. Great site...


25/10 - also Grouper
7/11 - YouTube raises $3.5m from Sequoia
20/01 - also Revver

Mobile content Armageddon!

OK, so its a slightly dramatic head line, but the following quote from Kentaro Kawabe (a mobile content producer at Yahoo Japan), nicely emphasises how much mobile is in the crosshairs of the big Internet players.

"The mobile world has been carrier-led. That is going to change."

Kawabe-san was commenting on Yahoo Japans announcement that it is launching a mobile content distribution service, fronting entertainment and information content from nearly 60 suppliers. More here

Via DigitalMediaWire

Icemobile, VideoCall2TV

Icemobile, enables viewers to express themselves instantly by making a video call from their 3G mobile phones to a TV program and participate in the show with live video images.
Great - but would be neater if I could call my own TV at home and interrupt the TV show to chat to my family!

Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record broken

Yup - it was, on Sep 28th 2005, in a Radical SR8, driven by Michale Vergers. lap time of 6 mins 55 sec. Video here
If you like your cars and havent been to the "ring" you must go! its a very scary place, but an incredible experience. more info here

Ning

ning is a new online service that enables anyone (really?) to create a social web application. it also acts a hub for new social web-apps that have been built by members.

Jotspot is in a similar space, but more focused on wiki's. Setup by Excite founder Joel Kraus

YackPack

A new start-up out of Stanford, YackPack presents a new way of keeping in touch with friends and family. It feels like a visual web-interface to voicemail. The functionality appears limited at the moment, with the ability to send users or groups a "yack" message which they can then pick up when they log in. The experience isnt quite as exciting as I had hoped it would be, but I get the feeling they are testing the water and unwilling to reveal the magic, as I suspect there is still an heavy dosage of stealth mode. The roadmap possibilities for a new interface to messaging (and social networking) gets interesting when you move the medium to mobile. Replace the web audio file with an MMS (or video) and its a compelling experience.
One to watch....

Unlimited flat-rate UMTS data tariff for €40/month

from E-Plus in germany - this has gotta hurt surely?! More evidence of commoditisation and bit-pipe business model. E-plus also control the SIMYO and BASE MVNO's in Germany who are both offering free text between networks.

BuddyBearMobile - mobile phones for kids

This is a very innovative concept for a parent targeted "safe child communication" proposition.
The handset has been designed to appeal to kids in a younger age range than usual mobile hand-sets (age 3-10 age range). Features include:

• pre-set 4 number dial,
• 24x7 babyphone function (parent just dials the number and listens)
• parents receive an SMS if battery is low
• kids can send an SOS-message if they need help

Dutch telco Scarlet are launching this next month
02/12 - launched in the UK market under the Teddyfone brand. Interestingly they pre-fit SIM so also act as a MVNO.


04/10 - Firefly Mobile also offer a similar device. It looks a lot cooler and sounds as though it has gone through a much more rigorous product design process. Currently avaialble in the US but probably coming to Europe and Asia soon.....

Phonetags

Phonetags - an internal BBC-employee project designed to allow users to bookmark, tag and rate songs they hear on the radio using SMS and their mobile phone.

I understand the customer need - but not necessarily with music - my need is to remember web links that I read in airplane mags. I never feel brave enough to steal the magazine, organised enough to have a pen on me, or have a good enough memory to remember the link. Qtags cliam to have a solution - but I cant use my phone on a plane (yet).

Disposable mobiles?

Whatever happened to the "disposable phone" concept? back in 1999, Randice-Lisa Altschul was issued a series of patents for the world's first disposable cell phone. Trademarked as the "Phone-Card-Phone"®, the device was a few credit cards thick a nd made out of recycled paper. Six years on, and there doesnt appear to be much pogress from the patent announcement and the claim that the product would be ready for production in 2002. The comapny website has expired and I cant find any other sniff about this on the interweb...
Anyone know what happened?

iDJ

check this out! grab a couple of iPods and rip up some tracks!
i think i have to get one....

Bluefrog Mobile raises $16m

Blue Frog Mobile, Inc., a mobile content company, has raised $16 million Series A led by Canaan Partners and including investor MK Capital. BlueFrog operates a number of brands including Ringtopia, EdgeTones, Mack Tones and LemonKiss.
via Rutberg

an early Skype backers story...

go here to read Morten Lunds post following the Skype sale to Ebay

Ebay acquires Skype

So its official - after some rumour at the end of last week - EBay has confirmed that it has acquired Skpe for $2.6bn.

read the press release here
previous post here
ebay investor presentation here

Mobile microship memory breakthrough

Researchers at Imperial, Durham and Sheffield have conducted some research that combines the storage capability of a hard drive with the low cost of memory cards, potentially increasing memory capacity by 200 times from an average of 500MB to around 100GB.
This potentially will enable mobiles to have similar storage capacities to todays PC's - with local storage of 1000's of songs, games, dvds etc.
more here
via DigitalMediaWire

Mobile Speilberg Wannabe?

Mobifilms is offering tips and advice on how to make mobile films + a prize of $10,000 and a Nokia N90 for the best competition submission. Hurry up cos closing date is 25th Sep

Bullseye Mobile

Any UK readers out there older than about 25 may remember a cult Granda TV saturday night gameshow from the 80's called Bullseye, created by a chap called Andrew Wood. 3 teams of 2 contestants would compete in a number of special rounds culminating in an all or nothing gamble for Bullys Mystery Star Prize - which was usually a twinkling shiny new car or a holiday for 4 to Barbados!
Jamdat have teamed up with Mr Wood and Granda Ventures to create Bullseye Mobile, a mobile content package including a game, ringtones, wallpapers, video clips and screensaver.

Nokia 770

Just been playing with the all new Nokia 770 - its cool but i havent quite figured it out - i think it may have an identity crisis - its not a pda, its not a phone, its not a tablet PC, its not a laptop - but its lack of established identity makes it quite quirky.
Check out Maemo for the developer community and MobileBurn for a more comprehensive, less fluffy review.

Skype signs first mobile partner

Thwack!

Gametel

Gametel - offering a dedicated gaming environment and community for MVNO's and operators.

RSS to your mobile (nextblast)

NextBlast provides a service which enables users to receive their favourite RSS feeds via SMS, Email, or Web on their mobile.

Podcasting for mobiles (mobilcast)

Melodeo joins pod2mob with a product that can find and download podcasts to a mobile phone.

Skype may soon have some serious competition....from Google Talk

read this in the LA Times

Caterham 7's in USA

One of my very good mates is off to the US next month to take part in a drive from Houston to San Francisco, as part of a 60 car motorcade consisting entirely of Caterham 7s. Its a 22 day 4,500 mile extravaganza which culminates on the 6th October with a blast round the Infineon Raceway. If youve never had a chance to go for a spin in a 7, all you need to know is that they are one of the best drivers cars ever and a completely mental but brilliant experience. So if any of my US readers see these funny little brit cars passing through their town, wave and say hi.
More in PistonHeads

Cheap gas

This is great - just one example of all the buzz and activity that is now happening as a result of the developer community having access to some great mapping API's (thanks google).

More apps here at Google Maps Mania

google buys Android

It turns out that Google acquired Android last month for an undiclosed sum. I had Android on my radar because one of the founders (Rich Miner) used to work at Orange, and i was curious. Android has been in "stealth" mode for the last 2 years, and still no-one seems to have a clue what they've developed. My guess is that its a mobile phone UI/app that ties contact mobility, presence, and location together.
Read more here

del.icio.us user interface

One area where del.icio.us has been weak is in its user interface. Although regular users will grow to like its simplicity, new users may be turned off by its 95'esque styling and html rendering.
Johnvey Huang has developed del.icio.us director a realy neat java-based UI for del.icio.us accounts. Try it...

Odeo and Podshow got funded

The VC community beleives there could be money in podcasting because they have recently opened their wallets and provided first round funding for Odeo (on odeo blog) and Adam Curry's Podshow.
Interesting mobile take on podcasting at Pod2Mob

Intercasting Corp raises $5.5m

Intercasting Corp, the company behind Rabble have raised $5.5 million in their first round of venture capital, led by Masthead Venture Partners and Avalon Ventures.

see previous post
press release here

Instant Messenger for mobile phones

here - works with MSN, AOL, ICQ, jabber and Yahoo.
Lifetime license for 9.95 UKP or 1.50 UKP / month!

SMS cannibalisation??



Thanks for the link Wolfgang ;-)

Radar Golf

Just saw this on David Cowans blog and it brought a tear to my eye. It represents the end of an era, an era when kids (like myself and my brother) could make exorbitant amounts of cash in the school holidays by hunting for golf balls, taking them home and cleaning them up, then learning the intricacies of marketing and economics by packaging and bundling them (3 white, bag of 10 mixed, 3 white and 2 yellows, 20 practice etc) in order to sell them back to the people who lost them!

$3bn Skype valuation and News Corp bid

Ok - so there have been lots of rumours and the Independent have added to these with a brief article where they claim News Corp made an approach to Skype that valued it at $3bn and that the negotiation "broke down last month".

Skype currently claims nearly 150m downloads. If you take a 10% active-user rate (which i think is probably very high), that gives Skype 15m active users, the majority of which are using the free VOIP element, not the fee paying parts of the product SkypeOut and Voicemail. Even assuming 15m active, the NewsCorp bid puts a per-user valuation at $200, which Ok doesnt sound a lot , but its probably at least 100x average per-user earnings.

Skype is a great product, but its not the only product in this space. I'm sure the company has some very grand plans, but history shows how a market leader can be quickly overtaken and surpassed (netscape -> IE -> firefox). A $3bn valuation is flattering and I suspect it respresents an extremely good return for Skypes early backers who include Morten Lund and Ariadne Capital, and their Series A backers who included DFJ, Index, Bessemer, and Mangrove. Im sure there is some truth in all the rumour, otherwise its an incredibly well executed PR campaign to seed the idea of a sale. Either way, i think a sale will be tied up by Christmas.

update 12/09 - Ebay has acquired Skype for $2.6bn - phew! press release here

Mobile Monday - US mobile networking group

The Mobile Monday USA. mission is to cultivate and accelerate US mobile and telecom sectors through leadership, technology, government relations, research, education, mentoring, investment, recruitment, networking and promotion

Fotochatter

fotochatter allows you to use your camera phone to narrowcast photos to the phones of everyone on your network. They can look at the photos right away, and make comments which come straight back to you.

a nice example of how customers can avoid paying a per-MMS fee for distributing photos to friends.

Uglyduck - simple low-cost mobile proposition from Proximus

go here

Freever acquired by Buongiorno

Freever (provider of mobile chat, SMS, community VAS) has been acquired by Boungiorno for €18m euro in cash and a variable earn-out of €15.5m (max). With forecast 05 revenues of €12m and €1m earnings, Buongiorno have stuck a good deal for a relatively young company, with good growth potential and a good client base. CDC Entreprises Innovation, ADD Partners and Net Partners were Freevers VC's.

Buddyping - 'Dodgeball' for the UK

Buddyping is now up and running in the UK providing a similar user experience to the recently Google-acquired Dodgeball. Both the Buddyping and Dodgeball services enable you to check the location of your circle of friends via SMS, provided that they have also signed up for the service and have their location tagged. Buddyping want to expand and have plans to roll out the service in other countries soon.
jan - thanks for the lead :-)

iSkoot - Skype to mobile

iSkoot have launched a PC-app that enables you to foward incoming Skype calls to a mobile or fixed number. You pay for the leg of the call from your PC to the number you have selected.

Big bug in Picasa/Hello

I was playing around with Picasa this evening - I had some photos of my dads 60th which I wanted to post to a new blog for my family to see. So I downloaded Hello, and selected the photos in Picasa that I wanted to post. Hello gave me the option to post these pictures to this blog, or to create a new one. I chose to create a new blog and selected the URL jsalmon.blogspot.com. The website seem to hang for a bit, then loaded up the new URL which was clearly in use by another user (there was no error when I selected it). jsalmon@blogspot is a grad student at University in Canada and may be quite upset to think that I have hacked his blog (which I have - but not intentionally). Luckily, there was only one post on his blog, but imagine the consequences if he had been a regular blogger. What was there, has now gone and been replaced with my chosen template and first post.
All this integration between Google properties is great, but only if its thoroughly tested. Unless fixed, (and assuming there is no user error my end), this bug could have nasty consequences for users and Blogger. Ive sent a bug report, and lets hope they fix it soon.
And Mr J Salmon in Canada - youre more than welcome to have your blogspot back!

Google Image Search

I have a habit of finding some really random images on Google Image Search when Im looking for powerpoint clipart.....

Visual search - NeoMedia acquires Mobot

Neomedia has acquired mobot for @$12m, mostly stock. Neomedia holds some valuable patents on 2D barcode recognition, which enables consumers to take a picture of a product with their cameraphone, interpret the image as a web link and receive product information , special offers etc. Mobot compliments the Neomedia offering with a solution that doesnt necessitate the installation of a s/w client on the terminal.
Nevenvision are also a key player in the visual search space.

NeoMedia has an eclectic range of products - mobile search, it integration and an auto paint repair system!

more on mobile search

go here

VC analysis of Intermix sale

On Bill Burnhams blog here

Learn stuff with your iPod

Dictionary with a database of more than 35,000 words with multiple parts-of-speech for each headword, and a Thesaurus with over 35,000 English words and phrases. Go here

Good articles on Vodafones approach to VOIP and fixed-line displacement

in the regsiter and also in unstrung

Electronic Paper

Fujitsu have developed a new type of paper that can store a colour image without needing an electricity supply. link here

iPod Flea

This is funny

The fair has arrived in Düsseldorf....its huge!

Mobile aggregators

heres a good list of UK mobile aggregators, courtesy of Orange.

Were not afraid!

Following the horrific terrorist attacks on my beautiful home town of London, this blog has been set up to reflect the defiant attitude of the public.

Tarolini sniffing the Athens pollution!

Google to boost T-Mobile?

T-Mobile has announced that customers with Internet viewing capable devices will be presented with the Google search page as a default start page. It represents a strategic shift away from the promotion of T-Zones, to pushing a more natural Internet experience, that mirrors the way customers currently use the web.
I cant applaud T-Mobile for doing this because its common-sense. The "walled-garden" approach protects the brand and monetises activity but it stiffles innovation and experimentation. It restricts mobile customers to a range of bread and butter data services that come with a one size fits all approach. It doesnt make any consideration for locality, age, interests, profession, social-circles, tastes and income. This doesnt mean that by defaulting Google, all this will be solved. It does however, demonstrate that operators are beginning to think along more traditional and proven Internet behaviour models. Search is the deafult start for most of our Internet activity, and with the proliferation of mobile optimised Internet sites we are now seeing sufficient content to make the experience credible.
The "walled-garden" has always received a lot of criticism outside of the operator community much of which I belive is unjust. With all service or product creation, you are limited only by your ingredients and imagination. The "walled-garden" offerings have grown up around fairly poor ingredients (wap 1.0 , closed-O/S, b&w screens etc), but now the produce of offer has changed. With the recent advancement in device capapbilities, continuing subsidisation (in europe anyway) and lots more standardisation, the climate has changed and the opportunity apparent. Operators will need to focus on developing 3rd party products (technical + commercial) to maintain their control of the value-chain or they may find themelves squeezed by their vendor partners (Nokia Premiernet).
I suspect that Google must also be quietly chuckling away.....

iCon

I'm on holidays at the moment in Athens and have brought along a couple of books to devour, one of which is "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business ". I've finished it and its a great read. There's been a lot written about Mr Jobs but I think this is first book that can put his (and his teams) achievements in perspective in the three industries he has impacted (music, computing and film). I'm even more convinced that Apple must have some big plans for the mobile space - it plays so well on their skill-set, the combination of hardware, software and user focused design.
I think the Motorola s/ware distribution deal is an industry distraction while their talented team of engineers devise something that can shake-up the mobile device space. Bring it on....Ill have two! ;-)

International GPRS settings

Heres a handy link to all the settings you need, wherever you are in the world.

Batteries Congress 2005

saw this - can you imagine how exciting this conference would be!

Who will Google buy next?

Heres a view from Kuro5shin on who might be in Googles sights...

Yahoo buys DialPad

Yahoo has acquired DialPad in a move to strengthen their VOIP play. Who's next to be eaten up? Skype, Teltel, Vonage, Yak, Net2Phone???
Om Malik broke it yesterday, press release here
Update 06/09 - teleo just got bought by Microsoft

Vodafone Simply

Due to who my employer is, I haven't really been able to write much about the Vodafone Simply offering that was launched a couple of weeks ago. However, there's been quite a lot of misunderstanding in the press about how Vodafone has gone against its 3G ambitions etc - rubbish!
Anyway - here's an article from Steve Wallage in the Feature who seems to get it!

Defensible emotional advantages

In this post, BusinessWeek talks to Pierre Omidyar about connecting people together using the internet. Mr Omidyars language is full of adjectives which describe basic human emotions scuh as "trust", "empower", "discover", and "influence".
It got me wondering if a defensible technological advantage is realy so important nowadays?? maybe a defensible emotional advantage is more important to a business plan and product. I think this is more than merely marketing spin. Products that are built from the ground up to appeal to human emotion, desire and need tend to be so much more successful.

Another UK MVNO...

"Extreme Mobile" here

Nokia Sensor

Real-time P2P location-based bluetooth-enabled community messaging from Nokia (link here). Reminds me a bit of what the guys at TagTxt were/are trying to do.

Weightlessness...

my next long weekend trip is gonna be here ;-)
from the redferret

Mobile Search

Mobile search is going to be a big topic. And its not just a case of putting a mobile interface on to an existing web service. The mobile environment presents opportunities for intelligent search (location, environment, advertising etc) and also a number of challenges (keypad entry, screen size, display limits to results etc). yahoo and google have recently entered this space and 4Info and Caboodle are the new start-ups to watch.
14/07 - also Medio Systems
29/09 - "mobile operators fear the Google effect" - VNUNet
05/10 - JumpTap (similar UI to MotionBridge)

mHealth

watch-style mobile device that can measure your health condition and transmit it over a wireless network. I expect this kind of device to have a wide appeal, particularly if coupled with a decent web-app which can interpret the data, offer advice, training, targets etc.

SIMYO MVNO launches in Germany

KPN have lanuched SIMYO MVNO in germany - similar pricing structure and offering to EasyMobile in the UK, and co-incidentally similar branding colours as well. Could this be a defensive move before Easy arrive in Germany?

G’zOne TYPE-R

This is a water-proof, shock-proof, everything proof phone just launched in Japan with stopwatch, torch, compass, buzzer etc.

Schwinn Electric Stingray

v cool

Oooh - open-source VOIP?!

go here (via the register)

Economist Innovation Summit - Nov 05

go here

new venture - Sonopia

Juha Christensen's (former head of MS Mobile) new stealth venture

Location-aware Media Networking Operators & Intercasting Corp

This is an extremely well articulated and insightful blog on the future of content, media and the concept of Location-aware Media Networking Operators (LMNO's). Given the current environment, shift in market dynamics and excitement and optimism around mobile, I believe is a very plausible vision of how things will evolve. The author Shawn Conahan, is CEO at Rabble. Wavemarket (crunkie) is in a similar product space.

Innovate Europe 05 - Zaragoza, Spain

go here

Google acquires DodgeBall

Dodgeball have been early pioneers of "location sensitive mobile social software" - essentially connecting you to your mates via your mobile, depending where you all are. Its more evidence of Google buying product innovation (rather than creating it in house), but also goes to show that theres some serious thinking going on about how to connect their (currently) disparate product offerings (search, blogger, adsense, picasa, orkut, gmail etc) together. I suspect that for Google, Dodgeball is one piece of a compicated strategic puzzle that they are working on.

Blogger Mobile

Yesterday the blogging population saw the announcement of Blogger Mobile - for US based mobile users, they can start blogging with minimal effort and set-up hassle. Just send a picture/text to go@blogger.com and you're up and running. The service sends the user a web link and a code which can be used to view/edit the blog. Bloggers who already maintain a blogspot can register existing blogs against their registration code.

This is an interesting development for a number of reasons:

1) It demonstrates how important the mobile phone is for the future of blogging. The mobile is the perfect tool for adding pictures/text to your blog. Most of us (!) spend a lot of time away from our PC's/laptops but the mobile stays with us.

2) It could mark the change from blogging being a niche activity to a mass market phenomenon. Simplicity is absolutely critical to running up the adoption curve and so many products remain niche because they havent managed to overcome provisioning complexity. This is the brilliance of what Four11 and Hotmail did with email. They turned email from a product that needed an ISP, modem, PC, pop3 address, smtp config etc into something that required 2 minutes of registration time in an interenet cafe or a friends PC. Blogger has reduced the provisioning complexity down to a couple of steps.

3) It suggests that Blogger has done some form of deal with US operators (not all of them). This is interesting for me because I think European operators might have a different attitude given their commitment to the upkeep and maintenance of their walled gardens.


Despite all the positive press, I still think there's room for improvement, because fundamentally the average mobile user is not familiar with sending with pictures or text to an email address. We send stuff to numbers.

BuddyBuzz

go here

Coming to a shop near you....(in the US)

Low-cost GSM/CDMA mobile handsets with a pre-paid amount, straight out the box from Hop-on!

Update - 30/06/05 - $34.50 GSM handset offered by hop-on for india

Zyb - global SMS from PC/web to mobile

Zyb provides global SMS from PC or web, to mobile. Theres a whiff of Skype branding/site feel about it

Skype 4 SmartPhone (!)

Get Beta here

Apple iPhones...

There has been quite a lot of press about Motorolas problems in convincing mobile carriers to order lots of phones with Apple iTunes. This is partly because they have conflicting attitudes on who should control music download, and how much they should charge.
Just a thought.....whats to stop Apple manufacturing a mobile/iPod and distributing it through their existing network of iPod resellers. Customer buys a pre-pay SIM and pops it in the back of the iPod. So maybe Apple could also be an MVNO?

'Intelligent' Bookmarks

Joshua Schachter, a rather clever chap of Memepool and GeoURL fame has just received funding (undisclosed but less than $5m) for his social bookmarking venture http://del.icio.us from Union Square Ventures, Amazon.com, Marc Andreessen, BV Capital, Esther Dyson, Seth Goldstein, Josh Koppelman, Howard Morgan, Tim O'Reilly, and Bob Young.

That’s quite a board and quite a network....!

It’s an old idea revamped though, riding on a new wave of VC investment in all things that leverage the communities and related intelligence around what we do on the web. "Social bookmarking" is close to my heart. Back in good old '98 when I was fresh out of Uni, I co-founded Skip2 Technologies, an Internet software co that enabled users to store, manage and share bookmarks via the web. The idea was good, but the business model and execution was poor. Despite a number of interested VC's we never raised any funding, but did sell the company to MyNet, my second start-up in 2000. So if you’re wondering what Social bookmarking is, let me try and explain....imagine in your browser you have a set of folders, lets call one "Holidays", and another "restaurants". As you chug along through life, you add links to your favourite hotels/holidays cottages, beaches etc in the "Holidays" folder. Likewise with "Restaurants". Now, connect that information to your social network (friends, family, colleagues etc) and you have a very powerful and socially relevant source of information on where to eat, where to stay etc. It’s powerful because you are more likely to visit somewhere that as been referred to you by a friend. Google ads are all very well, but the most accurate, trustworthy and relevant referral is from someone you know, who can provide feedback, experience, tips, other links and info.

Del.icio.us has quite a few features up and running already. Each user has a separate URL from which you can access your personal links via the web. You can see the number of other people who have listed the same link, and then see their link lists. You can also link to other people through interests or key "tag" words within the context of the link. So if I link to a site about "cornwall cottages" I can also see who else has tagged the same link, and others can search the links to see if there are any links that reference "cottages cornwall". The service doesn’t appear to have any privacy controls at the moment.

The Del.icio.us business model isnt clear yet. At Skip2, our plan was to mine the aggregate demographic information of the user base that visited a specific site which we then intended to sell to site owners to improve insight, advertising accuracy and experience. Another option was to enable users to sign-in to other sites using their Skip2 username/password - the .Net passport approach. Blink tried to do a similar thing. Del.icio.us faces competition from De.lirio.us (an open source copy), www.furl.com and www.spurl.com.

Del.icio.us is very basic and a bit geeky, but with the new influx of funding, Joshua and his team will be able to transform it into something more usable, consumer focused, and clever. Good luck to them...

Nokia/Yahoo

Yesterday, Nokia announced a partnership with Yahoo to pre-install a range of Yahoo Internet services (email, search, entertainment) on Series 60 devices. This is the first significant step I have seen from a device manufacturer to include content services in the device., which until now has been traditionally controlled by the operator. For Yahoo, it is clearly an excellent distribution route, and I suspect we will see further announcements with other device manufacturers. Maybe they will go a step further and start an MVNO. And why not - if EasyMobile can be up and running with 40 people on the pay-roll, this route is low-cost and just extends Yahoo's market reach. Yahoo Email customers are likely to have a closer brand affinity and realtionship with Yahoo than they might with O2, T-Mob or Vod. Then maybe AOL and MSN will follow suit? Would do the world of good for mobile data services....

07/11 - Yahoo! to launch own phone on Cingular

Emotion translated through technology

read more here

ZipCar

This is a great car rental model. Source: RedFerret - one of my Top10 blogs..

Hybrid Satellite-Cell Networks

This article talks about two companies that are combining satellite and cellular networks to provide end to end coverage. Add in to the mix other technologies such as WiMax, and you have a much less capital intensive network infrastructure. This should ultimately translate to lower cost mobile services for the consumer.

Jamdat acquires Tetris rights

I think for $137m, Jamdat got a bit of a deal. Of all the mobile phone games out there, Tetris is has a huge following already in the non-mobile world, and given its play format and style, it translates very well to the mobile world (04/05 4th top best selling game in UK). And its sooo addictive. Theres been loads of hype (and VC activity) around mobile gaming over the last six months. Theres now a lot of competition in the mobile gaming sector and its a challenge to find new game formats that will be financially successful. The margins will improve as handset standardisation improves because much of the cost of game development is in reformatting the title for different types of handsets.
For Blue Lava Wireless (the Tetris mobile owners), $60m in cash and 4.05m shares in Jamdat stock should keep them in cocktails and suncream for the next 15 years in Honolulu, at which point the Jamdat rights to Tetris expire!
press release here

Operator handset "protection"

ARgghhhh! there must nothing more annoying for customers who have bought a 5/600 euro handset, and when then try and transfer pictures from it to their computers, they find that the Object File Transfer has been blocked. The operators do this on a lot of phones to prevent people being able to transfer wallpapers/ringtones etc to another device (cos DRM isnt quite there yet). Interestingly "vanilla" devices (e.g. non operator tampered) now sell for almost 30% more on Ebay than operator customised ones. Shows what the market thinks of the operators efforts to improve the handset UI/experience!!!!!

Google results

Eric Schmidt must be smiling today with Googles incredible results. These have over-shadowed Ebays results which were also impressive. I, along with many others outside of the US were early advocates and promoters of the Google search experience and it still riles me that we didnt get a chance to participate in last years IPO.

Bangladesh Village Phone Program

This is a great example of how companies with a social conscience can improve their local environment, help the population and increase profit at the same time.

Odeo - creating a podcasting marketplace

Evan Williams (co-founder of Pyra Labs, Blogger) left Google last October to co-found Odeo. Evan writes "Odeo aims to enable this new distribution channel and medium by creating the best one-source solution for finding, subscribing to, and publishing audio content".

3 Blogger gripes

1) When a user edits a post, then selects publish, the application publishes the article but stops once it has completed the process. Why doesnt it automatically return to the "edit post" view?
2) Im not sure I "get" the publish process. it seems unecessary...why cant the blog just be published automatically on a periodical basis, or every time a post has been made. Now i expect some may sit back aghast at the sheer stupidity of this comment, but I think applications like these need to work in ways that are currently familiar to users (e.g. writing an email) , or align with existing behaviour.
3) My user stats are very wrong.

Did you escape?

If you did, here is the second room...

Skype Update

Wow! 100m customers (35% active), new SkypeIn product (for increasing your call circle to those who dont (yet) have skype) and new Skype Voicemail (in case you cant answer your SkypeIn calls).

Can you escape?

There are less than 4000 people in the world who can escape this house. So have a try.

http://flash.qbol.net/pl;p/youxi/images/04042203.swf

There are 13 items hidden in this room in order to let you get out of thisroom.If you found:0-6 items, your IQ is very low, total idoit6-8 items, Low IQ, u r an idoit9-10 items, u r normal11-12 items, your IQ is high, above the average.13 items found and get out of the room, there are less than 4000 people in the that world can do it.

Orange MVNO deal with Tele2

Link

Googlezon

A vision of the media industry in 2014...

democratising innovation by using "lead-users"

...in The Feature

Patent for real-life Matrix

here

Mobile radio content feeds

I know that a number of Nokias (and others) have a built in FM transmitter, but there are many popular handsets that dont. Radio is a ubiquitous music experience that is understood and appreciated by the masses. MSpots approach to wrapping this in to the device mediaplayer for a monthly subscription is smooth. What excites me are the future possibilities of this; podcasts, video streams, purchased music, audio books, live user-generated radio broadcast feeds etc...

Phling!

Phling! is a new service for mobile phones that acts as the glue between your phone, your PC, and your IM contact list to enable sending multimedia between the three. It’s not an MMS protocol, so it avoids leaving you with any per-message charges, instead using peer-to-peer technology via the internet connection on your phone to relay the data. You can send pictures, voice and text messages to IM contacts, to your home PC, or to your mobile blog via your phone, all for free — at least, while the phling! service is still in beta. What’s the catch? For now, it only works on three phones, all Nokia: the 6600, the 6620, and the 7610, and you have to have one of the listed data plans from AT&T, Cingular, or T-Mobile

Rabble

the Rabble team can clearly see a shift in traditional mobile content creation and distribution models . They appear to be developing some form of platform to allow end users to connect to each other and share, manage, subscribe and download media produced by other users.
Intercasting Corp are running a Rabble beta. Unfortunately I dont live in the US so I cant register and see what theyre up to. Definitely one to watch....

Gadget overload

i looked at my desk today and counted the following:

 

1 Apple iPod

1 SE V800

2 Nokia 6600

1 Blackberry 7100v

1 compaq iPaq

1 Dell Laptop

1 Motorola E1000

1 Pentax Optio DigiCam

1 Bosch Fixed-phone

 

I realy cant wait any longer for some device consolidation...

Back to the future

How cool is this - I want one...

P Diddys Speech at CTIA

http://www.contentnext.com/pdiddy.mp3

OpenWaspa

Ajit Jaokar and Tony Fish at OpenGardens have created OpenWaspa - a fully fledged 'showcase' for innovation in the mobile data industry. It should officialy launch next month.

JamPod

I want one of these

EasyMobile and why MVNO's prosper

MVNO's are refreshing. Comviq in Sweden, EasyMobile and Virgin in the UK, Boost in the US to name but a few. They are not lumbered with baggage. They have the freedom to create clear and compelling propositions that take advantage of many of the mistakes that old-school operators have made. They are not trying to be all things to all people. They know their market, and they tailor their offerings so that it does what their customers need it to do. They are the new market entrants who arrive with a message of disruption, anarchy and championing the customer (Orange did this way back in 1994, and they built a network!).
Easymobile launched this week in the UK with a very simple voice and text proposition, based on a SIM-only offer (no high SAC's), Internet billing, and a single pricing plan which excludes any monthly contract. For a large portion of the mobile population, this encapsulates exactly what they need from a mobile; good network coverage, value for money, and a simple pricing structure. It is easy to understand and leverages the brand values that Easy Group has established in the UK (and Europe) with services such as EasyJet (low-cost, no frills air travel) and Easy4men (low-cost, no fuss male grooming products).
Boost Mobile has been extremely successful in the US and is a testament to the team at Nextel who had the foresight and courage to experiment with customer segment specific brands. The Boost Mobile example is an interesting one because it is owned and operated by Nextel. Its an example of an operator launching its own MVNO to compete with its own existing and established customer base. Other operators have toyed with MVNO's but only from a network re-sell perspective, and that was partly enforced by the regulators. I think many of the old-school operators see MVNO's as meaning margin erosion and brand dilution, but they are missing the point. Surely it is better to lose customers to yourself (albeit under a different brand), than to someone else? And the fear of margin erosion is false. Comviq has consistently reported margin percentages in the 50's and 60's!
The MVNO landscape is going to hot up - EasyMobile has plans to launch in another 11 European countries and the founders of Boost are launching a new MVNO called Amp'd in the US. Surely this calls for a re-evaluation of the old-school operators MVNO strategies?

TheWebLogProject

The first open source, FREE, grassroots movie to support and promote the blogosphere where featured stars, producers, fundraisers and actors are the bloggers themselves

SociaLight

Here is another example of a Mobile Social Interaction platform

Screencasting

This is an interesting method of delivering a tutorial/lesson/explanation/help/ direction etc, although the subject matter doesnt justify 8 and a half minutes. The experience is a bit like listening to a the directors cut on a DVD.

W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951

'But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money--booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'

Mobile Adult Content Revenue to Total $1 Billion in ‘05

Blood hell!

Interestingly Juniper isnt predicting massive growth in the US - land of liberties and freedom?

Cool handset design prototypes from KDDI AU

here