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