The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Archive for August, 2007
Visitors warned of bar scams by text
Aug 31st
Link: BBC NEWS | England | London | Text messages warn of clip joints
Text messages warning of the dangers of London’s “clip joints” will be sent to visitors as they approach the venues.
Westminster City Council hopes the messages will stop tourists being exploited in Soho, central London.
mBlox help eBay expand sMS aUctions
Aug 31st
Link: eBay Auctions by SMS Expands to 3 More Countries
SMS aggregator mBlox has said it’s working with application service provider Dynetic to offer a new SMS re-bidding service to eBay customers in the UK, France and Belgium.
The service, which launched in Spain back in September last year, enables eBay users to receive alerts when they’ve been outbid on an auction – and if they want enter a new higher bid.
The UK service costs 12p per message, and uses mBlox’s inbound and outbound premium SMS platform.
According to Ian Jordan, Head of Product Development, Operations and Innovation at eBay UK, “Traditionally web auctions are a desk-based activity and many auction biddings end prematurely because people leave their PCs. The possibility to participate beyond the PC from a mobile phone will have massive implications for the dynamics and value of the auction process.”
New research claims mobiles fry your cells
Aug 31st
Link: Cells ‘react’ to GSM signals claims research | The Register
New research claims that cells can react to a GSM-like signal in as little as ten minutes – though if whether this could causes cancer remains open to interpretation.
Those who believe that mobile phones do cause cancer, and/or a wide variety of other ailments, suffer from two problems: the fact that long-term studies have shown no causal link, and the fact that there is no known mechanism for phones to affect cells. This study would seem to address the latter issue.
Swedish Beers returns to the Nordic Bar
Aug 31st
Link: Swedish Beers: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking, Weds 12 Sept 07
Uber-cool (and slightly Baltic-themed) mobile networking event Swedish Beers is back from its summer break – and heading to London on Wednesday 12th September.
Run by a highly talented team of individuals – including recent Flower Fairy recipient Helen Keegan, the event is being held in the back bar at the Nordic Bar in Newman Street from 6pm. It’ll feature the usual chat, mingling and talk of mobiles, marketing, media and life in general. And if the last few events are anything to go by, it’ll probably overtake the whole bar pretty quickly. You’ll find the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Circus.
Unfortunately, the bad news is the event sponsor has had to postpone their sponsorship of Swedish Beers as they’re not quite ready to shout out about the wonderful things they’re up to. So it would be *really* marvellous if another generous sponsor could help with the bar tab. Otherwise, it’s buy your own drinks night. And as Helen puts it, “if it’s the latter, it will be your challenge to find someone who has a works expense account to buy drinks for you all evening 
”
If you’re interested in sponsoring the bar, meeting loads of mobile folks and gaining some real good karma for buying people beer, give Helen a call on 44 794 053 8802.
Text reminders help cut missed GP appointments in Lewisham
Aug 30th
Link: SMS Alerts Reduce Missed Doctors Appointments by 27%
Healthcare messaging company iPLATO have helped reduce missed appointments across the borough of Lewisham, in South London, thanks to the power of SMS.
The deployment of the companies Patient Care Messaging to GP surgeries across the Lewisham Primary Care Trust area cut missed appointments down by 27% over the last year. Once registered on the system, patients receive reminders about appointments and other health-related messages via SMS straight to their mobile handset.
Honor Oak Practice Manager Marie Searle commented: “We have an ethnically and socially very diverse population in Lewisham. A vast majority of patients already use their mobile phone to run their daily lives and our experience of using this system from both the staff and patients” perspective has been very positive.”
Telcogames Acquires Multiplayer Company
Aug 30th
Telcogames, a global publisher, developer and distributor of mobile games has acquired Viva La Mobile a leader in
real-time multiplayer games for mobile devices. Viva La Mobile has been live with their proprietary Redstar multiplayer platform for the past three years with great success. So far 3 Australia; 3 Austria; 3 Hong Kong; Smartone Vodafone Hong Kong; PCCW Sunday Hong Kong and Telstra are all live carriers cumulatively generating over 1.4 million paid for
multiplayer game sessions.
In addition to real-time multiplayer, the Viva La Mobile Redstar platform allows payment flexibility with pay per play billing, free play and subscription models. It also offers chat, high scores, international leader-boards and tournaments under its mobile games championship(MGC) brand with carrier grade servers hosted in several locations worldwide
reducing the integration required for carriers and eliminating any cost on behalf of carriers.
Orange Israel will be Telcogames’ first customer to launch Viva’s multiplayer games in September. Launch titles will be Super Puzzle Bobble multiplayer from Taito and Viva’s own critically acclaimed Badlands multiplayer game. Other single and multiplayer titles Viva has created include Rubiks Cubed, Aqua Dig and Fire Frenzy amongst others.
Jamie Conyngham, CEO Telcogames said “The Viva acquisition allows us to continue offering our clients the latest advances in mobile games. Gamers in many European countries have yet to see branded real-time multi-player games such as Taito’s Super Puzzle Bobble and we intend to change to make this part of our offering to our global distribution base”.
David Kainer, MD Viva La Mobile stated “Telcogames global distribution will allow us to get people playing our games around the world and to enjoy the great experiences we have built into our games. We will also be able to take our technology to the next stage with the full backing of Telcogames, a global player”.
Nokia launch N-Gage mobile gaming service
Aug 30th
Remember the Nokia N-Gage? This rather ill-fated attempt by the handset giant to get into the portable games console market sort of fell flat on it’s face. But never to fear - the N-Gage brand has been wheeled out again, this time as a games platform for existing Nokia N-series handsets.
The service, due for full global roll-out in November 2007, brings multiplayer gaming to to the N73, N81, N93, and N95. It’ll allow you to try all N-Gage games for free, and participate in the online “N-Gage Arena”.
“As we expand our focus from a dedicated game phone to a gaming service, we are making getting and playing games even easier,” said Jaakko Kaidesoja, head of the games business at Nokia. “The N-Gage service combined with powerful devices, world class titles and brands, and interactive social networking features, takes the mobile gaming experience beyond traditional boundaries.”
There’s also been a few titles announced for the N-Gage platform, including EA Sports FIFA 08, The Sims, 2 Pets, Tetris, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. If you’re a fan of the classic Nokia Snake game, watch out for Snakes Subsonic too. Nokia have also announced that they’ve got game publishers Capcom and Vivendi on board, as well as the rather popular Crash Bandicoot game.
Early indications put the cost of each game at 6-10 euros (about £4-£8), and will be available to purchase via operator billing (where supported) and credit card billing. There’s also apparently daily and weekly game licenses available – useful if you get bored of your games quickly.
Caribbean island bans mobiles
Aug 30th
Link: Caribbean Resort Bans Mobile Phones from Beaches
Fancy a holiday to St Vincent & The Grenadines, but find the thought of parting with your mobile worse than having all your limbs removed? Then you may wish to strike off Palm Island from your list.
Elite Island Resorts – who own the luxury Caribbean resort – have banned guests from using mobiles, laptops or PDAs within half a mile of Casarina beach. Chief Executive Rob Barrett has said: “There is nothing worse than lying back in your double hammock, sipping on your strawberry daiquiri and hearing the Motorola jingle in the background.
“We would love to encourage guests to adopt Caribbean time during their stay with us, switch off their mobiles and enjoy the sound of the lapping waves.”
What, no Nokia ringtone? “HELLO? YES I’M ON THE BEACH. THE BEACH!!” (in true Trigger Happy TV style)
Vodafone confirms London 3G speed increase
Aug 29th
Link: Vodafone cranks up 3G data rates for autumn | The Register
First reported by us here about a month ago, Vodafone have now confirmed they’ll be rolling out HSDPA and HSUPA speed increases on their 3G network this autumn.
Vodafone will be pushing its HSDPA network to a possible 7.2Mb/sec download speed and introducing HSUPA to increase uploading to a possible 1.44Mb/sec, during the autumn as it tries to boost corporate data usage.
Vodafone defines central London as being E1, E1W, E14, EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, NW1, SW1, W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W14, WC1, WC2: so everyone else isn’t central.
As well as Vodafone’s definition of central London, service should be enhanced at most UK airports. Which is nice.
Update on Monstermob rumours
Aug 29th
Since my article last week with rumours that Monstermob had gone bust, I’ve had quite a few emails from interested parties asking if I know anything else. As it’s been a long holiday weekend in the UK, I haven’t had a chance to do any further research – however it appears I won’t be needing to. Here’s a statement I’ve got from Miguel Lopez-Quesada, General Manager, Corporate Communications at LaNetro Zed – owner of Monstermob:
“As disclosed in a letter to all shareholders from the Chairman, dated August 16th and published on the Monstermob Group plc website (www.monstermobgrouplc.co.uk), as part of the ongoing process of corporate rationalisation and reorganisation within the Monstermob Group the Board has decided to begin an administration process for three UK subsidiaries, these being Monstermob Ltd and two other companies with limited activity (Phunky Ltd. and Mobiprom Ltd.). This decision has been taken to preserve the rights of the creditors of these subsidiaries. The financial and patrimonial strength of Monstermob Group PLC will not be affected in any material way by these measures.
Monstermob Group plc remains as headquarter of the group, based in Lancaster and operating in absolute normality. The administration process is a normal business practice and is being conducted according to the law and with all the guarantees to the parties”.
(Thanks to Marc at Mantra PR for the information)
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