The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Archive for October, 2007
Deaf Welsh loving Police SMS service
Oct 31st
Link: New police text scheme is a big hit – Blaenau Gwent – South Wales Valleys – News – icWales
DEAF and hard of hearing people have declared Gwent Police’s new text messaging service an outstanding success.
The initiative, enabling those who face difficulties in contacting police with a phone call to access help via a mobile phone text message, was launched in April this year. Since then approximately 100 residents have signed up to the service.
OK so 100 people isn’t exactly a massive success, but it’s a start – especially for an area of low population density.
More dotMobi domains up for grabs
Oct 30th
Following the success of their first auction in September 2007, mobile domain name registrar dotMobi are having another auction, kicking off tomorrow (31st October 2007).
Amongst the 100 “premium names” in the auction are such gems as car.mobi, gps.mobi, gay.mobi, kiss.mobi, love.mobi and map.mobi. If the first auction is anything to go by, the stakes will be high – back in September hosting.mobi sold for $101,000 plus bank.mobi and download.mobi both sold for more than $50,000 apiece.
“The success of our first online auction generated more than $850,000, proving that the market is seeing a strong demand for mobile content. Already, more than 7.5 million pages of .mobi content have been created, many of them using tools that dotMobi makes available for free like http://ready.mobi/ and http://site.mobi/,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “The auction proceeds allow dotMobi to make tools like these available to encourage the growth of the mobile web.”
Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo, said, “dotMobi’s premium names are specifically designed for brands wanting to reach a mobile audience The success of dotMobi’s first auction showed that there is a strong market demand for the mobile web in general and for .mobi names specifically. Additionally, the auction approach of making these premium .mobi domains available for ownership gives countless people and brands an equal opportunity to secure these most desirable domains.”
The auction – handled by domain specialists Sedo – is open to any company or individual, subject to Sedo’s standard auction terms and conditions with additional dotMobi requirements for buyers. Full information, including the list of auction names, is located on the dotMobi web site at http://premiumauction.mobi/.
ROK launch mobile TV in India
Oct 30th
ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based specialist mobile applications developer, has launched its first streamed mobile TV deployment in India through local operator BSNL.
Offering an initial portfolio of 6 channels to include English Music Channel (EMN), Hindi music channel (Geet), an entertainment channel (Bindaas), a Bollywood channel (Zoom), a live Hindi news channel plus a Regional Offering for each Zone from ETV networks for a monthly fee of INR 150 (approximately £1.90), the BSNL Mobile TV service is called “Tiny TV”.
“We’re delighted to be working with BSNL on the delivery of mass-market mobile TV in India” said Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK “as we all recognise India to be such a dynamic and fast-growing mobile market.”
ROK TV technologies allow video to stream to mobiles at up to 14 frames per second over 2.5G via GPRS and up to 24 frames per second over 3G and Wi-Fi.
“BSNL, with more than 28 million subscribers in India, represents another major step forward in our global deployment of streamed mobile TV ” added Alexander.
ROK is in the midst of deploying 30 white-label versions of its streamed mobile TV service worldwide and, in May this year, agreed to be acquired by US publicly-listed company CyberFund (OTC: CYFD) in a Share Exchange Agreement.
Cops use Bluetooth to appeal for witnesses
Oct 29th
Link: BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Mobile appeal for Rhys witnesses
Police investigating the killing of 11-year-old Rhys Jones are sending issuing appeals directly to mobile phones in a bid for more information.
Detectives are using a device that can send messages to Bluetooth enabled phones in Croxteth within a 100m radius of the transmitter.
ROK launch rival to Texperts and AQA
Oct 29th
Mobile technology and entertainment company ROK have just announced they’re behind the ‘Ask Terry’ Q&A text service service launched today on UK sports radio station TalkSPORT.
Commenting on the initiative, Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK said “TalkSPORT is the perfect medium for reaching keen sports fans who find themselves with a burning question that needs answering.
“Our answers to questions asked have a real, live, human interface – most often with a lot of humour involved – and in most cases we are able to reply within 10 minutes”.
Listeners are invited to text ‘Terry’ to 81089 with any question they need answering and they will receive a personalised ‘human’ answer from ROK’s panel of experts via SMS. Questions cost £1.00 each.
“We think our audience will love the talkSPORT Ask Terry service” said Kevin Bird Commercial Director of talkSPORT Radio “and will help put an end to those arguments sports fans have, for example, over who scored the winner in the 1972 Cup Final.”
According to ROK, Terry is a ‘bloke in a dressing gown in the attic with a load of encyclopedias’. The company claims the UK SMS Q&A market is growing rapidly – with an estimated 1-2 million questions being asked every month. It’s a sector already served well by companies such as Texperts (formerly 82ASK) and AQA – and although this latest venture is aimed at sports fans, ROK say they’ll answer any question on any subject.
Incidently, Allan Clarke of Leeds scored the only goal in the 1972 Cup Final, against Arsenal, with a powerful header from 15 yards out in the 53rd minute.
Another survey says no to phones on planes
Oct 29th
Link: Majority Do Not Want Mobile Phones on Planes – Survey
Following on from news that the Telegraph’s campaign to ban mobiles on flights has reached 4,000 signatories, travel website TripAdvisor has carried out a worldwide survey and come to a very similar conclusion – phones on planes are bad bad bad..
According to a survey of travel trends by the website, TripAdvisor – some 78 percent of travelers believe that mobile phones should not be allowed on flights. TripAdvisor said that it surveyed more than 2,500 travelers from around the world for its annual trends report.
“The major trends we’re observing are that travelers value cleanliness above all else and are becoming more environmentally conscious,” said Michele Perry, director of communications for TripAdvisor. “Based on TripAdvisor’s TravelCast, the top emerging world destination is Jerba, Tunisia, and Thailand is the hottest country, featuring two destinations in the world’s top ten.”
Misread text causes mass police response
Oct 29th
Link: SMS confusion leads to hold-up false alarm | Herald Sun
A WOMAN sparked a frantic police response in central Brisbane today after misreading a text message from her boyfriend about a possible armed hold-up. However, a police spokeswoman said the incident was a false alarm and the result of a “miscommunication”.
She said a man had made verbal threats over the phone to the company, and one of its employees sent a text message about the incident to his girlfriend. However, the girlfriend “read it the wrong way” and told police there was an armed hold-up at the business.
Skype launch mobile with 3
Oct 29th
Although not officially unveiled until later today, we’ve got all the details of the new Skype mobile – launched in conjunction with mobile operator 3. Ewan will be at the press launch later, so expect pictures soon!
The 3 Skypephone is a fully-featured 3G Internet phone with Skype built-in. In addition to Skype calls the phone makes conventional calls and can be used to access 3′s broad range of other internet services.
The handset was developed by Skype and 3 in partnership with Qualcomm, using Qualcomm’s BREW platform to enable Skype to work with core handset features such as address book and messaging. It’s got 3G, a 2-megapixel camera, mp3 player, mobile TV and internet access.
According to the information available, it’s a “small and shiny” handset, weighing in at a tiny 86 grams, and comes in black or white, with a blue or pink trim. Standby time is 320 hours, with a talk time of 270 minutes or 170 minutes of video calling. The screen is a 176 x 220 2.0″ QCIF 262K colour display, and the handset itself has 16MB of external memory plus room for up to 1GB of microSD memory card (it comes with a 256M card as standard).
Price-wise, the 3 Skypephone will be available from 3Stores or on the web from 2nd November, at £49.99 on pay-as-you-go or free with a contract. You get free Skype to Skype calls included (as expected) as long as you’re on a contract or you top up your credit monthly.
More news as it comes in..
Facebook in hot water for ‘dirty texts’
Oct 29th
Link: Facebook sued for mis-sending dirty texts | The Register
News in from the legal trigger-happy land of the free (via The Register) – Facebook is being sued by an Indiana woman for sending ‘adult content’ via text.
Earlier this week, an Indiana mommy named Lindsey Abrams filed a federal class action suit against the Microsoft-propped social networking site. She’s claiming that it sends thousands of unauthorized text messages to innocent bystanders across the country – and that many of these messages contain “adult content”.
The whole thing seems to come down to a single problem: number recycling. Facebook allows you to sign up with your mobile to receive text alerts when people send you messages, and charges you for each message received. So far, so good. The problem is that they have no idea if you’re still using that number – so it’s possible that, due to the mobile operators number recycling policy, you can end up with the number of someone already registered on Facebook when you take out a new contract.
El Reg cites Santa Clara University law professor and tech law blogger Eric Goldman, who reckons the action will be dismissed under the US Communications Decency Act.
“[The act] states that websites are not liable for what their users say or do,” he told the The Reg. “User provide the telephone numbers. Users provide the messages being sent. And Facebook just forwards them. It may be annoying to get a message that isn’t directed to you, but Facebook isn’t to blame – just you can’t blame the telephone company when someone makes a crank call.”
Rogers ups the speed stakes
Oct 29th
Canadian mobile operator Rogers is uping the stakes with mobile data speeds in North America, unveiling what it calls the fastest download speeds in the country.
Following the expansion of it’s HSPA service to 25 Canadian markets earlier this month, Rogers – which offers service in the country under the Rogers and Fido brands – has today announced it’s begun field trials of its 3.5G 7.2Mbit/s service in Brampton and Montreal.
“The consumer appetite for mobile applications is undeniable in Canada and around the world,” said Rob Bruce, President, Rogers Wireless.” The data speeds achieved in this trial will enable Rogers to meet our customers’ needs with the most advanced, innovative services today and in the future.”
Rogers is the first wireless provider in North America to trial peak speeds of 7.2 Mbps and is among the top one percent of GSM carriers worldwide supporting 7.2. This trial launches the next evolution of Rogers GSM network, and represents a significant investment in leading-edge technologies. Rogers will have spent approximately $500 million over the past two years upgrading its network towards providing Canadians with the fastest and most reliable wireless network.
“Rogers is continuing to trial, launch and deliver innovative and reliable next generation wireless telecommunications services to Canadians,” says industry analyst, Mark Goldberg, of Mark H. Goldberg and Associates Inc. “The availability of 3.5G mobile services in our own backyard keeps Canada at the front of the world stage with respect to telecommunications services and applications.”
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