Mobile Ads Getting High Response Rates: Report March 31, 2008
With so much confusion about how much the mobile advertising market is worth and how fast it will develop (See post from Sunday), I wanted to ignore the latest report, but won’t since it has some merit—it says that more U.S. mobile users are seeing ads and responding to them on their phones.
The Nielsen report said 23 percent of U.S. subscribers, or 58 million people were exposed to mobile advertising on their phones in the past 30 days, and that half, or about 28 million of all data users who recall seeing mobile advertising in …
Email This PostArtificial Muscle Heals Itself, Charges IPod March 27, 2008
Researchers in California have created an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity.The research, parts of which are already being used in Japan to generate electricity from ocean waves, could be used to make walking robots, develop better prosthetics, or even charge your iPod.
“We’ve made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands” more than 200 percent, said Qibing Pei, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and study author. “The motion and energy is a lot like human muscles.”
Artificial muscles have been around for years but have essentially hamstrung themselves. …
Email This PostPadded lampost to protect texters was PR stunt March 25, 2008
A story claiming that lampposts in an East London street had been fitted with pads to protect text-messaging pedestrians – covered across UK , foreign media and blogs (including this one) – led journalists to “suspend their disbelief”, it was claimed this week. The Press Gazette reports.”Locals in Tower Hamlets have said that the padding – put in place by a PR firm working for phone directory company 118188 – were only on a few lampposts and only there for a day and a half.
The phone directory company said in a press release, written by PR firm Resonate, that …
Email This PostMySpace Mobile launches on Sprint March 24, 2008
Sprint announced the launch of MySpace Mobile across all of its web-enabled handsets, becoming the first U.S. operator to offer subscribers free direct access to the new social networking site, which makes its formal debut after roughly six months in beta. Sprint and MySpace promise subscribers the tools to edit their MySpace profiles, view and add friends, browse photo albums, post blogs and bulletins, and send and receive messages via mobile device. According to MySpace, the mobile service generated more than a million unique users during beta trials. “Mobile is the next generation of social networking,” said MySpace senior director …
Email This PostWireless Spectrum Auction Raises $19 Billion March 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — The government announced on Tuesday that it had closed the most lucrative government auction in history as wireless companies bid more than $19 billion for the rights to radio spectrum licenses.
In the coming days, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to publish a list of the winning companies. The major participants included AT&T, Verizon and Google, although many experts said they did not expect Google would bid much more than the minimum …
Email This PostTexts expose yet another politician’s indiscretions March 18, 2008
Everyone’s buzzing today about Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York suspected of ties to a prostitution ring who hase been tripped up by text messages. The Detroit Free Press reports.And once again, the issue has everyone wondering: Just how do authorities get text messages?
In the case of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who allegedly sent sexually explicit text messages to a top aide, records were archived by a private company that he, as mayor, authorized to handle the city’s messaging system. It became part of the subpoena process of a lawsuit.
Spitzer’s mobile phone number, personal calls and …
Email This PostSMS language sparks off unusually spelt baby names trend! March 17, 2008
The popular SMS and email phonetic spellings have not only corrupted the English language, but have also sparked a trend of unusually spelt baby names, according to Thaindian News.”Most parents these days are drawing on the cool SMS and email spellings, by eschewing traditional spellings for versions such as Alex-Zander, Cam’ron, Emma-Lee, Ozkah, Thaillah and Ameleiyah.
Social analyst Mark McCrindle looked at Australian births in 2007 and discovered that the name Jayden was registered spelt in 12 ways, Aidan in nine ways, and Amelia and Tahlia in eight ways.
The name Lachlan had five other versions - Lochlyn, Lochlin, Lochlen, Lochlain …
Email This PostWatch out! Thai exam cheat triggers phone-watch ban March 15, 2008
Thai students will be barred from wearing watches in national university entrance exams this weekend after a student was caught cheating using a mobile phone wrist watch, Education Ministry officials said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.”Photographs of the phone watch would be sent to exam centers around the country and students would have to rely on wall clocks, they said.
The ban followed invigilators catching a student receiving text messages on his phone watch during a national exam in Bangkok last weekend.
The novel method of cheating was a reflection of the difficulty of earning a university place in a country where …
Email This PostLoans by text message send young Swedes spiralling into debt
According to the AFP, the simplicity of obtaining SMS loans in Sweden is increasingly luring youths into debt.
“The first (SMS) loan was given in the middle of March 2006,” said Janne Aakerlund, a spokesman for Sweden’s debt recovery agency Kronofogden, adding that the first bill collectors were sent out just three months later.
Since then, the number of un-repaid text message loans has soared: in 2007, Kronofogden was tasked with collecting debts from 20,000 such loans, 35.9 percent of which were granted to people aged 18 to 25.
“There is reason to be seriously concerned about this development,” head of the Swedish …
Email This PostRITRACKER.COM - Text Messaging For Realtors March 10, 2008
Dallas, TX March 7, 2008 — GOMOTEXT a leading provider of mobile messaging and marketing solutions, today announced the launch of RITRACKER.COM, a text messaging service that provides buyers with information and photos sent directly to their mobile phone.
With the RI Tracker Text Messaging service, realtor’s can now track and interact with the buyers by offering them INSTANT on the spot details and photos of the property. RI Tracker allows realtors to have the buyers initiate the contact in a non intrusive way. The home buyer sends in a simple text message, and the RI Tracker responds with PHOTOS, …
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