An ‘army of fanatics’ yes Real Madrid has that and uses mobile to monetize January 31, 2010
During the FIFA 2010 conference that was held in London last week apparently there were very impressive presentations but one stood out about mobile and sports fans. Real Madrid the winningest major league football/soccer team in the world. And they have loyal, fanatical fans. So of course, as Spain is one of Europe’s leading mobile markets, there is a Real Madrid fanclub on mobile. It offers all the usual suspects from fan newsletters to game scores and stats to player profiles, fan chat and commentary, sales of team jerseys etc. And the monthly subscription fee - 12 Euros. How many …
Email This PostAllergy text service goes live January 29, 2010
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has set up an email and SMS text service which will directly inform food allergy sufferers of the presence of allergens in inappropriately labelled foods.
People with allergies or parents of children with allergies can subscribe to receive these alerts via the authority’s website www.fsai.ie.
Food allergen alerts will be issued by the authority upon receipt of information that a food product poses a risk to certain consumers’ health, due to missing or incorrect allergen labelling. Food allergen alerts will also be issued to enforcement officers and food businesses. This service went live earlier today.
The Food …
Email This PostAn SMS to remind you of the importance of birth registration January 26, 2010
What can be a better way to remind people of the importance of birth registration than sending a text message and also asking the recipient to spread the message. Delhi-based NGO Churches Auxilary for Social Action (CASA) and UP-based NGO Vatsalya have together launched an SMS campaign to spread awareness on birth registration across the state. The SMS campaign, which is a part of the “Promote Birth Registration” campaign, will conclude in March and will see a series of three text messages to create awareness about the need of birth registration. The recipients will be selected from the database prepared …
Email This PostTexts, Tweets Saving Haitians From the Rubble January 24, 2010
Relief workers in Haiti received an emergency text message Tuesday about a collapsed school, with children still alive in the rubble. A search-and-rescue team on the scene, however, couldn’t find the right location.
Children who text are best spellers January 20, 2010
Traditionalists may not like it, but it appears that children who text regularly may be better spellers and readers.A study, published today by the British Academy, says teachers and parents should embrace texting as a means of improving their children’s phonological awareness.For instance, a child who texts gr8 to a friend often actually knows how to spell the longer form of the word. Researchers also noted an increasing awareness among texters of which words rhymed with each other.The research, carried out among a sample group of eight to 12-year-olds, found that those who were the most regular texters were unlikely …
Email This PostStudy Suggests There’s a “Texting While Walking” Epidemic Too January 18, 2010
Forget the grisly effects of texting while driving for a moment, if you can. Instead, focus on a new epidemic, one that’s admittedly much sillier than the driving one, but no less dangerous. Ladies and gents, meet texting while walking:Slightly more than 1,000 pedestrians visited emergency rooms in 2008 because they got distracted and tripped, fell or ran into something while using a cellphone to talk or text. That was twice the number from 2007, which had nearly doubled from 2006, according to a study conducted by Ohio State University, which says it is the first to estimate such …
Email This PostHaiti Donations Through SMS Surpass $10 Million January 17, 2010
We have reported about a couple of big companies who have donated money and their services toward the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts. Just like big companies, individuals across the United States have been helping out the cause by donating money through text messages [SMS]. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced today that the donations to Haiti have surpassed $10 million, and still counting.Unfortunately, it was being reported yesterday that the money donated through SMS wouldn’t be available until after 90 days due to standard practices in the mobile industry. Luckily and thankfully, many companies have pledged to give the …
Email This PostRed Cross Raises $5,000,000+ for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign January 15, 2010
The new total is now $5 million, as confirmed by the Red Cross at 5:30 p.m. EST on Thursday.The Red Cross’s involvement in the relief effort is to be commended. Not only did it immediately set up the simplest donation method possible, but its social media presence and outreach, when combined with the State Department’s involvement, has turned this into a viral funding initiative, topping Twitter trends and inspiring action. The Red Cross is also contributing an initial $1 million from the International Response …
Email This PostHaiti Earthquake Info Tells Story of SMS That Saved a Woman January 14, 2010
A Canadian woman trapped under rubble after the recent earthquake in Haiti managed to send out a text message to the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, a place nearly 3,000 miles away. And it saved her life.Once received, the text message was “relayed to Canadian diplomats back in Haiti” who then provided aid in the search for the woman. There’s not much more information beyond that, but it’s simply good to hear even the tiniest bit of encouraging and happy news in regards to this devastating event—particularly when it shows …
Email This PostTXT.IO Takes Minimalist Microblogging to the Extreme January 11, 2010
Once upon a time, microblogging was all about simplicity. Today, even services like Posterous that started out as very simple and easy-to-use tools have begun to add more and more features. Microblogging, however, can’t get much simpler than TXT.io. The service offers nothing more than a simple text interface. No more, no less. You log in with a Google account, type your message and hit “post.”
For users who want to do a bit more with their text (link, underline, italicize, HTML headers, etc.), TXT.io offers support for the Textile markup language.
Features? What Features?Besides this, though, …
