Tuesday, May 31, 2005

SMS Fuels Messaging Market

[Via WirelessWeek]
We all know the SMS rocks the wireless messaging world, but wireless instant messaging is expected to change all that. Apparently, the instant messaging explode between 2007 and 2009. Let’s all hope for a small Big bang then. Anyway, the SMS expansion doesn't seem to be affected by this phenomenon. The SMS still has an inherent profitability, although revenue from SMS is expected to level off and decline in the future, according to David Chamberlain, an analyst for In-Stat.

SMS margins are expected to remain good for most carriers
, he says.
Growth in the wireless instant messaging arena will come from the corporate sector because widespread consumer adoption likely will be hindered by the lack of industry standards
, In-Stat predicts. It is expected that MMS bizz will post nearly a 50-percent compound annual growth rate through 2009. Not to forget that last week, Cingular Wireless announced record-setting results for its 'American Idol' text-messaging campaign. Cingular reported more than 41.5 million text messages were sent by its customers during the most current 2005 season of 'American Idol'. The 12-week campaign represents the largest volume of text messages sent during a single campaign in the United States. Uhh, ok. Congratts Cingular!???

Spain offers SMS heat wave alerts

[Via Yahoo News]

If you live in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia and you're afraid of the heat, then you shouldn't worry. Help is on the way: a sms service has been created just to announce subscribers about incoming hell temperatures. In the southern city of Cordoba, for example, residents would be sent a text warning as soon as temperatures hit 41 Celsius (105.9 Fahrenheit). Madrid also planed a three-month campaign to begin on Wednesday. It's aimed at preventing heat-related ailments, including a Red Cross telephone hotline. The Spanish government foresees a slightly hotter summer than last year, when the health ministry logged 39 heat-related deaths.
This sms service will hopefully help prevent the extreme heat death causing episodes. In 2003, a brutally hot European summer which left thousands dead in neighboring France. There were also 141 extreme related deaths in Spain.
P.s. Let’s all pray for some cool trips to the grocery stores and also for some easy physical challenges in our daily activities.

Sms Campaign for Human Rights

[Via NewTactics.org]

Amnesty International-Netherlands discovered the power of text-messaging technology to attract new members. They build awareness of the campaign against torture and attracted new people in quickly responding to cases of torture through Urgent Action appeals. The initial result : 520 new members gained directly from SMS participation with over 5,000 additional people becoming active in the SMS urgent action campaign. Amnesty International took advantage of SMS technology to build a new constituency among young people. Here’s an example: the Dutch section, sent out a text message to 8,000 cell-phone users in the Netherlands who participate in a special new text-message alert network. Within 48 hours they sent a protest fax with thousands of signatures to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, putting pressure on the D.R.C. authorities to release a journalist called Golden Misabiko. He was arrested and imprisoned without any charge in January 2001. It was feared he would be tortured. Amnesty International sent out an Urgent Action to members all over the world. The result: Golden was released in May 2001. He escaped without being tortured due to Amnesty’s campaign. He then wrote to Amnesty,

When I heard in prison that Amnesty campaigned for my release I knew: Je vais sortir (I will be released).
About 39 percent of the campaigns conducted by Amnesty in 2002 were successful. Prisoners of conscience were released, people who had “disappeared” were found and death sentences were not carried out. Find out more about the Amnesty International campaigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
P.s. Burke’s Triumph of Evil quote :"All it takes for evil to spread, is for good people to do nothing." I saw this quote and thought how appropriate it is right now.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Mobile coaching for the Baccalauréat

[Via L'atelier ]

French Wireless operator Orange has just launched an "SMS mobile coaching service" to help students study for ‘Le Baccalauréat’ exam. Dieu, Oh mon Dieu !The coaching aims to motivate, inform and help the students to be better organized. Right…how motivating is that? Students need to sign up online and define his/her profile by answering several questions such as which Bac section they are in, and their priorities... as well as define the number of messages he/she would like to receive. I wonder if parents could subscribe instead of their children…Each m-coaching program is composed of 20 SMS; costs= 20 multiplied by 0,35 euro. The ‘thing’ can be closed just by sending this sms to the service: ‘Stoooop! Enough already…back to the Rolland Garos match!’.

SMSing around for a one-night stand

[Via Hindustan Tines]

Some describe mobile texting using this words: ‘urban depressive signals’. Apparently, there’s another description to the sms thing: SMS sex-clubbing is the latest urban social phenomenon...now playing out in Urban India. There are websites where you can become a member for a annual fee of as little as Rs 1,000 ($23) and get to access a database of cell numbers. After this, you can start fixing some blind dates…err, via mms hopefully. Asking for a picture seems a pretty smart step to take in that virtual vortex called e-communication. Vineet, a 30-year-old freelance advertising copywriter from Delhi, went for a blind date — in March this year — when a woman SMS-ed him thrice and said that she was interested in having a “literary” discussion. Literary discussion…Damn, I miss that! Another example: Shalini , a 27-year-old PR executive in Mumbai, carries two mobiles: one’s her regular business number; the other’s for pleasure. She calls herself a compulsive “SMS sex-clubber”.

Young professionals have no time to waste on romance,
says sexologist Dr Prakash Kothari.
It’s an age of instant gratification, and all they want is a one-night stand for quick release
P.s. Some say this can be dangerous: you don’t know anything about the person you’re going out with. Except, of course, the mobile number. Anyway, it’s good to always check for what lies underneath your 'chosen one'. And if you’ll find what you’ve been searching for…well, wrap it up and take it home. I mean the hole body...

Sunday, May 29, 2005

'Texting' your house what to do

[Via CNN]

Try to imagine this: telling your house what to do by text messaging…that’s a smart home concept developed by Eneo Labs. The system will turn on the lights and the heating or any appliance by text messaging. Sounds pretty incredible. For one family living just outside Barcelona, these are the capabilities their home already has, and the company that designed the house says many of us will be enjoying these features in as little as two years.
Somehow the house will learn from the user's daily routine. Basically, the brain is a computer that is in the wall of the home. It's listening and adapting to the routines we have, General manager Zamora said.
The anonymous family live in an Eneo Labs show home and they act as voluntary guinea pigs to try out the company's smart home concept. I wonder why they didn’t picked me…Damn. The General manager Javier Zamora of Eneo Labs told CNN that the company was constantly developing its smart home technology, which would become increasingly common in the future.

Somehow the house will learn from the user's daily routine. Basically, the brain is a computer that is in the wall of the home. It's listening and adapting to the routines we have,
Zamora said.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Morse coders Vs texters , episode I


The Jay Leno show recently pitted of texters against morse coders - and morse coders won!
93-year-old Gordon Hill operated his telegraph against 13-year-old texter Brittany Devlin. And he won. Was it practice? Maybe. But, even then, Brittany was using a lot of text slang so she could/should be quite fast. Apparently, our dear texter didn’t used ZYB’s Warp speed 9 Easy texting. So this is why he lost the game…
This was the message:

Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.

P.s. So, should I switch to morse code for messaging since it's faster? Thanks but no thanks. I haven't got enough RAM memory left in my brain to learn all that Morse code by heart…

Friday, May 27, 2005

SMS used for Matisse exhibition


Statens Museum for Kunst celebrates the centenary of the breakthrough of fauvism - and thus of Matisse - with a startling and challenging exhibition that provides contemporary audiences with new perspectives on the museum's Matisse masterpieces. For the first time ever Statens Museum for Kunst will use text messaging (SMS) as part of the communication activities, giving exhibition visitors access to information via their mobile phones. Matisse never saw that coming I guess. Anyway, this is not the first time I’ve heard of the sms-art combo. I wonder if we’ll have a sms art auction soon…

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Speed Typing Record Attempt


The search for Hawke's Bay 's fastest texter continues. Taradale High School student Lynda Coldicutt from New Zealand broke the one-minute barrier yesterday. In her latest attempt she took one minute and 15 seconds to type out the 160-character message. Lynda typed the 160- message that sets the standard for the Guinness Book of Records in 58 seconds but she is still 10 seconds slower than current world champion Craig Crosbie, 24, a Scottish factory worker, who typed the message in just 48 seconds, earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records. I guess she’ll keep practicing! Easy does it...Not to mention that,uhh, Lynda sent almost 4000 text messages last month. I think I’ll stick with my plan: a SMS a day…to keep the buzz away!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Texting with Bono


He’s a very appreciated music artist. He also had a sleepover at Bill Gates' place. Now U2 lead singer Bono is text messaging against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and helping Sun potentially dig up new business.
For about five minutes every show, Bono asks concertgoers to show support for certain causes by cell phone text messaging the word "unite" to a particular telephone number. Ten seconds later, their names appear on a giant screen behind the stage, and they get a "thank you" text message from Bono. Sun designed the system just for Bono, but now says a major U.S. company is interested in using the underlying technology. Go Bono go. Anyway, taking money from concertgoers is like bagging from baggers. Perhaps he could try persuading the politicians to come join his philanthropist show. The song remains the same…

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Sms service for dogs


SOUTH Koreans will start to communicate with dogs via sms…errr, that’s the weirdest story I’ve heard this week. KTF, a mobile phone operator, says it will be offering a service to let dog owners know if their pets are feeling happy or sad. Users must register their dog by connecting to the internet using their phone and provide information such as the dog's breed and age. Then users can record their dog's bark and receive a text message saying how their pet is feeling, such as: "I am happy" or "I am frustrated"...or , please let me add, “Man, I get horny chasing Pipi…I go for her, but then she starts running around the block. Damn!”. The service also translates basic messages into dog sounds.

P.s. I wonder if ZYB could give a hand when it comes to materializing this concept. Neee, they’re too serious to get into this. Easy texting is for humans only…and perhaps the big black eyed gray aliens from Zeta Reticuli! ZYB doesn’t have the intergalactic sms yet…but hey, the international sms service still works for us.

Display text messages at concerts


Imagine this. You’ll go to a concert and local-text everybody on a large screen...for all to see and wonder what the hack are you trying to say! Anyway, this will happen beginning with the summer Clay Aiken tour. Finally, you can do a lot more with your phone than just wave it or stick it. In fact, it’s still marketing. I only hope it's a small phenomenon. Follow me…

Large screens in each venue on the tour will offer audiences a way to display text messages for all to see. There will be also a call-in number for purchasing a variety of official merchandise.
So, the public will have their heads down the whole time, text messaging and buying stuff instead of enjoying the concert. I think Fred Durst will be very annoyed seeing people aren'y paying to much attention to his wanna be rock music.
You see something you like, and we deliver it to your home,
Boomerang Mobile Media founder and CEO Glenn Field said.
These are exclusive items purchased through the security of your phone, and the day it should have arrived you’ll get a follow-up phone call to confirm you received it.
Roger that. What’s next Glenn?

Monday, May 23, 2005

Dumped by sms

Bad news...you could soon become a victim of the 'unsocial' partner-dumping via the sms method. If a boy-girl combo could start in a chatroom, then this dumping by sms thing is no surprise I guess. A study at Institute of Technology Sligo has found WOMEN are more likely to dump their partner by text message than men …While most of the 60 students surveyed preferred the face-to-face approach, more than one-in-four women had delivered the bad news by text.
This compared to just 14% of men who admitted to texting their ‘Dear John’ message. The survey was carried out by overseas students on IT Sligo’s Bachelor of Business in International Marketing course among fellow students.

There was a strong reaction when we asked that question
, said survey team member Marina Bartolacci from Italy.
Some people were very definite, saying they would not do it. But some said ‘yes’ very easily.


P.s. There goes the tradition! No more "Dear John" letters...Anyway, according to my survey, virtual John will get another message:'I'm sooo sorry John. I was soooo wrong!' And a third one of course:" You arrogant, cretinous and incompetent ass! Who's that girl I've seen you with?'

Wear your sms on your sleeve


Someone send a message to God: Father of creation, give me inspiration! The answer appeared sooner then expected. Uhh, I’ve never imagined this concept could actually materialize: a mono-sleeve accessory that changes pattern (creating pleats on the fabric) when receiving SMS messages. It’s called A-Nerve (accessory nerve). The wearer recognizes the sender from the pattern and when flattens the pleats with a hand stroke sends back a message to the other person saying “i call you back”, but in a very subtle and intimate way. A-Nerve was designed by Cute circuit in collaboration with Interaction Designer Line Ulrika Christiansen. To bad it’s already summer…perhaps the sun glasses could have been more suitable to both the idea and the weather. Anyway, I’m not a specialist so I'm giving credit to the creator. And if you keep the ZYB sms up your sleeve, you'll eventually strike it rich.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

ZYB is no1 for easy texting in Google Search

We didn't start this blog for that, but to inform our users of SMS news around the world,since we do want to become the world's no 1 SMS resource. However, we're more than happy to found out that the ZYB blog is the no 1 result on Google for "easy texting".
This is SO cool.

The Grandma Phone

Has SMS-ing, or, even better, zybbing your grandma been a problem because of the complicated phone menus which kept her from reading and aswering your SMS?
Well, Vodaphone, one of the world's largest mobile operators, has just launched two back-to-basics mobile phones, which you can only use to talk and SMS.

Both phones have a large screen with legible text and symbols, and three dedicated buttons for direct access to the main screen, contacts and messages
, the BBC reports.
Yup, history has gone backwards, and the gramophone is back in fashion!:)

Friday, May 20, 2005

Chinese send 750 million SMS daily


Let me define a cool plot. ‘Capitalist’ mobile operators’ smses have spread through out the hole China. So, this sms thing my turn up into an efficient rumor machine after all…the result may soon be a democracy embryo!!! At least they have freedom of sms. I’m speechless! The story goes that the Short Messaging Service has increased in China by 39 per cent in the first quarter of the year to 67.21 billion messages. This is what the state media reported via The Hindustan Times. Chinese send 750 million SMS daily! Now, that's a start!

According to the Ministry of Information Industry, China's telephone subscriber base has touched 674 million, including 325 million fixed line phones and 349 million cellular phones, both occupying first place in the world, China News Service reported. In the first quarter, more than 30 new telecom services were introduced.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Cannes Black Market by SMS


The Cannes film festival is all about movie stars, late nights and early mornings, illicit cigarettes and too many drinks. Well, this year we have another strange thing going in this French location…As people wave signs in front of the Palais des Expositions in Cannes, looking for a ticket to a preview, looking for a bow tie, or someone offering their VIP pass to the highest bidder, others have improvised as black marketeers and are dispatching the different offers and requests by SMS.

Echange place Sin city contre carton pour la soiree…offre valable jusqu'à
…meaning
Will exchange tickets to Sin City for tickets to the party afterwards.
Hey, why wasn't I invited to that party? That party is to spicy for me anyway, so who cares…

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

SMS solution to credit card debt

[Via finextra]
According to a survey commissoned by Upaid, three quarters of UK adults believe the ability to authorise payments of credit card bills via text messaging would give them more control over their finances. Ashley Ward, CEO of Upaid, says:

Our survey shows that credit card users are aware that paying by the minimum amount can cause long term debt but they don't have a simple enough mechanism to adjust their payments each month.
UK government plans to introduce a consumer credit bill which would force credit card companies to better warn customers of the risks of repaying only the minimum monthly amount. I’m so glad that someone is finally informing us…

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Very interesting investment

This market seems to pickup very fast - Im involved with www.mypica.com who is a head to head competitor with FastMobile -> Welcome to fastmobile

Monday, May 16, 2005

Don't SMS and drive...

...at the same time!
What's with these bus drivers, all texting when driving??? SMSing while driving is definitely more dangerous than talking on your mobile while driving, since you need your full attention to type in the tiny buttons of a mobile phone (that is, if you don't have some kinda hardware ZYB onboard)
Sure, they may have left something in the oven, or they may have received some must-answer-this news, but can't they either wait or use the phone? The only possibility that comes to mind is that they've been both zybbed and thay could only reply by sms to the sender's PC.:)
So, zybbers, please don't text bus drivers while they're at work. Look what happens...

Traffic violations by SMS

The Traffic Department of Saudi Arabia plans to introduce a new service for drivers which will allow them to find out if they have committed any traffic violations via SMS. The new system will be accessible to anyone at any time from any place just by sending a text message to 88993 from their mobile phones.

Saudis are required to give certain personal information in order to participate in the program. It is said that the new system will be available within two months. The department intends to take full advantage of new technologies to improve its public services. This new SMS facility can also be used later on to inform the public of the dates for renewing their vehicle registration and driving licenses.

SMS fame or shame

The guys at 160characters are running a voting contest in which people are invited to name and shame the best and worst players in the global messaging industry. This contest is part of its 2005 Global Messaging Awards on the 15th June. Any person or company can be nominated either for its achievements in pushing the industry forward, or for hindering its development.

Nominations, both positive and negative, can be sent at this email address and a board of distinguished juries will draw up a short list for publication on the 6th of June.

And, of course, the final voting on the short list will be via --- drumrolls --- text messages.

People reading this can always show their appreciation of ZYB by nominating and supporting us in this contest :)

Spelling free-for-all

Examiners marking an English test taken by 600,000 14-year-olds have been told not to deduct marks for incorrect spelling on on the main writing paper, worth nearly a third of the overall marks, reports The Telegraph. The revelation of the "spelling free-for-all" in the hour-long paper has angered traditionalists who say that children should be penalised for poor spelling.

Teaching spelling and good grammar is even more important in an era when children's ability to master it is threatened by the prominence of text messaging,
Mark Hoban, the Conservative education spokesman said. Is this the legacy of the sms? Right. Eye don bilivit. Why not blame it on the digital media invasion?

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Romance, the revolution

It seems obvious that serenades, perfumed letters and flowers are an outdated way to spice up relations or pick-up somebody in the 21st century. But don't despair - love has survived and is now alive and kicking in the digital age - welcome to the age of Romance by SMS!

According to the study published by Tesco Mobile, text messages are the favourite way to send love in Britain. The advantages of texting are so obvious in the GB that 40% of the English admit a "no" is much easier to take when coming along in 160 characters.

And just about everywhere we find people that take things too far - texting is no exception, as a couple questioned by Tesco Mobile admit to sending or receiving marriage proposals by SMS.

The reasons why love SMS is so popular are obvious - the messages are close to the user, they can be read at any time and you can always show others proof of your loved one's affection.

Although you have millions of SMS sent daily, it's funny how some people spend hours in front of a blank screen trying to figure out something nice to type.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Google thinks SMS

Dodgeball, a company founded and run by Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert, graduates of New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, allows subscribers to send text messages to pre-selected friends, and friends of friends, within a 10-block radius.

This service targets young adults and allows them to organise social gatherings following the growing trend of interaction-based social neworking. However, unlike other websites, Dodgeball encourages offline interaction (also called real life :).

As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken Dodgeball about a far as we can alone,
Crowley wrote.
We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really 'got' what we were doing -- that is until we met Google. The people at Google think like us. They looked at us in a 'You're two guys doing some pretty cool stuff, why not let us help you out and let's see what you can do with it' type of way.
It looks like the good guys at Google have found something of interest in text messaging. Can they work their magic with texting aswell?

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Sms art

Today was a good day for surfing…the net. I stumbled upon an interesting site… www.s19.com, aka S19.Afflatus Project, err, a web art gallery for mobile devices. And there, at the gallery, I saw something that caught my clicks. I’m talking about 160. It’s an archive of 160 SMS messages treasured in the past 18 months by Katie Lips. These messages, of up to 160 characters each have been sent to her from her boyfriend, sister, parents, and friends, from phone companies and people offering her SMS porn. It is a snapshot made available for anyone else to browse how they choose, to make their own judgements about her, uuhh, text life, and the people who send her messages. She is a little exposed I guess. This is what the critics said about the whole thing:

Katie's work with Digital media is centred around the concept of the 'user as content creator', the notion that we all create art and communications without necessarily trying.
I’m glad she shared with us her significant text life experience.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Women are natural born texters


Men are from Mars, women from Venus… also when it comes to ways in which they’re communicating via cell-phones. It looks like men spend far more time and cash chatting on mobile phones than women, according to a Mintel report. Wow! Mobile-mad men are much more likely than women to talk on their phones without thinking at the financial consequences. I’ve always thought that women are greater talkers. However, women are far more likely to keep in touch with friends and family by text message, the survey revealed. I’m telling you, women are multi-taskers, they’re able to juggle many things. This is why they text with the left hand and cook dinner and help the kids with homework and answer the phone and keep an ear on the radio with the right hand. Now, let’s switch to the ‘underaged’ stats. Well over half of all children under 15 (57 per cent) have their own handset with nearly one-in-five seven and eight-year-olds owning their own mobile despite recent health fears, according to the Mintel report.
The study found that expanding ownership of mobiles is having a profound influence on how people, especially the young, arrange their social lifes. Right. The study also found that women are most likely to be 'Social texters', with nearly two-in-five (39 per cent) women fitting in to this group, compared to just one-in-four (25 per cent) men
Mintel senior market analyst Ellen Shiels said:

Texting among consumers is still phenomenally popular, and looks to become ever more so.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

SMS World Record

A man from Ludhiana, India, set a new Guiness Book World Record by sending a mind-staggering 182,689 text messages in one month.

Deepak Sharma aims to increase the number to 300,000 in the coming month.

At first I sent 50,000 SMS, after that I reached the figure of 113,000 and now I have reached the figure of 182,689 in one month. That makes it to 6000 SMS daily. Now I am aiming to send 3 lakh SMS which makes it to daily of 10,000 so that I can register my name in Guinness Book of World Recordshe said.
He sends all his relatives and friends text messages and receives full support in his endeavour from his family.
I used to be very angry earlier. But then I started supporting him so that he can register his name in the Guinness Book of World Records
said Pushkar Pandey, Deepak's friend.

The recordholder has received a bill of 1411 pages this month, which was sent specially to him by Airtel. He is making the best out of Airtel's scheme of unlimited SMS.

Reasons to consider SMS

Image hosted by Photobucket.com


As an organisation, the use of SMS may seem too innovative or unprofessional. So why are "forward-thinking" organisations throughout the world welcoming SMS open-heartedly? What's so good about SMS?
We have compiled for you a list of popular reasons why SMS are so widely used.

1. SMS is popular and well-established
To begin with, SMS is VERY popular; each day billions of text-messages fly from phone to phone. In the UK, for example, people send each other over 83 million messages each day. These facts show that SMS is not something new any more. It's a well-established method of communication, and is no longer just an extra function on a mobile phone.

2. Anytime / Anywhere
The most important aspect of SMS is its unique ability to reach anyone, anytime, anywhere and because there are no barriers in-between the sender and the receiver, every message is almost always read.

3. SMS is a great friendship-marketing tool
As SMS is a personal method of communication, organisations can use features like message personalisation to communicate with their clients & staff in a friendly manner, making each recipient feel as if their messages were individually written and sent to them alone.

4. SMS is reliable
Messages sent through reliable gateways are usually delivered within seconds and provide real-time delivery reports. Key word here is 'reliable', because it might possible to route messages through offshore networks on the other side of the world and whilst their prices might be low, so is their reliability.

5. The Economics Make Sense
SMS is one of the most cost-effective methods of communication out there, and its financial benefits are numerous. Just imagine how much time you need to contact thousands of people by post and how much it would cost. SMS can do all of that in less than 10 minutes in a tiny fraction of the cost. Also, if your organisation uses a database, website or a specialised piece of software, they can easily be SMS-enabled to trigger messages on particular events allowing you to take advantage of SMS without actually doing anything yourself.

Got the message yet?
Having read this, you would have begun to understand that the only reason many organisations haven't begun to use SMS is neophobia.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Subway sms service


Another interesting cellphone application has hit the streets. Karen Bonna, a student from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, came up with a subway alert via sms. Sub Alerts is in fact a thesis project involving mobile phones. Anyway, I’m glad the bla bla could me materialized into a subway alert that tells passengers about the status of their subway service using text messaging as a platform. Apparently, the sub service via sms revelation hit Karen after she spent countless hours waiting for the F train to arrive at Broadway-Lafayette.

Once a rider tells us what information he or she wants about his or her subway lines—whether service advisories, schedules, or line information— this system will send the requested information the user’s phone within one minute.

In a nod to the communal experience that commuting on the subway everyday can be, users can also offer other people within their subway community information about train service, in hopes of helping them avoid the same unplanned train troubles.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Poems are going mobile

[Via TimesOnline]

Poems are going mobile. Wherelse but in Japan. It’s no surprise after the novels made the same move also in the the Land of the Rising Sun. I'm talking about Tanka — the 31-syllable poems, like extended haiku, that have been a staple of Japanese literature for 1,300 years. Chie Kato , a 21-year-old miss, is writing tanka. Sounds interesting already. All over the country, young people like her are doing the same thing. I would like to meet this girl…her name reminds of me of a Haruki Murakami character. Where art thou Chie Kato? With three books of poetry to her name, Ms Kato is at the vanguard of what have become known as , uh, keitai tanka — “mobile phone poems” — that are written and distributed on mobiles. There is now a weekly keitai tanka programme on national radio, a keitai tanka magazine edited by Ms Kato, and numerous websites. There goes the tradition…

Sometimes a poem can take me three or four months to refine,
says Setsuko Utsunomiya, 60, a poet from Oita.
I can’t help feeling that mobile tanka are a completely different thing.
What happened in fact is that they’ve got bored of taking pictures with their cameras and started to give tradition what it needs: perpetuity. I’m sorry boss! I Hope this last phrase doesn’t sounds to tanka. Let the tanka rise!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Ordering food via sms


British don't eat much British food. Anyway, perhaps ordering food via sms might bring them back to traditional food. A Banbury-based website and text message system will allow you to order your favourite banquet and have it delivered to your door simply by sending a text message. For the price of a message, about 25p, www.iwantatakeaway.co.uk receives your text and delivers...The project was started by the web designer Hugh Johnston, of Teal Close, Banbury, who said the system was unique.
He said: Imagine you are watching the football on a Saturday afternoon and you decide you fancy a curry. You can take out your mobile and simply text CURRY1 to 60999 and have it delivered as soon as you get home. Sounds pretty fast-foodish to me...The company has your food file, and using specially designed Samsung SMS-to-fax technology, faxes your order to the specified restaurant so it is ready for you to pick it up, have it delivered, or eat in, as you want it and depending on how the restaurant in question operates. But it is an intelligent system as well.

We check the restaurant is open and able to produce the food and then we text the customer back to say everything is fine before sending the fax to the restaurant,
said Mr Johnston. Aside from the standard meal set-up, the website will feature special offers, festive meals and other extras running in the restaurants. It’s still british food though…too bad. I hope they've got pizza too. It is set to pilot in Banbury from May but once it is up and running, Mr Johnston plans to expand it nationwide, and he is confident it will boom. Well, good luck then! By the way, the food in the picture looks strange...err, I hope that they will not serve you with those yellow things .

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Selling price of pigs by SMS


Pig prices alerts via sms? Even Nostradamus didn't see that coming. The story goes that a Dutch weekly farming magazine, and Dutch mobile service provider Emexus have jointly introduced three SMS alert services for the agricultural sector, according to DMeurope.

The company is offering an SMS alert service for pig farmers to inform them on a daily basis about the current selling price of pigs, including international pig quotations.

Alternately, farmers can subscribe to a service offering quotes for milk prices or those of potatoes and onions. Err, is this the new implementation of EU’s Common Agricultural Policy( CAP) ? Damn, they’re too innovative when it comes to improving the system. Right then. Back to my rebel goats.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Indian telecom regulator urges revamp of SMS billing

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposed radical changes to the existing billing patterns of SMS, value-added services, short-duration calls and premium-rate services.
In its consultation paper on billing issues, TRAI proposed that subscribers pay the prescribed SMS charges only after the message is delivered. The paper called upon service providers to build mechanisms to reject any SMS to an invalid number, as this would help reduce the incidence of non-delivery of messages and also ensure that subscribers were not charged for a service not availed of. An alternative floated by the paper is: charge an SMS in two parts – when it is sent successfully and when it is received.
TRAI invited responses from stakeholders on the issues raised by the consultation paper by the month-end.

Sms answer machine


JGUI
has came out with a software for Pocket PC Phone Edition and MS Smartphone that does only one thing for you:
it will send a SMS reply to the caller of a missed phone. I don’t know if this might turn up as a bad or a good idea. But it really seems like a good method to annoy people. How could I explain to my girl that I haven’t been able to answer the phone after work . Sorry I couldn't take this call, I was in a meeting. Please call again after 5 pm. She wouldn’t believe that anyway. I can take that risk. Right then... Back to the main story. You can submit for the trial version…that includes 3 ‘stay back’ messages. The full version costs 14.95$.

Monday, May 02, 2005

SMS driven encyclopedia

!Cellphedia is a thesis project created by Limor Garcia, graduate student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. It's a cell phone application that allows to send and receive encyclopedia-type inquiries between specific, pre-defined groups of users, through text messaging.
Users can register on !Cellpadia's site and start building the quick-reference encyclopedia entries, by asking other users and answering other users' questions where-ever cell phone service is available.
"Cellphedia will be the new way to get encyclopedia type information on the run. After creating a profile, a user will be able to get all the information they need – from “how old is the queen of England?” to “how many miles is the Brooklyn Bridge?” – while they’re walking in the street.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

SMS confirms David Beckham is cheating Victoria

A steamy SMS sent by David Beckham was received by Spanish supermodel Esther Canadas. The England and Real Madrid star, who claimed this week to "respect women" and insisted he was happily married, sent the 28-year-old model a message reading: "Have a safe flight baby and I really wish we was in your bed now." Another message found on a mobile - which the Beckhams' former nanny Abbie Gibson borrowed from the England captain - and sent to the same number said "Hola, X".
Beckham first met Esther at a party thrown by his Real Madrid team-mate Ronaldo two years ago. They were rumoured to have kissed at the party while wife Victoria Beckham was at home in England and were later reported to have been texting each other.