September 25, 2006
Smarter Agent
[from npr.com]
GPS Is Smartening Up Your Cell Phone
There's a good chance that you are, right now, carrying around a tiny device that's picking up faint radio signals from space and keeping track of your location. It's a Global Positioning System -- or GPS -- receiver, built into your cell phone. A hundred million or so people in the United States have those devices, but few, up to now, have been able to use them.
Selling the GPS Idea
Cell phone companies didn't originally want to put GPS receivers into cell phones. But several years ago, the Federal Communications Commission required them to come up with a way to locate their customers for rescue workers and 911 calls.
Some companies, such as Cingular, adopted technology that locates a cell phone by analyzing how its signal is picked up by different cell towers. Others, including Verizon, Sprint, and Nextel, decided to install a GPS receiver in every cell phone. This generally determines location more accurately, although it doesn't work as well indoors or in dense cities.
Read the full NPR article.
Check out Smarter Agent.
Posted by richard ting at September 25, 2006, 10:57 AM
September 13, 2006
WESC x Nokia 3250
Nokia’s tri-band 3250 has a three-position swiveling keypad that offers quality music transport on one side, numerical keys on the other, and a 2-megapixel camera in the middle. The 3250 also rocks a microSD slot, smartphone functionality, Bluetooth, stereo, and FM radio. WE’s involvement hooks it up with a travel guide, pre-loaded MP3s, and a couple dope accessories.
Posted by richard ting at September 13, 2006, 04:11 AM
Lil' Bush -- Original Cellphone Comedy on Amp'd Mobile
“Lil’ Bush” is a raunchy cartoon concerning the adventures of a grade-school version of President Bush and his pals, a heartsick Lil’Condi, a raging Lil’ Rummy and a Lil’ Cheney reminiscent of the Frankenstein monster. The show debuted on Amp’d mobile cell-phones on Sept. 1st. Six new five-minute episodes are to be released every week for six weeks.
Posted by richard ting at September 13, 2006, 04:05 AM
September 04, 2006
NFL Mobile on Sprint
As the NFL season approaches, Sprint and the NFL have teamed up to offer NFL Mobile to Sprint customers. I haven't seen the service in person yet, but if I had to guess, my guess would be that the service is a J2ME application that customers download over-the-air(OTA)on to their handsets. The download is initiated by texting "FANTASY" to 7777 on selected Sprint phones. Some of the exclusive features of the service include same-day NFL video highlights, customizable player and team alerts, real-time game information with GameCenter, and access to the NFL Network's video-on-demand
The move to offer the NFL mobile service by Sprint is an interesting move since Sprint already provides the network for ESPN's ailing MVNO service, Mobile ESPN. Industry analysts have been calling for Mobile ESPN to shutter it's doors. Citing that few subscribers are willing to pay for it's 'premium' content. Could the move by Sprint to offer up a free NFL mobile service be a sign that the 'pay-for-content' model of MVNO's be in jeopardy? If anything, the launch of the NFL Mobile service should be a sign to the mobile industry that rich-media content should be 'free of cost' and 'widely distributed' as opposed to monetized and controlled like what the MVNOs such as Mobile ESPN, Amp'd Mobile, and Disney are doing.
Posted by richard ting at September 04, 2006, 09:00 PM
Q121.com
Q121.com wants to be the place where people hook-up. It's a Web/Mobile community that invites members to download and post photos, video, music, and ringtones. Members can also play games, form or join groups, and rate others' photos. Members of the site download an average of 6.2 items per month and all downloads are free. However, the site design and the skimpy content will make this social network a tough sell in the already saturated social network realm.
