I don’t mean that, obviously. Well, you could stalk someone using the Loopt mobile friend finder, but they’d have to be a friend of yours, and have agreed to let you see their location at any time. Neither of which makes stalking likely. But anyway.
This is US news, but it gives you a good idea about the kind of location-based services that could launch here in the near future. US operator Boost has teamed up with a company called Loopt to launch a nifty Java application which helps you keep track of your friends.
You download it to your phone, set permissions, and can then see all your mates (at least, the ones who’ve also signed up) on an on-screen map, sending each other messages. It could make “I’M ON THE TRAIN!” a thing of the past, if people can see that you’re moving at high-speed along a railway line.
Two problems though. First, the app relies on the GPS chips inside Boost’s mobiles – phones without them wouldn’t be able to provide as accurate a location. And secondly, how many of your friends are on the same operator as you? This sort of thing can’t really take off until it works across different operators.
This week saw the CTIA show in the US, where the cream of the mobile industry got together to announce new stuff, parade their wares, and chew the fat about just how many billions they’re going to make from mobile entertainment in the years ahead.
A key factor in whether their dreams of mansions and swimming pools come true will be decent handsets, that are good at playing video, music and games. Infosync has a handy roundup of the most exciting entertainment phones from CTIA, including models from Motorola, LG and Sanyo.
Music is a big theme, along with better screens, beefed-up memory, and some nifty personalisation options. Hopefully they’ll all make it to the UK this side of Christmas or early next year.
13.2 million Brits accessed the internet from their mobiles in July 2006, according to the Mobile Data Association. MocoNews thinks this is a high figure considering there’s only around 60 million people in the UK. But the MDA’s figures are based on people who ‘used their phones for downloads and browsing the mobile Internet’. So this could include buying ringtones off services like Jamster.
Anyway, the MDA has put out a list of the most popular types of mobile internet sites:
1. Google
2. Chat sites (including operator sites)
3. WAP Directories (eg Twilightwap)
4. Other search sites (eg Yahoo)
5. BBC
6. Games/Wallpapers/Ringtones
7. Mobile entertainment sites (eg celebrity news information)
8. MSN
9. Mobile communities/blogging (eg Jumbuck)
10. Shopping sites (eg Ebay)
Fancy watching some classic clips from E.T., Jurassic Park or The 40-Year-Old Virgin on your mobile? Soon you’ll be able to, courtesy of a deal announced this week by Universal Studios and mobile game publisher I-play. They’ve teamed up to create a mobile video channel called Magic Moments, which will initially offer clips from the above films, along with The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Animal House, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.
“People love to talk about, reminisce over, and imitate their favorite moments from film and television,” says Universal’s Jeremy Laws. “Now those same fans can have clips from Universal’s rich film and TV library anywhere they go, anytime they want them.”
Does anyone have any favourite moments from any The Fast And The Furious movie? Just a thought. Magic Moments is interesting because it’s seemingly bundling clips from films that have already been out, rather than whacking together trailers of future movies. Whether there’s a demand for this remains to be seen though.
T-Mobile has teamed up with record label EMI to run a trial of ad-supported mobile videos. Users will be able to choose from a range of the label’s artists – including Lily Allen, the Kooks, Gorillaz and Robbie Williams – and stream it to their phone for free.
Adverts will be packaged around that from companies including Coca Cola, General Motors, Gillette, Land Rover, Microsoft Mobile, Nike and Toyota. Having the ads means you can get the music videos for free, rather than paying for them as you do currently on most mobile operators.
Anyone remember the days when music videos were adverts? Y’know, for singles and albums. It’s enough to make you feel old. Alright, enough to make me feel old.
[via Netimperative]
At least, my Dad used to say it was a motoring magazine. I always wondered why they didn’t have any cars on the covers though…
Yes, famous adult brand Penthouse – which includes all manner of stuff beyond the magazine – is on its way to mobile by Christmas. The company has signed a deal to bring Penthouse-branded photos, images, games, audio and video clips, as well as “editorial” (i.e. all those letters from randy plumbers telling how they’d attended to female customers’ pipes).
Penthouse is also developing three mobile TV channels. Well, squinting at that on a mobile screen certainly will make you go blind.
[via Softpedia]
Fox is getting ready to bring The Simpsons to mobile in a big way, with a range of content. Apparently, this will also include original video content made for the mobile screen. Parent company News Corporation’s president Peter Chernin announced it at this week’s CTIA industry show in the US.
Hurrah! All-new full-length Simpsons episodes made just for your phone… Well, that’s probably not realistic. So what has Fox got planned? They could just be talking about video ringtones, or specially-edited highlights from the show – this would count as original for mobile, I guess.
Given that News Corporation just bought Crazy Frog company Jamster, I’m more worried that the result will be 786 adverts for Simpsons ringtones on Sky One every night, with Bart sitting on an imaginary motorbike waving his dangly bits about. That’d be plain wrong.
[via MocoNews]
You’re out and about in town, you’re feeling peckish, and you know it’s A Bad Idea to go to KFC for the third time this week. So what do you do?
You could stumble into a random restaurant and risk culinary catastrophe. Or you could fire up your mobile phone to read some reviews of local eateries.
Obviously, I’d recommend the second option. And to show you how to do it, I’ve been playing with The Mobile Food Guide, a WAP site that promises “the world’s best restaurants in the palm of your hand.”
Continue reading ‘How to… find restaurant reviews on your mobile phone’
Quelle surprise, given that they won the bloody thing. Not that I’m bitter. Research firm Telephia has been investigating which country’s fans were most on the ball viewing World Cup content on their mobile phones during the tournament. 6% of Italian mobile users did, compared to 4% of Germans, 3% for France, Sweden and the UK – presumably including Scots checking how Trinidad & Tobago were doing – and 2% in Spain.
I can’t help thinking that this isn’t that many people, considering how World Cup fever gripped England during the tournament. Apparently, of those Europeans who did access World Cup mobile content, 8% of them watched mobile TV. Which by my rusty maths means, in the UK, just 0.24% of mobile users.
Mobile entertainment may still be in its infancy, but Player X is one company already set on becoming a media-spanning megacorp, publishing and distributing everything from mobile games and TV to video, and also working in mobile gambling.
“We have huge confidence that mobile users see mobile content as their best form of entertainment delivery,” Player X’s CEO Tony Pearce told us in our interview.
Continue reading ‘Interview: Player X CEO Tony Pearce gets going on mobile content’
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