MobileSphere Announces Emergency SMS Service
MobileSphere has
announced its Emergency SMS service in light of the Virginia Tech Shootings. As more and more college students use text messaging as a mode of communication, many colleges and universities are looking to use SMS as a first line of emergency communication.
This makes some sense in light of the recent attacks. Sure I check my email everyday, but I didn't even get an email about the shootings until the day after from my university while some other students got the email hours after the shooting. I don't even check my email that often to begin with. It is a good idea, but the colleges and universities will have to work with carriers to make these messages free. At this point, I get charged 10 cents per message received and/or sent. The last thing I want to be charged for is a text message sent by my school.
Rumble Pak for Mobile TV??
According to
Engadget, LG gets ready to "rumble live mobile TV." In other words, broadcasters can rattle your phone or flash LEDs in sync to what you're watching. It is not limited to South Korea, but it's also patented in 20 other countries.
Now, I don't know whether I would feel comfortable about my phone rumbling while I'm watching TV. As bad as this may sound, what if a college student watches mobile TV during class just to fight boredom and/or keep from falling asleep. A rumbling mobile phone would make it pretty obvious that one is not paying any attention. This also concerns any other scenario where being discreet is necessary. I'm just thinking about the aggregate noise if everyone's phone on the "El" rumbles because of a Cubs/Sox home run. Although I doubt everyone in Chicago (let alone America which is about two years behind E. Asia in terms of adoption of mobile technology) will have this feature on the phone, it would be nice to know whether one can turn off this feature.
Also, mobile TV does require people to have fast networks and big screen phones. Unfortunately, the average American user does not have access to fast 3G networks yet, and they are not willing to pay for a QVGA or higher display. In addition, it would be better if my mobile TV was in the wide-screen format rather than 3:4. As much as I ranted about Helio's initial launch, I actually like their new phones that were released by Samsung (Heat and Drift) and the dual-slider Ocean. Call me a sucker for pretty phones, but one of the few ways you can get someone to shell out lots of money is to have a phone that stands out from the rest. As America is full of RAZRs and flip phones, having a "slider" is another way to separate us from the masses. Sliders are super popular in Europe, so maybe I'm writing with some bias. I also saw the new NTT DoCoMo phones that were announced. Those are the kind of flip phones that I want to see in the North American market. Check out those gigantic screens which are perfect for viewing videos and photos.
Blackberry shutdown in North America
Earlier this week, my boyriend informed that he couldn't see the link to the apartments I've been looking at because his Blackberry was having problems sending/receiving email. It turns out that he was not alone in this problem, as all of North America had to do without their lovable "Crackberries."
I guess
this is how important Blackberries are to some people.
I now appreciate the phone calls from my boyfriend despite the fact that he's working almost 12-13 hours per day. I guess that's better than being in financial services.
I wonder how much productivity was lost as I'm sure the network effects of having a downed Blackberry system in the North America must've been gigantic.
facebook's new look
After all the new ways for someone to stalk you on Facebook, the folks at Facebook decides to reorganize the layout of Facebook profiles to make it somewhat easier to find the information (both practical and impractical) that a user wants. There are now four categories listed as Profile, Friends, Networks, and Inbox. Under each category, there are various subcategories that relate to the heading. For example, you can browse through friends who have recently updated their profiles or who are online right now in the "Friends" category.
This change in layout has been coming. Facebook that was heralded for its simplicity and ease of browsing has fallen into the the depth of over-cluttered and confusion of too much information. As Facebook moves toward increasing its presence in the mobile space, it had to make some changes in order for viewers to have similar desktop browsing experiences on a smaller screen of a mobile phone.
I was thinking about this too. The screens are getting bigger, and the U.S. is finally getting 3G networks. I have been setting my eyes on the Nokia N95 for quite some time (not only because it's jam-packed with all the features that I want but it's designed quite nicely). I realized that I am spending most of my time in front of a screen (whether it'd be a computer screen or TV screen). Lately, I've been staring at my mobile phone screen a lot because I text people so much. Once I actually start myself in the real world, I am browsing through all of my options as I would like to take my online life with me wherever I go (excuse the cliche). I find myself carrying my laptop everywhere these days even when I don't really need it (i.e. my week long trek through Berlin, Prague, and Vienna). I just realized how much more convenient (physically and mentally) it could've been if I could just use my phone to access my email and word documents. If I could watch TV (like my cousins in Korea do) on my mobile phone, that could pass time on the subways very quickly. Sharp just
released a high-contrast LCD for mobile devices. I'm half-tempted to go to Asia to buy my phone.
Finally an MP3 player that could actually connect to Wi-Fi
SanDisk has just launched its new Wi-Fi enabled MP3 player, Sansa Connect. With your Sansa Connect, you can use any Wi-Fi spot to stream Internet radio from Yahoo! Launchcast or browse through Flickr photos.
If you register with Yahoo! Music Unlimited, you'll be able to download any tracks or albums that you like over Wi-Fi.
Check out the pics at
PCWorld. The player looks pretty good. I still haven't decided whether it's worth the $249 for only 4 gigabytes worth of storage space. It does have an expandable micro SD slot. In addition, I was never a fan of carrying around 30 gigs of music anyway. This device will especially be useful on campus where most colleges and universities have wireless access on their entire campuses.
how do you "doo" your job search?
Several days ago, my friend has invited me to a job searching network called
Doostang. As 70% of jobs are filled through referrals, Doostang's network allows you immediate access to people and opportunities that are relevant and from your trusted network.
Although this network depends on user-driven content, there are other features as well. Doostang has internal people that try to bring users the most sought after career opportunities. Users can create group and forums with members from your specific network. There is a "Job Matcher" function that allows you to search for relevant career opportunities. In addition, you can store an unlimited number of resumes in your account. (This is actually a big plus because our school's career network allows us to store a limited amount.) Doostang membership is free so that you can keep in touch with your network.
There are currently 102,000+ members with 21,000+ members that are affiliated with the University of Chicago. Why is that number so huge? This network was started by students from MIT and Stanford, so I'm not surprised that the top schools got first taste of this network. (Remember Facebook's initial launch.) As the network is relatively new (some of the first forum posts are in early march), there has not been much activity in the forums.
Nonetheless, the number of job posts are incredible. Although the list is dominated by finance and consulting industries, there is a significant presence by other industries (i.e. consumer products, technology, etc) with some international positions as well. I wish it was a little easier to search for users as searching for "university of chicago" does not give you the most relevant results.
more interactive marketing through web 2.0
It was coming. With all these new summer blockbuster movies coming out and the ability to reach a wide range of users on social networking sites, Sony Pictures seemed to devise a clever plan to build hype for the upcoming release of Spider-Man 3.
Photobucket has announced the launch of Spider-Man 3 slideshows allowing users to create a slideshow of their own Spider-Man themed photos. A demo is up on the website, but it's nothing too fancy.
I won't be surprised if there is a YouTube marketing campaign for Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Better yet, fans are making parodies and fan mini-movies of their favorite movies and TV shows without any company having to pay them to do it.
facebook diaries
It's funny how a video site like YouTube could start influencing Web 2.0 in such a short period of time. While watching the Champions League match between AS Roma and Manchester United, I just saw a TV trailer for
Facebook Diaries. Facebook and Ziddio are hosting a contest to allow users to create video autobiographies and to subsequently rate other people's entries. Facebook Diaries is supposed to be an online TV series about users like you.
Every two weeks until late summer, Facebook and Ziddio will post a theme for users to consider in their video diaries. The eventual winner ill have a chance to have their online video diary be aired on national TV. The comments have been mixed. Judging from the wall, there has been a very lukewarm reception. Someone had no idea what was going on. Another user commented that this was lame. The producer's blog was pretty cheesy. Here is an excerpt from that blog.
"If a diary is a portrait of the self, then declarations are the brushstrokes. As you ask yourself questions, you are beginning to choose the colors that tell the story of who you are. The debut topic of Facebook Diaries is, 'Who am I?' A deceptively simple question with an endless scatter of possible answers. We begin this series with an essential question, because unlike like many questions, 'Who am I?' is not only the core of who we are, but the echo of who we were and the bud of who we will someday be. In your video diary, as long as you tell the truth about yourself, any direction you take is the right one. Who are you to your closest friends? To the stranger in the elevator? Who are you compared to who you thought you'd be by now? Compared to who you hope you'll become?"These are some pretty lame questions and marketing. Why would anyone tell their true story "in the quiet of their own solitude when no on is looking"? The group does have 288 members, but I'm surprised that there are not more. Then again, it seems like they're attracting sob stories and the worst of reality TV. There have been 21 entries so far. There was two or maybe three videos that were somewhat entertaining. The other videos were pretty terrible. At least the ratings reflected that.
I will give Facebook and Ziddio the benefit of doubt. This contest has just started on March 29th, so I'm guessing it will take at least one more week or two weeks for users to start embracing it. The chance to get on national TV is always enticing to the average person in America. I can see the creation of a Facebook group mocking this contest. I wouldn't be surprised if this was mocked on YouTube as well.
