In Europe, the social network as digital friend - International Herald Tribune Annotated
PARIS: When it comes to social networking Web sites, Europeans see things a little differently.
While the Continent's innovators in business, social and mobile networking Web sites expect growing demand for their services, users will be looking for something like a digital cocktail party hostess.
"The ideal social network should work as a computer-enhanced friend that suggests people you ought to know," said Lars Hinrichs, the founder of the Xing social network, based in Hamburg. "Networks are filled with people who would be connected to one another if they knew their own common interests."
The Sundance Channel Adds Social Networking for a Green Cause Annotated
The Sundance Channel Adds Social Networking for a Green Cause
July 11, 2007 — 04:17 PM PDT — by — Share This
The Sundance Channel’s online component is looking to integrate more social features, and it doing so with the Eco-mmunity Map.
This interactive map will mark and help you find others that are interested in bettering the environment and living a more green lifestyle. You can find businesses, special attractions and action points on this eco-mmunity map as well, which is powered by Google. The purpose is to connect others that are concerned with having a more green lifestyle with the people and resources they need, based on location. Users can add their own markers to the map. Branching from this eco-mmunity map is an environmental forum, which includes blogs, news, discussions and other areas for users to contribute as well.
This attempt to facilitate the discussions that take place for the eco-conscious is a good way that an established media company can provide social tools for a great cause. This ultra-niche manner in which the Sundance Channel is affecting change is a good route to take, as it’s not overtly inserting social networking modules into its website, and it’s gaining attention from users by promoting a cause, while also raising awareness and
VentureBeat » With Bling, translate your Web site to mobile AJAX Annotated
With Bling, translate your Web site to mobile AJAX
By Matt Marshall 01.30.07
Bling Software, a start-up that launches today at DEMO, helps translate your Web site into a visually rich mobile version.
Your regular site can not be duplicated on a cellphone’s tiny screen, so you have to customize it. This can cost serious bucks.
Now, Pleasanton’s Bling has unveiled an AJAX-based software that publishers can use to transform their sites into visually rich mobile versions. Bling’s chief executive, Roy Satterthwaite, tells VentureBeat the company is the first to guarantee the AJAX application will work across cell-phone platforms, and small enough to be distributed via cellular networks.
Roeder-Johnson Client: FoneMine Annotated
FoneMine
Company Profile :
FoneMine is the first company to launch a next generation interactive mobile services platform. This platform is designed around a fundamental belief that mobile must be treated as a "first class citizen" and is neither just an extension of earlier computing models nor only for youth.
FoneMine's platform enables customers to offer mobile services in whatever way they want, to any demographic, building their offerings based on their own strategies. FoneMine's customers include major advertisers focused on customer acquisition through to full mobile commerce, international service providers focused on interactive groups and individual mobile messaging through next generation services, and financial institutions offering mobile finance services.
VentureBeat » FoneMine: Expand your business into the mobile web Annotated
FoneMine: Expand your business into the mobile web
By Dan Kaplan 07.11.07
FoneMine helps companies build interactive mobile web applications — including things like a shopping carts, comments , and search — that work across any mobile carriers and phones.
So far, companies wanting more than a basic mobile-friendly website have to build a customized back-end, host it, and maintain the code.
The Sunnyvale, Calif. company is the latest in a string of companies that help companies build more sophisticated mobile sites, and it claims to be the most complete and scalable service on the market today. There are companies like iLoop Mobile and Air2Web that help businesses develop mobile storefronts and manage SMS-based mobile marketing campaigns, but FoneMine wants to do that and more. Bling Software, which we’ve covered, offers a platform to build mobile sites. (It has teamed up with baseball star Barry Bonds and rap mogul Jay-Z to show them off. Bonds’ application alerts users when he hits another home run, just in time for baseball fans to track him as he closes in on Hank Aaron’s record.)
Chief executive Jagadish Bandole said Fonemine can offer a hosted, interactive mobile website with full SMS-based marketing functions within in a matter of days. More complicated sites will take a couple of weeks, instead of the months previously required. Through FoneMine’s straightforward interface (see screenshot below), we built a mobile page with photos, sub pages, a commenting section, and a “click-to-call” link that called our phone.
Jagadish showed us a mobile banking application that had been built on the FoneMine platform. You can check your balance, make cash transfers, see outstanding bills and pay them. Theater Bay Area, a company that sells half-priced theater tickets on the day of the shows, uses FoneMine to extend the reach of its marketing into SMS. Customers opt in to receive text alerts when tickets become available, and can click on a link in the message to buy tickets on their phone.
Jagadish says FoneMine will allow developers to create browser-based applications of just about any kind. For example, he says building an equivalent to Google Mobile Maps would be a “straightforward” task. All of this is yet to be seen, and we welcome feedback if any of you use it.
The company has raised around $6 million from angels and individuals, and makes money by charging companies for hosting, licensing and transactions. Depending on the needs and scale of the mobile application, the costs range from $500-2000 dollars per month for hosting and licensing, and up to $2000 extra if mass SMS-marketing functions are used.
3G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Annotated
3G is third-generation technology in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G include wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. In marketing 3G services, video telephone has often been suggested as the killer application for 3G.
According to the GSA, in December 2005 there were 100 3G networks in operation in 40 countries in the world. In Asia, Europe, and the USA and Canada, telecommunication companies use W-CDMA technology with the support of around 100 terminal designs to operate 3G mobile networks.
Roll-out of 3G networks was delayed in some countries by the enormous costs of additional spectrum licensing fees. In many parts of the world 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G, requiring mobile operators to build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies; a notable exception is the United States where carriers operate 3G service in the same frequencies as other services. The license fees in some European countries were particularly high, bolstered by government auctions of a limited number of licences and sealed bid auctions, and initial excitement over 3G's potential. Other delays were as a result of the expenses related to upgrading equipment for the new systems.
The first country that introduced 3G on a large commercial scale was Japan. In 2005, about 40% of subscribers used 3G networks only, with 2G being on the way out. It was expected that the transition from 2G to 3G would be largely completed during 2006, and upgrades to the next 3.5G stage with 3 Mbit/s data rates were under way.
The successful 3G introduction in Japan showed that video telephony was not the killer application for 3G networks after all. The real-life usage of video telephony on 3G networks was found to be a small fraction of all services. On the other hand, downloading of music found strong acceptance by customers. Music download services in Japan were pioneered by KDDI with the EZchakuuta and Chaku Uta Full services.
3G networks are not IEEE 802.11 networks. IEEE 802.11 networks are short range, higher-bandwidth (primarily) data networks, while 3G networks are wide area cellular telephone networks which evolved to incorporate high-speed internet access and video telephony.
Nokia Finally Embeds Skype Into Handsets; Also Rok Annotated
Nokia Finally Embeds Skype Into Handsets; Also Rok
By
Rafat Ali
- Wed 11 Jul 2007 09:30 AM PST
Now that it figured out that Wi-Fi phones would becomes common (Nokia itself is pushing many of those), it has finally embedded Skype onto one of its “phones”...well, it is not a phone technically, it is the N800 Internet Tablet device. Skype for the Nokia N800 will be available for download for existing users...I have one and will try it out later. There will also be Skype download links on the latest release of Nokia N800 devices which will be available at retail and on the Skype online store. More here. Would be interesting to see when Skype gets embedded on other Nokia Wi-Fi compatible handsets like N95.
In related news, Nokia is embedding a trial version of mobile TV service ROK TV in its E65 and E61i phones...Two channel packages will be offered - a 5 channel ‘Strictly Business’ package, to be charged in the UK at GBP 5.00 a month, with a heavy emphasis on business news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, EuroNews in 9 languages and regional news channels, and a 10 channel ‘ROK All’ TV package, to be charged at GBP10.00 a month containing all the live business news channels as well as additional sports news, music videos and comedy channels. As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first 2 weeks.
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