Monthly Archives: May 2012
Verizon goes into mobile video aggregation business
Rating: Initially only available for Android 4G devices
Viewdini is a new service from the USA’s Verizon Wireless network which aims to simplify access to video content for the operator’s mobile phone customers The company describes Viewdini as a portal that makes it easy for subscribers to search and view video content. Content includes films, TV and other sources of video files. The objective here is to highlight Verizon’s 4G (LTE) network capability. Which is, of course, fine if you are lucky enough to be standing in a location which supports LTE. Content providers which Verizon Wireless appears to have already signed up for this US based service include Comcast Xfinity; Hulu Plus; mSpot; and Net Flix. The company is hoping to add Verizon FiOS any time now. Continue reading
Tradedoubler to help more companies seize share of £200 billion European online and mobile market
Integrated online and mobile commerce opportunities rolled out for advertisers and publishers
Press release
May 23rd 2012. Performance marketing and technology company Tradedoubler has announced its campaign to help clients and affiliate marketing partners identify and harness the latest opportunities in online and mobile commerce. The campaign reflects Tradedoubler’s determination to help customers navigate their way through the hype and confusion around mobile marketing. Its launch is accompanied by a revitalised website and brand identity, unveiled today. Emerging communications technologies and an increasingly social, mobile and empowered consumer base are driving massive changes in the way people research and purchase products and services. Continue reading
A long-winded way of transferring contacts from a dead iPhone
Rating: Spin-off from hot tip in the Sunday Times
Recently, GoMobile News reading one of the excellent technical answers to a reader’s question in the UK’s SundayTimes Don’t Panic section, when it struck us that we’d failed to report on our solution for a very similar problem. The best way to describe our answer would be as an “extremely long-winded approach to transfering contacts from a dead iPhone to another iPhone or regular smartphone device.” But this solution does actually work. Nevertheless, both problems stem from how Apple’s iTunes PC software has been storing its data. In a nutshell, though, we took an iPhone with a completely illegible screen and no Home button and managed to transfer the handset’s contacts to a BlackBerry via an old Nokia. Continue reading
Mindspeed and China Mobile collaborate for TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE small cell solutions
Mindspeed’s System-on-Chip (SoC) Processors to Power China Mobile’s Small Cell Base Stations
Press release
May 21st 2012. Mindspeed Technologies, the industry leader in technology for small cell base stations, today announced that it will form a joint development lab with China Mobile Communications Corporation to support the operator’s recent deployment of Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) femtocells. Continue reading
Nokia’s entry level Mango phone – 610 – finally available in UK
Rating: Triggers debate about first Mango handset with NFC
Well, if you want a entry level W7 Mango phone, then the obvious option is to acquire yourself a Nokia Lumia 610. Thanks to our friends at Clove Technology we can now assure our UK readers that they will be finally able to get hold of this device by Friday [25th may 2012]. if you want to order it from Clove you can visit them here. A little bit of investigation has show that there are potential suppliers of the SIM-free (unlocked version) of this Windows Phone 7.5 device for slightly less than Clove’s asking price. The big question is will the 610 support Wi-fi tethering and NFC? Continue reading
Brands ignoring mobile search at their peril says Mobileweb
Rating: A cross device mobile strategy is also key, apparently
According to the Mobileweb Company, mobile websites that it operates typically see uplift in mobile site traffic of more than 90 per cent. That’s because they are fully optimised for mobile search discovery, the company claims. Whilst Mobileweb’s own recently announced research shows that iPhone users grab the lion’s share of mobile web access (55.7 per cent), the company still urges brands to adopt a cross device mobile strategy. Less than 10 per cent of potential customers have an iPhone. Continue reading
GoMobile News finally puts Android onto its HP TouchPad
Rating: Dual boot facility courtesy of CyanogenMod 9
Being something of purists, here at GoMobile Towers we were extremely reluctant to defile our HP TouchPad by taking off its native webOS. However, unimpressed with the apps available for this superb tablet, especially when we learnt the dual boot option was working extremely well. So it was off to our good friends webOS Nation for some really simple advice on how to perform this upgrade. We regret not having dug out the totally unofficial Google apps whilst we were about it. Anyway, we can confirm that Android 4.0 (Gingerbread) works really well on the TouchPad. Continue reading
Vizibility introduces the first mobile business vard for the new mobile wallet
Identity Management Goes Mobile with Wireless NFC and QR Codes
Press release
May 17th 2012. Vizibility, provider of the online identity management platform for professionals and the enterprise, has announced the first-ever NFC Mobile Wallet Card as a standard feature for premium subscriptions. The NFC (Near Field Communication) beta program that was announced at the Southwest (SXSW) Conference in March is now closed. More information from here. Continue reading
ZTE Brings Light Tab 2 to GSMA Smarter App Challenge
Press release
May 15th 2012. ZTE Corporation will be partnering with the GSMA on the Smarter App Challenge, a competition which aims to select the most efficient mobile phone application worldwide. The winner will be announced at the GSMA Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai, 20-22 June this year. Entries are open to the general public. Continue reading
Chelsea Apps Factory provides springboard for Tom Daley’s dive into mobile
Chelsea Apps Factory develops mobile diving game for 2012 Olympic frontrunner
Press release
May 18th 2012. Apps consultancy and development house Chelsea
Apps Factory , in partnership with diving star Tom Daley, has announced the launch of Tom Daley Dive, a diving game aimed at the Olympic athlete’s fans, diving enthusiasts and mobile gamers, available on iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. The new game challenges players to perform masterful dives in a fully realised 3D environment, with top scores displayed on a global leader-board. Continue reading
Net Communities strikes exclusive partnership with Ziff Davis
Intended to expand its digital offering to advertisers
Press release
May 17th 2012 . Net Communities has announced that it is once again growing its digital advertising representation offering, thanks to a new partnership with Ziff Davis, one of the world’s best-known publishers of technology-based digital content products. This exclusive agreement enables Net Communities to represent the UK advertising inventory for Ziff Davis’ flagship property PCMag.com, as well as ExtremeTech.com, Geek.com, Toolbox.com and the newly acquired ComputerShopper.com. Continue reading
USA’s National CineMedia upgrades its CinemaSync
Rating: Sadly it appears to only be available in the USA
National CineMedia (NCM) has recently upgraded its CinemaSync mobile technology. The company also plans to syndicate CinemaSync to other film and entertainment apps, allowing more film goers to interact with the cinema experience in a whole new way. NCM’s ‘Film Night Out with CinemaSync’ app is available for both Android and iOS but sadly appears restricted to the US market so GoMobile News couldn’t test it. To date the app appears to have had over 1.2 million downloads. The app is designed to bring the entire cinema experience to life via smartphones. Continue reading
GoMobile solves the W7 Mango auto-answer problem
Rating: But are ‘intelligent’ rear view mirrors the real answer
Regular readers may recall GoMobile News bemoaning the fact that when our trusty Nokia Lumia 800 W7 Mango handset was paired with a Bluetooth headset, there was no way to force the handset to auto-answer incoming calls. (See our previous story here. )Which is a major failing in our eyes. However, we managed to find one solution in the shape of Jabra hands-free car kit courtesy of our old friends at GN Netcom. You can pair your W7 Mango handset with this device and it has a button which you can push to answer an incoming call. Simples. The future, however, many lie with an intelligent rear view mirror system. Continue reading
ScanLife report shows how marketeers are using QR codes
Rating: Biggest barcode readers are currently Germans not Americans
Barcode scanning specialist, ScanLife, has just released its latest [Q1 2012] report on mobile barcode trends. What’s interesting is that out of all the barcodes processed by Scanlife, Apple iPhone users have started to scan more. The traffic generated by iPhones grew 6 per cent from Q4 2011 and represented 45 per cent of all traffic. That’s almost equal to Android OS users with 48 per cent. BlackBerry OS only just managed to pip Symbian (4 per cent vs 3 per cent). Of course, there are other firms handling barcode traffic but this report gives a clue as to the size of the market. Total scans processed by ScanLife rose to 13 million scans which represent a 157 per cent increase from Q 2011. There was also an interesting change in which countries had the top number of scanning users. The USA dropped out of the Top Five whilst the UK entered it. Continue reading
Parrot launches hands-free text/email messaging
Rating: GoMobile News discovers how to do so with Nokia Lumia 800
French supplier, Parrot, best known for its Android power vehicle audio centre – the Asteroid, has just launched a service which it is calling ‘TextFriendly’. The whole aim is to provide a service whereby any mobile phone user can manage his or her own communications such as text messages or emails – hands-free. Obviously, TextFriendly works using voice recognition technology but weren’t not sure which major player has provided it. Nuance, perhaps? We’re also guessing that it is actually a white-labelled offering – possibly from a company called QRC. Anyway, GoMobile News has tested the system out and provided it works really quite well. The snag is that we don’t quite know what the costs are. Continue reading
