An interesting piece on mobile culture
in Iraq popped up in the New
York Times today. For some obvious reasons (including more
supply, more operators, and the helpful destruction of a good deal of
communications infrastructure by both the US and insurgents),
mobile penetration has risen from 1.4 million subscribers in 2004 to
7.1 million today, according to the article (italics are mine).
Apparently, the culture of war and regime change has crept
into the nomenclature of mobility in Iraq, with popular models called
the Apache, Humvee, and Alawi (apparently a squat, round Nokia model,
probably the
6630). Mobiles there are acceptable accoutrements of middle-class
life, and also helpful tools to avoid the chaos, from traffic to
danger areas. Even the army and police love them, with one general in
the story flashing Nokia
8800.
Let’s just hope Iraqis find some enjoyment and a
tool for change, not just as day-to-day tools for survival.
A Portable Media Player is a device that already combines a couple
of multimedia functions in one place, but the Westrend Racer is able
to add even more. Source https://killthatcheerleader.wordpress.com
As you can imagine by the title of the post, this Racer player is
a gaming gadget. There are 5 games included on the “package”,
those being Action Super Hero, Football Com2us, Bulle-Wonder remix,
and Virus. Interesting titles to say the least…
Anyhow, the standard PMP features can be seen on the Westrend
Racer, such as a 2.4-inch TFT screen, compatibility with MP3.WMA.WAV
files, an image (JPEG) + text (TXT) viewer, and much more.
UK gadget mag T3 are currently treading
the gossip rumor mill with information about the Playstation 3
re-design.
As the beefy
Playstation 3 60GB edition quietly got discontinued a couple of
months ago we’ve been waiting to see what will take its place,
hoping a new model would be out this month along with the new rumble
controller.
According to a particularly
well-informed insider, it seems that the Big S is prepping an all new
PlayStation 3. The new incarnation is supposedly “slimmer, lighter
weight, and sexy as hell”.
Certainly slimmer is a good educated
guess, The PSP shed a lot of its weight last summer, the original
PlayStation ended up as the minuscule PSOne, and the PlayStation 2
re-incarnated as the PSTwo. Source : http://zeroinfinite.hautetfort.com
T3 speculate that the much hoped for
160GB PS3 could very well be arriving in this new look slim design.
The picture shown here was knocked up by T3’s team of designers. So
don’t get too excited!
Sony has peddled
their usual line of ‘not commenting on rumors and speculation’,
but that is exactly what they said before they dropped the size zero
edition of the PSP.
The Nintendo Wii has revolutionised
gaming because of its innovative controller. The
easy-to-pick-up-and-learn controls of the Wii has attracted not only
hardcore gamers but casual gamers as well, an inspired move that has
resulted in the Wii being the top selling console of this generation.
One of the things that has made Wii so
appealing is the fact that you actually move your arms and hands in
controlling the characters in a game. This kind of physical activity
is a welcome change to the static, sedentary method of old school
controls. In fact, Nintendo has made in roads in fitness and gaming
by releasing the WiiFit, a fitness program that uses the Wii Board.
If you’re the type who looks to the
Wii for physical exertion then you should not pass on Jog for the
Nintendo Wii.
This is a small device that hooks up to
your waist and is basically a step counter. But the Jog brings
Wii-gaming literally a step further because your steps are translated
as movement on the screen. Everytime you take a step, the sensors
will pick up the movement and the onscreen character moves in the
general direction of where you point the nunchuck controller. Setting
up the Jog to work with your controls is so easy – you literally
just plug and play. You won’t even have to worry about getting
specific games for the Jog. It is actually compatible with hundreds
of games in the Nintendo Wii game library.
This is what the Digital
Photo Frame Webcam does. It has all the trappings of the spy
gadget — if only that camera wasn’t so obvious. The webcam can
take photos too, when connected to a PC. The picture viewer itself is
detachable from the base. Aside from its basic photo viewer and
slideshow function, it also has a built-in calendar and thermometer.
A bit more tweak into making the webcam a bit more imperceptible
would be ideal, but as of now, I like what I see.
It
is common knowledge that Google has always been waging a fierce
battle against Microsoft and the latest Google
Chrome OSthat
harps on ‘Speed, simplicity and security’ is yet another weapon
from Google arsenal. The company claims that “Google Chrome OS is
an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be
targeted at netbooks”.
Google
Chrome OS has been designed to run on both x86 and ARM chips and it
is reported that Google is planning to shortly bring into the market
a number of netbooks.
Google
Chromeis
meant for users who are addicted to the web - searching for
information or checking email or eager to know the
Need
for Google Chrome OS
Market
analysts opine that in as much as Microsoft is trying to weaken
Google’s tenacious hold on the search engine market, Google is all
set to ride roughshod over Microsoft in the Windows-controlled
market.
Google
Chrome OS will boot quickly, have a minimal interface and specially
intended for users who spend a lot of time on the web. Google Chrome
has been launched into the market after recognizing browsers are no
longer confined to rendering web pages but extended to several web
applications.
There is
therefore a clear need for browsers to be more powerful and stable.
Most users experience difficulty with the existing browsers as a web
page can lock the browser and there is no way to isolate that tab and
close it. Google Chrome uses a new process for each tab.
Google
says the OS is designed to be speedy and light weight and carry the
user onto the web within a few seconds of clicking the power button.
Experts say the Google
Chrome Operating Systemwill
finally make netbook more meaningful.
I like to thank Marc T.,
Marketing VP of mobile application platform company called Action
Engine , for keeping me updated on mobile marketing. In case you
don’t know, Action Engine is the company behind MSNBC.com
Mobile http://www.msnbc.com/ , a news service that runs on your mobile device. It lets
you read msnbc.com news articles, save news articles for later
viewing, or watch news videos and photo slideshows.
you can also read and analyze Understanding
Mobile Marketing: Technology & Reach - a guide for
designing mobile marketing campaign.
When asked to comment
about mobile marketing, M T. replied:
Even though Action Engine is
first and foremost a mobile application platform company, we are
quite excited about mobile marketing over here. Our customers, like
MSNBC.com and TiVo, are looking towards advertising to prevent the
wireless consumer from having to pay subscription fees for data
services. Their hope is that the advertising subsidy model will
encourage mass market consumers to try and discover new content,
driving data services usage on a wide scale.
As mobile consumers become
more savvy, visiting clumsy mobile websites and paying high prices
for frequent data connections will grow increasingly unacceptable.
Companies who want to build brand equity with the millions of
wireless consumers in market today will need to evolve their mobile
strategies to create a better user experience. Media companies like
Yahoo! and MSNBC.com are launching advertising-based downloadable
applications in a heated race to be the first to attract consumers
with improved usability and personalization options.
Aside from Verizon
Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T have rolled out their unlimited
monthly plans for voice and SMS. Together, these 3 major
operators comprise about 65% of wireless customers in the US. They
are now ready to collide head-on against small flat-rate players Leap
Wireless and Metro PCS.
Then again, what triggered this
decision to shift from selling buckets of voice minutes to flat-rate
scheme? Is it passion to serve their customers better? Envy? Pure
generosity? Or a miracle?
No. It’s all about MONEY and
SURVIVAL. In the words of the Godfather Don Corleone: It’s not
personal. It’s business.
According to a comprehensive and
quite entertaining explanation of Telco
2.0, the non-operator voice-enabled applications such as Skype
and Google are growing very fast. Thus, selling buckets of minutes
may not be a very attractive future due to decreasing margins. The
alternative is to divide the bulk product and distribute it in
different ways.
The bottom line is that customers are winners
this time so never mind the agenda.
