Archives: April 2008

Nothing can be cooler than having to upload pictures, videos or audio files into your social networking profiles, or web hosted blogs, using your mobile phone, anytime, anywhere, right? This is the reason why given the proper buzz and perhaps support by major mobile networks, Cellspin’s mobile application could very well contribute to the further growth of social networks. Read more

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Through a partnership with Burger King and Warner Music Group, Virgin Mobile USA is offering select ringtones for a dollar.

The Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu, powered by Burger King, offers ringtones from a wide variety of WMG artists like Buckcherry, Casa De Leones, Danity Kane, Estelle, War and Flo Rida, to name a few. Presumably, the promotion is aimed at Virgin Mobile’s target audience of young adults who may have actually heard of more than one of the participating artists.

Virgin Mobile USA customers can download the ringtones from the VirginXL WAP deck on their phone or via the MVNO’s Web site.

Engadget Mobile reports on some new software called iSwish that gives Windows Mobile-based touch-screen phones an iPhone-like user interface. iSwish, from Flick Software Research, is due out in beta form in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can see what you’re missing in the following video:

AT&T, Microsoft, phone maker HTC and mobile game outfit I-play are launching the AT&T Game Development Contest for Windows Mobile.

From May 1 through July 31, developers are invited to submit their Windows Mobile-compatible game. The grand prize is a mobile game developer contract with I-play, prime placement on the AT&T MEdia Mall and $25,000. Three finalists and 10 semi-finalists will also win prizes, but you’ll have to visit http://developer.att.com/gamescontest to find out what they are. Games will be judged on gameplay value and quality, how unique and creative they are and their market potential.

Prepping for a season full of superheroes, Hands-On Mobile and Marvel Entertainment have come out with a mobile game and other content based on the upcoming “Iron Man” movie due to hit theaters on May 2. The two are also developing a game and other mobile goodies for “The Incredible Hulk,” which will burst onto the big screen on June 13.

In the “Iron Man” game, players take control of our invincible hero and use repulsor rays and the unibeam to blast away at enemy forces through four levels of game play. Wannabe iron men in the US can download the game by texting “IRON” to 46966.

More details about the Incredible Hulk game will become available closer to the flick’s release date.

A number of Hearst titles including Cosmo; CosmoGirl; Good Housekeeping; Redbook; O, the Oprah Magazine and Seventeen are adding text-messaging functionality to their magazine pages, Mobile Marketer reports.

The new service will let readers buy products, request samples, enter contests and more simply by texting to the short code on the page.

Hearst’s campaign uses technology from ShopText and requires readers to first sign up to use the ShopText service. The two have been working together since 2006 when they began testing the service in CosmoGirl.

Answers are a dime a dozen on the Web. Does that mean we’re asking more questions? Never get stuck without that important 411 again. If you want to skip the library, call ChaCha for on-the-go answers to your questions. The free cell phone service (available at 800/2chacha) will text message an answer to any question you leave on their voicemail line. You may also text your questions to “242242.” Read more

Mobile advertising marketplace AdMob has launched a new mobile analytics service that, according to the company company, is “the most important thing” that has happened within AdMob since it’s marketplace launched two years ago.

AdMob claims its Mobile Analytics service is the first comprehensive way for advertisers to measure the effectiveness of all their mobile campaigns across various ad networks. AdMob Mobile Analytics if a free, unlimited service that is open to all mobile marketers, whether or not they use AdMob advertising.

With the suite of analytics tools, mobile site owners can track unique visitors, length of visit, page performance, user geography, operator and device specifics.

You can check out a demo of the service in the video below. If you want more, click here to learn about the AdMob Mobile Analytics private beta program.

Sony Ericsson is moving beyond handsets with something called Project Capuchin, a mashup of Java ME and Adobe’s Flash Lite technology.

According to a Telecoms.com report, the idea behind the hybrid platform is to let developers build apps with the “clean user interface made familiar by Flash” without losing the richness made possible by Java. Benefits on the Flash Lite side include the ability to add a full presentation layer. Java fans will benefit from being able to define the Java ME user interface components in Flash.

The Project Capuchin technology will be available to developers in the second half of the year.

Interactive television software developer Zodiac Interactive has spun off its Zodigo mobile content search engine in a management buyout. Zodiac senior VP of strategy Matt Johnston led the buyout and has taken the position of Zodigo CEO.

The newly independent company’s solution is said to improve the mobile content shopping experience by making it easy for consumers to find and download content to their phone from a TV, PC, DVD or gaming console.

“Zodigo is very mobile-centric and requires a team that can focus specially in this area, which is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing markets in the world,” Zodiac founder and COO Alex Libkind said in a canned statement. “We launched Zodigo as a subsidiary just a few months ago, and we’re pleased the company has already reached this point.”

(Image credit: Jupiterimages Unlimited)