Twitter announced on its blog late Monday that users who want to submit pictures to the social network from their mobile phones can now do so through MMS. There's just one catch: it's only available to Orange UK subscribers.
According to Twitter, Orange UK users can send picture messages to Twitter's "86444" number. They need only to snap a picture, choose "Send via MMS", and input the number. Once the message is sent, the user will receive a text message asking for their Twitter credentials. Luckily, that message is only sent once. All subsequent uploads will not require credentialing. After they're input, a Snapshot link to the picture is sent to the user's Twitter profile to let followers click on and view the image.
As with Twitter's SMS service, which has been around since the beginning, the social network won't charge any fees to use its MMS service. That said, standard text-messaging rates will still apply.
But there's another consideration that we can't forget about. Companies like TwitPic and Yfrog have made a business out of making it easy for users to submit pictures to Twitter. If the company's MMS offering comes to both the U.S. and other carriers in the U.K., it could spell trouble for those picture-uploading sites. Assuming carrier-supported picture uploading is made available to more users (which, at this point, could be a tall order, since it requires carrier approval), that function could significantly cut into their use.
Until then, they probably have little to worry about--there's no indication that this service will be rolled out to a mass market anytime soon. We can hope, though.
On Thursday, Kadoink, an audio-messaging service, officially announced its beta Web site. The audio-delivery service, summarized at the Under the Radar Conference, sends MP3s, and voice and text messages to individuals or groups from your phone or the Web, harnessing one of seven widgets to automate updates.
Kadoink's phonecasting audience takes in social butterflies, particularly the party-going set. Ka...doinkers (?) are encouraged to send voice and music clips from gatherings, concerts, and other too-cool-to-be-true events. It does require an initial time investment to create friend groups online or by phone, the latter method that requires texting-specific messages to Kadoink's shorthand code.
Like Utterz and YouMail, Kadoink is a mix of Internet management with voice activity initiated from your cell phone. For instance, the service's music-sending, group call, birthday widgets, and so on, you create online within your Kadoink account, then can publish to one of many social networks and blogs.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
I quick-published a birthday widget on my Facebook profile from Kadoink.com via the MyStuff application. Then, I entered my cell number into the Facebook widget to leave myself a birthday greeting. A few seconds later I received the call; Kadoink's automated voice service prompting me to leave a birthday greeting. A text message then graced another phone, informing me of the birthday greeting that I can collect on my actual birthday.
The system appears to work more or less seamlessly, though some functions seem more useful than others. Gloating to five friends at once about a great concert I'm attending is a worthy application. If I want to leave a friend a birthday message, I'm more likely to call her up myself.
Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, and AT&T/Cingular users can text Kadoink's code--33033--to send messages. T-Mobile and Alltel users will find limited functionality while Kadoink continues negotiations.
ShoZu (coverage) recently added a new dimension to its multimedia messaging service--the ability to post photos and video clips to a preset cadre of destinations, while only paying for a single data transfer.
On the Web site, ShoZu users select from 30 popular sites their multimedia submissions will auto-update each time they upload an image or video. The sites include Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, plus the usual trove of blog hosting sites like TypePad, WordPress, and LiveJournal. Also fair game are personal e-mail and FTP addresses.
The new service also incorporates a tagging architecture that lets users assign tags to photos uploaded into a common group, like a pile of vacation or birthday pictures.
There are two main benefits to ShoZu's new MMS upload system. The first is simplicity--after choosing the recipients for auto-updating, you just MMS or e-mail ShoZu's processing e-mail, go@m.shozu.com, any time you want to publish. With minor tinkering, you can convert the address into a contact for a quick-launch, and if you're not sure how, ShoZu has even created a ready-made contact for you.
The second benefit is monetary. Since your MMS merely tells ShoZu to push media to your prechosen upload package, you only pay for one message total. The setup is similar to Utterz, which also supports voice and text pushes.
YouTube's mobile site has been live and available as of a few days ago. The service offers a hand-picked selection of videos users can watch on their mobile devices. Users have access to just the bare essentials, such as running time, rating, and a link to a video's page with more details. There is, however, no community aspect--no user comments, ratings, or video responses--the kind of things that make YouTube so interesting. Also missing is a dedicated video uploader, as mobile users are still required to submit their mobile videos via MMS messaging.
Instead of running in Flash, like regular YouTube videos, the clips have been downscaled and converted to the 3GP format for streaming. Despite this, I've had a heck of a time trying to get them to run on two of our test phones. It seems that instead of playing right in your browser, the service will simply piggy back on to your phone's built-in media player.
YouTube mobile was previously relegated to Verizon V Cast subscribers in the United States under the guise of an exclusivity deal between the two companies. Considering there are no ads in the mobile version (yet), any kind of money being made is likely on the carrier side from cellular subscribers who are paying for premium data plans.
You can give it a spin in your browser at m.Youtube.com, although the videos won't play.
Anyone can now access the mobile version of YouTube, although you might stumble into a few problems along the way.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
The Nationals introduce the mobile ticket.
(Credit: washington.nationals.mlb.com)The Washington Nationals may not have the best record, but they're ahead of the game in creating new ways to use your cell phone. As of April 26, the team is letting fans use digital tickets on their handsets to gain admission to games. After buying a ticket from the team's Web site, you can request to have it sent directly to a phone in a multimedia message (MMS). You then take your phone directly to the admission gate where they scan the bar code from your handset's screen. Then it's off to enjoy the ball game as usual.
Though the Nationals won't charge a fee to send tickets to your phone, you will incur standard MMS fees from your carrier. And don't worry about accidentally deleting the message, since the Nationals send you an e-mail backup. Also, you can't forward your electronic ticket to another number, as the team will invalidate it and not refund your money.
Even if you're not a Nationals fan, you have to like the future possibilities. Could paying for a hot dog and beer be next? And on a similar note, wouldn't it be great to breeze past the line with a cell phone ticket to a premier showing opening day of Spider-Man 3? If NFC developers have their way, that day may not be so far off.
(via Slashphone)
Iqzone is a new service announced at Demo 07 that allows you to post classified ads to the Internet using the camera on your cell phone. Users can create text-only postings or add pictures. The entire process is done by sending your photo and item description in a mixed media text message.
Iqzone is free, and all listings end up on the Iqzone's classifieds Web site. I'd like to see Iqzone build in some sort of integration to post to Craigslist and eBay. The service is being promoted as a quick way to sell things, but I can't help but think that no matter how easy it is to post to--it's going to be an uphill battle to get people to start using yet another classifieds site.
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