Monday, April 14, 2008

Mobile devices stoke ‘micro-blogging’ fervor

Mobile Internet devices and online communities are merging to a new kind of web diary: “micro-blogging,” where people fire off terse missives about what they are doing or thinking at any given moment.The postings are bare-bones, on-the-go versions of online journals in which people share their lives and dreams — hence the name micro-blogging.

“Blogging has evolved and become more formalized,” said Yahoo Design Pattern Library curator Christian Crumlish, author of social networking book “The Tower of Many.A beautiful blog entry is an art form, and it takes time. So, micro-blogging fits into your life where you take a minute or two to see what’s going on and go back to work.Hot website Twitter has attracted a large following since launching slightly more than two years ago as a way to share Haiku-like text message updates with unlimited numbers of friends instantly via mobile telephones.The service entices users with its signature line, “What are you doing?”Startup Utterz, publicly unveiled last year, goes a step further by allowing users to post text, video, photos or audio from mobile telephones to the Internet with a simple call.What are the four things you can do with a mobile phone? You can talk, you can send text, you can take pictures and send video,” Utterz president Randy Corke told AFP.

“We want to use the technology that you have in your pocket,” he said.We want to make blogging as easy as talking … Our users can literally take their mobile telephone out and capture the experience, and the emotion of their voice, and interview people.”

Websites where people post blogs or share pictures or videos have become ubiquitous and firms like Twitter and Utterz are positioning themselves as places to merge and manage the images and words.The power of these technologies was unexpectedly unleashed at a recent US tech conference, SXSW, when attendees micro-blogged searing critiques of an on-stage interview of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“The woman interviewing Zuckerberg is lame,” Utterz user Leora Zellman wrote beneath a live picture she snapped of the interviewer, BusinessWeek magazine’s Sarah Lacey, on stage during the event.Never, ever have I seen such a train wreck of an interview,” wrote Twitter user Jason Pontin. “Poor girl, flirtatiously awful though she was.”Lacey “Twittered” her own response.Seriously screw all you guys,” she wrote. “I did my best to ask a range of things.Enthusiasm for micro-blogging has prompted numerous blogging and social networking sites to focus attention on ease-of-use and accessibility in a world increasingly fond of mobile net devices.Top social networking properties Facebook and MySpace offer mobile versions of their sites to increase user accessibility.Facebook invited Twitter to customize applications for the online community when it opened its platform to outside developers early last year.

Video-sharing superstar YouTube tailors links for mobile telephones, including a special player built into Apple’s iPhones, which combine video, music, Internet and mobile telephone capabilities.Picture-sharing website Flickr, which added a video feature in April, encourages uploads from camera-equipped mobile telephones.New technologies are most accessible when they take something you need to do anyway and make it much easier and much more useful.


Source : http://afp.google.com

Posted by martin at 07:37:32 | Permalink | No Comments »

Monday, April 7, 2008

Asus M930 Windows Mobile Smartphone


Windows Mobile is beginning to look seriously dated these days. So much so that manufacturers are having to come up with increasingly innovative, feature-packed hardware to convince the public to buy, and the version for non-touch screen devices is having the hardest time of it. Despite the fact that, of the two flavours of Windows Mobile, it’s slightly better suited to its purpose - it doesn’t have all those hangovers from the PDA days, such as fiddly dropdown menus and nasty little checkboxes - it just isn’t sexy enough in today’s ultra-competitive smartphone market, and is now looking well past its sell-by date.

Asus’ latest smartphone - the M930 - makes a pretty good stab at reviving it, though. From the front this looks simply like a very chunky standard phone. It has a small, 2in 240 x 320 screen, a numeric keypad topped with a directional control and a fairly standard sprinkling of other buttons. There’s a 2-megapixel camera on the rear. On the right edge is a microSD memory slot, along with a volume rocker and shutter release. On the bottom is a mini-USB socket and 2.5mm hands-free headset socket. There’s nothing particular of note.

Pick it up, however, and your opinion begins to change. There’s no getting past the bulk and weight of the phone, which at 113 x 54 x 18.7mm and 158g make it wider, taller, thicker and heavier than the slightly disappointing HTC S730. But it’s a much nicer-looking phone than the HTC device. Its style is perhaps best described as industrial-executive: not only does it feel incredibly solidly made - there’s barely a rattle or loose key anywhere about this phone’s sturdy person - but it is also adorned with shiny phone jewellery in all the right places. That directional pad, for instance, is finished in brushed aluminium effect, as are the slim soft keys just below the screen; and the screen’s glossy black surround and narrow chrome trim manage to offset the eyesore of Microsoft’s ugly duckling operating system very successfully.

Source : http://www.trustedreview.com

Posted by martin at 11:27:58 | Permalink | No Comments »

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Cheap Cell Phones, Mobile Phone Deals

The Top 3 Ways Of Getting Cheap Cell Phones – Get Yourself Some Mobile Great Phone Deals Today!

Shopping for cheap cell phones is easy if you know where to look. Use the following tips and discover how easy it can be to get mobile phone deals.

Shop Online

You can easily find cheap cell phones all over the Internet. It’s quickly becoming one of the best places to buy mobile phones. Firstly, you get a large variety of phones to choose from and secondly, you pay less because you don’t have to go through a dealer. Not to mention, searching for cheap cell phones online is convenient, fast and you won’t have to deal with persistent sales people. Everything you need to know about any model that you’re interested in will be online and available to you.

Buy Used Cell Phones

Getting a used cell phone can also be one of your methods to a good mobile phone deal. Not all second hand cell phones are badly damaged. In fact, some of them may be in an almost-mint condition but are being sold because its previous owners were quick to switch to newer models. Because of that, you can sometimes find the latest models at very affordable prices at used cell phone stores.

Shop At A Carrier Store

If you already have an account with a particular cell phone carrier or you’ve already decided which carrier you want to sign up with, then why not shop with them? Once you have an account with them, their cell phones become very cheap and they even have fringe benefits to go along with it. This can also be done the other way around. Decide on the phone you like and go with the carrier that’s giving the best mobile phone deals.

Resource : http://ezinearticles.com

Posted by martin at 11:57:33 | Permalink | No Comments »