Mobitrends

As you may know, it’s possible to use your 3G phone as a Video IVR terminal. That means basically that you can call a number, have a video appear
on your mobile (the mobile will be sending a video of you, beware) and you can navigate through menus just like in an usual ivr (“to chat with naughty Melinda, press 3…”), but with video !

I was at an EBG conference a few months ago chere Jet Multimedia tried to make a demo of this (failed…). You can see Universal’s “LSTV” pilot on SFR network by dialing 5788 on your 3G Vodafone SFR mobile.

If you want to see how this works, check this article on Voxpilot’s website.

Now that you know what I’m going to talk about, here is the news : French operators will be launching in Q1 2007 their “Video+” short number services. Basically, just like with SMS+ this will be a short number (5 digits) with various billing plans to access a Video IVR service easily and through the same number through any operator. This might be also the start for new business opportunities … just as SMS+ has been ! So prepare yourself for the race to the most profitable Video+ service !

Technorati Tags: ivr, mobile, phone, services, video+

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the temptation to open La Fonera and check what’s inside … I’m definitely a geek I took some pics :

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see which chipset they’ve been using … and by the way I cannot find any SDK for La Fonera, anyone knows where to find that ?

Technorati Tags: fon, fonera, geek, wifi

We just announced that WaveStorm (disclosure, I’m CEO of WaveStorm) signed a distribution agreement with Computerlinks, a leading European distributor & integrator specialized in networks & security. I’m very proud to see SecurePass (authentication server), Easypass (hotspot gateway) and Sitenexus (carrier-grade WiFi hotspots management solution) in their catalog !

Technorati Tags: computerlinks

I just received my Fonera ! The router looks really nice, its so small and good looking, I just love it ! I took a few pics of it on my flickr. I had some trouble to set it up… indeed the documentation says “register your
router at wifi.fon.com“… which keeps sending time-outs… I guess too many people are trying to use it !

I just tried to connect to the internet through it … and badly failed … will try tomorrow !

Anyway, it’s a beautiful connected device, it looks so cool on my desk

Update : It’s working I decided I’d be a bill

Technorati Tags: fon, fon, fonera, fonera, wifi, wifi

Lately I’ve been saying everywhere at every meeting I made “Guys, wires are becoming the expensive option, putting a WiFi or bluetooth chip is the way to go !”. And indeed devices where wires are finally cut start arriving, starting with the PMPs (Portable Multimedia Players). Today after Microsoft’s Zune (249$
starting 14th November) and next here comes the Zing shown at Demo conference. The Zing looks just great, and having a WiFi PMP means your podcasts, MP3s and Videos Any Time, AnyWhere, Any Device – ATAWAD is just the way to go!

Adding WiFi is not just removing wires, it’s opening up to zillions of new possibilities!

Technorati Tags: pmp, wifi

Within the last few days there have been many announcements about bluetooth marketing campaigns starting up in France and all around the world. Until now I’ve been pretty cautious with the use of this kind of technologies as the user base wasn’t big & educated enough.

But things change and the latest experiments have proven to be real successes. I was talking last week with Fabien Beckers from Kameleon Technologies who told me how successful last week’s campaign with Virgin has been.

Servicesmobiles‘s blog reports that there is another big campaign running in Paris on the taxis by UniversalMcCann & Intel organized by mediamobile and another
one organized by Créature for Noos embedding taggattitude‘s devices into coffee tables. The tables were sending free ringtones and in one month there have been over 16000 downloads !

It’s really time for the marketters to update their communication material

Technorati Tags: bluetooth, campaign, mobile, mobile, push

Two nice articles on today’s edition of “Le Monde”. The first one explains how new technologies make us multitask. A recent study on 4500 families claims that “we are working more than 24 hours a day”. Indeed here is the detail :

• television (2,5 hrs)
• Instant Messaging (1 hrs)
• writing email (1,2 hrs)
• radio (1,3 hrs)
• Internet browsing (3,6 hrs)
• family time (4,5 hrs)
• work (6,4 hrs)
• transportation (1,2 hrs)
• reading e-mails (1,5 hrs)

On the other hand, we are less and less competitive according to this article. Maybe I’ll move to China before it’s too late !

Technorati Tags: productivity, IT, wireless

I just read a review of the latest Nokia N95,
and it looks just huge !

The N95 is Nokia’s first HSDPA (3.5G) device, but also boasts Wi-Fi, WCDMA, quad-band GSM, Bluetooth (including A2DP), IrDA and USB 2.0 connectivity (via mini USB connector). Other hardware features include a 5 megapixel camera, a built in GPS, TV-Out, 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio, a MicroSD memory card slot and 150MB of internal memory. Read on for full details and pictures. It’s the ultimate tool for a rollerblade-enabled videoblogger . As
I must hand over my Nokia N90 to Kamayo (did I tell u I jumped on an exit opportunity?) I’d love to have this one !

Hey Mr Nokia, any blogger program on this one ?

Technorati Tags: gps, mobile, n95, nokia, hsdpa

I’m updating the layout of Mobitrends right now… still have a few Typepad
issues to go through ! (I guess another few hours tonight and it will be fine).

Hope you will enjoy it and sorry for the few visual issues meanwhile

Update : any Idea how to re-categorize 1,5 year of blog notes easily on Typepad ?

Technorati Tags: blog, design

I just saw this news on pdafrance about Fujitsu ‘invisible’ bar code to enhance mobile shopping.

I discovered this technology 2 years ago through a friend living in Japan. At that time it was still early stage in the NTT Image development labs. Actually NTT created NTT Image, a subsidiary dedicated to image treatment and possessing all the IP inside QR-Codes & other barcode technologies.

In that case if I remember well the information is hidden within the fourrier transformation of the image by adding some peaks, making it undetectable for our eyes.

Anyway as usual this kind of technology are useless if decoding a barcode is more complicated than taking a simple photo for the end user. I was asked recently if I believed in mobitag’s technology… I answered no as I don’t think my father would be able to install an app in his phone and use it… although he is perfectly able to use MMS ! Thus it’s the operator’s job to choose a technology and embed it in all its mobile phones so that it could be used by the masses… and thus open the door to new market opportunities
for third parties !

Technorati Tags: barcode, mobile, operator