T-Mobile announced a partnership with Yahoo! that will allow them to show banner adverts on T-Mobile’s Web’n'Walk portal.
I’ve been using The Mobile Internet (in addition to The Computer Internet) for a couple of years now. I only really use it when I’m very bored or I’m not able to get on to The Computer Internet. It looks like these ads will only roll out across the Web’n'Walk portal, which is still stuck in 1998 back when brands believed that people actually want to use generic portals. Could it be that the only reason people go to the Web’n'Walk portal is because it’s almost impossible to change your home page?
Apparently, “mobile advertising will be enormous for the industry”, but I think many advertisers, particularly for eCommerce would have trouble buying media on The Mobile Internet if there is no measurable goal i.e. the user can’t use their credit card on The Mobile Internet. Until the telecoms stop charging 40% on reverse SMS and come up with an appropriate payment mechanism, eCommerce will not be getting on board. And that ultimately means that the market wont get any traction.
The thought of blinking punch-the-monkey banner ads springs to mind. There is limited screen estate as-is, it’s like using The Computer Internet but through back-to-front binoculars. Fudging the user’s experience up with invasive, targeted banner adverts is a sure-fire way to ensure that 2008 is NOT the ‘key year’ for mobile Internet.
The BBC have unearthed the top gadgets at last week’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. One of the most interesting is from a company called Eye-Fi have developed memory cards that actually has Wi-Fi built in. An app on the card can even store your passwords and upload to sites like Flickr and Photobucket. It’s available in the US but not in Europe until later his year.
I predict a big buyup of crap digital cameras on eBay.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on America’s 60 Minutes last night. Apparently this is a popular show that a whole bunch of people in America watch. It’s presented by an old lady who pretends not to know anything about anything. I didn’t watch the programme myself but I did watch the bit about Mark Zuckerberg on the 60 Seconds web site. He’s a curious fellow with a nerdy demeanour which almost seems disingenuous. Anyway, take a look at the specific bit and come back to me when you have.
There’s a prototype mobile phone from LG knocking around at the moment. There’s a YouTube video below and there’s an article on Engadget here.
It’s a bit chunky and the interface is straight out of Tron.
But I’m guessing it’s not going to hit the market for another 20 years. Here’s one from Hyundai that looks a little less Knight Rider.
Overall, it’s a pretty cool concept but the execution is going to be fairly difficult. Presumably you would need to have people on loud speaker constantly, the method of control is going to involve some form of tiny pen that you’ll lose when drunk or extensive use of Mr Pinky. Unless of course you use the scroll wheel that LG have opted for, meaning you have to scroll a hundred time to get your mum’s phone number to come up. Overall, it’s a wet dream for most boys-who-like-toys but a nightmare for a product developer.
Wired’s Scott Gilbertson is kicking off a fairly juicy rumor that Yahoo! is set to become an OpenID provider. I know I’ve bleated on about how wonderful life could be with OpenID and how it’s going to turn the Internet inside-out but you people need to listen up and listen up hard. One day you will be saying “Wow, remember the days before the proliferation of the decentralized single sign sign-on”. It’s so simple to be set up as an OpenID provider that as soon as Google, Yahoo! or MSN take it up, forgetting your passwords and signing into 20 different websites in a day will be a thing of the past.
Apparently David Lynch doesn’t think watching movies on an iPhone is a very good experience. He doesn’t go into it in great detail but you get the gist.
