Culturally speaking, the level of aggression differs per country. Some folks don’t really mind being sent text spam – for instance if this is the business model behind getting free credits. So yeah it depends, but T-Mobile isn’t in any good shape with its irate customers who ARE getting spammed.

I think the way to go should be permission based advertising – mobile phone carriers should still ask subscribers whether they should have certain “spam” turned on. This also allows you to further customize these messages to fit the demographic and thus have, well relatively, better conversion rates into sales.

Post from: Cellphone9

SMS2.0 is an app developed by Affle, a UK based company that develops custom SMS applications into phones. Rather than customize apps for every manufacturer, Affle has developed SMS2.0, a consumer app that runs free of charge, with ads running on the side.

SMS2.0 is a next generation technology innovation in the mobile media space. It is bringing a paradigm shift in mobile user interactivity. Users are experiencing enhanced messaging services, search and access to relevant content, and promotions of interest in a personalized and non-intrusive way. [RELEASE]

Useful? I’d have to say that the app will only be relevant depending on how well it integrates with the phone. Being a third party app, this would open the user to UI hurdles for something as basic as SMS. SMS2.0 isn’t a new concept – it offers more than just colored SMS but we really have to see how “non intrusive” it is since they will be running ads onto your phone….

Post from: Cellphone9

As a cellphone geek who’s been traveling around the neighboring Asian countryside I’ve developed an eccentricity to never put my phone on roaming. Instead I’d always buy a “souvenir” SIM card from each country (Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia) and put it on my open-line phone. I dunno, it seems more rustic that way.

In my travels (heh, always wanted to say that), the common denominator with phone brands would always seem to be the Nokias and Samsungs topping the charts. Developing countries also have a fascination for the cheaper “Bird” branded phones as well as the fake Nokla and other innovative China-made phones which the West has really never seen before.

Post from: Cellphone9

According to Crave, passengers will not know they are on a test flight. That’s funny too because imagine the in flight radio going on announcing “by the way welcome to a special test flight to see whether we can send SMS without crashing the plane.”

Post from: Cellphone9

I love shows that do audience participation. Especially in the form of SMS voting for talent shows like American Idol. Well, we have our own franchise back here called Philippine Idol. And as a fan of these talent shows that, I’ve become a little disturbed with some developments in blatant SMS padding of votes. For instance, applications such as SMSPal exist that turns your phone into an SMS Machine gun spitfiring the same SMS to the same number multiply times.

But that’s fine really as you will come to realize that these SMS voting campaigns really have some form of business model behind it for carriers to make more money. Just don’t be too obvious I guess. I’ve heard of a special prepaid SIM card that allegedly exists that allows the person to send the entire preloaded amount to one number — made exclusively for SMS voting.

Now isn’t that too over the top? I can fire up this SIM card onto my phone and send 10 dollars worth of text to vote for my favorite candidate. If the entire town does this, you’ll have thousands of people “text padding” their millions of votes. I’d really love to know if this technology does exist in one form or the other. A special SIM for this purpose implies that the technology is made by the telco and not by some third party hacker. Are these true? Would love to hear from you guys.

Post from: Cellphone9

What happened? Had no one gotten the text messages? Were the two biggest telecom providers, Smart Communications and Globe, experiencing an SMS outage? Had the government blocked the messages from being delivered?

None of the above. The people leading the coup last month seemed to have made a big mistake: they did it during working hours.

One note though – the article mentions that the coup failed due to the time of SMS sending – rush hour. Actually it wasn’t really that. With the holidays approaching plus the fact that the coup plotters chose Thursday – which was the first day of the long weekend holiday for most of us – we had better things to do.

Post from: Cellphone9

You know, this kinda reminds me of the BenQ-Siemens P50. Interestingly enough, the ASUS P750 looks like an all around solid smartphone. Running on Windows Mobile 6 (with handwriting recognition), the P750 comes with a fast HSDPA connectivity feature as well as wireless 802.11g. Selling points include a 3MP camera, all around connectivity with push email and GPS.

Announced two months ago, the ASUS P750 will be available soon. For more specs, proceed here. The holidays are just around the corner — this is definitely a good buy!

Post from: Cellphone9

So I was listening to episode 66 of MacBreak Weekly and towards the end of the show Alex Lindsay brought up a neat SMS application for the Macintosh called SMS Mac – this was his pick of the week. What it is really is an app that allows you to easily send SMS blasts to everyone in your address book. What makes SMS Mac shine is its ability to take many shapes and forms incorporating itself into your Mac addy book, Yahoo! contacts, a sidebar gadget and the like. Some configuration needs to be done as the SMS Mac app needs international numbers to send text. Still, this is a great application to have for SMS group blasts.

Post from: Cellphone9

It works with regular digicams but it works just as well with the camera on your phone. The Kameraflage application allows you to see things that you can’t see with the naked eye. T-shirts, billboards, and other media can use this technology for advertising campaigns especially for those print ads on the street. Take a look at the image above for an example of real world links.

Hidden messages, out of the box advertising campaigns, and just plain fun – this is definitely a product you won’t see.

Post from: Cellphone9

But it also means that couples do rely on SMS as a significant means of communication, rather than making actual phone calls.

I’l ask you now – how many SMS messages do you send a day to your loved one, compared to calling. Back here, the price of 8-10 SMS messages is more or less equivalent to one minute on the phone. If I can make my message clear in less than 10 exchanges of text, then it would mean that SMS would be the valued medium of choice.

But you know … personally, if I have an issue to discuss with a friend or significant other, I’d rather meet them in person than send text. It’s more meaningful that way.

Post from: Cellphone9