PSP Gets Free T-Mobile WiFi Link

Gadget Lab (via Engadget) brings us a PSP tidbit.

Included in the latest PSP firmware updates ....

Free T-Mobile HotSpot for PSP's!

The Wild, Wild World of Mobile Search

What's going on in the world of "mobile search?"

Yahoo and Microsoft are trying to capture the mobile search market specifically, while Google seems more interested in owning the entire experience of the third screen.

Google wants to get its software on as many phones as possible -- a strategy that doesn't look that different than Microsoft's early vision of putting Windows on every desktop.

Get the complete low-down from InformationWeek's Stephen Wellman HERE.

He's back from CTIA and he's ready to talk.

source: InformationWeek

Be Visible, Be Ziki

I mentioned in this post yesterday about the necessity for job seekers to create a web profile and join a community.

If you haven't been to Ziki yet, check it out. In fact,

Check out my Ziki HERE.

Then use this link to accept my invitation and register for a FREE Ziki account.

Once you've created your Ziki profile, please join my network!

Dennis

YouTube to Launch Mobile Site

YouTube will launch its mobile website in June 2007 for U.S. users, according to a spokesperson. The mobile YouTube site will go live once the exclusivity clause on the company’s mobile video deal with Verizon Wireless expires.

The service will be live for European users in May. YouTube has been already working closely with mobile carriers, and handset makers such as Nokia on the mobile version of their video service.

In response to my question if YouTube is developing a mobile client, the spokesperson said that the company had been talking about it, but had no information to share at this time. Check out a preview of the blocked mobile site or this demo site, which you can see from some mobile phones.

source: GigaOM

Google Kicks Mobi Search in High Gear

Google, in response to Yahoo's oneSearch, has upgraded its WAP-based search to incorporate more data and information into results.

Check out Google's Blog where Yael Shacham gives the 411 on mobile search (HERE). Yael is the Product Mgr for Google's Mobile team).

Starting today, they've made the new mobile search openly available - take it for a spin here.

Motorola Bails - Helio, AirG, and Music Phone Sails

Last week Motorola CEO Ed Zander announced he would be bailing out on the wireless industry's annual trade show in Orlando, Fla. Turns out he had bigger issues on his mind--like slumping sales and profits.

***********************

At CTIA, virtual carrier Helio, a joint venture of Earthlink and Korea's SK Telecom, will show off "Ocean," it's latest handset.

The phone, which slides two ways to reveal either a normal keypad or a full QWERTY keyboard, supports over-the-air music downloads in addition to other features like 2-gigabyte expansion capabilities for media storage, stereo speakers and video streaming.

***********************

Music-phone ownership almost quadrupled from January 2006 to January 2007 in the U.S., according to research firm M:Metrics.

And while only 17% of U.S. subscribers own music phones, they seem to like them: about one-third of those subscribers now use their phone as their primary music device.

***********************

AirG, which provides social networking features for carriers like Boost Mobile and Sprint, says it's grown to about 12 million U.S. users--some 6% of the total U.S. mobile subscriber base.

***********************

excerpt: Gadgets, Geeks, Gators (Fortune).

Ready.mobi Goes Gold

If you are in the wireless space, and particularly in the wireless development space, than you'll have an interest in dotMobi's latest post:

Ready.mobi Goes Gold.

Great info about the new developer guide announcement (Mobile Web Developer's Guide) and how they're moving Ready.mobi out of beta and in to 'gold' status. Translation: this version of the tool is complete and they've nailed down all the bugs so that it's hittin' on all cylinders with regard to stability and performance.

Here's a short version of what Ready.mobi (picture in the top left of this window) is used for:

The .mobi extension is about ensuring that the user is going to have a satisfactory experience when accessing a site w/ a mobile handset.

Ready.mobi simulates a real mobile device accessing the content of a .mobi site so that you can easily test the content and ensure it meets a range of basic criteria (.mobi compliance, adherence to W3C best practices, etc...). Ready.mobi even provides a 'mobi-readiness' score so you'll know exactly where your site stands.

Check out Jim's complete article @ dotMobi HERE.

The Carnival of the Job Search @ WirelessJobs.com

I'm really not a fan of the carnival. Guess I get a little freaked out by the sideshow acts. I just can't figure giving my hard-earned money to see a woman with lots of facial hair.

Howevuh...I've been diggin' the idea of the blog carnival lately. I got my first invite a few months back to participate in a blog carnival by our good buddy Jason Alba at JibberJobber.

Of course, I was too lazy to participate (or I forgot), but I liked the idea nonetheless.

So, I decided it was time to do a "Carnival of the Job Search."

Two reasons why I like this idea:

1) It has the opportunity of connecting me with other people I might never have the chance to meet. Yep, this is really the only reason.

2) It's a lot easier than asking people to write a post. All that's required is that they send me a job posting that they'd like me to reference in my weekly "carnival of the job search" post.

So, what is the carnival of the job search? It's simply a weekly post on WirelessJobs.com that includes job postings and links from various recruiters around the planet. Well, at least those who decide to participate in the carnival.

The important stuff:

So, how do you, Recruiter, participate? Simply submit a job posting via the "Submit an Article Form" no later than Thursday @ 3:00PM CT of each week.

I will compile each of the job postings and submit in one posting on Friday afternoon of each week.

I will post at least one job from each requester, depending on the total number of submissions for that week's carnival.

Job Posting Format:

Job Posting should be in this format (no job descriptions!):

Manager, RF Engineering - Atlanta, GA,

T-Mobile USA

For more information, please email Dennis @ wirelessheadhunter@gmail.com

Note: the link to the job description is in the job title.

If the job is already posted on a blog or career site, please provide the link so that I can reference within the post.

I will preface each job posting by naming the person that submitted the job, and will reference appropriate links to their blog - company - agency - etc.

Here's the biggie:

I will provide additional love and accolades for all requests that are heavily laden with humor. Yes, yes, we've got to keep it professional.

If you've managed to miss the previous links that will take you to the carnival of the job search, click HERE.

So, it's time to get your blog on, Recruiters.

I look forward to the carnival.

Hot Jobs @ T-Mobile

Here's a few of our hot jobs to peruse while you're killin' time this weekend:

Manager 3, Engineering - PM (Chicago, IL) #150341

Manager 4, Engineering - RF (Concord, CA) #149121

Manager 4, Engineering - Dev (Concord, CA) #149132

Director, Engineering - Development (Parsippany, NJ) #144327

Check out our career site @ T-Mobile.com.

Send me an email @ jobluv@gmail.com.



Checkout Las Vegas jobs at NVJobSearch.

California Cingular Customers Get Refund

Cingular Wireless will refund $18.5 million to thousands of former California customers who were penalized for canceling their mobile phone service because they had trouble making and receiving calls.

The settlement announced Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission ends a lengthy battle revolving around Cingular's treatment of dissatisfied subscribers from January 2000 through April 2002.

About 115,000 customers who left Cingular during that time will receive average refund checks of $160 to cover the fees that they were charged for prematurely ending their contracts. The refunds include interest.

source: DailyReportOnline

Sr. Manager, Engineering - Development, T-Mobile Nashville, TN

At T-Mobile, we're looking for the next big idea. Yours.

Our job search is on, and we're looking for an extraordinary leader to join us in Nashville, TN as a Senior Manager of Engineering Development (click title for extended job description).

Check out the link, or send me an email expressing your interest.

Geeked-out-slamdunkin-engineering folks only need apply.

Dennis Smith
Sr. Manager, Recruiting
wirelessheadhunter@gmail.com
T-Mobile USA
WirelessJobs.com (Blog)

5 Ways to SMS for Free

source: GigaOM

1). TeleFlip: TeleFlip has always been a favorite way to send “free” texts via email: ‘phone number’@teleflip.com. They still offer that service which they now call FlipOut, but they are also trying to turn their technology into a working business. I haven’t been able to test the new service yet (shown at DEMO), which is supposed to be out sometime this month, but they say it forwards your emails to your SMS inbox for free — 5,000 messages for per month. Hopefully they have a good management tool, as email spam can fill an SMS inbox pretty quickly and receiving text fees still apply.

2). Peekamo: Founded just November 2006 and based in Toronto according to their web site, Peekamo says they are different than other web-based SMS free sites, as both the receiver and sender don’t pay for the message. How do they manage that? — they say ad-sponsored messages, and using a protocol called short message peer to peer, (unlike the more common email-SMS method). When I sent a message from the web site to myself, it was sponsored by Sharp and had a link to Sharp’s web site www.moretosee.com. It’s still in beta, but is adding other social features.

3). Gizmo SMS: SIPphone has more than its fair share of sweet mobile services like the Gizmo Project, and earlier this month they also added a free web-based SMS service. The service works for dozens of countries and has a model ‘terms of service’ and privacy assurance sections. It’s not rocket science, but shows how these services are easy enough to create that they can be used to market the company’s other money-making solutions.

4). TxtDrop: TxtDrop founder 22-year-old Nate Kapitanski got some flack over his SMS MySpace widget and web service last year — the site didn’t launch with privacy terms and didn’t have an About section describing the company or its goals. He says the whole thing was a learning experience which helped make the site much better. As a result he added a privacy policy, email blocking, limited the number of messages that could be sent per minute, and says your phone number is now hidden in the MySpace code. Kapitanski, who only works on the project part time, also recently released a Mac OS dashboard SMS widget and says he is working on a Vista text gadget that could be out as early as April. There still isn’t a clear about section, but if you email the info address on the site, Kapitanski will probably oblige you on details you want to know.

5). Your carrier!? Yes, its true, some carriers have some limited web-to SMS and email to SMS services. On Verizon Wireless’ vtext.com site you can send a text to a Verizon wireless cell phone user, and send an SMS via email to “verizon wireless phone number”@vtext.com. Sprint has a similar web based service to text Sprint customers. They still get some money the more times people text using most solutions, so why not get more people to text their customers.

GotZapp (mobile social network)

Wireless Duniya posted today about a new mobile social network site called GotZapp.

GotZapp lets users create mini-websites with the "Ziranda" mobile content creator. The "Zapps" (images, text, music) can then be rated, commented on and downloaded by other users.

Cool stuff.

Nokia Enters Mobile Ad Space Race

Source: dotMobi

The mobile ad space is heating up. Nokia's entrance is significant, as they enter the fray with traditional players such as Google, MS, and Yahoo as well as smaller but nimble start-ups such as Admob.

It also confirms some of the predictions about the promise of mobile advertising. It shows they recognize the opportunity and want to build on their brand and leverage their market power building services connecting operators, advertisers and publishers. And they figure they are at the nexus of it all.

What they announced yesterday was two services. First, the Nokia Ad Service: a fully managed service for advertisers to do targeted advertising on mobile services and applications. The second was the Nokia Advertising Connector, which is a private label service. What is cool about the connector is that it selects and then feeds to the device text, visual, audio or video ads -- depending on the user's context.

Alcatel Launching Mobile Phones in North America

It looks like my buddies over at Alcatel (now Alcatel-Lucent) will be getting in to the handset biz.

Wow - just sounds strange to think about Alcatel being in the handset business (hey, John-Boy, let's have lunch and take mobile handsets!)

Here's the scoop:

Alcatel Mobile will be launching its presence in the North American market later this month at the CTIA Wireless trade show with partner Cellatel.

Their lineup of GSM/EDGE phones falls in the lower and mid range end of the mobile spectrum. Cellatel trialled several of its "E Series" phones with Cingular last summer, but so far there has been no word if Cingular chose to carry any of the handsets.

Based on information from its web site, Alcatel Mobile / Cellatel is targeting the MVNO market and will offer branding/customization services, as well as logistics, support and marketing.

source: PhoneScoop.com

The Ugliest Phone on the Planet

WiF:)) could be right ... this just might be the ugliest phone I've ever seen.

Yeah, I dig the big display, and the fact that it's Wi-Fi, but at what aesthetic cost?!

Sheesh - it's a good thing that it comes with a case...that way the user can keep it hidden from everyone's view.

The Internet Walk ..... nokia's n800 internet tablet

Take The Internet Walk with the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.



source: Adrants

First Truly Mobile Social Networking Service Launched

VelvetPuffin announced the launching of the first integrated social networking service that allows its users to instantly communicate, create and share user-generated content of all types with friends and family through a mobile phone or desktop computer.

Completely carrier independent and offered at no cost to the consumer, VelvetPuffin merges instant messaging and social networking to create truly mobile social networking.

source: The Blog Herald

Jobs in Pods (podcast your jobs)

As announced today on Recruiting.com:

"Chris Russell who is no stranger to the recruiting blogosphere has been busy lately. While the blogosphere was busy debating whether or not it has any influence in the industry or not, Chris started a new business. It’s called Jobs in Pods.

Essentially, it is a service that allows hiring managers to record an audio interview about either the company or a particular position they are anxious to fill. It’s a good idea because for the most part, job postings are not all that exciting. The idea here is to add some life to it.

Once the interview is complete, Chris will submit it to a number of places potential job seekers can listen to it. You can also have it widgetized and place it on your website. And speaking of websites, Chris has a done a great job in setting up his and everything you need to know about Jobs in Pods is there."

I like what Chris is doing, and that's why I did a podcast with him (click HERE to listen).

But after listening to the entire podcast, I agree with Jason - nobody wants to hear that much of me. We'll get the next one down to 3 min's or less.

As the crusty ol' preacher learned from his days in the pulpit...."leave 'em wantin' more."

So why would an employer want to do this? Well, as Chris notes below, "Recruiting is Marketing."

And, as Anil Dash says so well, it helps me

"connect with the people I care about."

Nice job, Chris. I look forward to working with you and finding new ways to connect with those people that are important to me.

Dennis

Phones and Rumors of Phones (thanks Google)

A venture capitalist says he has details on the rumored Google Phone.

Simeon Simeonov of Polaris Venture Partners writes in his High Contrast blog that an inside source has told him that it will be a Blackberry-like device running C++ at the core with an operating system bootstrap and optimized Java and that it offer voice over Internet Protocol.

"Apparently, Google is planning to build distribution relationships with multiple carriers by allowing them to minimize subscription and marketing costs,"

Simeonov writes.

"In other words, Google will market the phone online and carriers will fulfill. How fast can you say dumb pipe?"

Google and Samsung are rumored to be building the phone, codenamed "Switch," Simeonov says, and his posting includes what he claims is a leaked photo of the device.

Google and Samsung announced a partnership in January to bundle mobile versions of Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail on certain Samsung phones.

source: cNet News.com

Addicted to the CrackBerry You Are

15 Top .mobi Domains to be Auctioned in March

Washington (DC) - To help fund upcoming projects, the dotMobi group is auctioning off 15 of the top .mobi domains next month.

Singles.mobi, casinos.mobi, and pizza.mobi are just some of the names that will be up for bids.

The other domains, all ending in .mobi, are airfare, areacodes, cam, creditscore, directions, eat, libre, loancalculator, models, newmusic, pics, and realestate.

Last year, the group held a similar auction that raised nearly $400,000.

The auction will be held on March 7 at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. expo in Las Vegas, which is an event for domain name developers. Part of the proceeds will go to furthering dotMobi projects.

The sale of these 15 highly desirable names allows dotMobi to fund ongoing initiatives for the web developer and content provider communities such as the developer forum, and the free mobile readiness testing and reporting tool,”

said dotMobi CEO Neil Edwards.

source: The Mobi Blog

400,000 .mobi Domain Names Now Registered

DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- dotMobi, the company behind the first and only Internet address designed specifically for mobile phones, today announced more than 400,000 .mobi domains have been registered in 104 countries since the domain's launch in October 2006.

As a comparison, only 100,000 .com domain names were registered in the first ten years of that domain's existence. The growing number of .mobi registrations illustrates that content developers are focused on delivering quality sites and applications to mobile phones.

To help ensure quality mobile content, dotMobi has developed a number of initiatives to support and strengthen the developer community.

These initiatives include:"The reality is the next generation of internet content is mobile," said Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi. "Today's consumers want good content anywhere, at any time. The numbers reflect the commitment developers have made to reach consumers using .mobi."

About dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.), a joint venture company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Washington, DC and Beijing, is leading the development of Internet usage from mobile phones with the .mobi domain. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices.

On-the-go consumers can have confidence that an internet site or service will work from their mobile device when using the .mobi address.dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network and device manufacturers, and internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica, TIM and Vodafone. dotMobi is also a sponsor of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.

Telecommunications Predictions 2007 (Deloitte)

Deloitte's recent study examines 10 emerging developments sure to make 2007 another eventful year for the telecommunications industry:

Reaching the limits of cyberspace—growth in video traffic on the "superhighway" means the Internet is approaching gridlock. (Haven't we heard this one before? Is Deloitte saying that we are approaching gridlock in 2007 or that we'll reach gridlock?).

The net neutrality debate needs resolution—the Internet, fundamental freedom for all or a tiered, toll-based enterprise? (Agree - this one's not going away).

The broadband appliance unlocks the Internet for everyone—sidestepping the PC via new, small devices will promote future growth in Internet penetration.

Long live mobile video (just forget the television)—moving video content from the phone and onto bigger screens is far more likely to reap profits than trying to squeeze television onto mobile phones (I'm guessing Verizon's not backing this prediction).

It’s mobile, but not as we knew it—network operators need to shake things up as mobile moves indoors.

The case for innovation, not imitation, in IPTV—IPTV needs to develop an original offer of television, not be a pale imitation of what currently exists.

The kilobyte is the killer application—bigger is not always better, as kilobyte-sized applications show.

The double-edged sword of triple play—failure to deliver a consistent quality of service across all their bundled offerings could cost operators dearly.

The connectivity chasms deepen—in the expanding digital divide, if you do not have voice, you may not have a voice.

The rising cost of free telecommunications—the "free lunch" in telecommunications may cause indigestion for some.

The report includes recommendations from the Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry group on how to take advantage of these emerging trends.

Read the full report in the PDF file attachment HERE.