RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Corporate News’ Category

Podcasts via SMS

25 Apr 2006

VoiceIndigo launched VoiceIndigo MOBILIZE for Podcasters, which is a free service that enables podcasters to market and deliver their podcasts to the listeners’ cell phones via SMS (‘texting’).

VoiceIndigo is a mobile distribution service for podcasts which enables brands to reach out to the farthest corners of the mobile network edge, the blogosphere, and the audible web to transact with consumers via click-to-call, click-to-request, and click-to-buy.

MOBILIZE for Podcasters let you deliver your podcasts via the mobile phone.
Add a MOBILIZE button to your podcast’s website.

Also worth remarking is:

With over 1.7 billion subscribers, mobile users are by far the largest potential media audience in history. They can also be the best understood. We’ve developed Ambient Advertisingâ„¢, a patent-pending innovative new way to monetize audio content that benefits Listeners, Podcasters, Mobile Service Operators, and Advertisers alike.

via Textually

 

With Love From Microsoft

11 Apr 2006

Hey, in the end we’re all on the same side. It might not be a declaration of love, but it’s pretty cool the microsofties sent this out.

From Microsoft, with love.

via AdFreak.

 

Disney Tracks Your Kids

05 Apr 2006

Next to marketing the kids, Disney has put its focus on localizing them too. Now parents will be able to see where their kids are, who they’ve been talking to and for how long. Using this technology in reverse, parents can now text/call their children with the following message: “I know you’re going to pass the ‘x’ supermarket in 15 seconds, bring home some milk, or you won’t have any in the morning.” – The Disney alert system could then be used to inform kids about stores in the nearby neighborhood and about lovely new toys that are for sale there. “Your mom would surely be pleased if you bring this new movie home that’s for sale in our store a block away from where you’re now.” (that last bit isn’t true yet)

Disney is launching a US service that will enable parents to monitor how their children use their mobile phones. They will be able to track voice, text, video and picture messages and set limits on their children’s calls.

The phone will also allow parents to locate where their children are via a global positioning system.

Disney is targeting 20 to 30 million children with the new service. While the US mobile phone market is well established with 70% of the population already owning a phone, this figure is lower among teenagers.

About 45% to 50% of 13 year olds have a mobile phone, according to technology analysts Jupiter Research.

The new phones for parents, which will be sold over the internet, are expected to be available from June.

Disney has not yet revealed what it will charge for this service, but monthly fees from other providers are as little as $10 per month for each new family member.

Source: BBC News

 

Company Backtalks

30 Mar 2006

There’s an email going around that I’ve received a few times already from former colleagues. In this email there are testimonials of employees that discuss certain pains inside the company policies or that show the ridiculous ways of thinking of some executive people. Reading these comical situations might teach you some things about ‘how not to manage’ and ‘how not to treat your employees’. Apparently the quotes were collected for some sort of competition, but I don’t know which one or where…

  • “As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.”
    (Fredrick Dales at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, WA.)
  • “What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter.”
    (Lykes Lines Shipping)
  • “E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business.”
    (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)
  • “This project is so important, we can’t let things that are more important interfere with it.”
    (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)
  • “Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule.”
  • “No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We’ve been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I’ll let you know when it’s time to tell them.”
    (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)
  • “My Boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed corrections. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn’t edit it. The disk I gave her was write-protected.”
    (CIO of Dell Computers)
  • “Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.”
    (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)
  • My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, “That would be better for me.”
    (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)
  • “We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.”
    (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)
  • We recently received a memo from senior management saying: “This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the memo mentioned above.” (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division)
  • One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, “If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!” (New business manager, Hallmark Greeting Cards)
  • “As director of communications, I was asked to prepare a memo reviewing our company’s training programs and materials. In the body of the memo in one of the sentences I mentioned the “pedagogical approach” used by one of the training manuals. The day after I routed the memo to the executive committee, I was called into the HR director’s office, and told that the executive vice president wanted me out of the building by lunch. When I asked why, I was told that she wouldn’t stand for perverts (pedophiles?) working in her company. Finally, he showed me her copy of the memo, with her demand that I be fired-and the word “pedagogical” circled in red. The HR manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his dictionary and made a copy of the definition to send back to her, he told me not to worry. He would take care of it. Two days later, a memo to the entire staff came out directing us that no words, which could not be found in the local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later, I resigned. In accordance with company policy, I created my resignation memo by pasting words together from the Sunday paper.” (Taco Bell Corporation)
 

Everybody Loves Mobile Content

23 Mar 2006

… and that’s why there’s so much happening I don’t have time to write separate posts for it. So here’s a list of recent stuff you can do with your mobile phone:

Wikipedia Mobile:

Users of Pocket PCs, Smartphones and Java-enabled mobile phones running web browsers can now access a lightweight version of the Wikipedia on-line encyclopaedia. New Zealand-based company Instinct has created a mobile version of Wikipedia for mobile devices, currently available as a beta website.

Point your phone to this URL : http://www.3g.co.nz/wiki

PayPal Goes Mobile:

Paypal’s new Paypal Mobile service is apparently up and running, and from what PSFK says there’s really not a whole lot to it: you can either text PAYPAL (729725) with the dollar amount and recipients digits (i.e. “send 10 to 2125551212″), or you can do it manually by calling 1-800-4PAYPAL (1-800-472-9725), which is obviously far less exciting.

In-Game Advertising Goes Mobile:

Expect in the near future to see a rising interest for mobile in-game advertising and with new technology such as a new multimedia devices featuring excellent processor performance, display technology or 3G surround sound, in-game advertising can now be displayed to a very high quality.

ZoneTag Geocoded Moblogging:

Yahoo recently rolled out a great new moblogging application called ZoneTag. The application uploads images from your mobile phone to Flickr and automatically tags them with the location, based on the cell tower nearest you.

MSN/Hotmail users can now access their inboxes from their mobile phones. (you probably just have to surf to the hotmail url and log in) (no press release found yet)

Yahoo Goes Skype:

“Using the new Phone In service, subscribers get a personal phone number for receiving incoming calls to their PC from regular phone lines and mobile phones. Those signing up can receive unlimited domestic calls for $2.99 a month or $29.90 a year. With the Yahoo! Phone Out service, subscribers can make PC-to-phone calls within the U.S. and to 30 other countries for two cents a minute. To use the new services you’ll need to download the new client (available at http://messenger.yahoo.com/).”

 

MSN Spaces Adds Mobile Video

22 Mar 2006

Microsoft’s MSN.co.uk website has linked up with mobile network 3 to provide bloggers with access to mobile TV and video-sharing tool. Users of MSN Spaces, the blogging tool that allows them to share thoughts, photos and music lists, will now be able view each other’s video clips taken on their mobile phones.

Spaces

… Users will also be able to access SeeMeTV, 3’s mobile TV channel, which shows and pays for customer-created content.”

MSN.co.uk has signed a three-month deal with 3 to create a branded online space where users can submit clips that will then be judged by other users in competition for a cash prize.

Read more on Guardian Unlimited | via PicturePhoning

 

Riya Photo Search

22 Mar 2006

Gert told me Riya is open for signups. Riya will be unstable, s..l..o..w, buggy, inaccurate, and could lose some (or all) of your tags. It may also be unavailable from time to time and may slow down your machine while uploading your photos (they recommend you upload overnight). Riya is in beta phase, which means that they are all about learning from you to get better. Riya needs you to give them loads of feedback and give it often so they can improve over time. Riya is a Photo search engine that is best used on personal photos of friends and family, not on public pictures you got from the internet somewhere.

Riya

Warning: Riya will only work if you

• Have high resolution JPEG’s with date and time from your camera
• Use digital photos of your family and friends not celebrity or web images
• Have many photos of the most common people in your photoset
• Don’t give it scanned photos, photos with bad lighting, or profile shots of faces
• They recommend you upload at least 1000 photos w/ full albums

Riya will take about a day to upload 4000 photos.

Requirements:

  • 512 MB RAM
  • Windows XP (Home/Professional/Media Center)
  • Administrator Privileges
  • Broadband Connection
  • Pentium 4/Athlon/Centrino
  • Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 1.0.5+

Learn more about Riya
Read the Riya Blog

Use the backdoor signup and skip the invite-only. | also on InsideGoogle

 

Ideas.live.com For Belgium

21 Mar 2006

Beta testing just opened up on http://ideas.live.com/

Windows LiveTM Ideas is where you can check out the very latest Windows LiveTM products—so new that they’re not even finished yet. So give them a try and then tell us exactly what you think. And don’t hold back. We need your help to make these products the best they can be.

Thanks for the scoop, Kris !