State Department to Text Obama Speech [NY Times]
Once again showing off the Obama administration’s tech savvy, highlights from the President’s speech in Cairo today will be texted in 13 languages to more than 200 countries. The texting program also allows people to respond via text, with their comments appearing online here.
Unilever to Trial Mobile Coupons [mocoNews]
With Unilever’s new four-week trial program at a New Jersey ShopRite, it’s clear mobile coupons are going mainstream. Marc Shaw, Unilever’s director of integrated marketing, acknowledges that mobile coupons were “a Holy Grail thing that people have been trying to figure out,” but he also says they're “on target for where consumers’ heads are at right now.”
Donors send 18 mln euro for Italy quake victims via SMS [textually]
Around 18 million euros have been collected through an SMS campaign to help victims of a deadly earthquake in Italy.
MTV’s ‘Alexa Chung’ tunes into Facebook, Twitter [CNET]
Replacing the outdated TRL, MTV’s “It’s On with Alexa Chung” will feature on-screen tweets, content sourced from Facebook, audience contribution from polls to remixed YouTube videos and updates from Chung’s own Twitter account.
Nokia Branding N97 as a Mobile Computer, Not a Phone [mediabistro]
The press release for Nokia’s new N97 device promises a 3.5” touch display, QWERTY keyboard and customizable home screen. What it doesn’t mention is voice services or any reference to the word “phone.”
ABI Research: Mobile consumers ready to support green initiatives [IntoMobile]
A new study found that nearly half of mobile users in the U.S. are “somewhat likely or very likely to be influenced by suppliers’ green credentials when purchasing services or devices.”
Africa’s upwardly mobile money [Reuters]
M-PESA has filled a void in Africa where only 1 in 5 people have bank accounts but at least 270 million have mobile phones. The network, owned by Kenya’s biggest mobile phone firm and partnered with Kenya Commercial Bank, lets phone users who do not have bank accounts send each other money. And this is just the beginning: A recent Garner report states that the global market for mobile money is growing at 70 percent a year and will be mainstream by 2012.
Palm Pre Mania Begins With Six More Days To Go [mocoNews]
This Saturday, Sprint will introduce the new Palm Pre. Tech reviews have touted its great user interface and design, but will it be the next “iPhone killer” its makers are hoping for?
Gartner Says Wireless Connectivity to be Main Focus for Vehicle Manufacturers by 2012 [FierceWireless]
Gartner has found that by 2012 the majority of vehicle manufacturers will focus on developing products that enable wireless data connectivity in more than half of their next-generation cars.
Networking Sites Extend Reach [WSJ]
Handset makers and wireless carriers are working on developing mid-range mobile phones tailored to social networking. While these features are popular on high-end smartphones, they’ve typically been clunky at best on regular cellphones.
MediaPost Publications AdMob To Launch New iPhone Ad Units [MediaPost]
With the new iPhone will come new ad formats from AdMob. The new units were based on requests from advertisers and will cover social networking, search and rich media displaying advertising on iPhone apps and the mobile Web.
Retailers Explore Links to Social-Networking Sites [WSJ]
The advice of friends is a powerful influence and more and more retailers are hoping to harness that by connecting their sites to social networks like Facebook and the Facebook Connect platform, MySpace and Twitter.
