Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

People are using mobile technology to socialize around events -- before, during, and after -- creating shared experiences. Want proof? UK service provider O2 measured and visualized text message volume around several World Cup games.

During the England - USA game, a total of 23,991,699 messages were sent within O2's network. Volume directly reflects points during the match that were especially exciting. Goals by both teams resulted in peaks of over 3,000 text messages per second.

As NYU's Clay Shirky would say, "media is the connective tissue of society." We see this in live sporting events as well as prime-time television and popular concerts. Services like Hot Potato, GetGlue, and Miso hope to both capture and enhance this conversation as it takes place around all sorts of content.

[via flowingdata]

Walgreens, the largest drugstore chain in the U.S., has just rolled out a notable update to its mobile offering. On top of a relaunched iPhone app, mobile website, and SMS coupons, the company is offering a new service called Prescription Text Alerts.

Walgreens’ Prescription Text Alerts let customers know when medications are ready for pickup or if there are any status changes to the prescription. Customers can sign up for them at the pharmacy or online. The texts can also be sent in Spanish.

The launch of Walgreen’s Prescription Text Alerts is an important event for mobile health — with more than 7,500 retail locations across all 50 states in the US, the opportunity for people to receive text alerts about prescription statuses is now nationwide.

SMS alerts are simple, but hold huge potential. Lifeguards use text alerts to keep track of sharks; at the Boston Marathon, onlookers were constantly updated with runner whereabouts. SMS alerts can act as a reminder to change the smoke detector batteries or to take your pills. A simple line of text provides timely information that can save lives or form new habits and behaviors.

[via mobihealthnews]

In an effort to curb violence in Portland bars, owners and the local police have set up a collaborative text messaging system. When someone is thrown out of a venue, other participants will be alerted with details about the person.

The idea to start a “text tree,” as it is being called, came out of a security meeting of bar and nightclub owners this year. It is modeled after a video system Las Vegas casinos use to alert one another when people are cheating or gambling illegally.

25 of 30 bars in the Old Port have signed up for the service, with about 20 warning texts already sent. Here we see yet another way individuals and organizations can embrace the ubiquity of SMS to self organize and solve problems.

[via nytimes]

Photographer Dennis Rito has put together a conceptual series called UNLIMITXT. In it, he explores mediated interpersonal communication through text messaging.

These 15 images are part of an ongoing process that attempts to show the commonality that exists across our social strata through the emotional interaction of this shared task and how that, in part, underpins the fabric of our society.

Affordability and convenience has fueled the success of SMS, and it is used widely in the richest and poorest of nations. In the Philippines, sometimes called the texting capital of the world, an estimated 2 billion text messages are sent everyday. It is important to understand how this type of communication influences society, self-expression, and interpersonal relations. A New York Times article this weekend, "Antisocial Networking," explored the idea that technology is affecting our kids' friendships. While some researchers believe that “digital natives” are already having a harder time reading social cues, others believe that the impersonal nature of texting and online communication may make it easier for shy kids to connect with others.

Click here for the photos.

[via popwuping]

Textie is a text messaging application for Apple mobile devices. By the makers of Tweetie (recently acquired by Twitter), Textie lets users across iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads message anyone for free, send photos, and receive push notifications.  Just as Skype for iPhone worried carriers, this should too.

For those under 30, it's hard to remember a time when the text message did not exist. The first SMS message was sent in 1993 by a Nokia engineering student, Riku Pihkonen. While telecom companies didn't see it as important, users discovered the power of quick, short messages. It was perfect for modern life and has since exploded; trillions of messages are sent in a year.

While traditional SMS is ubiquitous now, it's functionality is limited -- namely, it's siloed on the phone and it's 1:1. People have developed ways around this -- you can SMS from GChat and group message through TextPlus, for example. Textfree has also solved the expense problem. For some, Twitter replaces SMS because you can access it anywhere. Motoblur introduced a universal inbox to certain Motorola phones, enabling users to check all their messages (SMS, email, tweets...) in one place.

Textie is yet another way to have a better messaging experience. For one, it looks pretty -- clean, simple, well-designed. It combines SMS and email into one unified place. You can communicate with people who don't have the app. Oh, and it's free.

Carriers should be scared. And they should be thinking of ways to improve SMS, and not just overcharge for an archaic service. Otherwise we expect users will gradually move to these free and flexible alternatives.

Like cities and cars, everyday appliances are surely becoming smarter. Technology for the Kitchen promises a connected household.

The idea behind the Future Kitchen concept is that all your appliances are controlled via SMS. This means you could start your dishwasher with a quick text and be notified when your coffee is done brewing.

This is something that companies have been looking into for a while now. Samsung has experimented with RFID-equipped refrigerators, able to detect when its contents are running low or approaching expiration dates. In 2006, Whirlpool was testing washing machines that were smart enough to take orders via cellphone.

[via textually]

Pathways To Housing and Sarkissian Mason are using mobile technology to build awareness around helping the homeless. 

The campaign to raise awareness hopes to create interaction with someone most people just pass by, in prompting the public to interact with the virtual homeless man by SMSing a number that opens a door.

One simple text message lets users make a quick donation towards the project.

See it demonstrated here.

[via debaird / @derekeb]