Mippin is to be demonstrated at the Mobile 2.0 Conference in San Fancisco on Monday. See the other companies showing and the speaker list, and conference details.
Mippin - nothing to install, just point you browser at http://mippin.com.
News filtering through the lofty windows of Refresh Towers this morning informs us that there is a rather large buzz about getting such comic classics as The Beano and The Dandy converted from their traditional paper formats to the digital medium of MMS!
Wowee!
Huzzah!
"It's oh so Quiet! ...it's oh so still."
Yes it is... but WHY?
Well - we like a bit of Bjork in this office y'see...
We think she knows her stuff.
There's nothing quite like a bit of Icelandic warbling to help you concentrate on the day-to-day business of making your mobile life an easier and better place to be...
Because y'know...
...that's what we like to do here at Refresh Mobile.
It's kinda why we've been a bit quiet of late... We've been busying away on a new way to make your mobile life, better.
But how?
Well...
Mobizines was our first foray into the mobile space...
Then came Eyemags...
Both of which have done stonkingly well, (and will continue to do so), winning us accolade after accolade...
And now..?
We would like to introduce you to the newest edition to the Refresh Mobile stable.
Welcome to... Mippin beta
Wooo! Cheer! Hurrah!
The Daily Star goes mobile with Mobizines!
That's right folks...
On the back of the amazing success of the City PM Mobizine -
Mobizines is happy to announce the launch of it's first national newspaper Mobizine with The Daily Star!
Here's the science* bit:
"Fresh from the press twice a day! With highlights of the top stories and all your favourites from the paper to keep you entertained. The Daily Star brings you the latest News, Gossip, Sport and even Page 3 straight to your phone Mon-Fri. With new editions available at 11am and 5pm the now Twice Daily Star is free and available to download right now!"
Cool!
Ok - so what does it actually look like on your phone?
I reckon we can handle that...
Looks good huh? We like to think so...
You can find out how to get the Daily Star Mobizine here - if you already have the Daily Star Mobizine - refresh your 'Add New Mobizines' list and the Daily Star should be there waiting for you...
Oh and just so you know: No techies were harmed during the creation of the above graphics.
:o)
*Really we mean 'marketing spiel' but to the techies amongst us - that is 'the science bit'.
We're back!
Yes yes - we know - it's been...
*checks calendar* ...ooo blimmin' eck!
...it's been over a month since the last post...
(really? that long? Wow)
Things have been a bit crazy here at Refresh Towers of late - what with uber brand new projects being created (shh - more on that soon)
Eyemags achieving one million downloads...
Vodafone breaking Mobizine downloads...
The launch of our first National Newspaper Mobizine...
...and that's just the tip of the iceberg!
But no fear - we're back and as strong as ever.
Anyway - it's all a lot to take in so let's tackle it one thing (and one post) at a time....
First off - Vodafone.
You may've read recently (ooo - say about a month ago?) that Vodafone's new 'mobile internet' complete messed up Mobizines for any Vodafone user who tried to download the service.
Well - you'll be please to hear that it has now all been fixed.
Voda have since apologised (to everyone - wasn't just us this affected) and we can all live happily ever after!
If you're still not sure you have the correct version of Mobizines - drop an email to help@mobizines.com along with your phone number plus make and model of handset and we can check it out for you.
We'll be back later in the week with more on all of the above - and we mean it this time!
Stay Tuned!
BREAKING NEWS FOR ANY BRAND NEW MOBIZINE USERS ON THE VODAFONE NETWORK
If you are on the Vodafone UK network and have attempted to download the Mobizines service since June 4th 2007, you may not have the correct version.
If you tried to install and you saw a message that starts with the following text:
"Your handset may be capable of receiving this service but we have not yet tested it and cannot guarantee the quality of the service you will receive..."
First:
Check to see if your phone is on our supported handset list -
If it is supported and you still saw the above text then there is a very high chance that you may not have the right version of Mobizines.
This strongly applies to anyone using a QVGA and/or Symbian phone... (N95 users take note!)
Please email us at help@mobizines.com along with your phone model and mobile number and we will endeavour to get you fixed and up and running ASAP.
Our people are talking to Vodafone's people RIGHT NOW and we will hopefully have this problem solved as soon as possible.
More news as we get it...
EDIT:
Our friends at smstextnews have a reasonably good explanation of it all here.
Good day to you avid reader!
Just a quick blog post to mention that our next big release is coming very soon and we are currently on the lookout for peeps to come help us with some end user testing before we go public...
See below:
"Refresh Mobile are looking for open and honest, London-based mobile phone users to test their new version of Mobizines and are willing to pay £10 (in either Virgin or Amazon vouchers) to anyone who is willing to help.
Anyone who wants to volunteer needs to be free to spend 45-60mins at the Refresh Mobile offices based in Fulham Broadway, London any time between Mon-Fri, 9am - 6:30pm before June 12th 2007.
If you are available and are interested in shaping the future of the latest release of this exciting product - then please email james@refreshmobile.com for more details.
Please Note - There are only a small amount of places available on this occasion and guests will be invited on a 'first come, first serve' basis."
We've posted this up on a few sites already and a reasonably good response - however we are still looking for a few more volunteers...
Hope to hear from you soon!
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Many of you may know that we ran a recent beta test for the N95. Over 80 of you volunteered to be part of this beta and we're very grateful to each and every one of you.
We've listened to you feedback and the most common enhancements that was requested, was the ability to use WLAN where is was available.
We been prototyping how this could work and now have a test version that automatically detects if the handset is hooked up to a WLAN router. If you are hooked up, this APN is automatically selected. Needless to say, it is super quick and overall a really great experience.
We're considering beta testing this variant, if you think we should beta this variant, please let me know at devices@mobizines.com
Kevin
A piece of historical greatness from one of my favourite blogs: Paleo-Future. It's a 1910 description of what a wireless phone would be like.
The text is great and I'll try not to spoil it by giving it all away, but it's worth noting that the inventive spirits of the Washington Post had already figured out what to do with unsightly aerials: it's the umbrella - what you look like when it doesn't rain I dunno, although the article does helpfully suggest that indoors you can attach your wireless telephone to your bedstead.
Presumably there's a USB-Remington interface for printing out text messages, although the built-in MP3 player would require the transportation of unwieldy memory sticks in the form of rolls of wax.
Sony's not dead yet!
Sure they might have the odd problem but Sony's R&D is still rocking. We haven't seen anything with quite as much of a "I want one of those now and I don't care how much it costs me in time, money or personal self-esteem" factor as the 16.7m colour OLED displays Sony demo'd yesterday...
That's more colours than my MacBook Pro, thank you Apple.
Still, it's kind of funny it taken a world of designers a year to notice that they only have 6 bit colour.
Anyway, you want to see what this awesome new thing looks like?
Well it turns out there's this really cool new thing called YouTube, which is like television, only better because the pictures are smaller and there's less chance of seeing Kate Thornton or an Ocean Finance ad unless you really want to. And someone (EDIT: The awesome nihonblog PinkTentacle) has posted a clip from Japanese TV up there.
It's right here.
Right now.
There are higher resolution OLEDs, but Sony's is the first that looks like it's consumer quality. Not sure about the support wiring round the edges, but when that's smaller this will change the way we approach gadgets altogether.
At the moment mobile phone screens are limited by some fairly straightforward human factors like the width of the hand and the desire not to look completely nebbish while making a call.
Ever seen someone making a call on an old-school Blackberry? My point exactly...
Add in a display that rolls up and you can have both a phone that fits neatly in an inside pocket and massive screen real estate when you need it.
So hurry up with the future, Sony-researcher-san. I'm already a couple of decades overdue on my hovercar and personal jet pack and I need my fix!
Story from Digital World Tokyo, video from PinkTentacle, image pinched from icanhascheeseburger.com.
And Lolcats rule.
Prada, apparently.
Well - it makes you think...
Done thinking? Cool...
Now - as you know the other day we finally got our hands on a brand new LG Prada phone...
We're all busying away on our next big release and we haven't really got time to develop a whole brand new variant of the Mobizines client to work on this handset...
So imagine our surprise to find that our touchscreen client, very nearly, works on the Prada!
Admittedly it does need a small bit of tweaking here and there...
But our resident touchscreen guru Andre, (Big up the Dre!), is on the case.
The official line is: We do NOT support this device*.
*But we're working on it!
In the meantime however - have a look at this video that we hastily knocked up...
Yes it's the wrong way round and yes it's a bit blurry but it's the best we could do under such short notice!
I guess eventually we'll probably do some kind of beta testing... if you want to be involved - drop us an email (with LG PRADA in the subject header) at bloggers@mobizines.com - we'll make sure your name gets passed onto the relevant folk...
And it isn't an N95...
...can you guess what it could be?
Hehe...
I know we promised a techie-orientated post (and there is one coming soon) but our dev team have been having a good play with the contents of that box today...
Maybe we'll knock up another video for you...
More on this... Soon.
We've had some mail!
Woo...
Well - ok - not actual mail. But one of our readers has commented on this lovely blog of ours and we thought we'd re-post it and give it a (well deserved) response.
Cool.
Well - here's the comment we received:
"Hey. I dont usually comment on websites.
But this ones thrown me... I found out about this blog way back at the first day.
I was super hoping to see more about wap design, the process you might go through, Some thoughtful insight on the mobile world, etc etc...
But all ive seen is a plug for your mobizines site - Which obviously its about mobizines so why not.
But I was super hoping I would see more informative posts.
Hopefully you take this comment to heart because you people seem to know what your talkin' about.
If you do take this to heart... mabye you can explain how its feasible for you to offer up mobizines free? I'm wondering how you would benefit mainly in this question.
Heres hoping you run with my comment. (and not to the trash bin)
Signed: Anonymous"
First off - Thank you for your feedback Mr Anonymous (whoever you are!).
When we got the email here at Mobizines with your comments in we immediately forwarded it to our techie/development team and challenged them to come up with some more 'informative' (shall we say) posts about Mobizines etc and how they all work.
Basically - Your comments have been taken on board and we are doing something about it!
Originally we didn't want the blog to become overly-techie and/or just a 'plug for the Mobizines site' - but if more process/design stuff is what you want - then we shall try and fulfil that need, (as well as sticking in the odd random post as per usual).
So...
You can configure your right (or left) soft key on your N95 (or any other Symbian handset!) to access Mobizines by using:
Tools > Settings > General > Personalisation > Standby > Shortcuts > Right Selection Key
Hot on the heels of going live on the Nokia Content Discoverer both on the N73 and the N95...
We have also just gone live on the T-Mobile 'T-Zones' Portal!
Woo!
So...
If you've got a mobile phone on T-Mobile and you don't have Mobizines...
(although I'm not sure why you're here if you DON'T have Mobizines - you should be here instead)
Get yourself to your T-Zones portal and look for a thing called 'What's New' - it's there under 'Top Services'.
Found it?
Cool...
*Click*
From there look for 'Uncovered'
No.... Go PAST the Page 3 Girl... PAST IT I TELL YOU!
Phew...
Once you made it (just) into 'Uncovered', scroll down to 'Info & Entertainment' and...
*Click*
And Voila!
Mobizines is there!
Wanna install? Oh go on then...
*Click*
Yay! Mobizines goodness for all!
Thanks to all our friends at T-Mobile and T-Zones for helping us get this live.
Hope you enjoy the service...
Oh - and as a point of interest -
Two of the founding members of Refresh Mobile (the company behind Mobizines) are originally from T-Mobile themselves.
Aww... The whole thing's come full circle.
As a great man once said: "I love it when a plan comes together."
Oh and thanks to Martin who quite rightly pointed all of the above out to Jim the other day.
Nice one Martin.
Edit: Richie has just pointed out that anyone with Web n Walk* will not see T-Zones on their phone and will have to manually type in www.t-zones.co.uk to gain access....
*Ahh... Yes. Web n Walk. Probably the best data bundle in the world...
Interesting story in the Sydney Morning Herald (brought to our attention by the inestimable Digital World Tokyo) about Japan's shift from the PC to the mobile phone. The number of Japanese 20 year olds with internet connected PCs has dropped from 23.6% to 11.9%. From a European/British perspective the notion of only 1 in 10 of such a high spending market having PCs is very alien.
Some Japanese universities report a sizeable chunk of their students graduate without using a computer.
The reasons are many: the computer form factor - qwerty keyboard and all - just doesn't translate well to a country whose language can be written in four different character sets, sometimes all in the same sentence.
By contrast the mobile web is booming: sites like Mixi (Japan's MySpace) and Yahoo all place mobile as at least as important as Web. The keitei takes the place as a communications device that the PC has in the UK.
Can't see all the Mobizines
The most popular issue is a bit knottier: the Mobizines you get depend on the way you get the Mobizines Reader, who your network operator is and what your phone is. Quite understandably people come to the Web site and look at the 70 or so titles in the UK, and wonder why their phone is only listing a subset. It's a bit complicated but I'll try to explain:
Limited memory phones
The first thing to point out is that we have to limit the number of titles listed on the phone for some phones. If you have a Siemens C75 or a Nokia 6100 you'll only see 12 titles because if we add more your device will run out of memory and Mobizines won't work.
Text to 63333, 692355 or 82200
If you got your Mobizines Reader by texting to the UK, US, South African or German shortcode numbers you'll get a selection of titles that are related to the title you texted in to subscribe to initially. You should see about 25 titles on the phone to add. So if you come in for Fast Car, say, you'll get Evo in the list because we've made the assumption that you like cars.
Texting to +44 7624806310
If you got your selection by texting into the International number you'll get our world selection of titles. These are titles that we have permission to distribute globally - not all of our content partners want us to distribute their titles all around the world, usually because they only own the content for the country they're in.
Downloading from GetJar etc
The same is true if you download your Mobizines Reader from GetJar or one of the less official phone software sites (we distribute the installers officially on GetJar, AllAboutSymbian and Handango: if you see it somewhere else you might want to check it's the latest as people have been known to download our software are distribute it themselves. We don't mind, but it does mean that there are multiple versions about.) Because GetJar is global we load the GetJar clients with content that is OK for every country. If you want a UK version to download you can get the Jar from our website.
Installing from the NCD
The Nokia Content Discover has a special group with some exclusive Nokia content in it. Again, it doesn't have the full gamut of content.
BBC Headlines
Yep, that's us. If you have the BBC Headlines service (not the BBC News Select application!) you have Mobizines loaded with only BBC content. You can get the BBC news and all the other Mobizines titles by texting "bbcopen" to 63333 in the UK.
Three
We also operate the Mobizines service on the Three network in the UK. This costs three pounds a month (with a penny change) and Three choose the titles. At the moment, for example, the RSS Mobizine is not available on Three.
UK Mobizines outside the UK and (vice versa)
If you're in the USA, Germany and South Africa there are local services set up for you. We understand if you want to access UK content as well (or vice versa if you're in the UK and you want to read titles from one of the other countries we're in). Unfortunately licensing means we need to keep things separate.
But I want {insert name} Mobizine!
We feel your need. We try to work with our distribution channels and our content partners to make as much content available everywhere: it's what we're about. Sometimes for reasons legal, technical and metaphysical this just isn't possible. If you're in the UK and you want another Mobizine you can simply text 63333 again and we'll switch your subscription.
You can also sign up for My Mobizines and subscribe to stuff outside the list on the phone that way: this will be particularly useful for people with the limited memory client (check out the GetJar mobizines-tiny.jar details for a list of affected handsets.)
We're also pushing hard for new content for the global group: keep checking the Add New Mobizines screen in Mobizines Reader and you should see some exciting new stuff coming soon.
(The picture? That's actual rocket science that is)
N95 is coming!
We're getting flooded by requests for the N95 beta software. We've been in beta a bit longer than we'd like with this one, but the software is now ready and we're just waiting for Symbian signing. We expect this will be added to the main Mobizines install system by the end of next week.
By the way we'd really like one of these t-shirts
<------------ from ThinkGeek. Ta.
Number 3: PIN problems
PIN number requests for My Mobizines are still a major issue. We (currently) need to verify that you're making a request from your own handset (I know you know it's your handset, but frankly I don't think we've been properly introduced).
We've noticed that we're getting loads more requests for PINs for new Nokias because of our NCD distribution deal. Those Nokias get everywhere.
This process isn't quite as reliable as we'd like: international bulk SMS turns out to be a bit like sticking a message in a bottle and letting it float out to sea. So while people in the UK get PINs no problem, we have difficulty getting PINs through to countries as diverse as India, the USA and China. Which are, obviously, quite big.
For now if the PIN doesn't arrive your only option is to email help@mobizines.com but we're dropping the PIN requirement in the next release of the software (which wshould hit the street ina couple of months). This should make registering from places we don't have decent SMS coverage easy.
