Paying for incoming SMS will likely lead to huge bills and angry customers.
You can’t stop someone from texting you. There aren’t any spam filters for your mobile phone just now, at least to my knowledge, so getting texts is almost completely out of your hands. Today, we got wind that Bell and Telus will start charging customers for INCOMING SMS. Outrageous, no?
Bell Mobility will begin charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message on Aug. 8. Telus Mobility is moving to the same billing practice effective Aug. 24. Until now, their pay-per-use customers who send text messages have been charged a 15-cent fee per message, but it hasn’t cost anything to receive them.
I understand that NA operators are jealous of their European counterparts but charging you for messages you can’t control isn’t reasonable. Rogers has said that it will not be charging for incoming messages and therefore we might see a lot of customers shift operators. Will Bell and Telus start showing the same subscriber loss as Sprint has been seeing these past months? I hope so.
ust got this press release today regarding HandyGames’ release of their latest mobile game Battle of Britain. The video preview of this game was really great because it started with a Hollywood’esq opening and cut straight to mobile phone game.
According to the latest RBC Capital Markets report, 56% of consumers looking to pick up a smartphone in the next three months having the iPhone 3G at the top of their list, with the BlackBerry Bold following up at 23%. Ouch. So does this mean the iPhone’s features are wowing buyers? Not quite. The biggest factor influencing these decisions is the announced price cut of $199 on the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB iPhone 3G. The extra speed from 3G was a close second point of interest, while GPS was the third most important factor. It’s bizzarre, considering the BlackBerry 9000 will be covering all of these bases, too - T-Mobile Germany’s price point for the Bold has been revealed, putting it in the same ballpark as the iPhone. Maybe if we had clearer information on BlackBerry Bold pricing, folks would be more inclined to consider it a competitor to the iPhone…
We haven’t heard from Ozura since they stole the intellectual property from Tomb Raider and made Lava Croft. Ozura is launching their mobile game based on the upcoming Bejing Olympics, “Bejing Dreams.” Continue reading ‘Ozura to release “Bejing Dreams” for mobile’
IUGO first grabbed the mobile gaming industry’s attention in May with Re-Volt; a high impact FPS demo tailored to the iPhone’s unique controls and packed with visual detail.
The cutting-edge, independent mobile developer is now releasing exclusive details about its latest game; Shaky Summit. Shaky Summit is an easy pick-up-and-play strategy game that allows players to control the environment rather than the characters themselves. Shaky Summit aims to please a wide audience with intuitive controls and highly stylized, captivating graphics. Plans for launch of Shaky Summit are slated for mid to late summer on the Apple Apps Store. Above is a taste of Shaky Summit concept art, along with select screen shots within the game itself.
We might have caught a glimpse at the BlackBerry Thunder, but we’ve got a bit more eye candy, and is it looking slick, or what? The shots look like they came from a document detailing some of the OS 4.7 multimedia functions of the unreleased touchscreen BlackBerry due out sometime before Christmas for CDMA carriers. The BlackBerry Thunder will apparently be packing a glass 360 x 480 screen, which seems like more than enough for full videos. The media player will also feature carrier music stores, which would be a great way to grab tunes wirelessly to your device. When recording video, you’ll be able to preview the whole thing in landscape mode, too. Not too shabby at all.
The touchscreen has been a point of contention, both among handheld users as well as RIM’s execs, but one way or the other, there’s a market for touch devices, and with the BlackBerry Thunder, RIM is clearly on board. Between the flip BlackBerry Kickstart, the Curve-style BlackBerry Javelin, the upcoming Bold, and now the BlackBerry Thunder, it’s clear that there’s a wide array of tastes BlackBerrys can reach out to. So, who’s salivating?
Thomas Joos, a Belgian Multimedia Developer, has successfully ported Flash Lite to the iPhone. It is very interesting to watch his application work on the iPhone but it does not do anything for our web browsing experience. YouTube and other Flash supported sites are a large part of our internet experience and without Flash support, we’re still stuck in the WAP style browsing world.
It’s also interesting to note that Adobe has not had a successful test of Flash for the iPhone web experience. Adobe has been mildly successful so far and their CEO Shantanu Narayen said the company had a version of Flash running on an iPhone emulator (on a Mac), but not yet on an actual phone.
To find out how Joos has ported his flash application to the iPhone, take a look at his framework called b.Tween and a graphics tool called eyeGT.
The port uses a framework that sits on top of eyeGT, a graphic renderer capable of handling vector graphics and bitmaps. eyeGT allows definition of buttons, animations, hierarchical containers, color and special effects, and the like. It works on the iPhone/iPod touch as well as several other mobile devices. Joos created a framework called b.Tween that allows easy conversion of applications to ActionScript, a scripting language used for Flash development. The result is native, Flash Lite-compliant code that is passed through eyeGT for rendering.
This definitely piques my interest but I’m not about to jump for joy until it is fully embedded with web support.
Mysteries of vanished civilizations, endless chains of multi-coloured balls, redeeming bonuses, several game modes and dozens of diverse levels. Zum-zum is an adrenaline fuelled non-stop riot.
The Ovi platform is Nokia’s solution to accessing music, photos, and other files on your PC straight from your phone. The service isn’t new but it is currently being relaunched and offered under a 60-day free trial period. We’re guessing after the free trial you’ll be expected to hand over your credit card. After that, you can enjoy 10GB or 30GB of storage, which allows “Anytime Files” to be uploaded and offered even when your PC is off.
ust got this press release today regarding HandyGames’ release of their latest mobile game Battle of Britain. The video preview of this game was really great because it started with a Hollywood’esq opening and cut straight to mobile phone game.
We haven’t heard from Ozura since they stole the intellectual property from Tomb Raider and made Lava Croft. Ozura is launching their mobile game based on the upcoming Bejing Olympics, “Bejing Dreams.”
I’m not sure if this qualifies as “mobile entertainment” but Handmark are good people so I decided to publish their press release. In any case, I’m sure there are people out there who read the Bible for fun. 
Mysteries of vanished civilizations, endless chains of multi-coloured balls, redeeming bonuses, several game modes and dozens of diverse levels. Zum-zum is an adrenaline fuelled non-stop riot.
