Johnny X leads XPERIA

When did trailer's of TV shows become a commercials for mobile phones?!?! (I have to be honest, it is a great marketing technique and it caught my attention.) The new product being displayed in this cinema style commercial trailer is the XPERIA from Sony Ericsson.  

The trailer hit the Internet and it's only time before the phone hits. (The only thing I'm wandering is does the phone really save you, or remind you who you are? Does this remind you of product placement?) As Geek.com says, "I won’t give the plot away but it’s very cool and I’d 100 percent pay to see this movie, if it were ever to come to the theater. Instead, I have to sign up to be notified when new episodes hit." 

To watch the clip, check it out at whoisjohnny-x.com

[Via Geek.com]

Virgin Mobile Fest Greens Technologic

I did not get a chance to blog at all this past weekend due to the Virgin Mobile Festival that I worked at.

I thought I would share some of the things that worked and some things that didn't work.

The festival wanted to focus on being green and eco-friendly. At the same time, they want to increase brand awareness by associating themselves with many non-profit organization and music. I felt they did a fairly good job at this but they lacked in some areas. For example, they did not train or inform their event staff of everything that was happening. (I found this out when I was passing out free sunscreen. This woman (an event goer) thanked me and mentioned that she wished she had known there was free sunscreen earlier. This was due to the fact that a 15yr old staff member told her there was no sunscreen to be found throughout the concert venue and another staff member told her there was NO FIRST AID! When has there ever been a music festival with NO FIRST AID!) They did not clarify what type of trash was designated for the different recycling bins. The initiative to recycle at the event was not prominent and the music line-up was poorly done. (They spelled Kanye West's name as "KAYNE" West. How does that happen!?!? As well as all the best bands were playing at the same time and at opposite sides).

There are many ways they could have fixed these problems but it was only their third year holding this music festival. I should say some things they did right.

The use of eco-friendly technologies such as recharging your phone, camera or Ipod via bike was very convenient. They had a Dell Dome where people could make their own buttons, T-shirts and use computers to sign up for Buzzd (a new social networking service like Twitter and Yelp.)

Real quick rant on Buzzd: It is described as a "location-sensitive entertainment
listings service with branded editorial and real-time user generated content on
the mobile device.'Your city, in real-time,' buzzd allows consumers to know
what's happening at any venue right now, rate events, and connect with friends
and people in the area." I can see how this could beat Yelp but they really need
to keep pushing it. They need to get more publicity if they want to beat their
competitors. When I heard about the service I automatically thought it was another social network trying to make it big. It did not strike me as a "OMG! THIS IS SOO COOL!" It needs to offer more to users.

On that note, let me finish what I was saying before this post gets to long. They had a spiffy VIP areas that gave free drinks and had actually beds to sleep on outside. They had a Recharge Dome for people to check out the new Kyocera Special Edition Virgin Mobile Festival "Wild Card" mobile (texting from this phone made my hand cramp up) which they could use to make phone calls, send a text message to the concert stage screens or ride a bike and recharge their phone. They had a Refresh Dome for people to cool off and they had a recycling program where people could get stuff for collecting empty bottles and cans.

There were more positive and negatives that I could list about the music festival but I don't want to drag on. They should have integrated the idea of charging your phone by dancing . . . Maybe I'll make a list and send it to Richard Branson.

[picture via Mobilecrunch]

Slydial to Voicemail

When reading about this new technology service, I thought that everyone already had this capability featured on their phone. You might want to check your voicemail features before getting excited about this service. I'm sorry I should probably mention what the service is first before commenting on it.

Slydial is a new service that connects you directly to some one's voicemail. In other words, you can avoid speaking to a person directly by using Slydial. It saves you time (if you don't count the ads that you have to hear before getting connected to the voicemail.) and awkward or long conversations. For example, you want to call in sick to work and are afraid if the boss answers then you have to answer questions and explain yourself. This makes it a lot easier to be a coward and go straight to voicemail. By the time your boss has gotten the voicemail; he will be to busy to call and check up on you (to make sure you are not playing hookie.) Here are some more situations. (Please do not use this service to voicemail break-up, unless your dating a psycho or your dog.)

The service is free to use but you can get a membership if you want to get rid of the ads. This leads me to what I was taking about in the beginning of the post. When I listen to my voicemails, I have the option to record a message and send it to a number. This is basically the exact same thing. To my surprise, this option is not available to all.

If you don't have this feature then I would suggest it as a great way to speak to your mother or girlfriend without having to listen to an hour long session of yapping. (No offense, but women can talk for hours!)

From another perspective, this service is making us more of a coward and continuing to change our way of communicating with each other. We are trying to find ways around directly communicating with people.

USB MP3 & Camera Spy Sunglasses

These sunglasses are the next gadget I would like to have. Who needs Prada, Gucci and other designer sunglasses when you can get something better.

These sunglasses are an MP3 player and a spy camera. You take picture by a remote in your hand. Meaning if there is a crime going on then you could take pictures of the criminal! Only thing that would make these sunglasses cooler were if they were blue tooth compatible or had wireless connectivity. For example, what if you were lucky enough to have a hot babe or Jessica Alba speak to you. You could snap a picture while speaking to her and send it to your friends! or TWITTER!

The specs are:

• built-in MP3 player
• 1.3 mega pixel camera
• 2GB memory capacity
• shoots 1280×1024 sized images
• includes stereo headphones
• plays MP3 or WMA files
• lithium-ion battery lasts up to 6 hrs for MP3 usage
• lasts up to 9 hrs for camera usage

This sounds great but what it comes down to is the price. The ultra hip spy sunglasses can be found at Brando for US$165.
Read more at Brando, found via Ubergizmo.

Mobile Partying Gets You Free Drinks

If you are living in or plan on visiting the Metro New York, Jersey Shore, and Hamptons areas then you may want to pay close attention to this post.

Meet Now Live (MNL) is a public beta service that allows users with a "Web-enabled cellphone or mobile device to broadcast their party location of choice -- and receive free drinks in return." you can register for free on their site and then use it to find bars, clubs, lounges or your friends. (What about the free drinks?!?! Where does that come in to play! I'm tired of reading this non-important stuff)

To promote this service, MNL has joined with The Town Tavern, Whistling Dixies Texas Tavern, and Porky's NYC to offer "Free Beer Fridays!" When people "broadcast" their location at these bars to their friends, they receive a "on-screen mobile ticket that grants them the right to unlimited free draft beers." This promotion is not lasting all year long, it's only until Labor Day weekend.

They plan for the service to become popular enough that they will start offering special deals from certain drinking venues specifically to MNL users. In other words they want it to become a mobile social drinking network. Let the drinkers unite!

The problem that I foresee with this is more drunken texting and one night stands. I could be wrong, but phones and drinking seem to always lead to trouble. My other concern is controlling mothers and stalkers. Do we see a similarity with MoSoSo.

Here's the Press Release

NEW DANCE - The Phone Charger

A friend of mine thought it was important for me to share this nugget of news. How many times have you been out clubbing, at a concert or music festival and your mobile phone starts to die? There is no socket in sight and without a powered cell, how are you going to be able to phone home! You will be stuck in the land of music . . . FOREVER!!! (Just kidding. I was trying to make a joke). Anyway, the phone operator Orange and the firm GotWind have created a portable kinetic energy charger that recharges your phone when you dance called "Orange Dance Charge."

"Attached to the user's arm, they employ a system of weights and magnets which
provide an electric current to top up charge in a storage battery. This can then later be used to recharge the phone."

The prototype will be given a test run at this year's Glastonbury festival happening this weekend (RIGHT NOW! I can't believe I'm in the states blogging and not there. I think I REALLY need a time machine).

Finding another means of energy is always a good thing due to the rise in gas prices. If there was only a way dancing could provide energy to run a car, then we would be getting somewhere. The other thing that this new gadget could be good for is runners. Strap it on and start exercising, then produce enough energy to charge your Ipod or mobile.

Getting to the point, maybe this new renewable energy gadget can start a new dance move that will sweep the nation AND create a new source of energy.

Is Nokia Tracking you?

Nokia is heading toward the world of social networks. Nokia plans to integrate a Berlin, Germany based social networking start-up Plazes with their mobile phones. This will allow mobile users to

"plan activities with your friends, make people aware of where you are now,
where you were and where you will be in the future. On top of that they also
plan to incorporate the more common aspects of social networking including being
able to share your experiences and communicate with friends."

This looks like another marketing attempt to compete with mobile providers and social networking sites. The sad thing is that this has been done before. Plazes needs to offer something more or unique that other social networking sites like Yelp.com, Facebook or Twitter do not. Maybe the service could integrate celebrities to use this service. The paparazzi would never have a hard time finding them. If the service had the right key media spokespeople then it could have a chance of spreading.

The only thing I see this service doing is providing my crazy stalking mother another means of knowing where I am. If anyone has a mother like mine, they constantly call wanting to know what you're doing and where. The best means of escape is making something up. . . Or not answering the phone. This makes me seem as if I have no moral compass. Try having a mother that is very religious and has spent the majority of her time Micromanaging your life growing up. Don't get me wrong! I love my mother but at times she can be difficult. Although, what mother isn't? On that note I think I need to get back to what this post was supposed to be about.

The thing that scares me about real-time social networking on mobile phones is the dangers this can lead to. For example, the next scary movie will be about a girl (sorry don't want to be sexist) people being chased by a killer from the social network on your phone. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! SO SCARY! The best part would be when the killer finds a way to kill his victims with the cell phone. Maybe his victims could be the annoying cellphone people that don't follow cellphone etiquette. We all know who these people are.

My ending point is, the new addition of a social network to Nokia phones will not benefit mobile users but create controlling mothers and killers.


Picture taken from netzkobold.com

MoSoSo Cell Culture

While I was away this weekend in Atlanta, GA for the Passion Conference, I found it amusing that the part where people usually wave lighter’s or matches in the air during a slow song was replaced with people waving their cell phones in the air. Things have changed since cell phones have become a predominantly necessity in our culture. We use cell phones for everything and the While I was away this weekend in Atlanta, GA for the Passion Conference, I found it amusing that the part where people usually wave lighter’s or matches in the air during a slow song was replaced with people waving their cell phones in the air. Things have changed since cell phones have become a predominant necessity in our culture. We use cellphones for everything and the phenomenon of texting has impacted the way our culture predominately communicates. Here's a perfect example of what I'm saying:
Other than texting, the next biggest thing to change the cellphone culture is "MoSoSo" (Mobile Social Networking Software) as discussed by Gloria Goodale. The new consumer technology that combines cyber-social networks with GPS on cellphones, so you can be even more connected than you already are! They have created various MoSoSo software to appeal to consumers but for some reason it seems it has not caught on yet. Maybe it could do with what Goodale says:
Not only do they point to possible security issues with GPS running on a cellphone, but cultural observers worry about the growing preference of young users to stay plugged into a virtual network, often oblivious to the real world around them.
I have to admit that I'm somewhat interested in testing this out, but at the same time. Do I really want less security and to have people know where I am every second of the day? We already have a lack of privacy, even if we aren't celebrities. Is this going to far? Do we really need another tool to add to our phone to keep us consistently available and in demand? of texting has impacted the way our culture predominately communicates. Here's a perfect example of what I'm saying:


Other than texting, the next biggest thing to change the cell phone culture is "MoSoSo" (Mobile Social Networking Software) as discussed by Gloria Goodale. The new consumer technology that combines cyber-social networks with GPS on cellphones, so you can be even more connected than you already are! They have created various MoSoSo software to appeal to consumers but for some reason it seems it has not caught on yet. Maybe it could do with what Goodale says:

Not only do they point to possible security issues with GPS running on a
cell phone, but cultural observers worry about the growing preference of young
users to stay plugged into a virtual network, often oblivious to the real world
around them.

I have to admit that I'm somewhat interested in testing this out, but at the same time. Do I really want less security and to have people know where I am every second of the day? We already have a lack of privacy, even if we aren't celebrities. Is this going to far? Do we really need another tool to add to our phone to keep us consistently available and in demand?