Category: marketing

Forbes reports on a method recently revealed to take advantage of a security hole in RFID tags… fortunately for retailers these are not in too massive a distribution. The program to do it all is freely available…

A would-be scofflaw heads into a grocery store where all the products have RFID tags on them. Rather than paying $7 for a bottle of shampoo, he’d rather pay $3. To make that happen, he whips out a PDA equipped with an RFID reader and scans the tag on the shampoo. He replaces that information with data from the tag on a $3 carton of milk and uploads it to the shampoo bottle tag. When he reaches the check-out stand–which just happens to be automated–he gets charged $3 instead of $7, with the store’s computer systems none the wiser. [Forbes.com]

This is most excellent news!! If truly available next month, it will mark a 3x (down) speed boost…

Time Warner Cable said on Monday that it will begin offering broadband connections at higher speeds–up to 6 megabits per second for downloads, and 512kbps upstream. Called Road Runner Premium, the cable Internet service will become available on Time Warner Cable’s 31 systems across the United States beginning next month. [CNET News.com]

Seems to work with all the major carriers…

Yahoo now lets people upload pictures to its photo-sharing site from camera phones. [picturephoning.com]

ICANN has added IPv6 support to its root DNS servers. The 128-bit address fields will ensure that IP addresses will be in strong supply for years to come. [Ars Technica]

Celeb Gossip, Extreme Sports and Sports News can all be delivered as magazines to your mobile… what you were expecting magazines about mobiles?? I looked around on their site, but it seems to be a B2B play for the time being so you’ll have to have a carrier who enables this for you.

Availing themselves of growing cell phone usage, three new magazines designed specifically for delivery via cell phone have just launched. [Adrants]

An interesting piece over at Forbes…

Just as thrifty theater-goers can save a buck by smuggling in their own Junior Mints, so too are cell phone users finding ways to download their own phone upgrades without paying a big margin to their carriers.

The very same phones that give users the power to download new services also give them the flexibility to find other ways of getting new content into those phones. For instance, an avid text messaging fan in Britain who owns a Nokia 6600 can save money by using a service run by an outside company such as Fastchat, which provides unlimited text messaging for a flat fee.

Such fee-dodging tactics are about to become a major threat to the cell industry, according to a new study by Mako Analysis, a British research firm specializing in mobile communications. New operating systems such as Symbian Series 60 are capable of working with all manner of extra applications.

“A savvy user can use this open operating system to completely bypass a range of services that are normally charged for by their mobile operator,” the report says. [Forbes.com]

Of course these issues raise the question of who owns the phone… You pay for it and lock into a service contract in most situations, but people are finding ways around the walled gardens often created to control the experience. The control is part of a two-pronged approach to both make money as well as limit the potential service issues.

An advanced user should be able to choose services that are of interest to them, and often do, though at an increase in cost due to buying unlocked phones from third parties rather than directly from the carrier – who lock the phones. When a phone is locked it allows the carrier to pre-program content and content partners as well as assure that whatever settings they need to input are there for these services to work.

If you’ve ever read Howard Forums, Mobitopia (or lurked in #mobitopia), Mobilewhack, My Treo to name a few, you’ve seen that many people are independently dealing with things.

From a user perspective, I personally think we should be able to use compatible hardware on whatever network we like. It should force the carriers to offer quality services that users want rather than just pre-loading WAP menus with things people don’t even know about let alone use…

Paging through the latest Fortune I came across an ad from PalmOne featuring the Treo 600 with GoodLink. The ad highlights Sprint, ATT, Cingular, T-Mobile and … Verizon Wireless. Can’t imagine what might be holding this back now. Perhaps just some pressure from Palm to VZW, to get it going already?

I’m sure that the 411 business has taken a hit since the adoption of the internet in consumer’s homes came along and enabled a self-service model for free. Since then there’s been an advance in 411 – enhanced 411, which gives interested parties more information (for a greater fee of course) for things like directions, movie times and even in some case restaurant reservations.

Today, it occurred to me that there is a pretty simple advance that could be made for all callers, especially now that mobile phone penetration is so high, as well as the continuing growth of smarter (not necessarily smart) phones which allow for richer messaging services. I think this idea could work for people whether they were calling from a mobile or landline and could be quick to rollout if the carriers felt they were interested in making a bit more money from something we already use.

Here it is — yours for the taking telecom industry!

Instead of just offering an option to have the number dialed, why not send the information as an SMS or even an email with vcard so you could save it for future calling from your phone/device. Landline calling would require a simple registration to identify where you want the information sent. I’d pay the additional fee (probably 25 to 50 cents) so I could have the information for future reference.

Just think of the number of times you’ve called for a number more than once. You probably didn’t have a pen which is why you called again… you do have your mobile, if that’s how you called and you can certainly grab the email later on if not.

From a carrier perspective, it should be a simple add-on. You know who we are, what number we are calling from and what the capabilities of our devices are to best send the information. Landline operators (most if not all offer wireless) and should be able to just pump more messages through the existing gateway. Receiving an SMS usually gets you paid… whether a number of messages are included with a plan, or on a per message basis.

That’s about it. Bring it on!