IntoMobile » Blog Updates

Our first 2 iPhone 3G S winners are…

Will Park — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:39:53 +0000

Thanks to all our readers for making IntoMobile’s iPhone 3G S Launch Day Giveaway Bonanza a smash hit!As we get ready to hit the streets and wait in line for our iPhone 3G S, let’s take a moment to congratulate two (2) of our iPhone 3G S winners.

Drum roll, please:

Our winning commenter is - Rob Werther!
Our winning Twit is - deanna_j!

Note: Don’t see your name here? Worry not, we’ll be picking ONE MORE winner at midnight tonight during our iPhone 3G S launch live-cast! Make sure to keep checking IntoMobile for details!

Winners:

You now have five (5) days to contact anyone on the IntoMobile team.
If you’ve won (or suspect that you’ve won) email any IntoMobile editor or team (at) intomobile (dot) com with the subject: “I won an iPhone 3G S!!”

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IntoMobile’s iPhone 3G S Launch Day Giveaway Bonanza!

Will Park — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:17:01 +0000

Update: Stefan here, I’m turning off comments to this post since the contest is over. Will is going to get in touch with the three winners once he recovers after 12 hours of camping for the iPhone 3G S. Thanks to everyone who participated!

What could be better than a faster, more powerful iPhone launching this Friday?

A faster, more power-packed iPhone 3G S for FREE!

Whether you’re still bitter about AT&T (NYSE: T)’s decision to penalize current customers with an iPhone “loyalty tax,” or just cringing at the $199 entry-price for the 16GB iPhone 3G S, IntoMobile is here to help.

You still have time to enter, but you’d better enter quick! The first two iPhone 3G S winners will be announced at 4PM PST (Los Angeles time). We’ll announce the winners on the front-page (either in this post or a separate post). You can continue to enter until 11:59PM - we’ll be announcing the winner of our BONUS iPhone 3G S live from IntoMobile’s iPhone 3G S launch live-cast. We’ll be live-streaming the launch-day crowds at Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Store starting later tonight!

[Update]
Two winners have already been selected. Congratulations to Twitter user deanna_j and commentor Rob Werther on winning an iPhone 3G S! (Now all they have to do is contact IntoMobile)

The final winner of our one remaining iPhone 3G S will be picked tonight, live from Santa Monica Third Street Promenade Apple Store. We’ll be covering the launch festivities (and lines) live, so make sure to tune in tonight for our live-cast!

Announcing the IntoMobile iPhone 3G S Launch Day Giveaway Bonanza! Here’s what IntoMobile is doing to take the pain out of upgrading to an iPhone 3G S:

We’re not actually giving away 3 iPhone 3G S’s, that would be a logistical nightmare. Instead, we are giving away THREE (3) $200 Apple Store gift cards.

Three ways to enter the contest:

Leave a comment that answers the question “Why do you deserve to win an iPhone 3G S?” in the comments section below this post
Tweet (@IntoMobile) a short, coherent tweet that answers the question “Why do you deserve to win an iPhone 3G S?” to @IntoMobile
Leave a comment and Tweet something - you get double the chances (or something like that) of winning!

Three winners:

Two winners will be chosen on Thursday, June 18th at 4pm PST - one winner will be chosen from our Twitter feed and one winner will be chosen from the comments section.
Bonus: One extra winner will be chosen from either the Twitter or comments section on Thursday June 18 at 11:59PM during IntoMobile’s iPhone 3G S launch-day live-cast!
Winners will be announced on the IntoMobile front page as well as through Twitter (make sure to follow @IntoMobile, @WillPark or @SimonSage)

The rules - follow them or be disqualified, it’s that simple:

Leave only ONE comment in this comments section below. If you post multiple comments, you will be disqualified. If you suspect there’s something wrong with your comment, contact us.
ONLY US residents aged 18 or older. You are only eligible for the contest if you are 18 or older and live in one of the 50 United States of America. We can’t accept any non-US entries. If we could, we would.
Winners will be chosen at random.
Winners will be announced on the front-page and through Twitter (follow @IntoMobile, @WillPark or @SimonSage for the announcements).
Winner has have five (5) days to contact us to claim the prize. If you don’t contact us within five days, your prize will be given away to another lucky reader.

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Win 100 free iPhone photo prints from Phanfare!

Will Park — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:29:05 +0000

We recently told you about Phanfare’s Photon iPhone application that let’s you order photo prints directly from your iPhone or iPhone 3G. The service is so damn convenient that we just had to give IntoMobile readers a chance to win some free prints. To celebrate the Photon iPhone application, we’re giving away 100 FREE prints each to 10 lucky winners!

Think about what you could do with Photon for iPhone and 100 FREE prints! You can finally send Grandma that birthday picture you took with your iPhone. Maybe you’d like to ave hard-copy prints of that anniversary party shipped to your door. Or, if you’re like us, you’re going to order a year’s worth of those party pics you uploaded to your iPhone.

Each of the 10 randomly selected IntoMobile readers will receive 100 FREE photo prints from Phanfare, including free shipping within the US. The contest is open to our non-US readers, but international shipping will be the responsibility of the winner. You don’t have to have an iPhone to enter, but it sure makes the process a whole lot simpler!

Winners will be randomly selected from the comments section as well as Twitter mentions (@replies). You may enter the contest twice - once in the comments section and once in Twitter. You can choose to enter the contest via Twitter or comments alone, but you’ll be getting half the odds of winning.

Winners will be selected on April 24.

Here’s how to enter:

Download and install Photon for iPhone (iTunes link)
Register for a Phanfare account (Photon will take care of this step for you)
- Non-iPhone users may register directly on Phanfare’s website.
Leave a comment below with your Phanfare username
- Don’t forget to include your Phanfare username!
The all-important Twitter step:
- Follow @IntoMobile
- You must Tweet your Phanfare username and the following message exactly as it appears: “Hey, @IntoMobile! Give me my 100 FREE prints from Phanfare! - http://bit.ly/1IM4oD”
- Remember to include your Phanfare username!
Sit back and cross your fingers. 10 winners will each get 100 FREE prints from Phanfare, so you’re chances of winning are pretty good!

Good luck! And don’t forget to check back next week to find out if you’ve won!

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Win a FREE designer shirt from IntoMobile and Opera!

Will Park — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:59:48 +0000

Free stuff!

Okay, now that we have your attention, IntoMobile is proud to celebrate Opera’s latest mobile browser milestone. In case you haven’t heard, the venerable Opera Mini mobile web browser is now a go on the Android platform. Opera has gone final with their Opera Mini 4.2 browser for Android users (most likely T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G1 user). You’ll find the new Opera Mini browser hanging out in the Android Market as Opera Mini 4.2.

We’d like to congratulate Opera on their latest achievement by giving away free designer t-shirts (on Opera’s dime)! Lovingly crafted by the designers at Moods of Norway, these t-shirts aren’t just for wearing to bed or washing a car. Geeky-chic and fashionable, these Moods of Norway shirts are sure to turn heads wherever you go, seriously.

Want to qualify for our FREE shirt giveaway celebration? Just leave a comment and include your shirt size! We’ll be contacting the winners via email, so make sure you include a valid email address when posting your comment.

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Say Hello to IntoMobile’s Mobile Site!

Will Park — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:36:14 +0000

m.intomobile.com on an iPhone 3G

We’ve been a bit unsure about how to display IntoMobile on the mobile-screen. On the one hand, we’re big fans of web-capable smartphones with full-HTML browsers. On the other hand, a mobile-optimized version of IntoMobile is just quicker and more convenient. So, we thought, why not give out readers a choice?

IntoMobile is proud to announce the our mobile-optimized page. IntoMobile’s far-reaching coverage of the mobile space has been slimmed down and streamlined for viewing on your mobile phone’s display. Simply point your smartphone’s web browser to m.intomobile.com to get at the leaner, meaner version of our daily news feed.

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IntoMobile now on Twitter!

Simon Sage — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:34:11 +0000

Yeah, we’ve taken our sweet time getting into Twitter, one of the most popular mobile social networks out there, but we’re now all hooked into the twittosphere, with a little help from twitterfeed. By following us on Twitter, you’ll be able to get SMS alerts of IntoMobile’s latest headlines, complete with link to the article, In addition to that, Twitter will be the vehicle of our ground-floor coverage at conventions, so expect plenty of spur-of-the-moment tidbits, info and conversations to be happening there. Already have Twitter? Follow us at twitter.com/IntoMobile. Never heard of Twitter? Hit the jump for a video explanation.

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IntoMobile - Now with 100% more “fresh”

Will Park — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:42:55 +0000

Nope, it’s not your eyes. What you’re seeing is IntoMobile’s new design. The IntoMobile team has been toiling away behind the scenes to bring you a refreshed look, and it’s a bang-up job, if we do say so ourselves.

Take a gander at our new navigation structure and you’ll notice that there are some new categories to check out. Rumors are important because they can give us an idea of what kind of future the mobile world has in store for us. When it comes time to pull the trigger and buy yourself a new mobile toy, hardware reviews can really come in handy. A rundown of the hottest hardware on market always makes for good reading, and it’s nice to keep abreast of the latest new mobile gadgets. As such, you can find all the “Latest News,” “Rumors,” “New Hardware,” “Hottest Hardware,” and “Reviews” categories under “All News.”

IntoMobile’s fledgling podcast, The Signal, is now listed under “Sections” - right next to dedicated sections for photo galleries, videos, and live event coverage. Why dontcha give the new navigation menu a spin? Try not to let the new IntoMobile logo distract you too much…

Oh, and rest assured that we’re working to bring our readers even more functionality in the near future. So stay tuned! (And, feel free to let us know how much you like the new design. It makes our ego feel good.)

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IntoMobile - #1 and loving it!

Will Park — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:39:43 +0000

It’s been one helluva ride since IntoMobile got its blogging-legs and started exploring the mobile blogosphere. We’ve grown up quite a bit since last year, and it’s all because of you, our readers. Kudos to all of you for making IntoMobile one of the premier online resources for mobile phone content.

You may have noticed a couple new faces featured on IntoMobile’s front-page. Seeing as how IntoMobile has come so far, we thought was high time we expanded our team and brought on some additional editorial perspective.

James Falconer

James Falconer is our co-resident iPhone freak. James started off as a bona-fide web and graphics designer about 15 years ago, but has since branched out and co-founded CrackBerry.com and currently runs Mactropolis.com. With James’ experience in all things web and mobile-related, he’s bound to have an interesting perspective on the mobile world. We’re glad to have James on the IntoMobile team and can’t wait to read his take on the current state of the mobile ecosystem.

Simon Sage

Simon Sage comes to us from BlackBerryCool.com where he flexed his blogging-muscles as Senior Editor. He hails from the land of poutine and RIM’s home-turf - Canada. Expect Simon to deliver a balanced perspective and thoroughly thought out opinions on the the mobile world. We’re looking forward to seeing Simon’s thoughts on anything BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) related, and we’re even more excited to see what he thinks about the rest of the mobile world.

And, what better way to celebrate our newly expanded team than to be named the #1 Cellphone Blog on the web. Cellphones.org has put together a Top 20 list of mobile phone blogs across the web-o-sphere and they’ve given IntoMobile the hat-tip as the top-blog in our niche. The Top 20 Mobile Phone Blogs list reads like a who’s who of cellphone blogs on the web, and we’re proud to sit at the top of that list. Excuse us as we pat ourselves on the back.

Cellphones.org Top 20 Cellphone Blogs

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Announcing a new website: The Thumb Report

Stefan Constantinescu — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:25:40 +0000

My team and I (well mostly them really, huge props to Tom, Marc and Yoeau) have been slaving under a hot stove to bring you a new delicious treat. It’s called the Thumb Report and it’s a site I’ve been planning in my head for a while and now I’m happy to finally see it go live.

Here at IntoMobile Will, Dusan, Ben and I cover the news in as much depth as possible giving you plenty of background information around a piece of content in an attempt to help you digest it better. The Thumb Report is not about that. The Thumb Report is about fitting as much information as possible into 160 characters of text, the size of a standard text message.

I’m doing this because I’m tired of looking at a piece of news and wondering to myself “Gee Wiz, should I blog this or is it too insignificant?” and lately my news consumption and sharing habits have moved on to microblogging services such as Jaiku and Twitter and even social networks like Facebook.

The Thumb Report isn’t for everyone. The language is going to be very laconic and sometimes if I need to pull some characters out of a hat I’ll start using sms-language. You know what I’m talking about, “b there @ 8″ comes to mind. I’m also going to be covering things that may seem insignficant to you, but like I said earlier, I found them interesting but couldn’t bring myself to writing 100 words about it.

I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think in the comments below or on the first post at Thumb Report!

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Freebie Fridays

Will Park — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:24:53 +0000

Welcome to a new weekly piece at IntoMobile - Freebie Fridays!

Who doesn’t like free stuff? We thought so. Every week we’ll bring you free offers on magazines, white papers, software, podcasts, and more. The new stuff will be posted next Friday (hence the clever title), so keep an eye out for more freebies from IntoMobile!

Here’s a taste of the free stuff in store for our readers:

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IntoMobile wants your feedback!

Will Park — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:18:36 +0000

If you haven’t yet spotted it, allow me to direct your attention to the left-most portion of your browser window. You should see a floating “Feedback” button next to the main column.

IntoMobile is always looking for new ways to give our community of mobile enthusiasts the most extensive and relevant resource on the web. As such, we try hard to give you, the reader, what you want to see on IntoMobile.

So, hit up the “Feedback” button and tell us what you’d most like to see next. Your vote counts, so make yourself heard!

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Today is my first day as a Nokia employee

Stefan Constantinescu — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:30:44 +0000

Today is the first day in what will hopefully be a long and prosperous career at Nokia (NYSE: NOK).

My job title will be “Communications Specialist” and I’ll be working with Daniel Shugrue in the “Tech Leader Engagement Team.” The job description is here.

One of the unexpected side effects that blogging has pleasantly surprised me with was the creation of new friendships. The S60 and Nokia blogging community are all a fantastic bunch of people and with this new position I’m going to be in touch with even more fans of devices running S60, the ones who call themselves S60 Ambassadors.

Now that I work for Nokia there are a few rules I must adhere too, first and most obvious: I can’t comment or post pictures of unreleased S60 products. I can’t talk about pictures or information that was asked to be taken down by S60 licensees, especially the big one, Nokia. I can’t speculate on rumors.

Last rule: I have to tell you guys that I work for Nokia and I’ll be updating my bio within the hour to reflect that.

This is a part time position and Ricky from SymbianGuru/MobileBurn will be my teammate. He revealed he was working for Nokia 10 days ago and I asked him nicely not to disclose the fact that I’ll be his colleague because the paperwork on my end wasn’t complete. I wanted to wait until the ink on the contracts was dry before telling everyone and if you followed me on Jaiku then you got to know on Friday, the second I left the office.

I could not have done this without you guys, you’re the reason I blog in the first place. Thanks for reading!

One more thing … of course I’ll still be blogging here! I’m not leaving Finland either, for now at least, that might change in the long term depending on which direction Dan wants to do with the team.

If this post seems sparse it’s because I’m still letting it soak in. It feels just like yesterday that I got on a plane and landed at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. That was on July 6, 2007. Time flies when you’re having fun.

[Photo above is of the Nokia car that was at CES 2008, I currently use it as my wallpaper, you can download the full 5 megapixel image here; taken with my N82.

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If anyone needs to contact me, this is my new Spanish number

Stefan Constantinescu — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:05:54 +0000

622 482 625

For those of you who have been trying to contact my Finnish number. Call me, text me, love me, baby. Touch me. Touch me. All night. All night.

Been having connectivity issues. Sorry about that.

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Quickplay’s Streaming announcements

Ben Robinson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:42:59 +0000

You may remember that yesterday I made a couple of posts regarding Mobile Advertising - one of these was about Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Italy and Amobee doing a deal - Amobee’s part of which is powered by QuickPlay Media.

Well, a nice lady from QuickPlay’s PR agency emailed me to let me know about a couple of other announcements that Quickplay have made recently - which I thought I would share with you all:

The company recently announced FREE streaming video for Blackberry (NSDQ: RIMM) subscribers, lowering the price barrier for consumers looking to sample mobile content. It’s initially available for the 8130 handset, on EVDO networks in the USA. Eligible customers can visit www.videostreamsmobile.com to download the app and start streaming straight away
The company recently introduced what will likely be a very provocative feature - the ability to pause, start and stop long form video, and also parse the video into smaller segments for easier “internet” like viewing. The service allows for subscribers to pick up where they left off in the viewing experience whether the battery died, the service went out, or they simply had to stop watching

If you want to check out the full press releases for each of these announcements, you can look here and here.

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Hello IntoMobile Readership!

Ben Robinson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:30:19 +0000

Hello one and all, and Thanks Will for such a great introduction!

It’s truly a privilege to be joining the IntoMobile team, and I am very much looking forward to contributing over the coming year. The sorts of areas you will find me covering are those such as Mobile TV, Convergence, Content/Applications, and finally (last but not least), the UK Market.

As Will notes in his introduction, I split my time between all things Mobile, and being a (new) Father - so expect a different perspective from me on devices and services, as I look for those that deliver expediency and genuine usefulness to our lives.

Once again, it’s great to be on the team - and roll on 2008!

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The IntoMobile Team is growing - Welcome Ben, our newest Editor!

Will Park — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:30:01 +0000

Alrighty then. It’s a new year and the IntoMobile Team thought we could all
use a little change. We got together, thinking-caps in tow, to figure out
what we could do to bring our dear readers even more value for their
readership-buck.

What better way to kick off the New Year than to bring on
another IntoMobile team member?

The IntoMobile Team would like to give a warm and excited welcome to Ben Robinson! Ben will be holding down the UK side of IntoMobile’s operations, and with his 10 years of industry experience, we’re sure he’ll have a valuable take on the mobile space. From services to devices, his industry familiarity should prove invaluable.

Ben works full-time in the mobile industry, and has also just become a
father (kudos, Ben!). As such, his mobile needs have changed - he now looks
for efficiency and reliability from his mobile devices - anything that will
help make his already incredibly busy life simpler, and even more
productive. We can’t wait to hear his side of things.

We’re excited to have Ben on board, and we can’t wait to see what this New
Year has in store for us and our readers!

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IntoMobile and Viigo proudly announce our new Mobile Portal - IntoMobile To Go!

Will Park — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:07:09 +0000

We know, it’s getting to be that time of year and, if you’re anything like us, you’re running around frantically trying to get your affairs in order before that ~~dreaded~~ wonderful deadline. All the hustle and bustle of the holiday season leaves us with less and less time to get our fill of tech-news - and we figure our readers are starting to feel the holiday-crunch as well. So, why not take all your tech-news with you?

The IntoMobile Team has joined forces with mobile-web pioneer Viigo to launch our Viigo-powered Mobile Web Portal - “IntoMobile To Go.” All your favorite websites (ok, they don’t have to be tech-sites), sports updates, finance news, weather, traffic - everything is mobilized through our Viigo-powered IntoMobile To Go Mobile Web Portal. This isnt your run-of-the-mill mobile-RSS-reader - IntoMobile To Go is a fully-functional and powerful application that puts the real web on your mobile phone. Why wait for full webpages to load? Our Web Portal mobilizes the content and displays the newest articles as easily-digestible posts. You don’t even need to hunt down specific RSS feeds for your favorite sites. The geniuses over at Viigo realized that it can be a hassle to find a particular website’s RSS feed - simply enter a website’s URL address and Viigo’s servers will mobilize the webpage’s content on-the-fly.

The IntoMobile Mobilized Web Portal is available for free for all Windows Mobile and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) users. We’re working to bring the Viigo-powered IntoMobile Mobilized Web Portal to Symbian and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) users, so sit tight, we’ll get it to you guys in due time. Meanwhile, WinMo and BlackBerry users can download our IntoMobile To Go through this link - or hit up our new Viigo button near the upper-right corner of our homepage (at the top of the sidebar). If you prefer to install the IntoMobile To Go client OTA (over-the-air) onto your mobile phone, simply point your mobile browser to this download link.

Mobile download - http://getviigo.com/intomobile
Desktop download - http://www.virtualreach.com/intomobile.htm

Quick-start review of IntoMobile To Go after the break.

Getting started with IntoMobile To Go is simple:

Download the client via desktop or mobile/OTA download links.
Install the Viigo-powered IntoMobile To Go client.
Start ‘er up!

Viigo made sure that our IntoMobile To Go client is as simple to use as it is to install. The interface comes pre-loaded with a list of popular websites (we’re going to call them “Channels”) for you to start off with. Of course, IntoMobile.com is included in your list.

If you want to add more “Channels” to your reading list, simply enter the URL of the webpage - no need to find a specific RSS feed for you favorite website:

From the “My Channels” start screen, hit the “Menu” button
Select “Add Channel”
Pick a category that you’d like to add - in this case, we’re going to add traffic information for Los Angeles.
We’re going to pick US Traffic, because, well, Los Angeles is in the US
Select “Los Angeles” from the list of US cities with available traffic information.

That’s it! You should now have US traffic information at the tip of your fingers.

Adding your own website is just as easy:

Select “Add Channel” from the “Menu”
Choose “Add your own Channel”
Then choose “Add from Web Page”
Enter the URL address of your favorite website

There you go! Have a great holiday, and keep up with your tech news. We’ll try to keep up with the blogosphere, so all we ask is that you keep up with us.

Questions? Leave a comment…

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Ask the IntoMobile Magic 8-Ball - What is the future of mobile phones?

Will Park — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:00:13 +0000

It’s been bugging me for a pretty good while. Why do I love the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone so damn much? Coming from the Windows Mobile camp (I used to be a hardcore WinMo fan - still am, just not as hardcore), and even having dabbled in the world of Nokia (NYSE: NOK), I’ve been used to having the latest and greatest when it comes to hardware features - 3G, autofocusing cameras with incredible optics, WiFi, GPS, slide-out QWERTY keyboards, expandable memory, more third-party applications than I knew what to do with…the list goes on and on. So, why the hell do I love this iPhone that doesn’t even have MMS capability (not to mention the lack of video recording, expandable memory, or, most importantly, 3G)? I’m constantly defending this damn phone from the likes of, well, everyone. They flout their phone’s features as being superior to the iPhone. It’s always badass camera this, 3G data that.

Anyway, I digress.

I recently attended an interesting panel discussion regarding monetization strategies for anyone in the mobile industry, and Doppelganger CEO Tim Stevens, mentioned that the user interface is key to attracting users and helps drive online revenue in the mobile space. So, that got me thinking - does the mobile phone UI play a key role in attracting consumers? The answer I arrived at was, yes - at least in the coming years. Currently, attention is focused on hardware, but the future of the mobile industry is the UI. Let me explain.

As mobile phones become more powerful and packed to the gills with features (which is a good thing, by the way - viva la convergence!), all manufacturers will eventually have to offer the same features if they want to keep up with eachother. High-megapixel cameras, GPS, WiFi, mobile broadband, email, music - any manufacturer worth their salt in today’s market already has a device that offers most, if not all, of these high-end features. So, if hardware specs start to become more homogenized across the board, what aspect of the mobile experience will consumers base their purchase decisions upon? The answer is, the UI.

Sure, there will always be the low and mid-range devices that don’t offer every feature available on the market (keep in mind that as the industry advances, the low and mid-range phones will incorporate features that were once considered “high-end”), but these handset offerings will ride the wave that the high-end devices create.

So, what comprises the UI and why is it so damn important? Well, for the purpose of this argument, the UI is defined as the way you navigate through the devices features, hardware (or software) that allows you to input information, and the on-screen visuals. The UI will become increasingly more important as the consumer starts to demand a more cohesive, intuitive, and enjoyable user experience.

Now, this isn’t just an Apple fanboy’s declaration of love for the iPhone. As great as the virtual keyboard is, there is a steep learning curve (but I’ve gotten faster and more accurate on the iPhone keyboard than I had ever been on a hard-keyboard). I actually miss video recording (at least on my iPhone). GPS would be nice. But, to tell you the truth, I never really used MMS, and I don’t miss it.

I love my Windows Mobile devices (high-end feature sets, QWERTY keyboard, and touchscreen), and I have to admit that the Nokia N95 rocks for creating high-res photos and videos (despite shutter and shot-to-shot lag). Checking email on the iPhone is easy. Playing music is a breeze. Surfing the internet is an incredible joy (EDGE isn’t fast, but in real-world use it doesn’t slow-down the browsing experience that much - seriously, pages loaded slower on my AT&T (NYSE: T) Tilt and took just as long on the Nokia N95. I’m usually not editing word documents nor taking pictures/videos - so my iPhone is my day-to-day phone. So, what makes the the iPhone such a joy to use? It’s not the Apple logo. It’s not the exterior looks (I actually prefer the AT&T Tilt’s design). It’s the user experience, defined by the user interface - it’s the UI!

The UI is the future, and manufacturers are starting to realize that fact. Nokia is going with a touch-based S60. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) just bought a 50% stake in UIQ. Samsung has Croix. Apple has the iPhone. And therein lies the key to why the iPhone is such a success. The user interface on the iPhone is un-rivaled. Sure, it’s lacking in the hardware department, but Apple will eventually get it together and offer the same hardware specs that we’ve come to expect from high-end phones. But, the UI. Wow, the UI is incredible.

In that regard, Apple is ahead of the curve and the rest of the industry is going to play catch-up. Which is an easier task? Designing an incredible UI (which is largely based on subjective factors) or figuring out how to incorporate new hardware (which is merely a matter of sorting out the technical bits)? I would argue that developing an appealing UI is the more difficult task.

But then, there’s the issue of price. Most non-enthusiasts that I talk to love the iPhone, but the price is the major deterrent. On the flip-side, cost usually isn’t as big an issue with enthusiasts - and that bunch usually knocks the iPhone for lack of features. This isn’t an aspect of future-consumer decisions that I’ve put too much thought into, but I tend to think that the entire market will be driven by consumers that demand more out of their UI.

Now, you might disagree (and that’s what why we have a comments section), but mark my words. Consumers will be looking more towards the UI and less towards what hardware features are available. iPhone 2.0, here I come!

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Free mobile game! Download “Snowed In 6 - Deep Freeze” and help the environment

Will Park — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:42:23 +0000

Just like the title says. Download your own copy of Snowed In 6 - Deep Freeze from our IntoMobile Store and help the environment. We’re running a special promotion of the Deep Freeze mobile-game in conjunction with ClickGamer to give our readers a free copy of the game. And, once we reach 1,000,000 downloads, ClickGamer will donate $10,000 to help combat global climate change.

Here’s a description of the game:

Christmas wonderland is frozen over this Christmas and the Grinch is back with a bag full of new tricks. Help Santa assemble all his goodies and deep freeze the Grinch for good !

Here’s the gist of it. You guys download the game for FREE - a “win” for you. The environment will get $10,000 to stay healthy - a “win” for Mother Earth. So, if there was ever a win-win situation, this is it. Head on over to our IntoMobile Store and download your copy of Snowed In 6 - Deep Freeze. Or, better yet, just download the game from this link.

Snowed In 6 - Deep Freeze is compatible with:

Pocket PC - e.g. Ipaq (QVGA, 240×320), Dell Axim x50v (VGA, 480×640), Treo 700w (Square, 240×240)
Smartphone - all models (QVGA, VGA and square screen), e.g. MotoQ, Orange SPV
Symbian S60 - e.g. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 6600
Symbian S60 V3 - e.g. Nokia E60 (352×416), Nokia E61 (320×240)
Symbian UIQ - e.g. Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) P800, P900
Symbian UIQ V3 - e.g. Sony Ericsson M600, P990, W950
Symbian S80 - e.g. Nokia 9210, Nokia 9290 (1st edition) and Nokia 9300, Nokia 9500 (2nd edition)
Symbian S90 - e.g. Nokia 7700
Desktop PC - runs in windowed and full screen mode!
GP2X Console

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Tell Shiny Shiny what Style is and you can win a trip to 3GSM!

Stefan Constantinescu — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:00:10 +0000

Shiny Shiny, in conjunction with LG, is holding a contest where 2 people will be given internships at Tech Digest and an all expenses paid visit to 3GSM in Barcelona. To enter the contest you have to watch the video below and be “absolutely fabulous,” in Suzy’s words.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll be entering. I do have an internet crush on Suzy, but that isn’t going to get me any extra points. I’m probably going to do a video on Nokia (NYSE: NOK) too and that certainly isn’t going to win me any points with LG, but one can try!

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