UK: Orange launches ‘Social Life’ and ‘Widget Player’
By Ben Robinson on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 9:23 AM PST
In Announcements, Orange, Social Networks
Orange has announced the launch of Social Life, a mobile social networking aggregator which brings together activity on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo in one central place. Accessible from Orange World, Orange’s mobile internet portal, Social Life allows customers to view and post updates and get in touch with friends and family across all three social networks at the same time through a single log-in.
Available to all Orange mobile customers, the Social Life home screen allows users to:
- upload photos
- update their status
- keep track of friends’ status updates from all three leading social networks
- view social network notifications, including messages, events, pokes and friend requests
- send and receive messages
Customers have full control over which information they provide to each of their social networks – they can update their status and upload photos to some or all of them through the Social Life home screen. Social Life also allows customers to keep on top of social network activity through SMS – with them able to set up free text alerts on specific social network activity and send updates via text message. Offering access to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace from launch, the service will also look to incorporate more social networks and Web 2.0 sites in 2009.
Orange was the first operator to offer pay-as-you-go customers free access to Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, while contract customers receive free mobile internet access on certain tariffs.
Orange also announced today that it has launched Orange Widget Player, a customisable interface which provides fast access to useful content and favourite applications from the Orange home screen on Orange Signature devices. Using Widget Player, customers can instantly access news, weather and sport updates along with applications such as search, Wikipedia, world clock and others from a widgets catalogue that will grow throughout 2009. Currently available on the Nokia 6303, Widget Player will be rolled out on further devices through the course of 2009.
Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Product Management for Orange UK, said: “With Social Life and Widget Player we’re making it simple for customers to manage their favourite content, applications and social networks at the touch of a button. Over time we will be looking to add more sites to the service – helping users to stay in touch in touch with the people and content that matters most to them”.
It’s certainly an impressive-sounding announcement, but with the potential complexity of some these services, the devil will be in the detail. Once I get to play with some demo devices with these services loaded, I’ll let you know how it (widget) plays out (pun intended!)
There’s no denying Canadians’ love for the mobile device, especially when you consider the numbers over the past few years. 67% of Canadians now have a mobile device, and we will see that percentage grow through the end of 2009. With that in mind, some interesting numbers have come out detailing how mobile devices and social networking have really taken off north of the border.
