Credit Updates with SMS

Credit cardholders with Citi Bank in the Philippines can get up-to-date information about their account by SMS!

Reported by Mike Grenville for www.160characters.org


Such alerts can be implemented in any industry especially in conjunction with mobile website registration.

Faster Bluetooth 3.0 Specification To Be Unveiled

There is a lot to look forward to in April of 2009.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group plans to unveil version 3.0 of the Bluetooth wireless specification on April 21.

The companies ready to roll out new Bluetooth 3.0 devices will be announced at that time, together with some of the technical details! Stay tuned.

Dictionary .com App Offers Features & Perks

An entry on the Download blog got my attention:

The free Dictionary.com app delivers world-class reference content from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com including more than 275,000 definitions and 80,000 synonyms, which are accessible through the app, with no Internet connection needed.
The app also features audio pronunciations, similarly spelled words and Dictionary.com’s popular Word of the Day.

Text Message Donations Help Quake Victims

After the worst earthquake in 30 years struck L’Aquila killing 250 and leaving thousands homeless, Italians are text messaging donations to help, reports Zoomata.

Italian mobile operators, Wind, Tre and Vodafone, made a single number available for SMS donations to earthquake victims. Cell phone users send a blank text to 48580. They’re charged one euro for each text, cell phone companies promise to donate the entire amount of each message.
Texters are sent a confirmation that says, “Thank you. With this message you’re helping people in Abruzzo who have been hit by the earthquake.”
Thumb tribes have been sending in support in Italy since 2002, when another earthquake in Southern Italy prompted the first cell-phone fund drive.

Samsung Android Phones Coming

Three Android Smartphones Coming From Samsung

Samsung has confirmed plans to release Android phones, according to a recent story in Forbes. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of global product strategy told the magazine during the recent CTIA trade show in Las Vegas that the company will release several handsets using the Google-backed, open-source operating system.The first of the devices will be launched in June outside the U.S. Hong confirmed that two other Android devices will be released in the U.S. during the second half of 2009.

Salesforce offers customers free mobile service

Reuters is reporting business software maker Salesforce.com is offering a scaled-down version of its customer-management services that existing customers will be able to access for free using high-end mobile phones.

The company that pioneered software as a service -- managing customers' information and data remotely on a pay-as-you-go basis -- said it could reach 1 million users with its new Mobile Lite service.

Salesforce already has clocked up 70,000 downloads of its Apple iPhone version in seven months by customers on its more expensive offerings.

Mobile Lite will be available to customers using Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones and phones running on Microsoft's Windows software as well as the iPhone, Salesforce said ahead of a company event in London.

Have We Gone Too Far?

A posting on textually.org about the Virtual Zippo Lighter app got my attention!

It seems some concert fans are skipping the flames and opting for a virtual Zippo lighter via an app on their iPhones to call for an encore.

What do you think about this? Have we gone too far? Let me know what you think about this growing use of the virtual Zippo lighter app!