Mobile Choice Blog

Blind mobile calls could lead to a charity bonus

If you're anything like us, chances are you've occasionally called someone by mistake from your pocket, after forgetting to lock your phone. If you've got any friends called Amy or Anna, they'll probably have borne the brunt of it, being at the top of your address book.

A Dutch charity has an idea to at least make these 'blind calls' worthwhile. They've suggested that users have the top entry in their address book as 'A blind call', which means if their phone makes a phantom call, it'll go to that, which is a number for a charity for the blind - which will automatically cut the call off after 30 seconds, and take a share of the cost.

It's a good idea: and far better than angering one of your friends by calling them at 2am, as has happened to us on more than one occasion...

(via MobHappy)

Nokia relaunches Sports Tracker mobile application

If, like us, you plan to spend the month of December getting fit before the Christmas pig-out, then the Nokia Sports Tracker mobile application may help you out. It lets you track your workouts via GPS and mapping, ensuring you know how far you've run (and thus, how many Yorkshire puds you can eat on 25th December).

The application has been around for a while, but it's just been relaunched with new social features, allowing you to share your workouts with other users. It's great if you're getting fit with a few friends and want to encourage each other.

It's a sign that sports and mobile phones now go beyond the rugged handsets that Nokia has been releasing for a few years now - the inclusion of GPS in phones means that athletes of all levels can use their phones as essential training tools.

Nokia Sports Tracker website (via Engadget Mobile)

GyPSii location-based social network to launch on Nokias

GyPSii is an interesting mix of technologies, being part location-based news service, and part social networking platform. Its features include user generated content, friend finding and sharing, and Point Of Interest search to find maps and directions of your immediate surroundings.

The company behind it has just launched a Symbian version of the application, which has been accredited for use on Nokia's N95 and 6110 Navigator handsets (it's already available for Windows Mobile handsets). GyPSii says that demand for more advanced mobile location services is growing, so hopes to tap into the people using the GPS feature on these Nokia phones.

Location-based social networking could be one of the most exciting areas in the next year or two, although we're not sure if it'll work best on standalone services like GyPSii, or integrated into existing social networks like MySpace and Facebook. For example, imagine being able to pop up a Google Map showing any of your Facebook friends who are nearby...

GyPSii website

AOL launches new UK mobile portal

AOL has launched AOL Mobile, its new mobile internet portal offering channels from its web service, including email and search functions.

The site also promises to 'transcode' any website into mobile-friendly pages - although given that some mobile browsers (and, indeed, operators) already do this means it might not be that useful to all mobile users.

AOL Mobile search is prominently placed on the new portal's homepage, while channels ported over from AOL's UK website include sport, news and entertainment, with more to follow in the coming months. To check AOL's new portal out, text AOL to 85885 here in the UK.

Want to make the perfect soup? Consult your mobile!

Making soup is easy. Step 1: crack open a tin of soup. Step 2: heat it. We told you it was easy. Yet if you prefer the complicated route of actually chopping and cooking ingredients, we've found a mobile application that might make that a bit easier too.

It's called Knorr: Mobile Cookbook, and it's a Java application offering 20 delicious soup recipes - we assume most if not all of them involve Knorr stock cubes, obviously. The application also gives you cooking instructions and pictures.

The bad news is that right now, you have to be Polish to get the application, as it's only being sold there. But it's probably only a matter of time before it comes to the UK too, since we are a soup-loving nation. Until then, we'll have to stick with the cans.

(via The Cell Freak)

You wait ages to text a bus, then three SMS along at once

That headline might not work, but at least we tried, eh? MobHappy has some interesting news about Yorkshire-based mobile service yournextbus. It launched two years ago, and lets you send a text message to find out when your next bus is arriving, although there's also a WAP site.

The news is that the service has received two million text messages so far, with a further million hits on its WAP site. It might not be a 'sexy' mobile service like TV or downloadable music, but it seems to be one that people genuinely want to use. Of course, if our buses ran like clockwork, nobody would need it, but that's a separate rant for another time.

Local councillor Ryk Downes reckons 13% of passengers are using the buses more as a result of the service too, so it's clearly paying its way.

yournextbus article (via MobHappy)

Opera Mini 4 browser promises faster mobile web surfing

A lot of mobile users don't realise that they're not stuck with their handset's default web browser if they're planning a spot of mobile surfing. One of the best alternatives is the Opera Mini browser, which you can download to your phone and use like any other application or game.

The latest version came out late last week: Opera Mini 4. It lets you look at proper websites rather than just WAP sites (in fairness, many built-in mobile browsers are now capable of this too), but the real selling point is that it automatically reduces the size of pages before you access them - which is faster, and saves you on those pricey data charges.

New features include whizzy zooming stuff (that's our technical term, you understand) and the ability to synchronise your Opera Mini bookmarks with those on your desktop web browser. Download it via the link below.

Opera Mini website

Adopt a Battersea dog on your mobile with DOGMOB

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home does hugely important work with stray and unwanted animals, and now it's trying a new money-raising strategy: a mobile portal called DOGMOB. The idea is that you pay to download mobile content by 'adopting' one of the home's dogs.

Don't worry, this doesn't involve a mutt actually being delivered to your house - the idea is more to raise awareness of the dogs that are looking for real-life adoption, but also to generate cash from the mobile content sales.

So, you choose a dog from the website, and text its name to 80022 to get sent a WAP link, which costs £3, but provides four downloads: an animated screensaver, wallpaper certificate, 'thank you' video, and a barking ringtone. It's well worth a go, if you're a dog lover. And don't worry feline-fanciers - CATMOB is apparently coming soon for moggies...

DOGMOB website 

Privacy fears over Google's plans for Jaiku

Ever used Jaiku? It's a microblogging service similar to Twitter, except with more mobile features. It was recently bought by Google, but the latter's plans for its new acquisition have raised privacy fears over how much information people give up when using services like Jaiku, and what Google plans to do with it.

Why? This New York Times article explains some of the reasons. The idea of microblogging is you write about what you're doing, who you're doing it with, where you're doing it, and all the other minutae of your daily life. Exactly the sort of information that advertisers would kill for, in other words. And Google makes a lot of money from contextual advertising...

Jaiku's founders say they're alive to the implications, and will ensure users have plenty of privacy settings to retain control of how their data is used. But as these kinds of services take off, it'll be interesting to see how the balance evolves between privacy and profit.

(via New York Times)

Mobile-Secuware mobile spy application will send a shiver down your spine

Is it just us, or is the idea of a mobile application that secretly sends all your text messages and call history to someone else a bit... frightening? Yet that's the idea behind Mobile-Secuware, which transfers this information to someone else's handset via SMS, GPRS or Bluetooth.

"Protect your children, catch those who are cheating on you, Spy your worker [sic], the possibilities are endless," promises the official website. Just how legal any of this is - particularly the spying on your workers bit - remains unexplained.

It's one of the creepier mobile apps we've come across, anyway.

Mobile-Secuware website (via 160Characters)