Mobile

Monday, February 04, 2008

Utterz steps up its instant online communication game

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I joined Utterz shortly after it launched. I liked the idea as soon as I heard it: a way to share a thought impulsively by recording it over the phone. The recording is saved to a profile where those who choose to follow you are notified that you have a new Utter. What you Utter can often become a conversation, just as text does on Twitter and video on Seesmic. As with Twitter, you can put a widget on your site that plays your latest Utter. As with YouTube, you can embed an Utter as part of a blog post.

Utterz, Seesmic, and Twitter represent a suite of tools for me. Most often, I’m at my computer and it’s easiest to send a tweet. Sometimes, though, video seems more appropriate to the message. When I’m not at a computer and keying text into my mobile phone just seems like a hassle, I can call it into Utterz.

Twitter is well-established and, if Biz Stone and his crew can overcome persistent reliability issues, it’s not going anywhere. Utterz and Seesmic have less certain futures. Seesmic is still in alpha, so it’s way too soon to make any guesses about its prospects. Utterz, with its cow-based theme, has attracted usership only in the thousands.

Utterz has stepped up its game with announcements made today. I spent some time on the phone last week with the company’s CEO, Michael Bayer, who walked me through some of the changes the company is introducing. (The discussion was arranged by The Conversation Group, which represents Utterz.) While it won’t dethrone Twitter, the upgraded Utterz represents a threat to Seesmic.

Most of the changes are based on user input, Bayer said; that thousands of comments helped prioritize which improvements to introduce now and which to work on for later. The new features reinforce Utterz’ promise to let you produce any kind of content instantly, using any device, and to post that content where you want. Utterz now supports voice, video, images and text from computers and mobile phones and lets users direct where their content winds up: on their blog, their Facebook account, wherever. In our conversation, Bayer stressed Utterz’ platform-agnosticism.

Today’s announcements include the addition of threaded conversations on the Utterz site. In addition, Utterz is going global with local phone numbers for voice contributions in nearly 20 countries including the UK, France, Italy, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Israel and others.

The multiple-media approach makes this partricularly interesting. The only way to reply to a Seesmic video is with another Seesmic video; Twitter tweets require tweets in return. With Utterz, I can respond to text with a video I record directly from my webcam (just as Seesmic works) while someone can reply to my video with audio called in from a mobile phone.

Utterz is introducing one more change today: an improved interface. The design looks more business-like. The cartoony cow motif was fine, but not exactly the kind of thing that would inspire widespread business adoption. The new interface looks just fine for work:

Audio uploaded to Utterz are added to feeds as RSS 2.0 compliant enclosures, which allows the service to double as a podcast host.

Taken together, these enhancements make Utterz a formidable competitor in the growing world of instant online conversation.

Here’s my Utterz profile, by the way.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

FIR Interview - John Penberthy-Smith, Hutchison 3G UK: October 29, 2007

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3, the mobile operator, and Skype, the internet communications company, have launched the Skypephone, a new handset that lets you make free Skype calls and instant messages from your mobile phone. It’s the first time an operator has offered a mass-market device which is tailor-made for free calling over the internet from a mobile.

During the press launch in London on October 29, Neville Hobson spoke with John Penberthy-Smith, Marketing Director at Hutchison 3G UK Ltd., the operator of the 3 network, about 3’s marketing and communication plans for the Skypephone focused on experiential marketing and word of mouth.

About our Conversation Partner

John Penberthy-Smith joined 3 UK in October 2006 as Director of Customer Marketing and in January 2007 he was appointed Marketing Director. As Marketing Director he is responsible for all marketing at 3 including products, customer propositions, channel and base marketing. He is also responsible for marketing the X-Series, 3’s flat-rate mobile broadband offer launched in the UK in December 2006.

Prior to joining 3, Penberthy-Smith was at Vodafone where he held a number of positions including Head of Global Voice Propositions for Vodafone Group and Director of Consumer Marketing for Vodafone UK.

Penberthy Smith, 39, is married with two children.

Download the 12-minute conversation here (MP3, 5.5MB), or sign up for the Interviews RSS feed to get it and future interviews automatically. For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a such as the free Juice, DopplerRadio or iTunes, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon. To receive all For Immediate Release podcasts including the twice-weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, sign up for the full RSS feed.

Listen to this podcast now:

If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, email us at fircomments@gmail.com; or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America) or +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe); or Skype: fircomments; or comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR; or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Podsafe intro music - On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Jott does just what it says it will

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At the recommendation of my friend Pete Shinbach, I’ve been playing with Jott, a new online service currently in public beta. So far, I love this service both for its simplicity and the fact that it meets a real need.

Once you have an account, which synchs with your cell phone number, you set up lists of people with whom you want to communicate. Let’s say you work for a department that meets each Tuesday at 8 a.m., but you’re stuck in traffic. Call Jott and record a message saying, “I’m late, but start the meeting without me.” That message will be transcribed and sent as a text message and/or email to the other members of the department.

You’re automatically set up as a group yourself. I can easily see myself driving somewhere and suddenly remembering something I need to do. I call Jott (which is already in my cell phone autodial listing), speak the message, and within seconds, it has arrived as a text message and an email, serving as a reminder once I get back to the office.

Jott has launched new functionality this week, allowing you to send your messages to services like Twitter and Jaiku. I tested it on Twitter, and it worked reasonably well, although it misspelled “Cisco.” Fortunatley, if you think the transcribing might err in spelling what you’ve said correctly, you can spell it out instead of simply speak it.

The service is free and, so far, I think it rocks.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Nokia acqusition signals greater convergence

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I hadn’t even heard of Twango until yesterday, when the announcement came down that Nokia had acquired the multimedia file sharing site. Nokia apparently looked at about 75 companies before settling on the 10-person firm running out of the founder’s basement. The fact that the company is made up of former Microsoft employees who get Internet services had something to do with the decision.

More interesting is the reason Nokia went after such a company at all. According to the press release, “Nokia will be able to offer people an easy way to share multimedia content through their desktop and mobile devices.”

“The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our consumer Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks – at any time, anywhere, from any connected device, in any way that you choose. We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and – with the Twango acquisition – photos, videos, and a variety of document types,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia, Nokia. “When you combine a Nokia N-series multimedia computer that is always on, always connected, and always with you together with a rich media sharing destination like Twango, people will have exciting new ways to create and enjoy rich media experiences in real time.”

It’s another sign that the cell phone is becoming a more ubiquitous communication tool; companies not preparing content and services for the cell phone (as, for instance, the Mayo Clinic has) need to start strategizing.

(It’s also a sign that there are still phones out there other than the iPhone that can attract consumer attention.)

Twango is a nifty site. Unlike most media sharing sites, it allows for uploading of any kind of multimedia—audio, video, and photos. No login is necessary and you can upload your photos from a variety of device types (like, for instance, your cell phone). Embedding the content is as easy as it is with YouTube, but the same embed process works for all media types, not just video. There’s also a feature that lets you record a video with your webcam directly from the site and embed it in your blog or send it as an email attachment.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Mobile messages on a shirt

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Back in 2006, at the NewComm Forum in Palo Alto, a vendor displayed a nifty SMS-based service. The idea was simple. You’re driving past a billboard or see a bus drive by with an advertisement on the side. You’re interested, but how do you get more information? Using the service (the name of which I can’t remember or find), the advertiser would include a numeric code to send via text-message to a simple address. In response, you get more information.

By way of demonstration, the vendor had obtained some biographical information on every attendee at the conference and assigned each of us a code. Text-messaging the code returned a summary of that info.

I have no idea whether the service took off—I haven’t seen any of the SMS info on billboards or public transportation—but the idea is similar to one introduced online recently (hat tip to Sallie Goetsch for pointing it out). Instead of billboards for promoting the number, though, the word is spread through t-shirts.

Reactee lets anyone create a shirt with a message and an SMS code. You also create and manage the message people get when they send the message. The shirts are $25, although by the time you add shipping and other costs, it winds up running $35 or more (depending on the shipping method). If you make your shirt public, others can buy it and help spread your message.

I’m testing Reactee out with a shirt promoting For Immediate Release. Send a text message and you’ll get a brief recap of the current show contents. I ordered the shirt in black, which will help me get away with wearing it when I present my session at next week’s IABC conference.

Of course, once the code is set up, there’s no rule that says only people who see it on a shirt can use it. We can tell anyone: Send a text message to 41411 and enter firpodcast and you’ll get the show update.

One drawback: It only works in the U.S., apparently.

In any case, if the rising use of mobile phone technology hasn’t captured your attention yet, it should.