iCheat

Tiger Woods. Images of a golf legend getting down and dirty with countless women is most likely what springs to mind first. And so it should, the cheater gets caught, like that's never happened before. What amazes me is that the jokes that were flying around the office, happened within minutes of that story breaking. Opportunities sprung from other people's misery, it's the way of the world unfortunately.

That's why when TigerText came out, I wasn't in the least bit surprised. It's a new iPhone application that allows user to send text messages and once the message is read it is instantly deleted, leaving no trace of infidelity. This includes erasing received and dialled calls logs. Of course, I found this quite amusing when I first read it, can you imagine all the hassle that could have been spared in the case of our billionaire golfer if he had had this application? But there are other questions that plague the mind when thinking of this application.

There was a comment from a reader on the article I had read stating "This application is actually making cheating easier! I wish one of the people who developed this thing gets the worst of this application. They are encouraging cheating. I can't believe this!" A good point. But I don't tend to agree wholeheartedly. An application like this doesn't encourage cheating, if someone wants to cheat they will, regardless of an Iphone application but I do think that it's not the most moral of applications.

But when it comes to phone applications as with the internet or technology, it's definitely not about morality, it's about the freedom to choose. It's about being given the options of new advances and deciding whether or not to use them based on your set of values and opinions. Not everyone is the same and someone who maybe believes that it is alright to cheat (I'm sure there are people out there) this is something they would choose to use purely because it is something that will help them with something they believe is ok to do. It's like the great pornography debate, some believe it can spice up a stale marriage, others believe its filth that shouldn't be entertained. It all boils down to choice and of course making loads of cash for the developers.

Mobile Users to Reach 5 Billion

This article was supplied by News24.com:


The ranks of cellphone subscribers will swell to five billion people this year thanks to the growth of smartphones in developed nations and mobile services in poor nations, a UN agency said on Monday.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) also said the number of mobile broadband subscriptions would exceed one billion this year after reaching 600 million in 2009.

"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services," ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure said in a statement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the industry's biggest trade show.

The number of mobile subscribers had reached 4.6 billion people last year.

"I am confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in particular in 2010, with many more people using their phones to access the Internet," Toure said

In the developing world, the growth has been driven by the use of phones for mobile banking and health services, the ITU said.

"Good examples include sending reminder messages to patient's phones when they have a medical appointment, or need a pre-natal check-up," Toure said.

"Or using SMS messages to deliver instructions on when and how to take complex medication such as anti-retrovirals or vaccines," he said, adding that such uses can save millions of dollars and lives.

People with no bank accounts but mobile subscriptions are also increasingly able to do financial transactions with their phones in developing countries, he said.

Super Cool Super Hero

Start of a brand new year and a brand new blog for me. I took over the hummba blog cause I reckon I'd have a few more stories to tell - crazy traveler and all. I'm on a mission to see the most amazing cities in the world and so far, I've done pretty well so far, I've seen over a thousand cities and counting.

I think its time for you and I to get to know each other better so I'm going to tell you why my mobile phone is the one thing I ALWAYS travel with, no matter where I'm going or what time of the year...

Its the ultimate travelers companion. I can do just about anything on my phone and it saves me the hassle of finding an internet cafe to stay in touch. Hummba means that you keep moving, so with my phone I can let all my buddies know where I am and what I'm doing. I fancy myself as a bit of a rogue travel guide so I take geo tagged pictures of my travels and upload my Footprint photo album for everyone to check out. Its a cool way to stay in touch. Hummba is one half mobile application and one half social network for travelers. The cool part is sometimes I get to a city and I don't have any idea about what to see or where to go so I log on to hummba, check out what free audio travel guides are available in the city, download them and BOOM! I'm a city expert/traveling super hero. Its cool. Trust me, or don't - go and try it out for yourself and let me know what the deal is.

To a great adventure! Hope to catch up with you soon.

Jack

Is it the future or just for now?

Mobile applications are one of the whirlwind wonders to bemuse and bewilder the masses. Once pegged as "the future" there have been countless debates about whether or not there is money to be made on the mobile platform.

In a country like South Africa where cell phone charges are some of the highest in the world, its difficult to predict the future of mobile usage and the extent of it. As it is, there are a number of mobile and social networks that are available - the ones that are most readily used are the cheap ones. As a mobile culture, we've managed to overlook the percentage of our salaries we're paying to simply stay connected but we haven't quite forgotten that in this country, it is expensive to use a cell phone.

The scramble to convince mobile manufacturers to take your application as a standard function of the phone is one step in the right direction but there will always be a service provider that will determine the cost to the user to make use of that function.

So the question remains...how will mobile applications make any money? The world over, mobile users aren't prepared to pay extra for functions like mobile apps, certainly not when it comes to subscribing. So what is the answer? I think it would have to come down to some good old fashioned business tricks...

1. Give people what they want
2. Then give them what you've told them they want and finally...
3. Make sure that whatever you're giving them, its a good product.

One of the ways to really harness (and make money) from Mobile applications is to sell location based advertising. Location Based Marketing (LBM) isn't something that has really caught on in SA and it certainly hasn't been made full use of but it is a nice alternative for users who want to choose what they want to expose their wallets to.

It is probably true that as information gets passed onto users at such a high rate, so consumerism is evolving beyond being gullible, easily persuaded or without options. Sure, the good subliminal messages still work but now its time to start engaging with the buyers. They are the ones who hold the purse strings essentially so its time to start talking to them. That's the sentiment when it comes to big businesses engaging on social networks. So go out there, talk to your clients, believe it or not but they do want to hear from you.

Visit www.hummba.com to download hummba to your mobile phone and getting moving!

Loerie, Loerie, Loerie...

HAMBA [hummba]
verb - to go, move or travel...

That's exactly what we intend to do at hummba.com...go places.

Since the launch of hummba in April of this year, hummba.com has been making strides as the latest travel and lifestyle social network to take travellers on a journey. And we’re not the only ones who think so. In the short time that hummba has been live to the public, it’s already managed to pick up a nomination for a very coveted Loerie Awards in the Digital Website category.

When I say Loerie, I mean the 31-year-old awards ceremony that has grown into the benchmark for brand communication including radio and print advertising, architecture, design, direct marketing, non-broadcast video, live events and digital media. In their own words…”Loerie Awards have been feeding egos since 1978…”

Our hummba head has certainly swollen. And for those of you who still don't know...HUMMBA.com is a web portal and mobile application that allows users to share their travel experiences. As a social networking platform, users can find friends and track travellers in real time. Users can create photo albums to share with the hummba community using the FOOTPRINTS application. The pictures in these albums are geo tagged to the route the user followed.

Another application on HUMMBA.COM is a travel log called “BREADCRUMBS” that allows users to leave their comments, reviews and anecdotes at any point of interest around the world. HUMMBA users are also able to upload the points of interest they have discovered on their travels to share with the rest of the community.

HUMMBA is a travel resource for tourists who want to download free audio guides to their mobile phone. Audio clips of landmarks around the world are supplied by Tourism Radio, a location based radio station for independent travellers.

So here's to hummba! Get your head in the clouds too...sign up at www.hummba.com and share the experience...