SL - On the go

Second Life is coming to your mobile phone!

"Vollee is offering mobile access to Second Life world as an open beta free of charge. All you have to do is pre-register here and if you have a supported handset we will contact you shortly with instructions to get your mobile client. Initial roll-out will be this coming May in the US with more to follow based on pre-registration requests."

More details are available on the FAQ section of the site.

I personally can't wait to test the service - although I doubt it will support the UAE network anytime soon.

Mobile - Nokia Conversations

The Social Communications team at Nokia launched a YouTube channel devoted to "personal" communication with its users, in an attempt to bridge the gap between the corporate and the consumers.

The purpose? As described by the team: "We'll be posting as many videos on Nokia stories, products, services, and people as we can get our hands on or produce ourselves".

So far, hands-on video clips explaining the finer points of the Nokia 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic have been uploaded - with more to follow.

Stay tuned here.

Via Pocket picks.

Mobile - Ikea kiosk

The Ikea store in Seattle installed an interactive kiosk that allows customers to access coupons and information on their weekly specials through text messages or by scanning barcodes with their mobile phone.

Brilliant idea and great 1-2-1 initiative - Customers will receive regular updates on the latest news and sales when they leave the store.

Via Ohgizmo

Mobile - Time Cameraphone photographer of the year

The Times is on a mission to find the Cameraphone Photographer of the Year - brought to you by Sony Ericsson and Times Online.

"The competition sets a new theme each week and readers are now invited to send in their images for the fifth assignment, entitled “People”.

User generated content meets mobile technologies competitions are quite popular, but what makes this one so special is the fact that it's giving individuals the possibility to be "famous", and compete with professional journalists on every story.

Prizes include a multi-city worldwide holiday, a European city break, cameraphones and printers.

Unleash your photo-reporting creativity here.

Mobile - H&M innovates

My digital life reported a couple of days back that H&M came up with a new strategy to boost their sales and create alternative shopping experiences.

H&M launched a new campaign in Europe using semacodes (the same concept as the QR codes). These are embedded in their print ads, as well as billboards, allowing shoppers to buy clothes using their cameraphones (the item is charged to the user's phone bill, but I'm wondering about the delivery logistics - there are no details about that).

Great initiative - an example that will probably be picked up by other brands soon.

More details here.

Mobile - Nokia's MOSH

Mosh is Nokia’s "new" (at least for me) user-generated content for mobile devices - you can upload and get free ringtones, videos, images, applications and games for pretty much any device when you register (so it's not just for Nokia users, which makes it very sexy/powerful).

The marketing team also did some quick thinking and came up with a fun Google ad, taking advantage of the fact that iPhone early adopters are upset about the price drops - to drive traffic to the site.

Check it out here.

Mobile - Text a book!

Wattpad is all about reading and sharing stories on your mobile phone. You can upload whatever you want to share - a story, an essay or a joke, and then read it on your phone or send it to your friends via SMS.

The service is available in multiple languages, but I haven't tested it yet to see if it supports the UAE carriers - I like it anyway.

http://www.wattpad.com

Mobile - Youtube goes mobile!

GiigagOM posted a couple of weeks back that YouTube will launch its mobile website in May 2007 for the European users, and in June for the U.S. users.

"YouTube ToGo will go live once the exclusivity clause on the company’s mobile video deal with Verizon Wireless expires. YouTube has been already working closely with mobile carriers, and handset makers such as Nokia on the mobile version of their video service... The mobile site when it goes live will have around 800 “editorial picks” of videos to choose from."

http://gigaom.com/2007/03/27/mobile-youtube/

Mobile - Museums on the go

A number of museums have teamed up to create Museum On The Go. The site offers images of famous works of art, photographs of historic personalities, sound recordings (and more) for download to mobile devices.

Some of the participating museums are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Leopold Museum, Sigmund Freud Museum, Austrian Mediathek, Erich Lessing Archive, all based in Vienna.

I can't do anything but smile when I read these names, since I had the chance to visit most of them back in December. Check out the work of Egon Schile.

http://www.museumonthego.com

Mobile - Andy Warhol phone

Very exciting news:

"In the continued spirit of celebration of pop culture artist Andy Warhol, Cingular and Nokia have announced the launch of a limited edition Andy Warhol branded camera phone, to be released this summer.

The phone will feature a 3.2 megapixel camera with a zoom for portrait taking and will instantly upload photos to an online gallery, where they will be "warholized".
The cylindric shaped cell phone will be multicolored, reminiscent of his famous Campbell soup can renderings and will come pre-loaded with an image gallery of some his most famous paintings as well as a ringtone that will say in his own voice: "In the future everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”

It will be packaged with a numbered print of his "cell phones" painting.
Retail price is expected at $1,500."

Can't wait to see it!

Samsung - Illustrated SMS

According to pdafrance, Samsung has just filed a patent for an illustrated SMS interface. Each contact in a phone can be associated with an image and text messages would appear like a comic strip.