WAP
Insight Vol: 3 Issue 8 March 4th 2001
Vodafone
UK launches voice WAP mail
In
a move designed to boost online usage via its GSM network, Vodafone UK has
launched two new services: -Voice Email and WAP Email. Available immediately,
the services rely on ‘sweeping’ messages off existing (POP3 Style) mailboxes
from an estimated 300 different ISPs service in Britain. If the user’s ISP
isn’t listed, there’s a simple configuration utility. Once Vodafone has
‘swept’ your mailbox, the Voice Email service uses text to voice conversion
to ‘speak’ your messages. The whole process can be entirely voice driven
simply by dialling +4407836 900800. For WAP phone owners, however, the WAP email
service can display the text of swept messages and allow the user to edit or
reply to them online. WAP Insight found this worked really well with the
Ericsson R380 WAP phone. To initialise the service, however, users will need
access to a standard Web browser and then can set up the service to sweep as
many as five separate email accounts. Strangely, the service does not work with
Hotmail, AOL, or private (corporate) email servers at present. It is possible
for WAP users not connected to Vodafone to take advantage of this service. The
WAP Email service is entirely separate from Vodafone’s joint venture portal,
Vizzavi, although there is a link to it from the main menu.
Lara Croft is flagging
Despite
recent deals with both Nokia and Ericsson (see WAP Insight 58), British games
manufacturer Eidos (authors of Lara Croft) announced that a pre-tax loss of UKP
68 million. Roll on revenues from mobile games, we say.
Ericsson
claims world's first multimedia message
Ericsson
has demonstrated MMS, a superior form of SMS,
where messages can containing text, graphics, photographic images, audio and
video clips at GSM World, Cannes. The demonstration was conducted using WAP on
Ericsson terminals over a GPRS network and through a WAP Gateway. MMS-enabled
phones will feature a built-in multimedia message editor, the company says. In
conjunction with a digital camera users will be able to produce PowerPoint-style
messages or digital postcards. Ericsson expects to ship MMS enabled products by
Q1 2002. It claims network operators will gain from the increased airtime and
new tariff options MMS will create.
www.ericsson.com
Press release . . .Ericsson sends MMS
Push
browser for Pocket & Palm
The
latest version of the JBrowser for PocketPC and PalmOS machines from Jataayu
Software now supports 'push' facilities conforming to WAP 1.2 specifications.
Security is provided for via support for WTLS protocols. The product is fully
compatible with the company's Push Proxy Gateway. Jataaya, a subsidiary of
Integra Micro Systems, is a member of the WAP Forum and claims that 75 per cent
of all WAP requests in India are handled by its gateways. In its first step to
expand globally, Jataaya is setting up a London office to tackle the European
market.
www.jataayusoft.com
Location based coupons
CT
Motion has allied with location specialists, Webraska, to develop M-Coupons.
These are location based promotional coupons which users can receive on their
WAP phones. For example, the user will receive an M-Coupon from a retailer which
will provide a map of the user’s current location and directions to the
promoter’s store. This facility has been created by uniting CT Motion’s City
Beat application with Webraska’s Personal Navigation API. www.ctmotion.com
Snippets
Speedy
Tomato has joined forces with AU-System to create a new WAP portal, www.speedytomato.co.uk.
The service is intended to save WAP users time and money by enabling them to
drag and drop Internet related services such as email and news feeds so that
they can be viewed on a WAP phone.
Somebody
has created a leaflet entitled ‘Why WAP is better in the R380’ which aims to
help end users take full advantage of the latest Ericsson WAP phone. It lists a
number of useful WAP sites for UK based users including http://wap.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk
and http://www.mobilephoneno.com/wml/index.wml
. The latter utilises the approach to URLs which WAP Insight is advocating.
WAP Insight thoroughly recommends this leaflet for resellers to give to
WAP phone users but it bears no clues to its creator! Anybody know its author?
BT
Cellnet has joined forces with Mbrane to utilises the latter’s software over
GPRS style connections. Mbrane’s Touchpoint system is designed to allow
corporate users to gain access to enterprise information, such as SAP’ ERP
software, without running into firewall problems.
Cellnet claims it now has over one million users with WAP enabled phones.
www.mbrance.com
MPP
Global Solutions has launched a free SMS message service, MyPocketPal, for WAP
phone and HTML browser users. Registered users can store the names and addresses
to send messages to friend’s mobile telephones. MyPocketPal can also send SMS
reminders of impending anniversaries. Registering for the service has to be via
HTML, though. http://www.mypocketpal.com
WAP
Insight has considerably upgraded its Events listings
section. There are also new list giving the URLs for WAP Forum Associate Members
and WAP Forum Full Members.
WAP Site of the Week
(By Geoff Dennis)
This week’s theme is . . .
get paid for market research!
Avoid being accosted on the street, your doorstep, or by telesales, yet still
earn money for stating your opinions! Visit Data Liberation at their site at www.instantintelligence.net,
register, and you can take part in a market research survey. Their T's and C's
guarantee that you will receive at least UKP 1 for a completed questionnaire. Do
it via WAP, using your registered
login, at http://wap.wpanel.com
