Why is the iPhone restricted only to iTunes and YouTube?

Watching a video, a sitcom, or even a full length movie on an iPhone can be quite an experience. With its impressive, rich display, Apple iPhone has not only made the notion of watching videos on a cell phone possible, but also exciting. However, there is a major hiccup.

The iPhone only supports videos that are associated with iTunes and the phone’s built-in YouTube application. You cannot watch any other video on an iPhone. While there are some applications that can customize non-iTunes or non-YouTube videos for the iPhone, these apps are few and far between and are not popular with a lot of iPhone users. As a result, this stops a significant number of iPhone users from enjoying videos and other such stuff on the iPhone.

The iPhone does not support Flash, which is one of the most used software for digital streaming services. Steve Jobs, earlier this year, dispelled the idea of making the iPhone support Flash software stating that it can take a toll on the battery life and the processor of the phone. However, Adobe has confirmed that it is working on a Flash iPhone player which will meet the strict requirements of the iPhone. If it does come up with such an app, it would be great news for iPhone users as it can make their mobile-video experience a lot more exciting. However, till then, iPhone users are only limited to videos from iTunes and YouTube.

Ecommercetimes has a great article on this issue. Do check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Categories: Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones.

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On why some people should not be allowed to blog

I’ve written quite a few rant pieces in this blog. In all those posts, I usually picked on a blog post which was either annoying or ill-informed in nature. But trust me. None of those posts can hold a candle to what you’re about to see now.

There was a story in the Daily Mail. I’ve summarized it below.

A young man in UK was killed in a car accident. Apparently, he was looking at his mobile phone when he tried to cross the road and didn’t see the car coming toward him. So, naturally, he was hit by the car and suffered very bad injuries. He was taken to the hospital, but he died anyway.

The interesting twist to this story is that the text message was apparently a ‘spam’ message sent by a debt management company. So, this blogger decided to spice up things a little and came up with this horrendous headline.

“Deadly Cell Phone Text Ad”

And then, he goes on to say that the text advert led to the man’s death.

Can someone freakin’ tell me what this guy’s problem is? The victim died because of his carelessness and not because of the driver’s fault. And most certainly, it was not the text message’s fault. Now, if you notice the article in the Daily Mail carefully, nobody, including the family members of the deceased, has blamed either the driver or the text message. Our man simply gave a dramatic twist to the story to get a few more hits.

Now, had it been a text message from a relative, could he have come up with a headline like this?

“Young Man Killed by Relative through Deadly Text Message”

Seriously folks; if you hate spam, I have no problems. At all. But please don’t try to come up with such sinfully stupid posts. It only reflects on your intelligence.

Categories: Rant.

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Make free information calls from your cell phone

For all of us, there comes a time when we need to find a phone number urgently and have to call the information service. And, we end up paying for that call too. However, things are about to change. Here is a free 411 service which is a no-cost service.

To get the information you want, you have to dial 800-373-3411 from your cell phone. You’ll hear an ad for a few seconds and you’ll be connected to the operator. This ad-supported information service will cost you nothing. People who’ve used the service say they get the information you want nine out of ten times. So, do try it and tell me how you find this service.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Virgin Mobile enters mobile advertising - will display banner ads to users

Looks like it’s the season of banner ads. After Google, Third Screen, AdMob, Yahoo, and most recently Microsoft, Virgin Mobile USA has announced that it will display banner ads to its mobile users who surf the web in their cell phone.

Virgin Mobile will use AOL’s mobile advertising system to display banner ads to users. This is the first time Virgin Mobile is entering the mobile advertising market. However, the CEO of Virgin Mobile has made it clear that they are being very cautious with these ads. These banner ads will be displayed on an experimental basis and depending on the response they get, they might think of expending their territory further.

The way I see it, this is a perfect partnership. Virgin Mobile’s growth has been not so impressive recently due to various reasons and AOL is the classic example of an erstwhile famous company trying to come to terms with the fact that it’s struggling. These two entities have joined hands. So, if things work out well, it might be good for both of them.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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