Its always cool to see our company on big news channels like ABC… Not only because its a great form of marketing for our business, but mainly as reassurance that our product and our vision for global wireless money transfers is something that people take interest in, and something that people would mark as a valuable, benevolent service. Anyway, I couldn’t find the code to embed the video on our website, so if you’d like to see our moment in the limelight, just click here and then click on the second (2) image titled “Pay all your bills with your cell phone.”
RIM, or Research in Motion, reptorted that sales of all Blackberry mobiel devices jumped by over 2 million devices over the past year. The cell phone giant shipped out 41.9 million units in Q2 of 2008, which toppled their total of 39.8 millions in the previous year. This number indicates significant growth for RIM in the US, a market already fully saturated by mobile phones- It also puts the company over the 10% mark in terms of the US Domestic Mobile Phone market share. For more Q2 market info check out this Reuter’s Mobile News Article.
Mobile Security is becoming more and more important as our world tansitions into a wireless one, so I thought I’d show this new security feautre that Sprint has come up with. I have to say it looks pretty effective…
I just realized when I went to renew my license at the DMV the other day that the Hands Free Driving law comes into effect on July 1st… Less than a week away! Anyway, while I was studying to take my driver’s test again (next time I’ll definitely remember to renew it), I saw the details and just thought I’d spread the word.
The basic law says, as of July 1st, it is illegal to drive while using a mobile phone in CA, unless it is through some form of “hands free” device . The law also sets a bar at 18 years old—if you are a driver under 18, you are not allowed to use a cell phone at all, headset or not. The minimum fine for first offenders is $20, and then $50 for subsequent convictions, but the DMV is quick to point out that this is the absolute minimum—fines can be up to three times these amounts. That would be a real expensive call! I guess the moral of the story is don’t use your cell in the car; if your state is light blue, dark blue or black, it’s probably not worth it… Or maybe just carpool more so that your friends and family can screen calls for ya.
A lot people have been coming to our blog looking for info on the Blackberry Thunder. With the new iPhone 3G being just around the corner, I have been wanting to do a iphone 3G vs. Blackberry Thunder comparison for a while. Unfortunately, the data (especially for the Blackberry Thunder) is rather limited. This is what we know so far.
The Blackberry Thunder is running on Verizon in the US. The iPhone 3G is for AT&T of course.
Both have a full touch screen.
Both support mp3s.
Hmm… both of them are black?
See, that’s how little info we have on the Blackberry Thunder. But we do have a possible picture of the Blackberry Thunder / Verizon Thunder / Vodafone Thunder / Blackberry 9500 / or Blackberry Storm (the old nickname before Blackberry said that it’s not true). Again, all the pictures of the Thunder were made by BoyGeniusReport. Click here to read all the background info here:
Now take a look at the iPhone 3G. Click on the image to see the specs on Apple:
So what’s the conclusion? I have no idea. I think it’s too early to tell what the Thunder has so far. Maybe we can get a better comparision once Blackberry releases more data on the phone.
We shall call this the “use your phone” series. If you live in NYC, fly Delta, and like to fly from LaGuardia, you can now test out this new “check in with your cell phone” thing! Here’s a little summary:
If you’re flying Delta Air Lines out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, you can now flash your cell phone to get onboard. On Tuesday, the airline rolled out a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to test out a “paperless check-in”–passengers download a boarding pass onto their cell phones and have it scanned by the TSA at the airport’s security checkpoint as well as when they board the plane.
I was out at lunch today and saw that another sign that mobile payments is becoming more popular, which is great since mobile payment is obviously the core of Obopay. Anyway, I took a picture of it:
I am surprised that paying for parking with your phone is not a bigger deal here in the Bay Area. I mean, if you have been to (or live in) the Bay Area should know how much we end up spending on parking meters, especially in San Francisco. It’s such a hassle finding coins to feed the meter too.
This paying by phone thing is great. I read somewhere a while back that they were trying to implement this for BART too. Not sure how that’s going, but can you imagine if you can just swipe your phone across the subway in New York? That’d be awesome!
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