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!
Ok. We have been talking about cell phones, iphones, Blackberries, and a bunch of tech stuff here for over 2 months now. I bet some of you stumble upon our site randomly, not knowing what we actually do, so I decided that we should explain (and introduce) ourselves a little bit.
In a one liner, Obopay lets you transfer money to anyone in the US – fast and secure. Plain and simple.
You can use our product online on our website, from AOL Instant Messenger, SMS, our Obopay application on your cell phone, or even through our WAP page at (http://wap.obopay.com). It doesn’t even matter what bank you and I use. I can have my money in Bank of America and you have Citibank, HSBC, Wells Fargo… it really doesn’t matter. I can send money to you easily and you get it fast.
Not sure how many of you guys have seen this, but LG actually has a phone called the Prada phone that is very similar to the Apple iPhone. In fact, they were both announced a couple days apart from each other. Which one came first? That’s up for debate and for you to decide.
Regardless, here’s a demo on YouTube. I know this phone isn’t new anymore. I know people have had it in Asia for a long time now, but it’s not nearly as popular over here in the US. Check it out:
China Unicom announced two big deals today. It actually took me a couple times to understand what happened. To sum it up, here they are:
They aquired China Netcom Group Corp. Ltd, a fixed line provider, for about US$23.8 billion.
They would sell their CDMA mobile network and related business to China Telecom, China’s largest fixed line operator, for US$15.86 billion.
It sounds kinda weird when I first read it. I mean, why would a mobile company buy a fixed line company and sell their CDMA mobile business? (Wow that was confusing.) Almost seems like it doesn’t make much sense.
Apparently, the government demanded it. China has been demanding their big 6 telecom companies to be combined into 3 groups.
The moves were expected as part of a government-mandated shake up of China’s telecommunications sector unveiled late last month. That plan called for the country’s six telecom companies to combine into three groups in a bid to create a more competitive industry and prevent a dominant operator from monopolizing the market.
Why can’t our cell phones do all these things in America? Supposedly, in Japan, you can use your cell phone to pay at a store and even scan the barcode on a Big Mac to see the nutritional facts!
Not sure if this really happens in Japan or not, but this video sure makes it look real. I have been to Asia many times though, and their phones are just so much cooler and more advanced over there. On second thought, I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is real.
Is this going to be the future of watches? I found this video on YouTube that has this gadget watch that can do just about everything… your calculator, new cell phone, music player, voice recorder, and even a tiny camera (but supposedly, the quality is terrible). This reminds me of the famous Zoolander’s cell phone:
Anyway, here’s the video. I think it’s pretty amazing, but whether or not it’s practical is a different issue. I think I would have serious problems just being able to press the tiny little keys.
Singapore Telecommunications Limited is officially offering TV on your cell phone. You get a bunch of channels for just US$4.40! And to make it even better, they are giving it away as a trial for free in the first 3 months.
Over here in the US, I know Slingbox and MobiTV kind of do the same thing. I actually have Slingbox and they don’t even charge a monthly fee. The software for the phone is like $40 (if I remember it right).
Anyway, here’s the article. $4.40 a month is still pretty good though. I used to pay more just for my SMS service.
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