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James Citron is CEO and Co-Founder of Mogreet, the worldʼs first mobile video marketing platform. The digital entrepreneur has more than a decade of experience in the mobile industry with a proven track record for introducing successful, cutting-edge technology into the global marketplace. Follow him at @jamescitron.

While it has taken longer to reach its potential than many in the industry had hoped, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) has now reached the volume of billions of messages sent and received by consumers every month. But despite its growing ubiquity, MMS is still widely misunderstood.

We thought we’d take this opportunity to set the record straight and debunk some of the myths of MMS that have plagued both consumers and marketers alike.

Myth #1: MMS Costs More Than Regular Text Messages

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Customers today understand that their mobile messaging plans typically cover basic SMS, but they are concerned that when they receive an MMS, they will be charged more. This is incorrect.

If you have a text messaging plan (Americans send 4.1 billion text messages per day), your text messaging (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS) are charged the exact same amount. So for those with plans, the effective price for the consumer is zero. The major wireless carriers in the U.S. made this change a few years ago when they decided to bundle SMS and MMS into single mobile messaging plans. This means that a brand, an advertiser, or a media company can deliver a 30-second video via MMS for the same cost to the consumer as a standard text message.

Myth #2: Most Phones Do Not Support MMS Video

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Nearly every phone shipped in the past 2 years in the US from the top US carriers came pre-loaded with MMS capability integrated into the device. Today, this equates to over 2,700 unique mobile devices in the marketplace and over 180 million consumers with MMS-capable mobile phones based on Mogreet’s 2009 Mobile Device survey. This means that most wireless subscribers today can universally receive video MMS on their mobile phones!

Furthermore, consumers on nearly all carriers (not just the big four) can send and receive MMS.

Myth #3: You Need a Smartphone to Receive MMS Messages

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While folks with smartphones sometimes have bigger screens to view video or pictures, one of the greatest advantages of MMS is that you don’t need a smartphone to view multimedia content.

As I said, there are over 2,700 unique mobile devices on the market that have support for MMS — most of those handsets are not smartphones.

Myth#4: You Need a Data Plan for MMS

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You can still enjoy MMS messages even if your service plan does not include an Internet or data plan. The only requirement is that your phone possess MMS functionality, and it can do that without data service or fancy apps.

Further, mobile marketers can create and deliver a rich media mobile marketing campaign to non-smartphone consumers using MMS. Imagine delivering iPhone-like advertising experiences to the masses (including many of the 83% of U.S. mobile phone users who do not own a smartphone). That is the promise of MMS.

Myth #5: Only Kids Send Text Messages

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The data is out. We now all (kids, adults, and even grandparents) are doing more mobile messaging than we are placing and receiving phone calls.

Yes, MMS is great for kids and teens, but it is now ready for prime-time across all age groups.

Myth #6: MMS is Only Big in Europe and Asia – Not in the U.S.

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MMS is growing faster than SMS today, and is on par with SMS’s growth earlier in the decade. This is reflected in the 10 billion MMS messages sent in the first half of 2009.

Conclusion

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Now that we have debunked the myths of MMS, here is the exciting part: The entire country is addicted to mobile messaging, creating an exciting set of new opportunities for engagement with the rich media and video afforded by MMS.

In particular, this means that brands that best express themselves with video (e.g. auto, entertainment, fashion, retail, etc.) can now deliver video to tens of millions of U.S. consumers’ mobile phones. Instead of texting “Happy New Year,” you can send an animated, 30-second video greeting card. Fantasy sports fans can receive a video highlight from one of their favorite players on nearly any phone, not just the latest scores. Twilight movie buffs can receive a 30 second trailer clip of New Moon without the need of a data plan or a smartphone.

Mobile messaging — today a $12 billion industry in the U.S. and a permanent fixture in the lives of most consumers — is set for a significant advancement in 2010 as businesses and consumers continue to adopt MMS and begin to communicate with their customers via video. And because the mobile device is the medium, they can reach the consumer any time, anywhere.

More mobile resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Real Challenges For Non-Profit Texting Campaigns
– 5 Essential Tools for the Mobile Journalist
– Does Your Small Business Need an iPad?
– 3 Free iPhone Apps to Help Make a Difference
– 10 Fun iPhone Apps for Beer Lovers

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer, espion

[Image Credit: flickrized]

Tags: advertising, business, List, Lists, MARKETING, MMS, Mobile 2.0, smartphones, SMS, text messages, text messaging, texting

Filed under: Macworld, Hardware

The HyperMac line for iPhone and iPod is made up of three models.

• The HyperMac Nano rated at 1800 mAh and selling for US $69.95 is an iPod Nano sized device that come with a built in charging cable.
• The HyperMac Micro rated at 3600 mAh selling for $89.95 looks like a slightly version of the picture above.
• The HyperMac Mini rated at 7200 mAh selling for $119.95 as pictured.

TUAWMacworld 2010: HyperMac brings some style to the battery backup market originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software

Back in December we got an early look at an app that allowed you to view and share your Mac’s files while on the go. Put simply, Here, File File! [iTunes link] aimed to be the cure to what ailed the file-forgetters among us. Yesterday, the crew behind the very promising preview video announced that HFF was officially available from the App Store.

Read on for our full review of Here, File File!, and be sure to read all the way down to the bottom of the post for news of a Valentine’s Day special (because we just love files that much) as well as your chance to win one of five copies of the app for your very own.

The Here, File File app works in conjunction with a small server application that runs on your Mac to grant access to your files from your iPhone. The server has a pretty small footprint in terms of CPU load and takes care of setting up your Mac for remote access for you — just run the app and access your Mac with your mobile device. Communication between your iPhone or iPod touch and the HFF server on your Mac is password-protected and SSL-encrypted, providing peace of mind for those that are concerned about privacy.

The HFF server is also responsible for configuring the network to allow remote access to your Mac. It uses existing technology (Bonjour and UPnP) to ensure making the connection is as simple and fast as possible. Most recent routers already support automatic UPnP configuration, including Apple’s Airport Express and Extreme base stations. The HFF server has a status window that clearly depicts your ability to access your files. If your network does not support UPnP, the HFF support page explains it is necessary to manually forward specific ports. For most cases, it’ll work just fine, but if not, you might need to do a little bit of (guided) network tweaking.

Once your Mac and network are both configured with the HFF server, adding your Mac to the app on your iPhone is very simple. When you run the app for the first time, it will attempt to automatically find and connect to your Mac via Bonjour. In my testing, this worked flawlessly. My MacBook Pro was found almost instantly and my iPhone connected to the HFF server on my Mac without any problem.

By default, the app does not save your password for the remote Mac but since I keep my iPhone locked down with a PIN I opted to have HFF remember the Mac’s password so I wouldn’t have to type it every time I wanted to log in. If the app is not able to locate your Mac on the local network it is a pretty simple affair to manually add the Mac to your list of servers.

Once you’ve set up and connected to your Mac, the main screen that appears when you launch will be a beautifully depicted tabletop with an image of your particular Mac and its current wallpaper. Towards the top of the screen is the name of your Mac as it appears in OS X, and below that is the timestamp for the last time you connected. You can swipe to the right to view other Macs on your “desk” or to add a new one using the wizard or via manual entry.

The real magic happens, though, when you tap on your desired Mac: a heavenly spotlight shines down upon your Mac as the connection is established. The speed of the connection is may vary depending on your network speed at home and whether your iPhone is on 3G or Wi-Fi. Once connected, there are three main views to select from.

The first view, “Files,” is very reminiscent of the sidebar in Finder. It lists several common “Places” on your Mac, including the Home folder, your Desktop, and your Documents folder. Additionally there is a category for “Volumes” which lists the currently-mounted hard drives on your remote Mac. My only complaint here is that the Downloads folder is not listed as one of the default Places in view, but the developer says this was a simple oversight and plans to add it in a future release.

It is the Files view where you likely spend a lot of your time as this is where you will navigate in and around the file system of your remote Mac. It is clear that a lot of thought was put into this app as it is a very intuitive experience. It seamlessly integrates the left-right navigation of iPhone OS with the thumbnail icon file navigation of Finder. Files have their own displays — a Pages document will be displayed with its icon as the first page of the document, and the same goes for PDFs and Microsoft Office documents as well.

As expected, tapping on a folder causes the whole interface to move to the left, as the view is then populated with the list of folder contents. Tap on a file and it slides seamlessly into view. Slower connections and/or larger files will result in a short wait, with a Loading File indicator. When the file finishes loading, it appears in fullscreen, where you can swipe to navigate to different parts of a document, pinch to zoom in on a single face in a photo, or play/pause any Quicktime-compatible song or video.

While all of this is useful above-and-beyond what Dropbox and MobileMe provide — after all, they require you to know which files you want to access before leaving the house — Here, File File goes one step further by allowing you to actually send any file via email. Once the file has been loaded, you can bring up an option of attaching or linking the file. Attached files work as expected: the file is copied directly into the email and the recipient can open the attachment upon receipt. Linked files are a little different, though: HFF creates a randomly-generated link that lasts for 48 hours. Every time a linked file is sent, a new link is generated. As you might have guessed, the purpose of the randomization is to keep unwanted intruders from forcing their way into your filesystem by decoding the links.

If the file is large (more than a couple MB), then a linked file email is more appropriate, as large files can take some time to send via EDGE or 3G. While the file is loading in HFF, it’s still possible to share the file over email, but you will only have the option of sending a linked file rather than an attached file. Still, it’s a useful feature, especially if you have a 10MB PowerPoint presentation that you need to send to someone, but don’t have the time to wait for it to finish downloading to your iPhone.

Even though Downloads is not listed as one of the default Places, there is still an easy way around this slight UI mistake. The “Favorites” view shows a listing of directories and files that you have starred in the course of your use. Any directory or file can be configured as a Favorite for ease of access at a later time. So just by starring the Downloads folder, you can access it under Favorites whenever you want.

The third view, “Search,” allows you to (you guessed it) search for files or folders on your Mac. The search is run on your Mac and the results are sent back to HFF on your iPhone (which not only speeds things up a bit, but helps to improve battery life as well). The search window is also filterable, so you can sort your searches into Folders, Images, Movies, Music, PDF, and Presentations. I found the search and filtering to work quickly and without any issue. The biggest shortcoming here is that the search results are currently limited to just sixteen folders/files in the results. The developer says this is for performance reasons and that as HFF gets faster they will increase this limitation. Unfortunately there are no filter options for Word/Pages documents or Excel/Numbers spreadsheets. In my opinion, this is not a deal-breaker by any means especially since a simple update will likely fix this in the future.

Here, File File! is quite simply the most useful utility for accessing your files while on the go. It has a clear leg up on both Dropbox and MobileMe because your storage is not limited to a few gigabytes and you don’t have to take an extra step to make sure a certain file is in your Dropbox or iDisk. Since you only pay for the app once, there’s no yearly fee to contend with, either. Installation can be a little tricky (especially if your network isn’t average), but once it’s running, you basically have access to your Mac straight from your iPhone.

Here, File File is available now on the App Store. Regularly priced at $9.99, the functionality it provides is worth every penny. Through Valentine’s Day, Here, File File! is being offered with a 30% discount bringing the price to just $6.99.

And even if you don’t want to take the plunge, we’ll hook you up anyway: We’re giving away five free copies to five lucky readers. Simply leave a comment describing how you would best use Here, File File! and we’ll randomly select five commenters to get the app for free.

The details of the giveaway are as follows:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment telling us what your favorite typeface is.
• The comment must be left before Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: One promo code for a copy of Here, File File! (Value: US$6.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

TUAWTUAW Review and Giveaway: Here, File File! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple

So my folks were here this weekend, and as you’d expect my Dad is really curious about the upcoming iPad, or as he likes to put it “his new 3G iPad”. I convinced him that he should wait for April so he could get the new postpaid-data-ready iPad, which he could use anywhere, not just with WiFi hotspots.

As we were talking, I began to realize that he didn’t really have a clear idea of exactly what this gadget is — and lots of you probably have parents in similar situations. So I put together this Q&A using actual questions my Dad asked throughout the course of the weekend.

“So I can use it instead of my normal computer, right?”
The iPad isn’t going to replace your home computer. In fact, it’s supposed to be like an iPod — a mobile device you bring along but not a primary system. You manage your music and movies and everything over on your main machine (a Windows unit in my Dad’s case) and then synchronize that data to your iPad using iTunes.

“But what about Microsoft Works? Can I load that on?”
Afraid not. The iPad is more like a mobile phone than it is like a computer. You won’t be able to run Windows on it, or even the Macintosh operating system OS X. It has its own private system and can only run apps that you buy at the App Store. (Trust me, my Dad does not want to know from jailbreaking or Cydia.)


“So how do I get apps on it?”
You can buy applications from iTunes, either on your home computer or on the device itself. There are a gadzillion of really great games and utilities available and they usually cost just a few bucks. It’s a way, way better deal than buying applications for your PC or for most mobile phones.

“Where do I put in the DVDs?”
Unfortunately, you don’t. You can rent or buy movies from iTunes, again either at your computer or on the device, but you can’t get a DVD from the library and watch it on your system unless you want me to tell you more than you really need to know about something called “ripping”. Rentals cost just a few dollars. You have a month in which to start watching the movie and once you start watching it, you have to finish watching within 24 hours. If you buy a movie, it’s yours to watch forever. Just be aware that movies are big space hogs, so don’t put too many movies on your iPad at once. You can store them on your home computer and just choose which movies you want to sync at any time.

“So what’s the point of it?”
The iPad is going to let you check your mail, surf the web, and enjoy your music and videos when you’re out waiting for Mom to finish up at the store. Or the dentist. Or the doctor’s. Or the DMV. Or wherever she’s dragged you. You can pull this out and play a few games or get on the Internet or just watch some TV.

“Right. So when can I buy it?”
April. That’s when you can get the 3G version — and you want that because Mom’s errands rarely offer free WiFi connectivity. 3G lets you connect to the Internet wherever AT&T has a decent signal in your area.

TUAWAnswers for the ‘rents about the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, HP introduced the latest and greatest home printer to its lineup, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. Now printers aren’t really Mashable’s turf, so why are we covering this? Because this printer is seriously, seriously cool. Not only can you print photos and documents, scan images, make copies and send faxes — HP says this is the world’s first web-connected home printer. It also has a touch screen.

Web connected? Well in addition to being able to connect to your computer or mobile device for wireless printing, the printer also slew of built-in printer apps that are part of the new HP App Studio. That means you can print Google Maps, movie tickets, and other web content straight from the printer, without having to interact with your computer at all.

HP has partnered with companies like Disney, USA Today, Google and Fandango to make accessing content and printing it instantly seamless.

A Few Examples

You can enter in your address information into the Google Maps app and get print-outs of your directions and the area map. I know that one of the only reasons I even use my printer is to print directions. I tend to wait until the last minute to do this, which makes the whole “pull up directions, connect laptop to printer, print directions, make sure formatting is correct” process that much more aggravating. If I could just print the directions from the printer, I know that would make my life easier.

You can also movie tickets from Fandango and print them all at the same time. USA Today will let you print out your favorite sections and Coupons.com lets you select your coupons and print right from the device. HP’s own photo service, Snapfish, is also supported — so you can print your Snapfish galleries and photos and print them on photo paper.

HP says it will be adding more apps in the coming months and it wants your feedback via a Twitter account set-up at @hp_ipg.

Pricing

The printer is available today at a number of different outlets for $399.99 US. That’s not cheap, but for a four-in-one photo printer, with wireless support AND web-connectivity, it doesn’t seem totally unreasonable either.

Do you want a web-connected printer for your home or home office?

Tags: Hewlett-Packard, HP, hp app studio, hp photosmart premium, printers

Originally posted 2009-09-08 18:26:48. Republished by Old Post Promoter

iPhone/iPod touch: Ever since the FeedDemon/ NetNewsWire RSS readers announced exclusive Google Reader syncing, we’ve been waiting for that anywhere-you-go goodness to arrive on iPhones. Now it has, and NetNewsWire 2.0 is almost certainly better than Google Reader’s mobile site.

To be fair, Google Reader’s mobile view is still a great option for Android, Palm Pre, and other non-iPhone browsers that want a look at what’s new in their RSS collections. But the NetNewsWire app doesn’t require a new browser window, won’t lose your place if you venture off to read a link, stores items for offline reading, and offers some great navigation and sharing options, while all the time syncing what you read and star back to your Reader account. Of course, if you’re using another reader for your feed needs, NetNewsWire can easily work from your OPML file (assuming you’re okay with creating a Google account for backup syncing).

Want to post an item to Twitter, save it for later text-only reading in Instapaper, or simply jump to the next unread item in a full item view? NetNewsWire has you covered. Are you an overwhelmed blog editor who, on a frantic Monday morning, only needs to see items from the last 24 hours? Yeah, that’s in there as well. You can customize which feeds are shown or hidden on NetNewsWire’s home page, collapse folders and categories with a single click, and star items from a convenient button that doesn’t require your finger to tap around the very tiny space between a star icon and your left screen edge. The only thing missing is Reader’s Share/Like/comment tools, but it’s our guess that it’s a small subset of users who really need those from a mobile device.

NetNewsWire offers a free download with (not too annoying) ads for iPhones and iPod touch models running at least 3.0 firmware, or a $1.99 version with no advertising.

Originally posted 2009-09-23 18:25:20. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Portables, Apple

Even though this morning’s presentation had Apple calling themselves the “largest mobile device company” in the world, apparently they’re in the processor business now, too. The just-announced iPad doesn’t carry any special Intel or Nvidia CPU — it’s a homecooked 1GHz chip called the Apple A4. Apple says it’s designed for high performance and low power, which is probably how they got that crazy 10 hour battery life and one month (!) standby life. We guess that PA Semi acquisition was a good idea.

We’ve been hearing for a while that Apple was picking up chip designers and hiring specialists for chipmaking, and it looks like the A4 is the first release (fourth produced?) product of all of that. It’ll be interesting to see how their first major foray into silicon works out.

TUAWApple making its own chips starting with the A4 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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U.S. President Barack Obama’s first official State of the Union address will be delivered tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. EST.

While you’ll be able to catch it on the TV networks, you might prefer to watch on your computer or your mobile device and take advantage of all the social media integration the White House and media outlets are trying out this time; Facebook discussions will appear on at least four sites.

Here’s a list of places you can go on the web or on your mobile phone to watch — and in some cases discuss — what the president will say to Congress and the nation tomorrow night. Some make better use of social media than others, but they’ll all get you the basic coverage you need to be an informed citizen. If we’ve missed anything, let us know in the comments.

White House Live and Facebook

Your first choice is to go directly to the source. White House Live at whitehouse.gov will stream the event in real time, and it will integrate with discussions on Facebook. The video and discussion will also be hosted at Facebook’s White House page. As we reported recently, the brand new White House iPhone app will give you access to the speech if you’re not at home.

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name="align" value="l"<param
name="allowfullscreen" value="true"<param
name="play" value="false"<param
name="menu" value="false"<param
name="loop" value="false"<param
name="flashvars" value="player=http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/EOP_OVP_player.swf&src=rtmp://cp68969.live.edgefcs.net/live/WHLive2@4854&scaleMode=stretch&link=&path_to_image=http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/themes/whitehouse/img/facebook_bubble.gif&width=640&height=400"<embed
wmode="opaque" src="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/EOP_OVP_player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="360" flashvars="player=http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/EOP_OVP_player.swf&src=rtmp://cp68969.live.edgefcs.net/live/WHLive2@4854&scaleMode=stretch&link=&path_to_image=http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/themes/whitehouse/img/facebook_bubble.gif&width=640&height=400"

YouTube

YouTube will stream the event, of course, but it will also accept questions that the president will answer next week. That will all happen at youtube.com/citizentube. We’ll add an embed below as soon as it’s available.

Hulu

Ustream

Ustream will air live coverage from CBS News with an accompanying chat widget. The stream will also be available on its mobile apps for the iPhone and other supported mobile platforms.

CNN

CNN will stream its coverage live on the web as it has previously, and it will once again integrate with Facebook for live viewer commentary and discussion. We’ll add an embed below if one becomes available.

C-SPAN

C-SPAN will stream its coverage of the address without too many social media bells and whistles at its website. We weren’t able to find an embed code for this one.

MobiTV

MobiTV does streaming video for mobile devices; it will offer a live stream on supported devices of the president’s address from MSNBC, ABC News, FOX News and NOW.

Tags: C-Span, cnn, facebook, live video, mobitv, obama, state of the union, ustream, whitehouse.gov, youtube

Our January contest is still underway, and I’m pleased to announce that Saddleback Leather has supplied us with more goodies to give away to new subscribers! Details below.

This month’s contest is electric! Energizer has stepped up and provided us with some really neat products from their “Energi To Go” line of mobile device chargers. Check them out on Facebook and on Twitter and let them know how much we appreciate them donating these prizes!