A list of interesting Mobile services

Springwise and Trendwatcher published some time go this list.

-AskMeNow | Cell phone users who can't get online, can have still their questions answered by leaving a voice message with AskMeNow. Questions like "Why is the sky blue?" or "What is Zork?" are answered by text message within minutes, for a fee of USD 0.49 per question. The long-distance info search is taken care of by English-speaking operators in the Philippines.

• Shazam and Gracenote's MusicID | Consumers who hear a song they don't know the name of, call a number and hold their cell phone to the music. Moments later, they receive a message with the name of the song and artist, as well as the option of buying the song or ringtone.

• WeatherBug Mobile Weather | Live streaming local weather data, severe weather alerts, detailed forecasts, local radar, live weather cameras, photos and more.

• ScanZoom | Using ScanZoom software downloaded to their cameraphones, shoppers can snap a picture of a product's bar code and get direct access to PriceGrabber's or Amazon's information for that product, from product descriptions and customer ratings to e-tailer prices. If the e-tailer's price is right, the produt can immediately be bought online. Next could be a service that would tell users which other real-world stores within one or two miles offer the same product at a lower price.

• PriceNoia Mobile | Using Pricenoia's downloadable price comparison tool for cell phones, a consumer can enter a book's ISBN and instantly view reviews and price comparison for international Amazon.com stores.

• Mobile SeatGuru | Mobile version of SeatGuru popluar website, that gives users information on the best (and worst) seats on a plane. Which allows consumers to have all the info needed to ask for a better seat at check-in, or to know which in-flight services will be available on their flight while there's still time to stack up on mags and DVDs.

• SMS Een Huis, Real Estate Depot, Text Wow | These services provide potential home buyers with instant text information on their cell phones, based on unique SMS codes displayed on physical 'for rent' and 'for sale' signs. Asking price, floor plan, square footage and more, all delivered to the cell phone of a prospective client then and there.

The Fifth Dimension

Wired Magazine in the April 2006 issue has an article from Steven Johnson about when virtual worlds collide. He envisions a virtual parallel virtual universe where you can seamlessly move from universe to universe. He also rises the problems and needed steps for this to happen. At the moment this virtual worlds are many times property, built in different platforms. My idea of the parallel universes overcomes the problem of having to converge all the worlds. In practice why Hommer Simpson would need to be compatible with the Sims. I am not saying that I would limit that, I am just saying that you could have them separated if you want as the owners or creators initially intended, and then if they allow so, they could merge.

Today quantum theory supports the logic framework for a setting of parallel realities simultaneously happening. I can be here witting this while my virtual me number 1 is living a good time in Everquest fighting Orcs. So once you acknowledge this the only thing that you need is to shape it and organize this worlds, give them coordinates so people can know where they are. Imagine how many people play the same scenario or level in a multiplayer game. All of them happening at some specific time in the same place. Those are virtual parallel universes, restricted to only those playing that game.

Google Universes

But now think for a moment in something else. What would happen if someone, like Google, would offer a very simple-to-use tool like SketUp, that enables users to generate their own virtual universes, populate them etc. Yes, there are already quite many virtual universes like Everquest. However in my view any content could be transformed into a virtual universe, specially fictional content. There are lots of people that consume and dream on escaping into those fictional universes. After all what we call entertainment tries in many ways to offer that fictional alternative to the common reality to people, Hollywood, literature, the travel industry, games... For instance the Disney corporation has been pretty good at trying to generate a fictional world populated with characters. Most of these universes of content are protected and can be manipulated or accessed only under licensed agreements or controlled access. However fans and the general public can be a huge engine for creating content, just think in fanzines, dicussion forums around new hollywood releases, or in more advanced examples the skins created by developers around games or applications.

So how do I envision this. Well in practice you need first to get organized. You need something like a Google search engine that let's you search for these universes. These universes of course are at least four dimensional. It means that you could move in the typical 3D space but also scroll in time. Then you need a 5th dimension to jump from universe to universe. If you have planet earth coordinates xyz (Though here we should apply more universal and extraterrestial coordinates) at 1st of May 2006 11.30am (GMT+2) There is only one reality taking place at that specific place and time.

SketchUp - something else that the new Google tool

Google's new toy is a toold to create 3D objects that you can then upload to Google Earth. It is a smart strategy from Google to offer this type of tool to get the users to generate content and populate the Google's universe of content. They already do the same in the other extensions of their business. They offer blogger for free to get bloggers to blog and generate content. Can you see Google's strategy? Imagine, soon you will be able to search in Google earth for something near your location, then you will be able to see something more than just a label, you will see an image that will realistically represent the physical location where you can find what you are looking ofr, lets say a car wash or a restaurant. Then that same information you will be able to get it into your car's GPS or into your mobile. Then one day with Augmented reality hardware you will be able to integrate both the Google's digital virtual universe with the real environment. Will it be Google the main promotor of AR? Is Google the company to bet for? As it seems now they could be.

Read more at sketchup.google.com/