iSkoot’s expansion into T-Mobile territory continued this week, as new T-Mobile Tap devices started to hit shelves with a little something extra: a preload of iSkoot’s trademark social networking solution.
T-Mobile’s take on our mobile social media software packs Facebook, MySpace and Twitter into a single app aptly named T-Mobile “Social Networks.” For now, it’s only available on new T-Mobile Tap devices, but then again, tomorrow is another day. And for now, that’s all we’re saying.
In the meantime, we’re definitely pleased to be on such a slick little handset. Have yourself a look:
Notifier’s being offered on a variety of Sony Ericsson handsets to start. But here’s the cool part: Notifier is one of only a handful of applications that are being offered at the kick-off of T-Mobile UK’s new “T-Mobile Menu” — a new technology that enables T-Mobile to update the Main Menu of a T-Mobile subscriber’s phone remotely. That means if there’s a cool new tool or applications for the phone, like, say iSkoot’s all-in-one social networking program, the icon for the app will magically appear in the phone’s main menu. No searching required.
We’re incredibly excited that T-Mobile UK’s given iSkoot Notifier this opportunity, and we hope T-Mo’s subscribers like what they see!
A minor heads-up to Twitter users on Notifier et al.
According to Twitter’s latest status update, they’ve detected a bug whereby you may see tweets in your update stream from people that you don’t actually follow. They are already working to fix the issue.
From their post (updated at 2:15pm PST today):
“This is obviously a significant problem and one we are working hard to address.
We anticipate that it will take several days for us to completely resolve all of the symptoms of this issue. We will update as we make progress.”
A big move for iSkoot this week - we’ve just acquired Social.IM - the social network IM client!
We’ve got some cool new products cooking, and Social.IM’s customizable desktop application and Web service - which gives social networkers real-time desktop notifications and the ability to IM w/their community members - will be a serious feather in our cap as we roll out our next generation of Web-to-mobile push services.
Mark Jacobstein calls this play a “key step in our path to introduce later this year a groundbreaking new communications platform that will revolutionize the mobile landscape.”
Social.IM’s creative mastermind, Yanda Erlich says that iSkoot’s now “ideally positioned to become the leading push services communications provider, both on the mobile platform and the Web.”
While the phenomenon that is “Voice over IP” has been around for ages, it’s really only found a happy home in the non-technophile vernacular in the past 5 or 6 years. Our friends over at Skype put VoIP center stage with the launch of their PC-calling software back in ‘03 - a service so fabulously handy and easy to use that (as of this summer) more than 309 million registered users have gotten on the Skype train worldwide. Michelle Robart, an editor at TMCnet, suspects that even still, the large majority of VoIP usage happens in the hands of businesses and fresh-faced, early adopter types. Indicating as much in her recent piece, “VoIP for Baby Boomers and Generation Y,” Robart endeavors to rally the broadband-compatible 55+ demographic to join in on the fun by offering some essential knowledge around the options for and advantages of a VoIP-ified lifestyle.
And oh, how far the VoIP conversation has come. Where 5 years ago the average reader was liable to identify the word “skype” as a typo, these days the first order of business seems to be “So how do I get this PC-calling goodness on my cell phone?” Michelle Robart is all over that one:
“Use your cell phone to make Skype calls with iSkoot. You can still take advantage of the free or discounted calls with Skype, but you don’t need to be sitting at your computer to make them.”
Truer words… Because let’s face it: You don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer. We’re coming in fast and hard on the days of Web 3.0’s “ubiquitous connectivity” and putting the communication revolution where it really belongs - on mobile.
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