Google’s Photovine : Mobile Photo Sharing

The site for Google’s new photo-related project Photovine has gone live, but the actual product or app is still missing. Located at photovine.com, the site currently features an image of a mobile app – interestingly, the device in the image is definitely an iPhone and not an Android device – and a short description of the upcoming product: “Photovine is a fun way to learn more about your friends, meet new people, and share your world like never before.” The site also contains a Privacy Policy that says, “Photovine is offered by Slide (part of Google Inc),” as well as a support page that explains some details about the project.“Photovine is a community that’s about creating fun and unique collections of photos that we call Vines,” the support page says, explaining that a vine is “like a constantly growing family of photos connected through a common caption created by you, your friends, and people all over the world”. Google also makes it clear that it will not tolerate just any kind of photo. “As a rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t want your family to see it, you probably shouldn’t post it,” the support page says. At this point it’s unclear whether this project is connected with Google’s recently launched social networking service Google+, but it seems to be an independent product. Recent reports indicated that Facebook is working on a photo-sharing app of its own, and in March 2011, a photo-sharing app called Color piqued a lot of interest, which seems to have largely dissipated by now. The Photovine app is available in Apple iTunes store and can be used on iPhones. You can click photos on your mobile and share with your friends with a particular tag. Also, users can see photos posted by their friends under the same tag.

Google said that the Photovine version 1.3 includes:
- Invite system replaced with open signup – everyone can join Photovine now!
- Crash fix for posting a photo when the feed has a timeline break
- If user adds a note to a post, include that note as the first comment

It seems like Google, which acquired Slide, the social-media company that developed Photovine in 2010, planning to add more features to the app. Click here to download Photovine app. Stay tuned for more updates. 

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After A While, AdMob Users Should Move To AdSense Mobile

It just made sense, after Google acquired mobile ad-network AdMob November 2009 it’s just about time they integrate AdMob with their current AdSense platform.

We recently received email from the AdMob team to register for an AdSense account and start using AdSense for mobile for monetizing content. The email also indicates some sort of deadline, September 30th 2011 for publishers to go “uninterrupted”

Here’s the full email

Dear AdMob Mobile Web Publisher,

Following the acquisition of AdMob by Google, we have continued to operate parallel products for mobile web publishers on both the AdSense and AdMob platforms. To ensure we offer a single best solution for mobile web publishers, we will be focusing our efforts on the AdSense platform going forward. On September 30, 2011, we are beginning this transition to the AdSense platform and will discontinue support for WAP mobile web on the AdMob network.

All publishers who are currently using AdMob’s WAP mobile web solution are asked to register for an AdSense account and begin using the Google AdSense for mobile content. This change enables Google to offer our mobile web publishers an industry leading content monetization solution with access to advertisers interested in reaching your mobile audience.

We encourage you to use Google AdSense to monetize your mobile webpages going forward. Google AdSense for mobile provides you many of the same features with more flexible reporting tools. Implementing Google AdSense now will allow you to continue monetizing your mobile content after September 30 without disruption.

To get started using Google AdSense for mobile, visit google.com/adsense and log in with a Google Account. If you don’t have a Google Account, you can create an account for free at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount. Once you have been approved as an AdSense publisher, simply log in to your account to create a new mobile ad unit and generate ad code for your site. If you are already an existing AdSense publisher, you can create a new mobile ad unit to start monetizing your mobile site right away.

For questions about this transition, please visit http://helpcenter.admob.com/content/admob-mobile-web-sunset. For additional support on Google AdSense, visit the Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/adsense/.

Sincerely,

The Google AdMob Team

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Telkomsel and RIM Brought Mobile Campus for Universitas Pelita Harapan

Don’t want to be beaten by innovation of Sony Ericsson and Universitas Bunda Mulia (UBM)’s M-Campus, Telkomsel and Research in Motion (RIM) Indonesia as principal of BlackBerry announced Mobile Campus for Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH). The app is developed by Better-B and said only took three months to be completed.

Quite different to what is offered by UBM’s M-Campus — which is bundled with certain product, this UPH’s M-Campus app can be downloaded freely by any UPH student from this link http://uph.better-b.mobi. It supports OS 4.5 as minimum requirement.

As cited from Okezone [link in Indonesian], VP Channel Management Telkomsel, Gideon Edie Purnomo, explained the very reason why Telkomsel is collaborating with RIM for this project is based on consideration that BlackBerry is now the most common smartphones used by Indonesians, especially youngsters. IT Senior Director UPH, Reynier Wayong, strengthened this argument by claiming nearly 90 percent of 10 thousands student in the campus are using BlackBerry.

UPH students may utilize this app to interact in certain academic activities, including:  subject subscription (subscription status and fees), academic material downloads, personal academic data access and other academic need (e.g: GPA, achievement graphic, advisors).

Moreover, this app provides information about campus facility, scholarship, tuition fee, campus map, lecturers, and non-academic activities (extracurricular). Not to mention there’s reference for book collection in the library, job vacancy, and homestay/boarding house around the campus.

The Mobile Campus BlackBerry Telkomsel App is a synergy of Telkomsel and RIM, which is the first in Indonesia. Fully customized UPH app is available to ease students on accessing academic information and other academic activities, whenever and wherever. Coming to the announcement are several Telkomsel and RIM executives for Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

Telkomsel admitted the information provided here is still very common, but next year Gideon insists students will be able to pay their tuition using this app. Meanwhile, Telkomsel is still evaluating the impact of this cooperation with UPH and still keep the door widely opened for any possibility to expand similar approach to other universities.

To date, Telkomsel claims the number of BlackBerry users in Indonesia reaches 5 milion subscribers.

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Eric Schmidt on the Asian mobile revolution

Google Thailand yesterday released an opinion piece from its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt about his views on the mobile revolution in Asia, a region that relies more heavily on mobile activities and innovations more so than the tech powerhouse nations in North America, Australia, and Europe.

Published in full by Jon Russell on the Asian Correspondent website, here are some of the highlights of the piece.

Schmidt began his note by telling a story about an extortion attempt which is nothing special except that the extortionist uses an SMS to send the threats and includes his mobile payment account number to have the money transferred.

While in the US this would be akin to using a Paypal account to demand ransom, the fact that this system uses SMS instead of an app means it works with any mobile phone, not just smartphones.

He also notes how in Kenya people can buy weather insurance and receive payouts over SMS “if the rain doesn’t fall within a specified range.”

SMS-based financial services is something that he highlighted early and often, showing that the app environment is not necessary for a thriving mobile economy. While smartphones may offer a more robust and pleasant experience in performing mobile transactions, SMS-based activities still win out in most markets due to the blanket compatibility and ease of operation.

He ended his praise of Asia by saying that the resolution of conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand was done not via formal diplomatic discussions but through SMS.

Eric Schmidt will be in Bali this week for the Regional Entrepreneurship Summit between the 22nd and 24th, which will also be attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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