An interesting piece from MakeUseOf.com points to an often overlooked reality than few may have previously considered. In fact, any text-capable cell phone can now be just as reliable as a smartphone. How so? SMS-integrating services now make such a reality possible.

The article raises awareness of various options available to those with “regular cell phones.” These services “to which access is only a text message away” are designed to simplify on-the-go web activities for those who don’t have the latest, trendiest smartphones.

Posterous, for example, is a social network platform that enables the “cross-posting” of your updates across various social networking sites through a single email. Similarly, Hellotxt allows users to update better than fifty social networks from email as well.

Whether you’re sharing your status on Twitter or keeping in touch with friends via any of the gazillion social networks in existence, there are more opportunities for the low-tech cell phones in our midst than we may presently realize. To check out some of those you may have missed, visit MakeUseOf.com.

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It should have come as no surprise to you if a Valentine’s Day greeting found its way to you over the weekend though the mobile channel instead of the mailbox.

Valentine’s Day 2010 brought with it a host of new mobile marketing opportunities for retailers, restaurateurs, florists, and even confectioners looking to promote their products, dining options, floral arrangements, chocolates and more.

But perhaps no other company realizes the power and potential of mobile marketing like Hallmark, the greeting card giant that delves deeper into mobile territory with each passing Valentine’s Day.

“From a brand perspective, it shows that we remain relevant,” said Deidra Mize, a representative for Hallmark, last summer when Hallmark Mobile Greetings was first introduced. “We consider ourselves a communications company, and we’re going to be wherever people are doing that.”

Hallmark Mobile Greetings are $0.99 each, with charges absorbed by the sender.

This year, Hallmark is experiencing record interest in all things mobile for the Valentine’s Day holiday. And according to Mike Adams, manager of Hallmark Mobile, “Hallmark Mobile Greetings help provide more frequent and meaningful instant communication. Mobile Greetings combine the immediacy of a text message with creative design and editorial, and also allow the sender to add their own personal message.”

Although no one is yet pronouncing the good old fashioned physical greeting card dead, Hallmark seems well aware that mobile greetings could very well represent the wave of the future for the sweetest of messages reserved for a special occasion like Valentines’ Day.

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Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is experiencing its highest weekly viewership since the professional wrestling outfit debuted in 2004. Now competing with rival promotion World Wrestling Entertainment, TNA is stepping up efforts in mobile marketing in an aggressive endeavor to do what the company still hasn’t accomplished – pinning WWE in overall viewers and popularity.

As a key component of its multichannel marketing strategy, TNA is giving mobile marketing a shot by utilizing Knotice Ltd.’s on-demand Concentri software. While many wrestling fans say WWE lags behind on a strong mobile presence, TNA is picking up the slack with this new effort which will allow wrestling fans to receive “text blasts” on their mobile devices regarding TNA events, discount codes for tickets or merchandise, interactive contests and promotions, voting for matches, and, most importantly, exclusive news and video content.

“It will create a better one-on-one connection to address our fans’ wants and needs,” says Dan Stevenson, director of marketing at TNA. For the promotion, this latest mobile marketing effort will help cultivate and further cement the loyalty of their user database, which is already believed to contain the names and contact data for greater than 100,000 TNA wrestling fans.

TNA Entertainment LLC, which recently acquired the performance services of legendary wrestler and former WWE and WCW star Hulk Hogan, produces Thursday night’s “TNA iMPACT!” on Spike TV.

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Coca-Cola is going mobile for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The beverage giant is behind a new Olympic Games-themed program in the US that is aimed at on-the-go Olympic fans.

Consistent with the official word from Coke, the comprehensive campaign will feature high-profile Olympic champions and contenders known as the Coca-Cola “Six Pack” of athletes, limited edition Olympic Games-themed packaging, and “mobile media and digital experiences.”

Coca-Cola is working with NBC to bring the campaign to life, which includes a custom WAP site to support the effort at http://m.cokeopengames.com

According to Linda Cronin, director of media interactive communications at Coca-Cola, “We’ve established a first-of-a-kind partnership with NBC on the development of a co-branded mobile application that brings fans into the Vancouver experience by playing energetic, familiar sounds related to the Games like air horns and cowbells and the sounds associated with drinking a Coke—ice clinking, pouring, the first ‘ahh’—right on their iPhone and iPod touch.”

For the Vancouver mobile program, Coca-Cola, which is the exclusive nonalcoholic beverage provider to the Olympic Games through 2020, joined forces with IMC2, Dallas.

“We had a lot of success with this channel during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,” adds Cronin, “so we significantly increased our mobile commitment for Vancouver in order to deliver the excitement of the Games to fans no matter where they are.”

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Geo-social startups like Gowalla and Foursquare have made the act of “checking in” surprisingly popular for a growing number of users.  It’s popularity has helped the aforementioned startups compile an ever-growing mound of data related to its user’s so-called “migratory habits,” which could be an integral aspect in the future of mobile advertising.

CNBC published a good article dissecting the concept surrounding geo-social apps like Gowalla and Foursquare trying to determine what the appeal for consumers is, what effects it has on mobile advertising, and whether the concept will gain traction outside the tech-savvy confines of Silicon Valley.  While several aspects are uncertain, one thing’s for sure- these startups are compiling a unique set of data that will be valuable in the very near future.

Acquisitions in the mobile-ad space are hot and heavy right now, with every major player from Google to Apple and Microsoft ready to make a move to strengthen their position in the race to the top.  As the big guns try to capitalize on the smart phone explosion with mobile ads that target people where they congregate, startups compiling a trove of data about users’ migratory habits could make attractive acquisition targets.  At one point in January, a Foursquare user was checking into a location every second, the company said.

Read the rest

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Anticipation is rampant for the upcoming Apple Tablet set to debut tomorrow in San Francisco, and nowhere is it more apparent than with application developers.

Beyond game developers chomping at the bit to get their hands on the new tablet, a new survey suggest there’s greater interest in developing other types of large screen-capable apps as well.  Appcelerator, maker of a development platform for mobile and desktop apps, published results indicating that 90 percent of developers surveyed plan to develop an app for the upcoming Apple Tablet within the first year.

When asked whether they were “very interested” in building apps for a platform, 58 percent of respondents said “yes” when asked about the tablet, placing it behind the iPhone and Google Android, but far ahead of other platforms like BlackBerry, Palm Pre, and Windows Mobile.

In terms of the types of apps developers are interested in creating, business and productivity-oriented apps are at the top of the list, followed by entertainment, social networking, and education.  While the iPhone conjured a lot of excitement with developers dreaming of the possibilities, the Apple Tablet takes things to an entirely different level.  With more screen area, more powerful hardware and unique multi-touch capabilities, the potential for application innovation is higher than ever.

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2010 is off to a big year, at least in terms of prominent people, places, and things getting their very own iPhone applications. Shortly after the White House announced its own dedicated app, the Grammy awards will similarly now have a digital platform from which to hype the biggest night in music.

The new “Guess the Grammys” app for the iPhone and iPod touch has been unveiled ahead of the Grammy awards ceremony, marking the first major mobile marketing effort by producers of the Grammys to tap into the mobile realm with a dedicated application.

The free application serves up a stroll down memory lane and engages users in playful trivia about the Grammys, including an opportunity to predict winners from twenty-one nominated categories. In a calculated effort to build quite a stellar email database, the app enables users to and register their guesses so that they may later be notified about how accurate their predictions turned out to be.

The 52nd annual Grammy awards will air on Sunday, January 31st, at 8:00 pm on CBS.

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