More Great Mobile Resources; Top 10 Games
If you access the Internet via your mobile device, there's an amazing range of resources: sites for flirting, photo blogging, streaming video, and more. In this column I want to direct you to some of the mobile resources that I've come across in recent months. Plus, since this is our annual games issue, we'll take a look at Clinton Fitch's list of top 10 games. Finally, we'll note some new offerings on our own Web site.
Social Networking for Mobile Device Users
"Social networking" sites such as Friendster (http://www.friendster.com), MySpace (http://www.myspace.com), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com), and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) have become hugely popular on the Internet and are now spreading to mobile devices. These sites focus on making it easier to meet people. They allow you to post photos and a personal profile, create a blog, and more, all with the goal of helping you create a network of like-minded friends. LinkedIn is focused on professionals who need to network, but the others are typically for socializing—and in some cases flirting.
SMS.ac (http://www.sms.ac) is a social networking Web site for mobile device users, which at the end of 2005, had over 50 million registered members from more than 180 countries.
SMS.ac
Typical of such services, you don't need to give out your phone number or physical address. The service assigns you a user ID, and you send an SMS with that ID to the service, and SMS.ac routes it to the phone number via either SMS or MMS. (SMS.ac gives you five free messages a day for the first month. After that there's a cost, which varies depending on where you are and who your wireless provider is.)
Another neat feature is that people can create clubs and user groups, and a single message can be sent to the entire group. The service lets you send text messages either via a phone or via a Web interface.
MobiDock (http://www.mobidock.com) is a new portal that is quickly ramping up its offerings and has a rapidly growing user base. Like SMS.ac, it has a social networking feature. Other services include forums, chat, bogging, a global map service, low-bandwidth streaming of radio and TV, a directory of over 2,000 links to mobile sites, traffic information, and more.
MobiDock
All of this is accessed via your regular mobile Web browser. However, MobiDock also recently launched a free plug-in that gives you immediate access to MobiDock services from your Today screen without having to open your browser and surf to the site.
The plug-in, MobiDock Start, can be adapted in design and functionality. The services reachable through the MobiDock Start include Friends, Favorite Links, Favorite Services, and Blogs. A special version for the HP iPAQs also has an icon leading to the HP Mobile Portal.
Streaming Video Search, Free Mobile Photo Blog
PocketPC Media (http://www.pocketpcmedia.com) is a streaming media site that now offers a great new video search service. You simply type in a search term and it searches the Web and returns a list of results for streaming videos matching that term. Most of the videos that it finds on the Web can be viewed on a mobile device, but you may need to be patient while the video is buffering.
PocketPC Media
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