See what happens when it’s really easy to get media and customizations to a mobile device?

Rbk just put up a site formatted specifically for the PSP that serves up Wallpapers and Videos formatted for it.

To do this for mobile phones would require creating an infrastructure (or paying another company) to serve up the backgrounds or ringtones in the appropriate ways - detecting the phone, sending through WAP Push, etc. For the PSP, all they had to do was obey some simple HTML formatting rules, make links directly to the appropriately sized and encoded files, and let the traffic roll in.

Pushing media to phones is too hard on the developer end.

Yeah, you thought you were the first one to come up with this, but you’re not. This bad boy had its initial application filed in 2002!

Treasure hunt game utilizing wireless communications devices and location positioning technology

INVENTOR- Sprogis, Peter

PATENT NUMBER- 06932698
PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER- 059687
DATE FILED- 2002-01-31
PATENT DATE- 2005-08-23

A treasure hunt type game that utilizes location positioning technology equipped wireless communications devices. Players are given clues or directions to proceed along one of many predetermined treasure hunt routes based on their location Based on these clues or directions, players change their locations Based on these changed locations , as determined by the location positioning devices, additional clues or directions are given to the players until one of the players completes the treasure hunt route and arrives at the treasure to win the game. The game also incorporates other variables in determining the clues to provide to players, such as the location of other players, the previous locations of the player and other players and whether the player has correctly solved certain clues.

I know I’ve seen a game like this implemented in Japan. It has a flash desktop interface to help you see the map layout. Amy Jo Kim used it in a few of her presentations - specifically one at GDC 2004. Anyone have a product name for me?

Another conference proceedings publication I wish I had:

Mobile Password System for Enhancing Usability-Guaranteed Security in Mobile Phone Banking

JOURNAL NAME: Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Web and communication technologies and Internet-related social issues - HSI 2005: 3rd International Conference on Human.Society@Internet, Tokyo, Japan, June 27-29, 2005 : proceedings

PP 66-74

ISSN- 0302-9743
ISBN- 3-54027-830-3

PUBLISHER- Berlin; Great Britain ; Springer; c2005

CONFERENCE DATE- 2005; Jul
CONFERENCE TITLE- 3rd
CONFERENCE LOCATION- Tokyo, Japan

The NPD Group surveyed 8,500 teens and adults. Here’s some points:

According to the report, the addressable market for mobile games continues to expand quickly, with half of all U.S. wireless subscribers now owning phones capable of downloading games. A full 27 percent play games on those devices, including purchased downloads as well as free demos and pre-loaded games, compared to 20 percent last year.

Even better for the industry, the market hasn’t come close to tapping its potential–another six percent of current non-gamers confessed an interest in playing on their phone over the next year.

The reason most often cited for the burgeoning interest: “to kill time or alleviate boredom.” In fact, the average gaming session is a mere 11 minutes.

Not surprisingly, kids between the ages of 13 and 17 (60 percent) are nearly three times as likely as adults (23 percent) to be mobile gamers.

According to the report, mobile gamers tend to spend more on handsets–an average of 57 percent more. They also tend to be heavier users of their mobile phones for regular calls, using 48 percent more wireless minutes than non-gamers, and their monthly wireless bills are 22 percent higher than the average subscriber.

According to the report, there’s a significant price sensitivity issue, which is inhibiting the industry from really taking off. That helps explain why only about one-third of mobile gamers actually buy the games themselves. The remaining two-thirds are satisfied playing free or pre-loaded games.

We’ve seen stats all over the place regarding mobile gaming - it’s very dependent on your sample set. So take this info with a bit of caution.

First US LBS games go to Boost Mobile.

Wireless entertainment and the material world today announced a new partnership that is providing Boost Mobile customers with a gaming experience like no other in the United States. Starting today, Boost customers are the first and only mobile phone users in the nation to be able to download and play location-based GPS (Global Positioning System) games on their wireless phones.; Boost Mobile has partnered with Blister Entertainment, a leading provider of location-based entertainment services, to introduce Swordfish(TM) and Torpedo Bay(TM), the first GPS-enabled Java(TM) games in the U.S. Boost customers can play both games now by downloading the applications directly from their Java(TM) technology- enabled Boost phone or from Boost LIVE (www.BoostLIVE.com). Each game costs $5.99 for the first month and $2.99 for each additional month. .

About Swordfish(TM) . Cast the lure, and try to catch a big one! . Swordfish is a location-based game that uses GPS technology to find schools of virtual fish located around the player. Users attempt to catch fish and can post their scores to an online leader board. Using GPS technology, included in all Boost Mobile phones, a player’s position is determined via a fish-finder so they can see where the nearest school of virtual fish is located in relation to their current position — just like real fishing…

About Torpedo Bay(TM) . Pilot the Navy’s latest Scout Submarine and engage the enemy . Torpedo Bay is a location-based naval battle game that uses GPS technology in a Boost customer’s phone to locate health and ammo around them then mount the high seas and battle for their survival. Once the phone determines the player’s location, the screen changes to a top-down view of a map with ships, health and ammo located on it. Players can keep the map view to help navigate to their preferred ship, health or ammo, or they can use the MENU key to select an ocean view background. Users can also use the phone’s arrow keys to highlight objects to get navigation instructions on how to reach them…

I’m curious to see how LBS-controlled games pan out. I think their best use would be multiplayer - to create a game of tag that spans the country or multiple continents. Again, you need to integrate the phone into your life, so a game that lets you play based on the locations you visit every day (read: you don’t have to go out of your way) would get the greatest adoption.

The firmware isn’t even out yet, but the North American link for the PSP web browser is now online as of 9:36pm EST. Looks like you can get to your Playstation Underground account, download movies and wallpaper right to the device, and check out news and updates. There’s lots of game screenshots to check out.

You have to have a Playstation Underground account to download content.

To get there, if you have the Japanese firmware (or you’re reading this post after the NA 2.0 release) just go to Bookmarks and then to the PSP link in that menu. Or manually, the address is www.ps-portable.net. If you go there on anything but the PSP, it will redirect you to the Playstation Global desktop site.

The movie download works great. But the site is really just about advertizing so far. Here’s hoping for more content!

Imagine if this turns into an online browser for game lobbies, chatting, etc? If Sony doesn’t do it, I’m sure someone else will.

Providing music to the mobile phone user seems to be one of the more interesting coming battles in the mobile space. The Financial Times and The New York Times have both recently published articles that define the sides somewhat. This is how I see it:

On one side we have phone manufacturers (Motorola, rumors about Nokia), who see their opportunity in the context of the Apple Ipod. Phone manufacturers will be putting out more and more phones with removable media, USB interfaces and mp3 players. As a group, in general, they’d like to leave where their users get the music up to the users. They are willing to bet that, given the choice, many people would rather have 1 device with music + phone, rather than two. They’ll be willing to team up with iTunes or any service really, and they can bypass the carriers if people have other desktop centric ways to get music on the phone. That is their hope.

On the other side are the carriers, who would like to have users “download” music from their services, using their network. The carriers see music as a way to sell 3G in general. They have the added challenge of picking handsets that allow music, but still let them control it. Sprint seems to be leading the charge here, and expects to have full songs downloadable by the end of the year.

Another interesting group is MVNOs. The New York Times reports that Universal Music will be teaming up with Single Touch Interactive to create MoveU, a music centered MVNO. On top of regular phone service they will be offering a subscription for ring-tones and song clips initially, and eventually full songs. The relationship with Universal will mean they have a potentially large catalog of songs.

Given these groups, and the as yet undefined DRM solution for over-the-air music downloads, I’ll certainly be watching how this all plays out. I’d say the manufacturers will be providing some excitement as they are liberating the consumers some what. Wouldn’t we all like to put our current MP3 collection on our phones? How will carriers resolve the conflict between offering phones with new features, and their own desires to control the value chain?

I’ll end with this quote from the 8/19/2005 Financial Times:

Many operators remain eager to control as much of the 3G value chain as they can. But closed platforms continue to look like a poor path to discovering potential killer applications. Taking a more open approach in music could well help other 3G services as well.

Those of us in the mobile space should smile at the implications of mobile music in general, and consumers should be thrilled that they’ll have a lot of choices!

Our friends at Buzznet got a great little review in PC Magazine:

A mature, straightforward photoblog, Buzznet shines with its ease of use and excellent organizational tools. The free account lets you upload 60 photos per month, and the Premium account lets you upload 250 and change your site’s look with different templates. Buzznet pages display the most recent pictures at the top, with comments and photo galleries below. You can also create links to online friends and communities, upload photos from cell phones, and assign “buzzwords” to pictures so they’ll turn up in searches of the site.

Great service guys! Keep it up!

Nokia is really embracing all of the new mobile search engines. They’ve made a one stop shop for all your mobile search needs:

Nokia today introduced a pioneering mobile search software solution that provides users with easy and fast access to leading search engines directly from their Nokia handset The search application is a simple, convenient, and fast way for Nokia smartphone users to find and connect to any website as well as local search engines, whenever, wherever. The current service and content providers incorporated in the search application include Eniro, Fonecta, Medio Systems, Yahoo !, Yell.com, as well as digital map solution provider AtlasCT and digital map data provider NAVTEQ.
“Introducing the search application together with the leading search engine providers brings one of the world’s most popular online activities - online search - to the fingertips of Nokia handset users,” said Harry Santamaki, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Multimedia, Nokia. “With this extremely straightforward and easy to use application, users can now expand the use of online search services beyond their desktops. Furthermore, what better than to be ableto connect directly and immediately to the business or service you were looking for. The search application is truly the next best thing to having all of the world’s directories printed inside the mobile phone !”
The mobile search application is currently being piloted in the UK, Finland and Sweden. The application will be distributed in the standard sales packs of the Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681 and Nokia 6630 smartphones.

Check out Nokia’s product page here.

Text voting is a serious business now. Thank you American Idol.

Mobliss, a leading provider of mobile marketing and media solutions and services, announced today that the company was chosen by G4 television network’s interactive agency, Starcom IP, to power the first text voting campaign for the third annual “G-Phoria” awards.

“G-Phoria,” which premiered Tuesday, August 9, and re-broadcasts Sunday, August 14, at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on G4, is the first-ever videogame award show dedicated to celebrating the year’s hottest games, stars, music, and trends that define the videogame lifestyle. Nominees for “G-Phoria” were chosen by a panel of videogame industry experts and this year, for the first time, fans had the opportunity to choose the “G-Phoria” winners by voting either online or via text message. Viewers were encouraged to vote while tuning into the four “Race to G-Phoria” specials, which provided detailed information and commentary on each award category and nominee.

So who are the other players in this game besides Mobliss?