Txtdomain Mobile CMS

Txtdomain.com is the first true Mobile CMS in the Philippines utilizing Mobile 2.0 technology which offers instant creation and management of mobile services accessed using SMS keywords and short code combination. Check out the demo video that was recently released for non-registered users which shows how easy it is to create you own mobile service in under 30 minutes.

For inquiries please email or call 897-3377, Monday to Friday between 10 AM to 5PM



Watch on site demo of Txtdomain in wide screen format here.

Beware of wire tapped phones

As more people uses mobile phones as alternative wallets compared to credit cards, the more we must be aware about and protected against mobile data theft. There are actually lots of mobile data theft that has been reported on the news especially with local celebrities where they allegedly had their mobile phones repaired but ended up having their private pictures from their phone published on the Internet.

This brings me to the site endoacustica.com who specializes on spy equipments, one of their hot selling items are the Spy Phones -- a normal looking phone (latest models are available) but it was reprogrammed (firmware + chip hack) to allow certain number to call the phone without ringing, it even works while the phone is off! This allow the caller to eaves drop using the phone without the user being aware of, it also allows interception of SMS (forwarding). Now imagine theives using this type of technology, given the right motives and person to attack. These spy phones may intercept starting anything from private business negotiations up to bank account details.

Mobile ADS

Often when we talk about mobile ads we refer to SMS Spams, Ads on Wap sites, sponsored wallpaper and poly/ringtones, ads that only promote mobile services and content. Although mobile based ads market isn't that big, its growing rapidly these past 2 year due to telcos adaption of 3G technology. There are companies like Cellfire that took mobile ads one notch higher by providing mobile delivery of discount coupons but its not enough. For ads to be profitable it must be delivered to mass audience with the longest possible retention time. Not just by SMS broadcast that happens once in a while or via sponsored contents which users still needs to download like Game Jump.

Verizon recently announced it will be offering ads on its phones, beginning early next year, Verizon Wireless will allow placement of banner advertisements on news, weather, sports and other Internet sites that users visit and display on their mobile phones, company executives said. This is a good example of what I'm looking for to push mobile ads to go mainstream, but I have reservations depending on Verizon's final idea if its actually inserting ads into each sites the user's visit via mobile phone. That would be data tampering and a sever violation of its user's privacy, the same reason why your ISPs doesn't insert ads on every page you browse. It would be OK if Verizon will just stick their ads on their own portal which eventually one step falling short of how ads should work. It should be based on the same concept how Internet ads should work like Google Adsense. But putting Google Adsense on mobile proves to be not a good way to track impressions since current mobile infrastructure routes each GPRS or 3G traffic through telco's Internet web proxy (mobile devices doesn't have IP address anyway).

After much thought I came up with another solution to the problem, but it requires that both ad providers/server and connection provider be on the same network. The solution would totally allow the same Adsense experience on mobile which IMHO is worth venturing into especially for telcos.

I did prior test with Google's Adsense with the solution and it works for click-through ads with the ad server not being on the same network as the telco but it cannot track unique ad impressions. With this alone I'm confident the solution for mobile ads to be successful is if and only if:

Telco = Google

Saddam is DEAD

Saddam is finally dead, the story has 7,945 diggs by the time im writing this post -- about 10 hours after the execution. IMHO its a good way to end the year by ending the burdens the world has carried this past year and not letting it pass on the new year.

See the video when Saddam has sentenced to death:



Full coverage of Saddam's execution via CNN.

Taiwan Quake Cripples Philippine Internet

December 27, 2006: Taiwan was hit by an earthquake which killed and injured a lot of people and destroyed billions worth of infrastructure including the underwater fiber optics cables that serves as the Internet backbone for Asia. This only reminds us that even if we struggle to design a secure computer systems, its still based on the flawed physical systems which makes it forever vulnerable.

Here's a snapshot of the chaos the earthquake caused in the cyberworld:

How SEO should not be: Bizzare Google Request

Dean Hunts Blog is taking a beating as more and more bloggers flock to his blog site after he posted a hilarious email from some company guy with a very strange request.

The Email reads as follows:

Hello Dean,

My name is [edited] and I run [edited].com

I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].
On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.

Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [edited].
If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.
I expect a reply soon.

Thankyou.

Track more of this at Dean's Blog

Greetings

Merry Christmas and I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Btw my company wishes to extend its greeting also:

Releases of iPhone killer

The much anticiated iPhone will have to face rough competition when it comes out due to iPhone killers that was released earlier. Take a look at Samsung 8GB T9 MP3 player which was featured on TelecomsKorea website:

"The new T9 can store 16 films (500MB) downloaded from Samsung Media Studio and 2,000 songs(4MB). T9 features Bluetooth connectivity, built-in lithium polymer battery, FM radio tuner, and voice recording. Playing time for music is 30 hours and for video is six hours."

Photo from TelecomsKorea.com

I do agree it will not definitely hurt iPhone's sales due to Apple's cult followers but undoubtedly on countries like Korea, iPhone will be a long gone fad by the time it comes out.

Transformers : The Movie

Check out this first Transformers The Movie trailer! Awesome.

MySpace Mobile on Cingular

MySpace, the social-website which was recently bought by News Corp now opens it mobile version of the service for Cingular. Subscribers to Cingular, the largest U S cellphone company, can use MySpace Mobile to post pictures, add friends, and update blogs for $2.99 a month. MySpace plans to sign partnerships with other U S wireless carriers next year, Kapur said. MySpace also plans to offer wireless services overseas, he said.

Story via Boston.com

Microsoft defeated by crackers (again) Vista activation got cracked.

Since last week, rumors have surfaced about Vista's activation crack. Not until this weekend that the story was verified, its true. Vista got cracked and MS scrambled to release KB929391 WGA to patch the hole but warnings has already excalated not to apply the patch for cracked Vista.

The crack is ingenious, tit actually runs an emulated WGA authentication server and validates the Vista installation. This technique is not entirely new, using packet reverse engineering any server can actually be emulated, even Blizzard's complex WOW server has been emulated a few weeks after the game was released out of beta. Certainly MS WGA server isn't as complex as WOW server so it not surprising it was reversed that fast.

Google Phone!

Google and Orange are in the talks for creating the first Google Phone. Google who has vast expertise in data gathering and retrieval but still a newbie when it comes to mobile technology, that's why Google chose Orange, which is owned by France Telecoms, Europe's second-largest telecoms group.

At first I was excited about the prospect on owning a Google Phone, imagine mobile location based searches as superior as Google Earth. But i think there is a miss, first Phone doesn't equal to Orange. If Google wants a good phone in terms of usability and design then they should go to Nokia and if they are going to open their own telco infrastructure specially catered to data then they should have talked to Japan's NT DoCoMo; if they wanted to earn expertise with building mobile applications then they should talk to Sun and finally if they want skill mobile developers, marketing consultant and product developers, then they should come to the Philippines :)

Mobile Adsense ! Following-up: YouTube Mobile

Following my post about the developement of YouTube Mobile; we think it will definitely drive 3G traffic once its launched and what better way to monitize traffic? SEO will say it clear, Google Adsense. Yes, YouTube Mobile will come out with Google Adsense!

Step 1: Find your favorite YouTube Video and take note of its ID found in the URL.



Step 2: Type in the YouTube ID on YouTube Mobile via WAP

Step 3: Click Download, the demo site is not configured to handle multiple request so will take time to process your request depending on number of qued request. Don't complain, this is just a demo. Actual production servers can handle all the request simultaneously.



That's it then a link will be generated to download your YouTube Video for mobile. BUT WAIT... what's that peaking on the lower portion on the page? It reads.. Google Adsense for mobille? Let's scroll down the page and take a look... Yep for REAL!



Take a click on the link and it converts ordinary websites straight to mobile format too! All these thanks to Google :)

How to hack using MySpace, Full Video

I love instructional videos, this wouldn't be totally possible without Flash streaming technology. Check out this video of a real hack using Metasploit Framework's WMF exploit and good old Flash to sneak in a virus into a vulnerable MySpace user.

I think im going to make the same video but using Blogger.com... Just right now im actually rooting you..

Kiddin :)

IMEVRYWHR... what? dont stutter please!

Globe Telecoms Philippines launched its IMEVRYWHR service powered by FastMobile to integrate IM, SMS, MMS and voice. Philstar.com posted an article titled "3G, Going, Gone, Gone" last December 8, 2006 which was "removed" from the archive from some reasons; maybe they are scared of big G? The article seems to be a rip-off anyway of the article published on Businessweek title "3G: Going, Going, Gone". The Philstar- article tackles Globe's non-productive 3G infrastructure compared to it's closest, rival Smart Telecoms and says Globe released its IMEVRYWHR service just to keep up its 3G service's PR.

If anyone has a cached version of the site from Google Desktop please email me at

SMS spamming is a crime!

US Senate passed a legislation to severly punish Pre-Texting (more commonly known as SMS Spams). It is now a federal crime to obtain a person's cell phone number without permission and use it for SMS Spamming.

I wish they would pass that same bill also here in the Philippines.

Story via www.NyTimes.com

Samsung caught playing underhanded poker

Research in Motion (RIM) filed a lawsuit against Korean cellphone maker Samsung for naming its recent product "BlackJack". The lawsuit was filed at Lost Angeles Federal Court banning Samsung from using the name.

Story via Telecoms Korea.

Vice City Mario!

I've been playing Mario Kart GP during weekends for about 2 months now, so far i havent been thru this stage yet. LMAO.

YouTube Mobile...Philippine Edition!

According to Techcrunch, YouTube Mobile will be rolling out after 14 months. I think i can beat them to that :D

YouTube Mobile Downloader comming out in the Philippines!

Well.. its another product of a boring day, the storm that hit last weekend didn't make much fuss so i had the whole office to myself. The Internet was so crappy for surfing YouTube so i decided to download them while I play Diablo II, I can always view them later after I beat Baal on nightmare level. A few minutes later i found a whopping 1Gig usage in my HD, since each 10-30 minute FLV file has an average size of 50MB. To save space I converted them to 3GPP format and later on, because i still couldn't beat Baal, I decided to make WAP enabled service out of the entire process.