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Amazon Intros TextBuyIt, For Mobile Comparison Shopping

by Will Safer, posted Apr 3rd 2008 at 1:54PM

Amazon.com's TextBuyIt

We'll admit it. We've been chased out of a big box retailer or two for taking pictures of products and writing notes on prices. It seems comparison shopping isn't something these stores want their customers to be doing.

But in comes Amazon.com to the rescue.

The giant online retailer announced a new service called TextBuyIt for a little comparison shopping and buying, and it's as easy as sending a text and receiving a text message.

Here's how the new service from Amazon works:

First, find a product you want to buy. Send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and in short order Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item you want. You then then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of the order. Then you confirm or cancel the purchase.

Easy please-y.

If it's your first time using the TextBuyIt service, you'll be asked for your e-mail address and shipping ZIP code that's connected to your Amazon.com account. The e-tailer then uses your default settings for payment, shipping address and shipping speed.

This is another service that's similar to what our friends in Asia are already doing all the time. In Japan, it's common for shoppers to do their buying via mobile phone. Now we get to satisfy our need to shop on the fly, as well.

From Amazon.com and Reuters.


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Mobile Novels Take Over Traditional Books in Japan

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Sep 26th 2007 at 11:04AM



They say kids these days don't read. In Japan, however, teens are back into reading novels big-time with one major difference: They're reading them on cell phones.

Mobile novels (called "keitai" in Japan), books written for the cell phone screen, have taken off with startling success in the east. These serial-based novels are delivered in read-on-the-corner byte-sized chunks on a regular basis to hungry young subscribers. Most are written by young authors in their teens and 20s, and are penned in a comic-like shorthand script.

Several titles have seen huge success, especially when compared to how traditional novels have been selling lately. One such novel, written by a 27 year-old woman named "Chaco", receives over 25,000 readers per day. When a book company begged her to turn the mobile novel into a real book, it sold 440,000 copies. Meanwhile, a relatively new online community for cell phone novels called Maho i-Land has over six million members.

Possibly more shocking is the fact that the authors of these books usually write them using just their thumbs and cellphones. Talk about a bad case of BlackBerry thumb!

From textually

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Don't Just Call Your Friends, Spam Them!

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 25th 2007 at 4:23PM


Mobile, instant, always-on access to everyone you know is the new obnoxious forefront in communications technology. A new start-up calling itself Trumpia, has decided to take the obsession with constant communication to its absurd illogical extreme.

Sign up with Trumpia, then betray your own sense of decency by inputting all of your friends' contact info ... and we mean all of it. Input, e-mail, cell phone and instant messenger information. Then you can "blast" all of your friends at once, hitting them on every communication device possible short of a ham radio.

That way, no one can possibly claim that they didn't get your message -- unless they were lost for a few days in the Himalayas. In fact, the only way your (soon-to-be former) friends can stop you from "blasting" them, is to sign up for the service themselves and block you.

If you think the whole thing sounds kind of shady and caustic, you're not alone.

From TechCrunch

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Students Taught Naughty Text Messaging as Homework

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 10th 2007 at 10:13AM

Students Taught Naughty Text Messaging as Homework

Parents are used to monitoring what their kids watch on TV, what video games they play and where they go online. But, who thought you'd ever need a V-chip for homework?

The parents of Jackson Middle School sixth graders in Grand Prairie, Texas, received a shock recently when the kids came home with a rather naughty math assignment. For homework, they'd been asked by the teacher to decode twenty popular text-messaging abbreviations including some not-so-innocent ones such as POS (Parent Over Shoulder) and KPC (Keeping Parents Clueless). There was even at least one overtly sexual abbreviation: NIFOC, which stands for "Nude in Front of the Computer" -- no doubt a favorite amongst the 'To Catch a Predator' set.

For help with the assignment, students were directed to a Web site that included other naughty abbreviations, including GYPO (Get Your Pants Off) and IWSN (I Want Sex Now). As for what any of this has to do with math class, we're at a loss.

Though parents want the teacher taken out of the classroom immediately, the school district has said it has spoken to the teacher about the issue, but would not comment on any further disciplinary action.

Are you a parent looking for help decoding your kids' secret language? Check out this online dictionary, which is filled with more abbreviations than you could ever imagine. Our favorite: AAAAA, which stands for 'American Association Against Acronym Abuse.'

From Textually.org

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BlackBerrys and Cell Phones Turning Americans Into E-Mail Addicts

by Tom Conlon, posted Jul 26th 2007 at 9:23AM

The Great American E-Mail Addiction
This past June, AOL conducted a survey of 4,025 Internet users to study the behavior of we humans and our relationship to e-mail. The survey covered everything from how many e-mail accounts people have, to how they feel when they're busted checking personal e-mail at work, to where they check e-mail on portable devices (church, the bathroom and from behind the wheel were all answers given).

The results were surprising. Even though teens seem to be gravitating towards instant- and text-messaging as their primary form of communication, adults are e-mailing more than ever. One of the big reasons seems to be portable devices, since the survey revealed that the number of people checking their e-mail on portable devices (like BlackBerrys and iPhones) has more than doubled since 2004. The survey showed that the average e-mail user checks his or her e-mail five times a day and that 59 percent of those with said portable devices check every time a message arrives.

And that's just during the day: A whopping 43 percent of survey respondents bring their BlackBerrys or handhelds to bed with them, so they can check messages at night! Crazy. Even we don't do that here at Switched.

Meanwhile, the most e-mail addicted city in the country turns out to be Washington, D.C., followed closely by Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, and Houston. (Surprisingly, tech-centric city Seattle scores 7th in the rankings.)

In the coming days, Switched.com will bring you the full exclusive results of the survey. We'll be posting every day, so come back to this page to find out more. To kick things off, we present the following:

43% of E-Mail Users Sleep With Their Cell Phones
Step aside ham and cheese sandwich, there's a new midnight snack in town!

E-Mail Addiction: Battle of the Sexes!
Which sex do you think is more likely to refer to its inbox as 'The Chronic'?

In Soviet Russia, Vodka TXTs You!

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 25th 2007 at 10:31AM

In Soviet Russia, Vodka TXTs You!No, the Russians haven't managed to send vodka as text message attachments (yet), but they have launched an interesting new service to let drinkers determine the origin of their headache-inducing drink of choice. Russians who send a text message to a state-funded hotline containing the bottle's serial number will receive a response indicating the validity of the bottle in question.

Why worry about authenticity? Apparently, Russian counterfeiters often use toxic compounds like antifreeze or cologne water to create their wares, resulting in a disturbing 40,000 deaths each year. It's unlikely American drinkers will get a similar service, leaving us to continue shaking, whacking and sniffing our bottles to determine quality.

From Textually.org

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Everest Call Made, Text Message Too

by Tim Stevens, posted May 22nd 2007 at 11:27AM

Last week, we reported on British mountaineer Rod Barber's plans to make the world's first phone call from the top of Mt. Everest. This week we're happy to report that he made it to the top and completed not one, but two phone calls. He also somehow managing to keep his thumbs thawed out long enough to send a text message.

The calls and text are made possible thanks to a new mobile base station with line of sight to the north ridge where the calls were made. Barber himself not only had to survive the seven day hike, but also had to ensure the continued functioning of his cell phone. To help it survive the frigid temperatures, he taped batteries to himself under his clothing to keep them warm enough to function.

And you thought you loved your cell phone.

From BBC News

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Last-Place Yankees TXT-ing Clemens

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Apr 25th 2007 at 9:46AM

Roger Clemens
As The Yankees -- baseball's usual juggernaut of power and finesse -- spiral into last place, the players are turning to their cell phones and text messaging to try to get some help. According to an ESPN sideline reporter, Yankees Slugger Jason Giambi has been bombarding power pitcher Roger Clemens with text messages, begging him to come back to the Yankees for a bail-out.

Clemens has done this the past couple years: He sits back, waits for the offers to come in, and then decides if he wants back in to the Big Leagues. If anything, he'll know who needs him the most.

The last message from Giambi? "Hurry up."

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