Crave: Called the Innov8, the new Samsung 8-megapixels phone promises a full set of camera features to keep shutterbugs happy. Inside you'll find an auto-panorama mode; a bright flash; smile, blink, and face detection; wide dynamic range capturing abilities; and a video recorder that captures clips at 30 frames per second.

Beyond snapping shots, it also has an FM radio, Wi-Fi, a large display with an accelerometer, and an optical mouse (we're not sure how the latter works). It has a 3.5mm headset jack, stereo Bluetooth, 16GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a music player, and A-GPS. And of course, it makes calls as well.

Samsung unveils 8-megapixel camera phone [Crave]

TrendBlog: Softbank has announced that a long-distance romance role-playing game for mobile phones, called, amusingly, the “Marginal Prince” from Serendipity will be available this month for users of the latest phone models. The game has become immensely popular since it was released exclusively on Docomo a few years ago.

What exactly is a long distance romance role-playing game, you ask? Here is the premise: Your little brother Youta is studying abroad at a mysterious all-boys academy, St. Alphonso, on the remote and secluded foreign island of the same name. Youta happens to be the only boy at school with a mobile phone (the most high-tech Japanese mobile equipped with one-seg TV capability no less) which makes him very popular with his classmates who are eager to talk to people from the outside world, especially you, most likely a teenage or 20-something girl.

As you, the user, navigate the game, Youta introduces you to these “Marginal Princes,” and if you find one to your liking you can engage in a more romantic conversation, with the goal of acquiring love points in the form of letters or love songs.

Romance Games for Mobiles [TrendBlog]

With the kickoff of the summer travel season, Travel Channel GO is now available for travelers everywhere! Now everyone can use this exciting new mobile service from the Travel Channel - whether you're looking for the nearest museum while on a vacation or seeking out the nearest ATM in your own hometown, Travel Channel GO has you covered.

Travel Channel GO isn't your ordinary mobile local search service - the Travel Channel Team likes to refer to it as your very own 'personal radar'. Not only does Travel Channel GO give you access to over 10 million local points of interest available right at your fingertips when you need to find something - but it also keeps searching for you as your travel from place to place. Just tell us about your favorite things and we'll let you know when they're nearby. For example, if you love sushi, Travel Channel GO will always let you know about the closest sushi restaurants no matter where you are in the United States, that's a critical piece of information (to locate any place, not just sushi restaurants) whenever you are in a new place!

Travel Channel GO

Reuters: Young, tech-savvy South Koreans are making coupon clipping a thing of the past and turning to their mobile phones instead.

Some of the fastest-growing mobile phone services in the country let retailers send discount coupons and users send gift certificates for anything from lattes to movie tickets through their handsets. The merchandise vouchers have a barcode embedded in the message. Users show the coupon on the screen and retailers scan the barcode to apply the discount.

Paper is passe for tech-savvy South Koreans [Reuters]

TextHub is a text messaging service that allows you to send personalized text messages to a group of people online or via mobile phones. TextHub offers an all-in-one suite of tools in one easy to use account manager and makes it easy for any non-technical user to administer mass text messaging campaigns and scheduled alerts.

Businesses are always seeking innovative ways to communicate efficiently and effectively with customers in order to maintain good customer service and to increase sales. While postal mailing, phoning, and most recently emailing have been utilized as methods of communication from businesses to its customers, a new communication star is emerging, known commonly as “text messaging” and also known as short message system (“SMS”). TextHub seeks to tap on this new trend for companies to reach their customers.

Some interesting ways to use TextHub:

Schools use TextHub to send alerts to parents about important reminders, truancy, or emergencies.

Banks and financial institutions use TextHub to notify account holders of their balance, transactions, overdraft items, and other account activity.

Online portals and content providers use TextHub to broadcast regularly scheduled content to opt-in subscribers such as news headlines, daily astrology, stock alerts, and more.

http://www.texthub.com

Co-Founder Mark Michuda is offering TextHub for free to non-profits. Organizations can attain the free account by writing to info(AT)TextHub.com.

Update: Mark has an exclusive offer for CoolBusinessIdeas.com readers only. Mention the code word CBI and you can enjoy a free 40 days use of an TextHub pro account.

Inhabitat: Here’s a great idea for a cell-phone that is thoroughly green in every way: from its biodegradable bamboo materials, to its thoughtfully considered lifecycle, to its ingenious use of kinetic human power to charge the battery with renewable energy. The ‘Bamboo’ phone, by Dutch designer Gert-Jan van Breugel was one of the finalists shortlisted at this year’s 2008 Greener Gadgets Design Competition (and Jill’s personal favorite). Although this design didn’t end up winning one of the coveted top three prizes in the competition, it certainly caught our kinetic-energy-loving eye.

The Bamboo Phone’s case uses two materials: a bio-plastic which is derived from renewable raw materials such as corn, and bamboo, a grass which grows at such a fast rate, makes it vastly more sustainable than a material such as hardwood. According to van Breugel, three minutes of cranking will provide enough energy for one phone call, though the length of the call was not mentioned. A monochrome display is also included to maximize energy efficiency.

The phone was designed in response to the one billion new handsets being produced every year, with only 10% being recycled. The average mobile customer replaces their phone once every 18 months, causing 36kg of carbon dioxide to be released in the manufacture of a 90 gram phone. Now all this phone needs is a sleeker-looking casing, and we can see this getting snapped up by Nokia or Samsung in a flash.

WIND-UP ECO BAMBOO PHONE: Charged by whirling! [Inhabitat]

USATODAY: Even those of us who don't gab on cellphones appreciate having one for an emergency. For a blind or visually impaired person, the Nokia N82 promises much more: It's a liberating day-to-day tool that grants access to printed materials not otherwise easily available.

A sightless person can use the phone to snap a picture of a menu, book, printed receipt or business card. Software on the phone processes the words on those items and reads the text aloud in a synthesized voice. The device can even let a blind person know if paper currency is a $5 or a $20 bill.

Cellphone can read to you from pictures it takes [USATODAY]

MobileCrunch: YouMail, a free voicemail service, launched a new advertising program this week that will connect brands with mobile users through text-based advertising. This new feature will add youmail2.jpgshort, non-intrusive 40-character marketing messages to the text alerts users already receive when a caller leaves a new voicemail.

YouMail users currently receive text messages alerting them to new voicemails which include the name and phone number of the caller, and the length of the voice message. The new program allows brands to sponsor these texts by placing a marketing message, limited to 40 characters, at the end of the alert. It is hoped that the new advertising feature will keep YouMail’s service free and allow the company to develop new features.

YouMail Launches New non-Intrusive Advertising Program [MobileCrunch]

USAToday: Big restaurant chains are rushing into what could be the future of takeout and delivery food: text ordering. Leading the way are the pizza giants. Papa John's is airing national TV spots to promote the text ordering that it launched in November. Domino's has offered mobile ordering — which requires cellphone Web access — since July. Pizza Hut is about to start promoting both text and mobile ordering.

Quiznos, Dunkin' Donuts and Subway have looked into text ordering. McDonald's is testing it in Seoul. Starbucks tested it in London and at one U.S. store. Papa John's CEO Nigel Travis compares the potential to online ordering, which accounts for 20% of Papa John's sales. "Text is the way forward," he says. He predicts it will account for 3% of sales within two years.

The potential pool of users is huge, considering Americans already send 30 billion text messages a month. Noah Glass, founder and CEO of GoMobo.com, predicts texting could account for 25% of all food takeout orders within the decade.

More takeout orderers are all thumbs [USAToday]

The Mobile Technology Weblog: If you are having a hard time copying notes on a whiteboard during a business meeting or handwritten notes of your classmates, it's about time you consider using Qipit.

It is a free mobile online copy service which empowers you to copy any documents using your camera phone and convert it to PDF. You can also share it to other people as an e-mail attachment or fax. No need to strain your fingers from copying grotesque handwritings or photocopying small documents. More importantly, it gives you the power to capture information as quickly as possible.

Qipit Captures Images with Your Camera Phone and Converts it to PDF [The Mobile Technology Weblog]

Mobile Weblog: Sending SMS or MMS during holidays is one way to show our affection to our dear family and friends without spending too much. Now, you can customize your greetings with Cellyspace.com

It has launched a do-it-yourself, web-based Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) called "MMS Composer" for users to upload photos or music, edit them to create a unique greeting card, and send them to their family and friend's phones. Impress them with your creativity; make them smile or cry with your heartfelt message; and save money from buying printed cards and paying postage. Visit their tutorial page for details.

Creating your own mobile greeting card is free but sending it to your family and friends each costs about $0.20 in the U.S., $0.50 in the U.K., and $0.15 in India (read the country-specific rates).

Create Your Own Mobile Greeting Cards with Cellyspace.com [Mobile Weblog]

PicturePhoning: ClassifEye has developed fingerprint authentication technology which is compatible with most camera phones, to prevent identity theft.

The solution does not require any additional hardware such as fingerprint sensors, USB keys and code generators, making it cost-effective and easy to deploy. A camera phone user simply downloads the ClassifEye software directly to the device. The user then takes a picture of his finger with the phone’s camera. The software authenticates the user’s fingerprint and authorises immediate access to the phone.

ClassifEye technology guards camera phone identity [PicturePhoning]

Ccube: Inspired by Thomas L. Friedman’s best‐selling book, “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty‐first Century”, Ccube was born to provide a solution to today’s #1 Web concern: privacy.

In 2006, founder Mahesh Lalwani leveraged his 15 years of high‐tech architecture experience to develop a social utility to extend opportunities for human interaction and provide a valuable communication tool to keep flattening the boundaries between people.

In October 2007 Ccube launched Communicator Toolbox, a total call solution for every Web user. The complete Toolbox includes four distinct calling tools to serve diverse communication needs, with added benefits. Communicator Toolbox includes: Web Communicator, Call Me Widget, My Keypad, and Virtual Calling Card. The complete Instant Calling (IC) service solution is available in its entirety, free with membership.

Web Communicator - Members find and connect free and privately over the phone to other members in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, the Caribbean Islands, and any number located in a three-digit area code. Calls are free to both members, and both contact numbers always remain hidden. Web Communicator lets members control their voice profile, invitation settings and time-zone sensitive Call Windows™ for controlled and personal connecting on the phone. It’s your own customized phone network!

Call Me Widget - Instead of posting a phone number online, members place a few lines of generated HTML code, (or a link) on any classified, social networking page, blog or business Web site, and enjoy the freedom of guarding their personal phone numbers on the Web. Members are accessible when, where and how they choose, by controlling privacy settings in Web Communicator. There’s never dialing or hidden costs for either person on the call. Owning an (IC) Call Me Widget is like having a free VIP 800 # straight to you, without ever revealing your real phone number!

My Keypad - My Keypad was developed to add additional layers of membership benefits - convenience & cost savings, when you know the phone number you want to call. Used from a member Toolbox, or placed on a widget dashboard, My Keypad does the dialing so members don’t have to. No more wasting cash on expensive plastic cards at the store. My Keypad saves costly mobile minutes & long distance charges by giving you your own free outbound 800 # from any phone!

Virtual Calling Cards - VCC’S are e‐mailed from Toolbox to friends, family or clients when a member wants to share Ccube minutes with anyone who is not a member (and give them the “WOW Factor!”). The card recipient types in their number, and any number they want to call with a three-digit area code. Ccube connects them both on any phone, free of charge. VCC’s serve as promotional tools, online gifts and Web site traffic generators when placed on a homepage. Virtual Calling Cards are like loaning a friend a free cell phone to use how, and when they want!

Ccube

Digital World Tokyo: Glasses and contact lenses are noticeably big business all over Asia, so it’s no surprise to see a Japanese optician combining sales of spectacles with the venerable mobile phone.

Glasses superstore Megane Top (literally, ‘Top Glasses’) has just started a handy service where browsers of the frame selection on their mobile website can go one step further and try them on virtually.

As you might have guessed, this involves the would-be customers taking photos of themselves on the phone and combining them with shots of glasses downloaded from the Megane Top server. Once that’s done, the ‘Mobile Fitting’ service can cycle through frames and slap them over the photo until the cows come home.

Try on new specs from the comfort of your cellphone [Digital World Tokyo]

“Caller tune Advertisement” is all about publishing advertisements as caller tunes on user’s mobile phones, so that the callers will listen to the advertisement until the user picks up the phone. In a nutshell, this idea is all about the mobile users trading their ringtone airtime for monetary benefits, which can be used to publish advertisement.

This concept is all about publishing advertisement as a replacement for caller tunes or in-conjunction with caller tunes in user’s mobile phones. In return, users will get monetary benefits like free recharge coupons, discounts in bills, partial reimbursement of bills, free talk minutes, free value adds like free SMS, etc. These kinds of freebies will attract users to allow users to give up their ring tone airtime to place advertisement. Gaining publisher base will be a challenge. A good publisher base means a huge market potential. The success of this advertisement medium will be determined by the publisher base.

This new business idea is patent-pending and its owner, TarryOnline is looking for interested investors.

Augme.com is now selling T-shirts that can be scanned by a mobile phone. When the phone reads the T-shirt, it will visit the website of the person wearing it

The T-shirts feature a datamatrix barcode, known as a “tag”. Using a mobile phone camera, a person may take a picture of the tag, and software on the mobile phone can read it. The mobile phone then launches a browser and visits the website of the wearer.

The person wearing the T-shirt can choose any website, social networking page, photo, video or music to link the tag to. This includes the ever-popular Facebook and Myspace websites, as well as Augme’s own profiles which are designed with mobile-viewing in mind.

Augme.com

NYTimes.com: Companies like Google scan their e-mail users’ in-boxes to deliver ads related to those messages. Will people be as willing to let a company listen in on their phone conversations to do the same?

Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., is introducing an Internet phone service today that will be supported by advertising related to what people are talking about in their calls. The Web-based phone service is similar to Skype’s online service — consumers plug a headset and a microphone into their computers, dial any phone number and chat away. But unlike Internet phone services that charge by the length of the calls, Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges.

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation. Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking.

A conversation about movies, for example, will elicit movie reviews and ads for new films that the caller will see during the conversation. Pudding Media is working on a way to e-mail the ads and other content to the person on the other end of the call, or to show it on that person’s cellphone screen.

Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads [NYTimes.com]

Reveries.com: A new service that lets you sign up to receive coupons by cellphone is generating “good” results for Virgin Megastores. The service, called Cellfire, is strictly opt-in. You can either go to cellfire.com or else text message Cellfire from your cellphone. You have to disclose your year of birth and home zipcode, but your phone number is not shared with any of the 200 marketers that so far have signed on to use the service to send out coupons.

You cash in simply by showing the your “cellphone screen — where the coupons are displayed — to a cashier at checkout” (eventually it will be possible to email the coupon from the phone to the cash register).

Cellfire.com [Reveries.com]

CNNMoney: Can camera-equipped mobile phones make families healthier? One Canadian company says yes. Quebec-based Myca already has a hit with a service called MyFoodPhone, which lets users snap photos of their daily meals and send them to the company's nutritional analysts.

Myca is a pioneer in what you might call Telemedicine 2.0. It started modestly with MyFoodPhone. For $10 a month, subscribers get biweekly videos via e-mail offering personalized dietary suggestions based on their phone snapshots. Launched in May 2006, it's already landed more than 5,000 customers.

Doctorphone and Babyphone, both still in development, are more ambitious. Both will let subscribers conference with Myca's network of freelance nurses and doctors. Heart rate and temperature data can be transmitted to a patient's electronic medical-record file, and doctor-patient conversations are archived for future reference.

Medicine goes 2.0 [CNNMoney]

MobileCrunch: The famous, and seldom attributed quote “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” probably holds true for most of us. I run into very few professional art critics in my daily grind, but everyone and their brother will tell me why opinion on art is wrong. But in fairness I’m more likely to head to the Arms and Armor Gallery at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art than just about anyplace else. And I’ve never been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, because it sounded a tad… boring.

But today I found out what I was missing. I didn’t visit the museum or even their Web site, but rather heard about the launch of the MFA Mobile program, which is the first of its kind in the United States. It was developed by communications agency Hill Holliday and allows users to wirelessly download museum masterpieces to their mobile handsets. Want a Claude Monet water lily or Egyptian sculpture in the palm of your hands, now you can get it!

A single wallpaper is priced at $1.99, while users may also choose an MFA Mobile subscription for $4.99 a month, which includes up to five wallpapers a month, plus the option to choose a bonus special wallpaper of the month.

Mobile Art Museum [MobileCrunch]

BBC News: The UK's big five mobile phone firms have switched on a payment system that turns handsets into digital wallets. Called PayForIt, the scheme is designed for those buying goods and services with a value of up to £10.

The industry hopes it will be used to pay for ringtones, train tickets, parking fees and eventually as a payment system on web shops and sites. Any cash spent via the scheme will automatically be added on to a customer's phone bill. The scheme standardises the way phones can be used to make payments so the process is the same no matter which operator a customer has signed up for or which handset they are using.

Mobiles to become digital wallets [BBC News]

Cellular News: A record label is launching a service that enables music fans to get information about music, simply by taking a photo of the CD case and sending it via MMS to their server.

MMS & Buy is about impulse purchase through picture taking: You are looking at a CD in the store or passing by a promo poster. Aim your mobile, send the picture as MMS, immediately get ringtones, video clips, concert tickets and further information about the music.

The company says that the service is based on image recognition engine initially developed by DSPV, and supports recognition of printed and electronic media, TV/ LCD screens, CD/DVD covers, Posters and T-Shirts

Cameraphone and MMS Combine to Offer Music Information [Cellular News]

TrendCentral: Even more so than in the U.S., people in Japan are overwhelmingly addicted to text messaging, mainly because making private cell phone calls in public is considered extremely rude. However, overcrowded public spaces such as the subway are not always the most private, so it has become common practice to use stick-on cell phone privacy screens which are thin, tinted plastic screens (similar to iPod protectors) that make it impossible to read a cell phone screen from any angle but straight on.

Cell Phone Privacy Screens [TrendCentral]

TrendCentral: Atlantic Records has partnered with Hook Mobile to create mobile SMS-based trading cards featuring music artists from the label. Fans will purchase the cards via text and just like the old school tangible baseball cards that we all remember, cards will be distributed at random and some will be rarer than others. Collectors can hold onto their cards (which will be stored both on users’ phones and online), trade them or redeem them for prizes. To promote his recently released album T.I. vs. T.I.P, chart topping artist T.I. will be featured on the first set of 45 cards.

Atlantic Records SMS Trading Cards [TrendCentral]

TrendWatching.com: The main attraction at Booseytones is its wide range of less pedestrian ringtones. Being the world's largest publisher of classical music, Boosey & Hawkes can draw from an immense catalogue of music by such distinguished 20th century composers as Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Britten, Adams and Reich. Previous centuries are represented by a host of venerable composers, from Handel to Tchaikovsky. After replacing Nokia's Gran Vals with a truetone version of Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine, dedicated followers of classical music (read: boomers) will also be pleased to swap standard cellphone wallpapers with a photograph of a pensive Prokofiev, or an engraving of Mozart's dapper silhouette. The company now has local sites for the US, UK and Germany. Which leaves plenty of space for expansion and competition.

Booming Business [TrendWatching.com]

Springwise: Commuters, students and others who rely heavily on mobile devices but may often find themselves with time on their hands can now tap into a free online source for stories, essays, jokes and other text files that can be downloaded to their mobiles, read at their convenience and then sent to others via SMS. Wattpad operates much like YouTube, with users supplying files to share with one another.

To get started, all customers need are compatible devices and data plans, and they can download Wattpad directly through their mobile Internet browsers at no charge—the site is financed by advertising dollars. Community members can share just about any type of text files—short stories, news articles, study notes, movie reviews—anything, provided they have the appropriate copyrights. They can even upload shopping lists, driving directions or reminders (though they should bear in mind that these files are accessible to the entire Wattpad community!). Top 3 this week: an essay by Albert Einstein, a dialogue-only short story by science fiction writer Terry Bisson, and quotes from The Simpsons.

Sharing Content On Cellphones [Springwise]

StartupJournal: Alex Gurevich loves to log on to YouTube to watch music videos and comedy sketches on breaks from work. But the 24-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco fretted that he couldn't take the fun with him on his cellphone. Mr. Gurevich assumed that signing up for a mobile video service would require a "superexpensive" phone and more than $20 extra a month in fees.

So he was surprised to find in January a free new mobile video service -- called MyWaves -- that works with his basic Motorola Razr. Now he is glued to it, regularly attempting to amuse his friends with stand-up comedy clips and other videos he has transferred to his phone. "Why would I sign up for another service if I can get this for free?" he says.

MyWaves Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., is one of a flurry of start-ups offering new ways to access Internet videos on cellphones, hoping to overcome barriers that have prevented mobile video from taking off in the past.

Calling All Videos: New Cellphone Services [StartupJournal]

TrendCentral: Created by the location-based service Yojo Mobile, this new web service MizPee sends a list of the closest and cleanest bathrooms straight to users’ mobile phones. Bathroom ratings are user generated and users can also search for amenities such as handicap accessibility and diaper-changing stations (perfect for moms!). The service is free but users have the option to access promotional deals for nearby businesses. Currently available in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., Boston, and Chicago, Mizpee is expected to expand internationally to London, Paris and Beijing. We can think of quite a few moments when this service would have been priceless!

MizPee [TrendCentral]

Springwise: T-shirts have long been conversation starters, letting their wearers express bold political views, support their favourite artist or display their quirky sense of humour. Reactee takes the interaction to another level by harnessing the power of text messaging, creating t-shirts that "text back".

How it works? A customer picks a personal slogan and a unique keyword, which Reactee prints on an American Apparel t-shirt. The user gets the t-shirt and flaunts it. Anyone interested in knowing more about the slogan or its wearer can text the keyword to 41411, and will get an immediate response as set by the wearer, who also receives a copy of the message including the sender's cellphone number. The response can be updated as often as the user likes, either at reactee.com or on the fly by cellphone. The shirts cost USD 20-27 depending on size and colour, and texting only works with US phones.

Reactee users include individuals who want to connect others to a cause they're passionate about, or who simply want to ignite a response from potential admirers ("Am I hot?"). On a broader scale, organizations like the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas and YouthNoise are using the t-shirts to connect to supporters, as does MC Hammer (who's working on a comeback).

Dialogue T-shirts[Springwise]

Mobile Digest: Following on from Orange's new pre-pay tariff yesterday, 3 has announced a new pricing structure for its Pay As You Go customers, with calls now from 5p per minute - the cheapest any network any time call rate available from any UK mobile network, according to the company.

3’s Pay As You Go Top-ups are also now available in a wider range of
denominations - £10, £15, £20, £25, £30,£40 and £50 - and with no expiry dates. And customers can convert Top-ups to an Add-on. Voice Add-ons reduce the cost of calls per minute to any network from 30p to 5p and text Add-ons can reduce the cost of texts from 10p to 5p each. You can also surf the net for £1 per day and access seven TV channels for £2.

Pay As You Go users can convert Top-ups to Add-ons by going to My3 on their handset or dialling 444. John Penberthy-Smith, marketing director at 3, commented: “3’s Pay As You Go tariff demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering the cheapest deals on the market for our customers.”

3 offers Pay As You Go from 5p per minute [Mobile Digest]

The New York Times: Impulse shoppers, watch out. Your cellphone might soon get you into trouble. A company called ShopText has introduced a system that lets people buy products instantly using text messages, a process that eliminates the need to go to a store or even visit a Web site. For instance, a woman seeing an ad for a pocketbook in a magazine can order it on the spot simply by sending the text code found beside the item through her cellphone.

Consumers can already use text messages to buy some products. Ads for the new CD by singer Tim McGraw carry a texting code, as do magazine writeups for the new Harry Potter novel coming this summer. Some concert halls are selling tickets by text message, and some charities are taking donations that way.

CosmoGirl magazine will feature text-message codes throughout its June/July issue, both in the advertising and editorial pages. And Stuff magazine is introducing text-to-buy on products like CDs, DVDs and video games featured in its pages.

At the center of the technology is ShopText, a small company in New York that takes the orders, charges the consumer’s credit card and ships out the merchandise. To use the system, a consumer must first place a phone call to ShopText to set up an account, specifying a shipping address and card account. After that, all purchases can be made by thumb.

When ShopText receives text messages about donations or products, it charges the credit card it has on file for the buyer, then, if appropriate, sends the product from one of its warehouses around the country.

New Form of Impulse: Shopping via Text Message [The New York Times]

MobileCrunch: Mobio, which we’ve covered previously, is launching the public beta of its mobile application platform today. They’re pitching themselves as a “lifestyle platform” to consumers, where you can access all kinds of data on the go, such as restaurants, weather, and flight schedules. However, to developers, Mobio is a mashup platform, enabling developers to weave together all kinds of information into a single application.

The Mobio platform is not open to all developers yet, but they have already developed 50 of their own free applications. One example is their movie time search engine, where you can find the closest movie theater, map directions to it, and buy your tickets from within your phone.

Mobio Mobile Mashups Go Beta [MobileCrunch]

Springwise: Sonopia works with Verizon to handle calls and data transfer, and lets anyone from a rock band to a church group set up their own mobile network brand. In return, the mini carrier will receive 3-8% of revenues generated by the customers they sign up. Brands create their own calling plans, get a co-branded website and are able to send their members messages about the latest news or special events.

Organizations that have already set up a Sonopia MVNO include the National Wildlife Fund, the American Medical Student Association and the Long Island Ducks (minor-league baseball). Someone also started a San Francisco Foodies group and the LonelyGirl15 Fan Club.

Since Sonopia doesn’t charge set-up costs, there’s nothing stopping you from setting up your own mobile network today. It might not make you a telecom mogul, but it could provide a nice additional stream of income.

Launch your own mobile network [Springwise]