... No. Not what you are thinking! Although 90s dance fans might know how the above sentence should be concluded. It goes out to my friend working with vodafone.

I'm subscribed to O2's Internet Pack M since about four weeks - since I had a similar pack before I get it discounted 5EUR/month instead of 10EUR. I'm also subscribed to their Communication Center Pack, which provides e-mail forwarding via MMS or SMS 50 free Web-SMS and a few related services for another 5EUR/month. Today O2 announced, that the features of this pack will be included in a new Internet Pack S - and the old communication center pack's features will be part of all superior Internet packs. So I'll be saving those 5EUR!

I've also subscribed to a new o2 genion s contract through debitel, which provides free call forwarding into the o2 network without a monthly fee. Since I'm subscribed to a Genion L pack on my main contract, with a special rate, I get calls to landlines and into the o2 network for free from anywhere in Germany for 25EUR, I'm also still subscribed to a student rate with 100 free SMS a month.

So starting from June I'll have free calls to o2 and German landlines, 100 free sms, 200MB of data traffic, 50 free web-sms, free e-mail forwarding via sms/mms + reachability under a landline number. For 30EUR/month!!!

Beat this!

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Daily Life at 14:28 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Guess you know that problem, you are searching for a certain song, but it just won't show up in your song database. You are too lazy to fire up Napster, or Napster doesn't lost the song at all. Or you are on the road, and you don't have access to your library at all. Under those circumstances Seeqpod might be of use for you. It is a slim music crawler, which searches all kind of different ressources of the Web for songs. It even works with the Iphone or the Ipod-Touch.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Things to know at 13:15 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

[Trigami-Review]

Ever tried to use video calling on your brand new UMTS phone? Guess most of us will answer that question with a clear “No”. Rates up to 0,99 EUR, while a normal call is priced at 19 cent or is even free (since many of us have flat rates) this feature is still really uninteresting. It also requires UMTS connection enabled – and most us will switch of this feature, since it is power consuming. Well, I don’t want to write a statement on why not to use that feature, but rather point out a possibility on why it might be interesting.

The Berlin base ViiF mobile Video GmbH, which calls there product “your mobile entertainment community”, offers a service which could get you to at least try out the video call feature. There software uses this video call feature as interface to get videos of your phone and into the internet and vice versa. Currently this feature is free for customers using the German O2 network. All that is needed is an UMTS connection and a call to the service number 22557. No special software or data rate needed!
Especially the feature enabling direct vlogging caught my attention – media directly to your personal weblog is the promise you get at the ViiF homepage. Unluckily I’m currently at my parents place in Truppach with no UMTS coverage, so I won’t be able to try this feature before I at least visit Bamberg or Bayreuth. But I’m really curious, whether this vlogging feature will work any good, since I’ve tried to start a kind of mobile vlogging some while ago, but never kept up with it. If the ViiF service produces any reliable quality I might get back on track here Also it will be interesting to see, which kind of Media they will offer in there community. Probably some of me readers in an UMTS area could try the feature and comment a few words about this?

As long as the ViiF manages to keep there call rates low, considered an enabling technology – enabling to distribute and receive content without having to subscribe to expensive data rates, and without having to tweak your mobile phone too much. With all those mobile carriers still trying to get back the billions they invested in UMTS licenses and their UMTS network, I really hope this can be done, our mobile market needs such innovations - at decent prices, though! I’ve subscribed to the ViiF-Blog and will be watching their progress. Also expect me trying this vlogging feature soon.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Media at 17:25 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

I had a smooth journey to the festival grounds. Since I managed to get an Austrian cellphone card I'm reachable under +4369911349637 at the moment. Unluckily, despite my understanding I only got a press accreditation for the event and no foto accreditation - so I'm not allowed to take my DSLR camera with me. Hopefully my new cellphone will provide some useful snapshots..

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in mobile at 21:31 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

In preparation for my visit to the Southside Festival I've added a new feature to my blog. Using serendipity's popfetcher-plugin and the O2-MMS-to-E-Mail feature I'm now able to send blog postings directly from my Sony-Ericsson mobile!

With this feature I'll be able to blog my experiences live from the festival! Those entries will be filed under the newly added category "mobile". I'm currently struggeling a little bit with the parsing script, which allows me to post only the picture attachement, and now text.. But I'm faithful that I'll get that thing fully running until Friday

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in mobile, Web-Site at 19:26 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)