MobiK lets you send free SMS messages from your PC or your mobile to your friends. In addition it also lets you earn “K dollars” for every friend that you refer. You can exchange your K dollars for mobile services and a huge range of really cool mobile phones, music players etc.
The signup process is pretty simple and involves sending a verification code to your mobile phone. Once you complete the initial signup process your account has 100 K dollars by default. Then you can download the application to your mobile phone and use it to send SMS to your friends. In order to send SMS from your mobile phone , you need have a mobile phone which supports Java. A really nice thing is that your friends need not have the application installed on their cell phones in order to receive messages sent by you.
Every time you invite a new friend, MobiK gives you an additional 100K. Inviting friends is easy too, simple import your friends from the several social networking/email sites which they support and send an email invite. Future plans include surveys and contests, which bring in more K dollars to your account.
So what does MobiK get out of this? MobiK earns its revenue from small ads delivered along with the SMS message that you send. So if you don’t mind those, you can have a real fun time and save a lot of money too.
You can register for a MobiK account here.
MobiK - Free SMS from your PC or mobile phone
Zone Tag = Flickr + location tagging!
Zone Tag is a freeware, location aware mobile application from Yahoo! Research Berkeley which provides seamless Flickr integration and location tagging. You don't need a GPS enabled cell phone in order to use Zone Tag, it identifies the location based on the cell tower your phone is connected to. If you do have GPS then it can be setup to use the GPS coordinates too! Cool! Alternately you can explicitly specify the location under "options" in case you are at a location where no Zone Tag user has been before.
Zone Tag not only suggests tags which are suitable based on the current location but also provides a way to set the privacy level for each photo. In order to use Zone Tag, you need a compatible Motorola/Nokia phone, a Flickr, Yahoo and Zone Tag account and a suitable data plan. Phew! Thats a big list!
In addition Yahoo! Research Berkeley has also developed Zurfer, which shows you photos taken around you and exposes interesting 'local highlights'. Zurfer also gives access to the latest photos from your Flickr friends and allows you to follow recent comments on your photos.
There are quite a few different applications which provide such facilities but Zone Tag and Zurfer seem to be nice applications. For details on the other applications, keep watching this blog :)
Download here zonetag.research.yahoo.com.
Fring - Free voice calls and more...
Fring is a really cool mobile VOIP application which lets you make voice calls, exchange instant messages and get real time presence information about friends, wherever you are.
It currently supports messaging and making calls to your Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™ , Twitter and fringsters friends! The application setup is pretty simple. Fring supports EDGE, GPRS, 3G and Wifi and the call quality is decent even on EDGE data connections . The application is available for free from the fring site http://www.fring.com/.
Fring does not require any proprietary hardware or airtime, and works with phones purchased through any mobile operator. Fring also supports SkypeOut and hundreds of SIP-based services such as GizmoProject, VoipCheap, VoipStunt, Free World, even from non-SIP enabled handsets, enabling cheap local and international VoIP calls to contacts’ PCs, mobile phones and landline numbers.
Fring claims to use very little data over the network. The one for symbian phones consumes ~8MB for a 60 min mobile-VOIP call with just 0.05KB fring overhead per instant message and and ~10KB per hour connectivity.
