From the category archives:
A Hungarian mobile operator has developed a heart rate monitor to check the heart rate of babies in the womb. The technology, developed by the Pannon network, makes use of GPRS to send data back to a medical centre for analysis.
The device is based on GSM radio and sends compressed data over GPRS. Data can be viewed on special mobile phones carried by doctors as well as in hospitals.
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Tex2 is becoming quite popular and we decided that it deserved a look to see exactly how it works. If you haven’t heard of Tex2 yet it’s a Java application that allows you to send SMS messages using a GPRS connection rather than via your mobile phone network provider. This means you don’t have to pay the standard charges - Tex2 are claiming you could send 20 messages using its service for the price of 1 standard SMS.
From the Tex2 website:
Tex2 is a simple programme that sits on your phone. It’s free and lets you swap messages with anyone who’s got Tex2 for a fraction of the cost of a traditional SMS.
Tex2 means you can exchange around 20 messages with your mates for the price of one SMS sent the old fashioned way. Tex2 requires that you have GPRS enabled on your phone and that you can use your phone to browse the web. If in doubt, Call your network to check.
The Tex2 website is nice and simple, something a lot of the larger companies could learn from. Within 20 seconds I had jumped past all the “About Tex2″ stuff and was entering my mobile phone number into the site. It accepts a UK number by default but you can add international numbers with the appropriate dialling code. Within 3 seconds of submitting my number my Sony Ericsson W800i beeps with a new text message asking if I want to download the 77Kb application. Once you have accepted the terms and conditions Tex2 asks for your first name, last name, a PIN and your mobile number (maybe it should be able to auto detect this?) to create your account.
The drawback of this service is that you can only use it to send messages to other Tex2 users. This is helped by the fact you can invite new users by entering their mobile phone number and sending them the application. It would be useful to somehow integrate this feature with the contacts already saved in your phone - I could only invite the one person whose number I could remember.
Once you know a second person with a Tex2 account you can start to send messages. This is quick and easy to do and isn’t really much different to sending a standard text. You simply open up the application and click “New message” and start typing. Some users may be able to configure the Tex2 Java application as a softkey to make it easier to access which will help a lot I expect.
Overall I am very impressed with the service - I was up and running within 5 minutes with no problems at all. Tex2 seems to have set up a great service and it will be interesting to see how it takes off. If this was integrated more closely with the operating system of the phone then it would be a definite rival to the SMS system.
More information: www.tex2me.com
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Many customers of O2 have been taking advantage of an offer to surf the internet for free over a GPRS connection. Earlier this year O2 withdrew the offer and started charging for the service.
Although O2 sent text messages to all its customers informing them that the offer has ended some apparently did not receive the message and have been left with telephone bills of up to £1000. Customers believe that important announcements like this should be made by post as well as text message and there should be a warning system in place to detect users who are running up large bills.
O2 were under fire recently over another accouncement (again sent by text message) to turn off a large number of old mobile phones.
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