Buoyed by the recent ITU declaration that nobody is technically deploying a 4G network here in the States, T-Mobile recently kicked off a new marketing campaign proclaiming that the carrier has the “largest 4G network.”

One cornerstone of the new campaign is apparently making fun of AT&T’s network, which has seen more than its fair share of criticism the last few years due to performance issues in markets like New York and San Francisco. Recent commercials portray AT&T as a balding, middle aged man weighing down the iPhone 4, and the latest ad in the series airing this week certainly isn’t flattering. AT&T got into a feud with Verizon last year about ads mocking AT&T 3G coverage (they even filed suit), but so far hasn’t had anything to say about T-Mobile’s campaign.

Link to the original article…

Earlier this week, Nokia announced a “big announcement” for folks. And here it is… a bloke wearing a standard fare cardigan, armed with probably comical looks and positions, it seems like Nokia is going to dive deep into the viral marketing pool with… a photo-based comic strip that sings the praises of the oft-maligned (by users) Nokia Ovi Store.

Today, we finally unveil (part of) the mystery.

Starting next Friday (July 30), we’re premiering an original comic series here on the Ovi Blog called “Old School”. We won’t tell you too much more about it, but it’s fun and we hope you love it.

And for those that were guessing, this isn’t a product launch or announcement. It’s just a thank you for everyone who loves Ovi and reads the blog. Share it, like it, comment on it, repost it: we’re looking forward to your reaction!

Here’s my chance to get on my soapbox.

Ok, I know I cannot be the only person that’s looking at the Nokia official blogs hoping that Nokia will finally start to do the things that they have not done in ages; effective marketing in North America. Nokia has gone from being perceived as a top notch handset manufacturer to something that you get when you want a free, subsidized phone on contract. Nokia N-series, largely unpopular with folks that don’t want to do any type of research – face it, most consumers are not willing to read more than a headline, pay more than a dime and learn more than a page of the user manual. Nokia N900, Nokia N97, Nokia N95… rare as hell in the US. Even more rare in Japan, yet another place where Nokia has stopped advertising.

So with the drama surrounding the current CEO, the fact that their stock has gone from ~$40 per share to under ~$9 per share in just two years, Nokia looks like a bust. But they’re not, they still sell millions of handsets and have open-sourced Symbian and have the open-source MeeGo partnership with Intel and the Linux Foundation. In fact, Nokia sells more than the next 2 manufacturers combined still. More than Apple, more than Blackberry. So what’s going on? Y’all can’t get advertising right? And… a friggin’ comic based on an office setting? Office Space came out in 1999, The Office (UK) came out in 2001. Nokia, it’s 2010. You guys can do much better than something so tried, so used up, so boring as an online comic.

“Old School” indeed. Nokia, get a clue.

[ Links: Nokia Ovi Blog ]

As some insiders leaked last week, Verizon yesterday unveiled their new ad campaign from the ad agency (McGarryBowen) that’s been powering their new Droid ads. With the ad campaign comes a new Verizon logo: “Verizon, Rule The Air!” Verizon’s new rebranding comes with a new promise by Verizon that they’ll stop hammering users with bizarre fees, work tirelessly on billing their users accurately, and make it their life’s mission to bring consumers low wireless data prices in line with real-world costs.

Just kidding.

Nothing substantive (pricing, phone lineup, billing) is changing. It’s simply a new ad campaign (though a very nice, CGI heavy one) utilizing a new ad agency and a lot of new slogans (like “the real communications giant is you”). Of course the real goal is to draw attention to the arrival of some fairly sexy new Android-based phones including the Droid X and try to deflate some of the hype surrounding the iPhone 4.

Rumors of an iPhone on Verizon’s network appear to once again be fluff and nonsense, Verizon seems dedicated to the Android platform, and unlike AT&T so far isn’t crippling handsets. One issue they face is that supply constraints (of 3.7-inch AMOLED screens specifically) have resulted in users who ordered the HTC Droid Incredible facing delays in actually getting the device.

Verizon users now tell us that those who have Incredibles back-ordered are being told they can switch their order to the Motorola Droid X and likely get a Droid in their pocket sooner (July 15 for the X, vs. July 28 or later for many Incredible backorders).

Link to the original article…

TuneUp Media, one of my personal favorite software apps out there has only a few, music-centric uses. It cleans up the titles, finds the cover art for you – which helps my typical OCD nature where everything has to be alike, but it also locates local happenings like concerts and now, via their Tuniver.se website, helps you discover new music as well as inform you of other happenings. It’s not a well-known app, but it’s definitely a well-used app with over 1 million users and over 850 million songs “automagically” cleaned through their process. For a company that only recently have had their application added to the brick and mortar Apple Stores, that’s quite an achievement.

Well that, and I stand by my earlier assessment that their software plain rocks.

GOGII has released some numbers for their free text messaging app textPlus that has been released for the wildly popular Apple iPhone, Apple iPad and the Android series of phones by Google. Mobile phones, as widespread as they are also means that you’re fighting for a lot of elbow room alongside a lot of similar function apps. But somehow textPlus has amassed 18 million users and growing.

The textPlus app is free to download for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android phones. The textPlus 60611 short code allows users to text for free in the U.S. and Canada, and its app-to-app texting functionality is free to use worldwide. Over two billion messages have been sent to date within the textPlus network, with volume averaging 16 million messages daily and half a billion each month. Users spend over an hour a day using the app.

Not bad for an app that’s never been advertised outside of the iTunes App Store and a few places online. Again, it’s just a good app that’s done well.

Vonage, perhaps one of the biggest VoIP providers in the US, but nowhere near the size of the of the Ma’ Bell (AT&T) that I grew up with offers a cool feature via their Vonage World Plan called Vonage Visual Voicemail that transcribes your incoming voicemails and sends them to you via e-mail. Such a small feature that’s getting used 4 million times per month and rising.

As a long time Vonage user, I sometimes forget to take my Vonage V-Portal router with me, and that’s when the visual voicemail service comes in handy. Apparently 4 million other users like that convenience too. And again, this is a feature that has only been (by me) advertised on the Internet.

And if you have Vonage – I suggest that you do, the ability to call 50+ countries for free is just plain great – set up your own visual voicemail. Amazingly enough, the transcripts aren’t even bad. It was able to decipher my normally ultra-fast talking mother even!

With all of that said… it goes to show you that software and esoteric features can still be used by millions of users. You don’t have to be a Microsoft, Apple or IBM to get a lot of attention; just be like the aforementioned companies and use the Internet properly and wisely. And honestly… I’m loving that.

[ Links: TuneUp Media, GOGII textPlus, Vonage ]

“But does it play Doom?” Even advertisements don’t escape that question now, it seems.

It appears that a number of advertising billboards in Germany can now play Doom, thanks to the artistic stylings of Herren Mr Talion, Epoxy, Baveux and Kone.

I am looking forward to seeing where they aim the BFG 9000.

Link to the original article…

Whether it breaks the core functionality of the Internet or not, there’s very few ISPs left who aren’t using DNS redirection advertising. The “service” essentially creates an entirely new revenue stream for ISPs, by presenting users with an ad-laden search portal instead of the traditional page not found error when they mistype a URL or enter a non-existent one. Given the money being made by ISPs and operations like OpenDNS, it makes sense that Google today announced they’re jumping into this arena with Google Public DNS.

Like ISPs, Google argues they’re providing an improved “experience,” not simply trying to cash in on clumsy typists:

The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading. This can slow down the browsing experience. Our research has shown that speed matters to Internet users, so over the past several months our engineers have been working to make improvements to our public DNS resolver to make users’ web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable.

At launch Google says they won’t be utilizing behavioral ad redirection, but given Google’s an ad company – it seems unlikely things will stay that way. Google’s initial sales pitch for the service is about performance, privacy, and general network altruism. Google’s also initially promising not to use the data collected for profit. Ultimately though, the idea they’ll leave billions in user tracking and behavioral ad revenue untouched as the project evolves – seems unlikely. More likely is that, unlike ISPs, Google wants to make a valuable consumer DNS service first – and then prop the project up with revenue at a later date.

For broader context, total DNS server meltdowns used to be a regular occurrence for even the biggest ISP a few years back. Each outage acted as an advertisement for OpenDNS, an operation that’s since become very popular among our users. OpenDNS handles 20 million DNS requests a day, has 15 million users, and generates (as of 2008) $20,000 per day off of ads presented after URL errors.

What keeps customers onboard? OpenDNS offers users a slew of network management options, anti-phishing protection, website filters, and (depending on the DNS servers you were using) a faster browsing experience. As ISPs discovered that OpenDNS was eroding a possible revenue stream (redirection portal ads) and doing a better job at running DNS servers then they were, many ISPs rushed to offer DNS redirection systems of their own – with various degrees of success. < Most ISPs were so blinded by the cash, they implemented the service without adding value, tools, or even informing users. A number of ISPs didn't bother to make sure the "opt out" process worked (cough, Embarq) and others didn’t offer “clean” DNS servers for users who didn’t want to participate. When Earthlink was among the first ISPs to use DNS redirection back in 2006, they mistakenly brushed aside the concerns of “ISP geeks” entirely. DSL Extreme had to scrap their system after user complaints.

More recently, we’re starting to see ISPs smarten up and realize that it’s about more than just making a buck off of mistyped URLs. ISPs are now competing with third party DNS operations. Comcast has interestingly been one of the smarter ISPs on this front, implementing DNS redirection, but also offering users value in terms of a new DNS health portal, clean DNS servers and a functional opt-out process — all documented transparently via the RFC process and with an ongoing conversation with our users.

Google of course belatedly wants to hone in this evolving DNS market, just as they do every other ad market. Google’s entry is a warning shot to ISPs who still haven’t beefed up their DNS servers — or those ISPs that are using DNS redirection but doing a crappy job of it. ISPs should have already figured out that offering great DNS servers and useful DNS tools is now a competitive differentiator. With Google’s entry, ISPs who haven’t should be getting a wake up call shortly.

As for OpenDNS, founder David Ulevitch shares his thoughts on Google’s launch over at OpenDNS. Not too surprisingly, he tries to downplay Google’s move as a threat to OpenDNS, even though the threat is undeniable. It’s not clear what else you can say when the Internet’s most powerful company aims its cannons directly at a niche you’ve been quietly cultivating for half a decade. Honestly, it’s a little surprising it took Google this long to identify that the niche is worth targeting.

Users interested in using Google’s new DNS system can head here for instructions and technical specifics.

Link to the original article…

[ Related: Introducing Google Public DNS ]

Last week AT&T tried their best to get Verizon’s new ad campaign shuttered. The series of ads poke fun at AT&T’s lackluster 3G coverage and network performance, something AT&T didn’t find amusing. Verizon has now filed their 53 page legal retort (warning: PDF document) to AT&T’s complaint, which as you’d expect argues that illustrating AT&T’s network limitations is a perfectly fair form of advertising. On page seven sits this gem: “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon s ‘There s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon s ads are true and the truth hurts.” As for AT&T’s claim that the maps used to highlight AT&T’s 3G coverage are unfair? “AT&T does not like the truthful picture painted by that comparison,” says Verizon.

Link to the original article…

Here’s a cool concept, turning manhole covers into a street-level navigation system that can direct visitors around a new city.

I must admit, when I first saw the shots of the Map Hole concept I thought it was a cute idea but one that would probably never happen. The issue is one of convenience and cost, man holes come in a uniform shape and size for a very good reason, it makes them easy to place and if need be, replace.

However, when advertising is incorporated into the plan, which it has been, it becomes possible to not only make the manhole covers pay for themselves, but also turn a profit. Nice, as long as your manholes aren’t out in the middle of the street.

Link to the original article…

Comcast will leave decisions about commercial placement for its version in the hands of programmers, according to Matt Strauss, the operator’s senior vice president of new media. “I don’t know what the right model ultimately is going to be,” he said. “Our job is to provide the infrastructure to allow the programmer to decide” how to place ads.

Of course should Comcast’s deal with NBC go through, they will effectively be broadcasters, which means they should probably have an idea of what kind of ad model they’d like to see the broadband video service employ — right? The entire idea of TV Everywhere was to keep customers from cutting the cord. However, if TV Everywhere is a clunky, unskippable ad-laden mess with limited selection and bickering content and delivery partners — the initiative could have the opposite effect of the one intended.

Link to the original article…