New mobile voice services on their way

Tellme (www.tellme.com) founder Mike McCue is leaving Tellme, which he founded in 1999. Tellme was acquired by Microsoft in 2007 and is becoming increasingly integrated into Microsoft. Tellme recently announced that it will offer the first mobile voice service to combine content and communications, simplifying how people interact with their phones every day. Tellme says it is the first to allow people to press one button, say what they want and get it, whether that is to send a text, make a call or search for information. Tellme has designed a unique version of this experience specifically for Windows phones due out this fall.

Tellme says that the new service puts many of the most popular phone functions behind a single button. Windows phone users just press the side button of their phone to:

* Send a text by saying "text" to open a text box, then speak the text message and say "send" to send it to anyone in their contact list;
* Initiate a call simply by saying "call" and then the name of anyone in their contact list;
* Search the Web with Microsoft Live Search by speaking your request, such as "weather in San Francisco, California", "Pizza in Kansas City" or "Mother's Day gift ideas."

Datamonitor (www.datamonitor.com) predicts, separately, that the global market for advanced speech recognition (ASR) in mobile handsets will increase from $32.7 million in 2009 to $99.6 million in 2014. Datamonitor predicts ASR in-vehicle telematics will grow at a similar rate, from $64.3 million in 2009 to 208.2 million by 2014.
-Stuart Whitaker

TWEETMART

Tweetmart.com (www.tweetmart.com), started in January, is a Twitter classified service. Users "list an item online," and Tweetmart sends tweets to all your friends (we tweeted Tweetmart to find out whether "friends" means followers, followees, or both, but haven't been retweeted). Items remain active for seven days. "Post a job" lists jobs for thirty days. Users can resend posts at will.-Stuart Whitaker

US Mobile Giving Space Heats Up

Guide by Cell (www.guidebycell.com) announced that it has become one of Mobile Giving Foundation's (MGF) (www.mobilegiving.com) approved application providers. MGF administers mobile giving for major US phone companies.

According to MGF Chairman and CEO Jim Manis, Guide by Cell is the US leading provider of mobile solutions to the museum and cultural nonprofit community. The Guide by Cell program, which will operate through a new Give by Cell division, allows participants to make on-the-spot donations. Guide by Cell also offers audio tours, mobile advertising, training, and a mobile platform. To make a donation, the donor sends a text message to a short code provided by Give by Cell, referencing the nonprofit's name. The donor receives a confirmation message and will see the donation charge on a subsequent phone bill.

MGF is a tax-exempt non-profit (501[c][3]) organization headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, founded in 2006 by Jim Manis and Jenifer Snyder. Other MGF application providers include Distributive Networks (www.distributivenetworks.com), mGive (www.mGive.com), Mobile Commons (www.mcommons.com), MobileCause (www.mobilecause.com), and Wireless Factory (www.wirelessfactory.com). Mobile carriers collect and forward the donated funds for free.

Some mobile giving campaigns are being aggressively promoted with high-profile advertising. The United Way took a ten second ad (www.youtube.com/watch?v=b38idebP4ag) during the 2008 Super Bowl, urging viewers to text "FIT" to 864833 (UNITED) to donate $ 5.00 to United Way Youth Fitness.



Actress Jessica Biel shot a one minute video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxrR-8sDgQU) in conjunction with Major League Baseball urging viewers to text STAND to 40202 to "Stand up to cancer" (www.standup2cancer.org).

-Stuart Whitaker