Thinking that some little stories might have a lasting character to them, i decided to post a link to the following post on SmartMobs even after having held onto it for a little over 4 months.

Read it in full here. Even though both reviews, including the one review on Gizmondo had a smily written between the lines, this Japanese service did make me wonder what chances a similar one might have here in Australia. There is an ever growing obesity problem here in Australia, something I would have never thought of before coming here in 2006. A quick Google search reveals numerous services and websites dedicated to helping you loose weight. But what about ones that are focused on educating Australians how to not gain fat? Shouldn't insurance company down-under also love a concept similar to what we read happens in Japan, maybe with a spiffy website in addition to the phone service to help people make their own choices?

Personal Tech - technology news and reviews from The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online

Essential quotes: 

"DoCoMo’s forthcoming launch of the world’s first mobile handset with a built-in credit card chip"

...

"The move exploits the growing popularity of DoCoMo’s range of “e-wallet” handsets that allow the phones to be charged-up with pre-paid cash, waved over a contactless reader and used for a range of purchases in shops and restaurants. More than 11 million customers are regular users."

So if I understand well, one would swap one's phone over specific readers (JP only) just like with a normal credit card and voila !

The extension to other credit card issuer such as JCB will come in a 2nd phase that would broaden the usage quite some.

I somehow stumbled over this article ,Gates  says mobile  will become digital wallet, which after all doesn't say much about Gates vision on m-commerce. So why did it catch my eyes? Well it reminded me of my own thoughts on the topic. I recalled vaguely having drafting something down about Yahoo! and mobiles at a time B and I were brainstorming on that particular subject.

So I dug into my old sent emails and look what I unearth! It smells like a piece of history ;-) (sent on 24 August 2005) :

"How to leverage the power of Yahoo ID:
with it you can already access your yahoo email (if you use it), your
yahoo groups, your my-yahoo page, your yahoo messenger , your Flick-R
account...
Great ... but it could be extended further... a lot farther...
for instance :
* Google is about to launch a new payment system online 'a la' paypal
... why not counter-attack and offer a wallet attached to your
YahooID?
* extend partnership agreement with other online subscription services
to allow subscription by mean of Yahoo ID ( a la Flick-r
www.flickr.com )
* and open-up gateway to ... m-commerce

- m-commerce:
What is really becoming a killer is payment using your cell-phone and
all kind of transaction, aka m-commerce, see this article:
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/08/21/japans_m-comme.html
Again yahoo initial business was to be the most famous web portal ,
why not transfer that onto the mobile world
and somehow attached Yahoo ID to a m-ID allowing transaction through
your mobile ?
look at that : http://www.op3.com/en/technology/shotcodes "

Smart Mobs: Location-aware, open-source, Blobject cars in Cordoba

What is it about?
Gems (made by Daimler Chrysler) are small, environment friendly, electrical vehicules, perfect for the kind of business this guy in Cordoba (Spain) started. He launched a tourist car rental business in the city of Cordoba and his park is 100% base on Gems. However an enhanced kind of GEMS which come with an onboard computer system with a touch screen, onto which you can plug a USB flash key with local infomation in French, English or Spanish.
Everytime you then drive by a landmarked spot you would receive all the details about it thanks to that open-source, GPS enabled, system in your vehicule. The car + this system constitute a Blobject also the name ot the company.

I especially dig this quote from the inventor and creator of Blobject:
"With proprietary software, innovation comes from the people in marketing,
...
But with open source, innovation comes from the guy who is really in the market. It comes from someone who knows the city."

That is the spirit!

Wireless Wonders: Street logos...

I especially like the Grafedia idea.
I can imagine Mobile games where gamers could actually interact and play in real life, with the city streets as a playground. Hey let's wear our urbanwarriors suits babe! Let's start a graffity based Sherlock Holmes business ;-)

The Street Memes collection is also a refreshing discovery, I'd say for cutting-edge marketing folks...

Smart Mobs: WiFi coverage for Sydney and Melbourne CBD's

Yeah ! Full Wifi coverage across Sydney area !
Can't wait to move there... Take my laptop to the beach, make it my virtual office, pretend a coffee-break while diving into the waves ;-)