Some months ago, Twitter removed its SMS based service in Canada, citing high costs. Now the service is back on Bell, but will cost users 15 cents per message, sent or recieved, regardless of whether one has an unlimited SMS package with Bell.

A spokesperson for Bell Canada said Twitter is considered a “premium” third-party service, so it’s not covered under its plans.

Twitter is an online service that lets people communicate in 140-character status updates and subscribe to the “tweets” of other members. Many people subscribe to hundreds of other members, which can result in hefty text-message fees.[Ottawa Citizen]

Of course, there are a number of ways around this with the right application, without breaking the bank or any agreement with Bell. If you're a Bell customer with a non-smart phone (also applicable to the HTC Touch and Samsung Instinct), you can get their cheapo $10/month 'Mobile Internet' package, which offers unlimited data to your phone, then hunt down a data-based Twitter app for your phone.

Personally, I'm using PockeTwit for Windows Mobile, and can vouch that it's a great free app that doesn't hook into the wallet violating Canadian SMS network.

You can find a comprehensive list of mobile Twitter apps here, although some may make use of SMS, so double check each before installing.

Posted via rgbFilter

First saw this link posted by warrenellis over at Twitter...

The best horror-musical since Evil Dead: The Musical. The video was made by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS) over at cthulhulives.org/, a site that any Cthulhu fan can appreciate. The HPLHS also released a film adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Call Of Cthulhu" a couple of years ago, which I'd highly recommend.

I've already posted on rgbFilter about the graphics power of Nvidia's long awaited Tegra platform that should appear on both Google's Android and Windows Mobile in the not to distant future. Beyond processing power, there were some new interfaces demoed at Mobile World Congress in 2009 worth highlighting.

Stantum demonstrated their new multi-touch technology, but what makes it different is that it's using resistive touch screens, as found in many current mobile phones, GPS units and more.

The TouchPark software solution allows for an unlimited number of touch points, accepts stylus, finger or even a paintbrush as an input device and most importantly, has pressure sensitivity. In a video captured by Engadget, a Stantum representative states that their technology can work with current resistive touch screens, and that the TouchPark framework also has 'sub-pixel' resolution, meaning that the accuracy is more refined than the pixel resolution of the screen.

(Video originally recorded by engadget)

Also on display were some new interface designs by TAT (The Astonishing Tribe). First up is a consumer friendly interface dubbed the "Foldout UI"...

Then there's an example of an interface that makes use of eye tracking and tilting to provide a virtual 3D experience. As TAT mentions in their description...

Imagine tilting your mobile so you can look around corners and behind objects in the GUI to access additional information. Imagine layered GUIs where pop-up windows really pop up.

There'll be no shortage of processers able to handle these types of interfaces, either. The Foldout UI was running on the Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor (the same processor found in the soon to be released Palm Pre), and Qualcomm has hit the 'high speed' mark with it's 1GHz Snapdragon, currently in the Toshiba TG01 mobile phone.

[posted via rgbFilter]

Labels: interface, mobile, tech, video

Stantum's TouchPark demo (includes video) shows a standard resistive touchscreen handling multitouch, pressure sensitivity and much more. Now THIS is a technology I'm looking forward to!

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