Over the past few days there has been increasing furor over a claim made by some "electro-sensitive" folks in Santa Fe that wifi in public buildings violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Because these people are electro-sensitive (and this sensitivity can be to all sorts of electromagnetic fields, in things like cell phones, or microwaves, or, we'd imagine, things like transformer stations and circuit boxes), they can't enter public buildings due to the horrible health effects they experience. These health effects range from chest pains, to leg numbness, to shortness of breath, and headaches.

Is wifi dangerous? Are cell phones dangerous? There is some debate about various cancers that may or may not result from having a cell phone pasted to your ear and your laptop constantly humming on your lap, but most cancers don't immediately cause things like, oh, chest pain, leg numbness, or shortness of breath. The verdict is still out on long term effects at this point anyway, and we take the stance that something is eventually going to kill us. Life is too short to live in constant fear, or without an internet connection.

Panic attacks cause the above symptoms. Generalized anxiety does as well. An "allergic" reaction to wifi? Eh.

We look at it this way. Right now, we're sitting in a residential area about eight miles outside of a major city. Turning on our wireless connection and sniffing around reveals eleven wifi networks in the area. Eleven that we could in theory connect with successfully, if they are unsecured. Eleven that are not blocked by things like walls, or doors, or tinfoil hats. We are not in a business district in a city.

Can you imagine the rogue wifi signals that are shooting around Santa Fe? Do the electro-sensitive people believe that wifi respects physical boundaries, and that walking by a coffee shop or public building with wifi is different than walking into one? If so, would they walk by a coffee shop with wifi while the door was open? Would the wireless, ahem, rush out the open door? Is there any place in the US where you can be in a city, or moderately populated town, and not be in range of some wireless signal?

1. Full access to YouTube in Windows Mobile: Everyone's got a solution for playing YouTube Mobile videos on a Windows Mobile phone, but it seems no one's giving Windows Mobile users a way to access YouTube.com's full, flash video library. Oh wait, there is a solution. It only requires users to install a specific version of TCPMP and the Flash Video Bundle, an add-on to TCPMP to give it the ability to play flash video. Use Pocket IE to navigate to YouTube (a few other flash video sites are also supported). Clicking on a video will open TCPMP to play it. Easy, right?

You could also install Orb on your PC and use the Orb mobile client to find YouTube videos on the go, but that solution requires you to leave your home PC on all the time.

At first, it sounds like a texting nightmare from hell, but RSS via SMS has a place in our world through Web-Alerts, a small web experiment that may get lost in the vast internet desert that is web 2.0 failures. The service sends you a text message for every update to a chosen site's RSS feed.

The service is simple and easy to use. When you first visit the site, it'll ask your to enter a web address. If it finds an RSS feed for your chosen site, it'll ask you to enter your cell phone number. Should any updates happen to your chosen feed, a preview of the update will be forwarded to your phone. Removing a subscription is easy enough. "Just open the link in your text message and choose 'My Alerts' to remove any alert you are subscribed to." Furthermore, you can enter a keyword with your phone number so that you'll only be forwarded updates via SMS when they contain the keyword.

This could be extremely useful for someone closely watching a specific topic such as a stock broker. It could also become extremely annoying if you find yourself answering your phone every ten minutes to stop the latest SMS from incessantly vibrating in your pocket. Our advice: use wisely.

[via The Boy Genius]

With over 1 billion page views from phones using the Opera Mini Web browser, could the Norwegian browser developer be targeting the iPhone next?

Opera was originally built in 1994 to battle against the heavy hitter that Netscape was. Then everything changed as the mobile landscape grew and Opera began focusing on viewing proper HTML documents on handheld devices. Opera Mini basically connects to an Opera server via a cell connection compresses and reformats content distributing it back to the Mini client displaying content that is closer to what can be seen on desktop computers.

With the release of the iPhone and the Safari browser pulling in the "real" web, many mobile web users are starting to demand this type of content on all devices. This gives Opera Mini a great advantage in the lower end cell phone market. Because lower end devices do not have a browser that displays the web like Opera already installed, they are less likely to use the mobile web. Forget spending $300 for a mobile device, if providers jump on Opera Mini there could be an even stronger demand for Opera Mini web browsing solutions on all lower priced phones.

[via informationweek]

Payments by cell phone? Its 2007, we should have had that by now! (as well as flying cars) Not to worry, Google is on it. Apparently the team in Mountain View California does have a patent describing how to make payments via cell phone by texting the sum to a processing server. Person to person transactions can also be made using cash by the integration of Google Checkout into the mix. As it sits now, Google Checkout is not currently accepted in as many places as its rival PayPal is, so unless Google does a little teaming up or offer some hardcore incentives, Gpay could be in trouble. However, at least there is a plan in effect to get those ridiculous wallets out of our pockets to make room for the highly anticipated Gphone.

Given that we do everything else with our mobile phones, it's about time that we demand more user generated content.

Calendars, Email, P2P and VoiP are not enough! Fans of the social networking scene are driving mobile user generated content towards revenue of $6 billion for 2012. It currently sits at a mere $572 million with the skyrocket predicted by Juniper Research in four years. With the abundance of users hooked on social networks all sitting in front of their computers for hours, they see a time when they can easily connect to Facebook type accounts when traveling out and about with a mobile device.

US users are among the highest percentage of mobile social networker's, with over 7 million users. Italy is next in line with 1.3 million, and the UK sits in third place with 1.1 million.

So you have a nice playlist growing in your iTunes library, but what happens when you're out on the road and all you have with you is your mobile phone? nuTsie is here to help.

nuTsie is a music client that streams in your iTunes library. Well, as our friends at EngadgetMobile have pointed out, the nuTsie system actually reads the names of your tracks and matches them to whats on nuTsie's server. With this in mind, your main computer does not have to be left on, and the nuTsie application does not require you to upload music anywhere. All you have to do to get started is upload your iTunes Library.xml file to nuTsie's server under your account.

Performance for this service is said to be pretty good, with extremely good connection speeds. Just watch out when you close your clamshell phone, some have been reported to shut the nuTsie applications right off. The service is free to use during the public beta period, but the list of compatible mobile devices is pretty slim at the moment.

Starting today you, yes you, can be your very own mobile carrier through the company Sonopia. Sonopia allows individuals to create their own calling plans and then sell them to others. Your wireless carrier is just like any other with unique calling plans and allows you to send out messages to your subscribers.

The actual service for Sonopia is farmed out to Verizon and Vodaphone. Sonopia takes care of passing out handsets, sending out monthly bills, and basic customer service. You take care of getting the customers and raking in the cash. A percentage of the monthly revenue generate from your mobile carrier goes directly to you or your organization. If you can pull in enough subscribers you could stand to make a bundle pretty easily.

The build-your-own aspect of Sonopia just launched today. I was able to launch my own Emily Mobile in about 5 minutes complete with calling plans and my own website. It was extreamly easy to set-up, requires no money, and in fact doesn't require you to even subscribe to your own mobile service.

Sonopia has the potential to be great tool for huge organizations and niche topics that people will want to get constant contact about on their cell phone. Unfortunately for Sonopia I feel like an influx of Emily Mobile's are on the way...

Admit it, you're addicted to text-messaging, right? Well someone is, because lately I've been bombarded with ads proclaiming a national epidemic of texting and related fees. Won't someone think of the children! Well maybe someone has, or maybe all this is just silly. Why not send a bunch of text messages for free? I mean, that's what the web is all about, right? Free stuff? As in beer?

Katie over at GigaOM wrote up a neat little roundup of some free SMS tools you can use to send out for free. She points out the usual caveats: these services could be used for nefarious purposes (spam), and often it costs the recipient some cash to get a message. So use it wisely or wind up on some silly national TV ad.

Mobile web making you want to tap-out? Tappity thinks they can help. This free online service lets users check out mobile web pages that are stored in your unique personal mobile Tappity pages. Mobile homepages can be set so that users can search from whatever engine they frequently use, whether it's Google Local, Wikipedia, or Flickr. Since you set your zip code, information will be relevant to your location.

Logging on to Tappity with a mobile device browser gives you a drop down with your pre-set mobile search locations. It's certainly a great time saver having all of your main search locations in one area. Another great feature that makes Tappity worth bookmarking on your device is its list of mobile-capable websites. Its always hard to locate a site that's compatible with mobile devices, and remembering that mobile version of a website can be tough; Tappity has them all listed out for easy visiting.

Get ready for some ads on you mobile device. We knew it was coming back in November when Yahoo! announced that they were testing banner ads on mobile browser based services. U.S. users that accessed mobile web email, finance, news and sports information were the first lucky viewers of these ads. Now Yahoo! has announced that it has signed up advertisers on its mobile advertising network to run ads on mobile phones in 19 countries including Britain, Ireland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This world is run by advertising, so can we expect anything less? I would totally understand the use of mobile advertising to subsidize mobile devices, and monthly carrier fees. But the second you drop it onto my mobile device, it's not going to make me a happy camper, especially since each image I download on my mobile device I have to pay to see in data charges. Yahoo! is taking a leadership stake here, apparently in a race to beat out Google, so expect to see ads from Hilton, Infinity, Intel, Pepsi, and Nissan coming to that mobile device in your pocket soon.

Chad Hurley spoke about his future dreams for YouTube last year: YouTube videos on mobile devices. He hoped that they would have something up and running within a year when he spoke about it in November, and now it looks like the time has finally almost arrived. With a number of deals on the way, Vodafone users in the UK will be seeing a selection of videos that are updated daily that they can forward to friends, and they'll be able to upload videos directly from their phones. Vodafone is moving to really look at what customers are doing, and improve their services accordingly. Being that Europe is on the leading edge of mobile services, it's no wonder why this is one of the first regions to embrace these types of services. YouTube and Verizon did ink a deal in the US last year to build a similar service which The Vodafone service that will be available later this year and will be accessible through Vodafone's Live Web portal, which is currently available on 4.7 million mobile devices in the UK.

In the device arena, Nokia has just dropped the news that users will soon be able to check out YouTube videos with their Nseries devices. The videos will be accessible through Nokia's web browser with Mini Map through a new YouTube mobile site that will be launched. No date has been set for launch yet. The new mobile browser supports single click playback of videos and the popular mobile video AVC format. Alternatively, YouTube video RSS feeds will also be accessible through the Nokia Video Center application, which allows for users to share and view favorite content. With all of this bandwidth-chugging content coming down the pipes, I really hope that carries drop rates and come up with special packages soon.

Today Jajah announced JAJAH Mobile Web, a service made especially for smartphones like the Blackberry, Treo, and Windows Mobile devices. Like Jajah's service that allows for the ability to make free local and international calls with a regular phone, Jajah's mobile service aims to do the same for mobile users. Any device that has internet access with a browser can make free or low-cost calls with a click. As long as you are a Jajah user, you can call other members for no cost, or call for a small fee to non-members. Web consumers can access the service directly from their browsers by visiting mobile.jajah.com. The Mobile Web service then ties into user's address books where calls can be placed. Simply enter the phone number of the individual or scroll down on your address book, and Jajah will make the call. Jajah has a Flickr photo tour so you can better understand the process involved. You can also check out the JAJAH Mobile Web video tour after the jump. Mobile providers watch out!

The New York Times pretty much says it all in its article's lead: "YouTube is coming to mobile phones - or, to be more precise, a small slice of YouTube is coming to some Verizon Wireless phones." The web video giant has struck a deal with Verizon to bring "an unspecified number of videos selected and approved by the companies" to Verizon customers who subscribe to its $15-a-month VCast video streaming service. YouTube's senior director of business development Kelly Liang said, "We'll select content that has the broadest appeal and the highest entertainment value." According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal will also let Verizon cameraphone owners upload video recorded on their phones directly to YouTube.

It's been obvious for awhile now that YouTube needed to get moving on bringing its library to mobile devices, but is this deal too limited in scope? I think if they select the right videos, and enough of them, it could be a success--I've often wanted to show a certain video to friends while away from the computer, and if I could summon them on my phone while at a diner, there would be some value in that (not that my cell phone is actually capable of doing anything so advanced). And being able to upload videos directly from their phones might prove very alluring to videobloggers. But this certainly isn't the deal I was hoping for.

Opera Mini has a reputation as one of the fastest web browsers for java-enabled cell phones. Opera Mini does a great job of rendering web pages in no time flat. Opera Mini 3 adds a few new features to speed up your mobile web browsing even further.

Probably the biggest new feature in Opera Mini 3 is RSS support. You can subscribe through the browser and get updates every time you connect. You can sort articles by source or date.

Other new features:

• Support for photo sharing. You can snap a picture on your camera phone from within the browser, and then upload your photo to a blog or forum. This feature does not work with all camera phones.
• Support for secure connections such as banks or online stores.
• There's a new "content folding" feature which automatically shrinks long menus. That means they take less time to load, and take up less room on your small screen. You can expand a menu by hitting the "+" button next to it.

Opera Mini does have some limitations, since it's a Java based web browser. You can't set it as your default browser, and you can't copy and paste from within the browser to other applications. But you can't argue with the price: free.

[Via jkOnTheRun]