– Verizon Wireless has rolled out a live neighborhood weather service, offering the information via text message, the Get It Now store, on V CAST Video and through Mobile Web 2.0. The service is run by Weatherbug (now the exclusive weather partner), and there’s no note on how much it will cost, but Verizon will also offer Weatherbug’s severe weather warning services to enterprise customers — and also use it for its own field personnel. Update: An e-mail from the company suggests that it will be ad-supported, and there is a revenue-sharing deal between the two companies. (release)
— The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is launching a masterpiece mobile wallpaper service, which it claims is the first of its kind in the U.S. Users will be able to buy one-off wallpaper to personalize their phones for $1.99, or subscribe to a monthly service for $4.99 for five wallpapers. The database currently only has 50 works of art but the MFA says this will grow over time.
— GoMobo has launched, it basically allows you to create preset orders for local restaurants and order from your phone via SMS. “Affiliates of such national brands as Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway, Quiznos, Papa John’s, Popeye’s as well as other local restaurant chains have become GoMobo-enabled vendors, with many more to come.” It’s basically a way to jump the line for places you go to often. (Via MediaBistro)
— Textango.com has launched a service in the US and 30 other countries that sells independent music via SMS. Customers are billed on their mobile phones (which allows impulse buying) and the content is later downloaded from the site. Textango claims to give musicians 50-54 percent of an albums retail price while keeping 4 percent for itself, bringing in additional revenue by selling ad keywords and the premium text messages (which means the songs cost more than the labeled price? Not sure…) The songs go for 99c and are DRM free. (Harmony Central via MediaBistro)
— Finnish start-up Floobs is setting up a service to allow people to broadcast a “tv channel” from their mobile phones, reports Red Herring. The channels are via the net, of course, and Floobs plans to generate revenue by charging users for professional broadcasting tools and selling advertising space.
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