Mobile Internet for Dummies (ISBN - 0470239530)

314 Pages·2021·9.62 MB·English

Michael J.O’Farrell

John R.Levine
Jostein Algroy
James Pearce

Daniel Appelquist

Mobile Internet

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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Michael J.O’Farrell

John R.Levine
Jostein Algroy
James Pearce

Daniel Appelquist

Mobile Internet

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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Mobile Internet For Dummies®

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the Authors

Michael J. O’Farrell started his mobile Internet career in the early 1990s,
by pioneering the development of text messaging, mobile-phone-based
applications, and the mobile Web to reach mass market audiences globally.
In addition to consulting companies on how to capitalize on the power of
the mobile Internet, he is vice chairman of ooober and chair of the dotMobi
Advisory Group. Michael wrote this book to help his friends, family, wife, and
two children in Toronto better understand his addiction to all things mobile.

John R. Levine wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a computer
somewhat less powerful than your typical modern digital wristwatch, only
more difficult to use). Although John used to spend most of his time writing
software, now he mostly writes books (including Internet For Dummies, pub-
lished by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) because it’s more fun and he can do so at
home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, New York, where in his spare time
he was the mayor for several years.

Jostein Algroy is senior advisor for the government of Ontario, Canada.
He has been active in the mobile space for more than 15 years as an inter-
national consumer market strategist and published journalist. Jostein has
taught international business, strategy, new product development, and
design at Copenhagen Business School. He also works with photography,
having achieved awards and recognition for his art, and looks forward to
the day when mobile phones are equipped with high-quality, 8-megapixel
cameras.

James Pearce is the chief technology officer at dotMobi. He has the
mobile Web in his veins, having worked previously at Argogroup and
AnywhereYouGo and as the founder of the “old school” mobile blog
WAPtastic. Variously a management consultant, a teacher, an orienteer,
and an Oxford University physicist by training, James has declared every
year since 1997 to be the Year of the Mobile Web. For the sake of his wife
and two children, with whom he lives happily in Dublin, we hope he’s
finally right.

Daniel Appelquist is an American expatriate and a dot-com refugee living in
London, England, where he works as a technology strategist for Vodafone, a
company he represents in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where he
chairs the Mobile Web Best Practices working group. He is an evangelist for
mobile Web topics, a published author, a frequent speaker, and a co-founder
of Mobile Monday London and the Mobile 2.0 conferences. You can usually
catch Dan mobile blogging while hanging out with his wife and two kids.

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About the Contributor

Michael Becker is executive vice president of business development at
iLoop Mobile. Additionally, he is a board member of the Mobile Marketing
Association (MMA) and the dotMobi Advisory Group and is a co-publisher
of the award-winning MMA Journal of Mobile Marketing. He is also finalizing
his doctorate, focusing on the mobile channel. When he comes up for air,
Michael enjoys quiet times at home in San Jose with his wife and two kids —
with his smartphone on Silent mode.

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Authors’ Acknowledgments

Making this book was possible because of the great support we got from our
wives and kids at home — they have been with us all the way. Michael thanks
Christine, Grace, and Matthew. Jostein thanks Eva. Dan thanks Allison, Alex,
and Emily. And, James thanks Jayne, Jex, and Evie. The late nights and early
mornings needed in order to crunch another paragraph or ten e-mails made
all the difference, and we really appreciate the extra time and space you gave
us to get the writing done.

As you can tell from our list of featured co-authors, writing a book about the
mobile Internet isn’t as easy as it might seem. To provide you with the most
comprehensive snapshot of all the mobile Internet has to offer (and to make
it easy for you to understand and enjoy), we got some additional help along
the way. We want to thank Trey Harvin from dotMobi, for saying Yes when we
needed it most; Laura Marriott from the Mobile Marketing Association, for
sending the “Good to go” text message for the book’s glossary contribution;
Russell Buckley from AdMob, for his words of mobile advertising wisdom;
Kathie Legg for her contributions on mobile in politics; and especially
Michael Becker at iLoop Mobile, for the midnight text message saying “How
could I help?” Michael helped us out in a big way with his contribution to a
couple of chapters — so much so that we thought we should give him an
extra bit of credit — because credit is definitely due — as a key contributing
(behind the scenes) co-author.

Finally, our thanks to a few people who helped us get the ball rolling and kept
us moving forward to get this book finished and in your hands. Our special
thanks to Steve, Rebecca, Becky, Jim, Bill, and Neil. And, we thank all the
staff at Wiley and Waterside Productions (and John Levine) for making little
miracles come together for the rookies on the co-author team.

Visit our Web site at http://mifd.mobi — from your computer or mobile
phone — for updates and more information about topics in this book.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger

Executive Editor: Steven Hayes

Copy Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Technical Editor: James Kelly

Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katherine Key

Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis,
Christine Williams

Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Laura L. Bowman,
Melissa Bronnenberg, David Faust,
Jessica Kramer

Indexer: WordCo Indexing Services

Special Help

Barry Childs-Helton, Rebecca Huehls,
Linda Morris, Virginia Sanders

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction .................................................................1

Part I: Welcome to the Mobile Internet...........................7

Chapter 1: What Is the Mobile Internet?..........................................................................9
Chapter 2: The Mobile Internet at School, at Work, and at Play ................................21
Chapter 3: Kids and the Mobile Internet .......................................................................33
Part II: Mobile Internet, Here It Is — Now What?! .......45

Chapter 4: The Internet in Your Pocket: Choosing a Phone and Mobile Browser ...47
Chapter 5: Getting On the Mobile Internet: Wireless Carriers and Service Plans....61
Part III: Mobile Internet Mania
for the Everyday Consumer..........................................71

Chapter 6: Trading Text and Picture Messages............................................................73
Chapter 7: Browsing the Web from the Palm of Your Hand ........................................87
Chapter 8: Mobile Search: Find What You Want, When You Want It........................101
Chapter 9: Multimedia Entertainment for Your Phone..............................................115
Chapter 10: Keep Me Posted: E-Mail and Instant Messaging Go Mobile .................131
Chapter 11: Let’s Make a Mobile Deal: Shopping and Coupons ..............................147
Chapter 12: Mobile Access to Your Money .................................................................157
Part IV: I Want My Own Mobile Internet Space...........167

Chapter 13: Staking Your Claim in the Mobile Internet World..................................169
Chapter 14: Creating Content, Social Networking and Blogging from
Your Mobile Phone ......................................................................................................179
Chapter 15: Building and Developing Mobile Web Sites............................................197
Chapter 16: Making Money on the Mobile Internet....................................................221
Chapter 17: A Mobile Internet Web Development Resource Guide .........................237
Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................257

Chapter 18: Ten Fun Things You Can Do On the Mobile Internet ............................259
Chapter 19: Ten Things to Avoid..................................................................................265
Chapter 20: Ten Frequently Asked Questions ............................................................271
Glossary...................................................................277

Index .......................................................................285

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