Mobile marketing company want job applications via text

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A Welsh mobile marketing company has advertised a job via Twitter for which it wants interested parties to apply via a single text message. That’s just 160 characters.

The job was advertised by Teimlo’s chief executive Phil Terrett like so:

Text JOB + y it should b u to 82088. 160 characters 2 make an impression! Cost 1 std rate txt, UK only. C teimlo.com

If you are comfortable with working for a company that advertises using text speak then you can reply with a standard text that should explain how you are “qualified, sassy, good with words, dynamite at events, Adobe compatible, have working knowledge of mobile and social media and are a determined multi-tasker and networker”

I’d personally go with: I’m qualified, sassy, brilliant at events, Adobe compatible, have working knowledge of mobile and social media and I am a determined multi-tasker and networker.

What I did was basically copy their requirements word for word. I changed “dynamite” for brilliant because I thought dynamite sounded a bit Alan Partridge-esque and I eliminated “good with words” because there wasn’t space. Plus, by changing “dynamite” I had already demonstrated that I was good with words.

Should applicants be successful, they will be invited to an interview where, hopefully, normal language will be used. If it isn’t, well, ROFLMAO.

(via ITPro)

"Baby Shaker" application pulled from the App Store

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“On a plane, on the bus, in a theatre. Babies are everywhere you don’t want them to be! They’re always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”

Those are the words of app designers Sikilasoft, who have designed an application called ‘Baby Shaker’ that’s just been pulled from the app store after complaints from parenting groups. It’s a surprise that it got through Apple’s rather rigorous approvals procedure.

The app first appeared on the store on Monday, and was withdrawn yesterday after intense criticism. Patrick Donohue, founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, responded: “As the father of a three-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction.”

Apple’s been relaxing its approvals procedure lately, but a scare like this could see them ramp it right back up again. We’ll have to hope that’s not the case.

(via the Guardian)

Apple will sell 1,000,000,000th App Store download on 24th April 2009

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Lovers of large numbers and Apple shareholders will be getting together this Friday to celebrate the App Store’s 1,000,000,000th download. How does Apple know that it’ll hit a million on Friday? Maths and stuff, I assume.

If you change the date on your computer to the 24th April and visit the Apple homepage, then you’ll see a massive graphic saying: “Thanks a billion. Over 1 billion downloads in just nine months.” Or you could earlier, I can’t seem to reproduce it now, so maybe they’ve fixed the exploit that lets users display it.

It does beg the question: “WTF?”. A year ago, mobile apps were a murky world full of incompatibilities and random crashing. Apple has managed to do to the world of mobile applications what it did to MP3 players and arguably the smartphone market. It begs the question of where it’ll turn its attention to next. My guess? Tablet PCs.

(via Geek.com)

Radio Times launches iPhone application

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There are a few things that always feel like ‘home’ for me, and now I think about it, they’re all ridiculously middle-class. Croissants, Radio 4, Earl Gray tea, “Organic” apples and – most of all – a copy of the Radio Times sat on the sofa.

Well, the BBC’s in-house listings magazine has just launched an iPhone application, presumably so that you can feel at home wherever you are. It’s not free – it’ll cost you £1.79, but for extensive and accurate listings, recommendations and reviews for ever after, that’s not actually too bad.

The application wasn’t designed in-house by the BBC. It was put together by a US company called tvCompass. The BBC say that this is just another step in its quest to get as much content as possible available to iPod and iPhone users. What about the rest of us that aren’t converts to the cult of Mac, Auntie?

Radio Times iPhone application

Amazon launches e-book buying and reading app for iPhones

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Today, Amazon plans to release an application for the iPhone that’ll allow users to buy and download eBooks, outside of its homegrown Kindle ecosystem. The application will be able to be downloaded free of charge, and will also keep track of your page across both a Kindle and an iPhone, so no more wondering where you left off.

There’s competition in the market, from the likes of Indigo Books and Shortcovers, and Google recently launched a free mobile product too. When asked about whether the app might cannibalise Kindle sales, Amazon VP Ian Freed says he’s “not at all concerned”, saying that it’s actually likely to help, presumably because the Kindle offers a better eBook expeirnece.

Unfortunately for the moment, the application isn’t available outside the US, presumably for licensing reasons. We’ll keep a close eye and let you know when you can get it on these shores.

(via Wall St Journal)