La réponse du berger à la bergère

PS: désolé pour la qualité du scan…

24/24 Actu

I am the lucky beta-tester of one of Orange’s latest innnovation: 24/24 Actu. Announced during MIP-TV and launched last week in beta, 24/24 actu is a search engine dedicated to news. Yes, you read well. Orange, the telecom operator, aims at competing with Google News. There are several differences though:

- the portal/search engine is not only aggregating news article but also radio and TV sources. Of course YouTube is a video search engine in the Google galaxy but not integrated into Google news yet. If you’re based in the US, Blinkx is probably the closest concept. The technology belongs to Orange and has been conceived in Orange Labs.

- to insist on the difference with Google, Orange prides itself to have already deals signed with the major media companies.

- of course, the service is in beta for now, only available in French and aims at around 400,000 to 500,000 users by year end according to Xavier Couture quote in Les Echos. It will be made available on all screens and an Iphone version is to be launched during autumn.

That’s another bold move in Orange’s ambitious and controversial content strategy.

No comment

Top 25 applications on the iPhone according to Comscore (via servicesmobiles.fr)

Orange TV for iPhone

This video is in French but explains how the mobile TV app works for iPhone. I have tested it and it works very smoothly.

I have immediately tried to access it via wifi but of course that is not possible…otherwise you could access it for free (particularly when abroad). You need to use the EDGE/3G network and to pay between 6 and 9 euros. The point is that is is not clear when you download the app and there has been some bad press about it.

Anyway, Orange also wanted to promote it heavily the day before SFR launched the iPhone to appear innovative and convey the idea it was still leading the pack with Apple. At the end of the day, SFR also has made its own TV app available but few people know it yet and it seems like consumers also have to pay an extra for it even if they already have a mobile TV bundle via Illymythics:-(.

MTV Mobile

I came across this ad for MTV mobile by Telecom Italia. Interstingly MTV has a very flexible and open approach regarding mobile issues, partnering with various operators in Europe via license agreements.

In France, MTV mobile has 1M customers (via SFR) and sold around 100,000 MTV phones.

iPhone by SFR

SFR finally launched the iPhone yesterday after Orange lost the exclusivity on the French territory. Pricing will be the same for new customers but I wonder what the price is for existing SFR customers: how many points do they need to redeem? If anyone is a Carré Rouge customer, feel free to post a comment below.

Bouygues will follow on April 29th

Updated: same price for existing SFR customers confirmed. SFR plans to sell 800,000 iPhones by end 2010

Interview vidéo

J’ai fait récemment une interview (assez longue) avec Thomas Blard. Si vous avez le temps et la patience d’écouter cela vous donnera une petite idée de la façon dont je perçois le marché mobile en ce moment!

Cliquez ici pour écouter la vidéo.

Twitter is over capacity

I am back online after a long silent period due to lots of work and to a week vacation where I decided to unplug. No digital gadgets or PCs or phones with me for a whole week!

After a long and quiet period on Twitter, I wanted to come back but discovered this message frequently over the last few days. I then learned about rumors on the Google acquisition and the Vodafone/Twitter announcement. Another sign that twitter is gaining in popularity is that for the first time ever, a friend of mine is now following my tweets. I mean a real friend (welcome Agathe) not a virtual one. I mainly (if not exclusively) use social networks such as Facebook or blogs/microblogs for professional purposes but I was surprised to see how popular Twitter became in a week’s time.

Anyway, you can follow my updates at http://www.twitter.com/Thomas_Husson

Nous ne savons pas résister à la tentation technologique

Je me suis déconnecté de twitter, facebook et de mon PC, de mon mobile pour un break d’une semaine et franchement ça fait du bien d’être injoignable (d’où la faible activité sur ce blog récemment). Une bonne semaine de vacances à la campagne et le tour est joué.

C’est vrai qu’entre les nanotechnologies, les réseaux sociaux, la géo-localisation, la biométrie, les puces RFID, la vidéosurveillance, les fichiers type Edwige et autres menaces sur la liberté et l’intimité des individus, ça fait du bien d’être invisible!

Sans vouloir agiter l’épouvantail Big Brother, on est en droit de s’interroger sur les moyens accordés à la CNIL (130 personnes, 12M€ de budget). 

Je vous invite à lire l’interview éclairante de son Président aux Echos, mais voici un extrait: 

Le développement des outils technologiques n’est-il pas finalement inquiétant ?

“C’est une véritable angoisse pour l’avenir et je n’ai pas envie de vivre dans la société dans laquelle vivront mes petits-enfants. Pour y remédier, il faudrait d’abord sortir du débat politicien gauche-droite. Tant qu’on politisera le débat sur les libertés publiques, on n’avancera pas. C’est infiniment plus grave que ça. Notre société est fascinée par la technologie et nous ne sommes pas capables de résister à cette tentation”. – Alex Türk