Syndicate
) October 20, 2008 -- Futurlink revolutionized the Web-to-mobile industry last month with the unveiling of their new Wimob platform, allowing publishers to offer easily downloadable multimedia content for mobile phones. Today they're taking it a step further with the launch of a new Facebook application allowing users to make their Facebook photo album (and photo albums of their friends) portable. Wimob's user application and Facebook app are completely free, and allow photos from Facebook photo albums to be transferred to mobiles without incurring charges from mobile service providers.
"Previously there were two primary ways a person could put Facebook photos on their mobile phones," says Futurlink CEO David Masó. "They could surf the Web from home, manually save the image from a friend's photo album to their hard drive, and then manually upload it to their mobile - a time-consuming process and one that doesn't guarantee the image will be compatible with the user's particular mobile setup. The other option would have been fee-based, either surfing the Web directly from their mobile to access the images, or having a friend send those same photos directly to their phone. Again, compatibility is sometimes an issue. Our new Wimob Facebook application addresses these problems. Users can take their favorite photos on Facebook with them at the click of a button, and without paying mobile fees for the data transfers. Wimob also automatically adapts the downloaded images to over 1000 compatible mobile phone formats, so images can be viewed perfectly no matter what type of phone a user has."
Previously there were two primary ways a person could put Facebook photos on their mobile phones
Why would users want to make Facebook photo albums portable? - It may be because they want to keep a certain photo with them everywhere they go, or because they want to show them off to others.
- Let's say two friends, Bill and Sam, went away together on a trip. They each took photos. When they get back home, Bill wants to show off his vacation pictures to his girlfriend, but he discovers his photos didn't come out as good as he thought. Sam, on the other hand, took excellent pictures. With the Wimob Facebook application, Bill can simply visit Sam's photo album where he uploaded the images and use quick one-click downloads to put Sam's vacation photos on his mobile phone, which he can then take with him to show the photos to his girlfriend (or anyone else who asks about his trip).
- Jane is asked to speak at an industry conference. She wants to be able to quickly and easily share details of the event with her boss and co-workers. She can't take pictures during her own speech, but while on Facebook she sees that a colleague took some excellent shots during her presentation. With just one click, Jane can hand-pick her favorite images from the event to download and transfer to her mobile, which she can then take back to the office.
Getting started with Wimob's new Facebook application is an easy three-step process:
1. Download and install the Wimob Application, which serves as the go-between from Facebook photo albums to mobile phones.
2. Add the mobile phone model and type to the application settings (there are over 1000 compatible models that can be connected via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, infrared, or USB connections, and unlike similar Web-to-mobile services, Wimob offers privacy by never asking a user for their mobile phone number).
3. Get the Facebook application.
Once the application is installed, the user simply browses to their own, or a friend's, Facebook photo album and finds the photo(s) they want to take with them on their mobile. They'll see a Wimob icon, which they then click to initiate the download and transfer. Because no airtime is actually used, the user won't receive any charges from their mobile provider. Wimob piggybacks on Facebook's privacy settings, meaning users can only download photos that friends make visible to them (which they could previously do manually), and it doesn't restrict users in any way - they can download unlimited photos to their phone using the new Facebook app.
About Wimob
Wimob is a Web-to-mobile platform launched in 2008 by mobile technology leader, Futurlink. The platform allows users to download multimedia content from websites directly to mobile phones for free through Bluetooth, infrared, or Wi-Fi connections. In addition to providing free access to Web-based content to mobile phone users, Wimob serves as a content distribution and mobile marketing tool for bloggers, Web publishers, and advertising agencies wanting to quickly make their content portable.
About Futurlink
Futurlink is a leading proximity marketing and mobile technology company launched in 2003 and headquartered in Barcelona. The company develops mobile marketing technologies such as application platforms for the sale and distribution of digital content for mobile phones and portable devices, as well as technologies enabling mobile phone users to make contactless payments from their phones. Futurlink's new Wimob platform is a product of the company's spin-off into the Web-to-mobile market.
For more information about Wimob or the release of the new Facebook application making photo albums portable, please visit www.Wimob.com or contact Vanessa Calil at +34 933008866.