This is usually what happens when you are in a new job, a bigger role and everything’s new. You spend every possible waking hours trying to read alot of information, talking to many people, think and think about how to make various things work to make sense.

The good news is, I have learnt so much in the last 3 weeks about everything mobile and of course, the big purple house. I am attached to the mobile business division of the company called Connected Life, managing the communications for the Asia region. Before this job, I was spending my time exploring the whole web2.0 (thus the creation of this blog and signing up at a whole load of social networks) and not paid much attention to the mobile space. The last few weeks opened up new perspectives on social media on the go. (hopefully, I can start sharing more when I settle in).For now, I am happy with a brand new BlackBerry Curve and unlimited data access! For those who have followed news at CES and heard Jerry Yang’s keynote, (and I am not promoting the company’s product) but my brother and I are having alot of fun with the new beta Yahoo! Go 3.0.

Try it or read more about what others wrote. This is the case of not having to even provide links, do a quick search for Yahoo Go 3.0 and you get endless pages of news/ blog links. Wonderful thing to do communications/ PR for a brand like this. I am excited!

There will be a lot to see in just four days (Jan 7 to 10). Spreading across 1.8 million net square feet of exhibits, 2700 participating companies, key note addresses, the industry insider series and other conference sessions plus alot of walking (so, i was told by a well-meaning colleague).

A sneak peak of some of the new new technology that will be on display at the show here:-

What I can’t miss is obviously Jerry Yang, CEO and Chief Yahoo! of Yahoo! Inc., who will delivering an Industry Insider address, sharing his views on the evolution of the Internet technology. Michael Muchmore of PC mag wrote that he is expecting many of the software announcements at CES to revolve around social networking, mobile internet apps, online digital media, and image and video editing. I am definitely looking forward to that too!
I am not sure how much time I have to walk around and hopefully capture as many interesting things as I can, but I am getting ready my comfy shoes and camera!

Timothy and I are planning to catch Zumanity at Cirque du Soleil one of the evenings, also catching up with my ex-client at Cirque after that. I am also hoping to meet up with with some bloggers whom I’ve been keeping in touch with online. Before I get back to Singapore from San Francisco, I am also planning to have dinner with my dear friend, Kevin who is heading to the Mac World Expo right after the CES in SF.

Exciting days ahead! For now, I have to continue my last minute Christmas shopping and get ready for my trip (there’s actually alot to prepare and do before then)! Thank Goodness, my wonderful colleague, Jeremy has been helping me with all the flight booking and details.

I came across this interesting article in MarketingWeb, mentioning the following stats:-

With an estimated 240 million wireless subscribers in the US, mobile is already a US$350-billion sector. According to Nielsen Mobile:

• 32 million use their phones to go online
• 70% send or receive text messages
• 41% percent use their wireless devices to send photos

The article also wrote:-

…… The old media broadcast model is dying
The idea of a media-consuming public that sits passively in front of a TV set is fast being replaced by a vibrant, active community of shared upstream content providers.

With the mobile phones being very much integrated into our daily lifestyle, it is no wonder that Nokia, the mobile phone maker recently launched its first ever video podcast (titled 14Days to signify the frequency of each episode) for its Nseries phone devices to ensure they stay top of mind amongst the consumers.

Thanks to Brian (from Ogilvy, Singapore) who alerted me to the vodcast

Hosted by “Girl with the number 11 briefcase” in the TV game show, Deal or No Deal (Singapore), Claire Jedrek attempts to show viewers how to take your mobile device (to be more specific – your Nokia Nseries handset) to the next level in each episode of 14Days.

The 14Days vodcast was conceptualised by Ogilvy, created by The Creative Room and produced by Nokia. All viewers have to do is to watch it online, download it to your mobile device or subscribe to it with an RSS feed.

I’ve just downloaded the latest episode into my new video iPod and of course, you can put them into any Nseries devices which I am planning to get one – the N95!! (featured in the pilot episode of the vodcast series).

Bloggers such as DK and Su Yuen who had seen the first episode think that the tips and tricks for the N95 were too “far fetched” and not “particularly interesting” The latest episode titled “VPL” was a let-down for me. After watching the episode, I was wondering “uh, where are the promised nifty ideas to push technology to the next level?” Well, the key message for the N76 is clear though – it’s a chick phone!

I thought the second episode, titled “Heroes” was quite cool, with Claire and a local blogger, teaching viewers how to freeze time and teleport at will with the Nokia N93i.

Brian was sharing with me that one of the main draws about the Nseries phones is that they are multimedia convergent devices, hence having vodcasts such as 14Days pushed the envelope in terms of showcasing the mobile convergence, the connectivity of the phone as well as accessing high quality multimedia while on the go.

This move (the creation of the vodcast) attempts to show the power and potential of the Nseries range, and also hopes to increase adoption and promotion of podcast and vodcast technology.

I am keen to find out what is the pick-up/ download statistics of the vodcast at the end of its series. It will also be interesting (as Su Yuen mentioned in her post) to see some user generated content, spinning off from the vodcast series. As the article in MarketingWeb mentioned, the next big trend is to see how social networking works on mobile.

Recently, I have been searching on mobile related topics – it’s a growing market (the whole bringing online content and social networking into mobile phones)! I was speaking with Jason Coates, Senior Comms Manager of Yahoo! SEA, and he was telling me about the explosive growth and opportunities in mobile development (especially in the Asia markets), usage and what users can now do on their phones nowadays. In August issue of Marketing Magazine, it also mentions that the global mobile advertising market will rise to S$17.13billion in 2011.

With Steve Job’s recent announcement on iPhone, new iPod touch, the mobile market is going to explode into alot of opportunities for marketers and users. Again, I am not going to go into details into the mobile research.

What I am highlighting today is six amazing FUTURE PHONES (that are not exactly phones) – developed by product design students at the University of Dundee’s College of Art, Science and Engineering. The brief was to create “Phones to support intimacy and sensuality.” Got the lead to this from Kevin Roberts’ latest post. Thought they are pretty cool.

The above is called the m:ssage handset, built to send soothing massage at anytime, to a loved one, anywhere in the world.

The Aware is created to allow communication between people on their personalised network. When someone on your network is nearby, the leds will pulse and send tingling down the users spine from the vibrators down to the back. (targeted at teens).