Movie-Goers in Iowa City/Coralville and Cedar Falls/Waterloo Can Check Movie Times on Their Phones

I usually use "(ZIP code) showtimes" in Google to look up movie times, but tonight the newspaper just happened to be laying open on our table, so I checked the movie listings 'old school.' While doing that I noticed what looked like the address for a mobile website for Marcus Theaters (marcuspda.com), so I checked it out.

The site is simple and easy to use. It allows you to look up movies times either by theater or by movie title, and it provides the movie title, rating, run length and showtimes. And if you are looking up movie times for some future date, you can do that too. It looks like it has info for dates up to a week in advance.

I like Google, but Marcus Theaters' mobile website cuts to the chase. I have bookmarked it, and I will probably go there first next time I need to look up movie times.

Winning Iowa Lottery Numbers on Your Mobile

I'm a day late and $276 million short, having forgotten to buy my Powerball ticket yesterday. For those of you who did buy a ticket, but don't live in West Virginia, you can use your data-enabled i wireless phone see if any of your numbers match at http://ialottery.com/WAP/mobile.html.

Facebook and MySpace Are Mobile!

(This may be old news. In my absence I kind of lost track of which popular websites still had not launched a mobile, off-portal version.)

For you kids out there that can't get enough of Facebook and MySpace in the many hours you spend in front of your computer, you can now get your fix on your mobile phone. MySpace can be accessed at http://m.myspace.com and Facebook at http://m.facebook.com. As I don't reside in the demographic sweet spot for these social networking sites, I can't really tell you much about what you can or can't do on the mobile sites that you can do on the regular websites (Sorry!). I can tell you that Facebook prompts you to update your status as soon as you log in, so all of your friends -- real and imagined (like my readers) -- can know what you are doing when you are mobile. This makes a lot of sense. I imagine the stereotypical user makes plans with his/her friends on these websites before they head out to the bars and night clubs, but what happens if plans change once everyone is out and about? That friend with the night class that was going to meet up later gets left behind unless you have access to a computer, which is not likely in a bar.

I'll stop pretending that I know how today's teens and twentysomethings use Facebook and MySpace. It's just making me sound old. I would like to make the observation that the "m.domain-name.com" format appears to be winning out as the standard address format for mobile websites. I'm glad. It really makes the most sense to me. Most companies already have a ".com" domain. They shouldn't have to buy a ".mobi" domain as well. It also makes it easier for consumers to check if a company has a mobile website. All you have to do is replace the "www" in the company's web address with an "m" to get your answer. The "m" is also short, which is great when you are on a mobile device. Who wants to type the longer ".mobi" suffix -- or worse -- an address with a slash and even more letters and numbers beyond that?

Okay, I am way off on a tangent now. I need to go to sleep.

More Local/Regional Media Offer Mobile Websites

In previous posts (here and here), I noted a number of media outlets from the i wireless market area that had launched mobile websites. Since then, a few other newspapers and TV stations have joined the fray, some of them quite good. Here are the new ones that I'm aware of:

• Des Moines Register - http://m.desmoinesregister.com
• Cedar Rapids Gazette - http://gazettetogo.com
• KCRG-TV9 (Cedar Rapids) - http://kcrg.com/mobile
• WHO-TV 13 (Des Moines) http://13now.com
• KIMT News 3 (Mason City) http://mobile.kimt.com

Leave a comment if there are any others out there that I've missed.

Read This Blog on Your Phone

If you want to read this blog on your phone, it is available in two more mobile-friendly formats, thanks to winksite and mdog. I personally like the look and format of the blog better at my mdog site, but that's probably because it is designed for smartphones. If you have a phone with a smaller screen and less-robust browser capabilities, my winksite will probably work better for you. One downside to the mdog version is the long URL, so make sure you save it to your favorites, so you don't have to type it in.

Let me know what you think. I'd like your feedback on how well these work on different phones.

Now Your Mobile Phone Can Help You Save on Gas

With gas prices at record highs, you need all the help that you can get. Now you can use your i wireless phone and GasBuddy.com to help you find the cheapest gas around. There are two ways to get gas prices on your mobile device:

1. With your mobile browser, go to GasBuddyToGo.com and search for prices by City/State or Zip Code (e.g. "Iowa City, IA" or "52245")
2. Send an MMS or email to gas@gasbuddy.com (for gasoline prices) or diesel@gasbuddy.com (for diesel prices) with the City/State or Zip Code as the body of the message (leaving subject field blank). A reply will be sent to you shortly with the 5 lowest gas or diesel prices from the area that you requested.

Great Resource for Finding Quality Mobile Websites

I just stumbled upon Wap Review, which is a blog that appears to be doing a much better job of finding, reviewing and categorizing mobile websites than I am. If you are looking for any information on a mobile website, I heartily recommend it. They also have a Mobile Site Directory (mobile and PC versions) as well as a mobile version of the blog.

I was going to say that WAP Review doesn't have the local edge that I can offer, but they had a posting about the Iowa City Press-Citizen's new mobile website the same day I wrote about it.

CNN Relaunches Mobile Website

Some of you may have noticed in my previous posts listing the top ten mobile websites by visits that the CNN link (wap.cnn.com or mobile.cnn.com) did not work. That is because CNN has made their mobile website available only to customers of their network partners (i.e. the big carriers).

Well, the world's second-most watched TV news source appears to be changing their strategy. I learned via MediaPost that CNN has re-launched its mobile site as a free service supported by ads. The site (at cnnmobile.com) allows you to sign up for breaking news alerts via SMS, and will feature a searchable news archive and correspondents' blogs. There is also a two-minute video news update each hour. It's supposed to be "mobile-friendly" but I receive the message "your handset does not support this video format" when I try to view it on my HTC S620. If anyone has any luck with this, please post a reply in the comments.

CNN's parent company, Time Warner, apparently plans to roll out mobile sites for their other media properties throughout 2007.