It’s a sign of things really taking off when a mainstream publisher starts taking an interest. So it’s great to see Mobile Internet for Dummies being launched.

Even better is that I know a few of the five authors (Dan Appelquist of Vodafone, Michael O’Farrell of the dotMobi Advisory Group and James Pearce of dotMobi) and was asked to write the section on Advertising on the Mobile Web, though I’m not sure that it made the final edit.

Go buy a copy.

I recently replaced my SO’s trusty old Sony Ericsson K750 with a sparkling new Samsung SGH-U600. Decent little phone, for the most part, and she seems happy enough with it. Of course part of the “sales experience” entails me moving all her contacts over. I’ve not really had a problem syncing contacts since I switched to a Mac a few years back. I’m no Mac zealot, but iSync is, by far, the best sync solution I’ve ever used.

In any case, I figured, hey, it’s 2008 — syncing contacts should be no problem.

Ha. Famous last words.

The new Samsung isn’t supported by iSync, so that’s strike one. So I turn to the excellent Zyb service. It uses SyncML over the air to suck the contacts off of the K750, easy peasy. Then, of course, the Samsung’s not supported by Zyb. Strike two.

Fortunately, Zyb lets me export the contacts into a VCF file. I export that, copy it onto a USB drive, then reboot my Mac into Windows XP — because, of course, Samsung’s PC sync software doesn’t run on Macs. So I reboot… struggle a little with Outlook Express to import the contacts from the file, then install the Samsung PC software, fiddle a bit to import the contacts into it properly, then hook up the handset via USB and hit the sync button.

That, of course, doesn’t work and I’ve got to mess with it for a few minutes more to get things done.

I get there in the end, but not without spending far too much time and way too much effort. I realize I bought this device outside the normal operator-centric supply chain (I bought it from an import shop), but still, we’re both T-Mobile customers, and it would be nice to see the operator step up and offer some sort of assistance here. There’s plenty of blame for Samsung, too, which didn’t bother to implement SyncML in the U600 in such a way that Zyb can work. It could also do iSync plug-ins for its device, like other vendors have done.

If you have a handset that works with Zyb, you’re laughing — their service is great. But I doubt many normobs get there on their own. If you work for an operator, get some deal going with Zyb or one of its competitors and provide and promote the service to your customers. After all, doesn’t it behoove you to make them happy and help them have the best experience possible? If you’re a handset vendor, take a proactive stance and make it as easy as possible for people to transfer contacts. Fully support standards like SyncML, make your PC software work on multiple platforms, take advantage of programs like iSync.

Seriously, it’s endlessly frustrating that it’s 2008 and this sort of stuff is still an issue. Sure, our phones have 5-megapixel cameras and GPS and accelerometers and all kinds of other flashy stuff, but dammit, you’re going to have to enter your contacts by hand. See my post from August 2005 along largely similar lines. Nearly three years, and not a whole hell of a lot has changed. Well, I guess at least it provides an opportunity for the likes of Zyb to come in and have some success…

I’m going to wade once again into one of Russell’s favorite topics, the separatista vs. convergionist debate. Whatever your feelings on the matter, I think we can all probably agree that there’s plenty of unnecessary convergence around. Like this handheld dictionary/MP3 player. Bet the folks at Franklin were left scratching their heads when these things didn’t fly off the shelves.

HTC, best known for its wide range of Windows Mobile devices, today announced the Touch Diamond, an update to its Touch device released several months back. The Touch was notable because of the TouchFLO UI, an HTC-created, customized user interface that ran on top of Windows Mobile. The Diamond features a new version, called TouchFLO 3D, that looks way slicker. It looks gorgeous — so much so that you might almost forget you’re using a Windows Mobile device. Check out this video:

Windows Mobile, in this case, is really just the OS, separated from the user interface by HTC. That fits with something I’ve been wondering about for a while: will the top mobile operating systems of the future be the ones that make this sort of UI customization the easiest? This is a growing trend. Apart from HTC, Sony Ericsson is adding its own UI on top of WinMo for the XPERIA X1, Asus has shown off its own UI enhancements, and there’s some other examples.

And this goes along with the continued trend of some pretty bad user interfaces. I’ve used the new Windows Mobile 6.1, which was billed as having a number of UI improvements, but they’re not much help in the overall mess of things. S60 has gotten faster and had some marginal improvements, but it’s still not the most usable interface around.

Perhaps we’re seeing a couple of things: either people viewing Windows Mobile as a decent OS if you can totally hide the native UI, or enough frustration with the state of smartphone UIs to where people are just scrapping them in favor of their own. So will the leading mobile OSes of the future be those that come without a UI, and make it the easiest for UI designers to make their own?

This week I’m in Istanbul and Cannes - it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. Seriously though, business travel lost any appeal it might have for me about 20 years ago.

Last night I was at Mobile Monday in Istanbul, a thriving MoMo community, though pretty new to mobile advertising currently. But an interesting and lively meeting in a fascinating town. Or would be fascinating if I had any downtime here.

Next, I’m off to MEF’s Mobile Entertainment Market 08 in Cannes. If you’re attending and want to speak to any of my multifarious personalities - blogger, MMA EMEA Board Member or AdMob European Managing Director - drop me a line at russell AT mobhappy DOT com.

Vodafone UK upped the competitive stakes today when it announced that its pay monthly customers will now get 500 MB of mobile data free each month as a part of their tariff. That’s awesome, and it will be interesting to see what impact this has in the market and on mobile data usage in the UK.

You can quibble with a few things: the fact that they’re calling it “unlimited” access, then saying “subject to a fair usage policy of 500MB / per month”, which ain’t unlimited. But for most folks it should be fine. You could also take exception to the statement “Since launching the internet on mobiles last summer”, but we’ll leave those out for the time being, and just say nice one Vodafone.

So, for those of you in the UK, would this offer convince you to switch to/stay with Vodafone?

If you’re one of our legions of RSS readers, you won’t have noticed anything, but for those of you who do stop by the MH site, you’ll see we’ve added a Flashy badge for the MH Twitter feed so you can follow us there (and there will be much more happening than “New blog post” updates). We also put in some Amazon associate links with stuff we like, so click away.

Also, just to pause for station identification for the benefit of our hordes of recent new readers, a few words about your hosts Russell and I. You can always read more on the About page, but briefly: Russell Buckley’s based in Munich, and he’s the MD Europe for the mobile advertising superstars AdMob. He’s a frequent speaker at industry events where he shares his copious knowledge and insight of the mobile marketing scene based on his extensive experience in the industry. You can reach him at russell AT mobhappy dot com.

I’m Carlo Longino, the other half of MH, and I live in Las Vegas. I’ve been working as an analyst, editor and writer covering the mobile industry for the better part of a decade. I’m currently working on a number of freelance projects, but if you’ve got a need for writing, consulting or analyst work in mobile, give me a shout on carlo AT mobhappy dot com.

As always, if you’re working on something cool in mobile, be sure to drop us a line and let us know.

Mary Meeker is the legendary Morgan Stanley analyst (aka “Queen of the Net”), whose regular state-of-the-nation reports into internet trends are eagerly awaited among the digerati as being both insightful and visionary.

One of the emerging trends she points to in her most recent work (get hold of a copy!) is about mobile:

Mobile Internet represents a new computing cycle
- Mainframe -> Minicomputer -> PC -> PC Internet -> Mobile Internet

This parallels one of my mantras in the last 5 years or so that I’ve been blogging:

“The mobile will do to the PC, what the PC did to the mainframe”

This seemed a little unlikely when I first started spouting forth along those lines and attracted a fair amount of scepticism along the way. However, it seems increasingly likely that this is indeed a mega-trend and one that I’d advise you to be planning for.

Following my trip to Web 2.0 last week, you should note that especially well if your live and work in The Valley, which is distorting your reality a little, I’d respectfully and humbly suggest - the mobile web isn’t just about the iPhone and waiting until all phones are like that. If you believe and act on this basis, it will prove a very dangerous and costly strategy. This point is also confirmed by Meeker, who points out that “unlike past cycles, US is follower, not leader”.

In this revolution, the armed Mob has already left their homes and is marching on the PC palace. It’s too late to prevent it, so you should be thinking in terms of how you and your company join the revolution today. Next year is already too late.

I’ve been a T-Mobile subscriber for a long time. Can’t remember how long, but long enough that every time I call in their great customer service people, they give me the usual “thanks for being a T-Mobile customer since…” business and are surprised at the duration. I’ve remained loyal because of their generally great service, low prices and lack of funny business. And in spite of their truly horrible handset selection and their perennial position at the back of the pack in terms of network upgrades.

So I was pretty excited this morning when I saw over on Engadget that T-Mobile was FINALLY launching their 3G network tomorrow, and sweet ol’ Las Vegas was third on the list. Finally. Finally! (Yeah, yeah, it’s that funky 1700 MHz spectrum, I know. Baby steps.)

Things took a turn for the worse in the afternoon as Liverpool screwed things up… but no matter, soon I’ll have 3G, right?

Yeah. FOR VOICE ONLY.

You didn’t misread. Once again, that’s FOR VOICE ONLY. 3G. That high-speed _data_ technology that any operator worth a damn rolled out yonks ago.

Voice. Voice. Voice.

In the interest of domestic tranquility, I’m not going to make any threats I might later have to make good on, such as “if T-Mobile rolls out 3G in Vegas and it’s voice-only, I’ll jump to a real operator.” But come on. Please stop making me feel like such a sucker, T-Mobile.

Update: You might have 3G data, you might not.

Clay Shirky teaches at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and recent wrote of Here Comes Everybody. He gave one of the most thought provoking speeches at last week’s Web 2.0 Expo - and the competition was tough.

The basic idea is that at times of great change, the human mind seeks escape. In the industrial revolution, it was gin that became the coping mechanism, with a whole generation seeking oblivion through drink. It was only after this that people began to turn the assets of industrialisation into something useful - from elected leaders to public libraries.

In the late 20th century, similarly dramatic changes were occurring and the narcotic of choice in those days was mindless TV. It was used to numb the pain of leisure hours that people weren’t used to having and frankly, didn’t know how to fill.

But as we enter the 21st Century, there are a lot more options and we’re used to the idea of leisure in our society. So we can turn this mindless and passive consumption into something active and positive. Clay calls this energy a “Social Surplus” and it allows mass social projects like the Wikipedia to develop.

To quantify this potential social surplus, the US alone spends 200 billion hours a year watching TV, or perhaps more shockingly and comprehensible, 100 million hours every weekend just watching the ads on TV. This could be used in thousands of constructive ways that we haven’t even begun to experiment with.

Take something as trivial as playing World of Warcraft, which might be perceived by many as “”Losers. Grown men sitting in their basement pretending to be elves.” But Clay’s point is that at least players are active, engaged and participating.

“However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it’s worse to sit in your basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann [of TV programme Gilligan’s Island] is cuter”

But if even a tiny part of the Social Surplus can be used for more creative works, ranging from blogging, to twittering, to photography to Wikipedia contributing (to name just a few), think what a radical effect this might have on society. So next time you’re tempted to kick back and watch the TV - just think if this is a remotely useful thing to be doing with your most valuable asset, your time. I last watched TV in 2006, by the way and then only rarely, so this isn’t a pot calling you black exercise.

I’ll leave the last word to Clay himself, in a nice little anecdote that I agree gives a glimpse into the future:

“I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she’s going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn’t what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, “What you doing?” And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, “Looking for the mouse.”

Here’s something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here’s something four-year-olds know: Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.”

So maybe passive consumption won’t even be on the menu in the media of the future.

If you’d like to read his lightly edited transcript, it’s here.