Roundup: Flash player for mobiles; Stephen King promo texts may draw $90M fine
Three years ago, publisher Simon & Schuster text-messaged thousands of SMS users with the message, “next call you take may be your last.” It a promotional stunt for horror novelist Stephen King’s The Cell. The company has been found to be in violation of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automated systems to make calls to cell phones unless the owners have consented. The suit was brought on behalf of about 60,000 people, each of whom could receive a minimum of $500 and as much as $1,500 each, according to the law firm behind the lawsuit. This could mean up to $90 million in fines for Simon and Schuster, and Ipsh! (now owned by Omnicom), the marketer that sent the messages.
Apple fans are pondering the respelling of the new iPhone model as “iPhone 3GS” rather than “iPhone 3G S.” Yeah, I’m having trouble, too, caring enough to type the rest of this sentence.
More exciting, Los Angeles-based startup Global Fitness Media on Monday is launching FitOrbit — the iPhone app rolls out later this week — a fitness training web service that lets you select a real-life personal trainer over the web who customizes a seven-day nutrition and exercise plan just for you.
Tired of iPhone items? Adobe CEO Shantanu Naraye revealed on a conference call that a Flash player for mobile phones — Naraye name-checked Google’s Android — will be available in October.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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