Citibank has just announced they will be offering person-to-person mobile payments to customers later this year. This will allow there customers to send and recevie money through any mobile phone. The service will be offered through current mobile payment provider Obopay.

This is an interesting move by both Obopay and Citibank and hopefully will mean mobile payments become more commonplace and widely used.

My quesiton is, how will competitor Kushcash respond?

Check out Tap’s previous coverage of Obopay and Kushcash (including interviews with both companies)

Here is a really cool website!  The problem I have with sites such as Finetune and Pandora is that in order to discover new music you need to know an artist or a song.  Why I cant I just discover music based on my mood? Well my prayers have been answered with Musicovery.

Musicovery gives you all the options you could possibly want to discover new music.  Simply choose the mood you would like to listen to and a playlist is generated.  You can also choose which genres, tempo, dance (cant explain but cool) and even the time or era!

This has to be one of the coolest internet radio applications out there! Not sure who’s behind it but they deserve a pat on the back.

Definitely two thumbs up! Discover some new music at musicovery.com  

Technorati Tags: music, internet radio, itunes

Want happens when you combine alcohol and Google Maps? PartyGPS of course.

PartyGPS.com is just another example of the many websites that use Google Maps to create a really useful and simple service.  The site allows you to enter a US city or Postcode and locate bars, clubs and liquor stores.  You can suggest new locations but this isn’t automated (as far as I can see).

I would like to see some more features integrated like the ability to rate and share locations.  And what about a location for the business owners to add additional information like discounts etc.

Get the party started at www.partyGPS.com

Technorati Tags: Google Maps, PartyGPS, Party, Web 2.0

Jott.com is a really cool service that allows you to save and send messages by simply using your voice.  To use Jott you just call a Toll free number, say your message or note and then Jott will transcribe it and send it to email or phones.

Now, I havn’t been able to try out the service as of yet (it is currently only available to US residents) but from the looks of things this is really cool.  I would like to know how accurate it is at transcribing  your messages.

If Jott works as well as they say it does then it could be an extremely valuable application for many people.  I would be interested in getting in touch with someone from Jott and finding out if it will ever be available outside the US.

This ones got two thumbs up.  Check it out at www.jott.com 

Im not a fan of any web service that requires complicated registration processes, downloads and complex permissions so when I came across YouBackItUp, I was impressed.

YouBackitUp uses a super simple (and java based) drag and drop interface to quickly upload files of up to 200mb. Registration is not required and the only catch is if your file lays dormant for 20 days then it will be deleted.

This is a real winner when it comes to file uploading and sharing.  All thats needed is a better looking design and they will have hit the jackpot.

Visit www.youbackitup.com 

Technorati Tags: online storage, file sharing, hosting

Previously I got in touch with Kushcash.com and following on from there I also spoke with Obopay.
How does Obopay differ from your cometitors?

Obopay is the only secure P2P mobile payments solution that lets consumers easily get, send, spend and track money via virtually any mobile phone in real time. For just launching the service in October 2006, the company is experiencing some incredible momentum. The service is live, available on any mobile phone, with special support from Amp’d and Helio. After experiencing rapid, viral growth among consumers, the company announced its acquisition of youth-driven money tracking site BillMonk as well as new operations in India. Look for more announcements from Obopay with a variety of “big names” in the weeks ahead.

Currently the service is only available in the U.S. Do you plan on expanding into other countries?

Obopay recently announced new operations in India as part of its global expansion strategy.

Are we going to see any new features later on down the track?

Absolutely. Obopay recently acquired popular money tracking site BillMonk and will be integrating functionality on both sides. Today we announced parents can create accounts for kids under 18, which is great for handing out allowance money that is often spent on items that can’t be spent with cash - i.e., iTunes, Amazon, etc.

And finanlly, where do you see mobile payments in a few years time?

While NFC and greater industry cooperation is going to have a huge impact on mobile payments on retail outlets, consumers are ready now for a mobile peer-to-peer payment solution, and Obopay is delivering! We believe today’s busy, on-the-go consumers require new services that give them greater ease and flexibility in the payment and management of “social money.” Social money is the money that passes between people when they engage in shared consumer experiences, such as splitting the check at dinner or sharing expenses while on a road trip. As friends, roommates, family members, and co-workers do more things together, there can be confusion and conflict over who owes what. Obopay removes the conflict and confusion from shared consumer experiences.

Take a look at www.obopay.com for more information

Thanks to Alex for tipping me off on another site that offers the ability to chat on any website, Gabbly.com. I previously wrote about Yaplet and Zpeech.

Although all three of these services have their benefits, my question to you is there room for all three?  It would be interesting to know which one of these companies were first on the block.

I also couldn’t get Gabbly.com to work when using it with Go2Tap.com. Kept saying “Connection to server was lost, please refresh browser”.

Digg.com is the latest company to support this sinlge sign on solution which is starting to gain momentum.  A number of other big players showed support for OpenID earlier including Microsoft, AOL and Wikipedia.

Although the idea of a single sign-on that can be used on multiple websites sounds great, there are still a number of issues, most importantly being security.

Read/WriteWeb is holding a poll on the number of people who currently use OpenID.  Make users you vote here 

Here are some of the amazing wordpress themes which I drool over while thinking about how good they would look on my blog!  Let me know if you have any favorite themes.

Scary Little Theme
Download
Although its not the most beautiful theme it comes with some really cool features and some oh so cool ajax

Wave Link
Download Demo
Here is a simple and clutterless theme.  I also like the drop down search bar at the top

Durable
Download
This is a really cool theme.  It allows the user to control all the page colors using a cool color pallet mod.

I Feel Dirty
Download Demo
This is quite a popular theme and why wouldn’t it be with a cool name like that

Drunk Loser
Download Demo
Another dirty style theme.  I really good dark layout

Organique
Download Demo
Clean fresh look with rounded corners.  What more could you ask for

Vistered Little
Download Demo
A Glass like interface with drag and drop backgrounds.  Again not the most beautiful but still cool

Glossy Blue
Download Demo
Simple good looking oh and its glossy too

Spreeksel
Download Demo
Although I probably wouldn’t use it my blog it has a real nice look to it

Shantia
Download Demo
I had to include a really simple and minimalistic theme as well so here it is

These 10 themes are just some of the hundred or so amazing themes I have found, downloaded and played with.  Hopefully I will find the time someday to list them all.

Satudays (on Sunday here is Australia) are the days where I find there is nothing to write about. So I might as well post about this weeks Supahstar.

This week its Marcus Williford  from My Thoughts. Marcus has one those blogs that feature bits and pieces of everything and obviously “everything” means Marcus’s thoughts. And yes ladies apparentelly he’s single (Or should I say lady as 99% of our readers are men).