Dashwire and Bloove: Bringing Mobile Phone Management To The Web

Mobile phones are very useful in today's society, being able to make calls, capture photos, record video and even browse the web. But, many of the tasks that we use cell phones for, such as text messaging and managing contacts, can become very tedious and time-consuming, especially on phones with smaller screens and those that lack a QWERTY keypad.

To make it easier for cell phone users to maintain their phones and all of the information stored within them, new web services are cropping up that aim to take the entire process to the internet, where people can manage their mobile with a “real” keyboard on any PC wirelessy through the web.

Bloove and Dashwire are two such services, each with its own focus, that are now available to allow anyone to manage mobile content easily and quickly.

Bloove

The primary goal of Bloove seems to be providing a new interface within which users can more easily manage the important data contained in their mobile phone such as address book contacts, speed dial settings, and messages. The Russian-based company calls itself an “online phone management service,” and claims to be like a “PC Suite for the web.”

In order to use Bloove, potential users must first verify that their mobile phone is compliant and able to download the Bloove Agent software. This is done by visiting the Bloove mobile site on the phone, although the list of supported devices is currently quite limited, only being available for Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and Symbian OS phones.

After registering (OpenID supported) and obtaining the Bloove agent, users then have the ability to manage contacts, make calls, and send messages by using a browser, all without ever having to touch the cell phone.

As of now, only a free version of Bloove is available, which does have some limited features. Users can only connect one mobile phone to an account and the 'Contact Archive,' which stores rarely used contacts for later use to save phone space, is limited to 15 entries. For this reason, Bloove has already announced plans to introduce premium options with higher allowances for these features.

Dashwire

The focus at Dashwire, in contrast to Bloove, is more on the media contained on userfs phones, having stated on the website that their “free service automatically mirrors your mobile phone to the web, making it significantly easier to manage, enhance, and share the memories captured on your phone with others.”

With Seattle-based Dashwire, items such as picture messages, photos, videos, Internet favorites, ringtones, and wallpaper are seamlessly uploaded from your phone and safely stored online in your Dashwire account. Whenever a new photo or video is captured on a user's cell phone, that media is automatically uploaded to Dashwire, keeping everything in sync. Similarly to Bloove, this service supports uploading of a user's speed dial settings and contacts.

All of the content obtained is stored online in a user's account, where it can easily be accessed through any web browser via the Dashboard interface provided by Dashwire (as seen in the screenshot below).

Phone support for Dashwire is also limited, only available for Windows Mobile phones such as the T-Mobile Wing, Samsung BlackJack, Palm Treo 750, Motorola Q9, and others. The company does have plans to support additional phone platforms in the near future, however.

Conclusion

Both Dashwire and Bloove have a lot of potential and can be very useful services for those who find themselves constantly frustrated with inputting text on a cell phone.

Using the 2G and 3G networks of mobile service providers, these service are able to offer an easier solution than even mobile management software, such as Motorola Phone Tools, which require cables and can be more troublesome than using the phone itself.

Both services are fairly new, so expect more feature to come, as well as support for more mobile phones. If anyone with a compatible phone tests out one of these services, feel free to leave a comment about your experience.