We at MobileMammoth hope all our U.S. readers had a safe and happy Thanksgiving this year.
We have quite a bit to be thankful for, as we are gearing up for more content and mobile-related tools in 2012.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, and stay tuned to us for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals!

Words cannot express the gratitude that we at MobileMammoth have for the contributions that Steve Jobs made to the mobile industry. Yet his impacts went way beyond any single industry, or any single country. His impacts were felt worldwide, and they were as much cultural as they were technical.

I remember seeing Steve Jobs one afternoon near Palo Alto, as we were both parking at a jogging trail near Stanford known as ‘The Dish’ for the giant satellite dish which stood next to the trail. This was back in 2001 before the iPhone and just months before the first iPod came out. Yet I was still in awe because of what he had accomplished already.

Steve Jobs was indeed a visionary. He went against the grain. He turned industries on their heads.

Thank you Steve.

For those who use our text messaging tool, it is currently unavailable while we incorporate new functionality, including additional security measures. Unfortunately, a few bad apples have abused it, and we cannot let that go on.

Please continue to check back here, or follow us on Twitter for updates.

While we’re at it, let us know what else you’d like to see in the tool, and thank you for your patience!

Be prepared for Hurricane Irene by getting text message alerts from The Weather Channel.

From the Outer Banks of North Carolina all the way up to New York City and the coastal New England cities, Hurricane Irene is set to cause serious damage to the entire East Coast. The Weather Channel offers multiple ways to stay updated on the latest hurricane developments from your mobile phone.

Remember, with possible power outages and landline issues, your cell phone might be the only communications device available during or after Hurricane Irene. See what options below might work best for you to stay informed.

Mobile Website:

The Weather Channel website will auto-detect for mobile browsers and will render the mobile version of its website.

Severe Weather Alerts by Text:

Choose from a number of alert options, including severe weather alerts, that apply to the zip code you enter. Access it here.

Notify!

Subscribers to The Weather Channel Notify! service will receive alerts by phone when severe weather warnings are issued in their area. Note this is a PAID service.

Weather Channel Android App:

www.weather.com/services/android.html

Weather Channel iPhone App:

www.weather.com/services/iphone.html

Weather Channel iPad App:

www.weather.com/services/ipad.html

QR codes (Quick Response codes) are 2-D images that provide immediate access to digital information or actions that are relevant to what the user is doing at that moment. When a user scans a QR code, typically using the camera on their smartphone, it can open a URL on their mobile browser, or initiate a text message, email, or IM from the phone itself.

Popular uses of QR codes include companies linking to their websites or specific landing pages, enabling a phone call to the customer service or sales departments, or to help market a text messaging (SMS) campaign.

Here at MobileMammoth, we posted this QR code on our home page which, when scanned, connects users to our online text messaging tool. That way they can send text messages from their mobile browser and avoid text overage fees from their wireless carrier.

Anyone can quickly generate a QR code for free at sites like myQR.co and Kaywa.

QR codes are seeing quite an uptick in use this year, and for good reason. We highly encourage companies and individuals to start using them now and experiment!

Google released an update to their search UI specifically for tablets last Friday, and MobileMammoth approves.

The user experience on iPads and other tablets, and specifically the ‘touch’ experience that causes issues for some of us, is quite different from both PCs and smartphones, and Google recognizes this. They obviously also recognize the huge surge in iPad users and need to cater to that audience as well, but it’s good to see that Google does not seem anywhere near resting on it’s laurels in search.

For pure web searching, this is another reason Google will be that much harder to ‘touch’ anytime soon.

GenderZoo is a mobile app that provides users information about local clubs based on the girl to guy gender ratio. Users can update the information in real time based on what they are seeing in the club.

It’s an interesting concept that should be fun for the younger college age and 20-something crowd. Available for both iOS and Android devices, GenderZoo is a free app available on iTunes today.

I wonder how many bars are already hiring social media marketers that spend their time optimizing their standing in all these various sites and apps that rate them on every possible metric.

What — Too many trendy buzz words in the title?

OK we agree. But that is the tag line for Jotmider, a free online wiki for individuals or groups that is available on the desktop and mobile web.

Aside from Wikipedia, Wikis do not get enough credit for what they can provide. They are used successfully in many companies and other organizations, and I can see how Jotminder can be quite useful as well.

The service itself provides useful functionality, and we would suggest the good folks at Jotminder get a professional UI developer — not a pure techie type, but one with a flair for design who has read Steve Krug of Don’t Make Me Think fame. (Note to readers: if you are in any way involved in UI design or development, you must read that book. You can thank us later.)

Absent a better UI, more advanced note-taking apps like Evernote will remain a better option. We’ll continue to watch Jotminder, including their mobile website version, and hope to report some exciting updates soon!

And hey, at least they didn’t call it the open source mobile cloud-based Wiki notepad social networking location-based 3D game for Millennials. Now that would be a reach.

The 2011 British Open, which as many of you know is one of the four major golf tournaments on the PGA Tour, begins next week at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England.

Of course, we here at MobileMammoth are here to help you prepare so you don’t find yourself fumbling around for leaderboard updates while you’re stuck in a meeting, or, worse yet, shopping of some sort.

Here are a few tried and true mobile websites that will provide the latest British Open Scoring updates as they happen (HINT: Do not try to access these sites from the actual event, as cell phones are offically banned at the British):

Official British Open Mobile Website:

mobile.opengolf.com

Golf.com Mobile Website:

m.golf.com

PGA.com Mobile Website:

mobile.pga.com

If any of you are scrambling to find a good grill recipe today, go download this $4.99 app for your iPad or iPhone, and you’ll have access to 250 grill recipes at your fingertips.

Weber, the company best known for making classic American grills, has recently released the Weber’s On The Grill iPhone and iPad app on the App Store, and it is a hit. Very simple, yet very useful, the app includes plenty of tips and even short video instructions for those of us who can only learn visually.

One of my favorite features is a built-in timer, which launches directly from the recipe itself — now that is using the mobile app technology right. Now you have no excuse to get your grilling done just right this summer. Enjoy!

iPhone / iPad App:

iTunes Link