mobik
mobiK free SMS service rewards gone AWOL?
8:55AM Seamus Byrne | Remember mobiK, the free (ad-based) online SMS service? We liked it when we first saw it. Then there was a weird outage for about a week at the end of August. But that was only weird. Next we had a reader complain that after earning enough K (mobiK reward points) to cash in for an MP3 player, their request to claim the reward was getting zero response. Now that’s more than weird. That’s starting to stink up the joint.
Some further checking seems to be confirming that something is a little wonky donkey at mobiK’s Australian office. We’re doing some legwork to find out more today. For now, it’s still a free SMS service – not bad in its own right. But those K aren’t looking too valuable. More » 
MobiK: Free ad-based SMS service, plus rewards, goes live (UPDATE: SHONK FACTOR 5)
11:10AM Seamus Byrne | A new ad-based free messaging service has just gone live here in Australia (ie, at 10am today), called MobiK. Two big features: 1) free text messaging through a web interface and 2) a rewards program based on participating in research, activities and getting friends to join (y’know, like Amway!)
One thing is clear, you’re going to need a critical mass of friends on board to make it worth the effort, but once you do you could score everything from easier to reach rewards like recharge cards and ringtones, up to iPods and consoles.
Of course, there are many pros and cons…
UPDATE (17-09-07): After a weird outage and then a reader complaint about unfulfilled reward claims, we’ve done some checking and it seems mobiK has recently gone what could be best described as ‘pear-shaped’. If you can still use this at time of reading, best to only use as a free SMS source — don’t do it for the ‘K’. We’ll have more news in a new post when we can confirm exactly what is going down. -SB More » 