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Two weeks ago I posted an article on ‘Women in Mobile‘, introducing the work of Sabine Allaeys with MiniFizz and received so much positive feedback I decided to make it a regular topic. I decided to dig deeper into the subject and ask those women themselves what drives them into the mobile space.

Here’s the first of a series of interviews with Darla Mack, mobile diva at heart, Editor in Chief of Cameraphone Reviews for Textamerica.com, Contributing Writer to TechieDiva.com and a lot more other stuff she’s testing, blogging, studying and contributing to…

So, no more time to waste, let’s hear it from Darla herself.

- What brought you into mobile?
Hmm, lets see. I guess it started when I started getting more into my mobile phone, which at the time I started out with a Nokia 3390. I started with learning about exterior customization, basically “pimpin” my phones LED’s and outer covers. Then I wanted more out of my phone so I drafted myself to HowardForums to see what others were into.

- Did you study technology?
I never studied technology but I’m thinking that maybe I should so I can play around with developing software instead of waiting for something great to come out.

- Are you more business-, social- or technical oriented into mobile?
I would say that I’m more social oriented I guess. Others would consider me more business oriented because I know things about T-Mobile plans products and services than most reps that work there. Hey, I’m a big player of the question and answer game.

- Can you explain a bit more about your work?
I wouldn’t call what I do work. I enjoy writing about different things, but recently its become a bit overwhelming. I was recently affiliated with PhoneMag as Associate Editor, and while I loved and enjoyed the opportunity of writing for them, I felt that it was taking away from me. I really couldn’t use my own style like on my blog. In the beginning for me, I started writing about phones and software that I liked and would recommend to others. Then I started reading Russell Beatties blog a lot and saw that he could get his point across and attract attention just by being real with his opinions and views on things. I admired that and decided to focus more on other aspects of mobile technology. Then as I searched more for female souls out there that shared the same aspects as me when it came to their phones I really didn’t find any. So, I decided to start my own. If people liked it then great, if not… well then I just had a place to write. There were a lot of Techie Diva’s out there such as my fav Cat Schwartz, but none of which just targeted mobiles. I’m glad that now I have come across a lot of great females who are just as nerdy with mobile stuff as I am.

- Do you make a full-time living with it (mobile only)?
If time allowed I would love to make a full-time living out of what I do. Although, I wouldn’t even know which direction to begin with that.

- Do you work from home?
I mainly work from home, but when a thought hits me I have no problem sticking in my portable drive to the schools computer!

- Does it influence your private life in a positive way?
It gets hard from time to time to actually write from home, hence the lateness of the replies this interview! I guess you can say that it affects my everyday life, but not in a negative way. I try my best to apply time management, but when you have 3 small kids running around needing you all the time it gets hard. That’s another reason that I moved on from PhoneMag. Me and deadlines just don’t get along! I’m also a full-time student so that takes away time as well. It’s just how to manage it that makes it matter.

- Which applications and services do you use (daily) on your phone?
I’m a big fan of Profimail and use it everyday! I love moblogging so I use both the Lifeblog app to post to Typepad, ShoZu to post to Flickr and Picoblogger to post to TextAmerica… and let me just say this. Yes you can always just email or send the images via MMS from your phone but why take away from your monthly allotment when you can use an app that won’t. I also use Fexplorer and I recommend that as the first thing anyone should install on a Nokia Symbian phone. Netfront is my favorite for browsing. Mobipocket is my favorite E-Book reader because it also provides the tools to make your own ebooks or estories. And of course Agile Messenger for chatting. There are several others but it depends on which phone I’m using J

- Would you use your device to interact with other machines?
Lol, funny you should say that. Another favorite app of mine is Control Freak and SysTray. Control Freak allows you to control your Winamp music player in the form of using your phone as a remote control. SysTray is an app that runs on your pc or laptop and the phone that allows you to receive and send text messages from the phone via your laptop or pc. I love having the ability of interacting my phone to my laptop. Just another excuse to make me lazy!

- Would you download mp3 tunes on your phone?
Absolutely. I’ve actually edited some of my mp3’s with a desktop program called Audacity to make my own ringtones. I think everyone in my phonebook has a distinct tone.

- What do film with your camera phone?
I’ve filmed my kids acting silly, certain moments that you just can’t miss and are glad that you caught.

- How do you see the future of mobile?
Mobile is definitely changing. Pretty soon we will be able to detach ourselves away from our pc’s or laptops and rely totally on our mobiles. How far we can go doesn’t depend on the mobile phone manufacturers though. I think that depends on the service providers. Especially here in the United States. It would be nice if both GSM and CDMA can work the same way and be able to offer their customers the future, if that makes any sense.

- What do you think about the Fixed-Mobile-Internet convergence?
I definitely see it as a positive thing for the mobile future. I noticed how fast in some areas that these takeovers and merges are happening. One minute Skype was mobile, then together with Ebay.

- What is gonna be the next big thing in mobile?
Hmm, that’s really hard to determine. Hell, to me the biggest thing in mobile was people ditching their landlines and just using their mobiles! J

- The mobile trend for next year?
Lol, I’m really not good with predictions, but if I hear or find out about it, you’ll know where to read it!

- Who inspires you professionally?
Professionally? There are several. But I think I was a big fan of Cat Schwartz at first. Also, Emily at textually.org. She truly is an inspiration.

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?
Mobhappy

- Favorite mobile device?
Anything Nokia!! Lol no seriously, my Nokia 6630

- Favorite mobile application/service?
Favorite application if I had to pick just one, would be Fexplorer. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my phones have messed up and had I not had this file manager to figure everything else I would have freaked!!

- Your ultimate dream scenario including mobile?
Lol, Nokia making a limited edition Pink phone just for me!

- Any links you would like to be included?
My Nokia Lifeblog

- Who should be here next?
Anina from anina.net

TAGS: women in mobile mobile woman m-trends.org mtrends