In the important 25-34 age group there are reported to be as many as 1,463,000 more men than there are women!

Great if you’re a lady looking for a guy but not so great if you’re one of the guys!

So what’s our appeal to the fairer sex? I can only presume that it’s that we offer a safe and responsible community where everyone is real and as described and with moderation of the messages to stop the scammers and spammers in their tracks.

What are you waiting for? Start taking the waiting out of Dating, and as if you needed it click here for a free credit offer worth of £5 from UK Mobile Retailer Phones 4U to get you started!

Still not intrigued enough to click the link? OK but you’re missing out on the new season underwear range being modelled by Lara Stone.

Here’s my favorite…

I can’t wait to watch the parody’s that will no doubt be made. Imagine in this ad if at the beginning the guy was a real ass and said in a really geeky accent to his friends:

“hey guys I just had a great idea! You all be quiet I’m going to use FaceTime on my iPhone 4 to break up with my long term girlfriend… watch me!“

According to Steve Jobs the new feature will only work on WiFi for the rest of 2010, but as we’re definitely not ones to stand in the way of any mobile video dating fun we’ve not only opened the service up to owners of the first iPhone that can handle Video Calling but we’ve done a deal with the UK’s most popular high street retailer to give anyone aged 18+ who preorders an iPhone 4 from Phones 4U £35 of free credit AND free validation! (validation won’t start until you’ve got your phone on June 24)

To claim your free £35 of credit to spend on 3G Dating simply visit our promotional page on the Phones4U.co.uk/3GDating website or call the sales hotline on 0800 0725 855 and preorder an iPhone 4 today.

Alternatively go in store and order/buy the phone, picture the receipt and send it to Admin@The3GDatingAgency.com (by MMS or attached to an email) and we’ll credit your account automatically.

At launch FaceTime calls can only be made between one iPhone 4 and another iPhone 4 so to let you know which other members you can date using FaceTime on your iPhone 4 we’ll be attaching a little Apple image onto members profile picture(s) so it’s obvious who can/can’t enjoy FaceTime dates on this hot new 3G smartphone:

In the lawsuit, mother of 2 Gabriella Nagy, is claiming $600,000 CAN from Rogers Wireless for the breach of contract and invasion of privacy that resulted from the exposure of her personal and private information (which led to her subsequent divorce and the loss of her job through stress).

“I want others to know what a big corporation has done. I trusted Rogers with my personal information. We had a contract — and agreement that put my life right in their hands“

This is the tip of a much bigger privacy/personal information problem that is looming for Appstores and Mobile Operators… attorney’s will be on the starting blocks for their next big easy pay day as mobile location services start reaching the mass market!

Cult of Mac reports on the latest criminal case involving Moses Virgil Campbell, a 44-year-old man, who used the “iDate-Personals Dating Service for Singles of Any Sex” app on his iPhone to groom, arrange to meet and eventually rape a 14 year old girl. The case follows a case in Canada involving Grindr (an App that received a marketing push from Stephen Fry and Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC TV show Top Gear) and another as yet unidentified iPhone social networking app in Phoenix.

Despite efforts from these services to market themselves as nothing more than flirtatious “games” exclusively for the use of adults aged 18+ a Washington Examiner interview with Tom Reed the President of the App maker (Netway) exposes the incompetent approach the company has taken to preventing grooming of minors: “the company looks for underage users by scanning profiles for words like “teen”. They also claim to review every uploaded picture to screen out “users who look like they’re too young to join”. The pedophile circumvented this weak effort by using a fake image and then simply sending his phone number through the site to the child.

Ground Truth have released results of a survey showing that half of all time spent on the Mobile Internet in the USA is spent on Social Networking Sites and that users of “Mobile-Specific social networks” are more engaged than users of PC-based social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, on mobile.

“While the popularity of mobile social networking is widely believed, this is the first time we have been able to truly quantify just how much the category is driving adoption of the Mobile Internet with actual usage metrics, the disparity of time spent between social networking and the next category, portals, which account for 59.83% and 13.65% of time spent respectively, is a vivid illustration of the impact social networking has on Mobile Internet traffic in a given week.”

Evan Neufeld, Vice President of Marketing, Ground Truth.

Amy L. Edwards in the Orlando Sentinel has a revealing article following the criminal case against William Ciccotto, a 51 year old pervert, who used MySpace to collect more than 3,500 pictures and 1,700 Videos of children aged 10-16 using a profile and text language that enabled him to befriend them as a fictitious “13 year old bisexual girl” named “Cindy Westin”.

The details where revealed in a 20 page plea agreement as he pleaded guilty in an Orlando Federal Court. Agents uncovered an all too familiar tale: after meeting through MySpace the pervert opened up unmoderated instant messaging dialogues and SMS texts through a “prepaid cell phone” that he set up to hide his identity.

The pervert used familiar text shorthand to build confidence before requesting pictures which he then traded with other sickos. He also asked the victims where they where so that he could go to that location and watch them. It is uncertain whether he physically attacked any of his victims.

Federal officials say parents and children who want to learn more about Internet safety should visit Project Safe Childhood and Safe Florida.
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I seriously wonder how long it will be before just being on a social networking site that has no proper means of age verification is regarded as a sign that you will tolerate this behaviour?

The Hello Dolly

There is nothing more annoying that someone whose initial message is just, “Hello.” What this says is, “I want to talk to you, but I can’t be bothered to think up a question nor is the conversation going to go in any direction. I am bored and want to talk.” That is fine, but even if you want to engage in the second type of freewheeling text message conversation, why not start off with at least a simple, “How are you doing?” That is a question with an answer. How do you respond to “Hello”? Then the pressure is on the receiver to come up with a question of their own unless they just write back, “Hi.” Now two messages in your monthly text message allotment was wasted on something completely meaningless because then the initial party has to follow up with something of substance to keep the conversation flowing. So just save your fucking “Hello.” It’s nice to be chatted with, but start it off right. Texting is about making life simpler, not wasting time and five characters.

The Bad Timer

Some people think “Oh, it’s too late/early to call and they’ll be asleep. I’ll just text.” Wrong! A phone that receives a text may still make a noise, and if you’re anything like me that noise is on the bedside table and will still wake you up. The same thing goes for, “She’s probably in a meeting/driving home from work/at a funeral so I’ll just send her a text and she can respond when she gets a chance.” No, silly, that is what email is for. If it’s not urgent enough for a call or a text and you don’t need a response right away, log onto your AOL account and send an email. We’ll thank you in our sleep.

The Abbreviator

Yes, typing on a phone—especially one without a QWERTY keyboard or predictive text software—can be really annoying and time consuming. But there is no excuse for a message like “C U 4 drnks l8r. thnx!” Is that the phonetic equivalent of the bleeps and blurbs that R2D2 makes when trying to stop the empire with C-3PO? Yeah, sure, we get what it means, but it just says that the sender is too lazy to spell out a whole word. You can’t put in vowels anymore? How is Pat Sajack going to earn his salary if people aren’t paying $250 for an A, E, I, O, U and sometimes a Y? If it’s important enough to say, it’s important enough that you include all the letters. K, thnx, bi!

The Double Down

This is the worst physical sensation in the world. When a friend texts and asks “What are you doing tonight?” and as you’re typing out a response, the phone tingles on your fingertips and you are interrupted with another message from the same person. What do to? Abandon your initial response to see what they added, or keep going and then read their second dispatch and then send another response and commit the same sin they just did? This conundrum is entirely the fault of the person who pressed “Send” way too fast. Texting is not instant messaging, okay? You have to say everything in one message at a time. If you think of an addendum, you must wait until after a response or else you are going to fuck up the puff-puff-give rotation of the text message roundelay. If this is a constant problem for you, stop and think about exactly what you want to say before you text, because if you keep making us send our message to drafts to never be revived because you totally changed the conversation with the second text, then we’re just going to stop responding altogether.

The Uh Huh

This is less about actual text messages and more about when they are sent. If someone is having a conversation with you in a bar or at the office or even in your living room and they take out their phone and read and respond to a text message while saying “Uh huh, uh huh” to the speaker, then they are a jerk (myself included because I do this all the time and it always makes me feel like punching myself in the nuts after I do it). They just make themselves look like some manic bobble head with a phone in his hand and unsuccessfully trying to multitask. We must choose between verbal communication and electronic. Let the text sit in your pocket for a bit and be courteous to the person who is in front of you. They have the right of way, as it were, in this situation. Once they are done speaking, say “excuse me, one second,” and then respond to the text. The person you are ignoring doesn’t care that you need to send a text, then care that you’re putting them off to talk to someone who isn’t even in the room.

The Unresponder

The great thing about texting is that the responses are supposed to be short and immediate, especially for the first kind of communication that is informational and directed. Sure, sometimes the person on the receiving end isn’t with their phone or is indisposed, but still, responses should come with relative promptness. Try to tell that to this type of monster who leaves questions dangling like a piece of food in a mustache. There is nothing to fill you with rage like sending a question and getting a text back either hours later or the next day like no time has passed. A little acknowledgment like, “Sorry, just got this” is all it takes to keep from being rude. The completely inexcusable thing is to not answer a question at all. It is the text message equivalent of being hung up on. The Unresponder is basically telling you that you aren’t worth talking to or he can’t be bothered with your questions. What should your response be? Never talking to him or her again.

The Cineplexer

It is never OK to text during a movie. Yes, it’s silent, but we can all still see your glowing little screen reflecting against your face. You paid $12 for this goddamn movie, pay fucking attention and stop ruining our experience!

The One-Word Wonder

Yes, text messages are supposed to be short, but there is such a thing as too short. Let’s say someone asks, “What are you doing tonight?” You respond, “Going bowling.” And they respond “Cool.” Well, what does that cool mean? Does it mean, “Cool. Have fun. Catch you later”? Does it mean, “Cool, I love bowling, invite me”? Does it mean “Cool. I’ll never talk to you again, you Dude wannabe.” Since the meaning isn’t entirely clear, there is no proper way to respond which means the conversation is dead. The other annoying one-worder is more of a “Thanks” or—even worse—a smiley emoticon. Say your friend asks where the restaurant is and you tell them and they respond “Thanks.” That is just a waste of everyone’s time. The only occasion when this is appropriate is when someone sends an unsolicited text full of information of directives. “The show starts at 8. I’ll meet you out front at 7:45,” they say out of the blue. You need to give them an “OK” or some acknowledgment that you received the info. But if you asked for it, then save your thumbs, your text message budget, and the Verizon global network, and thank your friend in person later.

The Never Call

There are some people who love to text so much that the phone part of their cell phone has become completely obsolete. They’re like Tobias Funke the never-nude from Arrested Development, except instead of refusing to take off the last bit of clothing for a completely irrational reason, they are scared of a wonderful and time-honored mode of communication. We’d much rather text most of the time too, but sometimes a call is necessary. The general rule should be if there are more than three questions or the problem can not be solved in three messages, then just pick up the phone and have a short conversation rather than waiting for the back and forth of texting. Also, if someone calls, don’t respond with a text unless the text says, “Can’t talk now. I’ll call later.” If one party thought the conversation was best had on the phone, just have it on the phone and save everyone a headache. After all, without phones there would be no texting, so do the old gods a favor and give them a sacrifice now and again.

An interesting story has developed after the mobile number of Lisa Edwards, a 39 year old married mother of 2 from Birmingham, inadvertently appeared in a scene on the British soap opera “EastEnders”.

So far there have been thousands of calls and texts at all sorts of inconvenient times making it impossible for the beautician to use the phone number for her work. Unsurprisingly several have been abusive.

What a great example of the reason why we designed The 3G Dating Agency so that your personal mobile number is never revealed. When you’re using your mobile to juggle your work/life balance the last thing you want is to be receiving unwanted contact from an unwelcome admirer!