Download a digital poppy to your phone

OVER HERE in Blighty, we remember members of the Armed Forces lost during conflicts by wearing an artificial poppy. Now you can download one to a mobile phone rather than having to find a human vendor.

In practice, however, downloading the poppy – which you use as a wallpaper – proved more difficult than expected. In theory you send a test with the word 'poppy' to 85099.

Subsequently, you'll receive a text message containing a URL which takes you to the download site. This will only work if your handset supports WAP but they all do these days.

This is when the INQ began to hit problems. 3's network didn't recognise the site, so it wasn't possible to affect a download. The INQ's sure the block isn't deliberate.

Next we tried Vodafone. This time we reached the site but the payment system – Pay for it – would let us make the purchase.
Finally, we managed too get through on an Orange phone. The literature says that downloading the poppy donates £1.50 to the requisite charity – the British Legion. Yet the site which hosts this app – Pocketworld – charges £3.

The INQ hopes Pocketworld isn't benefiting financially from every Poppy downloaded in this way.

There's another way to download the poppy and that is to stand near a Max Box kiosk. We assume this means you can download the poppy via Bluetooth but the literature is a bit unclear on this point.

Facebook fans will be please to learn that you can add a poppy app to your home page and send your friends a virtual poppy for free.

Incidentally, if you succeed in download the poppy to your phone, you should also receive a text message to remind you about the minutes silence a 11am on the 11^th of November (11.11.11).

More ways to support the poppy appeal can be found on the British Legion site.

A bit of background. The poppy was chosen as a memento for lost soldiers because they grew in abundance in the killing fields of Flanders during WW1. µ

L'INQ
The Poppy Appeal