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The Mobile Minute is back with a video explaining the M-PESA mobile money service, news about maternal health insurance via mobiles, an app that helps users determine if a hybrid or plug-in car will be useful to their lives, a report on why you might want to turn off the geo-tagging system on your mobile, and FailFaire in The New York Times. 

• Through first-hand accounts from users, this short video offers a look at how the M-PESA mobile money transfer system works, and why it's been so successful in Kenya. 

• In Kenya, a maternal health insurance plan is gaining traction among users - and it's run entirely over mobile phones. Designed by Changamka MicrcoHealth Limited and piloted through the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi, the system allows users to transfer money via M-PESA to a prepaid smart card; when pregnant women visit the hospital to give birth, the hospital fees are taken out of the card so they families aren't hit with a big fee all at once. 

• The beta version of an environmental sensing app that helps users determine how an environmentally-friendly car could have an impact on their commute is out. AltTransport reports, "The program [...] uses the embedded GPS feature on your smart phone to see all the routes you’ve traveled on through the past couple of days and gives you illustrations on how a plug-in vehicle would have performed on the same roads."

• Curious about how much information your mobile photos reveal? This piece on geotagged photos shows why it might be a good idea to turn off the automatic geotagging feature on your phone. 

• The New York Times wrote a piece on FailFaire, the event that brings together M4D and M4C practitioners to talk about projects that have failed in order to learn from their mistakes. Read here to see how to host your own FailFaire. 

[Mobile Minute Disclaimer: The Mobile Minute is a quick round-up of interesting stories that have come across our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep you informed of the rapid pace of innovation. Read them and enjoy them, but know that we have not deeply investigated these news items. For more in-depth information about the ever-growing field of mobile tech for social change, check out our blog posts, white papers and research, how-tos, and case studies.]

Image courtesy Flickr user QiFei