May 15, 2008
Teenager charged with felony in sending nude cell photos
A 16-year-old West Jordan High School student is the latest teenager to face felony charges after allegedly sending nude photos of himself over a cell phone to several female students. The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
"The boy was charged in 3rd District Juvenile Court this month in connection with allegedly sending a 16-year-old girl nude pictures of himself and texts about "sexual matters," according to charging documents. He's facing three counts of dealing in material harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony."
Samsung joins forces with LG, Harris on mobile TV
Samsung Electronics is combining efforts with fellow Korean electronics maker LG Electronics to develop a new standard for mobile TV broadcasts, the companies announced Wednesday.
Their technology will be competing with two others to become the standard for mobile TV, a decision that rests with the TV industry's technical standards-setting body for digital broadcasts.
[via Reuters]
May 13, 2008
Google fuzzes out faces in privacy push
Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service.
Google will shortly previewed the face-blurring technology on the Street View images found on its Manhattan maps. Detail of the changes were announced on an official Google blog today.
May 11, 2008
Are cellphones ruining the concert experience?
What if you gave a concert and the crowd refused to watch? Asks The Dallas Morning News.
"It's not as far-fetched as it seems. As more and more concertgoers fiddle with cellphone cameras and fidget with BlackBerries, some people say mobile technology is ruining the concert experience.
"It's extraordinarily irritating," says Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. "All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light."
"It's like they're not even there," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. "It's like, 'Why don't you put that away and listen to the music?'
Its not just a case of cranky baby boomers griping about the young and the restless. Plenty of younger artists and fans are also getting fed up with the tech intrusion.
"As a performer, it's frustrating to look out and see a sea of cellphones instead of faces," says Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein.
"There's definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment."
3G services 'largely unused' in Australia
A third of Australian consumers own a 3G-capable phone but two thirds of these do not use the available 3G services, a new report, part of the Australian Communications and Media Authority Telecommunications Today series, has revealed. [via
Stuff.co.nz]
"Half of those who owned a 3G phone but did not use the 3G services - which include mobile internet, video calling and music streaming - had no interest in them. Others cited high costs and lack of knowledge on how to access the services.
... The low use of 3G services among those with 3G-capable mobiles was due to lack of knowledge and the historically high costs.
"Some people wouldn't even know if they're on 3G or not ... they want an [Nokia] N95 because it can play videos or has a good camera - they get a 3G phone for the features not for the fact that it's 3G," said Mark Novosel, telecommunications market analyst at IDC.
May 8, 2008
NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones
NBC is streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in Quicktime, for free, with no ads.
[via Gizmodo]
May 7, 2008
Karaoke app launched on iPhone
TTuneWiki, an Israeli-based startup, launched the iLyric Player in December, a karaoke-like application that synchronizes and scrolls lyrics, real time, in multiple languages (English, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean). VentureBeat reports.
"Users enjoy music on the iPhone, iPod touch, or a personal computer and in true Wiki fashion, all lyrics are user generated and edited.
Yesterday, the company posted a video of the TuneWiki application, running on the Android platform emulator. The app for Android still plays music with the ability to play, edit and translate karaoke-like synchronized lyrics, subtitled on video and audio.
For Android, however, users can build a virtual media library that sits on the Android file system and can connect directly to YouTube, Yahoo Music, Imeem or a friend’s playlist."
May 6, 2008
Posing Like TV Series Characters
Saturday night, my son and his friends thought the lighting in the kitchen was interesting. So they took some pictures, posing like TV series' characters on the covers of DVDs. I think they're just great! A new fad? In all honesty, they didn't use a cameraphone, but they could have. A couple more pictures here.
Better Reading on the Small Screen
A research project could help people transfer paper documents to their phones and read them more easily. MIT Technology Review reports.
"In a recent demonstration, researchers showed how the technology, called Seamless Documents, could store a scanned document in a database and analyze its structure and content.
The analysis identifies sections and paragraphs, and automatically extracts key phrases that summarize the sections. So when a person pulls up the document on a phone, she can jump to a section labeled with a keyword, or just skip to the last paragraph on a page.
In addition, as the user scrolls through the document, software on the phone automatically resizes images, section headers, and plain text, as different elements of the document layout come into view."
May 5, 2008
Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.
Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels. The New York Times reports.
"... Japan is the leader in direct mobile television, with 20 million cellphones equipped with TV receivers, followed by South Korea with 8.2 million, according to In-Stat, a research and consulting firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In-Stat estimated that there were 29.7 million mobile TV viewers worldwide at the end of 2007. That is expected to almost double, to 56.9 million, at the end of 2008, driven by growth in Japan.
Italy has been an early leader in Europe, with service beginning in 2006. The largest mobile TV broadcaster on the Continent is 3 Italia, a cellular operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, with 800,000 customers, about 10 percent of its total phone clients. The million Italian viewers watch up to a dozen channels."
May 3, 2008
Motorola Kodak Camera Phone Outted
Pictures have surfaced of a new cameraphone from Motorola that promises to take on Sony Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Samsung in the cameraphone stakes. Pocket-Lint reports.
"Teaming up with Kodak, the phone will sport a 5 megapixel sensor and Kodak branding.
"They’ve made a cameraphone together that is almost ready for release – apparently the quality is supposedly awesome", an undisclosed source within Motorola told Pocket-lint.
The phone’s rumoured to be called the Motozine ZN5, Chinese-language site Keysj claims. "
More pictures on Gizmodo.
May 2, 2008
Democrat wants to require disability-friendly Internet phones, video
At the moment, most TVs and telephones must be outfitted with special features for people with hearing, vision, and speech impairments under U.S. law.
Now an influential Democratic congressman wants to expand those requirements to their Internet counterparts. NewsBlog reports.
"The bill (PDF) being drafted by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) would require, at least in some cases, dramatic changes in the way Internet phone- and video-related products are designed, while making it more difficult than under existing law for companies to claim exemptions from those requirements."
May 1, 2008
AT&T launches TV service on new phones, rivaling Verizon
AT&T Inc. is launching its new video service for cell phones Sunday on two phones, and will charge $15 per month for 10 channels. AT&T will have two exclusive channels on the service, it said Thursday. The Associated Press reports.
"AT&T already has a mobile video service called CV, which is based on different technology. It works like Internet video, providing short clips on demand.
This new service is more like regular TV broadcasts, constantly streaming shows on airwaves that run alongside regular cell-phone spectrum. Judging by V Cast Mobile TV, which is available on four phones, the quality is much higher than on-demand cell-phone clips.
... The only AT&T handsets that will initially work with the service are the ones that are going on sale Sunday: the LG Vu, a touch screen phone and the Samsung Access."
Cellphones used for medical imaging?
A team of engineers at the University of California at Berkeley has developed a technique for transmitting medical images via cellphones.
This potentially could bring medical imaging to the 'three-quarters of the world's population which has no access to ultrasounds, X-rays, magnetic resonance images, and other medical imaging technology.'
The lead researcher said that this new system would make imaging technology inexpensive and accessible in non-industrialized countries.
Big Moving Pictures
Big Moving Pictures (BMP) is a rolling television network – the company provides everything that a conventional television network does (content, distribution, sales) but without a signal that goes to your home... instead, the ‘signal’ comes to you directly at major outdoor events, via large video screens and sound systems. And soon, even to your video-equipped mobile phone and the Web.
The BMP production integrates tightly with the event you’re attending, including packaged content about the performers or competitors, information about the day’s program, and live camera shots from planes, car, motorcycles, boats and even skydivers! All with terrific music, narration and the feeling that you’re experiencing something truly powerful and exciting.
[via Gizmag]
Apple iTunes to compete "day-and-date" with DVD releases
Apple is expected to announce today an across-the-board deal to sell new release films at its iTunes Store. The deal is said to allow Apple to offer a "broad slate of top-shelf films" day-and-date with home video releases.
"... The deal includes Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, New Line and more -- all of which are currently inked to deliver rentals through iTunes. MGM is not part of the deal.
[via engadget]
April 29, 2008
Who's That Girl on your mobile phone?
Madonna fans in the UK and 13 other countries will be able to watch her perform live in New York on their mobile phones, reports scotsman.
"Streamed live from the Roseland Ballroom, the concert will celebrate the release of the star's new album, Hard Candy.
Tomorrow's performance will be the first time Madonna plays live songs from her new album.
Vodafone customers will have access to the show via their mobile phones and computers."
CinemaNow to offer movie orders via cell phone
Privately held digital entertainment provider CinemaNow said on Tuesday that U.S. consumers would be able to use their cell phones to view movie trailers and order full-length movies to watch on their home television or computer through its mobile website.
The service, offered on Web-capable phones at href="http://uvumobile.mobi/cn">http://uvumobile.mobi/cn, would let U.S. consumers immediately buy or rent a movie when they hear about a new offering while they are out with friends.
[via Reuters]
April 28, 2008
Video sorting service launched on Sony Ericsson phones
Sony Ericsson has signed up to a mobile video search service that launched at the beginning of this month. Pocket-Lint reports.
"Via vtap, Sony Ericsson customers will now be able to access more than 150 million web videos on their phones.
The free service, which will be accessible though Sony Ericsson’s Fun & Downloads web portal, allows users to personalise the videos they see.
It trawls the web to find videos that match users' interests from the like of YouTube, DailyMotion, and MySpace
Videos are grouped together in the vtap browser into folders but users can also collect, organise and share videos, while vtap saves favourites.
The service is available immediately for Sony Ericsson Java Platform 8 (JP8) enabled handsets models: Z770i, K850i, W910i, K660i, W890i."
Take a Picture of an Ad, Earn a Reward
Two men’s magazines are trying to engage their readers more — by increasing their cellphone bills, reports The New York Times.
"Rolling Stone and Men’s Health are both testing programs in which readers can take cameraphone pictures of icons on ads, then send them to a certain number. In exchange, they’ll receive more information or an offer from the advertiser."
April 26, 2008
Motorola developing mobile movie service
Motorola is developing a movie store for its phones, claims UK trade magazine New Media Age via electronista.
"An alleged source at partner studio Paramount says that Motorola is in the "late stages" of offering a service that would offer full-length movies pre-formatted for Motorola's more media-friendly devices.
Paramount is currently the only studio known to be involved, though others are allegedly in talks to add their own catalogs.
The service is labeled as a "breakthrough," but would offer virtually the same means of loading media as for the iPhone; rather than download videos directly to the phone, users first download videos through the computer and sideload (transfer) the content to the phone through sync software.
The report doesn't indicate whether Motorola will offer movies for rent or purchase and mentions no pricing. However, a launch is due as soon as late May."
[via FierceMobileContent]
April 25, 2008
Your Mom's Pic on Time's Square Screen for Mother's Day
For $100 you can get your mom’s picture and a message for her on the giant Reuters screen at Times Square, for 5 seconds, thanks to FameSlot.
"People who want to choose this gift option have a 15 minute time window where they can display their mother’s picture along with their message for the allotted time.
You will also get a 5 inch x7 inch photo print of the a href="http://w3.kinemo.com/p/fameslot/">FameSlot, sent directly to her.
Along with which she will also get a notice on her mobile phone 10 minutes before the big moment. And not only this, your mom also gets to download a picture of herself on her mobile phone.
[via Gizmodiva]
Sprint Employee Sends Nude Photos to Customer's Phone
A Dayton woman is suing a Dayton man and Sprint Nextel, claiming she received unsolicited text messages and nude digital photos of the man soon after he exchanged her Nextel telephone for a Sprint telephone at The Sprint Store in Miamisburg.
[via Switched by engadget]
