Digital shoplifiting in Japan, a growing concern for publishers

The Hindustan Times reports that Japanese publishers plan on launching a campaign this week to stop digital shoplifters -- people who visit book stores to photograph magazine pages with their cellphones rather than make a purchase.

"Digital shoplifting is becoming a big problem as camera-equipped mobile handsets are spreading fast and their quality is improving greatly, said an official at the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, Kenji Takahashi.

It's still unclear whether digital shoplifting is tantamount to a crime as the copyright law only covers use of information for commercial purposes.

In a related article in the BBC picked up on Smart Mobs, Toky correspondent Quentin Sommerville describes how young girls take pictures of hair styles in fashion magazines and send them off to their friends to know what they think. The publishers of those magazines are not happy and feel they are being cheated out of valuable sales. "Together with Japan's phone companies, they are issuing stern posters which warn shoppers to be careful of their "magazine manners".

Cheating on exams with picture phones

After hearing about students cheating by SMS, students have been caught using camera phone during exams.

According to the Strait Times, "students have sent questions to friends outside school by e-mail, SMS, and even by photograph using third-generation mobile phones. They receive answers the same way, or through hidden earpieces.

As a preventive measure, electronic scanners will be used to stop students cheating in O-level and A-level exams by using Internet-enabled mobile phones which can receive answers through e-mail, pictures and text messages".

Britain's biggest examination board, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, reported 254 cases of mobile phone cheating this year. More than half of the cheats were disqualified. In some cases, parents at home had supplied answers through mobile phones.

England is not the only country were students have been caught cheating with their cell phones. It's been a growing concern in other countries as well.

Streaming Tennis Anyone?

From MMSMemo : "Sportinglife, the ukbetting-owned sports portal, has teamed up with mobile services firm Bango.net to provide users with live updates and images from Winbledon streamed to their mobile phones, so long as they own a Nokia 7650 or 3650".

RealNetworks jumps onto Vodafone

The software maker signs a deal with Vodafone to power the audio and video playback on certain handsets for subscribers to the U.K. cell phone giant's rich media service, per News.com.

"The deal allows Vodafone to use RealNetworks' media playback technology for its Vodafone Live service, which provides subscribers with ring tones, interactive games and, eventually, audio and video content. The cellular company plans to deliver media content encoded in technology from RealNetworks, among others, to subscribers in Europe by the beginning of next year.

Vodafone will initially offer these features on Nokia's Series 60-based phones, according to a RealNetworks representative.

Paedophiles set picture phone trap

The UK Home Office warns of 'horrifying implications' as paedophiles are using the latest mobile phone technology to target schoolchildren, according to an article in The Guardian.

"In Japan, where use of the new phones is widespread, the incidence of child abuse has rocketed, with more than 90 per cent of cases involving an initial contact made by the child from their phone".

According to Rachel O'Connell, a member of a Home Office task force, working on internet protection and legislation against 'grooming' - the cultivating of internet relationships with children to lure them into sexual activity - "these phones are altering how paedophiles gain access to children and how they groom, blackmail and coerce them into doing terrible things".

There have been some other articles in Picturephoning on this issue. See Hardcore Child Porn Peddled by Camera Phones, where picture messaging phones with images of children being abused were found by the police in a raid in Central Scotland. And a company which might have the answer in Mobile technology company launches «Content Guardian», describing the launch of a product designed to protect mobile phone users from unsolicited and pornographic content.

24 Hours of moblogging

Moblogging.org reports on Raphael Grignani's media-diary.net experimental moblogging project, started January 24, consisting of people located in different parts of the globe, mobloging during 24 hours, and publishing all the posts on a single page. Two projects are already online, "Spring in Asia and Daily Helsinky. The 3rd one, which is called 24, will happen on July 4th.

Anyone remember "24 Hours in Cyberspace"? On a single day--February 8, 1996--thousands of photographers, including 100 of the world's top photojournalists, documented how the Internet was changing people's lives. The photographs were displayed on a website in real time and a wonderful book was published with one of the most moving descriptions of the Internet ever written, by Marc Andreessen, in the book's preface.

Cell Phone to printer

Hewlett-Packard has released an application to let users to print content directly from their Nokia handsets. The Phone2Print software currently works with only two Bluetooth-enabled devices from Nokia and HP - the Nokia 3650 handset and HP Deskjet 450 mobile printer., according to Silicon.com via Gizmodo.

For other cell phone printers, check out this category in Picturephoning.

Cell phone ban drives no benefits

More than 18 months since New York State banned hand-held cell phone use while driving, there is no data indicating that the ban has reduced accidents there, according to state and federal safety experts, reports MSNBC via

Phone Movie Sha-mail Users Top 2 Million

J-Phone announced that as of June 24, the number of subscribers to its video messaging service known as Movie Sha-Mail passed the 2 million mark, a little over a year after introducing the service in March 2002.

Like Sha-Mail, Movie's success can be partly attributed to its ease-of-use. With a built-in mobile camera, a user can take a short video of up to 5 seconds with audio, attach the video to an e-mail called a "Super Mail" and then send it off. Receivers of the e-mail can then instantly open the file for playback", according to 3G

Encrypting picture messaging

Picked up on MMS Memo, a new application called GoSafe which enables cell phone users to send and read encrypted picture messages.

Had heard about previously of a company which has developped software called Fortress SMS, enabling users to encrypt text messages

New Photo Blog on the Block

Fotopages has launched, allowing camera phone users to create their own fotolog in a few simple steps and post their snapshots online. Their most famous photoblogger so far? Everyone's favorite Iraqi, Salam Pax, who has uploaded shots from Baghdad. My own claim to fame; an e-mail interview last March with Iraq's most famous blogger.

Picture phones potential is growing -- both for pleasure and business users

Peter Wilson for The Vancouver Sun has an interesting round-up on the camera phone trend:

-- According to the Mobinet Index, 83 per cent of people surveyed in 15 countries have heard about photo messaging on cell phones.

-- While sales are growing, the biggest increase in volume of camera phones sold is expected by 2004.

-- Some 16 million camera phones were sold worldwide in 2002 and this, according to research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, will rise to 147 million by 2007.

-- Of the phones shipped now, 80 per cent or more of people who have bought them are sending pictures regularly as post cards or to Web logs. "And they're sending one or two [pictures] a week.

-- Sixty-five per cent of them are actually sending multiples during the week. And, in fact, some of the users are generating an average of 25 or more pictures per month."

Good grief...

It what is believed to be the first allegation of its type to make it to the Singapore courts, a newspaper deliveryman has been accused of attempting to secretly photograph a woman in a public toilet cubicle using his Nokia 3650 picture phone, according to The Straits Times.

Are camera phones ready for a close-up?

CNN reports on the wonder and misuse of camera phones and warns investors and cellular companies to "gird themselves for an impending battle with consumers, courts, and possibly even Congress over questions of privacy and the proper and improper uses of these phones".

With a predicted 1.9 million camera phones sold in America this year (other reports predict as many as 6 million units sold) use of camera phones in the US is not yet widespread enough for these issues to reach legislators' desks as they have in Italy, Australia, Switzerland or Saudia Arabia, but companies should begin preparing for the negative PR backlash the sites and stories will generate.

And excellent Mike Masnick in Techdirt Wireless gets worried when governments come out with new laws to specifically deal with a certain type of technology.

Snap and Serve

Time magazine writes about phone-cam blogs popping up all over the Web with the latest figures showing 3 to 6 million phone cams expected to sell in the US this year. These instant online photo albums document personal outings - a day at the beach or a night at a club, people's pets, and there is even an interactive phone-cam blog were contestants are challenged to photograph a series of items.

AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS will offer password-protected online photo albums for up to $15 a month and the company to watch out for, Textamerica.com, lets people create public phone-cam blogs for free and will soon be offering business applications.

Mobile video services launch in Spain

Barcelona-based Cyberclick Agents, Spain's leading digital media company, has launched an exciting new mobile video-based entertainment application with Telefonica Moviles Espana which delivers movie video clips, according to an article in Hispanic Business.

Camera phones could kick off a new wave of visual communication and reshape the photo business

Richard Mullins and Ben Rand for the Democrat and Chronicle ponder on the use of picture phones by citizens and businesses. Young people armed with cameras are giving pause to those who make a living selling tickets to live events. Concert promotors back from Europe describe how when the lights go on and the band comes out, thousands of hands go up in the air, all with their cell phones, like the Wave, but with camera phones. (Fans in Finland have raised their cell phones at Nylon Beat concerts, playing the tune of a newly released single's ringtone), but Rochester's largest indoor performance hall is considering adding cell phones to the list of prohibited items at certain events such as the upcoming PGA Championship.

Tom Accorso, 32, of Chili interviewed for this article explains how he was able to send picture of a party to a girlfriend sick at home, while it was happening - the singing, the cake - and professionnally, as his job consists of sealing driveways, he started taking pictures of any pre-existing tar splatters on a customer's garage or house. "Just so if a customer asks, I can say, "Here, look, that was there before I started."

Camera phones have also given a huge boost to the phenomenon of online photo diaries for digital pictures, such as photoblogs.org and fotolog.net, that collect thousands of photographs from digital camera users".

And Nokia has been busy making deals with Kodak, for allowing Nokia users to store, print and share digital pictures online, with Carphone Warehouse, for instant photo kiosk-services to be launched in their stores and more than 1,500 Kodak Picture Makers kiosks have rolled out across the Asia Pacific

photoblogs.org

Photoblogs.org, developped by Rannie Turingan of Toronto, is a directory and the place to go to find high-quality photoblogs, updated thanks to digital cameras and picture phones. Nearly 1600 are indexed to date and listed by country, with a «Top 100», determined by online voters. Mr. Turingan is also behind the Photoblogies award held last February.

Football clips for cell phone screens

BBC Technology has put together a highly tuned process for turning full-screen football coverage into clips suitable for a tiny mobile phone. "While the process of gathering the material is not really different from editing a package for TV, it's what we do with the footage once we've decided on which clip to use that matters," explained Stepthen Desmond, video content producer for Hutchison's 3 arm at BBC Technology, in an interview for vnunet reported by MMS Memo.

GMTV launches first fully commercial MMS service

"GMTV, Europe's biggest breakfast show, launched this week one of the first fully commercial MMS services tied in to broadcast content. The service is also said to be the first third-party MMS content delivered directly, without the need for WAP Push. The innovative service allows viewers to register to receive regular MMS alerts containing photo and text recipes from the week's 'One Minute' feature. 'This is a first in terms of pure MMS delivery systems that bypass the operator's MMS". From newmediazero via MMS Memo.

Jamming cell phone signals in changing rooms, an option to banning?

Yet another article, this time by MSNBC, rounding up bans worldwide on mobile phones in swimming pools and changing rooms or, as in the extreme case of Saudia Arabia, forbidding them altogether throughout the kingdom. This article is interesting because it brings up a new angle, the option of installing (costly) jamming devices, which would scramble radio signals so that cellular phones could not be used at all in changing areas, preventing paedophile or other mal intentioned photographers.

Known as GSM jamming, this system exists in theaters in Australia and Japan to prevent cell phone ringing, but is illegal in Great-Britain, the US and other countries as it can create interference with emergency communication signals. Yet as early as 2001, cell phone jamming devices were reported a booming business.

Voyeur camera phones

An elementary school teacher in Shimonoseki Japan who used his camera-equipped cell phone to take a snapshot up a girl's skirt has resigned in disgrace after being suspended for three months, reports the Mainichi Daily News.

Not as appalling because the incidents reported last year did not mention children and sounded more like a prank, Japense train commuters were caught snapping pictures under women's skirts. (cf You're in the picture). Japan does not take this sort of thing lightly though, first-time offenders generally face a fine of as much as a $ 4'000 or six months in jail, according to the HIT who also interestingly, mentions "that mobile operators such as J-Phone, mindful of such dangers, have set up the phones so that releasing the shutter causes the phone to emit words like "Cheese!" or "Click!" Still, the sound may not be noticed in noisy public places such as stations, and some underground technology shops offer to undo the sound trigger for a price".

Camera phone users in Japan

NTT DoCoMo, the world's second-largest mobile-phone operator, said subscribers to its camera-equipped mobile-phone service exceeded 10 million users in April, according to Bloomberg.

J-Phone, the British affiliate of Vodafone, announced Thursday to have broken the 10 million user barrier with picture phone users now representing 70% of all subscribers to J-Phone service. cf Textually/fr.

Zingy to launch video clip service

According to a release in PRNewswire, New York based wireless entertainment company Zingy, will be launching a subscription-based service this summer that gives its nearly two million registered users the opportunity to upload their own video clips to zingy.com and then send those clips to their Java-enabled mobile phones.

Cell phones save long-distance relationships

In an entry by Joko Taniguchi in Keitai Log - an occasional Web diary by a group of Tokyo college students who are researching the changing role of cell phones - "cell phones give people in a long-distance relationship the illusion of closeness, no matter how far they are actually apart. In addition, the recent developments in camera-equipped cell phones and television phones help them feel even closer to each other. Seeing what a significant other is doing and seeing through photo e-mails allow people to feel more connected to their boyfriend or girlfriend."

Camera phones banned in Australia's courtrooms

The Age reports on Victoria's Supreme and county courts which are reviewing security measures and considering banning mobile phones to safeguard the identities of key witnesses, within their precincts.

According to The Age, "in England, camera phones are banned near courts, including in streets nearby, because of the risk to key witnesses and police of being identified by standover men". And recently, a man was arrested and fined £250.- for taking a picture of a defendant in court (at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, south Wales), using a mobile phone. The man had pointed the phone towards the dock when a defendant was in it. cf Arrested for taking a picture in court.

Ignominy

In horifying story reported by smh.com.au, "a woman raped in the men's room of a British pub was filmed by onlookers using their video mobile phones". According to an article in the BBC, two men have come forward and presented themselves to the police.

Nokia's M2M module

Too technical for me, but I'm passing the information along: "Nokia introduces first GSM module for machine-to-machine applications. The Nokia 12 GSM module is a compact and intelligent GSM module for machine-to-machine, mobile-to-machine and machine-to-mobile (M2M) applications and other wireless solutions that can be integrated into devices during assembly". According to CommsDesign. See also Nokia's M2M product page.

Picture phones forbidden in public pools in Swiss Germany

Following Australia and Norway, the Swiss German part of Switzerland is now banning picture phones from public pools and beaches. Articles have appeared in both German language NZZ and 20min.ch, reports boingboing.

Mobile Cameras and the Nature of Snapshots

A fun phone phone shot on Dan Gillmore's weblog, of a workshop group, where everyone is taking a picture of Dan Gillmore, taking a picture of the group. And they are all doing it with camera-phones.

"I'm beginning to understand the difference one of these makes. The camera-phone is a device for snapshots. My "real" camera, which certainly needs upgrading, takes photographs. The lower quality of the camera in the phone is not necessarily a permanent condition, but the one-handed click-and-done way you take pictures may continue to divide the realms to some degree."