The dark side of human nature

Following the horrifying story earlier this summer, of onlookers using their video mobile phones to film a woman being raped in the men's room of a British pub, the ghoulish behaviour of people wanting to see the body of a young man on a railway line was condemned by members of the emergency services on the premises.

"Many even used video and camera mobile phones to capture the tragic scene at Stevenage railway station on Wednesday afternoon and text it to friends. And passengers on a 125 inter-city express train which was forced to stop at the station following the incident were even spotted leaving their carriages just to stare at the body and use their video mobiles to capture the tragedy, according to The Comet.

Radio 3 Plans Music Festival MMS Trial

Texting and music festivals is becoming a well established combination and this year's WOMAD, a music festival in Reading, was no exception. Messages are typically sent out to drive attendance at special BBC Radio 3 concerts at the festival, and to give tips on bands and DJ recommendations to watch out for."

Although photos and comments are currently invited by email and through the web site, Radio 3 plans to incorporate live picture messaging during festivals to and from the stage. Other plans include live p2p text chat based around different musical interests at the festival, according to 160characters.org

Send in a picture of your friends' worst hairstyles

Brylcreem, the male hairstyling brand, is launching the UK's first interactive picture messaging and online viral campaign, with MTV, for its Next Generation Ultra Gel brand.

Recipients of the promotion are encouraged to send in pictures of their friends' worst hairstyles, reports SMS: Business Gets the Message. Fun!

New Commerce System Uses Barcode on Picture Phones

According to ZDNet, a Japanese firm has announced technology that allows camera-phone users to buy a product just by snapping a picture of it.

More from NE Asia Onnline :"Mediastick Inc said it will offer a trial e-commerce service, called Mediastick System, to cellular phone users, especially users of NTT DoCoMo Inc's cellular phones with built-in cameras that have megapixel level resolution, in September.

Users can automatically place orders for goods they want to buy, just by scanning an MS-MARK barcode, printed on a shopping catalogue, for example, with a camera of the cellular phone.

In the system, scanned data is transmitted to a server on the side of Mediastick, where the server makes an order request form based on the data it received from a cellular phone customer and sends it to e-shop owners, along with the customer's personal information. At the end of the process, e-shops deliver the ordered goods to the customers".

Skipping Text; Going Straight to Multimedia Messaging

Steve Outing in E-Media Tidbits reports on an article in The Financial Times, about how the U.S. is so far behind Europe on adopting cell-phone text messaging that it may never catch on in a big way, as it's done in the last couple years in other parts of the world.

While acknowledging that Americans are belatedly making "texting" use popular at last, the writers predict that the U.S. market will likely move quickly to multimedia messaging. Picture messaging is likely to be the next big thing before texting has a chance to take off.

A glimpse of cell phone future in Korea

This article published in Yahoo News Korea, explores how camera phones are already a part of daily South Korean life. They are so prevelant that it's not unusual to see someone snapping a picture in the street and to protect their trade secrets, high tech companies are no longer allowing them on their premises.

More than four million camera-equipped phones have been sold over the past year (last year's total worldwide sales were just 14 million) and the latest phones offer not only communications but also video camera functions, MP3, access to the Internet and live television shows as well as settlements of transactions.

"A mobile phone can even show you how to get to your destination, for example, the closest gas station or whatever," said Lee Sang-chul, a 37-year-old businessman who pays an average $200 in mobile phone charges a month. "There are so many cool functions. It's part of my life."

Moon Ae-ran, a 50-year-old homemaker living in an upmarket apartment complex in the southern Seoul, also enjoys the convenience of her high-tech device. She can turn on a washing machine and other home appliances with her mobile phone even when she is out shopping. "How can I live without this thing?" Moon said.

Celeb sightings at Starbucks - Spoof

Xeni Jardin pointed out that Sean Bonner's celebrity sighting blog at Starbucks mentioned this weekend, is a parody/joke/hoax. The only requirement for submitting pictures is that they NOT be legit. No wonder Clint Eastwood looked so lonely.

New laws specifically drafted to react to a given type of new technology are rarely good for society and for business

In this thorough and well written article for the WSJ, Bruno Giussani looks into the privacy concerns raised by camera phones and how they are being used in totally unexpected ways. He reveals a story which didn't make the English speaking press, but was published in Swiss German tabloid SonntagsBlick, about illegal pictures taken of the inside of a secret army bunker in Switzerland, snapped with a camera phone.

The article concludes that though the wireless telecommunication industry is sitting in the hot seat with foreseeable privacy violation lawsuits, bans and government intervention, "recent history has taught us that new laws specifically drafted to react to a given type of new technology are rarely good for society and for business, as usage evolves in unforeseeable ways, and the unexpected cannot be captured into a sensible legal text.

Observing the trajectory of other disruptive technologies, we also see that over time society tends to adjust to the new situation and to develop appropriate answers". I'll go along with that.

Schools may ban camera phones

First it was public swimming pool and sports change rooms - now there's a call to ban camera-like mobile phones from schools.

The West Australian opposition wants the state government to restrict the use of new-generation mobile phones from schools, saying the ability of the devices to take and transmit photos threatens students' privacy, according to Australian IT.

Are Nokia's mobile devices being pushed on to us, or is demand being driven by us?

Business Report questions whether mobile devices are being pushed on to us, or are we the ones driving the demand.

According to initial market research in Japan, where it has been tested with the J-Power mobile operator, there seems to be a genuine demand for mobile imaging and messaging.

The article finishes off by saying "it is great business sense for Nokia and wireless carriers, as offering MMS should entail significant unexploited revenue potential for operators". And for the consumer, well, it's about being enticed into spending more money.

Another interesting point in this article is Nokia's perception of itself, which is not about making phone calls. "Voice, the company says, just happens to be one feature of a mobile device and just happened to be the first feature adopted for the cellphones". The real revolution will be MMS and video.

Celeb sightings at Starbucks

Sean Bonner documents celeb sightings at Starbucks around LA on his community photoblog called sighted.

You may just have to take their word for it as pictures are not all that clear, but it sure does look like Clint Eastwood sitting there having a latte, sort of. Other sightings: Halle Berry, Britney Spears, Matt Perry...

Update: My mistake, this blog is a spoof. cf picturephoning July 29.

Hutchison rapped for video quality in wireless ads

Moco News reports on the The Independent Television Commission (ITC) having received complaints from five viewers following 3's (Hutchison's UK arm) early TV ads featuring teaser clips. The ICT rapped the operator for misleading consumers. "Compared with the commercial, the sound and video image were disjointed and subject to breaking up. The colour was washed out and low in contrast and picture definition was not as clear as in the commercial."

This follows a recent story where a member of the public complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the picture in an ad for the Sharp electronics GX10, one of the UK's best selling picture phones, was of a much higher quality than the phone could produce. After being given a demonstration of the phone's in-built camera the ASA upheld the complaint". cf Phone images could mislead.

Welcome to 21st century journalism, where citizens armed with camera phones can instantly become reporters -- or publishers.

On Monday, June 23 a video of a 12-car pileup that occurred earlier that morning on the Tomei Expressway in Aichi Prefecture Japan, dominated the news on TV. It was not taken by a television crew, but by a truck driver who used his camera phone to shoot video of the wreckage.

"Welcome to 21st century journalism, where citizens armed with camera phones can instantly become reporters -- or publishers" according to the Online Journalism Review.

"Mobile cameras will be extraordinary tools for witnesses to capture events with more immediacy than news organizations can provide." -- Jeff Jarvis, author of Buzzmachine.com.

What 8 teenagers think about digital shoplifting

Japan Today's Sachie Kanda dropped in on some teenagers to find out what they thought of digital shoplifting - people who visit book stores to photograph magazine pages with their cellphones rather than make a purchase.

Makoto Saito, 20
"You've just given me a good idea. From now on, I do not need to stand in crowded bookstores for hours to read the latest magazines. I can read them at home on my cell phone. You know, I can't help thinking that you in the media are just making the situation worse. If you didn't make a big deal about it, not many people would know about digital shoplifting."

Koji Sakurada, 23
"I don't think the camera in a cell phone is good enough to take a photo of detailed information on a magazine page.

Yuri Endo, 16
" Personally, though, I don't have the nerve to take a photo at a bookstore because my cell phone makes a noise when I take a photo. Sometimes I hear the noise in a train and I think it must be some pervert."

[...]

Mobile Video Phones in Health Care May Disappoint

Wireless Healthcare is warning health providers and health vendors not to expect too much from the current generation of mobile videophones.

This comes a week after research, published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, revealed that remote consulting costs the NHS almost £100 per session more than conventional face to face appointments, reports 160characters.org

Consumers go mad for camera phones

From MMS Memo: "Smartphone sales have increased by almost 250 per cent since last year as people upgrade to handsets featuring digital cameras.

People have upgraded their handsets because manufacturers have found a "killer application" - the digital camera, according to research firm Canalys."

And in Bloomberg today: "Japan's mobile phone sales rose for a second consecutive quarter, increasing 34 percent as demand for new phones and upgrades to new models with built-in cameras increased, according to Gartner Japan Ltd., the market researcher's Tokyo- based unit." [...] "And camera phones rose to 74.5 percent of total handsets in Japan in the three months ended March 31, compared with 57.3 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31".

Bandai Unveils Portable Printer with Infrared Port for Cell Phones

Japanese Entertainment company Bandai has just unveiled it's first printer for picture phones due to launch in November, allowing users to print out photos on the spot. It does not require a cable or a memory card, data is transmitted wirelessly from an infrared port, according to NE Asia Online via Mobile Media Japan.

More on cell phone printers in Picturephoning.com.

Cameraphone FAQ

Howard Rheingold for Smart Mobs reports on a Camera-Phone FAQ from Japanese company eurotechnology.com.

"There are a number of useful applications. For example, when you have a meeting with someone in a location your partner does not know, you can send the picture of the meeting place, or the building in front of which you are going you meet together with the location. Some services in Japan allow you to send a map together with the photograph."

Every step you take

A very interesting article written by Nicole Manktelow for The Age, focuses on the increasing reliance of governments and businesses on surveillance technology.

"The joining of digital imagery and cell phones has reawakened questions about our laws - governing both privacy and telecommunications. [...] Whether images are viewed on screen or sent elsewhere via the net or mobile, there's one question that has privacy exponents particularly concerned: is Big Brother watching?"

AIBO sends images to cell phones

A system enabling Sony's (and favorite robot pet) Aibo to transmit images to mobile phones is being demonstrated at Wireless Japan 2003, an information technology exhibition in Tokyo running through Friday, reports Japan Today.

NEC's videocam handset makes European debut

Is this about "more is better"? Japanese handset maker NEC has teamed with U.K. mobile operator 3 to launch a new third generation handset featuring two built-in cameras, the NEC e808Y, according to Asia CNet.

The Panasonic P2102V comes with two cameras as well. One, located at the end of a hinge, you use to shoot digital stills. The other, located above the display, lets you conduct a business meeting via videoconference--from the palm of your hand", (cf previous post in picturephoning.com, "New camera phones with novel features").

Phone images could mislead

What you see is not always what you get. The BBC reports on an ad for Sharp electronics GX10, one of the UK's best selling picture phones, found guilty of exaggerating the picture quality produced by its built-in camera, a common practice in the industry.

"An ad for the picture messaging phone, popular amongst Vodafone customers, showed a clear photograph of a woman on the screen.

A member of the public complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the picture in the advert was of a much higher quality than the phone could produce.

After being given a demonstration of the phone's in-built camera the ASA upheld the complaint".

Penthouse models Pose in Nothing but Their Cellphones

By dangling its mobile phones from the necks of Penthouse models, some advertising experts say that Megafon -- the No. 3 mobile telephone operator -- is simply following an honorable Russian tradition, according to The Moscow Times.

"Megafon has yet to earn a profit and with nudity but Megafon executives may have found a way to stand out.

The new Megafon technologies make the fantasies with the magazine's heroines all the more picturesque. You can meet a girl on holiday, take photographs and send them to your mother.

This is not the first time Megafon has collaborated with Penthouse. The company's multimedia messaging service -- MMS Klubnichka, or "strawberry," which beams Penthouse images to subscribers' telephones -- has proven to be more popular than its MMS weather updates". No wonder.

Student films teacher berating classmate

Will teachers now have to bear with the added stress of having to account for their behaviour towards students -- who could be filming them?

Such an incident occured in a junior college in Singapore where a student reportedly used a camera phone to film a teacher berating a classmate for a poorly written paper, and tearing up the student's work.

There are several issues in the debate — the teacher's outburst, the student's behaviour in putting the incident on film and finally, his use of the Internet to air the case for further discussion, according to Channel News Asia.

Nokia's Fun Camera takes round pictures

Joey G. Alarilla for inq7 lets out a big cheer for the Nokia Fun Camera with a built in flash and unique round photos! This stand-alone camera saves your shots until you're ready to send them by MMS. Compatible with Nokia models 3100, 6100, 6610, 6800 and 7210.

MMS postcards from Swisscom

Following similar services launched recently in The Netherlands and Germany (cf previously posted MMS postcards sent by the post office), it's now Swisscom's turn to offer a service to send postcards by MMS, according to Norbert Specker for E-Media Tidbits. [Swisscom Press Release]

The future of digital cameras

From Gizmodo: Greg Elin has some smart observations on the future of digital cameras. Among them, that the rise of digital signifies a paradigm shift in the use of cameras away from being image capturing devices and towards data gathering devices.

LineFusion Offers MMS Camera

Asian based LineFusion, announced the launch of a new MMS service based on its iSnapper Virtual MMS Camera application.

iSnapper works like a digital camera, allowing users to "snap" any image on the PC screen and send it as a MMS message to mobile phones. Users can also add text and audio to be part of the MMS message but unlike MMS photo albums, iSnapper does not require its users to visit a web site, according to Unstrung.

Pocket size printer for cell phones

Print Dreams has recently announced the release of PrintBrush, the world's smallest mobile printer. It can fit in a shirt pocket and weights around 350 grams.

Internet content, SMS, pictures and other information is downloaded to the PrintBrushfrom PDAs, mobile phones and laptop computers through a Bluetooth wireless link. [Cellular News]

Fuji PhoneCam printer is shipping

Fuji is shipping it's small color printer that communicates with phonecams via infrared to output mobile snaps. The Battery will hold for 100 prints and it takes about 15 seconds for one print, according to MMS Memo via boingboing, via Gizmodo.