Car manufacturer launches photo contest

Scion, the new car marque from Toyota, is launching an interactive digital photo contest called «ScionSpy».

"Participants, using their camera phones, digital cameras or desktop computers, send in photos of Scion cars to scionspy.com (opening January 19) to compete to win prizes such as a Pioneer home theater system. The goal is to amass the longest chain of unduplicated digital photos. Oasis Advertising devised the campaign. [Mediapost]

The scionspy.com website is not open yet, so you can't tell if it's a moblog or not. But it's a fun competition with good prizes. Will be interesting to see what kind of participation they get. Will be checking back with Oasis Advertising.

Phil Kaplan of FuckedCompany.com launches an anonymous moblog

Blog superstar Xeni Jardin for boingboing writes about Phil Kaplan's - (aka PUD) of FuckedCompany.com - new anonymous moblog venture called pics@mobog.com.

In his own words: "Send pics directly from your camera-phone to pics@mobog.com and they'll be displayed here within 1 minute".

Needless to point out, the "most viewed pics" are of women in uh, various stages of undress.

I wish him well, his book «F'd Companies» on "spepctacular dot-come flameouts" was more than an eye opener for me, it felt like someone tore off my glasses. I really believed in all those wonderful start-up business plans. Kaplan's book is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

Gizmos that will change the way we work and play

Camera phones get a good review on Canada.com in an article entitled "Technology that's worth the hype: These gizmos will change the way we live".

"From all the statistics that have been published so far, camera phones are the single fastest-growing consumer product in history, more so than television, ordinary cellphones and the Internet," says telecommunications consultant Ian Angus. "This is a technology that isn't going away.

Watch for handset manufacturers to introduce improvements to the devices in 2004, including higher picture quality and battery life."

MobileWatch: How will MMS fare on New Year's Eve?

The mobile telecommunications industry will be closely watching the number of MMS and other higher-value messages sent on New Years Eve, as it will be an indicator of how successfully the technology has been accepted, according to ZDNet.

Online Ericsson Phone Configurator

MobileWhack mentioned Nokia's configurator a few days ago, and now draws our attention to Sony Ericsson's online configurator.

"Wizards walk you through configuring your Sony Ericsson handset for WAP, email, and MMS. There's also gobs of documentation, including getting started and user guides, service and warranty info, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and so forth. Not to mention software, drivers, scripts, patches, accessories, and other downloads".

Online Nokia Phone Configurator

Another great find from MobileWhack. Nokia's fabulous and simple online phone configurator for the US. Now you can configure your phone for access to e-mail, WAP or MMS services. Simply choose the service you are interested in, click on the link then follow the setup instructions. Configuration settings will be sent over the network via text messaging.

Videoblogging on Textamerica.com

Textamerica.com is now offering the possibility to post short video clips, in addition to photos taken with camera phones. First (mostly disapointing) results can be viewed here.

The Year in Review and What's Ahead

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I'll be offline for a few days, until Monday December 29.

Best wishes to all of you and your families.

In the meantime, here's a round-up in 10 chapters of mobile news for 2003 and a look at what's ahead in 2004:

2003: Cell Phones - for so much more than just talking

2003: The figures that counted

2003: Cell Phones' Bad Rap

2003: SMS, good for the soul

2003: Some outstanding SMS Services

2003: How people are using camera phones

2003: Best SMS and Camera phone news coverage

2003: Ringtone Medley

2003: Favorite companies

What to look out for in 2004

Paedophile fear over phone photos

Dark fears about camera phones resurface in Scotland, where a teachers' union has called for a ban on mobile phone cameras in schools, amid fears that the images could be used by paedophiles, according to the BBC.

"The Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association is worried the technology could have serious implications for the safety of pupils and staff.

It warned that mobile pictures could also be used to cheat in examinations.

The union called for a complete ban on the use of such phones within all school premises."

NeoMedia's New Wireless Application Now Running on Nokia Camera Cell Phones

NeoMedia Technologies announced today that the first working units of its new PaperClick for Camera Cell Phones for Nokia camera phones 3650 and 3660 are now available, according to a company press release.

What Nokia Camera Cell Phones Do with PaperClick:

"By taking a picture of a UPC or EAN bar code, you can display data on the screens of the Nokia 3650 or 3660 camera phones anywhere, anytime.

Right now, said Chas Fritz, NeoMedia's chairman, "we've activated a few UPC and EAN product codes for demo purposes, making it possible to take a picture of the code on a product, such as a can or bottle of soda, and then go right to the targeted Web site.

As part of the demo, users will also be able to do comparison shopping with PaperClick for Cell Phones. For example, they could take a picture of the ISBN (for International Standard Book Numbers) code on virtually any book to link automatically via the Internet to a Web site displaying an image of the book and its price elsewhere".

For previous posts on NeoMedia and comparative pricing with a aamera phone, click here.

DoCoMo Unveils New Line of Advanced Phones

Japan's largest mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc., has just unveiled five new phones for next year that let consumers play fast-action games, send email with graphics, and download bigger files in a bid to fuel demand for its advanced wireless service, according to Yahoo News.

"The introduction of the new lineup has been anticipated as an indication of DoCoMo's ability to capture new customers in 2004 for its two-year old 3G (third-generation) service known as FOMA.

FOMA is an advanced network, capable of high-speed Internet connections as well as music and video downloading".

Free Swiss newspaper offers photoblogging

20min.ch, a Swiss German free newspaper (daily readership is over 700'000; the webcommunity is around 110'000), in partnership with weblog publisher Kaywa, has just launched an "MMS Fotoalbum" service, where individuals can post their personal photos. [All About Mobile Life]

Code your own photoblog thanks to Junto.co.uk

Ben Powell, a Microsoft web applications programmer, has been photoblogging and wrote his own technology so that he could post picture messages automatically on his website, Junto.co.uk.

He also publishes the methodology and code examples of how to do it, so other people could setup a similar system too.

MP from House of Commons for fiddling with a camera phone

MP Henry Bellingham was kicked out of the House of Commons yesterday after being caught "fiddling" with his mobile phone during a debate, reports Lynn News.

"I know you are not supposed to have a camera or use your mobile in the House, but most MPs check their text messages, e-mails or caller logs on their phones, or have their bleepers on," said Mr Bellingham.

"A clerk saw me with my phone and realised it had a camera and reported me to the Speaker. I did not realise there was a new clampdown on phones in the House and I feel a bit gutted that I am the first victim of this new policy.

"However, I do feel suitably chastened and I have written a letter to the Speaker apologising," said Mr Bellingham".

Get the Picture?

I discovered this Internet News article by Patricia Fusco entitled "Get the Picture?" on Techdirt and it describes how small businesses in the US are using camera phones in new and exciting ways to save their businesses time and money.

What's also interesting is that each of these companies subscribe to Sprint's PCS Free and Clear services for business called "Unlimited Picture Mail". But as Patricia Fusco points out, "customers should generally be wary of the fine print of any cellular plan, as dome "unlimited" picture phone plans charge by the kilobyte, which could rack up unforeseen charges in the future".

Excerpts:

-- Maintenance Systems, a Chicago-based painting company, arms each of its painting crews with a Sanyo 5300 cellular phone and "Picture Mail" — a service that enables business owners to capture, store and send images from any location. Once a crew completes a painting job, they snap a picture of the final product and e-mail it to the hiring company for billing.

-- Heroman Plant Services is a regional interior landscape company based in Baton Rouge, La. Heroman's field representatives use Sanyo 8100 cellular phones to gain expert second opinions from supervising horticulturists. Heroman technicians take pictures of sick, damaged or newly installed plants and e-mail them to the corporate office. After examining the photos, treatment recommendations or design changes can be made on the spot, without needing to send someone out on location.

-- CS Bechtold Designs, an Ohio-based kitchen and bath design company, uses camera phones to prove its case to vendors when incorrect shipments arrive at a customer's worksite.

For more on innovative ways of using camera phones, cf How people are using camera phones .

Camera-Phones Voted Best Item of 2003

Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) voted camera-phones, the top product of 2003, reports Korea's Digital Chosen. This comes after Times magazine naming camera phones a runner up as coolest invention of 2003.

"Lotto, which fueled lottery madness across the nation, was named second best" (!).

"New electronics, health products, historical TV dramas, books on asset management, foreign cars, subway newspapers, knowledge search engines, and emigration package products were also included in the top 10 hit items".

Opportunities and Tensions for the News Industry

Madan Rao on E-Media Tidbits has an interesting post reporting on BBC anchor Nik Gowing, speaking at the recent World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva:

"New-media technologies like photo phones are making every citizen a potential eyewitness reporter; Internet publishing is speeding up the news cycle as well. All this spells new opportunities -- as well as tensions -- for the news industry.

Gowing showed footage of BBC's first-ever news broadcast where a correspondent reported live via a photo phone, for a story on ships".

Holiday videos for Malaysian cellphones

Malaysia's Maxis Communications has introduced festive video greetings via MMS for the upcoming holiday season, according to Cellular News.

"The festive MMS video greetings allow Maxis customers to send moving pictures and true sound quality video greeting cards, similar to e-cards quality, to their friends and family, locally and internationally to Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines".

How people are using camera phones

For Textually 2003 - The Year in Review, here is a round up of the novel ways camera phones have been used this year by individuals and businesses. And as these phones, widely popular, go mainstream, with image quality and picture snapping features improving with the launch of each new model, it is clear we have yet to scratch the surface on how private individuals and businesses will find ways to use them.

-- Women have been taking shots of clothing items in stores, then e-mailing them to friends for instant advice on whether they should buy. And in Japan young girls have taken pictures of hair styles in fashion magazines and sent them off to their friends to know what they think. In this case, admittedly, something referred to as digital shoplifing.

-- On a related note, but business oriented and a very clever marketing idea, the Toni&Guy chain of upmarket hair salons in the UK offers their customers the option to download pictures of hairstyles from a large gallery of photos online, onto their mobile phone. Allowing them discuss their potential new look with family and friends before visiting a hairsalon.

-- At concerts, instead of using lighters, fans raise their cell phones, and snap away - despite the standard ban on cameras - and hold them up so their buddy at home can hear, something referred to as a "cellcert".

-- People have been taking pictures of washing machines or plumbing fixtures that need repairing, then sending them off to the repairman so he'll bring the right parts.

-- Camera phones have been used by real estate agents enabling them to forward pictures to prospective buyers, giving a speedy edge in a competite market.

-- In the same field, a company, RealSafe.net Network , is suggesting real estate agents user their camera phones - not to shoot property - but to snap pictures of their clients (with their permission), as a form of insurance and stored in a secure database, which can only be accessed by court order.

-- At a Welsh hospital, senior doctors are allowing interns to send them pictures of an x-ray, thanks to pioneering mobile phone technology, speeding up the diagnosis and suggested treatment process.

-- And firefighters in Scotland have been equiped with camera phones to send pictures of injuries to doctors by MMS before the patients reach the hospital. Seeing the images beforehand allows the doctors to assess how serious the injury is, allowing for vital treatment in the early stages.

-- Canada's national multimedia news agency offers downloads to mobile phones of images from today's top news stories and sports photo agency Empics has announced the launch of picture alerts of the latest sports news.

-- Readers are contributing to newspapers in new ways with special sections such as "In Pictures" from The BBC Online launched last March, asking readers to send in pictures of newsworthy events to document "their perspective on the world". And in America this year, citizens have contributed to news coverage by sending in pictures of Hurricane Isabel, or the Columbia debris.

-- Fashion webiste Show Studio's speedy coverage of the collections during the Paris Prêt-à-porter, allowed them to scoop more established fashion news organisations.

-- Officers in Scotland are now photographing graffiti with their camera phones. The images are stored away in a database for matching and identifying with the individuals responsible.

-- At the Emmy Awards, mobile users were able to end special requests to a Nokia observation camera by text messaging, for a photo of their favorite star to be sent directly to their mobile phone.

-- A contractor in the business of sealing driveways, has been 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."

-- The owner of a fence company in Kansas City, uses his camera phone to click and e-mail pictures of fence parts to suppliers.

-- Adrian Contreras of San Mateo, saved himself a San Francisco parking ticket by "phone-ographing" his correctly placed wheels after receiving a citation for not turning them toward the curb. And the city accepted the photo as proof.

-- A blatant act of racism by the Portland police was snapped by a "citizen reporter" armed with a camera phone. The story and the photos were published in the Portland Tribune and broadcasted on television.

-- The Malaysian police and the Australian government have set up systems to monitor picture messages sent in by citizens reporting crimes.

-- When someone backed into a car, got out and inspected the damage - then drove off without leaving any details - a passerby took a shot of his car and the rear number plate, and left a note for the victim. Later e-mailing him a shot of the car for his insurance claim.

-- And camera phones have brought about the onset of a whole new form of online diaries, called photoblogs, where camera phone users can post their pictures while on the move. Mostly of a personal nature, next year is sure to see a widespread use of professional moblogs, such as Textamerica 's launch of the official moblog for the CTIA event held in Las Vegas or news reporting photoblogs such as those documenting the New York blackout, the anti war protests around the world, the California fire, The California grocery worker strike - all reaching a larger audience than just family and friends.

I've purposely focused here on the positive applications of camera phones, there have been of course stories of misuse and abuse, raising serious privacy concerns which you can read all about here.

Update: A couple of days after publishing this roundup, Patricia Fusco for Internet News posted a wonderful piece describing how small businesses in the US are using camera phones to save their businesses time and money. cf Get the Picture?

Nokia to send TV to mobiles

Finland's leading broadcasters, mobile service providers and Nokia plan to start sending commercial TV programs to cell phones next year, the companies said. The Internet protocol datacast, IPDC, will bring TV to mobile handsets, and is set to begin in autumn 2004 with 500 initial users in and around Helsinki, according to Wired.

Picture phone ban follows porn case

I'm only reporting this because this case has a novel twist. A WOMAN was caught smuggling a video camera into changing rooms at Kings Club and the Badminton Hall to film people undressing without their knowledge.

So now The Guernsey Badminton Association is to ban mobile phones from its changing area, according to This is Guernsey Online. Why are we not surprised?

A new use for camera phone: Agent's safety

Camera phones as a tool for real estate agents seems a natural and has often been mentioned as one of the strong business applications for these new handsets. Shooting on the spot and forwarding pictures to prospective buyers, could give a real estate agent a speedy edge in a competite market (cf
How business people and professionals are using camera phones).

In Today's Chicago Tribune, an interesting article written by Mary Umberger, describes a company who will suggest real estate agents user their camera phones - not to shoot property - but to snap pictures of their clients (with their permission), as a form of insurance.

"The real estate industry is not as safe as it used to be," says Pat Dougherty, a Marietta agent for 22 years who founded the RealSafe.net Network after an incident with a man who asked her to show him a house on short notice".

Her company will offer to store pictures in a secure database, which can only be accessed by court order.

"The yard signs will say `This is a RealSafe.net home,' and there will be signs in the windows," Daugherty says, so there will be some name recognition," and also some reassurance for the homeowner who will know that a record is being kept of who enters their home -- at least, when the house is being shown by an agent who pays a monthly fee to Dougherty's firm.

The firm will begin marketing its services to real estate agents as of January.

Smartdata, a Swiss company that specializes in Bluetooth applications, have developed a device to stream high quality audio to your stereo or home theatre using Bluetooth and your mobile's GPRS connection, reports Eric Lin for TheFeature.com

In their own words:

ZUKEROTM (patent pending) is a WIRELESS TV PLUG-IN that is the missing link between the TV set and the mobile phone. You just plug this small device into your TV set and you can enjoy applications on your TV. Being comfortably sat on your couch, you can use your mobile phone to:

- Display on the TV full-screen pictures (stored on the mobile phone or on remote servers).

- Play audio files stored on any bluetooth device

- Check e-mails

- Turn TV shows into interactive programs by overlaying on-line services on the TV screen.

Photomoblogging a crime in Hungary?

This is an excerpt from a Reuters article, posted on Saleem's journal in TheFeature.com and also published on CNN.

"Hungary moved on Thursday to stop users of new camera mobile phones from taking and sending snapshots of people without their permission.

Hungary's data protection ombudsman ruled Thursday [Dec. 11] that mobile telephone users who transmit pictures of people who are unaware of being photographed are liable to prosecution, and their cellular service providers could be, too.

Ombudsman Attila Peterfalvi said he started an investigation after one of Hungary's three cellular providers ran an advertisement saying: "If you see a good-looking girl or guy on the street, don't hesitate to share the aesthetic experience with your friends via MMS (multimedia messaging)."

Cellular phones equipped with small cameras are selling fast in Hungary, where mobile penetration is a high 75.2 percent".

Saleem Khan for TheFeature.com feels "there are legitimate concerns, such as more intimate privacy invasions of the type that might fall into the realm of vice, but that it's just not realistic to expect you can force people to suddenly stop doing it by threatening them with legal action. Look at how well that approach has worked for the music industry and its problems."

Web forwarding

If you've had trouble accessing picturephoning.com, it was due to web forwarding delays (we changed hosting services). Apologies for the inconvenience. If you're trying to reach Ringtonia, web forwarding is still not working so you should click here.

SK Telecom offers mobile clips from Lord of the Rings

SK Telecom Co, South Korea's biggest cell phone operator, said on Friday that it has begun providing a service that allows users to download clips from the movie Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, according to the Asia Times.

"The offer, which came less than a week before the motion picture opens in South Korea, is part of a policy to boost revenues through the sale of premium media content".

Video mobile advertising: Don't repeat the SMS mistakes

Video-enabled handsets are set to grow at a rate of 50% over the next few years, with 88% of all handsets sold globally to be video-enabled, according to Media Week which offers some advice to advertisers, warning them not to make the same mistakes as with SMS advertising, generally disapointing people because they are expecting a personal message instead.

"Video mobile, on the other hand, has the advantage that the consumer can actually enjoy and be entertained by the video content.

For example, one avenue could be to generate brand awareness through sponsorship of video clips. Many mobile phone users would quite happily pay to receive a funny video clip of, say, the “Eye of the Tiger” Pop Idol reject, sponsored by Nestlé, or Kylie's latest single – brought to you by Coca-Cola.' And then there's the viral marketing element to it – if they find the content compelling enough, they'll then happily forward it to their friends at a minimal cost."

Cities Get Into The Camera Phone Banning Business

Mike Masnick for Techdirect picks up on a New York Times article, reporting that, not only are gyms and offices banning camera phones, but entire cities are getting into the act by banning camera phones in public bathrooms and locker rooms.

"Years from now, I think people will look back on the early days of camera phones and laugh at how badly some people over reacted." I have to agree.

Ultimitely, it could end up hurting the cities, as the NY Times points out "Banning cellphones from some locations could invite lawsuits from people who might have to use a phone in an emergency and be unable to summon help", according to L. Richard Fischer, a Washington lawyer who deals with privacy issues.

3 UK launches real time video service Quickplay

3 UK launched a new high speed video-streaming service called Quickplay, according to Telecom.paper.

"The service enables customers to play video clips on their video mobiles in real time, rather than having to download and save them first. Quickplay also allows 3's customers to watch longer video clips of up to 8 minutes, which would otherwise use up memory on the handset and could take up to several minutes to download".

Man pleads not guilty to taking photos up skirt

This is a first for the US I think, a man charged in King County, Washington, for "using a cellphone to take photos for sexual gratification, according to Prosecuting Attorney's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe. The man used a cellphone camera to take photos up a woman's skirt in a Safeway, according to the Seattle Times. The woman was shopping with her baby.

If convicted, he faces up to a year in jail, the result of a bill passed by the state earlier this year that banned up-skirt photography in public places and made the act a felony.