July 2, 2008
Photos revealing everyday life in Iraq. By Citizen Reporters
Photos revealing everyday life in Iraq, stories usually left untold. They form part of Geert van Kesteren's new book Baghdad Calling, but the photographer - author of Why Mister, Why? - didn't take any of them.
... Baghdad Calling is a collection of more than one hundred of these pixelated amateur images. Taken by Iraqis both living in and outside the war zone, it gives them a voice and allows them, for once, to take control of the narrative.
It also shows the importance of mobile phones in a country at war, in which utilities such as landlines have broken down and such phones are the best way to stay in touch with kidnappers - and coroners.
Since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, the number of phone owners has jumped from 1.4 million to 7.1 million."
July 1, 2008
Orange’s hole-cameraphone
Designed by De Montfort University student Chi Shing Lo as part of Orange’s D&AD Student Awards, it replaces the cameraphone’s viewfinder with a simple hole, as well as using it to hang the phone on a peg charger when its low on juice, or needs to upload shots to a PC.
[via Electripig]
June 29, 2008
You Can Picture This. Know your rights
“Give me a good reason why you’re filming around.”
BakelBlog via CrunchGear discusses some of the filming restrictions proposed in the UK and the resulting reactions of “community support officers” when folks try to film in public streets.
"The same issues are cropping up here in the U.S. and just to recap regarding U.S. law: you can film in a public place but not in a private place. You have no expectation of privacy in most public places, although you can have an expectation that you won’t suffer privacy invasion (i.e. someone won’t take upskirts of you on the bus).
There aren’t many exceptions to this law but private locations, including building frontages, are sometimes considered private property."
Related: - Street photographers fear for their art amid climate of suspicion
Supermarket of the future
A German supermarket is encouraging customers to scan and ring up their shopping using camera phones, and check out without the help of a cashier.
Watch BBC video.
June 27, 2008
Use your eyes to control your mobile gadgets
Rolling your eyes could soon turn up the volume of a portable music player or dial a number on your mobile cell phone, reports GameSHOUT.
"In a demonstration Tuesday, researcher Hiroyuki Manabe wore a giant headset covered with wires to show how computer graphic lines in a monitor connected to the headset darted wildly whenever his eyes moved.
He turned up the volume on a digital music player by rolling his eyes, and he jerked his eyes twice to the right to fast forward.
The new technology may also enable cell phone cameras to read bar codes used in Japan to get product information, download music and coupons when the user simply looks at the codes, researchers said."
Image from the Canadian Press
June 26, 2008
Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images
Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"So dramatically successful has been the arrival of online sites aggregating and selling images created by hobby photographers and artists that the global head of Corbis, Gary Shenk, predicts sales of amateur snaps will triple in the next five years to control 25 per cent of the $US2 billion ($2.1 billion) global market."
Anti-Paparazzi Sunglasses
This is fun. Though it takes some wiring. You have to fit bright LED Light-emitting diodes to your glasses so they can be switched on and make you “invisible” to cameras.
Gizmag has a feeling this is going to appeal more to bank robbers than celebs.
Watch the how-to video.
Phone Giants Roll Out "Three Screen" Strategy
The nation's largest phone companies sell packages of wireless phone service, Internet access and pay TV to consumers. Now they're taking integration one step further, airing video programming -- and selling ads -- across all three platforms.
[via the WSJ]
June 25, 2008
Radio ID tags can play havoc with hospital devices
Electronic interference from RFID tags could have disastrous consequences in hospitals, according to a team of Dutch researchers, switching off ventilators, reseting intravenous drips, and reprogramming pacemakers, they claim. New Scientist reports.
"As RFID and other wireless technologies stream into medicine, the chances of accidental malfunction rise. The FDA has documented at least one such incident, involving an implanted brain stimulator that caused a minor physical tremor in response to a wireless signal.
However, the Dutch researchers and other experts believe more testing and better engineering – rather than a ban or moratorium – will make for safer hospital wards."
AT&T to boost online content distribution
As more companies launch websites with video and interactive features, AT&T said it will spend nearly $70 million by the end of the year to bolster its network infrastructure across the United States, Europe and parts of Asia.
[via Reuters]
June 23, 2008
Motorola Lauches Kodak Camera Phone
Motorola has launched its first Kodak co-developed mobile phone, the MOTOZINE ZN5. [via Cellular News]
"To launch the camera, simply slide open the Kodak lens cover to transform the phone into an ultra-fast 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, a Xenon flash, 4GB of optional external memory and optimized settings for low-light environments."
Image from Newlaunches.
June 22, 2008
Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue Comes To Your Mobile Phone
Sports Illustrated has decided to jump into the game and is making a version of its famous swimsuit issue available on mobile phones.
"... Starting this summer, Sports Illustrated will be offering a Swimsuit slideshow, an application featuring Sports Illustrated models wearing designer swimwear in exotic locales.
[via Information Week]
June 20, 2008
Localizing where a picture was taken
According to Roland Piquepaille, Carnegie Mellon University "researchers are trying to estimate the geographic location of a single photo by comparing it to a database of 6 million pictures accurately geolocated by flickr users. Their method allowed them to correctly guess the location of an unknown photo 30 times better than with pure luck."
June 19, 2008
Who is selling your photos?
People who post photos on Flickr are finding them for sale elsewhere on the net. Can the thieves be stopped? Probably not, according to The Guardian.
"... Among the billions of images online, the chances that a photographer will be able to find any particular infringing copies are small."
June 18, 2008
Appaling Peeping Tom viral video to promote LG's Secret
LG's promotional video for their new handset "Secret" highlights the touchscreen feature through voyeurism and softcore. Engadget calls it creepy. I'd like to add appaling. A man secretly filming a woman sleeping in bed from outside a window, and caressing her body on his screen, is not appealing but horrifying. What were they thinking?
[via Engadget]
June 17, 2008
Sony lifts mobile gaming with Wii-style handset
Sony Ericsson's new F305 cell phone has a control pad similar to those found on games consoles, and also contains a motion sensor that reacts to hand gestures, much like Nintendo's feted Wii device.
[via Times Online]
June 16, 2008
Nike lets users design trainers via mobile phone
According to NMA, Nike has launched a service across Europe to enable consumers to design their own trainers based on pictures taken using a camera phone.
The PhotoiD service encourages consumers to take a picture of any subject using their camera phone, which is then sent via MMS to a short code.
A personalised picture of a trainer is sent back which features the predominant colours of the photo. "
June 15, 2008
Actress Rossellini probes insect sex in phone-films
Festiival Pocket Films, a film fest just for pocket-sized movies on mobile phones came of age in its fourth edition this weekend, with a series of flicks on the sex lives of insects by the actress Isabella Rossellini. The AFP reports.
"The minute-long films, a series of eight titled "Green Porno", are on handsets dangling on wires from a "mobile phone tree" in Paris' Pompidou Centre, for the three-day Pocket Films festival which opened Friday.
"Their format -- shot exclusively for viewing on 3G technology mobile phones -- make them the "films of the future," Rossellini told AFP in an interview. "Watching (war epic) 'Apocalypse Now' on a mobile telephone is no fun -- it was conceived as a big spectacle. But this tiny screen can be a new canvas for directors," she said."
Related: - Sex, Insects and Mobile Phones
Fish dumping caught on phone camera
tvnz reports that "secret filming by a trawler's crew member has led to New Zealand's biggest prosecution for fish dumping.
The practice, which has been labelled robbery on the high seas, threatens to wipe out seafood stocks.
Between 80 and 311 tonnes of perfectly good fish being thrown overboard was captured on a crewman's cellphone camera.
It cost the skipper of the Aorere $45,000 while two crewmen were fined $20,000. All have lost lost their jobs."
June 13, 2008
Man jailed over indecent images on cell phone
A 32-year-old man who used mobile phones to download more than 1,800 indecent images of children has been jailed for a year and a half. The BBC reports.
"Police found the images on three mobile phones and two memory cards. He had rigged up a system to allow him to view the images on his television."
Korea protests a gadget proving ground
When tens of thousands of Koreans converged in the center of Seoul recently for a mass protest against the new president, many were clutching two vital items: a candle and a mobile phone loaded with snazzy features. Stuff reports.
The protest movement, which started in early May to oppose US beef imports, has since become a stage for a broad range of political grievances against the government – from high fuel prices to health-care privatization and the cost of education.
The month-long series of gatherings has also been a valuable testing ground for the latest communication devices, gadgets and websites.
... With powerful camera phones, demonstrators are able to shoot photos and videos that they can instantly upload on internet sites thanks to high-speed wireless technology."
