Wicked And XTC Mobile Bring You The Arcade Booth In Your Cellphone

Wicked Pictures has come up with a method to stream video – any video – directly to any MMS enabled cellphone and depending on the quality of the phone, the video can look like anything from a series of still images to something approximating an actual movie, according to AVN.

Radio show launches photoblog

Argentine radio show 'La Cornisa' has established what is believed to be the first photoblog offered by a radio or TV programme, according to an article by Jemima Kiss for the Journalism online. (Thanks Julian!)

Excerpts:

"La Cornisa broadcasts politics and general interest on weekday mornings from Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. The photoblog was launched on 8 December by La Cornisa sports columnist Fabián Tetelboim, who flew to Tokyo to cover the Intercontinental Cup football match between Boca Jrs and Milan.

Images are emailed from the phone and uploaded straight to the Textamerica.com, a community web site for mobile phone bloggers or 'mobloggers'. The site is completely free to use.

La Cornisa's project was directed by Julián Gallo, professor of new media journalism at the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires.

"For us, it is an impressive development in the production and distribution of news," said Mr Gallo, former creative director at clarin.com, one of Argentina's biggest media organisations.

"We haven't seen any other radio or TV channel which is using photoblogs, but we believe it will soon become general practice."

"He says that mobile phone cameras can create the style of candid photography typified by Erich Salomon, the 20th century German photojournalist who became known for his portraits of politicians and public figures caught off-guard.

The fact that they are low quality photos does not pose a problem. They are opportunistic photos whose interest goes beyond resolution," he told dotJournalism".

AT&T Wireless Settings for Nokia 6600

MobileWhack reports that Russel Beattie has posted AT&T Wireless settings for the Nokia 6600.

Sprint to offer video, 3D games for cell phones

Sprint will sell downloadable videos and 3D games later this year, as the carrier hunts for the right combination of data-oriented services to entice subscribers into making more than just telephone calls, CEO Gary Forsee said Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show. [ZDNet].

Photomessage your expressions

Alan Reiter in Cameraphone report describes UK cellular operator Orange's photo contest for camera phone users.

The contest, Expressionist, wants photos of different expressions: Happy, surprised, angry, smug, bored, sad, guilty, scared, confused.

The exhibition will be held in a London art gallery where the photos will comprise an interactive video mural, which will display a range of human emotions onto the walls at your prompt.

"You stare at the wall. The wall stares back. You smile at the wall. A thousand faces smile back. You pull the face -- be it happy, sad or confused -- and you control the show." Cool.

AT&T Wireless to Offer Motorola Camera Phone

Motorola, the world's second-largest cell phone maker behind Finland's Nokia, said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the phone will be sold through AT&T Wireless stores nationwide. It will be available for $299 with a two-year service contract., according to Boston.com.

Webloggers upload digital doodles using smart pens

Smart pens have become the latest way to post messages to online diaries, or weblogs, while on the move, according to New Scientist via MMS Memo.

"The Nokia Digital Pen and Sony Ericsson's Chatpen both let users turn ordinary scribbles and doodles into digital images that can be sent via email or multimedia messaging service (MMS). One web logger has put together computer code to automatically convert these doodles into weblog postings".

Camera phones are part of fan autograph frenzies

Star Stalking, concert going and autograph sessions take on a new dimension thanks to cell phones and camera phones.

If you look through the slide show on the BBC, where Cruise and Cruz spent two hours greeting ecstatic fans at the première of "The Last Samurai" in London, you will notice traditional autograph signing as well as fans taking pictures with their camera phones, and Tom Cruise being handed fans' cell phones to talk to their friends.

This reminds me of an older anecdote, when Tom Cruise was promoting his film "Vanilla Sky" in Taipei in 2001. Annoyed by the constant ringing of cell phones at the press conference, he announced he would answer the calls himself.

"When another phone rang, he grabbed the phone and answered: "Ni-hao (`hello' in Chinese). This is Tom Cruise speaking. We are having a press conference. Can I help you with anything?" This was his first move at the conference and it drove the media crazy". [cf Taipei Times]

On Magazine: Phonecam anthropology, mobile photoblog roundup

Xeni Jardin for Ericsson's consumer magazine ON (PDF), interviews Mizuko Ito, an anthropologist researching phonecams and culture in Japan and the US (and, incidentally, Joi Ito's sister). In the following excerpts, Mizuko Ito explains what led her to focus on mobile technology and gives some new examples of camera phone usage:

Excerpts page 22 - PDF

XJ: What are some of the findings that have come from your studies of cameraphones in Japan?

MI: We asked people to record what they were doing with their cameraphones and asked them to share their photos. We found that there are clearly defined levels of intimacy. We don't tend to share images as freely with others as we do with text.

We also found that over time, people developed a heightened awareness of their visual environments. [...] We found people using images in ways they wouldn't have thought to before. One of my students phonecammed our lab director, who was leaving for the US. She wanted a picture of him on her mobile, to carry around like an amulet or good-luck charm.

Or, you have a meeting, and send an assistant out to buy sandwiches. She snaps a photo of the selelction at the deliy, and texts back - "Which one do you want?".

A student msises class, says' he sick, and the professor sends our another student to phonecam hi. The "sick" student appears in a phonecam image on the floor, completely out of it. The "proof" is faked, but does the job".

And on page 45, Xeni Jardin has picked out some of the hottest phonecam Web sites.

Snow galleries: Readers vs. pros

Cyberjournalist.net reports on The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's coverage of the major snow storm that hit the Seattle area.

Though the newspapers don't specify if camera phones have been used and considering the high quality of the pictures posted, probably not, but it remains another illustation of how the media is interacting with it's readers thanks to pictures.

"The Times chose to publish a Reader Photo Gallery, while The Post-Intelligencer took a more traditional approach, with a high-quality photo gallery shot by staff photographers.

A short cut to phonecam usage stories

Under this new category "How people and businesses are using cameraphones", you will find a short cut to all the related links, stories and categories posted in Picturephoning.com, in one single place.

ROUND-UP ARTICLES:

-- On Magazine: Phonecam anthropology, mobile photoblog roundup - January 07, 2004.

-- Get The Picture - How small businesses in the US are using camera phones in new and exciting ways to save their businesses time and money - December 17, 2003.

-- How people are using camera phones a year-end round up of the novel ways camera phones have been used in 2003 by individuals and businesses - December 16, 2003.

-- The Democrat and Chronicle ponders on the use of picture phones by citizens and businesses - June 22, 2003

-- How business people and professionals are using camera phones a review of an article in The Boston Globe describing how a real estate agent and a contractor use camera phones - June 15, 2003.

CATEGORIES:

-- The Business Applications category has many more examples related to business and commerce.

- The Reporters and Picture Phones category gives examples specific to the professional media.

- Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters is another category collecting stories on how citizens are contributing to the media in new ways.

- The Marketing Campaigns category reports on some new marketing and advertising campaigns using camera phones.

- The moblogs, photoblogs category reports on how individuals and professionals are documenting daily events and breaking news.

- For dubious and devious things people do with camera phones, click on Privacy concerns and Porn and dark side of MMS categories.

Channel 4 Broadcasts Live TV to GPRS Mobiles

UK Channel 4 Shattered TV programme is being streamed live over GPRS to users of video-capable mobile phones, reports Mike Grenville for 160characters.org.

"Channel 4's Interactive division, 4Interactive, and Endemol UK, the media production company, have signed a deal with wireless streaming technology company Vemotion to offer viewers end-to-end live programming of new round-the-clock show Shattered from a range of video-capable GPRS (2.5G) mobile handsets.

This is the first time that TV-to-mobile service has been offered in the UK from a terrestrial channel".

Police camera phones hunt graffiti

In effort to tackle Britain's epidemic of vandalism, police are to photograph thousands of pupils' jotter-book etchings with camera phones to fight against an upsurge in graffiti spraying, reports The Guardian via Smart Mobs.

"Images of etchings are captured on camera phones, emailed to police headquarters and stored in a database of graffiti tags, the trademark sign of the urban street 'artist'. Detectives can then compare them with images of spray paint vandalism in towns and cities. "

See previous article Police test “snap trap” approach.

The BBC wants your pictures of Elvis' Birthday

The BBC is solliciting pictures from their readers and fans who will be making the annual pilgrimage to Graceland, in celebration of the King's birthday on January 8th.

"If you are taking part in any celebration or just marking the day in a personal way we'd like to see your photographs of how you will be paying tribute to the King".

-- Send pictures from your mobile phone to 07970 885089

-- Or by e-mail to yourpics@bbc.co.uk

Since last March, the BBC as been publishing photos sent in from their readers from around the globe, to document «their perspective on the world».

Scanbuy works with Ericsson to equip new cell phones with bar code commerce solutions

New York based software company ScanBuy is now working with Ericsson to equip new cell phones with ScanZoom Technology.

ScanZoom allows mobile camera phone users to snap a quick picture of a bar code so they can check competitors‚ prices and get additional information about music CDs, books and other products.

Users snap a quick picture of a bar code that instructs the phone to launch an application or to access specified formation. For example, a shopper at a computer retailer can take a picture of the barcode on a package of ink cartridges. ScanZoom then find out what that same ink cartridge costs at a competing retailer.

"ScanZoom will drastically change the way we use cell phones, said Olivier Attia, chief executive officer of Scanbuy. Using a cell phone to access the Internet is nothing new. But we've solved the biggest problem associated with using cell phones as an Internet tool - the input mechanism. Getting additional information on a product or service will be as easy as taking a picture. Being an Ericsson Associate will facilitate the deployment of ScanZoom technology within the Ericsson environment. [Company press release]

More articles on related technologies:

-- Sem@code: real-world hyperlinks with a camera phone

-- Technology links ads to website via cell phone

-- New Commerce System Uses Barcode on Picture Phones

-- Comparison book shopping on Amazon.com thanks to Nokia camera phones and Neomedia Technologies

Mobile Veepers

In an article entitled "Look Who's Talking", Penelope Patsuris for Forbes writes about a new company called Pulse Entertainment.

Pulse has developed a software, dubbed Veepers, which can transform any digital image so that it appears to be speaking, allowing users to create virtual versions of themselves, friends and pets by uploading pictures.

And of interest to this column, mobile Veepers recently launched in Japan via KDDI, the country's second-biggest telecom.

"KDDI now offers what Pulse calls "face tones," which let subscribers choose the image and dialogue that they want to announce incoming phones calls on their camera phones.

The firm hopes for a hit on par with downloadable ring tones and is at work on technology to use cell-phone Veepers to deliver location-based ad messages".

See related article on Pulse Entertainment from PC magazine, Talking Heads on cell phones.

3G Video Calls: Who Will Blink First?

The UK 3G market is at loggerheads over video calls -- carriers have made the feature a cornerstone of their 3G offerings, while handset market leader Nokia is yet to support them. How will this game of chicken pan out? An interesting article by Carlo Longino for TheFeature.com.

"The article touches on the bigger issue -- are video calls something that hold value to consumers and end users? While the UK networks all seem to think so, plenty of people are skeptical. Will there be sustained interest in video calling once people get over their inital gee-whiz reaction?."

Vodafone's 2-Megapixel Camera Phone

From Wireless Watch Japan: Sharp's V601SH handset hit the Tokyo streets in late December with a rollout price under $200. It features an embedded 2-megapixel CCD camera capable of capturing 2.02 million effective pixels and comes with autofocus and 20x zoom capability.

The unit can also record 320 x 240-size MPEG video clips at 15 frames per second as well as display still images, games, and video clips on a TV using the video output function.

In addition, the V601SH is the first cell phone to support Bow-Lingual CONNECT, a service that will be able convert dog barks into text messages and expressions as well as display pictures of the dog taken with the handset's built-in mobile camera phone.

A law against "video voyeurism"

Two Florida lawmakers want to update state law on video voyeurism to combat what they see as a growing problem of privacy invasion, according to TBO.com.

State Senator Dave Aronberg, Democrat West Palm Beach, has introduced Senate Bill 284, which would close loopholes in state law to help combat video voyeurism. "Right now, we're using 20th century laws to battle a 21st century problem,'' he said.

Rep. John Stargel, R-Lakeland, is preparing companion legislation in the House.

Current voyeurism law, a section of the state's burglary and trespass statutes, makes it illegal to observe or record someone "with lewd, lascivious, or indecent intent'' in an area where the victim would expect privacy.

Voyeurism is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The law was passed in 1998, before the minicam explosion.

Aronberg's bill would prohibit:

-- Secretly viewing, recording, or broadcasting images of another person for the purpose of entertainment, sexual arousal, profit, or abuse'' when the victim is in a location that "provides a reasonable expectation of privacy.''

-- Filming or recording "under or through" a person's clothing in those same circumstances.

-- Disseminating or selling such images.

Video voyeurism isn't always for the gratification of the person with the camera. Such images often are sold to any of thousands of Web sites. Aronberg's bill addresses those more modern motivations.

For other US legislation in the works, see related articles:

-- Newark legislature drafting law for camera phones and similar technology

-- Cellphone cameras ring warning bells

Multimedia messaging to grow in Asia but SMS still number one

The number of multimedia messaging users in the Asia Pacific will grow by more than 50 per cent in 2004 but the mobile phone service is still two years away from having mass appeal, according to IT research house IDC. [Industan Times]

"MMS remained hindered by interoperability and relatively higher prices, the same problems SMS faced when it was introduced.

"While the number of MMS users continues to expand each quarter, it will take another two years for MMS technology to gain mass appeal."

In 2003, MMS users accounted for 2.3 per cent of all wireless subscribers in the region and the figure is tipped to increase to 4.3 per cent by the end of the year, IDC said.

Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are among the key economies that witnessed a significant jump in MMS users in 2003, reflecting the affluence in these markets".

Buzznet creates gallery events which like-minded users can interact with

Tim Sullivan for The San Francisco Chronicle has interesting article devoted to community moblog Buzznet as well as interviews of some of the people who blog there.

According to Co-founders Marc Brown, "Buzznet allows users to meet other like-minded people -- sort of like Friendster, but in a more sophisticated way and without the meat- market energy that many other communities have.

As Brown tells it, "We see Buzznet becoming a community broadcasting network, creating news content at the same time users are contributing images from their world -- live. We will produce and participate in events globally and will have our eyes and ears on the streets, at events and wherever our user base travels."

And coming soon, the option for user to post audio and video clips in addition to text and pictures.

Photoblogging/phonecamblogging services: watch the terms and conditions...

A couple of days ago, Xeni Jardin posted a question by one of boingboing's readers on who actually owns the rights to images and texts posted on moblogs. Apparently on
Textamerica, "all images and comments posted, regardless of the source or content, immediately shall become their exclusive property". (cf Textamerica's Terms and Conditions).

It's creating quite a stir, but clearly this is simply legal jargon that should be rectified to protect both parties.

[Update] Textamerica responded by removing the phrase.

[mea culpa] As Chris Hoar from Textamerica pointed out to me in an e-mail, the phrase was removed before I even posted this story on picturephoning.com. Apologies Chris!

But though this is no longer an issue on Textamerica, photobloggers at least have been made aware that it's important to read the small print with regard to copyrights.

Crackdown In Cinemas

At a recent showing of «Big Fish», several moviegoers at a local theatre held up camera-equipped cell phones and took snapshots of the screen. Doing the same with a video camera will soon be a crime. Along with other several states including California, Ohio has at Hollywood's urging passed a law that lets police arrest people for videotaping movies in theaters, reports CBSnews.

According to some experts, the movie industry should really be looking at it's own backyard, as a recent AT&T Labs study found that three of every four movies leaked on the Internet came from industry insiders.

Figures disputed by the MPAA, who says the researchers used flawed data.

"The movie industry says its internal analysis last year found that 92 per cent of recently released movies found on the Internet came from camcorders".

The industry estimates pirated movies cost it $3.5-billion annually.

Ohio's bill, signed in December by Gov. Bob Taft and taking effect in March, gives movie theaters the right to make a citizen's arrest if they suspect someone is making a pirate copy of a film".

Related articles:

-- Will You Be Arrested The Next Time You Bring Your Camera Phone To The Movies?

-- Five Years In Jail For Putting A Movie Online

-- Leave your picture phone outside the movie theater

-- Bag and body searches at screenings

How people are using camera phones

For Textually 2003 - The Year in Review, here is a round up of the ways camera phones have been used 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.