Camera phones let users share lives

Wonderful. Reuters publishes a very postive article on camera phones.

"As cameras become standard features on mobile phones, millions of users are rediscovering photography in unexpected places: in the kitchen, down the block and on the bus -- from the backyards of Middle America all the way to Korea and down to Cuba.

This is no longer about disposable cameras. We call it 'disposable photography,"' said Ben Wood, a wireless analyst with market research firm Gartner Inc. in London.

There's no such thing as a bad photo. The delete key takes care of the headless body or any other misfire. There's no cost for making mistakes".

And down the road:

"But camera phones are only a transitional product to wireless video phones, Jha said. Already, Korean manufacturers are offering tiny phones with full camcorders, products that will become widespread as high-speed networks are built to handle the higher data-rate transmissions of video".

MMS and camera phone related domain names

Following Ringtonia's weekly listing of ringtone related domain names, here's a listing of MMS and camera phone related domain names that have come up for sale and are available to the public again.

- gpsmms.com
- mms-lover.com
- mms-musik.com
- mmscameraphone.com
- mmsnetworks.com
- mmssolutionsuk.com
- movil-mms.com
- musik-mms.com
- prepaid-mms.com
- mmsmusic.net

The above names are available for registration now if anyone is interested. Source of information: Netcollateral.com.

Mobile Phones to Operate TV Recorder, Says Opera

Mobile phones can soon be used to control a video recorder for people away from home when their favorite programs are on, Norwegian mobile phone Internet browser maker Opera Software said on Tuesday. [Reuters]

On-line TV Specialist delivers video content to mobile devices

In partnership with leading developer of mass market mobile video technology, Oplayo, Telecomtv pushed video highlights of last months 3GSM World Congress to a variety of mobile devices over existing 2.5g networks, reports wi-fitechnology

"Using a GPRS mobile phone, the user/viewer can call up “playlists” of video programmes, from which they simply select one to watch right there and then. Direct one-click links can even be sent by content owners or distributors via SMS, making the viewing of a programme even easier for the user".

If you want to try out mobile video for yourself, visit www.telecomtv.com/2go.

Woman fired over mobile snapshots

A Saudi woman has been expelled from her university for taking pictures of unveiled colleagues with a camera-equipped mobile phone osting them on the Internet, according to iafrica.com.

"The unnamed student in Dammam had taken pictures of colleagues "not wearing the abaya (long black robe) and with their heads uncovered, publishing them through an internet website" and prompting complaints from parents.
More than 50 other students at the same female university are being investigated for carrying the banned mobiles".

Japanese 3G phones to control appliances

NTT DoCoMo has developed a controller that enables home appliances to be operated with 3G FOMA videophone handsets, reports InfoSync World, enabling operations such "as programming the recording of a TV program and then viewing the playback on the phone; turning air conditioners and lights on an off; and viewing live video from the controller's built-in camer. Video can also be transmitted from a FOMA phone for live viewing on a screen connected to the controller".

Cameraphone Pics on a wristwatch

Engadget reports on a new service from MTC Japan, that lets you snap a picture with your cameraphone and have it put onto the face of a wristwatch.

Live TV on Your Cell Phone

The new service of Telefónica Móvil  -- live TV on your cell phone -- was introduced in Chile with full print ad pages in major Chilean newspapers, reports E-Media Tidbits.

"The cost of download videos is about 1 cent per Kb; in cases of live streaming it's a half-cent, but he only phone that can handle it comes from Sony Ericcson and Nokia , as El Mercurio notes".

Cameraphone sales up by nearly 500%"

Here's another spin on camera phone numbers, reported by U.S.-based market research group Strategy Analytics - and wriitten up by the WSJ and Silicon.com.

CNN money titles an article "Cameraphone sales up by nearly 500%".

"One in six mobile phones sold last year had a digital camera in it, an almost five-fold increase over 2002, with Asian vendors leading the way, a survey showed Monday.

U.S.-based market research group Strategy Analytics said 84 million camera phones were sold, or 16 percent of the total handset market, compared with 18 million in 2002.

The cameraphone market overtook the digital compact camera market, which amounted to 49 million units worldwide".

Nokia Clicks With Camera Phones

Nokia accounted for 14% of shipments of camera phones during the fourth quarter, beating Samsung and Sony Ericsson, reports the WSJ.

Webcams Go Mobile

EarthCam has launched a Webcam site that allows interaction with live webcams from mobile phones, reports Mike Grenville for 160characters.org.

"As well as watching live webcams feeds, users can broadcast their own personal webcam to mobile phones. with either pictures from a PC basee webcam or by posting pictures from their phone to a personal online album.

The website allows members to not only search EarthCam's worldwide network of more than 1000 cameras, but also search the database of other member cams and mobile webcam albums. The service does not permit adult content."

Soon, camera phones with photo quality that's 3 times better

The megapixel camera phones are coming, probably just in time for the arrival of speedier cellular technologies that can transmit higher-quality digital photos and even video, according to The Straits Times.

"The new generation of camera phones, due on the market later this year, all capture images with a resolution of about 1.28 megapixels. One phone also has a camera-like switch to toggle between close-up and panoramic shots".

Microsoft Move Into Cellphones Worries Some in Telecom

Picostation, a Seattle software company, has just launched PicoBlogger, enabling wireless subscribers to post to multiple blogs including existing blogs like Blogger.com, MovableType and LiveJournal. Alan Reiter on Cameraphone Report is looking into and will explain further. We're counting on him.

Phil Kaplan's «mobog»

Phil Kaplan (a.k.a. Pud), publisher of dotcome era F***kedCompany is interviewed by Lance Ulanoff in PC Magazine and discusses his newest enterprise, a public moblog called mobog.

Ulanoff seems new to moblogs as he describes Kaplan's new venture as "more or less a traveling Web cam site". Interesting, "Kaplan only accepts images from cell phone e-mail addresses, rejecting anything from a standard PC-based e-mail address and regularly scans the site for images that have been faked or altered with Photoshop. What he doesn't do, though, is filter out profanity or even pornography".

cf related article, Phil Kaplan of FuckedCompany.com launches an anonymous moblog.

Six Japan broadcasters agree on digital TV standard for cellphones

Japan's six major television networks said they have agreed on a terrestrial digital standard aimed at beaming high-quality TV images to mobile phones, starting March 2006, according to the AFP.

"Publicly funded Japan Broadcasting Corp, along with private stations TBS, NTV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo agreed on the deal with MPEG LA, LLC, a group that negotiates on behalf of the multiple patent holders involved.

While the networks agreed to broadcast the new service free of charge, no handset makers or mobile phone service providers have said they would jump on the bandwagon".

"I think if we decide to make this a business, we will have to make sure our phones are compatible with this standard," said a spokeswoman for NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's largest operator with some 45.5 million subscribers.

Vodafone KK, the third-largest operator with 14.9 million users, said it had no comment on the announcement.

Vodafone is the only cellphone operator in Japan to offer a handset model equipped with analog TV tuners, which it launched last October."

Did your mobile picture the brawl

Bystanders who had camera-equipped mobile phones may be able to help police identify those involved in an inner Sydney brawl which left a man in a critical condition in hospital, reports The Daily Telegraph.

"Police yesterday said they had information suggesting someone might have caught the incident using a camera on their mobile phone.

"We're interested in any witnesses who may have used mobile phone technology and may have captured some footage of the assaults," Police Detective Sergeant Stuart Gair said.

Avon uses camera phone to analzye customers skin

The cosmetic industry has wised up to camera phones to sell beauty products, according to this story in i4u, reporting on Avon Cosmetics Japan having their sales people analyze the skin of customers using picture phones.

"Start-up WisdomTex Inc. provides the service that lets Avon sales people take a camera phone to the customers face and send a photo of the skin to WisdomTex analytics service.

The Service suggests suitable cosmetics from the Avon product line to the sales person on the phone display. This is a great idea, this way Avon does not need to train the sales people in understanding skin conditions and therefore saving them a bundle".

For more exaples on how business are using cameraphones, cf How people are using camera phones.

America's Funniest Phone Videos

Walter Mossberg for the WSJ tested a few video phones from Sprint and AT&T and mentions briefly that they are sure to raise privacy fears, as still picture have. To summarize his testing, basically he says the the video process walk-through steps are exhausting, transfer speeds are slow and the fact that the carriers are not interoperable means today, you can't really share your pictures with many people.

"Though these new phones are capable of capturing only about 15 seconds of choppy, grainy video, they are sure to raise privacy fears even higher than their still-picture predecessors.

Neither service is interoperable with different U.S. carriers for photo or video transferring, which limits usage of these expensive phones even further. If the recipient's phone doesn't have video playback functionality, which is most likely the case, she can still see the video clip on a computer by using the Internet.

All in all, these video cameras are pretty cool for the first few minutes that you see them in action. But the truth is that you'd have to really need or want to send lots of video clips to walk through the exhausting steps and slow transfer speeds that accompany this technology. And as of now, there aren't many other people who will be able to view your videos on their cellphones".

Camera phones capture favorite bands

Picked this up in Wired: "At a massive annual conference and festival of music in Austin Texas, SXSW, a hot trend was spotted, people with camera phones holding up their handsets to capture their favorite bands".

Makes perfect sense. I've read about concert goers raising their cell phones as lighters, to play a ringtone or share the music with a friend listening in on their handset, something referred to as a cellcert. See related articles:

-- Mobile phones are the new lighters - John Alderman shares an experience he had in Tokyo last week in his Journal on TheFeature.com. "What piqued my attention was when the singer opened his clamshell phone and waved its brightly lit screen in the air back and forth over his head. The audience quickly got the message and responded in kind. A camera panning over the audience captured the scene of hundreds of young, Japanese concertgoers happily waving their opened handsets in the air, creating a beautiful field of bobbing lights."

"When the immensely popular Nylon Beat, Finland's home-grown version of the Spice Girls, plays the opening bars of a song at its rock concerts, fans by the hundreds hold up their phones and ring along with the singers. Nylon Beat released its last single, "Not Guilty," as a ring tone even before the CD came out; this teaser proved so effective that "Not Guilty" hit No. 1 in Finland on the first day of sale."

-- How people are using camera phones - 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".

Mobloging the «stop the war» protests around the world

Thousands demonstrated around the world against the war in Irak, marking the first anniversary. BlueHereNow links to moblog coverage by citizen reporters.

Nextel plans to introduce camera phones and MMS capabilities this year

InfoWorld reports that Nextel plans to introduce camera phones and MMS capabilities this year, enabling its business customers using MMS, to send audio and video files to and from phones. More on PTT enabled cell phones in Textually.

Samsung zooms in on camera phones

Samsung is planning to launch in Europe a camera phone capable of taking pictures with a resolution of 2 million pixels. Two-megapixel camera phones are already available in Japan, where fast mobile services make it easier to send larger files over the network, reports The Pak Tribune.

mensablogs.com: India's first moblogging consumer portal

mensablogs.com previewed on March 18 as the first moblogging consumer portal to launch in India.

Users can publish text, picture and audio, video clips from their camera phones and share messages with others, create and share their online albums. Each user is provided with 3 MB space free and can make their post public or private.

Sprint reaches 100 million MMS sent

Sprint announced today that Sprint PCS Vision customers have shared more than 100 million images and 15-second video clips. [InfoSync World]

"Camera phones now make up nearly half of Sprint's device line-up, and more camera phones will be added throughout the year".

Catch me if you can... 

The Red Ferret Journal reports on the The RK-1 [Babel], a motion sensing module which attaches to several models of Japanese cameraphone and turns them into a security monitoring device.

"The module senses when someone enters an area, then triggers the phone's camera and sends the image to an email address of your choice. It looks as though there's also a heat sensing version available or coming which can sense a human body up to 5 meters away".

 O2 is first operator to launch MMS chat service

Rafat Ali for Moco News reports that O2 has become the first operator to launch MMS chat in the UK.

"The MMS chat service, at 35p ($ 0,64) per post, enables users to attach images or sounds to their messages, although users can still choose to communicate via SMS".

Moblogs on stop-the-war protests

News stories are just online reporting on the anti war protests going around the world - organizd by Stop the War Coalition - the day after the one-year anniversary of of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (cf CNN, the BBC, Islam Online).

I've looked around for the first moblogs of the manifestations, so far with no luck. If anyone has anything to report, please let me know.

Moblogging Journalism

Neil Katz reports on moblogging for Columbia News Service via Smart Mobs.

"[...] In less than two years, the nation's largest moblog provider, Textamerica, has grown to over half a million users.

Most people use the service as a high-tech photo album, but increasingly the technology is finding more serious outlets.

Along with its use in various business enterprises, Newsplex, a "journalism laboratory" that researches the convergence of technology and news at the University of South Carolina, recently created a moblog to cover the primaries in that state.

And other journalists have taken the technology out of the laboratory and into the field, such as Louie Villalobos, 28, who has spent the last two years reporting on illegal activity along the border between Arizona and Mexico for the local Yuma newspaper."

Nokia launches mobile RFID kit

Computer Weekly reports that Nokia has launched a mobile RFID kit at the CeBIT fair in Hanover, that allows mobile workforces to access data by touching tagged items with a mobile phone.

"The RFID Kit comprises of two Xpress-on RFID Reader Shells compatible with the Nokia 5140 phone, application software and 10 RFID tags. No pricing information was available.

The product is aimed at mobile workforces such as security guards and warehouse employees, and allows users to touch a tagged object with their phone to launch a application or function".

The BBC photoblogs CeBIT

BBC has sent a journalist to photoblog the CeBIT fair in Hanover, March 18 - 24.

"Armed with a SonyEricsson P900 cameraphone and a wi-fi enabled PDA, BBC News Online's Jon Kossman offers a snapshot of the gadgets on offer at the giant Cebit technology trade show".

Of the items photoblogged on this page, this one caught my eye.

"Swedish company, Softhouse, has come with a fun application where you can send a picture to their server by MMS and it then uses facial recognition to match your face with a celebrity". How cool is that?