June 14, 2005
fotochatter
A new service, fotochatter, allows pictures to be shared in a new way by cell phone. Now.
Unlike a lot of other sites out there fotochatter doesn't try to save your photos forever. There are plenty of really great services available to do this, and fotochatter allows you to use those services to store whatever photos you want. But we're not trying to create another moblog or online photo archive. fotochatter is a different kind of service; our focus is what's happening now, and how to best experience it with all your friends.
Everyone on your network can look at the photos right away, and make comments which come straight back to you on your cell phone. Using traditional MMS it's still difficult to send pictures to one your friends (provided he is on the same carrier), much less a whole group.
The basic usage scenario would be something like this:
1. Jack sends a picture from his phone to his fotochatter posting address.
2. All ten of Jack's fotochatter friends get an SMS notifying them that he has added a photo (if they have this option turned on).
3. They view Jack's photo on their phones either via the fotochatter WAP site or J2ME(Java) application.
4. Some friends make comments on his photo.
5. 5 minutes later, Jack receives several comments (via SMS) on his photo, and can reply to each individually via SMS.
Russel Buckley gives fotoshatter a thumbs up after testing it. He has published a lenghty review on his Mobile Weblog. "I like Fotochatter a lot, the more I think about it. It has reinvented a very popular online concept, specifically for the mobile phone and mobile phone user."
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