Group tells public to take camphone pics of election fraud

Capitalizing on the popularity of camera-equip cellphones in the Philippines, consumer watchdog group TXT Power appealed to the population to lend their hand in ensuring a credible and honest election this May, by taking photographs of any violation of election laws using their cameraphones. The Sun Star reports.

"Photos can be sent to any election-accredited watchdog groups such as the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) for documentation and as evidence for the filing of administrative charges against the offending candidates and their supporters.

... The call of TXT Power came after the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines(CBCP) issued a pastoral statement stressing the need for a credible and honest election adding that the nation cannot afford another fraud like during the 2004 elections."

Related:

-- Change of heart. Thai voters banned from using mobile phone cameras at polling booths

-- Thai Election candidates asking camera phone users to take photographs of their completed ballot papers

-- Hong Kong residents asked to photograph voting for pro-Beijing candidates

Mobile internet use 'increasing'

Mobile phone users in the UK accessed the internet via their handsets about 15.9 million times throughout December 2006, says the Mobile Data Association. The BBC reports.

"The association's report shows an increase of one million unique sessions over November 2006, the prior record.

However, much of the recent increase could be due to seasonal gift-giving said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Jupiter Research.

In the past three months, mobile users accessed the web 45.6 million times.

... Despite the new numbers, Mr Husson said mobile data was still "far from being mainstream".

Shanghai stages 4G telephony rollout, bypassing 3G

China has launched a trial run of home-grown fourth-generation mobile technology in Shanghai in what it called the world's first rollout of the wireless application, reports the AFP.

"... 4G technology provides wireless services at much faster speeds, sharply improving high-quality images and data services, and potentially allowing for such features as multi-channel high-definition TV broadcasting.

Third-generation (3G) telephony is still not available in China due to repeated government delays. In a bid to crack a potentially lucrative market, engineers here have moved directly to developing the ultra-fast 4G technology."

Fox subpoenas YouTube over 'Simpsons,' '24'

subpoenaed Google's YouTube video service to learn who uploaded pirated copies of episodes of television shows 24 and The Simpsons, reports USA Today, picking up on a Friday story published in the WSJ.

"The subpoena, filed Jan. 18, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asks YouTube to hand over information to identify the subscriber so Fox can stop the infringement, the Journal reported.

The four-episode season premiere of thriller show 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, appeared on the site ahead of its TV broadcast, and 12 episodes of The Simpsons were being distributed on YouTube by a subscriber called "ECOtotal," the subpoena's declaration said, according to the paper.

... According to the WSJ, this isn't the first time the Twentieth Century Fox has had a piracy issue involving YouTube; a young user was identified in a case in which a Family Guy episode was posted on YouTube ahead of its premiere. However, in this recent case, Fox noted in the subpoena it has been unable to discover through its own investigation the identity of the subscriber,"

YouTubers to get ad money share

People who upload their own films to video-sharing website YouTube will soon get a share of the ad revenue, reports the BBC.

"YouTube founder Chad Hurley confirmed to the BBC that his team was working on a revenue-sharing mechanism that would "reward creativity".

The system would be rolled out in a couple of months, he said, and use a mixture of adverts, including short clips shown ahead of the actual film.

YouTube has more than 70m users a month and was recently bought by Google.

The offer applies only to people who own the full copyright of the videos that they are uploading to the YouTube website."

Baby's arrival inspires birth of cellphone camera — and societal evolution

Kevin Maney for USA Today reports on the invention of the camera phones, 10 years ago.

"... Philippe Kahn's story of the origin of the cell-cam started when his wife, Sonia Lee, roared at him while spending 18 hours in labor. "I'd gone to the Lamaze classes," Kahn, now 54, tells me. "And the second time I said, 'Breathe!' Sonia said, 'Shut up!' So I said, 'OK, I'll sit at this desk and find something to do.' "

As his wife's labor went on, Kahn started fiddling with his hardware and writing code to glue it together. "I had time to make a couple trips to RadioShack to get soldering wire," Kahn says. "I just stayed in the room and made that thing work."

By the time he was holding his newborn daughter, Kahn could use his jury-rigged contraption to take a digital photo and wirelessly post it for his friends and family.

Motorola was in the process of buying Starfish, and Kahn says he first showed his invention to his new boss. But Motorola was just getting a new CEO (Chris Galvin) and embarking on one of the most ill-fated projects in global corporate history (the Iridium satellite phone system). Motorola passed on the cell phone camera.

Kahn formed a new company, LightSurf, to build and market PictureMail - a back-end system that would let a cell phone take a photo and send it somewhere. The first version came out in Japan in 1999, helping spur the Japanese to make the earliest cell-cams. Motorola and Nokia ended up being late to the cell-cam game."

Vodafone prepping new mobile video service

Vodafone is planning on expanding its Live! portal with a new user-generated mobile video service enabling subscribers to upload and view their own clips, reports FierceMobile Content.

"Scheduled to premiere in March in conjunction with the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, the as-yet-unnamed service will also afford users the opportunity to profit from their videos: Vodafone said it will introduce a plan offering premium compensation according the number of times a particular clip is downloaded."

Curse of the Camera Phone

Michael Agger on Slate has a written a wonderful and lengthy article summing up some of the most memorable stories about citizen reporting and describes the cameraphone as "our era's chronicler of infamy" notably for capturing Prince Harry wearing a Nazi costume, Kate Moss snorting coke, Michael Richards racist ranting in a small theater, the phenomenon of happy slapping and the execution of Sadam Hussein.

Even better, he has rounded up and put side by side in one single clip, all the video footages. Agger signs off with these very truthful words:

Now thanks to cameraphones we'll see the best of things, we'll see the worst of things. We'll see everything.

Watch here.

And on a personal note, thank you Michael Agger for giving kuddos to picturephoning.

Egypt's Torture Video Sparks Outrage

Egyptian human rights activists have spent years searching for evidence of the torture of detainees in police stations, detention centers and prisons reports Time, but few were prepared for such evidence to begin arriving in the form of a graphic cell-phone video, where a man lies screaming on the floor of a police station as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole.

"The images, relayed via the Internet, shocked even human rights activists well aware of such abuses.

Human rights activists say that systematic police brutality is part of the Egyptian security apparatus, and has been on the rise. Torture became widespread in the early 1990s, but was focused on Islamist militants and their families. More recently, though, non-political detainees have also begun to report being tortured as police seek to extract confessions in criminal cases.

... Abu Saeda and other human rights campaigners are hoping that the publicity generated by the El Kabir case will encourage other victims to come forward, and that public prosecutors can be pressed to monitor police detention centers. They are also pressing for changes in Egypt's criminal law in order to hold the police hierarchy, and not only those who carry out torture orders, to be held accountable.

Related:

-- Egyptian Prisoner's torture sent to his friend's cell phones by police

-- Video phones expose torture in Egyp

Bus driver caught on camera using mobile

A 15-year-old English schoolboy captured a video on his mobile phone of a female school bus driver talking on her cell phone and driving with one hand on the the wheel, prompting an investigation of misconduct and child endangerment.

"The footage shows the driver of a First Eastern Counties number 75 bus from Ipswich to Felixstowe holding a phone to their ear while driving along the road ferrying children home from school.

First Eastern Counties told The Evening Star that the company takes the allegations seriously and the driver will face disciplinary action."

Related:

--Camera phone photo of New York subway employee prompts investigation - A subway rider who took a picture of sleeping work station agent sent it to The New York Post, who published it.

Last fews day for Textually's short survey

Textually.org Network's short survey is online for just another few days.

Many thanks for taking just a few minutes of your time to answer it's questions - if you haven't already.

Baghdad diary: Technology at war

BBC war correspondent Andrew North from Baghdad on "technology at war".

"... Ordinary Iraqis now have to day-to-day communication devices like mobiles and the internet. Some use it as part of their fight, others to survive.

Millions of Iraqis own mobiles. Despite the violence, the phone companies have gradually expanded coverage - although their security budgets are astronomical.

Even in places like Falluja, you get good reception.

... The camera-equipped mobile phone has a central place in Iraqi history now, thanks to the notorious video of Saddam Hussein's execution.

But for Ali, a doctor, it was also the only way he could show his parents and relatives his newborn son. It is just too dangerous for him to travel across town to where his parents live.

Insurgent groups have long used the internet and mobiles to get their message out, distributing clips of attacks on the Americans - long before any US version of events is available.

Wealthier families use internet phones to keep in touch with loved ones across the city and abroad."

TV Show "Heroes" is going digital

The hit American TV series Heroes is relaunching its Web site with new interactive features coinciding with a batch of new original on-air episodes. NBC hopes the multiplatform strategy will deepen the “Heroes” mythos with additional content for Internet and mobile applications.

New add-ons include a real-time, two-screen application that plays out on the PC along with each episode, commentary from cast members set to streamed episodes, and mobile content.

[Gadget Lounge via The Hollywood Reporter]

MIT launches Cell Phone Photography Contest

In the 19th century, photographers used the emerging tools of their trade and made photography into a new art form, despite the complaints from painters, writes News.com.

"Can the same thing happen with cell phones? MIT is currently conducting the Mili-MIT Museum Cell Phone Photography Contest, in which individuals are submitting aesthetic photographs in the hope of winning eternal fame, or at least some photo printers.

The contest goes through January 29, and winners will be lauded in a ceremony on February 2."

Egyptian Prisoner's torture sent to his friend's cell phones by police

The AP reports on other shocking video footage coming out of Egypt and posted on YouTube. "This time a man lies screaming on the floor of a police station as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole.

Compounding the shock, it turns out that it was the police who made the film, and that they then transmitted it to the cell phones of the victim's friends in order to humiliate him.

...Unlike the tape of the Los Angeles police beating up King in 1991, which was aired almost immediately, the attack on el-Kabir happened a year ago, and has only became public months later after an Egyptian blogger posted it on his site and it reached YouTube.

... Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, is under mounting pressure for democratic freedoms and human rights, and the el-Kabir video, along with other less widely publicized videos of recent months, appear to have embarrassed authorities into action."

Previously: - Video phones expose torture in Egypt

Participate in the Pocket Films Festival

The Pocket Films Festival is seeking participants.

Send us your film shot with a cellular phone before March 30th 2007.

From June 8 - 10, 2007 at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, France.

[Press release]

RFID Audiobar

Media artists have begun playing around with RFID and introduced much more creative and sensorial ways of using the technology than tracking and identifying products. [via Guerilla Innovation]

"One of these artists is Mogens Jacobsen who was recently commissioned by The Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, to come up with an new way of presenting the Museum's vast archive of sound-art.

From this brief, the artist created Audiobar (Hørbar), a physical bar-like social environment that enable visitors to interact with the sounds via RFID tagged bottles.

Each bottle in Audiobar is labeled with different keywords such as 'slow', narrative', 'noisy' etc. and by moving the bottles around, visitors can play sounds that match the keywords.

Audiobar is currently on exhibit at the Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, Denmark."

Fox News offers audio feed on cell phones

Fox News has rolled out a new service that will let anyone with a cell phone access an audio feed of the cable channel. Reuters reports.

"The live feed will be available 24/7 by dialing "#FOXN" on a mobile phone. The service, which will start with Cingular, costs $2.99 a month plus applicable per-minute airtime charges."

Magic Mirror Lets You Text from the Fitting Room

Christopher Enright's Magic Mirror with infrared technology, "lets you try on clothes without having to put them on and lets you take and send snapshots of yourself with your spiffy new threads to any cell phone or e-mail address."

[via Gizmodo]

Women are violent too

MensNewsDaily in an article on the reform of the "Violence Against Women Act"- has rounded up links to clips from around the world posted on YouTube showing female violence, proving it's not just a male thing.

You will see clips from all around the world, and learn that female violence is not simply an American phenomenon. Women are violent. They beat up each other, and they viciously attack their men too. The time has come to reform the Violence Against Women Act.

NY Mayor Bloomberg outlines citizen camphone hotline

Newsday reports that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his State of the City address, outlined a new project to encourage citizens to send in cameraphones shots of any wrondoing: "If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition, you'll be able to transmit images to 911 or online to nyc.gov", he said.

"The city has yet to secure a contract to implement the technology, a mayoral spokeswoman said.

In concept, the system will use technology that is already used by millions of cell phone users every day, Feinblatt said."

Phones, YouTube change view of Sundance Festival

The definitive image from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, opening tonight in Park City, Utah, might be shot with a camera phone and posted on the Internet. Detroit News reports.

"Thanks to camera phones and video-sharing sites such as YouTube everyone can be a cameraman and everyone can show a "film" to the world in an instant. And celebrities, like those who will flock to Utah's mountains for the 11-day festival, are a favorite target.

... Sundance's exposure on YouTube may mirror the Internet coverage of September's Toronto International Film Festival, where attendees recorded their experiences and uploaded them for everyone to see.

"It's sort of a meta-document. It gives us a grass-roots chronicle of it," said Noah Cowan, co-director of the Toronto festival."

Please take the Textually Network Short Survey

The textually blogs, including Picturephoning.com, have recently been accepted into the Federated Media Publishing network, and as part of the initial process of starting up, FM asks their Authors to run a survey on their site.

The survey asks pretty standard questions of their audiences, so as to make better matches between marketers and an author's sites.

Many thanks for taking a minute to fill out this short survey , and letting us know more about you.

It'll help make the Textually blogs and FM more successful - without reader input, there's not a business in the first place. Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you have any trouble or input.

Nokia patents voice tagging of photos

According to MAD4MobilePhone Nokia has been granted a patent for the voice tagging of camera phone pictures to make it easy to file images on your phone or on a PC.

"The system would allow you to take a picture of a landmark or person and immediately tag it with a number of tags and the image would then be stored in a folder for each tag.

For example if you take a photo of a sunset over the sea. You could tag it with “sunset” and “sea” and the photo would exist in the two separate folders."

Video phones expose torture in Egypt

This week a scandal has erupted in Cairo over the use of cell phone/video cam, used film a torture scene. The World of Peace Herald reports.

"Somehow, someone managed to sneak a cell phone camera into an Egyptian police station and document a disturbing scene showing a woman hanging from a lateral pole that was balanced between the backs of two chairs. The woman's hands and feet are tied and she is swinging upside-down with the wooden pole placed under her knees."

To view this video, you must register. This is is the first time I've encountered this on YouTube.

YouTube displayed this clip as well as several others showing Egyptian policemen hitting, kicking, shouting and abusing detainees.

"The Egyptian government has consistently denied the use of torture by its military, police and security forces. But the sudden appearance on youtube.com of dozens of clips taken by cell phone cams has brought much embarrassment to the government of President Mubarak".

HBO puts shows on cell phones

Home Box Office has launched a new service with S.K. Telecom in Korea that allows viewers to watch full-length episodes of previously-aired HBO productions on their cell phones, taking the mobile-video concept to another level and offering a preview of what's coming to the United States. The Star Bulletin reports.

"For the new service in Korea, viewers pay a flat rate of approximately $2 per month to select from a library of HBO shows (no feature films yet), which are available just as they aired, with legible subtitles and chapters for quick return to a particular place."

Examples include "Sex and the City" and "Six Feet Under," which are both out of production. There's no limit on the number of times a viewer can watch an episode.

LiveLink.org. A video sharing site that shows true face of war

The The Gulf Times has an interesting article on video sharing site LiveLink, which describes itself as "redefining the media". But what is most surprising about this website, is that it is the website of choice of American soldiers who are posting videos from Afghanistan and Iraq. Their reporting first hand is affecting our knowledge about the war and just underscores once more, how the US army has become powerless to sensor information.

"Members of the public, including troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, post video clips onto the website for viewers to watch and comment on. It is among the websites that showed the execution of Saddam Hussain. Another 27-second clip — accompanied by a graphic content warning – also appeared on the website to show Saddamís body in a morgue.

Other recent ‘leaks’ include a clip that appears to show US soldiers searching for insurgents on the Euphrates river in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week contrasted "restricted access" media coverage of the first Gulf War to the website , during his speech on the role of the UK’s armed forces in the 21st Century.

He said: "Take a website like Live Leak which has become popular with soldiers from both sides of the divide in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Operational documentary material, from their mobile phones or laptops, is posted on the site.

"These sometimes gruesome images are the unmediated reality of war. They provide a new source of evidence for journalists and commentators, by-passing the official accounts and records."

Industry worries whether people will watch entertainment videos on their cell phones.

According to The Mercury News, "nearly 80 percent of Americans have cell phones, but less than 1 percent of them watch video clips regularly, averaging 10 minutes or less a week".

The rest of the article voices concerns from the entertainment industry as to whether mobile video content will catch on.

Seems so obvious to me that it will. But you can read for yourself.

Another study in the news todays finds wireless users want short video clips, not television programming. [via The Canadian Press]

American Idol to air contestants video shows on cell phones, right after they air on TV

"American Idol" will launch a mobile venture simultaneous with the start of its sixth season on Jan. 16, reports Variety.

"Idol," long credited with opening up the text messaging market in this country, will begin making full video performances of the contestant's tracks available immediately after the show airs (for the U.S., that means after the last transmission in Hawaii).

Related:

-- More text votes cast on American Idol than for any US president - “American Idol” has introduced millions of Americans to text messaging and, in doing so, created a new revenue model. Last year, 64 million votes were cast for favored contestants using Cingular cell phones, more votes than have been cast for any U.S. president ".

The Snoop Next Door. Outing fellow citizens

The WSJ published an interesting story last Friday on the US turning into a shame culture, pointing "an internet finger " on any citizens' wrong doings.

"Last month, Eva Burgess was eating breakfast at the Rose Cafe in Venice, Calif., when she remembered she needed to make an appointment with her eye doctor. So the New York theater director got on her cell phone and booked a date. Almost immediately, she started receiving “weird and creepy” calls directing her to a blog. There, under the posting “Eva Burgess Is Getting Glasses!” her name, cell phone number and other details mentioned in her call to the doctor’s office were posted, along with the admonition “next time, you might take your business outside.”

It used to be the worst you could get for a petty wrong in public was a rude look. Now, it's not just brutal police officers, panty-free celebrities and wayward politicians who are being outed online.

The most trivial missteps by ordinary folks are increasingly ripe for exposure as well. There is a proliferation of new sites dedicated to condemning offenses ranging from bad parking (Caughtya.org) and leering (HollaBackNYC.com) to littering (LitterButt.com) and general bad behavior (RudePeople.com). One site documents locations where people have failed to pick up after their dogs.

Capturing newspaper-stealing neighbors on video is also an emerging genre." ...

Related:

-- "dog-sh..-girl" a test of the Internet's Power to Shame

-- "Now it's 15 minutes of shame not fame

-- parkingidiots.blogspot.com

-- RottenDriver.com Shames the Maniacs by SMS

-- MS campaign appeal for informants - to single out polluters

-- Snap a picture of a traffic offender

-- Framed! Photos taken by general public net errant motorists in Malaysia