South Korea. Internet-TV Law Is Approved

South Korea's National Assembly passed a law allowing telecommunications companies to offer real-time broadcasting over their broadband networks.

The parliament passed the law on Internet Protocol TV, or IPTV, which offers real-time television programs and interactive services such as e-commerce over the Internet, according to the National Assembly's Web site.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

An end of year chat with mobuzz.tv's Anil de Mello

It´s New Years Eve....a time to look back and reflect....so Olivia sat down for a chat with Anil de Mello about mobuzz.tv´s past, present and future.

Also, Anil and Olivias thoughts on the 2.0 bubble (or not) and the demise (or not) of Facebook.

36% use their cell phones as entertainment devices

About 38% of consumers are watching TV shows online, 36% use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45% are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.

The "State of the Media Democracy" notes that in Deloitte's first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24% of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices. The current figure soars to 62% among millenials (consumers 13-to-24-years-old) compared with 46% in the previous study conducted Feb. 23-March 6, 2007. And among Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number grew from 47% to 29% in the earlier survey.

About 20% of consumers said they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily."

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

Czech CSSD to use mobile phones while electing president-press

Czech senior opposition Social Democrat (CSSD) deputies and senators may have to bring their photo-capable mobile phones with them to Prague Castle, the residence of Czech presidents, when the Czech parliament will be electing the new president in February, the daily Hospodarske noviny writes today.

"There is a possibility that the CSSD leadership will want to control whether CSSD legislators really voted for Jan Svejnar and not for incumbent President Vaclav Klaus with the help of photographs made by mobile phones, the paper says."

[via CeskéNoviny.cz]

NTV Predictions: Mobile Video

NewTeeVee has asked their panel of experts whether mobile video will still suck in 2008.

Selections from their responses can be found here.

“More importantly, here’s the fundamental logjam of mobile — demand is increasing slowly, and the telecom companies and content owners are unwilling to cede control to each other. One has eyeballs and the other has videos, but the monetization is minimal and big companies will battle for control as startups quietly resolve the situation.” - Kevin Nalty, “self-proclaimed viral video genius” (a.k.a. Nalts from YouTube):

"... the rumored 3G version iPhone will probably arrive in 2008 and all mobile video problems will be solved.” - George Ruiz, head of new media at International Creative Management (online video talent agent)

Convert URLs for easy mobile phone access

DigitlURL is a web service that allows mobile phone users to access internet sites using numeric addresses, rather than traditional URLs. It was launched last month by Melbourner Andrew Gray. LifeHacker reports.

"Numeric addresses can be much easier to enter on phone keypads, particularly if the URL is long and complicated (as they so often are these days)."

You can find some more information at DigitlURL's blog.

Chinese farmers offered subsidised TVs, mobile phones

Chinese farmers will be given a 13-percent discount on televisions, mobile phones and other electrical appliances under a new subsidy scheme to boost rural spending, state press reported Monday.

... Once the scheme is expanded, air conditioners and washing machines will also attract a subsidy, according to the ministry.

[via the AFP]

Kelly court photos lands woman in jail

A woman who snapped photos of US songwriter and pop singer R. Kelly in a courtroom with her cell phone has pleaded guilty to contempt of court after spending the weekend in jail. The AP reports.

"Jean Johnson, 49, was sentenced to five days in jail after entering the plea Monday, but she was released after Judge Vincent Gaughan gave her credit for the days she had already spent in custody. He also ordered her cell phone destroyed.

Describing herself as Kelly's "biggest fan," Johnson said she couldn't resist snapping four grainy pictures of the R&B superstar as he sat across from her last Thursday.

She said she didn't realize cameras weren't allowed in courtrooms."

Laure Manaudou nude cameraphone pictures

French swim champ and darling of the press Laure Manaudou is at the centre of a nude picture controversy, according to Radar Online.

Her Italian swimmer former boyfriend Luca Marin is accused of posting video and pictures of Manaudou - Olympic and world 400m world champion - presumably taken with a cameraphone.

The pair had a spat at the European short course swimming championships in Hungary at the weekend."

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Cameraphone misuse and indecency

One of the most appalling stories I've ever read on indecency and the misuse of cameraphones. [via The Daily Times Salisbury]

"Beth Bounds lost a son in a devastating crash Aug. 5 on the Chincoteague Causeway.

But months later, photographs of the tangled wreckage of vehicles survive in the camera phones of local students -- and continue to be forwarded to students, recent graduates and others.

Some of the photos even show her deceased son, 11-year-old Brendan Chance Holston, in the wreckage as he waited for medical help.

The photos are among the continuing insults that Bounds, and especially her ninth-grade daughter, Elyssa Bounds, are experiencing in the wake of the crash, which injured 10 other people.

Classmaates accused her of enjoying a "death limelight" and began to spread jealous rumors about her in the wake of her brother's death.

Waves of the photos were circulated to caller groups immediately after the crash, and recently have begun again in an bizarre electronic testament to morbid curiosity."

Sophomore suspended for posting photos taken in classroom sues district

A high school sophomore who was suspended for taking photos of his teacher during class and posting the pictures online from home, lost the first round of his lawsuit against the school district Dec. 11, when a federal judge refused to lift the student's suspension early. [via Students Press Law Center]

"The student took the photos with his digital camera Nov. 20, during his Language Arts class. The pictures show teacher Jessica Hauser at her desk, looking over paperwork and talking with other students. Hauser did not notice the pictures being taken, but in some of the seven pictures, students smile or give a thumbs-up to the camera. Later, Glover used his home computer to post the pictures to his Facebook profile."

MTV Taps into Citizen Journalism

MTVs MTV“Choose or Lose ‘08″consists of 51 youth reporters (one from each state) that will cover the election through short videos, photos and podcasts to be distributed via mobile and the MTV and Associated Press web sites.

Using short-form videos, blogs, animation, photos and podcasts, the reports will be distributed through MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com, more than 1,800 sites in The Associated Press' Online Video Network and a soon-to-launch Wireless Application Protocol site. The Street Team '08 reporters were carefully selected after an extensive nationwide search, and they represent every aspect of today's youth audience — from seasoned student-newspaper journalists to documentary filmmakers, the children of once-illegal immigrants and community organizers.

[via NewTeeVee]

Japan Leads World In Mobile Blogging

According to the Technorati 2007 “State of the Blogsphere” report, Japanese is the #1 blogging language in the world, accounting for 37% of all blog posts, narrowly edging out English at 36%.

... According to a recent survey, the mobile phone was found to be the blogging device of choice, being used by over two-thirds of bloggers in Japan. In fact, over a third of the sample stated that they only blog by mobile phone, while another 20% used both mobile phone and PC, while favoring the phone. The levels for favoring using a PC for blogging were lower.

[via PSFK]

Video pictures of unborn baby onto Moms' cell phones

Expectant mothers can now download video pictures of their unborn baby onto their cell phones or iPods. This is London reports.

"Launched today by the Portland Hospital, the new high-tech scanning service could signal the end of grainy black-and-white prints. The 4D realtime ultrasounds provide a new level of detail for in-the-womb images - and are better for detecting problems.

The private maternity clinic in central London, whose celebrity patients have included Victoria Beckham and Sarah Ferguson, has tailored the £ 120 babyscan service to suit career mothers.

Women can visit the clinic in their lunch hour, have a 40-minute scan and then download the high-definition images to their MP3 player or mobile phone via a secure internet site."

[via
Spluch ]

Surgeon takes camphone picture of patient's penis

A doctor is facing disciplinary action after taking a picture of a patient's penis during his gallbladder surgery at a hospital in Phoenix.

The 37 year-old man whose penis bears the tatooed slogan 'Hot Rod' says he feels violated by having its image captured by a doc with a mobile phone.

The incident was reported by a member of surgical staff at the hospital. An investigation is underway. Dr Hansen has been placed on administrative leave.

[via metro]

Related, sort of: - Nurse fired for camera prank

China dials up money for mobile phones

Chinese regulators have given a vital push to the burgeoning cell phone TV biz by establishing a 400 million yuan ($54 million) government fund to develop the technology in the next three years. Variety Asia

"The coin is to help Chinese firms develop domestic mobile TV standards to avoid paying royalties to foreign firms to use their technology, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The fund will be run by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. "

Related: - Korean Mobile TV Technology Adopted as Global Standard

Pocket FIlms Festival. Call for projects.

The 4th edition of the Pocket Films Festival, organized by the Forum des images, will take place at the Pompidou Center, Paris, France, from June 13-15, 2008.

The 2008 registration forms for the Pocket Films Festival are online.

[via networked performance]

Upcoming standard to separate cameraphone wheat from chaff

Cell phone cameras have breached the 5-megapixel mark, but the image quality on many of them isn't that hot. A 22-member consortium named the I3A hopes to give consumers some guidance on image quality by developing a set of standards. [via ars technica]

"The 13A's list list of group participants reads like a Who's Who of influential corporations in a variety of areas. Companies participating include Texas Instruments, Nokia, Phillips Lumineds Lighting, Sony Ericsson, ST Microelectronics, Micron, Motorola, Eastman Kodak, and AMD.

The ultimate goal of the I3A's work in this area is to produce a range of standardized tests that could span the entire range of digital photo devices and provide consumers with an easy-to-understand rating system. "

Worlds Largest Photo Mosaic

Not related to cameraphones, just amazing.This mosaic which shows a child smiling has just achieved an entry in the Guinness World Record. It is 40.6 meters long and just under 14 meters wide. A total of 95,000 pictures of smiling children were used.

[via Spluch]

China's CCTV.com wins Beijing Games new media rights

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday it had awarded the Beijing 2008 Games internet and mobile phone platform rights for China to the digital arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

The IOC has already sold over-the-air TV rights in China for the Games to CCTV.

Income from broadcasting and new media rights for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympics have already risen nearly 40 percent from the previous two-Games package, which includes the Beijing Olympics, and will be in excess of $3.0 billion.

The IOC estimates some 15 percent of that will come from new media including the internet and mobile phones.

[via The Guardian. Image from the China Digital Times]

1.2 Million Mobile TV Users In France

There is now 1.2 million mobile TV users in France—Orange has 1 million and SFR has 200,000, according to ScreenDigest.

Both these servicese are over the 3G network, and ScreenDigest reckons that by the end of the year France will overtake Italy as the biggest mobile TV market in Europe

[via MocoNews]

Korean Mobile TV Technology Adopted as Global Standard

A Korean-made mobile broadcasting technology has been adopted as a global standard. Digital Chosunilbo reports.

Developed by adding a multimedia aspect to Europe's digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology, terrestrial digital mobile broadcasting (T-DMB) enables clear reception of video and audio while on the move.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said Saturday that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) confirmed T-DMB as a global standard after getting approval from its 191 member nations.

... Some 7.8 million T-DMB devices are currently in use in Korea. The technology is being pilot-tested in 11 nations including Germany, the Vatican, Ghana, Indonesia, Britain, France, the Netherlands, China, South Africa and Canada."

New Apple TV spot

New Apple TV spot.

[via Oneplus infinity]

A shopping phone

According to The Sun, "a camera phone that lets you snap an item you want, then orders it online is set to revolutionize the way Brits shop.

The breakthrough concept, dubbed Point and Find, has been developed by researchers at Nokia.

Once released (in a year or so), it will enable shoppers to take pictures of products in store windows before forwarding their snaps to special recognition software inside the handset.

After the goods have been recognized, a web browser will open in the phone, sending the information on to the internet.

The phone will then launch on online search for the best price and availability before the user places their order. "

The mobile phone that translates foreign menus into English

The days of restaurant humiliation for linguistically-challenged Britons will soon be over, reports the Daily Mail, thanks to Nokia which has developed a mobile phone application which scans a menu and automatically translates thousands of food-related words in seconds.

"To use the software, the diner simply takes a picture of the part of the menu he or she wants to translate.

The phone comes back with an English translation within seconds.

The software is a version of barcode reading applications which are already found on many mobiles.

The prototype application is able to scan and translate 9,000 Chinese words and 600 Japanese words.

Other languages - such as Korean, French, Italian and Polish - are expected to follow soon.

The software is likely to be added to one of Nokia's top-of-the-range camera phones such as the N95.

[via The Daily Mail]

500 QR Code enhanced invader scarfs

Spotted on All About Mobile Life, a 500 QR Code enhanced invader scarfs.

The code holds messages that can be decoded by any mobile phone with a Q-R code scanner.

Digital activists expose abuse

The power of online video to document human rights abuse and raise international awareness was the subject of a panel discussion on technology and social change convened at the United Nations on Monday as part of celebrations commemorating Human Rights Day. The BBC reports.

"The power of visual images can go a long way in making people wake up," Jenni Wolfson of the human rights group Witness told the audience of NGO representatives and UN officers. "It won't allow perpetrators to say that abuses didn't happen, won't allow them to say they didn't know what was going on."

Human rights organisations are now trying to harness this technology to benefit the victims while minimising the advantage to the abusers."

Nokia debuts mobile video service

Continuing its acceleration into the multimedia business, Nokia announced Medeo, a new mobile streaming video service.

Accessed through the www.nokia.mobi portal, the ad-supported Medeo service focuses on entertainment-themed content like Hollywood news, film trailers, celebrity interviews and red-carpet footage, and is now available via Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices.

[via Fierce Mobile Content]

Mobile Greeting Card Creator

CellySpace has launched a do-it-yourself, web based MMS service for users to create multimedia greeting cards and send them to their family and friend's phones.

Dubbed the "MMS Composer", this service allows users to upload pictures and audio files from their computer, edit them into a slideshow and then send them for immediate or scheduled delivery.

MMS messages are optimized to fit mobile phone formats and can include audio, video, text and images.

[via Press release]