One in five babies has social network profile

Parents in the UK are increasingly using mobile phones and the internet to both announce and give their babies an online presence in the world, according to research carried out by Orange. TechRadar reports.

"Orange discovered that one in five new parents sent a camera-phone image of their newborn baby to friends and family within 10 minutes of it being born. Meanwhile, up to half took pictures of their babies within an hour. The survey questionned 1,000 new and expectant parents.

Orange also discovered that one in five parents has created a social networking profile for their baby – sometimes before it’s even been born. That’s over 57,000 babies with a Facebook, MySpace or Bebo page.

According to the research, it's not just newborns being 'snapped' either. One in seven parents have sent pictures of their unborn baby’s ultrasound scan via their mobile or email. That means over 100,000 babies every year are seen by friends and family before they're even born."

The Rise of the 'Citizen Paparazzi'

Photo agencies are increasingly relying on submissions from regular folk who either happen to bump into celebrities while carrying digital cameras, or who have injected themselves into the cat-and-mouse game of celebrity snapshots, despite any formal training. The Wall Street Journal reports.

This has led to an explosion in the number of photographs available to magazines and websites. And it has created friction with the old-guard paparazzi, who often find themselves navigating throngs of amateurs at red-carpet events. The pros complain that the newcomers are partly to blame for depressed prices, since they sometimes agree to sell shots for $25 or $50 that could have commanded several hundred dollars before. What's more, they gripe about rude and particularly aggressive behavior from some of the amateurs – no small allegation in an industry long known for its anything-goes tactics.

... Increasingly, nonprofessionals are positioning themselves alongside press photographers, said Brian Ach, a full-time freelancer for celebrity-photo agency WireImage, which is also owned by Getty. "It becomes difficult when there are marked spots for traditional agencies at an event, and somebody with a little point-and-shoot shows up and says, 'Well, I'm with so-and-so Web site," he said. "It happens at every single event."

... The reason these services are thriving, said Darryn Lyons, the founder of the London-based Web site Mr. Paparazzi, is that the general public is more likely to come across a million-dollar sighting than a photographer dispatched to capture an image.

Photo taken on stolen Nokia uploaded to Flickr

Flickr user mikesub had his cameraphone stolen. But then the thief took a picture with it, and for some reason tried to upload it to popular web community ShoZu.

Unfortunately, because the phone had been stolen, it didn't work - so instead, ShoZu emailed a copy of the picture back to Mike. Thus revealing either the thief or one of his mates.

Mike asks that if anybody recognises this muppet (who's almost certainly in Russia somewhere), they get in touch with him.

[boingboing via Metro]

Bootleg videotapes of concerts flourish

With high-tech, camera-equipped cell phones now standard gear, venues are increasingly finding their anti-video policies stretched to the limit. Columbas Dispatch reports.

"We're dealing with thousands of people on a given night," said Blake Schilling, director of event services at Nationwide Arena. "We do the best to our ability to catch everyone. Obviously, when you're talking about thousands of people, it's pretty difficult."

So difficult, in fact, that within hours of Linkin Park's Columbus performance, videos of the show started popping up on YouTube. As of last night, viewers could choose from more than 50 clips.

... With most cell phones capable of shooting video and small digital cameras able to film lengthy live footage, policy enforcement can be a losing battle.

"You spend the night hunting flashes down," said Scott Dickson, director of event services at the Schottenstein Center. "Sometimes we have to weigh how tough we want to be."

But it's easier to prevent videotaping than get the videos off the Internet, said Edward Lee, a professor of copyright and intellectual property law at Ohio State University."

Not even Adobe knows when Flash is coming to the iPhone

When Apple released the iPhone last summer, it did not support Adobe’s Flash Player, which meant Internet videos and other Web sites developed in Flash would not work on the phone writes Moco News.

"Google’s YouTube was one of the only video-sites that bothered to re-format some content, and even still only some of its videos became viewable on the iPhone. So, seven months after the iPhone’s release, the question remains: will Apple support Flash?

Adobe’s patience is thinning “No one aside from [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs has any idea if or when it’s coming,” Ryan Stewart, Adobe’s chief spokesman wrote on his blog last week. “Everyone I talk to doesn’t know anything.”

[via engadget:mobile. Image from MyiTablet]

Flickr is key prize in Yahoo Takeover

Stephen Wellman, writing on Information a couple of weeks ago, suggests that mobile phone maker Nokia should buy Yahoo, with the number one carrot being Flickr, "the best Web 2.0 application for storing and sharing digital photos". directtrafficmedia reports.

He argues that Nokia "would be able to leverage its global dominance in the camera phone market and create a truly compelling synergy between its hardware and Yahoo".

It seems more likely, though, that Yahoo will be bought by Microsoft, which wants to improve its Online Advertising position so that it can compete more effectively with Google.

But some Flickr users are not happy about that outcome, with more than 3,000 creating a group entitled "Microsoft: Keep Your Grubby Hands Off Our Flickr", Computer World reports.

More than 20 Million TV Phones Ship in Japan

Shipments of cell phones compatible with Japan's mobile digital TV service have surged to more than 20 million units in fewer than two years since launch, according to industry data released Wednesday. [via PC World]

PDG – Personal Display Glasses for mobile phones

Mobintech, a Denmark-based group, believes it has found the solution to the mobile phone industry's problem of trying to offer television and video services on a tiny screen. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"The logic of our product is that everyone wants to push mobile television at the moment but there are obstacles," says marketing director Soren Peterson.

"The first is the size of the screen. If you're watching football you can't see the ball. If it's boxing, you don't know who is hitting who."

The group's proposition is a chunky pair of futuristic-looking glasses that connect to the phone, which when worn by a viewer give the impression of watching a 30 inch (76cm) television at a distance of two metres.

In their own words: Watch your favorite TV shows and videos directly from your mobile phone on a pair of display glasses with a big 30 inch flat screen in front of your eyes.

Cell phone check-in in Japa

Air travelers of All Nippon Airways have been using their phones to manage the entire airline experience since September of 2006, beginning with booking flights. MSNBC reports.

"Mobile phone users can book a flight, see a seating chart of the aircraft, select their seat, have a bar-code and other key travel information e-mailed to their phone — and go to your departure gate just by producing their encrypted cell phone at airport security.

A 4-inch-long receipt that looks like it came from a standard cash register and prints out at the security check-point serves as your boarding pass."

'Happy slap' death girl convicted

A 15-year-old girl has admitted filming the death of a man on her mobile phone in a so-called "happy slapping" attack, reports the BBC.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the girl was handed a mobile phone by one of the attackers and was told to "video this".

She then approached Mr Waterhouse and asked him for some money before recording the attack upon him.

Prosecution witnesses said they saw and heard the attackers boasting about what they had just done, saying it was not the first time that they had attacked the victim. They also shared the video footage with friends, the court heard.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the decision to prosecute the girl was a legal landmark. Mark Masters, 19, and a male, 17, have admitted manslaughter.

All three defendants will be sentenced at a later date. "

Top Photos Older Japanese People Take With Their Cellphones

Japanese TV show Ranking Paradise went to Sugamo, a shopping area of Tokyo that is sometimes called “Harajuku for old people,” asking pedestrians over the age of 50 to show off photos they recently took with their camera phones. [via Japan Probe]

Top 7 cellphone pics taken by older people in Sugamo:

1. Landscapes / Scenery
2. Grandchildren
3. Oneself
4. Pets
5. Akihiro Miwa (it’s lucky to have his picture)
6. Memorable Food
7. Illuminations

Watch video.

Canon Hopes To Use The Photographer’s Iris For Copyright Protection

Canon has filed for a
patent they hope will ervolutionize digital watermarking when it comes to photographs.

Future cameras from the company could have a ‘REG’ setting on the Mode dial that will actually take a photograph of the user’s iris as they look through the viewfinder.

This image, which is as unique as a fingerprint would be added to the photo’s metadata once a series of shots have been captured.

[via OhGizmo]

Cellphone can read to you from pictures it takes

For a blind or visually impaired person, the Nokia N98 offers great promise: It's a liberating day-to-day tool that grants access to printed materials not otherwise easily available. USA Today reports.

"A sightless person can use the phone to snap a picture of a menu, book, printed receipt or business card. Software on the phone processes the words on those items and reads the text aloud in a synthesized voice. The device can even let a blind person know if paper currency is a $5 or a $20 bill.

The candy-bar-shaped Nokia houses an extremely capable digital camera - 5 megapixels, auto-focusing, high-intensity flash. But it's the character-recognition and text-to-speech software from KNFB Reading Technology that makes it so powerful. KNFB is a joint venture of the National Federation of the Blind and Kurzweil Technologies."

Holy Moly attacks 'seedy' paparazzi

UK's online celebrity and gossip Holy Moly started life as the website that brought you the celebrity gossip the tabloids would not.

But now it has started self-censoring the pictures it uses in the wake of concern over the paparazzi's treatment of celebrities such as Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse.

In a statement on its website Holy Moly said there had been a "definite change in the perception of paparazzi pictures" and it would no longer publish photos of celebrities being chased in cars or on bikes, celebrities with their children or people "in distress" at being photographed.

Celebrities who attend press launches and premieres and "idiots who go to places like The Ivy ... for a quiet bite to eat" remained fair game, as do "blatant photo opportunities" where the press are tipped off in advance.

... "Both reader and the publisher alike are getting a bit uneasy about it all when you can clearly see two or three people have been driven to the brink of mental illness because of it, said the creator of Holy Moly, who prefers to remain anonymous.

The statement said British photographer Nick Stern, who resigned from Los Angeles-based photo agency Splash Pictures last month in protest at the paparazzi's treatment of Britney Spears, had influenced the decision.

Holy Moly said: "We're going to do our best to stick to this, because let's face it, when one of the biggest names in paparazzi jacks it in due to ethics and morals and the world's biggest popstar gets her knickers photographed by 30 people an hour after being released from a mental institute, you know there's a problem on the shop floor."

The PESTER, 1970: Earliest multimedia phone

Conceived at the beginning of the 70s by Euan McGhee and John Drummond, PESTER is thought to be the earliest known example of a multimedia phone. It contains a cassette player, camera and games as well as a phone.

The original premise of the PESTER was to allow businessmen to move outside of the office while staying in contact at any time. As it developed through prototyping, new features were added, and it became somewhat of a status symbol amongst the young and successful.

PESTER relied on a wired network using Connection Points positioned at convenient locations. These included parks, shopping centres and restaurants as well as regular sites along streets. These Connection Points allowed callers to access an operator who could let them communicate with landline users, fellow PESTER owners and also record and send vocal messages. ...

[via we-make-money-not-art.com]

Samsung's MBP-100 mini projector goes mobile in March

The MBP-100 mini projector casts a 20-inch display from cellphones or presumably appropriately jacked portable media players of all kinds.

No details at the moment but it's expected to hit S.Korea in March and hopefully go global soon thereafter.

[via Engadget:mobile]

Eyes on video at mobile confab

Cell phone makers at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona advanced their quest to grab entertainment dollars as they introduced new handsets Monday geared for use as music, video, TV and gaming devices. [via The Hollywood Reporter]

-- With TV and video in mind, Samsung showed off its new F490, a video-centric phone with a 3-inch by 2-inch screen, which is larger than the average cell-phone screen. 17% of the people in South Korea watch mobile TV.

-- Nokia unveiled its video-oriented N96 with a large 2.8-inch screen size and enough storage capacity to hold "more video than most of us watch in a month.

... Although the mobile phone has started to catch on as a portable music player, it's sputtering as a TV device.

At the same time, fewer than 1% of mobile users in the five biggest Western European countries and the U.S. watched live TV or broadcast TV on their handsets, according to M:Metrics, which did not provide figures on video viewing."

What is Robert Redford doing at Mobile World Congress?

Robert Redford will be participating at a keynote interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starting today.

Apparently topics will include the 4th screen (mobile phone screen) as a medium for independent filmmakers to reach new audiences on a global basis.

[via I4U]

Movie Phone plays movies on a disc

Spice Corp Ltd, a leading Indian telecoms Corporation, is showing several groundbreaking products at the Mobile World Congress 2008; a $20 people's phone, a braille phone and relevant to this column, a Movie Phone: the world’s first phone to play movies on a disc.

In their own words:Compact, versatile and stylish, the Movie Phone combines high-end mobile phone functionality with top-of-the-range entertainment features - allowing the user to play movies on small discs, without compromising on digital quality. The handset comes with a user-friendly interface and features:

-- A large 2.8" TFT screen with 262K colour display
-- Wireless music
-- TV out connection
-- Full movie viewing (up to 3.5 hours)

In addition, also included is a standard 3.5 mm stereo headset port and an audio-out port. The audio-out port also functions as a TV-out connection transforming the Spice Movie Phone into a home entertainment player with a single cable connection to any TV.

[via e-mail press release]

First exclusive footage of Jérme Kerviel filmed by an amateur

A video on TF1's 50min Inside, shows the incredible manhunt by paparazzi from around the world who had converged in Paris to hunt for Jérôme Kerviel, and how an amateur snaparazzi got the scoop, by filming a scene through a window the night Kerviel was being interrogated by the French Financial brigade.

Paris Match paid close to euro 20,000 per picture ($29,000) and the price of the video went for much much more, tens of thousands of euros according to TF1, who would not reveal the exact amount.

The snapper who snapped

When paparazzo Nick Stern moved to LA he knew it would be rough but the hounding of Britney Spears was too much. He explains why he quit the pap pack in The Guardian.

"After a decade spent snapping celebrities in the British drizzle, Nick Stern moved to Hollywood for a "bit of sunshine". Seven months on, he has become a minor celebrity himself after making a public protest at the way the paparazzi are hounding Britney Spears.

His resignation from the LA-based photo agency Splash last month and subsequent appearances on TV - shot in silhouette to protect his anonymity - have highlighted the no-holds-barred behaviour of photographers scrapping for the shot that could be worth a fortune."

Bluetooth to Piggyback on Wi-Fi

Linking Bluetooth and Wi-Fi may make it easier and faster to transfer large amounts of music between computers and cell phones, or send pictures from a camera phone to a printer, or video from a camcorder to a TV.

Michael Foley, director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said the first devices with the technology could be on the market in the middle of next year. The industry group behind Bluetooth, which has more than 10,000 member companies, plans to announce Monday that it is pursuing the technology and will make it available next year.

[iva Physorg.com]

Paparazzi deflating myth of celebrity

The Paparazzi have gone overboard. An interesting article by Steve Penhollow on the paparazzi's antagonistic coverage of celebrities for The Journal Gazette.

"... According to The Associated Press, paparazzi greeting an ambulance carrying Britney Spears to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in early January banged on the doors of the vehicle.

“They were just doing their job,” some bloggers wrote afterward.

I know it has become fashionable to find something admirable in every occupation or vocation, from being a stripper to being a mortgage rescue scammer. But I think it’s safe to say that if your job involves banging on the doors of an emergency vehicle carrying a sick person to the hospital, you have squandered whatever potential was gifted to you at birth.

If these celebrity photographers are in fact “just doing their job,” how did that become their job?"

Full article.

What is Robert Redford doing at Mobile World Congress?

The GSM Association got Robert Redford to participate at a keynote interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

Apparently topics will include the 4th screen (mobile phone screen) as a medium for independent filmmakers to reach new audiences on a global basis.

[via I4U]

Nokia to Offer Grammy Awards Multimedia on Phones

Nokia is planning to offer Grammy Award winning music and video programming to Nokia customers around the world, also available for download from the Nokia Music Store as well as preloaded on selected Nokia devices in key markets.

"For the 50th Anniversary of the Awards, we are excited to offer the best of the Awards in exclusive video programming via the Nokia Video Centre, Medeo and other entertainment channels to millions of Nokia device owners around the world."

[via Mobiledia]

Paramount Pictures Creates New Mobile Entertainment Unit

Paramount Pictures is creating a new global business unit to focus on "developing mobile entertainment and alternative distribution models." The Viacom studio plans to announce Paramount Mobile Entertainment officially Monday

[via Moco News]

London Fashion Week gets smart

O2 will allow visitors to London Fashion Week to take part in the industry's first-ever trial of near-field communications (NFC). vnunet reports.

"Buyers attending the event will be able to show their interest in specific clothing collections by designer Emilio de la Morena by touching NFC-enabled phones on posters carrying identifying tags.

When a phone is presented to one of these "smart posters", it will send a text message back to the designer. The feedback will offer vital intelligence ahead of the fashion industry's main selling event, which takes place in Paris two weeks after the London show."

A collaborative animation competition

To help create a new animation for Nokia stores, Universal Everything is throwing a collaborative animation competition.

To enter, all you need to do is take pictures of you, or anyone you know, holding a blank piece of paper. Upload the pics to the contest's Flickrsite and the design wizards at Universal Everything will draw cell animation onto each blank frame.

The aim is to engage thousands of people around the world and create a truly global animation project that keeps growing and growing.

The contributor who gets the most frames into the final animation wins a Nokia N95 8GB. That's good, but the real prize would be getting to see your shot in one of Universal Everything's industry-leading animations.

[via Josh Spear]

Embedding a 3G Video Camera into Clothing

A UK company has launched a "wearable CCTV" jacket which uses 3G cellular to transmit video images back to a central office. The company says that its WCCTV 3G Covert Backpack is ideal for agents who need evidential quality recording of suspects on the move. The backpack houses all of Wireless CCTV's body-worn technology in a covert package.

... Using 3G mobile phone technology, images and sound can be remotely monitored by a supervisor, who can evaluate the situation in real-time and despatch assistance or advise the agent on possible courses of action.

... A Panic Alarm button allows agents to notify the supervisor that they need immediate assistance.

[via Cellular News]

Charming Burka @ Seamless 2008

During Seamless: Computational Couture," the "Charming Burka" was introduced to the public. This burka sends out a self-defined picture of the wearing person via Bluetooth.

A model presented the Charming Burka on the catwalk while the audience could receive the portrait of the model on their mobile phones.

After the catwalk visitors came around to discuss the idea or pick up the picture, if they did not do this before.

The Charming Burka deals with Freud‘s idea that all clothes can be positioned between appeal and shame.

The Burka was chosen, because it is often perceived in the west as a symbol of repression. A digital layer was added so that women can decide for themselves where they want to position themselves virtually.

The Burka sends an image, chosen by the wearer, via Bluetooth technology. Every person next to her can receive her picture via mobile phone and see the women's self-determined identity.

According to the artist Markus Kison the laws of the Koran are not broken, so the Charming Burka allows the possibility of living a more Western life, should a women so desire.

Cameraphone and burka related: - Taking Photos Through a Burka