Video on cellphones not taking off

Americans are watching more video on their PCs -- but not on their cellphones, according to a recent study from researcher Ipsos MediaCT. USA Today reports.

"Ipsos surveyed Americans who had downloaded or streamed at least one video. (Anyone who has ever been to YouTube counts.) That group watched an average of 70% of their video on TV, down from 75% a year ago, the study says. The amount of video watched on a PC rose.

So far, the amount of video watched on a cellphone or PDA is around 1%."

'PhotoPhone' shows you who's calling

The "GE PhotoPhone," first seen at CES in January displays digital images of whomever is ringing based on a visual form of caller ID.

And when no one is on the phone, it still serves as a 7-inch picture frame in either black or silver finish.

[via Crave]

Horrific slice of reality in knife campaign

Grisly images of real-life wounds are being used today in the most explicit government campaign ever to try to fight knife crime, reports Metro.

"Photos of a man with a blade plunged in his chest, of exposed intestines and a gangrenous leg form part of a horrific series of adverts.

Ministers hope the £3million 'viral' campaign, aimed at mobile phone users and internet sites such as Bebo, will finally shock youngsters into not carrying knives, after a series of street murders. "

Mobile music video service Napster Clips debuts in Japan

Napster has just launched its first mobile music video service, Napster Clips in Japan.

This new service puts a premium on unlimited access to a high-quality digital video service that would complement Napster’s music subscription service. In partnership with Japan’s NTT Docomo, Napster is offering this service via the mobile operator’s new N960IL onefone mobile handset.

[via Gadgetell]

McDonald’s new cashless RFID system goes nationwide in Japan

After nearly a year in development, McDonalds Japan has finally released it’s innovative new Kazasu Coupon (Contactless Coupon) loyalty and payment program, beginning with 175 stores and expanding gradually to its 3,800 nationwide stores by 2009.

[via Scout]

DoCoMo Phone lets you watch TV underwater

That title from I4U certainly caught my attention. And the photo above does indeed show the phone immersed in water.

"Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo unveiled 19 new mobile phones in the 706i and 906i series. One of which, in the 706i line includes the new F706i water-proof 1Seg digital TV mobile phone. "

OmniVision Develops Sensor To Improve Camera Phones

In a development that may provide a significant improvement in camera-phone picture quality, semiconductor maker OmniVision Technologies Inc. said it has developed a "radically different" image sensor that can squeeze many more pixels on a tiny chip.

The new technology will allow cellphone makers to offer resolution comparable to that found in the latest digital cameras. But will probably be several years before the new chips appear in lower-end handsets.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Pupsight. For a Dog Day Afternoon

Pupsight is a system and device that lets your pets share their day with the world. Owners can set the parameters of how their dog's camera uploads images and video to the net. They can also check in on what their dog sees from their mobile phone. Pupsight is the next chapter in doggy blogging, as well as a new way to define the modern guard dog.

Picture from diana eng

Mobile phone pictures used to diagnose STDs online

The Mirror reports that embarrassing sex diseases can now be diagnosed by pictures sent from mobile phones.

"People too shy to visit an STD clinic can upload images of their intimate problems - and get an almost instant medical opinion. The pioneering service allows men and women to reveal worrying lumps or rashes without the ordeal of a face-to-face consultation.

The pictures will be examined by doctors, who will send out any advice or prescription by post or email."

Indie Films, Coming to a Small Screen Near You

A shift in the way people consume media is forcing Hollywood to evolve. As more people have high-speed Internet access, and as technology companies like Apple work to make it easier to watch video on phones, and as cable giants like Comcast roll out elaborate on-demand services, movie theaters and DVDs are increasingly looking like just two of the many niches.

[via The New York Times]

Shared Solitary Serial Experiences

Two Tokyoites - on the right of the photo engaged in the same task watching the same television program on their mobile phone each using their own device, with comments passed back and forth. Shared experiences, yet personal device ownership gently separating the experience compared to current norms.

A fabulous picture from everyone's favourite Jan Chipchase.

Mobile phones emerging as new video distrib channel

With the advent of new technology - greatly thanks to the iPhone - and larger phone screens, distributing entertainment content via mobile phones is now on its way to becoming an important new business for Hollywood, writes The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Mark C. Miller, CEO of FFMI and President of Famous Frames, Inc, "the iPhone totally changed our industry because now we can deliver our content and you see it in DVD quality. It has become an accepted form of entertainment where you can watch anything you want any time anywhere.

... I think the time has come for mobile entertainment. I believe it's actually going to be preferred (to have content always available) as opposed to being anchored at a certain time or place with a certain program which you have not chosen. It gives people a lot of freedom and I think that's what it's all about now."

US: Mobile journalism is changing the newsroom

Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp has produced a special report on how mobile reporting has and will broadly change the organization of the newsroom.

An increasing number of newspapers employ mobile journalists, otherwise known as 'mojos'. As the technology and gadgets to capture and transmit multimedia data on the go become more widespread, reporters spend more time on the ground, expected to quickly file stories for the Web.

Camera phone footage a new factor in Lebanon fighting

During last year’s fighting between the Lebanese army and the Sunni Islamist group Fatah Al-Islam in the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared in Northern Lebanon, which was notoriously off-limits to journalists, most of the existing images were from soldiers' camera phones, writes Mensassat.

"Afterwards, camera phone footage of Fatah al-Islam prisoners being mistreated by Lebanese soldiers also made their way to YouTube.

During last week's fighting in Beirut, many TV stations relied on camera phone footage provided by residents in neighborhoods too dangerous for camera crews to enter.

But if some of this camera phone footage qualifies as "citizen journalism," last week's Halba video is more akin to "mob journalism."

Swisscom's DVB-H mobile TV

Swisscom has launched its mobile television service, Bluewin TV mobile, in Switzerland to become one of the first European providers to offer high-quality television experience to its mobile customers.

Working together, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks enabled this service with their leading-edge mobile TV technology, services and expertise.

Bluewin TV mobile was launched on May 13 with quality comparable to that of the customers’ home TV. The service is made available through a network based on the Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld (DVB-H) standard and can be watched on DVB-H-enabled mobile devices. Swisscom provides its customers with a range of subscription plans and Nokia N77 devices.

Swisscom press release

Josef Fritzl family: hospital ban after worker tried to sell camphone pics

Medical staff involved in the care of the family of Josef Fritzl have been banned from carrying mobile phones and cameras, reports The Telegraph, after a hospital employee was accused of trying to sell a picture of the incest victims for 300,000 euros.

"The management of the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric hospital, where the family are being treated, has sent a circular letter to all employees threatening sacking and legal action against anyone who leaks information or photographs of the Fritzls."

TV at 140 Miles Per Hour

Digital sub-channels have not exactly been raving successes, writes Bits Blog.

"So the broadcasters would love to find something else to do with their additional spectrum. One solution may soon appear next year in the form of mobile television technology, a system that will allow you to watch digital TV while you’re on the move, using a PDA, cell phone, or your laptop. As you cruise down the freeway, the signal will never disappear.

The idea is that broadcasters can transmit local programming to mobile devices, so when you’re driving on the Long Island Expressway, for instance, you can pick up the latest sports scores, or learn all about the cat that got stuck in the tree in Bensonhurst. And broadcasters can make additional revenue by selling ads."

How camera phones have fuelled frenzy of honour killing in Iraq

The murder of women who are deemed to have disobeyed traditional codes of morality is even more common in the rest of Iraq where government authority has broken down since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Independent reports.

"A surprising reason explaining the massive increase in the number of honour killings is the availability of cheap mobile phones able to take pictures. Men photograph themselves making love to their girlfriends and pass the pictures to their friends. This often turns out to be a lethal act of bravado in a society where premarital or extra-marital sex justifies killing.

The first known case of sex recorded on a mobile leading to murder was in 2004. Film of a boy making love with a 17-year-old girl circulated in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Two days later she was killed by her family and a week later he was murdered by his.

Since then there has been a sharp increase in the number of women suffering violence – it is almost always the women rather than the men who suffer retribution – as a result of some aspect of their love life being pictured on mobile phones.

In 2007, at least 350 women, double the figure for the previous year, suffered violence as a result of mobile phone "evidence", according to Amanj Khalil of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, citing figures compiled by women's organisations and the police directorate in Sulaymaniyah.

The true figure is probably much higher. Bodies are buried in the mountains. Violence is concealed. Whole extended families and clans feel a genuine sense of shame because of some supposed act of immorality."

Image from Tree-in-the-Sea.

Teenager charged with felony in sending nude cell photos

A 16-year-old West Jordan High School student is the latest teenager to face felony charges after allegedly sending nude photos of himself over a cell phone to several female students. The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

"The boy was charged in 3rd District Juvenile Court this month in connection with allegedly sending a 16-year-old girl nude pictures of himself and texts about "sexual matters," according to charging documents. He's facing three counts of dealing in material harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony."

Samsung joins forces with LG, Harris on mobile TV

Samsung Electronics is combining efforts with fellow Korean electronics maker LG Electronics to develop a new standard for mobile TV broadcasts, the companies announced Wednesday.

Their technology will be competing with two others to become the standard for mobile TV, a decision that rests with the TV industry's technical standards-setting body for digital broadcasts.

[via Reuters]

Google fuzzes out faces in privacy push

Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service.

Google will shortly previewed the face-blurring technology on the Street View images found on its Manhattan maps. Detail of the changes were announced on an official Google blog today.

Are cellphones ruining the concert experience?

What if you gave a concert and the crowd refused to watch? Asks The Dallas Morning News.

"It's not as far-fetched as it seems. As more and more concertgoers fiddle with cellphone cameras and fidget with BlackBerries, some people say mobile technology is ruining the concert experience.

"It's extraordinarily irritating," says Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. "All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light."

"It's like they're not even there," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. "It's like, 'Why don't you put that away and listen to the music?'

Its not just a case of cranky baby boomers griping about the young and the restless. Plenty of younger artists and fans are also getting fed up with the tech intrusion.

"As a performer, it's frustrating to look out and see a sea of cellphones instead of faces," says Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein.

"There's definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment."

3G services 'largely unused' in Australia

A third of Australian consumers own a 3G-capable phone but two thirds of these do not use the available 3G services, a new report, part of the Australian Communications and Media Authority Telecommunications Today series, has revealed. [via
Stuff.co.nz]

"Half of those who owned a 3G phone but did not use the 3G services - which include mobile internet, video calling and music streaming - had no interest in them. Others cited high costs and lack of knowledge on how to access the services.

... The low use of 3G services among those with 3G-capable mobiles was due to lack of knowledge and the historically high costs.

"Some people wouldn't even know if they're on 3G or not ... they want an [Nokia] N95 because it can play videos or has a good camera - they get a 3G phone for the features not for the fact that it's 3G," said Mark Novosel, telecommunications market analyst at IDC.

NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones

NBC is streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in Quicktime, for free, with no ads.

[via Gizmodo]

Karaoke app launched on iPhone

TTuneWiki, an Israeli-based startup, launched the iLyric Player in December, a karaoke-like application that synchronizes and scrolls lyrics, real time, in multiple languages (English, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean). VentureBeat reports.

"Users enjoy music on the iPhone, iPod touch, or a personal computer and in true Wiki fashion, all lyrics are user generated and edited.

Yesterday, the company posted a video of the TuneWiki application, running on the Android platform emulator. The app for Android still plays music with the ability to play, edit and translate karaoke-like synchronized lyrics, subtitled on video and audio.

For Android, however, users can build a virtual media library that sits on the Android file system and can connect directly to YouTube, Yahoo Music, Imeem or a friend’s playlist."

Posing Like TV Series Characters

Saturday night, my son and his friends thought the lighting in the kitchen was interesting. So they took some pictures, posing like TV series' characters on the covers of DVDs. I think they're just great! A new fad? In all honesty, they didn't use a cameraphone, but they could have. A couple more pictures here.

Better Reading on the Small Screen

A research project could help people transfer paper documents to their phones and read them more easily. MIT Technology Review reports.

"In a recent demonstration, researchers showed how the technology, called Seamless Documents, could store a scanned document in a database and analyze its structure and content.

The analysis identifies sections and paragraphs, and automatically extracts key phrases that summarize the sections. So when a person pulls up the document on a phone, she can jump to a section labeled with a keyword, or just skip to the last paragraph on a page.

In addition, as the user scrolls through the document, software on the phone automatically resizes images, section headers, and plain text, as different elements of the document layout come into view."

Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.

Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels. The New York Times reports.

"... Japan is the leader in direct mobile television, with 20 million cellphones equipped with TV receivers, followed by South Korea with 8.2 million, according to In-Stat, a research and consulting firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In-Stat estimated that there were 29.7 million mobile TV viewers worldwide at the end of 2007. That is expected to almost double, to 56.9 million, at the end of 2008, driven by growth in Japan.

Italy has been an early leader in Europe, with service beginning in 2006. The largest mobile TV broadcaster on the Continent is 3 Italia, a cellular operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, with 800,000 customers, about 10 percent of its total phone clients. The million Italian viewers watch up to a dozen channels."

Motorola Kodak Camera Phone Outted

Pictures have surfaced of a new cameraphone from Motorola that promises to take on Sony Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Samsung in the cameraphone stakes. Pocket-Lint reports.

"Teaming up with Kodak, the phone will sport a 5 megapixel sensor and Kodak branding.

"They’ve made a cameraphone together that is almost ready for release – apparently the quality is supposedly awesome", an undisclosed source within Motorola told Pocket-lint.

The phone’s rumoured to be called the Motozine ZN5, Chinese-language site Keysj claims. "

More pictures on Gizmodo.

Democrat wants to require disability-friendly Internet phones, video

At the moment, most TVs and telephones must be outfitted with special features for people with hearing, vision, and speech impairments under U.S. law.

Now an influential Democratic congressman wants to expand those requirements to their Internet counterparts. NewsBlog reports.

"The bill (PDF) being drafted by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) would require, at least in some cases, dramatic changes in the way Internet phone- and video-related products are designed, while making it more difficult than under existing law for companies to claim exemptions from those requirements."