Vote, Uninterrupted

If you’re planning to vote in person this election, you’d better get familiar with regulations in your state around bringing camera cell phones and other recording devices into the polling area. The New York Times reports.

Some states don’t explicitly ban phones and cameras but plan to have poll workers warn voters not to use recording devices in the voting area, Bayard said.

The California Secretary of State’s office told me poll workers shouldn’t even ask if a voter is carrying a cell phone, but the Texas Secretary of State’s office said voters have to turn off camera phones completely once they’re within 100 feet of a polling place.

Mobile users who watch TV on their phones face £1,000 fine for not having licence

People watching TV on their mobile phones and laptops without a licence face increased scrutiny from the TV licensing authority. The Daily Mail reports.

It today launched a campaign aimed at letting consumers "stay in the know" and avoid a £1,000 fine.

The authority says people are increasingly watching TV channels online and on phones, with many thinking they do not need a licence.

'There is a clear rise in the number of people watching TV channels via other means, and we need to make them aware of the rules,' said a spokesman.

The Polling Place Photo Project

The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election.

By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

[via GeekSugar]

Reducing the clicks in uploading from mobile phones

You are now able to shoot a video with your mobile phone and then - click, click, click - upload your latest exploits to YouTube. The IHT reports.

The new Sony Ericsson W595 selling in Italy by 3 Italia is the first cameraphone to offer a YouTube uploader function.

After uploading a video, the user receives a text message with the Internet address where the video can be accessed. There is also a key with the YouTube logo that links directly to the site's vast array of videos.

Wearing your Social Media on Your Sleeve

Spotted on ChipChick, the W-41, a high tech shirt that comes with a logo that if captured with a cellphone will connect the person who just took the picture to your MySpace page, Blog, and just about any social networking site you could possibly belong too.

Basically you buy any one of the pieces of clothing available on the site that has this special logo on it, unique to only you with personal info and literally walk around with your social identity heart on your sleeve.

If someone passes by who happens to be familiar with this type of clothing and they have downloaded the software available on the site for free to their phone. The image is transmitted to the software download on their phone and your blogs and virtual identity is revealed for those to leave you messages or check out your social networks.

[Coolest Gadgets Coolbuzz]

Kodak signs into patent cross-license agreement with Nokia

According to engadget:mobile and phonescoop, Eastman Kodak Company has entered into a mysterious patent license agreement with Nokia.

The details are still vague, but "the deal will enable each outfit "access to the other's intellectual property portfolio," and it'll also provide "significant benefits to both companies."

Kodak press release.

MySpace Finally Supports Mobile Photo Uploads

Short of using a specialized application (or phone) of some sort, users of the social networking service MySpace did not have a way to easily upload photos from their mobile phones directly to their profiles until now. According to a recent entry on the MySpace blog, mobile photo uploads are finally supported. They noted this feature was "a long time coming."

[via The New York Times]

Music film 'shot on mobile phone'

Radio 1 produced a feature length music film shot just using mobile phones. The BBC reports.

Radio 1 has produced the first ever feature length music film shot just using mobile phones.

Bands such as Wombats and Black Kids were given mobiles to use at festivals over the summer, while music fans were told to film their experiences.

The hour-long film, "Shoot the Summer", was shown at the Electric Proms and is now available online.

Radio 1 producer Hugh Garry went round festivals handing out mobiles to punters, all of which were returned.

CameraBag - makes your iPhone emulate older cameras

Pocket Picks reviews CameraBag, a $5 app that will let you take photos using your iPhone’s camera (or pick them from the gallery) and instantly process them so that they look as though they were taken by one of seven classic cameras.

The cameras included in CameraBag:

-- "Helga" - A square-format toy camera feel with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting.
-- "1974" - This is your father's camera. Faded, tinted, and hip.
-- "Lolo" - Shoot from the hip and take life as it comes with vibrant, colorful shots.
-- "Cinema" - Dramatic, moody, wide-screen stills from the movie of your life.
-- "1962" - Dynamic black and whites from the photojournalists of a bygone era.
-- "Ansel" - Smooth gradation from black to white.
-- "Infrared" - Simulation of the popular landscape photography technique.

There's even a CameraBag flickr group where you can share your creations - or just check out what the app can do.

8MP cameraphones duel over advertising idea PR brainstorming gives similar results

It seems Samsung and Sony Ericsson have come up with very similar ideas to promote their latest mobile phones. Pocket-Lint reports.

Both companies have called in a professional photographer to use their new mobile phones hitting the shops this month.

To be used in the company's latest ad, a number of "enormous" photos taken by Matt Stuart using the C905 Cyber-shot camera phone are placed in unusual locations to demonstrate something or other about spontaneity.

Meanwhile, Samsung has "armed" well known street photographer Nick Turpin with a Pixon handset and "sent him on a journey that will be dictated by everyday consumers.

Traders' despair captured on photoblog

Spotted on Switched, traders' despair on The Brokers with Hands on Their Face Blog.

All the Celebrities You Want, on Your Cellphone

Celebrity gossip has long been a profitable staple of print, radio and television. More recently, it has made Web sites like Popsugar.com and PerezHilton.com some of the more popular destinations. But in recent months, as consumers started snapping up Web-enabled smartphones like the iPhone, the cellphone has become the latest medium to feed the appetite for up-to-the-second celebrity gossip. The New York Times reports.

TMZ.com started a mobile offering last April and watched traffic soar there to 1.1 million visitors in July, eclipsing the mobile audience of People.com, the Web site of the pop culture magazine, according to Nielsen Mobile, which tracks mobile sites.

E!, the entertainment news cable channel and Web site, also offers celebrity news for cellphone users. This year, it began offering text and alerts and has already signed up 30,000 subscribers, sending them as many as three alerts a day. And, in a new twist, E! broadcast live to mobile phones from the red carpet at the prime-time Emmy Awards in September.

Read full article.

Dubai launches M-Visa: mobile phone barcode visas

The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) on Sunday unveiled several new technological advances in customer services, including a system that allows people entering the emirate to use a barcode sent to their mobile phone.

The mobile visa service, 'M-Visa', allows people to receive all types of entry visa permits via email and text messages in a form of a barcode, which can then be scanned directly off a mobile phone upon arrival in the UAE, the DNRD said.

[via Arabian Business]

No Money in Wireless Video Calls

According to The Korea Times, wireless video calling is not the next big thing.

SK Telecom and KTF have been pushing video as the main feature of their third-generation (3G) services first introduced last year, but video calling has yet to create any excitement either among consumers or business users.

The two companies have gathered a combined 12 million plus subscribers for their 3G services, according to industry figures. However, as the low revenue from video calls and data transfer can attest, consumers, although attracted by the ultra-cool handsets, aren't prepared to spend their money on anything other than voice.

Read full article.

Qik Launches First Live Mobile Video Streaming on Mass Market Phones

Qik, Inc, the live mobile video streaming platform, today announced that it is the first live mobile video product to launch on mass market mobile phones.

"Available today in alpha, Qik's service is now ready for use on more than a dozen Nokia and Sony Ericsson mass market mobile handsets.

With Qik's free service, users can stream video live to the Internet in just two clicks from their mobile phone. Those watching the videos on the web can engage in live interactive chat with the person broadcasting. "

[via MarketWatch]

Download YouTube Videos to Your Phone with New ZipClip Software

ZipClip is a free way to send YouTube videos to your phone or to your friend's cell phone. Though still in beta, version two has new features including the ability to make ringtones from YouTube videos or audio clips. Editing, sharing clips with friends, importing contacts, and clipping Office documents are also new.

Any file on most any web site now can be sent directly to a phone with a right click of a mouse. The new service is free and has been in beta release since July 2008. Content from any web site is easily, directly, and instantly sent to a phone with one click.

Press release.

The 10:10 Project

Cell phones have been a staple of American society for several years, but recently Rowan students have been putting their phones to new use, creating art out of the images from cell phone cameras. The Whit Online reports.

An exhibit of Rowan student's cell phone images opened to the public last night in the Westby Student Art Gallery on the second floor of room 207.

The show was centered around what several students called "The 10:10 Project."

"Everybody took pictures at 10:10 at night for a week," said Stephanie Calupo, a 20-year-old fine arts major. "It's kind of like seeing what everybody was doing at the same time."

Wealthy Asians use phones to blog, take photos: study

For wealthy Asians, mobile phones and Blackberrys are much more than a way to stay in touch, with a survey finding portable communication devices increasingly being used to watch videos, take pictures and surf the Web. Reuters reports.

"The Synovate-Pax regional survey of nearly 10,000 respondents across seven countries in Asia showed 56 percent of affluent Asians use their mobile devices every week to take pictures, while more than 30 percent watched video clips.

... The Synovate-PAX study tracked media and digital consumption, prosperity and influence across 11 Asia-Pacific markets -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, India and the Philippines.

It was conducted in 2007 and 2008 and respondents had Internet usage of 60 minutes or above in an average week."

Nokia and Spike Lee make a 'people film'

Nokia has premiered its first user generated Nokia Productions film in league with director Spike Lee. Mobile Entertainment reports.

"The film was made by ‘everyday’people, using Nokia devices to generate and submit original content, which was then edited by Lee. Nokia and T-Mobile debuted the end result at a live event in LA.

Lee invited the public to submit original text, music, video or images around themes of birth, life and death to www.nokiaproductions.com. Over 4,000 pieces of original content were uploaded and over 350,000 visitors accessed the site."

Previously: -
Nokia and Spike Lee team up with Nokia on short film

All the Warner Bros movies on your phone

A partnership between Warner Bros and DivX means you'll be able to watch all the current and back catalogue Warner Bros titles on hundreds of devices.

DivX-certified devices have multiplied in the last few months, likely in anticipation of such a deal, so you'll be able to buy movies digitally and watch them on LG and Samsung phones, iRiver PMPs, PlayStation 3s and many Blu-ray and DVD players.

[via TechRadar]

Mobile phones to take on Taleban propaganda in Afghanistan

A plan to use mobile phones to combat Taleban propaganda in Afghanistan is being considered by the UK Government, reports the Times Online.

"Mobile phones would be distributed by non-governmental organisations to Afghans so that they could make and share their own videos to contradict the prevailing Taleban message, according to a BBC report.

Anti-Western films already circulate on Afghanistan's estimated six million mobiles and are spread among the country's half a million internet users.

The new media plan, said to be devised by an outside consultant to the Foreign Office, envisages having up to 100 short films made by Afghans ready in time for a film festival next summer according to the BBC.

Whitehall officials say the aim is to deprive the Taleban of its virtual monopoly on propaganda using new media, the BBC says.

The coalition's reputation has been damaged by the spread of mobile footage such as the film distributed after a US-led raid in August that showed rows of bodies of children and babies in a makeshift morgue."

Cool photoblog: elders with style

Spotted on boingboing, a mature version of The Sartorialist. Fabulous.

"Ari Cohen says: "We have started a blog of our own that documents street style and fashion of the mature and wizened. Our aim is to take photos of elders with a unique sense of personal style that has developed with age. We noticed so many amazingly dressed older people in New York and are having a great time getting to know them, hearing their stories and capturing a bit of their style to share with others." Advanced Style.

Presidential debates on mobile

CBS News will be airing the presidential debates on its MediaFlo channel and carrier decks tonight. Networks are increasingly looking to MediaFLO and carriers' streaming TV services to get first-time viewers.

[via mocoNews.net]

Between Blinks and Buttons

Sascha Pohflepp, writing for we-make-money-not-art.com, describes his Buttons project showcased at the Eyebam event in New York.

"Buttons is a camera that, instead of taking a photo, takes a moment. It then connects to the web to find someone else's photo that happened to be taken in the very same instant and displays it.

The project aims to comment on photography as an increasingly networked practice and uses our trail of data to to create a connection between two strangers on the basis that they did the same thing simultaneously: press a button.

To create a networked button and retrieve other individuals photos, Buttons consequentially employs the technology which some cameras are presently merging with - the mobile phone.

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

Sony Ericsson working on 12MP camera phone

According to Mobile Mentalism via TechRadar, Sony Ericsson is rumored to be working on a 12MP camera phone.

"Seemingly unable to stop playing with the Cyber-shot brand, SE is developing the phone, codenamed the Kotaku and apparently sporting a Tube-a-like touchscreen interface".

Barcode application to come preloaded on Samsung phones

Scanbuy, a global leader in mobile marketing solutions, announced that it has secured a global agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to preload the ScanLife mobile 2D barcode application on Samsung's camera phones.

Samsung will begin selling these phones in Spain, Italy, and Denmark starting as early as next month. Availability will quickly expand to other major markets including Mexico and the United States.

[via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Sony Ericsson patent app takes the tedium out of zooming your camera

Spotted on engadget:mobile, a new patent application filed by Sony Ericsson that controls your cameraphone's zoom level simply by moving it back and forth.

According to Unwiredview: "The basic idea is to make zooming automatic by following the handset movement. When you move a camera away from your body, the image zooms in, as you move it back, the image zooms out."

CBS Gets a Rude Lesson in Citizen Journalism

Like a lot of news networks, CBS jumped on the citizen journalism bandwagon with a free iPhone app, Eyemobile for iPhone, to make it easy for users to upload news to its user-generated news site, CBSeyemobile.com.

Interesting, though, the citizens' definition of "news." AdAge reports.

"Karl Johnson, chief operating officer of BrandContent, a Boston-based agency, uploaded the app last night and saw a picture of a young woman bent over her kitchen stove, her skirt hiked up. Later he saw video of three women performing sexual acts on one another.

... CBS does have a moderator, but it seems the system isn't working, or perhaps not as well as they would like."

Cinemizer video glasses offer quality portable viewing for Nokia N96

Carl Zeiss' Cinemizer video glasses simulate a one-meter wide movie screen at two meters distance and when connected to the new Nokia N9 mobile phone there's an added bonus - the TV signal from the integrated DVB-H receiver is displayed on the video eyewear without loss of quality.

[via Giizmag]

MobiTV to Carry ABC Content

Mobile-video service MobiTV reached a deal with Disney-ABC Television Group to deliver on-demand episodes of popular ABC primetime shows such as Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty to mobile-phone users.

MobiTV -- which has more than 4 million users globally and markets its subscription services in the United States through Sprint Nextel and AT&T Wireless -- will now carry the ABC Mobile on-demand channel and offer full-length episodes of popular ABC shows the day after their broadcast air.

[via Broadcasting Cable]