Smile! Your Photo is on Times Square!

Kodak is running a promotional campaign in which anyone can have their picture appear on their large screen at New York's Time Square for 10 seconds. Mashable reports.

To get your picture up there, email a photo to kodak@aerva.com, and wait for it to get approved (which Kodak promises will be as fast as possible and within a 24-hour period).

Once your photo gets approved, you will receive a code; text it to the number provided, and your picture will appear at the next opportunity – i.e., the next free slot in programming. Your picture, with the accompanying caption, will show up for 10 seconds.

Previously:

-- Your Mom's Pic on Time's Square Screen for Mother's Day

Iranian protesters use Twitter, YouTube to broadcast violence

From The Daily News:

Dozens of videos, many shot with cell phones or digital cameras, have been posted to YouTube (and aggregated by Frontline's Tehran Bureau). Twitter users apparently based in Iran, like "Mani" and "Sootak", are tweeting photos of the chaos. Because it is so difficult for mainstream journalists to report out of Iran, news agencies such as the BBC, ABC and The New York Times have made use of such videos and photos in their reporting, and CNN has been actively soliciting citizen reports from Iran via Twitter. Since photos and videos are frequently reposted by activists, it is often difficult to identify the original producer of the material.

Read full article. Photo via FreeeIran on Twitpic. Police car on fire. #Iran #Ashura #Iranelection

Related:

-- In Iran, Cameras Held High

-- Iran: Twitter focal point of protests

-- Iran Protests: Tech Tools at Work

-- No Tweets in Iranian Election

-- SMS system down in Iran just hours before election

365 of Britain's most eminent photographers attack anti-terror legislation

Is this the most important newspaper letter of year? 365 of Britain’s most eminent photographers have written to the Sunday Telegraph calling for anti-terrorist legislation to be amended. They say that is being misused by the police to stop and search photographers unnecessarily, which they find “humiliating”.

[ The Telegraph via Régine del.icio.us]

In Iran, Cameras Held High

From Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish via Gizmodo, a reader writes in to remark on the continued place of youtube, twitter and the camera phone in Iran's struggle:

Watching your continuing coverage of the people of Iran continuing their fight for freedom I was struck, and touched, by the presence, in every picture, in every piece of footage, by the universal presence of cellphones and cameras. No matter how chaotic, no matter how frightened they may be, the protesters held their phones high. Not a brave few but a brave many pressed into the violence, stood right next to the regimes thugs and pointed their cameras. It seems like the ultimate act of defiance; no matter how you try to shut us down or shut us up, we will expose you. You can kill us, but the world will know that we never stopped fighting.

SafeSexting iPhone app

Teenage sexting has gotten a lot of attention from educators and the media and one company, MountainDev, has adressed the problem with a new iPhone app. Safe Sexting offers a way to edit then send a sexy picture. Users can show as little or as much of a picture as they want and chose one of four different ways to block part of a photo.

According to krapps which gives the app a full review:

Safe Sexting … which will automatically open up a safe sexting camera with four options to censor you naughty bits: Small Box, Large Box, Head Box (for the introverts) and a teasing semi-transparent Red Silk.

Video-stitched cellphone streams go widescreen

Researchers from Microsoft's labs in Cairo, Egypt, have developed a way to combine video from multiple phones capturing views of the same scene into larger, more detailed footage to be broadcast live online. New Scientist reports.

Video: See how the system combines video streams

Rumor. New iPhone to get 5-megapixel camera

Ubergizmo via Digitimes is reporting on a rumor that the next iPhone will come with a 5-megapixel camera. Wait and see.

Camera Pro Chase Jarvis Preaches iPhone Photography

Switched walked New York's High Line with pro photographer Chase Jarvis, known for his affirmation that the best camera is the one that's with you. These days, it's far more likely to be your phone's camera, and Jarvis suggests you not sweat the lower quality sensor and lens. What's more important, he says, is capturing the moment, whether it's a home run at a little league game or the way light is reflecting on a window. Take a look.

Jarvis has also come out with an iPhone app called Best Camera that allows you to shoot, creatively edit, and share your iPhone images more simply than before. A set of effects can be applied to photos at the touch of a button. You can stack the, mix them and remix them.

You can also share your pictures easily via Facebook, Twitter, email or any sharing service as well as on bestcamera's photo sharing community gallery.

UK's first mobile phone photography course

Professional UK photographers Phil and Rachel Hibberd who run an online photography course, have launched the UK's first ever course in mobile phone photography. The Daily News reports.

They have devised a £40 day-long course to help students get the most out of their camera phones, whether they are used as a full-time substitute for a camera or just occasional picture messaging.

The 'mobile phone photography made simple' course will start next month at locations in Bristol, London and Birmingham.

Google Goggles blocked over privacy concerns

An internet service launched last week by Google to help cameraphone users to identify strangers in the street has been blocked because of alarm over its threat to personal privacy, reports The Independent.

The new service, called Goggles, is a picture search which uses images rather than words to trawl the web . By taking a picture of an object and clicking "search", owners of smartphones can recognise landmarks, identify a species of plant or animal, or obtain tasting notes for a bottle of wine.

But the most controversial aspect of the new visual search tool is its capacity to allow users to take a photo of a stranger to find out more about them.

Read full article.

Previously: - Search By Sight With Google Goggles

IMDb launches iPhone app

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), has launched an iPhone app, listing "every detail about every movie and TV show ever made, including who was in it, who made it, the plot, user ratings, trailers, photos, reviews, and trivia."

-- Over 1.5 million movie and TV titles

-- Over 3.2 million celebrities

-- US Movie showtimes

-- Trailers

-- Photos

-- US TV listings

-- US Box Office results

-- Movies coming soon

...

Impressive.

Live video streaming on the iPhone with uStream's new app

uStream, which dominates the market for the growing live webcasting-via-mobile-phones category, just introduced a new iPhone app for live webcasting. [via USA Today]

You can easily stream live moments from your phone and share with your friends, family, fans, followers and others -- and have the recording of your video afterward

Mobile Ad Lets Consumers 'Inglourious Basterds'

Universal Studios Home Entertainment on Thursday will launch a mobile campaign that lets people purchase a movie directly from an ad. Mediapost reports.

The ads will allow consumers to start pre-ordering the movie 'Inglourious Basterds' today on Blu-ray and DVD, or purchase the movie on Dec. 15. The transactions are done through the "secure" rich media ad-unit via mobile phones.

Sexting leads to suicide, girl's family sues

A teenage girl committed suicide a month after graduating from high-school because her ex-boyfriend sent his friends a nude photo of her that she had sent to him by text message while they were dating. The Huffington Post reports.

The complaint filed by the teen's parents names the city, school district, ex-boyfriend, and the friends to whom he purportedly sent the picture. The couple are seeking punitive damages for discrimination, civil rights violations, the invasion of privacy, and emotional distress, reports the Courthouse News Service.

Google Joins International Imaging Industry Association

The International Imaging Industry Association announced that Google joined the organization as a participating member, and would be collaborating with existing member Microsoft to take part in the organization's Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative, a program designed to create metrics for camera phone image quality testing. The ultimate goal of the group is to deliver a consumer-oriented rating system for camera phones.

eContent and Press release

Search By Sight With Google Goggles

At their Search Event in Mountain View, Google demoed a visual search app for Android phones called Google Goggles. [via TechCrunch]

In their own words: Google Goggles is a visual search app for Android phones. Instead of using words, take a picture of an object with your camera phone: we attempt to recognize the object, and return relevant search results. Goggles also provides information about businesses near you by displaying their names directly in the camera preview.

Clinton records video messages for Afghan, Pakistani people

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recorded two video messages to reach the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US State Department said on Friday. Washington TV reports.

The messages, available via the Internet and mobile phones, were translated into Arabic, Dari, Pashto and Urdu.

The messages echoed the themes from President Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday, in which he laid out a revamped strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Survey. 1/3 of young adults have sexted

According to a survey by MTV and the Associated Press, 1/3 of young adults admit to having sexted (sent nude photos from their cameraphones) and 1/4 of teenagers.

[via IntoMobile]

Researchers create cell phones for sign language

Cornell University researchers and colleagues have created cell phones that allow deaf people to communicate in sign language, the same way hearing people use phones to talk. [via Physorg.com]

For Cornell's website:

For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, cell phone use has largely been limited to text messaging. But technology is catching up: Cornell researchers and colleagues have created cell phones that allow deaf people to communicate in sign language -- the same way hearing people use phones to talk. Sheila Hemami, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and graduate student Frank Ciaramello say the technology allows deaf people "untethered communication in their native language."

... Standard videoconferencing is used widely in academia and industry, for example, in distance-learning courses. But the Mobile ASL team designed their video compression software specifically with ASL users in mind, with the goal of sending clear, understandable video over existing limited bandwidth networks.

Read full article.

Relateld:

-- Sign Language On Your Cellphone

-- Glove converts sign language into spoken words on a cell phone

-- 3G phones for the visually and deaf impaired

-- 3G Breakthrough For Deaf Customers

-- Video phone help for deaf people

-- Sign language for your cellphone

-- Can You See Me Now? - Sign Language on Mobile Phones Tested

Somali Men Get 40 Lashes For Watching Pornography

Al-shabaab, the Somali militants accused of having ties to Al Qaeda, have given 40 lashes to each of three young Somali men after being found guilty of watching pornography on their mobile phones, late Monday. A fourth man who was accused of listening to music on his mobile also received ten lashes in a public place.

[via New Times Africa]