Kodak faces shifting camera market

While many memories were captured on digital cameras, an increasing number are snapped on smartphones or cell phones, a trend that is putting a key Eastman Kodak Co. product into a tightening squeeze. The digital camera business, particularly for point-and-shoot cameras, faces a challenging future as consumers turn to higher-end digital SLR cameras or camera phones. [via The Democrat and Chronicle]

For the first 11 months of 2010, U.S. retail sales of point-and-shoot cameras were down 6 percent from the same timeframe in 2009, according to consumer and retail market research company NPD Group. Those 2009 numbers were, in turn, down 10 percent from 2008.

... German photo paper distributor Felix Schoeller reportedly has estimated that by 2014, there will be roughly 2 billion camera phones in the market, a 69 percent jump from 2009.

Increasing numbers of snapshots are being taken on smartphones. Denver-based online photo sharing site Photobucket saw a 400 percent increase this year in the number of photos uploaded from smartphones, and expects that growth rate to continue in 2011.

Read full article.

Related: - Camera Phone officially kills film camera

Is Skype about to release video-calling for mobile devices?

Accordingt to MobileBeat, Skype should be announcing at CES, a video calling feature for cell phones equipped with a front-facing camera and running Skype. Mobile users instead have to use applications like Tango and Apple’s Facetime for video calling.

The service already has video conferencing built into its PC and Mac applications. The application uses webcams and can connect to other Skype users. But video calling isn’t available on Skype’s mobile app.

Read full article.

Kodak's patent spat threatens photo web sites

The fallout from a patent dispute between Kodak and web photo site Shutterfly could embroil many online image sites, says patent experts, reports the BBC.

Kodak claimed it owns patents regarding the display of online images that is being infringed by Shutterfly.

The photo-sharing site disputes these claims and has launched a counter suit.

But the landmark case could have ramifications for other popular online photo sites such as Yahoo's Flickr and Google's Picasa.

Read full article.

Fashism. Do u like it???

MobileBeahvior Blog on Fashism, a website and mobile application that lets people ask style questions, give advice, and get real-time feedback.

Fashism lets you sidestep fashion faux-pas by crowdsourcing other users' opinions. Snap a photo, email it to the site, and get pinged back with comments and ratings from other users. People are doing this anyway—taking photos in stores and sending to friends for thoughts.

This site hopes to create a fashion-conscious community to advise you on your wardrobe in real-time. What fuels the site is our universal need to tell people what we think—we don't just want opinions, we want to share ours.

Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram: Mobile photos are everywhere

It’s been a big week for numbers about photos writes Venture Beat.

Yesterday, location-based service Foursquare launched the latest version of its app with support for photo-sharing, and chief executive Dennis Crowley said later in the day that the service was already approaching one photo uploaded per second. Competitor Gowalla said today that its users have posted 1 million photos.

Read full article.

How to record quality video on your mobile

MobileActive.org on how to record quality video with your cameraphone, with feedback and advice from journalists, journalism students and citizen reporters.

Word Lens app translates what your iPhone sees

QuestVisual has just released Word Lens, an iPhone app that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to identify words in images, and then translate them. From English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English.

ZDNet reports.

Elf Cam app for iPhone

Very cute app for iPhone spotted on boingboing, the Elf Cam.

It keeps children updated on North Pole progress and festive features via regular text and video updates. The Ho-Ho-Ho-cial Networking™ service provides a two-way communication tool for children to ask any Christmas questions they might have, and to receive answers directly from our staff of professional elves.

The good/naughty list is to be made public for the first time, and a real-time submission system is provided for sending Christmas lists directly to Santa’s workshop.

Mark Frauenfelder's' 7 year old daughter is having fun with it:

It also has a feature that allows you to set up your camera on Christmas Eve to record Santa coming out of your fireplace (or walking into room if you don't have a fireplace), so you can show it to your child in order to prove that Santa Claus is real.

Ultrasounds transmitted by cell phones

New technology by a company called Mobisante is using cellular phones and existing wireless networks to transmit ultrasound images from patients in remote areas to hospitals.

[via TechFlash]

See how it works on CNN news segment.

Facial recognition comes to Facebook photo tags

Facebook announced that it will soon enable facial-recognition technology - meaning that when members upload photographs and are encouraged to "tag" their friends, they will be able to choose from a list of suggestions.

... There will be an opt-out for the new feature so that if a member does not want to show up in his or her friends' tagging suggestions, they won't.

[via CNet]

Related articles on facial recognition technology for cell phones

An app to fight loneliness in South Korean Men

Spotted on Geekology, a $2 smartphone app to help combat loneliness in single South Korean men, by providing them with a virtual girlfriend that calls and leaves rambling video messages.

For $1.99, Mina will make video-calls four times a day, showering subscribers with a message of bliss from 100 available. With recorded messages such as "good night, sweet dreams," Nabix said it would help subscribers feel someone cares for them and is consistently thinking of them.

Read more.

Deleting all photos and videos from your iPhone

If you’re running low on space, use this technique to clean out your iPhone quick.

[via ZDNet ]

Search game ratings with your phone camera

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has updated its mobile app for Apple and Android phones that lets users search ratings by snapping a photo of a video game box.

The ESRB app, which launched last year, features ratings info on more than 20,000 games as well as ratings summaries on all games rated since July 1, 2008.

[via USA Today]

Mobile phone app helps ethical shoppers

Spotted on Crowdedbrain, a new mobile phone app called Barcoo designed for ethical shoppers.

By using the camera on a mobile phone to scan a product barcode, barcoo not only shows you a price comparison, it also tells you if the brand applies social responsibility to the manufacturing of its products.

In addition to the manufacturer’s ethical profile, barcoo also provides nutritional information on food products. So whether you want to know if a product or company is polluting the environment and to what extent, or if your favourite fish is on the endangered species list, barcoo is the ideal shopping companion.

Read more.

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Crime scene photo of corpse posted on Facebook gets employee fired

A former New York City emergency medical technician was fired from his job, after posting a cameraphone picture of a corpse taken at a crime scene on Facebook.

[via Cellular News]

With Video Everywhere, Stark Evidence Is on Trial

An interesting article in The New York Times, on how the courtroom experience is becoming a lot more complicated because we now live in a world that is always on camera.

Legal experts say the technology shift could lead to harsher experiences for jurors, and could put pressure on judges to re-examine the balancing act that they have long used to determine what kind of evidence makes its way into court.

Read full article.

Battle Heats Up Between Police Officers And Civilians Who Record Them

Should ordinary people be arrested for filming on-duty police abusing their power? If a string of recent cases is any indication, judicial systems throughout the country think so. The Huffington Post looks back on several cases.

Sending camphone pics from the changing room

According to The Guardian, more and more shoppers are using smartphones while shopping - even when in the changing room.

Phone companies on the lookout for trends in the millions of texts, calls and internet searches made every hour have identified hotspots around store changing rooms as shoppers photograph themselves trying on new outfits then beam the images to friends for an instant verdict.

Read full article.

QRapping Paper

Spotted on Josh Spear's blog, QRapping paper by Justin Gignac.

Behind each QR code is an original holiday video. Each sheet has over 50 original holiday videos on it. They range from flaming gingerbread houses to drunken carolers to the dangers of Santa’s addiction to his phone.

Mobile Video On The Rise, But Still Only A Fraction Of All Usage

Figures to be released by Nielsen indicate that the number of people watching all forms of mobile video in the U.S. has increased by 43 percent over the last year, and people are watching for longer, too. mocoNews.net reports.

In its latest State of the Media report on mobile video usage, Nielsen says that 22 million people accessed some form of mobile video in Q2 2010, compared to 15.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Included in the figures are people who viewed mobile videos in apps, over the web, subscription-based services and downloads.

The growth here is outpacing that of general mobile subscriber growth, which is very saturated in the U.S.

Read full report.

FBI: New Barbie 'Video Girl' doll could be used for child porn

The FBI is warning law agencies that the new Barbie "Video Girl" doll could be used as a tool by pedophiles to make child pornography. CNN reports.

In an alert entitled "Barbie 'Video Girl' a Possible Child Pornography Production Method," the FBI said the doll has a built-in hidden camera in the chest and a small LCD screen for video display in her back.

The FBI "cyber crime alert" doesn't cite any misuse of the doll, which has been on the market since July, but talks about the possibility.

Previously - Call to boycott Barbie with built-in camera

Convicted Murderer Posts Pics from Prison on Facebook

Following the news of Charles Manson - one of America's notorious killers - having used a cell phone from prison to call random people, now a convicted murderer locked up for killing an Oklahoma sheriff was caught posting pictures to his Facebook page from inside his prison cell using a smuggled-in cell phone.

Inmate Justin Walker apparently used his blackberry to upload the photos onto Facebook.

[via CBS News]