Technology Brings Digital Memories To Grave Site

npr reports on a Seattle-based company Quiring Monuments that is creating burial markers that include a scannable QR code. Something Japanese cemeteries have been experimenting with since 2008.

The codes can be placed on tombstones so visitors can learn more about the dearly departed, leave messages for their loved ones, and record stories for others who may visit. And all you need is a smartphone and a free app to make it work.

... Another A company in Phoenix has started selling tombstones with RFID tags for digital storytelling.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Last call: Japanese tombs link up with cell phones - Nereaved Japanese will be able to keep in touch with their loved ones beyond the grave by using mobile phones to scan bar-coded tombstones and view photos and other information about the deceased.

-- Japanese Graves Make Mourning Loved Ones Easy - Burial plot prices are skyrocketing in Japanese cities, so one company built a facility that uses RFID technology to help store the dead.

Twitter to launch own photo sharing

Twitter is getting ready to announce its own photo-sharing service this week, according to a TechCrunch report that cited multiple anonymous sources.

Twitter users can already share photos on their Twitter streams via Twitpic and Yfrog, but as the report noted, a built-in service would have a significant advantage over competing apps.

[via News.com]

Pro-Gadhafi Soldiers Leave Evidence of Rapes on Phones

Videos of Libyan military officers raping women and girls -- taken using the officers' mobile phones -- have emerged, yet another mobile technology-driven development stoking change in the Middle East, reports Mobiledia.

Rebels in the Libyan town of Misrata have seized mobile phones from killed and injured pro-Gadhafi soldiers, on which they've found the videos of gang rapes, according to the U.K. Sunday Times.

"From the evidence I've heard and seen I believe the rapes were extensive and that they were condoned at the highest level," said Marie Colvin, reporter for the Sunday Times, on the American public radio show "The World."

Such evidence may be used to eventually charge Libyan government officials with war crimes. More broadly, it might help change attitudes against using rape as a weapon and pervasive gender oppression in conservative Islamic countries like Libya, where victims of rape face ostracism. Some of the officers reportedly forced their victims to identify themselves on tape before the rapes.

Read full article.

Google Unveils App for Paying With Phone

Google introduced a mobile application that allows consumers to make a payment by waving their cellphones at a retailer’s terminal rather than pulling out a credit card.

Users will be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC).

In their own words:

Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You'll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.

At first, Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you’ll be able to fund with almost any payment card. From the outset, you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync your Google Offers, which you’ll be able to redeem via NFC at participating SingleTap™ merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out. Many merchants are working to integrate their offers and loyalty programs with Google Wallet.

[The New York Times via The Official Google Blog]

Google to unveil mobile-payments service

Google is expected to unveil a mobile payments system on Thursday that will operate on select Android-based Sprint phones, according to a Bloomberg report that cited unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

The service, which will reportedly tap near-field communications technology, would allow users to pay for retail purchases by holding the devices up to a specialized reader at checkout counters.

Read full article in CNet.

Device lets you capture 360-degree videos from iPhone

A New York start-up wants you to be able to capture and share 360-degree videos from your iPhone. USA Today reports.

Kogeto's is now taking pre-orders (at kickstarter.com) for Dot, a $99 optical snap-on lens attachment that turns the iPhone 4 camera into panoramic video capture device. Dot snaps on top of the iPhone 4 lens; the entire thing looks a little bit like a crippled version of the letter "F."

Read more.

Facebook Uses PhotoDNA To Detect Child Porn

Facebook has started using an image-matching technology from Microsoft known as PhotoDNA, which allows it to detect evidence of child exploitation by scanning users' photos. The social networking giant will use the technology to prevent "child abuse material" from being uploaded and distributed by users on its website.

[via TechTree]

'Wave and pay' mobile phone spells the end for cash

Orange and Samsung have teamed-up with Barclaycard to provide mobile phone payments. Matt Warman explains why cash is doomed. Why? because this new mobile-based method is quick, simpler and crucially, more secure than anything we’ve got available at the moment.

Read full article in The Telegraph.

Unlocked Android Phones Barred from Google Movie Downloads

According to an article in Android Central, the new Google service that enabled movie rentals through Android smartphones is being blocked to users of handsets that have been "rooted", or had the OS altered from the default mode supplied by the handset vendor.

[via Cellular-News]

Fine Print Blurs Who’s in Control of Online Photos

The terms of service agreements for Internet services often reveal the tenuous hold people have over what they post online.

[via The New York Times]

Mobile wallet offered to UK shoppers

The first service that allows users to pay for purchases via their mobile phone has been launched in the UK, reports the BBC.

Among shops signed up to the system are McDonalds, EAT, Pret-a-Manger and some Boots stores.

Users wishing to use the system - dubbed Quick Tap - will need Orange and Barclaycard accounts as well as a handset set up for contactless payments.

Only purchases up to a value of £15 can be made using the service but users can preload their mobile with up to £100.

Read full article.

Lady Gaga demands photographers hand over copyright of all photos from her concerts

Lady Gaga is demanding that photographers surrender the copyright of photos taken at her concerts – and photographers are incensed.

[Rolling Stone via boingboing]

This Is The Police: Put Down Your Camera

With more than 280 million cellphone subscribers in the U.S., and many of those phones can record video, clashes between police and would-be videographers may be inevitable. npr reports on the rights of ciitizens to film an arrest, and the officers' rights to privacy.

Related:

-- The Rules And Your Rights For Recording Arrests

-- Woman Who Photographed Cops Got Beatdown, Files $24 Million Lawsuit

-- New Haven policy: Ok for citizens to film police making arrests

-- Recording a Police Officer Could Get You 15 Years in Jail in Illinois

-- The Huffington Post looks back on several case between police officers and civilians who record them.

Twitpic angers users over copyright grab

Picture posting service Twitpic has apologised for seeming to claim copyright on every image users upload. The BBC reports.

A row blew up over photographs on Twitpic following changes made to the service's terms on 10 May.

Many users cancelled their Twitpic accounts because the changes implied that the site was claiming the right to sell pictures without permission.

Twitpic defended itself and said the new rules were intended to protect users' photos from abuse by the media.

Read more.

Google bringing movie rentals to portable devices

Google announced Tuesday that it will begin renting thousands of movies, including "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" and the animated hit "Despicable Me" through the Android Marketplace (which is Google's version of the Apple iTunes store). Movies can be rented on home computers, then made available to watch on a tablet computers or mobile phones.

Full article in The Los Angeles Times.

Doing More Than Praying for Rain

Weather insurance for small farmers has always faced numerous barriers. But throughout east Africa today there are projects finding creative and innovative ways to overcome them. The New York Times reports.

... One of them is a project in Kenya’s southwest that so far insures 22,000 farmers. There are so few farmers with insurance in Africa that this project is the continent’s largest. It is called Kilimo Salama, which means “safe farming” in Swahili. What makes it work is technology.

Instead of relying on insurance agents, Kilimo Salama’s insurer — the Kenyan insurance company UAP — sells policies in the same stores where farmers buy their seeds, fertilizers and chemicals. The shop owner is given a camera phone to record the purchase, which instantly sends a confirmation text message to the buyer. At the end of the growing season, payouts go electronically to the farmer’s cell phone account.

Read full article.

Reuters Defends Decision To Publish Bin Laden Compound Photos

The White House isn’t releasing photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body, but that didn’t stop Reuters from publishing several gruesome photos Wednesday showing the aftermath of the U.S. raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and sending them to clients of the wire service.

Reuters defended that decision in a statement to The Huffington Post.

As this is a story of global importance, Reuters chose to share these photographs with its media clients and allow them to make editorial decisions on how they were used," a spokesperson said.

Read more.

New Apps to Post Videos With Ease

The New York Times reviews Socialcam, a free app for iPhone and Android that make it easy to share a video from your cameraphone to YouTube.

You can use Socialcam to record video, or import clips from your camera roll. There’s no limit on how long your clip can be. You don’t need to think about uploading, because Socialcam automatically uploads the clip to its own servers in the background, and shares them from there.

Read full article.

Crowdsourcing is good -- but not enough

An insightful piece from The Christian Science Monitor, on the rise of citizen journalism around the world but how journalism is still crucial to derive meaning. Photos and videos taken on the fly are not always in context - what happened before? What happened next?

The Secret Weapons Of Syrian Protesters: Pen Cameras

Protesters have developed a novel way of smuggling information to the outside world: trading in their mobile camera phones for small, discreet pen cameras. Fast company reports.

Military, police, and secret police are all reportedly confiscating cameras and mobile phones in an attempt to keep details of what's happening in Syria from the outside world. But local activists have found a solution: They've switched to the use of hard-to-detect pen cameras and even started an impromptu news network.

Read full article.

Get The Look–the Exact Look–With Stipple’s In-Image Shopping Tools

D | All Things Digital reports on how a company called Stipple is taking product placement to a new level. Building on its in-house image recognition technology, the company has signed licenses with nine photo agencies, 50 brands, and 1,300 publishers.

In their own words:: Stipple is looking to attract Photo Agencies, by helping them create new revenue by adding interactive content and shopping to editorial images. They are addressing Brands, to turn editorial images into storefronts and to promote and sell products inside images. And the are targeting Publishers and Bloggers by offering search and social shopping inside the images on their sites.

Visa unveils mobile payment best practice guidelines

Visa has released a best practice guide for retailers, software developers and device manufacturers who are using smartphones and tablet computers to accept mobile card payments. Near Field Communications World reports.

The payments giant has stepped in to spell out minimum standards and best practices as the use of mobile devices to accept payments continues to proliferate.

Read full article.

2-D Bar Codes in Glamour's September Issue Will Let You 'Like' Advertisers on Facebook

Glamour's September issue will try to make 2-D bar codes friendlier by including icons that readers can photograph to "like" advertisers on Facebook and recieve special offers in turn. AdAge reports.

Magazines including Entertainment Weekly, Golf Digest and Woman's Day have been exploring 2-D bar codes, quick-response tags and similar systems that aim to make print more interactive by letting camera phones fetch or share content, enter sweepstakes and receive special offers. Readers used the codes in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue over 100,000 times in 2010 and over 120,000 times in 2011. Most executions, however, don't generate so much response.

Read full article.

Video Chat on Your Android Phone

To help you stay in touch with your friends and family, Goole is launching Google Talk with video and voice chat for Android phones.

In their own words:

You can now video or voice chat with your friends, family and colleagues right from your Android phone, whether they’re on their compatible Android tablet or phone, or using Gmail with Google Talk on their computer. You can make calls over a 3G or 4G data network (if your carrier supports it) or over Wi-Fi.

Google Talk with video and voice chat will gradually roll out to Nexus S devices in the next few weeks as part of the Android 2.3.4 over-the-air update and will launch on other Android 2.3+ devices in the future.

[via Google Mobile Blog]