Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue Comes To Your Mobile Phone

Sports Illustrated has decided to jump into the game and is making a version of its famous swimsuit issue available on mobile phones.

"... Starting this summer, Sports Illustrated will be offering a Swimsuit slideshow, an application featuring Sports Illustrated models wearing designer swimwear in exotic locales.

[via Information Week]

France 24 Launches Trilingual Mobile News Service

France 24, which is funded by the French Government, is launching a trilingual mobile service. mocoNews reports:

“The channel’s latest bulletins, weather forecasts, economic reports and interviews will be accessible throughout the world on all telephones, in either video or audio depending on the model.

... In another mobile development, the channel has inked a worldwide agreement with Nokia to offer its main broadcasts via video-on-demand on the company’s new generation of mobile phones” reports World Screen. The languages appear to be French, English and Arabic."

ESPN Adds Short Web, Mobile Series

ESPN.com has unveiled two new original short form series created exclusively for ESPN.com and ESPN Mobile TV.MediaWeek reports.

""This past week, ESPN.com launched Countdown Daily, a Monday through Friday, 12 to 15 minute roundup of the top NFL matchups featuring analysts from the network’s Sunday NFL Countdown andNFL Live. ".

In addition, on Sept. 9th site will debut Fantasy Football Now, an hour long fantasy football analysis series that will also run on ESPN Mobile TV via a distribution deal with Verizon’s V CAST.

That show, which will be presented live each Sunday prior that days NFL action, will incorporate questions from viewers via email and text messaging.

Countdown Daily, which is sponsored by IBM, has been streamed a half a million times per day since its debut, according to ESPN. ""

Embedded News channels on Nokia E series

RokTV has secured a deal to provide business news TV channels to Nokia E-Series handsets with a preinstalled application. Cellular News reports.

"ROK TV is available via the Downloads! Service on such devices as Nokia E61i and Nokia E65, initially, which the owner simply needs to activate to begin watching the services.

Two channel packages will be offered:

-- A 5 channel 'Strictly Business' package with a heavy emphasis on business news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, EuroNews in 9 languages and regional news channels

-- A10 channel 'ROK All' TV package containing all the live business news channels as well as additional sports news, music videos and comedy channels.

As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first 2 weeks."

Fox News offers audio feed on cell phones

Fox News has rolled out a new service that will let anyone with a cell phone access an audio feed of the cable channel. Reuters reports.

"The live feed will be available 24/7 by dialing "#FOXN" on a mobile phone. The service, which will start with Cingular, costs $2.99 a month plus applicable per-minute airtime charges."

Rok makes newsreaders out of monkeys

In order to create a free news channel for its free mobile TV service, FreeBe TV, Rok has created electronic newsreaders using a lip-syncing Gorilla avatar. [via The Inquirer ]

" On Monkey News Network (MNN), Rok has taken a text based news feed from the Reuters agency and feeds it into a text to speech converter, which is then read by a monkey".

It's real news, streamed 24 hours a day, updated every 15 minutes.

More on Mobile Talking Heads:

-- Vodafone Avatar To Be Virtual World Cup Pundit

-- 3Dmsg develops 3D talking avatars for cell phones

-- Mobile Buddies

-- Talking Heads on cell phones

Handsets turn 'mobile newspaper'

Shanghai's two newspaper groups started their own "Mobile Newspaper" services in the past months, reports ShangaiDaily via Smart Mobs.

"Generally speaking, two kinds of mobile news exist in the market.

Under the first kind, operators regularly send edited and shortened news through multimedia messages every day. Subscribers, who pay 3 yuan to 8 yuan every month, can read the mobile news offline.

The second type of service allows users to read complete news content (compared with print media) through WAP (wireless application protocol) technology and people have to pay for network access fees.

... Wenhui-Xinmin launched four mobile newspapers last month under the News365 brand. They covered news, finance, sports and entertainment. Jiefang Daily kicked off iNews mobile newspaper earlier this year. Each of the media group sends users multimedia messages 2 or 3 times a day.

"The standard of our news choice is important, interesting and related to readers as well as eye-catching pictures," said Chen Ying, one of four full-time editors of News365.

On average, every multimedia message includes three pictures and 20 text messages, each of them of 100 characters long. "

Lads can be (cameraphone) pictured with sexy models

Website OneOfTheLads, described as "stimulating content for the male mind", is offering its readers the opportunity to be pictured with their favourite sexy models. Creative Match explains how.

"Lads can take photos of themselves on their camera phones, and send them via MMS to OneOfTheLads, indicating who they would like to be pictured with amongst the site’s gorgeous girls. TLMH then integrates the two images creating a great shot of the two people together, which is sent back to the purchaser’s mobile phone.

These images can then be saved as wallpaper or forwarded to disbelieving friends or even “accidentally” sent to ex-girlfriends, who they think might be in need of humbling.

Sun to readers: Send us your video rants

Britain's Online Sun has come up with a novel idea. They are asking their readers to submit "video rantes" for a new page online, called Video Letters.

"We want readers to send in clips of themselves from their 3G mobile phones sounding off about anything they're annoyed about.

For example, if you think Ruth Kelly should be sacked after revelations of paedophiles working in our schools, tell the world about it in a video message.

It doesn't just have be about the news of the day. Feel free to let rip about the latest showbiz and sports stories - or anything that gets your goat.

The best ones will be shown on The Sun Online.

To enter your clip simply video call into 80988 and follow the on-screen instructions. "

BBC Trials Video Messaging for Football

London-based video messaging solution provider VoxSurf said that the BBC has deployed its technology to power a new trial called Your Shout!. The trial allows football fans to send in 3G video messages with their opinions on the crucial England internationals and during Football Focus broadcasts. [via B160characters.org]

Currently only available on 3 and Vodafone, by making a video call to shortcode 62001 and following the on-screen instructions, football fans can leave their comments. Programme editors will be able to select the best content to be broadcast on live TV both during and after the matches, which are being covered live on Match of the Day. The best videos will also be shown on the BBC Sport website, Football Focus.

Financial Times Expands Mobile Service With Video & Audio

The Financial Times is expanding into the mobile market in preparation against loss of revenue from its print business and has plans to offer news in video and audio format rather than just text. The publisher is in talks with the UKs four main mobile operators to provide the news service, which is planned for launch in late May or early June.

[ via MocoNews ]

Party goers can dowload their pics onto cell phones

ITWeb reports on a clever MMS service launched by young adult culture magazine, JHB live, whereby party goers can download pictures of themselves, directly to their mobile phones.

"It's a multimedia messaging service gallery service, allowing users to download event photos of themselves or their friends, directly to their mobile phones.

"People love to see photos of themselves and their friends on a night out. Now with our new technology created by our IT partner, Igroup, we give users the ability to download their photos directly to their phones.

Once a JHBLive photographer has snapped users at an event, they can log on to the site to view their photos and SMS the desired photo code to the number provided. They are then sent an SMS with directions to download the photo."

Swiss daily Le Matin, has been offering a similar service for quite some time through a partnership with tillate photographers. It's a smart revenue scheme for newspapers, as customers pay a premium for the photos.

London gets interactive posters

Netimperative informs that posters which can beam information via infra-red to mobile phones have been launched in London.

The first ad campaign will see posters located in 25 major stations fitted with "Hypertags" that will enable late-night travellers to get a phone number for safe travel information beamed direct to their mobile phones.

Since Hypertags are IR they do not need any mobile phone networks to function, and can be deployed in underground stations.

Mock Celebrity Pics

In blogging the previous story on Bliss magazine offering a (photo) blogging platform for their teenage readers, I came across this wonderful promotion called "Celebrity Mix".

Readers are invited to impress their friends by:

1. Taking a picture of themself with a camera phone or a digital camera
2. Sending it in
3. Picking out a celeb
4. Mixing it all up to make a mock celebrity picture
5. Mailing to an e-mail address or cell phone

Costs £ 1.50 ($2.70) - and a clever way for a magazine to generate revenue.

Bliss goes (mo)blogging as it offers readers their own diaries

Bliss magazine, Emap Elan's teenage monthly, is offering its 300,000 readers the opportunity to run their own internet diaries, reports Brrand Republic.

The publisher has joined forces with mobile specialist Mobrio to provide access to the company's personal diary or blogging service, the Zpace, on the Bliss Website.

Bliss readers will be able to effectively set up their own website without any prior technical knowledge and upload photos from their camera phones via MMS or email.

They can post journal entries via SMS or from a computer and browse their friend's sites over Wap. Users can also personalise the appearance of their site choosing the layout, colours, fonts and page styles.

Euronews delivers news via Belgian I-mode

European television news channel Euronews has announced it is to launch an I-mode version of the service to Belgian mobile, according to DMeurope.

"The offering will deliver news video, photographs and text from its Europa, Agenda and Economia programming in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

Euronews launched its I-mode service via mobile operator Bouyges Telecom three weeks ago. A similar service is also available over the GPRS networks of Mobilkom in Austria and Orange Switzerland. "

ABC to Offer 24-Hour News Until Election

ABC News will run a 24-hour news service available on digital cable, the Internet and some cell phones through Election Day in what may be a precursor to a service offered full time in the future, reports the Associated Press.

"The venture, "ABC News Now", begins operating at noon Monday, presenting gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic National Convention, anchored by Peter Jennings.

The service will offer national and local news highlights and rerun material — "Nightline" the next day, for instance.

Sprint PCS Vision phone customers will also be able to see "ABC News Now" for $9.95 a month. "

Integrating Newspapers With Mobile Video

Rafat Ali for Moco News found this really interesting annoucement, written up in JCNnetwork:

"Ico, one of the leading mobile content providers in Korea has announced the launch of the world's first video-based news content service for mobile phone users.

Some of the sports articles featured in the Daily Focus, the leading free newspaper in Korean, will now be printed with a special mobile code that contains URL data to enable users to automatically access the latest sports news in video, by simply holding the cellphone against the printed code."

Best Pictures of the Day on your Mobile Phone

E-Media Tidbits reports on La Vanguardia.es' multimedia messaging service, which sends out to subscribers a daily selection of the best images of what happened in the world the day before.

"The MMS, available only for paid subscribers, has been running for six months. The number of subscribers is still small, around 500, but increasing. This newspaper also has an SMS (text messaging) news service, with 3,000 users subscribed".

For more on multimedia services offered by the press, check out this category in Picturephoning.com

Naked News goes wireless

Naked News, "the program with nothing to hide", will soon be available on a cell phone near you, according to Rafat Ali for Moco News.

The Naked news team has been covering the news in the buff since 1999 on both the Internet and television. "This is just the next step in a logical progression," said David Warga, Executive Producer of Naked News. Of course.

Radio station seeks listeners' camshots

UK Galaxy radio station and wireless marketing company Flytxt have launched a multimedia messaging campaign inviting the station's listeners to snap and send their photos, reports Media Bulletin Online.

"The initiative kicks off this week when Galaxy DJs encourage listeners to send in photos of themselves and their friends doing weird and wonderful things. The funniest pictures will then be published on Galaxy's website for all listeners to see".

FT.com goes multimedia mobile

The Financial Times has partnered with software firm Volantis to enable it to make its news available across a wide range of mobile devices, according to Netimperative.

"FT.com already had an existing mobile service, but this was just text-based. The new FT.com mobile service from Volantis is a multi-media service that can be accessed from any mobile handset".