multimedia
Latest
Motorola ROKR E3 - Exclusive pics!
As usual, we can't divulge our super-secret source, but earlier this week we scored an exclusive hands-on session with the Motorola ROKR E3 (at least, we think it's called the ROKR E3!). As you've probably noticed, this is the very same mystery phone that was up on stage for a few brief moments during Ed Zander's keynote at MotoNow last summer. Motorola hasn't officially announced this phone yet, but we got further confirmation of its existence a few weeks ago when reader Adam W discovered a ROKR E3 skin in Moto's phone tools. We're still trying to figure out some of the specs for this one -- it was easier for our source to get their hands on the phone itself than on its spec sheet -- but near as we can tell the ROKR E3 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset with 512MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a TransFlash memory card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and some multimedia software. No iTunes, and that round thing that looks like a scroll wheel is actually just four buttons surrounding a run-of-the-mill joystick. Oh, and the keypad wasn't very easy to use either.Anyway, enough talk, on to the pics!
Microsoft joins DVB-H group
With a roster of heavy-hitters that already included Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Intel, the DVB-H alliance was quickly shaping up as the 800-pound gorilla of the mobile media world. Now that Microsoft has signed on, we assume that it's pretty much game over for just about any other video-on-the-go standard. Of course, given that Windows Media technology has already been used by companies like Modeo in DVB-H trials, Microsoft's support should come as no surprise. But as Modeo president Michael Schueppert says, Microsoft's clout will "accelerate the introduction of mobile digital television based on DVB-H into cell phones, PDAs, laptops and portable media players." Indeed.
uclick to deliver GoComics Books service to cellphones
If ever there was a print publication better suited for translation to the small screen of a cellphone than the venerable comic book, we can't think of one, and soon a Kansas City-based company will be delivering that very medium to handsets nationwide. Mobile content provider uclick has announced a subscription service called GoComics Books at New York Comic-Con wherein customers receive weekly multi-page updates of whichever titles they sign up for, optimized for cellphone displays, for about four bucks/month. The titles featured at launch will all be independent comics, with names such as "Five Fists of Science" (Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla team up to fight evil, presumably MacGuyver-style), "Too Much Coffee Man" (a serialized "Falling Down"?), and "Godland" (town in NJ where gods go to retire?), along with several choices from the popular manga genre.
Hands-on with the Sony Ericsson W950
These shots definitely do NOT do this handset justice, but this morning we also got play with the W950, Sony Ericsson's new high-end Walkman phone that'll come with up to 4GB of internal memory (and is way sleeker than it's fellow 4GB musicphone, the Nokia N91). Not sure how much this bad boy is going to cost, but it can't be cheap to squeeze 4GB of memory into a phone, right? Either way, the perfectly flat keypad was more tactile than we'd expected (though it might not be so hot using it every day), and the 2.6-inch, QVGA touch screen was nice and crisp.
Sony Ericsson W300i quad-band Walkman with EDGE
Sony Ericsson brings the love in heaps today with yet another little handset hot-tay, the W300i which first came to our attention as the Mulan/W530. This quad-band EDGE clamshell expands upon the Walkman series by offering all that MP3/AAC playback goodness in a compact design with integrated VGA camera -- yeah VGA, which sounds even worse after SE's earlier announcement. The W300i ships with a 256MB Memory Stick Micro card and features a 128 x 160 262K color TFT main display with a second 1-inch 101 x 80 display for viewing track info and caller ID when the flip is closed. The W300i features dedicated music keys as you'd expect from a Walkman in addition to a shuffle function, flight-mode, up to 30 hours of music playback per charge, Bluetooth, and RDS FM radio. The W300i measures in at 90 x 47 x 24 mm (3.5 x 1.9 x 0.9-inches) and 94 grams (3.31-ounces) and will be shipping in Shimmering White and Shadow Black starting Q2. Lots more snaps after the break.
Qualcomm developing DVB-H chips to compete with self
First LG and Samsung hedged their digital TV bets by producing handsets for not only DMB but also for MediaFlo and DVB-H reception. Now Qualcomm, patent holders for MediaFlo, have announced that they are developing chips based on the DVB-H standard putting them in direct competition with the likes of Philips and uh, themselves, among others. It’s no secret that FLO is going to have a tough time making a go in standards loving Europe where DVB-H was developed, even if it is a superior technology. But hell, a global trend supporting DTV takeup is going to help everyone in the long run by driving usage across all three “standards” -- right? Now, let's see if naughty little Qualcomm continues the promiscuity by developing DMB chips as well.[Via MocoNews]
Sony Ericsson's Wilma / K800 / K790 Cyber-shot phone gets official
Ahhh Wilma, you have arrived at last. Sony Ericsson just announced their K800 and K790 (pictured) cellphones; their first to be tagged with Cyber-shot branding letting you know there's some good digicam lovin' on the inside. True to the name, these handsets bring a big 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and lens cover, dedicated shutter button, auto red eye reduction, PictBridge support, image stabilization, and a brand new feature called BestPic -- press the shutter once and get 9 full quality snaps; 4 before and 4 after the actual image you captured all presented as icons on the display. You select the best image(s) from the bunch to keep. The handsets differ in network coverage with the K800 going dual-mode UMTS/GPRS while the K790 goes tri-band EDGE with the K790a and K790i destined for the Americas with support for 850/1800/1900 and 900/1800/1900 MHz respectively. The K800 also features a second, front mounted camera for video conferencing. No surprises from the specs we already saw, but if feels good to run 'em down again: 2.0-inch QVGA 262K TFT display, 64MB internal flash memory with Memory Stick Micro M2 expansion slot, Bluetooth 2.0, an RSS reader, video recording and playback, Music Player supporting MP3/AAC, and RDS FM radio all in a 106 x 47 x 18/20 mm (4.1 x 1.8 x 0.7/0.78 inch) "Velvet Black" package. You'll have to keep lusting a bit longer though, 'cause these won't hit globally until Q2. Many more pix after the break.[Thanks WEI and Rafe and everyone who sent this in]
Carriers hang up on Sling Media mobile service
It seems like a logical extension of Sling Media's popular Slingbox: let viewers watch their home TVs from anywhere on their cellphones, just as the Slingbox already lets them do on their PCs. But Sling has come up against a powerful foe in its quest to bring place-shifting to the small screen: cellular carriers, who are busily cutting deals with networks and other content providers, and don't want to see Sling threaten that income. "We have no immediate plans to run that service," Jeffrey Nelson of Verizon Wireless told Forbes. "What runs on our network are our services." Of course, as more carriers move to 3G platforms like EV-DO and HSDPA, which makes accessing video directly from the internet much more practical, the carriers' official offerings will be less relevant,and Sling -- which has developed a Windows Mobile version of its service -- may well become must-see TV for cellphone users.
Fox launches Mobizzo for mobile content
CBS isn't the only network making waves with mobile content today. Fox has launched its own mobile spinoff, Mobizzo. The company is currently offering a range of content, including ringtones, video clipsand wallpaper, from Fox properties as diverse as Green Day and Family Guy. Mobizzo currently has distribution agreements with Cingular and T-Mobile, and is negotiating with other carriers. Graphics and ringtones are priced at about $1.99 to $2.99 each; monthly subscriptions are $5.99.
CBS set to launch new mobile content
All the cool kids are getting into the mobile content biz, and CBS is about to announce a few of their strategies, including short form videos for a small subscription cost. Currently on the table are 99 cents a month CBS News to Go and $3.99 Entertainment Tonight, with a mini soap opera soon to follow. Everything will be delivered in small digestible bits, with customisation options to select what type of news you'd like to receive and how often. CBS also has plans to offer the usual ringtones and wallpaper, along with a $6 a month service to interject sound effects like applause into your mobile conversation -- we can only hope and pray they're dead wrong about the market on this last one.[Via MocoNews]
Softick Audio Gateway brings A2DP to PalmOS
If you've been frustrated by the lack of support for A2DP in your Treo 650 (or other Bluetooth-enabled PalmOS device), you'll be relieved to know that Softick has released a driver to enable the function, opening your device to the beautiful world of stereo Bluetooth audio. Softick's Audio Gateway works with any A2DP-compatible headset, speaker system or other device, and sells for $19.95.
Details on LG's LG-V9000 T-DMB and unnamed DVB-H handsets
Slashphone has scored some more deets on the DVB-H and T-DMB handsets that LG announced back in January, both of which are swivelphones that offer up to two hours of TV watching. The LG-V9000 (DMB, pictured right) and another, unnamed handset (DVB-H, a first for LG, pictured left) also feature 1.3 megapixel cameras, MP3 playback, Bluetooth, GPS, and TransFlash expansion slots, and both support quadband GSM/GPRS/WCDMA networks. The V9000 is expected to hit Europe and China sometime this quarter, although price is so far unknown, and even less is known about the mysterious, unnamed DVB-H model.Read: LG-V9000Read: LG DVB-H handset
Sprint's new PCS Picture Mail allows online media sharing, collaboration
Following closely on the heels of Yahoo!'s ZoneTag mobile photo solution comes a new service for Sprint customers that will allow them to upload text, photos, and video clips to a web page for viewing and editing by others. When the Sprint PCS Picture Mail groups debut this spring, subscribers will be able to create media-rich sites on whatever topic they like and share their cameraphone-captured treasures with approved users who can also upload content via email or Sprint phone. Pictures can also be printed and framed or slapped on gift items like mouse pads, stamps, mugs, etc., directly from one's Picture Mail account. Sprint is currently demoing this new service at PMA in Florida, where many folks are no doubt strolling around with pixelated pictures of themselves on their t-shirts right now.[Via MocoNews]
Yahoo! ZoneTag 2-click-uploads location-tagged photos to Flickr
Yahoo! has just rolled out a new application for Nokia Series 60 handset owners that allows them to not only 2-click upload their cameraphone photos to Flickr, but actually tag them with general location data for personal reference and providing viewers with context. The ZoneTag app is a free download that runs in the background when your phone is in "camera" mode, and offers to location-stamp and upload each photo upon capture, gathering the spatial info based on either coordinates from a Bluetooth-paired GPS device or more commonly the unique ID from the cell tower that handled the data transfer. Yahoo! has built an evolving database that relies on users manually tagging their stamped-photos with ZIP codes or GPS coordinates to provide a correlation between tower IDs and real-world locations, so the service will get more accurate over time. Privacy controls ensure that only those people whom you specify can view your photos, and only those shots that you approve are location-stamped, so you can simply use the service for MMS-less pic-sharing if that's your thing.
Moto to introduce PlaysForSure phones?
We were unclear before if Motorola's and Microsoft's WMA musicphone partnership was going to yield any PlaysForSure phones -- and we still are, truth be told -- but SlashPhone is reporting with some certainty that Moto handsets will be getting WMA with Windows Media DRM (aka PlaysForSure), as well as support for something called Media Transfer Protocol. Apparently with MTP, Windows Media Player will recognize Moto handsets and automagically sync your music over USB 2.0, not dissimilar from how your iPod syncs to iTunes (if that's your bag). They also claim Microsoft will begin streaming audio with WMA Pro over 3G in 2007, which would be interesting, but not nearly as interesting as getting Napster To Go or Rhapsody or YMU on our Moto musicphones, that's for sure.
Panasonic shipping P901iTV
It was first announced a couple of months ago, but we thought DoCoMo's Panasonic P901iTV could be worth a second look, especially since if you happen to live in or be passing through Japan, you'll shortly be able to pick one up (well, Panny's gotten around to shipping them, anyway). If you haven't already seen it, the P901iTV is a swivel-flip running MontaVista Linux that can pick up digital terrestrial or analog broadcasts with its telescoping antenna, and features a 2.5-inch QVGA display, MiniSD slot, and a two megapixel camera.
Yahoo! Go Mobile goes mobile with Cingular on the Nokia 6682
Anyone remember those Yahoo Go Mobile phone widgets we were supposed to be getting ala Semel's CES Yahoo keynote? And how they've partnered with AT&T and Cingular to bring this mobile Yahoo vision to life, despite the fact that no one really seems to get what it is they're doing besides embedding some Y channels in cellphones? Well, it's live and officially announced now, everyone, so soon in addition to MusicID and the load of other crap Cingular wants loaded up on your Nokia 6682, you'll have access to the integrated Yahoo web portal with mail, YIM, your addresses, photos (which we hope includes Flickr), and the like. Start your banjos everyone, it's time to go mobile with Yahoo Go Mobile.
BSkyB selects Symbian OS for Sky by mobile
British Sky Broadcasting and Symbian put pen to paper recently to announce that BSkyB selected Symbian OS for Sky by mobile, the interactive application which brings Sky's digital TV service to cell mobile phone users. Once downloaded, Sky by mobile give punters an EPG with the same look and feel as the Sky Guide on their TeeVee with access to content such as sports, entertainment, news and weather and interactive services such as personalized content and 'on the fly' betting for Sky Bet account holders. The software is free to Sky digital customers with a Symbian phone supporting GPRS or 3G, just prepare to pummel your data tariff, mkay?[Via Phonemag]
3G service coming to Russia
Russians love their cellphones as much as anyone -- the country has 120 million cellphone subscribers for a population of about 150 million -- so we're a little surprised that it's taken the country has taken this long to go 3G. But it's finally going to happen, as Russia gears up to grant its first 3G licenses later this year. Finally -- we'll be able to use our EV-DO card to moblog while we're on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
MobileGlu brings web content to cellphones
A lot of content providers offer versions of their info optimized for cellphones, but that doesn't mean they do it well -- or that it's easily aggregated into one place with a consistent interface. That's the promise behind MobileGLU, a new service that scrapes your designated content and presents it in a mobile-friendly format. The service currently offers access to flickr, del.icio.us, RSS feeds and a handful of other content sources, with more in the works -- at least until content providers crack down and try to shut them down for redistributing their data without permission. [Via picturephoning]
