Reiter's Camera Phone Report

More photos, some videos (ugh) from RIM's Pearl 8120 (not yet in U.S.)

I’ve posted a few dozen photos and a few videos I’ve shot with Research in Motion’s new Pearl 8120 that has video recording capability (a first for the Pearl series), plus a two megapixel camera (an increase from 1.3 megapixels) and WiFi (also new).

The 8120 isn’t available in the United States, yet, but I assume it will be offered this year.  The Pearl 8130, with GPS instead of WiFi, will be available this month from Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

The photos (I posted the first batch of photos a couple of weeks ago) aren’t bad at all for a two megapixel camera phone.  The phone has a 3x and 5x digital zoom, but I never use a digital zoom (if you need to zoom, do it with an image editing program).

Mediocre or worse

The videos, however, are, at best, mediocre.  I say “mediocre” when viewed on the 8120’s screen or in a small QuickTime window. 

However, when viewed on the Web in a larger window, such as on YouTube (see below), the results are quite awful.  (If you’re viewing this video on YouTube’s Web site you’re able to click a box immediately to the right of the little loudspeaker to reduce the size so it looks closer to the size you’d see on the 8120’s display.)

I uploaded three videos I took this weekend of the pretty fall scenery at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland to both YouTube and Vimeo.  YouTube is notorious for compressing videos so they look pretty bad, so I also tried Vimeo.  Unfortunately, the 8120’s videos look bad there, too.

One of the videos I shot was near the entrance to the mountain’s recreational area with a small pond with the leaves on the trees changing colors.  The video is terrible but the photo of the scene where the video was shot looks fine, although I probably would lighten it and improve the contrast (see below).

I’m a fan of RIM’s products (that, as an analyst, I am able to test for extended periods) and welcome the company’s inclusion of video recording capabilities.  I hope, though, that software updates will improve the quality of the videos because they sure could use it.

More about 8120, RIM wireless imaging

If you want to read more information about the 8120, the first part of a two-part article I wrote about the phone and RIM’s wireless imaging strategy was posted today on the mobile video/mobile TV site “Mobi-lize.”

By the way, I wrote in the Mobi-lize article that RIM will offer a software upgrade for Curve 83xx owners so that handset also be able to record video.  The upgrade is scheduled for early next year.

BlackBerry Curve 8300 versus Pearl 8100 image quality: My analysis

For the past few weeks I've been testing the photo quality of the almost-available BlackBerry 8300 "Curve" with its two megapixel camera, courtesy of Research in Motion (RIM).

For the first couple of weeks or so I was using beta software, but commercial hardware.  I posted photos with this beta code on a BlackBerry 8300 moblog (see below).

As I previously wrote, I was disappointed with the quality of the photos.  I thought the colors sometimes were dull and, in bright sunlight, often overexposed.

Just a few days ago I downloaded the commercially-ready "gold" code for the 8300.  I was told that the photo quality should be better.

Comparing photos using PhotoShow

Well, for the past few days I have wandered around the Washington, D.C. area and the Chevy Chase/Bethesda, Md. suburbs taking lots of photos.  During the past couple of days I've carried the 8300 as well as the BlackBerry 8100 "Pearl" with its 1.3 megapixel camera that I've had for many months (again, courtesy of RIM).

I took more the 30 35 photos each with the 8300 and the 8100, just seconds apart.  I have posted those 60 70-plus photos in a "musical" slide show on Simple Star's PhotoShow Web site, a very nice way to quickly develop slide shows, as well as embedding it here, obviously.

(The music should be off by default, but it can be turned on.  Also, if you've got a broadband connection you might want to click the "View full size" link and, when the page opens, click "View Large" to see, duh, larger images.  I don't think the image quality suffers when viewed in the largest size.)

** Note:  When I posted this very early Monday morning, the photo captions displayed just fine in Firefox and Internet Explorer.  However, I now see that the captions aren't displaying in Firefox!  I don't know why, but I have sent a customer support request to Simple Star/PhotoShow.  Customer support doesn't start until 9:00 a.m. PDT -- wake up!

In the meantime, I have two suggestions:  Open this weblog or the PhotoShow link in IE (yeah, I, too, almost never use IE) or just remember that the first photo is from the Curve 8300 followed by the same photo taken with the Pearl 8100, followed by another photo from the Curve, etc.  Sorry for the inconvenience; it was working fine when I posted it.

Never mind.  It's working fine now.  I can see the captions.

Thanks Robert!

Thank you Robert Scoble of Podtech for recording interviews here and here (see left) with Simple Star that sparked me to look at the site.  I watched the interviews late this evening at exactly the time I was wondering how I could easily post comparisons of those dozens of photos from the two BlackBerrys without lots of work. 

PhotoShow didn't eliminate all the work, but it sure made it easy to create a way for all of you to see in succession first the 8300 photo and then the same one taken with the 8100.  I wish PhotoShow had a bit more flexibility, such as allowing me to specify slide transitions rather than accepting the standard template that uses a multitude (too many!) of transitions within the show.  I'd much prefer to use only one or two transition formats.

But overall, PhotoShow is very nicely done and I intend to spend more time playing around with it.  And, it even has a fair number of classical music selections to accompany slide shows; thanks Simple Star for offering more than the typical current musical slop.

Pearl vs. Curve:  Verdict

So how do the two stack up?

I've always thought the Pearl's camera produced better than average 1.3 megapixel camera phone photos -- certainly at the time it debuted last fall.  So I hoped the Curve's somewhat higher resolution would produce even better images.

With the Curve's "gold" code, the images do indeed appear better....sometimes.  The colors seem a bit more vibrant than the Pearl's and they aren't as completely washed out in bright sunlight as with the beta imaging code.

To stay with the "gold" image, the Curve's colors are warmer than the Pearl's.  Pearl images are soften less vibrant and have somewhat of a blue tinge.

However, there's sometimes too much Curve gold!  As with the beta code -- in sunlight images sometimes are much too yellow and the detail is "yellowed out."  The Pearl's images are never (that I've found, at least) overexposed like the Curve's and, as a result, sometimes produce more realistic color.

Too much like popcorn butter!

Look at this example taken with the Curve with its gold code:

"Gold" is right!

Now look at the photo taken a few seconds later with the Pearl:

Yep, there's a big difference.  The Pearl's image is much better exposed, although the Curve's colors are more vibrant.  (And I think I'm not even using the most current Pearl operating system, although I don't know if the current OS offer better image quality.)

Fair is fair

But except for bright sunlight, the Curve's photos typically are better than the Pearl's.  Look at this photo, that I shot in downtown Washington, D.C. when I was using the Curve with its beta code.

The SunTrust bank building in the background might be a bit too yellow, but the building really is bright yellow!

Look at this photo taken with the Curve, using gold code, of a small creek underneath a major street in Chevy Chase, Md.

Now look at the same scene taken with a Pearl.

The Curve's colors are obviously warmer and the green leaves are more vibrant.  I prefer the Curve photo.  However, the yellow color on the Curve's image probably should be toned down slightly.

Establishing a happy medium

I'd like to see a happy medium between the Pearl and the Curve, maintaining the Curve's more vibrant colors but modifying the white balance so it isn't as yellow and detail-destroying in bright sunlight.

But take a look for yourself and view the PhotoShow I produced.  A few of the photos seem too blurry, either because I moved or because it was quite windy for much of the time I was taking the comparison photos.

As I've written previously, overall I like the Curve and I think it will be a big seller.  But its imaging software still needs some tweaking.

Just two more features

Both the Pearl and the Curve certainly would benefit from manual exposure settings, -2 to +2 or -3 to +3.  This can make a big difference.

And, I still want some sort of lens cover!  Without a way to protect the lens, the Pearl and Curve lenses are accidents waiting to happen.

LCDs in bright light

Since I don't want to end on a sour note about the Curve, I should note that its LCD is excellent for viewing images in bright sunlight.  Many other phone screens almost completely wash out in bright light, making it almost impossible to see what what you're photographing

The Curve's screen is one of the best; it's significantly better than the Pearl's.

Also, the Curve's LCD can be set to "full screen" when taking photos so the entire real estate is used to display the image rather than showing a row of parameters (flash, photo storage space, white balance) on the bottom.

Stop the flash!

Update:  Very early Tuesday morning (around 12:30 a.m.), I took more than a dozen photos around my neighborhood with both phones.  I wanted to take photos at night.

I found, however, that I couldn't turn off the Curve's flash.  I set it to "off" but the %^@#$! flash still fired!  I especially wanted to take images without the flash, such as close-up photos of lighted shop windows.

The Pearl's flash did turn off.

I have added about a dozen of these night photos at the end of my PhotoShow slide show above, although I didn't include the images with flash.  The Curve's images generally were better than the Pearl's.

Time to contact RIM's technical experts about the flash situation.

My first BlackBerry 8300 "Curve" photos, comments

Thanks to the generous folks at Research in Motion, I received a BlackBerry 8300 "Curve" (see left) on Friday. 

From an overall device standpoint I like it a lot.

But first, from a camera phone standpoint, I am disappointed in the quality of the images from its two megapixel camera.  I took some two dozen photos today and, as is my wont, established a moblog dedicated to 8300 images (see below).

Better than the Pearl?

I really want to like the photos produced by the 8300.  But so far, I am not impressed.

In fact, I'm not sure if the images are any better than those from the 1.3 megapixel BlackBerry 8100 Pearl, for which I also established a moblog.  I know some people don't like the Pearl's photos but for its low resolution, I think the images are much better than the typical 1.3 megapixel camera phone.

I do need to compare more closely, though, 8100 images with 8300 images.  I've only just begun to take photos with the 8300 and don't use the 8100 much because I can't live without (well, perhaps prefer not to live without) a QWERTY keyboard on my primary e-mail device.

Not making up my mind yet

I certainly am going to give the 8300 the benefit of the doubt.  I'm going to take many more photos. 

Also, I received this unit on Friday, before any cellular operator in the United States has begun to offer it.  (I'm using a T-Mobile SIM and I don't think T-Mobile completely supports the 8300, given that it's not yet available on the network.)  Perhaps a software upgrade from RIM would improve the image quality.

Perhaps the hardware on my unit isn't quite as good as the devices that will be offered to subscribers in, supposedly, late May.  Perhaps for a two megapixel camera phone, the images are considered good.

And, as I wrote in the introduction to my 8300 moblog, perhaps I'm spoiled by the quality of the images I've posted from Nokia's 3.2 megapixel N93 and five megapixel N95 that Nokia has been nice enough to send me as part of its Blogger Relations program. 

(I posted a fair number of images on the N93 and N95 moblogs and some of them a rather poor due, probably, to my photography.  I haven't decided whether to remove the crummy images.)

 

Overall really handset

Image quality notwithstanding, the 8300 seems like a real winner -- and I've been analyzing cellular phones for almost 29 years, including the first RIM pager).  The 8300 is smaller and lighter than previous models and the ergonomics are good.  It just feels good to hold, like the Pearl.   

Its metal/gray color looks classy and the construction seems better than the 8700.  It has rubberized-like plastic (I think it's plastic) along the edges that makes it easier to grasp.

The keyboard, though, is not as good as the best BlackBerry keyboards, and I've written about my keyboard fanaticism (for desktop PCs, laptops and portable devices) before.  The earlier 7200 series BlackBerrys had keyboards with round keys that were relatively widely spaced.

These were the best BlackBerry keyboards for entering data and at the time they certainly were the best keyboards on any cellular phone designed in the candy bar-type form.

Keyboard comparison

But as BlackBerrys have gotten smaller, the keyboards have shrunk.  The BlackBerry 8700's keyboard isn't bad.  The plastic keys are a bit slippery, but I got used to it without any problems.

The BlackBerry 8800 keyboard is poor (see left) -- at least I think so.  There is virtually no space between the keys so it's much more difficult to use than the 8700.  For people who enter lots of text, I strongly recommend testing the 8800 before buying.

The 8300 keyboard is smaller than the 8800 or 8700, but the keys aren't as slippery and they are much more widely spaced (relatively speaking) than the 8800.  It's a good keyboard, given the constraints of decreasing the size of the device.

If you have fat fingers and don't care about the additional features of the 8300 (two megapixel camera, enhanced MP3 and video player, BlackBerry maps, GPS capability with an external unit, microSD card), you might prefer the 8700's keyboard.

MP3 esoterica

This affects probably .0001 of BlackBerry users:  If you use Nokia's PC Suite software to transfer music to your Nokia Nseries handset and you employ Nokia's "optimized" format for MP3s and you use the same files in your BlackBerry 8300, you won't want to!

When I inserted two microSD cards with music and podcasts from the N95 into the 8300, the sound was awful on both cards.  When Nokia converts my MP3 and WMV files into, I think, AAC+, the music sounds fine on the Nseries but not on the 8300.

However, when I manually transferred the regular MP3 and WMV files to the 8300's microSD card, the audio was just fine.

Esato publishes excellent review of Sony Ericsson K800i 3.2 megapixel camera phone

Olav Helleso-Knutsen on Esato has published an excellent review of Sony Ericsson’s new K800i 3.2 megapixel camera phone with its “BestPic” technology that takes nine photos in a row. 

(I wrote about the launch earlier this month.)

I don’t have time to write much about it (it’s almost 2:00 a.m.) but the K800i seems like an excellent camera phone with a variety of useful features.  Esato has published 11 photos on the Web and the outdoor shoots look pretty good to me.

Helleso-Knutsen likes BestPic and explains how it’s done.  “Four of them are taken when you press the camera trigger button half way down, one picture is captured when the button is pressed all the way, and the final four is captured just after the key press.”

Other features

The handset includes a relatively powerful (for a camera phone) Xenon flash, auto-focus, a cover for the lens (I hate camera phones without lens covers) and a 16x digital zoom (that Helleso-Knutsen and I believe is usually a waste).

He’s not impressed with the 176 x 144 video recording quality.

His summary

“All in all, the K800 is an excellent point and shoot camera capable of producing very sharp 13x10 cm prints.  The colours produced (with firmware version R1CB001) are natural saturated but maybe a little cold (blueish).

“This is a white balance issue and can be adjusted by the user by changing the white balance manually.  K800 tends to sharpen low light photos too much for my taste but daylight images are excellent.  Sharpening should be the last editing done to an image.

“Colour corrections, changing the size and other adjustments should be done first.  The noise on low light pictures is very evident.  My guess is that we can expect more user control in upcoming devices and that sharpening is one of the image processing steps it will be possible to reduce.

“One of these settings could be to set the compression level.  I have a tip to Sony Ericsson which is something that has been discussed a lot in the Esato forum.  The advice is to let the user have the option to set JPEG file compression level them self.”

Red Herring reports on Tabblo's picture sharing strategy

Red Herring looks at a new photo sharing service, Tabblo, that officially launched today, although it has been in beta for more than a month and I’ve played around with it weeks ago.

Tabblo emphasizes “storytelling” — “tabblos” (see below) — with a large number of templates that make it easy to create more interesting layouts than many other photo sharing sites.

Walt Mossberg gave Tabblo an excellent review in his Wall Street Journal article and other reporters/analysts have had good things to say about the service.

Lots of competitors

Red Herring emphasizes the huge number of competitors in this area, and Tabblo’s founder, Antonio Rodriquez, certainly is aware of that.  Rodriquez writes often in the company’s weblog, and the postings are interesting — not filled with company puff pieces.

The article says Tabblo aims to offer the functionality of Adobe Creative Suite and Apple iPhoto.  Rodriquez says, “It’s like a mush between a good photo manager and a blogging tool in terms of letting you write live Web pages with text and pictures and templates as opposed to a photo site.”

However, even if Tabblo has some unique combination of features, there are many well established photo sharing sites with the resources to copy what Tabblo has done, Red Herring notes.

Revenues and partnerships

Tabblo’s revenues will come, in part, from selling photo-related products, such as prints and photos.  The company also would like to provide co-branding opportunities for camera vendors that don’t have their own Web sites for photo sharing.

Rodriquez is talking to cellular operators and photo retailers, but these companies have their own sites and he acknowledges that it’s not an easy task to develop partnerships in this environment.

Indeed, U.S. cellular operators have established relationships with major photo companies, such as Kodak and Fuji and they aren’t likely to switch — or even add — a small wanna-be.  Cellular operators generally are interested in adding features to their own sites (or their partner’s sites).

Camera phone photos

Currently, you can upload photos (with several easy ways) to Tabblo only from your computer.  However, in about a month Tabblo will enable photos transmitted via e-mail or MMS from a camera phone, Red Herring reports.

Users will be able to attach up to 100 photos in an e-mail message (cellular operator limitations notwithstanding) or one image via MMS (based on the constraints of MMS, not because of Tabblo’s limitation, I assume).  Tabblo will automatically create a “tabblo” layout from the transmitted images.

So far, Tabblo does not accept videos, but users have been asking for that.  No word in the article about when or whether video storage will be offered.

Give it a try

I think Tabblo is definitely worth a look.  Personally, I like the “storytelling” aspect that offers a wide variety of templates and simply drag-and-drop arrangements.

For my own personal service, I want photo + video storage as well as, preferably, some simple Web-based video editing….although I really need to check out Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 for editing mp4 camera phone videos.

My view is with the increasing incorporation of video recording capabilities in camera phones, people will want to create albums that combine both photos and videos of specific activities, such as vacations, weddings, sporting events, etc.  Why should people have to view a second site for videos?

PC Magazine likes three megapixel Nokia N80 but not thrilled with camera

PC Magazine has given it's "Editor's Choice" award to Nokia's N80 three megapixel camera phone, although it's not especially impressed with the photo quality, according to the article.

The N80 doesn't offer optical zoom, autofocus or a lens cover and the LED flash is -- as is typical with virtually all camera phones -- weak, the article says.   The handset includes macro capability, though.   

"As with all camera phones, the pictures it takes are barely passable in the realm of dedicated digital cameras; they're soft with only about 700 lines of resolution, a slightly hazy look and some visible color noise," the magazine article says.

"At first glance you might think 2MP camera phone shots like the ones from the Samsung MM-A800 look better.  But that's because the MM-A800's shots are automatically digitally sharpened; the N80's extra pixels give you more realistic lines and color gradations.

"You can save pictures in the 40MB of onboard memory or on a mini-SD card, or beam them to a PC or printer using WiFi, Bluetooth or a USB cable.   That's a huge step forward for camera phones.   

"The lack of autofocus and optical zoom can also be overlooked because nobody's gotten them to work on camera phones yet.   The two optical-zoom camera phones I've tested, the Samsung A940 and A970, had focus and shutter-speed problems, and the autofocus on other phones increases shutter delay." 

[Hmmm.  I wonder whether some camera phones in South Korea and/or Japan offer better autofocus and optical zoom capabilities.]

"With nearly a second of shutter delay on the N80 already, taking pictures with autofocus would likely incur an unbearable wait."

Video quality

PC Magazine is more enthusiastic about the video quality of 352 x 288 at 15 frames per second.  The article says the quality is better than most other camera phones.

Videos shot outdoors look "great," while indoor videos are noisy but viewable.  The N80 comes with "muvee" editing software (that is bundled with some other Nokia phones I've used) that automatically creates edits videos with transitions and music. 

The handset also is bundled with free SmartMovie software that automatically reformats 30 fps videos to work at the phone's 15 fps capability.  The N80's microprocessor is too slow to display videos at 30 fps on a full screen, "PC Magazine" says.

Waiting for three megapixels in U.S.

As I've previously written, the three megapixel Nokia N93, slated to be available in some parts of the world this summer, will handle 30 fps videos, I believe.

No cellular operator in the United States sells the N80, although an unlocked version is available for about $800 and should work on the GSM networks of Cingular and T-Mobile. 

I might be able to get my hands on an N80 in the near future.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

PC Magazine gives high marks to Sony Ericsson S710a images

PC Magazine's review of the new Sony Ericsson S710a 1.3 megapixel camera phone gives high marks to its camera capabilities.

Sasha Segan writes:

"The Sony Ericsson S710a camera phone (approximately $399) takes its photo-taking capabilities very seriously: Just one look at the back and you'll know this camera phone is for hard-core shooters. However, big-time talkers will be less pleased.

"The S710a is a bulky, albeit sexy-looking, black swivel phone. It has a metal bull's-eye surrounding a snap-open camera lens cover on the back. Open the lens cover and the phone kicks into camera mode.

"When holding the phone like a camera to take photos or videos, you use the large, bright screen as a viewfinder. The camera's menu system is particularly easy and it responds snappily, though you can't turn off the shutter sound.

"Like the Kyocera Koi/KX2 phone, the S710a swivels into camera mode. Unlike the Koi, however, this one takes good pictures. Another advantage is that the S710a uses the high-speed EDGE to zap all those photos into waiting e-mail boxes.

"Pictures taken with the S710a's 1.3-megapixel camera were sharp and well balanced. It's got a good lens and image-processing software, so images have better exposure and color balance than on many other phones.

"Low-light images were just a little less sharp than those taken with the LG VX8000 but much sharper than the Nokia 7610's. Color balance was excellent, matching the results of the Nokia phone....

"The S710a offer a multitude of ways to get the photos off your phone, too, which we like. There's a 32MB Memory Stick Duo card to back up the 32MB of internal memory, e-mail and MMS clients, and an excellent Bluetooth implementation."

PC Magazine's camera phone gallery

Make sure to check out PC Magazine's camera phone test gallery where photos from many handsets are posted (see below).

Sony Ericsson product manager clueless about camera phone business?

I inserted a question mark into the headline because I want to give Suzanne Cross, a product marketing manager at Sony Ericsson, the benefit of the doubt.

I was watching a CNET News video where Cross is interviewed by Patrick Houston, editor in chief of CNET, about Sony Ericsson's new S710a camera phone.  The handset features a 1.3 megapixel camera and a QVGA LCD.

Houston asked Cross whether 1.3 megapixels is the higher resolution Sony Ericsson has been able to incorporate into its camera phones.  She replied that it's the highest resolution of any camera phone, except for some two megapixel handsets that are available only in South Korea!

Get the fact straight

Oh yeah?  Cross should get some tutoring from camera phone expert in Sony Ercisson or read Camera Phone Report!

She needs to check out the three megapixel camera phones in South Korea and Japan and learn about the five megapixel camera phone available from Samsung.

Her blunder notwithstanding, the S710a is a nice phone.  It contains a CCD sensor (typically superior to CMOS) and an LED flash.  Check out the review on Om Malik's Gigaom Weblog and CNET's review. 

engadget's review

And, just a few minutes ago, engadget posted a favorable review of the S710a.  Engadget says, "Although its sensor, lens and the resulting pictures blow away pretty much every other cameraphone available in the States, the S710 still cannot replace your high end digicam.

"Still, it’s perfect for snapshot from a day, or (thanks to the flash and CCD) even a night out on the town. Be warned though, a day of picture taking will destroy your battery life, however a snapshot here and there doesn’t seem to have any significant effect."

Time magazine mostly likes LG VX8000 camera/video phone for Verizon V Cast

From Camera Phone Zone I found a review by Time magazine of the LG V8000 camera/video phone. 

It's one of three phones (see below) that are available for Verizon Wireless' new V Cast video service over the cellular operator's 1xEV-DO network.

Wilson Rothman writes in Time that he generally likes the handset, although it doesn't like the camera capabilities.   He says the 1.3 megapixel camera "is a disaapointment."

V Cast is pretty good

He likes the V Cast videos, in general, saying, "Click on a link, like NBC Mobile's two-minute-and-twenty-second News Update, and just 20 seconds later you're watching an anchorman read the day's headlines at a tolerably smooth 15 frames per second."

The V Cast video clips use Microsoft's Windows Media Format software on the handsets, either archived or in a streaming media format.  The transmission takes 30 seconds or less, and sometimes the video is a bit shaky or choppy.

Generally worth the cost

V Cast cost $15 per month and Rothman says "it actually over-delivers, for the money."  The service includes news, sports, weather and entertainment videos, plus clips from such sources as Comedy Central, Sesame Street and Fox Television.

However, Rothman doesn't like the quality of the performers on the music videos.  He characterizes them second-string (or worse) performers rather than well known musicians.

Overall, he likes the handset, noting, "It handles the videos and the games surprisingly well, and both spoken word and music come through its single speaker clearly.

"I wish it had Bluetooth capability for a wireless headset in the car (something I have trouble living without), and speaker-independent voice dialing for hands-free operation."

In conclusion

Rothman concludes, "It's exciting to stare directly into the future. That's what V CAST phones are -- the first portable electronic devices capable of breaking our reliance on cable TV or rich-media websites, and it goes even further.

"Someday soon, when Verizon launches a streaming stereo music service, even the iPod, that pocket-size king of the media mountain, could be rendered passé."

As I have written -- and will continue to write -- I am cautiously optimistic about the success of archived and streaming videos and TV-like and TV programs for cellular phones. 

In the United States, Sprint PCS has pioneered TV-like broadcasts to cellular phones through MobiTV.  Verizon's V Cast is another step in the right direction.

[Verizon plans to run a 60-second commercial about V Cast during the Super Bowl this Sunday, according to The Wall Street Journal.]

BusinessWeek likes camera phones, provides guidelines

BusinessWeek writer Larry Armstrong reports the new one megapixel camera phones offer good photo quality and "they can produce high-quality prints rather than grainy, washed-out images that are suitable only for e-mail."

He tested five one megapixel phones -- Audiovox, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson -- and liked the Nokia images best followed closely by those from Sony Ericsson. I, too, really like the Nokia images (assuming Armstrong tested the same model I'm testing, the Nokia 7610).

He also tested some VGA camera phones and was surprised that the images were good enough to print when they were printed 4" x 3", smaller than the traditional 4" x 6" prints. Armstrong notes dotPhoto offers this size.

Camera phone tips, kudos

Armstrong has a good point. I think photo processing companies should offer users a choice of smaller size prints, and inform camera phone users that it makes sense to try the smaller sizes.

BusinessWeek offers some basic tips for taking better photos and concludes, "Don't get rid of your digital camera just yet. But play around with the camera in your cell phone. If you're like me, you'll find it's even more fun than a digital camera -- and a lot more convenient."