Nokia 7650 Modified to Record Video Clips

rocannon writes "T-Mobile has started offering MPEG4 video messaging on the Nokia 7650 with a modified software created by the Finnish company Hantro. This is the European debut of the service that allows users to record, save and play back video sequences, up to a maximum of 95 Kbs in size, on their mobile phone. Clips can be transmitted and received to/from peers via (MMS) e-mail."

Comments

95 Kbs in *size*?

[Compact Dick]

Isn't that a measure of streaming speed, and not absolute size?

In any case, one can think up of many "innocuous" uses facilitated by its innocent facade. "Oh dear, I dropped it again." :-)

Re:95 Kbs in *size*?

[AftanGustur]

Nope, that is the size. The standard for MMS multimedia messaging restricts the size of any message to 100kb

The unit 'Kilo' in physics, meaning 1000, is written 'k'
The unit 'Kilo', in CS, meaning 1024 is written 'K'
Bytes is written 'B'
bits is written 'b'
Seconds is written as 's' or '/s' as in 'per second'

Then, 95Kbs is logical to interpret as 95Kilobits per second, and that, my dear watson, is a unit for streaming capacity.

Re:95 Kbs in *size*?

[magicianuk]

But if I order 25Kgs of potatoes, people realise that I'm accidentally making it a plural (25 kilos) and not asking someone to stream mashed potato to me

I'm guessing it was a simple slip of the fingers to indicate a plural, but it's always fun to get to play "Captain Pedantic"[1] for a day, isn't it (bigger grin!)

[1] There is no such character as Captain Pedantic, to the best of my knowledge, but I could be wrong! - General Comment, DFC and (cash) bar.

I can understand the appeal...

[neksys]

But is 95k worth of video enough to be useful? I mean, even at really low quality, and acknowledging the small resolution of these phones, that still leaves you with quite a short message. On the other hand, the cost of sending that 95k of data to another phone must be high - hell, it costs me a fortune to download a few thousand bytes onto my phone through my web connection.

7650 Camera Resolution

[Joel Rowbottom]

Resolution on the 7650 is pants. Don't expect anything spectacular ;)

Photos using the Nokia 7650 can be viewed at nokia7650.fotopic.net

I'll try and get round to installing this video stuff and do some messing though. The 7650's not a bad phone, pity Nokia's SDK sucks so much.

But Why Will This Be Used?

[Anonymous Coward]

Videophones have been an abysmal failure in direct wired connections. Why would this feature be popular for cell phones?

People are already worried about traffic accidents [apparently] caused by cell phones. Imagine if people are not only talking on cell phones but also watching them when driving?

Re:But Why Will This Be Used?

[jukal]

> Videophones have been an abysmal failure in direct wired connections. Why would this feature be popular for cell phones?

Because no-one is interested in walking to a certain FIXED place, and wonder out how on the earth THIS SPECIFIC videomeeting thing works. When those services are available on your pocket, through a relatively simple and relatively standardized interfaces, you might actually use it. Also, I don't believe their main use will be as video"phones", instead they will be used to send images and videoclips. Atleast I never have a camera with me when I would have needed it.

PORN....as always

[Anonymous Coward]

this is going to be a money-maker for pornographers...brings a whole new meaning to "dirty phone calls". people already spend £1.50 a minute to download ringtones or £1 a text message with text flirting services, think how much could be made from mobile adult video services...

Video!

[Anonymous Coward]

Video + sound, they must be kidding, they can't even get me a day to go by without saying "What did you say?"

One wonders

[CaptainZapp]

If MMS will really ever fly.

The Neue Zurcher Zeitung, which features one of the best Media & IT section from any German speaking newspaper tested the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capabilities of the 7650 and the Ericsson T68i three weeks ago.

In a nutshell: It sometimes works. But only if the sender and the receiver both have the same phone. If you have the T68i and I send you an MMS from a Nokia you either get gibberish or nothing at all.

If we have the same phones we also better be with the same carrier, otherwise: see above. Regardless of success you're anyway billed 55euro-cents per message.

After WAP and some exorbitantly overpriced UMTS licenses mobile services could see their third Waterloo here by giving up simplicity and standards and bloating those devices with extremely complex and buggy sub systems, for which they weren't designed for in the first place.

The beauty of SMS lies in its simplicity and its standardization (partially basterdized by carriers in the US), which is adhered to throughout the European GSM network. Adding crappy features that nobody wants or needs and that rarely function the carriers and manufacturers do themselves a disservice.

Besides, I don't think that the business user (the one generating the most revenue) is very interested in sending 95KB video clips (or fotos for that matter) around the world. The guy wants a reliable phone, which is connected without hiccups after leaving the plane in Basel, Barcelona or Bangalore.