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First US Camera/Phone
Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at Infosync, Sprint has announced that the Sanyo 5300, the first US phone with a built-in camera, will be available on their PCS Vision network in mid-November. It's still only 640x480, but unlike Nokia and Sony Ericsson's models, it will have a built-in optional flash as well. The official press release from Sprint is here."
So what does it do? Take pictures of your ear?
"I don't have to read the article, just give me gist of it."
-Homer Simpson
ok, now that you've mastered the japanese kitch phone, please develop something useful. no one wants grainy porn photos made from your cell phone.
Now I guess the 1-900 sex lines will have to actually hire real women... and good looking ones at that! :)
Insert offensive troll-style sig here. Please mod or respond appropriately.
The T-Mobile Sidekick is out now and has a small camera that comes with it and plugs into the headphone port.
Works pretty poorly and takes tiny pics (160x120 I think?), but it is a camera... not quite built-in but a camera nonetheless.
There were commercials on tv for this over a month ago. It's still cool though. It shows that someone in the us is trying to catch up and replace our old crappy wireless phone tech. I'm still waiting for the all-in-one handheld device. Until then I'm not buying anything.
By all-in-one I mean I want a Digital Camera/Cell Phone/Pager/mp3 player/PDA with wireless networking all in one no bigger than palm-sized package. Yes, I know it will cost a lot of money, but I don't see it as an impossibility. We've already got combinations of the different parts, there just isn't something that encompasses all of them in one device. When someone finally does it, I'm there. Yes, I know about the treo and the clie, they come close, but not close enough.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Remeber the old belief (maybe true?) that telephones could be activated without a ring and so serve as covert microphones? With GPS and video cameras in these new cell phones, what sinister new uses could a covert turn-on enable? (Insert obvious p0rn reference here...)
Uhh... they have had commercials out for this for a while now (I'm talking a few weeks). With the guy in the suit... the "Its the static, ma'am" guy. I'm surprised no one else has noticed before me (hey, I got a TiVo and FF through commercials). This isn't anything new.
AT&T Wireless providing a whole new set of musical features, like d/ling song previews for new artists and stuff... that's new stuff.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
The topic is Michael's. What i suggested as topic, was "First US phone with built in digital camera"(or something), something I also state in the text below. I am aware of the allready released Sidekick, Ericsson T68i as well as the Nokia 92xx series, but none of those have a built in camera, and none of them have or support any kind of flash, as far as I know.
"I'm talking loudly in public about absolutely nothing! Are you looking?!?"
"Yeah, this movie is pretty fantabulous, hey...hold on a sec, I wanna show you the assclown behind me that keeps tell me to "hush".
It's also very popular for enabling teenage girls to find men willing to pay to have sex with them. You know the leading users of this will use it for pornography, right?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Until I can actually use these for video purposes (video calls), I am still not buying this service. There is absolutely zero excuses at this point. We have the bandwidth, we have the technology, but we're being restrained from using it for anything other than playing bland, shoddy Tetris clones (with no interactivity) and paying $20.00 a month to download Disney ring tones.
You know what? You can count me out.
Pay-per-kilobyte, indeed.
Can you see me now? ...
Good!
I would like a regular GPS enabled phone. I don't really care for a camera in a phone mostly because I don't see the need for it. Now, if my phone had a GPS, then I wouldn't have to put up with my wife nagging me about stopping for directions when I am driving
At last I'll be able to prove to my friends that I saw Siegfried and Roy at the Quickie-Mart!!!
I saw CNN demo of that unit, it was getting 2-4 FPS, was in !Craptacular! (copyright, 2002 you may use the word Craptacular only by giving me a $0.25 licensing fee for each time you read/or use it. That will be 50 cents please!) 256 color over a slow-as-ass (again copyright 2002, same as above but only a 10 cent fee) analog conntection. This product is what I call Craptastic-ware (again copyright 2002, sorry this one has a $10 viewing and $5 re-use fee).
You bill is 10+5+.50+.10= $15.60
Based on the number of people that will read this say: 5000 that means I make a cool $78000
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
After thinking about this some more, I have gone from amused to extremely worried. A staple in the spy biz is sneaking in the tiny spy camera to photo the secret documents and / or the dead drop of the paper copies of those documents. As of this week, spies among us can just waltz in with their routine cell phones, zap the photos of the Iraq attack plan over the air, and nobody is the wiser. We have just gone from needing Tempest level security around just computers to needing that level of security whereever there is a safe.
"Expected battery Life: The 5300 will come packaged with a standard battery and an extended battery providing 2.7 hours talk and 10.4 days standby and 3.8 hours talk and 15 days standby, respectively."
:)
And approximately 5 photos in full resolution with flash...
Seriously speaking. The limiting factor today for wearable electronics does not seem to be the size or functionality that can be crammed into a palmsized shell but simply the battery time. Either you end up with something heavy, or you end up with something that only works for a couple of hours.
Cell phones are never going to be anything other than giveaways to sell the service. Once you start to charge real money, the phones have value and the theft rate makes the whole concept questionable.
Have them distribute a few thousand phones with some prepaid minutes in the DC area, so if anyone sees the sniper, they can grab a photo and transmit to police. Even if nobody uses their phone to catch the sniper, the media will talk about it for a while.
After that, they should have no problem finding real people for a "switch" campaign. "Sure I switched because it was a corporate giveaway, but then I discovered all these neat things I can do with the phone, so I'm keeping it."
Overheard:
"No, honey, I said put the phone up to YOUR _EAR_!."
-nd
I've actually got a phone with a camera on it (yeah, damn us pesky europeans) already, and I have to admit, it's been a damn good buy. The thing about a camera on your phone isn't that it's a particularly good camera, it's that you've always got it handy. The number of random snapshots I end up taking now at moments when I'd normally have said "Damn, I wish I had a camera" is amazing.
:)
(For the record, I've got a Nokia 7650 - http://www.nokia.com/phones/7650 - which I can wholeheartedly recommend.)
Oh, and the camera faces the other direction from your ear.
If you're talking about phones made by a US company, Motorola T720i is probably the first one to come out. Eweek says that it's an 1xRTT Java phone that has an optional camera attachment. If's seems to be available for sale at Verizon's website, however no mention of the camera attachments there. Maybe Eweek confused T720 with A820... Anyway, the relevant links are below.
from strip clubs will never be the same.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
are ugly?
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"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Actually, this is a fair point. How many people here have unknowningly made a call because they've knocked their phone or dropped it? You don't want to be firing off photos by mistake...
Cheers,
Ian
A fun toy, but their advertising strategy cannot be condoned.
I am a Karma Library.
In the US, these devices just dont seem to have the samne appeal as in Japan or other countries. At the price, these are just novelty geek items which will never take off. If you want video conferencing, just use a laptop, a high speed connection and a $50 webcam.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided that my simple little monocrome phone wasnt cutting it anymore, so I bought one of the Sanyo 4900 phones from sprint. I love the phone, the screen is nice and readable, the battery life is excellent, and its reception is top notch. Its a little big for most people but I prefer a little more size as my fingers are too big to deal with really small phones (my wife has a T68i, and the buttons are too small for my hands). The problem is that the 3g service is not good right now. The data rate maybe improved from the old sprint data service, but the latency is horrible. It takes a long time to connect, and is unreliable as well. Also, it has taken sprints web site over two weeks to figure out that I am a PCS Vision customer now, and still wont show me the extra vision options on the web site. So the PCS Visions phones are really great, but sprints 3g service really needs some tweaking before I'd recommend it to anyone.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
This service started a few years ago when I was in Japan. Like everyone, I got skeptic and said to myself "huh?". But if you think about it, it makes so much sense. How many times you guys went shopping for your wife and got the wrong product? Wouldn't it be simple to take a snap shot and send it to her cell phone? You'd get a confirmation right away. Think convenience... What if you get in a confrontation, accident, etc and want to take a quick picture? Hey this might enable police to find your killer if you get a chance to take a snapshot... Think security... You can think of many usefull things. Don't think of this as a high quality digital camera. You will never get this product for another 2-3 years (if not longer!). Think of it as a "digital post-it"... I never had the chance to use it while in Japan but some of my friends did and I can confirm it *IS* useful... (unlike some of you might think). No wonder why technology is far beyond Europe and Asia, every new product brings so much critisism from US buyers! Be open and accept it as cool, and not as "crap"...
-- Leeeter than leet
A fun toy, but their advertising strategy cannot be condoned.
I've pasted the WSJ article you cite below.
Personally, I think it's a hoot! Nothing more than any new restaurant or bar in downtown Manhattan has done for years. (If it wasn't for a never-ending parade of SoHo eatery openings, some of my actor friends would never eat...)
My favorite line: The complaint that the company is not creating an "honest buzz."
FROM THE WSJ:
Sony Ericsson Campaign Uses Actors
To Push Camera-Phone in Real Life
By SUZANNE VRANICA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In a campaign set to start Thursday, the U.S. arm of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. will take "guerrilla" marketing to a new level. Its goal: to get consumers to pay attention to the new T68i, a mobile phone that can double as a digital camera.
In one initiative, dubbed Fake Tourist, 60 trained actors and actresses will haunt tourist attractions such as the Empire State Building in New York and the Space Needle in Seattle. Working in teams of two or three and behaving as if they were actual tourists, the actors and actresses will ask unsuspecting passersby to take their pictures.
[Sony Ericsson's T68i]
Sony Ericsson's T68i
Presto: instant product demonstrations.
A second stunt will involve the use of "leaners" -- 60 actresses and female models with extensive training in the phone's features who will frequent trendy lounges and bars without telling the establishments what they're up to. The women are getting scripted scenarios designed to help them engage strangers in conversation. One involves having an actress's phone ring while she's in the bar -- and having the caller's picture pop up on the screen. In another scenario, two women sit at opposite ends of the bar playing an interactive version of the Battleship game on their phones.
So far, so good. But do the actors then identify themselves as working on behalf of Sony Ericsson? Not if they can help it. The idea is to have onlookers think they've stumbled onto a hot new product. Sony Ericsson, which plans to spend $5 million on the 60-day marketing campaign, says it's all in good fun and just an effort to get people talking.
Consumer activists, though, aren't amused. "It's deceptive," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, when told about the campaign. "People will be fooled into thinking this is honest buzz."
Even marketing executives disapprove. "It is reprehensible and desperate," says Paul MacFarlane, co-owner of the Experiment, a small ad firm in St. Louis, that has done work for Southwestern Bell and Anheuser-Busch. "They are trying to fabricate something that should be natural."
Sony Ericsson responds that most consumers won't be offended. "How many times do people that you don't know come up to you and talk to you?" asks Jon Maron, director of marketing communications at Sony Ericsson, which is a joint venture of Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Corp. of Japan.
"It's very natural, especially in a club or restaurant." He adds that the actors will confess that they work for the company if they are asked directly.
Peter Groome, president of Omnicom Group Inc.'s Fathom Communications, the marketing firm that created the plan, also defends the tactics. He insists that the campaign isn't "undercover" selling because the actors will simply demonstrate the product, not give a sales pitch.
Still, the company has gone to great lengths to train its actors to avoid detection. "If you put them in a Sony Ericsson shirt, then people are going to be less likely to listen to them in a bar," Mr. Groome says.
Other components of the promotional campaign are more commonly used buzz initiatives. One involves "Phone Finds," in which the company will place dummy phones around cities so that consumers can accidentally stumble on them. The screen on the phone will direct the finders to a special Web site, where they will be able to enter a contest to win a free phone. The new phone with camera attachment, priced between $300 and $400, will hit stores next week.
Less covert buzz marketing strategies have been around for years, but their use surged during the dot-com boom. Many companies that couldn't afford expensive TV ads hired young marketing firms to convey their messages in attention-getting ways.
As concepts became more elaborate and intrusive, they began to be referred to as guerrilla marketing or stealth marketing.
Among the companies that have used such buzz marketing: Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Jim Beam Brands Worldwide Inc. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, for its Mini car.
Faced with the ad recession, some traditional agencies have also embraced the concept. For instance, Young & Rubicam, a unit of London's WPP Group PLC, opened a U.S. division called Brand Buzz and is rolling out the unit to its European offices.
But there are limits. Veteran marketers warn that advertisers who are trying to generate positive word-of-mouth about a brand or a new product will do better in the long run if they are honest with consumers.
David Lubars, president and executive creative director at Publicis Groupe SA's Fallon Worldwide, says promotional campaigns that are perceived as dishonest could backfire. "If the consumer finds out after the encounter, they are going to be mad," he says.
All these features that Sprint, et all are pitching like games, color displays, et cetera: how much battery are you gonna have left when you want to use your phone for calls? Call me a minimalist, but I don't want a PDA with my phone or Legend of the Return of Kung Fu.
Now I can 'goatse' the soccer mom in the big SUV up in front of me who's not paying attention. All this high tech and somebody somewhere will surely waste it on digital mooning.
I know that Sprint PCS Vision has an unlimited plan for data (I think about $40/month, which is comparable with much slower Verizon unlimited CDPD).
Are there Sprint plans with limited talk time, but unlimited data?
"They mean the Nokia 7650 [nokia.com]"
The Nokia 7650 is a Dualband EGSM900/1800 phone, which has not, and will never be, released in the USA.
I bought one of the first mp3 capable cell phones, and have used the music function maybe 3 times in the past year. I think that multifunction devices are a bad idea unless each of the functions have something in common, or are both usefull for a single task. You would get more for your money buying separate devices in almost all cases, and if you want one device ... duct tape 'em together.
I agree, that would be helpful. The problem, here in the UK anyway, is that's it just far too expensive to use these services. This causes a knock on effect. The provider brings out a service (WAP for example), it's expensive so only a handful of people use it, provider thinks no one is interested so brings out another service (GPRS). New service is even more expensive and so the same thing happens. No one bothers to use it because of the cost, provider thinks it's useless again and roll out something else (MMS). Now MMS is even more expensive, ridiculously expensive from what I've seen (just looked but couldn't get a price, although it's daft money).
I'd love to be able to use GPRS, bring the price down and I'll put it to use. Until then, continue bringing out your new services and gimmicks and I'll continue to watch them fail.
And as for getting a snapshot of your killer, you're assuming they didn't kill you for your phone in the first place.
"Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
Jamie Zawinksi (of netscape and Dna Lounge fame
Had a webcam going in the club during remodelling.
Someone stole the web cam while is was broadcasting. And JWZ has a HORRIBLE picture of some figure coming up the the cam... and then no more pictures!
I couldn't find the pics on the site...
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Except that there's no such thing as "routine" electronics around classified documents. You cannot bring any sort of electronic device into a SCIF area, where documents classified Top Secret and higher are kept.
Worse, I used to live in a building beloved of tourists with cameras (a Cambridge College). It's unpleasant enough to have to go to lectures when hung over; it's worse when you step out of the door at the bottom of the staircase and immediately get yelled at by a family of Japanese tourists who think you spoil the look of your building.
People living in Old Court had it worse. Not only was it more picturesque, but there was only plumbing in one corner, so there was no chance to make yourself look respectable before going out in public.
--
E_NOSIG
I stupidly bought the Sanyo 5150 (insert obligatory Eddie van Halen riff here), the precursor to this new phone.
The 5150 has Windows 98-2000-only (does not work on XP) software to allow you to upload images to the phone that act as walpaper or caller id - and no software for any other platform.
So, pray, what do i need to do to hook up the phone to my computer to put in those picts? That's $39.
Oh, did you want to sych up your contacts too? Thats a separate $29. Great. That's $70 just to use the functionality of the phone on top of the price of the phone.
And now, i have two serial connectors for my phone.. just what i always wanted.
And on top of it all - they STILL DON'T HAVE A FSCKING CAR KIT - even though there are menu selections in the phone's menus for car kit options. Ha.
For those that weren't knowing...These Sanyos were J-phone phones that came out in 2000(with a camera on the back. The lens was on one side of the battery release clip, the button, on the other side of the battery release clip) in Japan, but we can't seem to get any of those car kits imported.
I've grown weary of this phone...I use my phone in the car - and without a car kit - i'm forced to have wires all over the place.
Everyone else (besides Sprint) is going with more standard phones - Nokia, S/E, Moto. Everyone else is also going with more "standard" standards... GSM, GPRS, and Bluetooth.
I don't understand why Sprint can't cajole the major makers to make CDMA.... it leaves us that really want great service in the US stuck with "weird" phones.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
http://tuxscreen.net/
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Well, seeing as nothing seems to make those drafting the Iraq attack plan any wiser, I'd say it's at least worth a shot...
(Attack Plan of the Day, Hint #48: Rhymes with "Fomb the buck out of them and pet up a suppet.")
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
The T-Mobile sidekick does have a camera. It's not built in -- it clips on your keychain and plugs in in about 1 second.