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Fox Starts TV Production For Cell Phones
prostoalex writes "Broadcasting television to the cell phones, which few people were actually interested in, is becoming a reality pretty fast, as Fox started making mopisodes (one-minute episodes targeted specifically for the mobile phone screen) to be broadcast on Vodafone and Verizon networks. The Fox announcement timed perfectly with Vodafone launching a broad variety of 3G services in Europe."
Max Headroom wants to know.
can we really trust a biased source like this to give us shitty 1 minute episodes? president bush strikes again.
CNN's coverage can be found here.
Star Wars Narrow Screen Edition.
Instead of spending the money on this, FOX might as well have just spent the money on sexual harassment training.
I thought the correct term for a one minute episode was commercial. I cant belive people are going to pay for that.
"Mopisode"? I thought a one-minute dramatic episode was called a "trailer".
...welcome our new cell-phone-enhancing-ad-absurdam overlords.
But the term "mopisodes" is a tragedy. I hope it doesn't stick.
Great.
Now I have to watch out for morons watching TV on their mobile phones while they drive their souped-up 4WDs in rush hour traffic.
Thanks, Fox!
Well, at least they're making disinformation more efficient.
[ducks and covers]
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Guess I'm part of the 26% who don't give a fuck.
"Broadcasting television to the cell phones, which few people were actually interested in, is becoming a reality pretty fast"
TV Phone has two factors to become a big hit
(1) The technology has to be available
(2) People have to shell out the money for it
The technology is available, which, granted, is a large step and testimony to technological projects. However, people must buy/subscribe this technology which no doubt will be very expensive. I for one would not throw a pretty penny at something I could get by turning on my public telivision. Take for example, the small tvs that are sold and the small toys which play pre-recorded clips off of cartriges. Despite their availability, I haven't yet seen their overwhelming presence in society. Besides, it is one thing to listen to a phone, or casually text-message. But to watch telivision on it is getting a bit extreme.
In addition, the technology still has a small way do go - it has to be affordable and compliant across many platforms.
For me, a decent RSS reader would be perfect. Slashdot is a far better resource than Fox.
They could call it 1440
as Fox started making mopisodes (one-minute episodes targeted specifically for the mobile phone screen)
not that it really matters but the article calls them mobisodes (from mobile i guess) either way its weird name, and weird to make have a show that's season takes place over the course of only one day, but now have episodes that are only minute
Well, that brings a new meaning to the term "idiot box" ;)
Join the TWIT army now!
Oh great now I can enjoy idiots on cel phones "sharing" fine Fox programming while I'm trying to enjoy my dinner in a restaurant.
As if their pointless yattering conversations weren't enough....
Three Squirrels
I wonder why Vodafones in the US aren't like the ones here in Japan -- The newer phones receive regular broadcast TV, no fees or special equipment required. On your Vodafone you can watch anything that's not on cable TV. Pretty nice. But I just don't get the whole "download and pay" gambit in the WEST...
*shrug*
And if they run the stream at 1800fps, you can watch an entire episode of of the OC in that one wonderful minute.
By gosh, I want Verizon to get rid of those fast-busy signals around rush hour and all those dead spots on my way to work. Cell service just plain sucks for a lot of us out here.
Will they be silent features or will the spikes be removed from Isp and Osp?
The 3G phones here can do streaming video (including cable TV) and it's really common to see my coworkers watching the latest movie trailer on their phones.
You pay per packet, and for content for some 'premium' stuff like music videos, and it's a relatively closed system so the telco and the content providers love it.
Leave me alone! Arrrgh, it's in my brain now. I think I'm losing my mind. Obey, conform, consume, don't question authority... you unpatriotic terrorist satan loving communist.
So now fox can run up my cell phone bandwidth bill, excellent!
Not to mention that on a price per bit basis this will be something like 100,000x as expensive as cable television.
Of course, I think paying for ringtones is a dumb idea, too; but that's a multi-billion dollar industry!
I went to a presentation a month or so ago on how technology is used in not-America (it baffles the best of us!) and the speaker spent some time on a service in China where by one could subscribe to a serialized novella on the cell phone; I believe the installments were delivered during peak commute hours, and some huge percentage of the population of China signed up. Now, obviously, that's not as easy to do in English because we use letters, so we can't fit as much story on a tiny screen. I was wondering whether a development like this would come up so that we in the States, too, can get fictional content on our phones.
I suppose the answer is yes, then. Cool...I'd still rather read than watch a commercial-length piece of film on a teeny screen, though.
We're back to the short film featurettes of the early 20th century.
3G is not toon porn
3G is not toon porn
3G is not toon porn
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Fox News is aimed at the pitchfork wielding angry mob carrying torches type, so I guess it's only common sense that they have mobisodes.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
It's possible to put a cartoon, or comedy clip in 1 minute or several minute, I know the old disney cartoons are about 5 or 6 minutes. That wouldn't be too bad, but the size of the screens are so small that it is rather useless to watch anything that long. Games are one thing, since most are pretty simple, but there's alot of crap that is in a scene, unless you are doing closeups of someone's nose.
The distraction of driving while using a cell phone has already drawn the legal ire of a number of states and localities, and rightly so. Watching a FOX "mopisode" could be deadly.
Who's to say a driver would be watching such programs? Ever heard of carpooling or public transportation (bus, train, etc), the same places Nintendo expects grown-ups to touch their DS systems?
So what about the poor bastards (like myself) around these people on public transportation. My guess is commuters would have to the one of the larger markets. Do they include head phones with the phone? It sounds like a silly question, but really...
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank
This is just silly. (actually just greedy) Vodafone already sells phones that have TV tuners built into them - the image is adjusted to fit the resolution of the screen. You can buy them here in Japan, I presume other countries as well. To have Fox create something for this "new 3G service" just means a new revenue stream. Just build the tuner into the phone, let people pick up the TV they want. (TV sucks the world over though, just seems like a waste of precious battery time)
Will they air One Minute Porn?? :)
I need not post my bitching for the fourth time, but I'm still so sick of these cellphones with all this crap on it. I think it's because people want everything, but only want to pay for one device. I don't know why some people don't worry about quality at all. I don't watch TV much, but I certainly don't want to watch it on a 1'' screen.
It's a Walmart civilization these days. People are told they want the absolute cheapest thing out there, nevermind quality. What is the point in paying for something that only half-works? People buy cellphones that have horrible reception and sound quality -- makes it quite useless as a phone. I work as a computer service technician; we get people in on a daily basis demanding to know why their shit broke. HMM! I don't know. PCchips motherboard, generic ram, FORSA video card. Fujitsu hard drive...Liteon optical. I don't understand these people. They want the world, but they don't want to pay. I used to buy cheap crap. THEN IT BROKE. Then I realized that there is a bit of truth to 'you get what you pay for', at least, for tangible things. After buying a few cheap electronics I decided NO MORE. I don't buy something to have it stop working in a few months.
And in case anyone is wondering, I finally found a phone that works so god damned well as phone. Motorola i90c. I'm using it on the Mike network (ie. iDen) and it's amazing. I get full signal everywhere I've been so far, in places where I got no signal with my Nokia piece of crap.
It's like a 21st century flip book.
o ys _-_flip_books.html
http://www.rossonhousemuseum.org/body_optical_t
(no message)
*What* an amazingly stupid idea...
naeem
this one tops the list. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it needs to be done.
45 seconds of commercials, 5 seconds of the FOX logo ("You're watching FOX Fone!"), and 10 seconds of actual content.
I'll pass, thanks.
This is a sig. Deal with it.
TWO hands, 'cause the fair-and-balanced-ness might tip you off two feet.
... I can talk and watch at the same time. I always knew that having an eye in my ear would come in handy one day.
Free Firefox news reader.
This one is a quick market. Anyone who knows anything about market strategy will tell you that the first one in gets to set the price, product name, and features of the product category. It's valuable to the maker to be in there before the competitors.
nnnnn
Neocon propaganda in cellphone format, isn't the world wonderfull?
Amen.
Why the fuck would you want to watch TV on your god damned cell phone? That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
I see absolutely no redeeming feature here.
Looks like the whole country is red... not just the "south"
I, for one, will call this a success. Rupert Murdoch is running this operation. Any Australians who know the history of Rupert and his Media Empire know that he makes the correct decision more often than not. With the full listing of News Corp on the NYSE and the re-incorporation of the company to the US only just having taken place it is to be expected that some very positive news will start to flow about the fox group and its related companies. Expect a barrage of good news after the company is listed in the S&P-500. You Americans would do well to watch his moves carefully... Rupert is the king.
Does it go on forever?
This is a blatant plug, but a plug with a point...
Video over mobile phone networks is actually pretty exciting, but just dumping video content onto 3G networks lacks vision and creativity.
The idea is to make programming that takes advantage of the MOBILE part of the equation. Focusing on things you can ONLY do with a mobile video platform.
Our first project is a mobile phone travel show. The killer idea is that the phone, knowing roughly where you are in a city, will stream a video to you on demand, about attractions near to where you actually are at that moment.
A video guide book, carried on your phone, that both knows where you are, and what's there to see.
Some Clips from Bangkok here: http://www.studiolanna.org/movies.htm
It's this combination of two technologies (mobile phones and video) that makes 3G into the next big thing, if it's taken advantage of, and not used just as a really tiny screen to watch movie trailers, and commercials.
the citizens of this nation, 18 and older that can shoot a gun, is part of this militia. the milita is by the PEOPLE.
The second amendment basically gives the rights of gun ownership to the PEOPLE, by giving it to the militia, it gives it to the PEOPLE
The milita is not gov't sponsored, so the National Gaurd does NOT count!
Those blue states you speak of are high population states btw. Those taxes that you are supposedly saying are coming from you to the red states is incorrect. Taxes are collected and distributed and most of it goes into those low income brackets of the cities and high population areas where you liberals like to keep people dependent on you. Your programs help people by providing, but most only keep people where they are!
Oh, and by the way, abolition of slavery was NOT the major reason for the south to leave, it was in the disbelief in having a large federal government in control of the states. Slavery happened to be a minor issue that liberals and today's democrats bring up as major to get into office by simply dividing the people and getting free votes.
Bush won this election by majority, the people chose not only who the better of the two candidates were, but which of the two parties were the best! Look at the democrat losses in congress, even the senate minority leader is gone!
Any references to 'you' and 'your people' and 'your kind' are made in assumption that you are a liberal democrat. If this is not the case, then any political stance based off the those words deem them as pointed toward the liberal democrats.
"And so the Trekkies were executed in the mannor most befitting virgins - thrown into volcanoes" - Futurama
It is a new advertising conduit. In Toronto, several gas station pumps now have video displays built in. So, why not blast video to a cell phone, and reap the advertising dollar.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Hey, if I got a polyphonic cell phone, do you suppose I could get a ringtone with Bill O'Reilly talking about his sexual fantasies?
As if talking on the phone while driving isn't bad enough. And you know poeple are going to do it. There will be morons driving and watching TV on their phones, and likely many of them will be teenagers in SUVs. great.
The market for consumer products that bank on the cool factor to sell goods and services is quickly shrinking. When every product is cool, nothing's cool anymore. I'm officially getting off the gizmo treadmill. Who wants to keep shelling out $300 every few months for some super-wham-o-dyne gadget that's going to be superseded by another super-super-wham-o-dyne gadget in two months?
Maybe I'm just getting old. How do you younger kids feel? You bored by these things, too?
---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
Do you understand the words "well-regulated?" The militia is not simply "the people."
WTF? I can get enterprise, but not ok service, reasonable prices, or customer service or flat rates? I think the US needs to experience market failure, hell the entire god damn world does
How is this a TROLL???
This service will only be available to registered Republicans. An oath to the president will be required.
the citizens of this nation, 18 and older that can shoot a gun, is part of this militia. the milita is by the PEOPLE.
.22 riffles at age 16, but can't own them until age 18. You get all this info when registering for a concealed weapons permit. Before you say this is wacky, the rules are virtualy identical in Israel.
Since when do you have to be 18 to shoot a gun? You can shoot guns at age 12, or younger if hunting is allowed. You need supervision until age 16. You can buy
Great! Now they can lie to me wherever I am.
But, with Bluetooth enabled TV OUT, or a built-in miniprojector, small screens may not remain such an issue...
"Is that a brick in your pocket or..."
Does this remind anyone of the 24 parody "60" on Conan O'Brien?
Post I was replying to has a less than sign embedded in it to mess up posts of anyone quoting it. Guess I should have previewed.
The real Ralph Yarro posts as Anonymous Coward. Anyone else is an impostor.
But it isn't enough to turn their cellphones off when they're watching. I want them to explode, taking the user out with them.
Make a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Fox going to broadcast in Europe? Mmm, that will be a great succes :)
Repeat after me: We are all individuals
I propose that all 3G devices be renamed immediately to "Personal Porn Device"/PPD. Which is the only way this one minute clip business will be successful.
I hope they make these work on really tiny phones. Then you could shove it up your ass until it hits the roof of your mouth. That's an accurante depiction of what it's like to watch Fox News.
You know, all of you people who think that this is a bad idea are going to feel really dumb if it turns out to be the greatest invention in the 21st century.
I mean, you don't know. That guy, last century, he thought he had mold, but really, he had penecillin, which is used to kill bad germs and save lives And now people are saying he's really great, just because he found mold. And mold is everywhere.
Now, this phone tv is better than mold. So just imagine how important this could be.
Also, this could be used to make very cool, short movies. You know how you're always saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a movie where x happened?" And usually x is something like "a bunch of bunnies rip a CEO to pieces"?
See, you could not make a movie like that that lasted for 90 minutes. People just wouldn't sit and watch a CEO being ripped apart by bunnies for that long. The funny thing is, though, I bet it would take those bunnies 90 minutes -- maybe more -- to rip that CEO apart with their bunny teeth.
But the point is people wouldn't watch that long, so a minute is an ideal amount of time for a movie about bunnies ripping a CEO apart with their bunny teeth, although you'd definitely have to cut out a lot of the time in it. And you'd probably want to actually cut out the screaming sounds, because if someone else heard your phone they might think you were somehow using your mental powers to kill the person on the other end of the phone, because they wouldn't know you were watching a movie on your phone because it's so new.
Also, I think it might be fun to take a Simpsons episode and break it down into one minute chunks, and you'd get one minute per day. That sure would heighten the excitement!
Or you could do a miniseries. The only problem is you would have to spend, like, the first 30 seconds reminding people what had happened in the previous episodes, so you'd only have 30 seconds for new material. So, a 6 hour miniseries would take 720 days, or 2 years.
I think if a friend has one of the phones without a TV on it, a good practical joke might be to glue a photo on the front of it and tell your friend, "Hey, I didn't know your phone had a TV feature on it" and then when they take a closer look you say, "Ha, ha -- I tricked you! Your phone doesn't have a video screen at all, cuz you suck."
Also, this device might save hundreds of lives. Like, you could be on a plane, and this terrorist is going to hold up the plane, and then you show him a video on your cellphone, and he laughs and drops his gun, and you pick it up and point it at him and say, "Yeah, who's tough now, you jerk!"
Oh wait, scratch that. I forgot that you can't turn on cellphones inside of airplanes.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
carry a jammer...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Here in Italy, MPEG-4 broadcasting to UMTS cell phones is a big game companies like "3" (see http://www.tre.it/) entered in a few years ago and it seems they get money back, because people love watching news, reality tv etc. on their phones.
They're the right length to fit between advertising breaks on Fox or Sky TV.
you don't have to buy it if you think it's not your type, but hey, the economist in me says "no demand, no supply". or is it "supply creates it's own demand".
maybe you're just not geeky enough not to want your gizmo to do everything it possibly can. wouldn't you want your next phone to be able to change the channels on your TV? hey, they just did a simple two upgrades, they put the TV in the phone, then they offered "pay TV" as well, surround sound ringers are already available, and there are models with pulsating/disco lights already. what's next holo-projection of MTV? (what's the patent office phone number?)
no sig = no personality(?)
hey, somebody mod this up! --------- (waiting for the playboy channel)
i sig thus i am
Anyone remember the part on the subway? Why do people need to be constantly entertained? In the words of George Carlin, Dosn't anybody just sit and think anymore?
This has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. I love technological advances but come on. This is a waste of time.
But just for good measure-
Fox watchers are, depending on the issue, between three and seven times more likely than public-network audiences to harbour factually incorrect beliefs
Unless they plan to produce and release Futurama for cell phones only, I couldn't be made to care if my life depended on it.
You look at this headline and think "Someone beat the BBC! Yesssss"
Damnit, what's happened to me.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
As you can guess the resolution of best cell phone, 3g is not needed.
Here in Istanbul, Turkey, Telsim and Turkcell offer live TV over gprs already via Real platform.
Turkcell as it owns Digiturk, the broadcaster of first league soccer offers live goals via MMS or gprs too.
I don't know if I miss something.
While I agree that watching video on the tiny screen of your mobile phone is pointless, think of the future when a mobile phone could have a projector built in. Now that could be interesting
I'm just glad that companies in the US are actually pushing mobile devices for more capabilities. Remember that not everything is going to appeal to every user. Those that want a phone that is just a phone will always be able to buy one.
OS X, Linux, Tivo, Amiga, my fascination with cult-like technologies would intrigue any psychiatrist.
Why is Fox writing new content ("mopisodes???") when all anyone needs is Moe, Larry & Curly?
Bugs Bunny & Yosemite Sam would be good, too.
Sometimes the classics are the best.
Chip H.
As in "mobile episodes"
(or if you prefer, "mobile episodes"
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
When I read that Fox was doing 1-minute shows for cell phones, I immediately thought about how the Simpsons got started as 30-60 second clips within the Tracey Ullman show. There's a lot of potential in a small space of time.
Writing stories for computers and humans since 1979
Yeah, that's fair and accurate. I've noticed a lot of people cycling that way. Frankly, I've been guilty of it myself, though generally only in near-zero traffic (eg middle of the night).
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the giant cyclist overmind to make the decision. It's individual, much like driving like a moron or driving sensibly is. Consequently, you'll see cyclists riding like maniacs, sensible cyclists, agressive rules lawyers, and some who combine two or three of of those traits. Not much to be done about it really.
I am thinking of getting rid of cable at home since I dont' watch it anyway - do you think I am going to watch it on my cell phone. I am so sick of the media trying to shove crap down our throats in every corner of our lives and then charge us for it. Why don't they spend time on coming up with quality shows instead of ways trying to shove it down our throats.
Yeah, the Japanese are just way better at programming their vcrs. Its the way something evolved in their genes. Western civilization is just inferior to other cultures.
If you made that same comment about Islamic society or Blacks or Native Americans, you would be modded a troll. But on Slashdot its ok to say Americans are too stupid to handle high technology. And you are too stupid to realize the difference in cell phone technology in different countries has to do with economics, government regulation, and standards. But lets just blame it on the media.
Do you understand the words "well-regulated?" The militia is not simply "the people."
Do YOU? Try reading about it.
Sorry to double-post, but here's some more information you should read.
Pre-paid from the major carriers is a rip. Use Tracfone (link currently down) for very light-duty use (the phone is pretty basic), or Virgin Mobile for more moderate use (better phones available, 10 to 25c a minute).
Oh, and by the way, abolition of slavery was NOT the major reason for the south to leave, it was in the disbelief in having a large federal government in control of the states. Slavery happened to be a minor issue that liberals and today's democrats bring up as major to get into office by simply dividing the people and getting free votes.
but...but... the South's ENTIRE FREAKING ECONOMY was based on slave labour! How quaint of you to dismiss the ownership of human beings as "a minor issue that liberals and today's democrats bring up"
I think you need to move to a better school district, son!