First US Camera/Phone 130
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."
Camera/Phone? (Score:5, Funny)
"I don't have to read the article, just give me gist of it."
-Homer Simpson
Re:Camera/Phone? (Score:3, Funny)
Could make doctor visits more efficent. "Hey Doc, I am using my zoom in cell phone, do you see my ear infection?"
Re:Camera/Phone? (Score:2)
Ben
roll eyes (Score:2, Funny)
Uh oh (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uh oh (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Uh oh (Score:1)
Too bad Sprint is the only one that is really pushing this stuff; Sprint offers terrible coverage around here (New England.) Lots of black holes.
Reccomended Accessories: (Score:1, Funny)
This background stand holds any of our 214 standard backgrounds, emulating scenes from a lonely hotel room to a custom poster-sized picture of your living room. Includes popular scrips like:
"No honey, I'm really in the French hotel room, that's just a strip show on TV that you hear"
and:
"I'm in my living room; why did you think I was in an hourly motel room?"
Sidekick (Score:5, Informative)
Works pretty poorly and takes tiny pics (160x120 I think?), but it is a camera... not quite built-in but a camera nonetheless.
Re:Sidekick (Score:1)
I wish the sidekick camera had better resolution, and now I'm a bit jealous that the sanyo phone does 640x480 and has a flash. However, with T-Mobile, I get unlimited data (for the first year) for $40/month. Sprint's data pricing would make things like my "photoblog" prohibitively expensive.
In a year, the Sidekick will have paid for itself by the difference between my current sprint plan and the t-mobile $40 plan. By then I expect the data plans from all providers to be more reasonably priced, as there should be many more users and much higher demand. So I'll shop around again next fall.
(The downside to the T-Mobile $40 plan, which is the ONLY one for the sidekick right now is that you get only 200 anytime + 1000 weekend minutes. That's fine for me, since I don't use my phone very much (maybe 150-200 minutes a month total), but heavy phone users are pretty much out of luck with the sidekick).
Does not add up (Score:1)
First US Camera/Phone
Nokia and Sony Ericsson's models
I assume you man cell phone?
Re:Does not add up (Score:5, Informative)
they don't mean the 92xx (Score:1)
Re:they don't mean the 92xx (Score:2)
The Nokia 7650 is a Dualband EGSM900/1800 phone, which has not, and will never be, released in the USA.
The T-Mobile Sidekick has a camera (Score:2)
No flash: Useless (Score:1)
Without one, any "fun" camera is useless for the purpose it is intended. Sure, you can live without one with an SLR and the right film, but for a camera like this, the emphasis is surely on quick snaps taken by the 16-30 year old market.
I've got one of the Sipix Blink cameras which also has no flash. You need bright daylight to get a decent picture out of it. A very bright room is fine, but you get blurryness if you move the camera during the picture.
However, in an average to mellow lighted room, you'll be lucky if you get anything. In a nightclub; leave it at home.
I'd never buy a digital camera again of any sort without it having a flash.
Talk about old (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Talk about old (Score:1)
"Do one thing and do it well, until you have time to add some Features(tm) to it and Bloat the interface until it is almost Unusable(tm)."
-me
Re:Talk about old (Score:5, Informative)
Hmmm... the Sony Ericsson P800 [sonyericsson.com], will have a built in VGA-camera, MP3-player, 32bit OS(Symbian 7.0), bigger thouchscreen than most Palms(320x280x12bit), bluetooth(okay, not exactly WLan), and Sony Memorystick expansion slot. Ofcourse, it won't be released in a while, but it comes pretty close to what you want, doesn't it?
Re:Talk about old (Score:2)
Re:Talk about old (Score:2)
Blockquoth Apreche:
I see. So you want to trust some software vendor to not introduce bugs in trying to get all that crap to work together? You're not worried about the extent to which they'll have to integrate it all, so that if one tiny little problem crops up your only real option is to buy a new one?
I have a friend with a Kyocera 6035 phone/PDA - just a phone and PDA, no camera, no MP3 player, no wireless networking (other than dial up) - and oops, the digitizer has issues. Now he can't use it as a PDA, the screen is too custom for him to find replacement parts for... he just has to wait until the next model comes out, and his model gets cheap enough to buy a second one.
And now you want them to integrate a bunch of other stuff that most vendors still get wrong all by itself?
No thanks. I've become a believer in Bluetooth, myself. I don't need to have my phone be part of my PDA, I certainly don't need something as self-contained as an mp3 player to be attached to a number pad or a touch-sensitive screen. Only the camera might need to be attached to the phone, certainly nothing else.
Re:Talk about old (Score:2)
Besides the obvious pain of not being able to talk on the cell phone while scribbling a note into the handheld, there's a greater problem in combining all those devices. When's the last time someone here bought an all-in-one motherboard? People blasted the ones in your typical desktop for years, because upgrading and repair/replacement was difficult or impossible. Even if inexpensive, fast repair was possible, you now have to forfeit your (essential) PDA, (essential) pager, and (essential) cell phone to get your (non-essential) mp3 player working. No thanks.
Combining some of these devices would be fine. I've been bitching about an adequate phone + PDA for a while. However, to be able to comine both would require an earpiece/microphone or incredible dexterity on the part of the user. Even with the former, you're talking wires (bleh) or wireless... which means another device and thereby defeats the purpose. Again, no thanks.
Me too! Me too! (Score:1)
Samsung has 2 out of 3 with the upcoming i500, so I'll probably have to settle for that when my trusty Timeport finishes falling apart.
No, it won't replace my real camera, but sometimes you only want one small device with you, and don't need anything more than a snapshot camera for your drunken friends. (As in, most of the time) I have no idea where everybody else is carrying their PDAs and cameras, but I sure don't have the pockets for it.
Re:Talk about old (Score:1)
Phone, PDA, camera and wireless.
I wouldn't mind using a wire for the headphone, if you were doing videoconferencing you'd need to. Unless you had an ear fetish going on... ;-)
New Type of Spying? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:New Type of Spying? (Score:3, Interesting)
Immediate US Security Threat...Tempest Everywhere (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Immediate US Security Threat...Tempest Everywhe (Score:2)
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.
Re:Immediate US Security Threat...Tempest Everywhe (Score:1)
Yet another example of technology making something easier. Blame the technology! Ban it, I tells ya!!
Re:Immediate US Security Threat...Tempest Everywhe (Score:3, Funny)
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.")
Re:New Type of Spying? (Score:1)
Surprised? (Score:2)
AT&T Wireless providing a whole new set of musical features [yahoo.com], like d/ling song previews for new artists and stuff... that's new stuff.
Re:Surprised? (Score:1)
I'm waiting for the first "Beowulf Cluster of these things" post--how long will it be?
Re:Surprised? (Score:1, Interesting)
One of these commercials features Siegfried and Roy, a pair of very popular Las Vegas performers; a woman in the store takes a picture of one of S&R's trained tigers and sends it to her friend. Another shows a guy in Chinatown (or perhaps actually in China) looking for a lavatory, but he is flummoxed by the language barrier; his wife saves the day by emailing him a picture of a toilet.
One might think that these commercials were subtly making fun of the "average American", i.e. somewhat tacky; often ignorant of other cultures; and insisting on the application of technology when a book would serve just as well.
Or am I reading too much into them?
Re:Surprised? (Score:3, Interesting)
My next dwelling will have a real Bell System telephone, one of the armored black ones.
Re:Surprised? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Surprised? (Score:2)
Then again, this was about a 30-second clip I made...so a regular sound clip would probably take less than 100K.
GRreeeeat..."Hey, look at me!" (Score:5, Funny)
"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".
Re:GRreeeeat..."Hey, look at me!" (Score:1)
Re:GRreeeeat..."Hey, look at me!" (Score:2)
Yawn (Score:5, Informative)
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?
Re:Yawn (Score:3, Interesting)
Completely offtopic, however as a personal rule I've given up on trying to avoid the pictures of tourists, etc. It is the picture takers responsibility to find a good location to take a clear picture (and to wait for a clear break in the traffic without impeding everyone else), not the random guy going about his business who needs to worry about it. Most touristy locations have set aside special "picture taking" locations specifically where they don't impede with the movements of everyone else, and if they didn't then too damn bad: Deal with it and find a picture.
Why did this elicit this response? A couple of weeks ago in downtown Toronto I was outside on the side waiting for my wife to get out of a play, when the patrons started streaming out. Out came a family who proceeded to get on one side of a TREMENDOUSLY busy downtown sidewalk, while the photographer got on the other, and these anti-social, inconsiderate, tremendously selfish morons then actually scolded everyone who walked into their picture! A show full of several thousand people, apparently, should wait while they get their picture. Across the street was an empty park with all the same backdrops and more, but that would have required some effort on their part. I've seen the same scene play out in many different places, always with the photographer believing that pointing a camera yields some sort of magic barrier that shouldn't be intruded.
Tourists (Score:2)
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.
Sidenote (Score:1)
Re:Yawn (Score:1)
The leading users of everything technological use it for pornography. Why should this be any different?
Still no video, still no sale! (Score:3, Interesting)
You know what? You can count me out.
Pay-per-kilobyte, indeed.
New Phone (Score:4, Funny)
Good!
What I would like to really see in a cellphone (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What I would like to really see in a cellphone (Score:1)
Yeah, I know, the brand is not that well known outside Finland...
At Last! (Score:2, Funny)
At last I'll be able to prove to my friends that I saw Siegfried and Roy at the Quickie-Mart!!!
Re:At Last! (Score:1)
Ahhh, Why (Score:1)
Ahhh, honey. Why did you just send me a photo of the mens room at your office. Doh
Re:Ahhh, Why (Score:2)
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
Crap (Score:4, Funny)
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
Re:Crap (Score:2)
Simpsons did it!!! (Score:1)
Prior art [digitalwav.net], man.
Re:Crap (Score:2)
Dave
Re:Crap (Score:2)
craptacular [rpi.edu]
I believe that this is a case of prior art.
See you in court.
Battery Time (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Marketing idea (Score:5, Interesting)
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."
Re:Marketing idea (Score:1)
And this is what precisely happened in britain.
We started to have popular paid for phones, and even cheap phones with no line rental that you bought outright (pay as you go)
The theft rate is through the roof to the point of large goernment campaigns to be careful using them in public.
iirc, we had the first mobile phone theft murder recently.
Re:Marketing idea (Score:2)
"We were doing just fine until those people with their damn phones started taking pictures."
IP (Score:1)
Misundastood (Score:4, Funny)
"No, honey, I said put the phone up to YOUR _EAR_!."
Built in Optional? (Score:1, Funny)
I've got one already :p (Score:4, Informative)
(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.
Re:I've got one already :p (Score:3, Interesting)
Utterly unimpressive! (Score:1)
The first US phone with a camera is Motorola T720i (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:The first US phone with a camera is Motorola T7 (Score:1)
One thing you're wrong on is that the Verizon Wireless T720 does NOT run 1xRTT Java, it runs BREW apps instead.
Right here [infosync.no] you can find a picture of the digial camera attachment for the T720. Not sure if/when VZW ever plans to offer this. I would hope they would - they probably will if they can make a quick buck off it.
Calls ... (Score:5, Funny)
But what if most of us (Score:2)
{This space unintentionall left blank for the filters}
Stupid services (Score:1, Insightful)
What annoys me mostly about the whole mobile phone thing is the way new technology comes along and is thrown out the window before it even comes into use.
Let's see, there was WAP. Slow, expensive, not around that long before GPRS came about. GPRS has been around for what? Just over a year? Again, too expensive to become mainstream and what happens now? We have Java and MMS. MMS is even more expensive than previous offerings and my guess is, before we get any chance to make use of it it will have been replaced by bluetooth and 3G in the next year or so.
If they lowered the price of these services to a reasonable level, then maybe we'd actually get some use out of them, maybe my girlfriend would actually be able to use mobile internet through the Nokia 8310 I bought her.
Built-in AND Optional Flash? (Score:1)
The article says it is optional, but not built in. I guess the poster wanted to embellish a bit on the feature set.
Re:Built-in AND Optional Flash? (Score:1)
Too Big? (Score:1)
http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=2449&page=2
Although, maybe it can also be used for self-defense...
"Dude! ..." (Score:1, Funny)
Ugh... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Honest Buzz?!?" (Score:2)
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.
Re:Ugh... (Score:1)
-Tom
Re:Ugh... (Score:2)
I'm sorry. If you are going to buy something not for its actual features but because you see other people using it, you are a fool and deserve to be parted from your money.
Re:Ugh... (Score:2)
It's definitley not deceptive, but it is insulting in a whiney, patronising, advertising department kind of way. Do they *really* think we will fall for product placemant in RL? It's just plain intrusive in films.
Webcams will win (Score:2, Insightful)
So, you were doing what when the accident occured? (Score:1, Funny)
Sprint needs to work out the kinks in its 3g (Score:2)
So the only question remaining is... (Score:1)
I think it rocks... (Score:4, Interesting)
Not the best for safety (Score:2)
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...
huh? (Score:1)
Re:huh? (Score:1)
I assume it comes with the flash but you don't have to use it for every shot.
Thus making it optional.
Bad grammar basically.
you think I'm right there?
Run your battery down in 30 seconds! Great! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yes! (Score:2)
Do you really have a driver's license? Color me scared shitless [melatonin.com].
Sprint PCS Vision unlimited plan (Score:2)
Are there Sprint plans with limited talk time, but unlimited data?
Would you really use it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Waste of time for now (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Sprint support of Sanyos is crap (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Bloatware comes to cell phones (Score:1)
You can tell the digital camera market is still in it's early stages, because this thing isn't being marketed as a camera with a cellphone.
First? (Score:2, Interesting)
mobile sex (Score:1)