SevenClick! Mobile Technology Evangelists

Samsung Omnia (model: SGH-i900), the newest handset in a growing series of DivX Certified mobile products by Samsung Electronics Co., LTD.

Probably one of the best iPhone killers, Check it out.

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Motorola and Paramount Pictures are known to be working together in order to offer films adapted to mobile phones. The release date could be end of may, at least in USA.

It´s still not clear how they will organize that service. Offering such type of adapted media should save a lot of broadband compared with other similar services, however it´s said that the media conversions would be performed on our desktops computers.

Via XatakaMovil

Last week we visited Mobile World Congress. I was specially interested to find out if Mobile TV was finally about to take off. As time went by, I realized that this was not a key topic in this year’s congress. Just minor references, no massive adoption by key firms.

Just one week after, 1Seg announces they have reached 20 million users in Japan. 1Seg is a digital mobile service offered not only to mobile phones, but also to handheld consoles, GPS systems, and son on. The service was launched two years ago, on April 1 2006. Among the fantastic features offered by 1Seg is the ability to record video on mobile phones, as long as the broadcasted signal comes without DRM. GREAT!!!!

Another example of the strong differences between oriental and occidental markets…… What a pity.

Via MobileCrunch

Qik is a free utility for Symbian S60 3th edition that allows making video and audio streaming, live from the mobile phone. That is, our mobile phone turns into a mobile TV unit through Internet.

Qik works with a GPRS, 3G or Wifi Internet connection. Videos are automatically stored in FLV format and its broadcasting can be public.

Moreover, with this program, we can share our videos and configure the Qik account to export videos automatically to Twitter.

During live video broadcasting, Qik allows you to maintain a conversation via chat with people who is watching your broadcasting.

At moment, it is only available the alpha version in the website where we can pre-register to obtain the full version.

Via Xataka Móvil

Have you got a 3G or HSDPA mobile with Orange? if you have it, congratulations!! During next 3 months you will be able to see the TV in your mobile for free. Incredible but true!!

Orange Spain is going to test a show chapter on HD quality in the mobile. Orange is showing this experience in SIMO (International Fair of Multimedia Computing and Communications) which is being celebrated this week in Madrid.

With this technology, mobile television is opened to events where the image and sound quality is fundamental to appreciate and enjoy the content’s quality.

During next 3 months, Orange Spain customers who have a 3G or HSDPA of last generation can enjoy this new technology for free. The channels which has been chosen are: MTV (music), National Geographic Channel (documentaries) and Sci Fi Channel (TV serial).

Moreover, Orange has increased the offer of mobile TV channels  exceeding the number of 30. This service is offered by 1 euro per day for 20 minutes or a flat rate tariff of 6 euros per month. The channels of this complete offer are: FOX, Bloomberg TV, Euronews, Paramount Comedy, A3 Mobile, among others.

Via Noticiasdot

Video decoding is one of the most processing intensive task, thus compromising battery life, very important in mobile devices. In the most recent issue of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, researchers at the University of Maryland, describe a simple way for multimedia devices to save power.

The algorithm just take advantage of human tolerance to failure on frames decodification. While much digital vido plays at rates about 30 frames per second, human eye only catch up to 24 frames per second. So, if we miss 6 frames per second on decoding process no one will notice.

Then, researches proposal is not to try all the frames, but only the 24 easier to decode. This way a great saving of power has been reached in first lab experiments.

For sure, many research projects related to the topic of power saving on multimedia decoding will go on. We encourage to read the whole story. And, very important, don’t miss the comments, where this project is harshly criticized.

Via TechnologyReview

Apple’s iPhone and phones with Windows Mobile operating system will be abe to search and see all the videos from Beet.TV using a software that can be downloaded from their mobile web browser.

This service, Vtap, is provided by Veveo; which is currently developing a service upgrade in order to allow some Java based phones (Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson) to use the program.

The potencial of this service is as huge as the amount of videos currently indexed by Beet.TV (tens of millions) but the user experience is best using WiFi rather than AT&T network.

Vtap Official Site: Vtap

With no time limit and free until the end of this year, Movistar has launched a mobile TV service at the cost of 5€ per month.

There wiil be available 42 channels and the user may subscribe to 26 of them each month. These channel vary from music, sports, cinema to adult channels such as Playboy or Sport Ilustrated Models.

Technically, Movistar takes advantage of the fact that many handsets already support 3G with bandwidths up to 7,2 Mbps in HSDPA.

Press note: Here

In the last Broadcasting Worldwide (BCWW) convention celebrated in Seoul we heard some interesting stats about mobile TV in China.

Wu Chunlei, CEO of Shanghai Dragon New Media, part of the Shanghai Media Group, said there are “2.1 million mobile TV users, including 250,000 paid-for subscriptions, at rates as low as $1.60 a month. (In China) Video is the only killer application for 3G so far.”

Maybe this stats could seem so high, but we have to keep in mind that nowadays, China has more than 508 million users (July’07). So only 0,4% of users use this kind of 3G service, less than other countries such us UK, Italy, Germany or Spain.

Via  MocoNews