Jim Carlson dot Net

In my post Cell Phone Photo Processing, I demonstrated how I used a micro SD card [with an SD converter] in my Canon SD1000 camera, took high quality images and processed them by placing the same micro SD card [with a mini converter] in my Moto Q. I was able to rotate, color correct and crop the images and e-mail them to any source (friends, blogs, photo processing centers….) from my phone.

Today, Wired online reviewed the Polaroid PoGo Printer, which allows photo printing via Bluetooth or USB connections from camera phones and cameras with Pict-Bridge technology (a great deal of cameras, including my SD1000 have this technology).

Although the printer is far from perfect, this technology is not only fun, but another indicator of the future of mobile photo processing and photo sharing.

[Editors Note: From time to time, JimCarlsonDotNet will link to external sources of information, allowing you, the reader, to learn from some of the best minds on the web.]

So Firefox 3 has a new release candidate making news, suggesting that the browser is nearly done. May I suggest that the browser is nowhere near being done until the Mozilla Foundation drops its favoritism to Google and allow users to pick their own default search engine? And that Microsoft ought to be among those choices?

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[Editors Note: Kanon Kulpa and I have been 'marketing geeks' and friends for years. We chat often about the ever changing world of marketing and the impact economics and technology have on the marketing landscape. - Jim]

Times are tough right now and it’s a normal reaction for businesses to initiate cutbacks during these trying times. Heck, I’ve cut back on drinking less milk and juice and drink more water from the tap, sold my gas guzzling truck to buy a more fuel efficient car and started a garden to grow my own vegetables. If you look at what I just said you’ll notice I made cutbacks on certain things like what I drink, what I drive and how I get my food, but what I haven’t done is give up on them entirely. I still drink juice and milk, I still drive a car that needs gas to go and I’m still eating my vegetables. In short, I’ve simply adapted my lively hood to overcome the burden of higher prices.

This same concept rings true for branding or marketing your business during tough economic times. It’s not healthy for me to give up on drinking milk or eating vegetables and it’s not healthy for your business to give up on advertising your brand to your consumers or target audience.

During the late 1980s to early 1990s, the United States went through a recessionary period which was peaked by the start of the Gulf War in 1990. During this time, many businesses started thinking about cutbacks with hopes of weathering this recession. The first item on the budget-cut list was spending for marketing/advertising. Many companies all but eliminated their spending on advertising to the point that they seemed almost nonexistent.

During this time, I was employed as a Graphic Designer for a small ad agency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The agency’s biggest concern was that clients were pulling back from their advertising plans causing the agency itself to fall short on profits and have to possibly enforce layoffs, but the agency owner had a plan. It was time to re-educate our clients on the importance maintaining their visibility in during these weak economic times. After countless meetings with clients, about two-thirds of our clients heeded the message and decided to take steps to build their brand in the marketplace when all of there competitors were in lock-down mode.

Two months after meeting with clients, they began to see payoffs in the form of increased sales. These sales were tracked directly back to our clients’ various marketing strategies that literally catapulted them to the top of their respective markets. It made that small ad agency look larger than life in the eyes of their clients, but what it really was was common sense that was worth repeating.

So remember that when times get tough, it’s also time to toughen up your brand. Let your consumers know that you’re a pillar of strength in the market, that you’re company is designed to handle adversity and that you’ll be here for years to come. By the way, be prepared to see an increase in consumer loyalty to your brand because of it.

With few exceptions, cell phone cameras produce relatively poor images. As I was preparing for my mobile blog experiment, it hit me: My Moto Q should be able to read images taken with my Canon SD1000.

The solution was starkly simple. The Moto uses a mini SD card, the Canon uses an SD card. By using the adapter that came with my micro SD card, I could use the same memory card in both my Q and my Canon.

What You Need

1. A cellphone with internet/e-mail access that can read a mini, micro or full sized SD card.
2. A camera that uses a mini, micro or full sized SD card.
3. Adaptable media. I used a micro SD card with both mini and full size adapters.

Taking Pictures

By using the micro SD card in the SD adapter, I simply placed the card in my camera. Since I would be editing and sending the images from my phone, I set the camera to the 1.9 mega pixel mode [1600 x 1200] rather than 7.1 mega pixel mode [3072 x 2304].

I did test editing and sending 7.1 mega pixel images on my Moto, however, the processing and upload times are considerably longer than the lower resolution images.

Editing / Sending Images

Once I shot the images on my Canon, I simply took the micro SD card out of the full size adapter, placed it in the mini adapter and put it in my Moto.

The Moto is a Windows Media 6 based phone which has basic photo editing tools that allow you to rotate, crop and auto correct images. Once the images are corrected, you can choose to save over the original or ’save as’ to preserve the original.

To send the images, compose an e-mail, attach the image(s) and hit send.

Conclusion

For bloggers and photographers who want to edit and send high quality images from their phone, adaptable media makes the process incredibly easy. Beyond blogging, sending images via e-mail allows for instant sharing (with friends/family/colleagues), seamless uploads to Flickr and delivery to photo printing services (to get prints in about an hour).

In a very short amount of time we have gone from waiting for film to develop, to downloading images from our digital cameras to our computers. We’ve tolerated sharing grainy, poor quality cell phone images. Now with mobile technology, high quality images can be taken with a digital camera and processed and shared using a cell phone.

On a recent trip from Wausau to Chicago, I experimented with mobile blogging via my Moto Q9C. The blog was to be a ‘trip diary’, documenting our trek to a Mike Ness show. Throughout the trip, I’d take photos, write snippets and push the content to a Blogger blog via my phone. I received instant feedback via: Blogger comments, Facebook, text messaging, and Gmail. It was a fun experiment, and got me thinking about mobile blogging in general.

Basic Mobile Blog Setup:

First you need to decide if you want to create a new blog, or access a current blog. For my experiment, I set up a new blog at Blogger.com: jimivox.blogspot.com.

Why did I set up a new blog? The idea was not to corrupt any of my current blogs with the experiment. Why Blogger? To be honest with you, it is very easy:

• Creating a Blogger blog requires no server setup (or configuration of a second Wordpress installation). Another benefit: It is free.
• The Blogger interface provides an e-mail address for your blog (with areas for customization/security), thus setting up e-mail publishing is a breeze.

You can also set up ‘e-mail-to-Wordpress’ publishing, however you need to set up a new e-mail account with POP access. The Wordpress configuration takes a bit more time, and is more technically challenging. The application is extremely buggy, as documented at Wordpress’ own blog. As of this writing, I am still having issues with this.

Setting up Your Mobile Device

Every phone is different, but I added a new contact on my Moto with the custom e-mail address. You could do the same on any phone with e-mail access (thanks to all of you iPhoners out there who let me know your phone is ’superior’….). No e-mall access on your phone? You can use any internet based e-mail application (like Gmail) provided your phone has internet access. As of this writing, I am unaware of ‘text to publishing’ blog applications (Twitter style), but I imagine sooner or later, this will be common.

Next, compose a new e-mail message, attach any images and hit send. Seconds later the post is live on the web. It is that simple. One word of caution, it is easier to push content via e-mail than to edit or delete it, so use caution and proofread before you hit send!

Real World Mobile Blogging

Obviously, my experiment was intended to test the mobile blogging concept. Admittedly, the blog I created doesn’t appeal to everyone.

Mobile blogging can, however, become an alternative way of publishing information to your blog from anywhere you have your phone. You can include photos, however, tagging and category labels are not configurable via e-mail. (Note: As of this writing, Wordpress is still having issues with photos, but v 2.6 should have a fix.)

The Future of Mobile Blogging

Technology varies widely between phones and mobile service providers. E-mail-to-blog publishing is a convenient way to update your blog without having to navigate the often ‘not-for-mobile-friendly admin portals’. In the future, advances in mobile technology and mobile blog interfaces will likely bring more functionality for mobile bloggers.