Jim Carlson dot Net

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.