Published by Chris James on July 14, 2007
in Uncategorized.
Last month we introduced the new ROK Comics service enabling you to enjoy a spot of graphical entertainment on the go. We also suggested that aside from established strips like Garfield and Doonesbury, ROK were keen to use the platform to encourage new creative talent.
Well this month they’re becoming rather more encouraging, offering a prize of $10,000 to the creator of the best new strip on the ‘Hot Talent’ section of the site. That’s right ten grand! Even with the exchange rate that’s got to be enough to keep you in HB pencils and plastic anime figures for years to come.
The competition closes at the end of August, with the winner announced in September and even those that don’t scoop top prize could earn themselves a few shekels for their scribbling as ROK are promising aspiring artists 50% of the available revenue on every sale. Check out the link before for more.
(ROK Comics)
Sitting alongside (and a little bit below) the two ‘accessible’ camera phones announced earlier the J110 and J120 look set to be the new workmen of the Sony Ericsson range. Ease of use is at the core of these candybars (do candybars have cores?) with large, legible keys, a simple single icon display and a central navigation key that allows the major functions to be accessed immediately.
The handsets are essentially identical, apart from the J120 having an in-built FM radio. Both will be available in Q2 2007 in a range of colours.
Announced alongside fellow newcomer W880, the W610 handset is described in the official release as ‘a credible fusion of phone, music player & digital camera’. Effectively this means it’s another Walkman handset but with a slightly tarted up 2-megapixel camera complete with auto focus, video playback and a picture blogging app. Meanwhile, on the music side it has a 512Mb memory stick micro (capable of storing up to 470 music tracks) and the natty TrackID music recognition software that can identify tracks, album and artist from just a few bars in a ‘Name That Tune’ stylee (aargh, just had a Lionel Blair flashback). The handset will be available in Plush Orange and Satin Black liveries from Q2 this year.
Apparently unsatisfied with the 20 million Walkman handsets it has already shifted, today Sony Ericsson slipped in another new model in the form of the super thin W880/ W888. Measuring just 9.4mm thick (that’s the size of a standard CD case) it’s the slimmest Sony Ericsson of any kind yet somehow still manages to find space for 1Gb of memory (via a Memory Stick Micro), a 2.0 megapixel camera, a range of applications (including the Walkman Player 2.0 & Disc2Phone uploading software) and a battery providing up to 18 hours of listening pleasure.
Available in a brushed steel silver or Flame Black the W880 (the W888 version is for China only) will be slipping onto our high streets from spring this year… and no doubt sliding down the back of the sofa shortly after.
Apparently, 20 million Walkman-branded handsets have been sold to date, which isn’t bad going considering Sony Ericsson only really started to sell under the name last year (on this side of the Atlantic at least). Whilst they’ve still got some way to go to catch up with Apple (who shipped around 21 million iPods in the last quarter of 2006 alone - and have sold between 70 and 90 million to date according to various reports), they still arguably represent a hefty chunk of the MP3 player market.
Indeed as mobile MP3 playing capacity improves, the likes of SE launch more devices and convergence increases, this surely spells more trouble for the likes of Zune (of which Microsoft hopes to sell one million in the first year) and underlines precisely why Apple are so keen to get the iPhone off the ground!
As part of a new collection aimed at the older, budget and technologically baffled audience, Sony Ericsson today announced two new ‘accessible’ camera phones. The K200, (available in either Metallic Black or Light Champagne), is a budget offering for shutterbugs providing a single button VGA camera and photo album and slideshow functionality for up to 40 images. Meanwhile it’s sibling the K220, (which comes in Frost White or Ocean Blue varieties), combines this functionality with an integrated FM radio capable of storing up to 10 pre-set stations.
Both handsets aim to make navigation as stress free as possible via a series of simple icons and a central navigation key that offers one-click access to all key features andwill be vailable from Q2 2007.
(Sony Ericsson website)
Mobile TV is here, but as far as we can see no one’s really asked if we actually want it. And they certainly haven’t asked us what we want. Should it be short snippets or continuous broadcasts? Do we want to watch episodes of Lost, You Tube videos or specially made for mobile content?
Those are just some of the questions being asked in the mobile TV survey on our sister site, Pocket Gamer. We know what you’re thinking, why isn’t it here (it’s not as though we do game surveys do we, grrr!)
Anyway, it’s a good chance to speak your brains about what you really want out of mobile TV to the folk that are making it and if that’s not incentive enough, then you could also stand a chance of winning a brand new Nokia N95 for your efforts courtesy of Player X, purveyors of Geek TV, Miami Vice Bust Ups ‘videosodes’ and Dom Jolly Happy Now mobile sketches, amongst other things.
Just pop on over to Pocket Gamer to enter the survey.
Punchy short film What’s the Point? proved itself a real BIFA scooping a British Independent Film Award for ‘Best Fifteen Second Short’ alongside its victory in the Nokia Shorts competition.
The mini movie depicting a disastrous ballet audition was created by Katherine Taylor from London. Having joined her fellow finalists and to stride the red carpet on a star-studded gala evening Katherine was understandably delighted, “I’m so excited about winning the competition – the standard of entries was very high so it’s really flattering. Having my film screened in front of some of the film industries’ biggest stars really was a dream come true. I just cannot believe I have won a BIFA award, the whole experience was fantastic!â€
Katherine’s award winner and all the finalists’ films can be viewed on www.nokiashorts.co.uk. As an aside we think Nokia’s press team are also due an award to for their release title ‘Gong in fifteen seconds’ - classic!
The Finnish handset giants are at it again, with four new models unveiled at their massive Nokia World conference in Amsterdam this week. Due to hit the street (and your pocket) in the new year we’ll doubtless bring you more info on each in the future. Right now here’s a quick intro to the foursome.
Nokia 6290 Smartphone (right)
Adding 3G to 3rd edition S60 in an attractive package, the 6290 is also packed full of more practical features than a sack full of Swiss army knives, from multiple alarms and Quick Cover access keys to an interactive world travel application, it promises to be a one-stop shop for travellers.
Nokia 6300
The 6300 is a slimline stainless steel model that’s evolved from the classic candy bar design marrying organic curves with ease of use.
Nokia 6086
With Quad-band GSM and UMA-enabled this cameraphone is all about connectivity and easy access via a large keypad and intuitive user menu.
Nokia 2626
The most colourful of the new line up, the Nokia 2626 is aimed at the style conscious customer on a budget. Available in a range of colours from Fiery Red to Spatial Blue and with an FM radio built in.
The votes are in, the people have spoken and it really is all over bar the shouting (and the prize sending of course).
After six weeks of deliberation poring over thousands of mobile photos, we are pleased to announce that the winner, as decided by Pocket Picks visitors, is Freddy Boutrot for You Can’t Park There.
Freddy’s picture offering a cautionary tale of parallel parking on a pier received a massive 38% of the vote, ahead of Jorma’s US Election Drags On in second place and Peter Wooton’s Dump in third.
Having beaten off strong competition from a host of celebrity, political and just plain funny mobile snaps, the picture is a worthy winner of the inaugural Pocket Picks/ Scoopt mobile photo competition and a brand spanking new Nokia N73.
You can check out all the finalists on the poll page and if you still want to try and make some money from your mobile photos you might consider signing up with mobile photo agency Scoopt. Otherwise, stay tuned to the site for the best of mobile entertainment content and look out for more competitions in the near future.
Recent Comments