KiloVox

The Sony Ericsson K800i phone is known for it’s excellent camera (for a phone). I got one last summer for just that reason, so I’d have a decent camera with me everywhere I went without even having to think about it. It’s lived up to my expectations, and I’ve been very pleased with it.

One feature I never paid much attention to is the “Blog this” feature. It lets you publish a photo you’ve just taken using Blogger. It’s actually available on several Sony Ericsson models.

So I finally decided to test it out and see how it worked. I usually use a Smart prepaid sim card in my phone. Smart charges P10 per 30 minutes for data access, which isn’t bad for occasional use, but would be a little expensive if you only post one photo in the 30 minutes. So I swapped out the Smart sim card for my Globe Visibility sim card, which has an unlimited data account.

After taking a picture, you press “More” and select “Blog this.”

Up pops a “New post” screen that lets you enter the Title and Text for the post. When you’ve filled it in, press “OK” and “Publish” and it’s resized and sent off.

The first time you do this, it also creates a Blogger account and sends you a text message with a claim token and url to activate the account and make any modifications to it (like choosing a proper name for it).

Even though Globe Visibility is a high speed 3G/HSDPA service, it seems to revert to a GPRS signal in my area unless the device is forced to use 3G only. With a dedicated data modem like the Huawei E220, you can lock the 3G signal, but for the K800i it’s not an option.

It usually takes around a minute or two to send the photo over GPRS (it’s probably faster for 3G), and then you’re given the option to visit the blog when it’s finished. You don’t have to wait for it, though. As soon as you hit “Publish” nothing further is needed, and you can put the phone back in your pocket and let it do it’s thing. A few button pushes, type in the text for the post, and that’s it. You can go from taking the picture to publishing it in all of 10 seconds very easily.

The photos are resized to 800×600, usually taking around 50KB to 120KB depending on the detail. It’s further reduced to 320×240 on the post page with a link to the 800×600 images.

I have had the posting fail a few times, probably due to network congestion. It gives you an option to retry, though, so it’s not lost.

The alternative would be to use the phone to email the photos to a service, or a WordPress installation (using a plugin like Postie). The process for emailing a photo takes longer, though. After selecting “Send” you’re asked if you want to resize the picture. If you don’t, the full size picture is often 800KB or more. If you resize, you’ll wait 5-6 seconds while it resizes to 640×480. Type in your post text, continue, then select the email address to send it to, and send.

I’ll use the Blogger interface for now, for it’s speed and ease. You can always pull the Atom feed into WordPress, for a finished result like this:

http://www.kilovox.com/mobile/

Now the big question is, is there any real value in mobile posting? The technology to post photos in real-time from wherever you happen to be is neat. From your eye to the camera to the internet in a minute. I guess the goal is to provide a quick and easy way to share a few ordinary (or extraordinary) snapshots of daily life so others can share a connection in some small way.

Update 3/29/2008: The K800i was able to stay locked onto the Globe 3G signal when I was closer to downtown, and I was able to post a photo in seconds instead of the minute or two it usually takes with GPRS. The mobile feed is down for now. I may restart it as an experiment at some point in the future.