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Wales produces exceptionally graphic, educational film about the dangers of texting while driving

by Laura June posted Aug 16th 2009 @ 7:59PM

Alright, texting while driving? Obviously stupid -- but that doesn't stop tons and tons of people from doing it. The Gwent Police department in Wales hopes that its newest PSA film will help deter this bad behavior. In much the same spirit as the drunk driving on prom night films we ourselves had to sit thorough in high school, this film is pretty graphic. Okay, it's actually shockingly graphic -- but we're pretty sure that's the idea. Video is after the break.

[Via Gizmodo]

Continue reading Wales produces exceptionally graphic, educational film about the dangers of texting while driving

C2C coats windows of "quiet" train cabins to block cellphone rings

by Darren Murph posted Oct 30th 2008 @ 10:11AM

For UK citizens willing to have their privacy infringed upon in the name of peace and quiet, C2C is the train company for you. The outfit has introduced a special "quiet" carriage in its trains in order to nix conversations and unexpected cellphone noises for those who would prefer. The cabin in question sports a special coating on the windows that allows light in but rejects WiFi and cellular signals. In order to keep the lawyers at bay, folks who sit in this jammed-up area are asked to agree to those terms beforehand, and just in case you sign while inebriated, there are a number of signs and announcements (um, defeating the purpose much?) informing them that no calls will be allowed. Happy trails!

[Image courtesy of quetzy, thanks ugotamesij]

Night of the Living Dead gets textual reinterpretation

by Darren Murph posted Oct 7th 2007 @ 1:26PM

While we highly doubt producers would allow movie goers to actually dictate the dialogue in their films with in-movie text messages, a demonstration of such hilarity was recently shown at the Wired NextFest. Essentially, the original Night of the Living Dead was broken down to "500 frames that visually told the story from beginning to end." Participants were encouraged to send in texts, which showed up in the order that they were received in specified speech bubbles throughout the film. Granted, this whole process sinks in much better if you see it in action, so be sure to click on through to catch a videoed demonstration.

[Thanks, blahblah]

Continue reading Night of the Living Dead gets textual reinterpretation

Pirated Simpsons Movie footage snagged with mobile

by Darren Murph posted Aug 19th 2007 @ 10:34PM

A 21-year-old Aussie is looking at up to five years behind bars after being charged with "uploading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie on the internet." Interestingly enough, his weapon of choice was not an uber-small camcorder, rather, he chose to record the entire film with his mobile phone on its first day in cinemas. Merely hours after returning home, the footage was already making the rounds on the 'net, but he has since been arrested after having his home raided by Federal Police. Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, was quoted as saying that mobile phones had "advanced to the point where users could do a lot of damage" with its built-in video recording abilities, and also noted that pirates were "increasingly ditching handycams for smaller mobile phones."

[Thanks, Geoff]

Hands-on with Crystal Film for the iPhone

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 30th 2007 @ 5:16PM

One of the inevitable first questions that gets asked when laying out hundreds of dollars for a device with a giant, glossy, gorgeous touchscreen is, "just how the heck am I going to protect this thing?" It turns out that the iPhone may not need any particular babying, but for the paranoid among us, Power Support is offering its "Crystal Film" through Apple stores. Ironically, Apple itself says that protective films aren't recommended since they can interfere with the iPhone's ability to register gestures, but sho' nuff, walk into any brick-and-mortar Apple Store and you're going to see these packs on the shelf. No matter how scratch-resistant it may seem, we figure there'll be plenty of people willing to lay out the $14.95 sticker price for the marginal additional peace of mind Crystal Film offers, so we wanted to take a look at just how user-friendly the stuff is.

Continue reading Hands-on with Crystal Film for the iPhone

TI pushing to get DLP in your cellphone, local cinema

by Darren Murph posted Jan 10th 2007 @ 5:40PM

It's not terribly uncommon to see a manufacturer try to push a product (or platform) into every crevice of your life, and it seems that Texas Instruments is diverting quite sharply from its calculatorish ways of old and making an aggressive push to get that DLP logo slapped on everything you own. While we've seen (literally) the diminutive Microvision display do its thang here at CES, TI is hoping to steal that thunder away by talking up its forthcoming palm-sized DLP projectors. The "fully featured" Pocket Projectors, which are co-developed by OMAP, would weigh "less than one pound," use the .55 DLP chip, and could purportedly connect to handsets or PDAs to beam up that big(ger) screen imagery for a crowd to see. Unfortunately for TI, these devices are not (at least initially) supposed to be integrated units, which could easily get overlooked if those built-in alternatives can muster acceptable quality. Additionally, TI is hoping to get that DLP logo stamped on your brain even when you visit the cinema, as the company now has its technology in 3,000 theaters worldwide and is frequently throwing logo-clad splash screens onto the canvas during pre-show advertisements. So if you wonder why you're strangely drawn to the DLP sets during your next HDTV shopping trip, trust us, it's not the mirrors, it's the marketing.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Sundance Film Festival: coming soon to your cellphone

by Darren Murph posted Nov 19th 2006 @ 10:42AM

While it's no surprise that video on cellphone screens is quickly becoming the next hurrah, it's saying something when ole Robert Redford himself dedicates a new branch of the Sundance Film Festival specifically to the mobile audience. Teaming up with the GSM Association, Sundance Institute is creating the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project in order to showcase the popularity and credibility in delivering media to those wee screens. Organizers have commissioned "six independent filmmakers to create five short films, crafted exclusively for mobile distribution," and all will make their debut at the world's largest annual mobile event -- the 3GSM World Congress -- in Barcelona next year. Dubbed as "the fourth screen," there's certainly a lot of coin to be made by opening up a new medium to deliver content, but there's always TinyTube (or Orb) to keep your multimedia-playing mobile happy until Hollywood takes it over.

[Via Mobile Gadget News]

Vodafone to bundle Mission: Impossible III with Nokia N93

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2006 @ 11:08PM

If you're not already streaming movies to your less-than-ideal mobile display, or still toting that awkward Sharp 905SH to pick up Japanese TV broadcasts, Vodafone has an offer sure to make ~~anyone~~ any remaining Tom Cruise fans happy. Reportedly part of a holiday promotion to get more Nokia N93's in the hands of consumers, Vodafone will be including "a copy of Mission: Impossible III" on a 512MB miniSD card with the purchase of the N93 (and presumably a lengthy contract). The film will supposedly "run at 25fps" and support "rewind, fast forward, stop and resume, just like a proper DVD." The most intriguing bit, however, isn't the fact that a free half-gigabyte miniSD card sounds entirely more appealing than a played-out action film, but "you can also offload the flick onto your PC, and use the card for your own movies afterwards." Regardless of who seemingly gave Vodafone the thumbs-up to deliver the major motion picture sans DRM, we're just waiting in tense anticipation to see this unhampered goodness hit elsewhere.