In the days before I first got my hands on a camera phone I used to dream of the many and varied tasks I could use it for.
No more having to shop for clothes together. I'd just whizz her a picture of the new shirt I was about to buy and wait for the thumbs down image to follow. When meeting people I could send them an image of where I was so they could find me more easily. I even toyed with a friend's rather sad suggestion that I create a pictorial archive of the celebrations of every goal scored at Arsenal's Highbury ground this year.
Of course when my first camera-toting mobile finally arrived I used it for around two weeks and then pretty much forgot it had a snapper on board.
My collection of photos consists of a several snaps of my baby, a couple of my dog and a few entertaining moments at a friend's stag night. Pretty pathetic, really. Perhaps you feel the same and that the gloss has gone from your camera phone.
Well, here's some ideas of things you can do to re-ignite your love affair with your Multimedia messaging mobile.
Print your photos out
Got a killer shot you'd like a proper print of? Coming soon are booths in public places that will print out camera phone images for you. Snappers use their phone infrared or Bluetooth facilities to transfer the images which is printed out on the spot. Several companies are working on systems, including Siemens and Kodak. Expect to see them cropping up in shopping centres and airports sometime next year.
Snap a celeb
Calling all celeb spotters. Next time you spot your favourite soap star, snap a quick picture of them and e-mail it to a site called Celebsnapper.com. This service than sends out the image as Multimedia Messages to its subscribers, presumably so they can and join their fellow stalkers.
Many celebs have rather unsportingly/understandably (depending on your point of view), got a little sniffy about camera phones. In fact all the key celeb hangouts from The Ivy to the Soho House have now banned them from their premises - though I must admit I'd like to see doorman who tells Madonna that she has to leave her Sony Ercisson P800 at reception.
Camera phones are upsetting more than a few celebs. Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, have banned them completely. Camera phones have also been outlawed in gyms and swimming pools. There were even calls for European privacy laws to be extended to cover mobile phones after a snapper took images of a nude swimming night in Aqualand in Cologne and then posted the pictures on the web.
Send holiday snaps home
Surely the ultimate use for a camera phone is the instant holiday photo of you reclining on a beach lounger, which lands on the phone or PC of a work colleague struggling with their accounts back in the UK. This works fine if you are holidaying in Mablethorpe, but what about Marbella?
Swedish company Telia Sonera recently announced it had secured a worldwide deal for GPRS roaming and that its customers would soon be able to send image back to phones in Sweden from Western Europe and the USA.
It's good to see the UK networks aren't far behind. Vodafone in particular is claiming that MMS will work in most of Western Europe and the USA, while the other three networks have all the major holiday destinations (Greece, Spain, France) covered. Most networks have information on their websites. However, given my experience of using mobiles for anything over than voice calls and text messages outside the UK, I'll believe it when I see it.
See who is in the pub
One day soon you might soon be able to receive a Multimedia Message consisting of a snap showing you who is drinking in your local. In June Nokia is to launch its £350 Observation Camera which courtesy of a technology called Machine to Machine (M2M) enables its user to send it a text message and receive an image of whatever is in front of it by return.
Start your own blog
The blogging craze looks like it will soon be extending to mobile phones. An Irish company, Newbay Software, has pioneered a system that enables camera phone owners to create their own blog web pages. Users simply take images or send text messages and they appear on the page. Sadly the system is network dependent and while the service will soon be offered in Europe and the USA none of the UK networks have taken it up.
