Taking mobile handset photography to new heights

Tag : digital phone

Taking mobile handset photography to new heights
By Dinna Chan Vasquez
In this day and age when mobile phone companies launch new handsetspractically every month, Samsung makes a claim as the first companyto launch a cellphone with an 8-megapixel camera with Innov8.
The company says the handset has even made history with thebiggest photo taken by a mobile phone in the Guinness VietnamRecord Book, thanks to Vietnamese photographer Hoang Trung Thuy whoused Innov8 to take a picture called Dang-Xua-Old Shape.
Geesung Choi, president of Samsung Telecommunication Business, saysthe handset reinforces the companys leadership in thecamera-market with top-of-the-range camera technologies, asurround-sound cinematic video experience, the best mobile Internetbrowsing experience and mobile gaming capabilities.
This phone is made for tech-savvy users who enjoy the bestpossible multimedia entertainment with their mobile phone. I expectSamsung Innov8 to be a revolutionary milestone for Samsung to opena new era in mobile multimedia, he says.
Samsung explains that Innov8 is perfect for capturing and storingprecious memories in style with the use of the latest in imagingapplications such as smile shot, blink shot and face recognition.Users can also enjoy personalizing and editing their photos, videosand music with Movie Maker and Story Board applications.
The phone has an optical touch pad and a four-way navigation keyfor a PC-like browsing experience.
Fe Varilla, Samsung head of mobile phones, says the handset is alsoa digital photo frame that allows users to display their favoriteimages.
Samsung Innov8 is designed to provide users with the best possiblephotography, video and gaming experience on-the-go, she says.
The unit, which comes in two versions (one with an 8GB and theother with an 16GB internal memory), has an external memory slot upto 16GB microSDHC providing sufficient storage contents and a1200mAH battery to provide lone enough battery life.
Innov8 has a wide range of video player formats including DiVX,WMV, Real Player and MPEG4 and external speakers and a 3D surroundsystem supported by DNSe 2.0. Each handset is pre-embedded withAsphalt and FIFA 08 games.
To launch the phone, which will be available next week, Samsungheld a race featuring celebrities, members of the press and Samsungdealers. Everyone gathered at the Manila Peninsula Conservatorywhere game master Vince Hizon introduced each participant to theirteams. They were briefed about the various features of the SamsungInnov8 and were given time to explore the mobile phone. Each of theeight teams was composed of four membersa celebrity, a member ofthe press, a Samsung dealer and a Samsung marshal. Teams had torace through eight pit stops which tested the various features ofthe mobile phone. Rovilson Fernandez, Tisha Silang, Paolo Paraiso,TJ Trinidad, Geoff Rodriguez, Gary Estrada, Patricia Bermudez, RJLedesma, Ernie and Jeena Lopez, JR Isaac and Paolo Manzano wereamong the members of the participating teams.
The teams had to view the clues sent to them via Bluetooth toensure that each task is completed correctly in each destination.The race took them navigating around Metro Manila using the SamsungInnov8s NavFone GPS feature and taking photos using the Panoramicshot in Rajah Sulayman Park, researching Wushu positions throughthe Samsung Fun Club Site at Infinitif Studio Pio del Pilar, andwall climbing at Power Up Silver City. The teams explored the videoand photo functions, such as mosaic shot, frame shot and smileshot, of the Samsung Innov8 at M Caf