Making Practical Use of Your Camera Phone

Since purchasing and using two Nokia N-series phones, I've learned that there's much more you can do with your cell phone than calling and texting. My phone has a five-megapixel camera and with some free third-party applications I have gotten lots of practical use out of the phone's imaging capabilities. These applications turn my phone into a portable scanner and fax, and allow me to publish my pictures and videos to the web instantly. You do not necessarily need a Nokia or a five-megapixel camera to use these programs, be sure to check the individual websites to see if your phone is compatible.

One program that makes use of your camera phone is Qik. Qik allows you to broadcast video live from your phone. You can choose to broadcast publicly or privately and Qik saves your videos for you on your profile. One of the challenges of producing media on your phone or other digital devices is that it tends to stay on the phone and consequently no one really gets to view it. With Qik you can publish your videos in one step. If your video is public, Qik users can even comment on it in real time. When you log in to the Qik website you have the options of embedding your videos on a website, viewing your videos, and downloading them to your computer. Qik works best with an with 3G on unlimited data plan or wi-fi connection. Check http://qik.com/info/supported_phones to see if your phone is supported.

Another site that offers a free service for your camera phone is qipit.com. Qipit makes it simple to copy and send your digital photos as an email or printable document. After you register with qipit, send your photo to copy@qipit.com or color@qipit.com for color copies with a fax number or email address in the body of the email. Qipit cleans up the document for you then sends the fax or email. It also saves your document and sends the PDF and JPEG to your email address. The Qipit website suggests using the service to capture handwritten notes and whiteboards, as well as printed material. Use Qipit's compatibility chart at https://www.qipit.com/pub/phone to see how your phone will perform with this service.

The last program I have to recommend is ShoZu. I use ShoZu on my N85 and it is how I discovered the Qipit service. ShoZu makes posting your images to a number of popular websites easy and automated. On my phone I can choose to have my pictures and videos sent as soon as I take them. I have my account set up so that ShoZu automatically sends my photos to flickr and photoshop.com. ShoZu supports popular blogging, social networking, and image sharing sites and will also send your files to specified email addresses. You can use ShoZu without downloading the application by sending your files via MMS to go@m.shozu.com.

The programs I have just listed make it easy to collect and share those images you take on the go. Here is how I have made practical use of all three programs.

Qik

I use Qik like a camcorder. It backs up my videos and I'm not afraid that I'll lose my only copy if something happens to my phone.

Qipit

I like to use Qipit through Shozu for copying text, but I think it would be great for archiving handwritten notes.

ShoZu

I mostly use ShoZu for quickly getting my pictures on flickr. It also puts so many websites at my fingertips that when I want to post a picture to my blog or Qipit it's simple and convenient to do.

Having these tools has inspired me to get out and take lots of photos and videos on my phone's camera. It's nice to know that my images are instantly available to share and in a pinch I could send a document via email or fax from almost anywhere. I hope this article will inspire you too to make the most of your camera phone.