ShoZu One-Click camera phone image sharing service adds support for Personal Blogs, 2-Way Messages & more

London UK, April 04 2006 –ShoZu, the market’s smartest one-click image sharing solution for camera phones, today announced new features making it the first service to offer photo and video uploading to multiple personal blog and citizen photo-journalism sites such as Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, CNN, the BBC and Scoopt. These and other new features, including the ability to exchange two-way messages about their images directly between their mobile phones and their community websites, will be available to consumers later this month.The new capabilities mark the latest breakthroughs for ShoZu, a free-to-download application that allows users to share camera phone images more easily, quickly and at higher resolution than any other alternative including other uploader applications, MMS, wireless email and phone-to-PC transfer. The patented technology behind the application was five years in the making.

“The number of online image sharing and social networking communities is growing every day, and ShoZu not only makes it possible to easily share images captured by camera phones but also brings an immediacy to the image sharing experience. You can post a photo or video while you’re still at the beach, the concert, the tradeshow or on vacation,� said CEO Mark Bole. “Our newest features add extra flexibility, functionality and fun to the process. Now you can ‘ShoZu’ your cellphone pictures to more sites than ever and discuss them online without your PC.�

ShoZu will be showcased in the E-Tech Awards at the CTIA Wireless Show that begins tomorrow in Las Vegas.
Market’s Broadest Choice of Destinations

While most similar services restrict users to sending images to a single photo sharing service, ShoZu now gives camera phone fans a choice of dozens of destinations. Users can designate a major photo sharing community such as Buzznet, Flickr, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Textamerica or Webshots as their primary destination; choose from a large number of secondary destinations such as Snapfish and Blip.tv; and/or post photos, videos and text to personal blog sites hosted by Blogger, Typepad and Wordpress as well as citizen-contributed photo galleries like CNN, the BBC and Scoopt.

In addition, ShoZu allows any email address to be specified as a personal photo destination for easy image sharing with family and friends, and charges only once to upload an image even if the photo or video file is sent to multiple destinations.
Send and Receive Comments by Phone

Two months ago, ShoZu added the ability to automatically forward comments about posted photos or videos from the user’s preferred online community to his or her phone. Now users can also reply to those messages directly from their phones, creating an interactive dialogue between friends, family and/or other community members without waiting to get home, boot up the computer, open a browser, and sign on to the site.

Commuters, travelers and anyone else can therefore exchange comments about images of last night’s fraternity party, baby’s first birthday, the latest tornado or a visit to the Taj Mahal from the road.
New Money-Saving, Language & Deployment Options

ShoZu is also introducing a new “blog-quality upload� option that enables users to save money by transmitting images at a resolution that is sufficient for online sharing rather than at a print-quality level.

In addition, the company is adding a variety of features to facilitate deployment by handset manufacturers, including the option to pre-install the service on handsets in French, Italian, German and Spanish as well as English. ShoZu is also adding support for Nokia Java handsets that use the Series 40 v3 platform including the Nokia 6111, 6270 and 6230i. All ShoZu-compatible phones are listed at www.shozu.com/... The list currently includes 38 camera phones and expands each month.
About ShoZu

ShoZu is the simplest, quickest and smartest way to share photos, videos and text using your mobile phone. The ShoZu gateway service includes a free phone application and a website for users to personalize and configure their mobile experience. Whether you are traveling the world, separated from family and friends or just want to share a moment, ShoZu makes it easy, immediate and affordable from anywhere, at anytime. With easy over-the-air download and activation, ShoZu opens up mobile blogging of high-quality content to online community partners such as photo portals, social networks and other sharing sites, all from one user-friendly interactive service. Visit www.shozu.com.

Source: Cognima