From John Shay, of HeadZup, “the first video comic strip for cell phones and iPods,” following up on yesterday’s post.
I think your readers will be very interested in the whole idea of “store
and forward entertainment”…. which is basically napster without the guilt. While the entire cellular industry is trying their best to turn our cell phones into mind-numbing TV’s and iPods, Head Zup is all about sharing ideas and freedom of _expression. Head Zup clips can be shared freely via the totally unexploited MMS channel that is nearly ubiquitous across global cellular networks (not just 3G networks).
In my mind, MMS offers the promise of an excessively viral nano-podcasting mass medium.
The challenge is learning how to entertain users in 12-15 seconds bite videos (there’s a 100K file limit for attached files via MMS…. which translates to 12-15 seconds of mpeg4). Most comics strips are consumed in 10-15 seconds. Which is why Head Zup is billed as the world’s first video comic strip for cell phones and iPods.
Head Zup is also the first “open source” comic strip… using the term broadly 😉 Anyone can create anonymous (and hilarious) zups by simply turning their camera phone upside down and recording just their chins. The anonymous aspect brings a unique freedom of _expression element to mobile communications.
PS It would be hugely helpful to mention the Head Zup wap site (same URL as the main site) where users can download free clips to their cell phones. By downloading and sending the clips they will help jump-start NanoCasting.
The phone must have a video player to watch the clip and they’ll need to have MMS turned on to send it to someone.
…. also, Head Zup is available as a free iTunes podcast in the Apple music store.