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I don't know about you, but I have found myself holding my Treo 650 like it's my girlfriend's hand at the movies. Just like my keys, glasses and wallet...it is always accounted for. The dang thing costs a fortune, plus all my information is in it. That is why I got a PDA/ phone, it's one less thing to carry, one less thing to lose.
It is very functional. Phone, address book, calendar, etc., but a Treo (and other units) do a lot of things other than basic communication. I take verbal notes using mVoice, snap pictures with the camera, play specific .mp3's when the phone rings using Ringo and read news stories on the mini browser.
For entertainment, Kinoma makes a player that allows you to watch .mp4 video clips. So what are we going to watch? How about "DinkyMovies", specially designed for the cellphone.
Not too long ago. there was a company in Los Angeles called Intertainer. They were acquiring movies that they planned to catalogue and distribute through interactive television. They may have been just a little ahead of their time, but that same demand for content has now reached the mobile audience.
Now companies like "Fun Little Movies" and "DinkyTV" are offering short film entertainment specifically designed for the mobile device. Much like a ring tone or MP3 song, DinkyMovies are sold for $1.99. They are all animated by the same team with new episodes created every week.
Delivery of content is an issue. How are you going to watch (and hear) this entertainment? There are two ways in my opinion that make sense as of June 2005. Download a file and play it on your device or watch it streamed through a mini web browser (WAP). Hearing is another issue for the mini movie. You have to hold your PDA/phone about a foot and a half away to see it. If there is dialogue you need to be in a really quiet room or use headphones. Actually, the cheap single ear plug headphones that come with most phones are great for listening.
I live in America, so most of our phones are not WAP ready. I don't want that fact to hold up progress, so I designed DinkyMovies to play .mp4 & .pdb files on Palm OS 5 devices. We decided to go the Palm route for a number of reasons. Mainly, playback capability. After extensive testing, I know that a DinkyMovie will play on a Treo 600/650, LifeDrive, Garmin iQue, Zire, Zodiac or Tungsten using the Kinoma player. There is a free player offered, but video and audio quality is significantly improved when you pay $20 and upgrade to the Kinoma EX Player.
On a 320X320 screen like the Treo 650, the picture looks spectacular and the sound is surprising. Replays are easy because the .mp4 file is stored on your SD card. WAP is going to be the big thing in the near future, but technology has to catch up with the consumer before we can all stream video to our handsets. You garden variety $29 dollar flip-phone won't cut the mustard.
DinkyTV offers animated content created by a small team, sort of a hybrid between a Sunday cartoon strip and a TV show approximately 2-3 minutes in length. Fresh content is offered every 7-10 days with archived episodes available on DinkyMovies.com or through their distribution partner Handango. DinkyTV's goal is to produce it's own content and build a loyal audience by making people laugh one gag at a time.
Don Priess and Susie Singer-Carter are the voices of DinkyTV. We all have been friends and creative partners for many years. Don is a writer, voice-over talent and a top-notch video editor in the infomercial industry. Susie is a producer, actress and voice of any female characters in the production. We have a definite style and method established which allows us to crank out shows at an incredibly fast pace.
DinkyNews pokes fun at reality in a modern news show format, including slick-haired announcers and rock solid news babes. DinkyTV features ridiculous animated short films as well as interviews with today's hottest celebrities. Either way we are breaking new ground, creating weekly updated animated content for the phone. Delivery methods may vary in the future, but for today, downloading a file to your SD card is a sure fire way to view some pretty cool stuff.
If you have a Palm OS 5 device go to www.DinkyMovies.com or www.Handango.com to see what it is all about.
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Mike Browne's art is unique both
in style and approach. He is a traditional airbrush artist that
went digital over 10 years ago. His characters and
animations have appeared in movies, television, infomercials,
DVD's and the internet using Flash like a flip-book. Today he
sees the mobile phone as the new frontier for animated content.Click here to email him.
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