How to Broadcast Media Using Your Mobile Phone:
Why Mobile?
Mobile phones have become very common all over the world. Many people without internet access have mobile phones that are connected to the network. More and more of these phones are camera phones. This how to page will show you how to sign-up for and send media to Flickr (a photo sharing web-site), Blip.tv, a website that allows you to upload videos to share on your blog, myspace or any other website and Facebook.
Flickr
To sign up for flickr go to www.flickr.com (click here). Press the sign-up button. Flickr is part of yahoo so it will ask you for your yahoo ID. If you have a yahoo email address enter your login information, otherwise select “sign-up for a yahoo ID.” Continue through the steps to create your flickr account.
Once you are finished you should see a page that looks something like this (click on the image to make it larger):
This is your home page that you will see every time you login. If you scroll down to the very bottom there are several options that you can choose to do various things. To enter your mobile phone settings select Tools from the menu (click to view larger image):
Once you get to the tools page, at the top right hand corner there is a section for mobile phones.
Click on the link “Check out the Flickr Mobile Tools”. Flickr has several different ways you can upload pictures from your mobile phone but the easiest way is to select the link “upload by email”.
Once you click on this link you will see a section in the right hand corner that looks like this.
Underneath the first field “Email your photos to this address” is the address you need to save in your phone. This address is unique to each user so your address will look different then the one above. The second field is a place to add tags to every photo that you send from your mobile phone. Tags are used on flickr so that users can find things they are interested in easily. You can add tags like “mobile phone” phone or uploaded so that you can keep track of which photos were sent from your phone. You can also leave the tags field blank.
Now you are ready to enter this email address into your phone. Go to the “add contact” section on your phone. Call your new contact flickr and enter your unique email address as this contact’s email address. Whenever you take a picture that you want to send to flickr select the “send” option and select flickr as the contact to send it to. (this is on different places on different phones but usually once you take a picture it gives you a menu option to send the picture).
This email address will also allow you to send in images from your regular email account that you usually use from your computer. Just send an image as an attachment to your unique email address.
Flickr also lets you upload images directly from their website.
If you want to upload images that are saved on your computer or on a CD select the upload link from your home page. (Click to view larger image)
Blip.tv
Blip.tv allows you to upload video to their site and automatically post it to your blog or your myspace account for free. Video can be uploaded from your computer or directly from your mobile phone.
First, go to the Blip.tv website (Click here) and sign-up for an account. Once you are signed up, you have to edit your settings. Go to the Upload tab on the top of the page.
Next, go to the Mobile Upload link on the left-hand menu.
You will be shown a screen that asks you to select a mobile password:
Once you select a password an email address will be given to you. This is the email address you must save in your phone in order to send video. Add a new contact into your phone and save it as “Blip”. Enter in your unique blip email address as the email for this new contact.
The next thing you should do is set up where your videos will be posted to. They will always be available on the actual Blip site but Blip supports automatically posting to your own Blog or to myspace.
To post to your own blog select the distribution link on the left hand menu.
At the top of the page you will be asked to add one of your blogs. Click on this link.
You will be asked to select a blogging system. If you are using a blog within this system, select wordpress.
Next you will be asked to enter in the address where you administer your blog. If you are using a blog on our system it will be something like: http://www. ny2no/whatever_your_username_is/wp-admin. Next it will ask you for an API Endpoint. This is the information that allows Blip to send the video to your blog. Blip should auto-detect your API Endpoint for you.
Next blip will ask you for your blog login information. Enter in the username and password you use to login to your blog. After this step, the process may take a few minutes but eventually your settings will be saved.
Now, go back to the distribution tab on the left-hand side and select auto cross-posting.
Then check the box that appears on the screen.
Now you are done. All of the videos you upload from your mobile phone will go directly to your blog.
Uploading To Myspace:
To have videos automatically uploaded to your myspace page, go back to the distribution link on the left-hand side of the page and select myspace.
Blip will then ask you for your myspace username and password. Enter in this information. In order to enable Blip to automatically send your videos to myspace, go back to the distribution tab on the left-hand side and select auto cross-posting.
Then put a check next to the different ways you would like myspace to receive your videos. Sharing your MySpace information with blip.tv allows you to cross-post your videos as MySpace bulletins or MySpace blog posts. Once you put a check box next to one of these options you are done.
Blip has many different options. You can also upload videos from your computer in much the same way that you upload pictures to flickr.
Facebook
Facebook, a social networking website, allows you to post pictures from your mobile phone. Within your facebook home page select the tab on the left hand side that says “My Mobile”. To sign up for mobile photos, send a photo to photos@facebook.com. Facebook will send you back a code. Enter that code into your facebook page in the section provided and click confirm. Now you can begin sending photos.
freeFormed.net
Go to www.freeformed.net (Click here). Register for an account. Join or create a circle around a particular interest. There has already been a circle created for Xavier University, but feel free to create your own. Save freeFormed as a contact in your phone with the email address mobile@freeformed.net. Any photos or videos you send to freeformed will then be visible within your default circle. You can change your default circle and phone number at any time in the settings section of your home page.
You can also participate in the Voices of New Orleans circle by calling 504-208-4741.