ShortTV has worked with mBlox to put up a video messaging site: Check it out at WizWak.com. The service allows people to send video messages to their friends (or complete strangers, I guess) as well as a talking avatar service — which has “virtual representations of people, animals and characters, users can enter any text message which automatically becomes spoken by the avatar when the message is played”. The press release claims this is the “the first publicly available video greetings to U. S. subscribers of ATT/Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile who own video capable cell phones”… I’ve heard of other services in preparation but I don’t know whether they are live. You can have a look at the avatars here — they come with a fairly robotic voice and a limited range of emotions, but read the text I typed in pretty well.
The video section is pretty interesting — in the greetings I liked the “happy birthday” one in a WTF kind of way. The funny video section is also a good move: “These mobile videos are produced by others as commercials for major brands but are extremely entertaining clips. The delivery fee of $1.99 is simply our cost to deliver them to your cell phone.” This is the best form of advertising…
Related stories:
–Klonies Go A-Roaming
–Veepers Creepers!
–Animated Avatars For Videomail
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