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ShoZu Mobile Media Services Now Available on 40 Handsets in the U.S., Enabling Easy Photo Messaging & Direct-to-the-Phone Content Delivery

Posted on: Monday, 8 January 2007, 12:00 CST

ShoZu Inc. announced today that its Share-It one-click photo/video messaging and ZuCast direct-to-handset media delivery services are now available for 40 U.S. camera phones and 119 handsets worldwide, providing the market's easiest to use, most affordable and most comprehensive mobile media capabilities. Supported U.S. models range from the moderately priced Cingular 3125 to higher-end devices such as the Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack, T-Mobile Dash and Windows Mobile Treo 700.

ShoZu also supports select WiFi-enabled mobile phones such as the Dash in the U.S. and Nokia N80 in Europe. With these dual mode mobile/Wifi phones, consumers who do not have a flat-rate mobile data plan can save money by sending and receiving multimedia files over their home, office or WiFi connection (or AirPort connection for Mac users) rather than the cellular network.

The ShoZu application can be downloaded to the handset at no charge from www.shozu.com. It offers clear advantages for photo messaging -- the fastest-growing mobile application in the U.S. with usage by roughly 13% of mobile phone owners, according to mobile industry authority M:Metrics -- as well as mobile media services that are not available from any other source.

"We have traditionally had a strong user base in Europe, but now we have the handset support to further build critical mass in the U.S.," said Bob Morgan, Vice President, Business Development, North America, ShoZu. "This enables U.S. consumers to easily transfer images and videos from their camera phones to a wide range of Web destinations without the complications or expense of other methods, and it also provides access to the next generation of mobile services."

ShoZu's Share-It service allows users to send photos and video clips captured on their phones to more Web destinations than any other upload method with a click. Current destination options include the online communities YouTube, Buzznet, Flickr, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, MSN's Windows Live Spaces, Textamerica, Webshots, Pikeo and Moblog.uk; personal blogging sites Blogger, TypePad and WordPress; and citizen-contributed photojournalism sites such as CNN, the BBC and Scoopt. Images can also be uploaded to any email address or FTP site.

Each image can be sent to multiple destinations for the cost of only one upload, and there is no need to suspend phone calls or photo capture while an image is transferring or to start over in the event of a dropped connection. ShoZu uploads cost less than MMS picture messaging and wireless email because of the efficiency of the ShoZu protocol, and users have a choice of print-quality transfers or a money-saving "blog-quality upload" option that transmits images at a lower resolution for online sharing. Descriptions and tags can be added before or after uploading.

ShoZu's new ZuCast service offers free subscriptions to select multimedia files and downloads new content to the handset in the background without requiring users to open a mobile phone browser, wait for pages to load, interrupt phone calls, or sync to a PC. Users simply click on the ShoZu icon on their handset to retrieve the latest ZuCasts, from videos, photos and music to games, ringtones, wallpaper, news, and more.

About ShoZu

ShoZu is a mobile media service that enables consumer and media companies to interact with customers on their mobile phones through fast, easy exchange of multimedia content and web-based services. The company's patented technology allows consumers to download and upload photos, videos, music, text and other digital content to and from the handset without the need to open a mobile browser, wait for pages to load, interrupt phone calls, start over in the event of a dropped connection, or sync to a PC. Services include innovative ZuCasts that deliver content to the handset automatically, one-click uploading of camera phone images and video clips to community websites and other destinations, and two-way mobile-to-web messaging and interactivity. For more information, visit www.shozu.com/aboutus.

Source: Business Wire

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