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ShoZu Extends Media Service to Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces, Enabling Handset-to-Blog Uploads of Photos & Video Clips

Posted on: Monday, 12 February 2007, 12:00 CST

ShoZu Inc. today announced the addition of Windows Live Spaces (http://spaces.live.com) to the list of websites that can accept image uploads from customers' mobile phones via ShoZu's Share-It service. The announcement expands the choice of Web destinations available from ShoZu to nearly two dozen -- more than any other uploading application -- and also brings one of the world's most popular social networking and blogging services into the ShoZu ecosystem.

Effective immediately, mobile users can transmit photos and video clips from 136 ShoZu-capable camera phones directly to their Windows Live Spaces blogs with a click when the blog entry is created on and uploaded from the handset. Images from customers' latest party, concert, trip or any other blog topic are then automatically embedded in the appropriate entry.

Windows Live Spaces is available in more than 36 markets in 15 languages, receives more than 6 million photos a day, and attracts over 120 million bloggers per month. The site has a particularly large base of mobile customers according to mobile media market research firm Telephia, ranking as the #2 social networking destination in the UK and #3 in the U.S. among those who upload content captured on their mobile devices.

"The explosion in social networking, user-generated content, blogging and other Web 2.0 services combined with the parallel rise in camera phones has created a need to send images captured on the handset to a variety of destinations. ShoZu's strategy has been to supply an open platform that lets users choose from their favorite services," said Dean Wood, Senior Vice President, Commercial, for ShoZu. "The addition of Windows Live Spaces to our menu of Share-It upload options gives consumers another top choice and again demonstrates the value of our open gateway in rapidly integrating new destinations."

ShoZu's Share-It service enables customers to upload photos and video clips captured on their camera phones with fewer clicks, at higher resolution and to more Web destinations than any other method. Customers also have the unique ability to add titles or tags after uploading, exchange comments between Web and phone, and upload any image to multiple destinations without paying multiple data fees. Customers can make phone calls or take more photos while an image is transferring, and transfers automatically resume from the point of failure in the event of a dropped connection rather than forcing users to start over.

In addition to Windows Live Spaces, current destination options include online communities such as YouTube, Buzznet, Dada.net, Flickr, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Moblog.uk, Pikeo, Textamerica and Webshots; personal blogging sites Blogger, TypePad and WordPress; citizen-contributed photojournalism sites such as CNN, the BBC and Scoopt; and any FTP or email address. All destinations are supported with a single application installed on the handset.

ShoZu currently supports 136 Symbian, Java, Microsoft Windows Mobile-based and BREW devices available from multiple manufacturers. The service can also be used with select WiFi-enabled mobile phones such as the Nokia N80 in Europe and Dash in the U.S., enabling multimedia files to be routed over users' home, office or WiFi connection (or AirPort connection for Mac users) rather than the cellular network to reduce data transport costs.

The ShoZu client software can be downloaded to the handset at no charge from www.shozu.com and will soon be pre-installed on select devices. The same software also powers ShoZu's ZuCast media delivery service, enabling zero-click delivery of select videos, photos, music, games, news and other content directly to the mobile phone at the user's request.

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.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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