22 December 2007

On Wednesday, 19 December 2007, Farcast Moblogger was featured in the programme "Marktveroveraars" (market conquerers) on the Dutch radio station BNR Nieuws Radio.

Kobus Smit was a guest in the studio to discuss the launch and capabilities of Moblogger and some of the future plans with mobile advertising. Click here to listen to the interview.

10 December 2007, Delft, The Netherlands

PRESS RELEASE

Farcast launches free mobile blogging service

Farcast, a pre-spin-off from TNO, today announced the launch of Farcast Moblogger, a free new service enabling mobile phone users to instantly update weblogs and share multimedia content directly from their mobile phones. Farcast Moblogger is based on the award winning Farcast platform technology, which is being used for mobile reporting by professional journalists in the Netherlands and Belgium.

From today, anyone can sign in at http://moblogger.farcast.eu to download and install the Farcast Moblogger application on their telephone free of charge. Farcast Moblogger makes it possible and easy to create and upload photos, video clips, audio clips, unlimited text and GPS location coordinates directly from a mobile phone to the internet at the touch of a button.

Service is quick, easy and free of charge

Farcast Moblogger users receive a free Farcast blogsite, with a unique location mapping interface, for posting their content and airing their views. Users can also define additional endpoints and set their preferences to forward items either automatically or manually. In this way, users of sites like Hyves, Flickr, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa en Web-log.nl can use Farcast Moblogger to update their sites quickly and easily from their mobile phones, or to email items to friends.

The Farcast Moblogger application runs on a wide range of mobile telephones and the list is constantly growing. Users whose telephones are not (yet) supported can make use of MMS uploads and still enjoy the benefits of a free moblog and all the forwarding possibilities of the Farcast Moblogger service.

Farcast Moblogger comes from the same stable as Farcast Reporter, the successful mobile reporting service being used by leading news providers like “De Volkskrant” and “Gazet van Antwerpen”. Like Reporter, Moblogger also utilises the award winning technology of the Farcast Content Repurposing Platform developed by TNO Information and Communication Technology.

For more information please visit the Farcast Moblogger homepage http://moblogger.farcast.eu or the Farcast website http://www.farcast.nl.

30 November 2007

Farcast today announced that the long-awaited Farcast Moblogger service will be formally launched on 10 December 2007.

The new Moblogger website http://moblogger.farcast.eu is already operational and in use. Visitors to the site can sign up to receive a free moblog, download the Moblogger application for their phones and start moblogging immediately. Full functionality for editing and forwarding posts to popular online destinations will be made available to all users when the service is formally launched.

With Moblogger, Farcast provides a single point of upload from where content can be automatically or manually distributed. This gives users unparalled mobile content uploading and distribution capabilities. It has never been easier to stay in touch and to share photos, videos and more on the go “from mobile… to anywhere…”

15 November 2007 

Farcast has been shortlisted for the Media & Entertainment Innovation Awards organised by Accenture and Marketing Facts.

Farcast has been selected as one of the finalists in the category ‘Best Innovative Concept’ from among more than 100 entries. The winner will be selected by an expert jury and announced during the Innovation Seminar to be held in Amsterdam on 29 November 2007.

A ‘public prize’ will also be awarded for the most popular entry as voted for on the site. Click on the banner on this page, or visit http://www.innovation-awards.nl/publieksprijs to vote for us! More information on the awards and to register for the event, visit http://www.innovation-awards.nl/.

A limited functionality pre-release version of the Farcast Moblogger service is now available for free download and use.

Early Birds can go to http://moblogger.farcast.eu to sign up for a free Farcast Moblog and to download and install the Farcast Moblogger application on their mobile phones.

Farcast already supports a wide range of telephones and will be supporting several more with the full launch shortly. Should your phone not be on the list of supported devcices, we offer alternatives like a generic Windows Mobile application and the possibility to upload using MMS.

Try it out today!

Farcast’s free consumer service, Farcast Moblogger is due to be launched shortly.

With this service, everyone will be able to download and install the Moblogger application on their telephone, which will the enable them to create and upload photos, video clips, audio clips, unlimited text and GPS location coordinates directly from their phones to the internet at the touch of a button.

Farcast Moblogger users will receive a free Farcast blogpage for posting all their content and airing their views. Users can also choose to have their items forwarded through to their favourite blogsites (e.g. Blogger) or sharing sites (e.g. YouTube or Flickr) or to email or MMS it to friends.

A pre-release version will be made available within the next week, followed by a full launch shortly afterwards.

Vanavond (21 juni) is er een Telecom Society event in het kader van Innovatie.
Tijdens deze event bij het Olympisch stadion in Amsterdam zal Kobus Smit een
“elevator pitch” van Farcast geven. In maximaal 4 minuten gaat hij vertellen wat
Farcast is en wat de toekomstplannen zijn, specifiek met de Farcast Reporter en
Moblogger.

Voor meer informatie, zie www.tsoc.nl

1 June 2007 

On 4 June 2007, Kobus Smit will be presenting Farcast at the MobileMonday Demo Night in Munich. MobileMonday www.mobilemonday.net is the largest worldwide community for professionals interested in the mobile industry.

Kobus will be giving a short presentation on Farcast and will give a live demonstration of Farcast Reporter whereby photos, videos, audio and text entries can be created
on a mobile phone and uploaded (including GPS location coordinates) to a website or any other destination at the press of a button. He will also be telling more about the future plans with Farcast in the
consumer market.

Amongst the more than 160 attendees will be representatives from O2, Intel, Nokia, Siemens, Google, Ericsson and several media en mobile companies.

24 April 2007 

Berco Beute, Erik van Essen and Robert Westers have received the Dianaprijs 2006/2007 at TNO. They received this innovation award for their contributions to the development of Farcast. Eelco Blok, chairman of the jury, handed over a sculpture of Diana, goddess of the hunt, symbolising the hunt for new knowledge. The Dianaprijs is awarded every two years to innovations with scientific, social and economical impact.

Press release: Dianaprijs awarded to Farcast 

9 March 2007 

Farcast recently joined the HP Services Marketplace. The HP Services Marketplace provides a means for operators and value-add service providers from around the world to accelerate
business and technical collaboration with prospective partners.

link

3 March 2007

Twintig gsm-toestellen die gebruikt kunnen worden als 'Reporter ter Plaatse' zetten de Vlaamse kranten Gazet van Antwerpen en Het Belang van Limburg sinds vorige maand in om plaatselijk nieuws bliksemsnel op de websites van beide kranten te krijgen. De technologie, Farcast (ontwikkeld door TNO in Delft) is niet helemaal nieuw, wel nieuw is dat de twee gazetten de eersten zijn die rechtstreeks met de gsm communiceren met het redactiesysteem. Verslaggevers kunnen beeld, geluid en tekst rechtstreeks op de website plaatsen. Een gps-ontvanger zorgt er bovendien voor dat er automatisch een foto van Google Earth wordt geplaatst van de plaats waar de reporter verslag deed.

Eerder werkte het ANP al met de Farcast-techniek (De Nieuwe Reporter berichtte
al over dit ANP-experiment). Overigens is het verschil met de destijds beschreven ANP-pilot dat er nu met één apparaat (met toetsenbord en GPS) wordt gewerkt, waar het ANP nog drie apparaten gebruikte (smartphone, GPS-ontvanger en draadloos toetsenbord). Tevens wordt er nu video geupload.

De Gazet van Antwerpen en Het Belang van Limburg rusten vooral regioverslaggevers met de gsm's uit die voorzien zijn van de Farcast-software. Farcast draait op gsm's of pda's. De Vlaamse kranten gebruiken daarvoor Siemens-toestellen die per stuk rond de 500 euro kosten.

Een licensie op de Farcast-software kost volgens Robert Westers, Product Manager Farcast bij TNO Delft, 'enkele honderden euro's in de maand' voor een kleine groep gebruikers. Hij stelt dat TNO in gesprek is met diverse toekomstige klanten.

Hoewel de twintig Vlaamse verslaggevers nu direct hun nieuws, foto's en video's op de website kunnen laden, zal er tijdens de proefperiode tot april nog wel steeds een eindredacteur tussen zitten, verklaart Hans Cardyn, nieuwsmanager bij uitgever Concentra. "Omdat er geen apart toetsenbord aan de gsm zit, is het apparaat niet heel geschikt om een artikel van bijvoorbeeld zestig regels op te schrijven", voegt hij nog toe.

Cardyn hoopt dat er met het nieuwe systeem een eind komt aan een horrorverhaal dat de Gazet onlangs overkwam: een brand om de hoek van de redactie kwam pas uren later op de website omdat een fotograaf niet snel ter plaatse kon zijn. Tot april zal met het systeem worden gewerkt, waarna een evaluatie volgt.

Zowel de Gazet van Antwerpen als Het Belang van Limburg hebben op hun websites een voorbeeld van en een uitleg geplaatst over deze nieuwe techniek.

Link to original "De Nieuwe Reporter" article 

13 Feb 2007

TNO today announced the launch of Farcast TV allowing anyone to create their own television channel using their mobile phone. Farcast TV is built on the Farcast platform, a next generation content repurposing platform. Farcast TV allows consumers to start their own TV channel filled with content created via a mobile device. Farcast TV can be embedded into any weblog or website creating an enhanced experience for visitors.

Farcast TV provides website owners with a few lines of code to incorporate into their website. Movies can be sent from the consumers phone to the TV channel either via MMS or via a dedicated application. TV channel managers can invite customers to contribute to the TV channel or they can even allow anyone to post into their channel. All videos are handled by the Farcast platform.

The Farcast platform transcodes, stores, manages and distributes content in all popular web and mobile formats. It incorporates subscription (content owner and consumer), secure content management, transcoding and delivery (push and pull) functionality. The carrier grade platform can be sold as an integrated or remotely hosted solution. Farcast can also be seamlessly integrated into IMS or SIP-based architectures, generating a new breed of rich media applications which encourage the creation and sharing of multimedia content.

Applications developed to date on the Farcast platform include Farcast Reporter, Farcast AudioLink and FeedMe!. Farcast Reporter enables journalists to publish news text, images, audio and video files via their mobile along with GPS-based location tags. Farcast AudioLink distributes regular bulletins with the latest news in audio files to subscribers mobiles. Farcast FeedMe! offers webloggers the possibility to make their blogs mobile. Visitors of the weblog can fill in their mobile number and will receive the latest weblog item each time a new post appears on the blog.

"Farcast TV is another step in bringing together the telecom operators, internet and media industries. It changes the way in which users experience television, they no longer only watch it, they create it." said Robert Westers, product manager of Farcast. With the combination of the Farcast platform and Farcast applications we enable media companies and operators to gain competitive edge in supporting global trends like 'user generated content', 'semantic web' and 'cross-media'.

Demonstrations of Farcast TV will be running at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona at Hall 1, Stand F14, from 12 to 15 February 2007.

Farcast from TNO is a next generation content repurposing platform. It supports applications that let users manage and share multimedia content whenever and wherever, regardless of format or device used. Farcast transcodes, stores, manages and distributes content in all web and mobile formats. Applications include Farcast Reporter, Farcast AudioLink and Farcast FeedMe! as well as Farcast TV.

13 Feb 2007

The leading Belgian regional newspapers, ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’ and ‘Het Belang van Limburg’ have started using the innovative Farcast technology.

Thanks to Farcast technology, journalists can write articles, record and send photos, video and audio from anywhere in the world using only a mobile telephone. The information can be seen on the websites www.gva.be and www.hbvl.be within a matter of seconds. By using built-in GPS functionality, the news item is automatically provided with location information, thus enabling internet users to accurately view where the incident had occurred. With their extensive network of journalists and reporters in the region, ‘Het Belang van Limburg’ and ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’ are now also on the scene with multimedia reporting, thanks to Farcast.

With the introduction of the Farcast application, hbvl.be and gva.be are now, more than ever, the absolute frontrunner in fast, accurate, multimedia news. With Farcast, ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’ and ‘Het belang van Limburg’ have taken an important step in the further development of their websites.  In 2006, the two newspapers were also the first to launch an all-in information site for each of the municipalities in the provinces Antwerp and Limburg.

Farcast technology was developed by TNO in the Netherlands.

Hans Cardyn – News Manager, gva.be and hbvl.be,  +32 478 98 06 93
Luc Rademakers – Editor in Chief, Gazet van Antwerpen
Ivo Vandekerckhove – Editor in Chief, Het Belang van Limburg
Robert Westers - Product Manager, Farcast

9 Jan 2007 

Our journalist Bart-Jan Sweers reports live with the Farcast Reporter application on a Nokia N70 from CES in Las Vegas.