Cameraphone woes

June 23, 2005 11:48 AM

Help with mobile phones wanted... How can I download pictures taken with my camera phone?

I have a Sharp GX10 (not GX10i). I recently bought a data cable that plugs into the Sharp and PC USB port. It came with some fairly useless software, as far as I can see; nowhere does it give me the simple option of using the PC (Windows Explorer, say) to probe the phone's memory banks and retrieve these precious images.

Does anyone know how this is done? Is there a program out there that can read a cameraphone of this type?

posted by jonathanbell to Technology (8 answers total)

I was looking into this possibility a couple weeks ago for my Samsung camera phone and found that I have to purchase some small office kit for $40 from my provider, which I am not sure if I should name, but rhymes with Berizon.

Other than that, I think the site http://3gupload.com/ has a way to get them from your camera, for a small fee, of course. Hope this helps.
posted by cincidog at 12:22 PM on June 23, 2005

I did some testing work on a GX10 a while ago, and played with the phone quite extensively. That phone's been deliberately set up so you can't get images off of it via the cable. The only way is via your provider's OTA mechanisms, hence costing you lots of money - it's cheaper to develop and print a roll of film than get your images off a camera phone by MMS. It's very much a phone aimed at providers, not consumers.

I believe there was some talk of an application to dump the phone's entire memory then pick through it for JPEGs, but I never found anything that would do it.

Sorry to be so negative - maybe someone else can come up with something more useful.
posted by Leon at 12:26 PM on June 23, 2005

Response by poster: That was what I was afraid of. I should have said, I'm with Vodafone here in the UK, and I'm sure the intention is to make me send each and every one of 50 plus pictures as a costly picture MMS. Memo to self - don't take precious baby photos on a cameraphone.
posted by jonathanbell at 1:09 PM on June 23, 2005

May I piggyback and extend this question to ask what is a good provider / phone combination that will let me move photos and phonebook data between the phone and a computer (preferaly Mac, but PC if needed)?
posted by anadem at 1:27 PM on June 23, 2005

Cincidog! I just got a cable off eBay ($5 rather than $30 -- for that matter, batteries are way cheaper on eBay) and downloaded BitPim and I can get to my pictures (From my Verizon Samsung A670) no problem. I recommend.

As for Sharp phones, I'm afraid I'm useless.
posted by skryche at 1:35 PM on June 23, 2005

I use a Nokia 6620 which came with a connectivity cable. It plugs in and works no-prob. Also syncs my contacts and calendar with Outlook. Provider is irrelevant.
posted by fourstar at 2:40 PM on June 23, 2005

All of the Series 60 mobile phones are happy to talk to a PC via IR or Bluetooth regardless of provider. My N-Gage came with all the connection software I need to move files on an off it and it even has a USB port that can be used to mount the internally mounted MMC card as a normal USB drive without drivers. It doesn't have a camera though.

Extra bonus for Series 60 owners: PhotoAcute -- take a batch of multiple photos and use them to produce a single high-res photo.
posted by krisjohn at 6:14 PM on June 23, 2005

Agreed on a series 60 smartphone - they're not perfect by any means, but at least they're not locked down - there are all kinds of novel series 60 apps out there, even a guitar tuner.

(My favourite neat apps - GoBoy Gameboy emulator and AgileMessenger IM client, which lets you grab images within the program and send them out by IM).
posted by Leon at 6:55 PM on June 23, 2005