The first snap happy phone
QUESTION Which was the first mobile phone model to feature a camera?
The first mobile phone with a built-in camera was manufactured by Samsung and released in South Korea in June 2000. The SCh-V200 was a flip phone with a 1.5inch TFT-LCD (thin film transistor-liquid crystal display) with camera functions.
The digital camera was capable of taking 20 photos at 350,000-pixel resolution. But the phone was only half-integrated: the camera had no relationship with the mobile telephone other than sharing the same housing and battery.
The world’s first mobile to fully integrate a camera with the telephone function, allowing the resulting picture to be sent over the mobile network, was the Sharp J-Sh04. The phone was released in Japan by J-Phone (now SoftBank Mobile) in November 2000. It could take photos with a minuscule 110,000-pixel resolution.
The first UK picture-messaging service came in June 2002. T-Mobile’s service could be used only with the Sony ericsson T68i, which cost £200.
This ‘candy bar’ phone, featured in the James Bond film Die Another Day, had a separate camera attachment that took photos with a 0.3MP resolution. Customers had to pay an extra £20 per month for the service.
By August 2002 Nokia got its longawaited 7650 phone onto the market. This was a quality phone with an integrated camera. Its Symbian operating system also offered picture management.
For a time it was one of the most desirable gadgets on the market and made mobile phones without a camera old hat.
James Graham, Dorchester, Dorset.
QUESTION How many burhs did Alfred the Great establish to protect his kingdom?
ALFreD the Great, King of Wessex from 871 to 899, earned his name by saving Anglo-Saxon england from being overwhelmed by the Danes. he realised that to sustain his military success, permanent protections had to be developed.
Alfred encouraged the formation of a network of fortified towns, or burhs, such that no place in Wessex was more than 20 miles from a town. In exchange for free plots of land, settlers provided a defence force. Some were new constructions; others were at the site of Iron Age hillforts or roman forts and employed materials from the original fortifications.
As at Lundenburh (medieval London), many were situated on rivers: this facilitated internal supply lines while aiming to restrict access to the interior of the kingdom for attackers in shallow-draught vessels such as longships. The burhs were also encouraged to become centres of commerce and local government.
G. L. Sanderson, Dover, Kent. BY The time of Alfred’s death there were more than 30 burhs. The Burghal hidage, a document compiled during the reign of his son, edward the elder, lists them.
They were Axbridge, Bath, Bridport, Buckingham, Burpham, Canterbury, Chichester, Chisbury, Cricklade, eashing, eorpeburnan (possibly on the edge of romney Marsh), exeter, halwell, hastings, Langport, Lewes, Lydford, Lyng, London, Oxford, Pilton, Portchester, rochester, Sashes (an island in the Thames), Southwark, Shaftesbury, Twyneham, Wallingford, Wareham, Watchet and Winchester.
But after Alfred’s death, his children, edward and AEthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, continued the fight, and several Mercian burhs were built or restored, including Warwick, Worcester, Weardburh and Bremsbyrig (neither of the latter two have had their locations identified).
Not all the burhs on the Burghal hidage can be attributed to Alfred — Buckingham, for example, was built by edward. he had many military successes which tend to be overshadowed by the achievements of his father. he worked in tandem with his brother-in-law, AEthelred of Mercia, and after AEthelred’s death, with his sister until her death in 918. Annie Whitehead, historian and author of To Be A Queen, the story of AEthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, Sydney, Australia. ArMeNIAN-CANADIAN portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh was born in Mardin, in the eastern Ottoman empire. he grew up during the Armenian genocide and wrote: ‘I saw relatives massacred; my sister died of starvation as we were driven from village to village.’
At 16, Karsh’s parents sent him to live with his uncle, George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
he learned his trade by helping his uncle and became the most sought-after photographer in the world. It was said: ‘When the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa.’
he took iconic portraits of the greats — Churchill, einstein, elizabeth II, JFK, Picasso, Muhammed Ali, hemingway, Audrey hepburn. The Churchill portrait is perhaps his most famous. Taken in December 1941, during World War II, it encapsulates the British bulldog spirit.
But Churchill’s expression owed as much to the fact that his cigar was snatched away before the shot was taken. Karsh recalled in his memoirs: ‘I held out an ashtray...I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar...I said: “Forgive me, sir,” and plucked the cigar out of his mouth. he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me.’
London-based photo agency Camera Press has provided the licence to the Bank of england for the use of Karsh’s portrait of Churchill on the £5 note.
It brokered the financial agreement and said: ‘An arrangement was reached between Camera Press and the Bank of england, and the usage has the approval of both the Karsh and Churchill estates’.
Jim Besley, Wilmslow, Cheshire.