ShoZu Drives Mobile Media into New Territory: Photo & Video 'ZuCasts' Now Delivered Directly to Cellphones

LONDON-- May 24, 2006--  Free Service Debuts with Over 20 Content Options   

First there were podcasts and videocasts. Now come ZuCasts -- a free digital media delivery service for mobile phones from ShoZu. For the first time, photos, video clips and a variety of other professional and user-generated content can be delivered directly to the cellphone on a regular basis without any manual intervention or download downtime. Your preferred media comes to you automatically, simplifying your mobile life as well as feeding your appetite for everything from the ordinary to the oddball.

The service is scheduled to begin live previews in June with a choice of over 20 ZuCasts ranging from Webshots' best daily photos to videoblog coverage of the 2006 Vans Warped Tour, a 50-city summer music festival for which Warner Bros. Records has selected ShoZu as their mobile media partner. New subscription options will be added regularly, with a growing selection of news, music, humor, images and other digital nuggets designed to provide a constant stream of fresh on-the-go information and entertainment.

ShoZu's patented data replication technology enables files to be downloaded invisibly in the background without the need to open a mobile phone browser, wait for pages to load, interrupt phone calls, start over in the event of a dropped connection, or sync to a PC. Just click on the ShoZu icon on your handset, and the latest ZuCasts will be waiting.

The free-to-download ShoZu application also continues to offer one-click sharing of images captured on camera phones. That part of the service enables users to send images to a wide range of online image sharing, social networking, blog and citizen-contributed photojournalism sites quickly, easily and at a higher resolution than any alternative method. Users can also exchange comments about those images from their phones without waiting to get to their PCs.

"People want to be as connected on the road as they are at home or the office, but the mobile Internet is not conducive to fast and easy access," said ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. "Our ZuCasts provide that access without lifting a finger. They just appear on your cellphone, like your daily mail, ready to make you laugh or cry or simply stay plugged in to things you care about. Add our image-sharing services, and you have a whole new way to stay in touch when you're on the go."

Your Cellphone. Your Media. Your Way.

The new ShoZu service will debut with ZuCasts from the Vans Warped Tour as well as three of the most popular user-generated sites on the Web. Options will include:

-- Multiple ZuCasts from the 2006 Vans Warped Tour, consisting of photo and videoblogs created by Warner Bros. Records staff as well as select artists such as Armor for Sleep who will be on the road with the festival from June 15 through August 14.

-- Assorted ZuCasts from the Buzznet photo/video web community, including user-submitted snapshots and video clips on topics ranging from bikinis and celebrities to the bands Green Day, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance.

-- Photo ZuCasts from the Webshots photo sharing site, such as featured photo of the day, featured member of the day, best professional photos of the day, and featured community album of the day.

-- The daily episode of Rocketboom, a humorous three-minute videoblog whose host Amanda Congdon has been called the first Internet video star. Topics of the mock news report have ranged from a geek prom to oil prices, black light tattoos and Martha Stewart.

Channel preferences will be configurable at http://preview.shozu.com. File delivery is up to one-third less expensive than other mobile data delivery methods including wireless email, and it is free for cellphone users who have unlimited flat-fee data packages from their wireless carriers.

The ZuCast service will initially be available on selected Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic handsets. ShoZu's image-sharing services are currently available on 48 Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java handsets listed at www.shozu.com/portal/tour.do?operation=showhandsets.

About ShoZu

ShoZu specializes in interactive media solutions that enable cellphone users to get more out of the mobile experience, providing fast and easy access to photo sharing communities, mobile blogs, videocasts, podcasts and other web content directly from the handset. The company's patented data replication technology transfers any kind of data effortlessly and inexpensively between a mobile phone and the Internet, including photos and videos taken with camera phones. ShoZu's open architecture makes it possible to interact with multiple web communities, portals and other online sources, giving consumers a broad choice of media from a single service. Visit www.shozu.com.