By Chris Scott Barr

Technology is both a wonderful and frustrating thing. On one hand, it is always evolving and bringing us new features in a better, smaller package. Unfortunately as the new comes out, the old becomes obsolete. The easiest example of this would be movies. When the DVD came out it had far superior quality to the older VHS. Now it’s difficult to even find a VCR to play those old tapes. Thankfully Blu-ray players are backwards-compatible, but what about the next leap in technology? Well Disney and Apple think they have a solution.

Eventually we are going to get to a point where media is almost completely distributed digitally. Music is slowly getting there, and movies will begin catching up. But when you start distributing movies digitally, there becomes an issue of licensing and DRM. Apple and Disney have teamed up to create “Keychest.”

Essentially Keychest is a distributed content ownership model that would allow you to play content that you download on a variety of devices without any fuss. Essentially you could download a movie on your PC and be able to play it on your phone, game console, portable media player, etc. You would be able to do this without having to worry about ripping the DVD, you could simply activate a key that comes with your movie.

Yes, this is DRM. However, it sounds like the right kind of DRM (if there really is such a thing). As long as they aren’t going to tie you down to very specific hardware, it could turn out alright. It will be interesting to watch this develop, but I’m still wary of any sort of DRM.

[ WSJ ] VIA [ Dvice ]

This morning Flip announced a new version of their Mino camcorder with the MinoHD that features a slimmer aluminum body (or your own custom graphics) an upgrade to 8GB of storage and the ability to capture HD video at 1280×720. Other improvements include a larger 2-inch transflective TFT display (960×240 pixels) making it easier to see in bright daylight and software updates allowing you to do basic editing and trimming of clips right on the device. $229.99 available now from the Flip online store.

[ Flip MinoHD ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

We’re just about a month away from the release of Dragon Age: Origins, which means Bioware is teasing us with new footage from the game. Today we have a video and a few high-rez pics of the Ferelden capital city of Denerim. Here’s a brief description of the city for your reading pleasure.

“Denerim, the capital of Ferelden, began originally as an outpost of the ancient Tevinter Imperium. Its mages rose up a dark tower from the side of a mountain, a symbol of the Imperium’s power. As the Imperium faded, the tower passed to the hands of the teyrns that ruled the region for a millennium.

Today that tower still stands as Fort Drakon, immediately recognizable to any ship that approaches the rocky coast. The city that has sprung up around it has almost been carved out of the side of the mountain it rests on, and during the Dragon Age, its population has grown beyond the city’s ability to cope. The cramped districts, joined to each other by a network of bridges, are built one almost on top of the other. The narrow streets of the Lower Docks have an almost labyrinthine quality, and the walled-off Elven Alienage is so overpopulated that several purges have been required to keep order.

To the rest of the world, Denerim is most famous as the birthplace of Andraste. In typical Fereldan fashion, however, the monument erected to the prophet in the Palace District is unassuming—a great rock adorned with a simple message of peace. Worshippers come from far and wide to touch the Birth Rock and issue a quiet and respectful prayer. This is how things are done in Denerim, and the locals would have it no other way.”

[ Bioware ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve had your eye on Apple’s latest 24-inch Cinema Display, then you no doubt know that it doesn’t play nicely with older hardware. Specifically, it only has a  Mini DisplayPort connector. Unfortunately unlike DVI and VGA, you aren’t going to find a simple $2 adapter. In fact, if you were running an older laptop without a Mini DisplayPort, there was no way to get the two to work together, short of buying a whole new computer. Well the folks over at Atlona have whipped up something to help you out.

The AT-DP200 takes a regular DVI connection from your computer and transforms it into a Mini Displayport connection that you can use with your fancy-pants monitor. The converter will still keep your full 1920 x 1200 resolution and HDCP compatibility. You’d better be really attached to that older computer though, as this device will set you back $179 when it ships next week.

[ Atlona ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

When I reviewed the Flip UltraHD I found the audio to be quite decent given the smallish microphone located on the front of the device. But if you want the audio done right on your pocket-friendly video recorder you might want to go with the Zoom Q3 (~$250) from Samson. It features a generously sized stereo condenser mic on top with an X/Y configuration for true “stereo imaging” and audio is captured as 44.1/48kHz 16/24-bit Linear PCM WAV files or MP3s up to 320kbps. The downside though? It only records video at PAL or NTSC resolutions, though with a 32GB SDHC card you can expect to capture about 16 hours of footage.

[ Samson Zoom Q3 ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

As the world slowly progresses to HDTV it might seem odd to find a device designed to facilitate old standard-definition displays, but that’s exactly what the AT-HD530 from Atlona Technologies does. It accepts a 1080P HD or UXGA digital signal from a PC (1600×1200 @ 60Hz) via HDMI or DVI and downconverts it to a standard-def NTSC or PAL signal available via HDMI, S-video or even ancient composite RCA hookups.

Normally I wouldn’t even give such a device a second look, but since I’m in the middle of testing out a pocket-size Pico Projector that only has a composite video-in connection, I can see how something like this could be useful in certain situations. Just be aware that it won’t work with HDCP-enabled devices if you were hoping it could be used as a workaround. $299 from the Atlona website available in late August.

[ Atlona AT-HD530 ]

YouTube and other video sharing sites have made finding and watching clips of men getting hit in the groin by footballs extremely easy for everyone from kids to grandparents. But it was a company called Pure Digital that made capturing hilarious clips like that just as easy for anyone capable of pushing a button. Their Flip line of digital camcorders are known for being as easy to use as it gets, and with the addition of the MinoHD and the UltraHD pictured above, creating HD content is just as simple.

I spent a few weeks playing around with the Flip UltraHD and while I was initially worried that I would be frustrated by such a simple device, I actually walked away appreciating its simplicity. So if you’ve been looking for a way to shoot HD video that’s as easy, if not easier, than a point & shoot still camera, you’ll want to check out my full review of the Flip UltraHD after the jump.

One of the best parts of the Flip UltraHD is its small and compact size, so it’s not surprising that the packaging is just as compact and minimal. It’s a clean and simple cardboard box with product shots that show off the camera from all sides, so in the store you’ll know exactly what you’re getting ahead of time.

And as is the trend these days with gadget packaging, once you remove the Flip UltraHD’s outer box there’s a pair of flaps that really serve no other purpose than to provide a dramatic reveal of the device while you’re opening it. Of course the first thing you’ll find inside is the Flip UltraHD itself, but digging a little deeper also reveals a removable rechargeable battery, a microfiber case, a lanyard and a set of printed instructions and warranty info.

Given the UltraHD’s box was already open when I got it, I definitely wasn’t the first person to put my grubby paws on this particular review unit. However, I did notice that the lanyard had yet to be opened, which I found odd. It easily attaches to the Flip UltraHD to provide a bit of extra security while you’re carrying it around, though I’ll admit I didn’t much care for the bright silver finish. But it’s nice that it’s included.

And like I already mentioned, a microfiber case is also included which is nice since the Flip UltraHD has a lens but no lens cap, so it’s prone to getting mucked up with fingerprints and other smudges. There’s a nice little ‘Flip’ tag attached to one side so you never accidentally use the case to protect some other gadget in your collection, but while it does an adequate job of keeping the UltraHD clean and free of scratches, it provides nothing more than cosmetic protection. So if you were to drop the Flip while it’s in this case, there’s a good chance it’s still going to break.

I also want to mention that I found it rather difficult to quickly slip the Flip UltraHD into this case, particularly when I was in a hurry. It’s made to fit the UltraHD rather snugly, and because the device has a rubberized texture on the outside, sliding it in was often a chore, to the point where I swapped it for an old microfiber sunglasses case instead. If the included case was just a bit larger though, it would be just fine.

Now one of the things I really like about the Flip UltraHD is that it uses an easily replaceable rechargeable battery allowing you to carry spares. A cover on the front of the camcorder slides off to reveal the battery compartment, and the included battery even has a handy plastic flap that makes removing it extremely easy. But it gets even better…

Not only does the Flip UltraHD’s rechargeable battery look like a couple of AA’s wrapped in plastic, but it is a couple of AA’s wrapped in plastic. So if you run out of juice with no time or means to recharge the included battery, you can easily swap it for a set of standard AA’s that you can buy anywhere. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find how long the included rechargeable battery will record for, but given my own tests you’ll probably run out of storage space on the device before you run out of power.

Like I mentioned at the start of my review, the name of the game when it comes to the Flip line is simplicity. And this shot of the back of the Flip UltraHD shows the device’s extremely simple user controls. In fact, all-in-all you really only have to deal with 7 buttons back here, including a 4-way directional pad, a big red record button, a play button and a delete/trash can button. Of course some of these buttons do double duty depending on what you’re doing with the device, but the user interface, which I’ll talk about later, is just as simple.

I also want to point out that the black matte finish on the UltraHD has a really nice rubberized texture to it which makes it particularly difficult for the device to slip out of your hand or pick up fingerprints. So you clumsy types or those with particularly greasy digits might want to give it some serious consideration for that aspect alone.

Now I was sent the Flip UltraHD for review, which as you can see isn’t thin by any stretch of the imagination. But there’s an even more compact and svelte HD model from Pure Digital known as the MinoHD. The biggest difference between the two, besides size and appearance, is the on-board storage. While the MinoHD comes with 4GB of memory allowing it to record 60 minutes of 1280×720P HD video, the UltraHD comes with 8GB allowing it to record 120 minutes instead. But oddly enough, the UltraHD retails for about $30 less than the MinoHD. $249.99 compared to the MinoHD’s price tag of $279.99. So unless size is a huge issue for you, I most definitely recommend the UltraHD model since you basically get more for less.

I’ll also quickly point out that this shot shows the UltraHD’s eighth button (on the left) which is used to power the device on and off, as well as the unused lanyard loop (on the right.)

On the bottom of the Flip UltraHD is a sliding lever which is used to lock the removable battery cover, as well as a standard sized tripod mount. While you might think it’s kind of ridiculous to mount such a small camcorder to a tripod, that’s exactly the reason you’d want to. Because it’s so small it’s often hard to hold steady, particularly if you’re outside dealing with the wind. And performing pans while holding it one hand rarely leads to smooth results. So having the option of using a tripod is important if you intend to shoot anything other than shaky UFO footage.

On the other side of the UltraHD you’ll find an HDMI port which is another nice addition. It’s really hard to enjoy and appreciate your 720P clips on the device’s 2-inch LCD display, so being able to connect it to the hi-def TV in your living room to view the clips in their native resolution is a much better option. The downside? That’s a mini-HDMI connection which means there’s a good chance you’ll need to buy a mini-HDMI to regular-HDMI cable because one isn’t included.

On this side of the UltraHD you’ll also find the device’s ridiculously handy and convenient built-in USB connector. Sliding down a button causes a small arm to pop-out which features a USB port on the end.

The arm is long enough to easily connect to even a crowded USB hub or laptop, and the fact that you don’t have to carry a USB extension cable or some other proprietary adapter cable with you at all times is simply brilliant. And when you connect the UltraHD to a Windows or OS X PC it shows up as a mass storage compliant device allowing you to easily play or transfer the MP4 videos you’ve recorded.

The USB connector is also used to charge the Flip UltraHD, but oddly enough it has to be connected to a laptop or PC’s USB port. I tried connecting it to the USB AC adapters that come with the iPhone and older iPods, and the device simply refused to charge. But since you’re able to swap out the rechargeable battery with regular AA’s in an emergency, being limited to charging the UltraHD via a computer isn’t as big an issue as far as I’m concerned.

On the front of the Flip UltraHD, just above the battery compartment, you’ll find the lens which is flanked by what I have to assume is the built-in microphone on one side, and a red LED tally light on the other. One of my complaints here is that it’s a fixed lens, which means the zoom option that’s offered while you’re recording is actually a digital zoom. For some reason this didn’t dawn on me until I was watching some recorded footage and noticed how blurry (interpolated) parts of my videos were. As anyone who’s ever used a digital P&S camera will tell you, digital zoom is bad, and it’s no different with the Flip UltraHD. My advice? Forget that it’s even an option.

The UltraHD also doesn’t come with a lens cap at all. The included microfiber case is a nice alternative, but there’s a good chance you’re not going to use it every time you stick this thing in your pocket. So I would have preferred if Pure Digital had included some kind of automatic lens cover like most P&S still cameras have these days. Or at the least, simply recess the lens cover so it’s less prone to being touched or scratched.

Now in this age of touchscreens a device with minimal buttons can still be extremely complicated when it comes to the user interface, like the iPhone for example. But thankfully the simple and easy-to-use mentality of the Flip UltraHD carries over to the UI as well. Start up time is almost instantaneous, maybe a second or two, and once it’s booted it takes you straight to the record screen showing you what’s in front of the lens. On the 2-inch LCD display you’ll also find a slider indicating your zoom level which can be adjusted by pressing up and down on the 4-way controller (remember, it’s digital, so just ignore this) as well as how much recording time you have left.

Now when you’re ready to record all you have to do is hit the big red record button on the back of the UltraHD and the device will start capturing. And instead of showing you how much recording time you have left, the UI instead shows how long the current clip has been recording for. So I guess it’s important to make a mental note of how much storage time you have left before you start capturing. And the zoom slider sticks around since you can actually zoom in and out while the UltraHD is recording, if you’ve decided not to listen to my previous complaints.

When you’re not recording, hitting the play button takes you to the last video you recorded and you can either watch it by hitting play again, or you can scroll through the other videos by pressing left or right on the 4-way controller. The videos are numbered in the order they were captured, and above the thumbnail you can see how long each clip is as you step through them.

While playing a video you get a simple slider underneath showing your current position compared to the entire length of the clip, and at any time you can hit the delete button to erase the current video you’re watching, or erase all of them in one fell swoop.

In fact the most complicated part of the UI is the setup screen which is only accessible by holding down a button while the device is starting up. In here you can set the time and date so your files get properly tagged when they’re saved, as well as a handful of other options like being able to turn off the red tally light on the front of the device so your friends and family don’t know their antics are being recorded.

Video Samples and Performance:

Now what would a review of a device designed for capturing videos be without a few video samples? Now the Flip UltraHD obviously uses compression when it’s capturing footage, and in this case its H.264 MP4 files at 30 frames per second with an average bitrate of about 9 Mbps. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much when it came to the quality of the footage, but I was pleasantly surprised when watching a few clips on a proper hi-def display. Usually when videos get compressed the first thing to go is color data (see every single thing on YouTube) but the colors looked really bright and crisp on everything I shot.

One downside though, which will keep the Flip UltraHD out of the hands of professionals, is its rolling shutter. While footage is captured progressively, the image from the sensor is actually read line by line which can lead to weird artifacts when things are in motion. For example, here’s a clip taken from a moving streetcar in downtown Toronto. Notice how objects like trees, poles and even the transit stops in the foreground all seem to lean when the vehicle is in motion. It’s not immediately obvious until someone points it out, and since even the new video-capable DSLRs exhibit the same problem, I don’t think it’s a deal breaker for most consumers.

OhGizmo! Flip UltraHD Test – Streetcar on Spadina – Toronto, Ontario

Another issue is the UltraHD’s low-light performance. Since there’s no physical iris to open up in darker conditions, the image data from the sensor simply gets ‘boosted’ leading to noisy and grainy results. For example, here’s some footage shot out the back of a subway car. Things are ok when the train is sitting in the station, but in the tunnel the grain and noise almost becomes unbearable. (Not to mention the hot pixel which becomes extremely noticeable.)

OhGizmo! Flip UltraHD Test – Subway – Toronto, Ontario

However, even with those issues the UltraHD can still produce some extremely nice footage in the right conditions. Here’s a short clip of a small cruise ship pulling away from a dock with other assorted air and watercraft in the background.

OhGizmo! Flip UltraHD Test – Cruise Ship Leaving the Dock – Toronto, Ontario

And if you were wondering how well that built-in microphone works, check out this clip from the 2009 Red Bull Air Race held in Windsor, Ontario a few weeks ago for the sound of the engine roaring on Mike Mangold’s plane while he makes his way around the course.

OhGizmo! Flip UltraHD Test – Red Bull Air Race 2009 – Windsor, Ontario

Conclusions:

Pure Digital positions their Flip devices as being one of the easiest ways to capture and share video content online, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they’ve succeeded there. I’ve worked as a videographer in the past so I can think of hundreds of options and buttons to add to the device to make it more useful to a professional, but that’s not who the Flip is targeted at. So on the other side of that coin, I can’t actually think of a single function that needs to be removed to make this device easier to use. If for whatever reason you’ve got your heart set on becoming the next YouTube star on a minimal budget, the Flip UltraHD or any of the Flip devices should be your first investment.

Pros:
+ Easiest hi-def camcorder on the market.
+ Built in USB connection means you don’t have to worry about carrying extra cables.
+ Shows up as mass storage compliant device so there’s no need for 3rd party software or drivers to offload content.
+ Tripod mount helps with stability.
+ Rechargeable battery easily swapped with standard AA’s.

Cons:
- Compact video devices can lead to shaky footage.
- 720P instead of 1080P.
- Rolling shutter can lead to jelly artifacts.
- Grainy footage in the dark.
- No option to switch to a standard-def mode to increase record times.
- No built-in lens cap.
- Digital zoom.
- Professional videographers will find it too simple.

Links:

Flip UltraHD – $249.99

If you have any questions about the Flip UltraHD you’d like answered, please feel free to leave them in the comments, and I’ll try to respond to them as best I can.

By Chris Scott Barr

Despite my love for my iPhone, I still don’t get the fascination with watching video on it. It’s a beautiful screen, but any way you slice it, it’s still really small. I don’t mind playing a game on it for a short while, but it doesn’t take too long before I get tired of staring at it. However, for those that absolutely need to keep up on their favorite shows while they’re sitting at the BMV, then you’ll be happy to know that the SlingPlayer App for your iPhone is now available.

The App will stream your favorite shows to your iPhone, with one small catch. You’re going to have to be hooked up to a WiFi connection, as AT&T would not allow the service to run on 3G. Naturally they cited bandwidth concerns, despite having no issues with their own mobile TV services or YouTube. So how much is this exciting service going to cost you? A cool $30, plus you’ll actually need a Slingbox to work in conjunction with it.  I think that I’ll survive with just my laptop watching Hulu, thank you very much.

[ SlingMedia ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

As we’ve mentioned to you before, the Eye-Fi card is really a pretty brilliant idea. Digital cameras are neat little gadgets, but getting all your awesome pics from your camera to the computer and to the internet is still a stone age process that involves plugging cables into things and taking cards out of things and running software and pushing buttons and waiting around. It’s utterly ridiculous. Eye-Fi has the solution to this, with an SD card that includes a WiFi antenna that automatically sends pictures and video that you take directly to the internet and your computer, no cables necessary.

We’ve got a full review of the Eye-Fi Explore Video for you, right after the jump.

The Eye-Fi card is, simply, an SD card, just with a bunch of other stuff going on as well. The latest versions come in either a 2 gig SD or a 4 gig SDHC card, and they’ll work in any cameras that take the format. The cards have built-in WiFi antennas, and if you’re wondering how they manage to stuff that in there along with all the memory, just think about how much smaller a microSD card is. Anyhoo, as soon as you take a picture, the card connects to an available wireless network and fires it off to the internet, where Eye-Fi will forward it on to your computer or one of any number of picture sharing sites, including Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Photobucket, YouTube, and a bunch more. Plus, today Eye-Fi is announcing that they’ve expanded their video upload capability (which already includes YouTube and Flickr) to Picasa, Photobucket, and SmugMug.

I know, all those options and capabilities sound really complicated, and I was expecting some major headaches when it came to configuring everything. But I was shocked, shocked I say, at how easy it was to set the card up. It was incredibly easy. Stupidly, ridiculously easy. It took me four minutes and fifty-three seconds from opening the box to having a picture magically appear in my Flickr account. This is impressive because the card had to connect to my (protected) wireless network, find my computer, get through my firewall to the internet, set up access to the Eye-Fi site, set up access to my Flickr and YouTube accounts, and then get all of that stuff to communicate. This literally took about 3 minutes of effectively clicking “next.” The other minute or so was spent configuring my D40x to not instantly enter sleep mode, so that the Eye-Fi card can upload while I wasn’t actively taking pictures.

Managing your card settings is done pretty much exclusively through the Eye-Fi website, with the assistance of a small application that runs on your desktop to download pictures to your computer. Through the website, you can set up network access for the card, add or modify picture and video destinations, alter descriptions and tags, and even do nifty things like view your upload history and set up RSS feeds of your pics. I don’t, as a rule, like to have applications running on my computer when I’m not using them. The Eye-Fi manager website will complain if you don’t have their little desktop application running (and you won’t get pics sent to your computer), but to do stuff like change upload tags and descriptions, it doesn’t seem to matter.

The only quibble I have with the online manager is that I didn’t seem to be able to change upload privacy settings through the Eye-Fi manager, which was unfortunate, since sometimes I’m happy to have everything show up public, but it would be nice to have an easy way to change it to private or family. As far as I can tell, the only way to do it is to remove your Flickr account, and re-add it to change the privacy option.

Even though card management is done exclusively online, the Eye-Fi web app doesn’t quite seem to work my iPhone. It gets close, but to (say) change a Flickr tag there’s a flash pop-up thingy that doesn’t fit onto the iPhone screen and it doesn’t want to resize itself. This seems like something that might be fixable, and it would be very useful to be able to change tags on the fly if you move from place to place. There is actually an Eye-Fi app for the iPhone, but while it lets you check on your uploads and upload from your phone, you can’t change any upload settings. And speaking of moving from place to place, the card will connect to unsecured networks to upload pics, but it doesn’t seem to like to, and uploads on the go were intermittent and took a while.

In testing, the card was damn fast on my home network. I took a bunch of 10 megapixel JPEGs on my D40x, and it took about 30 seconds for the card to get started uploading. After that, pictures took about 10 seconds each to show up on my computer. It took a little bit longer for the pics to make it to Flickr, but 20 pictures were up there after about 5 minutes. You don’t have to worry about taking additional pictures while an upload is in progress; Eye-Fi is smart enough to know if an upload was interrupted, and will try again later for you. Uploading a 1 minute video took about 8 minutes to get from my Canon PowerShot A2000 to my computer, and showed up on YouTube about 30 minutes later (it was a 100mb uncompressed AVI).

The Eye-Fi Explore comes bundled with a geotagging service from Skyhook. Skyhook uses WiFi access points to provide a location, so getting a fix is probably going to be good in a city, decent in urban areas, and impossible everywhere else. Pictures I took in Golden Gate Park, for example, got geotagged as outside the park (about 50 meters off or so), because that’s where the card was able to find a WiFi access point that Skyhook could use. So it’s a nice service that kind of works some of the time, but don’t expect reliable GPS-type accuracy and keep in mind that it costs about $15 a year if you don’t buy the most expensive Eye-Fi card.

Now, just to make this a fair and balanced review, I should mention a few things that I don’t like so much about the Eye-Fi card, but in a way, neither of them are flaws in the product, just inconveniences that you should be aware of before you buy one. First of all, the Eye-Fi card uploads ALL of your pictures, whether you like it or not. There isn’t any way to designate specific pictures to upload, or not to upload. But of course, there isn’t really a way to integrate that sort of functionality into the card itself. I did some testing to figure out how long you have to delete a picture that you took before it gets uploaded, and on my home network, the Eye-Fi card would start uploading after 5-10 seconds, but not complete if I deleted the image from my camera within 30 seconds. So, you have a little bit of leeway in reviewing your pictures, but don’t wait too long.

The other issue with the card is that it only works when your camera is turned on, and it sucks up battery power doing its thing. Not a huge amount of battery power, but still. I reflexively turn my camera off when I’m not actively taking a picture, and that prevents the card from uploading anything. Even if you train yourself not to turn the camera off, most cameras will enter a power save mode after some amount of time, and that will also stop the card from uploading. One solution is to alter settings to keep the camera on as long as possible, but not only does that waste a lot of battery, it’s no guarantee that the card will be able to upload all of your pictures if you take a bunch. My D40x has a maximum idle-on time of 30 minutes, and if I take more pics than the card can upload in that time, I have to remember to push a button on the camera to wake it up again so that the card can continue uploading. Some newer cameras like the Nikon D60 and D90 are able to recongize Eye-Fi cards and manage their power settings accordingly, which is very cool.

A nice feature of the card that helps to mitigate the fact that you have to leave your camera on is that you can enable notifications when your pictures have been uploaded. Eye-Fi can send you a message via email, SMS, and/or Twitter to let you know that your pics are all done, and you can go turn your camera off.

Okay, I guess there’s one more thing I don’t like, and it’s the price. A regular 4 gig SD card, brand new, is like $10 nowadays. The 4 gig Eye-Fi Explore is $100. It kind of seems like somebody got a focus group together and asked them, “how much would you barely tolerate paying for this thing,” and $100 was the magic number. But you know, I might even go as far as to say that it’s worth it. I wouldn’t have thought that I would feel that way, but Eye-Fi just saves so much more time and effort moving pics around than I thought it would, not to mention the whole issue of having to back up your pictures online, which gets done automatically for you.

There are currently three different models of the Eye-Fi card, some of which are substantially cheaper, including the Eye-Fi Home ($50, only sends pics to your home network) and Eye-Fi Share ($60, adds web sharing, and also video for another $20). The Eye-Fi Explore, which is the card I tested, includes geotagging and 1 year of WayPort WiFi hotspot access for $100. Additional years of WayPort are $15.

You can buy Eye-Fi cards directly from the Eye-Fi website, or as of today, in Best Buy and Apple stores.

The Good:

-Easy to set up
-Works exactly as advertised (and quite well)
-Simple web management with lots of sharing options

The Bad:

-Expensive
-No power management in most cameras

Overall:

It’s a brilliant product, especially if you take a lot of pictures and like to share them online (and/or back them up). It’s expensive (expensive enough that it might end up being a significant percentage of the cost of your camera), so consider the Eye-Fi Share, which doesn’t include hotspots or geotagging but costs $20 – $40 less.

[ Eye-Fi ]

By Shane McGlaun

Whatever you plan to do with your computer, there is usually a peripheral made just for the task. If you want to game there are a myriad of gaming mice on the market and if you just want to do boring old computer work, there are peripherals for that too.

Bella has announced a new wireless mouse called the HD Mouse that is aimed at professional and amateur video editors. The mouse is designed for multimedia users and includes software that allows the user to program mouse movements to act like gesture commands. The mouse has 1600dpi of sensitivity and a wireless range of up to 26 feet.

An example is that you can program functions for moving the mouse in the X and Y axis to function like a jog/shuttle control. The software also allows all of the buttons on the HD Mouse to be programmed with macros or keystrokes. Compatibility for the mouse is with both Windows and Mac computers and it is set to ship in May for $69.95.

[ Bella ]