Archive for February, 2009
Mind-boggling deal on Creative Vado HD camcorder ($130 @ Amazon)
February 3rd, 2009 •
Tags: 720p, Camcorder, deals, flip, vado hd
If you’re familiar with the Flip line of camcorders, the Vado is Creative’s answer to the Flip. The Vado HD bests Flip’s Mino HD in a couple of key areas. It has an HDMI output and comes with an HDMI cable for easy connection to an HDTV; the Mino HD does not have HDMI. It also doubles the storage of the Mino HD from 4GB to 8GB giving you two hours at 720p resolution. I bought one of these camcorders just before Christmas, and I have been really impressed with it. It takes fantastic video for the price.
Chris Pirillo wrote a roundup of the three hottest cameras in this space: the Mino HD, the Kodak Zi6, and the Vado HD. He favored the Vado over the others.
This week’s upcoming episode of raddevon video was shot with the camcorder. That will be released on Friday, but, until then, there are video samples available elsewhere.
Amazon.com is now offering the camcorder for $130! Use this link and enter the $100-off coupon code MY88J7DV when checking out.
Receive all your Twitter @replies via SMS
February 3rd, 2009 • 5 comments
Tags: @replies, @reply, iPhone, Short message service, sms, text message, Text messaging, tweets, twitter
Twitter‘s mobile updates text message you with tweets for your selected followers. It will also text message you with any direct messages you receive. Unfortunately, @replies are left out in the cold. Using the magic of Twitter Search, Yahoo Pipes, and Yahoo Alerts, you can begin to receive all @replies directed to you on your cell phone!
Enter your Twitter username into my Twitter @replies pipe
Right-click “Get as RSS” and click “Copy Link Location”
Go to Yahoo Alerts. If you haven’t already setup the service, you will need to configure it now. Be sure you setup your mobile phone to receive alerts.
In the “Create an Alert” tab, click “Feed/Blog”
Paste the URL we copied earlier into the box labeled ‘A’
Check the box for mobile alerts at the bottom and be sure your phone is selected
Click “Save Alert”
You will now receive all your @replies via text message on your phone. Enjoy!
SocialWhois gives a deeper look at Twitterers/FriendFeeders
February 3rd, 2009 •
Tags: friendfeed, Online Communities, profiles, Social network, social networking, Social Web, SocialWhois, twitter
Mashable pointed out this new site with a great concept. Both FriendFeed and Twitter have incredibly minimalistic profiles—FriendFeed having none to speak of and Twitter offering only a short bio. SocialWhois allows users to look up potential follows to learn more about them. This information depends partly on the user having created a profile with the service, but, for FriendFeed users, SocialWhois will “guess” at a profile by pulling in all the services a user has linked from the FriendFeed account. This still gives you quite a lot of information but no more than you might get looking at the user’s FriendFeed profile yourself.
This is another one of those services that will depend on having a critical mass of users before it actually becomes useful. It definitely fills a need in the social web space—one that some social networks do a better job of recognizing than others. It is really difficult to get a feel for a person by looking only at their Twitter bio and latest tweets, and FriendFeed could use a brief bio for each user. SocialWhois provides all that, but its utility is currently hampered by a small userbase. If it is able to expand that userbase significantly, it will be very helpful in determining whether or not to follow back that latest follower.
Tiny USB monitors bring happiness, don’t use up video ports
February 2nd, 2009 • 1 comment
Tags: friendfeed, Instant messaging, monitor, touchscreen, twitter
Why would you want to hook up a tiny 7″ monitor to your computer? Twitter, FriendFeed, IM apps, and other apps that are most useful if you can have them up at all times to watch for notifications. Mimo Monitors go a step further by connecting via USB to keep all your video ports free. This means you can easily plug one in even if you already have two, three, or more monitors. The base model is priced attractively at $129.99 and offers a very basic featureset. Its only cool trick is the ability to change orientation of the monitor from landscape to portrait or vice versa. The $200 model has a touchscreen and integrated camera making it great for an app launcher or a Skype monitor. Very cool. Wired Gadget Lab had the scoop.
iTunes is now DRM-free. So what?
February 2nd, 2009 •
Tags: Amazon, DRM, eMusic, iTunes store, lala, MP3s, music, online music stores
Apple has kindly decided to allow users to pay 30 cents per track to remove the crippling DRM which would otherwise render users’ songs useless should the iTunes DRM servers vanish (as Wal-mart’s did last year). I understand that this charge was probably mandated by the RIAA, but I still have a problem with a store that charges me again to have unfettered access to my own purchases. This is especially true since other stores have already been selling DRM-free music for a while now. Many of us who care about owning music with fewer conditions have already found iTunes alternatives. Here are a few of the iTunes store alternatives that have made my radar.
eMusic- eMusic is a subscription-based service that offers a number of downloads per month for the life of your membership. The current entry-level plan is $10 for 30 tracks which is significantly cheaper than ordering from other online music stores (except maybe for those based in Russia). The drawback is availability of major label artists; there is none. Because eMusic was among the first services offering DRM-free music, they still don’t really have a relationship with the majors. They have gained something of a reputation of being the online store for indie titles and have developed a following as a result. I can’t argue with the pricing!
Amazon- Based on my experience, Amazon’s music store comes closest to iTunes in size. Up until recently, Amazon was the place to be if you wanted DRM-free music from the majors. One unique aspect of this store is that they actually run discounts and deals on songs and albums. They offer a daily deal which is often an entire MP3 album for $2. Not bad at all!
lala- In lala’s previous life, it was a CD trading service. Someone got smart and decided CDs weren’t going to be around forever. Now, lala is a DRM-free music store with good selection (although not quite as good as Amazon’s) and a number of very unique features. Lala has a web-accessible music library. You can choose to purchase an MP3 for $.89 or the web-playable track for $.10. If you buy the MP3, the track is automatically added to your web library. If you buy the web track, you can upgrade it to the full MP3 for $.79 more. When you first sign up with lala, you will download the Music Mover app which acts as a downloader for purchased tracks. It does double-duty as an uploader for any MP3 tracks it finds on your computer. These songs will be added to your web library as well giving you roaming access to your entire library for no more than you would pay (or have paid) for the tracks themselves. It’s a really nice service, but the store is excellent as well. Most albums are $7.50 which is a pretty healthy savings over iTunes typical $9.99 price. I have also had to deal with customer service on a couple of track downloading problems. They were very responsive and provded me with an opportunity to redownload any tracks I did not receive. This one is my current favorite by far.
There is little disadvantage to using these alternative services. In many cases, you get much more for your money than you would from iTunes. The advantages are clear: extra services and better prices. Both Amazon and lala are easy to try since there is no subscription and eMusic offers a free trial. The only disadvantage is that these stores are most likely not integrated into you computer’s media player. Fortunately, the features and savings you get for that little extra effort are really worth it. Even though iTunes now offers DRM-free music, there still remain compelling reasons to give the alternatives another look.
D-Pad Hero rocks it old school
February 2nd, 2009 •
Tags: D-Pad Hero, games, Gaming, Guitar Hero, music, Music video game, NES, rhythm games, Rock Band, roms, Video game
Have you ever stepped back and taken a look at the entire rhythm game genre (that’s Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR, Parappa, etcetera) and thought to yourself, “In terms of graphics, there was nothing preventing these game from existing 20 years ago.” Sure, they wouldn’t have been as pretty, but how pretty do you need arrows, circles, and text flying across the screen for it to still be fun? You can now rest assured you are not alone. A pair of developers has seen the light and retrofitted Guitar Hero as an NES rom! It’s called D-Pad Hero, and it’s harder than if Mega Man 9 and Ninja Gaiden Black consummated and gave birth. Fire up your emulator of choice and download it now. Sweet Child o’ Mine never sounded so… 8-bit.
Frequent short power failures? Try an UPS.
February 1st, 2009 •
Tags: Internet access, Power outage, Uninterruptible power supply, ups, Wi-Fi
I bought a house about six months ago, and, to my disappointment, the neighborhood seems to have frequent, short power outages in which the power goes out just about long enough for all the devices in the house to lose power then immediately returns. This is a minor inconvenience as clocks have to be reset, but those can always wait. The thing that can’t wait when the power blinks is Internet access. Most geeks have multiple connected devices in the house and maybe have wireless and thus a router. The problem is that, when a reset occurs, the router needs to come on after the broadband device is completely connected so that it can pull an IP address from your providers DHCP server. (This is why your ISP’s customer service asks you to reset your equipment in a specific way when you call for help.) Of course, your house’s electrical circuits cannot do this automatically; they apply power to everything at once when the power returns.
I got tired of having to do resets every time the power blinks so I remedied the issue with an uninterruptible power supply (or UPS). The UPS is like a surge protector with a battery built-in. Upon initial connection, the battery charges and will allow power to be maintained for a short time in case of an outage. For my purposes, a very small UPS was sufficient.
I connected the UPS in my basement where my cable modem and wireless router live. I then connected the power cables for those two devices to the UPS. Lucky for me, my home media server is also in the same location so I was able to provide it with access to the battery as well.
These small UPS units start in the $50 range. I have the six-outlet 350VA APC UPS which will probably get you through 5-10 minutes with a computer connected. This probably isn’t enough to get you through your Left 4 Dead match, but it is enough to save your work. It’s also enough to get you through those short power outages without even having to reset your router and modem! In fact, if your cable or DSL hasn’t gone out as a result of whatever caused your power outage, you should be able to continue using your Internet access and wi-fi on laptops or any other system that is on a battery backup.
It may seem like a lot of money for a small convenience, but, if you have frequent short outages like I do, you may agree it is worth the initial investment.
iPhone may finally get Flash
February 1st, 2009 • 2 comments
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Flash, Adobe Systems, Apple, flash, iPhone
Adobe‘s CEO has stated they are now in collaboration with Apple to develop Flash for the iPhone. It seems to me that, if this ever comes to fruition, we will see a major shift in the type of games available in the app store. After all, why would I pay $5-$10 for a tower defense game or a card game when I could play them for free in the web browser? Now all we need is a version of the Kongregate site for the iPhone…