GeekSugar

Kodak Zi6 Pocket Camera to Challenge My Trusty Flip?

GeekSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:03:07 -0700

I'm obviously a big fan of the Flip Video camera because of its portability and simple video uploading functions. My YouTube page has never been easier to populate! And of course, since the Flip was first on the scene, there are bound to be challengers pop up with improved capabilities. Enter the Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera.

Coming just in time for the holiday season on Oct. 1, the Zi6 boasts some pretty impressive specs: HD recording at 16:9 aspect ratio, flip-out USB connector, 2.4-inch screen, on board slow motion playback, tripod mountable body, and an expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB, which equals hours of video fun. The Zi6 is priced at an affordable $180 in your choice of black or pink, and will come stocked with video editing software to let you personalize your flicks with text, music, and still-photo extraction for sharing. It's the newest evolution in on-the-go video cameras! I'm definitely adding this bad boy to my Christmas list this year!

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Flip Video Announces New FlipShare Video Sharing Software

GeekSugar — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:25:44 -0700

The best thing I learned in kindergarten was that sharing is caring, and that's still one of my major tenets. It's one for Flip Video too - the company whose simple, portable video cameras made it easy to capture video is now making it just as easy to share the videos you make with your camera with new FlipShare software, just announced today.

FlipShare allows you to easily upload videos to websites like YouTube and MySpace, email them to friends, and sets you up with your own Flip Channel, where you can watch videos on the go. Speaking of on the go, there's also a new free FlipShare iPhone app.

I was lucky enough to test out the new FlipShare software and give it a hands-on review, so to see how I got going with the new one-click sharing, just read more.

I tried out FlipShare with the help of a Flip UltraHD, and opened up the new software (starting today, all camcorders will be shipped with this new version of software on the camera, and current users can download it from the Flip website). After I installed FlipShare, my videos automatically uploaded into the application. From there, I could edit my videos or send them with one click to my YouTube account or newly-created Flip Channel (note: It looks like you can only use videos in FlipShare that you're uploading directly from the camera, rather than existing videos on your camera).

Everything is pretty intuitive, with sharing options located in the title bar, and though I had to take a minute to link my FlipShare account with my YouTube account and set up my Flip Channel, from then on, everything truly was "one-click." I put up a video on YouTube. I emailed my mother a video. I made a movie into a greeting card. I sent it to my channel. Did I mention I did all these steps within a few minutes?!

Once you have videos in the FlipShare application, pretty much everything is drag and drop. You can also create DVDs from this application, so it kind of functions like iPhoto, but with features specifically tailored to a Flip Video camera. I am positive that I could give the least tech-savvy person in my family a Flip, and they'd be able to navigate this software with ease.

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Snap Pics Like Kanye With a Panasonic Lumix LX3

GeekSugar — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:48:21 -0700

Kanye just can't get enough digital cameras. We've already seen him with the stylish Leica D-LUX 3 at the 2007 Givenchy show in Paris a few years back, and now he's been spotted in London with a new Panasonic Lumix LX3 ($600) number around his neck.

The 10.1 megapixel LX3 is just what Kanye needs to capture great photos on his trips around the world - it comes with a large three inch LCD screen, shoots in 16:9 HD video, includes 21 fun scene modes like self portrait, pet, and starry sky, and it accepts expandable SD cards to boost its onboard 50MB internal memory space.

Plus, this portable number takes excellent low-light photos, thanks to its wide aperture range and the newly developed Leica DC Vairo-Summicron lens, which captures clear shots during late night outings, concerts, and candlelight dinners. Perfect for a geek on the go!

The USB Video Cam: Your Very Own Men in Black Gizmo

GeekSugar — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:05:41 -0700

This USB Flash Video Camera might not erase your co-workers' memories Men In Black-style, but it will take their picture, or record them doing something silly at their desks. This mini digital camera packs in 256MB of on board memory, captures 2.3-megapixel photos, and can take up to 40 minutes of video footage. And what else do you get for $160? This camera can also be used as a portable webcam, for those, uh, portable webcam moments. Overall, one pricey little device if you are looking for something practical.

Playing Around With the DSi: Now With Video!

GeekSugar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:00:34 -0700

Last week we got a sneak peek at the Nintendo DSi, and I told you about some of its cool features: DSi Sounds, the dual cameras, and the DSi Shop that you can access through its wireless connectivity. But now that the DSi Shop is open for business, I can give you the full low down on the newest portable console to hit the market.

Check out my video review of the DSi as I take you through how to play your music, some of the fun extra features, and whether or not it's worth the $170 price tag when you read more.

Fabulous Pure Flip Video Camera

GeekSugar — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:30:28 -0700

There's been a lot of talk across the blogosphere about Pure's new Flip Video Camera, but I wasn't sure about it until I got a chance to test it out. How do I feel now? I think it's called love.

I took the Flip Video to one of my sister's dance performances last week and even though I was sitting about 20 rows back, I managed to clearly capture both the dance and the music. After I figured out how to subtly turn the camera on while the crowd was clapping (it makes a tiny beep which seemed to really bother my uptight neighbor), I just pointed it at the stage, pressed the red record button and voilà! I am the next Sofia Coppola.

For additional photos and specs of the Flip Video, read more

The Pure Flip Video camera was designed with users like myself in mind. I want to have easy access to a light, portable and quality camcorder, but I'm not ready to commit to a $2,000 device. Because the camera has simple "power," "play," "delete," and "record" buttons, it's virtually fool proof. It has a 2X zoom and allows you to do instant playback like any other camcorder, but unlike any other camcorder, it has a built-in Flip Video Software Program that launches directly from the camcorder (see the flip out USB arm? It plugs right into your computer). Using the program you can view, organize, and locally archive your videos in a clip-based library system. You can also capture still photos from video clips and edit your videos to create fun montages and YouTube ready videos.

I've always been the woman that whips out her digital camera at every event to take pictures, but I had never actually used a camcorder because I hate the idea of all the post-shooting work. The Flip Cam kills the need for tapes, memory cards or batteries and packs all your video needs into a sleek, simple camera that will fit in your purse, diaper bag or palm. Even better, the fact that you can capture still photos means you don't have to carry your digital camera too.

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It comes in two models, one 30-minute version with a 512 MB flash memory, and one 60-minute version with 1 GB of memory. It has a 1.4 inch color screen for instant viewing and the flip-out USB 2.0 Arm connects to PC or Mac. You can also use the included cable to connect to your TV and plug in a microphone or speaker.

The 30-minute Flip Video is $102.99 on Amazon and available in electronic and drug stores around the country.

Love 2.0: Anil Dash and Alaina Browne

GeekSugar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:10:19 -0800

As part of our Geeks We Love series, I caught up with a few couples that, through the beauty of the internet and technology have influenced both our lives and each other.

There are plenty of couples that both blog, but Anil Dash and Alaina Browne are in an elite club of longtime bloggers that have been around the blogosphere for years, but are still humble about their success, influence and accomplishments. Anil, is Vice President at Six Apart, a blogging software used by millions of people across the world, but he describes his occupation by saying "I help people start blogging." Alaina is the general manager at Serious Eats, a website filled with video, blogs, photos and feature stories all geared toward the foods people love. What geeky things do these two love about life online and each other? read more.

Geeksugar: So, let's lay it all on the table. What do you think is the "geekiest" thing about yourself?
Anil: I'm probably a little bit obsessive over weird little technical things, like the order of icons on my desktop, or the way my songs are tagged in iTunes. I've even gotten hundreds of people to tell me how they use Excel to organize their personal lives. So probably the most geeky thing about me is that I really, really love software and consider myself a student of software culture.
Alaina: I won my school’s Computer Science Student of the Year award in 7th grade.

Geeksugar: Tell us a bit about your background.
Alaina: I’ve been a web geek pretty much since the beginning, working with MindSpring (later Earthlink) and puttering around with websites and later blogs for about ten years. I had a personal site for a long time, and then when I moved to New York City in 2002, I started NYC Eats, which later became A Full Belly. It was one of the first food blogs, and I was very lucky and happy to meet a lot of people and discover a lot of new things through the site, though I don’t update it much anymore. After we moved to San Francisco in 2004, I started working for Mule Design, a great web design shop run by some friends of ours. While there I got to work on a diverse mix projects for Six Apart, CNET’s Chowhound, and a lot of other great clients. Then late last year I got the chance to help get Serious Eats off the ground. Combined with the chance to come back to New York, it was an irresistible opportunity and one that I’m very excited about. The community on Serious Eats is already something really special.
Anil: I work at Six Apart because I've been a blogger since 1999 (at dashes.com) and I wanted to help people get started blogging. I was the first employee, so I've been at it for about four years. These days, I get to go everywhere talking about Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox, and it's the best job I've ever had. You could say I got into it because I couldn't not do it.

Geeksugar: What about the geekiest thing about your significant other?
Anil: Hmm, that's a tough one. Alaina is very adept at masking her geekiness around others, so that I am the only one who gets to see how funny and clever she really is. It's like being married to a geeky J. Frog.
Alaina: His blortal.

Geeksugar: How and when did you meet eachother?
Anil: We were introduced by a couple whom I had met through my blog. In late 2001, they set us up, and 5 years later, we're married!
Alaina: We met in December 2001 thanks to an introduction from a college roommate, dear friend, and master matchmaker. Before we met, she sent me the link to his blog which I’d seen before. Its tagline at the time was “New York, New Media, New Funk,” which made me go “blech” but I trust Shannon so I kept an open mind.

Geeksugar: What are your top 5 favorite gadgets?
Anil: I really love my Nintendo Wii and covet Alaina's DS Lite. (I have a regular DS, so I can't complain.) I have an iPod Nano, which works well enough, but I love the form factor more than the device itself.
Alaina: iPod Nano and accompanying Nike+ sport kit, white DS lite, Macbook, Fuji F11 digital camera, my pink Gameboy Advanced SP.

Geeksugar: Top 5 luxury gadgets you really want?
Anil: Oddly, I don't covet very many gadgets. I got a chance to see the new Nokia NSeries phones because they work with Vox, and the video camera in the N93i looks awesome.

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a...
Anil: A Commodore VIC-20. I had pretty much every Commodore but the Amiga, including a VIC-20, a C-64, a C-128, and even a Commodore Colt, which was a PC clone.
Alaina: Commodore 64.

Geeksugar: What are your favorite websites?
Anil: Well, seriouseats.com, of course. And I am pretty proud of what I've done with dashes.com over the past several years. I think the web page I visit the most is my Vox neighborhood at anil.vox.com. But I'm inspired by some of the really great blogs I read - Overheard in New York, Ftrain, Rebecca's Pocket.
Alaina: Seriouseats.com, Flickr.com, Vox.com, Kottke.org

Geeksugar: What are your Valentine's Day plan?
Anil: Well, we like to eat well, so I think a nice dinner somewhere and then returning home for a date to play Wii Sports and Wario Ware might be pretty nice.
Alaina: Not to have a Valentine’s Day plan.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
Anil: Actually, we almost never even have discussions about this. We're fairly moderate in our gadget purchases, so we can each pretty much get whatever we want. It's always a nice surprise to come home and find that the other person has something shiny to show off.
Alaina: We’re pretty in sync when it comes to gadgets and our finances and trust each other to make these kinds of decisions. If it’s a big ticket item, like the flat panel tv we just bought, we’ll discuss it together first so there are no surprises when it comes time to balance the checkbook.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
Anil: I think it depends on the nature of the tech problem. I tend to do most of the CSS troubleshooting and wifi wrangling. Alaina is more adept with hacking blog templates and making DVD/TV/web video go. It's a pretty balanced relationship.
Alaina: I try to solve tech problems myself and if I get stuck, I call in Anil.

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
Anil: Probably not. I love the idea of a common platform for portable hackery, but I hate phones and phone carriers, especially. I tend to be a late adopter with iPods anyway, which is fine by me.
Alaina: No. No. No.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a "geek"?
Anil: I'm very comfortable about that. I like that, when I'm in a room full of normals, I'm the geeky one, but when I'm in a room full of geeks, I'm seen as not geeky enough.
Alaina: It’s an accurate description I don’t object to.

Geeksugar: What do think are the greatest things you guys have contributed to the blogsosphere?
Anil: I've helped promote the good work that other people do in creating the social web. I'm very proud to be friends or acquaintances with a lot of the most talented people in the world of blogging and social media. As far as Alaina's accomplishments, I think she has been phenomenally influential in the world of food blogging and in food community online in general - A Full Belly (originally NYC Eats), was a seminal food blog and informs the spirit of a lot of food communities today, including Serious Eats.
Alaina: His ability to effectively communicate about technology with the non-geek majority. No one does it better.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Anil: Roughly 24? Actually, in all seriousness, I pretty frequently spend 14+ hours a day online, and sometimes 18 hours, since I don't sleep much and you could count watching a DVD on a laptop or playing video games as "being online."
Alaina: 16.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
Anil: Less than that. She actually does other things like running marathons and eating good dinners at nice restaurants. I should learn from her example.
Alaina: All of them.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you're trying to quit?
Anil: Obsessively checking things like stats, RSS feeds, and email. Nothing that important is ever in there, but sources of stress often are.
Alaina: Reading scripting.com.

Geeksugar: Are you the "Beauty" or the "Geek" in the relationship?
Anil: I think we're both a lot of both in our marriage! Even though I'm definitely a geek, Alaina's had a personal website a lot longer than me, and really gets a lot of geek culture at a gut level. On the other hand, I dress a lot better since I've had Alaina's help, so while I can't quite come to her level of beauty, I'm at least not looking like something the cat dragged in.
Alaina: I think we’re both beautiful geeks.

10 Simple Tips For Getting Organized

GeekSugar — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:03:52 -0800

While most of us jot down our New Year's resolutions in low tech notebooks and organizers there are billions of helpful websites and handy tech tips that can help us reach our goals.

If you spend your whole day in front of a computer or carry a PDA in your pocket or purse (meaning you have constant web and calendar access) you really don't have an excuse to be disorganized.

Put everything in its place! – This one is a no brainer, but you'll be destined for organization if you create a proper home for your PDAs, iPods, cell phone and chargers. If you don't want to spend any money you can turn a pretty bowl or basket into a simple gadget haven, or if you want to get a little fancier, check out the Smart Tech furniture and charging stations from Pottery Barn. You'll never run around the house looking for your charger again. Okay, maybe you will, but you'll have a better idea of where it might be.
Use your camera phone – I love using my camera phone to make lists, take pictures of items when I am shopping and even to help me remember where I parked in a lot. Think of your picture phone as a notepad without having to carry a notepad. Most modern phones have notes sections, or even text message functions where you can write yourself a quick note and save the message for later reference.
Manage your finances online – We all know we can pay bills online, but did you know you can automatically track and organize your online and offline purchases?
Make the best of your digital pictures! - One of the best things about creating a blog or joining a photo sharing service or other online archive is the fact that it allows you easy access to your photos and memories without taking up all your computer memory. Plus, you can share your experiences with friends and family, or keep items private. Check out my guide to making the most of your photography.
Use your online calendar and PDA – Spend some time selecting an online calendar that can easily sync with your gadgetry and life. Online calendaring makes your schedule easily accessible and will help you keep track of birthdays, special dates and appointments.

To check out the rest of my list of tips (and goals!) for keeping your schedule and life on track this year read more.

Clean out your address book – I tend to hang on to email addresses because people seem to keep them for a long time but I highly suggest cleaning out your cell phone's address book. I programmed my high school boyfriend's number into my first cell phone and have automatically transferred it into more than a decade of phones without realizing it. It's time to let go.
Use an RSS Reader already – An RSS Reader (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, that aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. Examples of popular RSS Readers include Google Reader, Netvibes, Bloglines and My Yahoo's RSS feature. If you read more than five websites a day and don't have a reader you are in for a treat.
Program your TiVo online - You don't have to panic if you forget to set a season pass for Gossip Girl. If you have a Series2 TiVo box, you can easily schedule recordings anywhere you have access to the web. You just have to set up an online account. By the way, did you know if you have a TiVo Series2 DVR connected to your home network you can take your TiVo recordings "to go" by putting them on your laptop, video iPod, Playstation Portable, Palm Treo, Creative Zen Vision:M, Nokia N80 and Toshiba gigabeat?
Clean up your computer and e-mail – You know you don't need the 6,999 e-mails in your inbox or the 17 photos of Britney getting out of her car. Seriously, you don't. Get rid of them.
Make use of my tips! – As you know, I share geek tips every day. Some of them are simple, some are downright geeky, but 90 percent of them will help you be more organized and make better use of your technology. The rest? Well, they're just fun.

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Panasonic Unveils Extra Large 16GB SD Memory Card

GeekSugar — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:00:49 -0700

Just when I thought 4GB was a big enough size for a MicroSD card, Panasonic has come out with a 16GB Pro High Speed SDHC Memory Card which has a data transfer speed of up to 20MB/s.

Featured on The Daily Geek, this ginormo card can tape up to four hours of high def video in AVCHD normal mode, and approximately 3 hours of 1920 x 1080i full High Definition video in AVCHD fine mode. Also use with cameras and other compatible portable electronics.

Expect to see these hit stores in November with a price tag of $320 - no surprises there.

World Gets iPhone, But Not From Apple

GeekSugar — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:27:39 -0800

Industry insiders suspected Apple was going to make a big announcement yesterday about a cell phone-game combo with its own music-playing handset. Of course, we all suspected the phone could be called iPhone, as the url iPhone.org currently sends folks back to the main Apple page and it just seemed like the next natural next step for the company.

Much to the surprise of many, including yours truly, Linksys, (owned by Cisco Systems), announced it will release its very own iPhone. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Cisco's had the name since 2000, when it bought InfoGear Technology, which had the rights to the iPhone name.

For more about the Linksys announcement, just read more

According to a press release from Linksys, the iPhone will enable compelling internet services, allow consumers to know when their contacts are available for calls, and offer access to personal content like music, movies and live video cameras.

The iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype, $99.99, embeds the popular communications client into a cordless phone base station that is attached directly to the home network via Ethernet, making it easy to place calls to other Skype users, mobile phones, or landlines without turning on a computer.

The iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype (shown above), $219.99, makes Skype portable by integrating it into a Wireless-G handset, allowing consumers to place calls from anywhere they can connect to a wireless access point.