Video

Wherefore Art Thou Yahoo Video?

Chris Albrecht on NewTeeVee posted an interesting analysis last week on Yahoo’s difficulty integrating its video properties and services on the Web. While Yahoo has re-launched its video section, it hasn’t managed to highlight all the things you can with video using Yahoo’s services. Specifically Albrecht points to the fact that there’s no link to … Read more

March Will Be Madder than Ever

I love March Madness. But even though I no longer trek to an office, it’s difficult to be near a TV during all of the match-ups I want to see. After all, we are talking middle-of-the-work-day, middle-of-the-work-week broadcasts. Luckily, this year CBSSports.com is expanding their free web streaming service March Madness on Demand (MMOD) to … Read more

Life and Death of the Ojo Video Phone

Ah, the Ojo Video Phone. Engadget posted the rumor that the phone and service have now gone kaput. And I can confirm it. After two plus years, the Ojo in my living room has finally reached the end of its run. Because I work for Motorola, I became the proud owner of two Ojos back … Read more

The Great Port Debate

When Apple announced the MacBook Air I had an immediate reaction to the absence of an Ethernet port. It went something like this, “What, no Ethernet port?” It’s not that I need an Ethernet port often, but when I do, it’s critical. Take CES. I was in the press room with a limited window of … Read more

CES: When Big Brother Carries a Purse

While most of the video exhibits at CES focused on big-screen TVs, DVD format wars and place-shifting, there was another video trend on the floor: video surveillance. Check out this demonstration from Forensic Visions. It shows a wireless set-up for monitoring several different mobile cameras at once. The camera in this video is hidden in … Read more

Digital Media Bytes – Motorola CES Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Motorola Mobile TV DH01: Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola MPEG-4 Set-Top Boxes: Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola WiMAX Displays at CES: Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola Cable Modem with DECT Phone System: Media Experiences 2 Go

Coffee Break – Mari & Dave Geek Out

Mari’s in town visiting family, so we met up at the Starbucks to share our newer gadgets. Here’s some of the gear we had on hand:

Flip Ultra Video Camera – I believe this was a holiday gift to Mari and what we used to spontaneously film our table. It shoots an hour of 640×480 video for $150 and includes USB plug – no cables required. Interestingly, the Flip has onboard video editing software (which we obviously didn’t use) that runs on a host computer (Mac or PC). I can see many folks making the quality compromise in exchange for the ease-of-use and convenience of this device. Seems like a perfect gift for kids, too.

Navigon 2100 – This GPS unit was a Black Friday gift to myself. MSRP for the unit is $249 and traffic service runs another $99… Thanks to Staples, I picked it up for just $99 total. Both the exterior and the UI are visually appealing, though interface efficiency and number of POIs doesn’t compare to the Tom Tom One or Garmin Nuvi units. But I’ve got text-to-speech. And traffic!

Monster iFreePlay – Another one of Mari’s gifts. The iFreePlay is a stereo headset that an iPod Shuffle clips right into, losing the wires. I’m a fan of smart designs like this (it also folds up compactly), though I can’t say I’m a fan on MP3 players without displays.

Vudu remote – I brought along the Vudu remote for Mari to check out. I’m still digging the contours and scroll wheel for menu navigation. However, rewind and fast forward functionality could be implemented much better. I’d also appreciate IR (rather than RF) and buttons to map for television volume. Actually, the wheel would make a nice volume control.

Zoom H2 Handy Recorder – Mari needed a podcasting tool, and Brad Linder had a suggestion. She hasn’t opened this gift from her husband yet, but I assume we’ll literally be hearing from her in the near future.

Phones – I had three phones in my backpack, plus one in my pocket. Comes with the job! On the table were the Motorola Q 9m and Nokia N95. Mari helped me acquire this Windows Mobile Moto handset, but she’d never actually seen it. The Q 9 variants have some of the best mobile keyboards. The Nokia N95 offers just about every feature (other than a keyboard) and is surprisingly light for its size. Nokia released a firmware update about two weeks ago which I haven’t gotten around to installing yet…

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The Ghost of Gadgets Past

Now that we’re on to a new year of Christmas gadget giving, I thought it would be a good time to review the gadgets we gave (and received) in 2006. So I went back and looked at last year’s recap. And kinda wish I hadn’t. Of the seven gadget gifts in my household that I … Read more