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inComprehensive Review: Hasbro’s Family Game Night
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This blog’s for you
I wrote a blog about what I did this weekend, but I hit “add media” and lost the whole thing without saving. I’m…retarded. So I’ll just scrap that whole bullshit…kinda boring anyway and just give cliffnotes and what I was about to post at the end.
Kodak ZI6
Posted by AltBlogger on December 14 2008 in Reviews, Technology
I’m a few months away until my first-born child gets here so instead of spending time getting the baby’s room ready, I’ve been busy buying every gadget I can think of to catalog her life. I have no shame stating that I will be the dude in the front row with a video camera on a tripod, all the while taking enough still pictures to fill up a card. A few months ago I purchase the Nikon D40, and it turned out to be a wonderful purchase for still pictures.
Lately I had been looking into a new video camera, specifically one that would record in HD. I already have a pretty decent Canon video camera that will do in most planned situations, but what I really wanted was a super small camera that I could carry around in my pocket and would start up fast enough to capture just the right moment. I was led to the Flip Mino HD on a gadget blog, but after researching it for a few days it seemed like another camera would be just the ticket. The next day I went to Best Buy and picked up the Kodak ZI6 for $125.
It’s about the size of a cellphone and a little thicker. There are no flip out screens and no moving parts, so it is perfect to keep in your pocket. The main advantages over the Mino HD is that the Kodak can record on SD cards and also uses AA batteries. If you use regular Duracell batteries, be prepared to only get about 10 minutes of footage in small spurts. Using the Kodak rechargeable batteries included in the package can net around 45 minutes and replacement packages can be picked up for around $15 for a pack of 4. At most online electronic sites you can pick up a high capacity SD card for super cheap. I recently bought an 8GB SDHC card on Amazon for $12. An 8gb card will store about 2 hours of footage.
So far I’ve shot about an hour of short clips; mainly of my dogs and the walls and ceiling of my work bathroom while taking a dump. There are four modes of shooting: Still (5mp), VGA, HD, and HD60 which is 720p resolution at 60 frames a second. 4-D you say? Yep. There is even a macro setting for close ups. You can play back the video on the unit in a few short clicks or hook it up to a TV with the supplied component cables. The quality with a direct connection is wonderful. To play it back on a PC you can either remove the SD card or hit the mirrored button by the lens which ejects a USB connection from the side of the unit. One of the nice small features of the camera is that Kodak’s software is pre-installed on the camera and can be setup on any PC in seconds. The ArcSoft package will play back the videos or upload them directly to your YouTube account.
As with any gadget, there are several downsides that become apparent pretty quick. The main problem I’ve had so far is that the only mode worth a shit is HD60, and make sure that its broad daylight or a very well lit room. When the camera tries to focus on a dark subject you lose quite a bit of frames. The regular HD mode suffers from frame loss even when in a bright area. Just think about the clips of Oblivion running on a PS3 and you’ll know what I mean. The other problem that I’ve found is that most computers will have a hard time playing the video back smoothly unless you have a great graphics card and plenty of RAM. The files are created in H.264 MOV files so the native apps like QuickTime and VLC both have trouble playing the videos. The best option is the supplied software from ArcSoft but it isn’t very convienent since you have to start the program to use the player. I haven’t been able to find way to load the player only as the default program. Don’t even think about trying to edit them in Vegas or Premier unless you can run Crysis at full settings.
All in all, it does exactly what I need and the downsides aren’t that big of deal if you have a primary video camera that can handle low light and prolonged shoots. If you are looking for a second video camera that is under $200 and shoots in HD, its the best of the lot.
Search for it on YouTube for some other reviews and sample clips.
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Late to the Party: My First Impressions of the T-Mobile G1
Its been out for a little, but some of the kinks have been worked out, and today is my birthday so I just got it a few days ago, so deal with it.
The G1 is the first phone to feature Google’s Android development platform. The whole appeal of it is that is the first of hopefully many phones to feature Android. To put it simply, to use anything the iPhone has, you need an iPhone. The idea behind Android is the lots of phones will use it, so an application you use on one phone with Android you can use on another.
To put it in a nutshell, the G1’s software side is awesome, hardware needs some work. The G1 feels a little clumsy to hold and even cumbersome to text with, and the Android (for now) lacks an on screen keyboard. It can get very annoying to have to flip the phone open anytime you want to type anything at all. That is pretty much the biggest problems with the phone though. Its just a little in the way. It still works, and I’ve already gotten used to it.
So, is Android good? Yes and no. Right now, the Market has some really cool apps like Shazaam which you can hold up to any song, say on a radio, and it will identify it. Other ones include compare everywhere, which is a virtual barcode scanner that will show you reviews of items and compare prices to local stores. Being in college, I found a nearby Barnes & Noble selling a book I need for 20 dollars less. It works great. Games still need improvement, a couple are good but a lot are extremely simple like Snake. The Market will improve with time, however, as long as more developers get on board with Google.
A real cool feature, for me, is the desktop. If anyone uses a Mac they know about Spaces, a program to help keeping you organized by giving you any number of..well, spaces…to work on. The Android has sort of a dumbed down version. You have center screen, which is the default, and a left and right. You can flick inbetween them and customize them however you want. Want all your applications in the shape of a penis? Well its possibly.
These are just some quick impressions, and hopefully I’ll have more next week. One thing for sure is that the G1 is a good start, and if the iPhone isn’t an option for you, check it out. Coming from a Blackberry Curve, I’m loving it. Its leaps and bounds ahead.
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This week in nerdom
Since it’s the beginning of the week let’s start off with this week’s gaming and movie releases. I’m only going to list the 3 major consoles as the handhelds have a…… Well no one really cares about the handhelds, so moving on.