Technology Bytes

This week it was all about XP computers not booting up properly or at all.

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Much discussion of the release of Firefox 3.

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Barrett had to miss the show so it was Peter, Dwight, phliKtid, Groovehouse and Jay in the studio. Good diversity of callers and questions.

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I remember getting access to a super 8mm camera back in high school and shooting some film of a field trip. I also remember the pain of getting the film developed and then having to arrange to borrow a projector just so I could show the film to my classmates.

Ever since then I have been nothing more than a spectator as video production has become more and more accessible to the common man via video tape recorder, mini disk and now digital cameras.

On our last vacation I considered taking a small handheld video DV camera with us just to have, but even the newest palm sized devices were going to be too unwieldy and I opted to forgo the video in favor of my preferred medium of digital still photography.

Now it appears that Pure Digital Technologies has come up with a device to lure me to the dark side. Meet my new friend, the Flip Mino.

Very impressive specs. It runs about 4 hours on a charge and records up to 60 minutes of video.

Internal Memory: 2GB (60 minutes)
Screen Size: 1.46” (transflective TFT)
Screen Resolution: 528 x 132 pixels
Video Resolution: 640 x 480

And the size is right. 3.94” x 1.97” x 0.63” (H x W x D) it fits easily into your pocket making it as readily available as a small camera phone.

It’s also very easy to use. Out of the box all I had to do was charge it up and go.

The software for managing and editing your videos installs right from the device and it make sharing and uploading of your videos quite simple.

Done with fundraising, the crew of Technology Bytes is back to their regularly scheduled 2 hours of goofy tech support. A varied and interesting batch of callers this evening.

Technology Bytes Podcast for June 4, 2008 [ 2:00:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jay Lee is checking out Plurk. It’s like Twitter but seems to have a better interface and more features. Check it out here.

May 23, 2008 — Presslite, last week announced a new product called the VerteX™. The VerteX™ is a flash attachement that can project diffused and specular light at virtually any angle, in multiple directions simultaneously from a single flash unit. This introduces on-the-go lighting solutions never before possible. In the flash demonstration below, you can see how the VerteX™ diffuses and redirects light based on the angle selected with each panel. This demonstration does not include audio. PRESSlite™ will be selling the VerteX™ for $49.95 but is currently offering special discounts of up to 30% if you sign up at their web site.

I had the opportunity to check out the WinTV-HVR-950 hybrid TV stick from Hauppauge.

Not much bigger than the average USB thumb drive, the WinTV is easy to carry for use with your laptop computer. It even comes with a very lightweight and portable antenna allowing you transform your laptop into a media device capable of watching both analog and digital broadcast television wherever you can find the signal.

The included software allows to watch, record and even schedule recordings of your favorites broadcast or cable TV shows.

I found the device pretty easy to get up and running out right out of the box. But be warned, it has some pretty steep system requirements that simply cannot be skimped on.

Minimum processor recommended:
2.2 GHz Intel® P4 or 1.8 GHz Centrino or equivalent
2.8 GHz Intel® P4 or Core™ Duo or equivalent for analog TV recording with MPEG-2
Microsoft Windows Vista or XP with Service Pack 2.
Graphics with 64 MB of memory (minimum).
USB 2.0 port (will not work with USB 1.1).

Full specs and product details on the WinTV can be found here.

phliKtid, Groovehouse, Dwight and Barrett in front of the KPFT studios after the show

Second in a series of three fundraising episodes. We made the goal, but it was down to the wire.

Technology Bytes May 21, 2008 [ 2:00:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download