Naturally, the moment I’ve pressed the big black Publish button on the BlogBytes blogging software, PriceGrabber.com decides to give me another answer to my question about quick, easy, cheap video capture in its latest issue of the SuperDeal newsletter. See “Webcams Have Gotten Really Cool!” and “Digital Camcorders for Those Special Business Moments.”) This time, the solution is called the Pure Digital Flip Video Ultra Camcorder.

As the newsletter states: “The Flip Video Ultra does one thing: it shoots video. And it does it well. Turn it on, and it’s ready to shoot in 2 seconds. Record. Plug it into your PC via USB, and you’re ready to share or edit your footage. It’s that simple. Maybe that’s why it’s taken 13% of the camcorder market.”

OK, so would the Flip Video fit my needs?

I need it to be low cost. The pricing ranges from about $120 and up. That works. The memory is built in, 2 gigabytes for the 60-minute device. Resolution is 640 x 480, respectable enough for my purposes. It records to the AVI and MPEG-4 video formats, which appears to be fairly standard. And it has auto-exposure, an important feature for users who haven’t attended the USC film school.

On the negative side, the digital zoom is only two times, and reviewers say the LCD screen — at 1.5 inches — is kind of dinky. For the headshot-like videos I expect we’ll produce, neither of these will be much of a barrier.

Jldcpa from CA reports that filming in dim light is “very bad, so now we use this camera for mainly outdoors and nearby shooting.” That could be a problem.

cfranklinremax from NV likes the fact that the camera runs on two AA batteries, because it means they can be replaced from practically anywhere. So rechargeable batteries are a necessity for this user.

Cabin21 from NY considers the audio quality “decent” and the data easy to transfer. As Cabin says, “It cannot make me a great motion picture shooter, but it’s good for a starter like me.”

It’s probably worth adding the Flip Video to our evaluators list. I’ll let you know how the testing goes when we have some experience under our belts. OK, gang, that’s a wrap!

Most Windows Desktop and Notebook PCs come with one visible partition on which the Operating System is installed, usually the C Drive. When I get a new PC one of the first things I do is to create a second partition which becomes my D Drive. This D drive is used to store data along with the “My Documents” directory which has been redirected from the C Drive. This makes backing up the PC easier in my opinion, as the C drive just contains programs and Windows files, and the D drive contains the things I would like to backup on a regular basis.

The reason I used the term “visible partition” above is because many PCs have hidden partitions. The Dell PC I recently received has two hidden partitions: a diagnostic partition at the beginning of the disk, and a larger partition containing an image the shipped Operating System - basically a backup of the PC as you get it – at the end of the disk. These partitions, especially the diagnostic partition, can create problems when you want to add an extra partition. Also, since there is a limitation of four primary partitions on one physical hard drive, you cannot add more than one partition without deleting one or both of these hidden partitions. To delete hidden partitions and create new ones, you need specialized software like Acronis Disk Director Suite 10. Backup software like Acronis True Image 11 Home compliment’s Disk Directory nicely, allowing you to backup partitions and drives.

Last time, I looked at inexpensive camcorder solutions that one of my clients could supply to people who contribute regularly to a website that aspires to become a waystation for vodcasts about a particular topic. This time I’m going to look at some webcam solutions. Typically, these are used to add video to real-time chat or Skype sessions. But why not apply the same technology to capturing quickie videos?

Here the low-cost options are more plentiful. Filtering by price (under $200) on PriceGrabber.com leads to 128 matches. So this time I’ll add a minimum price as well and eliminate any models under $25. Then, I’ll only consider those that have a rating on the site, even if it’s only a single review. Whoa! Too many choices!

If I only look at those two models with the highest rating — five stars — I’m left with two models:

Intel Pro PC Camera
Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 Webcam

They’re comparably priced — between $70 and $140. But one, the Logitech, has 14 reviews. The Intel device has only a single review.

I think I’ll drill down on the Logitech one.

This webcam is designed for use with your notebook. It has auto-focus, something called RightLight 2 technology to ensure “great looking images, even in poor lighting,” and RightSound technology for echo-cancellation and noise reduction. It even lets you personalize the video filters, avatars and face accessories. (This business crowd could have some fun with that!) Additionally, says the company description, “an ultra-wide field of view and automatic face tracking always keeps you right in the middle of the action.” The QuickCam Pro comes with a desktop stand to bring the webcam up to eye level and a travel case to protect the camera when it’s not being used.

According to reviewer dongly, the video is captured to WMV, an excellent format for our purposes.

The question I’m left with, however, is how much to rely on the processor power of the computer being used with the webcam to deliver video that doesn’t drag, stutter or drop frames. The use of a separate digital camcorder would eliminate that concern completely.

None of the many reviewers addresses that particular problem. I think it’s time for some field testing…

More on this topic later.

Is it a Browser War or just a squabble? Naturally “Browser Wars Part Two” really appeals to the media. This is especially since Apple’s Safari browser for Windows is now in the running.

Yet most people, unless they are technically adventurous, just use the Web Browser provided with their computer. Browser statistics vary widely from site to site. This is highlighted by “Browser Statistics and trends” from w3chools.com (not a school but a site loaded with web development tutorials). According to their statistics, Firefox has around 36 percent of the market and Internet Explorer (version 5, 6 and 7) 52 percent. Yet w3schools.com statement below the statistics explains:
“W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is used by at least 80% of the users.”

Internet Explorer still has the lion’s share, although somewhat diminished, probably from over 90 percent to less than 80 percent. On FeelFireFox.net Mozilla corporation is quoted as stating: “Mozilla hopes that Firefox will reach a 30% market share by June 2008” . What about the Apple Safari Browser? Warmongers say 5 percent, others say less. I haven’t tried Safari on Windows yet, but it is the only browser available on the iPod Touch and the iPhone.

I have a client who wants to become the YouTube of his industry, which I think is a fine idea. The question is how to get people who are accustomed to submitting whitepapers and articles in their various areas of expertise to submit vodcasts instead. One idea we’re considering is buying a bunch of low-cost camcorders or webcams that record directly to a digital format and place those in the hands of frequent contributors. Then we simply need to persuade them to video their thinking instead of writing it.

So in an effort to come up with some recommendations, I’ve just done a search on PriceGrabber for “camcorder” under $200 and recording to digital media. I get 34 matches. If I stick with vendors I recognize, the list gets a bit smaller. Then if I do a comparison by reviewer ranking, I get three models:

RCA EZ201 Digital Hard Drive Camcorder
Panasonic SDRS10P1 SD Card Camcorder
Sanyo CG6 Digital Camcorder

Here are my notes from doing a comparison check:

Two, the RCA and Sanyo, can capture at a resolution of VGA quality — 640-x480. The Panasonic is limited to 320×240. Not exactly a resolution to bowl anybody over.

The Panasonic and Sanyo models offer an optical zoom feature. All three offer digital zoom, but that’s always less preferable.

The RCA captures in AVI format, the Panasonic in MPEG-2, and the Sanyo in MPEG-4. Newer — as in MPEG-4 — is almost always better in these matters.

The built-in memory is heftiest with the Panasonic — two gigabytes. The Panasonic and Sanyo also offer the longest warranty, a year vs. 90 days for the RCA model. Also, those same models come with rechargeable batteries and a recharger.

Hmm. The customer reviews are all uniformly positive, though the RCA has more of them — four vs. one for Panasonic and Sanyo. Easy to carry, easy to use, easy to transfer the files onto the PC and inexpensive.

Nothing emerges as a final choice here. In my next entry, I’m going to look at webcam eyeballs to see if there’s a clear winner there.

(Pardon the title, somehow my first choice “PS/2 + USB <> KVM” really seemed too geeky.)

This week I was very fortunate to get my birthday present early, especially since it is a relatively expensive one. It was partly as a result of two of my blog entries (”XP still outsells Vista” and “Buying a PC with XP“) as I had decided on a Desktop PC with Windows XP. The problem was that Windows XP PCs may be hard to find when my birthday comes around. So now I have a shiny new Dell Desktop PC (well, not really shiny, but new).

There is a major problem though. Even though I knew that the latest Dell machines don’t have PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard, but instead supply a USB mouse and keyboard, which take up two of the numerous USB ports , I had not really thought it through. Somehow I thought that it would be possible to connect to the existing PS/2 KVM with just two USB to PS/2 adapters. After looking at the Dell PC I realized that what I actually needed was a PS/2 to USB adapter like the Cables To Go USB To PS/2 Adapter. After some research it appeared that this might not even work. Just to get two PCs working I used an “old-fashioned” manual VGA monitor switchbox (which shares one monitor between two desktop PCs), and for the moment I’m using two sets of mice and keyboards. It looks like the best solution would be a USB KVM and a USB to Dual PS/2 Keyboard Mouse Adapter to connect my newest old PC to the USB KVM.

Of course the PS/2 I refer to above is the “PS/2 connector, an interface standard for PC mice and keyboards” not the Sony “PlayStation2″ (from Wikipedia)

Ah, tax season. When millions of American adults tell themselves that the coming year will surely be when they finally get their documents in order — because goodness knows they don’t want to have to repeat the hellish experience they’ve just gone through in tracking down the paperwork they need to be able to finish their tax forms on time.

The device I’m about to share with you surely sounds like a miracle cure, but sometimes, friends, miracles do happen. This one is called the NeatReceipts Scanalizer Handheld Scanner.

The Scanalizer is a scanner with specialized software built-in. Simply scan all those bits of paper that come fluttering into your life everyday — gas station receipts, medical bills, service invoices, business cards, W2 forms, frequent flyer statements, credit card accountings. NeatReceipts reads data from all of them and puts the information into a spreadsheet form for you. Apparently, it can parse out totals, vendor names, whether the transaction was by cash or credit card and the like and creates separate columns that you can then use for importing to the bookkeeping software of your choice. Or you can simply save the files it creates and do a search on them when you’re tracking down a particular bit of information.

If you’re scanning a business card, the person’s name, title, address and company information is captured and syncs directly with Outlook, Plaxo and vCard.

Here’s how a couple of  PriceGrabber.com reviewers weigh in: Bomma1, who has been using the device for a couple of years, says: “This made my life very easy. No need to fill out weekly expense sheets for my company. Scan all the receipts and at one hit of a button, it creates an Excel or PDF version of all the expenses with all the fields populated from a standard template and attaches a scan of all receipts if you choose spreadsheet option. The scan of the images is added to the second worksheet on the spreadsheet. At the end of the year you can prepare reports to consolidate all the expenses for a vendor or by month or for the expense type.”

Amartini, who works in an accounting firm, says, “We reviewed this item for a few customers, and based on just a few weeks’ worth of uses, it works as advertised, and once properly set up to export to Quickbooks, it does do it, and makes life easier especially when it comes to doing expense sheets. Brilliant!”

Although the product sounds a bit pricey for its function — between $150 and $200 –when you’re considering a purchase like this, you have to put that cost in terms of your time. Let’s face it. None of us is getting any younger. We need to squeeze out those wasted minutes of our lives where we can. I don’t know about you, but filing hardcopies of anything is no longer in my job description. Just call me Digital Di.

In previous blog entries I’ve mentioned Virtualization more than once. VMware Workstation is basically a PC emulator, although on OSFaqWiki they say it is not (see “VMWare PC Emulator“). Well, that is confusing, but I’d like to mention other emulators and simulators which I have come across.

One simulator that many people have heard of is the Microsoft Flight Simulator. The last version of the Flight Simulator I used was Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. Although each version is more realistic than the previous one, I must admit becoming bored with just flying around, and never really becoming good enough to take part in the missions.

When developing for the Palm (quite a popular pastime several years back), there was POSE (Palm OS Emulator) for testing and debugging Palm programs. POSE requires an actual Palm ROM image to boot. This can be obtained from Palm, or uploaded from a real Palm device. POSE only worked up until Palm OS version 4.x, for Palm OS version 5.x and later you had to use the Palm OS Simulator, which was essentially the Palm OS recompiled to run on the x86 (Intel and AMD PC) platform.

There are two other Palm OS emulators which are available for purposes other than debugging programs. One is the commercial StyleTap Palm OS emulator for the Windows Mobile operating system. It is aimed at handheld users who have moved from Palm OS-based devices to Windows Mobile devices. It allows users to install and run Palm applications which then run inside StyleTap on the Windows Mobile device. Another Palm OS emulator is the Palm OS Garnet emulator for Nokia’s Internet Tablets. Released as a free beta by the Access, it allows users of Nokia N770, N800 and N810 to run Palm Applications in a similar fashion. (see “Garnet VM Beta for Nokia N Series“) . Garnet is another name for Palm OS 5.

This week is spring break, which means one thing around my household: Road trip! Time to visit friends and family — anything to prevent this adult from imposing permanent damage on the family heir in a fit of parental insanity.

That includes time with my mom, who surprised me recently when she told me on the phone that she has wireless now. How did that transpire? “It was included with TiVo,” she told me. That’s right. TiVo sells a device — the TiVo AG0100 Wireless USB Network Adapter – that lets users connect their digital video recorder with their 802.11g or b wireless home network. I’m no TiVo user. What do I know? (Apparently, she didn’t know about it either until my brilliant brother – who always thinks up the greatest gifts — got a unit and installed it for her.)

My mom loves TiVo. She has two of the machines in her home, one on the big screen in her living room; the other in one of the guest rooms where she does a lot of hanging out and watching recorded shows from HDTV.

And now she can transfer shows from one to the other TV and surf at the same time while she kicks back in her giant black-leather massage chair.

Reviewers on PriceGrabber report how, although it costs a bit more than other options, they’re quite happy with how easy it is to install and how quickly shows transfer from one machine to another or from their TiVos to their desktops.

I may not watch much TV, but I am a great sucker-upper of wireless broadband. What this means is, I’ll have no excuse not to bring my notebook computer with me when we go to visit. Wonder if that chair is available.

SanDisk is known for making relatively cheap MP3 Players which offer good value. Their players usually have decent sound quality, but are not known for excellent sound quality.

Until know that is. Reviewers are raving about the sound quality of the SanDisk Sansa Clip. On anythingbutipod the Sansa Clip review by Grahm Skee notes: “Sansas have not been known for good sound quality. However, over the last few new releases they have been getting progressively better with the Clip being the best sounding Sansa to date- even treading onto audiophile territory”.
Some of this audio quality is possibly due to a chip, specifically the SOC (system on chip), which ABI were looking for when they disassembled the Sansa Clip.

The SanDisk Sansa Clip is an ultra compact MP3 player. At 2.2 inches by 1.4 inches by 0.5 inch (56 by 36 by 13mm) without the removable belt clip, the Sansa Clip is bigger than the iPod Shuffle. It has a small rectangular, 1-inch (25mm) screen, and is available in 1, 2 and 4GB capacities. The 2GB version is available in a selection of colors: red, pink, and blue. Both the 1GB and 2GB version are also available in black, and the newer 4GB version in silver only. This small player features a built-in microphone for voice recordings (in WAV format), an FM tuner, recording from FM and Rhapsody support. It supports MP3, protected and unprotected WMA, and Audible files. With such a small screen, photo and video are not supported.