Archive for: video
As if it wasn’t clear enough that Cisco is washing their hands of the Flip video recorder, a new announcement today via the company pretty much kills any hope of a future product. Starting yesterday, May 12th, FlipShare users will have 30 days to manually download all of their uploaded content and move it elsewhere. After your 30 days are up, your content is gone — forever.
A quick trip to Cisco’s website details the company’s plans to provide technical support for the Flip cameras and camera software until December 31, 2013, with sales continuing “while supplies last”. Though without the nifty sharing abilities and cloud services, the Flip’s “wow” factor is much less…”wow”. Anyone going to pick up a couple at your local clearance sale?
It was a long time coming, but today is finally “the day” in which Google Video is no more. In an email sent out to dozens of Google Video users worldwide, more or less says “it’s been great”, but YouTube is where it’s now at.
Dear Google Video User,
Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.
Of course, that’s all fine and dandy seeing as how Google owns YouTube. With said service much larger and more popular than Google Video has ever been, there’s no reason to keep both sites open (and leeching money).
Unfortunately for Google Video users, Google hasn’t provided any means to easily transfer Google Video content over to YouTube — a move that could prove time consuming to the more fruitful Google Video users. Then again, the writing has been on the wall. Google originally announced closing Google Video way back in May of ’09.
Following Nvidia’s release of their new, top of the ling single-card GPU, the GeForce GTX 590, Digital Storm is announcing their own high-end hardware. The popular custom PC manufacturer has announced GTX 590 options for the company’s Black OPS and Special OPS lines of gaming PCs. Further bolstering this brute strength approach, Digital Storm is pushing their high-end setup which includes an Intel Core i7 970 hex-core CPU, 12GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, 160GB SSD, and 2x SLI Quad Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3GB cards. Said configuration can be yours for an unsettling $4,883. If a single GTX 590 is enough, the lower end $2,500 setup with Intel Core i7 2600K, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, and 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive may be more to your liking. Either way, a lot of power can be had.
For more information, check out Digital Storm’s Black OPS and Special OPS pages.
Fans of Nvidia GPUs will have to wait a couple of more days to duke it out with AMD’s latest 6990 dual-GPU graphics card. According to PC hardware site, Fudzilla, Nvidia has pushed the release date back by two days, with unverified reports citing driver issues. Mind you, the original release date was scheduled for March 22nd – an unofficial date which Nvidia never acknowledged mind you. Nevertheless, it’s far better than other delays we’ve seen in the gadget world. Just consider this two more days to brush up on your kill/death ratio as you wait for the added horsepower to hit your doorstep.
The big news with XPAND at today’s early morning press conference focused around the company’s “Universals” 3D glasses. Awarded for their breakthrough technology back at CES2010, the Universal 3D glasses have enjoyed healthy sales throughout the last year. For CES 2011, the glasses are expanded upon and tweaked with new software tools and a growing educational focus.
As a quick refresher: The glasses themselves come in various sizes, colors, and themes, with note worthy features including rechargeable batteries, USB port for upgrades (DLP-Link, Communication Module) and customizable software which can be configured via a special mobile app for smartphones called “Youniversal XPAND”.
The Youniversal XPAND app will allow users to customize the glasses for particular applications and scenarios — scenarios such as TV model, viewing distance, viewing distance/angle, viewing environment (dark/mid-day/evening etc.), 3D style (no ghosting, extra bright, light, aggressive, custom), and more. The approach makes since seeing as how one of our biggest complains with 3D thus far has been poor, spotty performance. The mobile app will initially be available for iPhone and Android only, but more platforms are expected. Press release after the jump…
Fancy a look at the upcoming Nintendo 3DS? Supposedly, the image above is one of many captured in a mini-photo shoot by a rouge Nintendo employee. Though the translation of the original article says things a bit different, and instead claims that it is merely a “player” that lifted the unit in question. Either way, Nintendo won’t be nearly as happy as we are. Hop on past the break for a few more shots and hands-on video…
- December 30, 2010 9:13 am
With smartphones and do-it-all tablets, the traditional PMP has kind of lost its luster. Though cramming Android into said gadgets is helping prolong their lives a tad, turning them into “mini” tablets of sorts. On that note, the Creative Zen Touch 2 that was revealed and released in Europe many weeks back has made an official FCC appearance meaning a U.S. release is drawing closer. For those who need a quick refresher, the Zen Touch 2 features Android 2.1, 3.2-inch resistive (what?!) 480 x 320 display, GPS/WiFi (b,g,n)/Bluetooth 2.1 and a 2-megapixel camera. Other honorable mentions include an accelerometer, built-in speaker and microphone, and microSD card slot adding to the stock 8 GB or 16 GB storage offerings.
Currently, the Zen Touch 2 retails for £149.99 or £159.99 (8 GB/16 GB) in Europe. Translated for American dollars that comes out to roughly $230 and $250 respectively. Being that many higher-end smartphones can be had for the same price or less, we’d like to see Creative chop the price down a tad. Though in defense, a PMP can be likened to an unlocked phone — no subsidy = large up front cost. Check back for release date info and official pricing once it becomes available.
- December 27, 2010 5:17 pm
The recent design refresh of the Apple TV is paying off — for Apple that is. The company announced today that they had officially crossed the 1 million sales mark a mere 3 months after going on sale. Not too shabby considering Apple sees the Apple TV as nothing more than a company “hobby”. Nevertheless, web TV and streaming media appears to be on the rise as competing technology from Roku recently had it’s CEO come forward and state that they too were seeing increased sales, even naming the Apple TV as one of the big reasons for the uptick in sales and revenue.
Have you jumped on board the web TV/streaming media train yet?
- December 27, 2010 9:12 am
While iOS users have had the pleasure of using VLC for a many weeks now, the most obvious of supported platforms (Android) has yet to see any official app. The main reason, according to the lead developer of the Android project Jean-Baptiste Kempf, is that up until a recent update to the Android NDK, developers couldn’t code in native code for Android. They had to use Java. But now that said shackles are removed, Kempf and his supporting team are moving full steam ahead, saying we’ll see the official Android client drop “in a few weeks”.
Until then, plenty of testing has to be done. On top of that, the first release will be a rough beta. Chalk up both of those facts to the fact that Android has many devices and firmware versions on the market at once. Developing an app for compatibility across devices and firmware is quite the challenge.
The best news, however, is that Kempf and friends are committed to the open source Android platform and vow to continually update the app as time progresses. Any Android users eager for VLC?
