Before I hit the hay on Friday night, I want to point out Jonathan Greene's blog article Nokia N78 - Feature Pack 2 and plenty to love. This is a great first look at the newest N-Series phone and includes a nearly 20 minute long video of him putting the N78 through its paces.

He has a lot deeper knowledge of the Nokia N-Series handset line than I do. I can tell this because he talks in depth about the new features in the N78 that stem from Symbian S60 Feature Pack 2. He explains that the software is more user-friendly than that which has been included on phones like the N95. He's right.

He also points out correctly that the N95 is intended for a technology-savvy person, while the N78 is aimed at someone who wants many of the same features but with fewer controls and complex options.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Operation Gadget Films is pleased to present Jimmy's Snowy Day starring my two-year-old son Jimmy Aiello in his streaming video debut. This short film (2 minutes and 40 seconds) was shot on February 22, 2008, near our home in Newtown, PA.

This movie was shot with a Nokia N95 mobile phone, one of the best small standard-definition video cameras I've ever seen. It produces 640x480 video at 30 frames per second, which makes it great for home movies like this. I received this phone courtesy of the Nokia Blogger Relations program. This is the first movie I've ever shot with it that I've shown to the public.

I edited the movie using iPhoto '08, part of the Apple iLife '08 package that I got for free when I bought my MacBook Pro in March. It took me a while to start making movies using iMovie '08, but I now have an large amount of video from the Nokia N95 and this is the third finished movie that I've produced.

Continue reading "Debut of "Jimmy's Snowy Day," a Short Film Shot on the Nokia N95 and Edited with iMovie '08" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bambi Francisco, a financial reporter for MarketWatch.com went on a cycling vacation along the route of The Tour de France for the past few weeks, and decided to video blog her trip. She was on a trip organized by Marty Jemison Cycling Tours, which gave her brief access to Team CSC during the rest day in Gap.

She decided to buy and use a Samsung Sports Camcorder to make her vlog entries. She wasn't specific, but I'd guess that she used a Samsung X210L MPEG4 Sports Camcorder. This is a compact, weather-resistant digital video camcorder with 1GB Memory and a 10x-Optical Zoom with image stabilization. It includes an external clip-on lens that can turn the X210L into a helmet cam.

I thought the video clips that Francisco posted were interesting, but she dubbed in a music track that makes it almost impossible to hear what people in the videos are saying. Some of her commentary on the race indicates that she doesn't have much of an idea of who the leaders of the race were at the rest day. She probably wasn't spending much time watching television and surfing the Internet at the time.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Bambi Francisco, video blog, Team CSC, DV camcorder, electronic gadgets.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last Saturday, Scott Shalom, Bill Maurer, and I officiated a men's college ice hockey game between Drexel University and Villanova University in Philadelphia. I thought it would be interesting to see how Nokia N90 video clips of a hockey game would turn out, so I lent the camera phone to my friend Shane Hanlon who was at the game to evaluate our on-ice performance.

Before the game began, I gave Shane a 90-second explanation of how to shoot video with the N90. I showed him how to open the camera so it went into video camera mode, how to start and stop recording, and how to zoom in and out using the Carl Zeiss Optics Tessar 2.95/5.5 lens. Shane gave the N90 back to me with three video clips of the game on it. I decided to publish two of them as-is. I'm not publishing the third clip because it's very short and doesn't really show anything. It's pretty clear that Shane was just getting used to the camera at that point.

When you look at these two video clips, you'll probably ask, "Why is the camera focusing on the officials and not the play?" It's because Shane is there to watch the officials. He spent a lot more of his time taking notes than playing with the N90.

Drexel vs Villanova, December 10, 2005, 1 minute 09 seconds.

The point I'm trying to make by publishing these clips, however, is that the Nokia N90 is very easy to use and does a surprisingly good job of capturing the action in one of the fastest sports commonly played in the Northern Hemisphere. The lighting conditions inside the Class of '23 Ice Arena at The University of Pennsylvania in Philadephia are not very good, yet you can easily see the action and identify individual players and officials on the ice.

Drexel vs Villanova, December 10, 2005, 3 minutes 24 seconds.

Remember, these videos were shot with a palm-sized Nokia N90 mobile phone, not some dedicated video camera. These video clips are displayed at 246 x 210 pixel resolution here on Operation Gadget, but they are recorded at 352 x 288, so the image you see when playing the video directly off your PC with a media player is approximately twice this size.

Technorati Tags: Nokia N90, N-Series, Nokia, N90, hockey

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Toy Wishes Magazine has released its ever-popular Hot Dozen Toys for 2005. This list is intended to forecast which toys will be the most popular during the 2005 holidays. We can safely assume that if the magazine is correct, many of them will also become hard to find in stores at some point in the near future.

Dora's Talking Kitchen: One of my
favorites on the Toy Wishes Hot
Dozen Holiday List. Product photos
courtesy of Amazon.com.

The Hot Dozen List includes (in alphabetical order):

• Black Belts Karate Home Studio DVD: an inexpensive active play set with a video component.
• Dora's Talking Kitchen; My wife Kathleen says that the kitchen play set at her pediatrics office is the most popular toy in the waiting room.
• Fly Wheels Assortment; Couldn't figure out which toy this was, so I'm recommending the Fly Wheels Rapid Fire Launcher for the moment.
• Furby: an electronic friend that comes in multiple color combinations.
• iDog: an electronic dog that dances to music that's being played in the room. Accessories are also available.
• iZ: an interesting combination of cartoon character, speaker for music playback, and music mixing tool. You change the beat of the music by twisting iZ's ears and pressing on his belly.
• Leapster L-Max Learning System: portable version of Leapster learning system. Requires new games, available separately. Works in conjunction with TV, if connected.
• The Magnetix MagnaWorld Series: lead by Magnetix MagnaWorld City. MagnaWorld Clock Tower, MagnaWorld Magna Central, Rescue Center, and Airport also available.
• Pixel Chix: including Pixel Chix Cottage House, Beverly Hills House, and Miami Loft. Interesting electronic house simulators. Kids interact with a Pixel Chix Pal, paying attention to the Pal in order to keep advancing in the game; Ignore and Pixel Chix Pal moves out.
• Shell Shocker Radio Controlled Toy: a toy with a "bio-mechanical design" that can shift from a rolling bowling-ball type shape to a reptillian-looking robot and back. Requires a Tyco Pro Flexpak Battery and Charger and a 9-volt battery, which adds to the cost.
• VCam Now: digital camera / video camera designed for kids. Holds 480 pictures or 7 minutes of video.
• V-Smile Pocket: portable version of V Smile-- a 2004 favorite. Uses the same cartridges as the bigger unit, potentially a big savings.

VTech V-Smile Pocket:
Little brother of the V-Smile Learning
System, which was a big hit in 2004.

If the 2004 Hot Dozen list was heavy with electronics, the list is overloaded in 2005. There are only two toys on this list that don't have a big electronic component: Black Belts Karate Home Studio DVD (also available in VHS) and the Magnetics MagnaWorld Series. I bought a set of Magnetix building toys for my nephew, Ben, a year or two ago, and I really wish they had been around when I was a kid, because they're fun to build with.

Last year, Operation Gadget readers bought a lot of VTech V-Smile, a video game-based learning system for preschoolers. In my opinion, this either means that V-Smile Pocket will be a similar hit, or it will be a dud. VTech has a strong lineup of add-on cartridges compatible with both devices based on Winnie the Pooh, Mickey and Friends, and the Little Mermaid. If these cartridges are entertaining as well as educational, I'm sure parents and grandparents will buy them, and many hours of fun will be had by all.

I'm concerned that the mix of electronic and non-electronic products in the Hot Dozen has tilted too far toward the electronics this year. Will there be hits in the non-electronic genre this year, in spite of the lack of attention? What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Hot Dozen, Toy Wishes Magazine, Christmas gifts, Hanukkah gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

Sony Announces 16:9 DV Recorder:
Sony's new camcorder grabs 16:9 or 4:3
images, but is not HD compatible.
[ Photo: Sony ]

I4U News reported that Sony has announced a 16:9 consumer camcorder to be released in the Spring of 2005. The DCR-PC1000 is Sony's first consumer camcorder to include a three chip CMOS sensor. It will record images in a 16:9 format, but this should not be confused with HDTV.

Apparently, Sony gave the DCR-PC1000 the ability to record images with 480 lines of resolution in a wide format. At best, the output will be as clear as a conventional DVD. I have no doubt that some people will look at the DCR-PC1000's feature list, see a 16:9 capability, and assume that this is a compact HD camcorder.

Since I started looking at DV cameras again, I've noticed that prices have fallen precipitously, but there are very few models available that support 720 or 1080 lines of resolution (required to be considered HD-compatible). It seems like the camcorder manufacturers are intent upon pushing one more generation of non-HD units through the channel. If you want real HD-compatibility, make sure you know that the camcorder you buy supports it and make sure your editing tools will work with HD output.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BoingBoing published a neat article that says that serious scientists love an $89 toy microscope that you can purchase from Amazon.com and a number of other on-line retailers. (Note that the price at Amazon is quite a bit less than $89.)

The QX5 Computer Microscope from Prima Creations has been uses successfully by Andrew Westphal, an astrophysicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. He reportedly said that a more sophisticated microscope's lens would have been damaged by the acid that's used to separate particles of microscopic space dust.

It's amazing that a device like this is sold as a toy for kids. I want one.

Continue reading "Scientists Love $89 QX5 Computer Microscope" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you seen the ad for Canon Elura DV Camcorders with DV Photo Plus? They show an inline youth hockey game where the father of a young girl playing in the game shoots digital video and digital photos with the same device. The camera featured appears to be the Canon Elura 70, although it is not specifically identified.

It looks like a neat camera. There's one big problem with that ad-- the players in the inline hockey game deliver several bodychecks. There is no bodychecking in USA Hockey Inline at any level, partly because it's much harder to stop on inline skates than on ice skates.

Am I nitpicking?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

MacDevCenter has published an excellent automated digital photo gallery creation howto written by Mike Schienle of Custom Visuals, LLC. This is Mike's first article for the O'Reilly Network, but in my opinion, it's similar in quality to Phillip Torreone's How-To Friday articles that have been published recently on Engadget.

Mike's article walks us through the design and implementation of a digital photo gallery that leverages Sendmail or a similar MTA, MySQL, and Perl with the ImageMagick image manipulation modules. The design hinges on using an email account as an intake mechanism for the automated gallery builder. It's a brilliant design because it's:

1. simple,
2. based on a well-defined personal need,
3. well documented,
4. easy-to-implement, and
5. extensible.

Although the article talks about using the digital photo gallery builder with Apple iPhoto, it could be used successfully with almost any personal digital photo management application as its front end. Mike implements his gallery builder on a Mac OS X server, but it's written in a way that would allow it to run on Linux or any other UNIX derivative without alteration.

I've got a ton of digital photos that my wife and I would like to be able to show to friends and family. So, building a digital photo gallery makes a lot of sense. I've also got experience with all of the individual components that are used in this design. You can bet that I'll have a version of this implemented on one of my servers soon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Johnny Chung Lee, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, designed an attachment for a digital video camera which functions like a Steadicam camera stabilizing system. The most interesting aspect of Lee's design is that he says it can be assembled from parts available at a hardware store for about $14.00.

About two weeks ago, we had a celebratory dinner for my mother-in-law, Joyce Kuykendall, who earned a Ph.D. after eight years of study and research. One of my roles that evening was videographer. I broke out my Canon GL1, a fantastic three-CCD video camera, that I hadn't used in about two years because I didn't feel that I had good enough video editing tools to take advantage of it. I forgot how much fun it is to shoot video with a good DV camera like the GL1. I also forgot how good the output of a camera like this can be.

I'd love to try to build a camera stabilizer out of parts I can buy at Lowe's or The Home Depot. If you enjoy shooting digital video as well, you may also be interested in following Johnny Chung Lee's recipe. [ via Digital Media Thoughts ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)