Creative Slim Down Vision M and W MP3 Players

In the highly competitive MP3 player market, every single ounce of extraneous lard could result in lost sales, so Creative’s boffins in Japan have been working hard to slim down their popular Zen players.

Creative Slim Down Vision M and W MP3 PlayersFresh outta hi-tech Fat Farm, the new Zen Vision M and W models have managed to reduce their bulk by 15% on previous versions while wedging in a bigger hard disk.

Vision M
Looking at the vital statistics, the Creative Zen Vision M measures up at a pocket pleasing 62x104x19mm (slimmed down from 22.1-mm to 19mm.)

Creative Slim Down Vision M and W MP3 PlayersThe rather desirable little fella weighs in at a light as heck 170g (and that includes the battery) and comes with a 2.5 inch colour screen.

Despite its featherweight form, the device manages to pack in a fairly generous 60GB of storage, which should be enough to keep punters entertained on all but the longest journeys (British Rail delays notwithstanding).

Creative Slim Down Vision M and W MP3 PlayersVision W

The Zen Vision W has also spent time on the juddery slimming belt machine, and now comes in a 134x75x22mm package (slimmed down from 26.4mm to 22mm) and weighs 280g, including battery.

There’s also 60GB of onboard storage and a generous 4.3 inch display, although some may be wondering what happened to the 80GB and 100GB models.

Creative Slim Down Vision M and W MP3 PlayersWhen?
At the moment, there’s only been an announcement on the Creative Japan site, so it may take some time before us Brits can get our grubby hands on these puppies.

Source

Zoran COACH 9: DivX Record Coming To Digital Cameras: CES 2007

Everyone and their uncle are making digital cameras these days and companies like Zoran help them to do that by providing the chips for capture and processing.

Zoran COACH 9: DivX Record Coming To Digital Cameras: CES 2007

The news from the floor at CES is that the COACH 9 will now support the popular DivX video format, giving the benefit of video compatibility with the tens of millions of DivX Certified DVD players.

Zoran’s COACH 9 is already capable of capture images at up to 16mpx for still images and capturing and playing back WMV MPEG-4 video of VGA resolution at 30 frames/sec including audio and 20 frames/sec at SVGA resolution.

When it first arrived, DivX was used by many to encode copied videos, including a considerable amount to p0rn. They’ve worked hard to shift that image and this support is a boost for DivX furthering its aim to become a global standard for video encoding.

DivX certification

iPods Integrated Into Planes

iPods Integrated Into PlanesApple have just announced that they have signed deals with six major airlines, offering the first seamless integration between iPod and the planes in-flight entertainment systems.

Starting mid 2007, Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers will be able to charge their iPod while in the air, but more interestingly be able to watch the video held on their iPods on the seat-back monitor.

Beyond that, Panasonic Avionics Corporation is working with Apple to build it into other airlines

Comment
This is a great deal for Apple. Not only do they fix the problem with people running their batteries down during a flight, and possibly not having any juice when they land and continue their journey, but as they’ve got first mover advantage on this. It’s going to be significantly harder for another player to have their kit integrated in to the planes. There’s only so many connectors that the airlines can make available.

We asked Apple if it was an exclusive deal, thereby blocking out other media players, but at the time of going to press we hadn’t heard back.

For the passenger, surely the wise move would be just to provide a USB port and allow people to plug whichever device they have with them, and have the in-flight system decode the media file and play them back. Thereby not being locked to a make of player.

The only down side we can see for this is for the airlines, as they won’t be making money out of charging for films.

TA 454 Ultra Portable Personal Media Player

TA 454  Ultra Portable Personal Media PlayerSmaller than a pixie’s pocket plaything, the ridiculously tiny Ultra Portable Personal Media Player and Recorder is quite the teensiest thing we’ve seen for a while.

Sporting a squinty 1.5″ TFT LCD screen, the TA 454 Digital Video Player comes with 256MB of built-in memory and a built-in SD/MMC card slot, with the whole thing barely bigger than a SD memory card.

With a radio and USB connectivity, the device can be plugged into your PC or laptop without drivers and charged at the same time.

TA 454  Ultra Portable Personal Media PlayerLord knows how they’ve managed to fit it in, but there’s also a speaker onboard too, although we imagine the output must be quieter than a gnat having a snooze.

The mighty midget multimedia widget supports SMV, MP3, WMA, JPG and eBook file formats with the makers insisting that it can handle ‘full motion video.’

We’re not sure how much motion you’d actually get to see on such a Lilliputian device, but we can’t help but be impressed by the miniaturisation skills on offer – even if you’ll need lady-like fingers to operate the thing.

TA 454  Ultra Portable Personal Media PlayerIt’s as cheap as chips too, with Gadget Universe offering it for just $80 (£42, €62).

Gadget Universe

Pure Digital Camcorder Uploads Videos Direct To Google

Pure Digital Camcorder Uploads Videos Direct To GooglePure Digital Technologies has announced a cheapo camcorder that can upload movies to video sharing Web sites like Google Video with a single click.

The $129 palm-sized camcorder can hold up to 30 mins of footage ($169 for the 60-minute version) and boasts a 2x digital zoom and 1.4-inch colour playback screen, with a pull-out USB connector.

The point’n’shoot camcorder plugs directly into PCs or Macs, with the built-in software letting punters transfer and process footage with a single click.

The software includes instant sharing options like one-click emailing, video greeting cards and custom-edited movie mixes, with the option to burn DVDs by taking the cam to one of the 10,000 Pure Digital-certified retail locations.

Pure Digital Camcorder Uploads Videos Direct To GoogleAllen Weiner, an analyst with market tracker Gartner, reckoned Pure Digital were on to a winner, describing the pint-size camcorder as “simple, but also revolutionary.”

“There are millions of people who look at a site like YouTube and want to put their videos up, but have no idea how to do it,” he said. “This puts everything directly into the camera itself.”

Pure Digital are feeling bullish about sales prospects, predicting around 250,000 camcorder sales this year – that’s 9% of all camcorders sold – with sales topping one million next year.

Pure Digital Technologies

Apple iTV Device Pre-Anounced

Apple iTV Device Pre-AnouncedApple has for once pre-announced a new product, codenamed iTV (which is unlikely to be the final name as they’d get sued in the UK for a start).

This is a media playback unit (about the same dimensions of a Mac Mini but half the height). It has a multitude of connectors on the back (audio and various video including HDMI). It connects to the network over wireless and can stream movies, music, video, photos, podcastsfrom iTunes or from Apple.com/iTunes store.

It will be available in Q1 2007 for $199.

New Apple iPods Launched: Nano and Shuffle

It's Apple ShowtimeIn the UK, the iTunes music store was closed all day yesterday for refurbishment, with a black screen just saying ‘Showtime.’ At about 6pm (UK time) Steve Jobs announced why. There’s a slew of new/updated iPods and more content on the store as well as version 7 of iTunes for Mac and Windows (more on this later).

iPods get another makeover
All the iPods are being updated, from the video iPod down to the shuffle.

The video iPod now comes in two versions, 30GB and 80GB (£189 inc VAT and £259 respectively). They have a new screen that’s 60% brighter and more vibrant. As well as playing videos and music, viewing photos and the normal iPod features, games can be downloaded from the iTunes store (£3.99) and played on all 5th generation+ iPods. The battery life has been increased and with the 30GB iPod lasting 14 hours and the 80GB 20 hours (for music, that drops to 6.5 hours for video, but long enough for a couple of films).

It's Apple ShowtimeMovies (and video from the iTunes store) are now stored in 640 x 480 format.

The new Nanos come in 2, 4 and 8GB (£99, £129 and £169). Apple has gone all retro and reverted back to the mini design in that they now have an aluminum case in a variety of colours (sliver, pink, blue, green and black). It’s thinner than the 1st generation Nano. They now have 24 hours battery life.

It's Apple ShowtimeBoth the Nano and iPod video now have search features so that albums can be searched for etc., using the click wheel (with on-screen letters and search criteria). Gapless playback is a new feature, so songs can be played continuously without the normal two second wait between songs. There’s no beat matching yet, but maybe that’s Apple’s next enhancement so DJ’s will be out of a job.

The new shuffle (1GB, £55) is tiny and again in retro silver aluminum. It’s about 1 inch long (and almost square) and has a built-in clip (well the back is a clip).

BBC To Take Live Webcam Feeds To TV Shows

BBC To Take Live Webcam Feeds To ShowsA visual communications company, All New Video, have announced a deal with BBC to enable feedback and input into TV programmes from viewers, video calling from 3G phones, Web cams and ISDN. On the voice side, it will add VoIP to its inbound voice channels.

It will open up and encourage the input of BBC viewers into news television programmes, widening the chances for user-generated content. The first show will be ‘Have Your Say’ which is aired on BBC World and BBC News 24, which they hope will before the end of the month.

We think this is a really exciting idea, with the live element being the real revolution. We spoke to David Hogben, General Manager, to get the low down.

Webcam to Live Broadcast
During live shows, the producer will be able to ask viewers to join in with the programme, by connecting with their 3G mobiles (unlikely and expensive for the caller), or far more interestingly, their Webcams.

To get to add their two penny worth, prospective video chatters will go to the BBC News Web site and download an ActiveX control (sorry Windows only currently), which will pick up their Webcam and/or microphone, letting them connect.

As the Application can be downloaded by anyone, input can come from anywhere worldwide.

BBC To Take Live Webcam Feeds To ShowsThe system give the assistant producer the ability to carry out a video chat with the viewer letting them ascertain their suitability of the show – frankly, filter out those not relevant. Each person can also be ranked and some notes made about them.

When the assistant producer thinks they’ve got the best of the bunch, they are passed in to a ‘waiting room’ where the producer can also chat with them, and then they decide if it’s time to put them live into the broadcast. As the 3G video is low res and the Webcam quality variable, it’s likely that video feeds will only be broadcast at quarter screen resolution for the time being.

The whole process runs through a Web-browser on All New Video’s servers, until the broadcast, when a server at the BBC is connected with, feeding the video and audio out through an SDI interface.

Video comments
Those old enough will remember UK broadcaster, Channel 4, used to have ‘feedback booths’ in a couple of UK cities where viewers were able to go into a darkened box and share their views with the UK audience.

BBC To Take Live Webcam Feeds To ShowsThe new BBC system will let people do the same from the safety of their own bedrooms, where they’ll be able to leave their five minutes of video wisdom in a video mail system.

Background on All New Video
All New Video started in 2002 with the advent of 3G as they thought it would address a lot of the problems the founder, David Atkins, had encountered in their previous video conferencing business.

Their first big business win was a contact with Orange to supply the technology for their video answering service. Any time you can’t get through to someone with a video call on a 3G or 2.5G phone, you’re connected to the All New Video kit, where you can leave up to a 30 second message which is then delivered via MMS.

As we’ve been hearing from Vodafone recently, video calling isn’t being embraced by the 3G owning public, neither, more widely, is 3G. This lead to a rethink for them and a switch to including Webcams and other Internet technologies such as VoIP to be included.

They’ve previously done deals with two UK TV companies ITN and ITV’s breakfast show, GMTV. Neither are advanced as the BBC system advised today, with the ITN handling video messaging and the GMTV allowing video calls going direct to air, both from 3G phones.

All New Video

USB Web Cam With Telescope

USB Web Cam With TelescopeIf you enjoyed Hitchcock’s Rear Window movie, you can now play a James Stewart character in your very own home thanks to Brando’s new USB Web Cam With Telescope.

The sneaky, spying Webcam comes with a built in 7×18 optical telescope letting you closely examine the goings-on of neighbours far and wide and – best of all – share their dodgy activities with the rest of the Web!

The example photos on Brando’s Website show that it’s a pretty powerful telescope, although with Image quality a mere VGA 800 x 600, you won’t have to worry about Patrick Moore smashing down your front door with his glockenspiel mallets and demanding a go.

USB Web Cam With TelescopeThe manual focus Webcam also offers video with a frame rate of 30fps at 320×240 and 15fps at 640×480.

The package arrives with its own mini tripod, driver, manual and – bless – a little cloth to keep your telescope glass nice and shiny.

USB Web Cam With TelescopeBeing a Brando product, it’s as cheap as chips – just $26 – and only available via mail order from Hong Kong.

We’ve been tempted by some of their daft products in the past and can report that we’ve always found them a prompt and reliable supplier.

Brando

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam Announced

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam AnnouncedLogitech has dished out some details on their new QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam, which they claim offers, “a true-to-life video calling experience by delivering twice the image clarity as that offered by typical Webcams.”

While most Webcams turn into grainy blobs at low light settings, Logitech reckon that their combination of high quality materials and a bright f-stop setting of 1.6 will be a massive improvement on current models.

The software that powers the QuickCam Ultra Vision goes under the snappy name of ‘RightLight 2 Technology’, and it’s claimed to be able to “intelligently adapt” the camera’s video settings based on the ambient lighting.

The Webcam also features a premium 1.3 megapixel sensor with a high performance lens made up of a mix of glass and plastic optics, with the camera supporting the High-Definition (HD) video format.

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam AnnouncedUnfortunately, Logitech haven’t released any proper photos of the Webcam or posted up any examples of the image quality, so I guess we’ll have to wait to see if the it’s as good as they say.

Sound and video effects
Also bundled with the Webcam is Logitech RightSound Technology, which combines a microphone with acoustic echo-cancellation software, making it easier to host video calls without having to wear a chumpster, ‘call centre’-style headset

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam AnnouncedWe’re sure children under 10 years old (and some cray-zee tie wearing office pranksters) will get more pleasure than we did out of using the included ‘Video Effects’ software.

This lets you personalise your on-screen appearance using ‘hilarious’ avatars and ‘thigh-slapping’ face accessories, so you can have, for example, an alien head that mimics your expressions, or stick on glasses, a moustache, a hat or a crown to your image.

The QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam should be available in the U.S and Europe from August, and comes with suggested retail price of $130 in the US (~£71, ~€104).

Logitech