We’re using the next few days in D.C. to field test the new iPhone. I continue to be amazed at the quality of the video (and audio) from the iPhone.
Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps
My first iPhone video
Forget for a moment that I have the iPhone in portrait orientation, and check out the quality of this brief walk through the newsroom. I’ve uploaded videos to YouTube from all kinds of cameras: Sony Camcorder; Flips; my beloved Casios; the MacBook iSight.
But I don’t think I’ve ever ended up with a clip that looked and sounded this good. I know, could be some Cupertino Mind Trick but I think I’m correct on this point. And the iPhone has YouTube option built right in.
iPhone MobileMe
I got a brief look at the new OS for the iPhone yesterday and must say I was impressed. Copy and paste works smooth as buttah. And a bunch of other stuff I didn’t get to play with but the feature that made me squeal like a 12 year old girl was one I had not heard about. From the iPhone website:
“If you misplace your iPhone, MobileMe can help you find it. Log in to me.com to view a map that shows the approximate location of your iPhone. If it’s nearby, have it play a sound to help you find it, or display a message on the Home screen to help someone return it to you.
Your iPhone contains information you don’t want in the hands of a stranger. So if you lose your iPhone and displaying a message on it hasn’t resulted in its safe return, you can initiate a remote wipe and restore factory settings. If you eventually find your iPhone, you can restore your data by enabling your MobileMe account on iPhone.”
How about this option? If you know your phone is stolen and being used by the thief –or someone he sold it to– you turn the phone on and make it play a pre-recorded sound clip: THIS TURD STOLE MY IPHONE! Over and over.
My new phone arrives this Friday and I confess I’m a little giddy with anticipation.
PS: If you click the headline of this post it displays the “related posts” feature we added yesterday. One of which is from a year ago, titled: “Why no iPhone for smays.com.”
World’s first Bluetooth webcam
“The new Ecamm BT-1 combines high-quality video and sound with complete freedom from wires. The new webcam integrates advanced technologies to allow video and sound to be sent through the air to most any Mac. The BT-1 streams 640×480 H.264 video and AAC audio to video applications such as iChat and Skype, taking advantage of Mac OS X’s rich media capabilities to provide a seamless wireless webcam experience.”
This rascal is about half the size of an iPhone. As for video and audio quality? We’ll take her for a test-drive in the morning down at the Coffee Zone.
TweetSpin: “set it and forget it”
TweetSpin, a new Twitter application designed by a radio programmer named Rico Garcia. Among other info, TweetSpin can post "now playing" data from a station's website.
Here's a couple of snippets from a review in R&R, a radio trade publication:
From KHOP PD MoJo Roberts: "TweetSpin allows us to constantly have 'what's playing now' on our status and set appointment tweets to go out so we can set it and forget it."
In addition the "now playing" feature, Garcia is more excited about built-in scheduling that allows stations to set up hourly, daily or weekly messages to encourage listening appointments.
Hardly surprising that an industry in the process of automating itself out of existence would look for a way to automate social media, too. Of course, if there's really no one at the station…