Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:37 AM/EST
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 By introducing the concept of a low cost and easy to use digital camcorder, the Flip essentially started a revolution in video recording by anyone at anytime. But recently there's been a disconnect in the line of Flip digital camcorders.
That's because, while the Flip MinoHD is their highest priced (at $229.99) and ostensibly highest quality camcorder, in recent months it has been eclipsed by the lower priced (at $199.99) Flip UltraHD, which had higher quality HD video and two hours of recording time versus the MinoHD's one hour.
But with the recent release of the latest Flip MinoHD, all is right in the Flip universe and the MinoHD once again gains its place at the top of the Flip line. In fact, this is easily the best Flip camcorder I've ever used.
Friday, September 11, 2009 11:57 AM/EST
If your main living room television is anything like mine, you've probably already run out of space and connections for any new devices. Between things like the satellite box, the DVD player, gaming consoles, etc. there just isn't any more room for new devices.
So while I've been intrigued by devices like the Roku, which lets you play Netflix Watch Instantly movies on your TV, I just don't have the room for any new devices. But what if I could use one of the devices I already have hooked to my TV for playing any Internet based video, whether its Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, whatever?
That's where a little piece of software called PlayOn comes in. PlayOn is a Windows application that, when installed on a PC, makes it possible to send Internet-based video and other media from your PC to a gaming console.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 11:22 AM/EST
With the launch of Bing this week, a new search service arrived to take on Google. And, unlike other small challengers, since Bing is from Microsoft, it actually has the potential to stick around long enough to make some inroads on Google.
But how is Bing as a search engine. Since it launched on Monday, I've been using Bing heavily for nearly all of my Internet search needs. And so far, I like much of what Microsoft is doing here.
In general, Bing is more attractive than Google and has a lot of nice interactive touches. Once you've entered a search, the results page in Bing provides a variety of information.
Friday, March 27, 2009 12:14 PM/EST
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While the varying parties in the operating system wars like to tout the advantages that each OS holds over its rivals, all of them share one thing in common. Whether it's Linux, Mac OS X or Windows, none of them are particularly quick about booting up, especially if one is using older hardware.
In fact, along with size and price, one the main attractions of Linux-based netbooks is their ability to turn on and boot up fast, letting their users get to work checking mail and browsing the web in seconds. So an operating system option that provided close to instant-on capabilities for any laptop or desktop could be an attractive option for many people.
This is the idea behind Presto, a new beta product from Linux vendor Xandros. When installed on a system, Presto gives users the option to quickly boot into a lightweight netbook style operating system that provides access to core applications such as web browsers, chat tools, and productivity applications.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 12:15 PM/EST
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When looking at the current version of the Apple Safari Web browser, the description that comes to mind is "stripped down." The current Safari lacks many of the interface features found in competing browsers and seems to focus on simplicity and speed.
But based on tests of the recently released beta of Safari 4, stripped down won't be the main description of the next Apple browser.
With the beta of Safari 4, Apple has clearly focused on upgrading the interface of the Web browser, playing catch-up with other browsers in some areas and adding some unique and welcome capabilities of its own.
Friday, January 30, 2009 12:48 PM/EST
This week Google finally enabled offline capabilities for their popular Gmail service. For many of us this has been something we'd been waiting on for quite a while.
While many people rely on Gmail more and more for both their private and work communications, it really couldn't be considered a serious mail option until it could work on airplanes or other situations where an internet connection is unavailable or poor.
So when offline support became an option in Gmail Labs, I quickly enabled it for my Gmail account. And while I was happy with some of the offline functionality of Gmail, in many ways it was a big disappointment.
In fact, while the term beta is somewhat of joke when it comes to Google services (Gmail itself is still called beta), this offline capability should definitely be considered beta, if not alpha. In my tests the offline capability proved to be very flaky, when it worked at all.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 3:13 PM/EST
Click here to see screenshots of IE 8
With the release of Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1, we are finally in the home stretch of the long trip to the latest version of the Microsoft Web browser.
And since this is a release candidate, this means that, unless there is a major problem found, this version of Internet Explorer 8 is pretty much the version that will be officially released. So, how will IE 8 stack up?
Well, if compared solely with earlier versions of Internet Explorer, IE 8 is a massive improvement that boosts the usability, security and flexibility of the Microsoft browser.
However, this won't be the case. IE 8 will instead be compared with the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera. And based on these comparisons, IE 8 RC 1 only looks so-so.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:48 PM/EST
Click here to see screenshots of JavaFX
It was a little less than a year ago that rich Internet application technology finally matured enough to become a usable tool, although it was still very much in the early stages of development.
At the time, eWEEK Labs took a look at the RIA sector and reviewed four RIA platforms, coming to the conclusion that the technology had reached the point where it could be called RIA 1.0.
Now, I'm taking another look at RIAs, evaluating the maturation of the platforms reviewed last year and testing out a new--and old--player.
The RIA platforms I looked at last year were Adobe Systems' AIR, Microsoft's Silverlight, Mozilla's Prism, and Curl. The new/old player I'm reviewing in this package is Sun Microsystems' JavaFX 1.0.
Monday, January 12, 2009 3:31 PM/EST
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Less than one month after Google released Version 1.0 of its Google Chrome Web browser, the company is providing an early peek at what Version 2.0 of Chrome will offer.
On. Jan. 8 a developer's release (which is basically pre-beta) of Chrome 2.0 became available from Google. Most of the new features and changes are fairly modest and in many cases simply add capabilities that are already found in other browsers. If this is all that the final version of Chrome 2.0 will offer, then it will be more in line with point releases from competing browsers rather than a big, full new version release. However, I expect that when Google Chrome 2.0 is eventually fully released there will be more new features and capabilities than are showcased in the current release.
Friday, January 09, 2009 12:00 PM/EST
One of the many side-effects of this bad economy is that there are now many people out there who are starting their own businesses as either their main source of income or to supplement their income. And whether you are now a computer help consultant to your local community or selling gear at flea markets, you are going to have customers who will want to pay you using a credit card.
For the small-time business this can be a significant hurdle, requiring lots of upfront and regular monthly fees. And if one wants to take credit card information for face to face transactions, it requires either bulky equipment that needs some kind of network connection or the risky use of credit card imprint gadgets.
However, online merchant account provider ProPay has another solution. Their recently released MicroSecure Card Reader is a very small handheld device that can capture and encrypt credit card information from the field and then securely transmit this information to the merchant's online account whenever they get back to their computer.
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