Gadget: Sony MHS-PM5

This is far from a full-on review. More like an acknowledgement of participation by the newest tool in my arsenal of gadgets. All of my video from Augmented Reality Event (ARE 2010) was shot with my new Sony HD Bloggie MHS-PM5. While much of it was shot hand-held, I also brought along a Manfrotto 709BR Digi tripod. Originally bought to use with a 3M MPro120 pico projector, I had it with me to practice my presentation in my hotel room, and realized it could do double-duty (shown in the photo above).

I debated for a while whether to go with the CM5 or the PM5. It largely came down to a debate over compact-convenience vs optical zoom. I ultimately decided that I would get more use out of the PM5, being smaller and able to comfortably toss in my pocket without carrying a bag. Of course, there is always the possibility that it will be made instantly obsolete when I get the new iPhone 4, but it served its purpose for ARE and I’m certain to get more use out of it (Hey, it could be my iPhone camera’s #2. Power to the people.).

The mini-tripod combo worked well. In some presentations, I was able to get a desk seat, set up the camera on the tripod, and then not have to pay much attention to it (while, for instance, I geeked out live tweeting).

Extreme ease of use, I bought it only a day before my travel to Santa Clara, and did not take the time to experiment with it even once, for even a second until the moment I went to use it in the field for the first time. After leaving it on the charger over night, the following morning I turned it on for the first time mere moments before recording my first video, and knew intuitively exactly how to use it. It gets an A+ in ease of use.

There is one serious limitation to this device that any potential buyer must be aware of in advance: It can only record 29-minutes at a time. Even with a 16G SanDisk, which could hold several hours of video, it won’t record beyond the 29 minutes. You can record many multiple files of less than 29-minutes each, and you can begin recording another clip just seconds after saving the prior one, but 29-minutes is the time limit. The salesman at B&H explained to me that it had to do with EU import regulations — there are apparently extra import taxes on video recorders that can be avoided by being sold as a “still camera”. In the EU, if the device records for 30 minutes or longer, it is considered a video camera, but if it takes pictures and also video clips of less-than 30 minutes, it is designated as a “still camera” with a video “feature”. And Sony apparently wanted to avoid EU tariffs, but didn’t want to make a separate model just for the US market. Anyway, that was the story I was told at B&H. The reason this matters, besides being an annoying, arbitrarily imposed limitation, is that I once lost track of time, and let it run longer than 30 minutes (while recording Blaise Aguera y Arcas’s Keynote), and the device froze-up. Worse than that, the video file was corrupted, so I didn’t even get to keep the first 29 minutes. This was further disappointing because I was told explicitly that, if it reached the 30-minute limitation, that the device would just save the file and stop recording. In other words, that is simply would not do precisely what it did.

In the grander scheme of things, I think the situations where I will record more that 30-minutes continuously are exceedingly rare, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt… for now.

While certainly not the quality of an optical zoom, the digital zoom performed better than expected, especially at full 4x zoom (where my expectations were very low). And when used with no zoom, the image quality was quite crisp. The steady-cam feature also worked better than my expectations, when used handheld.

Another nice selling point is the ability to flip the camera lens back towards you. This means you can record interviews, keeping yourself in the frame, and still see the video playback screen for composition.

I almost forgot to mention the battery life. Amazing! I forgot to get a spare battery when I purchased the device, so I tried to get one at JFK on my way out. No luck. No luck at the San Francisco airport, when I arrived, either. I was very concerned that I would run out of battery life, and be left without the use of my device for the second half of each day. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Not only did the charge last all day long, the battery indicator never dropped below “fully charged”. I did put it back on the charger for the night, for the second day of the event, but still. It has now been a full week since I returned, and I have yet to see it indicate anything but a fully charged battery. Amazing battery life.

As the cheesy marketing name suggests, the “Bloggie” is marketed to bloggers such as myself. While the 29 minute record limit (and especially so, the corrupted file) were a big disappointment, I can still recommend the camera, based on its other features, so long as buyers are made well aware of this limitation going into the purchase. I really am the ideal target for such a product. As I aim to incorporate more-and-more video here at GigantiCo.tv, I expect I will get a lot more use out of the device. Perhaps I may come back and add my own comment to this post, after I’ve put it through the paces for a few months.

Oh, and as for the Manfrotto tripod — love it. Great ball-joint mounting head, sturdy, well made. Small enough to fold up and stick in your back pocket. Pretty sleek industrial design, too.

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Disclosure: All product links include my Amazon affiliate tag.

iStrategy

The name “iPhone” is a misnomer. It is not a phone. It is pocket sized computer that, among other features, also happens to include a phone. The Apple iPod-Touch is sometimes portrayed as a crippled cousin of the iPhone— an iPhone somehow lacking its primary function. A more accurate analogy would be that the iPod-Touch is a portable pocket computer, and the iPhone is a premium version of the iPod-Touch that happens to have one extra feature. This is not entirely semantic. The iPod-Touch can do everything the iPhone can do, including connected functions like browsing the web via a wifi connection. Even for iPhone users, a wifi connection is preferred for internet activity beyond a basic search. Most people that have an iPod-Touch have a home wifi, and wifi at the office is now pretty well standard. It is standard campus-wide at every university. In every internet cafe. Every coffee shop. Many parks. Shopping malls… Wifi connectivity is on it’s way to becoming ubiquitous throughout many urban areas.

But the iPod Touch doesn’t have a microphone… yet. At least not for, oh, another month or so. Leaks abound that, like the iPhone 3Gs, the new iPod-Touch will feature video, including both a camera and microphone. The first iPod-Touch with a microphone. Forget video, this opens the door to Skype style IP telephony— internet calls over wifi.

A reasonable long-term strategy for Apple would be the elimination of the “phone” all together. It is conceivable that the iPhone was merely the stop-gap all along. Use the carriers to gain market share, have two models— one with a phone, one without. Then when the phone version reaches critical mass, and wifi penetration meets critical mass, who needs the carrier anymore? At least in urban areas (where Apple sells the majority of their phones anyway). Need it for the wide spaces in between or simply en route? There’s a solution for that. Thank you AT&T for subsidizing the cost until economies of scale could bring the price down to earth (don’t complain, you made a good run of it).

Some may scoff at the idea that Apple would drop the phone version entirely. True, probably not anytime soon. But don’t be surprised if an iPod Touch with a microphone quickly begins to cannibalize iPhone sales. Recall that it wasn’t long ago that most scoffed at the idea of completely ditching landlines for mobile.

Tim Kaiser's gonkulations

Tim Kaiser makes custom audio components, of a sort, crafted with a vintage look. In a deliberate act of over-engineering, Tim crafts elaborate devices, usually musical effects modules, and righteously gonkulated noisemakers. Go to his website to learn more.

Wessel Westerveld

I’ve been meaning to give Mr. Westerveld some ink (so to speak) for some time. Going by the pseudonym WEXEL, he makes spectacular devices, ingenious contraptions: A chorus from the clicks of mechanical projection devices, a music box that plays horns (shown at left). Then there is the SDSystem (Surroundings Defend System shown above)- a helmet with a very long visor, and built in headphones, the SDSystem allows the wearer to completely shut out all visual and auditory input from wherever they happen to find themselves. And you thought your iPod and dark sunglasses were enough to do the trick.

Though the link to his CV is currently a broken link, I don’t believe he has yet exhibited in the states. Lyons Wier • Ortt, Lehmann Maupin, anyone?

Must you have one?

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber (How do you know it’s Obi-Wan’s? Because it’s the blue one, silly.). Well, technically it’s not Obi-Wan’s actual Lightsaber, it is merely a “replica”. Every few months Master Replicas (who recently completed their merger with Corgi International Ltd.), has been releasing a new Lightsaber in their Force FX series of high-end replicas. Their site states that it:

Features enhanced glowing blue blade with realistic power-up and power-down light effects. The lighting effects are produced by a string of 64 super-bright LEDs that ignite sequentially inside the blade.

Features five motion sensor controlled sound effects recorded from the movie: power-up, idle hum, swing, clash, and power-down.

Blade has three built-in motion sensors for super sensitivity: 2 for detecting movement and 1 for detecting the impact of the blade.

MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I swear, I am not one of those “Star Wars nerds” (I never even saw the last two movies.). I do realize that I have gone from a laser post to a lightsaber post in one swail foop, but this was entirely coincidental. This is a toy. The lasers are real. And besides, I stumbled across a link to these entirely by accident, while researching vintage Viewmasters (I know, I’m not helping my cause).

The shame, the shame.

Visible Beam Lasers

These lasers, available from the appropriately titled “Wicked Lasers”, have a visible beam and can shoot a visible straight line for 100 miles… not meters, miles.

Careful, these lasers can burn. If held stationary, they can melt a hole in a plastic bag, and will light a cigarette. Other than a note to wear eye protection, their real destructive power is actually pretty feather weight compared to anything Han Solo would strap to his hip. None the less, the strength of these lasers portents to where this technology may progress in the near future.

Mobile Phone Codes

Will our gadgets ever catch up with the Japanese? Well, not likely, but hopefully 2007 will be the year that the US gets mobile codes. In Japan, most camera-phones are already equipped with mobile code reading software. It is becoming popular in Europe as well. To read the codes, you must have the right software installed on your phone. Point your camera and it will read the code. This can contain a phone number, a link to a website, or some other piece of data, and allows the user to act on it at that moment or store it for later use.

See a poster for a concert you want to see? Target the code, and purchase a ticket right from your mobile phone, with a click. See a product on the shelf and want more detailed information or the specs and warranty? Pull out your phone and click. Want to know the nutritional ingredients in your fast food meal? Want to buy the shirt worn on that billboard?

Two competing standards in this market are QR Code (top left), and ShotCode (bottom).

Besides square vs round, the major difference in the two is that ShotCode’s technology is proprietary while QR Code is an open standard. QR Code is also more widely used internationally, and has been around longer. It was originally developed to track auto-parts, and it was approved as an international standard in June 2000. Knowing the outcome of Sony’s Betamax vs JVC’s VHS battle, my money is on QR Code.

QR Code was developed by the Japanese company, Denso-Wave. A Swedish company named Kaywa has developed a camera phone reader plaform on the QR Code standard.
Go here to download software for your camera-phone to read QR Codes.
Go here to make a custom QR Code that you can download, print, etc.

ShotCode was developed by the Swedish company, OP3.
Go here to download software for your camera-phone to read ShotCodes.
Go here to make a custom ShotCode that you can download, print, etc.
(Before making a ShotCode, you must give contact info, then they send you a password via email.)

As I’ve seen QR Codes getting coverage recently in the trade press, it reminded me of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with business acquaintances from R/GA. They were involved in some kind of test market with their Target client. As it was explained to me, the shopper would be able to use their camera phone to read a bar code on the edge of the isle’s shelf, and get additional information- reviews, specs, warranty, etc. about the product downloaded to their phone. I never heard anything else about the Target project.

Even then, it seemed like deja’vu. Back in 2001 I attended a presentation, while working on the Intel account at MVBMS/EURO. One of our media planners had a vendor in that was peddling a technology that would read barcodes from print ads. They gave us all a free CueCat barcode reader. I was very skeptical of the implementation, and asked the presenter why anyone would install software, connect a piece of hardware, drag their magazine over to their computer, then use the barcode reader, just to pull up a website. Wasn’t typing in a URL a fairly easy task? The answer they gave was that this was just a stop-gap solution in order to be first to market, and that they were developing a version of the reader that would work in camera phones– As soon as camera phones became common place (this was in 2001), then there would be no need for the barcode reader. The CueCat flopped and became a bit of a joke from the dot-com crash, but their vision may have just been ahead of its time. By 2002, DigitalConvergence, the company behind the CueCat, had gone out of business. When unpacking my boxes from my move last year, I threw away my CueCat.

Maybe 2007 will finally be the year.

Personal Home Planetarium

The HomeStar Pro by Sega Toys is the improved version of their original HomeStar Home Planetarium, with an LED projection that is 3 times brighter than the original. It is still recommended that the device be used in as close to total darkness as possible. In addition to the moving view of the Northern sky, the “Pro” also comes with an additional plate projection of a full moon, in great detail.

A wonderful educational gift for children, especially those who live in urban areas where the city lights obscure all but the brightest stars, making telescope viewing less practical.

The HomeStar Pro Home Planetarium is available from AudioCubes for $329.00.

You can view this 4 minute Japanese infomercial for the HomeStar Pro on YouTube.

Of course, if you live out in big-sky country, someplace like the American mid-west, you can always just, you know, look up at the sky.

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Rose Planetarium

For us city-dwellers that want the big experience, there is always the Rose Planetarium, or as they like to call it, The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space* (it just rolls off the tongue). Their most recent production, produced in cooperation with NASA, and narrated by Robert Redford, is titled Cosmic Collisions, where viewers are invited to, “explore cosmic collisions, hypersonic impacts that drive the dynamic and continuing evolution of the universe.” Whooa…

* Or when addressing the name of the museum wing itself: The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest, Rose Center for Earth and Space, Featuring the Hayden Planetarium. Not that we want to confuse anyone.

Waiting to Ship

We’ve seen this happen many times- An exceptional product that for whatever reason, never makes it to market. These are three excellent product designs that, as of today, have yet to make it into consumer’s hands.

The Jawbone

Jawbone has now been signed up with Cingular (which will soon simply be AT&T Mobile), to distribute its noise canceling wireless headset. They are taking pre-orders with a ship date that has yet to be announced. It looks like the only one of the three items sure to eventually hit the market. Besides having a gorgeous design, it makes claim to incorporate revolutionary noise canceling technology that allows the user to speak clearly at a conversational volume, and still be heard while calling from a noisy area. I have not demoed one myself, but their website has a well put together demo that sounds pretty convincing.

SHIFT

Though SHIFT looks like a tricycle, it is more like a learning bicycle; designed to help young children make the transition to a two wheeled bicycle- As the speed increases, the two rear wheels pull together, and widen apart again as the rider slows down. The SHIFT was designed by Purdue Industrial Design Assistant Professor Scott S. Shim, and two students, Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman. Although it won Taiwan’s International Bicycle Design competition, and earned itself a spot on the cover of TIME magazine, as of yet it has no manufacturer.

RollerToaster

Hot-shot industrial designer Jaren Goh has applied his skills to the age old domestic appliance, the toaster (and garnered himself a red.dot design award for his efforts). While John Q. Public living in a middle American suburban McMansion may not grasp the genius of this design, those of us who live in high density urban environments know that the first place where we lose space is in our tiny city dwelling kitchens. This space saving toaster design is brilliant in its simplicity… not to mention impeccably cool. Nobody has yet been able to answer for me whether it would be safe to wall-mount.