Unfortunately, my schedule was shifted around, so my plans to have some photos of it, videos and pictures taken with it before I returned it, fell through. But I figured I’d at least share my experience in words.

The first thing I did was to try and use it as a webcam. I failed. This is a USB camcorder, it has no Firewire, so it was not detected as a camera by neither Mac OS x nor Windows XP. I’m no video wiz, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect or how to go about this, but man did I fail. I tried everything, every software out there. Fail.

So eventually I started trying out the camera as it’s intended to be used. I shot some videos. For storage I used the SanDisk Extreme III SDHC Card which did its job well. But the camera… not so well.

I started to shoot some video inside my well lit office, imported it and had a look. The quality was what you would expect for this low budget camera I suppose, which was not well at all. Very grainy video, and there was a very annoying noise, a constant static disturbance in the audio, which was a little surprising. I did expect poor video quality, but not audio as bad as this.

Just for fun, I tried walking outside, beautiful winterland Sweden. Since it was past 2.30 PM it was pitch black (I know, disturbing huh?) and I turned on night mode. Hah! Night mode my ass. All you could hear were my steps crunching snow, and a solid black picture. I walked over to a street light, and it merely showed up as a small dot in the picture.

Since my schedule was thrown over, I never did get a chance to try it outside in daylight, but I’d expect it would be a decent video. However, with the poor audio, I wouldn’t really approve anyway. To Aiptek’s defence, I never checked out any settings for the audio, maybe there is some sort of compression/normalization feature, but I doubt it.

Conclusion: Uh-uh. No thank you sir.

Update: Here are two short clips shot in daylight by Jan Persson (in beautiful summerland Sweden). Looks fine. Hear the audio though? I know it’s outside, but it’s very noisy…

Aiptek z500 hd from Jan Persson on Vimeo.

Aiptek z500 from Jan Persson on Vimeo.

So Oblong Industries is developing the g-speak spatial operating environment. Right. I was watching the two videos (below) and it’s just sick. I have no idea really how this is achieved, but it all seems a bit jiggly, but seriously… How cool is that!?

“The g-speak platform is built around free-hand, three-space gestural input. Applications are controlled by hand poses, movement and pointing. Finger and hand motion are tracked to 0.1mm at 100 hz; pointing is pixel-accurate. Two-handed and multi-user input are fully supported.“

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

G-Speak is supposed to offer “solutions to real-world problems” including:

• analysis of large data sets
• operation of three-dimensional interfaces
• construction of efficient multi-user collaborative applications
• integration of large screens and multiple computers into room- and building-scale work environments
• development of large-scale applications that run interactively across enterprise networks

luminous room demos from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

The platform, that runs on Linux and Mac, is apparently already in active use at Fortune 50 companies, government agencies, and universities. Here’s a list of application areas:

• Financial services
• Telepresence
• Network operations centers
• Logistics and supply chain management
• Military and intelligence
• Automotive
• Natural resource exploration
• Data mining and analytics
• Medical imaging
• High-touch retail
• Trade shows and theatrical presentations
• Consumer electronics interfaces

I can’t say I understand what all this mean in practice, but it sounds legit. What I would love to see is a hands-on video from either of the above mentioned institutes where someone actually puts this to use with an intent. Maybe we could see a true purpose of this, one we can understand. But for now, I guess it’s all wow-and-awe.

More at oblong.com, CrunchGear and Engadget

Starts off pretty good huh? OK, before you read any further, don’t get your hopes up. This device doesn’t exist. But please, read on.

You have the voice translator, for those international business meetings. The Pomegranate Phone NS08 gives you an opportunity to save money not having to bring that translator of yours who always drinks all the coffee.

Oh, but wait! You don’t ever again have to be without your caffeine fix again. The Pomegranate Phone NS08 got you covered. Just make sure you bring a couple of those single brew packets and you’re set. The ultimate mobile coffee making device.

So what is this? Well, it’s not a mobile device. It’s an advertisement for Nova Scotia…

Thanks Greg for the tip!

Well there we go! Greenhouse Effect problem solved! Or isn’t it? The French company MDI (Moteur Development International) are promoting their prototype AirPod One, a car that runs on compressed air. It can carry four people, three adults and one child and gets you roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) if you believe the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, or about 62 miles (100 kilometers) according to Engagdet, with a maximum speed of 43 mph (70 km/h). MDI’s own website (Google Translated, it’s in French. Original web page) hints 200 kilometers with “it does not cost a Euro per 200 km“, but it doesn’t say an actual range.

I can’t but remember the episode Smug Alert! from the TV show South Park. I wonder what this will do to the beautiful city of San Fransisco… No, but seriously, could this be the ultimate Geekmobile? Either way, it’s a fantastic gadget.

It runs on compressed air, using a piston just like a fuel injection engine. Only, instead of adding gasoline or diesel and igniting it, it charges it with compressed air, pushing the piston just like the explosion would. “Fueling up” the car supposedly takes two minutes using dedicated stations, but it can also be reloaded at home using an air compressor, but it would take longer to do in that case.

Last time I was in Los Angeles, CA a couple of months ago, I was watching the news and they said that driving had decreased significantly, like 8% between June 2008 and June 2008, most likely due to the fuel prices skyrocketing. And that the use of public transportation had increased by like 20% or something like that (my memory might be failing me on this data, please don’t hold it against me). I also noticed that many more people where driving the Toyota Prius, which made me happy. Hot dang, if people aren’t smartening up indeed? Maybe my children will live to see their children enjoy too see what I’m seeing through the windows of my office… Inspiration for a brighter, cleaner future. The human way, in geek terms.

Via Aftonbladet, Engadget and MDI

I was so happy when I read Michael Arrington’s article over at at TechCrunch about how Mike Schneider have developed an application called TouchType (webpage link, iTunes link) , which allows you to type in landscape mode when typing emails. This was a given built-in feature for me and I was so disappointed and frankly even more surprised when I discovered it was not.

The price for this nifty software is a puny $0.99, so be sure to try it out! I wonder if Apple could ever take an idea from a guy like this and implement it into the platform. Wouldn’t be nice to the developer in question, but probably appreciated by the end users. Although, I doubt Apple did not think of this, there must be a good reason why they didn’t implemented this from the beginning. Otherwise they’d just be plain dumb if you ask me. Anyway, kudos to Mike Schneider.

Via TechCrunch

According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.se, the new Nokia phone 5800 is a real iPhone killer. Let’s start by looking at the price. €279 with no plan, no commitments, no nothing. That sounds very good indeed. That price might take out the Apples Iphone, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and Htc Touch Diamond right on the spot.

Secondly, let’s look at the music side of it. It is indeed called Xpress Music. In countries where the Nokias Music Store is available, users can download directly to their mobile device, nice. But oooooh. The music is DRM protected. Not good, seems to me like Nokia is a bit after its time.

The camera has 3.2 MP which sounds good on paper. Internal memory of 8GB is a nice standard, and it’s extendable to 16GB. WiFi, Flash player, MMS, Copy/Paste. Also a built in GPS receiver, but I’m not sure what kind.

Another cool feature is that it comes preloaded with Qik, which is an application that allows you to stream live video from the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music device.

As you can see, some features like MMS and Copy/Paste is one step ahead of the iPhone, but… I’m not seeing the iPhone killing really happening here. Maybe that’s just me.

Via: Aftonbladet.se

Apple decided to drop the not so popular iPhone Developer Non-Discloser Agreement. Hopefully this will attract even more developers to the iPhone market. The timing of the announcement is suspiciously convenient as the T-Mobile G1 was announced recently, which features the Google made platform Android, released under the open source license. To me, this feels like a good response to the customers feedback, and also perhaps a necessary strategic step. Not that I think developers would simply stop developing for the iPhone, but it definitely makes the platform more attractive and might result in even more high quality applications.

Apple announces:

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

Via AppleInsider

Another thing mentioned in this article is that the G1 lacks video recording capabilities. Now this is truly a big surprise, and not a good one. I mean, with todays standards in mobile devices, how on earth can this be omitted? Also it seems to lack a camera at the front, which means no video calls. Not a deal breaker, but it’s pretty standard amongst 3G-phones where I come from. But I have to admit, I don’t know anyone who actually uses it…

I think I’m going to have to view this device as a bleak first try, and hope there will be other devices featuring Android. I expected more from Google, and I hope to see something more impressive in the near future.

Brando’s new “Super Tiny Keyboard” — yes, that is the name of the product, clever ey? — is… well, a super tiny QWERTY keyboard. Now, even though every nerve in my body says “Buy it! Look at it! Just look at it, you need it!”, I fail to see the actual purpose for this thing. Brando says:

Super Tiny Keyboard is tiny, slim, portable and functional that you do not have to worry about bringing those traditional, big and heavy keyboard when you are traveling.

And I suppose that both make sense and is to some extent true. But really, how are you supposed to type on this thing? I could see you holding it as a PDA, typing with your thumbs. I admit, my fingers are probably bigger than average, but still… I fail to see the purpose of this beauty.

With a price tag or merely $25, I suppose I could get one just to confirm my theory, and to still my geek nerve with a quick fix. It also comes with a handy retractable USB cable which is nice. No word on any other language layouts though.

It’s so nice to see there’s movement on the VoIP front these days. Considering the mobile market and its progression the last few years, one might presume it might move towards a full share hold of the market. Even functionality aside with it’s big touchscreen, this device truly look amazing.

OpenPeak Inc., today announced a production-ready version of its OpenFrame™ IP media phone platform based on the low-power Intel® Atom™ processor. Designed to drive new revenues for service providers, the OpenFrame device converges voice, data, video and mobile into a single touchscreen-based home communications center that can dramatically simplify everyday family and media interactions.

Read more at openpeak.com.