Is There a Flip Cam in Your Future?

by: Scott Nesbitt – November 01, 2009

When it comes to electronics, some people just want something that's smaller and simpler. From barebones MP3/MP4 players to netbooks to basic point-and-shoot digital cameras, more and more people seem to be demanding less from their gadgets.

One area in which this drive towards simplicity and compactness has really taken off is digital video. Gone are the days of bulky digital camcorders. You can now carry a powerful digital video camera in your pocket.

Welcome to the world of the flip cam, a gadget that's changing the way millions of people look at recording video.

Where did these things come from?

Strangely enough, the journey to the flip cam started with digital cameras of the still variety. A few years ago, a pair of entrepreneurs noticed that disposable film cameras (the kind you'd buy at your local drug store) were outselling the then-new digital cameras by a wide margin. Seeing an opportunity, they formed a company called Pure Digital Technologies to make and sell single-use digital cameras.

The idea was that people could take 20 shots with the cameras, then take them to a photo lab to get both prints and a CD. The cameras would be returned to Pure Digital, who'd refurbish the cameras and put them back on the street. The cameras used very inexpensive electronic components and lenses, and took adequate (though not great) photos. Guess what? Over 3 million were sold, but for a variety of reasons that business model collapsed.

Pure Digital learned from its mistakes, and decided to venture into the realm of small point-and-shoot digital camcorders. Applying the same principles that they used with their still cameras – lower-cost components, small form factor, decent video quality – Pure Digital released The Flip in 2007 and it was and continues to be a hit. Obviously, the term flip cam comes from the name of Pure Digital's flagship product. And flip cams are a hit. By July, 2008 Pure Digital alone had sold one million of their products.

Who uses flip cams?

They're being used by ordinary folks, journalists, PR people, bloggers and video podcasters, and activists. Flip cams have the right combination of price, features, and ease of use (more on these in a moment) to make them attractive to a wide audience. And Pure Digital isn't the only player on the board. Companies like Kodak, Creative, RCA, Insignia and a host of smaller electronics makers who you may or may not have heard of have jumped on the flip cam bandwagon.

What you're getting

A lot, packed into a small space. The average flip cam is about the size of a wallet, and only weighs a few ounces. It can literally fit in your pocket and doesn't take up much space in a bag.

Flip cams are also inexpensive. You can get one for anywhere from under $100 to about $199.

On top of that, a flip cam is easy to use. It doesn't have much in the way of controls – usually, just a power button, a button to start recording, and two or three other buttons that let you navigate through the videos stored on the camera and to delete those videos. I've seen people get up and running with a flip cam within two or three minutes; less if they've read the documentation.

Every flip cam has a built-in USB connector to hook it into your desktop computer or laptop computer. Some also include cables that let you connect the camera to a television. Many come with software that enables you to upload the videos that you shoot directly to sites like YouTube or MySpace.

The video quality is good, though not spectacular. With an ordinary flip cam, you can expect an image about 640 pixels by 480 pixels in size. High definition (HD) flip cams have started to hit the market. The HD recorders offer video resolution up to 1280 pixels by 720 pixels.

In natural light, the quality of the video can be quite good. Indoors, the quality of the video that you shoot will depend on how much light is available. A video shot indoors can range from dark to grainy to adequate.

The videos themselves are in the common AVI or MPEG formats. The format used by them depends on the camera. No matter what, you can watch the videos on any computer regardless of the operating system.

generic viagra from canada 10px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%; word-spacing: 2px”>Flip cams can store between an hour to eight hours worth of video. The amount of memory on board one varies from 256 MB to 8 GB. You can expand the capacity of some cameras using a secure digital memory card.

What you're not getting

A lot of frills. When I say that flip cams are barebones, that's not an understatement. They don't have many of the features that you'd find in a low-end digital camcorder.

Many flip cams don't have a zoom function. While that might seem like it should be a standard feature, remember that most flip cams have a limited range of view. You'll generally be using them close up.

Flip cams also lack features like the ability to adjust the color of what you're recording, and to automatically steady the camera. The latter is a common complaint – you'll see many videos shot with a flip cam that are a bit shaky.

Finally, the small view screen on most flip cams – measuring anywhere from 1.4 inches to two inches across – isn't really useful for watching video playback.

To buy or not to buy?

A flip cam is a great choice if you don't need the frills of a more expensive camcorder, don't care about pristine quality video, or are on a tight budget. It's also a good buy if you're one of the growing number of people who post to YouTube or other video sharing sites. Or, if just want to wet your feet in world of digital video before deciding on a more expensive camcorder then give a flip cam a look.

On the other hand, if frills and features are important to you, and you need a bit more flexibility when it comes to your digital video then you'll be disappointed with a flip cam.

To be honest, I find my flip cam quite liberating. It's incredibly portable and it allows me to quickly shoot video no matter where I am.

What have your experiences with flip cams been like? Why not share those experiences by leaving a comment.

Pimp Your PC with Peripherals – Speakers and Webcams!

You know that there is nothing quite so pleasurable as Pimping out your PC – and what better way to do it than with upgrading your peripherals. In this week's Tech Tip, we’ll look at some cool peripherals that will get your desktop PC styling in no time! Specifically, we’ll be looking at computer speakers and webcams.

Most computers already come with a set of speakers and while they are just fine for playing around on the desktop computer, sometimes you just yearn for a little more. So when it comes to wanting your computer to sound its best – whether for gaming, movies, music or online web experiences – then you find that "Pimping your PC" with an upgraded set of speakers makes you computer “come alive.”

Some things to consider when getting a new speaker set for your PC:

1. If at all possible, try to listen to the speakers in person. If not possible, then try to hunt down some reviews (like on Amazon or review.cnet.com)
2. Most computers use 3.5mm audio jacks (like the kind you see on portable music players)
3. Some computers will also include a digital audio jack (SPDIF); for this type you need a digital speaker set (be sure to set your PC to SPDIF audio out too).
4. Adding a subwoofer is usually the cheapest, quickest way to give your computer better sound.
5. Speaking of subwoofers – these are usually bundled with a speaker set. Speaker sets that include subwoofers are usually referred to as “x.1” sets where x is the number of other speakers. (for example, a set with 4 speakers and one subwoofer will be called a 4.1 set or surround sound speaker set.
6. If using a multiple speaker set, check your audio card connectors to be sure that you can actually connect all the speakers (newer computers will usually have them – older ones will be 2 speaker set-up only).
7. You can always (of course) connect your computer to your home stereo with the proper cable connection.
8. Speaker wattage ratings can either be listed as PMPO (Peak Maximum Power Output – usually given for the entire set combined) or RMS (Root Mean Squared – listed for either each individual speaker or for the entire set combined). The RMS rating is more of a true indicator of the speakers “power” (in fact, take those PMPO ratings with a grain of salt).

Webcams

Honestly, if you already have a webcam, then you know all the cool things that you can do. From video conferencing, to VoIP (think Skype) to just goofing around and uploading a video to YouTube – a webcam enhances your PC experience.

These days you can easily pick up a basic webcam for next to nothing (some are even well under $10) and for many first time webcam users, this may suffice. But with the market being the way it is, you will also find that for just a few extra dollars you can get higher end webcams that will make the experience that much better (even if you have an integrated webcam – don’t worry, you can have both on the PC – however, most programs will only let you choose one at a time).

For a more extensive look at picking out just the right webcam, be sure to see the Tech Tip “Choosing Your Webcam”

Some things to consider when getting a new webcam:

1. The most basic webcams will usually be either a 100k or 300k (as in kilopixels – think either 0.1 or 0.3 megapixels) resolution (100k is 320×240 and 300k is 640×480 resolution – these are both good for basic “webcamming”).
2. Higher end webcams will usually bump the resolution to either 1.3MP (megapixels) or even 2.0MP.
3. Most webcams use a manual focus.
4. Webcams are usually the stand alone type that sits on your desktop or computer monitor though some models can also clip onto a laptop monitor or desktop LCD monitor.
5. Most have a USB interface and come with very basic software (or sometimes none at all). A camera can comes with a composite video connector (but will need a capture card), an Ethernet connection or even be wireless (WiFi) – but these are not usually called or sold as “webcams” per se (they are usually more for surveillance purposes).
6. Some webcams may include infrared LEDs for a low-light night mode.
7. Other accessories a webcam may have are headsets (earphone with mic) or a microphone built right into the webcam.
8. Even higher up, but usually for the bigger bucks are the webcams that have pan, tilt, zoom capabilities (commonly abbreviated as PTZ) and webcams with tracking (generally when you start getting into these features, they start being sold more as surveillance cameras than webcams).

Final Thoughts

One of the cool aspects of owning a PC is being able to upgrade it and as we have seen, by far one of the easier ways to Pimp out your PC is by looking at what peripherals can be added to it or easily upgraded. We hope that this week's Tech Tip looking at speakers and webcams got your creative juices flowing and your mind working for these (and other ways) you can Pimp your PC!

If there's one type of file that's become commonplace, it's the PDF (short for Portable Document Format). It's rare that you don't see files that have the extension .pdf on the Web. In the workplace. And just about everywhere else.

The most popular piece of software for viewing and printing PDF files is Acrobat Reader from Adobe. But like much software out there, Acrobat Reader has gained a bit of flab over the years. The current Windows version weighs in at just over 25 MB, while the Mac OS and Linux version tip the scales at 41 MB and 43 MB.

Let's face it: that's pretty hefty for something that's meant to display files. Sure, Acrobat Reader has some pretty nifty features but most people can live without them. Luckily, Acrobat Reader isn't the only PDF viewing software around. There are some great alternatives to Acrobat Reader and this TechTip looks at three of them for Windows.

SumatraPDF

If needs are simple and you just want to view or print a PDF file with a minimum of fuss, then SumatraPDF is the app to go with. Even though simple, does what needs to do far more quickly and just as smoothly as Acrobat Reader.

The interface is bare bones. It consists of the menu bar and a tool bar, and that's pretty much it. Even the toolbar is quite minimalistic. It contains buttons for opening a PDF file, moving between pages, jumping to a specific page, and searching for text in the PDF.

One useful feature actually maximizes your computer monitor's real estate. All PDF readers have a side pane that displays a table of contents that enables you to quickly jump around the document. Depending on the PDF reader, this pane is visible even if the table of contents is empty. When empty, the pane takes up screen space, and you need to scroll or resize the view to reader the PDF properly. SumatraPDF, on the other hand, only displays the pane if the table of contents exists. It remains hidden the rest of the time.

If you use PortableApps (a suite of Open Source applications that runs off a USB flash drive), there's a portable version of SumatraPDF. You can take it anywhere you want.

Evince

Evince is a default document viewer for the GNOME desktop under Linux. Some enterprising Open Source programmers have also written a Windows version. The Windows version is on par with its Linux cousin for features and speed.

Evince is billed as a simple document viewer. It lives up to that billing, although it's nothing to sneeze at. It opens PDFs faster than Acrobat Reader, and about on par with Sumatra PDF. It has an even more spartan interface than SumatraPDF.

As far as viewing PDF files goes, Evince does everything that SumatraPDF does. Unlike SumatraPDF, Evince allows you to open a copy of a file or view it in what's called Presentation mode. Presentation mode, which you trigger by pressing the F5 key on your keyboard, treats the PDF file like a slideshow. Each page is an individual slide, with a black buffer on each side. When giving talks, I use Presentation mode to display slides that I've converted to PDF.

Evince isn't just a PDF reader. It can also view files in a number of other formats, including OpenOffice.org Impress (sort of), Djvu, TIFF, and most common image formats. Overall, it's a very flexible application that comes in a fairly small package.

Foxit Reader

If you want an application that has many of Acrobat Reader's best features but without the bloat, you definitely want to give Foxit Reader a close look. It's probably the best alternative to Acrobat Reader on Windows. And it's free.

Foxit Reader doesn't just read PDF files. You can also email a PDF from within the application, select a portion of the screen and save it as an image, and convert a PDF to text. Foxit Reader also enables you to add notes to a PDF. The notes appear as a yellow sticky icon in the file. Just double click the icon to read or edit the note.

Remember when I said Foxit Reader was free? I wasn't lying. You can get additional features that enable you to edit PDF files — for example, adding, editing, and deleting text, drawing graphics and inserting hyperlinks — with the Foxit Reader Pro Pack. That will set you back $39.95 though.

Other options

There are a few. If you don't mind something that doesn't look incredibly pretty, check generic viagra canada out Xpdf. Originally written for UNIX and then Linux, Xpdf does a good job of opening and rendering PDF files. It's nothing fancy, but it works.

If you have a Google Docs account, you can use that to view a PDF file. Just log into Google Docs and click the Upload link on the left side of the toolbar. You can also save PDFs to Google Docs from Gmail. Once you've uploaded the PDF it appears in the documents list. Just double click the file to open it. The viewer only lets you view and print the PDF.

Summing up

Acrobat Reader is a big, powerful piece of software. Maybe a bit too big and powerful for the job that it does. If you don't want to deal with the bloat, there are a number of options available. You might be sacrificing some features and functions, but unless you use those features and functions regularly you probably won't miss them.

What's your favorite replacement for Acrobat Reader? Why not share it by leaving a comment.

You might recall a previous TechTip that looked at software you can use to wrangle all of the passwords you have for your favorite Web sites and Web services. Those apps are a good solution, but what if there was a way to securely log into multiple sites using only one ID?

That's not a pipe dream. And it isn't a matter of using the same user name and password for everything (remember, I said securely). A technology called OpenID offers that promise, and is on its way to delivering it.

What is OpenID?

OpenID isn't software. The OpenID Foundation, a non-profit which works towards the adoption and spread of OpenID, describes it as a decentralized standard for user authentication and access control, allowing users to log into different services with the same ID. Another way that people describe OpenID is single sign-on (SSO).

OpenID, though, does one thing and does it well. It authenticates users, confirming they are who they say they are.

You don't need to worry about having a unique user name and password for each and every site that you need to log into. Instead, your login credentials (called an OpenID) consists of a URL – like http://MySecretID.myopenid.com/ – that's yours and yours alone. An OpenID provider, a site or server that hosts your URL, ensures that your OpenID is authentic.

The URL acts as a universal user name. The only password you need is the one that you use to log into your OpenID provider.

Who controls OpenID?

No single individual, company, or organization controls OpenID. The technology behind OpenID is Open Source. There can be any number of OpenID providers. In fact, if you have the technical expertise you can set yourself up as a provider and run what's called an identity server. You can learn more about doing that here. That's also a double-edged sword, which I'll discuss in a moment.

That said, it's not like the folks working on OpenID are lone programmers in the wilderness. A number of well-known tech companies back and support OpenID. Companies like Google, Yahoo!, VeriSign, and Sun Microsystems.

Using OpenID

Using OpenID sounds difficult. It isn't. It just requires you to change the way in which you think about logging into Web sites and services. Luckily, that shift isn't a big one.

First off, you need find an OpenID provider and sign up for an account. If you're looking for one, this is a good resource. Most of the people I know who use OpenID tend to opt for one of the following providers:

• myOpenID
• ClaimID
• SignOn.com

The signup process is simple. You choose a user name, which is tacked on to the domain name of generic viagra australia the provider. For example, http://YourName.claimid.com. You also need to create a password and enter an email address.

Once you've signed up, you can use your URL. From there, you go to the login screen of a site that supports OpenID. You can find a comprehensive list of those sites here.

You'll have to click a link, which says Login with OpenID or something similar.

Type your URL in the OpenID field and click Sign In. You'll be redirected to your OpenID provider, where you'll need to enter the password for your OpenID account. The provider confirms that you are who you claim you are, which  takes about a second. You'll be sent back to the site where you'll be logged in.

All of this seems a tad cumbersome, but the advantage is that you don't need to worry about remembering a user name and password combination for every site that you use. There's just one.

Advantages and drawbacks

The main advantage of using OpenID is that you only need one user name and password for the Web sites that you use. You'll no longer need to tax your memory or confuse one login with another.

OpenID is Open Source. That means a large number of eyes are on it, and constantly improving it. And it's not just the so-called hobbyist programmers, either. As mentioned earlier, a number of tech giants are involved in the development of OpenID.

Because OpenID is decentralized, no one firm controls it. You don't have to worry about a firm folding or suddenly charging for the service. There are a growing number of OpenID providers out there – all you need to do is pick one.

On the other hand, a large number of Web sites don't support OpenID. As I read somewhere on the Web, some folks cite the chicken-egg problem. Not all sites support OpenID because there aren't enough people using it or who are comfortable with it. The number of sites that support OpenID is growing, but not rapidly.

There's also the potential for phishing and identity theft. Remember what I wrote earlier about setting up an identity server? There's nothing to stop a malicious programmer from setting one up and using your own data against you.

Sometimes, you run into an OpenID-enabled site that doesn't play nicely. I know a couple of people who weren't able to log into certain sites even though their OpenID credentials were valid and correct. This doesn't happen often, but when it does it can be frustrating.

Conclusion

OpenID is an interesting and useful way to log into your favorite Web sites. While the number of sites that support OpenID isn't that large, support is gradually increasing.

You msight not want to use OpenID for logging into all Web sites, but the idea of single sign-on is intriguing. OpenID is another step towards making it universally available and acceptable.

Four Free Apps for Editing Your Photos Online

By Scott Nesbitt – October 4, 2009

You might recall a couple of previous TechTips that covered some free, simple desktop computer photo editing software. But what happens if you're using a netbook that might not have the grunt to run those apps efficiently? Or if you're not using your own computer?

A more than viable alternative is to go online. This TechTip looks at why you'd want to and five of the better Web-based photo editors.

Why go online?

As mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, you might be using a netbook, an older desktop computer or laptop computer, or you could be working on one that's not yours. There's a chance that computer won't have enough hard drive space or memory or a fast enough CPU to handle a decent image editor. And if the computer isn't yours, the owner may frown upon you installing software on it.

Another reason is convenience. About half of my work is done on my netbook. And I try to keep the amount of software on it to a minimum. That means, among other things, no photo editors that might slow the netbook down. But I often need to resize or crop a stock photo for an article, blog post, or presentation. In those cases, an online photo editor comes in handy.

Finally, your photo editing needs are probably modest. You just need some basic functions and effects, which a good online editor packs.

There have to be some drawbacks

Of course there are. The obvious one is that you need a reliable and fast Internet connection to use these editors. If your connection drops, you'll more than likely lose your work.

On top of that, the editor that you choose might not have the feature or function that you need. If it does, that feature or function may not be as easy to use or as powerful as you need it to be.

Sometimes those online editors can be slow, especially when uploading or downloading a photo. While researching this TechTip, I even had one or two hang my Web browser.

Four of the best

There are a large number of photo editors on the Web. Some are good – comparable to a decent desktop editor. Others aren't. Here are four of the best of the crop of Web-based photo editors. They're powerful, flexible, and free. And you don't necessarily have to set up an account to use them.

Note: Most of the editors that this TechTip discusses impose a limit on the size of files you can edit. Depending on the editor, that limit is between two and three megabytes.

Pixlr

Pixlr reminds me of an online version of the popular desktop photo editor called Paint Shop Pro. Of the four editors that this TechTip discusses, Pixlr is the most like a desktop application in appearance.

There are two versions of Pixlr: Editor and Express. Editor is the fully-featured application, while Express it the lite version. Both allow you to upload a file from your computer or open a photo somewhere on the Web for editing.

Remember what I said about Paint Shop Pro? Well, that's Editor. You get the full range of functions that you'd expect from a desktop photo editor, all available from a set of menus.

It's more than just a photo editor, though. You can also create images with it using a set of drawing tools. And in addition to the basic functions for manipulating a photo, Editor packs an array of filters and of photo touch-up tools. You can blur, sharpen, and emboss a photo. You can also make your pic look like an old photo and even add scan lines (like and old TV).

One feature of Pixlr Editor that some photographers might find useful is the ability to add layers. Among other things, layers allow you to seamlessly superimpose one image over another.

Pixlr Express, on the other hand, does away with the menus. You access all of the functions from a sidebar. There aren't all that many functions available, but they're more than enough for basic image editing.

As with most other editors, Pixlr Express enables you to crop, rotate, and resize photos. You can also adjust brightness and color, and add some of the same effects that you can add with Pixlr Editor.

If you use the Firefox Web browser, there's an add-on available that opens images on the Web directly in Pixlr – no need to do that at the Pixlr site.

Change-Images

If you're looking for something that's simple, then Change-Images is the online photo editor to go with. It's bare bones, but if you only need the basics then it's a great choice.

Change-Images only supports five functions: resizing, cropping, converting, applying effects, and adding border (called frames) to photos. Each function has its own tab, and each tab has a simple set of controls.

You can only upload photos from your computer to Change-Images. It doesn't integrate with photo sharing sites, and you can't point it to an image on the Web. Still, for what it is, Change-Images does a solid job.

The resize feature has a set of pre-set sizes to which you can shrink a photo. You can choose sizes in pixels or as a percentage of the original file. You can also set a custom size in pixels.

The conversion feature can take photos (and other images) in a number of formats – including popular ones JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP – and convert them to one of nine commonly-used formats. You can also choose the quality of the conversion, from highest to lowest.

There are also 18 image effects available, ranging from generic viagra 50mg rotating a photo to embossing it. You can also change the brightness of a photo or convert it to grayscale.

Overall, Change-Images is quick and easy to use. It's not pretty, but it doesn't have to be.

Picnik

This is one of the two Flash-based editors mentioned in this TechTip. As such, you'll want to make sure that you have the latest Flash player installed to use it.

Picnik is a simple, but flexible tool. It enables you to upload a photo, or open one from a variety of photo sharing sites including Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Webshots, and even FaceBook and MySpace. You can't, however, point to an image on the Web and edit it.

Picnik packs two sets of functions. The first one, under the Edit tab, allows you to do basic editing. Things like cropping and rotating an image, sharpening it, adjusting the color and removing red eye. Things get interesting, though, when you click the Create tab.

The functions under the Create tab enable you to add a whack of nifty, funky, and downright strange effects. Like what? You can convert a color photo to black and white or sepia. You can soften it, and even turn it into something resembling a pencil sketch.

Some of Picnik's other features include adding text and borders to photos, and stitching a bunch of photos together to create a collage.

A number of the effects are labeled Premium in the interface. If you want to use them, you need to pay a $24.95 annual fee. Unless you need those effects, or if you want to support Picnik's development, the free features are more than  good enough

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer bills itself as the most advanced online image editor. I don't know if I'd go that far, but FotoFlexer is easy to use and it does pack a lot of useful features.

FotoFlexer allows you to upload a photo, grab one off the Web, or get a photo from your account on popular photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa, or from your MySpace or FaceBook account.

FotoFlexer combines some of the best elements of the other Web-based photo editors  that this TechTip discusses. There are no menus. Instead, functions are grouped under a set of tabs. There are a wide range of these functions – from basic cropping and resizing and rotating to sharpening and removing red eye, to removing blemishes from a photo.

As with Pixlr, you can add layers to a photo that you're editing in FotoFlexer. You can also insert another image (without a layer), add text, and apply over a dozen effects to a photo. If you're so inclined, you can also distort a photo in a number of ways and add animated shapes to your photo. The latter isn't my thing, but obviously there's a market for it …

What I found interesting were the functions under the Geek tab. Among these is one that interfaces with a webcam to capture images. Two other functions that I found interesting are Smart Scissors and Smart Cutout. Both of these enable you to select selections of a photo and pull them out, jagged edges and all – sort of like cutting out portions of a printed photo with scissors. While Smart Scissors and Smart Cutout are more fun than anything else, they can be useful for putting together a digital collage.

Like Picnik, FotoFlexer is Flash based. And, like Picnik, you'll want the latest Flash player installed on your computer before you use the editor.

A final word

If your photo editing needs are simple, or if you just don't want to clutter your hard drive with more software then a Web-based photo editing application is a good way to go. There are a number of them out there, and they're fast and easy to use. Chances are you'll find one with just the features that you need.