October 26, 2004
hardware
there have been a number of interesting articles on /. recently relating to my thesis.
first up is the tapeless digital camcorder for your pocket. the review isnt great but it does bring up the whole 'one piece of hardware' idea again.
the other one just ran - thinking about the snitch cam. the article referenced is actually disappointing; it rehashes the same things that have been said 100 times. i suppose i really need to start working on a better version.
it does though link to a tiny camcorder which can be picked up for about 130 bucks. it runs on a flash card and aa batteries. its about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
i couple of weeks ago, i would have picked one up. now i can think of several reasons not to: windows only codec, files must be transferred to computer later, flash card fills up, crappy/uncontrollable conpression and quality.
though im not in love with having to carry my powerbook around with the isight, at least 1. the quality is mine to set and 2. it records straight to the drive in quicktime.
the last article was today and focused mainly on hardware again - the joypad that became a rotary controller. this is interesting because of a link over to griffen's powermate. this seems to be a nice little dial/button that goes in via usb and can be set to do 'something' on the machine.
this might be the best/most attractive button idea ive seen yet. if i can configure it to mark moments down (timecode/clock), this looks better than using a mouse or some other joystick to do the same thing. at 40 bucks it isnt outrageous, maybe i can find it cheaper.
Posted by tripp at October 26, 2004 10:40 AM