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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2008-01d
Back to Las Vegas for PMA & other news
JVC DEBUTS NEW HD5 & 6 HIGH DEF HARD DRIVE CAMCORDERS
You have to be at PMA to actually see & hold the newest high-def
JVC Everio hard disk camcorders. If you're familiar with their
1080i 3-chip GZ-HD7 (a little bigger than a butter box), these
new models are 45% smaller. The new 60GB silver-body GZ-HD5
($1200, March) & 120GB black-body GZ-HD6 ($1400, March) both
feature a 3-CCD image chain, full 1080p (60fps) output,
HD-optimized Fujinon 10X zoom lenses on a pro-grade mount
(assures proper prism alignment), optical (not electronic, which
can degrade quality) image stabilization & more. It's all as
automatic as you want or as manual as you like, with a manual
focus ring, manual white balance, exposure control, a shutter or
aperture priority choice & more. Each offers a choice of 4
quality/capacity modes (plus JPEG still shooting); at best
quality, the HD5 hard drive can record 5 hours of HD video & the
HD6 can record 10 (or a user can add a microSDHC card with up to
4GB capacity & use it to store stills or up to 20 minutes of
best-quality HD video). They can stream HDV-compatible 1440CBR
video over Firewire, or full-quality audio & video for viewing
over HDMI (1.3 with x.v.Color) or transfer their files to a PC or
Mac over USB. Their standard format is MPEG-2 (with MPEG-1 audio
layer) so they're directly compatible with Blu-Ray recording. The
newest generation of built-in image processing & noise reduction
improves their vertical scan resolution by about 30% since the
last generation, which was already pretty darned impressive. The
video chain is sensitive down to 7 Lux. Overall, this may not
kill camcorder competition, but it could leave many other brands
with some explaining to do. Drop Chelsea a note now to get into
the review queue (it may be a long one). Contact: Chelsea Vander
Groef, JVC COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ) 973-317-5000x5312
mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com
DON'T BURY YOUR OLD TREASURES, GET PAID FOR THEM
You'll be excited by MyBoneYard.com because now those pieces of
gear you retired can get you some money back, end up in good
places & maybe more. Many old cell phones, computers & other
pieces of gear are worth more than you may think (the Web site
can show you how much for many items) when you send it off to
these guys. Shipping is free; they send you a voucher in an
e-mail. They recondition some items for resale (at very low
prices) to people in impoverished third-world countries & recycle
or scrap what they can't recondition. You get your money as an
amount loaded on a prepaid Visa card. Talk about win-win! Talk
with Thomas. Contact: Thomas Muhs, MYBONEYARD (Chanhassen, MN)
952-294-6154 mailto:thomas.muhs@young-america.com
http://MyBoneYard.com
INNOVATIVE SINGAPORE POWER STRIP HEADING FOR US
How close or far apart should outlets be on a power strip? You
choose with a unique new design soon to be in the US from its
Singapore inventors, Eubiq (for "electricity ubiquitously"). With
their design, you press a socket through any position in a long,
rubber-lipped slit along its aluminum housing then twist the
socket 90 degrees to make the electrical connection. We're still
awaiting word on UL approval; in the meantime, explore the Web
site. Contact: NG Kee Haur, EUBIQ PTE LTD (Singapore)
+65-6372-9393x380 mailto:keeng@eubiq.com http://eubiq.com
NOW AT PMA: TIFFEN HT FILTERS GO TITANIUM
They're a perfect product for the pros at PMA, not to mention
consumers who care: New Tiffen Digital HT (high transmissivity)
optical filters boast a double-sided titanium multi-coating for
hardness & scratch-resistant durability. Their distinctive
titanium-finish ring plus anti-reflective black lock ring add
minimal weight but tons of style to the camera. They're becoming
available as new alternatives in several Tiffen filter-effect
series of products. Ask Hilary. Contact: Hilary Araujo, TIFFEN
COMPANY (Hauppauge, NY) 631-273-2500x1216
mailto:haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
COLD SNAP MAKES $30 REMOTE-READ THERMOMETER A SNAP
Get Dan your address now & get him to rush you the 30-30 Heat
Vision Non-Contact Thermometer ($30) & try it just once, then we
dare you not to find half a dozen stories you want to do with it
right away. Use its laser pointer to aim it (it has a 30-degree
target cone) at something up to 100' away; half a second later,
its back-lit LCD will show you the temperature of anything that's
between 0-400F (-20-200C). Spend a minute outside to check the
windows of your home for heat leaks, then go ahead & try the same
thing from inside. Feeling impish? Look for heat leaks at public
buildings that tax moneys pay to keep warm. Scan your home tech
gear for some surprises, especially among the items you thought
were off; for another surprise, check your incandescent lights,
lamps & fixtures 5-10 minutes after you turn them off. It's cool
to be able to see where the hot & cold spots happen to be & right
now, that's a hot story. Contact: Dan Llewellyn, LDP LLC
(Carlstadt NJ) 201-882-0344 mailto:dan@maxmax.com
Http://MaxMax.com
MOGO DAPTER SHIPS NEXT MONTH
It will ship in time for you to love it for Valentine's Day: the
new MoGo Dapter plugs into USB to add Bluetooth 2 compatibility
to desktop or notebook PCs with either no Bluetooth at all or a
lesser version. It does indeed enhance the snappy performance of
X54 MoGo mouse products, but BT2 also enhances data rate
communications with compatible device plus & supports new
features like stereo over BT. Jack won't insist on you also
reviewing an X54 MoGo Mouse when you ask to review the new
Dapter, but heck, he's a nice guy & it's a cool product, so why
not? Contact: Jack Corrao, NEWTON PERIPHERALS (Natick, MA)
858-792-0944 mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
http://NewtonPeripherals.com
OFFER TO PRESS: UPGRADE OLD SPOTWAVE TO NEW WI-EX
Many of you have Spotwave devices, older single-band alternatives
to today's Wi-Ex dual-band cell bar boosters. Spotwave has been
stymied by financial & manufacturing problems that add up to you
can't buy their products for now & their planned dual-band
offering is delayed to some vaporous future. Wi-Ex is stepping up
to the plate so you won't be orphaned; of course, it doesn't
escape them that when you replace something that's OK with
something even better, you're likely to be moved to write about
it. So if you're ready to replace your old Spotwave with a new
Wi-Ex, drop one of the ladies a note with your ship-to info. If
you've never had a cell-bar booster, call first to chat about
your workspace & figure out which Wi-Ex products fit best.
Contact: Sharon Cuppett, WI-EX INC. (Norcross, GA)
770-239-5475x6380 mailto:scuppett@wi-ex.com http://wi-ex.com
AGENCY CONTACT: Deanna Anderson 404-759-1890
mailto:danderson705@comcast.net
ZOOM H2 ADAPTS FOR FIELD WORK, LEOPARD
Good news for Mac OS X 10.5.0 ("Leopard") users: there's a
version 1.2 firmware update that lets you mount a Zoom H2 Handy
Recorder as a USB drive on your systems. For everybody, there's a
lot left to tell about the many ways the Zoom H2 ($199) adapts to
make it the most flexible little recorder ever. Start with
mounting it: the thread at the bottom that lets you screw on its
small desktop spider feet (included) or a handgrip or mount it on
a stand (a mike clip adapter is also included); of course, it's
as small as a pack of cigarettes, so hand-holding is always an
option, too. It also comes with a little foam windsock; slip that
on & hear how much of a difference it makes in reducing ambient
noise (especially air-flow noise). While it's certainly a capable
monaural recorder & brilliant in stereo, its quartet of mike
capsules (configured in W-XY) let you record everything you need
in order to be able to reproduce in 5.1 sound (with front-center
derived from left & right). It can also record from external
mikes (Stereo with plug-in power) or line-level inputs. If
anything you do ends up as audio, you'll want it for your work;
given how often that's true for so many of those people you write
for, you'll also want one for review. Ask Mark. Contact: Mark
Wilder, SAMSON TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY) 631-784-2200x142
mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com http://SamsonTech.com
HANDS-FREE IPHOTOMEASURE DEMO ON YOUTUBE
Check out the YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQ_lXcMRf4
video that shows you how iPhotoMeasure software makes it easy to
get the measurements you need just by taking a snapshot. Note
that it works as easily for angled lines (like roofs) as anything
else. While the video shows Paul (yup, that's him) using targets,
it all works just as well when you know the dimensions of
anything in the photo. So now that you know how easy it is to do,
call Paul to get one to you for review. Contact: Paul Minor,
DIGICONTRACTOR INC. (Tarzana, CA) 818-888-3687
mailto:paul@iphotomeasure.com http://iPhotoMeasure.com
MORE ON KOMFORT PETS SECOND GENERATION
The new medium-size Komfort Pets carrier due to debut in February
has even more improvements than we were able to detail last time;
for example, a fan override switch lets its beefier 40cfm fan
keep air circulating even when the carrier's temperature is
already within the pet's comfort zone. A removable drawer
facilitates those inevitable pet clean-ups. A simple adapter
makes them easy to stack when several animals have to stay
individually comfy in a limited space. We're saving a few
additional surprises for launch time. Ask Bob to get you on the
list to review the medium when it debuts, or to view the
first-generation small carrier now. Contact: Bob Inello, KOMFORT
PETS (Revere, MA) 781-485-0077 mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com
http://KomfortPets.com
APRICORN STRADDLES 1.8/2.5" DECISION
Throughout the history of electronics, a little smaller has
almost always cost a little more; that is certainly the case
today with small raw hard drives, with raw 1.8" drives costing
more per GB than notebook-size 2.5" drives. For Apricorn, it
drives some hard decision-making; for example, their 2.5"
paperback-size Aegis Portable USB drives supports some attractive
price points but faces a lot of competition while their 1.8"
Aegis Mini USB drives cost a little more but are small enough to
fit a shirt pocket or store in a very cramped bag. That bigger
little Aegis Portable can support larger capacities, from
80-250GB ($99-$219) while the tinier Aegis Mini stores 30-120GB
($119-280). Aegis Mini fans understand that while more may
generally be better, sometimes more is unnecessary; fir its size,
of course, there are few if any choices that offer comparable
capacity. (We should mention that Aegis Portable & Aegis Mini
models are also available with Firewire. if you'd rather use that
than USB). How useful do you think either size may be? If a
review is the best way to tell, you have but to ask Michelle.
Contact: Michelle Fischer, APRICORN INC. (Poway, CA) 858-513-4480
mailto:mfischer@apricorn.com http://apricorn.com AGENCY CONTACT:
Jennifer Olson 415-402-0230 mailto:jennifer@atomicpr.com
NEW SPINS BREWING IN EYE OF TORNADO
Consider what happens when you put something smart between 2
computers, PC or Mac. Today, the Tornado & iTornado give you the
easiest way ever to copy files back & forth, but that's just a
beginning. In coming months, you'll learn about some clever new
twists on these first "twisters". Don't call Clint yet for
details (mum's the word for now), but absolutely do call for
either or both of today's offerings. Contact: Clint Hughes, DATA
DRIVE THRU (Dallas, TX) 972-897-7057
mailto:chughes@datadrivethru.com http://TheTornado.com
IF BEST VIRGIN IS A WILD CARD, WHAT'S SECOND BEST?
As a carrier with no long-term contracts or commitments, Virgin
Mobile doesn't play tricks with phone pricing, so having choices
that range from under $100 to free is meaningful. We spoke about
their top handset (the Wild Card, with camera, mobile IM, e-mail,
flip-open full keyboard, Bluetooth & more), but the next one down
is also feature-packed. The Switch Back ($90) also flips open to
a full keyboard & features dual color screens, a VGA camera, Web
browser, Mobile IM, speakerphone & more. Add one of their
no-extended-commitment service by the month or by the minute
packages & a lot of cell service becomes available to a lot of
people who might not otherwise endure the expense. If any of this
is worth writing about, call Corinne. Contact: Corinne Nosal,
VIRGIN MOBILE USA (Warren, NJ) 908-607-4235
mailto:corinne.nosal@virginmobileusa.com
http://virginmobileusa.com
SPECIAL REPORT: PORN SLUMP
The porn segment is not as bulletproof as most people believe;
DVD sales are down tenfold versus a couple of years ago, for
example, with typical "money-maker" titles selling only hundreds
to a few thousand copies. Online sales are tough to grow, since
most males watch porn for approximately 2.5 minutes before moving
on to other things. Most companies in the industry have scant
tracking on their user base; only one of the larger houses was
able to tell us their male versus female viewer demographic
split, for example. Many studios believe that women favor viewing
outrageous ("extreme") scenes depicting acts in which they would
never involve themselves to satisfy their curiosity about such
things. There is a current belief that the demand overall is
trending to "quirky" themes like obese performers or racial
counterpoints or gender challenges, so there's a current emphasis
in creating more of this content. For many of the smaller
studios, an owner's personal quirks often drive the "vision"; one
studio owner with a penchant for bondage & ball gags developed
multiple sub-brands at various levels of actual sexual activity
(of these, their best-sellers are the most hardcore), though his
line workers tend to interpret it all as an extension of
mainstream classic damsel-in-distress themes. The one studio that
seems to be most popular among women is enhancing that stature by
incorporating specific content elements that women viewers ask
for, like the little laugh that follows sexual intimacy.
Individual studios are weathering the segment's recession well
enough, but between the category's declining DVD sales &
continuing challenges in converting online viewing into revenue,
it seems inevitable that many of the weaker entities will be
culled. Given the dearth of new mainstream movies as a result of
the current strike of writers & foreseeable strike of actors,
some of the category's more successful operations may enjoy a
small boon as some of their milder titles appeal to a public
hungry for something new to watch.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: TWP800 WATCH PHONE
Calling Dick Tracy! The 2-way wrist radio of Chester Gould's
imagination (in the strip, the inventor is industrialist Diet
Smith) is here. The Turtle Wireless TWP800 looks like a chunky
wristwatch (about 6 times the size of Marty's Timex but a lot
closer to watch size than any of the wrist-worn phones we've seen
before) with a digitally portrayed analog face & a bevy of
buttons plus a tiny telescoping slide-out stylus. Stick in a SIM
card & the wristwatch is also a Bluetooth (headset included) cell
phone; even without the SIM card it's an MP3 music & MP4 video
player, a calculator, a world-time-now look-up, a calendar, an
organizer, an alarm, a currency converter, a unit converter, a
to-do list, an e-book reader, a voice recorder & a couple of
games. As a phone, it can do SMS, ring or vibrate, maintain phone
books, etc. USB charges the thing & it comes with AC & DC USB
charging adapters & a second LiIon battery. Talk time is rated 3
hours, standby 120 hours, but we didn't test either. The
documentation can use a lot of work; there are no diagrams of the
buttons & the almost Pidgin English is tough for even a geek to
follow. We can think of a lot of times this would be a great
solution, like jogging, camping, boating or any of those other
times that a standard cell phone is likely to fall off or fall
out or get lost. Bottom line: quirky indeed but not at all jerky;
it really does work pretty well.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: SHEDRAIN UMBRELLAS
We got in a pair of ShedRain dual-canopy umbrellas to review. The
venting on double canopy umbrellas makes them much less likely to
invert even in very heavy winds. We wanted to look at their best
pick for packing in the tight confines of a working journalist's
carry-on or take-home bags. The two models we got in are the
WindPro Mini (1760) & the WindPro Mini Wood (2547); both boast
automatic open & automatic close mechanisms, steel shafts, wrist
loops, a 43" arc when open & a collapsed length within a fraction
of an inch of one foot. The Mini has fiberglass ribs, a black
anodized shaft, a rubber-look grip & a carry sleeve with a
swiveling snap-on hook; the Mini Wood has black electrostatic
steel shaft & ribs, a wood handle & no hook on its sleeve. It's
not often easy to find double-canopy vented umbrellas in sizes
that collapse this small & it's extraordinary to find them with
mechanisms that automate both opening & closing the canopy.
Bottom line: once the snow melts, don't leave home without it.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: ELPH FOR VIDEO
This one is a war story: Marty had just finished (ten minutes
before it shut down) hitting the last CES booth he had to see &
was heading back to the hotel for a 2-hour nap. About half an
hour into that, he got a call from a network TV producer pal who
had just boarded the airplane home when he got word about a story
they wanted him to shoot at a trade show that had not yet closed;
he asked Marty to shoot it as a favor. Marty didn't have his
camcorder along this trip, but in an earlier interview (reported
in our issue 2007-11c), Joone said that his Canon Elph SD1000
(the same model Marty bought) was capable of taking good-quality
SD video, so Marty gave that a shot. It worked out pretty well &
the 15 minutes of AVI files he shot got piped to his producer pal
in New York over ftp. When the edited piece ran, it was the day's
most viewed online item, Bottom line: in a pinch, decent quality
proved a cinch. Addendum: Marty has some street smarts to share
when it comes to this kind of shooting; for example, zooming out
wide & getting close to the subject improves the audio quality
that a built-in mike can grab & adds depth of field to prevent
focus problems. Holding the camera up & a little forward &
looking at it when asking questions all help your subjects point
their eyes at its lens, which makes for a more natural shot. And
short questions get the most, best answers.
MENTAL REVIEW: EYE-FI
We got one of those pre-show PR spam messages about Eye-Fi at PMA
that set off enough little yellow flags we wanted to look into
it. This is not a review; we will invite them to provide a
product that we can review, but it will surprise us if that
changes any of our conclusions here. The Eye-Fi card is a 2GB SD
card with built-in WiFi, which may sound like a good idea but
don't get caught in the spin. For one thing, at $100, it's more
than quintuple the cost of a store-bought new 2GB SD card & the
WiFi functionality is absolutely unnecessary for anybody who
knows how to put an SD card in a reader or plug a camera into USB
to let a transfer happen. The company insists that it's serving a
segment of the camera user base that is unfamiliar or
uncomfortable with those operations & further, want to be able to
share photos online; it would be nice if something in the
marketing outreach said something like "you may not need this".
We initially suspected (from earlier reviews & reports by others)
that, because you have no selective control over what gets
transferred, that it would transfer the whole card every time it
connects; we were relieved to since learn from the company that
its code is smart enough to ignore files already transferred.
Early reviews claimed tested transfer times of 10-20 seconds per
photo; calculating, 15 seconds for a 7.5Mp photo (about 1.5MB as
a JPG) is about 100Kbps, so it seems likely the report is from a
transfer to a Web service; we'll guess, including time for the
wireless handshake dances to establish the session & confirm the
transfer, that WiFi to the PC would take 4-5 seconds for the same
photo. They claim only minimal drain to the camera battery & that
the card's power usage never exceeds the SD card spec, but we
have some concerns here. For many cameras, you're instructed to
turn off a camera's power-saver feature to let this work, it has
to stay on during transfers & each transfer takes several times
longer than it takes to snap & store a photo. A typical LiIon
battery rated at 500-1000mAH is typically rated at 200 shots per
charge; without testing, we will guess that the act of first
taking then transferring 10-20 photos will leave the battery
about halfway to dead. We were also concerned because the
peer-to-peer wireless connection seemed to create a
firewall-crossing vulnerability in certain un-routed edgeless
LANs (especially with specific cable modem configurations); the
company since disclosed that there's an invisible login handshake
between the card & the PC, which materially reduces that risk.
Some of our technological concerns have been eased, but there
remains an overriding end-user value concern: is it worth the
extra $80 to not learn how to plug the camera or the SD card
directly into the PC?
A DIFFERENT KIND OF COVERAGE
Just about everybody who reads this covers products. You may also
cover other things, but in the realm of tech & gear & such, in a
lot of your coverage, you just cover products. We can say without
too much exaggeration that ultimately, it isn't the products
themselves that interest your readers; what interests them are
the good or bad changes that come to their lives as a result of
their encounters with these products. Don't ignore the herd
mentality; if a product is the focal point of a lot of hype, then
that hype needs to be an element in your coverage, too. (Have you
ever thought about how much money Apple spent pushing the iPhone
before selling the first quarter million of them?) So what
happens if you make readers the focal point of a piece about a
product instead of merely telling them about the product? Imagine
a story that opens with: Company Name wants you to believe that
you'll be an outcast if you don't join some theoretical crowd of
Product Name users, but objectively, the product has quirks &
challenges they never get around to mentioning. Your importance
to your readers increases every time you go beyond the usual
look-here & give them some context, even if only for the water
cooler. (We remember the Scripps Howard slogan: "Give the people
light & they will find their own way.") As always, begin your
consideration objectively & keep your presentation objective, but
we think there's a lot to be said for drawing some of your own
conclusions in the process & backing them up with resources
outside the press kit. It doesn't have to take much time & it
does make what you have to say much more relevant & much more
interesting. Please share your thoughts about this with Marty.
Contact: Martin Winston, NEWSTIPS (Novelty, OH) 440-338-8400;
mailto:marty@newstips.com http://Newstips.com
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Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
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