When a product has high KAF a.k.a Kid Approved Factor, its time to give the product a lot of respect. Ever since a friend gifted me the Flip Ultra camcorder, my 8-year old daughter loves using it to rehearse as a TV anchor.
It doesn’t take long to figure out why the Flip Ultra is such a loved video camcorder. The biggest advantage of this product is its ‘no-frills’ simplicity. It has just three buttons, the biggest one reserved for ‘Record’ and two smaller ones for Playback and Delete. It’s that simple.
It’s the Flip’s uncomplicated approach to easy video recording, combined with a pocket-friendly pricing that has made this a much loved camcorder for the YouTube, Facebook generation. Once you shoot the video, it’s just a simple two step process to upload your videos online. The product comes with inbuilt software which means that there’s no need for a CD or to download any software.
It changed the way people capture and share video by making it simple, accessible and fun for anyone. “I have them in my backpack and it goes wherever I go. It helps me to capture all those wonderful places and moments,” says Venky Krishnamoorthy, an IT professional. So popular that it attracted the attention of the IT giant, Cisco, which eventually bought the company a few years ago.
What I really liked was the friendly spring-loaded USB arm. With just a press of a knob, the USB arm pops out at right angles. This means, no more lugging around the USB cable and more importantly, no more losing them. Once videos are shot, you just simply plug in the camera to the USB in your computer and it automatically launches FlipShare software.
The audio clarity is quite good for a camera of this size. However, you begin to sorely miss the audio input especially in noisy environs. You wish there was a provision to plug in your microphone to cut out the external noises. Seshu, a professional wedding photographer strongly feels that without good audio input, the HD capability in the flip loses its edge.
Not many know that one can do excellent audio podcasting using Flip camcorders. While editing the video, you can easily split out the audio from the video. This re-emphasises the need for a good audio input, especially for interviews, something that I do so often for my Kiruba.TV show.
What you can’t complain about is the Flip’s ability to shoot in low-light areas. It shows its class in indoor filming. While it does very well for outdoors shooting, it gives washed out images when you shoot in bright sunlight. The Flip does have a 2x optical zoom but you are better off not using this facility as it gives you pixilated results.
Another thing I like about this flip is it uses two AA batteries. I use two re-chargeable batteries and in the scenario where the batteries run out of juice while I am outdoors, I have the simple option of buying two new batteries without scurrying around for plug points to charge them. I like this flexibility.
Not many are big fans of Flip’s tiny 2 inch camera. “I bought it and ultimately returned it after using it for a day. The first thing that irritated me was that really tiny screen which made it so tough to take proper videos. Half the time, I wasn’t sure what I was filming,” says Filpert Devasahayam. After getting used to big screens in other devices like the iTouch, the Flip’s screen does feel very tiny.
In spite of the few downsides, I find the Flip the easiest and most affordable low end camcorder to buy. It’s a great portable camcorder for the YouTube generation. Just remember that its not a replacement for full-blown video camera and if you can set the expectations right, you’ll love this one just as I do.
Source- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/flip-the-ultra-camcorder-youll-love/624124/0
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Packed our bags. Recharged my iPods. Snuck in the books. I’m quite excited about the first *REAL* family vacation we are taking in more than 3 years.
We are heading to Coorg for a 5 day vacation. It may not be much but given the work schedule, its a luxury. We have booked ourselves into a 4-bedroom house snuck within a 34 acre coffee estate.
I did an elaborate hunt for a good homestay. I was certain we won’t be staying in a resort or a hotel. Homestay it had to be. What do you expect from a big couchsurfing junkie like me! Anyways, back to my homestay hunt. I checked out over 50 places online but the one that fixed the deal came out of a ‘bad news’ from the owner of the homestay. He almost apologized when he said that the place within the coffee estate does not receive any mobile signals. That alone clinched the deal for me. What better way to unplug!
The second reason that scored for me was the home cooked Coorgi food from the homestay owner’s kitchen. Especially, if it involves home-cooked pork. In fact, that’s my single minded focus this trip. Have as many varieties of Pork dishes as possible. More than half a dozen people have told me that the Coorgi’s make the best pork. All I can say is, ‘Bring it On”!
Oink ! Oink!
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For the last two years, I have been half-heartedly thinking of setting up two computer monitors for my PC. One half knew it would be cool, the other half knew I would have to crack my PC’s case to upgrade my video card.
I googled to see what people felt about dual displays and came up with compelling reasons to get a second monitor. I kept seeing glowing reports like “no single system upgrade has improved my personal productivity as much as adding that second screen,” and “this second display has changed the way I compute more profoundly than any single upgrade since, oh, maybe Microsoft Windows 95.”
I finally made the choice to go in for it. The others were right. If there’s one thing that has helped boost my productivity, it simply has to be this addition of a second computer monitor. Not only does it make doing many tasks more pleasant, but it also lets me do them more efficiently.
Satish Kamalapuram, an SAP consultant working in one of India’s leading IT companies says, “Using dual monitors increase productivity by atleast 40% and becomes a need over a period of time. I use it at work, as well as home.” I couldn’t agree more. At work, I open two Word documents, an Excel spreadsheet, three Web browser windows, and my email and all this on a slow day and I absolutely appreciate anything that helps me multitask better.
In the finance and trading industry, it is no longer a nice-to-have setup. It’s a must-have. Especially when you have long spreadsheets, you can view the entire spreadsheet across the two monitors. It helps people like Karthikeyan who have to deal with really long spreadsheets.
In the design industry too, it is become paramount to have this setup. Especially because designers can compare two designs at the same time instead of ‘Alt-Tab’ing. Also, since you can set up the monitor resolutions for each monitor separately, this is a boon for Web designers. They can now check how their websites look in different resolutions and accordingly make minor adjustments.
There are others who would like to separate work from fun and the dual setup helps them do just that. Prathul Prabhakar, a young IT professional says, “This way I can keep active work on one monitor and stuff like feeds, mail, Twitter, chat on the other. Work is more fun and easy this way!”
This week I present my experience, articles to help you do it yourself. You need a video card with dual output. If not, plug an extra video card into your motherboard’s open slot. Plug the extra monitor into the second output, and use the graphics card’s software to activate the second display.
If all this is too much for you, take the easy way of calling up your computer hardware person to help out. It’s recommended that you use two monitors of the same size. It’s a lot easier on your eyes. I use two 17” monitors and they are perfect. There are disadvantages. When you add a second monitor, you immediately halve the resource of the video card. In certain cases, the drop in performance can be visible. Now, imagine if you added a 3rd and a 4th monitor. The solution for this problem is to install a more powerful video card. Another word of caution though. Don’t go overboard with monitors. The higher number of monitors does not necessarily increase the productivity proportionately.
Now to the question of CRT or LCD. If you have old CRT monitors that you are going to throw away, you can use them. If you have some money to space, I suggest you use LCD flat monitors. They work best. With prices of flat monitors falling, its more reason for you to give it a shot and you’ll thank me for it later.
Source- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-magic-of-dual-monitors/617975/0
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
Phone :+91-44-42733619
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