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Vimeo Finally Hits Android

// January 28th, 2012 // 4 Comments » // android, cool

It’s no secret that I love Vimeo. I love that it’s so easy to find real, quality videos, without having to wade through all the incessant junk that’s on YouTube*. So, you can imagine that I love even more that Vimeo has a real live Android app now, so I can enjoy it on my phone.

The Vimeo app was announced just before CES, and it is quite fully featured. You can login to your account, view your own videos, and even download them to your phone. Here’s a bullet list from AndroidCentral of the other features:

• Quickly search for videos on vimeo.com
• Easily upload your raw footage in HD
• Pause and resume uploads
• Replace existing videos
• Edit title, description, tags, privacy and credits
• Share with Facebook, Twitter, Email or SMS
• Add your clips to your Groups, Channels and Albums
• Stats on daily plays, likes and comments

Pretty legit. If you have a tablet, it works great for those, too. I would highly encourage anyone interested in finding random but awesome videos to spend an afternoon wandering around in Vimeo. You won’t be disappointed. Here’s a link to my favorites, to get you started.

*not all content on YouTube is trash. It’s just that there is more trash than quality, which makes finding the quality stuff INCREDIBLY difficult.

iPad 2 For Content Creation At CES

// January 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // cool, technology

When the Apple iPhone came out, it changed the game, but only for some parts of the mobile industry. One aspect that it didn’t even come close to touching was that of ‘content creation’. In fact, most of us who had already been creating content – blogs, podcasts, videos, photos, etc decided that the iPhone was ideal for ‘content consumption’, not creation. There’s quite a difference there, and it fit.

However, while other platforms and devices are still awesome for creating content, the iPhone (and its larger brethren, the iPad) are now realistic tools of content creation. Heck, just head over to iPadCreative.com to see some great examples of this. In my job at RadioShack, content creation is a large part of my job description, and it’s awesome that I have plenty of devices to choose from. I also have a cool boss, so when I saw the iPad Movie Mount from Makayama last year, I told him I was buying one, and he said ‘cool.’

We got the mount, played with it a bit, and decided the iPad 2′s 720p video capture was perfect to really make the most of it, so we took three iPad 2′s with us to CES last week to shoot ALL of our footage with it. Here’s the video explaining our rig:

Filming with the iPad 2 at CES was crazy – there were people actually taking videos/photos of US instead of the booths! Most of the comments were positive, how it was cool to see something outside-the-box like that. For me, it was interesting not using a phone, which I’m used to at events and such. You can view all of our videos here.

I would definitely shoot with the iPad again – we had some extra bits included that allowed us to use 2 wireless lav mics and a 3rd handheld wireless mic, but other than that, it was straight up iPad.

What do you think? 

Tech Bloggers: would you consider shooting ALL of your next event coverage with a phone or tablet, instead of a pro camera?

Everyone Else: does seeing products being USED by a company make you more likely to consider buying them from that company?

NAO Next Gen: One Step Closer To The Future

// December 28th, 2011 // No Comments » // cool, technology

As a tech geek, I’m constantly looking at the technology that we have available today and how I think it will progress over the next few years. I’m also firmly convinced that technology should enrich and enable our real lives, without getting in the way. One way tech will do that in the future is robotics. There are so many mundane tasks that we do repeatedly that could be handled with robotics, freeing us to do other things.

Robotics are nothing new, but over the past few years, there have been major advancements, specifically in the realm of humanoid robots, that look and act like humans. The latest demonstration of this is the NAO Next Gen from Aldebaran Robotics. This little robot is roughly 2ft tall and is incredibly capable. Check out the video below:

That’s just plain awesome. Currently, the NAO Next Gen is for developers only, priced at around $5,600 for a developer membership. Imagine when these little guys are $1,000 each, or even less!

Here’s an idea of what I would train mine to do:

What would you teach your NAO to do for you?

Fedex Shows How To Handle A Social Media Disaster

// December 27th, 2011 // No Comments » // cool

Last week, the video below made the rounds of the Internet and local news shows. In it, you’ll see a Fedex employee carelessly tossing a package containing a computer monitor over a high fence, with no regard for the contents. Of course, this is completely unacceptable, and in my experience not something that most Fedex delivery folks would have even thought about doing. Here’s the video:

What I want to highlight, though, is Fedex’s response. The original video was uploaded on December 19th, a Monday morning. The response below was uploaded on December 21st, Wednesday, just two days later, along with a blog post.

Fedex did several things right here:

1. They acted quickly – a 2-day turnaround on a video with a high-ranking executive is awesome. If you’ve done much corporate video production, you know how quick this is.

2. They addressed those affected first – Mr. Thornton states that they’ve already reached out to the customer, apologized, and made that situation right. Next, they determined who the employee was and adjusted his schedule so that he’s not interfacing with consumers. Both of those tasks are not a quick phone call – there’s research that needs to be done, etc.

3. They used their response video to own the situation – the video basically recaps the original situation, explains that the customer has been taken care of and the employee has been reprimanded in some form or fashion, and then shifts the focus back onto Fedex and how they’ll use this situation.

Brilliantly handled, Fedex.

Fedex Shows How To Handle A Social Media Disaster

// December 27th, 2011 // No Comments » // cool

Last week, the video below made the rounds of the Internet and local news shows. In it, you’ll see a Fedex employee carelessly tossing a package containing a computer monitor over a high fence, with no regard for the contents. Of course, this is completely unacceptable, and in my experience not something that most Fedex delivery folks would have even thought about doing. Here’s the video:

What I want to highlight, though, is Fedex’s response. The original video was uploaded on December 19th, a Monday morning. The response below was uploaded on December 21st, Wednesday, just two days later, along with a blog post.

Fedex did several things right here:

1. They acted quickly – a 2-day turnaround on a video with a high-ranking executive is awesome. If you’ve done much corporate video production, you know how quick this is.

2. They addressed those affected first – Mr. Thornton states that they’ve already reached out to the customer, apologized, and made that situation right. Next, they determined who the employee was and adjusted his schedule so that he’s not interfacing with consumers. Both of those tasks are not a quick phone call – there’s research that needs to be done, etc.

3. They used their response video to own the situation – the video basically recaps the original situation, explains that the customer has been taken care of and the employee has been reprimanded in some form or fashion, and then shifts the focus back onto Fedex and how they’ll use this situation.

Brilliantly handled, Fedex.

Real Life And Gadgets

// September 25th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // cool, technology

I just read this awesome post from my friend Antoine about how he met our mutual online friend Trent in real life the other day. The two apparently had a great time discussing tech, and the conversation eventually moved to something that I firmly believe in: Technology should enrich and enable your real life, and not get in the way.

Trent had noticed that his new Nexus One made it so easy – simply type in his Google username and password and all his content was downloaded from the cloud to his phone, just like that. Somewhat magical, but the process of getting setup is so simple now that it leaves plenty of room for actually using our devices.

There was a time when I changed phones multiple times per day. Even now, I have no less than 10 phones laying around, but I only swap my SIM card between three, and they each have very specific purposes. My G2 is my powerhouse – it can do anything, at any time, and I’ve got it setup to work precisely how I want it to. My HD7 is my reliable phone. It never needs to be rebooted, doesn’t lock up or get sluggish, and while it doesn’t afford me the same abilities as my G2 (yet), it’s awesome for various specific needs. My N8 is my fun phone, since I can’t put my work email on it (because it’s too stupid to be able to sync 2 Exchange accounts simultaneously). The N8, though, has the best camera and pretty darn good battery life.

As phones get smarter, they get more useful, mainly because they begin to do things FOR us. The money quote from Antoine’s blog post is this:

Those two applications made it such that my device was able to simply sit on the side until I needed it. And when I did, there was no swiping between home screens, application lists, folders, or even navigating settings. Things just worked best for me and the mobile could go back into my pocket without much fuss. Simplicity because it adapted first.

Technology that enriches and enables our real life, instead of getting in the way. It’s beautiful.

Southern Lights As Seen From Space

// September 24th, 2011 // No Comments » // cool

I’ve long had a fascination with the Northern Lights. Every photo I’ve ever seen of them looks spectacular, and I’ve watched a few videos that confirm my suspicion that they’re simply incredible. I haven’t made it up there to see them in person yet, but it’s pretty high on my list of things to do.

In the meantime, I’ve recently discovered that there is also such a thing as the Southern Lights, which apparently looks similar. The photo below was captured by Ron Garan from aboard the International Space Station. As you can see, the Southern Lights look just as spectacular from space as they likely do from Earth.

If you’re a nerd like me, you also probably noticed that it closely resembles a force field shield being attacked, which is just as cool.

Qik Keeps On Improving, Adds Premium Features To Android

// August 25th, 2011 // No Comments » // android, cool, Family, technology

When the whole notion of streaming live video from your phone to the Internet came around, there were basically two companies doing it – Flixwagon and Qik. Both got their start on Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones – in fact, I even live-streamed my wedding using Nokia N82s, the Nokia DT-22 tripod, and Flixwagon.

Unfortunately, Flixwagon is pretty much gone at this point, but Qik has continued to skyrocket in functionality and popularity. In the U.S., Qik has become the default video calling solution for most Android-powered smartphones, with even carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint touting the app as being pre-loaded on the latest and greatest smartphones. The leap from video-streaming to video-calling has also proved to be a great move for Qik.

I use Qik on a daily basis now, especially with a new baby in the house – it’s super easy to video chat with grandparents, or with my wife when I’m away on business. There’s almost no setup required – when my mom asked about it, all I did was spell out ‘Q-I-K’ for her and 15 minutes later, she was video calling me from her Android-powered smartphone! She was able to download and install the app and get an account setup that quickly and easily.

I’m pretty jazzed for Qik, who recently announced that they have over 10 million users across all its supported platforms (iOS, Android, Symbian), and are bringing their Premium services to the Android platform, finally. Qik Premium is $4.99/month and offers unlimited video storage as well as the ability to record and send HD and 3D video (if your phone can handle it, of course). I’ll gladly sign up – more for the ability to show support to the company who keeps me visually connected with my family, but also for the extra features.

If you haven’t used Qik, I would highly recommend it. It’s brilliant, and it’s cross-platform, so Android users can easily call iOS users, and vice versa. Qik has also been purchased by Skype, so hopefully in the future we’ll see integration so that you can easily call your Skype contacts with Qik. I’m also hoping that Skype lets the Qik team build the next version of the Skype mobile application – Qik is MUCH better on a phone in terms of resources and power management.

Congrats, Qik, keep up the great work!

How To Make Glow Jello

// August 6th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // cool

One of the cool parts of my job at RadioShack is our partnership with Instructables and that bunch. They have how-to’s that show you how to make really fun stuff, including Glow Jello. Unfortunately, this doesn’t actually glow in the dark (cool as that would be), but it does, reportedly, glow under a black light, which is just as cool.

The key ingredient, apparently, is Indian tonic water, which contains quinine. The ingredients are:

• 150 ml gin
• 350 ml Indian tonic water (containing quinine)
• A splash of rose water (optional)
• 5 leaves of gelatine

How To Make Glow Jello

// August 6th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // cool

One of the cool parts of my job at RadioShack is our partnership with Instructables and that bunch. They have how-to’s that show you how to make really fun stuff, including Glow Jello. Unfortunately, this doesn’t actually glow in the dark (cool as that would be), but it does, reportedly, glow under a black light, which is just as cool.

The key ingredient, apparently, is Indian tonic water, which contains quinine. The ingredients are:

• 150 ml gin
• 350 ml Indian tonic water (containing quinine)
• A splash of rose water (optional)
• 5 leaves of gelatine