All Things Mobile and Wireless
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Apple has a great holiday treat for you: A free 20-song holiday sampler digital album. The link to the iTunes page is given below…
Like many free iTunes offers, this is probably time limited. So, get it while it is free.
5th Gen. iPod nano & Flip Ultra Video Recordings Compared Part II from Todd Ogasawara on Vimeo.
Based on the chance that the 5th generation iPod nano focused on the raindrops falling near its lens in the first video comparison with the Flip Ultra, I took both devices to a different location. You can see the two video recordings compared here. I think the Flip Ultra clearly dealt with dynamic lighting changes much better than the iPod nano. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Flip Ultra is a superior video recording device.
However, Cisco (Flip’s current owner) has a problem on its hands. Because, the iPod nano is a lot smaller, a lot more fun to carry around, and records video that is pretty good (though not as good as the Flip Ultra).
MobileViews: 5th gen. iPod nano Video Compared to Flip Ultra from Todd Ogasawara on Vimeo.
You can see my first comparison of the same scene recorded using the new 5th generation iPod nano and the Flip Ultra. Both record at 640×480. The iPod nano video seems a lot darker than the Flip Ultra video. But, I’m beginning to think that it may be because it auto-focused on the rain drops. If you look at both video recordings, you’ll note that the rain drops seen in the iPod nano video are distinct and in-focus while the rain drops in the Flip Ultra video are blurred lines. However, the scene beyond the sheet of drops is easier to see.
I obviously need to do more comparison testing.
Mini-Podcast 13 was recorded using the 5th generation iPod nano’s built-in microsoft.
Topics covered:
- Video camera
- FM Radio
- Voice memo using built-in microphone
- Pedometer
- Voice over
This mini-podcast is 4 minutes and 43 seconds long.
- You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
- You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
- You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.
1st generation Zune (left), 1st generation iPod nano (middle), 4th generation iPod nano (right)
If you have a teenager, don’t bother to ask if he or she would prefer an iPod or a Zune. According to CNET’s summary of a Piper Jaffray survey…
Teen survey makes Microsoft’s Zune seem futile
The percentage of teens who want a zune as of the most recent survey is 100%. This is all the more surprising since their Fall 2008 survey showed that 15% planned to buy a Zune while 79% wanted an iPod (3% were looking at Sony’s offering).
I know I performed this survey on a very very small scale (my teenager) a few years ago (when she wasn’t a teenager to be honest). I asked her if she would like a Zune I had received as a gift since it can playback video and has an FM radio. She was using a 1st generation iPod nano at the time which did not have either feature. She looked at the Zune and said she would rather keep using her 1st generation nano. I later bought her an iPod touch. But, she preferred the nano even then, BTW. Last year, I replaced her 1st generation nano with a 4th generation model. She’s very happy with that now (still doesn’t use the iPod touch much).
How often does a father and his teenage daughter agree on anything? So, I find it pretty amusing that my daughter and I actually enjoy the same musical artist named Utada Hikaru (surname – given name order, btw) a lot. I was even more amused when I noticed that Utada’s new English language music video (she’s bilingual, btw) is the iTunes free Music Video of the Week in the U.S. You can find it here…
Utada: Come Back to Me (iTunes music video)
It should be free until the end of next week Monday (Mar. 30).
MacRumors reports…
USB Tethering Seems to be Working in iPhone 3.0
MacRumors notes that the test connected a developer’s iPhone running version 3.0 who connected it to a Mac with a USB cable. This person actually tested the tether (accessed the net using the iPhone’s 3G connection). Interesting stuff.
I bought…
Batman: The Dark Knight (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy) (2008)
…the other day. The 2nd disc contains a digital copy suitable for use with mobile devices. I went through the activation process using iTunes on a Mac.
The activation process was painless. I was a bit confused when I saw iTunes tell me it was downloading the movie after that. However, I soon realized that it was “downloading” the digital movie from the DVD and not the net. After this download process completed, I plugged my iPhone into the Mac and copied the movie over to it. There wasn’t any problem or additional steps above (activation-wise) to copy and view the movie to the iPhone.
I posted this item over on my MobileAppsToday.com blog but thought it was interesting enough to repost to my personal mobile tech blog too.
Hope this works
Visiting mobile.espn.com on an iPhone redirects you to an iPhone specific site. The mobile web design world is definitely iPhone-centric these days.
Evernote updated their iPhone client to version 1.2 and added the ability to edit notes. I ran into this error (see image above) after downloading the update using iTunes though. And, I was not able to update it at all directly from my iPod touch. However, after disconnecting the USB cable, it looked like the application actually installed on my touch. Firing it up I found that the new client can only update notes that are purely text. Even a file that included hyperlinked text with no other formatting was not editable.
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