Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Gadgetell Quick Review

Pros:   Small form factor, does HD video capture.  Macro mode is welcome for close up shots.
Cons: Low light performance is not great.  No lens cover.
The Crux:  If you’re looking to shoot a couple of things really quickly and want it in HD, this is a terrific device.  It’s not going to replace a real HD camcorder, but is very good for a pocket HD cam.

Full, in-depth review with video samples after the break.

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Remember that great little HD-capable pocket camcorder from Creative that we told you about way back in May, the Vado HD?  Well it seems that it is now available, well available for pre-order.  The Amazon listing is not reflecting any shipping date and currently the Vado HD is simply listed as being “temporarily out of stock,“ however rumor has it that December 7 will be the day.

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Chances are if you’re reading this you’ve probably seen The Dark Knight sometime this summer.  Or you at least heard of it.  If you haven’t, I congratulate you, it would have been nice to live in a cave during that media blitz.  Now, you may or may not know that the DVD and Blu-ray release of the movie is coming up on December 9th.  Well, if you haven’t, JVC wants to remind you.

JVC has announced a partnership with Warner Brothers to promote The Dark Knight, as if it needed help.  The company is holding a sweepstakes on its Dark Knight micro-site, offering for a chance to win a JVC home theater package, and Dark Knight DVDs.  Full details after the break.

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If the just released Flip Mino HD would be available in any of the local stores in the country where I’m currently residing, I would certainly not hesitate in getting this as a gift to myself.  In fact, I might even get another one for my son.  The Flip Mino may be so cool and attractive enough to get you to buy it even before you take a look at its specs.  In fac,t you don’t have to worry about the specs, as you would certainly not be short changed in this department.

The Flip Mino HD is Pure Digital’s take on HD-capable camcorder market.  And instead of clashing with the other HD-capable camcorders in coming out with their own units touting support for large-capacity storage SD cards, Pure Digital opted to use built-in 4GB flash memory only.  For some camcorder users this would be enough for a one-hour video which they can easily upload to YouTube or other video sharing sites.  Find out more after the break.

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We all know, love, hate and possibly do our best to ignore Black Friday.  For deals on gadgets and tech, you’d expect the main electronic stores to participate: Best Buy, Circuit City, maybe even Wal-Mart and Target.  You can add one more to that list that you probably wouldn’t expect: Walgreens.  Yeah, I wasn’t expecting it either.

Of course, a store like Walgreens doesn’t have a whole ton of electronic deals, but there are a few.  Some of its not too surprising, like a 10” LCD TV for $99, a 9 megapixel Kodak camera for $79 and a 2 GB MicroSD card for $9.  While they are good deals, their what you’d usually expect from a store like Walgreens.  However, there are two surprising additions.  One is an 8MP HD camcorder from Aiptek for $79.  The other being an $89 Nextar GPS.  Sure, they aren’t really big brand names, but what do you expect from Walgreens?

With the economy the way it is, and tech becoming more popular, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these types of deals from other retailers for Black Friday.  Last year the big push was for HDTVs, which it could be this year as well.  One thing is definite, though, people like finding good deals on tech.

Read [BFads.net]

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“Every breath you take…  Every move you make…  Every bond you break…  Every step you take..  I’ll be watching you.“  Is it the end of privacy as we know it?  People knowing where we are, and when we are there, seeing whatever it is we are doing.  Or, just a cool and fun new way to geotag?  Geotagging is nothing new and most of us are familiar with the term by now.  Take a photo, and “tag” your location to tell all your friends or family where you were at when you shot it.  But now, tagged single shots are going to seem like dinosaurs.

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Sections: Video, Accessories, Portable Video, Communications, Accessories, Computers, Software / Applications, Imaging, Accessories, Camcorders, Web, Web 2.0, Websites

SD cards are increasingly becoming part of consumer electronics.  A big problem is finding the right SD card for your gadget.  Most people have no concept of gigabytes, let alone SD card classes.  Kingston is looking to make SD cards more consumer-friendly.  I got a chance to speak to a representative at Kingston and he let me in on their plans.

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Although Samsung’s MX20 SD camcorder may fall a bit behind other camcorders available on the market for not having an HD video recording feature, it still is worthy of our attention and perhaps money because of one outstanding feature. And that is the facility to directly upload video into YouTube or iPod from the camcorder without needing to transcode the video files.

To some, that feature more than makes up for not being able to capture high-definition video but well for some, that would be a turn off. If you’re one of those who don’t mind the lack of HD quality, you’d be glad to know that the Samsung MX20 nonetheless kicks out some high-standard features that include H.264-enhanced video quality, 3D noise reduction technology, a Schneider lens with 34x optical zoom, Hyper Digital Image Stabilization, advanced face detection technology, a 680K CCD sensor, a swivel hand-grip, a 2.7-inch LCD screen, iCheck and iScene modes and a very important SD/SDHC memory card slot.

The Samsung MX20 SD camcorder will be available in the Japanese market sometime in September. And our Japanese pals will have a choice of either black, white, red or blue. Pricing details are not yet available but we expect this to come with a lower price than most of the cheap HD camcorders currently available. For us non-Japanese camcorder-loving geeks, we may have to wait for awhile before the MX20 gets an international release.

Via [Akihabara News]

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It was not so long ago when DXG gave us two budget-friendly camcorders, the 567V and the 569V. Now, here they come again, releasing yet another affordable high definition camcorder, the 595V which retails for only $200.

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According to research company NPD, Flip Video has broken the one million mark with their Flip Video Ultra camcorder. In an ever increasing market, Flip Video is now seeing competition from Kodak and DXG in the easy to use and easy to upload market.

“Flip’s simplicity makes it easy for anyone to capture and share their stories and to participate in the explosion of video-sharing on the web, and that has been a winning approach with consumers,“ said Jonathan Kaplan, Chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies.

Of course, Flip was the first to make a splash in this market, so its safe to think they have gotten a nice head start in terms on sales. It should be interesting to see just how well they do with the new Flip Mino model, especially considering some of the competition is offering up to 720p quality.

Via [I4U News]

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