January 18, 2007
Last year I got to try one of Worldgate’s pricey Ojo phones (marketed by Motorola). One of the few advantages it had over a PC running Skype or Windows Live Messenger was that it enabled better eye contact, or at least the illusion of it, as the camera was closer to the screen.
Now Bodelin has released a clever laptop/flat panel accessory called the “SeeEye2Eye.” Essentially, it’s done with mirrors. The video window is moved near the top of the screen and is positioned under one mirror, which reflects the image up to another mirror that moves it into the correct position and orientation. It’s really just a miniature periscope, but the results look impressive and address what’s one of the biggest downsides of video chat and videoconferencing today.
Unfortunately, the unit itself looks a little bulky, especially for travel use. Their must be a way to slim it down or make it foldable. I continue to hold out hope for that Apple patent of embedding cameras within the display itself.
From The Raw Feed via Gizmodo
January 2, 2007
I’ve long asserted that the charge around Kodak’s “blowing” the digital transition has been far exaggerated. It’s one thing if you’re a financial analyst grumpy about replacing film revenue. But in terns of the digital still camera market, Kodak has done about as well as could be expected. It’s a consistent market share leader, and it has carried forward its everyman legacy. Meanwhile, Konica, Minolta and Pentax’s camera lines were all absorbed by other companies, and Olympus has been struggling.
In any case, I’d never argue that Kodak or any company should rest on its laurels or not seek to expand its market base. But how? The thin thing has been done, we don’t need more megapixels, and DSLRs will be hard-pressed to move past the enthusiast base of their analog predecessors.
July 5, 2006
Samsung’s new NV line is easily the most serious attempt by the consumer electronics giant to crack the crowded space atop the digital camera market share heap, but it may be “too much too late.” The NV7, at roughly $450, is a technology tour de force, featuring 7 MP resolution, 7x optical zoom, requisite German optical partner lens and multiple image stabilization techniques all in a package well under an inch thick. It also has a new user interface.
The NV3 seems less interesting with a more standard 3x optical zoon and a more gimmicky integrated media player.
It will be very interesting to see how the digital photography review sites rate these.
May 26, 2006
This may be the most difficult sell to come out of Redmond in ages. JPEG works. Its quality is excellent. Flash memory is ludicrously cheap; many consumers will run out of battery life before they run out of storage capacity. And pros are not going to use compressed files. Forget it.
I suppose this team will next move on to tackle Microsoft Wheel.
May 25, 2006
It will be interesting to see where pricing for the Presto photo printing service comes in. I think annual subscriptions are easier to swallow than monthly ones, particularly if a device is going to need consumables like the inkjet "photo mailbox" that Presto is planning. Presto is reminiscent of several previous attempts to entertain the lightly connected elderly or technophobes — WebTV, Cidco's MailStation and Ceiva, which still seems to be kicking around. Presto, though, seems like a product that is more attuned to its target demographic than Ceiva.
Presto's solution doesn't use the Internet, though, which leads me to believe that's using some kind of wireless network, which would be challenging to implement cost-effectively.
