I’m not a watch collector. This is more due to a restriction of funds than a lack of intent. If I were a watch collector, I’d be hunting down some of Watchismo’s watches. The guy has a wonderful collection of early-electronic watches:

[via WristWatchReview]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Hybrid TV have announced the launch date and details for Tivo in New Zealand. Coming on the 6th of November 2009 the device adds “CASPA™ On-Demand” content along with Freeview recording. The catch is you can only get CASPA content if you are a Telecom broadband user.

I’ll watch from the sidelines to see how this plays out. If we start getting access to more recent episodes of international shows via CASPA, I might actually hop on the bandwagon. It’s difficult to see how TVNZ would go there, but perhaps it’s a legitimate transition from their flagging FTA advertising?

Full media release follows:

Auckland, NEW ZEALAND, 29 October 2009 – Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Limited, the exclusive licensee of TiVo® in New Zealand and Australia, today announced that the highly anticipated TiVo brand will reveal its new product and on-demand service for New Zealanders before any other country.

TiVo is the world’s most popular media device, giving viewers recording control and playback choice in one famously user-friendly interface. In addition to the TiVo device providing control of free-to-air digital terrestrial television (Freeview|HD compatible), the all-new broadband portal, CASPA™ On-Demand, will have its international debut in New Zealand.

CASPA On-Demand is a world of broadband entertainment including new release movies, hit TV shows for the whole family as well as music videos and concerts. As TiVo is not a subscription service customers can “pay-as-they-use” for CASPA instead of paying monthly fees for shows they do not watch. The broadband content on CASPA is provided as pay-per-view, advertiser funded or free of charge.

The New Zealand launch bundle, sold exclusively through Telecom from November 6, comprises a TiVo 320 Media Device and the Home Networking Package, which enables the customer to transfer TV recordings from their TiVo to their PC or portable device (i.e. PSP or iTouch), as well as view home movies, pictures and listen to their music on the TV.

“TiVo will provide the very best of broadband entertainment and allow Kiwis the freedom to enjoy top-rated movies on the television without impacting their monthly broadband data allowance,” said Ralph Brayham, Telecom director of home services.

“We are absolutely thrilled to premiere this new offering to New Zealanders. With the proliferation of digital free-to-air channels, New Zealanders should have more choice than ever before in how they view, pay for and enjoy their TV,” said Robbee Minicola, CEO of Hybrid TV.

“A key factor in our decision to obtain the licence rights for TiVo in these two countries was to enable broadband features on the television versus the computer. We knew that TiVo was the leader in controlling live television with its award winning features like Season Pass™ recordings and WishList™ searches but we sought to exploit broadband to take the product to the next level. We have achieved that with the CASPA On-Demand service.

“The relationship with Telecom ensures its broadband customers who use the CASPA service will not experience any impact on their monthly broadband data allowance. This is a significant benefit to consumers and explains why only Telecom broadband customers have access to CASPA On-Demand. New Zealanders who are not with Telecom for their broadband can still enjoy the TiVo product but will not have access to CASPA,” said Ms Minicola.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Pocket video cameras are the device du jour for the YouTube generation. Wired Magazine saw fit to write an entire article based on the little beasts. Forging against the trend of ultra hi-def 300x zoom handycams with capacious memory, these pocket cameras take the approach that a nasty little CMOS sensor will do just fine, most certainly if you want to upload video of your kids to YouTube, rather than watch it on a 50 inch HD television.

While they look very similar on the surface, philosophically, the Flip Mino HD and the JVC Picsio GC-FM1 pocket cameras are different beasts. They both take “HD video” (720p for the Flip and a bastardised 1080p for the JVC). They both fit in your pocket. They both come with software for your PC that can upload video direct to YouTube.

So let’s skip the basics and get down to the differences:

But what does it all mean?

The Flip camera – the progenitor of the pocket video camera revolution – eschews all dongles and baubles, and focuses on the purpose of taking basic video. The FM1 on the other hand appears to be a descendant of JVC’s existing camcorder lineup, and therefore retains some of the functionality demanded by markedroids: stills, removable memory, HDMI out. You’d perhaps think that the extra features of the FM1 make it a better camera. I’m not so sure.

To start with, you’ll need to purchase a large SDHC card on top of the FM1 price before you can do anything at all. That’s going to add at least $50 to the price. And we can discount the still photo option as nothing more than a gimmick. There’s no way the stills from the FM1 are going to displace anything but the cheapest, nastiest point-and-shoot digital camera. Call me picky, but the addition of the stills mode and multiple video resolutions just makes the FM1 more difficult to use than the Flip. I want to take video, not fiddle with settings.

And then there is the software.

Multitasking

Flip have taken the time to construct a gorgeous, simple little application in Flipshare. It is a pleasure to use, and just works. You can edit up short videos, add backing music (I’ve used one of their tracks in my comparison video below), and upload the results direct to YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised that the application quite happily undertook several processes at the same time, namely rendering a video whilst uploading a different video to YouTube.

JVC have opted to use a scouring pad on my eyeballs, instead of including software with their device. Ok so that’s not entirely true, but the MediaBrowser LE package might as well be a torture device. It is horrible to look at, difficult to use, and not a patch on Flipshare.

Additionally, when you connect the FM1 to your PC, it presents not one, but three drives. As an engineer, I can understand they’ve separated internal memory, SD memory, and the software installer; but as a user, I don’t really give a crap. Compare these two explorer trees, and tell me where to find my videos:

Flip Mino HD	JVC Picsio FM1

Yes OK, but REALLY, what does it all mean?

Regardless of my opinion on how the devices look and behave, the proof is in the pudding. Apparently. So here’s your pudding, re-compressed down to 720p (watch it in HD). Parental advisory: may cause piña colada:

The JVC has more pixels to work with, but on the indoor shots it’s fairly obvious to me that it is over saturated and having trouble with noise. For the record, that cloth on the ornament table at 00:15 is not dark red. The colour shown by the Flip is much more accurate.

Both cameras suffer horribly from “rolling shutter”, visible at 01:00, but there’s nothing you’re going to do to improve that on these pocket cameras. I could be biased, but it does look like the Flip deals with it a little better.

What it all means:

We’re still waiting on official New Zealand pricing, but I’m guessing the Flip Mino HD is going to be cheaper, or most certainly not a vatload more than the JVC. As Chris mentioned in the comments, Noel Leeming has jumped the gun and is advertising the Flip at $349. So, unless you want something that takes kinda noisy, over-saturated video, my choice would be the Flip Mino HD.

Just give it to me raw!

For those of you interested in the raw file output of the devices, here are the links to download the first segment of the video (outdoor, movement).

• Flip Mino HD [16MB]
• JVC GC-FM1 [23MB]

Popularity: 100% [?]

Making things. It’s a bastion of New Zealand culture. We call it the “Number 8 Wire” mentality. Some would argue that the future of our economy relies on our ability to keep on with the makery. I love making stuff, and I love local kiwi company Mindkits, because they supply all sorts of electronic goodies to help you and me make anything we might put our minds to.

So it is my pleasure to announce that Mindkits and Ben.geek.nz are teaming up to give you a little bit of inspiration. Tim from Mindkits is giving away a SparkFun Arduino Starter Kit, and I’m going to throw in a dual motor gearbox, motor controller, and couple of tiny servos from my collection of RC bits. All you have to do is tell us what you would make if you had free reign of the Mindkits store room. Let your imagination run wild. We won’t make you prove you can build it (but we would love it if you did). If we get enough entries, we’ll put the top three (selected by Ben and Tim) up for a vote.

Step 1: Browse Mindkits

Have a look around at the items available. Arduino boards, Lilypads (for the laydees!), gearboxes and proximity sensors, LCD screens, carbon monoxide sensors, wifi transceivers … heck we’ll even let you branch out a bit and consider using Xbees.

Step 2: Tell us what you’d build

Tell us what you would construct using anything from Mindkits and your imagination. Go wild. Feel free to imagine up some magic parts too. Just tell us by leaving a comment below. What would it do? For fun or a serious endeavour? Points for imagination! Get your entries in by 8pm Sunday 8th November.

Step 4: Win!

Tim and I will choose the most creative and/or amusing entry. That person will win:

• 1 SparkFun Arduino Starter Kit
• 1 dual motor gearbox
• 1 motor controller
• 2 tiny servos from my collection of RC bits

Further Reading:

What is Arduino?

Here's an idea!

Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple I/O board and a development environment that removes much of the complexity of programming and building self contained electronics projects powered by a micro-controller. You plug sensors and output into the board and it follows the instructions you give it tirelessly. So, you may want to build a project that clicks your camera whenever a beam is broken. You’d connect the beam and camera to the Arduino and give it instruction of what to do when the beam breaks. Voila!

If that sounds all to hard you can take comfort in there being a massive amount of information out there to make connecting things up and giving the board instructions a real pleasure (Mrs MindKits even build her own textile based Arduino projects).

MindKits? Who the..? What the..?

MindKits is a small company run by Tim Carr that was born out of the passion for tinkering and building electronics and creative projects involving technology.
Tim noticed that although Kiwi’s have a fantastic culture of being ‘makers’ and ‘tinkerers’ building something out of nearly nothing there was very little to bring this cultural trait into todays language of microchips and circuit boards.

So, MindKits was born out of passion and a desire to make it easy for anyone to get started with building their own technology projects. MindKits are not just focused on providing the best priced electronics and Arduino, but also strong community and support.

• We run community catch ups at an Auckland Pub to enable you to meet new people interested in tinkering with electronics projects
• We have forums that enable you to ask questions and talk about the projects you’re building or would like to build
• We run courses regularly to help you get started with building your Arduino based projects
• We’ve also got some pretty cool new ideas which we’d love to share with you once they come together.

Ends.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Vodafone NZ have just released some chunky price drops across the iPhone range. Basically $200 off all models if you sign up to an iPhone 80 plan or higher.

Full details are on the Vodafone iPhone plan page, but here’s some sample pricing:

• iPhone 3G 8GB: $0 on a 24 month iPhone 130 plan.
• iPhone 3Gs 16GB: $399 on a 24 month iphone 80 plan.

Offers are available until the 31st of March 2010.

The temporary 3GB extra data offer is still running until the 31st of October 2009, with no news about what will happen after that. If Vodafone can do something about permanently increasing the 250MB limit on the iPhone 80 plan, I think we’ll end up with a plan and pricing that really matches the device’s potential.

Popularity: 15% [?]