Jobs and Gates fascinating interview

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did a rare joint interview at D: All Things Digital yesterday. It's a really fascinating and interesting video and the Wall Street Journal has the whole thing for you to watch.

You should definitely check out the Prologue and the Highlight reel, they have some great nostalgic moments with both Steve and Bill reminiscing about the early pioneering days of the PC and software industry.



It's amazing to think how much shared history there is between Apple and Microsoft which people often forget. When you watch the video you'll see that actually the two men have great respect for each other, their companies and achievements.

Check out all the videos here or you can get the transcript here.

Elgato Turbo 264

As someone who often has their Mac churning away all night converting "things to watch on the way to work" into H.264 format, this sounds like an ideal little device to help lighten the load.

Essentially a video encoding/decoding specific chip on a USB stick to help your processor out and take the strain. Out in Europe for 99 euros, seems like a bargain if it saves as much time as it says.

Not much english language info available at the moment, but if you're German's good you might want to check out Macwelt's test report.

Panasonic announce "world's smallest" solid-state camcorder

Panasonic has announced what it claims is the world's smallest solid-state camcorder i.e. it has no tapes or hard drives, just SD or SDHC cards to record onto, much like a digital camera.

This has several advantages, apart from the small size, including shock resistance (as the recording mechanism has no moving parts), fast start up times and efficient battery life. Other features include a 2.7” wide-screen LCD, 10x optical zoom lens and USB 2 connectivity.

A 4GB SDHC card allows up to approximately 100 minutes of recording and the supplied 2GB SD card allows about 50 minutes.

It also has impact resistance and can survive a drop from up to 1.2 metres. In addition, it's water resistant which makes it great for recording poolside, at a beach or while skiing.

It's designed for easy shooting and you grip it so that you can stabilise the shot by bracing your elbow against your body or you can shoot in pistol-grip mode, all comfortably in the palm of your hand.

I'm not usually massively into camcorders but this does look like a real carry anywhere device that would be great for holidays and special events (skiing and my wedding come to mind!).

The Panasonic SDR-S10 is expected to be available in Europe from May 2007. See more details on the Panasonic site.

Mario Kart DS shortcuts video

I know there are a few people reading this blog that love Mario Kart DS (including me), so I thought I'd post this link to a great video montage by Nintendo Europe showing loads of shortcuts on various courses!

There are quite a few tricks in there that are new to me and there's a great demonstration of a blue shell dodge right at the end of the video (it does look pretty difficult to pull off though).




Watch, learn and practise! See the video here.

[Via DS fanboy]

Wii Experience

I came across this site the other day (not really sure why I didn't find it before?) which has loads of videos of people using the Wii controller for the first time.

It's really interesting to watch how people react and use the controller to swing virtual tennis rackets, golf clubs and baseball bats. I can't help but smile when watching the fun they all seem to have when using the motion sensitive controller.









They quite deliberately have a wide range of people in the videos with plenty of girls and oldies using it to show how they hope it will appeal to lots of different people.

Anyway, if you have any interest in using the Wii, check it out. I think it looks awesome and can't wait to get my hands on one at Christmas to wipe the floor with my family at Wii tennis!

Tags: nintendo, wii, video, wiimote, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

Xbox Live Video to offer HD downloads

Microsoft have announced that they will start offering movie and tv downloads through Xbox Live on November 22nd in the US.

This is a significant announcement for a few reasons, perhaps most importantly that some of the content will be in high definition, which places them at the cutting edge of video downloading.

They're clearly moving to counter on two fronts: firstly to compete with Amazon's Unbox service and Apple's iTunes and iTV; and secondly to differentiate the Xbox 360 from the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii.

It's a very interesting move that gives Microsoft a leg-up on their competition in a few ways. If they decide to link the Xbox 360 with the upcoming Zune, it could give them an interesting eco-system with which to properly compete with the iPod, with the full living room through to portal device strategy that Apple is now obviously pursuing.

Could Microsoft actually get there before Apple?

And it kind of neuters one of Sony's key points about the PS3 and it's Blu-ray drive. In some ways it's a leap beyond the next-generation DVD battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Why buy physical high definition media when you can just download it to a device that is already plugged into your TV?

Everything is converging as the technology becomes more pervasive - where do you draw the line between the battle for the living room, next-gen consoles and high definition media or are they just part of a much wider war for our homes, content and entertainment in general? I think so.

For more details of Xbox Live Video head over to Engadget HD.

Tags: microsoft, xbox360, high definition, video, download, apple, nintendo, sony, blu-ray, hddvd, schmadget, gadgets, tech, technology, scb

TVDuo: Miglia's new twin tuner for Mac

TVDuo enables you to watch, pause, rewind, skip forward and record live TV on your Mac. You can watch digital terrestrial TV on your Mac, it now has two TV tuners, so that you can watch one channel while you record another or record two channels simultaneously.

You get the usual PVR-esque features of pause, rewind and skip forward live TV, but because you use it with your computer you get these added benefits - it comes with with Elgato’s EyeTV 2, allowing you to record TV, remove the adverts and then export to your iPod Video or PSP.

Features include an EPG (electronic programme guide) and Picture-in-Picture feature. A full-size remote control, for typical TV style experience. And the great ability to schedule recordings of shows via the internet or mobile phone thanks to its online tv guide.

These are brilliant little devices, I've a Humax PVR in my lounge and I definately find I've always got something to watch, however its a little more tricky taking that content off the Humax and putting it onto my PSP or Mac for alternative viewing. With the TVDuo you're already on your Mac so archiving to DVD or transferring to another media is relatively simple -especially with the built in capabilities of EyeTV.

No sign of price just yet, but this is a great UK/Euro solution for Mac based PVR. Read all about it here.

Tags: TVDuo, Miglia, PVR, Mac PVR, EyeTV, Elgato, Twin Tuner, HD-Ready, Humax, Digital, Terrestrial TV

ATO's new iSee for HD

For those non-video iPod owners ATO has had an iSee product available for a while that lets you store videos on your pod and play em back through its sleeve-like adaptor. The announcement of an upcoming HD capable version at a relatively low price $200-250 makes for an interesting device for mobile video junkies with older iPods and spare gigs lying around.

Personally I'm going through a film or so a day with my PSP on the comute, its biggest drawback being the memory stick capacity. The chance to use some of that free space on my 60gig iPod is pretty tempting, especially as the ATO iSee sports a good sized 3.5 LCD display.

Skype release beta for Mac with Video

Finally, after what seems an age Skype pulls its finger out and gives Mac users video - albeit in beta. Was hoping this would replace SightSpeed, however apparently they've a new vid codec launching today which is supposed to greatly improve their offering. Guess I need to try both out to find a winner. What I really want is iChat AV to work with PC users too - I can dream I suppose.

Front Row interface for EyeTV

Now this is interesting. Anyone that's got an EyeTV device for their Mac that enables them to watch TV will like this one. Seems Elgato have created a perfect mimic of the Front Row interface for the EyeTV software that allows you to control it from across the room using either an Apple remote or the remote that came with your EyeTV device.

There's a video of it in action over at ScreenCastsOnline.

It does look pretty cool, it has to be said. Makes me wonder whether they had Apple's blessing to do this. I mean it makes sense to have this software integrated with Front Row from Apple's perspective, it fills one of the major missing pieces.

Grab version 2.3 of EyeTV from the Elgato website.

Tags: eyetv, front row, apple, mac, elgato, tv