Unfortunately, Pure Digital has been slow to respond to their competitors. With other products offer 1080p recording, external memory expansion, and more, Pure Digital is behind on the spec sheet. Working to their advantage however is usability. The Flip line has always been easy to use and remains the easiest way to go from camera, to computer, to DVD or social network. With all that in mind, I’ve formulated a list of five ways the Flip can, and should be, improved within the next few months to continue to aggressively compete with other low-cost, easy to use camcorders.

1. Memory Expansion:
   You will never be able to get enough storage. Point blank. I’m always looking for more storage to record video content to so allowing users to install large and inexpensive SD cards on the fly is a great attribute. This won’t impact the quality of your content but it will provide peace of mind on vacations and long events.
2. Increased Battery Capacity:
   The Flip Ultra HD allows users to swap rechargeable battery packs or standard AA battery’s pretty quickly which makes longer events easier to manage. Unfortunately, the device will power down during the swap so you won’t be able to record extra long video clips. For me, user replaceable batteries aren’t a big issue but improving battery life to easily get through a day on the trail is a big request.
3. Still Shots:
   The Flip line isn’t able to take pictures. You can use the included software to export a freeze frame as an image but the hassle isn’t worth the degraded quality. Simply put, these pocket camcorders should be able to quickly snap a photo. There is no reason your nearly $200 product cannot take pictures.
4. Improved Video Quality:
   I specifically didn’t say 1080p recording. Often, resolution is marketing hype and most consumer cameras in the market fall under this label. Pure Digital needs to improve the vividness of recorded video, low light recording, and perhaps include an auto-focus, optical zoom lens. It’s a hassle to use a camera that doesn’t focus on the subjects you are recording. Granted, the fixed-focus lens on current cameras works, but it’s too hard to fit the scene into the proper distance while focusing on capturing the scene in all it’s glory.
5. Image stabilization:
   Pocket camcorders are meant to quickly capture the moment or preserve your memories on a budget. With this in mind, the camera is constantly in your hand as you walk and talk. The issue is, there is so much judder in the videos you record it’s nearly unwatchable. A true, high quality optical image stabilizer is a must on the next incarnation of these camcorders. Without this upgrade, it will be hard to continue to recommend the flip line.

Overall, the Flip line is a great blend of quality, simplicity, and price. At this point, pushing the market forward are competitors with more powerful and beefy devices. Flip has the opportunity to retain their dominance in this niche but Pure Digital must fight proactively to continue to be the perennial powerhouse.

This statement was delivered to a small group of friends, family, peers, and a few media outlets. Prior to Woods taking the stage, reporters were bashing him for overshadowing the accenture match play and not allowing questions. In this, Wood’s first step in rebuilding his public image, I am perfectly fine with a short, pre-written speech. Woods spoke from the heart and appears to legitimately repent his sin. This isn’t an issue of cheating the game or lying under oath, Wood’s is in the midst of a personal issue which should be handled predominantly between him and Elin, his wife. To me, the format of his statement is completely appropriate.

In what appeared to be his own words, Wood’s made it clear that Elin didn’t hit him Thanksgiving night nor has there ever been domestic violence in their relationship. Family was a major point of emphasis as Woods went on to ask the media to restrain themselves from stalking Elin and their children. Woods also mentioned that words are meaningless, his family can only move on through his actions. Wood’s added that he will never allow this behavior to happen again which is my biggest concern in this statement. In what is most likely over 20 instance of infidelity, it is hard to blatantly promise a 180 degree shift in behavior. Again, upon watching the event I felt Wood’s was truly sorry for his behavior but it’s still hard to believe a promise like this.

One thing that hit me very hard was Wood’s saying he felt he was entitled to the pleasure. I’m actually glad to hear this honest opinion. This statement made his remarks seem all the more real, which is critical in a public apology. To me, Wood’s body language was regretful with tears and emphasize on several key points. Obviously Wood’s wanted to be believed so I’m sure he pulled out his best acting job but overall, I felt Wood’s was truly sorry for his actions.

I’d like to finish up by taking a jab at the media. Wood’s has taken a lot of heat for asking the media to leave his family alone. Obviously the media cannot just abandon the story, and I don’t have any gripes with that, but bashing Wood’s for asking for privacy seems absurd. I respect his request and although it cannot be expected, I thought it was admirable to try and shield his family from the limelight. A lot of the media sits atop a pedestal looking down at a topic, speaking above the issues of everyday life, so I implore you to selectively believe the talking heads.

Just my two cents, what do you believe?

Prior to launch sometime later this year, Bungie has already begun to hype up the game. In this new ViDoc, Bungie details a little bit of the design process behind Halo Reach. Bungie never ceases to amaze me, I cannot wait for Halo Reach!

Now, February 7th, two squads are ready to duke it out for the uniquely crafted Lombardi Trophy. The Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLII lead by four time league MVP Peyton Manning, vs The New Orleans Saints lead by Drew Brees and their high octane offense. Both teams are pretty equal featuring underrated defenses, streaky running games, and solid passing offenses.

Super Bowl XLIV is set to be a high scoring affair and I couldn’t be more excited. Both teams were clearly the best in their respected conference throughout the season and both played well in their previous postseason games. But which team has the edge to become world champions?

I consider both defenses pretty balanced so that side of the ball is a wash. On offense, the Colts were last in the league in 2009 rushing the ball while the Saints reached 6th in the regular season. Each team employs a running back by committee approach keeping their runners fresh, but I’d give the edge to the Saints.

The Colts get the edge at wide receiver. Reggie Wayne, a perennial pro-bowler, leads the group also including the young, yet productive Austin Collie and Pierre Garçon. The Saints do have Marques Colston and receiving tight end Jeremy Shockey among a group of overachieving receivers, but from what I’ve seen, the Colts receivers have been playing better.

When it comes down to it, Super Bowl XLIV is truly Manning vs. Brees. Both are in the upper echelon of QB’s and are both able to deliver accurate passes anywhere on the field. Brees, who was only a few yards away from the most passing yards in a season last year, has a chance to bring the first championship to New Orleans but he does have an Achilles heal, his height. At a short 6′ tall, Brees may have issues seeing over his line. While Manning is able to effortlessly sling the ball down field, it may be more difficult for Brees to pass under pressure. Manning gets the nod.

But Brees’ height hasn’t stopped him from being an incredibly successful QB. Brees and Manning are each great players and comparing the two is extremely difficult. Super Bowl XLIV is going to be extremely close with a talent-wise comparison favoring the Colts. Personally, I would love to see the city of New Orleans win a championship and am pulling for a Saints victory today at 6:00 PM, EST.

O’Brien on his contract

From NBC’s perspective, Leno gets more views than O’Brien. However, these ratings are clearly slanted suffering from a small sample of less than eight months and the fact that Leno doesn’t have to compete with another NBC late night show before his. In fact, O’Brien has seen a major upswing in viewers as of late so who’s to say O’Brien isn’t the better long term option.

In spite of NBC’s terrible management of O’Brien, Conan is still cracking jokes, on NBC’s dime. On a recent episode O’Brien introduced crazy comedy bits that aren’t necessarily funny, but crazy expensive. One sketch involved a $1.5 million Bugatti dressed as a mouse with a Rolling Stone’s theme song while another featured Kentucky Derby winner Mind That Bird watching restricted NFL super bowl footage estimated at $4.5 million.

Jay Leno, who has bashed NBC for their blunders, will be returning to The Tonight Show March 1st. I respect Leno for defending his friend and can only imagine how awkward it will be to continue hosting the show. Leno has been hosting The Jay Leno Show at 10PM for the last few months but the show has failed to live up to the hype.

But what’s next for Conan. Straight from NBC, “Under terms of an agreement that was signed earlier today, NBC and O’Brien will settle their contractual obligations and the network will release O’Brien from his contract, freeing him to pursue other opportunities after September 1, 2010″ meaning we could see O’Brien again in few months. Interesting how his time off is almost the same length as his opportunity to host The Tonight Show.

No one knows what the future holds but I expect to see O’Brien back in late night. Just as David Letterman took his comedy elsewhere after NBC screwed him, I expect O’Brien to venture to Fox to spearhead their lackluster late night offerings. Conan has a great niche with the younger crowd which fits Fox’s mold. It is rumored that USA, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, HBO and Showtime also have interest in O’Brien’s talent.

It’s a shame NBC had to screw up their line-up. The mix of Leno and O’Brien was great. In fact, I’m a huge Conan fan and don’t currently plan to watch Leno on The Tonight Show. Hopefully, Conan enjoys his time off but gets back in the saddle shortly.

TinEye is a very useful tool for finding images on the internet. This free service forgoes keywords, metadata, and watermarks for their unique image identification technology. Essentially, TinEye is to images as Google is to text. Using TinEye, you are able to find the origin of a picture, check who/how the image is being used and if it has been modified, and checks for higher resolutions versions of the image.

Using TinEye is equally simple. Enter in the web address of the image, or upload one from your hard drive, and begin your search. TinEye goes on to search its database of over one billion images for the content you selected. The process is even easier with the TinEye browser plugin allowing you to directly search TinEye with a right click.

TinEye isn’t completely effective however. TinEye crawls the web for new images each day but it indexes only a small portion of the images online. You are also limited to 100 search per day as a free user. There is a paid option, allowing for more daily searches and various other features, but the free tool does a decent job at my favorite price.

Overall, TinEye does a pretty good job. This start-up is in its infancy so I expect better results down the road. TinEye is a great tool allowing users to search the internet for their content. I’d go as far to say TinEye is a must have tool for serious photographers to protect their content.

TinEye in their own words

Verizon was able to test the passive optical network system (XG-PON) network running at 10 Gbps downstream and 2.4 Gbps upstream. The test also confirmed that XC-PON can run side by side with Verizon’s current signal, gigabit passive optical network (GPON), without interference. GPON currently supports 2.5 Gbps downstream and 1.24 Gbps upstream. Combined, Verizon is able to achieve a total of 12.5 Gbps downstream and 3.64 Gbps upstream which can be used with the current ONT’s installed on homes across the country.

Let’s take a step back for a second. XG-PON won’t be officially ratified until late-2010 or later so we won’t see these blistering speeds next week. Additionally, these speeds would be shared between around 30 homes at each node. That’s not to say the end user wouldn’t be able to get blistering speeds but don’t expect to run a speed test at these exact numbers.

Furthermore, remember that most users would never need these speeds. Even users who browse the internet all day or share their network with several other users don’t need anywhere near these speeds. In fact, most servers cannot accept these speeds anyway so it’s not as if browsing the web would get any faster. You would only need these speeds for high bandwidth applications such as “unicast HD video streaming, ultra-high-definition video, 3D video, user-generated content distribution, or video conferencing.”

Although I doubt I would ever need these speeds it’s nice to know that the curent fios architecture could support it. Imagine the possibilities though, home users could run servers and high-bandwidth web shows right from their homes with similar speeds to industrial models. It makes small online content producers like me very happy to see how bright the future is.

Youtube Overview
From launch through 2009 our youtube community has grown substantially. We have amassed over 100,000 channel views, over 4,500 subscribers, and over 2 million video views.
Youtube Daily Traffic
Over the last few months of 2009 I hovered around 12 thousand total video views per day. Think about it, 12,000 views per day! I’m a very humble person and this extraordinary amount of daily views is simply unbelievable to me. I dearly appreciate the support and your interest in continuing to watch my video content.
Youtube Demographics
I find the demographic breakdown of my viewers to be very interesting. I’m younger than most of my viewers yet I have developed ethos through my informational content. It’s always difficult to ask someone younger for help but I’m glad you respect my opinions enough to keep coming back.
2009 also brought an extremely popular video. My comparison between the iPhone 3GS and the Nokia N97 has reached over 634,000 views and after six months continues to reach thousands of people per day.

Overall, 2009 has been very good for my online community. Although this blog hasn’t reached the potential set by the youtube channel, 2010 has a great outlook for both venues. I again thank you for the support through the months and look forward to improving upon the marks set in 2009.

If you saw the E72 unboxing you would know I’m working with Nokia on their Responsiveness campaign. Essentially, my group and I are being posed questions in an attempt to elicit imaginative responses. The hope is our responses will parallel the innovate work of the people or actions in our prompt. In this case, we have to respond to the amazing work of Katrin Verclas, a social entrepreneur working to improve the world using mobile technology.

Katrin runs mobile active, a nonprofit organization that aims to use mobile technology to help those in need. All around the world different members of the organization develop and use mobile solutions to solve problems. Some use the technology to find jobs for “slum dwellers” while others use it politically to elect officials to office.

Our response is open ended and doesn’t have any particular guidelines or restriction. How would you respond? I’m interested to see your reactions to these unique uses of the same technology we take for granted each day.

Lead by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte’s nonprofit effort, the OLPC has a bright future. However, can we actually expect an XO-3 at the $75 price point? Speaking to Forbes, Negroponte said, “We don’t necessarily need to build it, we just need to threaten to build it.” The quote makes sense because these concepts will surely impact other manufacturers tablet designs but the future of the XO-3 clearly isn’t cut and dry.

In any case, imagine the impact this device could have. Communication between villages and towns would increase dramatically. The internet would be unlocked for people who have never been exposed to its power. Conversely, the internet we know and love could give us access to a completely new way of life. It’s simply mind blowing to consider the possibilities the XO-3, or similar device, could have on society. It may never come to fruition, but hopefully a product in this niche does make an appearance.

Just remember that technology is always advancing and your computer will probably be updated a few months after your purchase. There is no way to avoid this, so once you take the plunge don’t waste your time looking through any computer ads or listings.

1. Processor

The processor, or Central Processing Unit (CPU), is essentially the brain of your machine. It runs your programs, powers your games, and crunches your calculations. The CPU can be the most daunting component when it comes to purchasing a computer. With so many different choices from AMD and Intel, you may not know where to turn. Several years ago I would tell you to buy the CPU with the fastest clock speed (Measured in GHz). This is no longer true. You want to buy the fastest computer but clock speed is no longer the only factor in determining which CPU is right for you. You also need to worry about front side buss and the number of cores on the CPU.

Front Side Bus
Front side bus (FSB) connects the CPU and the rest of the computer. The higher the front side bus, the faster data can be sent and executed. A high clock speed is one thing, but without a quick front side bus, the performance is wasted. Try to buy a product with at least 800MHz of FSB

Cores
Now that you understand Clock Speed and front side bus, it’s time to learn about cores. A core is actually the part of the CPU that performs calculations. Basically, CPU is to your head as a core is to your brain. Having additional cores allows for more data to be processed at the same time. Each additional core makes for more processing power, assuming the applications you are running can take advantage. The more cores your system has the more multitasking you can do. Most multicore computers use 2 cores, known as a duel core machine. Think of dual core as an 8 lane highway compared to single core as a 4 lane highway.

Mutlicore machines are becoming more and more popular. For instance, I highly recommend Intel’s core 2 duo line because those processors are extremely powerful and cost efficient. In fact, Intel’s “core” line of CPU’s all perform very well per dollar. AMD has some interesting options but I prefer to stick with Intel.

To conclude, try to get a machine with a solid mix of multiple cores and clock speed. You may not need the power now but this will keep your computer running for a long time and allows you the flexibility to use more intensive programs later.

2. Memory

Random access memory (RAM) is known as the cheapest and simplest way to enhance your computer. In fact, upgrading RAM is very simple so don’t hesitate to upgrade your memory down the road. Anyway, RAM is a temporary storage median for the applications and programs running on your machine. I say temporary because RAM can potentially be modified several billion times a second. Plus, when you turn off your computer the RAM is purged meaning nothing is stored for long.

Although there are different types* of RAM, such as DDR2 and SDRam, try not to worry about it when buying your computer. The average user will never know the difference so what ever is included in the computer is probably fine. I suggest looking for at least 1GB of RAM in your machine. However, I strongly suggest 2gb of RAM or more with Windows Vista/7 to make everything run that much smoother. In fact, RAM prices have continued to fall so 2gb of RAM is not the wallet breaker is once was. Get the most ram for your money and don’t hesitate to upgrade in the future.

*Note that not all RAM modules are compatible with each other. Consult your users manual to find the specific type of RAM used in your machine before upgrading.

3. Hard Disc

The Hard Disc or Hard Drive (HD) in your computer is where data, programs, and games are stored. HD prices are at an all time low so don’t cheap out. Personal media, such as music and video content, continue to take up more and more space so aim for at least a 250 gigabyte (gb) HD. In fact, you can find 1tb (1000gb) drives for under $100 so don’t skimp out on a small drive.

Cache and RPM
Besides the size of your drive, there are more factors to consider including Cache and speed. Cache is basically the ram of the hard drive. Aim to get at least 4mb of cache in your drive and more if you plan on running intensive 3D games or programs. Revolutions per minute (RPM) is how quickly data on the drive can be accessed. Try to get at least a 5,400 RPM drive while aiming for 7,200 RPM’s on a more expensive machine. Premium drives can be 10,000 RPM,’s or more, but do offer better throughput. Don’t go crazy though, get what fits in your budget.

Types.
Furthermore, there are actually multiple types of drives on the market today. The most common in new desktop computers are SATA or SATA2. Slower ATA drives are still in production but they have issues with large amounts of data and are bulky inside of your case. Additionally, Hybrid Hard Drives (HHD) and SSD drives are both an up and coming technology. Right now they are geared for lightweight and higher-end notebooks. For a desktop computer don’t worry about either of these formats unless you want to be on the cutting edge and pay a premium for their limited storage.

All in all, I suggest looking for SATA drives at this point. They offer great performance and store a lot of data per dollar.

4. Optical Drive

Most computers come with a built in DVD/CD burner. I recommend having a burner, and a few blank discs, for the occasional project so spend the extra few dollars to get the burner if one isn’t standard. When shopping around you may see something called LightScribe. LightScribe enables you to etch designs into a disc essentially creating a label. Unfortunately, the quality is average at best so don’t spend the extra money for a LightScribe drive. If one comes standard, feel free to try it out, but don’t expect professional looking labels on your discs.

You may also want to consider a blu-ray drive or burner. Although expensive, it is nice to be able to back-up 50gb of data on one portable disc. Burners start at around $200 but blu-ray discs will last longer than DVD’s allowing you a more future proof storage median than DVD. Remember, 1080p movies take a lot of resources to play meaning a budget computer wouldn’t be able to play a blu-ray movie so of course a blu-ray drive isn’t worth the price. Personally, I don’t have a blu-ray drive or burner but if you want to future proof your purchase, you may want to consider a blu-ray drive.

5. Graphics

Most value computer have integrated graphics meaning the graphics processing is built into the motherboard. This may sound good to some people but to be frank, it’s not. Integrated graphics are weak and offer very little performance in terms of video playback and gaming. They don’t include built in memory which means system RAM will be diverted from general use to use with the graphics processing. This can slow down your machine. However, for the average computer users who doesn’t play games or watch HD movies, this is fine.

For someone who does want to play games, watch movies or use multiple monitors, you need to have a separate graphics card. There are two current types of graphics cards on the market today: PCIe and AGP. AGP cards are those of the past. These cards are slower and only one card can be installed and working in your machine at any given time. PCIe cards have, for the most part, begun to eliminate AGP cards. Besides the increase in speed, PCIe offers the option of running multiple cards at the same time. With this option, you can do one of two things. Install two compatible Nvidia cards that are deigned to work together which allows for better performance, this is known as scalable link interface (SLI) (ATI calls this crossfire) . If you don’t think you want to pay the extra money for SLI cards, you can also just install two different cards to power extra displays. This is helpful if you work with many large files at the time same and you need upwards of two monitors. However, if you are going to run multiple cards I highly suggest getting two of the same for SLI support. You may save some money but the extra performance is worth the upgrade.

When looking for a graphics card, you need to consider:
Processor clock speed-The speed of the graphics processing unit (GPU) is similar to the speed of the CPU. It’s important to remember that sheer clock speed does not necessarily determine performance.
Memory-The more memory, like system memory, the more processes can be performed at the same time. Generally a lot of memory means a fast card; however, if your card has small clock speed performance will not be effected by more memory.
Memory Bandwidth-Similar to front side bus, memory bandwidth is how quickly the graphics card memory communicates with the GPU.

That’s all the average consumer needs to know about graphics. Of course, there are many other details that the hard-core gamer wants to know about but that is not the focus of this article. The focus is to educate you, the average consumer, on how to get the most bang for your buck when buying a desktop computer.

6. Other Information

Wireless
For most people, you will be working with a wired connection directly to your modem, dial-up connection, or router. But wireless is a growing desire for a lot of users. Being able to set-up and use your computer anywhere in your house is a great feature to have. So when buying your next computer, considering get one with built in WiFi. Look for 802.11n for fastest throughput otherwise 802.11g will be fine. Remember, wired networking is much faster than wireless networking so only use WiFi if you cannot connect your computer physically to the network.

Display
Get an LCD display. Aim for at least a 17inch screen but if you can splurge get a larger display. Every time you use your machine you will be looking at the screen so make sure the contrast ratio is at least 700:1 and the resolution is at least 1280×960. Also, try to get the largest viewing angle, in degrees, possible to make sure you can see the content of the screen from any angle. Some monitors include built in USB ports, which are a convenient way to connect USB devices to your machine, and variable height adjustments allowing you to customize the viewing experience.

So that is it, everything you need to know when buying a new computer. Remember, the CPU and RAM are more important than an upgraded graphic card for the average user, so spend more money on the items on the top of the list.

By the way, if you are considering building your own computer, instead of buying a pre-assembled model, check out my computer building series.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota, has some issues with these ETF’s. She believes they are “anti-consumer and anti-competitive” and previously introduced the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act which would have reduced ETF’s and required them to be prorated or reduced as you progress through your contract.

That bill never materialized but it did temporarily pull the telecoms off their pedestals forcing them to adjust their ETF policies. Unfortunately, many have rescinded those changes over the past few months.

The big issues with ETF’s lie with the telecoms. Many are deceitful and mislead the average consumer. Currently, over the course of a contract the ETF can increase and in many cases the ETF is larger than the subsidy the company offered for signing the contract. All of which are designed to hurt the consumer and benefit big business.

To fight this villainy Klobuchar has officially introduced a new bill: The Cell Phone Early Termination Fee, Transparency and Fairness Act. This act doesn’t mandate major changes but instead requires telecoms to be honest and not try to take advantage of the average consumer. Specifically, this bill will:

• Prevent wireless carriers from charging an ETF that is higher than the discount on the cell phone that the wireless company offers consumers for entering into a multi-year contract. For example, if a wireless consumer enters into a 2-year contract and receives a $150 discount with the contract, the ETF cannot exceed $150.

• Require wireless carriers to pro-rate their ETFs for consumers who leave their contracts early so that the ETF for a two-year contract would be reduced by half after one year and pro-rated down to zero by the end of a contract term.

• Require wireless carriers to provide “clear and conspicuous disclosure” of the ETF at the time of purchase.

• Require monthly billing statements to clearly state the pro-rated fee customers would be charged if they terminate their contracts before the end of the next billing cycle.

All of these requirements in my mind are no more than common courtesy. However, profit margins tend to cloud the judgment of decision makers and it’s clear only legislation can limit these bad business practices. I’m all about an open market but sometimes collusion between companies, in this case with ETF’s, only hurt the consumer.

What do you think? Should The Cell Phone Early Termination Fee, Transparency and Fairness Act be passed, filibustered, or enhanced? Should ETF’s be removed entirely? Let me know in the comments bellow or on twitter, @blue42richman.

What does this mean?
If you are paid to review the product or if you receive the product free for review you must disclose the relationship. Basically, if you benefit from the review you must keep your auidence informed.

What are the legal consequences?
The FTC could file legal charges against you if you don’t comply. Keep in mind this is legal legislation and is punishable under federal law. Now most likely the FTC won’t target you and file charges if you don’t comply with the rules. However, they have the power and authority to sue you so I strongly recommend you follow these rules.

I’d just like to note that you have most likely been following these rules already. Personally, I try to disclose when I receive a product to review but remember it is now the law. Plus, if you want to have any authority and respect in your community you need to be honest. If you are not honest no one will listen to what you have to say and you won’t be reviewing products much longer.

For all the details check out the official FTC statement on these guidelines.

Stupid may be a harsh term for this feature. However, does youtube in 1080p actually make sense? For small scale technology reviewers, like myself, an increase to 1080p files means more storage, more time, and more bandwidth.

Consider this: my 720p videos, depending on length, take up between 200 and 350MB of space. Granted, I’m on the higher end of the spectrum but never the less this is a substantial amount of space for one single movie. This isn’t even including the space taken up by the raw, uncompressed video files which easily exceed 5GB per movie. Upping the resolution of my content to 1080p would result in heftier movie files which are even more difficult to store and manipulate on my home network.

The increase in space also means more time spent editing. Currently, I edit my content on an older MacBook Pro and it takes about 20 minutes to export my youtube videos. 1080p would make this process take even longer. Plus, these higher resolution clips don’t play as smoothly on my computer as 720p clips making the editing process a little more strenuous, frustrating and annoying. Overall, 1080p content means more time in post production, time that I don’t currently have.

Uploading my content has never been a problem. I have Verizon Fios and it takes about 3-5 minutes to upload an entire video. However, I live in a utopia of bandwidth where as many users upload with only a fraction of the speed I have. I couldn’t imagine spending two hours uploading a youtube video but I’m sure I would produce much less content if it took this long. Plus, many internet service providers, excluding Verizon, have a bandwidth limit in effect meaning uploading these larger videos could get you in trouble with your ISP. Are outrageous upload times and the possibility of penalty fee’s worth a 1080p youtube clip, I think not.

But that is the point of view of a content producer. Even with these annoyances in mind, I would make the leap if I thought the upgrade was worth the difficulty. However, will 1080p work on youtube?

On my quad core custom build HD youtube videos work wonderfully. Once the video buffers, content looks nice and the videos are enjoyable. However, on slower machines the viewing experience isn’t as fluid. My mac has a 2.5GHz processor and 4GB of ram but HD video playback, on youtube, is a problem. Videos stutter and pause as they buffer and overall it’s not worth the quality boost. I can only imagine the tragedy that HD playback is on a machine with less power than that. As long as youtube uses flash to display their videos, we really cannot expect video playback to be reliable and smooth.

I previously mentioned bandwidth as an issue for 1080p youtube videos and again the transfer of bits plays a huge role in this discussion. Many users have crippled internet connections running slower than 1Mb/s. How do you expect to stream HD, let alone 1080p, clips with a connection like that. Even on a fast connection like I have, youtube consistently has issues delivering constant throughput and in many cases I have to wait to watch the content as the video buffers. With the extra strain on the youtube servers from the launch of 1080p, I can only speculate the slowdown we can expect.

But what are your thoughts? I asked my twitter followers their opinions on 1080p youtube videos and received these replies.

Twitter users @applehamiltus said:

Good quality like 1080p sounds great but the painfully slow buffering times are rubbish.

Twitter user hihat7 said:

I am unable to even play them, dropped frames, high CPU usage, slow safari, spinning beachball. Keeping well away from 1080p

On a positive note, twitter user @jonathanjb said:

The 1080p HD on youtube will freakin awesome for cameras that have the capability of shooting 1080p videos.

And finally, my good friend @andreatunes said:

Well, is it really necessary such a hi-def on the tube? Sometimes, well, hell yeah, but most of the times I’m afraid it’s a waste of time for video-makers (and viewers too, considering that you need a pretty powerful machine to run those clips).

Personally, I won’t be adopting youtube’s new 1080p feature anytime soon. I mean, what’s so bad with 720p? What do you think, does 1080p belong on youtube?

On October 12th, 2009 the never before released single “This is it” was posted on michaeljackson.com. Originally recorded in 1980, this track was supposed to accompany the king of pop during his This is it tour before he tragically passed away. It will be released exclusively on the “This is it” soundtrack when it comes to market on October 27th, 2009.

When I first heard the song I was a little surprised by the music. For whatever reason I was expecting the pop found in smooth criminal to resurface in this song. However, upon deeper interpretation I’ve come to understand the soothing tone and am really enjoying the track. I hope you do as well.

Lyrics:
This is it, here I stand
I’m the light of the world, I feel grand
Got this love I can feel
And I know yes for sure it is real

And it feels as though I’ve seen your face a thousand times
And you said you really know me too yourself
And I know that you have got addicted with your eyes
But you say you gonna live it for yourself.

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

This is it, I can say,
I’m the light of the world, run away
We can feel, this is real
Every time I’m in love that I feel

And I feel as though I’ve known you since 1,000 years
And you tell me that you’ve seen my face before.
And you said to me you don’t want me hanging round
Many times, wanna do it here before

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

This is it, I can feel
I’m the light of the world, this is real
Feel my song, we can say
And I tell you I feel that way

And I feel as though I’ve known you for a thousand years
And you said you want some of this yourself
And you said won’t you go with me, on a while
And I know that it’s really cool myself

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

I never heard a single word about you
Falling in love wasn’t my plan
I never thought that I would be your lover
C’mon baby, just understand

Rest in Peace