wubbahed.com

Looks like I’ve climbed out of the lower echelons of tech blogging, and apparently am important enough now to get free things in the mail. Who knew? Today in the office I got a package from Google. I was *hoping* it was an Android prototype so I could actually test my applications with a real device, but instead it was a Google branded Flip Video Ultra!

I guess I’m supposed to act like a real tech blog now, so here’s a video of the unboxing:

The device is pretty nice. It’s straight forward and very intuitive to use. It runs off two AA batteries (included), and it takes 640×480 video, encoded with 3ivx MP4. The device holds about 30 minutes of video and just plugs into your USB port.

I haven’t spent much time with the included software, but I subjected one of my co-workers to be my test subject. Here’s the result:

The quality of the original video is pretty good, but when I uploaded it to YouTube, it got turned into mush and doesn’t look nearly as crisp or nice. Maybe I’ll try uploading it elsewhere and see if the compression gets any better. Or I’ll just play around it with over the holidays and see what I come up with.

Anyway, they sell these on Flip’s site, but they cost much less at Amazon.com. Exact price depends on the color and recording capacity you want, but in the US that range is from $129-$153.

Anyway, thanks Google! Happy Holidays!