Tag Archive for 'YouTube'

Nokia unveils eco-charger

Published by Stuart Houghton on April 29, 2008 in Other stuff and Video clips. 0 Comments

With many environmentalists concerned with the amount of energy that is wasted by devices that remain plugged in on standby it is worth bearing in mind that most phone chargers spend more time plugged in and not charging anything at all.  Even if you unplug it when not in use, if you charge your phone overnight, the phone will be fully charged after a few hours and you are wasting energy.

Nokia has come up with one solution in the form of the ‘Zero Waste’ charger.  This clever little device works a little bit like one of those power-surge protectors you might use with a lawnmower or a drill.  A big green button on the back of the charger turns on the power.  When your phone is charged, the button pops out and the power is cut off.

Nokia news blog NokNok.tv got their hands on a prototype model and put together this video for your viewing pleasure:





PP Camphone Diaries: Four-minute Black Crowes drum solo

Published by Stuart Dredge on April 14, 2008 in Camphone Diaries. 0 Comments

As you’d expect, the Pocket Picks team have our handsets to, er, hand all the time. And we’re going to start sharing some of the sights and sounds we shoot using their cameras. And what better place to start than a four-minute (count ‘em!) drum solo from last week’s Black Crowes gig at Brixton Academy.

Shot with a Nokia N81 8GB, it shows its strengths and weaknesses. Strength: the sound quality is pretty good, even after going through YouTube’s compression mincer. Weaknesses: you can’t actually see the drummer. Ah well.



GoogleMobileHelp channel launched on YouTube

Published by Fraser MacInnes on April 8, 2008 in Applications. 0 Comments

Chances are, if you are already thinking of using some of Google’s services on your mobile, then you already have a fair idea of how they work. But that doesn’t mean that a refresher course (or indeed a crash course if you are new to all of this) isn’t a good idea and so Google has obliged with a new YouTube channel called GoogleMobileHelp.

The channel is aimed squarely at newcomers really and contains four videos (not counting the older Gmail test video) covering the basics of Google Maps and YouTube for mobile on S60 and UIQ 3 hardware. You can bookmark the channel by hitting up this link but if you just want to watch the videos, simply hit the jump.

Continue reading ‘GoogleMobileHelp channel launched on YouTube’



Nokia launches ‘Nokia Conversations’ YouTube Channel

Published by Stuart Houghton on February 19, 2008 in Biz & Tech and Video clips. 0 Comments

In an attempt to bridge the gap between the corporate and the consumer, Nokia has launched a YouTube channel devoted to ‘personal’ communications with its users.

To date this has taken the form of two hands-on video clips explaining the finer points of the Nokia 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic, with more to follow.

Heres a look at how to get the most from the 6220.



YouTube video conversion with ByWiFi

Published by Stuart Houghton on January 29, 2008 in Applications and Mobile video. 0 Comments

youtubeThe spate of YouTube players for Symbian and Windows Mobile as well as the new official Java client may leave owners of older, less capable mobiles feeling a bit left out.

ByWiFi.com is a mobile web service that will convert YouTube and MetaCafe videos into the widely-used 3GP format. 3GP is playable by most 3G phones, and is optimised for download size and speed.

You can either browse to the site directly using your phone’s browser (it’s text-only, so it shouldn’t tax even the stingiest data tariffs) and download directly to your phone, or use a desktop PC or Mac and copy the files manually.

There may be some teething troubles - I wasn’t able to get any converted files to retain their soundtrack - but this is still a useful trick to get bigger video clips onto your handset. Even smartphone owners can take advantage of the faster download speed, providing they don’t mind the drop in picture quality.



YouTube launches official mobile client

Published by Stuart Houghton on January 24, 2008 in Applications and Mobile video. 1 Comment

youtube mobileTalk about late to the party. Trundling along some months after the release of emTube, YouTube Pocket and YTPLayer to name but three, YouTube have released a beta of the official mobile YouTube client.

YouTube for Mobile is a Java app that should in theory run on any half-decent handset.  Despite this, YouTube claims it is only suitable for use with the Nokia N73, N95, E65, 6110 and 6120 and the SonyEricsson k800 and w880 phones. There is no indication that it is using any special features of these phone, so it’s a bit disappointing that YouTube are blocking downloads from non-blessed handsets (and from my perfectly legit N73, for some reason)

The app is decent enough, and will let you log in to the site using your usual id and leave comments, etc. but compared to something like emTube it does feel a little clunky.

Still, it’s early days and it’s good to see YouTube embracing mobile video, albeit a couple of weeks behind everyone else.



iTransmogrify brings embedded Flash content to iPhone

Published by Stuart Dredge on January 15, 2008 in Applications. 0 Comments

One of the problems with iPhone’s Safari browser is that you can’t see embedded Flash - for example, if someone’s embedded a YouTube video in their blog. It also means you can’t use some Music 2.0 services which use Flash streaming to deliver music. It’s a right pain in the behind.  However, a new bookmarklet called iTransmogrify promises a solution.

Coded by a chap called Joe Maller, it basically converts embedded Flash content into native iPhone formats. He’s making it work with various sites and formats as he goes along, with users queuing up with requests on his own site. It’s certainly an impressive bit of development work, and shown off in the video above.

I can’t help feeling that it should be down to Apple to improve Safari next time it releases an iPhone firmware update, though. With so many Web 2.0 sites using Flash content, there’s no logical reason why iPhone users shouldn’t be able to access them.

iTransmogrify website



Moto unveils touch-screen E8 and Z10 ‘mobile filmstudio’ at CES in Vegas

Published by Chris Leonard on January 8, 2008 in Handsets. 0 Comments

moto-e8.jpgMotorola has followed Sony Ericsson’s lead in going handset crazy at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

There are the mid-range W230 (candybar) and W270 (slider), but the headlines will surely be grabbed by the new touch-screen E8 and the long-delayed Z10.

The ROKR E8 (right) might only have GPRS/EDGE, but its selling point has got to be the ability to switch between camera, music player (including Windows Media Player 11 compatibility), contacts and phone calls at the touch of your fingertip, using a haptic vibrating touchpad.

The other handset, the slider Z10 (below), is being pitched as a “mobile filmstudio[sic]”. Aside from the dodgy spelling, it does at least have HSDPA connectivity and 3.2-megapixel camera. Oh, and it runs on Symbian, which is a good alternative to Motorola’s infamously Marmite-like OS.

However, the ‘mobile filmstudio’ aspect comes from the phone having the ability to let you instantly upload photos and videos to YouTube, Google, Yahoo and Shozu. So it’s not quite a proper ‘film studio’ but its still an appealing new handset.

moto-z10.jpg



Nokia N95 8GB gets full and official YouTube support

Published by Fraser MacInnes on January 4, 2008 in Mobile video. 4 Comments

n95_8gb.jpgOne of the holy grails for smartphones just now is the ability to play YouTube videos with a minimum of faff. Over the past few months things have been getting better on S60 with the release of competent third party apps such as YTPlayer and emTube.

But now users of the lurrvly Nokia N95 8GB need not bother with any extra installing or bookmarking as the most recent update for the device has ushered in full YouTube support. This means all you have to do is make sure you are running the most recent firmware, go online, point your browser at YouTube and search for videos from the full list just as you would if you were viewing the content on a PC – easy.

The heat is on for this to become a standard feature among more handsets, with the N95 leading the charge among the smartphone crowd, more will hopefully follow suit soon.

(Via The Boy Genius Report)



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