Camcorder delivers to the Web
Digital Video
A new camera promises to help amateur filmmakers take on the lonelygirl15 diaries and Steve Ballmer mashups battling for eyeballs on the Web. Pure Digital's Point & Shoot Camcorder lets you upload your videos directly to Google Video and Grouper.com. You can also play the videos on the camcorder to your TV.
The camcorder, due out the first week of November, has a built-in USB connector and software for connecting with the video-sharing sites through your PC or Mac. Through Grouper, you can pass your Claymation bits or diary entries directly on to your MySpace, Blogger, or Wordpress blogs, or to your iPod.
The Point & Shoot camcorder is a fairly basic device, with 2X digital zoom and a wee, 1.4-inch color screen for playback, reviewing, and deleting your videos. It also has a few functions for sending video e-mail messages and greetings.
Pure Digital also makes the single-use, disposable video cameras you see at many pharmacies. That's where you will find the new Point & Shoot camcorder. The retail price will be about $130 for a 30-minute camcorder, and $160 for a 60-minute version.
Apparel
A smart messenger bag for the digerati
G-Tech, which makes a smart fabric keyboard for hand-held PCs and backpacks with music control panels made of woven electronics, is about to release an iPod-enabled bike messenger bag.
Like its backpacks, G-Tech's Messenger Bag has an ElekTex fabric control panel you can use to control the volume on your iPod and select, play, pause, and stop individual tracks in your library. The controls are conveniently located on the bag's strap.
The Messenger Bag has compartments for your music player and cell phone. It also has an integrated external stereo speaker and a built-in, universal 3.5- millimeter extension jack. That way, you can play your music, boom-box style, from your laptop or any other device that has that standard jack.
The G-Tech Messenger Bag ain't no Timbuk2: I don't expect many bike messengers will give up their original canvas bags -- seasoned with all of that street grime and grit -- for something that is half bag, half gadget, and all nerd. But the Messenger Bag, with its padded shoulder strap and neat iPod pocket on the outside of the flap, is functional enough. The bag should reach major retail outlets by mid-November, where it is expected to sell for about $130.
Mobile Computing
Cheaper, cleaner device for charging and syncing portable electronics
I thought my cell phone, laptop, and MP3 player were going to liberate me from a deskbound existence. Wherever I found myself, on land, sea, or in the air, there'd be my office. But all I've really done is take the rat's nest of cables under my desk on the road, where I must plop it down on a series of tray tables and hotel room desks in an attempt to keep everything charged up.
It's not just inconvenient to carry a power cord and a USB cable for each device in your backpack. It's also expensive: You can spend hundreds of dollars on accessories for syncing and charging individual items. Newton-based Malleable Devices Inc. has saved road warriors a bundle with its SynCh (pronounced "cinch") universal sync charger, which you can use to charge two devices (a phone and Bluetooth headset, for example) simultaneously via a PC's USB connection or a wall or car power outlet. At Malleable's website ( syncharger.com), you can shop a la carte for the chargers and "mTips" that work with your device.
Unlike most other chargers, you can also use the SynCh (which has a retractable cable) to move data between your devices and PC.
Malleable in early November will release a more compact version of the SynCh, the miniSynCh. It is also developing a rechargeable battery pack with a USB output that can charge two devices at once through the SynCh or miniSynCh. The battery pack will be available in a couple of months. 