Technology

Review: Joby Gorillapod Original

I'm always on the look out for new gadgets and technology that will make daily activities easier. Having already picked up the fantastic Hama 61 tripod some weeks ago I thought I had everything that I needed in terms of a tripod for Kodak Zi8 usage. However as good as the Hama is, it is somewhat inadequate for indoor desk filming which is something I very much want to do. I could work around it but why would I when the fantastic Joby Gorillapod Original provides me with the perfect solution. ...
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Hama 61 Tripod

To provide a more professional look to any video or images that I capture with my new Kodak Zi8 I thought it best to invest in a decent tripod. Even though the Zi8 has EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation) it still is no match for a properly rigged camera placement on a tripod. While wanting a professional setup I was only prepared to pay what I considered an affordable amount - tripods can cost thousands of pounds and while they may bring added bang for buck at that price point, fundamentally so...
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Kodak Zi8 Preview

Over the past few months I have been carefully considering investing in a HD video recording solution. At first I thought that it would be much too expensive with most HD equipment far exceeding my basic recording needs and indeed my budget. The GeekCaster News Network and GeekCaster Store however both need HD video elements to support development, with e-learning development and indeed blog entries such as product reviews also benefiting from it's availability. I was left in something of a pick...
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Twiducate

A screencast overview of Twiducate, a social networking platform for education. Minutes after completing the screencast the developers updated the platform to include functionality for multiple classes, everything else in the screencast is still relevant so I thought it worthy of distribution. This was my one main drawback for the concept so I encourage anyone involved in education to investigate further, I think there is a lot of potential. I for one will be using the platform to support my tea...
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Cool Stuff 2009

As the end of the year draws in I thought it would be a good idea to look back and reflect on some of the things that interested me or that I enjoyed in the year gone by. It's been quite a difficult year for me personally with the loss of my Gran, and lots of work related issues, but at the same time there have been many enjoyable things in the year gone by. I have made some great new contacts through social media apps, established friendship with some great new people, developed the blog & ...
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Review: HP Photosmart C4780

I have been without a printer or scanner at home now for a number of weeks and have found that to be greatly restrictive. It's a classic case of not missing something until it's gone I guess, the amount of times I went to copy a document, scan an image or simply print a document for reference and couldn't was numerous to say the least. Thankfully that has all changed with my purchase of the HP Photosmart C4780 - without doubt a great step forward for HP and the best print hardware I have owned. ...
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Review: Bush USB Headset With Mic

Never content with just one way of doing things and always keen to investigate different approaches to commonly performed tasks, I recently purchased a Bush Headset with microphone. I already have the integrated microphone on my MacBook Pro, my recently acquired Blue Snowflake and an M-Audio condenser but each microphone serves a particular purpose and situation. Out of the box the headset looks pretty damn cool, it oozes professionalism; from it’s cool black tones, to the chunky build design...
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Blue Snowflake – Review

I finally got the chance to try out my newly acquired production microphone this evening, the Blue Snowflake is a USB condenser microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern. It is widely acclaimed as one of the best professional portable USB microphones and is suggested by many as a great microphone for voice overs, podcasting, narration and portable recording - pretty much everything I need then :D Setup was quick and painless, simply connect the microphone via USB and change the input selectio...
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Level 26 Dark Origins

New media is something that interests me greatly, I consider it one of the most important ongoing developments of my life time. It is great then to see it mature and innovate in such fantastic ways. Level 26 Dark Origins is the first example of what is being termed a digi-novel, a combination of text based fiction, media elements (in this case video bridges) and a social community. I have just purchased the iTunes version which ships with a whole heap of extras and weighs in at just over 1GB. It...
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Blue Snowflake

The podcast has been put on hold for the past few days but I feel it is probably a good idea for many reasons to get an episode out this week. For one it will help raise awareness of the ScreenFlow 2.0 competition and indeed give me the opportunity to voice some audio thoughts on some recent developments. To date most of my audio recording has been done using the MacBook Pro integrated microphone, which works fine for the most part, but having recently experienced the awesomeness of the Blue Sno...
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Western Digital My Book Studio II

Recently I purchased a new external hard drive in the form of a Western Digital My Book Studio II, I have discussed the drive on the podcast but now several days into use I thought it would be a good idea to provide some written discussion in the form of a review. From the ultra cool box, the quality of the packaging to the sheer coolness of the drive itself the WDMBSII is an excellent piece of kit. I have owned WD hard drives before, mainly on the PC platform, they have never given me a moments...
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