Crave

Update: CNET's official review of the Apple iPod Nano (fifth-generation) is now available.

I'm holding Apple's fifth-generation iPod Nano, and it's feeling like deja vu. Here we are again with an 8GB and 16GB iPod Nano that bear the exact same shape and dimensions as last year's models, priced at $149 and a slightly more wallet-friendly $179, respectively. Sure, the aluminum is a little glossier, and the screen now stretches out to 2.2 inches (up from 2 inches), but most people would really need to have an Apple fanboy's eagle-eye to discern last year's model from today's.

But don't let looks fool you. Under the hood, Apple really juiced the fifth-gen iPod Nano up with a ton of tricks that serve to make the Nano better. I'm not convinced all of the Nano's new features were executed perfectly, but at least nothing about the fifth-gen Nano is a step backwards for Apple (unlike the third-gen Nano's awkward shape, or the button-less iPod Shuffle). For the sake of mentioning it, just know that everything found in last year's model is here as well, located in exactly the same place, with the same font, same everything. Music, photos, videos, podcasts, battery life, sound quality...same, same, same. Well, technically, rated battery life is up a little for video playback, clocking in a 5 hours instead of 4.

iPod Nano oddity No. 1: I can record video, but I can't snap a photo no matter how hard Antuan poses.

(Credit: CNET)

So what's new? Well, for starters, the iPod Nano now has a video camera. On the back of the Nano there's an eensy-teensy fixed-lens camera that runs flush with the body, capable of capturing 640x480 standard definition video at 30 frames per second. Files are recorded as iTunes-friendly .MP4 videos with h.264 formatted video with AAC audio. Video quality looks, well...decent. We'll have a better sense after more testing, but I think it's safe to say that it won't be crushing the Flip Mino HD anytime soon.

Part of the problem isn't so much the camera technology as it is the placement of the camera--located right behind the clickwheel where you can't help but rub your nasty hands across the lens each time you pick it up. After just a few minutes out of the box, video recordings became increasingly cloudy with screen grime.

Maybe I'm just filthy, but I have to think Apple would have done better to move the lens closer to the top and out of harm's ways.

The news that Best Buy and TiVo are teaming up to share technology and hopefully pump up each other's sales has led some to conclude that new HDTVs with digital video recording capability are in the offing.

That's highly unlikely.

TiVo, the inventor of the DVR market that has trouble making any profit on it, and Best Buy, the giant of electronics retail, announced Thursday a new partnership. Best Buy will push TiVo DVRs in its stores, and TiVo will create a special set-top box that Best Buy can sell specifically to push its own advertising at TiVo customers.

We're not likely to see Insignia TVs with TiVo inside.

(Credit: CNET)

Then there's this line in the press release, which appears to be causing some confusion: "TiVo intends to work with Best Buy's Exclusive Brands group (e.g., Insignia, Dynex, etc.) to explore integration of its user interface, search, and other TiVo benefits to help further grow that consumer electronics line."

Some are interpreting that to mean TiVo will drop its DVRs into Insignia and Dynex TVs. But that's not what it says. The release carefully words that section for a reason. In an interview, TiVo Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Joe Miller downplayed that part of the deal concerning TVs, calling it "just one aspect." What TiVo will share with Best Buy-branded TVs is its interface, search function, and Internet-delivered content, like on-demand movies from Amazon and Netflix, and YouTube.

But as far as putting TiVo DVRs inside Best Buy's TVs, it's clearly not a priority for TiVo. "We're not ruling it out," Miller said. "But what we're saying here is, what does it take to make the best possible TV experience."

They're not ruling it out, but they're not promising it either. And it's likely because it's not a wise path to follow. TVs with built-in DVRs aren't exactly a new idea. At CES 2005, the Humax with TiVo inside was announced but never made it to market. The LG 42LB1DR, which had a DVR but not TiVo-branded, actually made it to store shelves, but it had a huge caveat: it could only record over-the-air and "clear cable" (QAM) channels or it needed a cumbersome CableCard hook-up. With the former configuration, premium channels such as Comedy Central and HBO weren't available, with the latter you lost access to on-demand programming (and, often, the ability to record one show while watching another). That meant consumers were paying a big premium (versus the same TVs with no built-in DVR), despite getting a hobbled recording experience. Not surprisingly, demand for such DVR-enabled TVs was nil, and they've largely disappeared from the market.

What this is about is increasing sales for both. TiVo has been losing subscribers, and consumer electronics purchases have taken a plunge along with the economy. Miller says the main focus of the deal for both is to sell more TiVos.

"Their goal is to drive as many TiVo subscriptions as they can," he said.

CNET's John Falcone contributed to this story.

One of the hallmark features of the iPhone 3GS is video recording. Waterproofing, however, is not part of the package.

YouTube user KhenaKara was filming some poolside footage on his shiny new iPhone 3GS when disaster struck: the phone slipped out of his hand and into the depths of the swimming pool. Lucky for us, he put the video up on YouTube.

Best part: "Crap...wait, it still freakin' works!" Even better, he says that days after the incident the phone still works just fine.

Needless to say, this voids your warranty.

(Via The Independent)

The iPhone's new video capture and sharing may be a double-edged sword for YouTube.

(Credit: Apple)

With the introduction of the the new iPhone 3G S, one of the features iPhone aficionados are most excited about is the addition of video recording. Never mind that this feature has been available in a lot of other cell phones for a while; the point is, it's finally here, and that's a good thing, especially when Apple has taken the pocket camcorder concept to a whole new level with the integration of some basic onboard editing tools, geotagging, and, most importantly, a wireless distribution system that allows you to easily share your iPhone clips via e-mail, MMS, or by uploading them directly to YouTube (and MobileMe) with a touch of a button (see Apple's demo).

On the surface, this would appear to be excellent news for YouTube and should rather frighten Flip Video, which has seen its YouTube-friendly pocket camcorders take a nice chunk of the camcorder market (recent sales figures indicate that digital pocket models like the Flip, the Creative Vado HD, and the Kodak Zx1, have captured over 25 percent of the camcorder market in the U.S.). ... Read more

(Credit: Digeo)

Recently, Digeo began selling its new Moxi CableCard DVR at Amazon for a whopping $800. That got us thinking about the whole DVR category, and how the real prices of the products are often hidden with subsidies (from cable or satellite companies) or service fees (such as with TiVo).

If you're looking for a digital video recorder, your choices are limited by how you receive your TV signal--satellite, over-the-air antenna, or cable--and how much you're willing to pay a month. Satellite subscribers are shoehorned by their provider--Dish offers the excellent ViP722 (with the SlingLoaded ViP922 due later this year), and DirecTV offers the DirecTV Plus HD DVR HR21. Antenna-only folks were the most limited: previously, the only choice was TiVo (which, again, requires a monthly or lifetime fee for service), but the availability of the DTV Pal DVR offers the promise of a no-fee DVR with support for digital and HD TV signals--just pay for the hardware, and you're done. (CNET is currently evaluating the DTV Pal DVR, and will have a review later this month.)

For cable subscribers, things can be a bit more varied--and almost certainly more expensive. Nearly all cable companies now offer their subscribers an HD DVR option. They'll tout it as "free" (in that you don't have to buy the hardware), but your bill will undoubtedly include a rental charge for the hardware (and the remote!), as well as a "DVR service fee." Want to get a real TiVo instead? That may cut the rental charge and DVR service fee from your monthly cable bill, but then you're stuck paying a service fee straight to TiVo ($13 a month, $129 a year, or a flat $400 fee for the lifetime of the box). Meanwhile, your cable company still gets in on the action; they may still charge you for CableCard rental fees (needed for the TiVo to receive digital and premium channels), plus the normal service fee on top of that (the channel charges that make up the bulk of your bill). Going with the lifetime fee (just because it's easy), that brings the real-world cost of the cheapest high-def TiVo, the TiVo HD, to around $700.

Enter the Digeo Moxi. ... Read more

(Credit: Streaming Networks)

Part of the reason the iPod has been so successful is that compatible content is so simple to acquire--and there's plenty of it. Now, the iRecord Pro, a simple one-touch personal media recorder, makes content even easier to get. And the beauty of it is that it's not only for the iPod, you can also record directly to the Sony Walkman, the Sony PSP, and other devices.

Unfortunately, the iRecord Pro is way overpriced at $259, and while it will save you money on content in the long run, the fact that it's crippled by its lack of a scheduling feature--and that it offers only real-time recording--makes the price tag exceedingly hard to swallow.

Read the iRecord Pro review.

(Credit: NEC)

Someone must have spiked the Calpico vending machines near NEC's R&D labs in Tokyo.

The company made a legitimate splash at Macworld with a giant curved-screen display, but then creativity began giving way to surreality a few days later with its liquid-powered "Flask" phone. Now things are getting almost Dali-eseque with an NEC concept gadget called the "Dew Life Recording Interface."

Apparently this dangling chrome sphere is meant to hang around the neck and visually record every moment of its wearer's life, according to Dvice, kind of like a portable video Twitter. But no one really knows, really, as it's still in the gestational process. And the way things are going at NEC, the final version could be anyone's guess.

Back in May, Señor Bell wrote about the new RealPlayer, which promised users the ability to download video in a variety of formats (Flash, WMV, Quicktime) from a variety of sites (YouTube, Comedy Central, and so on) using a variety of Web browsers. Somewhat unsurprisingly, I've gotten a variety of results. RealPlayer is fresh out of beta (download Version 11 for Windows from Download.com)--the perfect time to put it to the test, in my book. Personally, I don't find the latest version particularly useful for my video tastes, but you may find it compelling, depending on your preferences, when it comes to online video.

Let me just get this out of the way first: The RealPlayer software interface is...unattractive. Mostly it's just cluttered, but the utilitarian look and feel leave something to be desired, as well. It's relatively easy to get the hang of, at least, but I frankly expected better from the peeps who bring us Rhapsody. All that being said, the inconspicuous, integrated "Download This Video" button is both well-designed and useful, and videos are saved in an obvious spot (under Downloads & Recordings) for future access. Now if they could integrate this button's functionality with another jukebox for media organization (say, Rhapsody), I believe we would have something here.

Of course, simple downloading of Internet video is a compelling feature for some. And the fact that it's free makes it all the more user-friendly. However, if you want to actually take your newly downloaded video "to go" on an iPod, you'll need to plunk down $40 (a one-time fee) for RealPlayer Plus. The Plus version also includes several other advanced features (outlined in the screenshot above) that some users might find handy. I tested both the downloading functionality and the iPod transfer feature, and both were pretty slow. It took about 12 minutes to download a 24-minute video clip from Google Video; RealPlayer then took its sweet time--about an hour--encoding and transferring that video to the iPod. It's definitely an exercise in patience, though--to be fair--the video-grab feature is really intended for short video clips of about 5 minutes or less. More unforgivable is the fact that the app refused to play nice with Outlook, causing the e-mail client to crash when any encoding or transferring was taking place.

So what kinds of video can you expect to work with RealPlayer's download feature? The short answer is "nothing with DRM protection of any kind." So if you're thinking of capturing the latest episode of Heroes to watch on your iPod (an especially enticing idea now that the iTunes store is NBC-less) you can forget about it. I also went after some Bravo, FoodTV, Netflix, and Comedy Central content--all to no avail. For Bravo, FoodTV, and NBC, the "Download This Video" button popped up, but the resulting grab was just the commercial segment. Sadly, while Comedy Central videos worked during the beta period, the site has since switched to streaming flash, with which RealPlayer 11 is incompatible (the button changes to "Video cannot be downloaded," though--somehow--commercials are downloadable). Netflix uses a proprietary format that the software doesn't even recognize as video. In any event, this adherence to DRM is better for RealPlayer in the long run, but it's really too bad about the FoodTV restriction--how handy would it be to have quick and easy recipe clips on your iPod?

There are, naturally, plenty of video sites that work just fine with the software. Google Video, YouTube, Metacafe, and any other site with user-generated content are all fair game. Also, there are some TV network sites that keep their formats open and free of restriction--Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic, for example--though you often have to sit through a loud, unmutable ad while you wait for the video to come on. Of course, this is dependent on the sites and not RealPlayer, but I can't help complaining here. Also, it's worth noting that you don't actually have to watch the video while it's recording: You can pause, mute, or even move onto another video and cue that up for downloading. That's definitely a big plus.

In the end, the usefulness of this new RealPlayer 11 feature depends largely on the type of content you are interested in saving for offline viewing (if you're into music videos, for example, it's great)--and also how enterprising you are (I came across a couple of questionable sites with plenty of network TV content that was readily compatible with the software). It is free, so there's no harm in trying it out--unless you count the harm to your eyes/brain by having to deal with the RealPlayer interface. If you're an iPod user who wants to take videos on the go, just make sure you test out the free version with your favorite content providers before you dole out the cash for the Plus option.

Related stories:

• RealPlayer 11 beta is a stream ripper
• New RealPlayer allows YouTube video downloads
• Break free from embedded vids

New TiVo customers will be getting discounted service fees

(Credit: TiVo)

Just in time for the holidays, TiVo's making some temporary changes to its service fee structure. For new TiVo buyers from now through February 2, 2008, service choices are as follows:

• 1 year monthly service: now $12.95/month (originally $16.95)
• 1 year prepay service: $129 (originally $179)
• 2 year prepay service: $249 (originally $279)
• 3 year prepay service: $299 (unchanged)

To reiterate: those pricing discounts apply only to new TiVo customers (including those who've purchased in the past 30 days); existing customers won't see any changes to their bill. However, TiVo does have an offer for current customers: the return of the lifetime service fee. Existing customers (who already own at least one TiVo DVR) who buy an additional TiVo on the same account can opt for a one-shot product lifetime service fee for that new DVR for $399. That's $100 more than the equivalent plan that was offered by the company until last year.

Additionally, TiVo is making what it calls a "permanent change" to its multiservice discount (the service price paid for up to five additional TiVos on the same account). Subscribers can choose between a $9.95 monthly charge or a $99 yearly prepay (per DVR).