The Flip MinoHD has now been released in the United States for several months and has proved to be quite popular. However, the Flip MinoHD has only just been given a release date for here in the United Kingdom. First of all though, let’s take a look at some of the specifications.

The Flip MinoHD has a very sleek look like the rest of Flip’s products. It’s also very simple to operate – Simply turn it on with the power button and then press the red button to start recording HD video and press it again to stop recording. That is about as simple as it gets, which really helps if you aren’t the best at using cameras and just want something that is quick and easy to use.

It also has a data storage capacity of 4GB, which means that you can get around 60 minutes of video recorded. That isn’t a lot if you think about it but then again, the quality of the video that the Flip MinoHD can take is fantastic. For example, it records in 720p HD at resolution 1280×720 pixels, which is much much higher than most small HD cameras. It’s very impressive for a small gadget like the Flip MinoHD.

It of course does also have a zoom feature. It can zoom up into 2x, which isn’t really recommended because you can see a huge difference in quality by doing so. For this reason, it’s probably best if you just try to get closer to the place you’re trying to video record, if you want a high quality video.

One thing we have yet to mention is the screen size. It’s only 1.5 inch  which is really quite small and can make it difficult to playback your videos and watch them whilst still on the MinoHD – But you can still have a quick look through the videos and delete the low quality videos. You should probably wait until you can get access to your computer so you can transfer the videos over if you want to watch them properly.

The final point to look at with the Flip MinoHD is that it is quite similar to the iPhone in a way – The battery cannot be removed and it must be charged by USB. This is quite frustrating, because you cannot charge the device if you don’t have access to a computer. What most people prefer is to be able to charge it through an ordinary power plug which would allow them to use it much more frequently.

In conclusion, despite the annoying charging problem, the Flip MinoHD is a very good quality camera. It will be released in the United Kingdom on April 8th 2010 for around £180 so I recommend that if you’re looking for an easy to use camera that is both affordable and of a good quality, you should definitely consider purchasing the Flip MinoHD. You won’t regret it.

If you’re currently in the United Kingdom, the highest connection speed you can currently get is through Virgin Media. They offer 3 different packages – 10Mb/s, 20Mb/s and 50Mb/s. They already have plans to release a 100Mb/s connection by the end of the year, which will blast all of it’s competitors out of the water.

This 100Mb/s connection has and is currently being tested in specific locations in the United Kingdom. I believe Kent is one of the chosen demo’d locations. Unfortunately, I don’t live there and so haven’t been able to test it (I’m on the highest package available publicly, 50Mb/s). I’m not sure what the people of Kent think of it so far.

However, they just announced today that starting tomorrow, they will be testing out an even quicker connection – 200Mb/s! This is a huge improvement and will provide ultra quick internet! Once again, it’s only going to be demo’d in specific locations until the public release. The chosen destination for the demo’ing of the 200Mb/s internet is Coventry, I believe. Unfortunately, Virgin Media couldn’t give any details on when this package would be available to it’s consumers around the country.

It’s really quite amazing at the speed that internet is increasing at. In the United Kingdom at least, Virgin Media seem to be leading the progression. I’m not quite sure on the speeds people are able to get around the world, but I do believe that places such as the United States and Japan may already connections at this speed. Lucky you.

The Government in the United Kingdom are also considering funding the development of internet connections to try and give up to 90% of the United Kingdom access to the internet. Whether the funding will actually help this or not is another matter, however. What I can see firms doing with it is either taking it into their pockets or just spending it on making their internet speeds quicker to make packages more competitive, instead of spending it on trying to reach further parts of the countries.

As if Google hadn’t created enough products recently, this is the announcement of the next addition to Google’s portfolio – Google TV.

Unfortunately they aren’t making their own TV channel (Now that would be funny) or their own TVs. It’s a new idea which attempts to bring the internet to your TV. Google aren’t working on their own on this though, they’ve managed to get giants Intel and Sony on their side and now all 3 companies are working on this project.

So far, a set-top box prototype has been produced – But it has been rumoured that their technology could actually be implemented directly into TVs as well as Blu-Ray players. This would be helped by Sony, a large producer of TVs, who obviously could easily implement it straight into their products.

The idea of Google TV is that it will help users to watch their ordinary TV channels as well as have better access to the internet, search, social networking, YouTube and online games.  Playing online games directly on your TV, how will that work? Well it is also rumoured that Logitech, another large company, is working on producing a remote control as well as a small keyboard for the device. This will allow users to interact with their TV – So if they wish to complete tasks such as watching YouTube videos or browsing the internet, they no longer need to go to their computers!

It has so far been in development for a few months, but has been kept quite secretive. It seems Google wants to bring as many people into the internet as possible so they can fill the internet with their advertising system, which as a lot of us know, generates billions of dollars worth of revenue for Google every year. They’re a very successful company and are well-known for producing high quality products and services. For this reason, you can almost guarantee that Google TV will be a great new product.

Nobody is yet sure on when Google TV could be available to the general public. Nobody is yet sure whether it will be available internationally either, it may unfortunately be only available to the United States like some of Google’s other products. We just have to wait for more official announcements from Google to find out.

Well today, the 14th March, is Mother’s Day 2010 in the United Kingdom. That’s why there is currently flowers falling from my website via my JR Effects plugin.

I’ve just found that according to a survey completed recenty, mothers believe that the best present to receive on Mother’s Day is a hug! That’s quite surprising, but is good to hear since it saves on some £££

Another interesting point is that according to the same survey, 66% of people believe that Mother’s Day has become over-commercialised. I totally agree with this. It’s the same with Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas and most other events. It’s a shame really, because we aren’t really celebrating the events in a traditional way, we’re just feeding into the big businessmen’s pockets with money.

Mother’s Day falls on different days in most countries too which is a bit strange, but let’s take a look at when they all are:

United States: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Australia: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Belgium: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Brazil: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Canada: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Finland: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Germany: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Greece: Second Sunday in the month of May.
India: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Italy: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Japan: Second Sunday in the month of May.
Turkey: Second Sunday in the month of May.
United Kingdom: Mother’s Day is called Mothering Sunday and falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
France: First Sunday in June or last Sunday in May
Much of South America (as well as Mexico), Bahrain, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates: May 10
Mexico: – May 8
Russia: – November 28
Poland: – May 26
Egypt: – March 21
Norway: – February 13
Sweden: Last Sunday in May
Norway: The second Sunday in February
Austria, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Taiwan, Hungary, Portugal, South Africa, Spain: First Sunday in May

Feel free to correct me on some of the dates or let me know dates for countries that I’ve missed off!

And thus ending this rather pointless blog post. Enjoy Mother’s Day for the people in the UK, and treat your mother well

When I first found out about this, I thought it was some sort of joke – But apparently it isn’t. Researchers have found a way to lip-read which could be implemented into mobile phones in the future. What this means is that you could have a phone conversation with someone, as normal, but without making any sound at all!

Let’s take a look at some of the science behind it. Basically, the technology measures small electrical signals which are produced by the muscles during speech. It can then work out what the person was trying to say, even if it couldn’t be heard through a normal phone conversation, and then produce a synthesised version of it. This new technology was announced in a German electronics fair earlier on this week, Cebit.

One of the main people behind it, Professor Tanja Shultz, said that the inspiration behind this was that she was fed up with people chatting on their mobile phones on the trains, which I suppose is a good point. Most people will have come across this at some point in time.

Of course this is only in the testing stage so far and isn’t ready for the mass market. Currently, to use this technology, nine electrodes need to stuck to the user’s face. Not the nicest thing to do, really. But Processor Tanja Shultz did say that in future it could be implented into mobile phones without needing these electrodes.

Other ideas that were mentioned was that a person who had lost their voice could use it to talk to people or this technology could even provide instant language translation, where a user first lip-talks into the phone, the message is translated and then played back to the other person. In the future, this could be built further and further to something truly amazing. We just have to wait to see what happens with it.

Samsung seem to be trying their best to build the best technology in the phone market that consumers want to buy. They’ve been trying various different platforms on their phones including Windows Mobile, Symbian and Vodafone 360. This time, on their new phone the Samsung Galaxy Portal, they’re using Google Android as the platform. Let’s look into this phone a bit more.

The phone allows the use of a MicroSD card to maximise the storage capacity – Which is a good job actually because the phone onlt has a mere 180MB of internal storage. Compared to most smartphones on the market today, this is really low. Phones such as the iPhone, leading the market, have an 8GB storage allowance.

The screen size isn’t too bad, though. With a display of 3.2 inch, it doesn’t look too bad except for the fact that Samsung have downgraded the quality a little – They’ve moved to TFT technology rather than OLED which they’ve used in the past. This means the colours don’t show as nicely and the screen is more difficult to see in the sunlight. This is just one of the main ways Samsung have managed to cut the costs down on their Galaxy Portal phone.

The phone also has a 3.2 megapixel camera. Again, Samsung’s cost-cutting measures can definitely be seen – Although the quality of the images aren’t too bad, the quality of them just isn’t the same as we’ve seen in the past from other Samsung phones. Photos do look quite grainy in places and not as vibrant as you would expect.

Samsung have however not downgraded everything from previous phones. In the Samsung Galaxy phone, a processor running at 528MHz was used which meant that sometimes the phone could be quite slow. In the Samsung Galaxy Portal, though, they’ve upgraded this to an 800MHz, making the phone much more usable and quicker.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a decent, usable phone running Google Android, you may want to try out the Samsung Galaxy Portal. Due to certain features being downgraded slightly, I believe you can get this phone for just £20 a month on a contract, which really isn’t bad at all. It all depends on how important a good quality camera, a decent display and a big storage capacity is when you’re using your mobile phone.