The build quality is great although the plastic body does fell slightly cheap. It produces great videos at 1080p down to 640 x 480.

Below is a sample video captured with the camera (also in HD).
 

The mic is the best, in fact its quite disappointing, if the room is totally silent the mic picks up a hiss.

Would I recommend it, yes if your in the market for a cheap HD camera and don’t plan on producing anything near professional video because the built in mic just doesn’t cut it.

Here are my top 10 predictions for 2009:

• Windows 7 will be released
• Android will overtake the iPhone in market share
• More ISP’s will limit monthly data transfer
• Portable GPS will be (almost) replaced by Smart phones (and in-dash GPS) just as they did the MP3 player
• Someone will buy Yahoo
• Twitter will start making money
• Netbooks will have built in 3G wireless Internet access
• Google will start to monetize YouTube
• More DRM servers will be switched off
• Hulu will launch in the UK

In January I predicted:

• Apple will announce a new Apple TV (details)
• iTunes will get movie rentals (details)
• The HD disk format war will not be won 
• iTunes will have HD content (i.e TV shows and Movies) (details & details)
• Service pack 2 for Windows Vista
• DRM on music will be on more (details & here & here)
• The Xbox 360 will get a built in HDDVD drive and WI-FI
• OpenID will be used by more sites
• Google’s Stock will break (details)
• Amazon mp3 will launch in the UK (details)

7 out 10 isn’t bad.

There’s been some Major changes to the back-end admin page design and some new keyboard shortcuts.

Plus 2.7 also allows comments to be split into pages and threaded.

WordPress 2.7 makes it even easier to upgrade with built in core updates similar to the plugin updater in 2.6.

The guys at automattic put a video together showing some of the changes.

But before I start I would like to say braking the encryption designed to stop you making a playable copy of the DVD is illegal although there is a fair use argument if you want to watch the VD you payed for on for iPod and phone.

Ok so heres the video (also in HD).

Sorry for the lack of sound, it turned out crap. I’ll upload a new version as soon as I get a good mic.

Links:
DVD Shrink
HandBrake

Great in theory, but the problem with a nationwide nanny filter like this is it blocks the wrong stuff and the people it’s meant to stop just get round it by using proxies. Over the weekend a story can out saying just that. The Wikipedia page for Scorpions album Virgin Killer was blocked by the great firewall because of the album artwork displayed.

When accessing the page in the UK you will get a 404 error.

Although using a proxy like Hotspot Shield the page comes right in.

Blocking this page won’t even stop those who don’t want to use a proxy as the album (which is still on sale in the UK) artwork is easily available with a simple Google search.

More notes on the issues are on the Wikipedia admin notice board.

I am clearly against such filtering, the web should be open and free, yes child porn is a problem but it should be dealt with by the law enforcement agencies and not just blocking out. It doesn’t solve the issues; it just drives them underground and makes to harder to track.

Now let’s stop pouring money into this filter which clearly doesn’t work and is very unlikely to ever work.

Update 15/12/08: The Internet Watch Dog, IWF, reversed it’s decision to block the Wikipedia page.

The only draw back with the service is you can only download each track once, unlike it’s closest rivals Play.com and 7digital. Which is not a problem if you back it up but been able to log in and re-download the music if you ever loose it or your Internet connection in the middle of downloading.

Windows Live Home. Wish there was one place where you could easily manage all parts of your digital life? Windows Live Home gives you a view into your friends’ networks and makes it easy to stay connected, across the range of services you use on the Internet today. It’s the place to go to track updates to your contacts’ recent online activities across Windows Live and the Web.

Windows Live Profile. Quickly and easily broadcast key information about yourself from Windows Live and ultimately more than 50 partner sites to your Windows Live network. Anything that you do on Windows Live or on select third-party services is automatically reflected on your profile as well as throughout most other services in Windows Live — if you choose to share with your network. Invite your existing friends and contacts from your favorite third-party services, such as LinkedIn, to Windows Live so that they can stay in sync with your latest updates.

Windows Live Groups. Get your child’s soccer group organized with this new service that allows teams, clubs, extended families and others to easily collaborate online. Announce an upcoming game, upload and share the latest photos, or instantly chat with the whole gang.

Windows Live Photos. Simplify how you store and share all your memories on the Web. Quickly add photos, tag and comment on photos, see friends’ photo albums, and create expressive Silverlight slide shows. You can also upload photos directly to Windows Live Photos from most Web-enabled cell phones.

Windows Live SkyDrive. Have easy access to important files online when you’re on the go. Now with 25 GB of storage, up from 5 GB, Windows Live SkyDrive has plenty of room to store files, photos and other digital content that you can share with friends or keep to yourself.

Windows Live People. Tired of a having contacts here, there and everywhere? This central address book contains your Windows Live Hotmail contacts as well as everyone in your Windows Live network. You can also invite people from social networking services that you belong to, including Facebook and LinkedIn.

Add your activity from around the Web. Collaborations with leading web companies are now live. Update your Windows Live network on your latest activity around the Web by adding any of the following sites to your profile starting today. More sites will be added in the coming months.

• Blogs: Twitter, WordPress
• Reviews: Flixster, StumbleUpon, Yelp
• Photos: Flickr, Photobucket
• Social Network: Daum, TripIt
• Music/Video: iLike, Pandora

Below is a few screens I took of the changes.

More information on this release is available at windowslive.com.

So dar some intresting stats have come out of this, from CNET:

“According to SonicWall, only 59.4 percent of test takers so far this year have been able to properly identify a legitimate e-mail, compared with 77.8 percent of the test takers in 2004. And this year, only 7.4 percent of test takers were able to correctly identify and categorize every e-mail they were presented.

The good news is that people are better at spotting a likely phishing scam. This year 86.1 percent caught the scam, as opposed to only 69.2 percent in 2004.”

I got 100% on the test. THE IMAGE BELOW CONTAINS ANSWERS.

(click to see full size)