Your Discs Will be Floppy No More

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:32:16 +0000

Do you remember back in 1981 when the floppy disc first made its appearance? At the time, it was a fairly large leap in technology and portability. While many of you young people may snort and scoff at that statement, I assure you it was true of the times more than twenty years ago. As of last year, Sony was still reportedly selling around 8.5 million of these little discs in Japan alone.

However, due to the changing times, Sony has announced they will stop making floppies. Sony wrapped up international sales of floppy discs last month. The company already stopped producing the drives last September. Sadly, it’s the end of an era for those of us who remember. It will be interesting to see how many old-school Geeks will have a fit over this turn of events. I do happen to know people who actually still USE their old beloved floppies.

Are you still a die-hard floppy disc user? Does your computer even HAVE a place to use them?

Even if you don’t have a floppy disc drive on your computer, you can still take advantage of the software discounts we have available for you.

Your Discs Will be Floppy No More

Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 vs Flip Ultra Video Cameras

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:46:21 +0000

Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 vs Flip Ultra Video Cameras

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

Flip Deals:

Amazon - Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes only $169.99 + Free Shipping (Posted on 10/2/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)
The Flip - Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes only $143 + Free Shipping at Amazon.com (Posted on 10/2/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)
Vista Print - Free Photo Flip Book (Posted on 9/4/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)
OnSale - Flip Video Black Mino HD Camcorder only $179 + $5.99 Shipping (Posted on 5/6/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)
B&H Photo - Flip Video Black Mino HD Camcorder only $149 + Free Shipping (Posted on 4/2/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)

Find Coupons for over 1100 Stores

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Kodak Zi6. It is HD supported, but it has good quality. I also did a review of the Flip Ultra awhile back. I just finally got my hands on the Flip Mino HD. Now, I get to make some serious comparisons. Since the new Mino is HD as well, I decided to do a little playing around with some recording on each device prior to making this video.

First off, the Flip Mino is definitely much smaller and lighter than the Kodak Zi6. If you look at the differences between the two videos, you can see that the contrast is much better from the Zi6 than what the Flip Mino is. I’m not sure if there was a problem with the lighting, but there’s a definite difference. However, with the Zi6, I look more “yellow”, whereas with the Flip Mino my skin looks its normal color.

Both of them have a fair amount of noise in them, yes. However, the Kodak video is just a bit sharper than the Flip camera. On the other hand again, the Kodak camera always tends to drop frames, to an annoying degree. That needs to be fixed in the firmware ASAP, seriously. It happens constantly, and is a really huge drawback.

The image overall is shaper when using the Zi6 and the blacks are richer, but it does drop frames often. That makes it impossible to recommend over the Flip Mino. The Flip doesn’t have removable storage, but it is 4GB. The Flip software has been seriously upgraded, and it’s excellent software.

Overall, if you’re in the market for a new compact camcorder, I’d have to recommed the Flip Mino HD at this point. Even though the quality of the Kodak is better, the frame dropping is just something that is hard to live with for many people. You need to weigh the pros and cons against each other, and choose what works best for you.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 vs Flip Ultra Video Cameras

Chris Pirillo » flip-mino

Your Discs Will be Floppy No More

Flip Mino HD vs Kodak Zi6 vs Flip Ultra Video Cameras