The only thing Samsung got wrong with this advertisement for the S8300 Ultra Touch was that they went for humorous instead of cute. Cute always trumps funny in the ad world. Just examine this little chart I assembled that explores the relationship of funny pets and kids to cute pets and kids.
I don't mean to be a dick about it, but someone from Samsung's ad firm should really get fired for missing a golden opportunity here. [Thanks Jamie!]

What's wrong with these guys? Last year I tried the Omnia at IFA 2008, and said it had "a poorly designed interface, lousy response time, buggy software, and it felt cheap and fat on my hand." The Samsung cellphones at the Mobile World Congress this year don't feel cheap and fat, but the touch interface is equally as bad. It wasn't just me. It was me trying, people around me trying, and booth people trying them for me.

In theory, the cellphones available to the public in a tech fair booth must be flawless, right? After all, everyone—visitors, partners, and press—will be trying them to get an impression on how they work. So, how these "touch" screens' response could be so bad, often requiring multiple clicks to get the most basic click operation done? Is it the hardware? Is it the software? Is it bad luck? I don't know, but it left me the same impression as last year hands on, which is just too bad because the cellphones have some other great qualities, specially the Omnia HD amazing AMOLED high resolution screen.

The Price: $230

The Verdict: Once again, Flip has done a respectable job of bringing dead simple, high quality video recording to the masses. The MinoHD is light on features—no macro shooting, still picture taking, or video quality options—but it makes up for these shortcomings by its ease of use. The memory and battery are both built-in, and are sufficiently sized to take a day's worth of video without filling up or going dead. The touch-sensitive buttons are more responsive than the original Mino, making zoom and playback a snap. Even the new editing software on the Flip, usually included on camcorders like this as an afterthought, is great, and you can make a YouTube-level video complete with background music and credits in just a few clicks.

The video quality on the MinoHD is decent. Well-lit areas look good, but places with low-light are noisy and not as clean as the Zi6. The video gets choppy while panning, a problem shared with Kodak's cam, but most things shot on the device will likely be single-angle clips of people getting punched in the nuts or popping zits, so this shouldn't be much of an issue. *Update: It may be apples-to-oranges comparing low-light video between the two cams, since the Zi6 switches to 15fps in low light, while the Mino HD stays at 30fps.

For comparison's sake, here's a clip I shot in low-light on the Zi6, the current cream of the HD crop. It's much clearer than the MinoHD, and close-up focus looks nice. Sound quality is pretty comparable between the two.

Still, the price tag is a bit steep for such a small set of features. More serious aspiring viral video stars will miss options like recording in VGA to increase space, or a macro switch for close up shots. Also, the screen is so small that its difficult to see what you're recording, which is necessary when the video is in 720p. All in all, the MinoHD is a super simple, solid quality, if a little pricey camcorder that will have you sharing videos in no time.[Flip]

Flip Mino HD
Details
•Sleek, pocket-sized camcorder shoots breathtaking HD video
•Available in black or whatever you want
•4GB of on-board memory records up to 60 minutes of video
•Dimensions: 4” x 2” x 0.6”; weighs just 3.3 oz.
•HD 720p resolution (1280 x 720) in16:9 cinematic widescreen
•No glare display (1.5”)
•Sealed, rechargeable lithium ion battery (up to 2 hours of battery life)
•Flat back-panel with touch-sensitive buttons
•Instant playback, pause, fast forward/rewind, and delete features
•Connects to TV for instant viewing
•New built-in FlipShare™ software works on any PC or Mac:
•Save, organize, and edit videos with ease
•Email videos and video greeting cards
•Upload videos directly to AOL Video, MySpace, and YouTube
•Capture HD snapshots from your videos
•Create custom movies with your own music
•Order DVDs and have them shipped anywhere in the world
Suggested Retail Pricing: $229.99

Users interested in the upgrades will be able to check their zip code for availability on a special landing page set up on the Comcast website. Keep in mind that all of these tiers will most likely be subject to Comcast's new 250GB data caps as well as their priority bandwidth management system that temporarily slows down heavy users under periods of congestion.

COMCAST BEGINS ROLLOUT OF EXTREME 50 MBPS HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICE
Plans to Reach More Than 10 Major Markets and Nearly 10 Million Homes and Businesses in
the Next Several Months

Two New, Faster Speed Tiers Introduced and Speeds Doubled for Most Existing Customers
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 22, 2008 – Comcast, the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and
communications products and services, today announced it is making the leap from broadband to wideband with
the launch of next-generation DOCSIS 3.0. With wideband, Comcast will introduce a brand new echelon of
Internet speed tiers, which will redefine the customer experience online and create a platform for Internet
innovation in the years ahead.

In the next few weeks, Comcast’s new services will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses
in parts of New England, including the Boston Metropolitan region and Southern New Hampshire, as well as
areas of Philadelphia and New Jersey. These services also will be available in the Twin Cities where wideband
was launched earlier this year. Comcast plans to continue to roll out wideband across its footprint and expects
to reach more than 10 major markets and pass nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several
months.

With wideband, Comcast will offer among the fastest speeds available today, including the Extreme 50 tier at up
to 50 Mbps. It also will enable Comcast to double speeds for the majority of existing high-speed Internet
customers at no additional cost.

“Wideband is a game-changer for the industry. With wideband running over our next-generation fiber-optic
network, we can greatly enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a
preview of what’s to come—wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speeds in
excess of 160 Mbps in the future,” said Mitch Bowling, SVP and General Manager, Comcast Online Services.
“Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to offer more speed to more homes than any other U.S.
Internet service provider.”

As part of the wideband deployment, Comcast will launch two new premium speed tiers to its residential and
business class customers. Both services are ideal for households or businesses simultaneously using several
computers or Internet-connected devices. They also will appeal to those who simply want some of the fastest
speeds available in the U.S. today:

New Residential Tiers
•Extreme 50, offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at
$139.95/month.*
•Ultra, offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at
$62.95/month.*

With Extreme 50, Comcast customers, for example, will be able to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about
16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter
of seconds. Customers with Extreme 50 also will be able to download digital photos, songs and games faster
than ever

Fearing that the system came as a bag of components, they were relieved to hear that it was actually a fully built and tested system. Fearing a white-box scenario where you have to add on your own OS, they again were happy to hear it comes with Windows XP Pro installed with the latest service pack—though it doesn't appear the game comes in the bundle. Ultra claims that the Optimized PC will run Crysis Warhead at the highest DX9 setting, at 30 frames per second, and that the game was actually "fine tuned" to work with Nvidia 9800 GT video card.

Pre-orders at TigerDirect.com start next week. Sounds like a sweet deal to me—even if you still have to buy the game and a monitor and speakers—but give me your thoughts... You buyin' this? [GameCyte]

Ever since the world caught wind of the Pure Digital Flip cam's success, super-cheap digital pocket camcorders have sprouted up everywhere. With everyone and their mother trying to become the next Lil Show Stoppa or Soulja Girl, people need a cheap and easy way to capture those magic moments. I tested six of these cams—from Creative, RCA/Audiovox, DXG and Pure Digital—all $180 or less. Here are samples of all of their videos in various conditions, and an overall look at how they stack up:

Video samples: I tested the camcorders in the three most common situations you'll use them for: indoors with full light, indoors with low light, and outdoors. In the videos, I stood in the same place with each camera. As you can see, different cameras capture different areas. Watch as these two goofballs get their line dance on and destroy the Great American Songbook, and you will easily spot the difference in quality between the recordings.

Indoor, full light:

Indoor, low light:

Outdoors:

The Runners-Up (in no particular order):

DXG 569-V HD: The best thing about this cam is that it looks very fancy. The worst thing is that it isn't. The DXG took the worst overall video of the bunch even though it claims to record in HD. Also, the 3 AAAs ran out after about 25 minutes of recording—I should've realized this would be a problem when I saw the unit came bundled with rechargeable batteries and a charger. Still, it's nice that it has a still camera option, and you could probably trick your friends into thinking you have a pricier Xacti for a minute.

Creative Vado: The Vado is the most non-descript camera of the bunch. Boring UI, crappy video quality and a plain outer shell make it a snoozer. However, it's about as thin as the Mino, very cheap and has no frills at all, making it a decent option for total luddites or technophobes.

RCA Small Wonder EZ210: I naturally gravitated to the EZ210 because of it's giant screen, big buttons, and retro look. Seriously, for all the tech inside, the camcorder looks like it was made in 1982. Even though the EZ210 is the most welcoming cam of the bunch, in the end it's about video quality and this one wasn't cutting it. It's a fair price, and I love the expandable memory, so it's a close 2nd place option.

RCA Small Wonder EZ200: The EZ200 is all over the map. After seeing the nice quality of the EZ210's daylight video, I was shocked to see how grainy and slow the EZ200's daylight footage was—it looked like an old-fashioned home film camera. Also, the flip out screen is hokey to me, but it's great for people who like to look at themselves while lipsynching to Mr. Roboto. Complaints aside, I was pleasantly surprised that the EZ200 took halfway decent low-light video. That plus the cheap price and expandable memory make this one a reasonable bet for a starter cam.

Flip Mino: The Mino is thin, has a great look and feel, and captures excellent video, but it's not the winner for a few reasons. Most importantly, it has a narrower-angled lens than just about every other camera in the test—I couldn't get my whole couch into the shot no matter how I tried. Also, the sound wasn't very good. Finally, this week I'm on the other side of the neverending rechargeable vs. AA debate, and between the Li-ion battery and non-upgradeable memory, the Mino is a little too closed for my tastes. However, if you're looking purely for video quality, Mino is a no brainer.

And the winner is...

Flip Ultra: Yes, the first is still the best, and there are good reasons why so many companies want to capture its success: The Ultra works, and it works well. Low light video is great, the camera feels good in your hand, and it's so simple that you could probably train your cat to record their own cute videos with it. The small screen is a drawback, but it captures a good chunk of space. The Ultra is the best value of the bunch when you consider the criteria, remaining the Cadillac of cheap pocket camcorders.

[Special thanks to the singers and dancers, who asked to be known as Rocko Money and Inter Minetti!!]

Flip Video Mino Camcorder Details:

* Amazingly thin, pocket-sized camcorder
* 40% smaller than Ultra Series. Dimensions : 4” x 2” x 0.6”. Weight: 3.3 oz.
* 2GB of on-board flash memory records up to 60 minutes of video
* Sealed, internal rechargeable lithium ion battery that recharges through built-in USB arm
* Flat back-panel with touch-sensitive buttons
* No Glare display screen (1.5”)
* TV quality video
* Instant playback, pause, fast forward/rewind, and delete features
* Available in black and white models
* Connects to TV for instant viewing
* Built-in high-speed software enables instant video sharing from any PC or Mac:
o Save and organize videos on computer
o Email videos and video greeting cards
o Publish videos instantly on video sharing sites like YouTube, MySpace, and AOL
o Capture still photos from video clips
o Create custom movies with your own music
o Make your own DVDs and have them shipped anywhere in the world

Camcorder Available June 5, 2008

Nationwide at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Circuit City, Costco.com, Sears, Target.com, TheFlip.com, Walmart.com, and other national retailers. Available at additional retailers Fall 2008.

Camcorder Suggested Retail Pricing:

60 minute model: $179.99

[Flip Video]

[Akihabara]

The Catch: Expect the 9800 GX2's 1GB frame buffer, two 65nm GPUs and 256 Stream processors to make this one seriously expensive graphics card. [[H] Enthusiast]

We all knew Beyoncé was fronting Samsung's Ultra Phone, and we all guessed that the dual-screen cell would probably come in red, white, and black (we were so thankful they nixed it in pink), but did we have a clue that it would come in juicy orange and fabulous electric blue? Nope, we'll freely admit that we didn't see that coming and we LOVE it. And yes, we are that shallow. – Ad Dugdale

Samung's Flagship Model Handset Ultra Music Phone [Aving News] via Ultra Music Phone in Colours [Techie Diva]

Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC coming at CeBit [UMPCNews]

The Ultra 5.9 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, 80MB of internal storage, tri-band, Bluetooth, and a media-player. It may not be a fancy smartphone that runs Windows Mobile, but it is 5.9mm thick, which counts for quite a bit. – Jason Chen

Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 [Kataweb (Cellularmania) via Mobile Mag]

While the write speed isn't as impressive as Sandisk's Ultra II SDHC high performance cards—clocking in at 9 MB/s—you get twice the capacity and nearly double the read speed for $70 less, at an MSRP of $149.99. – Matt Buchanan

Product Page [via CrunchGear]

Ultra LED Finger Lights [via The Red Ferret Journal]

Having taken the Lego philosophy of design to heart, Ultra Products is releasing a series of peripherals that stack on top of each other to form a tower of technology. Arrangeable in vertical (if you only have one) or horizontal positions, the bricks stack one on top of the other, leaving enough space so that each doesn't overheat and melt your data like day-old ice cream.

There are a few varieties available: USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure, USB 2.0/Firewire hard drive enclosure, eSATA/USB2.0 hard drive enclosure, USB 2.0 Hub, USB 2.0 hub/card reader, and a power supply to power all of them. They actually look nice when stacked, if you're into the Metal Gear Solid military black motif.

We hope these towers are secure, or else you may become trapped under a pile of USB card readers and Firewire enclosures for hours, having to drink your own urine and sweat to stay alive before someone finds you. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Ultra Products]