Hasta La Gadget!

An image of the FlipLive, the camcorder Flip was going to reveal April 13. Photo: Gizmodo

Cisco axed the Flip business division just a day before it was supposed to debut a live-streaming Flip camcorder.

Called the FlipLive, the camera would have been able to stream video to Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail a link to a real-time video feed, using Wi-Fi. Gizmodo got exclusive access to images of the device, which sports the Flip’s signature candy bar design.

Live-streaming content used to only be available to big-budget news teams with large, satellite-laden trucks. Today, most smartphones and tablets are equipped with cameras, making it dead simple to upload media to the cloud.

But live-streaming continues to be a bit more of a hassle, requiring a smartphone, a hefty data plan and an app for broadcasting live video such as Ustream. Combine this with the unreliability of U.S. 3G networks, and it makes live-streaming a pretty difficult feat.

FlipLive, which relies on Wi-Fi rather than 3G or 4G services, sounds like it could have been a pretty cool gadget, providing kids, soccer moms and citizen journalists with a simple way to deliver live footage to an audience for a low price. But alas, it will probably never see the light of day.

On Tuesday, Cisco officially shut down the Flip camera business. Blame for Flip’s demise has been placed on both Cisco, who purchased Flip maker Pure Digital in 2009, and on the the rise of the smartphone. Rumors of a Wi-Fi-enabled version had been floating around since late 2009, but nothing ever surfaced (until now).

Reportedly, 550 employees will be laid off with the Flip business’ closing.

Exclusive Images of FlipLive /the Giz

Get all Cecil B. DeMille with the Handy Cropper

The Handy Cropper is two things in one. First, it’s a 35mm-shaped frame which will let you size-up a photographic composition without even having to lift a camera to your eye. Second, it is a lovely piece of photo nerd jewelry, thanks to the color-coordinated frames and straps.

Made in Korea by Etsy maker Mijonju, the Handy Cropper also comes in a square version for 6×6 film cameras, or any digicam that can switch formats. Available in three Hammerite-esque finishes — green, yellow and red — each frame comes with a matching leather neck-strap which has been tied with a knot that looks like barbed wire.

And unlike the DIY version (an old slide mount), this one comes with lines on the thirds to make composing easier.

Why bother with such a thing when we have live screens? Because it is way easier to check framing with something so small and, well, so handy. The alternative is to make a frame from your fingers and thumbs, but unless you are wearing a beret and sporting a waxed mustache than you’re going to look like something of a douche (come to think of it, if you are wearing a beret and a waxed ’stache, you’re also going to look like a douche).

The Handy Cropper is currently sold out in 35mm format, but can still be had in 1×1 (or 6×6, or whatever). Prices are $49 and $61 respectively.

35mm Cropper [Etsy via DIY Photography]
6×6 Cropper [Etsy]

The retro-looking Flip Mino from 2008 contained 2 GB of memory for storing up to one hour of video. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Cisco is shutting down a business unit that it bought for over half-a-billion dollars: the Flip camcorder division.

That’s a shame, considering how high the Flip was flying a few short years ago. It’s also a waste, considering that Cisco bought Flip from Pure Digital only two years ago for a cool $590 million. But Cisco probably had to act fast, because its earnings fell 18 percent in the second quarter of 2011, and CEO John Chambers had to show he was doing something decisive to stanch the flow.

It’s not like the Flip was doing that well of late. When was the last time you saw someone actually using one of these low-quality, “good-enough” Flips? Probably about two years ago.

Just what murdered those cheap, adorable camcorders? The obvious culprit is the general-purpose smartphone. When iPhones and Android phones began shipping with decent cameras for shooting stills, the Flip seemed excessive. When phones got HD video recording, the Flip was downright redundant.

But the smartphone wasn’t the sole cause of the Flip’s fate. The Flip would still be around if Cisco had bothered at all to adapt to the market. After all, there are plenty of camera businesses like Canon that are still alive and well.

Here are a few reasons why the Flip flopped.

Smarter General-Purpose Devices

Let’s get the obvious reason out of the way first. When Steve Jobs introduced the camera-equipped iPod Nano in 2009, he made it clear that the Flip budget camcorder was Apple’s primary target.

“We want to get in on this,” said Jobs regarding the budget-camera industry, while showing a slide of the Flip at the 2009 iPod event.

Why buy a cheap camcorder if you could buy an iPod Nano that shot video, too? In addition to the Nano, Apple had already released the iPhone 3GS, also capable of capturing standard-definition video.

Eventually, a slew of Android smartphones also shipped with video-capable cameras, and so did Apple’s iPod Touch. The iPhone 4 and others brought HD video recording to smartphones, eliminating the Flip’s last possible advantage. Suddenly, the notion of carrying around a cheap camcorder in addition to a general-purpose smartphone or iPod seemed impractical — extra bulk in your pocket. A slew of general-purpose devices made the Flip irrelevant.

The Shift to Real-Time Social Networking

The Flip probably wouldn’t have been murdered so easily if Cisco had caught on to something that’s been trendy for years: real-time social networking. To make that work, the Flip would have required an internet connection.

You’d think that would be an easy addition, considering that Cisco is a networking company.

After Apple released the video-equipped iPhone 3GS, Cisco should’ve quickly shipped a Wi-Fi–enabled Flip for customers to immediately shoot and post media on social networking sites such as Flickr and YouTube.

Instead, existing Flip camcorders require a wired connection to a PC in order to transfer the files and upload them to a website. That’s old-school, PC-centric social networking. These days, people like to share their media wherever they are, when it’s happening. Because the Flip lacked a wireless connection to the internet, this was another reason to just buy a smartphone.

Here’s where the Flip had a chance to survive. Kids love social networking and sharing pics and video, and they can’t afford smartphone plans. An affordable, cheap camera with an internet connection would’ve been pretty compelling.

Furthermore, Flip customers didn’t particularly have anywhere they belonged to feel special. Cisco could’ve bolstered an internet-enabled Flip with a unique social network made just for Flip users.

To be fair, evidence shows Cisco was trying to ship a Wi-Fi–enabled Flip, but it moved too slowly. At this point, smartphones are already too far ahead, with popular social media apps such as Instagram and Ustream making them even cooler.

No Compelling High-End Option

Cisco’s line of “high-end” Flip products are yawn-inducing. The high-end Slide HD ($230) includes 16 GB of storage, 720p video and 2x video zoom. For the same price, a low-end iPod Touch includes 8 GB of storage, 720p video, an internet connection and access to hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store. Which would you choose?

If Cisco had focused on optimizing the high end of its Flip camera line, it would’ve offered a compelling reason to buy a Flip versus a smartphone or iPod.

Imagine a high-end Flip with a Wi-Fi or 3G internet connection, 1080p video, a decent zoom lens, and a touchscreen with apps made just for Flip video and photo. A solid, premium multimedia device would’ve enabled Flip to stand out among the “jack-of-all-trades” multifunction devices out there.

But alas, the Flip is dead. RIP, Flip.

Eye-Fi's new Mobile X2 will beam photos direct to your iPad

Eye-Fi has launched yet another Wi-Fi SD card to coincide with the debut of Direct Mode, which is probably the most exciting thing to happen to SD cards since Eye-Fi first started putting tiny radios in them in the first place.

(Head over to our products site to see our exclusive review of the new Mobile X2 card.)

Direct Mode, first seen in a demo at CES in Las Vegas this January, turns the card into a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi access point. Thus, your iPad, iPhone or any other device can connect to it directly. This lets you beam your photos direct from the camera to the iDevice using Eye-Fi’s iApps.

Previously, doing this required a jailbreak and some third party software, and even then it didn’t work reliably.

Direct Mode will be available as a free firmware upgrade to existing X2 cards sometime in the next week. The new Mobile X2 comes pre-installed with Direct Mode and 8GB memory for $80, and you can pre-order it now.

You may want to think twice before hitting the “order” button, though, as the Eye-Fi Pro has just dropped in price to $100, and for the extra $20 you get RAW support, geo-tagging and hot-spot access. I don’t use my Eye-Fi Pro often as it drains the camera’s battery and the geo-tagging function is horribly clunky. I might just dust it off with this update, though.

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 [Eye-Fi]

See Also:

• Eye-Fi ‘Direct Mode’ Send Photos Direct to iPad
• The Eye-Fi Pro and the iPad? Forget About it
• ShutterSnitch and Eye-Fi: Wireless Camera Tethering for iPad …
• ShutterSnitch Beams Photos from Camera to iPad

We can’t say we’re pleased that camera makers still haven’t called an armistice in their megapixel war, but a race for the speediest memory card is one battle we can get behind. Delkin says its 32GB Elite 633 SDHC is the fastest in the world, with 80MBps and 95MBps write and read speeds, respectively, handily trumping Sony’s new Memory Sticks that so recently impressed us. This card’s ideal for people who shoot gobs of 1080p video, 3D movies, and high-resolution shots coupled with RAW files, but with a price of $440, it’s only worth it for pros. And debutants.

Delkin Elite 633 claims to be the fastest SDHC card with 80MBps write speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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