i was going to get the firewire ibot for 129.00 then i noticed they have the usb 2.0 ibot for 39.00 at circuit city (but i only have firewire on this comp i prefer it to usb 2.0)
so for 20 bucks more than the firewire ibot, i can get the isight
What if they added the ability to videoconference with like, a handful of people. Depending on how much bandwidth you had, you could select multiple members and their video shot would get smaller, ala The Brady Bunch. The audio could be combined so you would hear the entire room, but just watch enough people as your bandwidth allows. We could have a Party.
I thought about this too. Get a whole a bunch of monitors and put one person on each monitor. Then you can reenact scenes from the evil mastermind's secret later. "Gentlemen, tell me the news." Evil programmer, "Our software is ready and full of bugs, forcing the customers to buy upgrades for years."
somethinng like that would have been great for monday to stream the keynote oh well maybe in a few years... something like this will take a monster amount of bandwidth...
I tried to run my ZR50 with it this morning, but quickly discovered there's an issue with DV camcorders and G3-based Macs....iBooks especially. There's a technote about this issue....but no solution so far?
I got mine today. Shipped much faster than I expected, given that I chose free shipping (hey, I'm cheap; 'sides, California's evil tax balanced it out). Had I actually paid for faster shipping, I imagine it would've been here before even pressing confirm.
First thing: awesome packaging. The whole thing really has a 'gift set' feel to it, with fold-out boxes and panphlets galore. Come late August, actually, I bet Apple may begin a bit of a campaign with Mac users to buy these as off-to-college presents.
The PowerBook mount is a little odd. It doesn't comfortably pivot up and down, which can be pretty annoying, given that notebook users don't have the sort of flexibility in their screens that, say, iMac users do. When using my iCurve recipients to my video chat usually end up talking to my hair, so that's going to pose a problem or two.
Now, onto the camera itself. As Eugene said, the picture gets suspiciously crappy in low-light conditions, which is pretty odd, given that Jobs said that was one of the defining features that made iSight worth fifty bucks more than the iBot (in addition to 'emotional contact.' Or something.). Secondly, yes, it does get a bit hot, but it's nothing I'm not used to with my 800MHz Ti, especially since it's usually cranking away at Folding@home (with AltiVec optimizations turned on for additional egg-frying potential). I'm afraid to unplug it, actually, given the horror stories I've heard about FireWire 400's power/data criss-cross extravaganza of sparks and smoke.
And lastly, well, there's not a whole lot of people actually USING this functionality right now, and I'm talking about Mac users (let alone Windows users, whose absense places this firmly within the frivolity petting zoo that's home to such technologies as the dotMac Slide Show Screensavers). Let's pray that AOL gets that whole court thing straightened out, so that they can, um, copy Apple, without fear that Microsoft and Yahoo won't be buying their way to compatibility (as you may know, should AIM go multimedia, they must open their IM infastructure).
But yeah, this is a nice step. It's not exactly up to the standards of Telepathy, but then Gigawire doesn't look like it's getting any closer to release, now does it.
Er... this isn't really a sterling recommendation, Steve... do you regret having bought it?
Well, I haven't used it all that much, and that's kind of the biggest problem in and of itself: I don't have many friends that are Mac users.
If you don't use a laptop stand, it should be the perfect height. You shouldn't need to pivot it, because it will more or less be eye-level, or at least close enough so that when you have it full-screened, it won't matter.
Just make sure you have a lightbulb handy when you use this thing, though.But fact is, it gets so hot, I like to keep all controllable, heat-spewing light sources dead around here. We're using up enough juice on two air conditioners as it is. It's gorgeous when used outdoors, concidentally. Maybe it is dramatically better than the iBot, but, see, I have nothing to compare it to, since I've never used a webcam previously.
I don't regret my purchase, but then you may not be comfortable spending $150 on a peripheral that doesn't offer 110% satisfaction.
EDIT: Which would be less than a dollar for every percentage in it, to use Jaguar marketing logic.
Comments
i was going to get the firewire ibot for 129.00 then i noticed they have the usb 2.0 ibot for 39.00 at circuit city (but i only have firewire on this comp i prefer it to usb 2.0)
so for 20 bucks more than the firewire ibot, i can get the isight
Originally posted by Francisco_G
What if they added the ability to videoconference with like, a handful of people. Depending on how much bandwidth you had, you could select multiple members and their video shot would get smaller, ala The Brady Bunch. The audio could be combined so you would hear the entire room, but just watch enough people as your bandwidth allows. We could have a Party.
I thought about this too. Get a whole a bunch of monitors and put one person on each monitor. Then you can reenact scenes from the evil mastermind's secret later. "Gentlemen, tell me the news." Evil programmer, "Our software is ready and full of bugs, forcing the customers to buy upgrades for years."
Andrew
Originally posted by alcimedes
wtf, i can't buy from Smalldog becuase i'm not a Top Dog member, and i can't become one?
GRRRR
edit: and you do get an edu discount, depending on the what edu you work for.
Yeah, what's up with that? What company wouldn't want a sale? Luckily I'm a Top Dog member from a purchase a couple years ago.... it's weird.
1) There's no real on/off switch.
2) Left on, it gets ridiculously hot.
3) It's not that great in lowlight conditions.
Now I save money! Anyone caring give me your AIM or iChat ID....I want to try
damn, apple's gonna sell boatloads of these little doohickeys.
First thing: awesome packaging. The whole thing really has a 'gift set' feel to it, with fold-out boxes and panphlets galore. Come late August, actually, I bet Apple may begin a bit of a campaign with Mac users to buy these as off-to-college presents.
The PowerBook mount is a little odd. It doesn't comfortably pivot up and down, which can be pretty annoying, given that notebook users don't have the sort of flexibility in their screens that, say, iMac users do. When using my iCurve recipients to my video chat usually end up talking to my hair, so that's going to pose a problem or two.
Now, onto the camera itself. As Eugene said, the picture gets suspiciously crappy in low-light conditions, which is pretty odd, given that Jobs said that was one of the defining features that made iSight worth fifty bucks more than the iBot (in addition to 'emotional contact.' Or something.). Secondly, yes, it does get a bit hot, but it's nothing I'm not used to with my 800MHz Ti, especially since it's usually cranking away at Folding@home (with AltiVec optimizations turned on for additional egg-frying potential). I'm afraid to unplug it, actually, given the horror stories I've heard about FireWire 400's power/data criss-cross extravaganza of sparks and smoke.
And lastly, well, there's not a whole lot of people actually USING this functionality right now, and I'm talking about Mac users (let alone Windows users, whose absense places this firmly within the frivolity petting zoo that's home to such technologies as the dotMac Slide Show Screensavers). Let's pray that AOL gets that whole court thing straightened out, so that they can, um, copy Apple, without fear that Microsoft and Yahoo won't be buying their way to compatibility (as you may know, should AIM go multimedia, they must open their IM infastructure).
But yeah, this is a nice step. It's not exactly up to the standards of Telepathy, but then Gigawire doesn't look like it's getting any closer to release, now does it.
Originally posted by ColorClassicG5
Steve... do you regret having bought it?
Are you kidding me? That boy's bleeding money. He was just waiting for something like this to whip out the credit card for. Right, Steve?
Originally posted by ColorClassicG5
Er... this isn't really a sterling recommendation, Steve... do you regret having bought it?
Well, I haven't used it all that much, and that's kind of the biggest problem in and of itself: I don't have many friends that are Mac users.
If you don't use a laptop stand, it should be the perfect height. You shouldn't need to pivot it, because it will more or less be eye-level, or at least close enough so that when you have it full-screened, it won't matter.
Just make sure you have a lightbulb handy when you use this thing, though.But fact is, it gets so hot, I like to keep all controllable, heat-spewing light sources dead around here. We're using up enough juice on two air conditioners as it is. It's gorgeous when used outdoors, concidentally. Maybe it is dramatically better than the iBot, but, see, I have nothing to compare it to, since I've never used a webcam previously.
I don't regret my purchase, but then you may not be comfortable spending $150 on a peripheral that doesn't offer 110% satisfaction.
EDIT: Which would be less than a dollar for every percentage in it, to use Jaguar marketing logic.
SmallDog is one of the best Mac seller.