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Pirate Bay sees 'Iron Man 2' ahead of U.S. debut

With the North American debut of "Iron Man 2" still five days away, scores of pirated copies of the comic-flick began popping up online this weekend.

The film, starring actor Robert Downey Jr., generated a whopping $100 million in ticket sales this weekend in its overseas debut, according to Reuters. Apparently, among the millions of International moviegoers to see the film were some hiding handheld cameras.

At The Pirate Bay on Sunday evening, there were dozens of copies of the Paramount Pictures' film available for download. According to comments by users, the copies available were recorded by people … Read more

First Take: Sony Handycam DCR-SR68

The Sony Handycam DCR-SR68 is the 2010 refresh of 2009's SR67, which was the same as the SR47 we reviewed, but with a larger hard drive. The 60x optical zoom and imaging sensor are carried over from those models, so we expect the video quality of the SR68 to be essentially the same.

The upgrades include a higher resolution touch-screen LCD, the ability to store to Memory Sticks or SD/SDHC cards when not using the hard drive, and an LED video light.

CNET is currently testing the Sony Handycam DCR-SR68 and will have a full review completed shortly. … Read more

Kodak PlaySport Quick Take

Kodak has done very well with its Zi8 pocket camcorder, which features 1080p video capture and electronic image stabilization. Now the company is bringing those same features to a rugged, waterproof pocket camcorder called the PlaySport Zx3.

The PlaySport carries a retail price of $149.99 but will ship with virtually no memory (you have to supply an SD card). Like the Zi8, you'll be able capture "HD" video in 1080p or 720p, shoot 5-megapixel still images, and easily share your creations on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. However, what's interesting about the PlaySport is that you … Read more

When to buy a camera--and when to wait

With spring here and summer around the corner, there are plenty of reasons--graduations, weddings, vacations, outdoor events, and reunions--to invest in a new digital camera. It's understandable that you'd want to rush out and get something that's faster, or has a longer or wider lens, or has better photo or video quality--simply put, a model that will hopefully get you that shot you can't get with your current shooter. However, right before a big event is one of the worst times to buy a camera.

Regardless of professional reviews, your past history with a manufacturer's … Read more

Worst-kept secret: New Flip Video SlideHD hits stores

If you've been reading any of the gadget blogs lately, you're probably already aware that Flip Video has a new pocket camcorder called the SlideHD. The new product was leaked last week by a Best Buy employee in advance of its official April 13 launch (it also didn't help that Best Buy was selling the camcorder before it was officially supposed to launch).

Anyway, the SlideHD is here, and it represents an interesting move for the company, which is now owned by Cisco. Instead of adding more shooting features, a wireless option, or releasing a lower-priced model, Flip has gone with a camcorder that adds more playback features, thanks to a generous 3-inch wide-screen touch-enabled LCD that "slides" up at angle. The $279 SlideHD also comes with 16GB of internal memory, which allows you to capture up to 4 hours of HD video; that's double the storage capacity of previous Flip models.

In shifting to a touch screen, Flip has reduced the number of hard buttons. Like you do with a lot of other mobile video devices and smartphones, you control the camcorder by touching virtual buttons onscreen and play back content by simply touching its thumbnail image. In our early tests with the SlideHD, we found the screen to be responsive, but it doesn't have that buttery smooth responsiveness of the iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch third generation, or the iPad, all of which have capacitive touch screens. Also, though the screen resolution is fairly sharp, it's not on par with the resolution of Apple's portable devices or Microsoft's Zune HD.

Why did Flip decide to go in this direction? Well, company reps informed us in a meeting last month that its customers told them they wanted to be able to shoot and store a lot of videos (and snapshots) on the device, then be able to share them with friends and family on the road without hooking the device up to a TV or computer. Fair enough.

To accommodate this new vision, not only has Flip preloaded its user-friendly FlipShare software onto the camcorder, but it's also added Flip Channels to the device itself, which allows you to synchronize and store video that others have shared with you. Since that video is compressed for sharing, you can actually store up to 16 hours of videos from your Flip Channels right on the SlideHD.

"It's like having your own portable life book for spontaneous viewing anywhere," Flip says in its marketing materials. "SlideHD's 3-inch wide-screen playback makes it ideal for many occasions such as entertaining the kids with their own personal video show or fine-tuning a tennis serve."

Alas, you can't store any other kind of video on your Flip (it doesn't play back AVI files, for example). And those of you comparing features with competing models like Kodak's Zi8 should take note that Flip decided not to add a macro mode (for close-ups), an expansion slot for additional memory, some form of image stabilization, or an input for an external microphone. In fact, we were told that aside from added memory, the technical specs of the SlideHD were essentially identical to the company's popular Ultra HD model, which retails for about $100 less.

In terms of design, what's interesting is that the because the camcorder has two-tone coloring (white/silver), when you look at it in profile it seems bigger than the Ultra HD, when the two models are actually the same size. (Both the first and second-generation versions of the Mino HD are more compact).

Product specs:… Read more

Get a Sanyo 720p camcorder for $149.99

Remember the Sanyo Xacti 1080p camcorder deal I posted last week? At $380, it was probably cost a little more than what most folks wanted to spend. Now I have a much  cheaper deal that might be Xacti what you're looking for--sorry for the pun. OK,  no I'm not.)

Geeks.com has the Sanyo Xacti VPC-ZH1 720p camcorder for $149.99. That is after applying coupon code ZH1R at checkout and adding about $11 for shipping to the cost.

This deal came to my attention on Friday, so there's a good chance it will sell … Read more

Canon's first flash pro camcorders debut

When Canon announced its first pro MPEG-2 codec last February, it was obvious the company was finally readying solid-state products for its professional camcorder line, and, sure enough, the company followed up with a couple of models to supplement/replace its two-year-old HDV models, the XH G1S and XH A1S. The new CompactFlash-friendly XF300 and XF305 offer more compact, but heavier, redesigned bodies with some vastly improved features.

Of course, the main attraction is the move to CompactFlash--they support UDMA--with dual slots. (There's an SDHC slot on the bodies, but that's probably just for transferring settings.) The new … Read more