Amazon.com has a one-day sale on the Flip Mino HD in black finish, $119.99 while supplies last. Amazon says that this offer is only valid on December 16, 2009.

I gave Kathleen a Flip Mino HD just like this one last Christmas and she loves it. It has allowed us to quickly and easily shoot family videos in 720p. It makes a great companion to an iMac or a MacBook, especially if you don't have an iPhone 3GS.

The Flip Mino HD has a one-hour recording capacity. Flip now has a second generation Flip MinoHD Camcorder that records up to two hours of video. This is also a great choice, but the price difference between the Flip Mino HD and the second generation would make me think twice.

This is a good gift for someone with a fast laptop. The built-in software is a pretty good video clip manager and editor, especially if you use a PC. On my Mac, I use iMovie, which gives me enough control to produce video that's not boring to our family.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My son Jimmy found a Jakks / Namco Arcade Classics Plug and Play TV Games mini-console that I picked up at Target way back in 2003. He started playing Dig Dug on it and loves it.

This is a complete shock to me because I didn't know we had left this game in the TV stand below the DVD player and VCR.

I don't think that Jimmy fully understands nuances of the games like the ability to inflate the Dig Dug monsters until they pop. But that really didn't matter. The game's simple music and graphics were entertainment for him during a day when everybody else in the family was pretty sick.

I don't know why I was so amazed at the fidelity of iPhone app versions of some of these games to the original arcade games. Looking back at this little box that I paid $24.95 for back in December 2003, it demonstrates that these games can be produced to work well on a standard definition TV. These games can certainly be reproduced on the iPhone.

The price point that Jakks Pacific and Namco put this game at six years ago also foreshadows the prices that they would end up charging for games in the iTunes App Store. Pole Position Remix at $2.99 and PAC-MAN Lite (free) are both on the apps page where I keep most of my games.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's an article in Wednesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal called Falling Prices Starting to Hit Electronics Retailers. The article speaks of "... rapidly falling prices for televisions, computers and other gadgets that are adding to the woes of recession-scarred retailers."

Apparently there's been a 26.5-percent increase in television sales, but that occurred at the same time as the average selling price of televisions fell by 23.4 percent. A category this significant can't be a loss leader for companies like Best Buy.

Perhaps more ominous is the fact that I don't see a lot of people pushing flat screens on trollies in places like BJ's Wholesale Club. If these things were flying off the shelves, you'd think that thrifty people would be buying them at their local warehouse retailer.

I looked at the TVs at my local BJ's on Sunday and I wasn't impressed. For example, I could have had a Vizio 37-inch LCD for less than $550. The problem is that it's an old model, and on-line reviews complain about standard definition program rendering as well as startup speed issues. Maybe the manufacturers think that putting an older design in a warehouse club at an attractive price will entice people to buy. If that's the strategy, it didn't entice me.

Kathleen and I may be a bit unusual in the sense that we are holding on to our money with the hope that we can find a high performance 40-inch LCD sometime around Christmas at a great price, and we are fully prepared to wait until after December 25 to make the purchase.

What I'm looking for is a 37, 40, or 42-inch LCD that does 1080p at 120Hz or higher, renders 480, 720, and 1080 well, and has lots of inputs in the back. Will we get it? Who knows?

Is anybody else holding out for another price cut? If so, how much of a price cut would make you open your wallet?

What does it mean when publications start referring to price cuts of the nature we're seeing in the LCD television market right now "deflation"? Are we supposed to infer from the use of that term that prices are continuing to fall and not enough people are buying?

Isn't a 26.5 percent increase in flat screen sales volume enough for a year of economic mayhem? Apparently not, because electronics revenues at many retailers are down in spite of the increase in TV sales.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's an article from Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer about recent accidents between cyclists and pedestrians in Philadelphia that have resulted in deaths and serious injuries to pedestrians.

At least two Philadelphia residents died last month after cyclists hit them: Tom Archie, 78, who was struck by a bicyclist going the wrong way down a street in South Philadelphia, and Andre Steed, a 40-year-old paralegal, whom police found bleeding on the ground at 16th and Locust Streets after an apparent collision with a bike.

I love to ride and I'll take almost any opportunity to defend the right of cyclists to use the road. But riding against traffic on a one way street in the busy parts of a major city and hit-and-run cycling are indefensible.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to the Movable Type upgrade that I just performed, Operation Gadget can accept comments again.

Now all this site needs is a few timely posts....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Just in time for the 2009 Tour de France, Operation Gadget has updated one of its most popular articles of all time: The Tour de France on the iPhone. The article now includes the following topics:

• Twitter,
• Mobile Web Sites,
• Streaming Audio, and
• Streaming Video.

Check it out at http://www.operationgadget.com/2007/07/the_tour_de_france_on_the_ipho.html.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Stuart Tevendale from iSmartTrain and a couple of other readers have reported that there is a problem with posting comments in response to articles published on Operation Gadget at the moment.

This is a known problem that I will resolve as soon as I can. I am working on some critical issues at my full time job, so the fix may not happen for another couple of days.

I will keep you posted.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two years ago I reported on the Podcasts That Can Help You Follow the Tour de France. I thought that article provided a lot of good information, but it's dated now. I'm still listening to podcasts about the Tour, but there have been some changes in the providers and the content of their programs. I thought I'd revisit the issue and tell you which podcasts have been worth listening to so far this year:

1. ITV Tour de France Podcast (13-25 minutes): The granddaddy of them all has maintained its production values this year as well as last. Matt Rendell, Ned Bolting, and Chris Boardman analyze each stage. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen's race calls of the stage winner crossing the finish line are included in case you hadn't heard it.
   
   This podcast has interviews with leading riders, thanks to ITV's position as a Tour de France television rights holder for the UK.
   
   The analysis has been excellent, with minimal meaningless speculation. This podcast has been produced for three consecutive Tours and has come back each time on the same iTunes URL as it was on during the previous year.
   
   
2. Cyclingnews.com Tour de France Podcast (14-36 minute duration): Peter Cossins, Daniel Friebe and Richard Moore review and analyze each stage. These three men are journalists that come from a web or print background, rather than from television. As a result, they speak a bit less glibly than the ITV hosts.
   
   Cyclingnews clearly has less resources than ITV. Some of their episodes have had a great deal of background noise, as if they were recording in a café or wherever they had the space to set up their equipment. They have access to interview subjects, but often in less optimal situations than ITV. So their podcast must rise or fall on the basis of the strength of their analysis.
   
   I certainly think that the Cyclingnews podcast is worth listening to, but I would always play ITV's podcast first.
   
   
3. Bicycling Magazine Podcasts (6-34 minute duration) : Hosted by Loren Moony, Bill Strickland, and Joe Lindsey. This appears to be a fledgling effort. Although the analysis has been good, production quality has been generally bad, and they don't choose their conference call provider with an ear toward listenability. Also not produced on a daily basis. You never know when this podcast will have a new episode.
   

Missing this year are VeloNews and The Daily Tour Podcast from The FredCast. They produced useful podcasts during the Tour de France in recent years, not this time.

Producing an audio podcast is more difficult than it looks. I can't imagine doing it on a daily basis while covering a grueling event like the Tour. I think all of the three podcasts that I reviewed has provided some useful information. If I couldn't commit the time and had to pick only one, I'd be listening to ITV.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today I tweeted that I had found my Polar S625x and I was able to get it working with the speed and cadence sensors that are installed on my Trek 1500 before I rode it this morning.

This heart rate monitor is my favorite of all the models I've ever tested. The things I like most about it are its near indestructibility and its flexibility in that it works well in the three sports that I participate in most.

I started talking about the S625X on January 26, 2005, which means that I've been using it for over four years without a battery change or any service to the receiver. Over that time, I've ridden hundreds of miles on my bikes with the S625X strapped to the handlebars. I've also worn it during many hockey games, which is a great statement about its durability-- it's taken more than one direct hit from a puck.

The main claim to fame of the S625X is its support for running. This is accomplished through the use of a footpod which measures foot strikes and imputes distance traveled based on that. I don't care as much about accurate distance measurement when running as I do when cycling. I tend to run the same courses in training and measured distances in the 5 and 10k races that I run in from time to time.

The speed and cadence sensors for biking are simple to install and use. They simply measure how many times the front wheel and crank of my bike rotate by counting the number of times small magnets pass each of them. The sensors transmit their telemetry to the watch unit which acts as a receiver.

About all I can say that's truly negative about the Polar S625X is that the software that came with it, Polar Precision Performance Software Version 4 is out of date and only runs on Microsoft Windows. If you buy it now, you get newer software that's still Windows-only. I am hoping to start evaluating iSmartTrain from OTAG Technologies that provides similar functionality on Mac OS X, but I need to find the most compatible interface for it. iSmartTrain describes that as "a Polar IR-Serial interface and a USB-Serial converter".

I don't see the Polar IR-Serial interface on sale in a lot of places in the USA, so I'll have to ask where it can be purchased.

If you have any suggestions for where I can buy the IR-Serial interface, email me at daiello [at] operationgadget.com.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I got in a bit of an argument with a friend of mine the other day on Facebook. He believes that Lance Armstrong betrayed his teammate Alberto Contador on Stage 3 to Le Grande-Motte. This was the stage when Columbia HTC created a split in the peloton near the end of the stage by using basic racing tactics that took advantage of a strong cross wind.

Lance and Fabian Cancellara saw the move coming from Columbia and managed to stay with them. Armstrong ended up being the only General Classification threat in the break. Contador apparently missed the signs of the impending break and ended up finishing with the second group.

As a result, Lance picked up 41 seconds on all of the other GC men while Cancellara stayed in yellow for another day. Contador, Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre, and most other GC contenders lost the 41 seconds because they finished with the field.

The next day, during the Stage 4 Team Time Trial, we saw riders like Denis Menchov and Cadel Evans lose major time due to the bad performance of their teammates or basic bike handling mistakes that led to crashes.

Now after five stages Sastre is 2 minutes 44 seconds down, Evans is at 2:59, and Menchov is at 3:52. It's hard to believe that any of these great riders is going to get so far away from the peloton that they will be able to make up three or four minutes.

We can all draw our own conclusions about whether the riders who lost time in these cases should have known better or could have done something to avoid their losses. However, it's clear from the way this race has gone so far that this year's Tour de France may not be won in any one of the first few stages, but it can certainly be lost with a bad performance at a critical moment.

This sounds like a cliché, but it isn't always the case. If you look back to previous Tours in recent history, losing two or three minutes was not a problem at all. In 2001, François Simon had a lead of over 20 minutes after Stage 9, but he could not defend the lead in the Alps or the Pyrenées.

Gaps of 3 and 4 minutes are significant, in my opinion, when the people leading the race are credible threats to win the GC. In this year's Tour Armstrong, Contador, Andreas Klöden, and Levi Leipheimer are all within one minute of the lead. Perhaps a rider like Andy Schleck can make up his 1 minute 41 seconds. One of the top few riders is likely to win by not giving riders like Evans, Menchov, and Sastre the chance to make up their current time deficits.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)