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Maybe it's just me, but it seems every other week someone's releasing a new "SmartPhone" that's going to change the way you do business as a mobile professional. But in my opinion, when you peel back that slick new protective plastic and fire it up it's the same old thing. No new killer apps, nothing really new as far as functionality or capability, and more often than not each new "exclusive release" seems to have more bugs than your local landfill on a hot summer day.

How long have they been making "Smartphones" now anyway? Well, to be honest, that I don't really know. I can tell you this, my first Smartphone was a Kyocera QCP6035 that I picked up in 2000 or early 2001. I can't remember for sure, as I think I might have killed those brain cells banging my head on my desk while trying resolve the plethora of issues I've been having with the latest generation of Smartphones. Either way, I'm pretty sure it was one of the first available and can remember how giddy I was to be able to toss my cell and my Palm Pilot for one device.

If you have a PSP and aren't using its video playback capabilities other than via UMD, you're missing out on one of its best features. The PSP can basically serve as your personal wide-screen video player, which comes in quite handy for those who travel frequently. A 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card can hold several hours of good quality video and still have room for your music, pics, etc.

The only problem with this is that the PSP is very finicky with regard to MP4 files. It'll balk on image sizes, frame rates, bit rates, file names, file locations, and just about anything else you can think of. And to top it all off, each firmware release for the PSP seems to handle things differently. But then again, I suppose if it were a simple standard process that remained consistent, Sony wouldn't be able to market and sell software to manage this process for you (a.k.a. PSP Media Manager).

A few weeks ago, I signed up for Amp'd Mobile service, and shortly thereafter received my new Kyocera Jet multimedia phone via FedEx. I was immediately very impressed with the look, size and form factor. I've always been a flip man, but I'm very keen on this slider from Kyocera.

The new OS is very cool, user friendly, and customizable. The Amp'd multimedia service is pretty sweet, effectively replacing my previous phone, mp3 player, and even the game system for short trips, etc. The microSD capability adds even more value, as you can simply transfer your existing content from the PC using the provided SD adapter. It should be noted that you cannot transfer purchased music from iTunes to the device or card as it is protected; however, you can rip CD tracks all day long or transfer other unprotected content (music, vids, images) - supports mp3, aac, mp4, 3gp, 3g2, m4a, and m4b file types.

Hard to believe that next week's 2011 LEVA Training Conference is already upon us. I'll be out in Coeur d'Alene all next week, and I'll be giving a presentation on the AVI file format and VirtualDub at the conference late Thursday afternoon. There are tons of great training sessions going all week long. Hope to see you there!

As some of you may know, we've been upgrading the Media-Geek community over the last few weeks; thank you for your patience during this process.  Most of the heavy lifting is done, and what we're left with is a faster, more secure, and more accessible community resource.  It's even easier to view and contribute to our community, and now you can access it all securely via your favorite mobile browser!

Log-in today and check it out, then invite your colleagues to do the same.  Thanks for participating!

The first episode of DMEpod will be released in just a few weeks and we want to feature you, your story, your case, your agency, your event, or your products! As a matter of fact, we'd love to have you host an episode! DMEpod will be a monthly (maybe, sort of, kind of, best effort...) video podcast covering the people, products, processes, training, news and events relating to the forensic multimedia community. (*Whew*)

DMEpod will be available for free via the iTunes podcast library; those that don't use iTunes will be able to subscribe via RSS right through our site. Furthermore, each episode will be posted to Google Video, YouTube, blip.TV and of course the Media-Geek.com video library.

Some more offline comments and testing recently have raised a critical issue; the use of Square Pixel Sampling and Non-Square Sample Formats. Before that though, let's talk about validation testing. When we get to this level of detail especially, it is important to validate our processing, tools, and complete process. Correcting Aspect Ratio is certainly no exception. In fact, I think we would all agree that when this level of detail really matters, you must validate. Lots of great resources out there about that topic.

January was quite a month for technology enthusiasts, with MacWorld and CES showcasing tons of cool new gear and promising much more in the coming months. Video is taking center stage in 2007, as manufacturers and service providers dump research and development money into video like never before. While some of the major players are still sticking to their proprietary guns, it's refreshing to see that at least a few are doing the exact opposite.

Microsoft, in partnership with the New York City Police Department, is announcing a new state-of-the-art law enforcement technology called Domain Awareness System. The said system is designed to bring the latest crime prevention and counter terrorism technology capabilities to New York City and to other law enforcement, and intelligence agencies around the world sometime in the future.

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Adobe has announced a new suite of mobile applications for content creators that will allow users to do graphical work on tablet devices like the iPad. Adobe is also launching a new Web service called Adobe Creative Cloud that can be used to sync and share content between devices.

Full Story

Wow. Very, very cool device. Apple's innovation continues to blow away their competition by leaps and bounds, and you can bet that the iPhone will be one of, if not the, hottest tech gadget(s) of 2007. A must have though? Well, no, not from a business productivity standpoint. But with the introduction of Mac OS X in the mobile device marketplace I'm quite certain Windows, Palm, and RIM are not feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Disappointed by the lack of support for multiple displays and OpenCL in embedded GPUs these days? Then AMD may have just made your day. It's just debuted its new "desktop level" Radeon E6760 discrete GPU, which packs both OpenCL support and Eyefinity-enhanced support for no less than six independent displays. 

Full story:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/amd-debuts-first-embedded-gpu-with-support-for-opencl-and-six-di/&category=classic&icid=eng_latest_art

I've had a handful of inquiries this week about the frequency of our relatively new automated newsletter, so I thought I'd post a brief note for everyone on the topic.  The automated newsletter sends the five most recent articles and five most recent forum posts out to registered members once per week, once every two weeks or once per month.  Members can change these settings or completely unsubscribe from the newsletter by logging in selecting "Newsletter" from the "Community" menu options.

The automated newsletter was implemented to help keep members abreast of site activity.  Changing your preferences is easy and only needs to be done once.  I hope you find the service helpful. - LC