Angus Farquhar, Online Video Producer

LG has launched a whole host of home appliances at the IFA electronics show in Berlin so Which? went along to take a look. First up is the Sani-punch vac attatchment which vibrates dirt and mites out of fabric, then there’s the Solar Cube with added steam cooking and the 11kg washing machine which can take the biggest load in a standard sized chassis. Get the full details and more reports athttp://www.which.co.uk/ifa2009

Panasonic has launched the thrid in its Micro FOur THirds camera lineup at the IFA electronics show in Berlin. The ‘Rangefinder’ style camera comes witha built in flash (unlike the Olympus Pen) but has now viewfinder, only records 720p HD video and has no external mic input.

Samsung has launched it’s new 200Hz 8000 series TVs at the IFA show in Berlin and Which? went along to take a closer look at the super slim displays. Get all the details on the new TV athttp://www.which.co.uk/tvs

Samsung has launched two new cameras at the IFA electronics show in Berlin. The ST550 gets an LCD display on the front for self portraits while the ST1000 gets three different wireless sending options and GPS built in. Get more details on both cameras at http://www.which.co.uk/digitalcameras

Sansung has finally launched the long awaited i7500 Galaxy mobile phone at the IFA show in Berlin. The new smartphone is the first non-HTC Google Android based phone and its the smallest yet but still boasts a 3.2 inch touchscreen. Get all the details at http://www.which.co.uk/mobilephones

We went along to the launch of the Sony Alpha 230 DSLR to find out just what makes the new digital camera a good choice for people wanting to make their first jump up to a digital SLR. Get all the…

Canon invited us down to their showroon to take a look at their first touchscreen camera, the Ixus 200 IS and see its little brother the Ixus 120 IS.
Check out all of the latest camera reviews at…

We take a look at the new version of Dyson’s revolutionary handheld vac, the DC31. Get all the latest product reviews at http://www.which.co.uk

We went along to the launch of the new Canon G11 and S90 Powershot cameras, the successors to the very popular G10 camera, to see why a drop in megapixels could lead to a better camera. Get all the latest camera reviews at http://www.which.co.uk/digitalcameras

Bikecar - odd name, great film

With a bit of spare time on my hands I was browsing the on-demand video this evening and a very strange title caught my eye - ‘Bikecar’.

I read the summary and it sounded vaguely interesting so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m glad I did because it is a really great film.

Basically, it seams film-maker/snowboarder JT Fountain decided to build a pedal powered car (roof, trailer and all), pick up three of his mates and cycle/drive 900 miles to snowboard all the best peaks in four different states.

It’s low budget and really basic, but the sory is great and the guys are real characters. Definately an inspiring film for any budding videographers.

The trailer below isn’t the best ,but if you get a cance to watch the film then take it.

Which? takes a look at the new Windoes Mobile smartphone from Toshiba that boasts a massive touch screen and a 1GHz processor. Get all the latest mobile phone reviews at…

The Giga Juke system from Sony is a one-stop solution for your music needs, not just in your living room, but all around your home. We take a look to see how well it works. Get the full review and…

Newspaper video up 1500%

Well it looks like we’ve got some good news for a change with recent data from video service provider Brightcove showing the number of videos uploaded to newspaper websites grew by a massive 1500% in the last year.

In an article on Mediapost.com, Brightcove claims that after looking at 187 of the US newspaper sites it serves video for, video uploads “grew from an average of 186 per month to 638 in 2008.”

And even better, Brightcove claims that most companies are managing to monetise the content with advertising.

Lets hope that media companies can take full advantage of the opportunity and use this growth to help them through this difficult market rather than shying away from all things new/digital and retreating to ‘core products’ as has often been the case recently.

Posted by Angus Farquhar (09/04/09 - 18:11)

G20 protests - Citizen video from the thick of the action

With the G20 protests taking place just a few miles from where I work and my cycle route home taking me directly past them, I have been lapping up all the media coverage of the events, both official and unofficial. But once again it wasn’t the mainstream media that gave me the best look at what was gong on down there.

Several times on the BBC News Channel I saw the same footage of a guy jeering at the police with blood running down his face. It did look disturbing in it’s own right, but it was twitter that brought me the other side of the story with a Tweet from @CurrentUK.

The article on Current.com didn’t provide all the news but acted as a channel for people to post what they could see was happening.

So amidst all the personal accounts from both sides of the fence comes two amazing peices of video from right in the thick of things that capture exactly what happened before and after the guy was struck by the police (warning: clips contain very strong language and violence) .

Now I will admit that the BBC reporters were in the crowd at the protests and did get some good footage but the best way to get the full picture was to see through the eyes of the protesters themselves.

Published by Angus Farquhar (02/04/09 - 13:49)