I had the chance to borrow a Flip Video Ultra over the weekend and I’m really impressed with this little video camera. It’s really easy to use but it’s strength is in how small/handy it is and also how easily you can get videos online. Here’s a brief review I did of the Flip Ultra with the Flip Ultra:

Being busy with work is great (particularly when you’re self employed as I am) but when you’re trying to keep a blog up it gets tough to maintain sometimes. Last week there were some things I wanted to mention but didn’t take the time to, so here are three things I’ve been meaning to post over the last several days…

Thank you PRSA Nashville. Last week I had the opportunity to be on their panel discussion about social media and it was a lot of fun. It was interesting to hear what some companies are doing in social networking but there were also traces of the old thinking when one person commented that her organization doesn’t allow blogging. I got the sense that she was not a fan of that particular policy but she’s not in a position to do much about it. I would name the organization here…but that would give them further reason to dislike blogs, so I won’t. It was a good reminder that there’s still a lot of understanding needed for all the social media but what I’m seeing now is that even the staunchest of holdouts from a year ago are finally realizing that the new media isn’t a fad and is actually changing media as a whole.

Google Maps has street level views in Nashville now. Google announced last week that Nashville is one of thirteen new cities with the street view. I wasn’t familiar with what Google Maps is doing to get actual images from the street level for major cities around the country until an episode of The New Mediology when Nathan told me about it. Since then I’ve wondered when Nashville was going to get it, and wouldn’t you know it just launched last week. It’s very cool. [HT to Rex Hammock for this.]

Adobe launched a free, online version of Photoshop last week called Photoshop Express. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Photoshop Express but haven’t yet had a chance to play with it. My guess is the people who didn’t use Photoshop previously will like it whereas all the designers who are familiar with the software will recognize any limitations it may have. Adobe is positioning it as a lighter-weight version of Photoshop so you have to expect it won’t do everything the software does but you sure can’t beat the price. [HT to Steve Nesmith for sending me an email about this a few days ago.]

When I was asked to review flauntR recently I was skeptical because it seems like there are a ton of these kinds of things out now and none of them have impressed me in what they deliver as much as my personal favorite online photo editor, Picnik. I have been a huge Picnik fan for quite a while and it’s even one of my top five web applications so here’s the most objective review I can provide…just thought I should say all of this up front.

FlauntR (yes, they are very web 2.0ish by dropping a vowel) is a free, web based photo editing application. It offers six tools that they refer to as:

• stylR - Puts your image in a virtual picture frame of various designs from which to choose.
• editR - Basic photo editing tool for resizing, cropping, effects, etc.
• textR - Shapes, graphics, and text additions for the photo.
• picasR - Image effect tool to modify the image in a color scheme and style like well known paintings
• profilR - Sizes your image based on the dimensions of many social media site specifications.
• mobilR - Sizes your image for your particular cell phone/mobile device specifications.

Conclusion: After playing around with flauntR I’m not convinced that it’s better than Picnik. The site seems much slower slower than Picnik and the overall design and function isn’t nearly as clear and intuitive either. Needless to say I won’t be leaving Picnik for flauntR.

FlauntR does do a few things well though. Its profilR and mobilR tools are pretty cool and could be quite handy when you want to create a quick profile image of yourself on just about any social media or social networking site. They seem to have many of them covered (though they’re missing Twitter) and I can really see the benefit of this rather than looking up the specs for a particular profile picture you’re ready to change. Likewise, mobilR would be a good tool as long as your particular phone is in their database. They currently have a large selection of LG, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry, Motorola, Samsung, and Nokia phones.

The picasR tool is fun to play with and might be helpful if you find the right painting style for a picture you want to modify. The stylR tool isn’t for everyone. I’m not a fan of it personally but I think the folks who send ecards and include animated GIFs in their emails will enjoy it.

Bottom line: flauntR isn’t the best out there but has some features worth noting. It’s still in alpha so the speed and usability issues may improve over time. If so, flauntR could be supR. If not, it might be a stinkR.

I took a little different route today on a tech review and decided to use the actual tool for the review itself. This new tool is called Sketchcast and is an online whiteboard with an optional audio recording feature. I’ve embedded my review below or you can click the link to check it out.

Link for the feed readers:
http://sketchcast.com/view/0e75T59