A heads-up – don’t buy from Arnold Clark. Here’s why…
Long story short: bought a Ford S-Max last year from the Arnold Clark Ayr Peugeot branch – only my third car and first time in buying from a dealership. Now the S-Max Zetec was coming in at around £12,000 which was in the price range (we needed a seven seater as the wife was expecting our third child) and the reviews were fairly positive.

So goes down to Ayr, likes the car. It had a few minor issues which the salesman, Keith Mackay, assured me would be sorted. I say I’ll take it and that I’ll have rear parking sensors installed so I leave a deposit, have the full payment made at another branch (don’t live anywhere near Ayr so it’s a pain to go to and fro) and await the call that the car is ready.

Get the call, head down, Keith gives me the keys and heads back in to the storeroom. I’m about to drive off when the wife points out that the paintwork hasn’t been touched up (there were some marks and Keith had said they would be fixed) and the daughter points out that there are old sweets stuck to parts on the interior and the car hasn’t been properly cleaned. There’s also no manual or second key and the driver’s armrest is broken.

Speaks to Keith about these – quite disappointed that the car isn’t good to go – and he says to make an appointment to get these issues sorted. It’s not until we get home that we notice the cover for the back luggage area is missing (meaning people can see everything that’s in our boot) so we have to arrange to get one from another Arnold Clark.

Drive about a bit, everything seems fine (the car itself is very good. The compartments under the floor aren’t great storage space and there’s issues with affixing iso-fix for baby carseats but it’s a decent car and I’d suggest one to anybody with three kids or two kids and wanting a chunk of boot space.)

So, tries to get the car fixed which takes longer than expected (the joys of a newborn, a toddler and self-employment) as I can’t get down to Ayr and also, there’s not many days my family can be without it. During this time, Arnold Clark send me a second key but a gaffe at the post office means it’s returned to them.

During this time the reversing sensor starts to play up – it bleeps when there’s nothing behind me (for proof, see this video) and the car starts to tell me that the alarm system needs serviced – despite me being assured the car had been fully serviced.

Eventually, finds a date that works for everyone and Arnold Clark tell me that I have to take the car to the Rutherglen branch first of all to fix part of the problems and then take it down to Ayr (and no, they won’t cover the petrol costs).

I take it to Rutherglen (cracking roll and sausage in their canteen) and then down to Ayr – though Rutherglen couldn’t work out why they weren’t asked to do all the work as it was stuff their managed said they could do no problems at all.

So takes it to Ayr, gets the patter from Keith again (who, in fairness has always been polite and courteous) and leaves the car with them while I head off for some food and to get work done nearby. Come back at the end of the day only to discover that while they have fixed the reversing issue and serviced the alarm, the arm rest is still not fixed and will need parts ordered in (yes, I don’t know why it wasn’t ordered in either).

Arnold Clark then offer – after some prompting from me – to send it to a nearer branch, which is fine. So I drive off, thinking – ONE YEAR ON – that the end is in sight.

Two days later, the car alarm system starts telling me again that it needs serviced. Then, when I throw the car into reverse, the sensor stays on. And on. And on. Despite nothing being behind me.

At first I was ready to try and put up with it, but as someone pointed out to me “you had the sensors put in for a reason – to help maximise the safety of people around you and as you do the school run, you know what kids are like at the back or cars.” Aside from that, I asked them to be put in for a reason and if they don’t do that job then surely Arnold Clark should remove them?

So I started emailing Ayr and also mentioned the issue to Ford Social Media boss Scott Monty at an event who was pleased I liked the car but rightly pointed out that Ford had no control over where their cars end up in the resale chain (and he’s right. I was just venting as I was so pissed off.)

Anyway Arnold Clark have now come back and said pretty much “we’ll fix the armrest. Tough on the reversing alarm and the car alarm system. You’re well past the warranty”. And I am. But if they had done the proper job the first time, I wouldn’t be bothering them. I’ve got enough on my plate elsewhere to have these hassles.

So anyway, lesson learned by me. I’ll never be buying from Arnold Clark again as, given their dismissal of this, they don’t care for people’s safety. I would advise others to do the same. Anyone had issues with Arnold Clark?

UPDATE: Four hours after the blog post went up and many people retweeted it – whom I’ll thank later – Arnold Clark got in touch via Twitter to say the issue had been escalated. I then received an email saying that the local branch will look into all the issues. One year – nothing, four hours on the blog and we’re on the road to recovery. Social Media works.

Tablets are still the hot topic and, being a geek, I have of course lusted after one since the iPad came out. However, the price, battery life and weight of it put me off a bit – especially as 90% of the time it would be a glorified book. But I finally caved in and treated myself to a Kindle.

And you know what? It’s probably my favourite piece of tech kit ever…

I’m a bookaholic. I don’t deny it. I’ve got about 1400 titles in various shelves and boxes (and I’ve thrown out twice that many books). The first thing I do in anyone’s house is look at what books they read. It’s my thing. Sadly, I am well past the point of having space for books so if I was to continue to indulge in my habit, I needed to either start throwing more books out (gasp! No!) or find a Plan B. Plan B came digitally…

Why iBooks isn’t that great

When Apple announced iBooks I figured it was only going to be a matter of time before an iPad turned up in my hands. However, their bookstore selection (and prices at launch) were awful – it just wasn’t a good choice at all. But it had whetted my appetite. The I

saw Amazon had Kindle software for the iPhone, so I tried that.

Where it worked well for me was in darkened rooms and in the wee small hours, when one of the kids had woken up and needed cuddles to get back to sleep. It was easy enough to sit and read while the little one drifted back off.

The only downside to the screen on a phone was that it was very small and, if being perfectly honest, it felt like you weren’t taking a lot in. It was a decent way of reading but you couldn’t help feel that it could be better – especially for reading longer works.

iPad v Kindle

So I thought about a Kindle and then thought against it – especially as it’s not a colour screen. And then thought about it again. Then the iPad 2 came out and it still wasn’t cheap inexpensive – especially compared to the US price (I can’t believe we still have to moan about that in this day and age). It was also a bit big for just reading books (which would have been the primary function of it).

The iPad 2 pricing

wasn’t what pushed me into Amazon’s arms though. Alongside the price difference was the suggestion that the Kindle could be kicked off the iOS platform. That was what pushed me over the edge for a few reasons:

• When Apple acts OTT in demands with others, that’s what Apple normally starts to decline,
• The book choice on the Kindle was far, far superior so if I was going to be stuck with a platform, better to be one with a lot of books
• Amazon are a good company to deal with – I’ve never had any hassles with them at all.

But what Kindle to get? There’s a wifi one and a wifi/3G one. The 3G one comes in at £40 dearer but the 3G is free – and there’s a web browser…

3G for me

Being quite blunt about it, I knew that whatever I bought, the odds were that would be me – in terms of a tablet – for a while. An iPad would have to wait until other computer kit in the house was upgraded, the next kid has come along and a few other things (I also think Apple were miserable not putting Facetime HD in the iPad 2). So if I was buying something, I wanted it to be as functional as possible, so I went for the 3G option, effectively making it the poor man’s iPad.

Kindle usage

There’s not actually too much you can say about the usage. You take it out (the massively oversized) box, turn it on, set up an account and away you go. It’s as idiotproof as anything Apple ever made. It’s nice and light – yet solidly built – it drops nicely from 30 feet onto grass and still works, you can hold it one-handed for long periods of time, you can get really stuck into a book – and the claim is that it can hold 3,500 means it should do for a while, especially as the Kindle store is quite varied and seems to moving past the crime, horror and SF roots that it started with.

Having said that, it’s turned me into a right sad git. Not only am I going on spending sprees for new books and using the cheap prices to discover new authors like Gordon Ferris (The Hanging Shed is really good and probably the best spend of £1 ever – I liked it so much I’ve bought the hardback as a gift for someone) but I’m actually going and buying digital copies of books I already own.

It also plays MP3s but I haven’t given that a go yet.

Also, the battery life is good but not ’30 days without a charge’ as some people state. You’ll get a week or two out of it no problems though.

The 3G is really good – it gets a signal in parts of the country where few of the mobile operators do.

Newspapers on the Kindle

Newspapers look as good on it as books do – when someone takes the time to format them correctly – and the whole process is just nice and simple. Having said that, it is tragic that there’s no Scottish newspapers on here, but this device could easily become my primary news outlet so that’s more money for The Indy, The Times and Daily Telegraph – papers I wouldn’t normally buy but if that’s all I can get, I’ll take it – the convenience over-rides everything else. (The Kindle also gets round the NY Times paywall).

The newspaper aspect also makes the 3G very handy. Wherever I am, it just updates every morning for me without the need to hook up to a PC/mac.

I know Calibre gives you options for adding newsfeeds to the Kindle but for the love of me I cannot get it to work. I will at some point though. (Same with Instapaper…)

Browsing the web on the Kindle

This is weird. Who knew the web came in monochrome? It’s like watching a B&W telly and remembering how things used to be – except the web was always colour. As a browser it’s not perfect but it does in a pinch. You can access webmail and Twitter – didn’t try Facebook – and general pages. There’s not much more you can say – it works for a basic browser.

Kindle quirks

That’s not to say it’s perfect though. In fact, there’s a few places it could be improved:

• What’s with the wacky screensaver pics? Let me add my own, pick one that I like or at least get rid of the John Steinbeck pic where he looks like Kevin Costner with a ‘tache.
• Organising. If you buy a Kindle and set up collections – as you will because if you fill this thing you’ll have 350 pages to scroll through – do it from the start. The file organising structure on this thing is terrible, slow and clumsy.
• I can play MP3s but not view pics? What gives. I can view comics.
• Reading in darkness is impossible. Why it doesn’t give you the option to do white text on a black background I do not know. Would probably be useful for those with sight impairments too. The odds are this was to sell the over-priced cover with light but WOB would have been a great feature.
• The more popular this gets – along with the iPad – will we see a rise in book piracy? It’s already fairly rife…
• You don’t see the covers of the books – just a list of titles – which is a shame

Suggestions for Kindle 4

• You could lose the keyboard and probably have it as a basic on-screen touchscreen keyboard, making this device even smaller. But that may push the price up.
• It lacks a lot of the ability to personalise

Overall

This is the best gadget I have. Yes, it doesn’t have the same relaxing feel as reading a paperback but all that means to me is that when I pick up a paperback or hardback now it needs to be for a special reason or a book I really want. Everything that’s a casual purchase can be Kindled – especially when the Kindle prices are better than the paperbacks.

But it’s not sexy. While it’s nice, don’t think ever whipping this out somewhere will get you laid. But that’s a good thing because if you whip this out, you’ve probably got a good book you want to read anyway…

This was a strange one. Madam (what? I can’t have more than one name for her?) has always done her own thing. Her mother has corrupted her terribly over music (I now live with two Take That fans) but I’ve kept my stuff to myself. While The Lady of the House has no qualms watching Friends or Hollyoaks (I think she’s their oldest viewer) while Madam struts about, I normally watch the likes of Doctor Who once the children are asleep, mostly for the very selfish reason that I’d rather be playing with the kids than watching TV with the kids.

But, as I say, in she comes from the sleepover and is suddenly dying to know everything about Amy Pond (and I think the Scottish accent has helped with identification – that and the fact that show had a very young Amy Pond), so we watched what there was and that was that.

Then, she went to one of her other set of grandparents (four sets in four different houses. We collect grandparents like others collect Pokemon) and discovered the BT Vision box had all of the recent stuff – and she’s devoured it and now goes through phases of “Doctor Matt’s better than Doctor David” or vice versa. I tried her on the pilot ep of Doctor Who from 1963 and while she sat through it, safe to say that was a watch too far.

But what I really didn’t expect was the crossovers with Disney and anything else lying about the room. So we now have scenarios where the Doctor, Amy, Rose, Martha and Donna are all sitting in the dolls’ house, along with the similarly sized Disney Princess figures of Belle, Cinders, Snow White, Jasmin and Ariel when their mum – Madam herself – comes in and tells them all its time to get changed for school.

Of course, on the way to school they all get kidnapped one at a time and locked up in Lego jails and this goes on until the mum herself comes in Godzilla style and saves the day.

And then off they go to school, where Amy normally gets sent home for moaning that the Princesses have changed their clothes (the wee dolls have multiple outfits) and she can’t. Of course Amy then throws a bigger strop when she gets home and the Doctor’s changed faces!

And while it’s all good fun it is frightening to see how much a child can really devour entertainment wise if you leave them unchecked – and how much they remember. I’m hoping she never asks to go to a con (unless it’s Comic Con, that could be fun) or asks to listen to the swearing-loaded Thumbcast SF/cult telly podcast.

Three other things I’ve learned from Doctor Who toys

1. How much for a River Song doll on eBay? Glad she doesn’t want the screwdriver…
2. The BBC really have no concept of what the right toys to release are so they?
3. Toy Tardises – just how damn hard is it to wrap something as a gift when it’s bigger on the inside than the outside?

They really are you know. And here’s the proof…

It’s really about the ewoks. No one likes bloody ewoks. Even Caps Shift on my keyboard doesn’t like them.

If you haven’t seen Jedi since you were a kid, you’re sitting there, enjoying the movie – the Han rescue, Yoda’s death, the plans to attach the Death Star – it’s all thrilling stuff right up until the annoying furballs turn up (I spoke about this on the SF/Cult podcast Thumbcast a while ago) and it goes downhill. And you’re pissed, double pissed in fact because you had forgotten that these muppets were in it and now you have to sit and watch the rest with them in it.

Second kids are like that – you’re (mostly) enjoying yourself with the second one – gurgles, looks cute, you’re excited, it’s all happy thoughts – and then the other stuff starts – the wailing, the crying that won’t stop, colic, the green poo that smells worse than anything else – all the stuff you had forgotten/blocked out from the first baby. And it ruins a lot of the previous goodness. Because once the bad stuff comes back to mind, it just won’t leave as you know there’s more of it come – just like the ewoks.

They also appear to lead to your death – kids that is, not ewoks. If memory serves, Leia beats Luke out the womb. Leia’s a perfect daughter – she tells her dad where the rebel bases are and everything (even if it was under torture) but Luke? His dad has to go up against his boss because of Luke and that leads to him dying. Nice one Luke.

There’s also the unspoken worry – just as Lucas followed up ROTJ with the original prequel, you’re left terrified about how bad your next sequel might be…

Highs

1. If you are into reusable nappies you are in for a treat as there’s about five companies selling them
2. There’s some really interesting and unique items on sale
3. Mothercare have a great discount on – but combine the show discount with the baby and me club voucher booklet to save even more
4. If you join Costco, it’s cheaper for the Bio-oil than the Bio-oil stand
5. Emma’s Diary is worth looking out for and signing up
6. There’s a mini-creche and also a play area for kids
7. There’s quite a lot to look at
8. Stokke have a nice layout and friendly/informative staff on hand. Go see their large, oversized furniture
9. Lots of buggies on display
10. More4Mums are there – go support the internet retailers!
11. Good-sized baby changing area

Lows

1. Entry is £8 (you get a free showguide worth £4 though) and parking is £6 on top of that
2. NPower are absolute swines at the place. They’ll pounce on you constantly
3. It could be very busy. The Friday was
4. Lots of people talking about reusable nappies
5. Some of the stuff will have you saying WTF
6. Did I mention the NPower ambush squads?
7. There’s not a lot of stuff on show-special discounts compared to previous years
8. Not a lot of larger, practical parenting items like sterilisers on sale
9. NPower are probably preparing bear traps as we speak to trap you in order to speak to you

Is it worth going to? I have to say I thought so and had a great time. There’s some quirky things there and it seemed like less of a chore than when I went in previous years but the wife thought it was better in the past, each to their own I suppose.

Oh and one last thing: when did Glasgow become iCandy capital of Europe? Seriously, every second pushchair seemed to be one of them.

I ordered the Zi8 in black (but it’s also available in raspberry and aqua blue, though I would imagine the black is the most popular) and I’ll spare you the usual unboxing nonsense – you get the cables for hooking up to HDMI (HD) and normal TVs, a little strap, a manual that’s straight from the Apple book of minimal decent content and that’s pretty much it, which is what you want to be honest – packaging out the road, jump in and play!

The phone itself is about the size and width of a Blackberry or thicker/wee bit shorter than an iPhone 3GS.

(The main reason for getting a Zi8 was that I was impressed by it having an external mike socket. Having played with Flips, I thought the sound was the weak issue, so the Zi8 lets that be addressed.)

But you won’t get to play for long – the battery’s pretty run down, so it needs a charge, so add two hours to the “I just wanna play with it” moment. And then make sure you have a SD card for it as the internal memory is good for about 5 seconds of footage (get Class 4 or higher for best video recording). Oh and then, you might notice that your machine doesn’t have the latest version of the firmware installed (way to go Kodak!) as they appear to have shipped 10 billion models with the 1.03 firmware (1.06 is the latest and, judging by online reaction, is considerably better).

This is where the Mac/PC difference comes in: there’s a bunch of software preinstalled for the PC, nothing for the Mac. Also, go here and you’ll see that the Mac upgrade installations – which include buying a memory card reader – are far more of a pain in the backside than the PC version.

However, that’s a load of nonsense, here’s the simple guide to upgrading Kodak zi8 firmware on a mac:

1. Attach camera to Mac
2. Turn it on, backup anything on your card
3. Create a folder called SYSTEM onto memory card on Zi8
4. Copy firmware download files over to SYSTEM on card
5. Turn Zi8 off, disconnect
6. Turn Zi8 on and you’ll be prompted to upgrade – basically go with the green tick each time
7. Once done, reformat your card

After all that, you can get going and it’s ACTION!

I’ll let you watch the clips (all of which are available in HD) and then I’ll post my thoughts. Each of them was filmed at 720p/60fps as that appears to be the best setting, especially for YouTube videos. Apart from the last video, the microphone used is the internal one. No tripods were used in any of these shots – it’s all handheld with Kodak’s Image Stabilisation software, EIS, turned on.

Kodak Zi8 in test at night

The first chance I had to play was at 2am in the morning. Now the Zi8 has no flash or lighting aid – either built-in or attached. Apart from the car at the end, there’s little movement. I had been told that the Zi8 – due to the small lens – would be rotten at night so this held no surprises for me.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQHy7y2Z_4[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in recording a panto

(oh no it doesn’t! Oh yes it… oh shut up)

Junior received a play puppet theatre kit and has been putting on ad lib shows at every opportunity, including this gathering at the inlaws on Jan 1. Now the lighting is low in this (just one corner lamp) but it gave me a chance to play with the zoom. What surprised me was how much the colour dipped when zooming in. The zoom is also a bit jittery, but as with all digital zooms, you really shouldn’t use it anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdca2xD_tMY[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in average light test

Heading kind of says it all. Average living room light (basically one halogen corner lamp about 6 foot)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHL8koIA3Gg[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in bright light test

Heading kind of says it all again. The aforementioned light with also the main overhead living room light on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g38rN-sVpr4[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 and motion 1

Five year old girl doing five year old things.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRNHO5oIgMw[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 and motion 2

Five year old girl doing five year old things, will be mortified when she hits 12.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ6jT9nqB84[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 tested with external mike

The start and end of the segments have the internal mike being used but from 0:50 to 2:20 a clip-on lapel mike (£25 from Maplins) was used. I thought the sound from the internal mike was decent and was disappointed by the Maplins’ external mike. However, it may well be that it will work better for one-on-one interviews (which throws it back into the realm of work related stuff) and I’ll cover that over at Contently Managed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gB1shxE10Y[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 as a camera

In all honesty, it’s as decent a camera as you find on the likes of the N95 and slightly better than the iPhone 3GS, both of which were trumped by the 4 megapixel Canon ixus I have from about six years ago.

Other points and notes:

1. Uploading HD to YouTube takes forever and a day. Well, longer than normal anyway. The panto clip here took 30 mins to upload (the one at the end took 40 mins). I’m dreading a longer video (I may even try and get a physical broadband connection again instead of wifi to see if that speeds stuff up)
2. This is a dinky little camera
3. Suggestions for the Zi9 would be: external earphones socket (for checking levels but also watching long videos) and some form of lighting. However both would boost the price probably. A larger lens would be a real winner, but again, that’s me being greedy (probably).
4. Raspberry and aqua blue? WTF?
5. As this just deals with .MOV files – that’s what it creates – I wonder if it could also be a movie player if you added a film in that format to it. Makes it a rather cheap movie player for trips (You could load it up with about 64-80GB of movies for the same price as an iPod Touch)
6. Getting the HDMI socket open is a nightmare, well a pain and hassle, if you don’t have nails.
7. The USB port looks well dodgy (see pic). It’s very short, rubbery and unless you have the computer and USB connector on a flat table, you’ll be paranoid that the connector is going to fall/break. If there is such a thing, an extension cable might be handy.
8. Having to upgrade the firmware out the box is ridiculous.
9. The more bright light you an give this camera, the happier it will be.

Is it worth a buy? I don’t regret it, put it that way, but I will probably end up using it more for work than personal stuff. But I will have it in my pocket when possible to catch some moments because it’s far better than the iPhone 3GS (which, to me, is a far poorer video camera than even the Nokia N95 from a few years ago). I also like the idea of carrying around a few memory cards instead of tapes for a big video recorder.

If you want to see some comparison videos, here’s some more video links:

Kodak Zi8 Review

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qPzfjtDmI&feature=related[/youtube]

Flip Mino Killer: Kodak Zi8 Review

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2NV463deQ&feature=related[/youtube]

Flip UltraHD vs. Kodak Zi8 – Review by HighTechDad

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar_2atL7lo&feature=related[/youtube]

GizmoDuck Review : Kodak Zi8 vs Creative Vado HD

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX_lPBb06-o&feature=related[/youtube]

First thoughts:

In terms of weight and ease of use, there’s nothing between the two of them. If anything, the Flip is a tad lighter. It’s also a little easier to use in that you press the ‘on’ button, wait a second or two and off you go. On the N95, startup (from off) takes a good 30 seconds. If the phone is already on, going into video camera phone can take up to 10 seconds.

Both are straightforward point and shoot efforts. You point at what you want and you digital zoom in if you need to be closer. On both the digital zoom is average at best and best avoided.

The thing to bear in mind with what you see below is that how they look after YouTube is not how they look on my machine. I’ll let you judge what the YouTube codecs has done to them yourself when I talk about colour and sound on the clips, it will be as how they appeared on my machine.

On that note, the first thing worth pointing out is this:

Size of Flip image versus N95 on 15inch laptop screen

That was the first surprise -when you set them to actual size to show on your machine the Flip is quite happy to more or less take up the full screen – and looks decent too – while the N95 takes up a smaller space and still looks a little blocky (machine used was a MacBook Pro 15-inch)

Picture and Sound Quality:

This actually surprised me. I was expecting the Flip to romp this, but it wasn’t that cut and dried.

Interior, dark
I won’t bore you with the video from this as both were awful (if you insist – that was the Flip). Darkness just doesn’t work for either of them, so strap on a torch if you want to re-enact the Blair Witch Project.

Interior, average light
Here’s the shots from my living room. The child in the video when sitting was around six feet from me and when doing starshapes at the end was about two feet away from me. If you want to sync the videos up, the N95 one should be started at 1:00 while the Flip one should be at 1:57 – but you get to see some sound/audio before that if you want to watch the lot.

N95 Living Room

Flip Living Room:

I thought the Flip would romp this but the N95 actually had the better colours. Sound was equal on both.

Flip Goldfish
(Goldfish in this start at about a minute in.)

N95 Goldfish

In the Goldfish, I didn’t think there was much in it – the Flip seemed to have a slight edge, but nothing I would say was significant. (The noise in each shot is the fishtank filter)

Overall for the house shots, I was surprised on this because while the Flip seems to have the better shot and perspective, the N95 actually had better colours. The Flip’s colours appeared a little more washed out, while the N95′s were more realistic.

Exterior shots

N95 Flowers

Flip Flowers

For me, the Flip was the winner here. The colours looked just a tad more vivid and real. Sound was more or less equal on them both. However, after YouTube has done what it does, the N95 actually appears to have better colours online.

N95 Uddingston External

Flip Uddingston External

The Flip was the winner here again. There just seems to be a little bit of sharpness, contrast and better colour than the N95. The perspective also seems a little better – judge the oncoming car in both for example.

Conclusions and Notes:

For all I’m a fan of the N95, I fully expected the Flip to wipe the floor with it. It didn’t and that surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot going for it – better perspective, better outdoor colours, HD at 720 – but I wasn’t blown away as I would have expected. They were both 50/50 when used on a Standard Definition TV – perhaps some slightly better colour on the Flip.

Where the Flip does score is in convenience – the USB plug pops out, plug it in and off you go – the software’s even built in. The N95′s file structure on the other hand is horrific – and slow if you decide to use Bluetooth.

Both machines use mp4 file format – h264 if memory serves – so they are easy enough to edit in external applications. The software that comes with the Flip is very basic in that regard – but it does the job if need be.

if I had any other phone, I think a Flip would be a no-brainer but if someone has a N95 I don’t know if there’s any great need to fork out extra cash. If you only had an iPhone, a Flip would be a great addition.

I see Flip have updated their range to include a two-hour HD camera that appears a little bulkier but also a little cheaper, which may be an acceptable trade-off for some.

For a person caught needing quick web-ready video, either of these would do. If I suddenly needed a video quote off someone and only had the N95 with me, I wouldn’t panic as I know it would do the job. Similarly if I’m a reporter running about with space for only one bit of kit, the phone wins it as it does more than just be a camera. Both are capable and competent for the job of YouTube-sized web video. It just so happens that one can also do audio, calls and a million other things – and is cheaper.

There are other cameras that some consider including the Creative Vado HD and Kodak Zi6. Here’s some links to other reviews of them – Flip Mino HD (vs Creative Vado HD and Kodak Zi6) and Flip Mino HD, Kodak Zi6, Griffin Clarifi. Those are both video reviews but a fantastic text review (with screengrabs) can be found here.

Anyway, if anyone has decent examples of what these pieces of kit can do, feel free to post examples in the comments section.

From Think Geek

Well you’ve just no luck have you? Most girls – IIRC – get to the age of 16 before going to a bash or a party and discovering they have the same outfit as someone else.

You? Age 5. Place: School Halloween Disco.

Not one, not two, but THREE Dorothies from the Wizard of Oz (and two of you with the same outfit from the same shop). I mean what do you call the plural of a Dorothy? Dorotheees? Dorothi? Bunch of table cloth dresses? Actually what’s the collective noun as well? An Ozful of Dorothies? (next year you can all go as munchkins or the crazy monkeys – you’re all the right height for that and it doesn’t matter if you match).

Of course it wasn’t until you came back that I discovered you had mascara and lipstick on – and got a tattoo when out. I think all that was missing was you having a hangover and a boy’s phone number…That reminds me I didn’t actually check your wee Toto basket…

The double whammy was that we had a beast of a spider on the bathroom wall and you missed that as well. But I took a pic for you as I know you like these things.

Pictures as always taken with the iPhone 3GS

And another pic I noticed after you had gone to bed was what you had posted outside your mum’s room:

I know you aren’t meant to put stickers on the wall (and in fact I think this is the first time you ever have) but you can get a pass for that one. Don’t think you’re getting the iPod Touch that you’ve started asking everyone for though. You can play the games on mine.

And no, you can’t have driving lessons either.

• There’s concern over your eyesight after your mum spotted you squinting at reading materials. If your eyesight is throwing in the towel, expect war over how close you sit to the TV and how much of it you watch

ALSO EXPECT ALL BLOG POSTS TO BE THIS SIZE SO YOU CAN READ THEM FURTHER AWAY FROM THE SCREEN

• And I know you think glasses and contact lenses are cool/fun. They’re not and bad eyesight can seriously screw up your life: did you see who your mum married?
• Halloween was a hoot with you, though I stress to add that a) if you go out as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz ever again, you carry Toto. If I had to look after that mutt for one more minute I was reporting you to the RSPCA for (fake) dog neglect and b) on Halloween you can take sweets from people, it’s the one night ‘no thank you I haven’t had my dinner’ is not the appropriate response.
• And don’t start me on you getting to wear mascara and lipstick – even if Dorothy did have them on in the film. You don’t see me dropping houses on the witches that you know “just because it happened in the film” do you?

Stand down soldier, you don’t have to do anything to impress me. Just turn up in one piece and that will do, so leave off your mum and let her keep some food down please. French toast is hardly a luxury food and she’s got enough to worry about just now, thinking about if she should get the H151 jab or not, worried about what it might do to you.

And besides, on the food front, I’m dying to go out for a decent curry.

(And well done on tip-toeing upstairs to avoid us hearing you dodging the naughty step. You forgot though that you keep needing to tip toe once in your room.)

And would you please start putting a filling on your sandwich for school? Bread and butter are not the two main food groups. Honestly, doing that in Carntyne would have had the social work out in the 80s, so god knows what others make of it.

Anyway, it’s Friday now, so no lunchbox today. It’s ‘homie’ day as you kids call it now.

Two things are also quite apparent from this: your dad certainly won’t be fit and you may get called Arthur as in arthuritis (or the more common spelling of arthritis) from the spinal damage I’m getting sleeping on spare beds, couches and your big sister’s bed because you’re playing havoc with your mum’s body temperature.

Anyway, goodnight Arthur.

* I don’t think that means watching all the Saw films.

For that have an extra gulp of amniotic fluid or whatever it is you do in there to chill when you aren’t too busy dividing cells and stuff.

(or perhaps I’m just a damn good cook. Anyway, like your big sister, mum can now expect pasta bake non-stop for months.)

For this, you’re getting called Zanzibar. Or couch, ‘cos that’s certainly what I associate you with mostly at the moment.

So, as I mention in the recent Thumbcast podcast (with a very liberal dash of swearing) that you recently had a school play for Christmas and you were a tad dejected about being a reindeer (Cupid) and not part of the nativity.

Until you pulled together the words to the popular tune of “I’d rather be a XXXX than a XXXX” except your version was “Oh, I’d rather be a reindeer than a Jesus, Oh, I’d rather be a reindeer than a Jesus, yes I’d rather be a reindeer, rather be a reindeer, rather be a reindeer than a Jesus.” And then you went off into a second verse with different words but I couldn’t hear you as I was on the floor howling with laughter.

You’ll have all sorts of issues with religion as you grow up (the joys of living in the West Coast of Scotland) but if you keep your sense of humour about you, I think you might just do OK. Of course what you said the next day, was almost as blasphemous.

ps – sorry Jesus

Of course, being five, you are also totally obsessed with death (what is it with five year olds and death? Does the Scottish teaching curriculum have lessons on gothery or something?).

Anyway, there was some mirth the other day when you told me that you thought you had worked out what had happened to Jesus.

“Daaaaaad, you know you said that Jesus was killed on the cross because he annoyed some people? Was he put on the naughty cross? And they forgot to bring him down so he could say sorry so he dead?”*

(*if you aren’t a parent, you won’t get this. It’s a play on the naughty step concept devised by Supernanny)

And I tell you, if nothing else, it’s given me some thoughts for how to do a new take on a kid’s version of the bible…

Becoming More Emotional

Boy, no kidding on that one – and this totally took me by surprise. At first, for guys, when a baby comes along, it’s pretty much business as usual. There’s a wee person about the house that you have to get up at all hours to feed but that’s really it. They cry a lot when you pick them up and they are just… there. And you know you have to look after them.

But somewhere along the line some gene in you flips. Now for everyone it’s different but for me, anything that involves a father and daughter now cracks me up. This first became obvious after rewatching one of my favourite fun films Armageddon and as it approached the end, I was in a flood of tears, totally uncontrollable. Fricking Armageddon! Since then, I’ve noticed it in other things – The Time Traveller’s Wife for example. God knows what The Road will do to me…

I used to joke with Graham Lindsay at the Scottish Daily Mirror about this as he told me that parenthood made him unable to read tales about child cruelty. I thought he was talking bollocks until junior came along. I can still read those stories, but dear God they get my blood boiling more.

Much amusement for the wife and friends. Much embarassment for me.

Child(ren) Come First

This is a bit of a combo of Tara’s points 2 and 3. But yeah, I’ve seen every part of my life ’suffer’/benefit from having a kid. I don’t go out as much as I used to and if I do, I go out after the little one has had her two bedtime stories and cuddle for falling asleep. I’ve seen me walk out the door at clocking off time (knowing I’ll have chunks to do in the early hours of the morning) so I can get home and play tig or princesses or something like monster hunting down the woods with my wee best pal. I’ve gone without things I’ve really wanted because I saw a nice top or toy for junior. I’ve taken her and her pals out when someone else was equally happy to do it.

It’s also probably made me more selfish because if I get the option of anything to do, playing with junior is the first call (though I am going off the swimming lessons at 8am on a Saturday morning after two years of taking her).

(three things that have surprised me though: how little sleep I actually need at times when dealing with the wee one – though I’m sure that’s taking its toll in its own way . Also, how much I always hear madam moving about or talking in her sleep, even if I have been sleeping (again, sure that’s talking a toll) and how well I operate with a hangover and children (though the way round that one hasn’t taken a toll – less drinking or nights out!)

Made Me More Intolerant

My personal politics used to be fairly left-leaning (that’s not a statement of political party alignment but my own personal politics) and I’d like to think they still are, but having a kid does make you less tolerant of other people’s foibles – especially if they are a parent – and it’s practically a full-time job to haud one’s wheesht as they would say in Scotland.

Things like the woman who let her children die in a dirty nappy? In the past I may have moaned about the system and so on. Now? I’d kill her and sack every social worker involved in that case, making sure the world knew why they were sacked. Come in home from work tired and don’t want to play with your child? Tough. You have a child, relax later (though why you wouldn’t find playing with your child fun and relaxing I don’t know). Want to watch a TV show/surf the web/do something solo while your child is awake and not doing anything else? Get to hell. That child’s a gift to you and never asked to be born to you, so you owe it your time while it’s awake. Farmville, Smallville and Coronation Street can all wait until your child/ren are in bed.

(See what I mean about intolerant?)

What about the other parents who read this? Has parenthood made any changes to you that surprised you?

It might sound unlikely – and I really hope so – because I’ve had two really vivid dreams where I (appear to) die (and I really hope they aren’t bad cases of Deju Vu) and in one of them, my last word was ‘Abigail’ (crazy imagery beforehand – buildings all rising up and falling, being pushed forward by a wall of whiteness. Was like something from a Grant Morrison book) as I took shelter behind a wall.

But waking up made me realise something: she may be five but she would be useless at looking after herself. Would she know how to get to another house? What if her grandparent’s house was down too? What if her friends couldn’t or wouldn’t take her? Would she have the savvy to break a window to get shelter? Could she work out a tin opener? Could she work out how to dial some one that might be able to help her? Could she keep herself warm or would she just hit Channel 71 and watch Cbeebies until something happened. What’s her school’s policy for apocalyptic scenarios? Does even asking them that question get you marked as a mentalist?

And that’s the big one – what about bump? It won’t even be able to look after itself for five years minimum.

Some people on Dan’s blog say “Don’t worry about it,” but it’s one of those things that once it’s in your head it just doesn’t shift.

(and yes I know the whole point is moot because if I’m dead there’s nothing I can do about it, but no-one told me when I was signing up for the world of parenting that I would sit and lose hours worrying about my children if I wasn’t here to look after them.)

The bed had stayed in the box for the simple reason that you haven’t had any sleepovers yet, but you wanted to try it – and it would need tested before going anywhere or having someone stay on/in it – so that seemed fair enough. I didn’t realise you would take to it as if it was surgically grafted to you, sitting on it for watching TV, taking it upstairs and then wanting to sleep in it every night.

The one good thing about it is that when you’re in it, you’re sleeping all night. No cries for a 3am cuddle off me, so perhaps it’s laced with Calpol or something. But I can’t work out why you like it so much? Is it that comfy or are you being a little High School Musical brand fanatic?

I just hope you aren’t going into school and telling everyone that you have a travelbed and it’s the best thing you’ve slept on. God knows what the school would make of that. I can just see parents’ night now: “oh yes, we’re very progressive parents. When she’s well behaved we feed her. And if she’s really good, we even let her sleep on an inflatable bed. When she’s naughty? Oh, we have an Iron Maiden for that.”

A bed. I can’t believe it.

After writing about your love of your inflatable Disney High School Musical bed your mum and I were concerned about you sleeping in it every night – and you certainly didn’t like me reminding you that it was for travel or guests. But at bedtime you pulled out a classic line that guarantees you a trip to the bear-making shop soon (or perhaps even a trying to arrange at least one of the holidays you want this year*): “Can’t get cuddles off Dadda in Disney bed. Go into big bed to get cuddles from Dadda as Dadda cuddles best.”

You even managed to sound sincere.

Sleep tight.

* Madam’s 2010 holiday requests: Back to Florida to DisneyWorld and Universal (if I could squeeze in the last NASA Space Shuttle launch I wonder if this could count as educational?),Portaventura again too and weekends at Alton Towers and Blackpool. Not asking much…

Having said that, I wonder if you’re doing morse code and asking your mum to change the channel on TV because – even though you’ve only existed for five or so months – you’re hearing all the same jokes from the constant reruns of Friends on E4 that your mum has on as background noise kinda constantly. (Not that the show is on much but the six characters are pretty much screenburnt into the TV now. Kinda strange watching Troy and wondering why the ghosts of Chandler and Joey are flanking Brad Pitt into battle.)

I swear if your first words are “he was on a break” there’s going to be issues…

Anyway, word reaches me that I’ve been put forward for a MAD award (best new blog), so I’m all chuffed. Or I was until I looked at the amount of entries and the quality of the competition (warning, if you go blog reading in the links there you’ll lose hours) (and if you do do that, don’t forget to vote for me first ).

Nah, who am I kidding? I’m still chuffed.

Anyway, the point is that there’s some top entries over there well worth reading if you’re into the dad/mum blogging scene (The awards are on Twitter too.) and if you’ve ever wanted to dip your toes into the blogging water then there’s a guide there for that.

Now is it unethical to create email addresses for your unborn child and have him vote…

(I’m just amazed I stayed awake. Normally a sleepy cuddle from madam puts me out as well.)

(And yes, all attempts at getting the thumb out of the mouth have failed spectacularly as you can see.)