{"id":9950,"date":"2011-04-13T09:28:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T09:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gadgets.itwriting.com\/?p=332"},"modified":"2011-04-13T09:28:46","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T09:28:46","slug":"as-cisco-closes-down-flip-is-device-convergence-finally-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/9950-as-cisco-closes-down-flip-is-device-convergence-finally-happening.html","title":{"rendered":"As Cisco closes down Flip, is device convergence finally happening?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cisco is closing down<\/a> the Flip video camera business it acquired with Pure Digital in May 2009:<\/p>\n

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Cisco will close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A sad day for Flip enthusiasts. The cool thing about a Flip device is that making a video is quick, easy and cheap. Most commentators say Flip is being killed because Smartphones now do this equally well; though this thoughtful post<\/a> by Michael Mace says it is more to do with Cisco not understanding the consumer market, and being too slow to deliver upgraded Flip devices: <\/p>\n

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It’s almost impossible for any enterprise company to be successful in consumer, just as successful consumer companies usually fail in enterprise. The habits and business practices that make them a winner in one market doom them in the other.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe it is a bit of both. I have a Flip and I rarely use it, though I am not really a good example since I take more still pictures than videos. Most of the time it stays at home, because I already have too many things to carry and too many devices to keep charged. <\/p>\n

My problem though is that convergence is happening too slowly. I have slightly different requirements from most people. I do interviews so I need high quality recordings, and I take snaps which I use to illustrate posts and articles. I also do a lot of typing on the road. <\/p>\n

This means I end up taking a Windows 7 netbook \u2013 I have given up travelling with a full-power laptop \u2013 for typing, email, and browsing the web. <\/p>\n

The netbook has a built-in microphone which is rubbish, and an microphone input which I find does not work well either, so I carry a dedicated recorder as well. It is an antique, an iRiver H40, but with a 40GB hard drive, 6 hrs battery life on its original battery, and a decent microphone input with plug-in power, it still works well for me. I use a small Sony table microphone which gives me excellent quality, and that makes it possible to transcribe interviews even when there is background noise. Even though it is \u201conly voice\u201d I find that recording in high quality with a proper microphone is worth the effort; when the iRiver finally gives up I might go to something like the Edirol R-09HR<\/a> to replace it.  <\/p>\n

As for photos, I have tried using a smartphone but get better results from a dedicated Canon camera, so much so that it is worth carrying this extra device. <\/p>\n

Of course I still need a mobile phone. I also tempted to pack a tablet or Amazon Kindle for  reading; but how many devices is too many? <\/p>\n

I am still hopeful that I may find a smartphone with a camera that is good enough, and audio recording that is good enough, and maybe with an add-on keyboard I could leave the netbook at home as well; or take a tablet instead of a netbook. <\/p>\n

But for now I am still weighed down with phone, camera, recorder, microphone and netbook. Roll on converged devices, I can\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cisco is closing down the Flip video camera business it acquired with Pure Digital in May 2009: Cisco will close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan. A sad day for Flip enthusiasts. The cool thing about a Flip device is that making a video is quick, … Continue reading As Cisco closes down Flip, is device convergence finally happening?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1142,56,1154],"tags":[1209,1247,1263,1304,529,629],"class_list":["post-9950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets","category-mobile","category-tablets","tag-cisco","tag-edirol","tag-flip","tag-iriver","tag-kindle","tag-netbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}