Heads Up - Adobe Elements 8 announced

Adobe today announced the mid-October availability of its Adobe Elements 8 packages, both Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8. Windows versions are available for both Elements, while Mac users will have to settle for the Photoshop Element only.

Adobe says the products fit in the "hobbyist" area of Adobe's mass-market push, the opposite end of a continuum that includes Photoshop CS4 on the high end and Elements at the low end. Still, with previous versions of Elements that we’ve reviewed, the hobbyist versions hold their own on basic tasks.

During a pre-release conference call, an Adobe spokesperson mentioned that Elements is, essentially, a balance of ease of use with power or "headroom.”

“We continuously hear from focus groups that they want software that's straightforward and easy to use,” he said, “but they don't want us to limit the software in case the user wants to do more complex edits.”

We’ll highlight a few key features in each program, demonstrated during the pre-release conference call, and then we’ll follow up with a hands-on review. There’s also an online component, which we won’t address here, other than to note that online albums support video now, as well as photos.

ORGANIZER

Adobe has spent quite a bit of time updating Elements Organizer, its "Ultimate Media Management Hub." Organizer has been part of Photoshop Elements since version 3, but the company is now shipping Organizer with Premiere Elements 8 for Windows, or as part of the bundle of both Elements.

Adobe’s rationale for expanding Organizer is that user capture devices are capturing both photos and videos. This blurring of the lines between photo and video capture devices means management of those two types in the same place is important.

Auto Analyzer

Organizer has an auto-analyzer tool that tags shots and videos for quality and interest, as well as other key tagging examples Adobe gleaned from user focus groups.

Smart Tags will filter down to particular types of content (one face, two faces, small group, etc) and auto-classify the content. Additionally, in terms of quality, the auto-analyze function can find images that are too dark or too bright or other quality characteristics. Scores based on high or low quality, such as blurriness, contrast, provide a subjective quality basis so that images can be rapidly filtered or eliminated.

This analysis also includes "people recognition" as a way to eliminate the need to manually add tags when a person appears within a video scene or a still image. This

people finder works on the principle of finding a face, then prompting for name of person. As the name is entered, Organizer begins to build up information about the person, offering an auto-complete function for names, then moving on to giving suggestions from a list of names. 

In one example during the conference call, Adobe demonstrated that the manual cataloging of five shots apiece for two people was all it took before the auto-analyzer  began to suggest one name from a list of possible names whenever that person appeared in a shot. The system then moves on to a more definitive suggestion, asking "is this . . . ?"

Keyword tagging for video is a bit more complex, and Adobe acknowledges that tagging isn’t always based on the first frame of video.

“Tagging is based on content,” the spokesperson said, “so keywords can be added at any time while watching the video. Tags are applied to on a scene-by-scene basis rather than the entire video.”

Organizer also contains a full-screen preview, much like iPhoto on the Mac. Users can use full-screen to expand images to a much larger size, making the choice of images or video playback much easier in full-screen mode. To quickly edit particular images a quick edit panel pops up to deal with one-click issues such as rotation or auto-color adjustments. Video tagging can also be performed in the full-screen mode.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Photoshop Elements 8 has three primary new features: Photomerge Exposure, Recompose and Quick fix previews.

Photomerge Exposure offers the user the ability to make extensive light and dark adjustments to specific areas of an image.  For example, let’s say you have an image of your wife standing in front of the Eiffel Tower at night with the tower lit and fill flash on your wife.  Chance are good that the either the tower is too dark, or your wife is too bright.  Not that having an overly bright wife is a bad thing.  The exposure tool will allow you to adjust brightness on either the tower or your wife to improve the image quality.  Photomerge differs from Photoshop’s HDR capabilities by only fine-tuning exposure in a single image as opposed to merging multiple copies of the same image taken at different exposures.

Recompose borrows an algorithm from Photoshop CS4 called Content Aware Scaling.  This tool allows you to scale an image without distorting the content.  If you have two or more people in a scene that aren’t close enough together for your liking, this tool will allow you to “squeeze” them together without making them look squished.  It also works vertically which can be useful for eliminating unwanted backgrounds.  You can specify the areas that you want the algorithm to keep or discard by using a green or red brush and “painting” over parts of the image.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS

Premiere Elements 8 has a series of “smart” features, including Smart Fix, Smart Trim,  and Smart Mix. It has also added motion tracking and newer “instant movie themes,” effects, and transitions.

Smart Tools

Smart Fix in Premiere Elements performs essentially the same image adjustments to video clips as it does to still images in Photoshop Elements.  It performs a quick evaluation of the video content and adjusts characteristics such as brightness and contrast to improve troublesome clips or simply to make an already good clip look even better.

Smart Trim is a particularly innovative new tool in Premiere Elements 8.  This tool analyzes a video clip and identifies suggested cut points inside of the clip.  One of the ways the algorithm accomplishes this is by looking for motion.  Let’s say you have a clip of Tiger Woods lining up a 25 foot putt.  He may remain stationary for 30 seconds before he finally putts the ball.  Smart Trim will look past all of the heightening drama before the putt and suggest an “in” point just before he swings his club. Accepting a Smart Trim suggestion results in a non-destructive trim (meaning it can always be undone later).

Smart Mix can also be called an auto-ducking feature for audio.  It will find the points in a dialogue audio track that voices are heard.  It can then automatically mix the other audio tracks, such as music or sound effects, down so the dialogue stands out loud and clear.

ECONOMICAL MOTION TRACKING

This new version of Premiere Elements ships with a feature usually only found in professional level post-production software, motion tracking.  In the Adobe demo that we viewed, this feature performed very accurately and quickly.  The tracker can be set to follow a point of interest in a clip; then an object can be assigned to “follow” the parent.  Other video clips, titles, animated clip art, or images can all be assigned to follow an object on the screen.

BONUS FEATURES

Adobe now offers additional options for output of completed videos.  The ability to directly upload to YouTube is a feature included under the “Share” tab.  This export option will automatically format your finished masterpiece for optimal viewing on the popular video-sharing site.  Also Podbean is a new partner of Adobe allowing users to directly upload vodcasts to their account.

Any purchase of Elements 8 includes 2GB of storage on Photoshop.com.  Although the Mac version does not include the Organizer, it does include Adobe Bridge CS4 which can be used in place of another organizer such as iPhoto.  Photoshop and Premiere Elements 8 are available immediately as a bundle for Windows computers for $149.99.  Photoshop Elements for the Mac retails for $99.99.  Both will ship on October 23, 2009.

Heads Up - iPhone 3G / 3GS Commuter TL case

In our last review of an iPhone 3G / 3GS case, we looked at the ultra rugged OtterBox Defender. I also mentioned the somewhat sleeker Impact series and have since found a good review of Impact for the 3G (http://www.notebooks.com/2009/04/14/review-otterbox-impact-case-for-iphone-3g/).

Otterbox now offers a middle option: the just-launched Commuter TL series.

Awaiting a sample and will update this post with a comparison to the Defender once it arrives.

iPhoned

IBC Companies of Interest

Finishing up IBC, the international broadcasting show held in Amsterdam each year. Found a few companies of interest that are related to the digital media and streaming spaces. There were several more, which I'll comment on in more detail in future posts:

Abit  Hall 8, stand 8.A28a. Playout automation specialist, Abit Ltd, will show its new, cost effective, ‘compact’ automation system for the first time at IBC this year. The system takes 17 years development knowledge and delivers it in a small platform capable of providing workflow and playout automation for up to three transmission channels.

Accedo Broadband Hall 12 Stand IP621.  Provider of interactive content and applications for IPTV and Connected TV. At IBC, Accedo will be launching a range of social media applications, as well as some History Channel-based applications. As well as this they will be presenting new game features, including the world's first Full HD gaming and 3D components using SVG technology.

Advanced Digital Broadcast Hall 5, Stand 5.B48  Advanced Digital Broadcast will show how it is helping its customers to meet the challenges of delivering an enhanced consumer TV experience with linear and on-demand entertainment services across hybrid networks. Operators are challenged to bring together more content from more places, making programs and services easy to find, and presenting multimedia in new and exciting ways. In its booth at IBC, ADB will show a number of demonstrations of how it is enabling television, Internet and personal content to converge and be accessible where consumers enjoy it most: on their flat screen TV. Approximately 70% of ADB’s workforce is dedicated to engineering; developing products across all the digital television technology platforms including cable, Internet Protocol (IP), satellite and terrestrial. The company is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with its main Research and Development facility in Zielona Gora, Poland and Operations division in Taipei, Taiwan. ADB has local representation in Australia, Italy, Singapore, Spain, the Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom.

AmberFin iCR v5 now supports a few additional tools for ingest into Avid systems, including JPEG 2000 (for intermediate mastering format for high quality content such as movies, offering superior image quality with 10 bits of information for each pixel), closed captioning (applies closed captioning seamlessly for US and European broadcast delivery content and conversion), MXF AS02 (includes highly efficient new MXF application designed for streamlined New Media Factory operations and Avid interplay: AmberFin iCR (streamlining the process when working in an AVID editing environment, offering instant interoperability in delivery preparation, freeing up critical edit suites to deliver value for editing workflows).

Broadcast International CE-1000 is designed for IPTV, satellite and Telco service providers and delivers a very cost effective way to solve their bandwidth crisis. It’s a software-based encoder featuring Broadcast International’s highly efficient, fully compliant H.264 codec.

Envivio Hall 1, stand, 1.D72. Envivio's new iLiveTV solution for the Apple iPhone and SilverLiveTV for Microsoft Silverlight. We will also bring you up to date information about ongoing deployments around the world, such as the recent announcement of new Mobile TV service launched by Digita Oy, which is owned by France’s TDF. Finland’s leading distributor of radio and television services, Digita is using Envivio to deliver ten channels of high quality, DVB-H encoded, free-to-air and pay-tv mobile television to be offered by mobile operators in Finland’s top markets.

Ross Video  XPression, an all-in-one real-time 3D Character Generator and Motion Graphics System. Fully Unicode compliant directly supporting a wide variety of languages. Developed by a team with a long background as on-air graphics operators, it plays well with industry leading graphics file formats like Photoshop™ and 3D Studio Max™ files to generate a compelling and sophisticated graphic look. XPression offers individual control of up to 7 templates of graphics on a single channel – eliminating the need for costly additional channels and systems. It can accommodate a variety of workflows from fully manual playback stand-alone setups to distributed configurations controlled by custom applications and newsroom systems. This makes XPression the perfect solution for news, production studio and outside broadcast productions.

SatStream – SatStream is Europe's largest bespoke broadcast-standards facility specifically designed for content acquisition from Satellite and broadcast by Streaming via the Internet. SatStream's facilities have been enjoyed by a wide mix of broadcasters, events management, production, and content companies, including Microsoft, Endemol, BBC, CNN, France 24, and Euronews.  SatStream recently streamed three Manchester City matches. The matches were part of the Vodacom challenge, a pre-season football event now in its tenth year, hosted in South Africa. 

Softron Hall 3 at 3.A48  Multi-channel H.264 recording compliance (MovieRecorder Express) and a new version of MovieRecorder (edit during ingest software tool): MovieRecorder 2.0 supports multiple SD and HD formats, either compressed or uncompressed.  It allows video clips being captured to be stored to multiple locations simultaneously. Ingests can be scheduled over time or can be manually triggered.  Pro option now allows the capture of proxy clips.  These proxy clips are low bit rate versions of the actual material, significantly smaller in size and can be edited in Final Cut Pro. Editing on a proxy file is ideal for use on notebook computers or over local area networks. It also accelerates the rendering process and enables more real time editing. Edit-while-ingest also works with proxy files, which means that you can start editing in Final Cut Pro on your laptop on a Local Area Network, while it’s capturing. 

TrustedOpinion social recommendation platform delivers recommendations for any variety of products, services, and content. The company drives consumer confidence by generating personalized recommendations based on the opinions of your network of friends. Since public launch in Feb’07, TrustedOpinion.com has attracted over a million members and is growing. TrustedOpinion is based in San Francisco, CA.

TXT Polymedia Polymedia Live acquires video content and encodes them into multiple output formats; Polymedia Show is the advanced video player combining standard PC player functionalities with those of Polymedia MAM to easily and quickly manage video content, its related advertising inputs together with e-commerce innovative functions. Also, a demonstration of the IBC 2009 Innovation Awards shortlisted project “Smart content repurposing system for Linear & VOD Tv Programmes services” developed for the customer Mediaset, is also available at stand. The project represents a multi-screen approach application that provides Mediaset with a complete workflow enabling efficient video content repurposing in new media.

V4x Hall 2 – Stand 2.B31 V4x Debuts Interactive "Social Radio" Player for the Web and iPhone (including Interactivity, Chat, Quizzes, Contests and Video improve monetization for Radio Streaming Channels).  V4x is focused on providing high-quality interactive OnAir Widgets for web and mobile services. Offers webcasters new revenue opportunities through social networking, at the IBC Exhibition held in Amsterdam from September 11-15, 2009.  The V4x interactive web player provides a customized interface that extends the user experience, allowing users to fully participate in the streamcast – beyond traditional programming – with interactive widgets like live, moderated chat; quizzes and polls; animated banners, even live in-studio videos or channel events.

Review: QuickTime Player X

For those upgrading to Snow Leopard, Apple's most recent enhancement to its core operating system, the look-and-feel updates to applications such as the QuickTime Player X are a welcome addition.

As mentioned in an article I'd written for StreamingMedia.com,  QuickTime Player X eliminates borders and windows around the actual video playback, and embeds the controls directly in to the lower quarter of the video playback window. Look familiar? It's based on the iPhone's video playback window.

Even more than just the updated look, though, QuickTime Player X uses the best bits of iPhone video protocol handling. As I'd mentioned in another article, HTTP streaming and the ability to trim and share videos was available on the iPhone before it ever launched on the desktop player application.

Here, though, the good news ends. While QuickTime Player X integrates a few of the Pro features from its predecessor, QuickTime Player 7, it drops cuts-only editing altogether and dumbs down export to "save as" and "save for web" options - both of which have significantly reduced export capabilities.

Here is an example of a small portion of the export options in QuickTime Player 7:

Now here is the only set of export options in QuickTime Player X:

Significant difference!

Note that QuickTime Player 7 contained all the export options of QuickTime Player X (AppleTV, iPod / iPhone and computer), so this is not about Apple adding functionality. It's as if making a "pretty" product got in the way of making a functional product, at least when the previous product did so much more than the "new and improved" one.

To be completely fair, there is one more screen on QuickTime Player X: the Save for Web option. As the picture below shows, however, there aren't very many options (about half of what was available on a similar screen in QuickTime Player 7):

Even more disturbing, what's been left out of the exporting options on QuickTime Player X is anything that doesn't fit in Apple's direct sphere of influence: if you don't want to export to iPod, iPhone, AppleTV or a Mac, you're out of luck with QuickTime Player X.

It's as if Apple is foregoing QuickTime's promise and premise to work across the board with a variety of formats and output options, instead closing ranks around its own products at the expense of extensibility.

Fortunately, for those who upgrade to Snow Leopard (10.6) from the Leopard (10.5) operating system, Apple leave QuickTime Player 7 on the upgrade machine. Whether this is an oversight, or a nod to the fact that QuickTime X was shipped too early, the fact that QuickTime Player 7 is still functional is welcome news.


In summary, we applaud Apple's attempt to simplify a part of the export process for the average user, but not at the expense of the power user who found the earlier versions of QuickTime to be quite powerful workflow enhancers. We would at least expect QuickTime Player X to have a simplified "Share" section and a more robust "Export" section, even if the latter were hidden a level down below the basic export options.

Instead, what we get is a very crippled version of an older system that worked quite nicely. So much for progress!



[Tested on 10.6.1 with QuickTime Player 7 version 7.6.3 (build 630) and QuickTime Player X version 10.0 (build 51)]

Review: Media software overview for IntelliScanner SOHO

[Update 1 Nov 2009: all the review findings are also applicable to the IntelliScanner mini, which we hope to review within the next few weeks; also, since IntelliScanner updated its software to be compatible with OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, we have also eliminated any review concerns that may have been caused by software incompatibilities with Snow Leopard. Everything in this version of the review, then, is applicable to OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6]

This review is a long time coming. I'd first reviewed the basics of the IntelliScanner SOHO back in February, and had hoped to get to the software reviews in March, but that got sidetracked by a few months of travel and a few more months of being sick. Slowly getting back to normal, and this week's blog time will be spent reviewing the software solutions for the IntelliScanner SOHO scanner.

As the unit I received didn't come with the codes for the Business Integration Kit or Inventory software tools that make up the office side of the SOHO scanner, this review will focus on two of the Express software packages.

Those who read the overview blog post from early February will remember that the Express software packages consist of tools to organize everyday household items like books, DVDs, wine, groceries or electronics.  We'll focus on two of these - the Kitchen (groceries) and Media (books, DVDs) since they each present different opportunities and challenges when working with a portable scanner.

Overall impressions. Since the software packages are all bundled together, my initial thought was that there would be a level of integration between them, so that one could go merrily on his way scanning anything in site and letting IntelliScanner worry about sorting out where they were to go.

Not so fast. The instructions give the first inkling that this isn't really feasible, when they suggest that one piece of software be open at a time, and that the software of choice for a particular tool be opened to the "Add Items" dialogue.

Hmm. So now, if I want to go scan my books and DVDs, I can't also scan groceries. It's not that groceries have an ISBN number, nor is it that the books would have a UPC bar code, so it seems odd to require all content scanned on a fairly powerful scanner (the SOHO holds up to 2500 bar code scans) fall only in to one software package's point of reference.

I'd much prefer that the IntelliScanner Dashboard do more than just be the launching point for all the other software packages. Ideally, it could verify which software packages have been activated (verified by their activation codes) and then sort through all the scanned bar codes. It could then provide a suggested list of scans (and their retrieved information) grouped according to program or content type.

Secondly, even within a single set of barcodes, there appears to be no post-scan correlation between the retrieved information and the barcode, nor is there even a listing of the barcode numbers - critical when the software spits out archane database entries such as "unknown KINGSTON MARKETING CO item" for an item it thinks it understands.  If one is going to go to the trouble of scanning anywhere near the potential level of the SOHO scanner (2500 scans) or even the mini scanner (150 scans) there needs to be a way to easily retain those unassigned scans and be able to assign them via the barcode number. If only 2-3 scans are listed as unknown, it will take someone with Solomon's memory skills and Job's patience to figure out what was not added correctly to the scanned list.

Third, scans get lost very, very easily. Remember the first point, where the instructions recommend having a piece of software open to the "Add Items" dialogue box before plugging in the scanner? The reason for this is to keep from losing the scans, which are output from the scanner as a series of keyboard strokes. If the scanner is plugged into the serial-to-USB cable without the right piece of software being open, in the foreground or even on the "Add Items" dialogue box, there is a high probability that all the scans will be lost.

Even when the software is open to the appropriate spot, each program behaves differently for unknown scans. The Media software package places an unknown scan in a dialogue box that is somewhat difficult to understand; clicking to bypass the box dumps the scanned bar code information permanently. As you can see by the accompanying picture, the default is to close and bypass the unknown scans.

The Kitchen software package lists them out as unknown in the assets list IF they can be identified at least to the company level, but dumps the rest.

Finally, if multiple scans are created of the same barcode number, the two programs also handle this differently, with Kitchen defaulting to adding all quantities while Media puts up a nicely-done early warning about the number of scans.

In other words, while the hardware is incredibly handy and easy to use to scan bar codes, the software implementations can easily make the casual user confused, frustrated and bewildered as to what all their hard scanning work has wrought.

Media. The software kit for Media launches a very Mac- or Bento-like software package that contains collections for various types of media: books, movies, music, games.

To add items, after scanning, open the wand icon  (labeled "Add Items") in the top left corner. Then plug in the SOHO scanner; for help on this, please read the overall impressions above, which spell out a few things to remember, as well as the initial hardware review which describes the settings for the serial-to-USB cable.

Added items will first appear as a series of numerals, and then the software will attempt to retrieve the information on books, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs or games from a number of online databases.

Once the data is retrieved for all items - or as many items as the particular software program will allow, since it rejects barcodes that would make sense in other software packages - the Media software package populates that particular information in to the appropriate media catalog.

What if the computer you are using is not online? Good question. Our testing showed that the information will not be retrieved and will reflect as not being in the database, which is inaccurate. In other words, Media treats offline attempts to add scanned content no differently than items that aren't actually in the database. Even the same error message is displayed.

Lending is available, in a rudimentary form, in Media. The act of "checking out" a book, DVD or other media is a manual process, which is fully understood given two facts: the need to put in the name of the person who is borrowing the media (with clever integration of the Address Book application) as well as the inability for the software to differentiate between a scan representing a rise in quantity versus a lowering in quantity.

Still, given the fact that the software can prompt for redundant scans and offer at least two options (ignore or increase quantity), it would be nice to see the software offer a third option for items that are already in the library, such as a check-out option.

Even simpler to perform would be the ability to rapidly check-in books or other media, as the manual check-out process changes the status in the database (and the corresponding icon color) to a color and detailed information about when the book has been checked out.

In our testing, we could not find any way to force the status color to change to a different color (red, for instance, since green is used for available and yellow is used for lent out) when the book became past due.  All this to say Media seems a good way to keep track of what's in your home collections, for insurance reasons, but not necessarily a stellar check-in / check-out private library sort of tool. For that, you'll need to pay the big bucks for IntelliScanner's Daneiza (Latin for to lend) software.

Wow, this post is pretty long, so I'll post my thoughts on Kitchen in a separate blog post.

Review: Otterbox Defender for iPhone 3GS (and 3G)

The iPhone 3GS (and 3G, which has an identical form factor) has many options in terms of protective coverings. Not every neoprene skin or leather slip case provides optimum protection. For that, a full-body protective case is needed.

Otterbox, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, has a long history in building protective cases for equipment, the kind of heavy plastic suitcase you might see a band's road crew carrying expensive gear in.

A few years back, the company began making smaller boxes to hold phones and GPS units, but the downside was that - while protecting these small consumer devices - the device itself was not accessible to use. So the company branched in to the field of heavily protective shells, form-fitted to particular devices.

Besides a variety of Blackberry models, Otterbox also has one for the iPhone with the fitting name of Defender. While the unit adds both size and a slight amount of weight to the iPhone, for those who need heavy protection in the field, it's not really much larger than the first-generation iPhone or the early Palm Pilot digital assistants.

Defender covers every possible connection and opening on the iPhone, including the camera. It does so through a series of two protective layers: the outer is very similar to a neoprene skin found on many iPhones. The benefit of this skin is that adds a no-slip grip to the overall phone, it can be washed, and it has a softer feel than the inner shell.

In our tests, the outer skin did a good job of collecting most of the dirt, as it covers most of the phone, minus the iPhone's large screen. Flaps also cover the headphone and charging/docking jacks as well as the on-off switch.

The outer skin was easily cleaned with soap and water, and dried relatively quickly. Over time, and with frequent washings, though, this may be the one part of the Defender that requires consistent replacement.

The inner shell is a molded, rigid plastic, with clear sheets of thin plastic film integrated to cover user-accessible areas such as the screen and the camera.

We ran our iPhone 3GS units, one black 32GB and one white 16GB one, through a series of video field tests in early August, in preparation for iPhone 3.1

One such test was to use the camera on a construction site, which involved sawdust, concrete mixing and a variety of other small-particle dangers for delicate electronics. Given Apple's recent reports of iPhones and iPod touch players exploding after being dropped, we also wanted maximum protection against accidental drops or knocks by power tools, etc.

The protective case performed admirably in this harsh environment; after returning to the office and extracting the iPhone from the Defender shell, we found no scratches or other signs of damage to the phone, even though the Defender's outer shell was covered in saw and concrete dust.

The one weakness we found in the Defender is the crevice in which the camera sits. The camera lens, on the upper left of the iPhone's curved back, is covered by a thin film, surrounded by a small ring of rigid plastic that the Defender places around the lens.

To shoot properly, we weren't able to just wipe the dust away from the lens, as we would do with a naked iPhone, so we had to resort to using compressed air to blow the dust out. With dirt or fingerprints, however, this could become a show stopper since the Defender doesn't wipe away dirt and grime from the phone body as easily as it is wiped away from a naked iPhone. The thin plastic, too, is more prone to easy scratching than the iPhone's camera glass, which could cause degradation of image and video capture after just a few cleanings.

One accessory is bundled with the Defender: a belt clip with wings that snap in to the edges of the Defender case. For added protection, the iPhone faced inward, toward the body, to further protect the screen from impact while worn in the belt clip. The complete package, then, looks like a black rectangle when worn. Functional? Absolutely. Fashion Statement? Probably not.

This, then, is the quandary of the Defender: the bulkiness is to be expected with a unit that adequately protects the iPhone; while it's not really bulky, as it's smaller than many two-year old PDAs, when wrapped around the iPhone, it feels bulky enough to make one think twice about using the Defender as a permanent protection solution.

Otterbox will, I'm sure, be willing to sell you two solutions: the Defender for those must-protect dirty projects and the Impact series of cases, offering moderate protection with corresponding lesser bulk.

Review: IntelliScanner SOHO

A few weeks ago, I mentioned an interest in reviewing a Macintosh-based portable scanning system.  I've received an IntelliScanner SOHO from the IntelliScanner Corp. Despite the omninous sound of the corporation's name, there's no tie to Blade Runner or even the recent Keanu Reeves flick.

The SOHO comes in a plastic tin that houses the scanner, a thin booklet with a few key barcodes and a software card. The software card has activation codes for a variety of the software products that come as part of the Express package.

Essentially the Express package is all the home tracking software, "designed to organize everyday household items like books, DVDs, wine, groceries or electronics," as a company representative told me when I was trying to decide between the SOHO or smaller mini scanner.

Also included with the SOHO scanner is a small card that contains the numbers 0-9 in barcode form as well as an "undo" barcode.

The SOHO scanner unit itself is about the size of an early 2000's cell phone, as can be seen in the following picture. It operates on 3 AAA batteries.

Before plugging in the unit for initial set-up, IntelliScanner wants to be sure you're comfortable with the scanning mode, so there is a bar code in the small booklet that should be scanned before connecting the SOHO scanner to the computer.

To scan, hold down the button on the top of the SOHO scanner, which causes the red laser line to appear; the line stays visible for about 3 seconds, then shuts off to preserve battery life. If it disappears, press the button on top of the SOHO scanner again, and try placing the scanner about 3-4" from the bar code. The only indication that it is safe to move about the cabin in an audible beep sounds when the barcode has been scanned and stored, accompanied by an LED on the top of the IntelliScanner that glows green.

Once this scan is complete, launch the software wizard to walk through the steps to connect the scanner to the computer.

The scanner itself does not have a USB connector, so content on the scanner is output on an included serial-to-USB cable that uses a 3.5mm (1/8") stereo connector - the same type used for earbud headphones for an iPod -  to connect to the base of the IntelliScanner SOHO.  DO NOT lose this cable as it is somewhat difficult to cost effectively replace. It would be nice to see the SOHO use a MicroUSB connector, given the prevalence of this type of USB cable for still cameras, portable hard drives, and Blackberry and other mobile phones.

Back to the software wizard: the first step is to choose an image that matches the type of scanner you have (the SOHO) and then next step is to plug the USB cable in to the Macintosh computer, checking first to see if the toggle switch on the USB cable's small in-line convertor is set to KBD rather than VCOM. Don't worry if it is set wrong, as the setup wizard will prompt in a BIG font to switch the setting.

Once the setup wizard states that the USB cable is connected correctly to the computer, plug the 3.5mm jack in to the base of the IntelliScanner SOHO. An audible beep will sound, indicating that the SOHO scanner has begun downloading information to the computer (typing, effectively, the numbers from the bar code that had previously been scanned.

Finally, once the software setup confirms the presence of the scanner, a code will need to be entered from the booklet to verify the scanner's ID. Once all this is complete, it's finally time to start scanning.  We'll take a look at a few of the software options from the Express package in our next review.