Viddler

Here we are. The last day of the HotHardware Hottest Hardware Contest (see original post). For those that prefer to procrastinate until the last possible moment, then today is the day for you.

Dave Altavilla of HotHardware (subscribe) unboxes the Flip UltraHD that one lucky winner will receive very soon. What a tease! The UltraHD records in HD 720, has an HDMI connection to connect directly to your HDTV (yes, and a USB port), and comes with rechargeable AA batteries so you can get started recording videos as soon as you unbox it yourself.

You have until midnight tonight to get your submission(s) in at contests.hothardware.com. Remember, it’s supposed to be fun and quick. You can see all the details about the contest in the original announcement.

The winner will be announced later in the week and will also be contacted by e-mail.

Go forth and record your hottest hardware!

There’s so many great shows on television it’s sometimes tough to keep up with. LOST will be ending next year, Heroes is flying along nicely, House is making people emotional on Twitter, and Glee’s first season has hooked many of us already.

DVRs are commonplace in most modern homes, and they assist in our viewing habits, but what if you completely missed a show last week? Sure, you could possibly find it on Hulu (if you live in the United States) or other sites. Although, if you don’t have time to watch that show you only watch if you have spare time, then you can still keep up with it by finding out the general plot line of last weeks episode via TV In a Flash (subscribe).

TV In a Flash gives you the rundown of what happened last week on television. Each 2-5 minute episode is released on Tuesdays.

Follow @tvinaflash on Twitter to follow updates about when particular shows are on, the opinions of the host and writer of the show, and links to relevant TV news.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Have you submitted a video to the HotHardware Hottest Hardware Contest yet?

If you answered no, then what a shame! You could win a Flip UltraHD video camera just for uploading a 60 second video showing off your favorite hardware. Yup, it’s that simple!

Even if you already have a Flip video camera or something similar, then you might like to enter so you could win and give the Flip UltraHD to a friend or family member for Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus this year.

Here’s a couple of the entries already uploaded:

Dave Yankowiak (friend him up!)

Phil Montero (friend him up!)

There’s far more entries from guys than from girls at the moment. Let’s change that, hey? Justine, Veronica, Rachel, Leah, Brandice?

Enter the contest here!

Giddy luck, friends!

Read all the details about the contest in the original announcement here.

Welcome to Monday, fellow Viddlerers!

The power of Radar Music Videos (subscribe) has brought us another funky music video to start out the week with. This electonic music was created by Neil Landstrumm and Profisee. The design and animation was all the work of Luca Brenna.

Neil Landstrumm has been on the UK electronic music scene since 1994. He has produced music or some of the biggest record labels in the industry, and he always seems to be at the forefront of experimental low frequency electronics with his Scandinavian label signature.
Profisee is also from the UK and has collaborated with various other artists (such as Capitol 1212, Process Rebel, Vent) displaying his versatile style of beats.

Luca Brenna is a designer born in Italy, but in recent years relocated to various locales in the United Kingdom, finally ending up in London, England. He has worked for a number of major advertising agencies. Nowadays he works as a freelance digital media artist for various companies.

Radar Music Videos brings together musicians with directors in a quest to create unique and independent music videos. If you’re a designer or musician interested in creating a music video, then you should discover the power of Radar Music Videos!

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a music video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

I like to be as informed as I can before I create an opinion about a given topic. Gods, life, cultures, people. Just because someone tells you ‘this is the way it is’ doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be. That’s why there’s so many religions, languages, and jobs in the world. In most countries you can believe whatever you want.

Raising children is an example of something that can be done in such diverse ways. It isn’t taught to us in school, but we do learn a lot from the way our parents treat us when were kids. And, when we’re young, we think ‘I’m going to treat my kids much better (than I’m being treated)’. Though, when we get to be parents we realize our parents were just looking out for our best interests.

As I said at the beginning, getting advice from different sources about parenting is helpful to bringing up your children in the best possible way. Sure, when kids are at school there’s little a parent can do to guide them the way they’d like, but that’s why parents get to choose where their kids go to school.

Daddy Clay from DadLabs (subscribe) recently meet up with Po Bronson at the Texas Book Festival and briefly discussed some of the parenting topics mentioned in his book titled “NurtureShock: A New Thinking About Children“.

DadLabs is a great resource for new and experienced parents. There’s actually lots of resources for parents online, like Digital Dads or all the mommy bloggers of the Interwebs.

NurtureShock by Po Bronson can be purchased from Amazon and many other online retailers.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

As our Business Services continues to grow rapidly from month-to-month we need more help on our support team. Our customers come first and so our focus is providing amazing customer support that is helpful, personable, and timely. In our first business survey 90% of our customers were “satisfied or very satisfied” with our service. With your help, we can do better.

To help us achieve this goal we are looking for another support team member to join us in our Bethlehem, Pennsylvania headquarters. We’re considering both part-time and full-time applicants so don’t be shy if you have a less-than-typical schedule. We’re a small, fun-loving team that loves our home in Pennsylvania, enjoys eating lunch together, and has a desire to be the best at what we do.

The number-one-requirement for anyone that joins our team is to be customer focused. We want people willing to go that extra mile to exceed customer expectations. While technical experience is highly valued in our team members some on-the-job training to people that love to make our customers happy is fine with us.

The technical experience we’re referring to should include intimate knowledge of viddler.com (you do have a Viddler account, right?), customer support experience, familiarity with web-based languages and APIs. Helping the little old lady next door with her groceries is considered a plus.

Are you interested? Or perhaps you know someone who would be? Pass this letter onto them or respond yourself by sending an email to jobs@viddler.com. Please send your resume but a personal, informal email letting us know about you tends to go much further ’round here.

See you soon,
Donna DeMarco (Fiddlinlady)
Co-Founder & Vice President

The Web 2.0 Expo 2009 ran from Monday to Thursday this week in New York City, and many great entrepreneurial speakers were there to share their experience and inspiration with the audiences.

Jay Adelson (Digg CEO & Revision3 chairman) and Kevin Rose (Digg Founder) spoke to Brady Forrest (O’Reilly Media, Inc.) in a keynote about Digg‘s strategy as well as their backgrounds in business. It was brief as keynote standards go, but some great information was expelled.

Neal Rodriguez (friend him up!) attended the keynote, recorded it, and shared it with the Viddler community.

About the event

Web 2.0 Expo is co-produced by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb. The expo occurs in San Francisco and New York at different times of the year. It showcases the latest development models, business ideas, and design strategies for the individuals and companies creating the next-generation web.

The annual conference features multiple tracks, so there’s always choice various choices to enable individuals, businesses, and customers together to great strong contacts and communities.

The next Web 2.0 Expo will be held in San Francisco on May 3-6, 2010.

You can follow the latest updates on the Web 2.0 Expo blog and by following @w2e on Twitter.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Disney is basically another word for “fun”. You can experience movies made by Disney at theme parks like Disneyland (in California and Paris) and Walt Disney World (in Florida), and Tokyo Disney Resort (in Japan). These theme parks can make anyone feel like a kid.

There are many more products and services with the Disney brand on them, but one of the largest and most exciting ones is their line of cruise ships. Imagine how much fun a cruise is, and then add the Disney touch to it. Yeah, epic!

The Disney Cruise Line has been sailing since 1998. They currently have two ships (Disney Magic and Disney Wonder) in service and another two projected to set sail in 2011 (Disney Dream) and 2012 (Disney Fantasy). Both the ‘Dream‘ and ‘Fantasy‘ are larger than the current ships and they offer some giddy features!

Today’s video is about the water coaster (a.k.a. water slide) to be appearing on the Disney Dream. It’s called the AquaDuck and it can push riders forward at 20 feet per second thanks to powerful water jets. It takes you farther than the length of two football fields as it twists and turns on top of the ship. Oh, and there’s a drop that extends 4 decks of the ship. Have a look for yourself!

The Disney Parks Blog (subscribe) is the official blog for the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line. It provides the latest information and behind-the-scenes videos of Disney Parks’ magical kingdoms. You can receive updates via Twitter by following @disneyparks.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

These days you have to be innovative to stay ‘in the game’. This is especially true with technology. Nikon released a DSLR that had a “hi” ISO of 102,500, then Canon released a camera with an equivalent ISO range. Competition is good for consumers.

Ricoh has definitely brought something new to the consumer camera industry. A camera with interchangeable lenses AND sensors. Yes, the sensor and lens are combined into a slider package that fits in to the Ricoh GXR.

Ben Stevens from Which? (subscribe) gives a brief overview of this interesting camera system from Ricoh.

About Which?

Which? is a product-testing and campaigning charity based in the United Kingdom. Even in such a connected world I hadn’t heard of them until a few days ago. Michael Young founded the charity in 1957 after the wars in Britain had ended and much of the population embraced consumerism.

Basically, Which? offers everything a person could want or need to know in magazine or online forms. Product reviews range from toilet paper to cars. They offer legal service, product price comparisons, a digital store, local business search, advice on topics from greener living to your rights with the law, and much more.

There’s so much knowledge available from Which? that you’ll probably end up with a masters degree by the time you’re done absorbing it all. Thus, the video featured today is just a tiny fraction of what they have to offer.

You can discover all of this information at which.co.uk. @WhichNews, @WhichTech, @WhichCampaigner, @WhichMoney, and @WhichCar are the Twitter accounts that offer information and advice from Which?.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

After all the crushcrushcrush yesterday I couldn’t help but throw in another CRUSH today and show you this rad mashup of video reviews from people that have read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It.

The book launched just over a month ago and has been a hot item for long before that. People are loving it, and it’s no surprise because Gary is a caring guy and that shines through in the book.

If you’re someone that lives under a rock (hey, sometimes there’s a nice climate under rocks — no judgment here), then I’ll give you a brief rundown on the book.

Crush It goes to the heart of a person and taps in to what you truly love. Honestly, anything. What do you love? Gary tells of how following your passion can lead you to making a living off of what you love. The cost of entry in to any industry right now is zilch. Nothing. Nada. Being true to yourself and those around you shows authenticity and that is what people love. Live your life with passion, folks!

Crush It is available on countless book shelves around the globe and, of course, online. Links below.

You can find all the places to buy Crush It at crushitbook.com. Of course, following @garyvee on Twitter will speed up your path towards enlightenment.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a rad video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.