If you signed up for YouTube prior to Google’s acquisition you may be displeased to see that you are no longer allowed to use your YouTube account independent of your email. The change merges your YouTube account with whatever email was associated with it at the time.

The qualifying conditions are as follows:

• You’ve signed up for their original YouTube account before May 2009.
• You’ve joined your YouTube and Google Accounts together.
• You’re still signing in with your original YouTube password.

It has long been apparent that YouTube is not generating anywhere near its $1.6 billion price, with additional server and employee upkeep costs.

Apparently Google figures they can make money by linking your email with your YouTube habits, and, dare I say, build a psychological profile. Maybe it will have something to do with the ads in Gmail, or the suggested videos on YouTube; or maybe Google plans to take over the world.

Stay tuned for further developments on the situation.

• Google FAQ

Face it, your mobile phone camera sucks. In the age of blogs, social networking, and viral videos it almost becomes a necessity to own a competent HD recording device.

The NS-DCC5HB09 steps up to the plate at an exceptionally affordable price, 3 inch LCD screen, and HDMI output.

This camera is a compact HD recording device which easily fits into your pocket. It is capable of recording video 1280×720 resolution (720p) at 30fps in .AVI format, and capturing images at 5 Mega Pixels at 2592×19 44 resolution in .JPEG format.

Additionally, it functions as a portable media player with mp3 and movie watching capabilities on its 3 inch LCD screen. On the down side I was unable to play any DVDRips so that feature is worthless to me.

This is a test run in the camera’s HD mode in Petaluma, CA, with slight compression on behalf of facebook that blurs the quality more so than the original file.

This is a picture at the highest camera setting. Click through for the original resolution.

Flaws:

1. The device has a tendency to reset the recording resolution to DVI quality, it’s rather annoying.
2. You cannot charge the device through the USB cable provided, and must use the AC adapter.
3. The device is not compatible with the PS3 through the usb interface.
4. The device was not recognized on my XP 64 machine, I did not attempt to install drivers as I can just use the SIM card alone.
5. It is not very responsive when functioning through HDMI output, though this is the standard of most devices.

Final Note:

This is a great product with some minor flaws. It’s a great entry-level HD camera with an easy to use interface that should suffice the needs of most users. For a price of $120, I would give it a 8/10 – with the majority of points detracted due to its inability to charge through USB.

Links:
Official Product Page with Specifications