If a handset could ever have journalists ditch their huge cameras, microphones, satellites and huge broadcasting trucks and go “mobile”, it could only be the N95. The potential of this multimedia computer has been spotted by BBC News website’s technology editor Darren Waters who has been putting the N95 to many multimedia-related uses.
First Darren made good use of the N95 camera to shoot pictures and video, as well as Shozu to upload his takes to the BBC servers, Flickr, YouTube and Blip. In his post, he explores the positives as well as the negatives of the experience. Mainly he noticed the speed and functionality of the device, but was struck by the lack of a decent battery life and external microphone. Steve Litchfield of AllAboutSymbian found a nifty trick previously demo’ed by Steve Garfield where you could use the built-in microphone on the supplied headset’s remote control, to record better audios on the Nseries devices. The string, which is usually 70-80 cm long, should allow better audio quality at a 1m distance, or more.
Darren has also put the N95 up for another test: streaming live video using Qik. Although he finds this could be invaluable for journalists, bloggers and other video broadcasters, he still wonders whether live streaming is something the public would actually want to do.
Well, I can only speak for myself and say that live streaming has the potential of becoming the next big thing. For people always on the road, with families, friends and lovers behind, this could be huge. I can think of many scenarios where this would come in handy.
Do you think handsets will ever replace those bulky cameras that journalist crews are known to carry around? And how about that video streaming possibility? Is it something you imagine yourself consistently using, and under which circumstances/for what purpose?
[Via AllAboutSymbian]
