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'Clip Cam' is a clothespin for flat monitors

It's can't compare with the "Happy Kids" Webcam in our opinion, but Brando's "USB Crystal Clip Cam" definitely seems versatile with its 180-degree rotation. Plus, the wide clip would make it pretty easy to position along the edges of any LCD monitor or laptop screen, and the camera has built-in LEDs to illuminate your night-vision chatting, though that's still more than we want to know. It won't be winning any awards for aesthetics, nor will its specs produce the best-quality photography, but at $18.50, it's hard to complain.

Sony alarm clock plays spy

The "Dream Machine" as secret agent?

Sony may need to expand into new areas as some of its core businesses continue to suffer (read: iPod), but the spying game hardly seems like a natural fit. In fact, we have no idea why it would even want to develop a combo clock radio and spy cam like the one seen on Uber-Review, other than for the sheer novelty of it.

For one thing, there appears to be an endless supply of covert devices disguised as ordinary household items already on the market. Second, many companies have been specializing in … Read more

New on the Net: the cheese-cam

We had a hard time deciding on a headline for this blog. Candidates included "Cheese-o-vision" and "Oh, how I love Cheesus," but we thought those might be too corny.

The New York Times on Tuesday ran a piece about a wheel of cheddar that has its own 24/7 Webcast, celebrity MySpace.com page and romantic life (people have sent it love letters and written it love poems). Yes, you read that right; it's a hunk of cheese, sitting on a shelf, getting moldy (we mean "ripening") at a farm in Westcombe, Somerset, England. … Read more

YouCams: Video chat + social networking

We saw a lot of work and business tools for conferencing and collaboration come out of Under the Radar last week, but what about when you want to have fun? YouCams is a slick little embeddable video, voice, and text-chatting tool that's a mix of fun and business. The entire app runs in Flash, and users can jump in and join a discussion without the need for registration. The tool is aimed at social network users (mainly the MySpace crowd) as a way to communicate and interact with one another. Something that will likely get them blocked from the service, like what happened to competitor Stickam.

If you've used Stickam before, the Webcam functionality is a little similar. And by a little I'm being generous, because YouCams is much more full featured. There are two tiers of service, both free and paid. Basic registration is fairly generous, giving you voice, text, and video broadcasting privileges. Upgrading to the premium level turns YouCams into a full-on conferencing tool, allowing you to video chat with three other users at the same time, and own a personalized URL with the option to host your own conferencing room.

An interesting addition to YouCams is integration with YouTube, and a large variety of widgets. These float around on the interface, and require no extra installation. It feels a little bit like YourMinis. The Space Invaders widget in particular nearly kept me from finishing this post. Likewise the YouTube integration is well done. Video links pop up in a conversation bubble, and won't start until you click on them. Like the widgets, they float around and can be resized on an ad-hoc basis.

There's also a social networking component integrated in the service. Users trade 'stars,' which act as credits to buy into various features. It's an interesting take on user involvement, although I'm not sure it'll catch on until users have a real reason to get involved. Maybe giving them access to premium content like music or movie downloads would be a good hook. In the meantime, casual chatters will likely get a kick out of YouCams for its slick interface and ease of use.

I've embedded a YouCams module after the jump. It might not run if you're using Firefox. We've been in contact with the YouCams team about this, and they're on it.… Read more

Justin.tv goes live

Justin.tv-- the live helmet-video blogging site we wrote about last month--went live this morning. The site combines a live video feed, public chat room, and head blogger Justin Kan's daily schedule--which loosely resembles a content programming guide. Entertaining bits of content are archived for later viewing, complete with a blog post with context for what's going on. The entire production is run through Kan's backpack, which holds a laptop hooked up to an EV-DO card.

Chatters can discuss what's happening on the show with other viewers (using Lingr, the live updating chat service … Read more

Spy bot or alarm clock?

At first glance, we thought this was just another version of the "Clocky" runaway alarm clock, in a different color. But then we noticed the small camera that seems precariously perched on top.

It's not the amateurish design of the "Spy-Cye" that bothers us; it's the price--$695. That's because mobile spy bots are rapidly approaching commodity status. Target's toy department even sells one for kids.

It's true that the Spy-Cye can be controlled on the PC, as Red Ferret notes, but that's not unique either. Besides, counter-surveillance technologies are … Read more

A shower cam, for--whatever

OK, we're confused (even more than usual). When we first saw the headline for this item on Red Ferret--"Shower Security Cam"--we thought it was something that would keep an eye on the kids or the front door while you bathed. Simple enough.

But then we noticed the image on the device's screen, which appears to be the person in the shower, not those being surveilled on the outside. And the transmission can be viewed wireless on a computer and a VCR. So rather than speculate on its intended (or unintended) uses, we'll just … Read more