Is there a laptop with a camera in the screen?
ARDELL on 07 7, 2007
[photopress:pod.jpg,thumb,alignright]I have long wanted to complement my blog posts with a video podcast of fairly identical content. I installed talkr on my blog, but it sounds like a robot and can’t pronounce my name.
I did two podcast interviews in the last 7 days or so, one for Inman TV and one for Active Rain. Both were associated with the upcoming Inman Connect and Blogger’s connect in San Francisco, where a few of us here at Rain City Guide will be speaking. Both times the podcast was done via a setup like that shown in the photo. Stringing the wire though my clothes and connecting it to a box and then hiding the box somewhere with no belt or pockets was a little harder for the second one taken outside Brio Realty, than the one done at Zillow where I could lay it in the chair behind me.
We have cameras in our cell phones that take photos. I think the time has come for our laptops to have a podcast video option, so we can talk into our laptop screen and it will turn into a podcast for each blog entry. I’m not crazy about doing podcasts, but really, we can’t fight it any longer can we? I could also put a willing client at the computer and ask them questions from behind the laptop for an interview. Or I could record actual conversations with people who are willing to share that way, so people could really see how the home buying and selling process works in real life. The podcast could be me talking to them, with their questions and answers recorded without their ever appearing in the podcast, just their voice. Many options without needing to hold or stare into a camera. As long as the conversation is happening near the laptop, it would be an instant podcast.
Since Jeff Turner posted this video for me and Kevin, sitting in his home office in a white tee shirt, I’ve been trying to find a way to combine my previous hope to have my blogs speak in my own voice, with podcasting. As I was sitting here blogging today and seeing my reflection in the laptop screen I said, “Hey! If they can put a camera in my phone, why can’t this laptop screen be a camera so I can talk my post into a video?”
If such a laptop exists, one where the screen is a camera, I’d love to know about it. If not, here’s an idea for the techie readers to start working on! Any suggestions of how to accomplish this basic objective would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don’t want the podcast to replace the post and I don’t want to see all posts converted to podcasts. But I think in the “flat medium” we are often misunderstood. Though granted when I’m mouthing off people are usually pretty right about my tone 
once in a while the message is totally lost. Also, with the podcast option, I could curtail my need to bold and cap so much. Those who want to note the emphasis, could simply play the podcast.
I see lots of benefits to having a camera in my laptop screen. I know there are lots of Rain City Guide readers who work in the technology field. All advices appreciated.
About the Author: Ardell DellaLoggia
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Any new MacBook will have this feature. I don’t own one, but a good friend of mine does and it’s really cool. We did a little iChatting and the quality was pretty impressive. Here’s a link to check it out: http://www.apple.com/macbook/isight.html
There are several laptops with camera’s built in or you can buy a camera to put on top of your screen.
Sony and HP both make laptops with built in cameras.
Ardell, is there a particular reason why you want to do video versus just audio podcasting?
I subscribe to many audio podcasts and I prefer that format because I can listen to them on my iPod while working or driving.
The time and effort to produce audio is pretty low because you don’t need an A/V crew. You can get one of those portable digital recorders to record interviews and copy it to your PC.
I’ve used this Olympus digital recorder with good results: http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-WS-300M-Digital-Recorder-Player/dp/B000BJ1UAE/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3512906-3627032?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1183851171&sr=8-1
(one minor drawback with this model is that it records in Windows Media format, which you need to convert to a format most podcast listeners use – the Apple iTunes software can do this conversion… but overall I think this is one of the best recorders).
Seth,
How would it convert then to a podcast?
Stan,
One that fits on top of the screen sounds interesting, but what about sound? Right now I have to wear a headseat to hear skype, and I’m not sure I’d want to wear a headset in every podcast.
Don,
If you clicked on Jeff Turner’s video, I think I got a totally different perspective of him vs. when I spoke with him on the phone.
The future of real estate blogging is so that people can feel like the already “met” the agent from their blog. I think clicking on the videos would best convey that feeling. Sound is good, but video might be better. The flat pro photos are just too easy to get attached to. I keep bringing the picture to the hairdresser and saying “I have to look like ths”, kind of like “your mission should you choose to accept it”.
OK I see what you mean, for people looking to find agents, video could be a useful tool to get familiar with them.
But I’m looking at this from the viewpoint of someone who reads the blog not to find an agent, but to get interesting insight into Seattle real estate market. What I look for is interesting interviews and content in a format convenient for me (like iPod)… frankly, I don’t care what the people look like
LOL. and why do we write then?
Both our sony vaio’s have the camera….they are a couple years old, so not sure if it is still standard feature.
Ardell,
I’m pretty happy with my logitech webcam that clips onto the top of my PC. The QuickCam costs about $100, but, so far, the integration with other products has been flawless, which was not the case with the cheaper webcam I had a while back…
I like the “intelligent face tracking” feature, Dustin. Sounds like it’s going to scan the room and choose its own target
I bought my HP Pavilion dv1000 laptop from the Costco website where I was able to pick everything (just like you can with Dell). You can pick any “shell” you want, I chose this one because it came in the 14″ screen so it’s light and small and because I liked the mousepad/keyboard layout. I added the built-in web cam, a remote for PP’s and some other practical stuff like the larger battery. I much prefer having one built to buying off the shelf. I’ve had it for almost a year now and it’s still amazing. Even my husband is still jeaous
On a some-what-related-but-not-really note, I also got the HP 460 portable printer and it is my all-time favorite printer. My big HP scanner/copier/printer goes through ink like nobodies business while my little 460’s ink gets replaced only every month or two and I use it almost exclusively now. You can buy a battery pack and a wireless adapter for it as well – which i plan on doing. But even now with the cords it’s easy to take with me to meet clients and I can plug it in to my car if I need to.
Jennifer,
Thank you for that second paragraph, as all agents face this need and problem. I have written posts about the need to print from outside of our offices in the past.
I have an HP Pavilion now, so I expect I can simply reconfigure the one I have. I’m not a big fan of the Mac for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I am a strong believer in residents supporting the underpinnings of their local economy.
If I lived where real estate was bolstered by the ongoings of the employees of Apple, I’d have a Mac. But I live down the street from Microsoft, so I use many Microsoft products as much as possible. I also support Google and will be expanding in that direction as well.
I’m not big into being Green, but I am big into supporting that which supports me. So I use Outlook and MS Office and buy Google ad words here and there. I don’t shop for the best price always, I’m willing to spend a little more to support Seattle’s economy.
I don’t understand much about technology, other than that it is changing the world as we know it and we need to embrace it. I am hoping to integrate the best of the past with the best of the future, by providing Podcasts that influence how people approach real estate.
One thing I know is that most consumers want fiduciary services, and benefit from that level of service. What they don’t know is whether or not it exists, and sometimes what it looks like. Printed words alone don’t really convey fiduciary as well as a podcast will. I hope to influence the education of both consumers and agents via podcasts that portray that higher level of care and concern for the client. It’s a lofty goal…but for me the goals of real estate professionals have been and should always be quite lofty. We impact the lives of many. We should not take that responsibility lightly, in the name of profit and sales.
If I can convey via podcasts that we represent people for a living, and really don’t sell anything, I will have accomplished my objective. We don’t get paid to sell a house. We get paid to help a seller accomplish their objective. We don’t get paid for selling a house to a buyer consumer. We get paid to help a buyer consumer accomplish their objective.
Will 100% ever get that? No. But I’d like to see it be the 20% it was when I started in this business, rather than the 7% to 10% that it has turned into.
Many states, WA included, have reduced the standards to fit what is, and what consumers can reasonably expect. Someone should work just as hard to keep at least a portion of the industry on the higher ground.
I don’t ask technology questions to be “on the cutting edge”. To me technology isn’t cool…it’s the future. And the future should not leave alll of the past behind, but should bring the best of the past along with it.
Jennifer, I’m in the market for a new laptop…I’m tired of lugging around my 15 inch Toshiba Satalite that has conflicts with just about every program I use! I’ll have to check out building my HP at Costco. Thanks!
Ardell, my mom bought the same camera as me after checking out all the features… Not only does it “track” you face, but it allows you to add funny faces on top of yours. Here’s a video of my mom and sister playing with the feature on YouTube. It really is wild and always brings a smile to people’s faces.
LOL,
I loved your Mom’s “How you doowin”.
Well, given that Apple’s “thing” is that Things Just Work, it’s pretty simple. However, you have to consider whether or not the Mac will work with the other applications you use frequently, i.e., MLS, company intranet, etc. It won’t work with either of those for me.
Dustin,
Just remembered that you use a Mac. I’m assuming your camera suggestion works just as well with an HP Laptop?
I have a different camera for my Mac… From my work, I have a PC laptop that I use the webcam from above!
I’m dying to do some demonstration podcasts. Getting houses ready for market. Recently I promised someone a post on how to take care of their Rhodies. People buy homes with great landscaping, and then don’t know how to maintain this valuable asset. I want to do out in the field type videos like a home inspection where the camera focuses on what the inspector is looking at vs any of the people. We can do that without revealing the property by focusing on the electrical panel,etc…
Lots of ideas.As soon as we wind up Project Blogger. I’m assuming I can hold that camera and it doesn’t have to be clipped to the laptop. Or I can train it not to look at a face
If it was for a walk tour, for example, would that work, or does it have to be attached to the laptop?
I’ve got some clients that have had excellent resolution and video capture from their Mac. They used it to capture a lot of candid video during their wedding and honeymoon in Mexico.
Hey, Ardell… I’m glad the real me came through in the video.
I can totally understand your desire to do video. I’m not a fan of the “behind the camera” stuff that real estate agents are doing, but I’m a big fan of having the real estate agent be “natural” in front of the camera. Unfortunately, most of what I see is either over-produced and commercial looking or a horribly amateur attempt at producing ad advertisement.
You know I’m an Apple guy. For video, nothing is better. I can understand your reason for supporting Microsoft, but if I were you I’d use the PC and a MAC. Even the lowest end Macbook has the camera built right into the screen and the software that comes with the Mac is just brain dead simple to use and works flawlessly. I own every professional piece of software available for video production, but for video podcasts, I just use the software that came with the Mac. Why? Because it’s simple and quick. Saving money by buying a PC that will make you work harder has never made any sense to me. Time is money.
I am now going to make another one for you, where I am reading this comment before I post it. I’m going to time how long it takes me from start to finish, including editing in iMovie HD, and uploading to Veoh. I’m in WV on vacation and this room is a bit dark, but I think it will work. So hold on.
OK, the video is done and we’re at just over 12 minutes. It’s been edited, a title added, fades put on and exported to to MP4 using iMovie HD. It’s a 29 meg file and is now uploading to Veoh. This is likely to take longer than the recording and production, but I like Veoh.com’s video quality. Though I’m not sure why I want it so high. just woke up. It aint pretty. I also did this with the laptop actually on my lap, so you’ll forgive me if it shakes a bit. I have a hard time NOT using my body when I talk.
We’re at 17 minutes 34 seconds and the video is now uploaded. Here is the link. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v802464jqrBhcew It may take a bit for Veoh.com to validate the video format and do the magic on their side, but our work is done.
As you can see from the video, you still need to look up at the camera to really make eye contact. I tried to put the text as high up on the sreen as possible to give you the best idea of how reading without looking at the camera works. With just a little bit of practice, I think your idea could work well. It was hard for me to NOT look up at the camera at times, even thought it was only a couple of inches, you can see the difference.
I hope this is helps more than me just describing how it’s done.
Ardell… either you are moderating comments with links, or I just lost a very long coment with a link to a podcast I just did for you. Let me know if it was lost.
Turner,
It was trapped in the Askimet Spam Filter. What a nice surprise to wake up to! I releasedit from purgatory. Now I’ll read and watch it.
Cool. Phew. Be patient with Veoh.com… as I’ve said before, their quality it excellent but the time it takes for them to make video live is painful when you’re trying to do anything real time… like this.
Taking way too long to load. Already finished my first cup of coffee. I have the same problem on the laptop with Redfin links, but not YouTube or other sites.
I’ll try it from a different computer. So far, no good.
You probably clicked on it before it was done processing. It will stream just fine when it is done… which it finally is now. YouTube would have been faster, but the quality would have been worse.
OK,
Did it again making sure NOT to click on it. Much better! Here’s what I’ve decided based on your video demonstration and having seen a video podcast taken by Active Rain with a small piece of me in it.
I will be doing the reverse. Rather than writing the post and reading it into the video, I’m going to make the video and then transcribe it into a post. I will put the video on one blog and the text version in another.
I’ll wait to see the longer podcast of me that Inman took. But I do know that I don’t know what I’m going to say in a Podcast and things just fly out of my mouth, that I may not have “let in” to the final on a typed post. I’d rather have the full natural version on the Podcast, and then I can do the text portion. From your demonstration, I can see that reading something written into the camera, is not going to produce the result I’m looking for.
Posting the text version on one blog, and the podcast version on another, may seem like the bait and switch post I did in AR. But I think that will give people both options hmmm OR I can make one of the other blogs I have lying around the web not being used into ARDELL’s Podcast Blog…
Thank you! Not sure where I’m going with this, but I’m going to try Dustin’s suggestion of camera that clips on to my existing laptop first.
I’ll have to ask Derek Burress if the linking back and forth would annoy him. If it would, then I’ll do the ARDELL’s Podcast Blog with the text transcription on my blog for him. I’ll put the best podcasts on RCG.
Thank you Jeff. That demonstration was very helpful.
That raises an SEO question. If I have an ARDELL’s Podcast Blog with only podcasts, and post some of them on RCG and some on my blog, would that be “duplicate content”.
Does a podcast showing up in two places have the same “duplicate content” issues of cut and paste text? I wouldn’t think so, but what do I know.
Ardell… no, video in two places does not have the same SEO impact.
I’m glad this helped. I hoped it would show you how reading the text would look. The feel can be improved with practice. But who wants to practice. That’s what makes it feel canned and fake. I can’t read a podcast. Just not me. I have to do it in the moment and live, thats the only way to truly appear natural and real. I can’t wait to see what you do.
I know from my Toastmasters Experience that reading the speech vs. writing it AFTER the “speech” is much better. But didn’t make the connection until I saw your video. So thanks! Saved me lots of time.
Look forward to finally meeting you in San Franscisco.