I was thinking of doing a live blog series over the course of my stay at the Shangri-La Boracay but the laid back island and hints that summer is full blown made me retire that thought (see photos for reference and tell me if you’d want to work in this condition of paradise). Destination Boracay served as Sony’s second and third launch for the year, and might I add, one of the best product launches I’ve ever attended. After releasing the new VAIO portables last month, Sony unveiled the new BRAVIA’s with 3D TV and face recognition. More on this in a bit. From the imagine line, we have new Cybershots and Handycams but the “people’s choice” highlight of the day was the Bloggie video recorder (boring name: MHS-PM5K).
Although late in the game, the Bloggie affirms that the industry recognizes a market for portable devices that allow you to directly upload video to YouTube, among other sharing sites. It directly competes with the 5th generation iPod nano that also does video and the Flip video camera. As Sony came in later in the market, they had time to add several unique features that makes this the best “Internet video camera” for friends to enjoy.
First off, the Bloggie has slots for two types of memory cards: SD and and their proprietary memory stick (the device comes bundled with a 4GB card). Second, the USB dock is built into the unit, which means that you won’t need any external cables to connect and transfer video. Third, it comes with a secondary 360 degree camera (so yeah the Bloggie comes with 2 cameras) that rotates by itself to capture everything around its radius. Great for parties. The Bloggie records in HD.
According to Nina Lumabas, product manager for Handycam the Bloggie has a battery life of up to one hour. Note that the Bloggie isn’t classified under the Cybershot or Handycam line as it is a product segment on its own. it retails for PHP 14,999.00.