The list of established players in the imaging field is a long one. Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Leica, Olympus, Pentax, Kodak… it goes on. For decades they’ve been fine-tuning their devices, and they continue fight fiercely over every market and price point.

Certainly this has produced some excellent devices: DSLRs today offer an unprecedented value for the amateur (or pro) photographer, but I can’t shake the feeling that all the big guys are spinning their wheels. After all, there are precious few real innovations in cameras these days — Casio and Fujifilm spring to mind with their innovative use of the sensor, but by and large, even the top-tier devices don’t really do anything that different from the ancient one-megapixel point-and-shoots of the late 20th century.

Researchers at Stanford want to change that. Although they certainly don’t plan on toppling the powers that be (in fact, they’re funded by them), they’re tired of cameras falling under either the highly-specialized or highly-generalized categories. After all, it’s all just data, right? Why not make the camera a versatile platform with a real OS, an open hardware standard, and — hell, why not — an app store?

According to Digitimes, Microsoft will be using a “dual-platform” strategy to compete with Android and the iPhone. 6.5, due to be rolled out October 1, will stay alive just to compete with Android, while WinMo 7 will compete with the iPhone. I don’t think this is as shocking as Gizmodo does, but I certainly don’t see the wisdom in having dueling OSes. Dueling salsas, maybe.

On the other hand, I see the necessity: Windows Mobile is entrenched in its current form and that inertia is going to be difficult to overcome. At the same time, there’s pressure to compete at a lower level with a lighter and savvier OS — something 6.5 really isn’t able to pull off (despite looking nice).

As much as we’d like the Tapplet, or iPad, to make its debut next month, it’s looking like that won’t be the case — as we’ve heard. “Sources close to the company” say that the event will be on September 9th and will most assuredly not be Tablet-related. Instead, like last year’s September announcement, it’ll be new iPods and possibly that fancy new iTunes we’ve been hearing about.

While the inclusion of yet more services into Apple’s increasingly bloated all-purpose media player may be seen as excessive, you can always count on Apple to at least sell it.

A Manifesto

I believe in Twitter. I believe people want to use it and that it is useful to them. I’m less sure of its susceptibility to monetization, but then again, I cover cameras and ramen-bots, not internet business. Still, since I’m coming down to the TechCrunch 50 conference in a few weeks, and will likely be the only person attending who does not use Twitter, I felt I should furnish an explanation. Not that I think it really matters to anyone whether I use it or not, but by striking preemptively, I’ll avoid talking myself hoarse in explaining it repeatedly to those of you I meet. I’m also curious to see if there are any other “abstwainers” (or better yet, “Tweetotallers,” either way I’ve coined a term) in the TechCrunch readership, and if so, what your perspective is.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been waiting for a chance to express myself on this (which may be why it is so very long (though my parenthetical style of writing shares the blame)), but it seems relevant enough and the timing is right. Please bear in mind that these are my own reasons for not using the service, not reasons for you to stop; I don’t mean to proselytize. I’ll start with my primary assertion: that a tweet is fundamentally valueless.

I recently had the pleasure to help out on a music video shoot here in the northwest, noteworthy not just because a great video resulted, but because we were shooting with two RED One cameras plus a custom RC helicopter for aerial shots. It was interesting being behind the scenes and I thought I’d share a little of the fun. The video itself, for Mt St Helens Vietnam Band’s “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross,” can be viewed in HD over at Vimeo.

The opportunity to see a group of local freelancers and entrepreneurs coming together to make such an incredibly professional product was extremely valuable — technology has democratized and accelerated the independent film and music community to a degree I hadn’t realized. I was brought on because I had access to some special locations (most of the aerial and forest shots are near some family property in the San Juans) and so I could shoot a little behind-the-scenes video of the production. More details, video, and production stills below the fold.

For years you’ve been using the well-supported, ubiquitous file format called MP3. It’s an international standard, it works just fine in every media player, and other universally-accepted formats are in place for the album artwork, lyrics, and what have you.

Sounds like you’re ready for a new, unified format that no one has ever heard of and, if introduced five or six years ago, might have been revolutionary!

Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI are all throwing their weight behind the CMX format, soon to be the laughing stock of the internet.Oh, did I mention that Apple, who makes like 200% of the MP3 makers in the USA, is making their own competing format, which pretty much guarantees that CMX will only be usable by things like Windows Media Player?

Everybody’s making noise about the upcoming Apple tablet, and who can blame them? It’ll certainly be an interesting device, but the thing is that nobody really knows what it’s going to be. Flat, to be sure, and tablet-shaped in all likelihood, but beyond that it’s pretty much anybody’s guess. Analyst-at-large Gene Munster has made a list of predictions anyway, since his job is to turn ignorance into money.

So what does he think you can expect? Sales, for one thing. Via a house-of-cards sort of logic peculiar to analysts like himself, he determines the features, then the price, then the sales, then the revenue. Here are his nested prognostications, as summarized by Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. -John Wanamaker

Advertising and branding are very complicated and very unpredictable fields, and success can be measured according to any number of metrics. Modernista, the ad agency behind the soft-talking-lady ads that only occasionally seem to be talking about phones, seems to be measuring success based on attention. Of course, the attention is almost entirely negative, but that doesn’t faze them.

In an article in Ad Age, Executive Creative Director at Modernista, Gary Koepke, discusses the oft-maligned “Ms. Hope” spots.

The Pre is probably being talked about more than other phones right now because of the marketing and advertising, and that’s a good thing. Could the ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes, but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not shout at them and tell an interesting story.

“Polarizing” is industry-standard code for “universally mocked,” in case you’re confused.

Looks like the mythical Apple Tablet (or “Tapplet”) has been handled in prototype form. I can believe that this guy is telling the truth because he’s old-school journalism, working for Barron’s. Not that Barron’s is some infallible and extra-dignified news source, but it’s an establishment and they have to be extremely careful about respecting confidentiality. And since this article is so incredibly vague, I can only assume that Apple did actually show the guy something, but also told him exactly what he could and could not write.

Taser, taser, burning bright
in a show of force tonight

When I posted that triple Taser the other day (apparently it’s for taking down your female coworkers, watch the video), I speculated that the criminals would come back with greater numbers, creating an arms race between muggers and the mugged. But if there was one of these on every corner, all you’d have to do is get behind it and hit the trigger, and everything you can see gets Tasered. Boom, no more muggers!

An Apple expert and hacker has shown that the iPhone, in all its various forms and moltings, is child’s play to compromise. This comes despite assurances from Apple regarding the 3GS’s encryption feature. Bad news for businesspeople of the 21st century, who have glommed onto the iPhone and its service halo like no other device. The wonder-phone has certainly changed the way smartphones and other devices are made, but this isn’t the first time Apple’s security measures have been described as being seriously lacking.

It seems that with a little creative coding, or access to an insecure computer, the iPhone can be cracked wide open. The encryption doesn’t really even enter into the equation, since you can just have the phone read off the information you want. There hasn’t been much of a reason to hack iPhones yet — you might get a few Facebook passwords, or some contact info, but now that the phone is gaining traction in the business world, there may actually be something worth stealing on them. And it’s not very hard to do. I like this quote: “I don’t think any of us have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before.”

Well, it’s a big day for Microsoft! Their first official retail stores are dated and partially located, Gates mentions that Project Natal is coming to Windows, and now it appears that Apple has cried uncle with the Laptop Hunters ads. Actually, it probably depends on who you ask. Microsoft will say that its shopping farces were effective, not just on consumers but on the competition as well. Apple might say that their prices have become more competitive after a recent price drop on certain models, so the ads aren’t accurate any more — if they say anything at all.

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. But a little whining from Apple isn’t going to stop Microsoft from running the ads. After all, Apple didn’t stop running its “Twice as fast, half the price” ads after they admitted its claims weren’t “statements of fact.” Why should Microsoft stop running a consumer dog-and-pony show that has them coming out on top?

There’s some buzz right now about the iPhone 3GS and other phones being capable of 720p recording, or perhaps even 1080p if they use the newest sensors. Wow! The future is here! 720p video built right into your phone! But here’s the thing: would you rather have HD video recording implemented very badly, as it must be with the limitations of mobile phones, or would you rather not have it at all and have capacity for more battery life or RAM? Because there’s no way that video is going to be watchable, except as a low-bandwidth stream, and if that’s your idea of 720p… come on now.

Look, I’m excited about the prospect too, but consider that today’s compact camcorders like the Webbie, Zx1, and MinoHD produce only passable video, and it’s the only thing they do. The lens, sensor, and encoder (in these low-end camcorders as they will be in the iPhone) are all going to be absolutely bargain bin. Everything that compromises them is going to be worse on a mobile phone. And no iPhone-specific lens set is going to change that.

With YouTube and other video sites serving up over a billion streams a day, it’s beyond contention that web-based video is not only mainstream, but has become fundamental to the web experience. Why, then, is a huge majority of web video in a wrapped in a proprietary Flash candy coating — essentially making Adobe the gatekeeper of video content? It’s worked okay so far, but it’s hardly a fertile ground for innovation, not to mention the fact that Flash is a real dog on OS X and any kind mobile browser (if it’s even supported).

The next iteration of HTML standards is poised to introduce a <video> standard, putting moving images in the same natively-viewed category as images and text. Flash video has become so ubiquitous that you hardly think about it, but we all get a reminder every few months or so when we have to upgrade or re-install the plug-in, and the continuing difficulties with .flv support offline show that Flash is far from the ideal delivery method for such a (now) basic resource.

Before everyone gets in a huff, let’s consider Amazon’s intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be placed in books which you have purchased legitimately at full price, so let’s put that out of our heads. But what if you could take a few bucks off the cover price at the cost of a few contextual ads relating (if possible) to the book’s content? Personally, I wouldn’t mind — partially because I don’t use a Kindle or intend to any time soon, but more because it’s a no-lose situation. Amazon wouldn’t risk alienating its loyal Kindle base with dirty tricks like this, so it’s safe to assume it’ll be at least somewhat opt-in.

An abundance of free or reduced-price content would widen the appeal of the reader — I imagine many people are put off e-books by the idea that they are not getting their money’s worth. As offensive as the idea of inserting ads into a book is to me (and surely to the average reader), it’s almost certainly part of a value proposition which increases the utility of these expensive little buggers.

While not every tweak to YouTube’s system deserves a post, this one is pretty significant, though very straightforward as well. First, the 1GB file limit for YouTube videos has been doubled to 2GB; this is a boon to many users who have been uploading high definition content more than a few minutes long. Ten minutes of 1080p footage can easily exceed a gig, especially if you’ve been editing it and weren’t careful about re-encoding. A 2GB limit should soothe that particular pain.

Next, the update now allows for direct linking to HD streams, as well as easy embedding of same. While it wasn’t impossible before now to get an HD video by default on your page, or to link right to one, it required a little work. But now YouTube has apparently decided that they are ready for the bandwidth shock as thousands and thousands of users default to HD instead of SD — increasing the average amount of bits being sent by a huge amount.

Did you know you can switch tabs in Firefox by making a twisting motion with your fingers on a multi-touch surface? I did. Turns out I’ve been doing it for months — I thought I was late to the party and was too ashamed to mention it to anybody for fear of an epic internet ribbing (”What, you just figured that out?”). But no, apparently it was top secret and highly experimental. That was in the beta, though; it looks like the official version has reduced it to a hack.

Fortunately, mastering this multi-touch-enabling technique will allow you to tweak your gestures, resulting in everlasting glory.

Reuben Langdon is a motion capture artist in motion pictures and games — you’ve probably directed his actions without knowing it in such games as Resident Evil 5 and Dead Rising. Most recently he’s been working on James Cameron’s epic CG film, Avatar.

He took some time out of his busy backflipping schedule to talk to us about motion capture, having his own studio, and working with Cameron on the biggest and most ambitious CG movie of all time.

Step aside, Mint. Pageonce just launched a major update to its iPhone application, and it blows you out of the water. Pageonce’s v3 update is absolutely fantastic, and Mint’s app pales in comparison. Pageonce’s premium app, A Personal Assistant Premium, allows you to connect all of your online accounts to one login (and one application).

What do we mean by all accounts? We mean damn near everything: from Facebook and Twitter to American Express to AT&T Wireless, Pageonce allows you to connect with pretty much every account that you have online. And it actually works.

The Pre is emerging as a polarizing device, even more so than the G1 (which everyone agreed was kind of beta), probably because it’s the closest thing to a legitimate threat that the iPhone has faced. Who wouldn’t get defensive? With strong sales in its first two weeks and an entirely new OS for developers to do their thing with, it’s strong out of the gate but controlled — because the jockey is holding the reins tight. Palm didn’t expect a dynamite launch or a million app sales in a week; what they’ve got so far is, if we can believe what they say, pretty much what they’d hoped for.

Of course, the TechCrunch network is a treasure trove (a rat’s nest, some would say) of opinions, and we have been known to attack the Pre (savagely and repeatedly) despite our interest in it. The app sales numbers for the Pre need more context than a direct comparison to the iPhone App Store, but that is an important data point, so let’s do it thoroughly.

It’s the changing of the guard. In an continuation of Palm’s reinvention of itself, pioneering ex-Apple exec and Pre torch-bearer Jon Rubinstein will be sitting in the CEO chair at Palm come Friday. Ed Cooligan, the current CEO, will be moving behind the curtain to work with Elevation Partners, a major investor in Palm.

Whether they bet the job on the success of the Pre or had it arranged months ago, it’s probably a good step for Palm to take: the smaller and more agile Palm with its new OS and design will likely function better under the guy who was instrumental in that change.

CrunchGear is on the scene down here in LA, and today was the first big day of the show — even though it doesn’t really even start until tomorrow. Today was actually the day of press conferences by some of the big players, where they drop all their big news and tell you where to check out the latest big franchise games. It’s also a showcase for the latest acquisitions and technology, as well as announcing partnerships and that sort of thing.

Today’s events included Microsoft’s Xbox event this morning, then heavyweight EA’s press conference in the early afternoon, then Ubisoft in the later afternoon (they win the guest presenter contest, with both Pele and James Cameron). They dropped some interesting stuff, though I’d be lying if I told you they didn’t introduce a game where you do fantasy make-up.

Looks like Windows Media Center, that hub for video and audio which I’ve never used, is getting full Netflix streaming support. This is good news for those of you running HTPCs with Vista on them — no need for an extra layer or front-end, just open up WMC, enter your info and you’re on your way.

If you’re not a member, hit up some free trial action and you could be watching a movie in about two minutes without leaving your chair.

We like Android. But let’s be honest, even without that little “beta” tag, we know this is a work in progress. Having had a chance to use our Android phones regularly for several months now, we’ve come across all the issues one would expect in a massive rollout of a mobile OS. Sure, battery life is way better now than it was at launch, and I don’t have to reboot my phone to free up memory any more, but there are still plenty of things we’d like to see added, improved, or fixed.

With the long-awaited Cupcake update coming, we’ll be seeing a lot of new features, but these particular ones seem to have missed the cut. So, without further ado…

Streaming video platform Brightcove has added another partner to its already-impressive group of associates. Vudu, purveyors of fine set-top boxes, have struck up a deal to stream Brightcove-associated content. Brightcove has, at last count, about twenty-one trillion API partners, and delivers video for big names like AOL and the NY Times. Those aren’t available on the Vudu box yet, though; it’s just launching now and the first (and only) video service to hit is Sony’s MyPlay, through which you’ll be able to watch Sony Music videos to your heart’s content. Joy of joys!

A year ago, I would have considered the idea of Sony letting me stream their content onto my TV for free a ridiculous notion, but here we are. Pleasant surprises are mighty rare in this sector.