I’m staying at a cousin’s house in Oakland, California. He considers himself to be incapable of administering computers, so he purchased two iMacs and makes periodic trips back to the Apple store whenever data have been lost. Currently one of the two machines is in working order and I tried to use it with my Flip HD camcorder to share a little video of one of his daughters. My previous experience with the Flip has mostly been plugging it into a $399 Windows Vista laptop. On the Mac, I had a lot of trouble plugging the camcorder in mechanically. The design of the Apple keyboard physically obstructs the connector so that it is impossible to plug the camcorder into the keyboard’s USB port. The USB ports on the back are angled downwards, which means that gravity has a much better chance of pulling the camcorder out of the machine (remember that that Flip has a rigid USB connector that ends up supporting the whole camcorder, rather than an accessory cable). By holding the camcorder up to the back of the iMac, I managed to get it plugged in. On a Windows machine, I would be done. I would be prompted to install the Flipshare software off the camcorder onto the PC. After clicking “yes” the software would come up and show the videos on the camcorder, with editing and sharing options. With the Macintosh, I get a confusing dialog box asking if I want to use iPhoto to view “pictures” from my “camera”. After I said “no”, iPhoto came up anyway. After I killed it, no option to install Flipshare was presented.
Do people use the Flip with the iMac? If so, how?
You leave “auto run” enabled on MS-Windows computers? Good luck with that.
Google says:
To use the Flip Video Program with your Macintosh computer:
Connect the Flip Video Camcorder to an available USB port on your Macintosh.
Double-click the “FLIPVIDEO” icon on your Desktop. A window should appear that displays the contents of your camcorder.
Double-click the “Mac Users” folder.
Double click the “Install Flip Video for Mac” icon. This will open a new folder called “Flip Video Program for Mac”, which contains the program files.
Drag the “Flip Video Program for Mac” folder to your Desktop.
Double-click the folder to open it, and double-click the “Flip Video for Mac” icon to start the Flip Video Program.
When the Flip Video Program is started for the first time, a window will appear requesting your acceptance of the license agreement, and the automatic installation of video compatibility software that allows your computer to play your videos. Click the “I Agree” button and wait for the installation to complete. Upon completion, follow the instructions to exit the program and restart it.
You are now ready to use the Flip Video Program to play back, save, share, edit and make movies of your videos. Please note that the camcorder must remain connected to your computer for you to use the program with your videos.
The next time you want to use the program, you may simply connect your camcorder and then launch the program you have already installed by double-clicking the “Flip Video for Mac” icon. You do not need to install the program each time you want to use it.
Phil:
When iPhoto comes up after you plug in the Flip to the USB, say yes and the video will sync to the iPhoto library. From there, you can double click and it will play in either iTunes or Quicktime player, depending on what the preferences are for media playback.
marc.
UnixUser: Thanks for the help. That is way more intimate than I want to get with a desktop computer. Do I leave autorun enabled on Windows? Yes. In fact, I don’t touch any of the default settings on Windows or install more software than I need, i.e., I will always use a Windows-bundled Microsoft program unless a third-party app is the only way to get a feature that I need (e.g., cygwin, ssh client so that I can log into my servers, Google Picasa’s RAW conversion) or is much faster (e.g., Google Chrome). I’ve run virus cleaning programs periodically on these machines and, in 15 years, have never discovered a problem.
Marc: Thanks for the advice to use iPhoto. I was hoping to accomplish my task without having to learn new software.
When using another pocket camera which shoots both still and video, iPhoto will import both the photos and the video for viewing.
Regards,
AndyC
I used a Flip on OSX for a while, all you need to do is plug it in and it will mount as a flash storage device. Find the folder with the videos and drag it to your home folder or wherever. That’s all it takes.
Yes, I have the Flip UltraHD and it works well with OS X. I just plug it in to a free USB port and the contents of the camera are displayed in the Finder application as an external drive. I then just copy the saved movies to my mac harddrive so that I can edit them with a movie editor (I use iMovie).
Here’s an example:
Best,
Kendall
Yes, it’s easy.
OSX doesn’t auto-run software on randomly mounted volumes (e.g. CDs, flash drives, etc). Apple learned this lesson from Microsoft’s errors. Microsoft still hasn’t learned it.
The FlipShare software is on the device though, just open it and install it with a few clicks. Unfortunately, it’s mediocre software at best (not sure how it compares to the Windows version).
But as others have noted, the camera mounts as a Flash device, and the videos are AVIs. Instead of learning a single-purpose single-vendor heavy-weight zero-features mediocre-quality video management software from PureDigital/Cisco, you can drag the videos onto your hard drive, or use iPhoto to manage them. You don’t need to learn iPhoto to import the videos, but your Mac user probably already has at least a basic proficiency with it, so maybe he can help (just click “open iphoto”, “import from camera”, done). The videos of his daughter are for his memories, not yours, right? It probably doesn’t make sense to bury them forever in FlipShare…
The physical USB port placement is awkward, but surmountable. I do wish Cisco would replace it with a standard mini-USB port instead of the wonky spring-loaded USB arm, though. I’ve used a USB extension cable, or in a pinch, a stack of Post-It’s.
You don’t have learn to use iPhoto.
Your cousin chose (when the program was first launched) to have iPhoto open automatically when a camera was attached.
You can change that preference in the Image Capture application, not in the iPhoto preferences (which is slightly counter-intuitive.) (http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26553?viewlocale=en_US. )
I don’t have iPhoto open automatically, because it will launch every time I dock my iPhone, which I don’t want.
Anyway, I use the Flip with a Mac (various versions) and with a PC and it should work essentially just like on the PC.
The Flipshare app should let you do some rough edits, otherwise to use Final Cut Pro, for example, you will have to convert the mp4 format files to e.g. Quicktime, to edit since FCP can’t handle the Flip format files. MPEG Streamclip is a program that might be useful.
A USB extender cable might help. Even on some PCs the Flip USB connection seems a bump away from disaster.
I tried the Flip software for Mac that I installed from the camera, but found that it wasn’t very good. What IS very good is the way the Flip integrates with iMovie ’09. It felt like it was made for the MinoHD more than the camcorder’s included software does.
Phil, a side note: cygwin is a pain in the neck, if you need only SSH use PuTTY, a far superior Windows SSH client; for SCP, use the free WinSCP client. Neither of these need to be “installed” they can be downloaded as small, single-file executables.
Folks: I don’t believe that using non-Flip software is a complete solution. One of the things that the Flipshare software does is check to see if new firmware is available for the camcorder. If so, it automatically updates the machine. So if use iPhoto exclusively your Flip camcorder will always be running obsolete firmware.
Part of the genius of the Flip, in my opinion was its idiot-proof nature and the fact that zero system administration is involved (also zero accessories; no extra cables, no charger). It didn’t occur to me that it would not be technically feasible to achieve this on a Macintosh. Suggesting buying a USB extension cable, for example. My cousin wouldn’t have the first idea of where to buy such a cable, nor would he know that such cables existed.
Bottom line, it behaves in a manner consistent with what a Mac user expects on a Mac. You, being a Windows user, and one daring enough not disable auto run, had problems not because The Flip failed on a Mac but because it didn’t make your cousin’s Mac act like your Windows machine.
For a user accustomed to ‘plug in, system mounts volume, drag media, open media, edit media’ as has been the Mac way for decades, the Flipshare software is an impediment to ease of use and an un-needed 100MB+ of added complexity that Mac users are not acculturated to have to deal with since most Mac peripherals work without needing a vendor specific install.
For me, and many other Mac users, not needing to install software is a ‘top 5’ feature and an indication the peripheral maker ‘understands the Mac’.
The Flip is a good Mac product (now, not initially) because it uses standards that allow it to behave as any other similar device should on a Mac without forcing the user to install dedicated software and learn a particular manufacturer’s tool and UI or put up with a quirky video format (anymore).
As to firmware updates, I have never had to do one on my Flip HD nor do I feel like looking up how. The device simply worked as it should when I bought it so to risk breakage by ‘updating it’ is the last thing on my mind. The camera is an appliance. I don’t plan to chase the drop-dead newest firmware for my toaster either. My DLSRs’ firmware updates by dragging files onto the card and updating, untethered, using the camera to load the files. This is good behavior.
Windows works for some, Macs work for others it’s simply ignorant to impose one set of trained-in expectations of complexity from one platform onto the other.
As to the the placement of the USB jacks on an iMac and on Apple Keyboards; Yes, not my favorite design choices BUT the Flip’s pop-out USB connector is too clever by half and complicates the problem. Yes, cable-less is good. Yes the charge via USB is good but they actual industrial design falls far short of ideal in ways that make the poor placement of USB ports on an iMac look acceptable. I mitigate the problems with jack placement on iMacs and laptops by using a good USB hub.
e.a.b.: Without FlipShare, though, isn’t the buyer deprived of many of the paid-for features of the Flip? For example, FlipShare allows the creation of a private “Flip Channel” in which videos are shared with a private group of friends (up to 500, I think, and up to 1000 videos may be shared at no cost). Is there an Apple equivalent that lets the family videographer share a bunch of videos with relatives? (Uploading to Youtube is free, of course, but not private, and the quality may be compromised. It is also a lot more time-consuming than dragging a video into a Flip Channel.)
Matter of taste I guess. One could share with Apple’s paid Mobile Me service and keep it private to those with a password. It is a $100US/Year Service and it has had issues but it’s a suite of services (including: email, IM, (connects to AIM) password protected web sharing of video, iPhone location, file sharing, calendar, contact and bookmark sync and file backup). No it’s not free. No, it’s not even as good as it should be but it is there and available and well integrated with the Mac’s local functionality.
I am more than a bit ‘not the right guy’ to compare these services but think, IN GENERAL, a proliferation of FlipShare for my Mino products, Nikon’s free sharing thing for my stills, blogger for my writing is ultimately not worth it when, with some admittedly geeky work, I can just do whatever I like on my shared Linux server at Dreamhost.
No.. NOT ‘ease of use and plug and play’ but if my brother in law said “hey what do I do about this?” and listed all the various sorts of sharing one can do on the net, I’d say just get one account with a good shared hosting provider, spend the few hours to learn their control panel and don’t spew all your goodies all over 50 different free or cheap providers. When your hosting provider folds up shop, drag your backed up stuff up to the next one and your domain never changed and your time investment is preserved.
YouTube? Gee.. why would I want MY content getting THEM money for ad sales and transcoded and ugly in the process?
e.a.b.: So the alternative to a $399 Windows machine and the $149 Flip and five years of happy usage is
1) buy a Macintosh laptop for $1000
2) order a Flip for $149
3) shop for a USB extension cable in case the Flip doesn’t fit into the Mac’s high-style USB connector
4) explicitly decide not to use FlipShare and somehow configure the Macintosh to launch an Apple application whenever the Flip is plugged in
5) subscribe to Mobile Me for $500 over five years
6) every time one uploads a video to Mobile Me, manually email all the potentially interested family members (Flip Channels do this automatically)
7) bump up against Mobile Me’s 20 GB storage limit or 200 GB monthly bandwidth limit (Flip Channels are limited only to 1000 videos; there is no file size or bandwidth limit)
Our Macintosh user has spent an extra $1100 over five years. He has to do a lot more manually, e.g., notifying his friends when a new video is uploaded, updating firmware on the Flip, possibly installing FlipShare for some maintenance operations. By doing this, he is protecting himself from Cisco (the owner of Flip and operator of Flip Channels) shutting down, but relying on Apple/Mobile Me.
This is a good investment of $1100?
@philg: “So the alternative to a $399 Windows machine”
Does the $399 Windows laptop come with a 2.26 GHz Intel Core2 Duo with an nVidia GeForce 9400M GPU, an arsenic and mercury-free LED-backlit display, PVC and BFR-free internals, and an EPEAT Gold rating? Perhaps its low price was achieved in part by externalizing the costs of dealing with the end-of-life environmental consequences of recycling and disposal, as described in http://storyofstuff.com and visually documented in http://www.china-pix.com/multimedia/guiyu/ — now none of this may be important to the “happy user” of cheap PCs, but all it means is they’re passing on to someone else the real cost of dealing with the eventual cleanup of toxics instead of choosing an alternative that accounts for more of the real lifecycle costs of the products they use.
Disclaimer: I work for a company that designs, builds, and does things to prevent or reduce harm to the environment.
Victor: To answer your question about what is inside a modern Windows machine… I have no idea. Nor do I have any idea what is inside the Flip camcorder. That’s the whole point of the solution. I can buy any Windows machine and any Flip and plug them together, make movies, and share them with a circle of friends and/or the world. Having failed to find an IT department here in my cousin’s house that would be capable of installing FlipShare on his iMac, I’ve hauled a 2.5-year-old Windows Vista laptop out of my luggage. It was the cheapest 13″ laptop that I could find back in 2007 and it works perfectly with the Flip, no USB extender cable required.
Regarding the environmental angle, it seems as though you are saying that a guy who drives his Ford Expedition to the Apple Store and spends $1100 extra on a computer will save our planet. But that $1100 over five years could pay for carbon offsets (reforestation, for example) sufficient to compensate for a medium sized American house and a large car. The consumer who chose the cheaper Dell laptop and spent the same amount of money as an Apple owner could be completely carbon-neutral for his entire lifestyle.
It is good to know that Apple is now PVC-free. That leaves the world with only about 40 million tons being produced annually (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride ). And 66 percent of the water that we drink goes through PVC pipes, so I guess it is comforting that, after you buy a Macintosh, your fingers will never touch PVC again… assuming that you never wash your hands or take a shower.
Phil – the environmental angle I cited isn’t about carbon. I’m sure you recall enough from your chemistry classes to understand that PVCs and BFRs are not benign. If you (still) have an open mind, click on the environment-related links I provided and try to understand the impact that our consumer choices make on the toxins that end up in soil, water, and air. From the tone of your reply, it seems you’ve concluded that all Apple customers mindlessly follow current fashions, environmental or whatnot. Well, unlike you, some of them know what’s inside the computers, such as Les Vadasz, Intel employee No. 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/383414278
Oh, and I can attach my Flip Ultra2HD to my MacBook without an extender cable. 🙂
Victor: Thanks for the photo of Les Vadasz, a guy who made hundreds of millions of dollars from Intel stock, and his fancy computer. When everyone in the U.S. is equally rich, I’m sure that making a $220/year contribution to Steve Jobs’s Gulfstream Jet-A fuel fund will not seem like a big deal.
As for your idea that the innards of the Macintosh are pure and those of a Dell are defiled, given that most of the parts are identical I have a hard time understanding how the environmental impact could be significantly different. Adding $600 to the price of a product does not make it greener.
You reference the EPEAT standard. I did a quick Google search to see if any Dell laptops met the “gold” standard. According to http://www.epeat.net/Docs/Dell%20Gold%20Press%20Release%20_6-8-07_.pdf , Dell was the very first manufacturer to release a gold-standard laptop. Dell may bury their green efforts on an obscure page such as http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/cr-dell-earth-greener-products.aspx but the fact that they put less marketing emphasis on this doesn’t mean that their engineering is inferior.
Dell Ranked #1 in a 2009 “corporate sustainability index”; Apple was not among the top 10 companies. (source: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/05/20/dell-comes-up-roses-in-corporate-sustainability-index/ )
The average American produces 4.4 lbs of waste per day (http://recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html). If a computer lasts for five years before it is disposed of (or recycled in the case of a Dell customer, as the company provides recycling materials for the old machine), the computer represents approximately 1/2000th of the waste generated by our typical American. It is not possible to change someone’s environmental impact significantly by slightly modifying the content of 1/2000th of their waste products.
Speaking of waste… Wasting money is never an environmentally friendly thing to do. A lot of Americans who buy Dell rather than Apple could use the savings to take an extra day off work (leave without pay). On their Dell-sponsored day off they would help the environment by refraining from commuting to work. They could clean up a natural area near their house. They could organize some materials for recycling. Someone who has to work all day every day to pay for his Apple-brand (TM) toys will not have the time or resources available to do anything for the environment.
‘For a user accustomed to ‘plug in, system mounts volume, drag media, open media, edit media’ as has been the Mac way for decades, the Flipshare software is an impediment to ease of use and an un-needed 100MB+ of added complexity that Mac users are not acculturated to have to deal with since most Mac peripherals work without needing a vendor specific install.’
wow, it’s a good thing my iphone works like that — ‘plug in, system mounts volume, drag media, open media, edit media’ – hold on a second…
“wow, it’s a good thing my iphone works like that — ‘plug in, system mounts volume, drag media, open media, edit media’ – hold on a second…”
Yeah, you’re right. It’s not a good thing. I don’t like that either. Lack of filesystem access (legitimately that is, trivial with some more colorful methods) to manage iPods and iPhone’s well and truly sucks. Partly Apple’s fault. Mostly DRM demanding media companies faults. Conversely much as I’d like that more ‘standard mac way’ to manage it, there is some argument in favor of the ‘appliance’ approach they took though I’d prefer it was an option not a requirement.