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12 FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2010 felix
TECHNOLOGY
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Having loved the Blue Yeti a
couple of weeks ago, we had
high expectations for Blue’s
latest webcam replacement, the
Eyeball 2.0. Featuring Blue’s
excellent USB microphone technology, and a
retractable 2MP webcam, on paper aper the Eyeball
2.0 is an excellent upgrade to o the stock web
chat solution built into most modern laptops
and monitors.
On the design front, the Eyeball ball 2.0 is a nifty
little package, fitting neatly into o a slide on hard
shell for transport, while the pop-out camera
is pushed into the side of the microphone out
of harm’s way. Connection to your PC is made
via an included mini-USB cable, le, which unfortunately
is too big to be stored d inside the case
to save from losing it, and is worth replacing
with a slimmer third-party cable that
will.
Attaching the Eyeball to a
thin monitor or laptop screen
is easy, simply looping the
frame over the edge and letting
it sit securely on the top
edge of your screen. The
camera and microphone have
adjustable angle and can turn
side to side to point directly y
at you. If you want to put the he
Eyeball on a thicker screen, Blue lue
provides a slide-on rubber wedge
that frankly looks a bit dodgy, but does
the job well enough as long as there’s a sharp
edge to the back of your screen. n.
So setup is easy, it’s a nice ce and compact
package, but how does it handle? ndle? Well here
comes the kicker – the audio o as you might
expect is spot on, a world above what you get
with your built-in mic, or even most headsets.
The video on the other hand is atrocious. Its
slow refresh rate, poor low light handling and
blocky artifact filled quality are truly poor.
Blue boast HD video as one of the Eyeball
2.0’s selling points, and while it may be HD
resolution, there’s nothing high definition
about the quality of the video. The built-in
camera of my cheap Dell netbook was
far better. Frankly the Eyeball 2.0’s
camera reminded me of something
that was available 5 years ago,
over saturated and dealing
extremely poorly
with motion.
It’s real shame
if I’m honest,
“What on earth is that? It looks like
you’ve run over a squid and put it on
your phone.” My sickened friend was
referring to my tricked out Incipio Dotties
iPhone 3GS case, complete with
customizable ‘dottie’ inserts.
Ostensibly there to improve grip, these
inserts offer little more than to horrify
friends and provide cynical cross-selling
opportunities to Tweens, who want to
mix and match them in various ‘dazzling’
colour schemes. Being in the
grumpy 30-40 demographic, this largely
goes over my head. Frankly, something
that’s bobbly, looking like you squished
a tray of smarties onto the back of your
phone isn’t my cup of tea.
Technology Editor: Samuel Gibbs
technology.felix@imperial.ac.uk
Eyeball 2 Eyeball
Samuel Gibbs goes hands, eyes and ears-on with Blue’s
latest HD webcam, the Eyeball 2.0, and finds it wanting
because the mic is really quite good, but the
package is marred by the rubbish camera, and
for that reason alone I can’t recommend it, especially
at the £50 asking price.
What’s that, an iSquid?
Andrew McDonagh
However, bypassing aesthetics for
one moment, the Dotties is a superb
case. Excellent grip and sturdy moulding
make it feel secure in the hand. Incipio
have made it robust enough to not
flounce out in the average male pocket,
something that can’t be said for some of
the cheapo silicon affairs.
While the included screen protectors
are a nice added bonus to keep your keys
from scratching the screen, the case protrudes
along the front edge of the screen
enough to keep it off the deck when flat
on a table. All in all, thickish rubber with
coloured dotties isn’t the most attractive
design, but as far as flexible cases go, its
iPhone protection is excellent. It’s available
in eight different colour combinations
and can be had for around £25.