Cisco Acquires Pure Digital and Its Flip Camcorders

I've written about Pure Digital's Flip line of camcorders several times now, and I have to tell you, though I know their initial products prior to to Flip were real misses, I love this line of camcorders, and so does the public: Flip currently says it has around 20% of the camcorder market. Thus, is was with trepidation that I saw the announcement Thursday that Cisco was buying the company, for $590 million.

While it obviously means that Flip has an infusion of cash, and that employees and VCs get a big payday, it's hard to see how this consumer business fits into Cisco's plans.

Going consumer has been done by Cisco before, such as when they bought Linksys in 2003, but that made more sense, as Linksys sells home and small business networking products. In 2003 it bought Linksys and its extensive line of home and small business networking gear.

In 2005, Cisco acquired Scientific Atlanta, a leading maker of cable TV set-top boxes, which once again really didn't make all that much sense.

Or perhaps it does: the WSJ notes that Cisco seems to be aiming for a presence in your living room. If you think about some of Linksys' products, like their Media Hub, combine that with set-top boxes and the Flip, there is a connection.

Still, how many times has some giant corporation taken over some great, innovative little company, and either done little or nothing with it or totally screwed it up? I'm hoping Cisco won't do that, and that Pure Digital's Flips continue to roll, but I'm still wary (I say as I turn on my Flip Mino to record my baby daughter).

Gmail Gets an "Undo Send" Feature

How many times have you hit "Send" on an email, only to realize you goofed. More often than you want to admit, right? Outlook has a recall feature that works on Exchange ... some of the time. But basically emails sent via the Internet, once you hit "Send," they're gone. Until Gmail's "Undo Send" feature, that is.

It's another Gmail Labs feature, so to enable it you have to go into Settings, Labs, scroll down to Undo Send and enable it.

It's the same thing as sending any other email via the Internet, though. Once it's gone, it's gone. What "Undo Send" does is hold your email for 5 seconds before sending it.

During that time, if you click the "Undo Send" link, it will not only stop the email, it will roll back the email to the point you were at in composing it before you hit "Send."

Why only 5 seconds? They didn't want to add significant lag to the emailing process. You know how people complain when they don't get something "right now." Still, they are taking feedback, and will obviously tweak it as necessary.

Will it save you? I tested it and it worked. Don't try to send yourself an email to test it, though. In that case the email still showed up. Sending an email to my wife, and hitting "Undo Send" worked great, however.

This isn't the first Gmail Labs feature set to save you from yourself. Google earlier introduced Mail Goggles which would keep you from sending an email if you were too drunk or groggy to answer a math question.

iPhone 3.0 Beta OS Points to New iPhone, iPod Touch Models

Because Apple puts model information in files in its firmware, every release will be poked over with a fine-toothed comb looking for info. And a look at the iPhone OS 3.0 files shows there may be at least one, maybe two new iPhones as well as new iPod Touches coming.

The file, /System/Library/AppleUSBDevice/USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, lists details about the USB configuration of the device models, as well as the device ID and names. In iPhone OS 3.0, the following are listed:

The original iPhone (iPhone1,1), iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2), and first- and second-gen iPod touches (iPod1,1 and iPod2,1 respectively). It also lists an unknown iPhone model, iPhone2,1, which we noted in the 2.2.1 version of the OS.

New to version 3.0 beta are iPhone3,1; iPod3,1; iFPGA; and iProd0,1. Why an iPhone 3,1 and an iPhone 2,1? Perhaps the 2,1 model is simply a revamped iPhone 3G with the same form factor but upgraded CPU, video, camera, RAM, while the 3,1 model is the nano we keep hearing about? Or perhaps there will be two models, one with premium features (sigh: video recording?) and one similar to what we currently have.

I mean, I would expect at some time Apple to move to more than one iPhone model.

And what the heck is iProd0,1? Perhaps the rumored tablet, while iFPGA could mean ... just about anything, though FPGA is a chip-industry term for a "field-programmable gate array" chip.

I'm waiting for the summer release of the iPhone OS 3.0 software (and new iPhones?) with bated breath.