- Visit the Nokia N93 Site - If you couldn’t tell by my couple comments here and there, I love the idea of video blogging. They’ve popped up all over this past year (many thanks to Ryan and Co. and their baby, Node 101), and I’ve got a few of my favs listed on my blogroll. And like any blog, be it based on text, photos, or video… some are thoughtful and progressive, some are silly time-passers, and some are just really damn boring. And whatever Bravehound is becoming, I’d love to add video to the mix.My problem has always been that I want to be able to capture photos (and now video) wherever I am, which no extra hubbub. This of course means I gotta have one bitchin’ phone. Papa don’t carry no extra devices.Here we are, 2006. I’ve given Nokia and Sony Ericsson (the only real mobile players in my book) over a year since I’ve demanded a decent video phone as a consumer. Now that both companies have their 2006 announcements out on the table… is the Nokia N93 my only option for movlogging?

Nokia N93 Video Ad

I haven’t heard that term used yet, but I’ll go ahead and go there. For those of you we need a little push on this one, here ya go. Blog = Web Log. Moblog = Mobile Blog. Vlog = Video Blog. Movlog = Mobile Video Blog. Andrew = geek.

There had been rumors that following Sony Ericsson’s line successful Walkman branded music phones (including the Sony Ericsson w800i that I currently use) was a line of Handycam branded video phones. All of us in my phone forum (see end of last paragraph above, I wasn’t joking) had our fingers crossed hoping it would happen. It didn’t. Not for 2006. [insert frowning forum emoticon here]

So Nokia is my option for video if I want it. But after my brief affair with the Nokia N90, I learned that it was difficult for me to have a flip phone, let alone a large, lawn-chair shaped monster. Throw in Nokia’s best (at the time) camera optics showing far too many inferiorities next to Sony Ericsson w800i, and I was not pleased. I sent her flying.

I’m hoping the past year has been good to Nokia’s camera modules. Come on… I know you’re hoping the same thing.

Pick up the pace, with your cracked out face.

Uffie is fun electronic artist I found on myspace. She’s Peaches Vs. Tigre and Bunny (remember the cars that go boom?) Check out Pop The Glock on Uffie’s MySpace.

Aside fromt the fake-profile-eye-candy photos and the joy that comes from pressing a button that says DENY when you get friend requests from uncompelling strangers… myspace’s big redeeming quality is still the tunes. Perhaps it’s because you’re force-fed everything from pop music to indie rock as you browse. It’s part of the experience for sure. But every now and then you find something really great.

It’s like rummaging through a barrel of crap for a twinkie.

Sometimes I discover new artists I like. But more often they’re playing Cascada - “Everytime We Touch” and I quickly block them forever. Love me that button.

Yes. That’s “Boomer” from Battlestar Galactica. When she’s not a CYLON struggling with human emotions, she’s helping promote a company she believes in. Check this out.

My friend Ward recently launched Mondonation. Mondonation is company - or movement - built on an inspiring concept: focusing positive energy creates change, and you can be a part of it.

First, a simple look explanation. You can visit their web site, and build a custom t-shirt with a custom belief printed on the back. Any thing from “I believe in animal rights” to “I believe gnomes are after me.” It’s up to you.

For every shirt purchased, $10 is given back to the charity of your choice. The shirts are ethically made by American Apparel, and not some cost-saving sweatshop.

You might say, “So what. Custom t-shirts? Can’t I just buy my own t-shirt somewhere and donate money to a charity on the side?”

Yeah, you could. But here’s why you might want to support Mondonation’s idea. If you genuinely create a shirt with a strong belief, you bring up that belief and create awareness. The shirts are just a way to help draw attention to what you believe, and to inspire the world around you to do the same. Which is great. But it gets better.

What’s most impressive to me is what the Mondonation experiment is trying to show the business world. A company can make ethically produced products, inspire people, help world communities through charity, inspire people to personally get behind those charities… and on top of this, turn a profit and grow. Obviously, most companies are focused on that last one, which is crucial to the success and survival of a business, sure. But do for-profit and non-profit companies need to be separate? Mondonation wants to show it is possible to be a profitable company, while being environmentally sensitive, ethical, and socially conscious. That’s an quite an honorable goal.

That’s something to get behind. I’m ordering myself a shirt.