Converting videos for the iPhone

I’ve been very happy with my iPhone (writeup to come later) but had some trouble figuring out how to convert movies to its native format in an easy way. Here’s what I’ve found out;

  • The iPhone’s resolution is 320x480 at 160ppi.
  • The video formats are MP4 and H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10).
  • On the Mac and PC, HandBrake can rip DVDs to mp4 format.
  • On the PC, XviD4PSP can convert DivX and XviD files to mp4 format (I just used the “iPod Video 640” option) as well as join files together.

I don’t know much about video formats, aspect ratios, or encoding, but all the videos I’ve converted so far play on the iPhone and look great!

Finally, a worthy mouse!

After using the old Microsoft Intellimouse mice for years no other mouse ever seemed as good. I tried a number of Logitech and other Microsoft mice but they always had small side buttons, a crappy scrollwheel, or were pathetically small. Unfortunately, the newer versions of the Intellimouse have poor reviews and strange ergonomics.

Microsoft Habu mouse

Last weekend I picked up the new(ish) Microsoft Habu mouse at Fry’s and was back again today buying a second one for my desktop at home. The design is very similar to the Intellimouse v2 and it looks great. It costs $60, but even if it lasts for half the 7 years that my old Intellimouse did I’ll consider it money well spent.

Plaxo 3.0, WAP, and Pulse

Plaxo 3.0

Last night we released Plaxo 3.0, the product us HipCal guys have been working on at Plaxo for the past year. It feels great to have finally shipped a product and is nice to see all the positive press coverage. There’s nothing more motivating than positive feedback!

Plaxo 3.0’s front end is written primarily in JavaScript, a technology which very few others are using to create applications of this size. All of us have learned more than we ever thought we’d know about this little scripting language! Although JavaScript is fun to use, I’m really enjoying the switch back to PHP which we’re using for some of our future products.

My main contributions to Plaxo 3.0 were the calendar views, new WAP, and Pulse. Features like countdowns and a more interactive upcoming view were ideas we had for HipCal, and it’s great to see them make an appearance in 3.0. It’s also nice to see the new WAP, which I originally started as a small side project, make it to a shippable state within a few weeks, bringing us all one step closer to the “poor man PDA” (now we just need SMS alerts!). Pulse is just plain cool, and I’m very excited to watch it grow over the next few months.

Anyway, back to work!