When Apple added a camcorder to the iPod Nano the resounding response was: “Nice camera. Wrong iPod.” Everyone expected the iPod Touch to be the rightful heir of the iPhone’s tiny but mighty video recording capability. Maybe Apple didn’t want to cannibalize iPhone sales (not a very Apple move) or maybe there was a supply chain glitch. But, for whatever reason, the Nano got the camcorder. It’s a great freebie.

If you wanted a cheap camcorder, I wouldn’t suggest you run out and buy and Nano. But if you want a Nano, you get a camcorder for free, really. The Nano does lots of other things like, well, plays music, for example. It also has a very good FM radio, works with the Nike+ fitness system, displays photos, plays videos, etc.

And, shoots standard definition video. It does that surprisingly well, given its pinhole lens and tiny size. But that size is an issue. The lens got put right where your fingers go so you have to hold the Nano on its side and by its edges to keep from blocking the little guy’s view. Once shooting, it captures about the same quality video as a first-gen Flip camcorder. The built-in mic does a serviceable job and you can hear playback on the tiny built-in speaker. Transferring the footage to your Mac or PC is easy via iPhoto or iMovie (Mac only) and it is sucked in lickety-split.

In general, the iPod Nano is the best free camcorder you can buy. If don’t have iPod, and you want a camcorder that’s always with you and you’re just shooting fun clips, go for it. Otherwise, there are other more capable camcorders out there. Just don’t expect them to play Lady Gaga.

Gizmoville correspondent Wayne MacPhail writes:

It is now as certain that Steve Jobs will unveil an Apple tablet later this month as it is he will wear jeans and black turtleneck while doing it. This, despite Apple execs being as tight-lipped as trumpet players on the subject. Over the years, months and last few days supply chain leaks, ex-employee tattles and general industry buzz have, taken together, created an imagined shape for the mythical device — dubbed the iSlate by some industry observers. We don’t know anything, but here’s what we speculate: the iSlate will run a variant of OSX with functionality closer to a Macbook than an iPhone. That said, the iSlate is supposed to be able to run iPhone and iPod Touch apps and some developers are, apparently working on demo apps for the unveil presumed to be on January 26.

The iSlate may either be 10.1 inches, or 7 inches on the diagonal. It will probably look like a Macbook Air, minus the keyboard (it will have a virtual keyboard only). It may have a front-facing camera and a touch interface (with expanded touch vocabulary to accommodate two hands and ten fingers). There may also be a “one-more-thing” about the interface. Some reports suggest we’ll be “surprised by” how we interact with the tablet. Maybe that means haptic feedback, maybe that means a return of “Clippy” from Microsoft Office for Mac. Who knows? It’s also speculated that Apple has been talking to book, magazine and newspaper publishers with the intent of creating a print media iTunes Music Store (let’s just call it the iStore now). And, Mac pundit John Gruber thinks Apple’s launching the iSlate not to fit in-between the iPhone and the MacBook, but to replace the MacBook. We’re with Gruber. If there will be an iSlate it would have to completely rock the industry or Apple wouldn’t bother. So, that little white laptop under your arm? That is so last year.

MORE FROM WAYNE MACPHAIL:

iLeaf ‘10 — Apple Tablet Docs for the Rest of Us?

Here Comes the Unicorn — the Promise of the Apple Tablet

Below, the six most annoying articles from Twitter’s late-March tipping point, each worse than the last.

Just one question: What are you doing? [Taz Tagore, Toronto Star, Mar. 21]: A freelance submission at the moment the Star decided they must feature Twitter in their pages: “I set out to understand what makes a good tweet and, by extension, uncover why some of us are obsessed with Twitter.com. Is there an art or a science to Twittering successfully, so that tweets enthrall rather than annoy?”

When a Twitterer becomes a Twit [Diane Ziomislic, Toronto Star, Mar. 22]: First attempt to make an issue of @mayormiller getting the rhythm of 140-character updates: “Tweeting mayors looking to connect with populace risk alienating them with banalities, critics say.”

Twitter beats email, friends find [Corey Mintz, Toronto Star, Mar. 24]: Restaurant reviewer recaps Twitter exchange with friend who doesn’t know the abbreviation “IMO.”

24 hrs of tweets [Sarah Hampson, Globe and Mail, Mar. 26]: Columnist follows celebrity tweeters for a day, comes up with this conclusion: “We twitter to hope we matter. That’s as profound as it gets, I think. Mostly, it’s a way to feel cool. It’s a new social elixir, like smoking was at the height of its popularity. You do it because everyone else is. For now, anyway. Life is like walking through a funhouse. It’s dark, people are pushing, and you can’t turn around. You just follow the cracks of light.”

Pro athletes turning into ‘twits’ [Bruce Arthur, National Post, Mar. 26]: “Now, this correspondent’s first instinct regarding this latest Internet fad is one of rather undisguised contempt. Twitter is, in its most popular form, a vapid regression of the language for those without the patience, facility, or spelling ability to properly blog. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but Twitter seems to be doing its level best to demolish that assertion. (Now that I am old, this column will contain a number of blatant generalizations about Twitter, the Internet, and kids these days. Oh, how they dress, those kids.)”

Ego tweeto, ergo sum [Margaret Wente, Globe and Mail, Mar. 28]: “If you thought Facebook was banal, try Twitter. It makes people who write their thoughts on Facebook sound like Shakespeare. Of course, it’s also possible I’m too old and out of it.”

PREVIOUSLY ON MONDOVILLE:

The best of our conference tweet recaps

TEDxTO: the revolution will possibly not be tweeted [Sept. 10]

CaseCamp: where the internet still refuses to grow up [Sept. 17]

MIXX Conference: the second ‘x’ is for exasperation [Sept. 29]

Personal Brand Camp: we are all doing this for a show [Oct. 16]

Mesh Marketing: the dance floor where spin has been left for dead [Oct. 22]

A city resets, one hashtag at a time: #CPandS vs. #opendataTO [Nov. 4]

Marketing Week: where viral is dead, data beats opinion, and kids steal TV [Nov. 12]

nextMedia conference: how to win people and influence friends [Dec. 1]

When many people hunt for a DSLR they get as far as Nikon and Canon and stop dead in their tracks. That’s too bad. Both companies make great DSLRs, no question. But Pentax, always the underdog in the DSLR pack, has been producing solid units for years. The new Pentax K-7 and K-x are two great examples. I’m lumping them together because they share many of the same leading-edge features. The K-7 is certainly the superior camera for pro shooting. The K-x is a terrific value if you’re just getting into DSLRs and want a full-featured, small camera to cut your teeth on.

K-7 ($1,500) is a solid, super-sealed workhorse with a bright, hi-res, 3-inch monitor. It has a magnesium-alloy body and the heft and balance of pro gear. It sports a 14.6 megapixel sensor, can shoot true 1024p HD video and has on-board HDR (high dynamic range), which works surprisingly well. It also sports a slew of other filters that I think you should ignore. Just shoot RAW (DNG or Pentax PEF format) and do your post-processing on your computer. The camera is a pleasure to shoot with, the autofocus is responsive (less so in Live View mode) and spot-on. Best of all, because all vibration-reduction is done in-body Pentax lenses not only tend to be cheaper, but you can also use any Pentax lens on the either the K-7 or K-x. So, the lens bargain bin is now your friend.

K-x ($649) is the K-7’s little brother. It’s a more plastic construction, lighter and certainly not as robust as the K-7. Still, it’s nicely balanced with its serviceable kit lens and is responsive and accurate. With a price less than half of the K-7s you’d expect some trade-offs and they show up in the smaller, lower rez monitor, 720p video and lack of LiON battery. Oddly — but perhaps wonderfully if you camp — the K-x only uses AA batteries. In general, both cameras are gems. Certainly, the K-x is a real winner. With a base price under $650 and its ability to accept great second-hand Pentax lenses it’s an ideal way to get a solid, feature-packed DSLR inexpensively. Then again, I’m a sucker for the underdog.

RELATED: A decade long search for tomorrow by Larrry Borsato.

MUSIC

iPod Classic, the 160-gigabyte version, is with me everywhere I go — I need as much space as I can get so I don’t have to keep deleting and re-filling the thing to suit my moods.

Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are great for anything with a good solid beat or a thick low-end. When I need something with a bit more range I head over to my trusty set of Shure in-ear headphones, which still sound great after a few years, even if the cables are starting to get a bit ratty in places.

The Korg Kaossilator, which is a touchpad-based synth with basic looping capabilities, works when I’m in the mood for music-making. Lots of old-school fun.

PHOTO

Canon Rebel XTi teamed with a Sigma 120-400mm telephoto lens are my favourites for shooting birds in the field. The lens is crazy heavy, but it’s a relatively inexpensive one — with optical image stabilization built in — allowing me to get good shots even when I’m shooting free-hand.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 works when I don’t want to sling a massive piece of glass: a 10-megapixel model with great wide-angle capabilities, amazing macro, and fantastic manual control. It’s like an SLR crammed into a small point-and-shoot body.

VIDEO

Sony XDCAM EX1 is the one I’m most likely to use for an event: a card-based full HD camera, with a reasonably compact form factor. We first got a chance to see this in action on the set of The Lab, where it impressed us by providing a picture that was almost indistinguishable from a professional camera five times the price. Sold!

WORK

MacBook Pro, a pre-unibody model, is still going strong. Not only is it great for my day-to-day tasks like email, writing and research, but it doubles as my mobile Final Cut edit machine when we hit events like the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s also the machine I use to compose all of the music we use for Butterscotch productions. I’ve decorated the lid of my machine with a removable sticker from Toronto-based GelaSkins.

iPhone helps me keep in touch with the rest of the world while I’m on the go. I’m almost always using the email app, the Facebook app, or the Twiterriffic client. It’s also my main gaming device — I’m insanely addicted to Peggle. I’ve got the phone wrapped up in the Mophie Juice Pack Air, a combo hardcase/extended life battery pack that gives me about twice the battery power as iPhone on its own.

BlueAnt ST3 is a Bluetooth speakerphone that isn’t technically in the gadget bag — but I use it in the car all the time, as it allows you to answer incoming calls by saying “OK” or “answer” rather than forcing you to push a button. It also downloads your address book from your phone, and uses a synthesized voice to tell you who’s calling, so you don’t have to glance down at your phone’s display. A truly hands-free device, the speakerphone portion attaches to the metal visor clip with a strong magnet, which means you can easily switch it to the other side of the visor when the sun is strong — or detach it when you have to bring it indoors to recharge.

LEISURE

Amazon Kindle, freshly available in Canada, is my latest addition. Its e-ink display is small but clear, and won’t cause eyestrain like a backlit LCD screen would. The one disappointment so far is the relative lack of titles available in the Canadian version of the Kindle store. This will hopefully change now that the hardware is available here.

THE BAG ITSELF

Tom Bihn Super Ego, with optional Brain Cell notebook sleeve, was the solution after wearing out several other bags. This one has 27 litres of cargo space, and it even comes with a water-resistant top zipper, which means it won’t leak in the rain. Big enough to hold my lunch containers, too.

PREVIOUSLY: Wayne MacPhail finds faith in his iPhone

What would you get if you took a Flip Mino HD camcorder and let it loose at a Mandarin Buffet steam table day after day? The end result would look a lot like the Flip Ultra HD, a camcorder that has the HD chops of the Mino and the more bulky form factor of the original SD-quality Flip camcorder from a few years back. For the extra ounce-age, the Ultra HD shoots two hours of HD video to the Mino’s one. It also features a much bigger, brighter, sharper and more saturated 16:9 screen than the international postage stamp one on the Mino. The digital zoom (no optical) feels a tad smoother too. Plus, the Ultra comes with a rechargeable (via USB) AA battery pack, while the Mino relies on regular double AAs. In general, the Ultra HD gives competitors like the Kodak Zi8 a run for its money except that it has no external storage and no external mic jack — both of which the Zi8 has. But, the Ultra still boasts the “press-the-red-button” ease-of-use that’s made Flip famous. So, if longer record times, simplicity and a bigger screen are what you need in a cheap, pocketable (it you have roomy pockets) camcorder the Ultra is certainly worth a heft and try. Need more control? The Zi8 or the Canon F200 (SD video only) are probably better bets. [See more reviews in the Mondoville Gizmo Guide]

Imagine a pen that remembers everything it writes, and records everything it hears. Plug it into your computer and it regenerates page after page of your handwritten notes. Click on a word in those notes and you hear what was said, sung or played when the pen initially touched paper. That’s the experience of the Livescribe. The USB-dockable device looks like the lovechild of a Waterman and a Cuban cigar — a fattish writing implement, but not thick enough to be uncomfortable or overly dorky. The barrel contains an excellent microphone and speaker combo, up to 4G (400 audio hours) of flash memory, and an infrared camera that looks out onto your writing through a lens under pen’s shortened ink cartridge. That lens, and the Livescribe’s brain, decode tiny dot patterns on special Anoto paper that is required for the Livescribe to work its magic. (Notebooks cost about the same as Moleskines.) As the pen records audio it also captures the dot-encoded addresses of all the points on the page it passes over. The result is a mediamaker’s dream — a flawless, synched capture of notes and audio. And, everything you record can be uploaded to the Livescribe website so you can share your notes, animated and with sound. If Harry Potter were a reporter, this would be his gear.

It’s very true that, even at the entry level, most DSLRs take better pictures than many photographers deserve. So, for all but the pros, picking a DSLR has less to do with image quality and more to do with the feel, features and user interface of the gear. Take the $800 Nikon D5000. There’s no question it produces clear, sharp, well-metered images. So, what sets it apart? First up, it feels great in the hand — balanced and ergonomically well-considered. Next, the articulated monitor. This is a bright, 2.7-inch screen that pivots out and around from the camera body — handy when the camera is in awkward positions. The D5000 monitor has a clean user interface but is not nearly as hi-res as the monitor on the higher-end Nikon D90. It can also display a Live View — an actual image of what you’re about to photograph. In principle, a good idea; in practice, a nuisance. The focus system on the D5000 suddenly get sluggish and brain-damaged and isn’t worth using except for static objects. Finally, the D5000 shoots HD video. That video, however, suffers from the “jelly effect”, a wobbling from top to bottom when you pan. The camera also only has a built-in mono mic and has no external mic jack, so don’t expect it to sub as a camcorder. And, actually getting to the video mode is a kludgy combo of button presses that make this feature feel like an afterthought. In short, the D5000 is a solid, entry-level DSLR with a handy monitor, great hand-feel and images, but with kludgy video.