YouTube Higher Quality Lands

Check this out; I thought I’d post up a version on the new Cadbury’s Chocolate Advert, but then I saw something different about YouTube.

Underneath the video, there’s now a link offering ‘watch this video in higher quality’. Clicking reloads the video in – you guessed it – higher quality.

I’ve yet to test the quality for HD compatibility, or to see if YouTube is just limiting the initial quality of the videos, and then offering the original, but this looks like a definate step in the right direction for the video giant.

Hit the jump for an example video, plus links >

Convergence Is Crushing Gadget Functionality

An article on MSN’s Tech and Gadgets section caught my eye today.

Called ‘Converging on a big mistake’, the article points out that technology convergenge – specifically in gadgets – isn’t so great, and can really make the water murky when it comes to functionality, as well as some other points.

To some extent, I agree with her. By cramming many gadgets in one, you tend to lose the essence of some of the functions that you’re putting in as extras. If you look at – oh, say – a mobile phone, you can get a mobile phone loaded with extras like video recording, still camera functionality, GPS, WiFi, and others.

On a mobile phone, the video camera quality is poor, the sound is tinny, the GPS is a little hard to use, and most mobile browsers are – I find – depressingly complex to use, and have cluttered interfaces. This is because the mobile phone isn’t meant for this kind of use, meaning you do get reduced quality of the in-built kind.