FaceVsion’s TouchCam V1 allows for HD Skype video calls at 720p

By Aemon Malone Published January 6, 2011

FaceVsion today announced a budget edition to its popular TouchCam N1. Like last year’s N1 model, the TouchCam V1 will deliver HD video calling and chatting over the Internet through VoIP services such as Skype — in fact, the TouchCam V1 claims to be “Skype Certified.”

The TouchCam V1 will feature a wide-angle lens with built-in H.264 hardware video encoding that is capable of delivering HD 720p video through Internet connections that have as little as 1.2 Mbps of bandwidth to spare.

Recommended Videos

Users of the latest version of Skype (5.0) for Windows will be able to hold a three or more person conference call. HD video calling through Yahoo and Windows Live will also be supported. The camera will also offer video calling through business applications from Cisco, WebEx, and GoToMeeting.com, and other online collaborative meeting programs.

To use the TouchCam V1, users will need a computer running at least Windows XP, a gig of RAM, and an Intel Core 2Duo or equivalent CPU — also the Internet connection with at least the 1.2 Mbps of available bandwidth.

FaceVsion emphasizes that the TouchCam V1 is meant to be a budget model to the V1 released last year. The TouchCam V1 currently sells for about $100. FaceVsion says it plans to launch the TouchCam N1 sometime during the first quarter of 2011 with a suggested price of $70.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Computing

Windows 11’s modern Media Player is somehow worse than the version from 17 years ago

The modern Media Player for Windows 11 is slower and heavier than the classic version

Windows 11 media player user interface

Microsoft has released a new Insider Preview update for the modern Windows 11 Media Player. However, the app is facing criticism after tests revealed it uses more memory and opens local video files more slowly than the classic 17-year-old Windows Media Player.

The update adds some useful fixes, including better captions, clearer codec errors, and improved file recognition. But the biggest complaints remain higher RAM usage and paid codec support for some common video formats. The update is not available to everyone yet. Media Player version 11.2605.14.0 has only arrived on Experimental Insider builds as part of Microsoft’s June 12 Insider Preview releases.

Computing

If you have a Mac, you should try this free and beautifully-designed disk space tool

Radix is a free open-source alternative to paid Mac disk analyzers

File, Electronics, Mobile Phone

Running out of storage on a Mac is common, but Apple’s built-in storage tools are not always great at showing what is actually taking up space. You usually get broad categories, but finding the exact folders, downloads, app files, or old projects causing the problem can still take some work.

Radix is a free, open-source Mac app that tries to make that process clearer. It is a disk space analyzer that scans a folder, drive, or volume and displays the results in an interactive sunburst chart. Rather than digging through folders manually, you get a visual overview of how storage is being used across your drive.

Computing

This free Mac app puts stunning glassy widgets on your lock screen

WidgetScreen brings weather, calendar, battery, and music widgets to your Mac lock screen

Aquatic, Water, Animal

The Mac lock screen has always felt a little underused. You see the time, your wallpaper, and not much else. macOS already supports desktop widgets, but once your Mac is locked, that extra information disappears.

WidgetScreen is trying to fix that in a pretty simple way. The free Mac app, made by UK computer science student Sam Cook, adds glassy widgets to the lock screen so you can quickly check things like the weather, clock, calendar, battery, music playback, countdowns, and system information.