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Note: With this tiny wearable camera and your Android phone, you can live broadcast to friends and family--even while riding a mountain bike.
Early this year at CES, Looxcie introduced a wearable BlueTooth camcorder that let you instantly post captured video clips to YouTube and Facebook via Android and iPhone apps. The emphasis was not so much on capturing the highest definition video, but on convenience and instant gratification. "Instant" is a relative term, however, and now the company has redefined it to mean "live," as in live streaming, but on a highly personal level. Enter LooxcieLive.
The live streaming service is now available in beta testing, but InformationWeek has been test driving it for the past few weeks. While I wasn't able to test the full social nature of Looxcie just yet, I did put it through its paces (which included providing our video producer with the device.) LooxcieLive is damn fun. Aside from a few early glitches, it worked extremely well and is an amazingly convenient way to share special moments live with friends and family.
The Looxcie 2 camera, released this past summer, has been streamlined since the last time I tested it. Before, it was a single piece that wrapped around the ear, just like any Bluetooth earpiece. Now, the ear attachment is simply one of many for the camera. There are mounts for baseball caps and helmets. I tried them all; in fact, I mounted one to a bike helmet and took it for a spin on a mountain bike--that way, if I was attacked by a bobcat or mountain lion (prevalent in my area), our video producer would have to watch the gruesome scene, possibly scarring him for life.
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LooxcieLive Viewing
The camera communicates with an Android phone (running v 2.2 or higher) via Bluetooth. This was never quite as simple as I would have liked--I had to hold down a start button while powering on the camera (why can't a BlueTooth device just turn on normally?), and then allow the phone to find the device. At first, I took my sweet time and ended up having to shut the camera down and restart it, just to get the pairing to take place....