Daniel Brusilovsky

Giant Squid Audio Labs specializes in miniature stereo and mono microphones. The company offers a selection of high fidelity analog and digital audio microphone hardware for professional and consumer digital and analog audio recording. They make their own model of small, durable, high fidelity microphones that can be discretely mounted.

Some parts in a couple of Giant Squid units were found in small, obscure industrial parts catalogs and have to be special ordered from an overseas distributor. These kind of high end parts give the edge of durability and quality to Giant Squid products.

Through the company’s history, microphones made by Giant Squid Audio Lab have been purchased by satisfied customers in fields ranging from professional Radio broadcast reporters to dance club disc jockeys, from professional stage musicians to missionaries, and from DAT and Mini Disc audio collecting hobbyists to computer notebook owners.

Being that I am a podcaster and videographer myself, I’ve been using a few of Giant Squid Audio Labs’ products for a couple of months now, and they left me impressed. I definitely recommend checking out the Giant Squid Audio Lab mics no matter what you’re doing, be it podcasting, or something else. I’ll be doing a full review of these mics on Apple Universe in the coming weeks.

The past couple of months, Sam Levin (@samlevin) and I have been planning a event called the Teens in Tech Conference. The Teens in Tech Conference, simply put, is bringing youth and technology together in San Francisco. We have some amazing speakers, Daniel Ha (CEO of Disqus), Eric Kerr (CEO of AppLoop), Adam Jackson (Evangelist at Yoono), Jessica Mah (Founder of internshipIN), Jake Jarvis (Facebook developer), Sam Purtill (Engineer at YouNoodle), Derek Johnston (CEO of Tatango) and many more amazing speakers. You can find the full list here. Here is the information on date, time, location and other details of the Teens in Tech Conference:

When: Saturday January 31, 2009
Where: Microsoft San Francisco - 835 Market St Suite 700 - San Francisco, CA 94103 (Map)
Time: Registration opens at 9:00 AM PST. Full schedule here.

The Teens in Tech Conference has partnered with the amazing Eventbrite for tickets to the conference. You can buy your tickets to you Teens in Tech Conference here, but for those lucky readers of The Weblog of Daniel Brusilovsky, if you use the code DANIELBRU, you get a $4.00 discount on tickets for the first lucky few! Prices are as follows:

Adult (18+) $30.00 USD
Teen (18-) $20.00 USD

If you do not want to order tickets via Eventbrite , you can also come directly on January 31 to Microsoft and get tickets at the following prices:

Adult (18+) $35.00 USD
Teens (18-) $25.00 USD

And we can’t forget about the amazing media folks! If you are media, please email Teens in Tech Media with your name, publication name, email address, URL, topics you cover for the publication, links to recent and relevant articles, and any other information you think is needed.

See you on January 31 at the 2009 Teens in Tech Conference in San Francisco!

Update: The Teens in Tech Conference will be streamed live via our service provider sponsor, Ustream.TV. The channel will be here. See you at the Teens in Tech Conference!

Today, I came across a new site called SendItoMe. In simple terms, SendItoMe is like YouSendIt, except with better security, like encrypted HTTPS session (SSL/TLS) to make sure your data is secure, and with a few other features. To date, what many of these file transfer sites don’t provide is security. When I send over a big document, I don’t want the the whole world to see it; all I want is that the person I am sending the file to is able to see it, and nobody else. With SendItoMe, that is the case. With their SSL/TLS security, intruders can’t peek on the downlaod, and after 24 hours, the file gets deleted. That’s what I call security.

I don’t like sending files over the internet for two reasons:

1. Security: If I send a file, it is usually intended for one person, and one person only. With YouSendit you don’t know what happens after its uploaded. It probably stays on their servers, but who knows. With SendItoMe the file gets deleted in 24 hours.
2. Simplicity: There are other services that are similar to SendItoMe, but this service is very to use. All you have to do is type in the recipient’s email address, your email address (which is optional), and the message to recipient (also optional), and locate the file on your computer. It’s that simple.

In conclusion, I think SendItoMe has a great future, and their security features really win me away. I don’t tend to send files using these types of services, but I might just have to start using SendItoMe,

What do you think of SendItoMe? Would you use a service like this? Leave your opinion in a comment below.

I don’t tend to blog that much about podcast equipment, but I really wanted to share some tips and great microphones with you. Being that I am a podcaster, a mic is what I rely on to make my sound good when I talk. I believe that microphones are really essential pieces of equipment for anyone doing anything with audio.

When I started podcasting, I originally started with a $3.00 mic from Target. It took audio, and put it in my computer. Exactly what a mic should do. It sounded horrible (if you go listen to really old Apple Universe episodes, you can hear what I mean), but it got the job done, which is what mattered to me. As I started producing more and more episodes, I started getting better equipment. Thanks to a great sponsor of mine, Twitter, I received the Snowball mic from Blue Mic, along with other gear.

I found everything I needed in that one microphone. Great sound, great quality, easy to use, and best of all, its USB powered. It was the perfect USB microphone for me.

On Saturday, October 4, 2008, Blue Mic held a press event in San Francisco, after AES. Blue recently announced a new microphone, the BottleRocket. The main feature of the BottleRockets is their interchangeable capsule design; the BottleRockets are compatible with the extant “Bottle Caps” line of capsules, also from Blue. Two designs will be available, the BottleRocket Stage One and the BottleRocket Stage Two, with the former comprising a transformerless solid-state circuit, and the latter featuring an ECC88 vacuum tube. Pricing for the BottleRockets will be $899 for the Stage One, and $1999 for the Stage Two.

These mics aren’t really targeted to podcasters, but more towards recording artists. The point being, Blue produces some of the best microphones for anyone recording, let it be podcasts, a new CD, or just audio chatting with friends and family.

You may think, why would I buy a mic for $899? Well, Blue has another option for you. The Snowflake from Blue is a compact and portable USB microphone ideal for travel. Whether you’re a roving podcaster, or if you just want to add narration to your home videos, the Snowflake offers professional-quality results at an incredibly affordable price.

The mic capsule folds into the compact case, which also stores the included USB cable. This makes it easy to store the mic in a laptop bag, or even your pocket. When unfolded, the case acts as a desktop stand or laptop clip. The Snowflake has plug and play compatibility with Macs and PCs, so you don’t have to install any drivers. Just plug it in and you’re up and running. The price is great to. It retails for around $69.99, which is considerably cheap for a quality mic like the Snowflake.

The point is, great sounding microphones don’t have to be worth $400+, you can get an amazing mic, from an amazing company, Blue Micophones. Whats your favorite micrphone? USB or XLR? Let us know in the comments below, or leave a Seesmic video comment!

Ever since the launch of the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, some amazing apps have been released. One of the coolest that was just released is Random Facts.

Random Facts contains a database of hundreds of bizarre and interesting facts. Just tap on “Random Fact!” and you’ll be presented one randomly. Did you know karaoke means “buy this app” in Japanese? That’s not true, but with this app you’ll learn what karaoke really translates too. For less then a dollar Random Facts will provide entertainment for you and your friends for hours. [Official Description from App Store]

The application was developed by 16 year old Adam Debreczeni of CrossWireStudio. Adam Debreczeni is the founder of CrossWireStudio, co-host of TechToday, and the host of CrossWire. He also develops iPhone applications in his free time.

Overall, I think this app is a great idea. There isn’t another applications like this, that gives you random facts. Some of these facts are really interesting. Here are some examples:

• Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper?
• Did you know that you burn more calories sleeping, then watching TV?
• Did you know that the first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum?
• Did you know that money isn’t made out of paper; its made out of cotton!

Well, you will know now thanks to Adam Debreczeni’s Random Facts. Check it out on the App Store. Adam has graciously agreed to give one lucky reader a free copy of Random Facts! To enter into the drawing you must leave a comment on this post with:

1. Some form of commentary with actual content (ie. no spam)
2. Must include a valid email address

The last day that you can leave a comment to enter into the giveaway is next Sunday, October 19! Good luck!

Have you found any fun yet educational (or vice versa) apps in the App Store? Share your voice in the comments or in a Seesmic video reply.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Tyler Johansen for winning the free version of Random Facts!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be streaming mostly now from my new Qik Account under the username “danielbru.” If you don’t have a Qik account, you can go over and sign-up for a web only account, if your current phone ins’t supported.

Office 2.0 has ended, and I must say, it was one of the coolest conferences I have spoken at. It was a great venue, great people, great sponsors, and a great program. I just want to say thank you and great job to Ismael Ghalimi and his team.

One of the coolest sponsors was Veodia. Veodia provides an agile platform-as-a-service that enhances daily work communications with simple-to-use, high quality video. They were recording all sessions of Office 2.0 to cameras, and in about 10 minutes after each session, posted the videos. Here is the video from my panel:

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After reading a blog post by Pat Phelan, Co-founder of Twitterfone, about there being an email client for Nokia phones that actually works, I had to blog it! You can find the client here. Basically, its your email, on your Nokia phone with out any hassle with set-up, etc.

You set-up your main email, IMAP and password all web based. After signing up, you receive a text message with a link to download the client. After downloading and installing on the mobile handset, you type in your password, and it starts automatically downloading email. I will be playing with this for some time, and we will see if it really works. (more…)

Quick introductory disclosure: I hold no feelings against the corporations I am going to mention in this blog post. My feelings are based on the number of employees, size of company, and other things that don’t directly influence how the companies are run.

First of all, I personally love working in start-ups. The atmosphere in the start-up environment is fun, exciting, and you work closely with a great group of individuals. For example, Qik (the company I work for - see my Colophon for the full disclosure) is a start-up that streams live video from the latest mobile phones (Nokia S60 series, Windows Mobile, and iPhone OS X) to the internet with almost no delay. (Although I am an employee of Qik , Inc., I was a user before I was hired, and my views have never changed since I became an employee.) (more…)

A fellow video-blogger and friend of mine, Ryan Graves, recently interviewed me for his show called Actions Talk. You can find the interview bellow: