Be it a brainstorm or an information sharing session, don't we all just love sitting around pretending to find our managers just so incredibly interesting.
It would help if they knew how to work the projector. Or the conference call. Or if the whiteboard markers hadn't all run out.
And what was that third "must do" we all agreed was so important on the action plan? It's completely slipped my mind...
Samsung introduces the Flip, what they describe as a digital flip chart.
Given I'm not even sure what an analogue flip chart is, I've been telling people it's more like a whiteboard and a 55" UHD TV got together and had a baby. A really massive baby.
Make no mistake, this thing is big and it's heavy. Although I managed to assemble most of it single-handed, I did have to get someone to help me lift the 55" screen into place. Which made it all the more frustrating when I discovered it wouldn't fit through the door.
Yep, I had to take it to pieces again to get it into the room where I actually wanted to use it. This is because the feet of the stand splay out quite some distance in all directions to prevent the Flip toppling over and to be fair, the stand is certainly rock steady. Unfortunately, it's literally impossible to manoeuvre it through an ordinary doorway. Not sure what the point of putting it on wheels is if you can't use it in different rooms around the office. Even the wheels need some work. They're basically fairly standard casters with brakes, but they really need to be about twice the size to make wheeling the Flip around a viable option. Over time I've become pretty good at it, steering the Flip a bit like an ocean liner; getting some momentum up then changing the direction well before I need to actually avoid any obstacles.
Although not as mobile as it could be, the Flip is certainly attractive enough, both stand and casing a modern off-white. It comes with two virtual marker pens - a bit like giant styluses. Each can be used for writing/drawing or as a highlighter, depending which end you use. You can erase anything you draw with a swipe of your hand. There's a built-in pen holder attached to the side of the screen which automatically turns it on once the pen is removed.
Like most other stylus-type tools, everything is easily customised; colour, thickness - no matter what's showing on the screen, you can use either or both pens to draw all over it. Once you've highlighted, crossed out and underlined to your heart's content, you can easily save the new document or image.
Unlike other digital presentation displays, the Flip is easily rotated from landscape to portrait - which also turns the screen on automatically. This is obviously why it is called what it is, and it's an important point of difference because when you can connect pretty much any digital device to it, you need the ability to quickly change profiles.
You can screen-share your phone, bluetooth your tablet, HDMI your laptop or just plug in a USB with a bunch of pictures on it. The Flip is NFC enabled so pairing devices is literally a one-touch operation.
The Flip can also connect to office networks via WiFi or LAN, assuming you can persuade your technical department to allow you through the security protocols. Yes, I'm talking to you, NZME Technical.
Once connected, you can print your work, or better still, just email it to everyone, straight from the Flip. Unlike a conventional whiteboard, you can create several pages at once, swap between them, and save or send them all. Best brainstorm ever. If you want your work kept on the device for later, but it's private, you can simply lock it up with a password so the next meeting can't steal your awesome ideas.
It's not just a meeting tool of course - the Flip is a 55" UHD TV you can connect almost any device to. This makes it a powerful presentation aid. I've been using it to provide background graphics for my daily episodes of glennzb TV. I just create a simple PowerPoint with headlines, pictures and video and click through it all with my phone. Talk about high production standards.
Picture quality is excellent in a range of weird office-lighting conditions and while the built-in speakers are nothing to write home about, they're perfectly adequate for most meeting rooms.
The Flip is a pretty damn useful thing - really, there are only a couple of features I'm missing. There's no built-in camera or microphone for inter-office meetings. You can actually get around this by setting up a video chat on the device you've connected to the screen - but that does start to get a bit confusing. Perhaps this is a feature Samsung will include on a future generation.
The other thing missing is a cleaning cloth. Because this is a touch screen, everyone wants to. This means a 55" wall of fingerprints and smudges and it's always a bit of an unknown how you're supposed to keep a high-end display like this grease-free.
Screen hygiene aside, the Flip is extremely user-friendly and intuitive, making it fun to play with and hopefully making the meetings and presentations its being used for more fun too. It's not the cheapest bit of kit for the office, but it feels very robust and durable, giving me confidence you'd get a pretty good lifespan out of it, even in the busiest of businesses.
If only I could get it through the door.
Click here for more detailed information on the Samsung Flip
Click here for New Zealand pricing and availability
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