Holiday's '08 : Premium point and shoot group test

DPreview.com carried out group test for premium point and shoot cameras recently. What they've got here are the top spec 'point and shoot' models from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. Generally they've got the most pixels (as many as 14.7 million of the things) and almost all have wider zoom ranges. As some of the most expensive cameras in their respective ranges they also boast the latest 'must have' gadgetry; image stabilization, high ISO modes, face detection and - for the most part - large, high quality screens and solid all-metal cases. Having said that, what you're mainly paying for are all those pixels; the cameras themselves aren't significantly different to their less expensive brethren further down the range.

The contenders are

• Canon Powershot SD880 IS (IXUS 870)
• Fujifilm FinePix F100fd
• Nikon Coolpix S710
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150
• Samsung TL34 HD (NV100HD)
• Sony Cybershot DSC-W300

The overall winner of the test is Fujifilm F100FD, the F100fd did well in every one of tests carried out, whether shooting in broad daylight, in the studio or in a dimly lit bar. It's fast, reliable and has the best zoom range of any camera here. That it's also one of the cheapest is merely the icing on the cake; add it all together and you've got a winner - even if it is by the smallest of margins.



Other highly recommended camera from the list is Canon Ixus 870IS or SD880 IS. Canon's Ixus / Elph range is one of the most successful in the short history of the digital camera, and there's a good reason why. Love them or hate them, Canon makes compact cameras that do exactly what they should; take good pictures in a range of conditions with the minimum of fuss. The SD880 IS was the nicest camera in the group to use, has a sensible range of features and - despite the fewest pixels - produces some of the best results here. It has more than a dash of style, is fast and responsive and small enough to carry with you anywhere you go. For many users it will actually be a better choice than the Fuji - which beats it by a whisker - simply because it's a camera you're more likely to actually want to use.

Detailed group test report at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408premiumgroup/.

IN 3030 : All weather phone from Intex

IN 3030 is an all weather phone from Intex. That means it can work in a high temperature, high humidity and dusty environment. The company claims that the model conforms to Japanese JIS (IPX grade 5) standard for water resistance.

Equipped with music player, FM radio, voice & and an audio recorder with an apparent rugged feel. This handset has the potential to be exactly what individuals interested in traveling and sporting activities would find extremely handy. It’s also designed to cater to the common man - farmers, fishermen, factory and construction workers, etc.- who normally use the phone with sweaty and dusty hands.

Other features of this handset include mobile tracker and expandable memory up to 1GB, etc. The handset has been launched at a special introductory price of Rs. 3,500.

Cowon Curve

Cowon curve will be in stores as early as first quarter of 2009. The cute looking personal media player will sport 3.3 inch AMOLED screen capable of 16 million colors. A 500 Mhz CPU, bluetooth, T-DMB, accelerometer and electronic dictionary application will be featured in. One charge will last for 40 hours.

Holidays 2008 Digicam group test : Budget Camera

These days you can get an awful lot of camera for US $100-150, and most of the models here aren't even at the bottom of their respective ranges. Resolutions range from 7-10 megapixels towards the higher end of our price bracket you can expect advanced features such as face detection, image stabilization and slightly more exotic zoom lenses to start appearing. A couple of the cameras on test here even offer full photographic control with manual and semi manual exposure modes, making them perfect for the budding photographer looking to learn a little bit more about advanced shooting techniques.

In Digital Photographic Review group test of budget cameras, the W120 came out near the top of image quality tests and produced consistently well exposed shots with good color, focus and sharpness. Equally importantly it is fast and responsive, even in low light. Throw in the slightly wider angle 4x zoom and image stabilization and stylish metal body and you've got the perfect pocket camera. Yes it's the most expensive camera here, but we think it's well worth paying that little bit more.


The overall winner that combines surprisingly good image quality with a comprehensive feature set - including full photographic control, effective lens-based image stabilization and a versatile 32-160mm zoom lens is the Panasonic LZ8.

The test cameras

From a list of around 40 cameras a select nine models ranging from around $90 to just under $150 were tested. The cameras range from the simplest plastic point and shoot to fully featured enthusiast models, with a selection of metal bodied 'style' cameras in the middle.

• Canon Powershot A470
• Canon Powershot A590 IS
• Fujifilm FinePix Z20fd
• Kodak Easyshare C1013
• Nikon Coolpix L18
• Olympus FE-360
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8
• Samsung L210
• Sony Cybershot DSC-W120

Full test report at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408budgetgroup/.

2008 Holiday Ultra Compact Digicam group test

Digital Photography Review (dprewiew.com) ultra compact digital camera group test joint winners are Canon SD790 IS and Panasonic DMC-FX37, runners up were Sony DSC T700 and Nikon Coolpix S210.

The Canon SD790 IS is all for best image quality followed by Panasonic DMC-FX37 with widest zoom capabilities and slim and compact form factor naturally more pockatable.

The pricey Sony SDC T700 has given good all around performance and Nikon Coolpix S210 offerring acceptable performance at most reasonable pricing.Canon Powershot SD790 IS (IXUS 90)
Casio Exilim EX-S10Fujifilm FinePix Z200fdNikon Coolpix S210Nikon Coolpix S60Olympus Stylus 1040Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37Pentax Optio S12Sony Cybershot DSC-T700

The test cameras

The test cameras selected were of the leading 'size zero' cameras, all but two of which squeeze into our 'under 21mm/0.8 inches thick' criteria.

• Canon Powershot SD790 IS (IXUS 90)
  
• Casio Exilim EX-S10
• Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd
• Nikon Coolpix S210
• Nikon Coolpix S60
• Olympus Stylus 1040
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37
• Pentax Optio S12
• Sony Cybershot DSC-T700

Read the test report in details at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408slimgroup/

Panasonic Lumix TZ50 - The pocket ultrazoom

10x optical zoom, Leica optics along with wifi for uploading to the internet. Supports uploading to Google's Picasa also. The user can select images singly or in groups, and have them automatically transferred to Picasa Web Albums either over their own 802.11b/g compliant home wireless LAN (and presumably, public WLANs as well), or by connecting to any T-Mobile Hotspot.

Big, bright 3-inch LCD. 9.1-megapixel resolution. 10X optical zoom lens goes wide to 28 mm. Shoots HD video at 720p and 30 fps. Panasonic has also included true optical image stabilization, a gyroscopic lens-based system which it calls "Mega O.I.S.". Given the strength of the zoom, true stabilization is a must-have!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 features

• Intelligent Exposure - Photos will no longer be under- or over-exposed. Instead, the TZ50 instantly analyze the framed image and adjusts the brightness in areas that are too dark because of dim lighting, backlighting or the use of the flash. The camera will automatically adjust the brightness accordingly.
  
• Digital Red-eye Correction - Helps eliminate the red-eye problem that sometimes results when taking flash shots at the night. Incorporated into the built-in flash, the camera emits a small preliminary flash before the main flash, detects red-eye and will digitally correct it.
• MEGA O.I.S. - Gyrosensors detect hand-shake and the lens system shifts to compensate, helping to prevent hand-shake from creating a blurry image and Intelligent ISO - Determines if the photo subject is moving and change the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly.
• Intelligent Scene Selector - Senses the ambient conditions, recognizes the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode. This intuitive technology, helps the consumer use the most common scene modes that are built into the camera, but often go unused, without making any manual adjustments.
• Face Detection - Detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so portraits come out clear and crisp. Detecting up to 15 faces, Panasonic’s Face Detection can even track a face if the subject is moving and Continuous AF – The Continuous AF (auto focus) system maintains focus on the subject even without pressing a shutter button halfway, thus minimizing the AF time.
  

Fourty years of mighty mouse

Mouse/Mice the computer input device has completed 40 years, since the presentation made by Stanford Research Institute engineer Douglas Engelbart. Check out the gallery at wired.com in celebration of 40 years of mighty mouse here http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/multimedia/2008/12/gallery_40_years_mouse .

Windows 7 coming

Windows 7 beta could be out and about as early as next month. Check out the first official video here.

Nikon D3X DSLR

24.5 mega pixel, $8000 priced Nikon D3X is current flagship product of Nikon. The high-res images appeal to commercial photographers who need to print large photographs without degradation of fine details, yet at the same time the 5 frames-per-second burst mode makes the shooter suitable for some action shots. Images can be captured in either JPEG, RAW or TIFF format, and users have the option to record compressed or uncompressed pictures in 12- or 14-bit. A 14-bit TIFF file yields.

Second Android phone Kogan Agora

Honors of the second Android phone after HTC Dream has gone to Kogan Agora. This new gPhone is available for preorder sales online at Kogan website.

Featuring fast 3G wireless technology, multimedia capabilities, and a host of Internet applications, this is a must have mobile phone. The Kogan Agora will work on networks around the world, and is not restricted to customers in Australia and New Zealand.

The Kogan Agora lets you access the Internet wherever you are with fully integrated features, including:

• One-Touch Google Search ™.
• Upload and watch videos from YouTube ™.
• Instantly send and receive emails with Gmail ™.
• Click on a phone number from a website, and your phone will dial it.
• Save web images as wallpaper.

Highlights

• 2.5-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen.Integrated QWERTY keyboard.
• High-speed 3G network connection.
• One-Touch Google Search ™.
• Easy Web Browsing.
• Easy-to-use email with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents.
• Customisable Home Screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
• Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail ™, YouTube ™, Google Talk ™, Google Calendar ™, Google Maps ™).
• Music Player.
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
• microSD™ expansion slot for all your storage needs.

The Agora Pro has the same form factor and specs, but also adds a 2 MP camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS to the Agora’s impressive specifications.

Sony Ericsson G705

The new Sony Ericsson G705 is 3G slider, with large 2.4 inch screen, allows users to surf the internet at high speed with turbo 3G and its full HTML browser. Support GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS/HSDPA 2100. G705 will be available in selected markets from early Q4 in the colours Silky Gold or Majestic Black. A shortcut key to Google idle screen. Tilt sensor which autorotates to landscape or portrait mode of viewing.

Some of the features

• Large 2.4” screen – view websites and emails with high clarity
• HTML browser – surf the net how it was meant to be
• Automatic rotation – switch from portrait to landscape with just a tilt of the phone
• Google™ shortcut key – Go to Google™ from the idle screen with one key press
• Inbuilt aGPS combined with Google Maps™ for Mobile and Wayfinder™ – never get lost again
• Wi-Fi™ and DLNA certified™ – connect the way you want
• 3.2 megapixel camera – snap and share your favourite images via Bluetooth™
• YouTube™ compatible – upload videos or download favourite clips

G705 for American markets will be available early Q1 2009.

Cash back on Live search

If you are never beyond Google search, now there is a reason to switch it over to Microsoft Live Search, as they offer cash back rewards on product search via Live search.

How it works.

1. When you search for a product on Live Search — say an Xbox — within the results returned you'll see an eBay ad with the gold coin cashback icon and "Live Search cashback."
2. Click the eBay ad to go to http://www.ebay.com/ and make your purchase.
3. After completing the payment with PayPal, you'll receive a message saying you're eligible for "instant cashback." Yippee!
   
4. The cashback amount is automatically deposited into your Paypal account and posted to your cashback account.

Enjoy and share the experience here.

Improvements in Google Search

As a constant effort in improvisation on existing resources Google had augmented their search engine to keep the international search requirements satisfied. The improvements are multilingual and converging largest set of languages in this world.

Some of the highlights from Google blogs

• Spell corrections: We recently launched spell corrections in Estonian. If your Estonian is rusty, and you don't remember how to spell "smoke detector," we can suggest a spell correction for [suitsuantur], leading to better search results.
• Diacritical marks: Many languages have diacritical marks, which alter pronunciation. Our algorithms are built to support them, and even help users who mis-type or completely ignore them. For example, if you're a resident of Quebec, Canada and would like to know the weather forecast in Quebec City, we'll serve good results whether you type with diacritical signs [Météo à Québec] or without [meteo quebec]. Czech users can read the same excellent results for a popular kids' cartoon by searching for [krtecek] and [krteček]. On the other hand, sometimes diacriticals change the meaning of the word and we have to use them correctly. For example, in Thai, [ข้าว] is "rice," with completely different results than [ข่าว], which is "news"; or in Slovakia, results for "child" [dieťa] are different than results for "diet" [diéta].
• Synonyms: A general case of diacritical support is the handling of synonyms in different languages. Korean searches showed that "samsung" can be viewed as a synonym of "삼성", so that when users search for [samsung], they find results which have the company's name in Korean.
• Compounding: Some languages allow compounding, which is the formation of new words by combining together existing words. You can see a nice example in Swedish, where we return documents about a Swedish credit card for both compounded [Visakort] and non-compounded [visa kort] queries.
• Stemming: Google has developed morphological models that can receive compound words as queries, and return pages which contain their stem, possibly as part of a different compound. For example, when searching for cars in Saudi Arabia, you can search for [سيارة] and [سيارات] because both are variants of the same stem, and both return many common results. A Polish user can search for "movie" [film], and get back results that contain other variants of the stem, such as "filmów," "filmu," "filmie," "filmy." A user from Belarus will find results for all word forms of the capital, Minsk [Мінск]: "Мінску," "Мінска," "Мінскага."

Nokia N-Series N97

Nokia's latest N-Series phone, N97 seems to be a good convergence device with multimedia finesse of N-Series and PDA features of E series.

There's a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which wil be super-ergonomic , and a massive screen for desktop-like Web browsing. In fact, the screen is the star of the N97. It's massive - 3.5" in size, widescreen 16:9 ratio, and touchscreen to boot, making it perfect for browsing the Web.

Other features of the new N97 include:

• 32GB memory, expandable to 48GB
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED Flash
• GPS
• HSDPA
• Wi-Fi
• USB 2.0
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Huge battery life, offering 37 hours of music and 4.5 hours of video

The Nokia N97 release date will be Q2 2009, priced around 550 Euros before subsidies, which is actually quite cheap considering what it offers.