I have created a new blog to meet the topic of my blogs better. You can look at the new blog I’ve made at tgenews.wordpress.com.  Sorry if you liked the Daily Rampager better.

Thanks,

David Ali.

I have created a new blog to meet the topic of my blogs better. You can look at the new blog I’ve made at tgenews.wordpress.com.  Sorry if you liked the Daily Rampager better.

Thanks,

David Ali.

Samson 3i Studio Dock Review

If, like me, you’ve got an IPod full of songs, it’s nice to be able to play them without having to connect a laptop to your hi-fi.  I’ve seen many speaker docks reviewed, but they all seem a little gimmicky, including the B&W Zeppelin—are you really going to spend £400 on a speaker dock because it looks like airship? Now, if you’ve got money to spend and want that valve sound, buy a Fatman I-tube, but don’t expect to have much change from £300, and that’s without speakers.

After a little research I came across the Samson 3i Studio Dock. It takes a lot to get me excited about a speaker dock, but this tiny package has it all. Samson has taken studio-quality speakers, shrunk them and packed them into a great little iPod speaker dock combo. Just try listening to Somebody to love’ by Jefferson Airplane through the 3i, and you’ll hear how the little baby speakers make vocals and old analogue recordings sing.

Now for the features and specs. Each speaker is 15 watts, so that’s 30 watts in total. It doesn’t sound a lot, but trust me, these little beauties pack punch. I’ve not even got past a quarter turn on the volume knob! They amplify digitally, which makes the speaker’s equalisation sound crisp and warm—unlike some iPod docks, which amplify at the analogue stage—and there is a rear bass port, which caters for the bottom end. Plug your headphones in and the speakers are instantly muted for private listening. The connectivity includes RCA phono in and USB. You can even sync your iPod through your laptop if it’s plugged into the dock. Plug in the provided USB cable and your PC/laptop main speakers are now the Samson 3i’s. And you get all of this for  less than £100. The cheapest I have seen is £79 plus £10 postage.

So what’s wrong with it, you ask? Well, there is one major fault—it has no remote. So unless you’ve got a playlist or you’re using your laptop to play your library, it is annoying to have to walk over to skip songs. After all, you want armchair music don’t you?

Five Stars *****

Links;

• Time Magazine Award
• Samson Product Description
• Where to buy it, lowest price in the UK £79 + Delivery
• http://whathifi.com/Review/Samson-StudioDock-3i/
• http://www.fat-man.co.uk/ An alternative for those audio buffs who wish to plash the cash and want that valve sound.

– Engadget

I had meant to do this review earlier but never got down to it. But I must say I’m pretty happy with the Holux 6210+ GPS navigator ( suitable for navigation by car and by foot ).

The Holux 6210+ GPS comes with a 5-inch lcd screen that is visually quite comfortable when mounted in the car. For the Singapore map, it uses the map provided by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) which is rather accurate for navigation. It is also easily updateable from the EastGear website .

Besides an impressive navigation map, it also provides a micro-SD slot up to 4GB which you can use to store images, movies (WMV format) and even MP3. Note that the play-back for wmv movies is not really fantastic though.

One problem (not a major one) is that its database on Points-of-Interests are very limited for search. However, it works excellently if you are able to provide the Postal Code to the GPS Navigator.

I mainly use the GPS Navigator for navigation, so I don’t really care much about the bells and whistles offered. As far as navigation is concerned, I like the visual experience as well as the accuracy of the navigation.

Update on 22 Nov 2009:

It was announced on the EastGear website that now all the 62 series of the Holux GPS Navigator can upgrade with a TMC hardware module (at SGD$99) which would enable the receiving of live traffic information. It also promises an application for automatic map updates in a couple of weeks’ time. These are something exciting to look out for, so watch this post for updates.

Update on 26 Nov 2009

Just bought the TMC hardware module cradle today at SGD$99. Interestingly it does not need to use a GPRS SIM card to receive traffic information. Instead, the cradle itself is the TMC module.  It actually receives through a wired antenna and FM broadcast of traffic information. Haven’t got down to trying it yet.  Will update again soon.

Update on 28 Nov 2009

Antenna and socket

When you buy the TMC cradle, make sure you check the existence of these two features. There isn’t any manual so this blog becomes a partial manual. The two things to look out for immediately when you buy the TMC cradle is firstly the antenna wire; the second is the socket for the antenna wire to plug in. This socket is found on the cradle itself to the left of the USB socket. If you don’t have these two items when you buy the TMC cradle, quickly get it changed to the correct set of items.

Secondly, you need to have registered your Holux 62 series GPS navigator on the EastGear website. This is so that you can also download the latest Papago v3 software with TMC features, plus the latest map updates. Once you’ve downloaded and installed onto your GPS navigator, remember to switch your map to the one with “TMC” as part of the map title. If you forgot to do that, you may get an application crash on your device. If you really crashed it, no harm done. Just restart the software and everything will go back to normal.

When correctly installed, here’s what you can already see:

When you click on the TMC button, it will take a while (around 1 minute or so) for the road condition listing to appear.

When the list appears, you can click on any item to see a map of the location.

That’s it. Have fun!

I recently purchased this wide angle adapter lens because sometimes, it’s not possible to stand further back to get a wider shot.  This is especially true at family events where you want to capture those special moments in a single frame without having to constantly pan about the room.  Or if you’re traveling and you want to capture as much of the scenery as possible in a single shot, it would be nice if your camera has a wide-angle lens.  I got the Zi8 for it’s overall portability.  It is tiny when compared to my Canon HV20.  The tiny fixed lens of the Zi8 does not offer much versatility.  After searching online for a solution to this inconvenience, I stumbled upon a video that was made by stanovoy on youtube.  I saw the video he made with his Zi8 and this lens and knew I had to have it.

I bought it from usbfever.com I believe it’s a company based in Hong Kong.   Kudos to them for getting the lens to me in less than 2 weeks @ $2.99 for shipping (The website states 2-6 weeks for shipping. I guess I lucked out.)  I placed the order.  The next day I received a confirmation number complete with a tracking code from USPS (The United States Postal Service.) 5 days later, the lens arrived in a small beige envelope.

The Lens: The lens has two components, a front element and the macro lens.  Basically, when you unscrew the front element, you have a macro lens.  Without the macro lens, the Zi8’s minimum distant to focus is approximately 6 inches.  With this macro lens, the minimum distance is less than 1 inch.  That means, incredible close ups of anything.  For example, I tested it on some garden herbs growing in a pot on the porch.  I was able to see the hairs on the leaves in great detail.  The video is included below.

Installation: The installation took no time at all.  This is a magnetic set up.  Included are 2 magnetic washers.  Attach one to the camera.  The lens itself is already fitted with a magnetic washer.  The extra washer is a spare.  Attach the lens and you’re done.     Notice how the actual washer is not obtrusive.  That’s one thing I like about this particular set-up.  The magnetic washer blends in with the design of the camera.  The magnets that are used are fairly strong and does a great job holding the lens in place, but I wouldn’t hold the camera with the lens attached outside the window of a car going at 70 mph.

The lens installed:

Without Wide Angle

With Wide Angle

Sample Video:

Why I got it: I’m going to South Korea for Christmas.  I know I’m taking my large DSLR (it weighs over 4 lbs) and I figured I’d want to shoot some video at some point.   I currently own a Canon HV20.  Batteries + tapes + camcorder and case = more stuff to worry about.  I’m going to be packing light.  1 backpack and 1 small carry-on.  No high maintenance HV20 to complicate things please.  (The darn thing also takes 20 seconds to turn on, after 4 really loud and worrisome grinding noises near the lens. Basically, it sounds like it will explode every time I turn it on.)  The other passengers won’t be too happy when I turn the thing on in order to take HD video of the clouds @ 30,000 feet to post on Vimeo.  I got this camera because it’s small and the video it is capable of recording is not bad at all.

Suitable Standards: I’ve spoiled myself with cameras that have great lenses and great sensors.  My Fujifilm S2 Pro is capable of taking fantastic pictures and my HV20 can record super crisp HD video.  If I were to get a pocket camcorder, I expect decent video capture.  After considerable research, I settled on the Kodak Zi8.  I’ve considered the Flip pocket cam as well as the JVC PICSIO.  A friend of mine has a Flip cam.  I was impressed with the video capture in bright light, but low light shots left something to be desired.  It was grainy and there were line artifacts everywhere (just like the JVC PICSIO.) Both cams performed horribly in low light.   While the Zi8’s low light recordings were not as nice as what my HV20 can do, it was great compared to Flip and JVC’s.  There’s noise, but there’s not enough of it to warrant my complaint.  Sound recording was also important to me.  I don’t need studio quality sound.  I need decent sound with very little noise artifacts.  The Zi8 was the only cam I found with decent sound recording by the internal microphone.  (There’s also an external mic port in case you want to add a shotgun mic, lapel mic, etc.  It’s a nice add-on which other pocket cams don’t have.)     If you get this camera, make sure it’s firmware is 1.05.  Otherwise, you may hear a whiny noise embedded in with your audio recording.

Controls: I found the controls to be easy to use.  The little joystick is used for both zoom function and to navigate the menu.  Kodak didn’t pay attention to ergonomics.  The joystick is far from fluid, but it does get the job done.  I don’t mind it.  I just think it could have been designed to be a little less awkward to use.  (Note that the other buttons are tiny too. Looking at the picture below, I suppose the tiny buttons was suppose to blend into the camera’s overall design.  Hmmm, they actually look pretty sweet in this picture.)

Expandable Memory: A 1 GB SD card will get me 9 minutes of video @ 1080p.  I have used a 4GB Class 4 SD memory card and a 1 GB – regular (no card class was mentioned on the card – AKA a slower and cheaper SD card.)  Using a cheaper, slower SD card did not affect the Zi8’s ability to record video.  I couldn’t tell the video quality apart and the transfer rate, even though it was faster in the Class 4 card, the regular card didn’t take that much longer.  So I can’t justify spending more $$$ for a card just to save a few seconds of time when transferring the video onto my computer.

Oh this camera shoots at 1080p, 720p@60fps, 720p@30fps, and WVGA (not sure what the exact video definition is, but it’s decent.)  I’ve included video samples below.

The USB connector is built in to the camera (tucks neatly away) just like the Flip.  But the USB cord is flexible and is less likely to suffer damage due to strain.

HDMI output: Ok, not only does this camera have an HDMI output, the HDMI cable is included.  That’s a deal.

Camera with the HDMI cable: It’s a short cable, but the fact that Kodak decided to include it was entirely awesome on their part.

Here’s what’s in the Box: (Manual not shown because I can’t find it.) You get an A/C charger (battery lasts for up to 90 minutes, full-charge takes about 2 hours.)  A/V connector, HDMI cable and a battery.  The battery is rated at 3.7 Volts with a capacity of around 1150 mAh.

Video Samples to come soon!

The Slingbox is probably one of the best inventions made for a TV addict like my husband. I think all husbands are addicted to the tube most specially if its NBA Season, The Masters, US Open, name it, he’s glued to it.

The Slingbox is a gadget that you connect to your cable and you can access your TV cable anywhere thru your computer. He has placed 2 slingboxes – 1 in NY and 1 in LA. A pretty good device so he can watch the TV shows in the US, here in the Philippines. It’s like modern FEN.

NOTE: Only people in my generation will know what FEN is.

According to my husband: ” Slingbox + DVR + Slingcatcher + Fast internet = Heaven ….hmmmmm…..” and he says this with a Homer Simpson voice.

Check out www.slingbox.com and Im sure your hubbies will have a great time with it.

Rate: 5 out of 5 stars

HTC Tilt 2

From the look and fell, the HTC Tilt 2 is very similar to the Touch Pro 2.This suits the phone’s business-oriented clientele just fine — it’s not meant to be a fun phone, but if you load it with every app you can get your hands on, that’s just fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it. TouchFLO is largely intact (though tweaked by AT&T, naturally) and the keyboard’s different from what you’ll find on the generic European version — the top row is all symbols with a numeric pad (a little staggered, unfortunately) near the right side.

HTC Tilt has something to offer.

After several months of indecisiveness, I finally ordered a Roku so that we could take advantage of streaming movies, documentaries, and other shows through our Netflix account.  We received the device yesterday and got it hooked it up within minutes. I have to admit, I was quite skeptical that it would work for us given the problems we have with our wireless network at home (continually have issues with getting a decent internet connection on various laptops throughout the house) but I was pleasantly suprised!  

When I first took it out of the box and hooked it up to the TV, it immediately detected our wireless network.   I entered the encryption key and voila, it automatically started to download an upgrade.  At first, I was really concerned because the download was barely proceeding – it was painfully slow!  After about 10 or 15 minutes, it seemed to lose the connection and the download was unable to complete. I went back to the login screen and started over and this time, even though it was still very slow, this time the download completed sucessfully.  From a laptop, we were able to login into Netflix, enter the code displayed on the Roku and instantaneously got a menu of  items from our Instant Queue!  

Since it was getting sort of late, I didn’t want to start a long movie, so I watched  The Blue Planet: Seas of Life: Seasonal Seas  narrated by David Attenborough.   (I am such a geek at heart, I really love stuff like this and have quite a few more nature shows and documentaries saved in both my DVD and instant queues!)  

Anway, the clarity of the picture and the audio quality were superb… definitlely way better than my standard cable reception!   So far, so good!  As long as I continue to have viewing experiences like this, the Roku is definitely going to exceed my expectations!  So far, I am very pleased with both Netflix and Roku and feel that both represent excellent value for our entertainment!

Product Description
With the destruction of MEGATRON®, OPTIMUS PRIME® thought that he was finally, after millions of years, at peace. Little did he know that the escape of STARSCREAM® would draw dozens of new DECEPTICONS® to Earth. The desire that burns brightest in his Spark is that the war will soon end. He is determined to see that end come, and so he works with his human comrades and the other AUTOBOTS® to hunt the DECEPTICONS that have come to Earth, and destroy them, one by one. Prepare for battle with this AUTOBOT® leader by your side! In robot mode, this mighty warrior features electronic speech and light-up eyes and chest that are sure to discourage enemy attackers! With snap-out energy swords, this good guy is ready to take on DECEPTICON forces once and for all! In tough truck mode, get in gear with engine revving and racing sounds and cool conversion sounds that let you know this hero means business! MECH ALIVE gearing reveals moving armor panels and internal gears that let you recreate some of your favorite movie scenes â or create your own! Team up with this awesome ally and roll out!

Customer Review

By I. Ling (Perth, Australia)

When I first spied leaked photos of this figure, it was difficult to imagine they could make such a toy transform tightly into the truck that we all know. This one must be seen (or better, physically handled) to be believed! The transformation is amazing, and more intricate than anything before seen in the movie lines (and probably in any Transformers line, actually, ‘cept perhaps some of the Masterpieces).

Plastics seem to be a little better than the first movie Prime, and the paints are finely done as well. Super poseable and stable. Parts are easy to pop-off, but pop back easily as well (which if you accept, puts the durability to at least 4 stars). Sounds are improved, with a line from Peter Cullen this time round. And the best thing? It’s probably as movie accurate as possible, short of making a bigger toy!

Negatives? Well, the wheels are now plastic (not rubber), and have a habit of going out of line in truck mode. The fingers/thumb are no longer articulated. The head doesn’t really look up (mainly side-to-side). The Transformation will test most adults, let alone children! And the way some pieces pop-off may be annoying to some buyers.

Despite the negatives, though, this is one amazing figure, and can be very highly recommended. If you only get one Revenge of the Fallen figure, then make it Leader class Optimus Prime!

Unbelieveable, until you get it in your hands

Nokia 3120 Classic Mobile Phone

For the elderly who could well use a iNO mobile phone, an ordinary adult like you and me would probably be contented with a basic mobile phone that works, and enables me to stay in contact with people important to me… without all the bells and whistles of a iPhone, smart phone or PDA.

 The Nokia 3120 mobile phone impressed me on several points:

1. The phone design is simple and highly usable without any unnecessary buttons, yet is packed with powerful features like dual cameras for video calls, web surfing via 3G, bluetooth for file or contact transfer, visual radio, camera & video functions, etc.
2. The keypad has a solid and pleasant feel, even better than some of its more expensive peers. It gives the user the confidence of using the keypad especially during texting.
3. Improved message interface enables the user to quickly insert images, video, calendar item, sound clip, business card, etc into the message via a graphical menu interface at the bottom of the screen. There is also a short text summary of each message when you view the list of messages in the Inbox – a convenient feature.

If I hadn’t bought the iNO phone earlier, I would have got this phone as a competent backup to my Nokia E71.

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Thanko’s new slick and slim Video Camera Spy Pen

Thanko lights the day up again. Its latest gadget – Video Camera Spy Pen literally gives me persecution mania. The slim and stylish pen contains equipment with which even Mr. Bond would be complexly satisfied. All what we knew about previous Thanko devices is embodied in the Video Camera Spy Pen, but is better, has higher quality and is up to live longer. Still, the best thing about it is that we do not have to wait for it to come out. The gadget is already available in Japan for 6,980 JPY (75.5 EUR or 55 USD). Full specs follow.

Let’s start with video capabilities. Thanko Video Camera Spy Pen can shoot 736 x 576 video in .avi format at 19 to 22 frames per second. Unlike Panasonic HDC-HS350 we have recently reviewed, Thanko’s pen will wear the battery down before you exceed memory space. Now in course: onboard battery life is limited to 3 hours when internal memory has 2GB. Memory expansion is available via MicroSDHC card to 10GB overall. Charge is done via USB. Spy pen can also shoot photos in 1280 x 960 resolution in .jpg format.

In rest, you get a normal ball-point pen with 6 months warranty (!), pretty slick, slim and stylish.

At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, it was announced that iPhone OS 3.0 would be available on June 17.

When June 17 finally came, I was excited to try out the new iPhone OS! I plugged my iPhone into my computer and set off to start the update process. The first thing I realized was that I needed to upgrade to iTunes 8.2. Ugh! I hate upgrading iTunes because it is a pain the ass. After about 20 minutes, iTunes is finally updated! Woohoo…I can finally start downloading the iPhone upgrade! Uh-oh..I keep watching my download…it’s going very slowly and keeps timing out. Hmmm…I’m never going to get this downloaded.

Something I should mention is that after the iTunes upgrade, the application told me to restart my computer. I still can’t figure out why after all these years I still have to restart a PC after I upgrade an application. It’s completely ridiculous. Anyways, I restarted my laptop and re-opened iTunes to start the download again. Ahhhh the download is finally moving! After about 45 minutes to download the 230MB update, I was finally ready to watch the upgrade install. Little did I know…

After the download completed, the upgrade process started. It started by backing up the device. What I didn’t realize is how long it would take. First off, while the backup was being completed there was a screen on the phone that said “Synchronization in Process” and other than that, the progress indicator within iTunes wasn’t very helpful in that it did not list a percent complete which would have been more helpful or at least gave me confidence that the upgrade wasn’t freezing up. The other thing that I didn’t notice was that every time I hit the slider to access the phone, I was actually canceling the backup process. When I finally read the screen a little closer, I came to this realization and said oops!

After I figured out not to leave the “Synchronization in Progress” screen, I began to wonder why the backup was taking so long. So I started google searching to see if any other users were reporting backups taking a long time to complete while upgrading to OS 3.0. Eventually, I found this C-Net article which described backups on the iPhone as taking a long time to complete. Now that I knew backups would take a long time to complete, I left my computer with the upgrade in progress for 30 minutes. I came back and waited an additional 15 minutes. After this 45 minute delay, the OS was finally being installed!

I noticed a series of reboots with the iPhone 3G. This process took about 5 – 7 minutes in total. Finally, a screen came up in iTunes that said the update was complete. Whew! I finally survived the upgrade process and didn’t brick the device. Unfortunately, by the time the upgrade finished it was 11pm at night and I needed to get some sleep. Playing with the new OS would have to wait until another day.

Notes to Apple:
1. If I access my phone during the upgrade, give me the ability to pause the upgrade and pick up where I left off.
2. Please speed up the backup process on the device (Maybe this has improved with the 3G-s)
3. Please let me update iTunes only and not require me to download iTunes and Quicktime through the software update

For the last seven days, I’ve been testing the Palm Pre, and today, sadly, I must send it back. It’s the first smartphone that’s seen as a true competitor to the iPhone, and it deserves all the accolades it has received. I generally don’t think of myself as a person who gets attached to gadgets because of their design. I scoff at tech reviews that gush over a laptop’s beauty or form factor. But I must say, I became very attached to the Pre,and I think design is a major reason why. It is small enough that the iPhone seems almost bulky in comparison. Plus, it feels more durable than the iPhone, less fragile. I’m afraid I’d break an iPhone within two weeks, while the Pre feels as solid as a regular phone.

And of course, there’s the fact that the Pre can multitask. I had as many as eight programs open at once on the Pre; the iPhone, by contrast, canrun only one at a time. The Pre can also combine your work and personal calendars, so you can look at them both at once, and it does the same for your contacts. Overall, it’s quite a nice operating system; check out my video demo to see how it works. 

There is one flaw. As you can see in the video, the keyboard is very small.  It was a bit uncomfortable for me, and I wish Palm had included the option of a touchscreen keyboard. But for those business users who hate touchscreens—but still want a decent smartphone—the Pre’s physical keyboard will come as a relief. 

Then there’s the price. Sprint’s Everything Data 450 Minute plan costs only $69.99 a month, and includes unlimited data and text messaging, plus GPS navigation—so you can get rid of that standalone GPS device. With AT&T, the plans also start at $69.99, but you have to pay $20 more for unlimited text messaging, or $5 for 200 text messages a month. And it’s unclear what the iPhone’s new TomTom GPS app will cost. 

READ THE FULL REVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

(The full review was posted on my professional blog, to which I give precedence.)

Looking for the world’s fastest gaming laptop? Then check out CyberPower’s latest Xplorer X7-Xtreme S1 notebook, this powerful machine is equipped with a 17-inch WUXGA TFT LCD display with 1920 x 1200 resolution, an Intel Core i7-920 processor, an Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M graphics card, a 6GB DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard drive, an optional SSD, a 3.1MP webcam, a Blu-ray drive, WiFi, Bluetooth and runs on Windows Vista OS. Price starts at $2,335. [PCLaunches via Laptop Notebook News]

Edge Tech’s DiskGO USB Flash drive will come encased in a durable aluminum housing with encryption software for added protection. The drive is a $150 cheaper price tag compared to Kingston’s flash drive with the same storage space. The 128GB model is priced at a relatively expensive $390. The Edge Tech DiskGO will be released on July 31st, 2009.

Artmu has recently unveiled the laptop sleeve that can also act as a mouse pad. Available in black, pink and red colors, the Artmu laptop sleeve is currently available in 10-inch, 13-inch and 15-inch models for 19,000 Won ($15), 22,000 Won ($17), and 25,000 Won ($20), respectively.

[AVING]

This is a follow up to my other article review on the Sony Cybershot T900 digital compact camera.

I learnt about this interesting editing feature that is offered in the Sony Cybershot T900 camera. It’s called “Happy Faces” and it is found when in play mode, under Menu >> Retouch >> Happy Faces. What this feature does is that it makes an identifiable face smile more.  Take a look at the pictures below and you’ll immediately know what I mean.

Turning a non-smiling baby to a smiling one. See... mummy smiles more too!

If you have a Sony cybershot that has a similar feature. Try it out. It’s fun!

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Why did I choose to buy the Sony cybershot T900 digital compact camera?

Sony Cybershot T900 digital compact camera

I’m an avid hobbyist photographer, and I’d always believe that a good digital compact camera can actually be an excellent backup to the Digital SLR camera. I had been a loyalist to the Canon family of DSLR cameras and now I’m using the Canon 450D. In the past, I’ve used the Canon Ixus, Casio Exlim, Olympus Mju and recently the Panasonic Lumix, prior to the Sony Cybershot T900.

I decided to give the Sony Cybershot T900 a try because I was attracted to the following features in the ads:

• Smile shutter: ability to detect a smile
• True HD recording with zoom capability
• Truely intelligent automatic scene selection and settings

How does the cybershot T900 compare with past digital cameras that I’ve used?

Quite a few features of the Cybershot T900 did stand up against the past cameras that I’ve used before:

• True artificial intelligence with scene detection – Example, the T900 could automatically detect a portrait scene right down to a macro close up scene, and it automatically switches to the correct scene mode to take the shot. This is something the cameras I own in the past could not achieve fully, especially for macro shots. For my past cameras, I had to press a button or change a setting to set up for macro close-up shots.
• Amazing macro capability – For a compact digital camera, I’d never expect that the T900 could achieve a 2cm to 5cm macro close-up shot with the same sharpness as a normal shot. I could not even achieve this with my Canon 450D without using a macro lens.
  

  Cybershot T900 macro shots

• Zooming features during HD video recording – With the T900, I could actually perform live zoom in and out during an active HD video recording session. For my past cameras, the zoom level is fixed once the video recording starts. In addition, the T900 does not have a limit to the length of video that I can record (subject to available storage on the memory stick). This is unlike the Panasonic Lumix FX36 (my ex-camera), which had a 22 min limit on each video clip.
• Smile shutter – The smile shutter really helps to take a big smiley picture when you are not able to fully anticipate the coming smile, especially from a child. See some of these pretty shots following that utilized the smile detection feature.
  

  Cybershot T900 smile detection shots

What do I like about the Cybershot T900?

Close-up shot at less than 5cm away using the Cybershot T900

My immediate liking about the Cybershot T900 was its ease of use for most common types of photo scenes. Most of the time, I need not have to worry about wrong exposure, light balance or flash. The camera does all the work and all I have to work on is the composition of my photograph.

As a normal use camera, all the current features of the Cybershot T900 met almost all my needs. As a backup camera, it’s a great sidekick.

What wows me about this camera is its ability to shoot sharp photographs at very short distances (macro feature), which makes it very easy for me to snap a business card or some article from a magazine.  Another wow factor is the extremely easy to use touch-screen user interface. The third wow factor was the smile detection technology. It’s not perfect as it doesn’t work all the time. But when it works, and often does, you do get some pretty good smiles.

What don’t I like about the cybershot T900?

It’s not that I really dislike it but rather I had wished Sony would have incorporated the following in the T900:

• Battery life: The T900 claims to be able to shoot up to 200 shots on one battery. That’s fine with me though I had wished it could match up to the Casio Exlim which could shoot up to 600 shots on one battery. The consolation is that when I bought the camera at the PC fair, they gave me another original battery for free.
• Memory stick: Why must it be different from the industry standard by being a Sony memory stick? It’s so darn incompatible with non-Sony products. My only consolation is that I have a card reader that supports the reading of Sony memory sticks, so it still alright so far.
• Wide angle: While the Cybershot T900 almost met all my needs, it came short of a 25mm wide-angle lens which my previous camera, the Panasonic Lumix Fx36, possessed the upper hand here. Well, at least my DSLR have a reason for existance given the powerful features that the Cybershot T900 already offered.

What is my overall assessment of the Sony cybershot T900 digital compact camera?

In summary, I still highly recommend the Cybershot T900 despite the lack of wide-angle feature, shorter battery life and a tad too pricey (retailing at S$679 in Singapore) for some. In compensation for its shortcomings, the Cybershot T900 offers powerful features (e.g. zooming during live HD recording, superb macro capability, simplicity of use, and smile detection technology) that clearly showed that it is still a winner in its class. As a back up camera, I’m all for it as it can cover almost all typical photographic scenes.

By the way, the Cybershot DSC-T900 is available on Amazon website.

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iNO phone

The recent PC fair (11-14 June 2009) at Suntec City launched a elderly-friendly mobile phone. It is also simple enough for children. It’s called the iNO phone CP09 and is produced by a local company, Foresight Technologies. 

Dressed in black, white or goldish colour with BIG number pad, it is obvious that old people will like it. The iNO mobile phone has  a candybar design, has a torch, an SOS button, a siren. Don’t expect high end performance as the target users are usually not Tech savvy. But what’s basically useful for an adult is all there.

What I personally liked best was the torch light feature and the radio feature. The torch light could be permanently switched on and off with a slide switch. And the radio can work without the need to plug in a wired headphone. All mobile phones with radio features should have done this a long time ago. Having said that, good radio reception is still dependent on location and position of the phone.

I tested the SOS button feature after configuring the 4 emergency phone numbers and emergency SMS text. I must say I’m impressed. After I’ve pressed and hold the SOS button a short while, the siren goes off and all my four emergency contact persons received the emergency SMS text. Shortly after, each of the emergency contact phone numbers were dialed in the first cycle. As none of us picked up the phone, it started a second cycle of dialing. When my wife finally answered her phone, the siren stops and the phone goes into hands-free talk mode. Quite cool!

The little woman and man icon at the bottom left (*) and right (#) keys were also quite helpful as speed dials at old folks won’t remember who is number 1, 2 or 3. Rather they can recognise a man icon as their son or a woman icon as their daughter. Speed dialling once configured could be any easier to use.

Besides these features, the phone really just a basic-featured phone. The ringing tone is really loud though, but good for elderly folks who are hard of hearing. The built-in hands-free speaker feature is another good one. Once connected, all I have to do to activate hands-free is to press the green call key and select speaker on.

I’ve also written some usage tips on the iNO cp09 phone in a separate article.

General Specification

• Operating Frequency: GSM900/1800MHz
• Dimensions (mm): 102*48.5*14.5mm
• Talk Time (mins): 130-300 mins
• Storage Capability: 32MB NorFlash
• Screen Size: 1.6 inch
• Pixel Resolution: 128*48
• Ringtone: 16 tones polyphonic

Finally, it costs only S$78 inclusive of GST during the PC fair.  Oh another thing, it can last 5 days of standby time under normal use situations. If you need contact information, it follows:

Foresight Technologies Pte Ltd
Blk 744, #01-3045
Bedok Reservoir Road
Singapore 470744
Phone: +65 62412186
Fax: +65 62410162
Email: enquiry@fsight.com.sg
Operating Hours: 10am to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays except on public holidays
Website: http://www.fsight.com.sg

From an unconfirmed source: I heard that the iNO phone is already being sold in People’s Park Centre open atrium, on the side facing the OG building. You may want to check it out and verify the information.

Found this youtube clip on the iNO phone:

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