Canon PowerShot SD750

In the world of digital cameras, Canon is the king. Their cameras have been getting smaller in size and larger in the picture size. Canon has a number of different lines of digital cameras, ranging from their Digital SLR’s to their affordable PowerShot series.

The Canon PowerShot SD750 is one of their more high-end cameras in the PowerShot line. The SD750 has an enormous 3-inch LCD screen. The features are otherwise fairly basic: 7.1 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom lens, and automatic exposure modes that make the SD750 very easy to use.

There is more to the Canon SD750 than its LCD. For being such a small camera, the SD750 performs very well. It creates realistic and accurately-colored pictures whether in bright light or the dark night. Face detection is one of its highlighted features: this automatically detects and focuses on faces in view, so all you have to do is push the button and capture the moment.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the PowerShot SD750:

• Street price: $259
• 3″ LCD screen
• 7.1 MP
• 3x optical zoom lens
• Face detection software

Things I like
The PowerShot SD750 is an extremely compact camera. When I first took it out of the box I couldn’t believe my eyes (and hands) when I held it. The first thing that caught my eyes was the size of the LCD screen compared to the size of the camera. The 3″ screen takes up almost the entire back of the camera. Don’t let the small size fool you though, the SD750 packs a very large punch. The pictures that it takes are crystal clear and there are a number of excellent features that come with this camera. I like the fact that it has automatic exposure and face detection software. These things will come in very handy because they make shooting a lot easier, because you don’t have to worry about changing the camera settings in different lighting conditions.

The other thing I like about the SD750 is its quick shutter speed. One of the problems I have with most digital cameras is that it takes them a long time to take a picture. The SD750 takes the picture extremely fast so you don’t miss a single moment in your life. This comes in very handy if you’re taking pictures of young kids.

Things I don’t like
I can’t stand the fact that the SD750 doesn’t have an optical viewfinder. While this isn’t a huge deal for most people I don’t like it because the LCD screen (which needs to be used for taking pictures) will drain the battery quickly. On most cameras you have the option to turn the LCD screen off and save the battery but on the SD750 you must use it. This is my only problem with the SD750.

Pros:

• Not very expensive compared to some other cameras
• Great picture quality
• Excellent included software
• Pictures are taken quickly

Cons:

• No optical viewfinder

Final Thoughts
The Canon PowerShot SD750 is a great camera. The pictures that it takes are excellent, the software included works and the LCD screen on the back is massive. With its fairly low price tag most people will be able to afford it. If anyone is in need of a new digital camera I strongly recommend the PowerShot SD750.

Sony Ericsson P1i

Smartphones are the obvious choice when buying a cellphone but not many of us prefer PDAs in that category.But that might change with Sony Ericsson P1i which combines functionality and also fulfills downsides that older PDAs have. Sony Ericsson is expert at manufacturing excellent PDAs which put their Nokia counterparts to shame.

Have a look at its specs:

• Dimensions: 106 x 55 x 17 mm
• Weight : 124 gms
• 2.6″ Display 240 x 320 resolution
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3.2 MP Camera with Autofocus
• GPRS, HSCSD,3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11b
• Bluetooth v2.0 ,Infrared
• Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0

What sets this PDAs a league ahead of the other PDAs is the integration a high resolution camera which you do not see in a PDA along with its light weight. A 512MB Memory Stick M2 micro card comes with the package along with other standard accessories like stylus,stereo headset etc.

The P1i comes with a silver body which sports a large 2.6″ TFT screen.The VGA camera for video calls has been placed at left top.The keyboard is a new design with each key able to type two different characters depending on whether you pust it left or right which saves saves and also makes it a QWERTY keyboard.The memory card slot and camera key are placed on the right side of the phone.The speaker is at the back on top of the camera which has dual LED flash. All in all P1i feels nice and comfortable to use.

Display and Keyboard

The 2.6″ display having QVGA resolution is quite good but not as good as some of the Nokia displays.The performance of the display takes a beating in direct sunlight and it becomes tough to use.The color saturation is fine though.

The keyboard which is one of its kind although does save space but is nowhere near a full QWERTY keyboard and is not ergonomic and it will take you time before you get used to it.A regular keyboard or a full QWERTY would have been better in my opinion.

Camera,Music Player and OS

The camera quality is above average and produces good enough images for printing when sufficient light is available for shooting. The macro mode does its job well. The camera interface is not as responsive as the one found in Cybershot models of Sony Ericsson phones. The downside of the camera is it video recording capabilities as they turn out to be grainy and 15fps do not do justice to them.

The music player is same as ones found on Walkman series phones and hence offers full functionality.The loudspeaker sound quality is respectable for a PDA.The bundled earphones are not great and also you can’t plug in your choice of earphones as it does not have a 3.5 mm jack.Flipping through music tracks is a breeze with the jog dial button provided on the side.

UIQ 3.0 based on Symbian 9.1 OS has been used on the phone.The standby mode displays the standard clock,battery meter,signal strength and today screen which can be customized according to you.RAM management is very good and that helps in multi-tasking.The phonebook is very advanced and allows you to store extensive details about your contacts.

Web browser and Organizer

Opera Mini 8.0 has been used as the default browser on the phone which delivers excellent performance while surfing the net. It is capable of displaying various kinds of sites based on HTML,XHTML,JavaScript,CSS etc aptly. Surfing through web pages is fast but it gets bottlenecked as this phone is not EDGE compatible.

Notes and task applications allow you to makes short notes and schedule tasks respectively.Alarm clock is standard and does not offer any new functionality but does its job well. The calendar offers good functionality.You can store reminders for various kinds of events. Apart from these there are also many other settings that you can play around with.

Pros:

• 3.2 MP camera
• Good RAM Management
• Handwriting recognition
• WiFi enabled
• Crisp display

Cons:

• EDGE missing
• QWERTY keyboard not ergonomic
• No 3.5mm jack
• Bad Video recording capability

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson P1i is a big step forward in PDAs.It does most things perfectly.The keyboard was a disappointment and so were its video recording capabilities.The organizer is top-notch. Handwriting recognition adds to the yum. So if you are not too much concerned about the half-QWERTY keyboard nor the lack of EDGE then it is a perfect PDA for you.

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is the latest addition to the Nokia mobile phones.You must have seen this phone in the latest ads released by Nokia and we will see if it manages to fulfill the hype that has been created around it for a while.So is this a perfect mobile phone to gift yourself this new year..Lets find out!

Here are its specs:

• Dimensions: 98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm
• Weight: 111gms
• 2.2″ TFT QVGA display, 16M colors
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE and 3G compatible
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.15MP Camera with Autofocus

Design

The specifications are pretty impressive and so is the design of the phone which is mesmerizing.The phone has been made sporty yet elegant and the ergonomics have not been forgotten.The back panel has been designed to provide better grip.The red strip along the sides contrast with the black finish perfectly.The sliding mechanism is solid and you are unlikely to encounter any problems with it.

Keypad and Display

The keypad has been built keeping ergonomics in mind completely.Its a pleasure to use the keypad with the keys offering good feedback and slider does not hinder them in any way.The NaviSlide key is a major boon as it can be used to launch the radio,main menu,music player.The white lit keys glow only when the slider is open but you won’t need to do that often!

The display does not offer any room for complaints with it offering 16M colors and a big 2.2″ QVGA screen which has great contrast and excellent reproduction of colors.So watching videos or viewing images is going to be a pleasure on it.

Camera,Music Player,OS

The music player supports MP3,MP4,AAC,WMA and AMR file formats. It comes with a set of 7 predefined equalizers and you can also customize one according to your needs. The rest of the features are standard with other Nokia models like creating playlists or arranging your songs.The sound quality is very good and you can bank on it as a standalone music player for your mini party!

The camera is a 3.2MP sensor which has a resolution of 2048 x 1536.The S40 interface limits the camera options but that does not hinder its performance at all and is as good some of the other 3.2MP phones by Nokia like N73.The pictures have apt brightness and deep colors to bring out good pictures.

The phone supports the fifth generation of S40 interface which does bring in a lot of improvements over its predecessor but falls short of OS 9.2. Active standby feature is now included with S40. Phone performance is very good with the menus being fast and responsive and camera startup times very low. Copy,paste is now possible too! But thats where your world ends as you can only install java applications.

Pros:

• Brilliant display
• 3.2MP camera
• Ergonomic keypad
• FM with RDS
• Fast performance

Cons:

• S40 interface
• Weak LED
• Not so common microUSB port

Final Thoughts

5610 XpressMusic is a excellent buy if you are looking to buy a slider phone with good camera and excellent music playback options.The phone design is excellent and so is its performance.The camera is above average but it has great music playback. S40 might be its only drawback if you like to call it that way. The current price at around 300 euros I guess is a bit overpriced but no so much so as other Nokia phones like N95 were at launch.

Zune 30 GB

Zune is a digital media player manufactured by Microsoft which allows you to play your digital content on the go. The first impression you get when looking at the Zune is that it is too bulky as compared to the iPod but mind you this monster packs in 30GB of storage space. That is more than 15 times your regular iPod Nano at 3-4 times the size.

You can store up to 7500 mp3 files or 25000 photos or if you are video buff you can store up to 100 hours of video files on the Zune. Zune comes with a 3″ screen which makes the video experience much better.

You can also view the videos in either landscape or portrait mode. The best part is that you do not have to change any settings just turn the player around and it will automatically change to landscape or portrait mode depending on which way you turned it around.

If you are looking to catch the radio waves worry not the Zune comes built in with a FM Tuner, so you will not miss your favorite radio shows even when you are traveling around.

The sound and video quality is really good and you will definitely enjoy listening to songs and viewing videos on it. The wide screen eventually gives you a better view than other digital media players.

Zune Features

• 30GB capacity - Keep 7,500 songs (MP3 format) or 25,000 photos at your fingertips, or even 100 hours of video.
• Photo and video compatible - Sometimes you want more than music to entertain you; the Zune delivers both photo and video options.
• Hard drive storage format - Integrated hard drive provides massive amounts of memory for the least amount of money.
• 3″ portrait or landscape video screen - Unusual 3″ video screen goes from portrait to landscape mode as you turn your Zune; you always see the best picture possible.
• Extensive file format compatibility - Advanced software lets you import most music, photos and videos with ease.
• FM tuner - Catch the Top 40, stay up to date with your favorite sports teams, and make sure the weather doesn’t take you by surprise.
• Online music store - Browse the huge selection of music in the Zune Marketplace designed to work flawlessly with your Zune.

If you thought that the cost would be at least 10 times more than more than the iPod you are in for a surprise. You can get the Zune 30GB Brown Edition for around 160$. There are regular deals offered by most of the online shopping sites where the price can go as low as $99. This could work out to only 3$ per GB of digital media space.

Pros

Large Storage Space

Zune definitely has a edge over iPod in this area. With 30 gigabytes of space at the same price for a 4GB iPod I would happily prefer a Zune over an iPod. The pushing factor is that I can store almost 7 times more data at the same cost.

Bigger Screen

Zune has a bigger screen which means that you can view movies and images better than the usual displays iPod provides you with. I definitely am not a fan of viewing videos on a mp3 player but the larger screen area caught my attention while viewing images.

Cons

Too Bulky To Carry

Microsoft Zune with regards to flexibility. It is really hard to fit in a 30 gig Zune into your jeans pocket whereas an iPod would seamlessly go through. They did a gross job while competing with the amount of space a portable mp3 player gave you as what is the point when it is not easily portable.

I definitely do not see much of the female folks opting for the Zune due to the sheer size of the player.

Not A Pioneer

Zune is following in the steps of iPod and the popularity is yet to catch up with people. There are numerous amounts of softwares to add more functionality to your iPod but not that many for the Zune. Once there is a better developer network for Zune it would definitely rock.

Final Thoughts

If you want a monster of a digital player which can store lots of media files then the Zune is the best thing that could happen to you. Zune provides the a pretty good quality while listening to songs or viewing videos.

The only thing that goes against is the size and weight but with the amount of storage packed in it is bound to be a bit heavy. I definitely see a bright future for Zune and foresee a smaller version coming up in the future with additional storage space.

LG Shine

The LG Shine is an extremely nice looking cell phone. It features a large screen and a normal keyboard. The Shine also features a 2MP camera, a good video camera as well as a microSD memory card slot.

The Shine is not a big handset measuring only 99.8 x 50.6 x 13.8 mm but its all metal construction accounts for the hefty weight of 119 g. Honestly, the handset doesn’t feel heavy at all and the added weight in fact adds for a feel of solidness that is rarely seen in modern mobile phones.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Shine:

• Street price: $329.99 (unlocked)
• Stylish all metal design with mirror finish display
• QVGA display resolution
• 2 megapixel autofocus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens
• microSD memory card slot

Things I like
The Shine is one of the nicest looking phones I’ve seen for a long time. The large mirror finish screen is a really nice feature to have. Overall I really liked this phone. Because of it’s metal design it has a very nice hefty feel to it. A number of phones these days feel so light that I’m always scared of breaking them when I touch it. With the Shine you’ll never have that problem.

Another thing I like about the Shine is that you can answer the phone without having to slide it open. A number of sliders force you to slide the phone open to answer it and this can be very annoying after a while. I think the Shine has a really good design and is a great cell phone.

Things I don’t like
The large mirror finish screen on the Shine is a finger print magnet. When the screen is on you can barely notice these finger prints but unfortunately when the screen is off these finger prints are annoying. The other thing that I dislike about the Shine is its poor menu navigation. When I was trying to navigate around the menus on the phone I had a big trouble finding some things. I personally think LG could have designed it much better than they did. Other than these couple of things I really like the Shine.

Pros:

• Large mirror finish screen
• Excellent design, feels hefty
• You don’t have to open it to answer the phone

Cons:

• Expensive
• Problematic scroller response
• Shoots video in QCIF resolution only
• Fingerprint magnet

Final Thoughts
The LG Shine is an excellent phone. It looks great, has a great design and is very practical. If it wasn’t for the steep price I would recommend this phone to everyone. Unfortunately because of its price not everyones going to be able to afford it. If you’re in need of a new phone plan you’ll be able to get this phone for a little cheaper. If you’re in need of a phone I would totally recommend the LG Shine.

iPod Nano

Back when MP3 players were first released the best you could get was a 512MB player and it was approximately the size of a small brick. Apple changed the MP3 world when it released the first iPod. Recently however Apple has updated their smallest iPod (with a screen) and the changes are fairly amazing.

Now in its third generation, Apple’s iPod Nano gets a substantial redesign to accommodate games and video playback. Despite its changes the iPod Nano is still one of the smallest and thinnest MP3 players on the market. It’s also one of the most affordable, with a 4GB (silver) model offered for $149, and an 8GB (silver, black, red, green, or blue) model for $199. While the iPod Classic and the new iPod Touch are equally exciting, the new Nano delivers the biggest bang for your buck.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the iPod Nano:

• Street price: $149 - $199
• 2-inch liquid crystal display
• Holds up to 1,000 (4GB) or 2,000 songs (8GB)
• Music, Pictures and videos
• Cover flow, podcasts, and games

Things I like
The iPod nano is a really cool product, it’s so tiny and can how a large number of songs. The thing I like the most about the Nano is it’s small size. You can easily fit this into your shirt pocket and forget that it’s there. The Nano has all of the regular features that the other iPods have so you’re not losing anything by going with the small size. The other thing that I’m glad wasn’t over looked with its small size is the battery life. The Nano’s battery life is still really good. You can listen to all of your songs without worrying about running out of battery life half way through. The final thing I like about the Nano is it’s small price tag. Coming in at only $150 it’s a little more expensive than the iPod shuffle but a lot less expensive than the iPod classic.

Things I don’t like
The main thing that I don’t like about the Nano is the fact that you can only get the different colors on the 8GB model. For some reason Apple decided to only provide the 4GB with the grey color and I have no idea why they would do this. While it’s only $50 more to get the larger model (and the colors), it just seems a little weird to me. Other than this however, I really can’t find anything wrong with the iPod Nano. It is a great device that is a lot of fun to listen to, watch and play.

Pros:

• Small size
• Very cheap compared to over iPods
• Excellent features

Cons:

• Colors only available for the 8GB model
• Can only hold 2000 songs (at the most)

Final Thoughts
I think the Nano is a great MP3 player. I personally would get a larger iPod since I have a lot of music but it really is a great little thing. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on an MP3 player this is for you. It has a nice little screen, all of the features of the larger iPods and is a lot cheaper. I’m recommending this product for anyone that needs a new MP3 player.

Nokia N73 Music Edition

Cellphone apart from being a necessity has become a multi-functional device which none of us can do without.With so many cellphones out there it becomes hard to pick and chose one.N73 is one such device which is a perfect blend of style without compromising utility.

Here are its specs:

• Dimensions:110 x 49 x 19 mm
• Weight 116g
• Display:256K,TFT
• 3.2MP Camera with Autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics
• 3D sound stereo speakers
• Light sensor
• GPRS:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• HSCSD:Yes
• Edge:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• 3G: 384 kbps
• Bluetooth ver 2.0 with A2DP
• Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition

So much for the specifications but there is more to this black beauty. It also features stereo radio which has become a standard is most of the mobiles nowadays. The difference between the vanilla and the music edition is that Nokia bundles a 2 GB MiniSD memory card along with better earphones with the music edition making a complete pack.Lets examine N73 step by step.

Design

Its shape looks rectangular from front but seems trapezoidal from aside.The buttons are cramped to give way to the big 240 X 320 screen it sports.The camera cover is a slider which is a bit wobbly but does the job well.The body is full black and the feel of the plastic is also elite.The infrared sensor has been placed on the side along with the volume control button,camera release button and a quick image/video gallery access button. The speakers have been cleverly placed at top and bottom. So other than the keypad everything seems perfect!

Memory Card,Keypad,Display and OS

The 2GB comes bundled with the music edition which is pretty easy to insert into the card slot as card slot is provided at the bottom above the pop-port. As this model was introduced some time back it supports MiniSD cards against the MicroSD cards that seem to be the standard with all new Nokia models these days. The phone also has an inbuilt 42MB memory which is good enough to install applications and store messages.

Keypad is the negative point of this phone as it has been squeezed and hence is far from being ergonomic and easy to use.You are bound to press the red button instead of ‘3′ while typing out a fast message.The keys have also not been separated properly making typing a message a pain.But the backlighting to the keypad is good and you won’t need to dig your eyes deep in the night.

The display is one of the best thing that this phone has as Nokia has moved away from VGA resolution to give way to QVGA resolution ie. 240 X 320 which can be seen on this model. The screen size is one of the largest for its category and it produces brilliant,sharp and crisp images.

N73 features OS9.1v3 operating system which although it the predecessor to OS9.2 but it continues to enjoy support from developers across the globe who keep churning out great applications for this platform.You can find hundreds of great applications for this platform which is what makes this device a powerhouse.

Camera and music player

The 3.2MP camera is another stronghold which makes this phone unbeatable.There are not many phones in market which take pictures as good as this one does.The pictures have low noise,vivid colors and have aptly lit provided you have proper lighting conditions.The interface of the camera is very easy to use and Nokia has been kind enough to include manual settings like manual exposure,white balance and color settings.It also comes with 8 preset shooting modes and also has red-eye reduction feature.Self timer and sequence mode take it at par with an entry-level digicam.

Some of the weak points of the camera are its weak LED flash and night pictures.The LED flash is not strong enough to provide lighting to night shots. Purple fringing is prevalent in night shots and hence you would be better off a standalone digicam for this purpose.The video quality is good for close ups but loses quality drastically when you zoom in.

Music player can be launched directly from the dedicated music key which can also launch the radio application when pressed for a longer duration.The music player remains pretty much unchanged and you can view tracks according to artists,albums,genre and composers.You can create your own playlists. You can either select one of the 6 preset equalizers or create a custom one suiting your need.Coming to the sound quality of the loudspeaker, it certainly a league apart from other Nokia cellphones with it being loud and clear. You don’t expect any bass from the such small speakers and so is the case.Beats and vocals are clear and all in all its sound can be compared to some Sony Ericsson phones.The bundled earphones are not good and I recommend getting good pair of earphones like Creative EP-630 to be able to enjoy music at it best.

Other features

Radio quality is very good and I have not heard better radio or any other cellphone.Phonebook is a charm to work as it provides you with many details you can fill about your contacts and also make groups to separate them. The default internet application lets you surf only in portrait mode and has limited features.But the new Opera Mini v4 works perfectly and you would be better off installing it if you surf net daily.The picture gallery is slow to be frank and you won’t find it pleasing if you have to open it often.Menu navigation is fast.Open office documents and PDF files is possible as QuickOffice and Adobe Acrobat comes pre-installed with the phone.Other features like alarm clock and stuff are nothing to boast about.

Pros

• 3.2MP Camera
• Big and brilliant display
• Symbian OS
• Loud stereo speakers
• 3G Compatible

Cons

• Cramped Keypad
• Wobbly camera cover
• No WiFi
• Average bundled earphones

Final thoughts

The N73 is a perfect device is you don’t like carrying around a cellphone,your MP3 player and a digital camera along with you all the time.It manages to fullfill all their needs to a certain extent.If you are a WiFi junkie that you would have to give this a miss and start hunting for another one.The battery life is decent with 8 hours of music playback,3 days standby. So Nokia has rightly called this as a “multimedia computer”.

T.Sonic 840

Mp3 players come in many different shapes and sizes. They range from small, light weight devices that can’t hold many songs at all to large clunkers that can hold all of our songs and then some.

Transcend is one of the premiere Mp3 makers in the world. They make excellent devices and the T.Sonic 840 is no exception. The 840 is a small, compact device that comes in both 2GB and 4GB models. It features a 1.8″ color screen and a 3-phase wheel which is easy to use. The 840 also has many different features that make this much more than your normal Mp3 player

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the T.Sonic 840:

• Street price: $99
• 2GB and 4GB models
• 1.8″ color screen
• Digital voice recorder
• FM radio, FM recorder
• 3-phase wheel

Things I like
The T.Sonic 840 is a really cool device. Despite it’s small size, the 840 packs a large punch. It has a 1.8″ color screen, a number of different audio features and a 3-phase wheel (like the iPod). I think the thing I like the most about the 840 is the fact that it includes a FM radio and recorder as well as a digital voice recorder. While most people wouldn’t be that impressed with these three things I am. Most other Mp3 players don’t include them and the fact that Transcend does means that they pay attention to even the smallest of details.

The other thing I like about the 840 is it’s small size. Coming in at just under $100 it won’t dent your pockets like some of the other devices. $100 means that even if you’re on a tight budget or no budget at all you should be able to afford it and then use the money you would have saved to buy your songs legally

Things I don’t like
My main issue with the T.Sonic 840 is its small capacity. 4GB is barely enough to hold even an assortment of your music. My music library is already over 20GB and growing rapidly. It’s annoying only being able to keep a small portion of your library on the device at any one time. Other than this I really like this device.

Pros:

• Small size
• Very cheap
• 1.8″ color screen

Cons:

• Can’t hold a lot of songs

Final Thoughts
The Transcend T.Sonic 840 is a great device if you’re wanting to get into the Mp3 market. It features a number of cool things and is small in size and price. If you have a large music collection this definitely isn’t for you. I would definitely recommend this device, it is a really good find.

Sony Cybershot DSC-T200

Digital cameras have been getting better and better over the past few years. I remember a couple of years ago getting my first digital camera. It was chunky, slow to take pictures, ate through batteries very quickly and was only 2.1 MP. Cameras have definitely increased over the past few years and Sony has been leading the pack.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-T200 is a very sleek camera. It features a large 3.5″ LCD screen, 8.1MP imaging, a Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens, and special features like Face Detection and Smile Shutter mode. It definitely fits a lot in considering its small size.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the DSC-T200:

• Street price: $389
• 8.1MP imaging
• 3.5″ Widescreen LCD
• 5x Optical Zoom
• HD Output
• Face Detection and Smile Shutter software

Things I like
This camera really does fit everything into a small size. You can take this camera with you anywhere you wish to go without worrying about it taking up a lot of size. Sony also fits a 3.5″ screen into the DSC-T200 small size and it looks impressive. This screen gives you the ability to view all of your pictures.

I also like all of the software that is included with the DSC-T200. The face detection software makes sure that everyone is centered in the frame and the smile shutter makes sure that everyone is smiling. While it doesn’t always work it does help some of the time. The final thing I like about this camera is how it feels in your hands. The DSC-T200 is very well built. Unlike some small cameras that just feel cheap, this camera feels sturdy. I wasn’t afraid to break it when I was handling it.

Things I don’t like
While the software included is really nice, it just doesn’t work properly and it clutters up the menus. Trying to get everything to work can be a nightmare and since the software doesn’t always work properly they could have made it a lot easier to use. I normally don’t have a problem getting around a camera’s menu because I’ve used so many but I actually got lost and had to look at the owner’s manual.

The other thing I don’t like about this camera is the fact that the battery is horrible. It just doesn’t last long at all. I was out on an excursion and it barely lasted the day. The flash is also fairly poor. If the object your taking a picture of far away they just won’t show up.

Pros:

• Large LCD screen
• 5x Optical Zoome
• 8.1MP

Cons:

• Software just doesn’t work that well
• Poor flash and battery life
• Complex menu

Final Thoughts
I personally wouldn’t buy this camera. The battery life is way too short for any extended use and the flash is garbage. If you need a digital camera you can look elsewhere. While the 8.1MP is nice and your pictures will look clear, unless you’re shooting in perfect light the pictures won’t show up that well. I’m not recommending the DSC-T200 because there are many better digital cameras out there.

Nokia N95

Nokia N95 is a Nseries Smart Phone which is based on S60 Platform (which is a set of libraries for smart phones consisting of libraries, multimedia player etc) and Symbian OS Operating system (this OS is designed for Mobile Devices). Being a smart phone and loaded with software it makes it unique among all the N series.

It can be described as phone which gives you 5 Mega Pixel camera, DVD Quality Footage, browsing and GPS mapping. It can be called as complete phone with just one glitch , though its a twin slider the design is not a ground breaking one.

Technical specifications for the Nokia N95:

• Street Price: $579.97 to $864.95
• Integrated GPS System.
• 5 Mega pixel Camera.
• HSDPA technology gives you a download speed of 3.6 Megabits per second.
• Video Recording Nearly DVD quality.
• 2.6 inch Horizontal wide screen for watching videos and Maps.
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 support
• Hardware accelerated PowerVR 3D graphics which makes graphics go high.
• 160 MB memory inbuilt and microSD memory Slot.

Things I like
The thing I most like about the N95 is its excellent screen size which allows for a very clear view for videos. Because the screen is so nice you won’t have a problem watching your music videos or actual videos if you get a large enough SD card. Another thing I like is the sound clarity of the music player. When I was listening to it I couldn’t tell the difference between the N95 and a iPod. The final thing that I like about the N95 is the fact that it has a 5 megapixel camera attached to it! This is by far the best camera you’ll find in a phone.

Things I don’t like
My largest pet peeve with this product is the fact that the software seems to hang a lot. I was trying to use it to play a few games and every once and a while it would just hang. This would be very frustrating if you were trying to use the GPS software to actually go somewhere. Another problem I have with this phone is the fact that it has very little inbuilt memory. This means if you want to store a lot of photos or music you’ll quickly go through it and have to invest in more memory. The final problem I have with the N95 is its battery life. It doesn’t even last a day! I know that it does have a lot of features but if you’re away from a plug the phone essentially becomes a paperweight.

Pros:

• Excellent Screen Size
• Amazing Sound Clarity
• 5 Mega Pixel Camera
• Wi-Fi is given a huge support on N95

Cons:

• Software tends to freeze
• Not enough memory
• The Battery along with this phone doesn’t even last a day
• The design is not that attractive

Final Thoughts
This phone is good but then it’s not for everybody. You might have to think before buying it specially because of the battery aspect. I personally don’t like it and I wouldn’t pay for it but that is just my opinion.

Nokia N81 8GB

Nokia’s largely popular gaming phone N-Gage finally got a successor in the form of N81. N-Gage was a largely popular device but Nokia did not develop similar devices to capitalize of a relatively smaller cellphone gaming market.But seems like Nokia has learnt the lesson and brought out Nokia N81 with the new N-Gage platform which promises to combine multimedia and entertainment together to make a killer combination.

Nokia N81 8GB specifications:

• Dimensions : 102 x 50 x 17.9 mm
• Weight : 140g
• Display : 2.4″ QVGA ,16M colors
• 8GB internal memory,96MB RAM
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE,3G
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• IR,Bluetooth with A2DP
• 2MP Camera
• Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI
• Approx price: 600$

Overview and Design

The dimensions of the phone are not small by any means and the bulky weight is another major factor to consider before buying this phone.The build quality of the phone is excellent and the slider also looks solid. The phone also features two dedicated gaming buttons as expected which are located on a plate which also holds the earpiece located on top of display.The front VGA camera is located on the top right side of display.The D-pad is a bit of disappointment as it is cramped for space.The Navi scroll key is nice to way with a hard center press button.A silver key acts as a dedicated multimedia key.

Display and Keypad

The keypad is hidden beneath the slider and is very flat in nature.The demarcations between the keys is negligible making it a smooth flowing keypad.The keys are big enough but not ergonomic making it tough to key in text which will disappoint SMS junkies. The backlighting on the keypad and on the phone in general is very good and you won’t find any problems when using the phone in complete darkness also.

The display is a big 2.4″ QVGA screen which supports 16M colors. The display quality as expected is superb and the picture and video quality is amazing.There are no questions about its visibility is even bright sunshine.The display is just amazing and it flawless and will give very tough competition to new phones even from Nokia itself and has set a new benchmark!

Interface and Gaming

The N81 is equipped with Symbian 9.2 OS with Feature Pack 1. Although Feature Pack 3 is the latest version but FP1 is by no means underarmed.It offers a variety of improvements like multiple alarms,blue circles to indicate running apps and increment of voice memo to a cool 1 hour.The huge 96MB RAM on the device is a boon for multitasking.The fast 369Mhz processor makes the performance of the phone snappy.

Coming to the most talked about aspect of this phone: Gaming.The N81 has three preinstalled games which are FIFA07, Asphalt 3 and Space Impact Light.All the games belong to the new new N-Gage platform.The dedicated gaming keys come in handy while playing the game.Its fun to play the games and you also have the option to buy games from Nokia which will definitely be enriched in graphics as well as gameplay.

Music Player and Camera

The music player is exactly similar to older Symbian S60v3 based devices.But what makes it different is the Navi wheel which gives the navigation a whole new dimension not seen before.It is now fun to browse tracks through music player.The player supports wide variety of audio formats.The player also features a A2DP profile for listening to your favorite tracks via a wireless bluetooth headset.The audio quality is good on the device and when paired with good pair of earphones it will surely rock!

The camera is another disappointment of this phone.Bundling a 2MP in such a great device was a first mistake by Nokia in itself.Neither the player features an autofocus nor a powerful Xenon flash found in Nokia N82.The interface of the camera is similar to Nokia N95.Landscape mode is the default mode due to the placement of dedicated camera key.The software has many options to play around with like white balance,ISO,grid lines etc.No macro made due to lack of autofocus.The pictures turn out below average as expected but the camera can still be used casually.

Pros:

• Excellent Display
• Gaming device
• 8GB storage
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Great Navi wheel
• Good sound quality
• WiFi enabled
• Fast performer

Cons:

• Bulky and bit large
• Below average camera
• Average keypad

Final Thoughts

Nokia N81 is surely a step forward towards bringing gaming to cellphones in a big way.The phone manages to get almost everything right except the camera and keypad.The bulky weight might also concern a few users.The excellent display will leave you spellbound.The touch sensitive Navi wheel is another strong point and adds new functionality to the device.8GB storage is good enough to store your music collection as well as few movies.To sum it up it is a very good buy but a better camera would have taken it to bigger heights.

My Rating: 7/10

Apple iPhone

When you hear the word ‘cell phone’ you generally think of Nokia, Blackberry or Motorola. On June 29th, the cell phone world forever changed when Apple introduce it’s newest product. The Apple iPhone revolutionized the way people think of cell phones. Instead of the normal keyboard or even the larger QWERTY keyboard that most cell phones have, the iPhone went with a totally software based multi-touch keyboard. This new software allows you to use all of your fingers to type and navigate around the menus.

The iPhone has a number of great features such as: WiFi, YouTube, Music Capabilities and Video capabilities and much more.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the iPhone:

• Street price: $399
• Multi-touch interface
• 3.5-inch widescreen color display
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) / EDGE / Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• Safari, YouTube, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
• 2MP camera

Things I like
The iPhone has an amazing user interface. The multi-touch capabilities are really cool. When you’re surfing the web you can zoom easily with the use of two fingers, you can scroll and do so many things. Multi-touch helps make the iPhone much more usable. I really like all of the things that are packed into the iPhone. You can surf the web, talk, view all of your pictures and videos, listen to music, set up a calendar and much more. While I like all of these things, other than the multi-touch screen there isn’t anything new or special that you couldn’t get in a blackberry or another smart phone.

Things I don’t like
I think Apple dropped the ball when it came to carriers for the iPhone. If you live in the U.S you HAVE to go with a plan by AT&T and this is totally unacceptable. Apple also hasn’t chosen a carrier in Canada and many other countries so if you live there you have to unlock the iPhone before you can use it. Cell phone makers need to realize that people don’t want to be tied down to a single carrier, they want to have the ability to choose who they want to go with.

Apple seems to be trying to keep people from unlocking the iPhone instead of trying to make it better. All of the updates for the iPhone are “security” updates that basically make all previous unlocks useless. The fact that the iPhone doesn’t allow for 3rd party software is also ridiculous. Most people want to have their own custom applications to get the most out of their phones and the fact that Apple doesn’t allow this with the iPhone is crazy. It just goes to show that Apple doesn’t actually care about their customers or their products they just care about money.

Pros:

• Very nice design
• Multi-touch capabilities are awesome
• 8GB is a nice size for a cell phone

Cons:

• Limited carriers
• No 3rd party application support
• Updates aren’t actually helpful

Final Thoughts
If the iPhone allowed for 3rd party applications and if Apple didn’t tie you down to the AT&T network the iPhone would be amazing. Since Apple has been so short sighted when they made the iPhone I don’t think this phone will ever be adopted into the business community. If you live in the States and want the coolest technology I would get the iPhone. It looks good and has a cool interface. If you want a cell phone where you can use all of its capabilities I would look else where.

Belkin TuneFM VS4121

When it comes to iPod accessories Belkin is king. They’ve produced everything from cases to speakers to adapters and everything in between . Belkin is also known for their high quality standards, if it has their name on it than it must be good.

The Belkin TuneFM is a car adapter for your iPod 5G. You plug the wireless transmitter into the bottom of your iPod and then you plug the charger into your cars cigarette lighter, or a 12V charger if your car doesn’t have a cigarette lighter. The charger is optional because the wireless will work fine off your iPods battery but its always nice to know that you can recharge it if needed.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the VS4121:

• Street Price: $49.99
• Uses the iPod display for quick and easy FM tuning
• Delivers best-in-class audio performance
• Features 4 single-touch, programmable preset buttons
• Includes auto power cord to power and charge your iPod in the car

Things I like
I am very torn on this product. There are many things that I like about the TuneFM but there are many things I don’t. One thing that I like is the optional charger. Sometimes you want to have your iPod free and Belkin allows you to do this. Some similar products force you to charge your unit constantly and this can be very frustrating. I also like that it comes in black because I have a black iPod. This makes it look very clean and professional. They don’t make it in white so if you have a white iPod your out of luck

Things I don’t like
I really don’t like the wireless transmitter, it just isn’t strong enough for city driving. If there’s even the faintest of radio signals on the channel that you’re trying to listen to you car will pick it up over the TuneFM’s signal. This tends to be very frustrating since it leads to you having to change the channels often. I don’t like the fact that it only comes in black. If you have a white iPod you’re basically stuck with a black transmitter which just doesn’t look good. The final thing I don’t like is that the chargers USB connection isn’t very strong with the transmitter. I’ve gone over speed bumps and the charger connection has fallen out of the transmitter. Belkin should have made this a stronger connection so it didn’t fall out at every bump.

Pros:

• Option to charge or have it run off the iPods battery
• Black looks good on black iPods

Cons:

• Poor wireless quality
• Black doesn’t look good on white iPods
• Charging cable falls out very easy

Final Thoughts
The Belkin TuneFM is a decent product if you want to listen to your iPod in your car. It gives you the choice if you want to charge your iPod to plug it into the cigarette lighter or leave it out and it looks really good against a black iPod. If it wasn’t for the fact that the actual wireless transmitter was very weak this would be an excelled product. Unfortunately the transmitter is so bad that you constantly have to try to find new stations to play your music on and this is very frustrating. I wouldn’t advise buying this, there are many other devices out there that are better than the Belkin TuneFM.

iPod Touch

On October 23, 2001 the mp3 changed forever. Apple introduced the first iPod and it literally changed the way people saw the mp3 player. It made large capacity players a reality and also set the price of mp3 players for the future.

In September of 2007 after the success of the iPhone, Apple introduced their newest media player, the iPod Touch . This device features one of the best user interfaces ever created. You can use your fingers to navigate its menus via the large 3.5″ touch screen.

The iPod Touch is much more than a mere music player. It can play videos, surf the web (via WiFi) and save your pictures. The iPod Touch is essentially the iPhone without the actual phone.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the iPod Touch:

• Revolutionary multi-touch interface
• 3.5-inch widescreen color display
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Safari, YouTube, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
• 8mm thin

Things I like
The iPod Touch is a truly amazing device. The user interface allows you to effortlessly surf the web, listen to your music, browse your pictures and watch your videos with the touch of your fingers. While touch screens have been done before, Apple has revolutionalized the way its done with multi-touch capabilities. You can now touch with more than one finger and it makes typing and scrolling much easier.

The other thing I really like about the iPod Touch is that Apple included WiFi capabilities. This means that if you’re near a WiFi hotspot you can connect and surf over to YouTube to watch videos. It’s small things like this that really impress me. The final thing that I like is the fact that the iPod Touch notices when you switch the device on its side. If you’re watching a video you can turn the iPod Touch on its side and it will automatically switch to wide-screen mode.

Things I don’t like
The iPod Touch is meant to be a MEDIA DEVICE. This means it’s supposed to store more than just music. It’s supposed to be able to store pictures, videos and music but Apple only gave it 16GB worth of space. I realize that these are flash drives and are more expensive than normal hard drives but 16GB is just not enough to store all of your pictures and videos. For an example, I have 12GB worth of music, 16GB of pictures and over 200GB of movies. I realize that all of this couldn’t fit on a player but you should be able to fit at least some of it.

Other than the fact that the iPod Touch doesn’t have enough space to store all of your music and videos I can’t seem to find anything else wrong with it. I’ve been using it for a while now and I’ve found no glitches in the software and no areas where I would improve it.

Pros:

• Very nice design
• Multi-touch capabilities are awesome
• WiFi

Cons:

• Not enough space
• A little expensive

Final Thoughts
The iPod Touch is a very nice device. The multi-touch capabilities are a very cool and make browsing your music and video files a lot easier than the old way of doing things. I think that the device is a little expensive and there should be more storage included but over all it is definitely a solid media player. If you don’t have an iPod Touch I would totally advise getting it.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

One of the most popular digital single single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras out there is the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Without a doubt, the Canon Digital Rebel is one of the biggest advancements in consumer digital photography. For the first time, regular consumers could own a digital SLR for under $1000. The XT features a higher resolution sensor, more shooting features and better performance, all in a more compact body.

For an entry level SLR camera, the capability of Canons cheapest SLR body is more then good enough for the non-professional photographer. The Canon Digital Rebel XT digital SLR also accepts more than 50 of the Canon EF lenses.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Rebel XT:

• Street Price: $549.99
• Resolution: 8.0MP
• Continuous shooting: 14 shots @ 3 fps
• Selectable metering: Yes
• ISO range: 100-1600
• Custom functions: Yes, 9
• Interface: USB 2.0

Things I like
All of the above specifications make for a really nice camera but what’s it like in real life? From the moment I took this camera out of its box I was in love. The Rebel XT has a really quick startup time (less than three seconds) and gives you a lot of choices when it comes to taking photos. You can use manual focus or automatic focus and theres 9 different functions that you would expect to see on a pro model. The best thing about the Rebel XT is that you can use it right out of the box.

Things I don’t like
There aren’t many things I dislike about the Rebel XT but my biggest pet peeve is definitely it’s weight. The Rebel just doesn’t feel like a true Digital SLR. Canon decided to make the Rebel’s case from a lightweight plastic to appease to the larger point-and-shoot camera market, but to me it just feels cheap.

My only other problem is that the size of the CMOS digital sensor is smaller than the 24×36mm size of 35mm film, and this means the effective focal length of a lens increases. This characteristic increases the power of telephoto lenses, but reduces the effectiveness of wide-angle lenses. Very short focal length wide-angle lenses are needed with digital SLRs to compensate for the conversion factor and these lenses can be very expensive.

Overall I’ve been very impressed with the Canon Digital Rebel XT. I’ve been shooting with it for over a year and it’s never let me down and it’s taken quite a few really good pictures.

Pros:

• The Canon Digital Rebel XT’s image quality leads its class
• Competitive price
• Ultrafast start-up time
• Very responsive

Cons:

• The Canon Rebel XT’s lightweight plastic body just doesn’t sit right in your hands
• The battery life isn’t the best
• 1.6X lens-conversion factor

Final Thoughts
The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT is an exceptionally small and lightweight camera designed for beginner digital SLR photographers, but it has the functions and delivers the image quality you’d expect from a semipro model. If you’re just getting into the Digital SLR market I would say you should get the Digital Rebel XT as your first camera.

Dell XPS M1730.

For all of the World of Warcraft lovers out there this review is for you. Dell just announced a new addition to their popular XPS M series laptops, the XPS M1730 WoW edition*. The pair of special edition Horde and Alliance notebooks are a gamers dream come true, featuring WoW artwork all over the place along with all the current games and patches preloaded. If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft or just like well built laptops than the M1730 WoW edition is for you, here’s a list of things that come with the laptop:

• Custom design featuring original art by Blizzard artists on LCD back.
• World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade pre-loaded on system, including the latest updates
• Original desktop background artwork and screensavers
• A World of Warcraft-themed backpack that includes:
  • Retail box copies of World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and the Warcraft Battle Chest
  • Latest Brady Games strategy guides for World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne
  • World of Warcraft DVD with a behind-the-scenes look at “The Making of WoW”
• A special Quest Envelope that ships separately with exclusive rare items:
  • A Golden Ticket allowing customers to receive a special custom figurinebased on the actual World of Warcraft character that they play.
  • An Account Upgrade Certificate enabling the upgrade of a World of Warcraft account to receive the Collector’s Edition pets from both the original World of Warcraft Collector’s Edition and the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector’s Edition
  • A World of Warcraft Beta Club Card to enable customers to take part in upcoming public beta tests.

The M1730 WoW edition isn’t just your average off the shelf laptop that’d you’d expect to see on the shelves of Best Buy or Future shop. This laptop is a full fledged gaming rig. The barebones model gives you a 2.2GHz T7500 Core 2 Duo, 2GB of DDR2, and 160GB of storage. The barebones model will set you back a dizzying $4,499 and this is just for the base model. If you max out all of the hardware on this beast you’re looking at a $7,119 price tag (without any warranties or extra gear).

Pros and Cons for the M1730 WoW edition:

Pros:

• A great design on the laptop
• Lots of unique WoW swag
• Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme processor
• Up to 400GB of hard drive space
• Dual SLI graphics cards

Cons:

• Large price tag ($4499 is the minimum)
• Extremely heavy at 10.9lbs
• Lots of unneeded accessories if you’re not a fan of WoW
• Battery is only a 9cell instead of 12cell (batter life will be short)

Final Thoughts
So is this steep price tag really worth it? If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft I would say it definitely is. The laptop is amazing and the swag that you get with it is absolutely. If you’re not really a fan of WoW than I would say pass on this laptop. The hardware just isn’t worth $4499. A cheaper option would be to go with Dell’s M1730.

*Currently Dell is only advertising this computer on their American site. If you’re in another country you’re out of luck for now.