Archive for the ‘Fashion gadgets’ Category
Friday, October 30th, 2009 |
Apple is yet to announce and release it secret, yet expected iTablet, which will certainly bring many excellent features and will reinvent the device market once again. Until that day comes, you can still find some interesting gadgets, not advertised within their potential. One of these gadgets is none other than the digital reader book.
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Sure, you’ve heard about the Apple audio books and all its features, but what about the reader digital book? Not many people can say they’ve heard or read about theses gadgets, although their on the market for a while now. Unfortunately, since everyone is in a hurry these days, nobody spares time to read about devices with less than extraordinary or ground shacking design and features.
Also, the marketing and advertising of these products make them even less knowable and more anonymous. Sony sports into its portfolio four reader digital books. However, one of them is not yet released, but only announced. The Sony Reader Touch Edition, with the code PRS 600 SC, is an attractive model, for anyone who needs or want a digital reader book. Sony advertises this product as being the solid solution for the “on the go” reading experience. The first interesting feature that came to my attention is the customizable feature, very Apple iPod like, with the option of engraving your personal Reader Touch. In terms of design, this product is pretty attractive. However, I must admit I like more the black and silver finish then the red and silver look, or the all silver case.
The Reader Touch is made out of a plastic body with a nice frame silver finish. There is nothing more to say about the design, since it looks plain and doesn’t really offer something special. However, even if the design is not something spectacular or exquisite, the build quality is solid, and it provides a nice user experience. You get no flex whatsoever, and neither weird noise when pressed to hard (even if the body is made out of plastic). With a height of 6.9 mm, wide of 4.8 inches, deep of 0.4 inches, the PRS 600 SC weights about 10.1 oz including the battery. Regarding the battery department, the Touch Reader sports a built in Lithium Ion battery of 3.7 Volts DC.
The approximate battery life is 7.500 BBeB Book on continuous page turns, or 6.800 ePub continuous page turns. On the front side you get the touch screen which will provide simple access to the various functions of the Touch Reader. Above the touch screen you get the “Sony” logo, while below it you get the turn page buttons (forward, or rewind), and the home button. Also below the display, you get the size button that will help you either zoom in or zoom out, in order to adjust the text size, and the options button, for customizing your Reader menu as you might need it to be.
To the right of the options button you get the volume up and down button (with no other presentation needed). The back side of this device lacks any buttons or ports. However, the bottom side sports enough ports and slots for a good connectivity package. Therefore, you get the headphone jack (mandatory in order to keep your thoughts to yourself), the USB port for an easy and fast connection with your computer, the DC in jack, the reset button (if this device needs a reset button, you shouldn’t expect of a high quality software), hole and hand strap.
The top part of this gadget sports the following ports, slots or buttons, such as holes for cover attachments, the charge indicator, the power switch, the memory stick Duo memory card port, the SD memory card slot, and the stylus, necessary in order to precise operations or drawing. In terms of memory department, you get an onboard memory of 512 MB, with only 380 MB available for usage. However both Memory Stick Pro Duo memory card and SD memory card can bring up to 16 GB memory.
The onboard memory will be sufficient for about 350 books. In case you were wondering
Sony has included a 6 inches Vizplex screen with a maximum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, sporting an 8 levels gray scale. This display offers a high contrast ratio, making the whole read experience really nice even in direct sunlight. The user interface is rather intuitive and it doesn’t need too many manuals for you to read. Even better, with the touch screen navigation everything feels in the right place. The home menu contains a default look. However, just use the advanced settings to customize the menu look. You get several pre installed functions, such as continue reading, books, all notes, collections (your collection created by the eBook Library), more, handwriting, text memo, audio, pictures, and settings.
Although, this device sports a reset button you shouldn’t have any problems with the user interface, since everything runs smoothly and without any glitches.
Sony successfully created an easy to use Touch Reader thanks to the hardware specifications. Easily transfer Adobe DRM protected files, PDFs, PRS DRM protected, files, images (with the following formats supported, JPEG, MBP, PNG and GIF), MP3 audio files, or AAC audio files, and Microsoft Word documents, by just using the fast USB connection. However, in order to successfully create a connection between the Touch Reader and your computer, several conditions must be sustained.
Therefore, your computer must run Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, or Basic, or Business, or Ultimate either 32 bit or 64 bit with the Service Pack 1 upgrade, or late. Also your computer could sport the Windows XP Home Edition, or Professional Edition, or Media Center Edition (2004 and 2005), the 32 bit version, with the Service Pack 2 or later upgrades; if you are a Mac user then your computer, or laptop, must run with either Mac OS X 10.4.11 (or later) or Mac OS X 10.5.6 (or later). The minimum processor your computer must have is an 800 MHz Celeron, or the G3, G4, or G5 processor for Mac. Also, you computer must have 128 MB of RAM memory (and for the Vista operating system at least 512 MB).
Sony included in the shipping box beside the actual Touch Reader, the USB cable, sleeve and quick start. Overall, this device sports a decent design with an excellent build quality. Also, it is easy to use thanks to the touch screen navigation, and the 6 inches display provides sufficient brightness for you to read your favorite books within any light environment conditions. However, everything holds a drawback.
The PRS 600 SC sports a significant drawback, its price tag of $299.99. However, if you are interested in purchasing a digital reader book, you might want to hold your buy a few more weeks, because the price drop will start happening when Christmas will only be a couple of weeks away.
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 |
Everybody wants the latest gadgets and devices because basically their new and shinny. However, there are a few people out there that always buy the products on the last life cycle, cards, camcorders, phones, and computers and get them for a bargain. Not a bad policy for someone who doesn’t live in the “new” shadow obsession. One of these bargains is the 80 GB HD Handycam camcorder from Sony.
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It looks a little older than the rest of the models, but is sure brings enough key features such as the 1920 x 1080 high definition video recording, the face detection technology, 2.7 inches touch panel, smile shutter, 4 megapixel still images, excellent digital and optical zoom. In terms of design, this camcorder is a little big, but its body is made out of metallic look alike plastic with three colors, silver, grey and black. You are probably going to enjoy this design since at touch it really feels quite nice.
The materials used look nice, and brings a good style to the design, while the quality of build is more than solid. I can easily make an almost general rule. Beware of new designs with the thinnest and lightest form factors since they are the most dangerous. You don’t really know how durable these designs are. However, (just like the angular design of the laptops) this bulkier body of this camcorder will provide you with a safe construction for the hardware specs.
With a height of 69 mm (or 2 ¾ inches), wide of 68 mm (or 2 ¾ inches), deep of 129 mm (or 5 1/8 inches), this Sony camcorder weights about 410 grams (or 14.5 oz) with the battery included or 330 grams (or 11 oz) without the battery. The battery included into this camcorder is a Lithium Ion battery with the Accu Power Meter System.
When using the camcorder the power consumption will be about 3.9 Watt. In the input and output department you are going to get several ports, slots, and jacks. First of all, the audio and video remote terminal is present as an audio, video, and S video. Also, you get the audio and video output (analog), the digital audio and video output (also known as HDMI), one 2.0 USB port, the component video, and the s video output. An important feature of the 80 GB HD Handycam camcorder from Sony is the 80 GB internal memory, enough for 32 hours of video recording in high definition format.
Therefore, in high definition format you can record up to 580 minutes in FH, up to 1180 minutes in HQ, 1440 minutes in SP, and 1920 minutes in LP. While in the standard definition format you can save about 1180 minutes in HQ, 1750 minutes in SP, and 3360 minutes in LP. Also, if you need more memory space you can easily expand this value by using a memory card, Memory Stick PRO Duo Media.
This camcorder includes a 2.7 inches wide touch display, with the Clear Photo technology and a sufficient resolution, 210000 pixels. Also the display can easily rotate 270 degrees, and render great images or videos, thanks to the vibrant colors, excellent brightness, and good viewing angles. Also, the LCD panel sports the power on and off function. All the recorded videos are saved when using the high definition format in MPEG4 AVC / H.264, and when using the standard definition in MPEG2 format.
The maximum video resolution used is 1920 x 1080 pixels, with two different aspect ratio, 16 to 9 and 4 to 3. All the recorded videos will be completed with the proper audio sounds, since Sony added into this camcorder the Dolby Digital 5 in 1 channels audio recording format. The maximum resolution for still pictures is 4 megapixels. All the pictures taken are saved in JPEG file format.
This device uses the 1 / 5 inches Exmor CMOS sensor (including the Clear Video array technology), and the BIONZ image processor. If we are in the hardware department I should remind one or two things about the optics. This camcorder sports the Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar lenses, with the 35 mm equivalent of 42 mm to 467 mm in the 16 to 9 aspect ratio, and 52 mm to 608 mm in the 6 to 3 aspect ratio. The aperture is varying from F1.8 to F2.2. The total digital zoom has a value of 120x, while the optical zoom provides a value of 10x.
The focal distance can vary between 3.2 mm to 32 mm, with a full range auto focus in hand (or if needed a manual focus also). An excellent feature is the dual record with 2.3 megapixel still image capture. Therefore, while video recording you can easily take pictures without interrupting the video capture (but only with the maximum resolution of 2.3 megapixels). Other excellent features include the face detection, the Steady Shot image stabilization, the Dynamic Range Optimizer, Smile Shutter technology, and several scene modes such as landscape, portrait, snow, beach, candle, sunrise, twilight, auto and others.
Other features are also available and include several settings for both movie and pictures editing. The most important connection on this camcorder is the 2.0 USB connections (which will provide a fast transfer of files between your camcorder and computer), and HDMI connection (easy use it to connect your camcorder to your BRAVIA powered LCD for an excellent user experience). In order to connect this Sony camcorder to your computer, you must use one of the following operating systems, Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4, Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 both 32 bit and 64 bit version. However, a connection will never be established between your camcorder and computer if you are using any Mac operating system.
Therefore, mount Boot Camp on your Mac computer and install one of the previous mentioned Windows operating systems. Sony included in the retail box, beside the actual camcorder and the battery pack, the AC adaptor, the audio and video connecting cable, the CD Software, the USB cable, and the audio and video component. Overall, the 80 GB HD Handycam camcorder from Sony still packs enough features to provide excellent performances. Even more its $749.99 price tag is much smaller than the $1299.99 of the 120 GB Handycam camcorder.
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Saturday, October 10th, 2009 |
The media player market is extremely important for manufacturers. Everyone is trying to get as many customers as they can. Unfortunately, few of the manufacturers understand that they don’t need just to release a good device, but they also have to blend it into the company’s direction, providing for the customers a good feeling. You can’t except to sell media players with a $200 price tag without providing a solid image to it.
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Apple knows this, that why their sales are excellent, managing to convince so many customers to buy their products, mostly because of their brand. Microsoft is also trying to improve its diminished status, by not only collaborating with important manufacturers, but also by releasing their new Zune line (also there are rumors regarding an imminent Zune phone).
However, Sony had decided to play in the iPod and Zune league with their re-launched Walkman brand. This might just be a good thing. The truth comes with time, letting the customers decide what is best for them. If you are looking for a media player with good video playback, lacking the Apple or Zune logo, then you should take a look at the S Series Walkman Video MP3. The current model reviewed sports an 8 GB memory flash. However, you can certainly find the 16 GB model to. Its key features include 2.4 inches LCD display, FM tuner, great battery life, and built in speakers.
The design is excellent, sporting a nicely build case with tough materials. The Sony’s media player is offered in four colors: black, pink, violet and red. On the front cover, you get the LCD display. Above it you get one of the stereo speakers, while below the LCD you get two buttons back and option (with more than one function), the four way directional keys (up, down, left, and right) with the centered Play and Pause key. The four way directional keys resemblance the click wheel found on the iPod nano and iPod classic. With a height of 13 inches, wide of 4 inches, deep of 2 inches, Walkman player weights about 2.4 oz. around this Sony device you can find one stereo mini jack, and a WM port 22 pin terminals USB.
The S Series Walkman Video MP3 with 8 GB sport about 7.1 GB real memory storage which should be enough for over 2000 songs (depending on the encoding, with standard encoding using AAC with 128 Kb per second with a four minutes length). In terms of audio you the Sony Walkman provide 5 preset EQ and an excellent bass.
Therefore, you can choose from Pop mode, Heavy mode, Jazz mode, unique mode, or just establish your own equalizer with the bass frequency you might want. This device is compatible with the most important audio formats such as WMA, AAC and MP3. All of these formats have to be encoded at a maximum value of 320 Kb per second. Otherwise, the player will not recognize them. A nice feature that completes the audio experience is the built in FM radio. You get a digital FM tuner with a frequency range varying from 87.5 MHz up to 108 MHz, allowing you to listen in either mono or stereo (auto) selection. You don’t even have to worry about the stations storage, since the Walkman accepts up to 30 FM Presets.
The Sony 8 GB Walkman also sports a 2.4 inches LCD display with a QVGA resolution (about 240 x 320 pixels) with 262000 colors. The display offers vibrant colors, while the brightness is good not only indoors but also outdoors, making this device really portable. You can use the display in either vertical or horizontal mode when watching movies. Sony Walkman accepts WMV files, MPEG4 files and AVC files. You get a few options as well beside the basic play or pause, fast rewind or forward or slightly rewind or forward and new begin of current video. You can chose to either hear the sound through headphones (excellent quality sound with excellent bass making the user experience as great as it could get), or by the stereo speakers which also deliver good audio quality with deeper sound.
This device is good ,performs well even when it comes to recording voices, letting you to save business meetings, audio broadcasts and others. You also get a clock with both alarm timer and sleep timer included. So what’s lacking? This Walkman device packs good features, but unfortunately lacks some major functions, such as the Wi-Fi enabling with the latest profile, an online Sony website, such as iTunes store for Apple and Market Place for Microsoft.
Also, it lacks marketing and a better image. No need to worry about the Windows operating system you use, Walkman 8 GB is compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3, XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3, Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1, Vista Home Premium or Vista Business or Vista Ultimate all with Service Pack 1 but the 64 bit versions.
The software provided will allow you to easily manage your multimedia content and navigate through your entire media library. Sony ships the retail box of Walkman 8 GB and 16 GB with headphones, a hands free stand and a mini USB cable. Both versions of walkman media players include a Lithium Ion battery which should provide about 42 hours battery life when listening to music, or 6 and a half hours battery life when watching movies, and about 17 hours of listening continuously to the built in FM radio.
Even more great news, is that you only need two and a half hours to fully charge this battery. With the recent price cuts the S Series Walkman Video MP3 Player is now on sale with an asking price of $109.95 for the 8 GB model, and at $129.95 for the 16 GB model. Sony successfully created an attractive device, making it now even more attractive with the price drops. Unfortunately, this media player will never compete in the same range as Zune players and iPod players.
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 |
Nowadays manufacturers try to create and develop all sort of strange devices in order increase their selling numbers. These products are, however, not always accepted as necessary devices for everyday use. In this category we could include the wrist watches. Sure, they look great, so great you wish you could even be beamed on the Enterprise once you’ve engaged a call through it. But is it really necessary? Is your life easier now with a wrist watch? If yes, how did the wrist watches improve the dynamic of your life? Every answer you might give to the above questions still can’t include the new watch mobile phones in the “necessary for everyday use” category. You can find on the market at least two watch phones, one offered by Samsung, and one offered by LG. The first model is the cheaper version of the LG GD 910.
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It offers less features, a great design, and smaller price tag. However let’s see what the high end watch phone has to offer. The LG GD 910 is a wristwatch mobile phone with great potential. By the interest manufacturers give this type of phone, we just might expect to see in the near future a total separation between mobile phone, and in the far future an annexation of this two phone types.
The first major breakthrough will happen in about five years. The candy bar touch screen phones will probably replace the nowadays net books bringing great features in a single device. The other category will be the small portable touch screen enabled wrist watch mobile phones. This category will also bring good features, but will not be so technological advanced. By having a wrist watch you will also own a digital camera and, probably by then, an iPod (becoming more attractive to population because of the diminished price tags).
In about 10 to 12 years, this to category phones will be combined, offering one single type of phone, a wrist watch touch screen phone with a flexible display. Therefore, you should be able to use it in full form, or just in watch form. Until then we will have to indulge ourselves with the
LG GD 910. The first thing you will notice is the price tag, to high for such a small device. LG GD 910 has quite a lot main disadvantages, including, its large dimensions, no memory card slot onboard, not so great display, no FM radio, and a slow user interface. If it’s one thing you can bet GD 910 has, is its great design.
With a height of 49 mm, wide of 39 mm, deep of 13.8 mm, the GD 910 weight about 84 g. Too much for a device you are going to carry around your wrist. However, if you enjoy watches with these dimensions, you will have no problems with LG GD 910. The leather strap brings an excellent felling and provides even a better look for this phone. The actual display is surrounded by an aluminum case making GD 910 very stylish.
LG included in GD 910 a TFT capacitive touch screen, up to 256000 colors, with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels and a widescreen diagonal of 1.43 inches. You will need some time to get used to use the GD 910 touch screen, but once you will get the wider picture you will actually enjoy the full process of using it. Above the display you get an earpiece and the VGA camera used for video calling. LG really worked on the touch screen visibility under direct day broad light. You will not have any problems in terms of visibility with the GD 910. On the right side of the GD 910 you can find three buttons, a call key, an end call key, and clear or back button. Overall, the general built of the GD 910 is flawless.
No flex, no squeaks, no nothing, just a solid design. The user interface is intuitive; you should be able to use it without any problems. The only actual problem is the speed of the user interface (it is sort of slow, but then again do remember that the processor used is extremely small and needs time to process a high end interface, especially for a touch screen display). As special features offered in the GD 910, you have the water jet resistant (IPX4 certified, it is not waterproof, only water jet resistant, huge difference, be careful), text to speck capabilities, organizer, T9, and a music player.
The LG GD 910 runs in 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and in 3G network (HSDPA 2100). The connectivity is ensured by the Class 10 (with the common by now 4+1 / 3+2 slots) GPRS with a speed between 32 Kb per second to 48 Kb per second, Class 10 EDGE up to 236.8 Kb per second, HSDPA with a speed up to 7.2 MB per second, and Bluetooth version 2.0 with A2DP profile. You get a good organizer and a great calendar to use, but the messaging function is tricky to use. It is not about getting used to the input method, it is just difficult and also annoying, especially when you have to write a not so short message, or email.
The standard battery Lithium Ion used in the
GD 910 will provide about 247 hours of standby time. However, a major drawback is the small talk time offered by GD 910, only 2 hours. If you want to be a trendsetter then you should purchase a wrist watch. It is certainly unique and offers a great user experience. However, if you have a job that requires full communication with the office, you should consider having a regular business phone at hand, and just use the GD 910 for your personal life and not for businesses. Overall, it is all about if you want to buy it and if you can afford it. For the time being, LG GD 910 is a statement regarding your social status, and that’s about it.
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Saturday, September 12th, 2009 |
At the beginning manufacturers released MP4 watches and they were seen as futuristic gadgets. The watches are small portable music and video media player. Most of these kind of devices are actually digital watches with multimedia features. Usually these devices have LED or OLED color display and speakers, but also small jacks for earphones or maybe Bluetooth protocol in order to connect with Bluetooth stereo headset using the A2DP profile. The first commercially available MP 4 watch was manufactured by Shenzhen Adragon Digitek in September 2006. MP 4 watches usually have in their design metal, plastic and leather straps. The screen size varies between 1″ and 2″. These devices are marketed as ultra portable multimedia players.
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However, since 2006 these devices got upgraded on a constant base. Features like digital camera and video camera recording, readable Office documents, organizer functions and file storage and file transfer are nothing beside the phone call function. The Samsung S9110 is a tinny wrist phone who packs a lot of features. The S9110 is the Samsung response to the LG watch phone launched in August through Orange. The Samsung model is however much more cheaply than the LG GD 910 watch phone.
The Samsung model has not only cut the price but it also cut the deepness too (11.98 mm, the value earns S9110 the title of the world’s thinnest watch phone). Its height measures 57.5 mm, wide of 41.1 mm and a weight of 91 g (kind of heavy). The design looks flawless, with scratch proof glass for the display and stainless steel for the exterior. The phone watch has a good TFT capacitive touch screen with up to 256 K colors. It sports a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels with a diagonal of 1.76 inches.
The Samsung S9110 can alert you not only using MP3 ringtones (or polyphonic ones) but also using vibration. It packs a good quality (for its sizes) speaker. The operating system is Samsung based. It is simplified for a better use. However you will easily find the symbols for the phonebook or call records. There is a big drawback in the multimedia features. The watch phone has nearly 40 MB internal memory with no card slot. Therefore this device does play in the “real” phone league. The connectivity is limited. We have GPRS Class 10 (4+1 / 3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and nothing more. No HSCSD, no EDGE, no 3G, no WLAN or even micro USB port.
This phone lacks a lot of good features. Also it lacks a digital camera, radio, GPS or java (pure sad). It runs on 2G network: GSM 900 / 1800. The Samsung S9110 has, at least, SMS, EMS, MMS and Email functions. Other interesting features include: voice recognition, voice memo, MP3 player, organizer and T9. No word yet about the battery life. However we do now the model: Li – Ion 630 mAh.
Overall, this is not an interesting device. Sure it is a watch and then a phone, but not a multimedia device at all. I believe that Samsung rushed in this new phone category and tried to create a futuristic gadget, but ended with a common phone-watch. Waiting another year or two would have been a better choice than to release a watch phone with features of 2003 mobile phones.
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