Digital cameras are getting more and more advanced by the moment. It’s simply not good enough to take decent pictures anymore, since customers want their cameras to do so much more. Perhaps epitomizing this movement is the recently released Samsung ST1000.
On the surface, it may look like any number of other consumer-level point-and-shoot cameras, but the ST1000 comes with a whole whack of impressive features. This could be one of the most highly connected cameras in recent memory, since it can send stuff to the web via Wi-Fi, connect to other devices via Bluetooth, and geotag every shot with GPS.
The Samsung ST1000 shoots at a maximum of 12.2 megapixels and it can get in close with its 5x optical zoom. The entire back of the camera is occupied with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, so you don’t really do much with hardware buttons aside from power and shutter.
You can expect a more comprehensive review here in the next week or two. In the meantime, check out the brief hands-on and unboxing video that I have embedded below.
It may have started with a single handset from HTC, but it seems that the Android revolution is finally coming to fruition with handsets expected from the likes of Motorola and Samsung, among others. Another name has joined the fray and it’s not one that we were expecting. May I present the GeeksPhone One.
GeeksPhone is a Spanish start-up and it may have one of the most appropriate company names that we have seen in some time. This phone really does look like it’s going to cater to the geeks in the audience and the “One” model name is fitting, since this is GeeksPhone’s first phone.
Loading up with Google Android as its operating system, the GeeksPhone One looks like it gets a 3.2-inch WQVGA hybrid resistive touchscreen display, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 3.1-megapixel autofocus camera, a VGA front-facing camera, 3.5mm headset jack, integrated 802.11/b/g Wi-Fi, GPS, accelerometer, and a 528MHz ARM11 Jazelle processor.
The specs aren’t exactly a quantum leap above what we are hearing from other comapnies and the form factor isn’t terribly original either, but it’s good to see that we may soon have yet another Android option on our hands. Since they’re “just” a startup, here’s hoping that GeeksPhone prices the One competitively.
The daily commute to the office may not make for the most interesting of videos, but this could be fun for a spirited drive through a mountain pass. Or, you know, if you’re driving through an interesting town and you want to document the whole adventure. That appears to be the idea behind the Cam Cam Voyager.
This camcorder clamps onto your car visor and it can record the entirety of your driving trip at an impressive 720 x 480 pixel resolution. That’s not HD, but it is wider than a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Strangely, it’s not really 16:9 either, fitting somewhere in between at a 3:2 aspect ratio.
If you insert a 32GB SD card, the Cam Cam Voyager dash camcorder can record up to 48 hours of driving run. Power comes by way of your car’s cigarette jack (12V port), so you don’t have to worry about running out of battery either.
You don’t have to concern yourself with filtering through loads and loads of footage, since the clips are automatically made into 15-minute segments. When the card gets full, the oldest clip is automatically deleted to make room for a new one.
I’m thinking that the average consumer won’t really need something like this, but commercial vehicles could find some value here if only for insurance and liability issues. Look to Brickhouse Security to find the Cam Cam Voyager for $299.95.
Most people probably turn to Stuff Magazine for the pretty girls in scantily-clad clothing, but they have some interesting “lifestyle” articles in there for you as well. As part of the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards, the magazine named the HTC Hero smartphone as their Gadget of the Year.
Presumably, this is based on the vanilla version of the HTC Hero with the distinctive Android chin and not the chin-free version that is on its way to Sprint, since the latter isn’t even available yet.
As you know, the HTC Hero is equipped with Google Android as its operating system and then it gets topped out with a trackball, 3.2-inch touchscreen, five-megapixel camera, and plenty of Android apps at your disposal too. The Stuff judges say that the Hero is just “as clever and as sexy as the iPhone.”
To make the awards slightly more confusing, the HTC Hero did not win the Stuff Phone of the Year award. That honor went to the Apple iPhone 3GS. In this way, I guess they’re more impressed with the Hero for its gadget-y goodness rather than its ability to, you know, call people.
It can be challenging figuring out how to use a cell phone when you suffer from vision loss or, even more so, full blindness. The CRTC mandated in July that wireless carriers had to provide at least one handset that could cater to this demographic. Well, Rogers is coming forward with one, but it’s a phone that they already had.
The Nokia E71 is already a pretty powerful phone with its full QWERTY keyboard, smartphone OS, and 3.2-megapixel camera, but the version being developed to help those with vision impairments is getting equipped with TALKS software from Nuance.
This software gives users the ability to have text messages, caller ID, or any other text content on the screen read to them as speech. This way, even if they cannot read the actual words on the screen, they can hear them.
It may seem like a nice gesture, but I’m not so convinced that the E71 is the best phone for the job. The screen can be a little on the cramped side, cramming a lot of information into that QVGA resolution, so reading the text can be even more challenging that it would be on another phone. The smaller buttons of the QWERTY keyboard can make for a challenge too.
Whatever the case, you can find the Nuance TALKS-equipped Nokia E71 through Rogers Wireless for $99.99 with a qualifying three-year voice and data service agreement.
Ok Asus, great job, but Windows 7? I’m a Linux head so I won’t be overly impressed by that, but the hardware specs are nice, with an Intel Atom N330 Dual Core processor and NVIDIA ION graphics platform and a macbook-style slot-load optical disc drive (DVD-RW no Blue-ray) to stream 1080p to that big fat LCD.
Also, the EB1501 is pretty darn connected, from everything from 6 USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, an eSATA connection for external drives, 802.11n Wi-Fi and a nice Gigabit Ethernet link. S/PDIF output also gives you 5.1 dolby audio.
Energy efficiency is all the rage these days, using 70% less power than an average desktop PC. This little balancing box is set to hit the streets of Europe and US from October 22nd, allowing it to come bundled with the new Windows 7 OS, no official word concerning pricing, we can expect it to be around the $600 USD mark (£367/€400).
We all dream of the day we can step out of the house, unplug our car and drive for 500 miles on a single charge. If IBM has anything to say about it, we will be doing just that in no time at all.
With the IBM Battery 500 Project, they have brought together a team of scientific geniuses to boost battery storage density by a factor of 10 with lithium-air technology. Oh, and those IBM Supercomputers will help a bit too.
These batteries use nanoscale semiconductors which use the air around us to collect positive ions. The oxygen enters the battery on-demand which is unique compared to a sealed battery system. This nanoscale semiconductor fabrication technology will allow the surface area of the lithium-air battery electrodes to be increased by 100 times, allowing them to meet the goals of the project.
As shown in the photo, the comparison of a sealed lead-acid batteries to that of the lithium-air batteries is phenomenal. One lead acid is equivalent to 53 lithium-air batteries in weight! That is a alone will offer a huge performance boost to electric vehicles.
More on the Battery 500 Project in the video below.
Most people probably turn to Stuff Magazine for the pretty girls in scantily-clad clothing, but they have some interesting “lifestyle” articles in there for you as well. As part of the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards, the magazine named the HTC Hero smartphone as their Gadget of the Year.
It can be challenging figuring out how to use a cell phone when you suffer from vision loss or, even more so, full blindness. The CRTC mandated in July that wireless carriers had to provide at least one handset that could cater to this demographic. Well, Rogers is coming forward with one, but it’s a phone that they already had.
Ok Asus, great job, but Windows 7? I’m a Linux head so I won’t be overly impressed by that, but the hardware specs are nice, with an Intel Atom N330 Dual Core processor and NVIDIA ION graphics platform and a macbook-style slot-load optical disc drive (DVD-RW no Blue-ray) to stream 1080p to that big fat LCD. 
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