Underwater Camera

So my friend just went scuba diving in the ocean for the first time and of course had to by a nifty digital underwater camera to take with her. She returned with some really amazing photos so I thought I would let you know what she thought of the camera. She purchased the INTOVA IC 600, http://www.intova.net/ , which is a 6 megapixel digital camera with a plastic waterproof enclosure that is good to 180’. The pictures she took came out awesome but there were just a couple sticky points to it. The 2 AA batteries required to run it were burned through extremely quickly, she had to change out the batteries every dive, so after about an hour of use they were done for. And the display is not great, it is hard to see and the quality is very poor, once you load the pictures to your computer you can really see how much they are, and finally the amount of time to take the picture once the button has been pressed is too long – on the other hand it did take the picture quick as in a short exposure time which was good for action shots. All in all for what the options are for camera that can go that deep this one is a winner.

Random Thing I read about

So I usually just talk about different electronics and fun stuff that is new out there. But I was slightly disturbed earlier when I found out about the level of customer classification that was going on. So are you a Young Digerati, Winner’s Circle, a Greenbelt Sports or others? If you would like to see how they classify the area you live in go the following website and enter your zip code, http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=20
And then think about how the different consumer electronics companies are targeting you to get you to buy products made by them or sold at their store. And be careful you may become overly paranoid about all the advertising you see now.

Guest Writer - Nicky Roberts

Sony Portable DVD Player Review

I recently purchased a new portable DVD player, the DVP-FX820 by Sony www.sonystyle.com, and it is great. When I was checking them out the only one with a nicer display was the LG although I was really worried about glare with it and it was more expensive. But the Sony is great, is has two headset ports for multiple viewers and the standard A/V in and out connections. And the swivel feature is nicer you can tilt the display like normal or swivel it around and tilt is that way or lay it flat, very versatile. The battery lasts for hours, through multiple flights, which is great, the only problem is the location of the battery release button, it is in a great spot to accidentally get pushed when grabbing or picking up the player thereby making you lose power for a moment until you reconnect it.

L-3 Communications and BEECube deal

L-3 & BEECube licensing deal

Sprint to introduce Mobile 4G at CES 2009 .... 3x 3G

Sprint has be losing market share to big names like AT&T and Verizon over the years for various reasons. Now, they are hoping to win back and gain a lot of customers with their 4G network. Their initial product will be air cards for the computer and will lead to incorporation into their mobile devices. They believe it is going to create a whole new class of device, especially for video. For example, you could buy and download a movie from Netflix and would not have to wait for it to complete dowloading; or if you want to watch a live video feed you don't have to wait while it buffers.

They say it can deliver about 3 times what the current 3G networks deliver or what about DSL provides at home. That's blazing fast!! I'm looking forward to see it in action and see if it really does perform that fast.

DTV Transition Workshops at Best Buy

Heads up to anyone who is freaking out about the DTV switch set to take place February 17, 2009, or if you know anyone who does not know what to do there is help.
Monday November 17, 2008 Best Buy will be hosting workshops about the transition to digital television in the top 25 markets throughout the country. The event will include local television personnel to help answer questions.
So head to www.bestbuy.com or www.askablueshirt.com to contact your Best Buy to find the nearest location for this event.
And remember this even will mark 3 months until the switch is made.

Reduced Hotel Rates for CES 2009

It's not too late to register and attend the CES conference coming up January 7-11, 2009!! The hotels are even dropping prices for attendees, so make your reservations now! Now you'll have extra money in your pockets.

http://www.cesweb.org/hotelTravel/hotel.asp

Looking for new gadgets at CES 2009

Wrist-Cell - I am so excited to see what CES has to offer for wrist-mounted cell phones, you know a cell phone that is like a bracelet. I would love to have one, maybe it is rushing but I have high hopes from some of the biggies – LG, Sony, Nokia – to have a prototype at least to present to the world. At least with that I won’t feel quite as stupid as holding my cell phone with my bluetooth in my ear. But they better be careful of the size, we don’t want it ending up as big the wrist GPS from Garmin or looking to nerdy – like the old calculator watched of the 80’s (yikes!).

Laptop to Go – I have rumors of this but haven’t seen anything real yet but I feel like there is some engineer sitting in a corner somewhere just pounding out the answer to the laptop with flexible rollup display and keyboard that fits into a nice small stick when not in use. I know we have all seen the rollup keyboards – you know that scene in "Live Free or Die Hard" admit it – but to have that with the rollup display would be awesome, the tiny keyboard doesn’t help much when you still have to lug the big computer around.

GPS Tagging – So now you have to buy the camera, buy the software, then it somehow magically knows where you took your camera, sounds like too much work for me. I want the camera with all the hardware needed and the new field for location already fully integrated into the software for the camera, I hate buying more useless software. Plug and go and then I will always know where my pictures were, exactly!


www.cesweb.org

CES 2009 is just around the corner

Soooo....is everyone else excited as I am to attend CES 2009?? CES is the annual Consumer Electronics show held in Las Vegas. It's coming up...January 7-9, 2009.

Here is some registration information if you haven't already signed up. This year, they have a personal planner where you will be able to track which sessions you want to attend so you don't miss out on any of the fun.


If you register between now and 5PM EST January 2,2009, registration is $100. Otherwise it will be $200.

I'm looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers there!

You can register now at

www.cesweb.org