Digital Technology for Digital Living.
November 05, 2004
Apple Looses Grip With iPod Photo.
Gadget Lounge is going out on a limb today. Although we love our iPods, and can’t live without one, we think that Apple has lost its grip on the market by introducing the iPod Photo. Why? Because by releasing it they’ve demonstrated that they are building the player to promote their software to the PC world, rather than listening to the market and designing a new version with features people are begging for.
It was inevitable that the iPod would get a colour screen. It’s a very logical step. It enhances the user experience by making the display much easier to view. What’s less useful is using it to show people your photo collection. It’s just not a step we think that people want to take when they buy a device to listen to their music. It reeks of trying to get Windows users hooked on their iTunes software to store photos. Speculation is ripe that we’ll soon see iPhoto appear for the PC. For Apple, that’s logical, trying to penetrate a market with feature rich software is a good move for a company that makes software with beautiful user interfaces. In this case they are trying to leverage the iPod’s success. Also, not such a bad idea for someone storming the market, but by doing so they show they’re just not listening.
There seems to be two reasons why people like the idea of an iPod that stores photos. Firstly, to backup their photo collection. Technically you can already do this, it just requires manual intervention rather than automatically with iTunes. The iPod is just an advanced external storage device. Secondly, for users to view photos they’ve just taken and transfered via a Belkin iPod CameraLink. This isn’t possible. iTunes is required to transfer the photos first, before the photos can be viewed. Some people may use the iPod as a digital wallet for storing photos to show friends and families, but most people point out that the thumbnails on the screen aren’t easy to see. It’s just not a compelling reason to buy the new iPod, just an added feature to an iPod with a colour display.
We’re not suggesting that the iPod Photo won’t sell. It will. Mainly because the iPod has become a must have accessory. It’s fashionable. It won’t be because people really want the photo feature.
What might help is if Apple build a community around photos. Maybe leverage what Flickr have produced with their community software.
What do people want? The most obvious is the iPod with Wi-Fi. Of course this is difficult. Giving users the ability to move music around easier isn’t what the RIAA wants, and would effect the relationship Apple has for its iTunes Music Store. But give users the ability to just stream music between iPods, and watch the community build.
“What you listening to John?”
“Here Jane, I’ll stream it so you can hear on your iPod.”
“That’s awesome John!”
Gadgets boy | Comments (2) | Digital Camera, General, Music, Wirelessgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
October 27, 2004
iPod Photo Is Alive.
Another rumour confirmed true by Apple this morning. The iPod Photo is official. The new iPod, with 40GB or 60GB of storage, has a 2-inch LCD screen that can display up to 65,536 colours, 220 by 176 pixel resolution, perfect for photos or album art, a 40GB model, and extended battery life of up to 15 hours. Using iTunes 4.7, which has also just been released, you can point to a photo directory and have it store all your photos on the new iPod. The beauty of it is, that you can also connect the iPod to a TV or projector via the AV connector, or the iPod Photo dock that comes with the device has a S-Video output. No news on whether you can play video from the device, but storing TV or movies for play-back anywhere would be a neat feature with the S-Video output.
Available in 1 to 2 weeks you can get the 40GB for $AU799 or 60GB model for $AU949.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, General, Music, Portablegadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
October 14, 2004
JVC Joins Blu-ray Association, And Mini-Blu-rays.
A couple of bits of news about Blu-ray technology that Gadget Lounge commented on last week. Firstly, adding to weight of the consortium, JVC have announced they’ll join the group.
“The Blue-ray format is backed by a group of 13 companies including founders Sony, Sharp, Hitachi and LG Electronics. PC behemoths Hewlett-Packard and Dell joined the fold in January this year, with JVC now becoming the group’s newest member.”
The second bit of news are the camcorders that are planned to be tested that use the Blu-ray disk, or at least the mini version that with a diameter of 8cm. They aren’t claiming they plan to release the product, but our guess is if mass production on the drives and media begin it’ll be a no-brainer.
“The firms plan to introduce camcorders that use the smaller discs, which are capable of recording more than an hour of high-quality motion pictures, the report says.”
“The retail price will be about triple that of traditional camcorders, it says.”
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Generalgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
September 23, 2004
Nokia’s 6670, GPS Module, Remote Camera and Wireless Headset.
Nokia announced a new phone today, the 6670. It appears to be just a Nokia 7610 with a more conventional case. Series 60, GSM 900/1800/1900, 65,536 colours (176×208 pixels), and 1 megapixel camera.
They also announced a few other products including a funky GPS Module, a Remote Camera that sends images via MMS, and a new Wireless Headset (HS-11W).
The GPS Module (due next year) connects wirelessly to a compatible mobile phones (Nokia 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6630, 6670, 7610, 9300, 9500, N-Gage, N-Gage QD, including other Symbian based products supporting Bluetooth specification 1.1 and Serial Port Profile and NMEA 0183 compatible software) , PDA or PC using Bluetooth wireless technology. The “compact portable GPS receiver enables the use of a range of location-based applications and services, of which some offer turn-by-turn route guidance to a selected destination.”
The Remote Camera is a great idea. Using a built in motion or temperature detector it can send a text message, image or video with sound via MMS to a phone. To do this it uses it’s own transceiver (GSM 900/1800) so it can be used anywhere there is a GSM signal.
No pricing is available yet.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Mobile Phone, Peripherals, Wirelessgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
September 09, 2004
Vivitar DVR-390H
Vivitar are releasing their DVR390H onto the Australian market with the help of Ricoh, according to Smarthouse.
It features video and audio playback, a 3.6″ LCD display and 3.1 megapixel digital still/video camera attachment with a built in flash. It will also display your stored photos in a pseudo photo album, cycling through them to act as a (rather small) picture frame. All the data is stored on a 20 GB HDD and you can transfer stuff to and from your PC or Mac using USB (no word on 2.0 or 1.1, so expect the latter until we hear otherwise). The battery is expected to last around 4 hours solid of MPEG4 video, so you can watch a couple of movies, but try not to wander too far from power.
Here at Gadget Lounge we’ve got iPods, and can’t really see the point of converging so many devices into one (hefty) piece of kit. But, there’s bound to be some people that will find them useful, and having more choice on the market can’t be a bad thing, surely.
Be ready to hand over AUS$999 later this month if you want to be among the first on your block with one.
Ben | Comments (60) | Digital Camera, Music, PVR, Portable, Videogadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
September 08, 2004
Sony goes High Definition
Sony have announced their new HDR-FX1, a high definition 16:9 3-CCD camcorder. It’s capable of recording at 1080i, and each 1.12 megapixel CCD has a resolution of 960×1080 pixels. Each of the pixels is rectangular in shape, giving the camcorder it’s 16:9 format.
It should be here by the end of the year, and expect a retail price of around US$3700.
Link via Engadget.
Ben | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Videogadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 29, 2004
HP’s Announcements.
What exactly the product announcements from HP will mean to Australian consumers we are yet to determine. We imagine that they’ll all be available via their current resellers like Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones, etc. Overall the announcements aren’t a great range of innovative products that we hoped for, in-fact they really isn’t anything new. An iPod with tattoos, LCD and plasma TVs, a wireless photo/music player, projector with built-in DVD and 5.1, printers, cameras, media laptops, XP Media PCs, DVD writers, but nothing outstanding. ChaitGear has more detail on the whole lineup.
Update : (August 30, 2004) SmartHouse has the HP iPod Australian release date set for October.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Digital TV, Music, Portable, Video, Wirelessgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 27, 2004
HPod And Other Goodies.
Tonight is looking to be a big gadget news night as far as HP goes. Yesterday speculation around the traps was that they would be announcing the HP iPod on September 5. Today it seems they plan to announce this and other products today, U.S. time. According to ZDNet they will be announcing the normal array of printers and cameras, but much more exciting is their television, entertainment hub and digital projector. It’s possible that not all these will filter down to Aussie stores, like the TV, but given their global presence we’re sure to see much of it hear hot on the heels of the U.S. release.
Jump on the webcast if you’re a night owl. 11.40 p.m. AEST or 9.40 p.m. WST for those lucky enough to live on the west coast of Australia.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Digital TV, Music, PVR, Videogadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 24, 2004
Photon, Straight To The Web Photo Publishing.
Anyone with a digital camera, an Apple Mac and the interest in publishing their photos from iPhoto to the web should consider Photon. Just out of beta the software is a plugin the the Apple standard OS X photo software, allowing the user to publish straight to a Movable Type or Typepad “publishing platform”. Gadget Lounge was privy to an early release of the software to test, and we were very impressed. It’s got the normal ease of use Mac affectionado are used to, making it as easy as exporting the photo, but with the benefit of it publishing the image and a thumbnail straight to the Internet, for the small price of about $AU14.73.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Softwaregadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 21, 2004
New Canon Digital Line-Up
Canon have announced their impressive new line up of digital cameras.
Canon has the prosumers covered with the EOS 20D and PowerShot G6, which we reported on a couple of weeks ago. The more consumer versions are the PowerShot S70 and two new PowerShot A series cameras, the A95 and the A400.
Update: DP Review have an EOS-20D preview and a PowerShot G6 preview.
(more…)
Ben | Comments (0) | Digital Cameragadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 20, 2004
Samsung Digital / Video Camera
Two lenses, 5.25 + 0.8 megapixels, 3x + 10x optical zoom, 12x + 900x digital zoom and a bunch of other stuff, we’re betting that this seemed like a good idea at the time. We can’t help but ask why? Users are going for smaller and smaller, and combining a still camera with a video camera just doesn’t seem logical to us. We understand the whole concept of grabbing one piece of gear and using it for both tasks, but if you want to take video and still shots at the same time, just throw your regular digicam at another person. And if you’re by yourself, it doesn’t look like you can use both video and still modes at the same time anyway.
Coming to the market shortly with a recommended retail price of $1799.
Does anyone else think that it looks a bit obscene, or are we the only ones with our minds in the gutter?
Via DCNews.
Ben | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Videogadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 19, 2004
Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock Plus.
Kodak have announced a new photo printer that allows users to view photos as a slide show on a TV with an optional remote, wirelessly print via Bluetooth or infrared from mobile phones, contains it’s own SD and MMC reader, and even, wait for it, print from a computer. OK, so the last feature isn’t exciting, and perhaps given that most digital cameras can now show slide shows on TVs directly, the first feature isn’t incredible either. But wireless printing from a phone, now that’s happening. It really does start to move the device into the lounge room, and become a mum and dad consumer device. Available in September, Smarthouse has the Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock Plus retailing for $AU399.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Wirelessgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 10, 2004
PiXPO, Peer-To-Peer Photo Sharing.
How2Share has launched an application for Windows that allows for easier sharing of photos online. Instead of e-mailing or posting photos to a web site, PiXPO is a peer-to-peer network that allows for sharing of photos. They aim to allow people wanting to share photos with family, friends, or to build new communities. There are public and private albums to make sure you only show those photos to the people you want. Because it is peer-to-peer, there is no need to have a host service, all the photos exist on the network, just like file sharing networks like KaZaA. There is a free 30 day trial, and a license will set you back about $AU41.75 ($US29.95). Gadget Lounge is looking forward to those little mistakes where private photos are accidentally shared to the world.
Thanks to BIOS for the link.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Softwaregadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
August 05, 2004
Canon PowerShot G6.
PhotograpyBLOG has posted some information about the Canon G6 that one of their astute readers spotted at an online retailer. Apparently the retailer put up information about the G6 before they were supposed to.
Features include
- 7.1 megapixel camera
- 3x optical zoom lens, equivalent to 35-140 mm on a 35mm camera
- Aperture range f/2.0-3.0
- Maximum file size of 3072 x 2304 pixels
- Supports JPEG, RAW, AVI formats
- 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 video
- CompactFlash Type I / II memory cards
- USB Interace
- 104 x 70 x 72 mm dimensions
- Weighs 375 grams
- PictBridge support
- Advertised price of 899 Euros
Looks fairly promising, it’ll be good to see some samples from it.
Ben | Comments (0) | Digital Cameragadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 29, 2004
Mobile Phone Cameras Outsell Digital Cameras 6 to 1.
Digital Connect News has an article on the rise of mobile phone cameras and its effect on the photo printing business. For anyone here in Australia who has bought the new Nokia 7610, they’ll find a voucher for use at any Fujifilm store to get some free prints. We did a little exploration and found that printing a standard 6×4 print would set you back $AU1.50 a print. The price varies depending on the number of prints you get, being as little as 60 cents when you print 50 or more. You can find Fujifilm locations here.
However, before you rush in, phone blasting a bluetooth signal ready to walk out in seconds with your print, our investigations found that many machines haven’t been upgraded to use the wireless standard yet, and they still require an hour processing time by their professional system.
Update : (August 9 2004) We’re starting to see some Bluetooth kiosks in the wild. First one spied in a Kodak store.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Mobile Phone, Wirelessgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
