Digital Shutters

About a month ago, Moixa Energy announced a brilliant idea: AA-sized NiMH batteries rechargeable over USB. They looked like penlight batteries but pop open its cap and you would see a USB connector. Plug it into a USB port and the battery would charge. Ingenious.

Now, the old hands at TrustedReviews got hold of some of those USB Cells and put them to a test. They stuffed the USB Cells into a Fujifilm FinePix S602Z camera and took pictures with it. For comparison, they used another set of Duracell alkaline batteries and did the same.

The verdict: pretty good; the USB cells did exceptionally well, taking well over 500 pictures compared with just a few photos taken with the Duracell alkaline batteries.

The downside: it’s quite expensive at $24 for a pair of AA-sized cell.

Indeed the USB Cell is a brilliant invention by Moixa Energy – a NiMH battery rechargeable over USB – but look at its very low score on value for money: TrustedReviews gave it a mere 6 out of 10 and we fully agree. It’s way too expensive for a penlight battery.

We remember that only about a year ago, it was ThumbDrive who first came out with a USB stick flash drive with a price so exorbitant it was disgusting. Then everybody made USB sticks and made them cheaper and where is ThumbDrive now?

Moixa had better go down in price soon or they could go the way of the ThumbDrive too.

[Via: TrustedReviews.com]

Moixa, USB Cell, batteries, ThumbDrive

If you wish to understand the concept of color management in digital image editing, there is a book you can turn to.

“Practical Color Management� aims to make you understand and apply consistent color management theory, establish a color management-friendly workflow, and teach you to choose color spaces and calibrate and profile hardware.

It’s really all about making these work together – from the camera you use to take the picture, to the computer, to the software you use for editing such as Photoshop, to the monitor and the printer – all should perform together in one harmonious workflow. And color management is key to that.

“Practical Color Management� is authored by Photoshop Hall of Famer Eddie Tapp and published by O’Reilly (150 pages, $30).

[Via: CameraTown.com]

photoshop, color management, calibrate, monitor, Tapp

Computers sure look pretty these days! The Samsung MX10 Mini PC is petite and lovely at 55 x 265 x 299mm but it packs a powerful Core 2 Duo processor from Intel and a notebook-purposed ATI Xpress 1100 graphics card from Radeon.

With 1GB of RAM under its belt, this beauty should cost about $1200 when it says hello to your pocket.

The prettified MX10 comes just days after Trigem introduced its own slim Little Luon Plus PC sporting the newest Core 2 Duo speed engine from Intel.

[Via: AkihabaraNews]

2006 Pulitzer Prize winner Todd Heisler is joining the photo staff of the New York Times starting in December.

Heisler is with the Rocky Mountain News of Colorado. He won the coveted 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his “Final Saluteâ€? photo essay and shot up to fame in the past year, as the “Final Salute” project garnered international recognition.

The project, undertaken by Heisler and reporter Jim Sheeler, documented the pain of families of soldiers who died in Iraq. The story and pictures ran in a special 24-page section published on Veterans Day 2005, and won praise for shedding light on the personal toll of the war without political commentary.

The other awards won by Heisler this year are the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography, a first place World Press Photo award, the Visa d’Or Magazine at Visa pour l’Image in France, three National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism awards and five Pictures of the Year International awards.

[Via: PDNonline]

[Photos courtesy of ASNE.org & Todd Heisner]

Camera geeks over at LetsGoDigital have dissected the Pentax K100D and reported the following findings:

1. The Pentax K100D is an exceptionally complete camera that offers true value for money.
2. Its design is a tad boring, but hey, the Function button is great once you learn how to use it. It’s cool in combination with the large 2.5� LCD screen for navigating its menu system.
3. Although smallish, the K100D remains very comfortable to hold, as well as pleasantly sturdy.
4. Its 6-megapixel image sensor delivers excellent color rendition and sharpness; great image quality.
5. Auto-focus is fast, and Shake Reduction is helpful.
6. It’s an attractively priced camera.

So they liked it. It’s a good little camera for the price and it delivers great pictures. But where, oh, where are the pictures? Wish they had posted some photos too with the review. But we’ll take your word for it, LGD, with a grain of sodium chloride.

[Via: LetsGoDigital.org]

Pentax, K100D, SLR, camera, review

Mr. Photographer, your digitally artistic daughter will surely love this. It’s a Graphire4 in disguise, but hey, don’t tell her. Wacom’s Hello Kitty Favo graphics tablet is perfect for doodling computer art and enhancing digital pics.

Just like the Graphire4 (because it is the Graphire4), it provides the advanced features, precision and pressure sensitivity of a top-notch pen tablet to do image editing. The tablet has two user programmable buttons for frequently used modifier keys like Ctrl and Alt, so you can access important additional functions in image editing applications like Photoshop.

What do you mean it’s not for your daughter? Oh, it’s for you! Well then, please have it your way, sir.

[Via: AkihabaraNews]

Hello Kitty, Wacom, table pen, doodle, Photoshop

Who says high-tech giant Intel goes only after the big boys for their big bucks? Intel looks after the little children too for their computing needs. (Now, you might say Intel is also after the little boys for their big bucks; how about some loose change from a few billion children?).

Intel has released its Classmate PC in Brazil, beating to the punch the OLPC (one-laptop-per-child) initiative of MIT’s Negroponte. While the OLPC is still hemming and hawing, Intel’s Classmate PC has gone ahead and debuted in Brazil.

The Classmate PC is a full-featured personal computer for children especially those in emerging markets ( read: poor countries). It runs on Windows or Linux and for storage, it uses NAND flash memory. That means there’s no spinning hard drive to break in case the little hands drop it.

Typically, the Classmate PC has an Intel Celeron M processor, 7-inch 800 x 480 LCD, 256MB of DDR2 RAM and 1GB of NAND. This setup will cost under $300. It is mainly for educational purposes.

Obviously, you can’t play Quake or Doom with that, but trust me, someone’s going to hack it to make it more enjoyable for children, even big children.

Here are some pictures I swiped from Ricardo Carreon’s blog:

Close-up of the keyboard

Side by side with an IBM Thinkpad T60

The Classmate PC folds in a leather case with a handle for easy carrying.

[Via: meneame.net]

Classmate PC, Intel, Brazil, OLPC, children, computer

It inherited all the good looks and features of its award-winning older brother the F30 – 6.3 megapixels, 2.5-inch LCD, ISO 3200, and such – but adds one more very important function: face detection.

The Fujifilm FinePix F31fd detects all sorts of faces, yes even the ugly ones, and focuses on them, telling the camera that you’re taking a picture of people and appropriately adjusts its settings. The result: a perfectly focused picture of ugly faces.

Well, it’s supposed to. I really don’t know yet until I have tried it myself or ten reviewers have said so.

But here are the F31fd’s features, according to Fujifilm:

• Face Detection Technology built-in to the camera’s processor
• Real Photo Processor II and new Super CCD HR VI
• ISO 3200 sensitivity at full resolution
• 6.3 million pixels
• 3.0x optical zoom
• Long-life battery (up to 580 shots)
• IR Communication
• VGA movie capture of 30 frames per second with sound
• PictBridge compatible for direct printing without a PC
• Quick response times (0.01 second shutter lag and 1.5 second start-up)

If you have tried it yourself, give me a shout, will ‘ya?, and tell me how it went.

[Site: Fujifilm.jp]

[Via: AkihabaraNews]

face, face detection, Fujifilm, FinePix F31fd

Oh, the huge cost of battery recalls. Remember those exploding Sony batteries? It is exacting a heavy toll on Sony’s overall profits: a very steep 94% decline on the quarter ending in September (we call it third quarter – Q3 – but it is Sony’s second fiscal quarter).

For the July-September period, the company registered a paltry net profit of $14 million (Â¥1.7B), reflecting a huge loss from the $240 million (Â¥28.5B) it got for the same period last year.

Now that the numbers are in, Sony is counting massive losses – a $420 million (¥51B) charge for this quarter alone – mainly because of the battery problem.

But despite the debacle, company execs are optimistic that they will weather this storm that’s buffeting the Sony ship. While it lowered its 2006 profit projection by 35 percent, the company is still looking forward to a bright future.

Sony’s sales actually grew by 8.3 percent at 1.9 billion yen ($16 million) and the company’s chief financial officer calls the battery recalls a “short-term impact�.

But this is the harshest blow yet to Sony, which for the first time is headed by a non-Japanese, Sir Howard Stringer. Maybe the rank-and-file dislike a gaijin for a boss?

[Via: The New York Times]

Photographers and graphic artists have always loved Apple Macs since Day One. It used to be a badge of artistry and exclusivity (not to mention geekness). Now that Apple is sporting the more mass-based and more powerful Intel processors they find out, hey, it’s not bad at all!

Last Tuesday, Apple quietly announced their fastest Macbook Pros ever, sporting Intel’s newest Core 2 Duo (Merom) processors and touting 39% increases in performance. Without much fanfare from His Steveness, we are suddenly gifted with more powerful 15� and 17’ Macbooks with 2.33 GHz of computing puissance.

Under the hood, the Macbook Pro has 4MB of shared L2 cache, 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X 1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory. It is also packed with a slot-loading SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive.

These are actually the first Macbook Pros to be fitted with the new Core 2 Duo speed demons. Several months ago, in Apple’s initial outing with Intel, it geared up the 13-inch Macbook (simply Macbook, without the Pro) with Intel’s Core Duo processors. Quite confusing, no? But there’s a difference between Core Duo and Core 2 Duo, says my geek friend Jason.

And although it took a long time coming, industry observers welcomed the arrival of the suddenly more-powerful, quietly-announced Macbook Pros. Pricing? For the 15-inch 2.16 GHz model it’s $2,000, the 2.33 GHz 15-inch sets you back $2,500. The 17-inch MacBook Pro, which is available starting next week is priced at $2,800.

Tip for PC users who have been itching to try out the Mac: now’s a good time to do it, and when you do take a look at previous models. They are now suddenly much cheaper with the arrival of the new ones. Bonus if you get the previously released 13-inch Macbook with Core Duo: they run Windows too, natively.

Now, isn’t life wonderful?

[Site: Apple]