Category: Gadgets


IPhone 4, the new and improved Swiss Army Knife

Filed Under: Gadgets
Jun.09, 2010

Or should I say the new Apple army knife?

I’ve been talking about the IPod and it seems to me a bit of a burden to carry around. Regardless of all I said in the past, I still recently acquired an IPod touch. I found the justification in a rebate, and the fact that I could watch training videos on the go. But I quickly realized that an IPod touch is incomplete without the phone, and it is the internet part of the phone that I’m interested in because it will be constantly connected and I wouldn’t’ have to find a hot spot and so on.

Therefore I set my eyes on the new IPhone 4. I was watching a video with all the technologies incorporated in it and I got really excited about this thing. Gadgets haven’t got my attention in years, I haven’t been excited about gadgets since I was 12 or so, but Apple really did it with this IPhone. The pictures I’ve seen from the older IPhone models were always qualitative but I would have a bit of a doubt since they weren’t large enough. Now with 5 mega-pixels it should be enough. Sometime ago I owned a 12 megapixel point and shoot Sony that used to take horrible shots, however the old Sony F707 which had only 5 mp took amazing shots. If the photo sensor in IPhone 4 has similar quality to the other Iphones and F707 then it is just enough for a point and shoot. So I don’t see a reason why anyone that has an IPhone would buy also a point and shoot camera.

The ability for 720p video is great for a phone.  I own a Sanyo Xacti and it was he 1080p at 60fps that attracted me to it, but the 720p is only 30fps and it is has a shutter problem at 30fps, the image gets jittery when panning. Now if the IPhone comes with 30fps at 720p and good image quality then no one will want to buy a camcorder anymore when they get an IPhone. That should be enough for a vacation. We don’t need the zoom and all other stuff that camcorders bring in, unless you want to something semipro or pro. In addition you have IMovie right there for $5 what else can you want? Well there can be quite a few things that would go well with the IPhone I’ll enumerate them at the end.

The retina Display, WOW, that thing is amazing, but you know what would be more amazing? That retina technology in my 30” Cinema display, that thing would be just amazing. Moreover Apple could start making TVs with that technology. If they are going to do it, those TVs are really going to be out of this world. And I bet you that the design will be awesome too. How funny will it be if they actually do make a TV which will become the de-facto standard?

What else would I wish from this IPhone?  I would like this IPhone to have 720p at 60fps and more for slow-motion. In addition I would like it to have the ability to take SD-cards for those vacations where you don’t want to carry the laptop with you in case you overdraw the 32 GB space. In addition it should have the possibility to be directly connected to a USB Hard-Drive and give you the option to dump videos and pictures on it. I would also like the IPod touch with all the features of this phone, but without the phone part, if that makes it cheaper. But I think Apple should just make it a Phone and sell it as an IPod touch, and when you want the phone feature enabled you can just call them up, until then you can use it for VOIP at $30/month.  Anyway I haven’t been excited by a gadget in a very long time, and IPhone 4 changed that. Despite how much I want it I’ll have to wait, because there is no IPod touch like the new IPhone and I have a company phone, no monthly fee takes precedence. But if they decide to come up that IPhone / IPod touch I want or better, then I might just get it. Another hindrance is the AT&T reducing the unlimited data plans…

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Sanyo Xacti FH1 camcorder review.

Filed Under: Gadgets
Feb.11, 2010
          Photo by J. Cornelio with Iphone

I was looking for  a camcorder to buy for my next trip. And obviously I was looking at Sony, Canon Panasonic and JVC. All of them had tempting features and I could not decide which one to buy. I wanted a 1920 x 1080 progressive, none of that interlaced nonsense. I actually wanted to ask all these juggernauts (Canon Sony Panasonic) why on earth do they still make interlaced cameras? 1930s are far away and I know is time to move on from that technology.

So I settled for the Sanyo FH1 full HD, and I am finding out that it wasn’t a settlement at all. This thing really works. What impressed me the most is the 1920 x 1080 at 60fps. I noticed in Blu-Ray dvds that there is a certain flicker at 30 fps. After I purchased the camera I recorded the first video 1920 x 1080 @ 30 fps. While I was recording I saw that the video didn’t seem seamless like is just flowing, I kind of saw a small flicker of the frames. So I bumped it up to 1920 x 1080 60 fps. And that worked way better, the video was clear when the camera or the subjects moved. Therefore I think there should be a change of standards out-there. All the cameras have to come with the option to record at 60 fps progressive, at least. In addition the Blu-Ray standard has to change to 60 fps because it flickers at 30 fps. I am not sure why Sony did not do this already since they pushed the BD standard on the market. The camera records Mpeg-4 AVC/ H.264.

The FH1 has good capabilities. For example it has a manual white balancing feature that can be set ahead of time. It also has preset white balancing and automatic, but the automatic changes too fast, and you can get from too warm to too cold in the same room just by moving the camera. So I keep it on manual and set it up whenever I need to shoot.

The camera is impressive with the additions that it has for just $400. All the other cameras that can get to 1920 x 1080 Progressive cost around $800 to $1300. So Sanyo really did a great job with this thing. The camera also records at 240 fps and plays back at 59 fps in slow-motion. But the frame sizes are smaller 448 x 336 @ 240 fps. I took one video and it looked good.

I also played with the ISO the F-stops and the Joystick shortcut features which come in handy. The shortcut features really come in handy because you don’t have to fly trough the main menu to adjust the f-stops or the ISO. But one thing that is missing is the ability to assign the manual White Balance to the shortcut menu. That would help a lot because I wouldn’t have to go trough the menu every time I want to white balance, nor anyone else.

Overall the video quality looks really good. The camera supports other frame rates as well and it supports interlaced too, who would need interlaced I don’t know, but Sanyo made it available. I ‘ve been waiting for 4 years to get me a camcorder that is capable of progressive frames and I am glad I waited because this one really does a good job for its size and cost.

Now I looked at what Sanyo has in store for their next release. There are two new models (Sanyo VPC SH1) coming out in march and they can zoom in 30 times, but apparently they don’t seem to shoot progressive. I really don’t understand why Sanyo would move backwards? It is really annoying because I assumed that these new models will add some new features and increase the quality of existing features in FH1. The only cool feature is zoom of 30x. But who cares when you movie is interlaced and is going to look all jagged and misaligned.

Well I hope that they will come back to their senses and add new and better features to the FH1 model which does a good job. 

So here is a list of features that I think will help a lot for the next FH1.

First, is an optional larger battery pack that can last for like 6 hours or more. Then they should play around with the f-stops and quality of the video, because when the F-stops are increased to the max, the video gets these horizontal shadows that move up and down. It might be a term for that, but whoever knows it they can leave a comment and enlighten me. Then all video formats no matter the frame size should support 60 fps progressive. They should also add some more features and improve the response and quality of the existing. Overall I like this camera a lot and I really hope that Sanyo will improve on it. Firmware updates will be also required to add new features and correct minor bugs. If anyone desires other features just leave a coment.

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Carry on daily devices

Filed Under: Gadgets
Dec.15, 2009

It was a long time ago when I had my first carry on music device. At first I was very excited about it, and 3 days later I forgot of its existence and its use. It became a chore to remember to take it with me and carry it around.

Nowadays we have all kinds of digital music players and they can hold thousands of songs. I did the IPod thing with one of those mini ones with a B/W screen. It lasted for a little time and then I got bored with it, it became a hassle too.

I had to remember to carry it and recharge it, and renew the music in there because I did not want to have all the crap in there. By the way, how do all of you manage 15 thousand songs in there? In addition when do you have time to listen to all the music? And if you’re telling me that you listen to music while you’re studying, no wonder your GPA sucks. I’ve seen the movie myth where they show the main character doing some homework while listening to music. That never works not on math, and not when memorization is required.

Anyway I can’t just get used to the carry on music device. Just today I saw someone in the train with three bags and the eternal Ipod. And it wasn’t enough that she could barely manage the 3 bags, but the moment she sat down she took out her Ipod and started untangling the ear buds to listen to some music. Kudos to her because she could manage all these at once. But given today’s age we already are carrying at least two devices with us. One cell phone and one music device. That is only in happy cases. But there are people out here that carry more. Well done to all of them for being the perfect consumers. So how many gadgets can one person carry at once? I would say a portable gaming device, a phone, at one time there even were portable DVD players and some people actually were sitting in the train using those things.  But the DVD player conflicts with the gaming device so it would be one or the either. So we have a Cell phone, a gaming device/ DVD viewer, music device, reading device -the Amazon kindle, and who knows what else people are carrying these days. But I can guarantee that soon enough we all will be carrying Batman belts for all the junk we carry with us every day. I wouldn’t be surprising if we’ll see belts already that have all these features. Maybe I should sell my own. Regardless of that, the people at Apple had a great idea unifying all those gadgets into one. Because these iphones can do almost all the other individual gadgets can.

One thing is really, really expected, and that is an iphone that can easily be unified with an exchange server without lots of hassles and then no one would be able to take Apple for cell phone domination, business, and consumer. The main problem that they have to face right now is the reliability of the technologies that would make the iphone compatible with Exchange (the e-mail server).

Good luck to all of you gadgeteers outhere, but remember that sometime you just need to have your mind empty, completely if possible, and there is a very rewarding experience.

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Wireworld’s Platinum Starlight HDMI cable is only $1,000

Filed Under: Gadgets
Dec.09, 2009

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/08/wireworlds-platinum-starlight-hdmi-cable-is-only-1-000-better/

It is interesting when the blogger on engadget actually sais “You probably think you’re getting the whole 1080p, don’t you! Boy, you couldn’t be more wrong”

I have to disagree on that one. And Yes I am getting my whole 1080p with a cheap $5 HDMI cable.

They say here that this cable is supposed to be better than the whole monster cables which were supposed to be amazing. Anyway I have to disagree with all the cables, unless the HDMI is analogic.

I know that whenever a signal is digital, error correction can be done on it, therefore even if let’s assume 10% of the information is lost, we get full quality picture. That is the theory on all digital devices. Have you ever had a CD that had some severe scratches and it still played fine? Well that is because of the error correction. Furthermore the buffer under run protection in CD/DVD writers is based on that. If the buffer gets depleted, the writing stops and it’s resumed when enough data is accumulated into the buffer to continue writing. If that would be an audio CD we should hear the gap of the error, right? Well, no. Because the information is digital and error correction can be done on it, therefore the continuous play of the CD.

The same with the HDMI. HDMI means: HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. The keyword is digital here. If the signal is digital then doesn’t matter what type of cable we have because as long as enough signal gets to the TV where error correction can be done successfully then we get the entire picture without any loss of quality.

To me it is a myth when they say that this cable is gold plated or silver or platinum plated and the quality is better. Total BS, because all that I have studied says the contrary. If the signal is digital and enough to get error corrected, then the quality should be identical with any cable.
For example, the Dish systems claim that if the signal strength is above certain percentage the image should be crystal clear, and only when it drops below that we get to see problems. Most of you out there must have experienced the satellite dish glitches, the images get pixelated. Based on this premise, has any of you seen (the low signal dish effect) with a low quality HDMI cable? Cuz I have a piece of S..T HDMI cable and I never seen the similar effect on my TV.

Since I haven’t done any research on this at all, in the sense of testing cables with special measurement instruments (like vectorscopes and alike), I can’t guarantee that I am totally right, but mathematically speaking any cable should get the same job done. Because there are no images transmitted through the cable, there are only binary code (ones and zeroes) that get processed by the TV. Therefore the image should be flawless unless the cable is defective or the HDMI standard is not really digital.

To me HDMI is a hoax to scalp or speculate the market for more money, because I have heard a rumor that HDMI capacity has been exceeded by the technological demands of today, so they will have to refit all TV’s with Dual DVI again which allows for a lot more data transfer than HDMI therefore better image quality. So then all of us will have to buy new TV’s because the DVI isn’t there in the latest TV sets.

Perhaps the MythBusters can actually do a test and solve our problem. But for the record, given all the premises I gave you, you could ask and computer scientist and they should say the same thing. If the signal is digital, then the cable just has to be functional. No gold silver or diamond plated BS. And why in the hell I would buy a Cable that is more expensive than my whole TV?

Sources: Engadget and Wikipedia.

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PNY VCQFX5800-PCIE-PB Quadro FX5800 4GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0

Filed Under: Gadgets, Gaming
Jun.19, 2009

I was looking on New Egg’s website and among other things I found this $3000 video card. Well this is $3000 at the time of the writing, but who knows what it will be in 6 months. Nevertheless I am very curious how would this thing work out in a computer and what type of games can it render and how well. I have been out of the PC games for a while and I lost touch with what’s out there in terms of  graphics. I guess the older one grows he or she can no longer take uncomfortable PC chair. We move to consoles and the couch.

Here is a link to New Egg’s site: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133253

Anyway if any one of you have such a monster of a video card tell the rest of us how is it working.

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A thought on Ipod

Filed Under: Gadgets
Mar.19, 2008

I was talking with my colleague about Ipods and he was thinking to buy the Nano so he could watch movies on it commuting. As the conversation developed I said that maybe the next Nano will have a larger screen just like the Touch. He was so happy because he felt that the this Ipod will meet his expectations and I ruined it for him. Now he said he’s going to wait after we talked. Sorry dude!

So while we are talking about it, we went to the website to check the Ipods out. While there I noticed that The touch has the similar shape as the the Iphone. Therefore it looks almost the same and it has the large edges at the top and bottom. Then I called my other colleague who owns the Ipod Touch and asked him if he is satisfied with it. He replied that he is. I told him what problems I see in the Ipod Touch.

First the tall edges at the top or bottom make no sense (this goes also for laptops that have large edges around the screen) Now why would I build an Ipod that has those two edges on the sides? Most say it is because the technology is not yet small enough. Well they have to make it small enough or give it less space in GB. I would trade that for a smaller Ipod or a larger screen. Others would say that this is for comfort, the larger sides would serve as area for holding. I disagree with that because one could rest it o his palm from the back.

Secondly that silly button, what’s up with that? With all the niceties from Apple I would expect that Ipod to have a better starting option, like a quick shake or something more innovative. Hmm a button… Or maybe a button in the back thus keeping the Ipod smaller or enlarging the screen. Users are used with the actual size of the Ipod and therefore will gladly accept a larger screen. The vice versa will work too because the screen keeps its size and the Ipod becomes smaller, perfect blend…

Thirdly the smaller edges are too wide also, I want the screen to be almost the entire surface of the device if the the entire, probably the entire surface would not work because there is no defining uniform edge that will delimit the moving picture from the rest of the environment.

To conclude this I have to say that My Ipod is not born yet. By the way I did purchase the Old mini. I knew they will always come with something better that is why I only got the mini. My schedule right now does not permit me to watch movies on the Ipod. Instead of doing that I feel I would gain more if I would read the material for my homeworks. There is one thing that would be useful and that is to watch training videos or tutorials on the Ipod while commuting. Moreover even the Nano can be fitted with a full size touch screen.

I think I will wait until the Ipod goes OLED.

Happy Ipoding girls and guys…

PS here is my pod…

my_ipod.JPG

What about this one?

my_ipod1.JPG

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