by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
Nikon has a brand new digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera for the masses, and I can tell you from the start that this is not meant for folks who want to make an entry into the DSLR world, but it will target seasoned veterans instead. This digital camera will introduce a fair number of features that will make you fall in love with the D90 almost instantly, so get ready some tissue lest you drool all over your keyboard. The D90 is the culmination of years of experience from the folks at Nikon, placing great emphasis on brilliant image quality and versatility with its exclusive advanced Scene Recognition System. More on the D90 right after the jump.
Make no mistake about it – the D90 is not meant to be a flagship model, although it does draw plenty of inspiration from the D300, a DX-format digital SLR camera. Of course, judging by the model number alone, you can tell that this is the successor to the D80 and will come with a 12.3 megapixel CMOS image sensor for you to capture crisp and clear shots. In addition, the D90 will ship with Nikon’s very own EXPEED image processing system to deliver outstanding images with fine details, smooth tones, brilliant colors and low noise across a broad ISO range.
Another feature would be the ability to compose great looking shots thanks to the Live View Mode on the generous 3″ 920,000-dot high-resolution LCD screen. You also have the benefit of an 11-point auto focus (AF) system that makes use of Nikon’s exclusive Scene Recognition System and Face Detection in order to help even the unlearned shutterbug (who happens to have a damn good camera to boot) shoot pictures that aren’t anything to be sneezed at. Other features include the versatile AF-S NIKKOR 18-105mm Vibration Reduction image stabilization lens, and a burst rate of up to 4.5 frames per second in order to capture sudden and fast moments – too bad Nikon did not release this before the recently concluded summer Olympics, or you could’ve gotten a shot of Usain Bolt creating history three times at the Bird’s Nest.
The Nikon D90 will be released in the US from September onwards, retailing for $999.95 just for the body alone, while you have to fork out $1,299.95 for the body and lens outfit, including the new AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
If you are a mobile phone owner, and no doubt if you read these posts you are, you will know that one of the most irritating things that can happen while you are got and about is for your mobile phone to run out of charge, and when that happens there is very rarely anywhere you can plug into a sock to recharge.
Those are the time when this small gadget was created for. It looks like a pen, however when you open it up, slip in a AA battery and it becomes a portable mobile phone charging unit which has the ability to charge a mobile phone for up to 100 minutes, and with no mains power required.
Furthermore, the One Battery Mobile Pen Charger will give your mobile phone a boost for around 20 hours on standby or two hours talk time, of course this will depend on your mobile handset.
The pen charger comes supplied with five different adapters to suit various mobile phones like Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. Oh, and one other thing, once you?ve done charging you can use it as a pen because it actually writes.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
Hold the phone! According to Gizmodo they say that this does look like a pretty legit email tread from a reader, and is seems that Apple big boy Steve Jobs may have actually responded to a complaint!
The complain was apparently concerning the dumping of NetShare from Apple?s App Store; iPhone to laptop tethering isn?t possible without jailbreaking the iPhone first, and so it would see the Gizmodo reader sent this to the Apple big wig?
?AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month (a total of $60 per month for the BlackBerry+tethering plan).
It seems ludicrous that the same thing is not offered with the iPhone. I understand the desire to prevent tethering with the current data plan, but I am willing to pay more money to allow tethering! With such an advanced device, why can I not do so??
To which the apparent email reply was as below.
From “Steve” to our reader:
We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone
So there it is, you can make up your own mind, but would you pay Apple and AT&T extra to tether your iPhone to a laptop?
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
An announcement has come from Next2Friend that their ?Live? mobile video streaming application is now available on the Samsung BlackJack II and the Motorola Q.
Next2Friends Live enables mobile phone users to share real life moments with friends from anywhere, by live broadcasts news developments, bringing happenings across the world closer to home, or simply capturing those all important major life events.
Next2Friends soft-launched their app back in 07 and officially released it in July this year, and the application is continually being enhanced by the Next2Friends development team.
The Next2Friends application is for all the people who wish to share their lives through the medium of real time, rich media, and features one click streaming, zoom, pause, and restart, and also automatic quality selection which guarantees the best streaming of location, carrier or connection speeds.
Originally, Next2Friends was for Symbian S60 mobile phones such as Nokia, LG and Sony Ericsson, but now also incorporates Motorola and Samsung handsets.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
The Iqua Visor SUN is a bluetooth handsfree speaker for the car that clips on to the visor and uses solar power to recharge, meaning you’re always connected. How refreshingly sensible.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
Well our crazy friends over in South Korea, Pantech, have come up with a phone and decided to give it a very obscure name, The Blue Wink, yes, you read it right! this is the new phone otherwise known as the SKY IM-S730 – if you want to get technical, this is the new slider phone from Pantech the South Korean company.
Do we know what the Blue Wink stands for? Hell no, but do we really care? any idea?s on the Blue Wink there is a comment box at the bottom of the article so you can either impress us with your knowledge or simply get creative.
Ok, so looking closer at the SKY IM-S730 Blue Wink, it sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, HSDPA support, FM radio, GPS, microSD slot and well endowed with a 2.6 inch QVGA screen. It?s said that it also has a media player application, plus this phone is available for free if you sign into a contract.
We think that this phone is going to be marketed more as a fashion accessory in Korea, but who knows, we have no price as of yet and will keep you posted.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
Kbb.com, Kelley Blue Book, the popular provider of new and used car info has announced the launch of their website which has been optimised for Apple iPhone users.
This free mobile website will not only supple the users of the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch the latest information but they can also watch videos, view car images, car reviews, and also submit free dealer price quotes.
Andy Lapin of Kelley Blue Book?s says: ?Whether the shopper is sitting at home or standing on the dealership lot, they can easily locate Kelley Blue Book?s new and used car information with a few simple stokes to ensure they are making the right choice and getting a great deal.?
In other words, if you are an owner of an Apple iPhone or Apple iPod Touch who is looking to purchase a new or used car then kbb.com is the car resource to check out, and you can surf for that car while on the go.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
The use of mobile phones at schools has always been frowned upon and often banned, especially here in the UK, but it appears they are of a different opinion over in some parts of the United States.
It seems over there educators have begun changing their views on mobile phones as Abilene Christian University is to hand out Apple iPhone 3G handsets to two-thirds of this year?s entering class of 950 freshmen.
These students will be expected to utilise the Apple iPhone 3G to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts along with podcast while in class.
Co-director of mobile learning research at the school, which is in Abilene, Texas, William Rankin, says: “This is a new platform for learning, in the same way a laptop or a desktop was a new platform.”
Apparently other schools across America have also come to the same conclusion that the mobile phones can be a great learning tool.
One wonders just how long it will be before the UK follows this example.
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
I’ve just spent an interesting few hours crawling over a couple of new TVs that LG will be launching in the UK this Autumn. There are model numbers and specifications galore – way too many for me to sensibly list here, so I’ll try to distill it into something more digestable…
The star of the evening was the successor to the award winning “Scarlet” that’s currently on sale. At 45mm wide, the new model is known, appropriately enough, as the “Slimline Scarlet” and can make the claim of “World’s slimmest LCD TV with integrated tuner”. (as opposed to the Sony ZX1 announced earlier today, which is thinner but has a separate media box). Shops should be getting stock of this any day now so keep an eye out for it. Keeping the sleek piano black finish and red back that gave the original model it’s name, the new one is slimmer (obviously) and delivers a very convincing 1080p image. It also has a USB port for displaying photos from a connected device, a nice touch.
Next up we have the LG7000 series. This model range sits at the very top of the LG LCD tree and is available in a variety of sizes from 32″ all the way up to 52″. These models all feature full 1080p panels (even the 32″ version), the latest processing engines and, uniquely, bluetooth connectivity. This can be used in 2 ways: Fi
rst, you can “beam” photos from something like a phone to the TV. Second, and more usefully it means the TV can use a bluetooth headset for late night headphone listening.
Like the Scarlet, this range also features an “Intelligent sensor” which dynamically adjusts not only brightness but every other aspect of the picture in response to ambient light changes. The practical upshot of this is that at night when the lights are out, the set is dimmer so you don’t get that “washed out” look common to LCDs, but in bright daylight it pushes up the power so you can still see the screen.
Finally we come to what I think might be the most interesting new model – the LG4000 series with integrated DVD player (photo on the right showing the DVD loading slot). Building in the DVD is a great idea for space saving and it comes in 26″ and 32″ sizes – I can see this one going straight into the bedroom / kids room. It has 3 HDMI inputs and the DVD will also handle DivX movies. It shares the same gloss black finish as the rest of the LG range.
LG have also taken a look at the sound the sets make – for those who don’t want to plug in a full 5.1 system the TVs have sound tuned by audio designer Mark Levinson 
and an “Invisible speaker” system that uses the whole bezel to radiate a wider soundstage.
The sets are all energy efficient, with a 1w power draw in standby mode (although there’s no physical button so if you really need to stop that LED glowing you’ll have to switch it off at the wall) and they all include the swivel stand as standard (wall mounting is an option)
by Techno Witch on August 29, 2008
Starting today August 29, RadioShack are launching Sprint?s Samsung Instinct nationwide, RadioShack will be offering a 4-day exclusive retail price of $99.99. So, if you are after one the Samsung Instincts we suggest this is the weekend to get it, the offer is to last all through the labor Day weekend, and is available for all new Sprint customers.
This Samsung Instinct has won awards, with its ability to access business and personal email, quickly browse the internet and share pictures with literally one tap of its touch screen, wow and double wow.
So looking closer at this handset we find that it has GPS navigation, and has a voice guided, turn by turn directions, and 3D maps, Stereo Bluetooth, Digital Voicemail, plus exclusive applications and content like Sprint Music Store? ?NFL Mobile? and ?NASCAR? Sprint Cup Mobile. To power up the Samsung Instinct it takes two batteries, and this gives you more than 11 hours talk time.
So, to recap RadioShack?s exclusive $99.99 price for the Samsung Instinct is available for new customers who sign up for a new Sprint Simply Everything Plan, if you are an existing Sprint customer and want to upgrade your Sprint service it will cost you $129.99.