The flourishing Android operating system has appeared on phones made by Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and HTC. Now Google has launched its own handset, though it’s actually made by HTC, which has made the bulk of Android handsets so far.
Nexus One: hardware by HTC, software by Google
The thing about Android is that manufacturers can change the OS to taste. This has been a great bonus for Motorola, a company known for stylish, appealing phones but which has always had a dog of an operating system. Motorola has been able to tweak Android effectively to add social media smarts. Read the rest of this entry »
When you think of Italian superbike marques, you think of the colour red – a vigorous, powerful, thrusting hue. Yet Toshiba has chosen to deck its Ducati-themed Satellite U500 out in – dare we say it, slightly feminine – white.
Toshiba and Ducati: marque ‘book pro?
You can understand why. When Acer ponied up for the Ferrari brand, it grabbed the right to release red laptops. And Asus’ Lamborghini licence grants it the exclusive on glossy yellow. Toshiba has been left to come up with an alternative, and it’s chosen white, to signify luxury.
The keyboard surround and wrist rest area, and the laptop‘s lid, have been given an almost leather-like texture to suggest speedboat upholstery. We’ll drift away for a moment to contemplate a bikini-clad honey draped decoratively across its bows… Read the rest of this entry »
By Bob Dormon at Focus on Imaging 2010 via (reghardware.co.uk)
First Look With a DSLR dangling from my neck, unpacking the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 was certainly quite a contrast. The diminutive lens is remarkably light and, even when married to the body, you certainly don’t feel like you’re being burdened by bulk.
Finishing touch: Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-G2
A DSLR it ain’t and it’s easy to see that there is probably some truth in Panasonic’s claims that Micro Four Thirds cameras are fast becoming a favourite among compact owners wanting to trade up to the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, and advanced users needing something small, but versatile.
With the DMC-G2 and DMC-G10 officially announced only moments earlier, as the Focus on Imaging show opened, press samples were dished out with just an hour allowed to play. Panasonic was keen to stress that the G2 test models were running version 0.20 firmware. The underlying message being, it’s work in progress, so be kind, but have fun. There will be many refinements between now and the release models in June.
Indeed, it was pertinent to keep that in mind on turning on the G2 and seeing a purple wall through its viewfinder where a grey one stood before me, but on moving around things steadily improved. According to a Panasonic product specialist, the samples are still running on algorithms based on the G1, but the G2 and G10 both feature the new dual processing Venus Engine HD II. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s almost a year since we reviewed the Foxsat-HDR from Humax, which was one of the first Freesat+ recorders to appear in the UK. Since then, there’s been more of a steady trickle, rather than a flood of Freesat gear coming on stream. To drum up a bit more interest in the satellite service, Freesat itself had a bit of a publicity push for its adoption of the BBC iPlayer and HD broadcasts for recent sporting events such as the Winter Olympics. Getting in on the act is Grundig’s with its Freesat+ HD DVR, the inelegantly named GUFSDTR500HD.
Grundig’s GUFSDTR500HD: the Freesat competition hots up at last
Equipped with a 500GB hard disk – that can store about 300 hours of SD programmes or 125 hours of HD – a 320GB model is also available for about £20 cheaper, so not much of a saving really. Incidentally, this Grundig recorder is virtually identical to the Goodmans 500GB Freesat+ HD DTR launched at the same time for the same price. Grundig and Goodmans are both owned by the same parent company, so they’ve effectively launched own-brand versions of the same product.
The Grundig GUFSDTR500HD is compact and solidly built, about the size of a small pizza box. It’s equipped with twin tuners, allowing you to record two programmes simultaneously. We were initially surprised to see a third satellite connector sticking out the back, although closer inspection revealed a little label next to this saying that it doesn’t actually do anything. Curious.
There’s an HDMI connector plus cable, two Scarts for older TVs and both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs for hooking the unit up to a surroundsound speaker system. The Ethernet port is labelled ‘for future use’. What wonders await remains to be seen. Read the rest of this entry »
Your possible reason for buying this Camera may have changed fairly recently. The EOS 7D would have been the only way to get ‘standard’ and ‘film’ frame rates from a Canon DSLR product in HD, but no more. There is a new model which offers very much the same video functionality and output for a fraction of the cost, the Canon EOS 550D – more on this later.
Canon is well aware that some filmmakers and news gatherers would like to shoot with its stills cameras. It seems providing this feature on the EOS 5D Mark II was just testing the water – as one of its professional full frame DSLR’s was given a single HD video frame rate (30p) @ 1920×1080. Step back, and see how it goes. It goes very well; picked up by all sorts of people to whom shallow depth of field composition would help tell their story.
With the EOS 7D Canon has decided to release what surely is a natural progression; a multi frame rate videoCamera that also produces beautiful stills, albeit with a smaller sensor with a 1.6x crop factor. The 7D is pitched at the same audience that bought into the filmmaking capabilities of the 5D Mark II and while there was also the EOS 500D, which offered a rather strange 20fps @ 1080p, obviously the timing wasn’t right, in more ways than one. Read the rest of this entry »
