pentax digital camera: September 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008

Samsung NV20

Samsung have released the NV20 along with two other digital cameras, but this one takes pride of place Read More

NewEgg: ENCORE ENHWI-N 802.11n Draft 2.0 Wireless Router $50 shipped

Wellington Workgroup Solutions Team


James Hippolite, Senior .NET Developer	Martin Harris, .NET Developer

Megha Barpande, .NET Developer	Gary Saunders, Lead Developer

Apple iPod classic Black (80GB, PC/MAC - MB147LL/A) (80 GB, 20000 Songs) Digital Media Player

Apple iPod classic Black (80GB, PC/MAC - MB147LL/A) (80 GB, 20000 Songs) Digital Media Player
The new iPod Classic will store so much of your favourite music with either 80GB or 160GB hard drive,

Sony KDL32P3020 Tv

Sony KDL32P3020 Tv
Sony rolls out some high standard high definition LCD TVs that quite frankly, knock our socks off.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Full Frame SLR with HD movie

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Full Frame SLR with HD movie
Canon has today introduced the much anticipated Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Building upon the qualities that made the EOS 5D camera so successful, Canon has coupled the creative power of a full-frame CMOS sensor in a relatively compact and affordable camera body, together with groundbreaking HD video capture that opens the door to a much wider range of imaging possibilities for photographers. Along with the ability to capture full HD video clips at 1920 x 1080 resolution, Canon's EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera features a 21.1-megapixel full frame 24 x 36mm CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 imaging processor and significantly lower noise. See full story...

The four best entries for a EU competition are revealed

The four best entries for a EU competition are revealed
The winners for a European photo competition that attracted more than 2,000 entries were announced in Brussels on Friday.

Add beautiful blue skies to your photos

You might have noticed that the sky in your digital photos is washed out and a little pale most of the time. That look is not your fault - but it's not really your camera's fault, either. Read More

Adeona for Mac OS X (Enabled Photos) v0.2.1a

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. Read More

The National Broadband Map - Beta

[quote]The National Broadband Map exists to comprehensively map New Zealand's Broadband landscape and provide information and tools to aid in demand aggregation and infrastructure planning. The National Broadband Map can be accessed and consumed in... (more in the full post)

Nikon D90, Canon EOS 50D, D300 and D80 Compared Side by Side

Nikon D90, Canon EOS 50D, D300 and D80 Compared Side by Side
With the announcement of the new 15.1 MP Canon EOS 50D and the 12.3 Nikon D90 enthusiast digital SLR cameras coming on almost the same day, there is certainly a lot of excitement (and debate) happening among photographers within the Canon and Nikon communities. We have just posted a side by side comparison overview between the Nikon D90, Canon EOS 50D, and the D300 and D80 and highlighted the major differences in order to hopefully help make the buying decision process a little easier. See full story...

Sony KDL-40S3000 40 in. HDTV LCD Television

Sony KDL-40S3000 40 in. HDTV LCD Television
Sony has ensured the best technology possible has been included in the shape of the Bravia Engine and

Mobile Marketing, LBS and The Hyperfactory

So a couple of night’s ago I was at the NZ Wireless and Broadband’s Forum’s Wireless Wednesday. I was there to pre announce a Location Based Services application development competition. If you have read my Bio, you will be aware that I was a founding member of this organisation in New Zealand and the first elected President. I still remember the day we were working on a name for our monthly get togethers and I came up with Wireless Wednesday. Well the name has stuck and Steve Simms, the current president said that there have now been around 163 of them!

I haven’t been to the Forum for a while because it wasn’t relevant to my current activities, but with this upcoming competition and a new focus on bringing LBS into the real world, things are going to change.

What was really cool for me is that it is around 10 years since the Wireless Data Forum (as we were called then) launched it’s first developers competition for wireless and mobile applications. Even more so was the coincidence that this week’s excellent presentation was made by Ghanum Taylor of The Hyperfactory. The Hyperfactory won that first competition all those years ago. At the time they were an enthusiastic family group, Derek and Geoffrey Handley and a few other people who were equally passionate about the potential of mobile cellular technology.

These guys never wavered from their passion and commitment and I think it is worth a mention that passion imho is the single most important factor in their rise to success. They worked tirelessly and dragged the advertising and direct marketing industries, kicking and screaming into the future.

Just like many other technologies I enjoy, the market has slipped into the mass adopter phase without anyone noticing. If you saw a txt to win coupon on a product, you would simply txt the coupon number to a short code today and think nothing of it. LBS marketing is coming big time.

I’m not going to talk about their campaigns, because they can do it far better than I. Just go to their website and it is full of video’s and campaign success stories.

I didn’t start this blog as a kudos story for The Hyperfactory, but I do think that they can take some credit for helping to change the face of tomorrow’s advertising world. Check out a few of these names and I’ll wager (their first application concept was designed to allow people to bet against each other at sporting events via their mobiles) that you have seen or participated in one of their mobile campaigns:

Coca Cola
Nivea
Adidas
Vodafone
Motorola
Tylenol
Kellogs
Jim Beam, and the list goes on.

I’m not big on advertising. Most of the time I don’t pay attention to TVC’s at all, with rare exceptions like the Vodafone commercial where the guy folds up his life and puts it in his pocket (I really like the song and the dobro guitar) or the new Ford adverstisement where all the instruments in the orchestra are made of car parts.

In general, I hardly ever read print ads. I read a book during the TV commercials and these days rarely listen to broadcast radio as I am educating and updating myself in podcasts. Advertising is creeping surrepticiously into podcasts, in fact there are companies specialising in ads for podcats, but they tend to be well targetted which means that I am probably interested in the products, or I can fast forward my iPod anyway.

Anyway, watch this space for news about an exciting new competition in New Zealand for LBS Applications.

Body Worlds

Be part of Body Worlds and the Mirror of Time. Read More

Nikon D90 SLR High ISO Full Size Image Samples Test

Nikon D90 SLR High ISO Full Size Image Samples Test
We have just posted a small image gallery from the 12.3MP Nikon D90 with the Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR zoom lens. The images are taken at ISO settings from 1600-6400 ISO. Original unedited images are available for download (JPEG FINE). Please note as of today Capture NX2 has not been updated to read the Nikon D90 digital SLR EXIF data properly. To see the correct EXIF data it seems that Apple Aperture and Adobe Bridge version CS3 will display the correct EXIF data. See our Nikon D90 image samples...

Canon at Photokina 2008

Canon�s LFP and printer range set to capitalise on exponential growth in photo imaging market. Read More

Nikon D90 preview

Today sees Nikon announce the long-awaited successor to its popular D80 Digital SLR. The new D90 follows a similar strategy to its predecessor, aimed at a slightly higher level than many of its rivals. The resolution has been increased to 12.3 Megapixels, the maximum sensitivity to 6400 ISO, and the screen enlarged to a 3in model with VGA resolution. Unsurprisingly the D90 offers Live View facilities, but the big new feature, and a first for any DSLR at the time of writing are video recording capabilities. The D90 can record in a variety of formats including 1280x720 pixel HD and is also fitted with an HDMI port for connection to HDTVs. There's even more features including an optional GPS accessory, so to find out more about what looks set to be one of the most exciting DSLR launches of 2008, check out our Nikon D90 preview. Read More

Geotate and SiGe Semiconductor Partner to Create Low-Cost Geotagging Solution for Digital Camera Market

Geotate and SiGe Semiconductor Partner to Create Low-Cost Geotagging Solution for Digital Camera Market
Bringing photo geotagging functionality to mass-market, low-cost digital cameras PHOTOKINA, COLOGNE, GERMANY, OTTAWA, CANADA and ANDOVER, U.S. - 23 September 2008 – Geotate, a pioneering auto-geotagging company, and SiGe Semiconductor have announced a Technology Partner Alliance to create a global positioning system (GPS) solution to bring photo geotagging to low-cost, mass-market  digital cameras.  With geotagging, camera...

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 preview

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 preview
Today Panasonic announced the first camera based on the new Micro Four Thirds Standard: the Lumix DMC-G1. Micro Four Thirds bodies take the sensor from traditional Four Thirds bodies, but dispense with the mirror and optical viewfinder for smaller bodies which are also silent in operation. The new G1 features a new 12.1 Megapixel Live MOS sensor, a 3in screen which fully flips out for unusual angles, a highly detailed electronic viewfinder, HDMI output and Panasonic's Intelligent Auto. Panasonic has also announced two new Micro Four Thirds zooms with optical stabilisation. Find out how this exciting new hybrid compares to both DSLRs and compacts in our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 preview.

Dell Home: Inspiron 530s slim tower desktop E2180 2GB 250GB DVD+-RW $339

Amazon: Onkyo TX-SR705S 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver $400 shipped

Pentax K20D - full review and video tour

The Pentax K20D is a 14.6 Megapixel mid-range DSLR which packs-in a broad range of features. It inherits an impressive core specification from its predecessor, the K10D, including a dust and weather-resistant body, built-in Shake Reduction, a decent optical viewfinder, a number of innovative exposure modes, a wealth of custom options, and the option of recording RAW in Adobe's DNG format. To this Pentax has increased the screen to 2.7in, boosted the sensitivity to 6400 ISO, added Live View, an X-Sync port, and improved the optional DA 18-55mm kit lens, along with that big jump in sensor resolution. The big question is how it measures-up to today's other 14 Megapixel DSLR, the Sony A350, not to mention Canon's EOS 450D / XSi and the semi-pro EOS 40D. To find out how the new Pentax compares, check out our Pentax K20D review, and as always for a demonstration of its highlights, see our K20D video tour. Read More

Nikon Coolpix P6000 with 4x Wide Angle Zoom and GPS

Nikon has today introduced their new Coolpix flagship compact camera, the 13.5 MP Nikon Coolpix P6000. The Nikon Coolpix P6000 features a 4x optical zoom starting at 28mm and includes optical lens shift Vibration Reduction (VR), a 2.7-inch high resolution LCD monitor, four exposure modes (P,S,A,M), a dedicated hotshoe and an optical viewfinder. See full story... Read More

Canon EF 24-105mm for cropped-frame DSLRs - full review and video tour

The EF 24-105mm is a premium quality zoom from Canon's 'L' series. It features superb build and mechanical quality, quick and quiet USM focusing and Image Stabilisation to counteract camera shake. It's an ideal general purpose lens for owners of full-frame Canon DSLRs, but what about those with cropped-frame bodies like the EOS 400D / XTi, EOS 450D / XSi or EOS 40D? In this review we'll examine how the EF 24-105mm performs on cropped-frame Canon DSLRs and as always, check out our video tour for a demonstration. Read More

T-Mobile, Google and HTC introduce first Android phone

T-Mobile, Google and HTC introduce first Android phone
The first Android phone looks a lot like the fuzzy pictures that have surfaced online for months, with a touchscreen similar to the iPhone and a full slide-out keyboard.

Nik Software Announces 'Complete Collection' of Award-Winning Digital Photographic Filters

Nik Software Announces 'Complete Collection' of Award-Winning Digital Photographic Filters
Complete Collection includes Photoshop and Aperture versions of Dfine 2.0, Viveza, Color Efex Pro 3.0, Silver Efex Pro and Sharpener Pro 3.0 COLOGNE, Germany (Photokina Hall 4.1, Stand F001) -- Sept. 22 -- Nik Software today announced the availability of its new Complete Collection of the company's award-winning digital imaging software products. This new product bundle includes all of the latest versions of Nik Software's products available at a...

Leica S2 professional Digital SLR

Leica S2 professional Digital SLR
LEICA S2 professional Digital SLR features a custom 37.5-megapixel, 30 x 45 mm sensor integrated in a 35mm-sized body

Nikon D90 preview

Loud Noises in the Dark

Loud Noises in the Dark
Well, Friday the 12th was a day to remember.

Disturbed played Christchurch. To be more precise, Disturbed blew the roof off the Westpac Trust centre and rained Metal all over Addington.

What a concert - my lovely wife & I went along expecting to feel old and colourful against the sea of black t-shirts & jeans and were surprised to be nowhere near the oldest rockers there. And there was much more than just black t-shirts on view.

Redline started up OK - tickets said first band on at 7.15 but I'm fairly sure that Redline started earlier than that; they were over by 7.30pm. Alterbridge did their set against intermittant house lights that kept coming up - their set was OK, but not quite what I expected. P.O.D. were OK as well - we both expected more from them though.

However, from the moment Dave Draiman was wheeled on until the house lights came back up at the end, Disturbed owned the show! Audio was loud & clear, the lighting was great and their prescence on stage was impressive.

We had seats dead centre at the top and we could see everything really well. We watched the moshpit sway left and right as those up front got right into it. It was funny to see the large number of glowing cell phones held up and recording in the standing crowd from up top where we were. And the clouds of dubious looking smoke rising to the lights. :)

DD had a few words to say at the end of the gig, and his comments on the chick(s) who decided to remove articles of their clothing (and everything for one girl) got a good laugh for all. (FWIW apparently the 2nd chick who presented herself to the crowd to have a look at wasn't all that hot, according to a friend in the moshpit who was right there next to her).

Then Disturbed ended up their set with 'The Sickness' and had the crowd really pumping and jumping. And several thousand happy sweaty people made their way out into the cold Christchurch evening.

What a night!!!

Travelocity: Flight deals from $66

Apple iPod nano green (8 GB) MP3 Player

Without changing the name, Apple has upgraded the iPod Nano by changing its size and colour options Read More

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 450D SLR

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 450D SLR
Canon has now officially announced the 12.2 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel XSi 450D SLR camera. Incorporating a number of advanced functions and technology found in Canon professional SLR models, the EOS Rebel XSi boasts an improved autofocus sensor, enhanced 14 bit AD conversion, a large 3.0 inch LCD monitor with an advanced Live View function. The Canon Digital Rebel XSi will be available in both black and silver finishes, and sold as body only or in kit form. Read more...

T-Mobile Sidekick 2008

Before teenagers were snapping up iPhones and BlackBerrys left and right, T-Mobile’s original Sidekick was the phone to own for fashion-savvy textaholics. The latest T-Mobile Sidekick bulks up on features without bulking up on size, making it a definite upgrade and a solid value as far as we’re concerned – even with the more crowded market for smartphones.

Read | Permalink | User Reviews | Linking Blogs

NewEgg: Acer AOA110-1295 Aspire One 8.9in Notebook PC 8GB SSD Webcam $330 shipped

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 review - updated results and samples

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 review - updated results and samples
We've updated our Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 review with new results and sample images taken with a final production camera. We've compared this retail unit with what's likely to be its biggest rival, the Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi, and shown how they measure-up in terms of studio resolution, real-life detail and noise levels. The entry-level DSLR market has never been tougher, so to see how the latest Alpha compares against its biggest rival and its predecessor, the best-selling Alpha A100, check out the updated results and gallery pages of our Sony A200 review. For a demo of its features, see our Sony A200 video tour.

[MODIFIED] Mozilla Firefox - Searching - Find Text on the Current Webpage

Search the currently open webpage for text matching your search query using Mozilla Firefox. Read More

Canon IXUS 960 IS Digital Camera

The Canon Ixus 850is and 950is impressed us so much we though that Canon might struggle to improve upon Read More

Microsoft Word 2007 - Insert Copyright, Trademark, Other Symbols

Add symbols for copyright, trademark, and registered trademark to your Word 2007 document. Read More

Is Fleet Management an invasion of employee privacy?

An interesting story originating from the Sydney Morning Herald last week, and doing the rounds in New Zealand, says that ‘Privacy Experts’ and Unions are saying that vehicle tracking systems used by companies are an invasion of staff privacy.

It goes on to talk about a former Telstra employee who committed suicide shortly after having a vehicle tracking system attached to his company vehicle. The employee was being treated for depression and the story infers that his suicide was in part a consequence of Fleet Management equipment being installed in his vehicle.

Over the last decade I have been in various ways involved with Vehicle and Personal Tracking technology and only once have I come accross a company that wanted it to be able to check up on the honesty of their staff.

There is no question that some companies have found a sudden increase in profitability and decrease in vehicle costs since they put FM systems in place, but monitoring staff integrity was not the reason the system went in. This particular company wanted to know which vehicles were close to clients that needed urgent service so that they could allocate the nearest vehicle to provide a quality reponsive service.

A few years ago I met the CEO of a rapid response plumbing firm. They guaranteed a minimum response time for people who needed a plumber in an emergancy. He was able to manage this as a consequence of using Navman Wireless technology to locate the nearest vehicle to the job.

They also wanted to compare time based service contracts to the actual time the vehicle was parked at the client site. They wanted to know if they had under or overquoted because there was sometimes a gap between the sales person’s enthusiasm to win a contract and the reality of the job being done.

What did happen was that a number of staff people whom they had suspected of taking liberties with the vehicle on the job and after hours, left the company within a month or so of their own volition. They were under no pressure, in fact their employer said to them "We don't care what happened in the past, this is not a big brother situation, however we do expect a fair day's work for a fair day's pay". In fact the CIO of this company absolutely hates and deplores the concept of big brother and would fight tooth and nail to stop the system being used to monitor the staff to see if they were skyving off. It was never about that. They did know that a couple of the people were abusing their employer's trust, but nothing was ever said to them about it and basically what happened was that those people knew they couldn't continue in the way they were used to and resigned.

I am against (and it may well be illegal) tracking people and their vehicles without their knowledge. The only people able to do that should be the Police and even then, only with a legal warrant produced through the courts.

On the other hand there are many potential benefits. In the courier and freight industry, Fleet Management means that people can easily apply track and trace to good being picked up and delivered without needing additional staff to place calls to drivers.

In the security industry it means that security guards on patrol can confirm the safety and location of their staff and also provide clear evidence to clients that their premises have been visited when they said they were. It can also mean that these people can be backed up in an emergancy. This technology is used internationally to track and protect the safety of VIP’s such as politicians in government vehicles.

Another area that is becoming popular is using this technology to keep track of a personal vehicle’s location. For example, when Dad lends the car to his son or daughter who is just popping down to the shops or a mate’s place, who could be boy racers. There have been a number of occassions where a stolen vehicle has been recovered with the thief still inside, such as the case earlier this year. Sometimes a car is irreplacable such as a classic, or sports car. Insurance money can’t always allow someone to recover the time spent in restoring or bulding a vehicle. This technology can also be used to secure trailer water craft and motorcycles which are often easy targets for criminals.

Another area which is becoming very popular and which I have written about a number of times before is tracking elderly people. With the Baby Boomers living longer and being more mobile, there is a growing population of elderly people, some of whom are sprightly of mind, but less of body and at risk of breaking hips or other body parts, while others are sound in body but suffering onset of Alzheimers Disease or other forms of dementia and likely to wander off and not remember where they live. Whether it is the Retirement Village or Rest Home, or their children, this common problem becomes much easier to manage if you can send a text message to the device they are carrying and receive one back with the nearest street address to their current location.

I think tracking is a great thing for unions to use to help them shore up membership and totally endorse them helping people out when it comes to unethical practice on behalf of the company they work for. However, in most cases FM (Fleet Management) is about providing better service to a company’s clients, being able to stay competitive in a time of heavy traffic, high cost of petrol and consumers who expect cheaper prices.

Freeview|HD in MythTV - still!

Freeview|HD in MythTV - still!
I have spent this morning re-installing Mythbuntu onto a partition of my USB drive so this is just a further update on the situation for those who were interested.

Last time I put Mythbuntu onto the entire drive, rendering it useless (Windows can't see a ext3 partition) for data transfer etc. So I had to take it off, and this time I only used up about 18GB. Also used EasyBCD to have the boot manager on the SATA drive and don't have to plug the USB drive in to reboot the machine.

So after all the setup (Nvidia drivers, my version of lircrc, getting Paul's patches) got it all working like before. Unfortunatly TV3 is still the same, so now my mission begins to learn how to edit source code and rebuild mythtv so I can enable skip loop filter. If anyone here can help with that please leave a comment.

I did make one improvement this time around by using a new guide source from nice.net.nz. I have used Reven for ages (and will still use it on Windows) but his grabber is not a xmlTV complaint grabber which means going through the 'mythfilldatabase --file' rigaramole, and I have found that a real hassle with multiple sources and digital TV. The solution is a complaint script, and instructions are given here for how to set this up. This data is from the DVB-S feed and I am told is good data. When I can run mythtv full time I will be able to test that!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Apple announces new iPod touch and iPod nano

Apple announces new iPod touch and iPod nano
Apple's latest raft of product announcements includes a new, lighter and smaller iPod touch and the thinnest ever iPod nano, now in its fourth generation. The fresh models both boast sleek new designs but the nano gets the biggest boost in terms of functionality via a refined user interface and a built-in accelerometer which lets you performs tricks like automatically switching to Shuffle™ mode when the unit is lightly shaken...

Tags: Apple, iPod, iTunes, Music, Nike

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Canon Rebel XS, EOS 1000D Entry Level Digital SLR

Canon has today introduced the Canon Digital Rebel XS digital SLR. In some countries (Europe) the camera will be known as the Canon EOS 1000D. The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS / 1000D features an APS-C size 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and Canon's DIGIC III image processor, and joins the ranks in the Canon lineup as the entry level digital SLR model under the recently announced 12.2 MP Canon Rebel XSi / 450D. See full story... Read More

Again! further subtley, notice the difference in sizes between the matches! they are reducing the capacity of fire!

you cannot claim you weren't warned! its going to happen!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

Monday, September 15, 2008

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