Olympus E-3

By Trevor Tan, TODAY Posted: 25 January 2008 1050 hrs

The release of Olympus E-3 (S$2,699 for body only) has ended a four-year wait for aficionados who have been craving for a successor to the professional-grade digital single lens reflex (DSLR) E-1. So, has the wait been worthwhile? When details of the 10.1-megapixel E-3 first surfaced, many fans were disappointed that the specifications did not compare well to those of competitors' flagship DSLRs. In fact, the E-3 is more a prosumer DSLR — the sandwich class between amateur and professional DSLRs.

Nonetheless, the E-3 is no pushover. Olympus claims that it has the world's fastest auto-focusing system. It also has 11-point sensoring with high-speed sequential shooting at five frames per second and boasts shutter speeds of up to 1/8,000 seconds. Though Olympus' claims can't be ascertained, the auto-focus performance of the E-3 has been exemplary in my tests. While other manufacturers seem obsessed with megapixels, Olympus has given photographers like me what we've long wanted — a dust and splash-proof camera.

Having endured torrential downpours during shoots, I can say the E-3 is pretty weather-resistant. The dust-reduction mechanism does its work upon startup and does it beautifully. Surprisingly, the mechanism does not slow down the startup, with the E-3 starting up and shutting down in a swift second. The tough and sturdy build of the magnesium-alloy body offers a good grip and button placement is intuitive, allowing users easy access to all functions. I particularly like the memory card compartment switch, which you turn to flip open the memory card slot door — a feature not found in other high-end DSLRs.

However, the menu interface requires a bit of tinkering, as some settings require one or two additional steps to access and change. One of the most exciting features of the E-3 is its ability to shoot via the 270-degree swivelling, 2.5-inch liquid crystal display with Live View.

While its competitor can't auto-focus when shooting in Live View mode, the E-3 does it comfortably, if a little slowly. It takes four seconds for an image to be saved after the shutter is clicked when shooting in this mode. There is no shutter lag when you shoot via the optical viewfinder. Image quality, with E-3's TruePic III image processor, is superb, with saturated colours and smooth skin tones. The dynamic range of the image is impressive, with highlights and shadows nicely contained.

Auto-white balance is accurate in outdoor conditions but tend towards the warm side (orange cast) in indoor conditions, such as under fluorescent lighting. Noise performance is good, with images up to ISO 800 having little noise. At ISO 1,600 and above, noise is visible but acceptable, as the noise is more film-like grain than watercolour pixelation. VERDICT The Olympus E-3 might be a prosumer DSLR but it has the capabilities of a professional DSLR. If you have lenses that are from other brands, it might be prudent to hold your horses. But for those with no such baggage, this is one attractive and capable DSLR to start with

iPhone / iClone

Source: Wired.com

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If so, Apple must be feeling mighty good about itself right now. These handsets all try to emulate the quintessential Jesus phone with touchscreens and copycat graphics. But when we roll up our sleeves and drill down, cracks begin to show.

In honor of the benevolent beard-god of Cupertino, we rate the strength of every iClone with black turtlenecks, five turtlenecks being a nearly flawless facsimile with one turtleneck being a messy mockery not even worthy of the term iClone.

Samsung F700

There seems to be a little quid pro quo at work with the F700. Samsung's answer to the iPhone brings a squint 2.7-inch touchscreen, sports HSDPA (but no Wi-Fi) and uses a drag-and-drop interface (without multitouch). Happen to be typo-allergenic? The F700's full QWERTY keyboard makes typing relatively glitch free. And the 5-MP camera? More than twice as powerful as the one on the iPhone.

HTC Touch

The Touch is two parts iPhone nemesis, one part clone. First off, it's smaller, runs Windows Mobile 6, zips about the internet on HSDPA/EV-DO, and arguably has a better paint job. But the iPhone does have the Touch licked in screen real estate

HTC's 2.8-inch display is barely roomy enough for those with dainty digits -- forget the sausage-fingered. How does HTC work around this? By including two stylus' with the handset.

LG Voyager

LG found the easiest way to build an iContender -- it just slapped a 2.8-inch touchscreen on the enV. Luckily, the Voyager gleaned most of the fine features from its less tactile cousin. Speedy EV-DO connectivity, a QWERTY keyboard and a host of multimedia features easily take the Voyager beyond clone status.

However, no Wi-Fi support flunks it right back to the remedial class. Oh, and that tiny touchscreen it boasts? Let's just say it's more suited for caveman-like pokes and less for elegant finger whisks.

CECT P168

China spews out iPhone clones like The Empire pumps out Storm Troopers. But in the P168, CECT has managed to rip off almost all of what made the God phone iconic. Nods to Cupertino include a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a metal frame and Mac OSX-style wallpaper and startup images.
Six-speaker, 3-D sound and dual sim cards are nice, but with no advanced sensors, P168 users are missing one of the iPhone's biggest perks -- effortlessly switching from landscape to portrait modes with a flick of the wrist.

Meizu M8

Meizu's M8 lives in a dreamworld between major cloneage and vaporware. Although shrouded in speculation and wrapped in mystery, the M8 supposedly runs a version of Windows CE 6.0 that's been dressed up like Apple's GUI.

The similarities don't stop there. This copycat features 4-MB and 8-MB flash versions, Wi-Fi, tilt sensors and a 3.3-inch touchscreen. Setbacks? Meizu has been sketchy on the release date and the unit only supports standard touching. Fanboys of the iPhone's uppity multi-touch need not apply.

LG Prada

The Prada captures just one of the iPhone's features perfectly: pretension. As if bearing the name of a posh Italian designer wasn't enough, this never-to-be-available-in-the-U.S. phone is sleek, and sports a 3-inch touchscreen.

Unfortunately, beauty is only skin deep for this Apple polisher. The Prada embarrassingly relies on a sparse GUI and is missing an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. With Wi-Fi not making the cut either, it's mind-boggling that the Prada is more expensive than its iMuse.

Public test next week for Vista SP1

Source: news.com

Microsoft on Tuesday said that it has reached the "release candidate" with the first service pack for Windows Vista, with plans to make the test software available publicly next week.

It is releasing the test code this week to the 15,000 or so people who have been beta testing SP1 already, and will also make it available on Thursday to those in the MSDN and TechNet developer programs.

"We feel really good and we look forward to receiving feedback from our larger set of testers," said David Zipkin, a senior product manager on the Windows Client team.

Microsoft also said on its Vista blog on Wednesday that it will make available a "blocker" that will allow customers who have Vista and use Windows Update to block SP1 upon its final release to allow for further testing. Microsoft offered a similar option with Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Service Pack 1 is mainly designed as a collection of bug fixes and performance improvements rather than an attempt to add new features. Among the changes that are more feature-related is the ability to use BitLocker encryption on multiple hard drive volumes as well as changes to the desktop search feature, which were made to satisfy antitrust concerns from Google.

Microsoft also said this week that it will change the way its antipiracy features work in SP1, eliminating a system in which Vista machines found not to be genuine are relegated to a near-unusable "reduced functionality mode." In its place, Microsoft will show prominent warnings and prompt those with non-genuine software to get a properly licensed copy. The new antipiracy approach will be in the final version of SP1 but is not part of the release candidate version.

The software maker has made some changes to SP1 since it began testing it earlier this year. In particular, the company has worked to reduce the size of the update as well as the amount of free space required to perform the update.

Vista still requires up to 4.5GB of free space for a typical user, but that's down from the 7GB required in earlier beta versions. Most of that space is returned back to the user. For some people, though, particularly those with ultramobile machines or running Vista in a partition on their Mac, the free space limit can be an obstacle.

Microsoft has also significantly reduced the file size of the Windows Update and full versions of the service pack, Zipkin said.

The release candidate version of the Vista service pack comes just as the Windows Server team issues a public release candidate for Windows Server 2008. Development of Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 have been fairly closely aligned and both are slated for release in the first quarter of 2008. However, Zipkin said it is conceivable the release of the two products could vary, particularly if quality concerns arise for either one.

CJ7 (長江七號)

Stephen Chow's latest movie CJ7 is likely hit the screen in Singapore in early Feb 2008, during the Chinese New Year. Expect lots of CG effects in this movie and of course the usual Stephen Chow's slapstick comedy.

Plot:

A fantasy tale featuring state of the art visual effects, CJ7 is a comedy about a poor laborer father played by STEPHEN CHOW and his young son. When a fascinating and strange new toy enters their lives, they learn a poignant lesson about the true nature of family and the things money can't buy.

Nintendo offers new DS bundles ahead of holiday

Tue Nov 20 05:46:03
Source: Reuters

Nintendo on Tuesday unveiled two special editions of its DS handheld gaming unit as the video-game maker seeks to keep up fans' enthusiasm for the popular device heading into the holidays.

One version will be colored gold and come with the epic adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass while a metallic pink model will come with puppy-training title Nintendogs, Nintendo said.

The new bundles will go on sale in the United States on November 23, the "Black Friday" after the Thanksgiving holiday that is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. New DS color schemes are eagerly received by Nintendo fans, who scramble to buy them as collectibles or for bragging rights.

The DS originally was sold only in white when a slimmed-down version debuted in early 2006, but Nintendo has slowly rolled out new colors and in the United States. The device is now available in black, pink, and a crimson-black combination.