Sony Mylo 2 wants to be your Internet Device

With ultra mobile pcs and netbooks becoming the must have gadget for staying connected on the move, you can understand why a brand would revamp a product for this market.
This is Sony's Mylo 2, which has been known as the personal communicator until now. Its been rumored that the company has begun branding the gadget an "Internet Device".
You may remember Sony's Mylo 2 (aka Personal Communicator) circa 2006, the little gadget may have not had the success that is deserved. In today's UMPC market an internet device is what the consumer wants, not a Communicator…smart move Sony.
Time will tell what effect this rebranding will have on the sales of Mylo 2, but thinking of my brother who bought the same razor just because they changed the color…anything is possible.
You can read more about this news on Pocketables or read other ultra mobile pc news here.
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Samsung introduces MediaLive, networked media player

Samsung introduces the MediaLive adaptor, a device that can be used to deliver digital content (including HD content) in real-time from Windows Media Center on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate operating systems to a (HD)TV via a wireless or wired home network. It can stream photos, music, feature films, home movies, and live and recorded TV programs.
It utilizes the HDMI-CEC standard to connect to your TV and enable you to use one remote control to access all features. The MediaLive has the ability to display content at up to Full HD resolution and supports AC3, H.264, JPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMA, and WMV. One PC can stream content to up-to five Samsung MediaLive boxes connected to a TV.The box gives you also access to a wide range of entertainment options including online services such as Vongo, MovieLink, Showtime TV, XM Radio, and FOX Sports, as well as the ability to browse through top news stories from Reuters and NPR. Additionally, in the U.S., Windows Media Center features the Internet TV beta program, which offers access to viral videos, news stories, movie trailers, sports clips, cast interviews, movie concerts and more. For access to live and recorded TV through the Samsung MediaLive, a TV tuner can be connected to the PC, turning it into a DVR with the ability to watch and record television shows and movies. In conjunction with FOX Sports, Samsung has added the ability to access SportsLounge to view up-to-date sports scores, statistics and schedules.The device connects to a PC via a RJ45 connected LAN cable, or wirelessly through a built-in 802.11 a/b/g/n receiver and will be available in August 2008.

Big Sensor A Small Step For Cameras

Every camera manufacturer wants a bigger slice of that $42 billion digital-photography pie. So what do they do? They pile on bells and whistles. Smile recognition, anti-red-eye, blah, blah, blah.
The lens of the DPI compact camera from Sigma, top, telescopes outward when the camera is turned on. The DPI has a 2.5-inch screen in the back, but no optical viewfinder.
Truly revolutionizing the field really wouldn’t be so complicated, though. All someone would have to do is stick a big sensor into a small camera, and then let the euphoria begin.
See, the camera companies would like you to believe that the megapixel count is the most important measure of a camera, but that’s just not true. Lens quality, circuitry speed, in-camera processing — lots of things are more important.
The best overall predictor of image quality, though, is the size of the sensor inside. Big sensors absorb more light, so you get better color and sharper low-light images. Small sensors pack too many light-absorbing pixels into too little space, so heat builds up, creating digital “noise” (random speckles) in your photos.
For all these years, then, there’s been an inviolable rule: If you wanted a big sensor, you got a big camera — one of those big, black, heavy single-lens reflex models. If you wanted a cute, tiny camera, you were stuck with a cute, tiny sensor, generally about one-tenth the size of an S.L.R.’s.
Clearly, what the world has been waiting for is a pocket camera with a huge sensor. But there are lots of reasons why nobody built one.
First, it would be much more expensive than a typical shirt-pocket camera.
Second, the maker of such a camera would have to start proclaiming sensor size as a critical measurement — thus contradicting all those years of preaching the importance of megapixels.
Third, the big camera makers might think twice about selling a compact camera that can take S.L.R.-like photos. What would that do to S.L.R. sales?
Finally, there’s physics. You can’t illuminate the entire surface of a Wheat Thin-size sensor with a tiny lens that’s only half an inch away.
Anyway, you can probably guess what all of this is leading up to: somebody finally did it. Sigma, an admired lens company that only recently started making cameras, has introduced the DP1: the world’s first compact camera with an S.L.R.-sized sensor inside.
It’s what’s called an APS-C size sensor, the same size as what is in pro cameras like the Canon 40D and the Nikon D300. It measures about 1 inch diagonally. (Nobody ever expresses sensor sizes in this simple, logical way — S.L.R. makers do it in millimeters, compact-cam makers use bizarre ratios like 1/1.8 inches — but they should. People, rise up!)
You would expect the DP1, therefore, to take spectacular pictures — and it does. The solidly built, black metal camera fits in your coat pocket (not, alas, shirt or pants), and yet it takes pictures whose color fidelity, clarity, detail and freedom from “noise” rivals the output of entry-level digital S.L.R.’s. The DP1 also easily delivers that special pro effect where the subject is in sharp focus, but the background is softly blurred — something most pocket consumer cams can’t manage.
Sigma would probably cite its use of the famed Foveon sensor as a reason for its photographic success. Each three-layered pixel on this sensor absorbs all three colors — red, blue and green. (Regular digicams use individual red, blue and green sensors parked side-by-side on a single layer.)
Photo nuts argue endlessly about the virtues of this arrangement, but one thing’s for sure: it makes calculating the megapixels of this camera very murky indeed. Sigma, counting three for each pixel (red/green/blue), arrives at 14.1 megapixels; counting each layered pixel as one yields 4.6 megapixels.
Here again, though, who cares? The point is that these photos have plenty of resolution for huge, grain-free prints, or liberal cropping away of unwanted background.
In any case, you may want to pause here for a moment to relish the happiness of Sigma’s achievement, because what follows is one crushing disappointment after another.
First, the camera is, as feared, very expensive: about $770 online. You could buy a very nice S.L.R. camera for that price. But hey — this one fits in a pocket, right?
Second, thanks to those serious optical challenges, this camera doesn’t zoom. At all. If you want to get closer to your subject, you get up and walk.
The lens does telescope outward when you turn it on, but it’s not zooming; it’s just getting the lens far enough away from the sensor.
The lack of zoom is probably a deal-killer for a lot of people, but not everyone. The 16.8mm f/4 lens (the film-camera equivalent of 28mm) gives it a wonderfully wide angle, which is ideal for landscapes, cityscapes, interior real-estate shots and so on.
Unfortunately, it’s no good for close-ups. The closest you can get to your subject and still attain focus is about a foot.
The camera is slow, too. Slow to turn on, slow to focus. Action shots? Forget it.
It’s even slow between shots; it takes two seconds to record each JPEG-format photo, and a ghastly seven seconds for each photo in the RAW format. (That’s a more flexible, data-rich format preferred by professionals. Unfortunately, popular programs like Photoshop can’t read Sigma’s RAW files; you have to use the included bare-bones RAW-editing software instead.)
Weirdly, there’s no optical (eyepiece) viewfinder. That’s a real problem, since the 2.5-inch screen washes out badly in sunshine. Of course, Sigma will happily sell you an external, clip-on viewfinder; for $140, you get a tiny glass tunnel you can peer through to frame your shots. Unfortunately, it attaches to the flash socket on top of the camera, decreasing portability and preventing you from using an external flash. It all seems absurd and unnecessary.
The screen has other issues, too. In low light, it actually switches into black-and-white. The pictures you take are still in color, but the screen is monochrome. What the heck?
There are full manual controls here — aperture and shutter priority, a dedicated manual-focus dial, and so on — but no scene modes. The DP1 can record movies, but they’re small; they fill only a quarter of your TV (320 x 240, far smaller than other pocket cams). Over and over, the company seems to be saying: “This is not a consumer camera — it’s a professional camera that happens to be small.”
But even pros would benefit from image stabilization, and the DP1 doesn’t have it. These days, every camera has stabilization — an essential anti-blur feature when the shutter has to stay open awhile, as when you’re shooting in low light.
That’s a real shame, because if it’s kept steady enough, the DP1 can take incredible, noise-free nighttime shots. There’s no autofocus lamp, alas, so focusing is slow. But without a tripod, you get one blurry shot after another.
Finally, there’s the lens cap. Not to be a nitpicker here, but come on; not only is it not built in, it doesn’t even have a little loop for tying it to the camera. And it snaps back onto the lens in only one orientation: logo upright. You’ll lose this thing in a week, guaranteed.
So kudos to Sigma. It has done what was once considered impossible: it has built a big sensor into a tiny camera.
But did it have to be such a lame camera? No zoom, no stabilizer, no focus lamp, no optical viewfinder, no live histogram; weak flash, washed-out screen, quarter-size movies, infinite shutter lag, loose lens cap. Hello, Sigma? 1998 called. It wants its camera back.
This is not to take anything away from Sigma’s astounding technical breakthrough. It is, however, a call to Sigma to hurry up with the DP2 — or to its rivals to pick up from where Sigma left off.

A digital camcorder - To Keep More Great Memories

What do the old people watch, it seems like so nice. I can tell you: they are watching the previous scence and recalling their former times on DV. When you and your old mate sit on the sofa, a digital camcorder can take you back a happy moment.
With the growth of age, we mayn't remember all things. But we can record some meaningful things by the digital video camera. For example:

childhood

performance

graduation

wedding
pregnant

having a child

travelling with family

old

A lot of things can't be well recorded by the static photo, the high clear video camera can capture the more wonderfull life and moment in time. The digital camcorder complies with the ripid pace and the high efficient life style of morden city, condensation, no lack of intension. The digital camcorder will become the best select which record the times.
Recording the everything of the nice life by the digital camcorder, why not do that happily!

A digital camcorder - To Keep More Great Memories

What do the old people watch, it seems like so nice. I can tell you: they are watching the previous scence and recalling their former times on DV. When you and your old mate sit on the sofa, a digital camcorder can take you back a happy moment.
With the growth of age, we mayn't remember all things. But we can record some meaningful things by the digital video camera. For example:

childhood

performance

graduation

wedding
pregnant

having a child

travelling with family

old

A lot of things can't be well recorded by the static photo, the high clear video camera can capture the more wonderfull life and moment in time. The digital camcorder complies with the ripid pace and the high efficient life style of morden city, condensation, no lack of intension. The digital camcorder will become the best select which record the times.
Recording the everything of the nice life by the digital camcorder, why not do that happily!