Lumix LX3 Review: High End Digital Compact Camera (pt. 3)

Lumix LX3 Review: High End Digital Compact Camera (pt. 3)Part one of the Lumix LX3 review gave you the tech specs, part two got into the meat, this final part wraps it up with more detail, provides the summary and scores.

Flash
Activated via a small switch on the top plate and standing taller than some of its rivals, the LX3’s small built-in flash offers Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Forced on and Slow sync with red-eye reduction in auto mode. Flash compensation can be selected via the up button, and there’s also an option to set up rear-curtain sync for some arty effects.

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ITV & Friends Reunited: Becoming Friends Disconnected

ITV & Friends Reunited: Becoming Friends DisconnectedWhen ITV announced that they were going to be buying Friends Reunited way back in 2005, we thought it was a terrible idea and went into some detail as to why we thought so …

We think that Friends Reunited has done an amazing sales job on ITV. It’s a site that would appear to be in decline rather than its ascendancy. Their expansion into Genes Reunited, Dating and Jobs Reunited would appear to point to them thinking the same.

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HTC Announces Touch Diamond And Touch Pro Updates

HTC Announces Touch Diamond And Touch Pro Updates Mobile manufacturing maestros HTC have announced updates to their Touch Diamond and Touch Pro 3G phones, imaginatively called the Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2.

New to the handsets are Push-Internet – a feature that lets users download selected web sites at specified times so they’re quicker to open later, and what HTC are calling a ‘unified communications’ feature.

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Nokia N86 Officially Announced – Nokia’s First 8MP Snapper

Nokia N86 Officially Announced - Nokia's First 8MP SnapperShiny new handsets continue to be lobbed out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) at an impressive rate of knots, and the latest to be seen arcing through the air is Nokia’s new N86 smartphone.

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Text And MMS Messaging Continues To Grow

Text And MMS Messaging Continues To GrowThe Mobile Data Association (MDA) has been running wild over towering mountains of raw data, skipping gaily through meadows of mobile traffic reports and splashing in streams of SMS statistics to being you their latest quarterly report on mobile phone usage in the UK.

Covering mobile activity from October 2008 – January 2009, the study looked at text messaging (SMS) and picture and video messaging (MMS) traffic and discovered that UK phone owners sent 78.9 billion text messages in 2008, up an RSI-inducing 20 billion texts on 2007.

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Skype Heading To Nokia Handsets

Skype Heading To Nokia HandsetsBig news for Skype and Nokia … and in turn mobile phone operators.

It’s just announced that Skype will be integrated into Nokia handsets, starting in the 3rd quarter of 2009 with the N97.

As well as allowing Skype calls via 3G and WiFi, Skype to Skype calls will be free (excluding any data charges), we’re also told that “low-cost Skype calls to landlines and mobile devices” will be allowed.

The surprise is that Skype contact details will be integrated into the handsets address book, showing the presence of the Skype user and enabling instant messaging.

Skype has previously had some success getting on to mobile phones, the most significant of which was the deal with 3, but this deal with Nokia is far more significant.

Good for mobile service providers?
As to how the mobile service providers will react to it is quite another matter.

If their subscribers are using data bundles, the operators aren’t going to make any money from calls that are made over their networks, reducing them to providing the plumbing to enable it.

#Spectrial: Pirate Bay Trail Ends First Day

Nine Inch Nails Release Tracks Via Pirate BayYou may remember that the four of the people behind Pirate Bay had copyright violations charges brought against them about a year ago.

Today their trial started with them facing the accusation of “promoting other people’s infringements of copyright laws,” and earning money from advertising on the site.

The representatives of the film, music and video games industry are asking for around 115 million kronor ($13.5 million) in damages.

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Section 76 Photographers Scotland Yard Protest: Report

Photographers Protest Outside Scotland YardWe’ve already commented about how the photographers rights in the UK were rapidly being eroded by aggressive cops, but things look set to take a turn for the worse with the introduction of section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 today.

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