FunkeeStory SMS Backup For Mac Treo Users

FunkeeStory SMS Backup For Mac Treo UsersThe Palm platform has traditionally enjoyed a lot of support from Mac users who can perhaps relate to the platform’s status as a great working product that isn’t as well known as it should be (or maybe it’s because it’s simply not Windows?!).

Anyhow, Mac based Treo users might well be interested in this lovely little app for backing up and storing text messages from a company called FunkeeMonk Technology.

Treo owners will already know that its threaded text message interface is the best in the business, but mustard keen SMS fiends often end up having to delete older conversations as the none-too voluminous memory of the Treo fills up.

FunkeeStory SMS Backup For Mac Treo UsersThe FunkeeStory application lets Mac users back up and archive SMS messages and conversations by installing a conduit and an attractive desktop viewing application.

The application retains the threaded chat views and also supports multimedia content, so photos, audio and video clips can be viewed on a Mac, or emailed out to friends.

FunkeeStory SMS Backup For Mac Treo UsersAll the messages are searchable and the program offers international language support.

Created by Mac fan Joe Goh, the program is available from the Funkeemonk website for $19.95 – FunkeeMonk Technology.

Windows backup options
We took a look around for something similar for Windows Treo users and came across the $10 Treo Desktop application which offers similar functionality but without a conduit.

Cheapskates on either platform can also use this free online converter sms2csv.php which does the job but is about as basic as it gets.

Archos 704-WiFi Portable Media Player Announced

Archos 704-WiFi Portable Media Player AnnouncedKeen to maintain its position as the Dark Master Of All Things PMP, Archos have announced the latest addition to its Personal Media Player, the 704 Wi-Fi.

A big’n’beefy, take-no-prisoners kind of affair, the 704 Wi-Fi comes with a massive seven-inch screen, a capacious 80GB hard drive, a DVR dock for recording TV shows, remote control, Opera web browsing and – not surprisingly – a hefty price tag to boot.

The $549.99, 1.4-pound beastie comes in a natty brushed-aluminium finish, with the front dominated by an impressively high resolution 800×480 pixel touch screen display, with two wee stereo speakers underneath.

Button freaks may be found wanting as all the navigation controls are activated via the touchscreen, either by using your trusty digit, or employing one of the two included styli.

Archos 704-WiFi Portable Media Player AnnouncedAs befits its media player billing, this puppy can play a ton of video formats including MPEG-4, AVI, Divx and WMV video files, and MP3 and WMA audio files (with optional plug-ins for h.264, MPEG-2 MP@ML, and AAC support). There’s also support for PlaysForSure.

The Archos can also play back bought movies from Amazon Unbox, AOL, CinemaNow, and Wal-Mart, but – surprise surprise – iTunes’ Fairplay-protected files won’t work with the player.

Video playback battery life is claimed at ‘up to five hours’, which should be good enough for all but the most lengthy of art house films.

The combination of the large screen and bundled Opera tabbed web browser should make surfing the web a whole lot more fun than some handheld devices, although there’s no support for Flash (so YouTube’s off the menu for now).

Archos 704-WiFi Portable Media Player AnnouncedInitial reviews say that the player can suffer from sluggish performance, with an irritating “one-to-two-second delay between an input and an action”, which may give hyperactive surfers the heebeegeebees.

Although it’s a pricey number, the Archos 704 Wi-Fi packs a ton of functionality into its slightly portly frame, and with its big screen could be the perfect partner of long journeys. But don’t try wedging it into your pocket.

Specifications: Archos 704 Wi-Fi
Capacity 40GB (80GB in US)
Display 7 inches (800 x 480 pixels, more than 16 million colours)
Audio Formats MP3, WAV, WMA, protected WMA (AAC and AC3 with optional plug-ins)
Photo Formats JPEG, BMP
Video Formats MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV (H.264, MPEG-2, and VOB with optional plug-ins)
Wireless Wi-Fi 802.11g
Battery Life 5 hours claimed
PC Interface USB 2.0
Size 5.2 x 3 x 0.6 inches
Weight 1.4 pounds

Archos

Nikon D40x Announced

To the sound of the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands of recent D40 purchasers, Nikon has announced an upgraded version of the camera, the Nikon D40x.

Essentially identical to the D40, the D40x comes with a much beefier ten megapixel CCD (up from 6 megapixel) and an improved ISO rating going down to ISO 100 (the D40 could only manage an ISO 200 base sensitivity).

Nikon D40x AnnouncedNikon claim that the battery life has been extended to allow up to 520 images per charge (better than the 470 images for the D40) and can rattle off more photos in continuous shooting mode (3 frames per second compared to 2.5 fps for the D40).

As with its predecessor, the D40x provides a capable and highly affordable route into the highly rated Nikon SLR system, and comes with a super fast power up time (0.18 seconds), Nikon’s 3D Colour Matrix Metering II, an improved Image Processing Engine, a bright viewfinder and a large 2.5″ LCD screen.

There’s eight ‘Digital Vari-Program modes’ on offer to help beginners get to grip with the camera’s capabilities, with the option to engage manual control and boldly go into aperture and shutter speed settings.

Nikon D40x AnnouncedIn-camera editing tools let snappers adjust compensation, correct red-eye or use monochrome effects to get that Ye Olde Black-and-white or Sepia tone effect.

With Clint Eastwood-esque squinting eyes, the D40x has clearly got the Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi) in its sights, and with a highly competitive price of $799 (including the 18-55 mm kit lens), it’ll be interesting to see how Canon reacts.

The D40x will be launched worldwide at the end of March 2007

Nikon D40x AnnouncedSpecifications:
Price US: $ 729 (body only), with 18-55 mm lens US: $ 799
Body colour Black or Silver
Sensor 23.7 x 15.6 mm CCD sensor, Nikon DX format (1.5x FOV crop), 10.2 million effective pixels
Image sizes 3872 x 2592 (Large, 10.0 MP), 2896 x 1944 (Medium, 5.6 MP), 1936 x 1296 (Small, 2.5 MP)
Image quality NEF (12-bit compressed RAW), JPEG fine, JPEG normal, JPEG basic, NEF (RAW) + JPEG basic
Lens mount Nikon F mount (with AF coupling & AF contacts)
Lens compatibility Type G or D AF Nikkor, AF-S, AF-I, Other Type G or D AF Nikkor, PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D, Other AF Nikkor*2/AI-P Nikkor
Autofocus Three area TTL phase detection, Nikon Multi-CAM530 autofocus module, Only with AF-S or AF-I lenses, EV -1 to +19 (ISO 100 equivalent, at normal temperature)
Lens servo Single-servo AF (AF-S), Continuous-servo AF (AF-C), Automatic AF-S/AF-C (AF-A), Manual focus (M)
AF Area mode: Single Area AF, Dynamic Area AF, Closest Subject Priority Dynamic Area AF
Focus tracking Predictive focus tracking automatically activated according to subject status in continuous-servo AF
Nikon D40x AnnouncedFocus area One of three areas can be selected
Focus lock Focus can be locked by pressing shutter-release button halfway (single-servo AF) or by pressing AE-L/AF-L button
AF Assist White light lamp
Exposure mode Digital Vari-program, Auto, Flash off, Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close up, Night portrait, Programmed auto (P) with flexible program, Shutter-priority auto (S), Aperture priority auto (A), Manual (M)
Metering TTL full-aperture exposure metering system, 3D color matrix metering II, 420 segment RGB sensor, Center-weighted, spot
Metering range: EV 0 to 20 (3D color matrix or center-weighted metering), EV 2 to 20 (spot metering) (ISO 100 equivalent, f/1.4 lens, 20 °C)
Exposure compen. +/- 5.0 EV, 1/3 EV steps
AE Lock Exposure locked at detected value with AE-L/AF-L button
AE Bracketing None
Sensitivity Auto, ISO 100-1600, ISO 3200 equiv. (HI 1)
Shutter Combined mechanical and CCD electronic shutter, 30 to 1/4000 sec (1/3 EV steps), Flash X-Sync: up to 1/200 sec, Bulb
White balance Auto (TTL white-balance with 420 pixels RGB sensor), Six manual modes with fine-tuning
Image parameters: Preset modes: Normal, Softer, Vivid, More Vivid, Portrait, B&W
Color mode: Ia (sRGB), II (Adobe RGB), IIIa (sRGB)
Viewfinder Optical fixed eye-level, Penta-mirror type, Built-in diopter adjustment (-1.7 to +0.5 m-1)
Viewfinder information: Focus indications, AE/FV lock indicator, Shutter speed, Aperture value, Exposure/Exposure compensation indicator, Exposure mode, Flash output level compensation, Exposure compensation, Number of remaining exposures, Flash-ready indicator
LCD monitor 2.5″ TFT LCD, 230,000 pixel
Built-in flash: Auto pop-up in Auto, Vari-program modes, Manual pop-up in P, S, A or M modes
Guide number: approx. 17 at ISO 200
Shooting modes Single frame shooting (S) mode, Continuous shooting (C) mode: approx. 3.0 frames per second (slower with NR)
Continuous buffer: JPEG: Limited only by storage, RAW: Approx. 9 frames (shooting continues at a slower rate)
Self-timer: 2, 5, 10 or 20 sec
Storage: Secure Digital / Secure Digital HC, FAT / FAT32
Video output: NTSC or PAL selectable
Connectivity: USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed)
Dimensions 126 x 94 x 64 mm (5.0 x 3.7 x 2.5 in)
Weight: (no batt) 71 g (1.0 lb), (inc. batt) 522 g (1.2 lb)

Source

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grow 21% in 2006

Mobile phone sales to end users fell just short of one billion units in 2006, with last quarter sales apparently boosted by preparations for the Chinese New Year.

The figures from Gartner reveal worldwide mobile phone sales cruising to 990.8 million units in 2006, up a hefty 21.3% from 2005’s 816.6 million units, but still a tad short of the one billion predicted.

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grow 21% in 2006The market seems to be consolidating around the big name manufacturers, with other vendors now only accounting for 14% of worldwide mobile phone sales in 2006 – down 5% from 2005.

Nokia
Cellular kings Nokia continue to be the big cheese, the head honcho, the main squeeze and the top of the mountain, hogging a lardy 36.2% market share with 103 million units shifted in the fourth quarter of 2006. This represents a rise of 1.2 percentage points over the same period in 2005.

For the whole of 2006, Nokia shifted nigh-on 345 million mobile phones, grabbing a market share of 34.8%.

“Despite attracting criticism for lack of ‘slim’ products and a weak mid- range offering, Nokia was not only able to hold its No.1 position, but grow market share. Strong low-cost product offerings in the emerging markets, as well as feature rich products in the mature market, proved to be the right combination for Nokia in 2006,” commented Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner UK.

Motorola
Puffing some way behind up the cellular hill is Motorola, who flogged a ferret’s finger over 61 million mobile phones in the fourth quarter to scoop up a market share of 21.5%.

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grow 21% in 2006Motorola’s total sales for 2006 hit 209 million units, which translates into a 21.1 percent market share.

Samsung
Slipping quietly into third place is Samsung, boasting fourth quarter sales of 32 million mobile phones to snaffle an 11.3% market share.

Overall sales in 2006 were slightly more than 116 million units, a 12% increase from 2005.

Sony Ericsson
Close enough to let Samsung feel the lick of their competitive tongues is Sony Ericsson, who produced a strong last quarter of 2006, notching up 25.7 million mobile phones across the world, earning them a market share of 9%.

Sony Ericsson’s overall sales for 2006 hit 73.6 million units, with their market share growing by 1.1 percentage points to 7.4%.

LG
In fifth place is the flagging LG, whose 17.8 million last quarter mobile phone sales saw their market share slump to 6.3 percent, down from 7.2% in the same period in 2005.

Sagem
Elbowing BenQ out from the leading six pack, Sagem registered 4.36 million units and a 1.5% market share

Worldwide sales
Fourth quarter sales in Asia-Pacific continued to soar, reaching 87.7 million units, a 56% rise from the same time in 2005.

Total unit sales for 2006 sales totalled 301 million units, up 47% from 2005’s total, with slim phones being the big sellers.

The Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa sector saw 52.4 million new mobile phones shifted during the fourth quarter of 2006, 13% higher than 2005.

In Japan, 13 million units zipped across the sales counters, adding up to an increase of 10.9% from the fourth quarter of 2005

Latin America saw year-over-year sales up 13.5%, while North America scored a record 44.8 million units sold to end users in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Even more phones were sold in Western Europe, with sales in the fourth quarter of 2006 hitting 51.8 million phones.

“We look forward to another exciting year in the mobile phone industry with more technologies becoming available and new players from other industries entering and adding some spice to an already very highly competitive market. We expect growth to slow down and overall mobile phone sales to be up to 1.2 billion worldwide,” concluded Milanesi.

Via

Ricoh Caplio R6 Digicam Announced

We felt the love for their Caplio R4 digicam and were a little cooler on the Caplio R5 follow up, so we’ll look forward to getting our hands on Ricoh’s new Caplio R6 digital camera, announced before the PMA show.

Ricoh Caplio R6 Digicam AnnouncedAs ever, the camera sports a beast of a 7.1x optical wide zoom lens (28–200 mm in 35 mm camera format) in a slim body measuring a pocketable 20.6 mm at its thinnest point.

As with its predecessors, the 7.2 megapixel Caplio R6 comes with CCD-shift vibration correction and bolts on the current must-have feature, face recognition (we have to say we remain a little underwhelmed by this much touted technology).

We like the sound of a new quick review feature however that lets you instantly enlarge an image 16 times to check everything’s snippety snappity in the sharp focus department.

The Ricoh Caplio R6 comes with a handy 54MB of internal memory, letting you take 34 shots at 7M size (normal mode). If you’ve ever had a memory card go kibosh on you when you’re out in the field (we have), this could prove a very useful fallback.

Ricoh Caplio R6 Digicam AnnouncedThe camera comes with high-resolution, high viewing angle 2.7-inch LCD (up slightly on the R5 LCD), with Ricoh claiming a long 330 shot battery life.

The interface has also been improved, letting punters select individual images for deletion, backed by a handy File Recovery feature letting you restore images accidentally erased.

Macro fans should moisten at the close-up shooting mode, letting you get as close to 1 cm with wide macro and as close as 25 cm with telemacro.

The Ricoh Caplio R6 will be lining up on the shelves of your favourite retailer in March 2007 and will be available in Silver, Black and Red.

PMA Show

Olympus E-410 And E-510 dSLRs Announced

Olympus E-410 And E-510 dSLRs AnnouncedOlympus has announced details of two additions to their dSLR range in the run up to the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show in Las Vegas which starts on the 7th March.

Olympus E-410

An upgraded and improved version of the E-400 digital SLR, the ultra compact dSLR comes with a ten megapixel Live MOS sensor which offers the company’s innovative Live View featutre.

This means that as well as using the optical viewfinder, snappers can preview scenes on the large 2.5″/6.4cm HyperCrystal LCD – just like a compact digicam. We wish all cameras had this feature as it opens up lots of creative options when shooting.

Olympus E-410 And E-510 dSLRs AnnouncedOlympus have also increased the camera’s high sensitivity performance thaks to a new TruePic III processor, backed by improved buffering of continuous frames offering shooting at 3fps with up to seven images in RAW buffer

The camera comes with dual memory card slots – annoyingly, neither are which are the hugely popular SD format (xD-Picture Card and CompactFlash) – and comes in a pleasingly small 5.1″ x 3.6″ x 2.1″ package.

The E-410 serves up 32 shooting modes (incl. 5 exposure, 7 creative & 20 scene modes) and is compatible with the Four Thirds System.

Olympus E-410 And E-510 dSLRs AnnouncedOlympus E-510
An upgrade to the E-500 digital SLR, the new E-510 also comes with a ten megapixel Live MOS sensor offering Live View, but adds in-body, sensor shift based Image Stabilisation.

Packaged in a new, attractively styled, traditionally body, the Four-Thirds E-510 has pleasingly small dimensions and is aimed at both the serious amateur and semi-professional.

The E-510 offers the same 3fps shooting rate (up to seven images in RAW buffer) with 28 shooting modes available (incl. 5 exposure, 5 creative & 18 scene modes), supported by Olympus’s Supersonic Wave Filter for shaking off those pesky bits of sensor dust.

Olympus E-410 And E-510 dSLRs AnnouncedAlthough not quite as small as it’s younger brother, the camera still measures up at a pleasingly bijou 5.4″ x 3.6″ x 2.7″, making it a great choice for travellers.

We’ll be nagging Olympus to see if we can get our hands on a review model soon.

[Via]

Firefox And Safari Browser Market Share Rises

Firefox And Safari Browser Market Share RisesLike hungry puppies with sharp teeth, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari Web browsers continue to chew and gnaw away at the juicy legs of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).

According to new figures from Web metrics company, Net Applications, February saw both Firefox and Safari grab a bigger share of the browser market as IE’s share continues to shrink.

Firefox – which comes in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux flavours – increased its share from 13.7 percent in January to 14.2 percent, while the Mac OSX Safari browser had a small but noticeable shimmy upwards, from to 4.7 percent from 4.85 percent.

Despite dropping in the rankings, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still retains the Billy Bunter share of the browser market, devouring 79.1 percent (down from last month’s 79.8 percent.)

Firefox And Safari Browser Market Share Rises“After a minor hiccup in January, Firefox seems to be back on the offensive in February,” said the fabulously named Vincent Vizzaccaro, Net Applications’ executive vice president of marketing and strategic relationships.

“January showed a brief halt to Firefox’s assault on Microsoft Internet Explorer’s market share. Could that have come from new Vista machines?” asked Mr VV.

Before any hands could be raised in answer, the double V man delivered his verdict, “Possibly, but it appears that browser users have gone back to switching to Firefox, Safari and Opera.”

The well liked Opera browser also saw its market share rise a smidgeon, but it’s still deep in the niche territory, registering just 0.79 percent in February, up from 0.73 percent from last month.

Net Applications

SPV M700 Launches on Orange UK: Also In Black

The latest model in the SPV range has arrived on the UK Orange mobile phone network.

SPV M700 Launches on Orange UK: Also In BlackThere’s been shots of the SPV M700 floating around for a while, but as of today it’s been confirmed that there will be a black version in the UK to partner the White.

As well as all of the goodies detailed below, the SPV M700 has Sat Nav built-in – one of the early phone to have this. The handset will be able to take advantage of Sat-Nav from Orange.

The Sat-Nav is powered by Webraska with all maps and live traffic updates are held on a central server and are downloadable from the Internet via WiFi, 3G, GPRS or the Orange EDGE network onto the mobile device. Initially only available to business users, it’s now open to all.

The M700 has a 2.8in, 240 x 320, 65,53-colour display, a 2.1 megapixel camera and secondary, VGA camera for video calls and runs Windows Mobile 5.0, so offers Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

With all of this on board Orange is billing it as helping “you work faster and more efficiently when you’re away from your desk.”

This 3G handset can offer data rates of up to 1.8Mbps (network allowing) There’s quite a few wireless networks supported including EDGE networks as well as UMTS, GPRS and WiFi.

You can get the SPV M700 from Orange shops and online at orange.co.uk. It’s free on contracts over £35.

Sat-Nav from Orange

Apple TV Delayed Until March

Apple Fans Are NutsApple has announced that their Apple TV product will be ‘a few weeks late.’

Observers aren’t that surprised by this as it was originally intended to be released in February and that’s pretty much run out. The new date is quoted as mid-March.

Apple TV will have a similar interface to their Front Row software and will play downloaded music and videos on a home stereo or television, playing it directly from an Internet connection or networked computer, either by wired or wireless networking, with 802.11n supported.

When it was launched at the start of January, Jobs described it as such, “Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century—you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store.”

Apple hope to do the same for TV as they’ve done for digital music, although there’s been quite a lot of backlash against this idea.

The expected cost of Apple TV hasn’t changed £199 or $299.

Sony DSC-H7 And DSC-H9 Cameras Announced

With dSLRs plummeting in price, upmarket bridge cameras are having to up the feature set to keep punters interested, and Sony are hoping that their replacements to last year’s DSC-H2 and DSC-H5 cameras have got what it takes.

Sony DSC-H7 And DSC-H9 Cameras AnnouncedSony’s new DSC-H7 and DSC-H9 cameras come with an immense 15x optical Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom, which translates into a whopping 31-465mm range (35mm equiv) – perfect for wannabe paparazzi and lurking stalkers.

(The one advantage that the small sensors of digital compacts have over their dSLR rivals is that they can facilitate huge zooms that won’t end up challenging a Northern mill chimney in size.)

The two 8.1-megapixel cameras are more or less identical, except the higher priced DSC-H9 comes with a larger LCD monitor (3″ screen with 230k colours compared to the DSC-H7’s 2.5″/115k screen) and a natty fold out screen. We like them.

Sony DSC-H7 And DSC-H9 Cameras AnnouncedBoth cameras sport face detection technology, HDTV output, red-eye reduction and an action-freezing shutter speed up to 1/4000 of a second, backed by a slew of auto, manual and scene modes.

The same Bionz processing engine that lurks inside the excellent Alpha dSLR camera is onboard, as well as Super Steady Shot optical image stabilisation and a high sensitivity ISO 3200 rating for low light shots.

Sony has also included their NightShot technology, which is a whole load of fun if you’re snapping away in a coal mine, but we reckon Sony’s design team must have been chewing on the crazy dust when they decided to leave out any movie modes.

Sony DSC-H7 And DSC-H9 Cameras AnnouncedThere’s no RAW image capture either, an omission that will surely push keen photographers further in the direction of cut price dSLRs like Nikon’s fine D40

They’re still both fine looking cameras, mind, and priced at around $400 (DSC-H7) and $480 (DSC-H9), we reckon they should do well when they beam down from Planet Sony sometime in April.

Via