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dSLR Buyer Guide For Christmas

Christmas dSLR Round-Up Rock Bottom: Nikon D40 £400 (with lens)
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Nikon’s new D40 offers astonishingly good value for money, with UK stores selling the camera – complete with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED zoom lens – for a measly £400. For a dSLR!

Designed for ease of use, the petite 6.1 megapixel snapper offers three-area autofocus, a bright 2.5″ LCD screen, and comes with eight Digital Vari-Programs (including Auto Flash Off, Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close-up and Night Portrait ) as well as a fully Auto setting for clueless point’n’shooters.

Despite it being at the bargain basement end of Nikon’s range, the D40’s a respectable performer, mustering a near-instant 0.18s start-up time and a nippy 2.5fps continuous shooting.

The Nikon also sports a wide 200-1600 ISO sensitivity range, and comes with in-camera editing tools for retouching and enhancing images.

Of course, at this ridiculously low price something had to give, and in this case there’s no mechanical focus drive pin, meaning that it can only autofocus with AF-S and AF-I lenses (which have built-in focus motors).

Many will view that a small compromise for the superior handling, versatility and speed that a dSLR gives over similarly-priced digital ‘bridge’ cameras, making this a hell of a lot of camera for the price.

Full review: DPreview
Buy it at Amazon UK, or US

Other options: Nikon D50 £325 (body only)
Buy it at Amazon UK, or US

Christmas dSLR Round-Up Budget: Canon EOS E400D (£500 body-only)
Buy it at Amazon UK

Competition is fierce around the half-grand mark, but Canon’s new E400D has just enough features to make it our choice at this price.

Boasting an lightning fast auto-focus system and nippy evaluative metering, the E400D is capable of great results, with the Integrated Cleaning System (featuring anti-static coatings, anti-dust materials and ultra-sonic vibration) keeping the gunge out of your shots.

The ISO range runs a useful distance from 100-1600, with a 30secs – 1/4000 shutter speed range.

It’s pretty small too, making it a great compact, go-anywhere camera and a fine introduction to the Canon range.

Full review: DPreview
Buy it at Amazon UK

Other options: Sony Alpha 100 £550 (body only)
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Buy it at Amazon UK, or US

Pentax K100D £500 (body only)
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Christmas dSLR Round-Up Enthusiast: Nikon D80 (£600 body only)
DL Review
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Buy it at Amazon UK, or US

Offering many of the attributes of the pricier D200, the D80 comes with a 10.2 megapixel sensor, a shutter range from 30secs to 1/4000 and a 100-1600 ISO range (up to ISO 3200 with boost).

A sophisticated 3D color matrix metering system backed by 11-area AF system churns out pin-sharp, perfectly exposed shots, with the solidly-built camera adding to the impression that this is a ‘can-do’ camera.

Add to that a vastly improved user interface, instant power-on, customised settings and a big, bright viewfinder and you’ve got the perfect choice for enthusiasts or budget-minded pros.

We liked it so much, we went out and bought it!

DL Review
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Buy it at Amazon UK, or US

Other options: Olympus E-400 (£700 with Zuiko 14-42mm zoom lens)
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Brando Sony Ericsson/Nokia Phone Telescope

Brando Sony Ericsson/Nokia Phone Telescope We can always rely on our gadget-fruitcake chums at Brando to dream up a thoroughly daft gizmo or two, so we were delighted to find that they’ve just released a ‘Mobile Phone Telescope’ for Sony Ericsson phones.

Available for Sony Ericsson K750i, W800i, W810i and W5500i/W600i phones and a host of Nokia phones (see below), the Mobile Phone Telescope costs just $19 and offers, “higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction,” whatever that means.

Brando Sony Ericsson/Nokia Phone Telescope According to Brando’s site, users first have to manually focus with the unattached 6x lens, and then clip the lens onto a Sony Ericsson handset using the included lens mount (unless the image is clear enough on the camera’s screen to focus accurately).

The lens comes with a black barrel and a choice of silver or black bands as well as a carrying strap, although anyone hoping to take discrete long distant shots will have to think again, as the lens is quite a hefty affair that is likely to attract the attention of passers by.

We suspect that Patrick Moore fans looking to spot the distant arc of Europa gliding gracefully around Jupiter may be disappointed with its zoom range, but it looks like a great bit of fun for the asking price.

The telescope is also available for the Nokia N70, N72, 6230, 6230i, 6680, 6600, 6630, 7610 and 6681 phones.

Brando Shop

iPhone Announced – But It’s Not From Apple

iPhone Announced - But It's Not From Apple The iPhone has been revealed, but it’s not coming from Apple, but network and router specialists, Cisco.

Cisco is branding its entire range of Linksys VoIP devices with the much-touted ‘iPhone’ tag, something we can’t imagine the Apple head honchos will be too happy about.

Although everyone was expecting Apple’s eagerly awaited venture into the phone world to be called the iPhone, it turns out that Cisco have quietly been holding the trademark in their hot, clammy hands since 2000 (after acquiring Infogear, who registered the name in 1996).

Speculation is rife that Cisco’s decision may have come about after they failed to sell the rights of the name to Apple, and so decided to use the already well-memed name for their own kit. Or maybe it’s just a ruse to raise the stakes.

Either way, Cisco may still be minded to let Apple use the iPhone name – for a sizeable reimbursement, natch – seeing as the name is already firmly associated with Apple (notably, the domain name www.iphone.org points to www.apple.com).

iPhone Announced - But It's Not From Apple Back to the kit, Cisco’s new range includes a $180 (£92) iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype CIT400 which plugs directly into an Ethernet port and a $200 (£102) iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype WIP320 which offers Skype and landline calls.

We can’t imagine either of them giving Apple’s designers sleepless nights, although Cisco have a rock solid reputation for providing quality gear.

Despite intense media speculation, Apple continues to neither confirm nor deny that they’re working on their own mobile phone, although many analysts are predicting that it may finally be unveiled at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco on 9th January.

[Via Business Week]

gPhone: Google/Orange Phone Set To Take On Apple iPhone?

gPhone: Google/Orange Phone Set To Take On iPhone? According to a report in yesterday’s Observer, Google has been cosying up to mobile giants Orange with a multi-billion-dollar plan to knock out a ‘Google phone,’ offering easy Web searches on the move.

The branded Google phone is expected to be manufactured by the Taiwanese smartphone/PDA makers, HTC, and come with a screen similar in size to a video iPod.

The phone will come with optimized Google software designed to speed up the notoriously cumbersome task of surfing and searching the Web on a handheld device, and offer mobile versions of Google applications such as Google Earth, Gmail and Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Palm Treo users will already be familiar with some of these programs with the superb Google Maps for Treo application scoring full marks in our recent review.

gPhone: Google/Orange Phone Set To Take On iPhone? The Observer reported that the phone could access Google’s databases to offer a wealth of location-based searches, including personalised listings of local cinemas, restaurants and other amenities, and maps and images from Google Earth.

Rumours of the Google/Orange partnership come as expectations of an Apple iPhone announcement are reaching fever pitch, with one Website suggesting that the leaking of the story could just be a cunning ruse to steal the thunder of an imminent Apple announcement.

The future for Orange could soon be Google in your pocket (Observer)

3 X-Series Review (89%)

3 X-Series Review (89%) The first time Nokia told me that they no longer sold mobile phones, but multimedia computers, I scoffed. How can anything that you speak on while moving be anything but a mobile phone? You talk, you walk. Anything else is a handy extra, a camera to snap while you’re at a gig or a site to browse for train times when you’re in a hurry.

But when I picked up the X-Series Nokia N73 phone from 3, everything became clear. Because it’s simply not accurate to call this device a mobile phone any longer. The N73 is, in essence, a powerful 3G handset that uses a variety of technologies to perform a variety of tasks using a variety of services. And if that sounds woolly and imprecise, welcome to the 21st century.

The hardware
Let’s start with the hardware – arguably the least interesting aspect of the package. The N73 is part of Nokia’s multimedia N-series, and so boasts a pin-sharp 2.4-inch screen, 3.2MP camera, media players, stereo Bluetooth, office software and more. It’s simple to use, less bulky than the photo-mad N93 (home to an optical zoom) but more than capable of dealing with everyday photos, files, songs and videos.

It lacks the Wi-Fi aerial of the business-focused N80 – but then it really doesn’t need it, thanks to 3’s innovative X-Series web pricing. This offers all-you-can-surf web access via 3G for a price of £5 a month on top of any 12-month or longer contract. That represents stunning value for money when compared to traditional networks, and is still a few quid less than T-Mobile’s generous £7.50 Web ‘n’ Walk monthly cost.

3 X-Series Review (89%) Using Skype On The X-Series
Above and beyond that, the hot news is the packages that the N73 comes pre-loaded with: Skype, Yahoo Go!, Mobile Mail, MSN Messenger and, for another £5 per month, Sling and Orb. The revolutionary package is, of course, Skype. The world’s most popular VOIP application earns one-touch access from the home screen and has been well optimised for the mobile platform. You can sign in with your normal Skype name to see your usual contact list, or create an account there and then. My phone had to download an update (less than a minute) and then plough through a variety of disclaimers and permissions – basically absolving 3 of any responsibility for you trying to call the emergency services.

Refreshing and adding contacts is all very easy and making a call is utterly intuitive: simply select a contact and hit the dial key. Voice calls sounded compressed but comprehensible. The usual Skype delays on the line are more pronounced than with a PC, but you do feel the benefit of a genuinely well-engineered speaker and microphone instead of the usual cheapo VOIP headsets. The current version works only with other Skype accounts, although 3 promises the ability to Skype Out (calls to any real phone number, globally, charged at pennies a minute) in 2007.

Incoming calls don’t specify which contact is calling, relying instead on a generic ‘Skype Service calling’ message. And Skype chat doesn’t work either, although your contact does receive a message encouraging them to call instead. Running Skype on your computer and phone simultaneously doesn’t cause any problems either – both devices will ring and you can simply answer whichever you choose. If you do want to IM, the pre-loaded MSN and Yahoo Messenger software seem to work fine.

Slingbox – TV on your X-series
So why would you upgrade from the Silver package (£5/month extra) to the Gold (£10/month?). The key offering here is the Slingbox, which you can buy at a discounted price of £99 (it’s usually about £150). This connects to your TV or set-top box and fires video over your domestic broadband service to the X-Series handset (or a laptop) running the SlingPlayer software. Unlike other mobile TV services, this is actually streaming your very own telly signals, so if you’ve got a Sky box, for instance, you’ll be able to watch exactly what’s showing on your TV at home, be it BBC One, Premiership footie or a ‘specialist’ subscription channel.

However, it’s worth noting that the Slingbox can be a real pig to set up. If you have a complex broadband set-up with multiple routers, you’d better be good at port forwarding and hacking your router configuration or you’ll soon be pulling your hair out. If you can get it to work, video quality is pretty good; detailed enough to read the info bar on Sky broadcasts for instance. Sound is below average and can be quite harsh and glitchy. Unfortunately, you’re limited to portrait format display, leaving massive empty bands above and below the images – why no landscape option to make full use of that great screen?

Menus give access to your home device’s basic features (power, channel and volume, menu etc). I was disappointed that I couldn’t access recorded shows on my Sky HD box because the SlingPlayer lacks virtual red/green/yellow/blue buttons. This would be a key selling point, widening the video service from live TV to my entire hard drive. Note that the Slingbox is happy to sling (resized, compressed) HD signals out to your phone.

3 X-Series Review (89%) Accessing your PC using OrbPC
Supposedly, you need to sign up to the Gold service to use PC-away-from-home service Orb, although I’ve been using Orb on a Wi-Fi phone for some time and can’t see why normal web access to Orb wouldn’t work perfectly well. If this is a driver for you, check out the Silver package first. Orb allows you to view (read-only) the contents of various folders on your PC’s hard drive, giving access to your photos, videos and MP3 tunes, for example, and even files in your My Documents folder. It’s great for finding those essential business documents or staging impromptu holiday slideshows, without taking up memory space in the phone itself. The interface is a little flaky but normally gets there in the end.

On top of all this, of course, you’ve got full, free web access. The browser from 3 modifies pages to look ‘better’ on the Nokia’s small screen. This devastates design but (usually) improves legibility. You’ll either love or hate this but it’s well worth trying before you buy given that you’ll be using that interface an awful lot.

Conclusion
Overall, this is a really interesting device. The web access alone represents tremendous value and the pre-loaded, generally hassle-free applications only make it more attractive. However, there’s no denying that as it stands the X-Series is a tremendously geeky offering. Skype sounds better than it sounds, if you get my drift, although it’ll soon pay off if you regularly call abroad. Slingbox is fun but sluggish and over-complicated to set up – and battery life is bound to suffer.

Make no mistake, the X-Series is the future. Whether we’re ready to take the giant leap forward that it represents yet is another question entirely…

Score: 89%

3 X-series

3.2m Wii-mote Straps NOT Recalled By Nintendo

3.2m Wii-mote Straps NOT Recalled By Nintendo There’s been quite a few stories flying around the Internet that Nintendo will be recalling 3.2m Wii remote safety straps.

We’ve been contacted by Nintendo to clarify the situation. They tell us that a _very_ small number of Wii remote straps have broken. How small? Well, they claim it’s 0.001% of the machines they’ve sold.

When we asked where the 3.2m figure came from, they said that it was unclear and they’re trying to trace the source.

If there have been breakages, they suspect that it’s been down to unusually active playing. It makes us think that if people are using their controllers that violently, they must be pretty passion game players.

Despite their view that their isn’t a problem, they’re offering an exchange service for those who are worried about their straps. UK owners should either contact them through [email protected] or on 0870 60 60 247.

They’re also passing on the “useful” tips for “safe play”

Always wear the wrist strap while playing.
Keep a firm grip on the Wii Remote at all times.
Make sure people and objects are out of the range of movement before play begins.
Players should keep at least three feet/ one meter from their televisions and dry their hands if they become sweaty or wet for any other reason.
Remember that the Wii Remote is responsive enough to detect minor movements – so excessive and forceful actions are not necessary. Therefore we recommend not to use excessively rapid, violent or wide swinging motions while using the Wii Remote during game play.

All new Wii machines will be shipped with the new-style strap, which Nintendo say is to alleviate the fears of the public..

BT Internet Radio Review (75%)

BT Internet Radio Review (75%) With last week’s launch of it’s TV over the Internet service, a raft of integrated net-based services and a slew of new hardware devices, BT has relauched itself as a multi-media service provider instead of a plain old utility company. The BT Internet Radio shows another face of BT’s rebranding. It’s a slickly designed consumer electrical product aimed directly at the growing digital radio sector.

The design of the device itself echoes Apple’s trademark austere, white aesthetic. Organically shaped, it has no straight edges or corners and is slightly flared towards the base. Wraparound silver mesh panels add some contrast and a front centred LED displays information in a soft blue light. On top are a series of quite ‘plasticy’ buttons. Two larger buttons provide volume control and menu navigation and various others control playback, station memory, alarm and other functions.

Setting it up is a breeze. A simple press button starts the device scanning for your wireless network. You log on using the scrolling navigation button to enter your normal network password and the radio takes care of the rest.

Once online, stations are accessed through the same navigation button. They are grouped by location or genre, though there doesn’t appear to be a way just to browse all available stations. A series of sub-menus gives access to the features of each station. A choice between live and on demand material is visible where archived material is available. This means you can access services like the BBC’s listen-again service, picking programmes from all the recent BBC broadcasts for the last seven days. More sub menus allow you to choose programmes and days where appropriate.

BT Internet Radio Review (75%) Choosing between stations is a bit of a hit and miss affair. If your tastes tend towards anything beyond the mainstream categorizations (rock, pop, dance, hip hop etc) you’ll struggle to find the music you want to hear. This, of course, isn’t BT’s fault. The device uses the Reciva Internet Portal to aggregate its stations. If you access the Reciva Website (Reciva) you can find some more detail on the content of stations but, since Reciva (like the Gracenote database) allows users to add information there are some frustratingly arbitrary categorizations. That said, there are over 5000 stations available and, once I located Resonance FM under the experimental section I was happily listening to an assortment of droning and scraping, Bollywood soundtracks and post-modern poetry.

Sound quality is quite adequate and better than that produced by most internal computer speakers. The sound is deep and clear with none of the echoing or breakup that DAB radio is prone to. There are, however, a couple of niggles with sound adjustment. There is no way to adjust bass or treble and the volume control does not automatically increase when held down, meaning you have to keep pressing to raise or lower volume. Unlike DAB, the radio doesn’t display any info (such as such as track titles) about the source.

Using the unit was no problem though there were some irritations. It tends to hang on to the last programme played and starts up replaying that every time. In the case of a live station that’s ok but for archived content it can become annoying. The radio is also subject to same problems you would encounter with any wireless device: proximity to router and the number of walls in between can affect reception. I noticed a tendency for buffering in most locations in which I tried. Access to a signal is entirely dependent on your internet connection being on. My router drops the line when it isn’t in use therefore the auto-play alarm function is no use. When the unit reconnects to the network after being switched off, it uses the saved security key however I found that often the logon failed a second attempt was required.

BT Internet Radio Review (75%) The device can access and playback MP3 or other audio files from a networked PC. An extremely useful feature and one that really capitalizes on the network power of the unit. It probably would have done the most to sell this device to me. In practice it was unable to connect to my PC so I had to leave the feature untested. Typically, macs are not supported and I was unable to access my sizable MP3 collection via either of the macs on the network. It’s not surprising that BT have chosen to adopt Windows technology for integration with computers but it is disappointing that they couldn’t have adopted an interoperable standard which would have supported any operating system.

Given that Windows-centric tendency I wonder exactly who the Internet Radio will be useful to? On one hand it brings a host of Internet radio stations and a variety of useful services and features into one portable unit. It’s easy to set up and use and, in the right circumstances, has the potential to integrate with an existing network to provide extended access to shared music files.

On the other hand, it is only Windows compatible and therefore restricted in terms of both OS and DRM technologies.

Conclusion

If you are already streaming audio over your wireless network, there isn’t a whole lot of extra functionality in this box. Since a wireless network is a necessary prerequisite for the unit to work, I have to wonder how many people will find it sufficiently superior to their existing methods of playback to make it worth the £120 price tag.

Score: 75%

New Memory Stick PRO-HG From Sony And SanDisk

New Memory Stick PRO-HG From Sony And SanDisk Sony are expanding their range of Memory Sticks further by adding the “Memory Stick PRO-HG.”

In a further collaboration with SanDisk, they’re increasing the available speed of transfer to a theoretical 480Mb/s, a significant step up from the previous 160Mb/s of the Duo. It’s no coincidence that 480Mb/s is the theoretical top speed of USB2.

The technical key to this, is the expansion of the interface from 4-bit to 8-bit and the increase of internal clock frequency from 40MHz to 60MHz.

The thinking behind the increase of transfer speeds is the consumer demand for media and that media itself is growing in size as its resolution increases. As with all technology, the consumer is impatient for speed, so not waiting for data to be written to the memory card is key. With this increase in transfer speed, a couple of gigabytes of data should be transfered pretty rapidly.

They plan for the PRO-HG to have a capacity of 32Gb, but there’s a slight caveat with this one. While the design will allow for this, Sony says that it does “not guarantee that Memory Stick PRO-HG 32 GB media will be introduced to the market.” Depends on the demand and price of production, we assume.

The PRO-HG will be compatible with Memory Stick PRO devices, although transfer speeds will be stepped down to the PRO.

Unsurprisingly the PRO-HG will feature content protection, which it’s not surprising to hear will continue to be MagicGate, Sony’s previous incarnation.

While the range of Memory Sticks has lived longer than many competing formats (it was initially announced in 1998), many consumers feel confused by the number of differently named products – Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick Micro (M2). The addition of another type will only add to the muddle. While this may be the case, it clearly hasn’t held people back in buying them, as they’ve shipped over 200 million of the little blighters.

Sony expect to launch it in 2007 – pretty vague huh? One reason for the vagueness is Sony is only starting to license the development of compliant host devices from January 2007.

Memory Stick PRO-HG Specification.

Major Specifications of Memory Stick PRO-HG

Dimensions	Duo size (31 x 20 x 1.6) mm
Connector Pin	14-pin
Capacity	32GB (format maximum) *4
Max. Data Transfer Rate	480 Mbps (theoretical)
Min. Write Speed	120 Mbps 1 (As of 8-bit parallel transfer) 40 Mbps 1 (As of 4-bit parallel transfer)
Operating Voltage	2.7 to 3.6 V
Interface	8-bit / 4-bit parallel I/F and Serial I/F
Max. Clock frequency	60MHz *5
Copyright Protection Technology	MagicGate

OverBoard Pro-Sports Waterproof MP3 Case Review (65%)

OverBoard Pro-Sports Waterproof MP3 Case Review (65%) Waterproof gadgets aren’t just for the lounging by the pool in the summer. Despite its rather alarming name (“Stop the ferry! iPod overboard!”), this case promises to protect your tunes from the worst the winter weather can throw at you, as well as providing full waterproofing to a depth of six metres for summertime use.

The £15 case is made from padded vinyl, with a clear window to let you see what your player is up to. It’s been designed for market-leading Apples, and an 8th-gen 80Gb iPod does indeed slide in extremely snugly. A close fit is important to avoid excessive motion, which can damage miniature hard drives. However, if you’re planning to use the OverBoard for vigorous jogging or skiing, a totally solid state player such as a Nano will always be more resilient than a hard drive unit.

Despite being designed for full-size iPods, which have the headphone socket on the top right corner, the internal headphone jack is centrally mounted, so there’s a degree of awkwardness in marrying the plugs. Once it’s in, though, it feels quite secure and shows no sign of working itself loose.

The most important part of any waterproof case is the seal and this has a familiar self-tightening sliding design. You need to pull both switches outwards to open the seal. Unfortunately, the seal lacks a safety interlock of any kind and the pressure needed to release it is worryingly light. I would definitely be concerned about accidentally opening the unit while mucking about in a swimming pool or snorkelling in the surf. The seal proved effective in basic waterproofing, although a very small amount of water did find it way into the seal. This could leak into the case when you subsequently open the seal.

OverBoard Pro-Sports Waterproof MP3 Case Review (65%) The case comes with a small eyelet for a lanyard (supplied) and a large Velcro armband. This is tougher and more comfortable than the standard Apple armband, for example, and closes very firmly – a quality piece of kit. Assuming you want to read your iPod’s display and have the headphone jack upward, that means the seal faces downward – another potential concern if the seal were to accidentally open while you’re running.

The good news is that the Apple clickwheel works perfectly well through the plastic window, and the screen is clearly visible – you could easily watch downloaded video clips while bobbing on a lilo. Sound quality is not noticeably affected by the intervening jacks. Even with an 80Gb iPod (the heaviest Apple currently available) inside, the case floats in fresh water.

Conclusion

The OverBoard has clearly had some thought go into it. It’s well padded, easy to use the player inside and has an excellent armband. But the seal system is neither secure enough nor convincingly impenetrable for the most active users. The warning on the package that ‘contents should be insured separately’ seems like very sensible advice.

A good solution for casual use near snow, rain, water and dust, then, but athletes and divers should definitely spend a little more on protection.

Score: 65%