Casio have announced the European release of their super-slim 6 megapixel camera featuring an ‘Anti Shake’ DSP and MPEG-4 movie recording.
Thinner than a supermodel on a crash diet (just 16.1 mm thick), the S600 comes with a retracting 3x optical zoom, superfast shutter release (0.007 second) and high-speed picture playback of approx 0.1 seconds interval.
Casio is making a big noise about the EX-S600’s ability to reduce camera shake when recording quality MPEG-4 movies through its EXILIM engine’s Anti Shake DSP (digital signal processor).
As the name suggests, its not a proper mechanical anti-shake gizmo – instead, the camera employs high ISO1600 sensitivity plus a faster shutter speed to minimize image blur.
The camera can record MPEG-4, VGA (640×480 pixels) video at 30 frames/second, with a ‘normal’ mode, letting users capture up to one hour of movies on a 1GB SD memory card.
Point’n’shooters will like the “Quick Shutter” function which provides simple and easy high-speed focusing, with 34 different “BESTSHOT” settings taking care of scene settings.
An improved battery allows up to 300 shots per battery charge, with the 2.2 inch LCD being “twice as bright” as previous models.
For charging up the camera, transferring images or connecting to a TV, the EX-S600 is plonked on its supplied multi cradle.
The cameras are available in a range of colours which the designers insist should be known as “Sparkle Silver”, “Mistral Blue” and “Latin Orange.”
It’s taken some considerable time for the Casio S600 to reach Europe – it’s been available in Japan since October 2005 – but you should be able to pick it on the High Street for around £230 (~€335, ~$406).
In a feast of digital convergence, Pantech & Curitel have announced the launch of their new multimedia-tastic PT-S160 phone.
The PT-S160 doubles up as a PMP (Portable Multimedia Player) and a satellite DMB receiver, with a sliding design only showing keys for DMB functions when closed. 
The screen can be switched between landscape and portrait formats.
The makers claim a talk time of 300 minutes and a hefty standby time of 300 hours (although we’ve no idea how long you’ll get when watching TV).
Nokia has shunted out a new addition to their mid-range mobile portfolio with the new Nokia 6125 clamshell phone, offering stereo audio streaming over Bluetooth and FM Radio.
The quadband Nokia 6125 operates in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and provides a flight mode, which enables the user to work with calendar or listen to music while on the flight – although we’ve heard of airlines like Virgin insisting that you turn off all phones – including those with ‘flight modes.’
Yesterday afternoon, without much fuss, and with zero trumpets playing, Nikon UK announced that they are to stop production of nearly all of their analog cameras. Err … what did you say?
JVC has unveiled the flagship model to its extensive range of Everio hard drive camcorders, the GZ-MG77. 
In the highest resolution mode, Ultra Fine, users can record 7 hours and 10 minutes of video at 9 Mbps. 
Video can be recorded in both standard and widescreen aspect formats, with an option to record stills.
No idea if we’re ever going to see it turning up in Blighty any time soon, but we love this crazy new Sony VN-CX1 USB optical mouse-phone. 
The clever stuff happens when a call comes in. 
A potential problem might arise if you wanted to use the mouse when you’re on a call, but we think you can just switch to speakerphone mode. Or maybe not (the translated press announcement goes on about ‘knitting machines’ so it’s a bit vague).
Although the VN-CX1 doesn’t look like the most comfortable mouse we’ve ever seen, it’s small and light enough (45.5 × 23.9 × 89.2 mm, 67gms) and certainly looks a fun product.
D-Link’s new Skype USB phone adapter (DPH-50U) is a neat widget that lets users make and receive Skype calls on their existing corded DECT or cordless phone, without the need to have a pesky ‘call centre’ headset stuck on their head.
The concept seems a winner to us – by using your existing telephone you should enjoy better sound quality than a cheapo headset, and D-Link claim that you’ll be able to use your phone’s built-in features such as speed dial, redial, mute and caller ID2 for both Skype and landline calls.
The DPH-50U comes with custom software, two RJ-11 ports and a USB port to connect up the regular phone line, telephone and computer, with the unit drawing power from the computer’s PC port. 
The expected has happened – Apple have unveiled their new Intel-basedMacs. 
Most of the keynote was about the new version on iLife, which you won’t be surprised to hear is called iLife’06. It continues to contain thestandard iTunes, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand, but they’ve all had somemajor reworking.
As 
If you haven’t been to CES, you may have heard of the headache inducing noise, leg-ache inducing size and debt-ache inducing taxis and hotel rooms. We’ll save you all that and run over the highs and lows from this year’s CES 2006 show – shame we can’t help out with the glitzy lights of Las Vegas.
Satellite radios from XM and Sirius while Toshiba’s new HD-DVD playing Qosmio laptop gathered attention. It’s the first laptop to debut with a built-in HD-DVD player. The laptop can also play hi-def discs on your TV. The Qosmio is expected to hit the streets in March 2006 – months before the first Blu-Ray boxes are due out.
It looks great, but you’ll need deep pockets and an understanding partner to justify forking out $399 for a humble remote control. 
Elsewhere, the PC World editors were less than impressed with the ongoing willy-waving battle for the biggest plasma screen, arguing that they’d prefer it if the manufacturer’s considerable energies were directed into producing affordable plasmas for regular folks.
Palm have finally announced the launch of their much anticipated Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w smartphone.
The transition to Windows has, however, seen the TFT screen resolution shrink from Palm’s 320 x 320 pixels to a more miserly 240 x 240 pixels (the same as the Treo-alike HP iPAQ hw6500 series). Early reports suggest that the screen is somewhat washed out compared to the current Palm Treo 650.
The removable battery gives up to 4.7 hours of talk time or up to 15 days of standby.
If Palm have successfully managed the transition to the Windows platform, we can expect this new smartphone to be a winner, although we do wonder what long-term impact it may have on their Palm OS range.