mip's scan

A Demo of the Sony DSC-T200

Hi everyone!  I'm so glad to see a lively discussion taking place at the 2 posts I created regarding the DSC-T200 digital camera from Sony (you can see them here and here). So here is a my follow on post with a video demonstration of this great little camera.  You can see th video below and then I've got some further details and photos samples after you click through the rest of this post!

May the Force Be With You....And Your Wii

I know I don't typically write about things until I've had a chance to test them out, let alone reviewing video games.  But as I sat here this evening reading various tech things, an interesting article came across my screen that has made me giddy.  Seems like in the spring of 2008 I'll be able to wield my Wii Remote as nothing less than a lightsaber!

LucasArts today revealed that Star Wars™: The Force Unleashed™ will come to the Wii™ home videogame system from Nintendo next spring, offering owners the unique chance to live out their Jedi fantasies by wielding the Wii Remote™ as a lightsaber while using the Nunchuk™ controller to torment foes with their Force™ powers.

Oh baby.  What person who grew up with Star Wars hasn't imagined the day when they could hear the hum of a lightsaber that they were controlling.  This type of game is what the Wii was made for!  Done right, this should be an awesome game to play!

I Love Being Right

Do you recall a rant I wrote up back in February, 2007?  I was unhappy with the idea of a tax being impose on iPod, with that collected money going to the recording industry to compensate them for stolen music.  I was ticked off with this idea for a number of reasons, one being that it would effectively "fine" me for a crime that I didn't commit (i.e., I don't steal music...I buy it!).  More importantly, I thought that such a levy would basically give people who did steal music the argument that "hey, I didn't steal anything....I've already compensated you (recording industry) through the tax I paid on my iPod".  When I wrote about that, people emailed me for a week telling me I was off my rocker.

Well, seems that the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), who has been fighting for this levy, has suddenly changed their mind and are looking to NOT have this in place.

The Canadian Recording Industry Association this week quietly filed documents in the Federal Court of Appeal that will likely shock many in the industry.  CRIA, which spent more than 15 years lobbying for the creation of the private copying levy, is now fighting to eliminate the application of the levy on the Apple iPod since it believes that the Copyright Board of Canada's recent decision to allow a proposed tariff on iPods to proceed "broadens the scope of the private copying exception to avoid making illegal file sharers liable for infringement."

The CRIA has come to the realization that they could actually be making the situation worse by imposing such a stupid needless tax.  You don't  fight piracy by making people pay for the stuff they are stealing.  If you've paid for it in advance, you aren't stealing it!  Further, you upset people who aren't stealing music.  That is what I said 7 months ago and I'm glad to see the CRIA has caught up to the program here.  Boy I love being right.

In truth, I think that the industry should embrace what Steve Jobs at Apple is doing.  Through an awesome online store, outstanding iPods and new buying mechanisms like WiFi purchases on the iPod Touch and the iPhone, and creative partnering like WiFi music buying in Starbucks, he's making it way more fun to buy music legally than to go and steal it!

Google Office Suite Complete. Now What?

Google added to their online office suite that capability to create presentations.  Previously they had the online word processor and spreadsheet.  Now they've launched a competitor to Microsoft's Powerpoint.  I've been using the presentation tool in the last 2 days to create a presentation I'm giving this afternoon.  Yes, that is brave thing to do, but I wanted to stress test the tool in a real world setting.  If you are asking yourself the question "what advantage does this online suite of tools bring?" watch the video below, then join me after the jump for a little discussion on this.

Awaiting the iPod Touch

Of course by now you know that Apple introduced a refresh to its iPod line and in that announcement, the also introduced the iPod Touch.  I can hardly wait for this device to arrive!  I didn't want to write anything about the iPod Touch until I'd actually received it, because I like to be able to give firsthand info about the tech I write about, and not just regurgitate the news.  And rest assured, I will do a detailed post on the iPod Touch when I receive it at the end of September / start of October. 

But I thought I'd would post a thought about one application I am really looking forward to using on my iPod Touch, an application that hasn't appeared anywhere in the demos or other press releases.  I'm looking forward to being able to use Typepad, the tool I use for posting my blog.  I read with interest the details this morning as I was working on some posts-in-progress.

I have a small Typepad app on my HTC smartphone that I've used from time-to-time, but I find it to be a very bare-bones, lackluster application that misses key functionality for me. The Typepad interface for the iPhone looks gorgeous, but more than that, it looks very functional.  It allows me to manage my blog and not just put out posts.  I like that a lot.  I have found that the Typepad application I use on my HTC is more like a simple text editor, while the one for the iPhone give a much richer end-user experience to make posting blog items as natural as when sitting down at your computer.  Of course, to use this on an iPod Touch, you'd need to be leveraging the WiFi rather than being to type up a post and then simply push it out.  But the reality for me is that I'm always around WiFi enabled locations, from my home, to coffee shops to being up at the cottage, so I don't see this as being an issue. I think being able to simply turn my iPod Touch on its side, have the screen automatically go into landscape mode and begin typing posts will be an absolute joy!

And so, of course there will be many many things for me to like about the new iPod Touch, but knowing I can blog easily from it is the icing on the cake for me.  The sad part is....the end of September seems so far away. 

Stay tuned for more!

I Received My Sony DSC-T200

I was thrilled to receive my DSC-T200 2 days ago!  You'll recall that I wrote about it a short while ago and that I'd pre-ordered it before it even officially went on sale!  Well, after 2 days of playing with this camera, I must say, I am very pleased.  There are several things I really like about the T200.  First, I like the size.  It is so compact!  It is also very light.  I carried it in my shirt pocket yesterday and hardly noticed it was there. 

Secondly, I love the display screen.  It is huge!  At 3.5" it takes up the entire back of the unit.  That of course does have one thing that will take getting use to - where to grab/hold the camera.  It is an odd feeling when taking a picture to only hold the camera by the outer frame since if I hold it as I normally held my old camera, I am really holding it by the screen!   But the large LCD screen is great for viewing pictures.  It is also a touch screen and I find it to be a very natural set of controls.  Of course, with any such "touch" device, carrying a small cloth to wipe the screen is a must. 

The face detection and smile shutter work exactly as advertised.  I love those two features.  What is nice about the smile shutter is that once you select the subject by tapping the face, the camera will not take a picture until that person smiles.  As soon as they smile...CLICK...the camera shoots the picture.  What is nice is that it will go on tracking the face and keep taking pictures each time they smile until you press the shutter button again.  This will be nice for birthdays as the kids unwrap gifts.  I'll just keep the camera trained on them and as soon as they smile as they unwrap that "I-absolutely-wanted-this-gift" - CLICK - the shot will be captured. 

I will give a more detailed review once I've used the camera a bit more and I'll post some sample shots.  I love that I can shot in 16:9 format - looks awesome on my widescreen Macbook Pro.   I'll probably include some video in the review since it'll be hard to have the DSC-T200 take pictures of itself!