Commodore 64

Available in three different versions all powered by a dual core Atom CPU, the US$895 top level version includes a BluRay drive, 1TB of storage, 4GB RAM and WiFi capabilities. Other specification levels cost US$595 and US$250.

All models include Ubuntu Linux 10.10, a multi-format card reader and expansion capabilities, and you’ll even be able to also grab a copy of the original Commodore OS if you want to enjoy the full Commodore 64 experience.

iCufflinks

From the good people at Adafruit.com comes these open source iCufflinks. They’re battery powered. They don’t merely glow; they pulsate. They will keep your cuffs linked.

And while you can order them ready-made, you can also make your own bespoke version by downloading the circuit diagrams, source code and CAD files.

Be the first on your iBlock to wear these to the big iBall.

Let’s start with the basics, though: a NAS is a device that you can connect to your home network that stands apart from your computers, and should be accessible by any of the computers that use your network. As such, it’s a great device to have around, as you can use it for storage of files that you might want to have access to from several of your devices.

NetGear Stora

For instance, you can put your music onto a NAS, and then play from any computer in the house. Similarly, if you have, say, a networked TV in the living room, and a networked media player (perhaps attached to a tv) in a bedroom, you can watch any movies or video content that might be stored on your NAS.

Photos? Same deal!

And of course, you can use a NAS for backing up your important document files too. As you can see, a NAS is a very useful device.

And as such, NetGear’s Stora meets and exceeds these requirements easily. I was easily able to access files on it, from a number of different devices that that I have in my home. Moving files onto it is dead easy, whether from a Mac or a PC. Just as it should be.

And I did mention some elements of elegance: the basic design is that of a simple cube, and within it is space for two SATA hard drives, each contained within its own bay. On the review unit, one of those bays was populated with a 1TB drive, the second bay being free for end-user expansion.

And that expansion appears to be as easy as … the front panel just lifts off – perhaps a tad too easily – to reveal the interior. At the rear of the device you will see a couple of small levers – one for each bay. just lift the lever, and it pushes the installed drive out of the housing. The methodology employed here is not unlike that which I’ve seen on some HDD docking stations, but it’s easy to use, and thus upgrading the Stora’s capacity should be a fairly easy task.

But …..

As good as the Stora is, it is let down by its severely flawed installation and registration process. A part of the Stora’s design philosophy is that it allows you to place your stored content on line. On the web. Yes, you too can have your very own cloud! In fact, you basically have little choice.

The NetGear registration process, which works on both OSX and Windows, steps you through their wizard, asking you to enter a product license key, a unique (world-wide) device identifier, and your email address and a password. We need to remember that the primary usage for devices such as these is for internal access across your home network. While it may be a nice feature to be able to place your files out on your own personal cloud, we believe that this should be your choice, rather than at NetGear’s direction and insistence.

We have no fundamental problems with the requirement to give the device a name and to ask you for log-in credentials, but these should only be applicable within your personal or home realm, in exactly the same way that your ADSL modem requires a local login.

But the requirement that you enter a product activation key, when the software can only be used if the hardware is present, is just wrong. Likewise, so too is the requirement for a unique, throughout the whole world, device ID. Fair enough, collect and assign this if and when you decide that you want to expose your Stora to the cloud, but as a fundamental requirement – one that actually prevents you from actually using the device unless this information is provided – Sorry, that’s just not on. And finally, they also want your email address. Again, you are not able to complete the registration process unless and until you provide this information. And you cannot use the Stora unless and until you complete the registration process.

In summary, this a very good device, but the registration requirements are seriously flawed, and way too onerous. In speaking with NetGear about this aspect, they’ve said that they will review the process. Review is one thing, but it’s not enough. The device should be made to be immediately usable, with no need whatsoever for it to be registered. Registration, with the need to supply a product activation key is just wrong, the need to supply a unique (worldwide) device identifier, should be optional, as should the requirement to supply your email address.

It’s a shame really, as this is quite a nice implementation.

For less than $30, the iPhone using driver in your family might like to have the MetroView GPS application. This is a very usable turn by turn GPS that’s inexpensive, and it turns your iPhone into a fully fledged GPS.

For those who like to listen to their music, you can’t go past the a-Jays, t-Jays, q-Jaus and D-jays in-ear earphones. These are not simply excellent value, with models in every pricepoint, but they’re also great sounding earphones, offering great comfort while listening to your favourite music on pretty well whatever music player you desire.

In the phone realm, you could do a lot worse than looking at one of the Android powered phones from HTC, Samsung, or Motorola. These are all very versatile and usable devices.

Or for something a little different, check out Telsta’s T-Tab tablet. While it’s no match for the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab, it offers full tablet and phone functionality for just $300. And that means that it’s also a music and video player, plus a very portable web device. Look on it as a cheap, larger Android phone, and you won’t go too far wrong.

At the gaming end of the spectrum, we have two devices that are new, but a whole ton of fun. Microsoft’s Kinect is just what the X-Box user in your household will be wanting.

And the newest hot toy on the block is the Parrot AR Drone, which I’ve been playing with for the last few days. I’d make sure to get a spare battery with it, to extend the pleasure time.

In music players, there’s probably not too much that’ll touch the iPods, and again, there’s an iPod in pretty much every price range.

Fortunately, I persevered.

And was rewarded with seeing what I am sure will be the coolest toy to grace the bottom of many a Christmas tree this year: Parrot’s AR Drone. This is, purely and simply, a toy. It has no redeeming qualities at all that I can think of.

Except that it’s just so cool, and so much fun, that I really want one. Just because.

First of all, it’s a remote control helicopter. On board it has four rotors to provide stability, and two video cameras, to provide you with an augmented reality view from the drone, onto your controller, which will be your iPhone.

You just download the free app, pair the iPhone to your drone, and press the start button. The rotors start up, and the drone starts flying in its default mode, which is that it hovers above the ground.

From that point on, you have two buttons on your display, from which you can control the height, direction it’s facing, and the direction and speed of its flight. Fire it up, spend a few minutes acquainting yourself with how it woks, and then you’re off for just a whole ton of man-toy fun. It’s basically that easy, and that much fun.

Parrot AR Drone

Some immediate uses for this come to mind – fetching a beer from the fridge, for instance – but I’m not yet sure if it can carry that amount of weight. A bag of popcorn might be doable though, while you’re sitting in the home theatre watching the latest Star Trek video.

If your best mate has one as well, then drone racing is definitely on the cards. Bring it into the office, and do a couple of laps of the lift well.

And yes, there are some games available for it as well.

Construction feels to be very good. Lightweight, but of good quality and feel. it seems to be quite robust, which is good, given the market that this will play in. And speaking of market, the price is around $350, which strikes me as being just about right for this. It’s a high end-ish toy, and that’s about where I think the price for this sort of toy needs to be.

Vodafone Pocket WiFi Router

I’ve been using an earlier version of this pocket router for most of this year, and have been very happy with it. When Vodafone asked me to try the newest version of this, I was interested to see if and how Huawei might have improved upon the original concept. I’m pleased to report that as good as the earlier device is, the newer iteration is even better, and markedly so.

First of all, start-up is easier, and it’s now just a single button operation. Previously, you needed to tell the device that, having started, it now needs to connect to the internet. This of course is logical functionality, and upon booting, the router automatically starts up its internal WiFi LAN, and then automatically connects itself to the internet. All you need to do is just wait … for about a minute … and away you go.

The display is significantly improved; despite its apparent simplicity. On the previous version, there were five icons on the display, each one showing you one element of the device’s status. The status was indicated through the colour of the icon. but there was no real indicator as to, for instance, the amount of battery power left. The new display rectifies this issue, and it also, to me, seems to be able to provide better information.

Start-up speed is faster, and the number of WiFi connections supported is increased from three concurrent connections to five. And the newer model supports faster 3G broadband speeds, so it’s all good.

In use, this device couldn’t be more straight forward. Turn it on, wait a minute, locate the SSID in your network connections dialog and enter the password if it’s the first time you’re connecting to the device, and you’re done.

And when you’ve finished, just turn it off.

Depending upon your host network availability, you may find yourself using this while traveling on a bus, train or ferry, in a coffee shop or airport departure lounge, lounging by the pool or maybe in a coffee palace by the beach, or simply to avoid the exorbitant charges that our pre-historically structured hotels which to inflict upon us for internet services. If you have a few children and you’re maybe traveling with the family, this would be ideal in the car, providing the kids with an internet connection while heading up to your favourite holiday spot.

No, we’re not there yet.

Battery life provides several hours of connectivity, and recharging is performed using the included mini-USB cable, and as a bonus, it can also house a micro-SD card so that you can use it for storage of music or images, or whatever else you wish.

Compatible with most common social networking sites, this is a usb stick that also monitors your email, and it tells you when new email (or contact) arrives, with a soft light, and a sound. My guess is that the sound will be totally annoying but I don’t know, as I’ve not yet tested this device.

However, my advice is that, rather than waiting desperately for the next message to arrive, you get out and about and enjoy the world.

You can always check your email on your iPhone.

Traditionally, this market, aimed at those who wish their cameras to be just a simple point and shoot affair, has been populated with small, fashion accessories, most of which also happen to make perfectly good wallet-sized images. While some of them can actually take some fairly decent images, those are invariably at the higher end of the price range, but they are still limited by some aspects of the underlying technology, that being the size of the sensor.

You need to understand that the size of the sensor is very important in digital photography. As a generalisation, the bigger the sensor, the better an image the camera is potentially able to capture for you. The size of the sensor – and I’m talking physical size here, not megapixels – creates a relationship between the camera’s lens and the subjects of your image, and a larger sensor permits you to bring creative elements like selective focus (out of focus backgrounds, for instance) into your photos. Simple optical physics make this a difficult ask as sensor sizes get smaller.

In a typical compact camera, the sensor size might be as big as your fingernail. On your pinky. In a mobile phone, the sensor will be even smaller. The four thirds systems cameras go some way to address this problem by having much larger sensors, and typical digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) have sensors that are even larger again, with many today being what is known as “full frame”, referring to the old 35mm film standard. Compare the size of a 35mm film slide with your fingernail on your pinky, and you will get some idea of the extent of the differences here.

In the NEX 3, Sony have effectively taken the image sensor from a DSLR, and shoehorned it into a camera that’s about the same size as your typical P&S. This is a truly small camera, but with a big heart. Unlike the typical compact camera though, it accepts accessory lenses, (like DSLRs) which gives you a potentially good selection of lenses from which you may make creative choices in your shooting. I say potentially, because here you’re dependent upon the camera system that you buy into. Fortunately, Sony has created an adapter that lets you use their range of Alpha lenses, which will also include the many fine Konica-Minolta lenses that represent Sony’s photographic heritage; there’s no shortage of good glass here. Of course, there’s a small range of E-Mount lenses that are made for this camera as well.

But this camera is not a DSLR; it’s a MILC: Mirrorless, Interchangeable Lens Camera. In order to reduce the size (when compared with a DSLR) the mirror box, and its associated complexity, has been removed. The downside of this is that there’s no optical viewfinder, but on this camera, that doesn’t seem to be a major disadvantage; the digital viewfinder, with its large screen, seems to work very well.

Image quality, for a compact, is excellent, thanks to the large image sensor. Here’s a sample image, taken in a dark restaurant. No flash, camera set to fully auto.

Sony NEX3 sample image

Of course, all cameras today include video capabilities, and the NEX 3 is no exception. Making a video is as simple as pressing one button on the rear of the camera. But as well as shooting video, this camera has a couple of other tricks up its sleeves. Using some very intelligent technology, Sony have included what they call “Sweep Panorama” mode, whereby you can just sweep the camera across a scene, shooting, and the camera will automagically stitch together slices from the images made, into a panorama image.

And just for kicks, it can do that in 3D too.

Viewing what you’re shooting, and reviewing your work, whether still images or videos, is easily done on the large rear tiltable LCD.

Compact cameras are, by design, easy to use; so too is the NEX 3. Turn it on, and shoot. Controls are logically placed, and while it’s very easy to handle and use, I found it somewhat unnatural to use in portrait orientation, and I don’t understand why; that’s probably just me.

What is not “just me” are a couple of niggles with the underlying design of this camera. Sony continue to use their proprietary Memory Stick for storage (fortunately, not exclusively here) and this camera also uses the proprietary Sony flash hotshoe. There is simply no need, nor any good reason, for either of these proprietary technologies to exist at all, let alone appear in what is otherwise a very good camera.

The camera is initially available with a 18-55mm E-Mount zoom lens, as well as a 16mm f/2.8 E-Mount “Pancake” lens. This was my preference; it’s small, optically fast, sharp, and the camera remains very pocketable even with this lens mounted.

This is actually a camera that I might consider taking with me as my second system when traveling, such is the quality and ease of use. I like it, and with a RRP of around $850, I think it represents very good value.

First impressions are important, and this combo feels like a tank. The build quality actually reminds of the legendary Nikons of the 1970s and 1980s, and to be perfectly honest, that surprised me. In a good way; I’m not used to feeling quality like this is a modern camera body, and I am truly glad to see this. But this is not a lightweight camera; be prepared to build your muscles as you carry this combo around on your daily duties.

As a long time Nikon user, the D3s feels immediately at home in my hands, with the power switch just where it always is, and most controls in very familiar locations.

Some things, like ergonomics, are a personal matter, and this is especially true especially when it comes to how a camera feels and handles in your hands. In this repest, I think that there’s a couple of areas where Nikon have taken some backwards steps in the D3s, and especially when compared with its sibling, the D300s.

For instance, Nikon have yet to get their act together when it comes to image previewing. I think that the manner by which the image zooms on each Nikon body is different: hold one button and turn a dial as on the D3s – which I think is wrong, or plus and minus buttons somewhere in the ether (wrong again), or maybe just as simple as the context sensitive buttons next to the rear lcd on the D300/D700 bodies, which, to me, seems to be the simple, logical, and most appropriate means of implementing this functionality. Please, guys, like the on/off switch, make this simple but vitally important function work exactly the same way on all of your bodies. There is no need whatsoever to make us think about how we need to perform these basic tasks every time we pick up a camera.

In use, this camera is a pleasure to drive. It’s pretty much a Ferrari in terms of its specifications, and that’s a reasonably apt comparison of how this camera does perform, with a fast frame rate, a great AF system (but see my further observations on this, below), and able to sustain long bursts of continuous image making.

Of course, one of the D3s’s primary features is its ability to be able to shoot in something that’s close to darkness. This camera will actually let you go where no camera has gone before, such is its high ISO performance. First up, here’s the test scene: full frame, raw images, resized and converted to jpg only. These were shot using one floodlight, through a beauty dish. ISO was 12800 +3EV (102000) and according to my handheld meter, correct exposure was f/13 and 1/200.

This image appears to be pretty close to spot on exposure wise, and this is confirmed in the histogram. Here’s a 100% crop of this image.

Whilst we can see some noise in the 100% crop, please remember where we are shooting here: very high ISO. This is a very usable level of quality, despite the noise.

And this is a very fine camera, well suited to all types of photography. Highly recommended where critical imaging, or extreme low-light performance is the requirement.

Hiromi Ozaki has put together a device that, apparently, dispenses blood and simulates abdominal cramping, so that men can feel what menstruation feels like. There’s no word on whether women have confirmed how accurate this machine is in its simulation, but in all honesty, I’m having a lot of trouble trying to think of any gadget that could be more useless.

More information at Switched.com

Combining BlueBotic’s Autonomous Navigation Technology (ANT) technology with a Nespresso machine and a Pocket PC, they have developed a system that will come to you and let you order your coffee, and will then brew it for you, right there, on the spot.

You can, of course, pre-order, using a browser and your office LAN. I’m not too sure how the staff here at The Grill would like one of these taking over their job, but I’m pretty sure that I want one of these.

More details here.

Is the traditional business card dead?

This one is a bit like the Kindle vs traditional books argument, and like books, I think there’s a certain aesthetic about traditional business cards that no amount of electronics can begin to approach. A well designed business card should tell you something about the person, as well as that person’s function. More here.

Advertising on Your License Plates?

San Francisco startup Smart Plate has developed some digital license plates, which, if California Senator Curren Price has his way, could soon be used as mini advertising billboards to help raise cash for that state.

Quite frankly, I find this concept quite offensive: we have way too much advertising already, and we are also, as drivers, confronted with way too many distractions on our roads. The last thing we need is advertising for Bob’s Country Bunker on the truck in front of you at the lights.

What’s wrong with the concept of less advertising?

Smile For Your Dessert

At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, SapientNitro is testing its new smile activated vending machine. Using technologies drawn from the augmented reality and facial recognition realms, this device asks you to smile, and when it determines that your grin is wide enough, it gives you an ice cream.

Cool, eh?

Tweeting Leads to Cuddling

Did you know that there’s a chemical that makes you cuddle? Neither did I.

But apparently, oxytocin can stimulate lots of good things in us: feelings of trust, security, it can even reduce anxiety levels and might be responsible for positive sexual feelings. Oxytocin is a hormone that’s produced in our brains, and a recent study suggests that social networking activities, like tweeting, may stimulate its production.

For more details, please check this Mashable story.

During the week Huawei came to town with a showcase of devices, including an upgraded E5, some other similar pocketable 3G modem/routers, video phones, and the Android powered SmaKit S7 tablet device.

We are looking forward to getting our hands on the new E5 and a S7, and will tell you what you need to know these devices as soon as we can.

Costing just a couple of dollars to manufacture, this small device clips onto the phone, and then the patient interacts with the phone to get red and green lines to intersect. After just a couple of minutes, the device and software is able to diagnose vision problems, and prepare a prescription for the patient.

This seems to be an especially useful tool in developing countries, where advanced facilities are too often non-existent.

More details here.

We’ve spoken in the past about femtocell technology: devices that act as a small mobile phone cell, perhaps right in your own living room. These devices connect as a part of your local intranet connection, but connect back to your mobile phone service provider to give you coverage when you live, as I do, in what effectively is a Faraday Cage.

In the US, AT&T are now rolling these out into all regions, but here, nobody knows a damn thing about them Get your acts together, mobile service providers. You are not providing us with the services we’re paying you for.

I’ve not seen this myself, but then again, I try to take photos with a camera, rather than a phone, whose lens may well have been smeared with greasy fingers while being used as a phone, media player, address book, iFart generator …

Apple’s magsafe power connectors are a good thing, allowing your power cord to disconnect itself from an attached device when you trip over that device’s power cord.

In Britain, designer Konstantinos Ladas has developed a concept using an internally reinforced cable along with a PVC housing that lets power cables attached to various devices be safely pulled, by the cord, from the wall socket.

Just a very simple concept, really, but simple ideas are often the best.

Belgian artist Tim Bouden created a graphic novel back in 2001; this was based upon the Oscar Wilde play, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest.’. Bouden turned the play into a gay satire by replacing originally female roles with males.

The App Store couldn’t originally see the joke, however, and initially banned the app of a comic adaptation of Wilde’s story.

They’ve now since relented, and the uncensored app is now available.

More at http://www.switched.com/2010/06/16/apple-censors-oscar-wilde-comic-over-gay-kiss-realizes-how-dumb/

Olympus also make a couple of adapters for this camera, those being one that lets you use your standard four thirds format glass on the Pen, and another that lets you use any vintage OM compatible glass that you might be able to get your hands on.

Olympus were kind enough to supply The Gadget Grill with a Pen, both lenses, and an OM adapter for review. As you may already know, we here at the Grill have a long involvement in photography, and we were keen to see if the new Pen could recreate some of the magic that the original Pen was revered for.

First, let’s look at a couple of background issues, so that we can fully understand where this camera sits in the market place.

I’ve certainly been underwhelmed at the market position of the whole four thirds DSLR situation. It has but a few players, and, although those players make products of a very high standard, the DSLR market place continues to be dominated by the products of Canon and Nikon. The four thirds presence in this market is merely a thimble in an ocean, so to speak.

So, what of the new Micro Four Thirds format then? For starters, it’s not a new format; it’s a variation on the existing four thirds format, using the same underlying design parameters, but with the removal of some basic camera features that a DSLR user takes for granted. In nutshell, those features are all embodied in the DSLR’s mirror box assembly, and this mirror-box-ectomy results in a camera that is smaller and lighter, but lacks an optical viewfinder. Thus, the camera cannot properly be caller any sort of “reflex” camera. I’ve seen the format referred to as “EVIL” (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens), but that truly does this camera a disservice.

Olympus have a long history of making great cameras and glass, and the original Pen (and its derivatives) was one of several of their cameras that could be regarded as truly collectible. This was a half frame 35mm film camera, meaning that on a normal roll of film, you were shooting just a half of a normal 35mm frame for each image that you made. On a 36 exposure roll of film you could get 72 exposures, and the quality of the glass still meant that you were getting very good quality images.

The concept of the new Pen, with the micro four thirds format, echoes the original Pen’s place in the market, and to my mind, resurrecting the old name is very clever marketing on the part of Olympus.

So, how does the Pen fare in the company of modern day cameras? Is it mightier than the swords proffered by Nikon and Canon? Does it stand on its own merits, as a viable camera for you to use?

To answer that last question first, yes, undoubtedly. It is a very fine camera, and one of the first things that impressed us was the feel of the camera. Metal body, small but very solid, almost brick-like in its feel in the hand. This feels as if it can be a workhorse camera, whereas many of the other cameras in this (and several other) market place feel too light and plasticky. This camera feels very good in the hand.

The main command dial reminds me of some old cigarette lighters, and falls directly under a path that your thumb passes by when needing to change stuff. Follow that path to the right for the control dial; or towards the left for pretty well most of the rest of the controls that live to the right of the nice 3″ LCD.

Controls seem logical and well placed, with most of them grouped together on the camera back, to the right hand side of the LCD. Mostly, this control placement makes the camera very easy to handle, but for my heavy fat fingers, the control dial directly to the right of the display was a little too sensitive, and this affected my ability to properly control some of the camera’s functions. I’m still undecided as to whether this is a “me” problem – for which I need to adjust my use of the camera – or whether it’s something inherent in the camera.

In a related vein, the on/off switch is a push button, on the camera’s top plate, right next to the shutter release button. Smaller, with a slightly raised illuminated (when the camera is turned on) ring surrounding it, but otherwise flush with the top plate. The shutter release is raised so there’s some differentiation, but I don’t like this sort of on/off switch design. I suspect that it might be confusing for users, who might inadvertently switch the camera off when trying to make an image, or when trying to adjust EV compensation, for which there’s a similar button on the opposite side of the shutter button. I would prefer some sort of a two position switch, perhaps in a collar surrounding the shutter switch. I will add that Olympus are not alone in their use of this sort of design, and I have seen it in a number of other cameras.

The only controls that are outside of this region are the shooting mode dial, which is under your left thumb, and the aforementioned EV compensation button, located on the extreme top right of the top plate.

The Pen seems to me to have a good implementation of live view. I think Nikon have taken the CLS approach and way over-complicated how Live View works, whereas on cameras like their old CoolPix 5000, it was very simple. Slow, but simple. As such, I’ve yet to be able to master live view on the high end Nikons in a manner that’s truly practical from a usability sense, and in fact I have yet to understand a need for the manner in which it’s been implemented. The Olympus implementation seems to me to be way better than Nikon’s efforts.

AF speed seems reasonable, and in use we could see facial recognition focus indicators popping up on the screen to help you achieve a sharp image. We did however observe one very unusual reaction from the facial recognition system in that it seemed to recognise my rear end as a face at one point. One wonders what the camera was trying to tell me here.

In good light, focus speed is acceptable, and the camera is a very usable tool, and if you leave the camera to its own devices and let it run with the iAuto setting, you will see quite good results.

In lower light, focus speed might suffer, but in really low light, it’s the image quality that suffers most of all. As you use the cameras high ISO settings, image quality can be significantly degraded.

One surprisingly useful and elegant feature came into play when using manual focus mode: when the camera senses that you are manually focusing your proposed image, the display switched into a digital zoomed-in mode, permitting you to easily focus upon some of the finer details in your subject.

In-camera black and white is quite nice, with good levels of contrast available. And you have a variety of shooting formats available to you as well. You can even shoot square format, in the camera. Interestingly, Olympus call this 6×6, but of course, for those of familiar with shooting on 6cm x 6cm medium format cameras, this is a long way from 6×6.

Which brings me to the sensor size. The four thirds format uses a crop sensor, with a crop factor of roughly 2x. This provides you with an angle of view approximately equivalent to half that expected from a given lens when compared with what you would see on a 35mm film camera. For sports photography, this can be a very useful feature, as it provides you with the effective equivalent of a focal length double that of the lens that you’re using. Conversely, if you want to shoot using wider angles, you need to go to extreme wide angle focal lengths in order to achieve some element of a wide angle view.

For instance, my favourite focal length when shooting 35mm film stock was always 24mm. With the two kit lenses available for the E-P1, the 17mm translates to 34mm (only moderately wide) and while the 14-42 comes in wider at a 28mm equivalency (at the wide end), that is still somewhat short of the sandpit I like to play in.

So, a lens with a wider field of view is, I think, desirable for this camera.

Ok, so we’ve decided that this is a very nice camera. But it’s not perfect, and the most obvious problem is it’s outdoors usability.

Because the camera doesn’t have a built in optical viewfinder, then you need to rely upon the display on the rear of the camera. This is certainly adequate for shooting indoors, but if you take the camera outside on a sunny day, then shooting becomes something of a hit and miss affair. Fortunately, we’re shooting with cameras, so there’s little chance of causing any critical damage in the case of a miss.

If you’re using the 17mm you should attach the accessory optical viewfinder to the hotshoe, but if you’re using any other lens, then shooting outdoors in bright conditions may prove problematic for you, and this should be borne in mind if you are considering purchasing this camera.

Which brings to the most important point of all: would I buy one of these? Absolutely. This is definitely a camera I could live with, as an adjunct to my bigger and heavier DSLRs. It’s small and light and almost pocketable, and very capable of helping me to produce images of a very high quality. For me, this would make an excellent walk-around or travel camera.

I should note that the camera also has quite acceptable and easy to use video capabilities, but in my personal use of this camera I did not have an opportunity to really give this facility a serious trial.

In this demo, we’ll look at the Wacom Bamboo Dock, drawing in Twitter, and how this new tablet runs with Adobe Photoshop, Audition, and even Notepad inside of Windows 7.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Take a look below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

First of all, this is not intended to be an iPhone killer. Far from it: this phone is clearly targeted at the youth market, and I can see parents buying these for their children, safe in the knowledge that they’re unlikely to be hit by telco bill-shock when the accounts come home to roost.

Three's "Facebook Phone," also known as the INQ1.

Three market this phone along with some very good value packages. How about 4000 minutes of Skype talk time for about the cost of a cup of coffee? Tell your kids to talk to their friends on Skype, instead of paying the telco for all of that chatter!

In terms of addressing this market, Three have very definitely hit the nail on the head. The packaging of the phone, while a little bit iPhone like in terms of the quality and materials, is very brightly coloured and, I think, guaranteed to appeal to the young.

Open the box, remove the phone, and there’s deck of brightly coloured cards that direct you through the important functions that the phone offers you. This is a very simple, but very effective way of providing the user with a quick-start manual. Much better, I think, than a boring old leaflet.

Turn the phone on, and there’s more bright colours. Again, this is, I think, very effective targeting on the part of INQ and Three.

Access Facebook, Skype, and pretty much every other social networking service your teenager uses all on the go.

Ok, so this phone is very pretty, but does it work?

Yes, and very well. It’s really loaded with features, above and beyond the the call of duty, and well beyond what many other phones offer. While for me, many of these features might seem to be gimmicky, I’m an old fuddy-duddy, and this is not a phone that I would be buying for myself.

But I’m sure that my 15 year old niece would love one. There’s the key: Skype, Facebook, eBay, Windows Live Messenger, Last FM … what more does a teenager want?

As good as it is, and as well targeted as it is, it’s not perfect, even within its designated niche. Like many other phones, this uses a USB connector for its headphone output. This is simply a big no-no, regardless of the target market.

The Master Reset fails to address resetting of all of the features. For instance, your Skype credentials remain firmly in place after performing this function. Oops.

The predictive text settings are less than intuitive: three others, also very conversant with mobile phone technology, as well as myself, could not find a way to turn this off. I needed to look at the manual for this. I’m of the opinion that if one needs to look at the manual for this sort of thing, the designers have not done a really good job.

The Facebook Phone. Recommended by a Dad.

That’s about it. This is a small unit, very pocketable, with reasonable battery life and very versatile functionality. It even supports being used as a 3G modem from your laptop, and both Windows and OS X are supported.

If you’re looking to get a phone for the kids, I would highly recommend adding this to your list of must-sees.

I can recall seeing that the charge light on the battery unit, originally glowing red, had changed to green. The LCD indicators were also displaying five bars, which I took to mean that the battery unit was fully charged. That was Tuesday afternoon.

Thursday morning the iPhone indicated a lowish level of charge, and I decided that I should give it a top-up charge from the Power Monkey.

This was a great idea in theory, but in practice, it proved problematic: the LCD charge indicator, when I turned the Power Monkey on, displayed four, rather five, bars. Where did the other bar go? I have no idea.

But that was just the start of the problem. Logically, one might be inclined to believe that by displaying four bars out of a possible five, the battery perhaps held 4/5 (80%) of its maximum charge, and that level of charge should not present any challenges.

I left the units connected, so that the Power Monkey could recharge the iPhone, and returned to check on the status after about an hour. I was very surprised, and very disappointed, to see that the iPhone’s display was telling me that it was no longer being charged, and that its level of charge had not increased substantially from an hour earlier.

Looking at the Power Monkey, all was revealed: it had turned itself off. Turning it on, its battery charge indicator was just one bar, and the battery icon was flashing, indicating that it was in need of a charge.

The battery was exhausted!

Needless to say, I was very disappointed with this outcome. I was especially disappointed at the absence of any real indication as to the true level of the power available from the Power Monkey, as demonstrated by its change of state from an indicated four bars to a level of exhausted in less than an hour, along with any real evidence of a transfer of power from the Power Monkey’sbattery to that of my iPhone.

Over this last few days, the level of sunshine in Sydney has not been good, and thus I’ve not been able to recharge the Power Monkey using the solar cell. I’m disappointed, because I truly wanted this to work, and to work well.

I want to continue this experiment into the next few weeks and months, because I am of the belief that the theory is sound.

I also see some benefits in the use of this device: one of my greatest frustrations, when traveling, is the number and variety of different power adapters ad charges you need to carry with you for a trip. One for your computer, another for your phone, a third for your music player, then there’s your GPS, your camera, your external storage device, your sound recorder (if you’re recording interviews and the like, as a journalist might) … the list goes on and on.

I find the concept of taking just one power adapter, and a supply of interchangeable tips, to be a compellingly attractive one, and the basic promise offered by the Power Monkey seems to make this concept a potential reality, with the additional benefit of being able to use solar power instead of mains power as a power source.

But the battery provided with the Power Monkey Express might be a tad under-specified for this usage. At this stage, I’m still undecided, but I’m going to persevere with my observations and report further.

Look for Part 3 and final review (with grade) in a few weeks.

We’ve talked before about some of Samsung’s touchscreen devices as early as our second radio show, and while those handsets felt a lot like they were playing on the same turf as the iPhone, the new Samsung UltraTouch is a handset with a different feel to it.

From what we can tell, it’s been designed to be more of an evolution of your regular phone rather than a Smartphone. That said, it’s got an 8 megapixel camera, a touchscreen, and a handy fake call function built into the phone that actually works.

Take a look below where we review it in one of our videos…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Briefly, Power Monkey manufacture a range of rechargeable portable power sources for our everyday digital devices. The basic idea is that you charge up your Power Monkey, and you then use that as a power source for your device. This means that, in theory, you just need only your power monkey, and from that you can charge up your mobile phone, your iPod, your bluetooth headset, and so on.

For many of their power sources, they also include a matched solar cell from which you can recharge the included power source. This gives you a choice of charging your Power Monkey from either normal mains power or from the sun, or perhaps from within your car if you get the optional car adapter.

They supplied me with a Power Monkey Express, which comes with the battery, solar charger, and a series of replaceable tips to suit different user devices that one might own.

With this product in hand, I’ve decided that my iPhone is now to become fully solar powered. I’m now going to only recharge my iPhone’s battery using the Power Monkey’s battery, and the Power Monkey, in turn, is going to only be recharged using the solar cell.

So far I’ve managed to get two charges into the iPhone with no issues, with the Power Monkey being reduced to, according to its status display, about 50% power. About one hour in the afternoon sun in Studio A at 2RDJ, seems to have restored the Power Monkey battery to full power.

Product impressions thus far are that the primary components – the battery unit, the solar cell, and the mains power supply – are all robust and very well constructed. The connectors have water resistant rubber protectors on them to help protect them from the elements.

So far, the only device tip that I’ve used has been the iPhone one, and my impression is that this may not be up to the same build quality as the rest of the product. For instance, the tip’s fit, into the iPhone, doesn’t quite feel as positive as a real iPhone connector does, and in fact, on about its third insertion, it actually fell apart! This was not a really serious problem in terms of this disabling the device, as it was a simple matter to fully reassemble the tip, but it was disappointing, and disconcerting, nonetheless.

For completeness of information, my iPhone is a one year old, series 1 (2G) iPhone.

More to come as I continue this test over a longer term.