Category Archives: Gadgets

Canon PowerShot A720 IS : Incremental Update

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Canon PowerShot A720 IS

The Canon PowerShot A720 IS is an upgrade to the A710 IS, which was a very good point-and-shoot camera-one of the best that we saw during our comparison test lest year. The most prominent change in the A720 IS, is it’s resolution. It is now an 8 Megapixel camera as posed to the 7.1 MP A710. The picture quality has stayed pretty much the some too. The ISO level on this camera goes up to 1600. The A710 IS had a maximum of 800. The amount of grain beyond 800 is pretty bad and should be avoided as fer as possible. The zoom lens is decent and theres no serious degradation of quality at maximum zoom.

The colors- as with all other Canons-are vary neutral and not exaggerated. The images aren’t too high on contrast so there’s a smooth balance between the dark and the bright areas. This makes for some good portrait photography. The flash is pretty powerful too and the slow sync mode works rather well in illuminating the background in shots with the flash on Macro shots are fairly easy to shoot and it’s possible to get extremely close to the object. The A720 IS now has a face detection feature , which works well and tracks people through darker areas as well.
The movie quality is decent and actually usable in low light situations . there are no sudden jumps in exposure while moving from bright areas to dark ones. Image stabilization evens out the bumps and the zoom works well, although a little aggressively, in the movie shooting mode. The A720 IS, is incrementally superior to the A710 IS. The problem with the A720 IS, is not so much to do with the camera itself, but with the other cameras even from canon itself in the same price bracket. The SX100 is more or available for the same price in the market and comes with a 10X optical zoom. If any, the A720 IS’s only advantage is that of being a little more compact then the SX100 IS.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Kodak Easyshare v1073 : Average Camera With HD Capabilies

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With touchscreen devices getting cheaper and making their way into every possible gadget, cameras aren’t being left out. Now, it’s Kodak’s turn. The EasyShare V1073 is an 11MP camera with a 3x optical zoom. It is thin enough to fit into a shirt pocket easily, but that also make it a little difficult to hold with a single hand. The touchscreen also makes it difficult to use the camera with just one hand. The power and shoot buttons are positioned close to each other. The 3-inch screen doesn’t have great quality-it is pretty difficult to use outdoors even with the brightness turned up high.

The quality of photos isn’t too different from its predecessors. The colours in the photos are pretty natural but the sharpness will likely be a little too much for most people,s liking. There is image stabilization, but images still end up a little blurry in well-lit scenarios. There is vary little control given to the user, so there is not a lot you can experiment with. One of the key features is the HD 720p video recording resolution. A typical 25 second clip is 43 MB in size. The quality of the video clips is pretty impressive. The touch screen makes a few other features easily accessible. For example, you can actually type in a tag for every single photo that you shoot using an on-screen keyboard. The high definition video recording is a feature that will interest many.
The price of $300 is a fairly attractive price for a camera with these unique features.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Altec Lansing inMotion iM600 : iPods On The Move

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Altec Lansing inMotion iM600 is an iPod dock that doubles as a radio and speaker for your PC or any other MP3 player. The dock itself is stylish and compact, and is a small rectangular block but can be unfolded on a table. All the iPod models can be docked, including latest ipod touch. You can charge your iPod or synchronize your music as well.

Altec Lansing inMotion iM600
There are controls for volume adjustment at the base of dock and the track switching buttons on the top. The volume control buttons are hard and tacky, whereas the smaller track controlling buttons are very soft and tiny. There dose not seem to be any button for pausing or stopping tracks. Other then that, the dock is simple to use and comes with an inbuilt display on the front, which shows the source of track and volume control. There’s also a compact little remote control, like those found on many of there desktop speakers sets.

The iM600 has good music quality, but it lacks bass in the tracks due to its flat design. It loud though, and there is little or distortion with the volume set to maximum. The SFX button doesn’t really do a whole lot other then making the sound slightly better. The dock comes with an auxiliary connector, which means you can connect any other ipod MP3 player to it, or even your computer for that matter. You also can use it an FM radio, and the antenna comes well tucked in to the back of the dock. One of the biggest plus points of this product is the inbuilt chargeable Liion battery that charges itself when powered on. This dock is then mobile but docking an ipod in a moving vehicle might not be good idea-the base plug could damage itself or the ipod connector from the vibrations.
The Altec Lansing iM600 is priced at $190. It’s a tad costlier then we’d like it to be, but the functionality, flexibility and performance that it offers is hard to come by in such a product, especially in the iPod’s Accessories market.

Popularity: 18% [?]