theVooner's weblog

A weblog for theVooner.com where the best cool gear and gadgets get reviewed.

last modified Jul 15, 2003 at 1:45

Friday, May 23, 2003

Anniversary Sony AIBO

Although the thrill/appeal of the AIBO has all but dissipated, nevertheless it has always been a curiousity. It's been surprising 4 years since this electronic pet made its debut. In celebration of its anniversary, Sony has launched a new very cool looking blue AIBO. While it may be nothing more than an slight comestic upgrade to the existing AIBO it is still a pretty cool gadget and now in my favorite color!

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 8:30 | 0 comments

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Nokia 6108 Mobile Phone with Pen Input

Nokia sent me an e-mail about the new 6108 handset. Similar to the 6100 and 6600 in terms of looks, the 6108 has a unique handwriting feature which allows you to use a detachable "pen" from the back of the phone to input text/numbers. Interesting. Not very stylish, but this could be particularly useful for Chinese character input. Not that I would ever use it.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 1:43 | 0 comments

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Eyetop Head Mounted Display

I think I was one of those really sill people like 3 years ago that fell in love with the HMD concept. I bought one of the first virtual Io-glasses and managed to hook up a cool computer game to it. I could turn to look down different alleys. It was actually pretty fun. But it also gave me the nastiest headaches so I eventually stopped using it.

The Eyetop looks like a modern day update of the HMD. I'm a sucker for these sort of high-tech completely absurd gadgets. Of course I'd probably have to buy a portable DVD player or something but it looks pretty fun.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 21:04 | 0 comments

Sunday, May 18, 2003

New Vaio Lineup -- Awesome new TR1

It's been over 2 and a half years since I had my Sony Picturebook. Not much has changed in the Picturebook format which is why I have long ignored it. Vaoi has continued to ignore the Tablet PC format and instead has continued to launch new laptops. Just announced is the really cool looking TR1. Stealing a page right out of my last Fujitsu P series laptop, the TR1 incorporates the camera of the Picturebook, its slim design, and merges it with a DVD/CDRW drive and a larger 10.6" screen. WLAN is also built in. A very nice portable laptop.

Take a look, it looks really good (albeit a bit Mac-ish, in that it looks like a similar color scheme to the iPod/iBook).

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 21:24 | 0 comments

Thursday, May 15, 2003

NEC DVD Drive +RW/-RW

I have slowly started to worry about the pace at which my hard drive is filling up. Both laptops are filling up incredibly fast, with digital photos and MP3 files quickly taking up space. As a result, recordable DVD drives are certainly holding their appeal. I previously mentioned the Sony DVD drive back in late April. Hot on its heels is the NEC's ND-1300A. What makes the NEC drive so appealing is that 1) like the Sony, it records in both +RW AND -RW formats, thereby eliminating the incompatibility, and 2) it only cost US$250! Now that's appealing. Considering I'm on the verge of potentially buying a D100 and recording 10MB RAW images, I'm going to need a lot more space...

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 22:05 | 0 comments

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

JVC XA SD1 MP3 Player

While I've been more than happy with my choice of the MPIO FL100, there are lots over new MP3 players hitting the market. The new Apple iPod has my total attention, but for those of you that want smaller players, this new one from JVC looks very good. Similar to other SD card MP3 players like those from Panasonic, the SD1 is an ultra compact player. I haven't seen one in person, but it looks fairly impressive.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 22:03 | 0 comments

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Sony Vaio Z Series

Although the new Sony Vaio Z1 has been out for nearly 2 months now, it didn't get much attention from me because I didn't even realise that they had a new model. But after seeing a few times over the past few weeks in the store, it is a really fantastic looking laptop. I like the new design that Sony has come up with. It really does produce a much needed stylistic improvement to laptops. So far the big downside is that it's pretty expensive, especially in dollar terms.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 21:04 | 2 comments

Monday, May 12, 2003

Sony Ericsson T610 mobile phone

The new T610 certainly looks as if it's the replacement for the T68. Very similar in size, the T610 boasts a much larger and better (STN, 65K colors) screen. I had a chance to see the demo mock-up of the phone yesterday and I must say it looks very impressive. I haven't seen the screen up close, but it certainly sounds like it has much better specs than the P800. I wonder why SonyEricsson did that? Anyway, it's something to look out for. When it finaly does come out, I'll give it a careful consideration. You know theVooner is a sucker for new phones...

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 18:52 | 0 comments

Thursday, May 8, 2003

Panasonic P2102V Mobile Phone

I still get impressed by what kind of mobile phones the Japanese manage to put out. I don't know why, but I just like the design, technology, etc. so much more. Take the new P2102V phone about to be launched. What can I say other than I want one. It's a 3G phone so I'll have to wait for 3G to appear here in Hong Kong, but I hope they hurry up.

theVoone@yahoo.com

posted at 22:34 | 0 comments

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Panasonic New Line of DVD recorders

While I'm still keenly set on the upcoming Sony dual format (+RW/-RW) DVD RDR-GX& recorder, Panasonic has launched a number of new DVD recorders. 5 to be exact, the Diga range of recorders are interesting and very elegant hifi additions to any home system. I'm especially keen on consolidating hundreds of video tapes and throwing them all away saving me much needed room. Still, I like the Sony player which will ensure more universal compatibility. But the Panasonic may be a better price choice. It's nice that we have options.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 19:43 | 0 comments

Monday, May 5, 2003

Casio Exilim S3 - Had to get it...

One big downside to all this hardware churning is that I've accumulated quite a bit of points on my credit card. So when AE did a special promotion with the points and vouchers for the electronic store, I jumped at the opportunity. I walked into the store with the intention of buying a new digital camera. At the top of my list were the new Sony P10 with a whopping 5 Megapixels and the Casio Exilim S3, which has an amazing 2" LCD screen.

First, I tried out the P10. While 5MP is impressive, the camera is no different than the P9 in design, size, weight, etc. Not very exciting truthfully. Add to this the major problem that the new Sony Memorystick Pro was darn expensive and I was pretty turned off.

On the flip side, the S3 was just amazing. Sure, you're limited to 3.2MP, but the quality of that LCD screen is amazing. It is by far the largest, brightest LCD screen I have ever seen on a camera. Just outstanding. So with my free coupons, plus a few dollars extra, I bought one! I'm pretty happy with it and have been playing with it for a few days. Hopefully, we'll be able to get you all a review soon.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 1:21 | 2 comments

Saturday, May 3, 2003

New Review -- Nokia 7250

Just posted -- the new Nokia 7250 review. Sorry the pictures were a little bit poor given that they had to be taken with the DSC-U20. If you need additional info and/or pictures, just check out the Nokia site directly. Bottom line: the phone is ok, but definitely watch out for other newer models.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 2:45 | 0 comments

Friday, May 2, 2003

Nikon D100... still lots of appeal

I can't stop looking at the D100. It's been out for awhile now so I'm always afraid a new model will come out. But it's an SLR digital and Nikon does take its time. From all I've read, it's a great camera. I've been reading a thousand and one comments about it from every forum/message board/review. Now that the price has continued to come down (with a little help from the Canon 10D) it's about time to take the plunge.

So I went into the store and was all set to get one. Except that the lens I want isn't there yet. The new Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm ED-IF VR lens is about to come out. When it does, I'll more than likely get one. BTW, it won't be a huge burden because I'm going to trade in my Leica M6 for it. Yeah!

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 3:31 | 2 comments