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

Saturday, August 30, 2003

I'm happy...

Sorry... no new gadgets to report right now... why?? Because I just got my new Nikon D100 digital SLR camera. Yeah, I realise its been out for awhile, but I just only got around to getting one. It took forever to get the new VR lens so that's what held it up. I also traded in Leica M6 for it so it wasn't that painful on the wallet. More to report later... the battery just finished charging...

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 6:54 | 0 comments

Friday, August 29, 2003

Toshiba Gigabeat G20 MP3 player

Toshiba has introduced a 20GB super slim MP3 player called the Gigabeat G20. The most amazing thing about the G20 is the size. Looking at the pictures, it's impressive because the player is incredible thin and light. While I'm sure it won't do anything to dent the iPod, this is still another viable alternative that looks pretty impressive. I'll be looking out for it the next time I'm in Japan!

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 8:06 | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Post Birthday ...

We'll it was theVooner's birthday earlier this week. Had a lot of fun eating 3 birthday cakes! My wonderful better half gave me a new Ikepod watch -- NICE!! I overindulged on a number of other unnecessary items (mainly clothes) but it was a good few days of fun.

But back to gadgets. Other than dreaming about a new Plasma... I haven't really seen anything exciting on the horizon. The only bit of technology which seems to interest me is a DVD recordable drive/player. I'm of course torn between so many different functions, standards, and prices.

First, I now think I want a DVD drive instead of a player. Why? Because I have 4 DVD players already and only use two of them... plus, I really want to archive all the pictures and files off my hard drive. Oh well... more than likely, I'll end up with both. Right now, the DVD+-R/RW drives are very cheap so that might be the way to start. Maybe I should get a new PC first!

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 18:53 | 2 comments

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Prices, prices, prices.

Finally, I have finished travelling, life is settling down a bit, and I was ready to buy my new Plasma. For the better part of the past 5 months, I have been waiting for the price of Plasma TVs to fall. Indeed they have. But, the one model that I have been eyeing for sometime, the Hitachi PD32 has not. The price first came down right around May when noone was buying anything because of SARS. I thought I would wait a few months to see if the price would come down further. Well it's been over 3 months and the price is still the same! Darn-it. Why doesn't the price fall?

After waiting this long, its seems obvious that I should wait before buying the TV. There is no point in not waiting a bit longer since it is getting old. The problem is that it's still relatively new and it is one of the better (if not arguable the best) plasmas out there.

In the beginning of the year, manufacturers were so eager to introduce new models that prices seemed to come down every month. But the introduction of new models slowed over the last 6 months which left this void of competition. Hence, prices have stayed flat.

Which brings me to my point... when is it ever the right mix between waiting for the price to fall and buying something you want? Depending on the product of course, but its a very interesting and meaningful point. For a mobile phone for example, you can pretty much get the same model within 1-2 months at between 10-20% less than when it first comes out. That's just the fact.

I thought for a Plasma, that time was 3-4 months. Well it's been nearly 6 months and here I still am! Mis-timed it, but I believe this is not the norm. Anyway, I'm waiting, ever so impatiently for the price of this plasma to fall. When it does, I'll be happy to get it. I've waited this long, no point in buying it now when the price has a much, much higher chance of falling in the next few months -- especially when the new Christmas/year-end models are introduced.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 19:50 | 0 comments

Friday, August 22, 2003

Centrino vs. P4.

My good friend Derek put me onto these new laptops by HP, the HP Compaq NX7000. These really cool looking laptops have some pretty good specs (especially for the high-end model). I'm particularly impressed that there is a UXGA version which previously was THE main factor why I chose my current DELL. It's also widescreen which is pretty remarkable.

I'm always in the market for an upgrade although it may still be a bit early. I have been eyeing the DELL 8500 for sometime now. The two models are in fact very similar although I'm still a fan of DELL because of the ability to customize. (I really like the optional DVD+/-RW drive on the DELL.)

The main difference between the two is that the HP uses the Centrino chip while the DELL uses the P4 chip. Obviously, there are trade-offs between the two. On the one hand, an integrated wireless chip like Centrino is cool -- but how much does it take away from the power of the chip? Would that logically mean the P4 is much more powerful? On the other hand though, the Centrino is supposed to have better battery performance which could be a key factor. There are lots of other factors but I still am not sure if Centrino or just a normal P4 is the way to go.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 2:01 | 4 comments

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Small is beautiful -- Sony Digital Camera DSC-U50

I am a pretty big fan of the Sony U-series digital cameras. Sony announced a new model in the U50. Unlike the U20/U30 model, the U50 comes with a twistable lens similar to the Nikon 9XX models. This is supposed to help facilitate taking images of yourself. The U50 also takes advantage of Sony's Memory Stick DUO cards which are about half the size of the normal Memory stick (Sony also launched two new MS Duo capacities 256MB and 512MB cards). It's small, light and super cool looking.

The ONE big downside though is that it's still only 2 Mega-pixels. Why can't they put in a new upgrade on the lens? The U20 takes only average pictures. I want more!

Small and cool, but I'll pass till they come up with better optics.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 2:18 | 2 comments

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Cheap Recordable DVD Players

I am still in search of a good, reasonably priced recordable DVD Player. Panasonic has just thrown down the gauntlet with this US$600 recorder. However the as exciting as the EM60 is, thus far the big issue I have had with recordable DVD is the different standards. Panasonic unfortunately uses DVD-RAM, a format which may not be necessarily supported by existing DVD players or DVD-Roms. Hence my dilemma. Like their DVD+/- drives for computers, I'm hoping Sony, Pioneer, or Toshiba has a home recordable DVD player that can select different standards soon. (At a reasonable price of course!)

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 3:50 | 2 comments

Monday, August 18, 2003

Mobile Phone Envy

I've recently been hit by a desire to buy a new mobile phone. This was sparked by my viewing of some of the latest CDMA offerings from Samsung as well as some of the new phones availabe in Japan. Unfortunately, here in the GSM world, we are left with nothing exciting or new.

I had hope that Samsung would port over some of that great technology. But, I was wrong. The newest, the SGH-P408 while looking similar to some of the newer high-end CDMA EV-DO handsets available in Korea, falls far short. I like the rotating lens and rotating camera. But where is the flash and high-resolution lens? Where is the video taking capabilities? Where is even the most basic MMS? Just disappointing.

There is nothing on the horizon that even excites me from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, or any other vendor.

I am still waiting for Hutchison's 3 to launch here, and maybe by then, there will be some really good handsets as well. Oh well, I guess I'm going to be waiting.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 4:47 | 2 comments

Sunday, August 17, 2003

Sony Plasma HZ1 with Flat Panel control

Sony's new HZ1 Plasma comes with a super cool flat panel control. The flat panel will allow you to beam images and other things onto the Plasma wireless and acts as a secondary screen. It looks as if it connects to the Internet and can also control the TV (though there is a remote). It's just a pretty neat way of integrating the PC and a very expensive Plasma. Not a replacement, but there are some cool ideas here. You can exchange screens, capture images, etc. I like the overall idea though I would like to see a working sample.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 20:56 | 0 comments

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Rio Karma MP3 Player

Ok, it's not an iPod, but the new Rio Karma players looks like an interesting alternative. Especially with a 40GB version which looks to satisfy those that need a massive MP3 storage device. It looks pretty small too. I like the ability to transfer files between multiple PCs. I wish it would take AA/AAA batteries though. An interesting option, though I guess the iPod is still king.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 3:51 | 0 comments

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Greetings again!

I am still on the road so I apologise for not being able to maintain this blog. I am now on the west coast of the US and it has been fun, except perhaps for travelling here in the US.

I just wanted to add a blog today about travelling with gadgets. After visiting nearly 10 cities this past week, and travelling on at least 8 different flights, I have to tell you how difficult it is to get through security. Obviously, I understand why, but still! Having electronics in an airport these days are no fun. Plus, there is definitely a clear lack of "common sense" when it comes to security.

Getting on an airplane, I was glad that this time around, I left my laptop and other electronics at home. Already carrying a PDA, mobile phone, and a digital camera, I had to take out many of these items through security check, open them, turn them on, etc. It was a pain to do. Bringing a laptop would have made it much worse. I'm not just talking about the issue of time burden getting checked, but also of issues like theft. After exposing all of my gadgets, there were so many different people handling and looking at so many different things, it was easy to lose things. There were so many people forgetting their mobiles, chargers, one guy even left his laptop on the table by accident and ran off to catch his flight. I lost my PDA pen going through security.

On a typical vacation or trip around Asia, I tend to bring quite a lot of electronics. I might bring my MP3 player, laptop, 2 digital cameras, PDA, mobile phone, etc. to name but a few gadgets for the trip. Security is usually very swift but thorough. Here in the US, its not. It's actually quite chaotic. My point being that if you are travelling around the US and going through airports, you should definitely travel light when it comes to electronics. You will feel better knowing that the products will not get stolen or lost, ensure that the gadget remains in tact (lots of items mishandled by operators), and travel with less burden.

While I appreciate and understand the need for security, it just created an extra layer of difficulty in travelling that made it uncomfortable. Still, don't get me wrong, I understand completely the need to do so. I guess it was just frustrating. If you have a lot of gadgets, pick only the important ones and leave the rest at home.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 9:29 | 4 comments

Saturday, August 2, 2003

Hello All!

I'm in Europe right now for work. It's been interesting travelling around. My new iPaq (click here for the review) has been absolutely awesome. I've been able to check my e-mail (though slowly through GPRS) watch an episode of the Osbournes, and listen to MP3. Battery life is limited to one day but that's ok.

Other than that, not much to report to you on gadgets. Everyone in Europe is very impressed with the Casio Exilim S3 digital camera that I have, which means I must hurry back and do a review as soon as I get back.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 3:05 | 0 comments