In the world of digital cameras, it’s all about megapixels and storage. Today I got my hands on the Cannon PowerShot A540, this is how it stacks up.

In the Box

The box contents were your average digital camera junk: a USB cable, an A/V-out cable, a 2 pack of batteries with no brand on them, a 16 MB memory card, and the camera. I’d say you got a nice average product. As for documentation, Canon has gone far beyond the normal bulk of instruction manuals. You will find an English manual, an English quick-start guide, a Spanish instruction manual, and a Spanish quick-start guide among the papers. Also you get two (English and Spanish) fold-out diagrams on how to connect your new camera.

Software

The camera comes with a software CD. I’ve used this software before when I got my old PowerShot A300. Most of the programs on the disk are plainly trivial in use, and serve no real purpose. One program, however, allows stitching of pictures to create a panoramic picture. This utility takes your pictures and finds the similar edges, just like in Adobe Photoshop‘s photomerge script. The only issue with this program is that your images will vary in brightness when using a flash. This means fewer lines in darker pictures, so your going to get bad results from this.  Other than that utility, the other software ranges from a photo browser and USB drivers (in-case you’re still using Windows 95). The photo browser that is included…
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It looks like Brian Lam’s prediction of a Monday iPhone release was right on the money. Seriously. The long-awaited iPhone, complete with VoIP capabilities, has been released...by Cisco!

You may remember that last week Brian Lam of Gizmodo stated that the iPhone would be announced today, and lo and behold, it was. Brian Lam did say last week that “it isn’t what I expected at all.” Clearly. It seems that Cisco has owned the iPhone trademark since the 1990s. Why iphone.org redirects to Apple’s web site is still anyone’s guess, though.

If you’re looking for a VoIP handset and have $180-$200 to burn, give the iPhone a look. Also, we would like to congratulate Brian Lam for winning Daring Fireball Jackass of the Week honors. Way to go. You get a gold star.

Introduction

It’s an iPod world; I might as well acknowledge that from the start. But that isn’t stopping other manufacturers from coming out with their own ideas for digital audio players, with hopes of prying some precious market share from Apple’s death grip.

Creative Labs is one of those other manufacturers, and one of its more recent attempts is the Zen Vision:M, a hard disk-based portable digital media player designed to go after Apple’s successful full-size iPod. Like the iPod, it fits in your average coat or pants pocket and has enough disk capacity to hold an average person’s entire music library with plenty of space for videos and photos, so no matter where you are, you’ll always have your tunes (and pics and flicks).

Overview

The Creative Zen Vision:M (ZVM) is no slouch. It has all the features one would expect from a player in its class: it comes in 30GB and 60GB models; has a big, bright LCD screen; can play music, photos and videos in most of the popular formats; and includes extras such as an FM tuner with recorder, voice recording, a personal organizer, and podcast and audiobook support. It can also output to a TV set for big-screen viewing.

For navigation, the ZVM uses a three-way vertical scroll-pad with left and right directional buttons flanking it and four function buttons surrounding the entire arrangement. The only other control is a power/hold switch on the top of the player, next to its headphone jack. The bottom of…
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Anti-Conclusion

If you haven’t heard of the Logitech diNovo line, you need to stop living under a rock. I don’t actually recall anything to the effect, but I bet there were some articles on the various tech sites that announced the creation and release of the diNovo line, priced to drop jaws and sting wallets at $250. That was probably about three years ago. In the two years between then and the release of the current version, the diNovo Media Desktop has been cheapened, expensified, had its color changed slightly, and embiggened (at least the mouse has.) For the $250 you plunked down for the set, you got a keyboard with laptop-style keys, a damn-fine mouse with integrated battery (the MX900 if you want to be picky,) a number pad with a screen and calculator separate from the keyboard, and a Bluetooth connection through the mouse’s charging station to make it all useful.

There have been three versions of the Media Desktop. The first one, which I will call the “$50 more expensive than the current version” version is as described above. The next version, the “screw bleeding-edge technologies” version, was released after the diNovo Media Desktop. Called the diNovo Cordless Desktop, Logitech dumped the Bluetooth and the Fancy mouse for RF and their Cordless Mouse for Notebooks, and changed the gun-metal grey to silver. Now, sitting under my hands, being poked repeatedly in the name of science, is the third and current version of the diNovo Media Desktop (but not…
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With all of the “next generation” gaming systems now released (essentially making them no longer “next generation"), there has been quite a bit of discussion concerning how things are likely to shake out for each of the three competitors.  Nintendo, in particular, has generated debate by essentially becoming the wild card this time around.  Everyone seems to be focused as much on what the Wii lacks as on what it adds, and rightly so.

That Nintendo would choose to go the route they have is not entirely surprising.  They have always been somewhat of an oddball player, even when they dominated the market.  Remember, this is the company that decided to make a game about tiny Italian plumbers.  Why they are Italian and not Japanese I don’t know, unless perhaps there is some sort of tradesman shortage and they are forced to import them from other countries.  I would assume it is lucrative work, so those of you trying to decide on a career may wish to look into it.  Mario was, of course, later given an evil doppelganger (because why wouldn’t he have one?) whose reddish nose appearance leads me to believe that he is some sort of drunkard.  I am simply inferring this on my own though, as I have not heard anything official.

Has Wario perhaps been inhaling illegal
substances through his nose?  You tell me.

Anyway, I think the point I was trying to make had to do with Nintendo daring to be different or something.  Honestly,…
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