Big Screen Dynamo - MacBook 17-Inch Unibody

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla The recently released unibody Aluminum MacBook Pro with the 17-inch LED screen is the answer to the prayers of lovers of digital photography, graphic designers and video editors. Revealed at the otherwise lackluster Macworld event earlier this month, the new 17 completes the Mac portable line’s transition to the newer, more resilient unibody enclosure. What sets the 17 apart from the rest, aside from the increased weight and larger footprint, is the inclusion of a non-user removable 8-hour battery as well as an option for a matte screen upgrade (without the glossy glass overaly). The battery is a new direction for Apple which was hinted at with last year’s introduction of the MacBook Air, to the disdain of road warriors who insisted that the non-removable 5-hour battery was insufficient for a full days worth of work. More on the 17-inch MacBook Pro after the jump Apple’s website explains the thinking behind the new 17’s battery solution: “The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to 8 hours on a single charge and can be recharged up to 1000 times — compared with only 200 to 300 times for typical notebooks. To do this, Apple engineers custom-designed lithium-polymer cells to create the largest possible battery, then they went even further: They built the battery right into the computer, eliminating the space-consuming mechanisms and housings that standard removable batteries require. The result is a battery that’s 40 percent bigger than the previous generation and offers up to 8 hours of wireless productivity on a single charge — all in a notebook that’s less than an inch thin, weighs just 6.6 pounds, and remains the same price as the previous-generation model.” Granted that a 17-inch notebook isn’t really designed for a lot of travel, I can see a lot of people having problems with the idea of a non-removable battery. Having used a MacBook Air exclusively (and realizing that the 4.5 battery life is really 3 hours at best, even with all settings tweaked to minimum) you need to carry you power adapter. Apple’s 8 hour claim is likely closer to 5 hours, specially after a few months when the battery has seen substantial use. Still, 8 hours on a 17-inch behemoth is unheard of in the industry and a definite sign of things to come. Now, can Apple apply this magnificent battery technology and adaptive charging backwards to existing models? They should, people will pay good money for even a 6-hour replacement battery for their Macbook Air or replaceable cells for their 15' inch Pros and MacBooks. The new 17 offers processors ranging from a standard 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo to a pretty beefy 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo. 4 GB of RAM come standard and can be bumped up to a mind-numbing 8 GB. Those with an SSD jones can put out even more cash for a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive. It would have been cool to offer a build-to-order feature eliminating the SuperDrive with an additional HD or SSD drive for people who need more storage space. As with the other MacBooks, the 17 is Greenpeace compliant and eliminates a lot of toxic materials and bi-products. It offers highly recyclable parts and even has a Mercury-free LED-backlit display which will appease those of greener inclinations. With a whopping $2,800 price, this really is a tool that your office or job should pay for. Students and those with more modest needs should look to the Macbook line, which seems to be the sweet spot in terms of price, size and features.

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Windows 7 - Promise of a New Day

Windows 7: Loading soon in a PC near youMicrosoft is still reeling from the fiasco that was Windows Vista. 2008 for them was really all about dodging the backlash from customers and PC manufacturers who turned to Linux or offered, “upgrades” to Windows XP on new Vista machines. The Mac vs. PC advertisements, which poked fun at Vista’s shortcomings, eventually led to Microsoft’s rebuttal in the form of the “I am a PC” ads, which gave a more human face to PC users. This didn’t really ease the sting from unhappy Vista users or computer resellers but it showed the software company was aware of the perception that Vista had fallen short of expectations. Rather than continue beating a dead horse, Microsoft wisely gave advance notice of a successor to Windows Vista. Redesigned from the ground up, the new version made it to public beta recently. More on Windows 7 after the jump. A New Hope Windows 7, which is supposed to make it to market late this year, carries with it the hopes of millions of users. It is supposed to be the breakthrough OS that patches all of Vista’s flaws and offers what Microsoft is calling, “a major Windows release.” Will 2009 be the year of redemption for Windows, it remains to be seen but for now we can gloss over the features and improvements that lucky 7, Windows that is, will be bringing to market. Multi-touch technology, currently making waves in iPods, tablets and some smartphones, will be integrated into Windows 7; we see this as a handy feature for Tablet PC users or for touch screen enabled notebooks. Multi-touch is a great party trick and does have some uses but for most mainstream users it isn’t a big deal. Users will see more of the new Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a spiffy home networking system called HomeGroup and performance improvements. A lot of the applications that Microsoft used to include in Vista, will be cast away from the system to trim the fat and give users a more solid OS that requires less storage space. Fans of Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery might miss these built-in apps but the rest of us can rejoice their departure. You will still be able to get them separately as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, part of Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative of offering applications online. Windows 7 users will also see updated versions of Paint and WordPad plus more things to tweak in the Control Panel including Accelerators, ClearType text tuner, Display Color Calibration, Gadgets, Infrared, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors. Expect upgraded functionality on the Start Menu and the rest of the taskbar that will now be called the Superbar and will feature Jump Lists that is a way of accessing common tasks. Lean and Able Microsoft wants to make sure that Windows 7 is as lean an operating system as it can possibly be. Aside from ditching all the add-ons which users don’t really need, they are supposedly streamlining the code to trim out the bloat that has swelled up since the days of Windows 3.1. The result is that Windows 7 will run well in machines that Windows Vista could not. It remains to be seen if Windows 7 will have as many versions as Windows Vista did, hopefully Microsoft will just offer a home and a professional (business) version like they did with Windows XP. This is exceptional news for the netbook crowd who are stuck in XP land simply because Vista is too bloated to function on stripped down systems. Newer PCs like Sony's new VAIO P have been proven to run Windows 7 quite well despite choking on Windows Vista Home. One thing is certain, Microsoft has learned their lesson and won’t be shipping a product that is premature and still buggy. If it has learned anything about the painful Windows Vista experience, it is that the extra time taken to refine a product can only make things better. Shipping something that “just works,” is less expensive than constantly patching unfinished and buggy software. Users will finally be getting the efficient and stable OS they deserve.

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Eye-Fi Home Wi-Fi SD Card now in Canada

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla We were surprised to come across a bunch of Eye-Fi Home SD cards at the Black's Kiosk in Toronto's Dufferin Mall. The Eye-Fi cards, which are basically Secure Digital Cards that have Wi-Fi connectivity and features. They allow instantaneous downloading to either a PC or a photo sharing website (provided Wi-Fi is available) have been around for a year but have only recently made it to mainstream retailers in the US. More after the break. As with many things tech-related, Canada usually has to wait a few months to a year (i.e. iPhone) to gain local access to these devices. The appearance of the Eye-Fi was a local reseller was a great surprise but the pricing was a bit dissapointing. In the US the 2 GB Eye-Fi sells for US$75, in Black's it goes for $99.00 Canadian plus tax. Home Edition The Eye-Fi Home version offers users the most basic of Eye-Fi features. You can wirelessly upload photos from your camera to your computer via your home wireless network. This is convenient if you don't want to fiddle with USB connectors and adapters. Transfers are fairly quick but would depend greatly on the quality and speed of your connection as well as your file sizes. For a price you can upgrade the functionality of the Eye-Fi Home card and add Geotagging and the Webshare feature. Webshare gives you the ability to automatically upload photos to any of the following the more popular online photo services such as Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, MobileMe, PhotoBucket, SnapFish, ShutterFly and others. You can also subscribe to a hotspot service which will allow you to upload photos while one the go provided you live in the US and are within area coverage. For photographers, the Eye-Fi offers a number of conveniences and tmakes most digital cameras (that that SD cards) wireless devices. In a home studio setting, the Eye-Fi can transfer photos directly to a Mac or a PC for viewing on a large screen within seconds. Not only is the flie saved in two places (the Wi-Fi card and the computer's hard drive) but you can quickly make adjustments to the photo to compensate for any flaws. The friendly salesperson at Black's said they ahd been carrying the Eye-Fi cards for two weeks but we found it surprising that they weren't prominently displayed in the store nor were they advertised. They are more expensive than standalone SD cards but for photographers that take a lot of photos and need quick transfers, these will quickly pay for themselves. Some newer cameras like Nikon's D60 and D90 DSLRs are even Eye-Fi enabled and they can sense when a card is in their slot. They regulate their power and shut-off settings automatically to enable the Eye-Fi cards to transmit all the files before the power off. Expect your battery life to take a substantial hit. We plan to write a more exhaustive review of the Eye-Fi SD cards once we've had a chance to get a test unit and integrate it into our own shooting workflows.

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Nikon Coolpix S210 - Review

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla At a friend's recent birthday party, which took place in a darkly lit dance club/bar, we decided to take photos of the event and of all the guests as a gift for the celebrant. We thought long and hard about bringing a digital SLR and decided that even Nikon's diminutive D40 would be a bit clunky to maneuver in tight spaces. The thing is, we only needed snapshots but we wanted them to look good - we've been testing the Nikon CoolPix S210 for some time, liked its size and decided to give it a chance. We weren't disappointed. More after the break. In situations like indoor parties in busy locations, the last thing you want to be doing is fiddling with a camera while you miss out on all the action. A good point and shoot that can figure our the conditions, grab the best photos and not produce too many duds is ideal. It is even better if the said camera has built in stabilization, which the Coolpix S210 has as well. We chose the party setting on the camera, enabled the VR image stabilization and had face recognition enabled. The best thing about this palm sized camera is that it is easy enough to use that you can pass it to anyone and just tell them to point and shoot and the camera does everything else. It isn't the fastest camera though, with one to two seconds time between shots depending on the image size. Slim Achiever The CoolPix S210 is an 8 megapixel point and shoot that is one of Nikon's smallest and lightest. In your pocket, it feels like it is barely there. Controls are reasonably easy and while it lacks a viewfinder, the bright 2.5 inch LCD more than compensates for this. Slim and small, the S210 is a bit tricky to hold if you have large hands. Do use the included strap to make sure the camera is secure when it slips from your fingers. The small size, smooth Aluminium body and rounded edges make it a bit tricky to hold. Still, its small size is less intrusive and less "official" looking than a DSLR which could just scare away people since who wouldn't mind posing for a snapshot from a smaller camera. For the party situation, we decided to use flash after our experience of having messy blurred shots. Between a small camera that's held unsteady, low light and moving subjects its difficult to ensure you get a clear picture. With the S210's party mode setting, the flash helped freeze the subject's movement and even better! Zero red eye! The movement and feel of the party was well captured and in the end, the celebrant was happy to have the photos to remember the event. Conclusion The Nikon S210 performed pretty flawlessly for a point and shoot. Response time could have been a lot faster but, for the S210's price ($149 at Aden Camera Downtown ) We liked the end results and the ease of use. There were a few blurred shots but we credit that to photographer error and misfiring the camera in a dark, crowded room full of dancing people.

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