Sony Ericsson 580i is an ultra thin, ultra hot mobile phone. At only 14mm thick, the Sony Ericsson 580i comes with many amazing features packed into the tiny model. There is an integrated fitness applications in the phone which counts calories so that users can keep track of the workouts.

And there is a music recognition technology in the model 580i which uses TrackID, a technology that finds the title and artist of unfamiliar or familiar song. To avail this technology the users has to just hold the phone up to the music source.

Well, there is an unique feature in the phone to capture and share their momentous moments. Its 2.0 megapixel camera takes beautiful and sharp pictures, users of the phone doesn’t have to care about the volume of the clicks since it comes with 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2(TM)) memory card.

The embedded Bluetooth technology, accompanied with stereo capability and superior battery life with talk time up to nine hours, all combine to prove the point that good things in life come in small packages. And Sony Ericsson 580i is a classic example.

Many purchasers know about the Bluetooth technology, but very few understand the whole technology – how it works? Every Bluetooth device, here Sony Ericsson 580i, carry a unique name, enabling devices (Sony Ericsson 580i) to recognise each other once they have been paired, avoiding the interference with other devices. Bluetooth enabled devices communicate across distances of up to 10 metres, and at speeds of up to 720 kb/s per channel.

The tool, Bluetooth is a very essential equipment in the car. Users just have to pair the phone with a handsfree unit for safe, convenient, wireless communication while driving, letting you keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road while you make, receive and reject calls, all in one go.

Sony Ericsson 580i white

The Sony DSC W-120

I was looking for a compact, cheap, OK camera to keep in my coat pocket all the time. I wanted to have a camera that was compact and light, had acceptable image quality, image stabilization and didn’t break the bank.

Bonus points were given out for: Wide angle, low light ability, video capabilities, snappy operation

After some research, I ended up with this Sony DSC W120.

The Sony W120 is an affordable digital compact camera.

The case is made of brushed aluminum, looks great and suggests a much more expensive price tag. The startup time is pretty standard, fast enough to not feel sluggish, but no match for a digital SLR.

It has a focal length range of 32-128mm (35mm equivalent). This is a surprisingly good range for such an affordable camera. The 32mm at the wide end is much more useful than much of the competition which often offers 37-38mm as the widest.

In addition, the maximum aperture at the wide end is a pretty respectable f2.8. That is actually larger than most digital SLR standard kit lenses. While this is not an earth shuttering lens, it is faster than many comparable cameras, allowing the camera to stick to slightly lower ISOs or higher shutter speeds.

There is an optical viewfinder, but it is completely useless for framing, due to its tiny size and small coverage. This means you have to use the display to frame your shots. The display is pretty poor, it quite obviously does not have high resolution. The colors on the display are also mushy, to be kind. While all this is bad for looking at the photos, the refresh rate of the display is actually very good. There is very little lag, so framing with live view is no problem at all. The image stabilization also helps, I think.

One of the nice touches on this camera is that it goes back into shooting mode when the shutter is pressed in any menu or mode. I absolutely despise any cameras that first need to be switched to shooting mode to take a picture, fortunately the Sony DSC W120 passes the test.

The image stabilization is pretty effective; it is possible to get acceptably sharp shots with shutter speeds as low as 1/2 seconds.

The overall speed of the camera is OK for a camera of this type; it is fast enough that it does not feel sluggish. Compared to a digital SLR, it is very slow especially in startup and shot to shot time. With the flash on, shot to shot time increases to 4 or 5 seconds.

Autofocus is pretty OK at the wide end and pretty slow at the long end of the zoom.

One of the annoyances is the auto review functionality. When you take a picture it displays it automatically for 2 seconds. What is annoying is that it is not in playback mode while doing this. So you cannot zoom in on the picture or see the picture info. You cannot even press a button to look at it longer than the preset time. Instead, you have to wait to go back to the shooting mode and then press the playback button to go the picture again.

Talking of stupid designs, deleting pictures is very clumsy. You have to go into the menu, (there is no delete button) and then go to delete, delete this picture, and then move the selection from cancel to OK and then confirm.

This is the kind of functionality that makes me wonder if compact camera designers ever talk to digital SLR camera designers. These points are not super important, and you can easily live with them, but it just makes me wonder the whole time, what were the designers thinking?

Probably the worst thing about this camera are the menus. They are totally confusing and annoying to work with.

For example, when you set the camera to burst mode and then later try to turn on flash, it will display a message saying: Flash setting cannot be changed! I could only figure out after more than a day of playing with it that the flash does not work in burst mode. I cant help but think it would be easier if it told me that.

Another example is with the autofocus. When face detection is enabled, the menu options for the autofocus disappear completely. They are not greyed out or something, they are just not there. Turn off face detection, and there you go. My brain obviously does not function in the same way as the designers of this camera.

To sum-up: The image quality is very good for a camera of this size and price and the image stabilization helps tremendously with low light photos. It works well with everything on automatic, exposure and focus is spot on most of the time. The display could be better and the menus are very fiddly, but in the end these small flaws are not enough to spoil it. If you want manual controls, you might want to keep looking. If, on the other hand you are just looking for an affordable compact camera to point and shoot, the Sony DSC W 120 is a great choice.

The good:

- Compact, light and good looking

- Good image quality (for a compact camera)

- Reasonably quick (for a compact camera)

- Effective image stabilization

- A good deal pricewise

The bad:

- Poor display

- Slow autofocus at the long end of the zoom

- No manual modes

The ugly:

- Proprietary Sony Memory Stick cards

Here are some useful notes on setting up and using the Sony W120. The settings mentioned are used under the Program (P) shooting mode unless otherwise noted.

General:

Confusingly, the HOME button takes you to the camera menu and the MENU button takes you to the equivalent of the shooting settings menu.
Since the Sony DSC W120 is pretty much a point and shoot camera, I will try to set it up to be used that way. In other words, adjust everything once and then forget about 90% of the settings.
I prefer to keep it in Program (P) mode. It lets you decide to shoot with or without flash, which is very important.

Autofocus:

The default mode for the autofocus is Face Detection, Auto. This mode works quite well and reasonably fast.
It is also possible to choose from Matrix AF, Center AF, Spot AF or a preset AF distance.
When face detection is disabled, it defaults to Matrix AF.
It is possible to preset the focus to a distance of 0.5, 1, 3, 7 meters or infinity. This is useful to reduce shutter lag if you need to take action photos. (Face detection needs to be turned off to enable these settings.)

Steady Shot (Image Stabilisation):

Steady Shot can be set to Shooting or Continuous (or off).
In Shooting mode, it only works when the shutter is pressed halfway. This introduces a bit of shutter lag but the liveview image is very responsive.
Switching to Continuous reduces the shutter lag but makes the liveview image floaty, making it harder to compose.
I prefer keeping it in Shooting mode.
It is possible to make (acceptably) sharp shots all the way down to 1 second if your hand is steady.

Flash:

The flash is enabled by pressing the right side of the four way controller.
The flash is disabled in the Burst mode, in which case the camera will display a message saying: Flash setting cannot be changed! Just go back and change REC Mode back to Normal.
The flash fires four times if Red Eye Reduction is enabled. For me, this is enough reason to keep it off. It is also easy to fix red eyes pretty easily in post processing if needed.
The power of the flash can also be adjusted standard, plus or minus.
The flash takes 3 or 4 seconds to recycle after each shot, so you cannot take a bunch of photos quickly with flash.

ISO:

It is possible to set the ISO manually to anything from 100 to 3200.
The camera does quite a goob job at the Auto ISO setting, staying below ISO 800 until a shutter speed of about 1 second (at the wide end).
ISO 400 is still usable but 800 and above is quite terrible. Fortunately the camera keeps 100 to 400 until light conditions desperately demand higher ISOs.
I leave it on Auto ISO pretty much all the time, unless I want to have good colors, in which case I set it to ISO 100.

Macro:

The macro function is enabled by pressing the left of the four way controller.
At the wide end, it will focus down to nearly 1 cm from the front of the lens, but autofocus struggles and does not always focus on the right object.

Exposure compensation:

Exposure compensation can be set by pressing the Home button and scrolling up and down to find the setting.
It can be set from -2 to +2 stops.
The camera remembers the exposure compensation setting if it is turned off and back on again.

The 40″ Sony Bravia KDL-40V2500 is an awesome LCD HDTV displaying 16:9 1080p at 1920×1080 resolution. Sony has hit the mark with the Bravia KDL-40V2500 especially with the lowered price to compete with other LCD HDTV companies like Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic, and Toshiba. The quality is top notch. The colors and contrast are near perfect and pictures even appear to jump out of this LCD HDTV more than other LCD TV’s when compared side by side.

Watching non HD content is not a problem with the Sony Bravia KDL-40V2500. Even playing regular DVD’s look almost HD with an upscaling or upconverting dvd player like the OPPO DV-980H or Sony‘s own DVP-NS77H. I heard you can use the remote from Sony‘s dvd player to operate the V2500 series. SD (or standard display) is also good and better than other LCD TV’s and almost to the level of your old CRT tube tv set.

The remote control is not bad, but there have been some dissatisfaction with it from some owners saying that it feals cheap or clunky. You’ll probably end up getting a universal remote anyway if you don’t like the factory TV remote. Any negative thoughts caused by the remote are easily made up for with the excellent and simple menu. Going through the Bravia 40V2500′s settings is a breeze. One great feature of this LCD HDTV that you should enjoy is the ability to label the inputs and skip the unused inputs. This should be included with every TV set.

There have been some reports on fogginess in dark scenes, but not many owners have seen it. Maybe messing around with the display or lowering the brightness will help if you see this in your own TV set. Also, if you see a white line above the screen, just raise the vertical display a little bit to make it disappear. You can also change the display area from “full pixel” to normal and that will get rid of the white line.

The Sony Bravia KDL-40V2500 LCD HDTV comes with two hdmi inputs. If you’re buying hdmi cables, you don’t need to get the expensive ones. You can buy hdmi cables for under $15-$20 and they work just as good as the ones that cost an arm and a leg. If you plan to buy the warranty for the Sony Bravia KDL-40V2500 LCD HDTV, you can get it cheaper straight from Sony instead of from Amazon.

Overall, the 40″ Sony Bravia KDL-40V2500 LCD HDTV is an awesome television with stunning visuals that will drop jaws like when people went from b&w to color TV’s. The refresh rate is not extremely fast as is expected from an LCD TV, but it shouldn’t be a big impact on the viewing experience. The sound is as good as any LCD HDTV on the market if not better. I didn’t cover the sound much, but it is definitely not weak and may surprise you with how good it sounds. Sony has put together a complete package in the Bravia KDL-40V2500 with great visuals and audio to deliver an immersive experience to the viewer. This LCD HDTV may be the best bang you can get for your buck.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC N2

The Sony DSC N2 is a stylish digital camera with ten mega pixels and a three times optical zoom. The feature that sets the DSC N2 apart from just about all other digital cameras is its large 3″ touch LCD screen. This cuts the number of dials and buttons the camera has to an absolute minimum, helping to accentuate its looks and style.

Another feature that adds to the attraction of the camera is the fact it has a manual exposure mode. This allows you to set the shutter speed and aperture you shoot at. This model is probably aimed at the more casual user who still wants the premium picture quality to boast at cocktail parties. There is some debate on whether the CPU, or ‘brain’, of the DSC is any better than the DSC N1, so that the extra megapixels may not be processed in a manner that makes the pictures any better. I would recommend trying one out in the shop before committing yourself to a purchase.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Sony DSC-T100

The DSC-T100 fits an amazing combination of high-tech features into super-slim dimensions. It has high-resolution 8.1 MP imaging, a powerful 5x optical zoom lens and a huge 3.0″ Clear Photo LCD Plus screen that lets you snap and share photos easily. This means that it can zoom in closer to distant objects with better clarity than the majority of the other brands that fit into a pocket. The optical zoom is the best feature of this camera, and would be very useful for images at concerts, wildlife photography or impressive holiday snaps. The size makes it very portable and I would recommend this one over the DSC N2.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Canon EOS 400D

The Canon EOS 400D is the latest member of Canon’s extensive range of SLR digital cameras. It is now over three years since Canon released their first entry-level DSLR, the 6 megapixel EOS 300D, which kick-started the whole budget DSLR boom. An entry-level camera, the new Canon 400D has a hard act to follow as it attempts to build on the success of the 300D and 350D models. The 400D closely follows the general design of the 350D, having similar compact proportions to the older model, but it adds some new features to try and remain competitive in what has become a rapidly expanding sector of the photography market. This model is more for the budget professional, perhaps as a useful backup for the main shooter. That said, you can always rely on Canon to bring a functional and competent camera, and the styling of this model would feel at home in any paparazzi’s man-bag.

Rating : 4 out of 5.

Christmas. Has it become too commercial?

Probably the most popular time of year for many. In England there are the typical traditions synonymous with the season of good will such as the constant re-runs of classic TV episodes, the Queens speech and the mandatory list of films that are always shown Christmas day and Boxing Day.

These traditions have become the mainstay of the British Christmas for many years now and as much as we say they are tedious and annoying, we wouldn’t want to have it any other way. It has turned out to be part of the Christmas ritual for many.

With the turn of the 21st century there are however new traditions that are creeping into society. Now we must suffer the odious spectacle of the hype surrounding which talent show reject will become Christmas number one in the charts as well as who has been invited to the Beckhams Christmas party.

It seems that somewhere along the way that the holiday message has been lost and replaced by the celebrity awe struck, materialistic attitudes that are of more concern than the joy surrounding the Christmas period.

Christmas has now become a massive marketing event where companies can advertise their products as a must have Christmas gift. Probably the main exponents of this are companies in the games console industry. Microsoft and Sony both market their products (the Xbox360 and the Sony Playstation 3) to coincide with the Christmas period so that the masses of children will demand it from their parents. Many children now are receiving a new games console as soon as it is released regardless of the price.

It seems as thought the interest surrounding Christmas has now shifted from what the season is meant to represent and has now become a marketing and product focused event where consumer goods are in incredibly high demand and companies will try anything to make a profit during the holiday season.

It would be good to see the old traditions return and for Christmas to be celebrated for the right reasons not as a commercial opportunity. People do still enjoy the traditional ceremonies for switching on Christmas lights on high streets across the country such as the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London which are erected by Piggotts. Making these occasions more prominent would be a good way to enhance peoples Christmas spirit and for them to realise the importance of the holidays.

The Sega Dreamcast was considered at one time to be the most powerful video games console ever created and thought by many to be one of the greatest under appreciated consoles ever – it was legendary. What happened to it?

In 1998/99 the console became available in the shops and did quite well. Then out of the blue in January 2001, Sega the company announced that they were shelving it! No more – that was it. It seemed that they were not making enough money and so continued to only produce games, leaving the console market behind.

However, it really was an entirely new standard in console gaming at the time in 1998 with accelerated graphics, a powerful processor, and lots of flexibility. I say “was” yet this console can still be purchased online and offline in some stores if you hunt around.

Sega Dreamcast was the first console to offer internet capability being equipped with the Planetweb browser, which was specifically designed for accessing web pages via a TV screen. One of the more unique factors for the day was the visual memory unit, a 128-KB memory card and a 48 × 32 resolution LCD monochrome screen. Might not sound much to you now but it was quite impressive back then.

Although considered to be in the same line of consoles as the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Xbox, when it first entered the market, it found itself in direct competition with the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 (N64) instead.

The Sega Dreamcast is a discontinued system that was largely considered to be ahead of its time and a gateway to a whole world of entertainment and of course, by today’s standards it was so amazingly inexpensive.

Sony Ericsson have been busy of late releasing a multitude of new Walkman phones, the latest addition to the W-Series range is the new Sony Ericsson W595, a direct upgrade to the extremely popular W580i with enhanced technology, new features and a similar but improved design. The Sony W595 Walkman phone looks very similar to the previous W580i but its form it more squared and this phone offers the latest Walkman music software and stereo speakers for sharing music whilst with friends.

Other features to note include TrackID, Shake Control, Walk Mate, Video Blogging, Access to Online Music Store, 3.15 megapixel camera, large 2.2 inch display screen and 3G services with video calling. The Sony Ericsson W595 is a Walkman phone built for sharing, this sliding mobile phone features built in stereo speakers and a stereo Share jack allowing for a second stereo headset so that two people can listen to the music player.

The W595′s Walkman player supports several file formats including MP3 and AAC and with 40mb on board memory expandable further via an M2 slot, users will not be short of places to store their favourite music tracks. With Shake control activated, press and hold the Walkman key, then flick the wrist – a vibration lets the user know that the track has been changed – a new song from the current playlist is selected randomly then played automatically.

The easy-to-use Walk Mate application stays activated all throughout the day, it keeps track of how many steps walked and how many steps left to reach a daily average health goal. Users simply place their phone in ytheir pocket and they are ready to go. A built-in FM radio, 3.15 Megapixel camera with support for video recording and a secondary VGA camera for face to face video calling, Bluetooth v2.0 and HSDPA connectivity for high speed browsing and downloads make the Sony W595 a music phone and much more.

The Sony Ericsson W595 offers support for a wealth of file formats, users can simply drag and drop from their PC to the phone via the accompanying PC suite and then listen to and manage all their music on Sony Ericsson’s intuitive Walkman player with Shake Control applications. The Sony W595 allows users to enjoy data speeds at a substantial1.8 MBit/s (megabits per second) or 3.6 MBit/s in downlink with new HSDPA technology. Users can download music, games, video clips and make & receive video calls at the touch of a button, the W595 also gives access to 3G services such as the latest news and sports headlines, new movie trailers and upcoming music videos.

The Sony Ericsson W595 has been initially made available on Orange pay monthly contract tariffs in the UK, however this new Walkman phone is set to be released on further UK networks in the very near future. The Sony W595 is a well thought out upgrade to the previous Walkman model, its new features and technology will appeal to the original user base aswell as those seeking a fashionable, functional and fun mobile phone.

A DVD is physically similar to the more familiar CD (Compact Disc). The diameter of a DVD measures 120mm or 80mm. However, the gap in their creations – CDs in the 1970′s and DVDs in the 1990′s – ensures obvious differences. DVDs can store data – movies included – with a greater quality of sound and video. Concomitant to that, it has a storage capacity that is a minimum seven times greater than that of a CD.

For several years, DVDs were digitally guarded in an effort to save the celluloid industry from the bane of piracy. It was common for DVDs to have an in-built encryption code known as the CSS. Today, you find DVD players complete with chips that can ‘unlock’ a DVD – in other words, the DVD cannot be copied, just viewed.

Ironically, in 2001, it took 16-year-old Jon Johansen, from Norway, to come up with a software program to crack the seemingly impenetrable CSS. DeCSS, as the software was subsequently branded, allowed computer users the luxury to “rip” a facsimile of the DVDs original digital content on to the machine’s hard drive. In the past, there were many stumbling blocks for those wanting to copy DVDs. A few years ago, drives that could write data to empty DVDs were luxuriously priced. Even buying blank DVDs was costly, as they were priced higher than a movie DVD in a store.

Today, DVD burning devices can be purchased for as little as $30. The average price is around $70, and blank DVD discs come for less than $1, if purchased in bulk. Presently, the market is littered with a profusion of DVD copying software, making it possible to copy VHS to DVD, DVD to DVD, DVD to CD, et al. The latest entrants into the DVD market seem to be the dual-layered drives with a capacity to copy entire DVDs. In other words, there is no need to compress data or cut features to produce copies.

This is an age of mobile phones. They are more than mere devices to communicate. They are part and parcel of our lives and the manufacturers are introducing more and more technologies to make our lives faster, easier and lazier! Sony has just introduced an new model called Sony Ericsson G900. This phone is quite filled with high end features and you will simple fall in love with this phone. Let us compare it with LG KF310 another 3G phone and see how the G900 will be a better choice.

The features of Sony Ericsson G900 are as follows. As you browse the phone you unravel one by one some superb features in this phone. The phone is powerpacked with features like Java MIDP 2.0 for high end games, FM radio with RDS for live entertainment, a powerful media player to play MP3/AAC/MPEG4 files. You have technologies like Handwriting recognition, TrackID system, business card reader, StickyNotes, picture editor or blogging, document reader, stopwatch, hands free and voice dial. The battery of the phone can give a stand by time of 380 hours and a talktime of 12 hours.

The Sony Ericsson G900 has a card slot and there is internal memory of 160MB. The phone has a GPRS with EDGE technology and there is Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. You also have Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and USB v2.0 port for data transfer and other utilities. The operating system of the phone is Symbian OS, UIQ. You have MMS, SMS, Email, instant messaging, Push mail and other facilities.

On the other hand LG KF 310 is also a good phone but when brought in comparison to Sony Ericsson G900 it fails to deliver like the Sony model. Sony has mastered the art of manufacturing phones which has almost all features embedded in them. The phone fails in screen size, navigation technology, in Wi-Fi internet connectivity, camera features, and even media player. The LG KF310 cannot compete with Sony Ericsson G900 because it doesn’t have such sophisticated software like Stickynotes and handwriting recognition. Though the phone has a Google package to search and look for Google maps yet the KF310 is a failure in front of G900.

Thus if you need to make a choice between the two you must without any doubt make the Sony Ericsson G900 you private cocoon.

The period of the greatest portable console has finally arrived. Brace yourself for astonishing, gaming quality on a gaming device which is poised to change the way you think about portable devices.

Having wireless on-line connection, dVD and 4.3-inch LCD screen, and intense data storage and uSB-based peripherals options, the Playstaion Portable is a perfect answer for the mobile digital way of life. Sony production has hit the spot by merging both horsepower and groundbreaking device characteristic* into a product that only weighs precisely a hair more than half a pound. From a controls perspective, the PSP is made for gaming.

If you’re familiar with a PlayStation controller, you’ll be a pro at the PSP’s controls in no time. Directional buttons, as well as an analog stick are provided. Meanwhile, the familiar left and right shoulder buttons, as well as triangle, circle, cross and square buttons are integrated into the device’s slim case.

Finally, home, select, and start buttons give you quick access and control over the PSP’s important functions. The PSP will universally remind everyone of the Sony Playstation 2.

To have the Playstation label is great itself, though what is much much more remarkable is thrashing the great deal higher Play Station Two in almost every role. The size held within such a tiny handheld console is just astonishing.

From a controls position, the Playstation PSP is produced for gaming. If you’re used to a Platstation 2 controller, you’ll be a natural at the PSP controls in minutes. By having a lot of these amazing media roles a value price of $249.99 in which different handheld devices calculating as much as the 500 and beyond, and exhilarating program specifications it appears to be significantly changing the computer game trade for the greater good.