Digital Technology News, Camera, Camcorder and Cool Gadget Reviews

Nikon has revamped its D5000 DSLR to reveal the D5100, boasting an improved vari-angle screen smaller dimensions and Full HD movie mode.

The D5100 repleaces the D5000 and will deliver image quality on a par with the D7OO0, but in a smaller, less expensive body, claims Nikon.
Measuring around 10% smaller than D5000, it will sit the range between the D3100 and D7000 and cost £669.99.

The D5100 measures 128X97X79MM and weights around 560G (without battery or memory card).

The new monitor offers a 170′ angle of view and is 17% thinner than the D5000′s screen, according to Nikon. It carries a resolution of 921,000 dots, as opposed to 230,000 on the D5000. Read the rest of this entry »

A simple setup process, a strong feature set, and excellent throughput make for a killer combination for the Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR3700). It will appeal to tech-savvy home users and business IT types alike.

The N600 is a dual-band router with a maximum theoretical throughput of 300 Mbps. In real-world usage, if a wireless router can achieve half its theoretical throughput, that’s superb performance. The N600 comes closer than any router we have tested to that level of throughput in bench¬mark results, hitting a maximum throughput of 121 Mbps. That excellent signal also remained fairly steady whether testing right next to or 30 feet away from the router. Read the rest of this entry »

Previous EOS models had to be set manually, primarily based on the colour saturation you wanted. Now there is an Auto Picture Style option – which picks the saturation and contrast to suit the picture the camera sees. It will be interesting to see how successfully this works.

The usual Green Zone fully-automatic exposure mode has been replaced with an A+ Scene Intelligent Mode option. This is said to intelligently use autofocus, AWB, AE, Auto Lighting Optimizer and Auto Picture Style to create an ultra-smart do-it-all exposure mode. Most useful, perhaps, is the new Feature Guide with on-screen captions that tell you the point and purpose of each SLR option. Read the rest of this entry »

Research In Motion (RIM) announced their latest offering, the Blackberry PlayBook. The tablet which RIM CEO, Mike Lazaridis described as “the first professional tablet” has a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 multi-touch screen, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM and either 16GB or 32GB onboard storage capacity.

The PlayBook sports a 3MP front facing camera and a 5MP rear camera. It has got a microUSB jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an HDMI port. No word on when it will be available and at how much, but it looks quite promising.

This one is not new, it has been around for almost a year, but having spent the last month with it in my palm made me feel it deserves mention here.

It has multi-touch capability, and 360 degree scrolling. The only problem is that its meant for Mac only, and I had to go through quite some trouble to get it working with my Windows 7 netbook.

Before you buy your next mobile phone or make a contractual commitment you will want to consider doing what many consumers are doing; lowering their phone bills by using SIM only deals. Don’t know a lot about SIM only deals? Using a SIM only deal allows you to switch from phone to phone. You don’t have to be stuck in a company that provides substandard service any longer. You don’t have to lose pictures, data, and other important information every time you switch to a new phone. Going SIM only allows you to call the shots. The best news is you can save more money than you might think because you can tailor your mobile phone plan to fit your needs. You choose how SIM only will work for you using pay as you go, prepaid or a SIM only contract option. Read the rest of this entry »

New sales figures from October 2010, put together by Broadband Expert, a leading site that compares broadband, shows that more customers are purchasing Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband over set contracts for the first time in mobile history.

During this sales period, 53% of broadband customers chose Mobile Broadband Pay As You Go, while 47% selected contract mobile broadband plans.

Rob Webber, a commercial director for Broadband Expert, believes that this change will continue through the year, claiming that this trend has actually been in place since 2008 when Pay As You Go plans began to become more popular. “Customers realise that they only need to pay for the broadband they use and don’t need to enter into a lengthy contract,” Webber explained. Read the rest of this entry »

This compact wireless keyboard has an integrated air-mouse that allows you to navigate your way around your computer’s OS from a distance.

Powered by a pair of AA batteries and connected by a wireless dongle, the Cideko works up to a distance of 10M, making it ideal for presentations or for controlling a media PC in the living room.

However, the keyboard is rather clunky and the clicking sound of tapping buttons became rather annoying after extended use.

There are also other better and cheap alternatives available for controlling your media PC.

I love using Apple’s compact Wireless Keyboard with the iPad and iPhone.

But if you’re looking for something even smaller, Macally’s BTKeyMini Bluetooth keyboard might fit the bill.

At just 8.7 inches wide, 4.1 inches deep, and 0.6 inch thick, and weighing just 7.5 ounces, the BTKeyMini fits into even the smallest iPad or laptop bag without adding much to your load.

An included hard-shell cover (which adds a bit of width, depth, and weight) doubles as a stand for your tablet. Of course, the ultraportability of the keyboard means that it has smaller keys and a  nonstandard key layout. But it still beats trying to use the on-screen keyboard to type for long periods of time.

While previous revisions of the iPhone have been small updates to the existing design, the iPhone 4 feels like a new phone. For a start, it’s the thinnest model yet, and the slender new case makes the old ones feel a bit podgy.

One of the main new features is a front-facing camera, primarily for FaceTime video calls. However, these can currently only be made over a WiFi connection. The quality of the video is surprisingly good, and it’s quick to switch between front and rear cameras. Read the rest of this entry »