Digital Technology News, Camera, Camcorder and Cool Gadget Reviews

The all-new Motorolla Droid 3 is an ample sized handset that is great for both business and pleasure. It is especially good for those that need to make a lot of conference calls as it offers a front facing camera in order to provide users with a video calling features.

The 8-mega pixel camera allows users to take quality snaps on this handset whilst on the go. The quality of this camera is almost as good as some of the digital cameras on the market today, which allows you to encase both your phone and camera in one as appose to carrying several pieces of equipment around with you. This is also a great option for those that love to share their memories with others, as these pictures can be sent to friends and family via picture text or alternatively uploaded directly onto any one of the many social networking sites. 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.

The Apollo has an LCD screen of 240X400 resolution instead of AMOLED display and runs Android 2.1.

Snaps from the 3 megapixel camera are average for a phone but the lack of a flash dooms low-light shot.

Video can only be captured at 320X240, which is barely good enough for posting to YouTube.

Battery life is good, although it’s highly dependent on your use of WiFi, 3G data and GPS. Apollo I5801 supports up to 7.2 hours of talk-time.
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This soundbar has all that it takes to be a winner in the home theater system category. With a blu-ray player neatly concealed within the design, it shows just the soundbar and a subwoofer as components to attach to the TV set.

Content can be fed either via the Blue-ray slot or from USB drives. The design is compact and concise and it is 3D-ready and Wi-Fi upgradable as well.

Specs: 3D blue-ray player; Built-in decoders include Ambisound, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby TuneHD; 600W amplifier; Net TV; Wi-Fi upgradeable; HDMI 1.4, subwoofer output and coaxial audio inputs, optical and RCA; USB port

The MiFi 2200 is a compact device, weighing 2 ounces and measuring 3.5 x 2.3 x 0.4 inches. It has a single power on/off button, and its faux metal front goes well with any mobile Apple product. It connects wirelessly with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. You don’t need it with a 3G-enabled iPhone, but MiFi will bring broadband Internet connectivity to your iPod touch, a non-3G iPad, and other non-3G devices. You can even create a mini-LAN and piggyback off the MiFi’s 3G connection.

Setting up MiFi is straightforward: On your iPad or other WiFi device, go to your network/wireless settings and enter the SSID of the unit and the password. My unit had that information on a sticker on the bottom, but the SSID was wrong. Fortunately, my iPad found the correct SSID when it did a search, and within seconds, I was connected and back in business. Read the rest of this entry »

The advent of catch-up TV means we watch a big proportion of our TV via a web browser. Although you can just about stick a laptop on your coffee table and watch programmes on iPlayer and other on-demand services, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of sound quality and image size.

The alternative is to hook your laptop up to your TV. This is easy if your laptop and TV have HDMI ports, but you’ll need a long cable to keep your laptop within reach. Intel’s WiDi technology aims to change all this by letting you beam your laptop’s audio and video wirelessly to your TV. Read the rest of this entry »

Motorola’s range of Android phones has included some bold designs. Its unique feature is a hinge at the corner that lets you swivel the screen around by 90º to reveal a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The hinge is spring-loaded, and the flipping action is smooth, which helps to dispel doubts about build quality or longevity. A solid metal plate behind the screen means there’s no flex there.

Although small, the keyboard is surprisingly good, with a dedicated row for number keys. There’s even a four-way cursor control. The small touchscreen’s capacitive interface also proved responsive. Image quality isn’t brilliant, however, with only a 320×240 resolution. As with most LCD screens, viewing angles are optimized for the screen’s usual orientation. Read the rest of this entry »

BlackBerry creator Research In Motion (RIM) has unveiled its answer to Apple’s iPad: the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The PlayBook is a 7in touchscreen device and is designed to be paired with an existing BlackBerry handset. Its operating system, BlackBerry Tablet OS, was developed by QNX, a company that was recently acquired by RIM. QNX has a lot of expertise in building operating systems for embedded devices, particularly in-car infotainment systems.

The new OS was designed specifically for the PlayBook, which RIM says helps to avoid the difficulties that come from taking a smartphone operating system to a larger form factor, hich Apple did when it took the iOS from its iPhone and iPod Touch devices to the iPad. Read the rest of this entry »

The HTC Tattoo is an Android phone that’s available free on a contract for £20 per month. Despite its budget price, it has all the features you’d expect on a smartphone, including GPS, an FM radio, Bluetooth and WiFi.

It may not be as sleek as HTC’s other Android phones, but the curved chin and large, round central button give it character. The controls are located on the phone’s chin, with only a volume controller on the side, A 3,5mm headphone socket is located on the top edge, while a mini-USB port, for charging and data transfer, is on the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »