It seems every other day we are seeing leaks of this device and that device but today its the turn of Sony Ericsson. The Sony Ericsson Kate is reported to have a 5MP camera and will fall in as part of the Cyber-Shot range. Looking like a mix between the K770 and the C902 the Kate is also rumoured to have UMTS, xenon flash, camera mode switch and Smile shutter feature
Sony Ericsson Kate
Again like all these leaks I have nothing more than hearsay to tell you but I will be digging and calling contacts to see what else I can find out for you.
Yesterday CBS released their very first commercial for Verizon featuring the Blackberry Storm. Amongst loads of leaked photos, manuals and power point presentations this is the first real show of the phone.
Commercial
I also came across a video of the Vodafone release on You Tube which looked really good, so knowing that I hadn’t posted anything about the Storm here yet I decided to let you see this too.
Press Release
Tomorrow I will stick up a post with all that’s known so far about the Storm but in the meantime enjoy the videos, I did!
HTC may well have decided to launch their world first G1 in the US however they have decided not to release their new Touch HD phone there which is news that has rattled a few cages across the pond.
HTC Touch HD
HTC have advised that sadly, due to the engineering time required to get a North American 3G version in the pipeline, they would be better waiting until the next round of products launches. What this actually means is left open to interpretation but essentially the Touch HD will not be released in the US.
Feel the power of the Storm – Purpose-built for Vodafone. The entertainment you want. The information you need and the email experience BlackBerry® is famous for. If you want it all, the BlackBerry Storm smartphone does it all – beautifully. So they say. Full details after the break along with a Vodafone competition to win a new Storm.
The guys at Areamobile have just let us know that their video look at the HTC Touch HD now has English subtitles for those of us that don’t speak German. The new video is after the break for your enjoyment. To switch on the subtitles click the button down on the far right in the Youtube video window after you select play.
Wolfstar from Xperiancers.com has got his hands on the new Xperia X1, and has shared his thoughts on the phone. Again he tells us that this is not a production model for sale but an evaluation unit with a non final ROM. Check out the video after the break and see what you think. Expecting our final release Xperia from Superetrader this week.
Despite the fact the we never really fill up our masses of memory on our home PC’s we manage to do this very easily on our mobile devices. With most of us owning a least a mobile phone, camera and mp3/4 player that is either already full or nearing capacity this announcement comes as a breathe of fresh air.
16gb Micro SDHC
SanDisk is bringing to market new 16GB* microSDHC™ and Memory Stick Micro™ (M2)™ mobile memory cards. The new, tiny 16GB cards are the world’s largest storage capacity for mobile phones and will be available at various retailers in the U.S., Europe and Asia in October. The fingernail-sized 16GB memory cards allow consumers to “wake up” the many storage-intensive features offered by today’s portable handsets such as music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming and GPS applications. In addition to the mobile phone, consumers can use the 16GB microSDHC card in a multitude of other devices, including a video camera, GPS receiver or a MP3 player with a microSD™ slot such as SanDisk’s Sansa® players. SanDisk’s 16GB microSDHC card has an MSRP of £45 (excl. VAT) and the 16GB M2 card has an MSRP of £60 (excl. VAT). MicroSD cards are designed for slot-equipped legacy mobile phones and can hold a maximum capacity of 2GB. Today’s microSDHC cards are available in 4GB, 8GB and now 16GB, are ideal for newer mobile phone models, most of which are compatible with these higher capacity cards. The Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards are designed for Sony Ericsson’s new generation of mobile phones, all of which are compatible with the 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacity levels. SanDisk’s 16GB mobile memory cards come with a five-year limited warranty.
16gb Memory Stick Micro (M2)
I’m not denying that mobile memory is very expensive however lets not forget what 16gb can do for us data freaks. Fingers crossed SanDisk send us a few of these before general release but if not I for one am hoping that its the early end of October and not the later.
The H10 is Toshiba’s budget entry into the high definition camcorder market. The most remarkable thing about this camcorder is the fact that it’s a high definition camera (HD) for about £180. Not long ago this would have been much more expensive and out of the reach of most of us. Having been mildly impressed by the “handiness” of the SDR-S7 I was interested to see how the H10 would perform with its HD capability given that the two machines are virtually the same price.
The Toshiba Camileo H10
What’s in the box?
H10 video camera
Li-ion rechargeable battery, 3.7v/1050mAh
USB cable
AV cable
HDMI cable
Mains charger
Remote control
Strap
Quick start guide
Software CD
Toshiba Camileo H10 unboxing video
General
The H10 is a clean and uncluttered design with an encouraging lack of buttons to tweak and render it useless. Physically, it’s a bit of a brick, albeit a compact one with some decent features. A brick because it’s too big to fit into my pocket, compact because it feels dense in the hand. The dense feel also helps it to feel well-built despite the low price.
The H10 has a 5x optical zoom and can record video in 720p HD MPEG-4 format video on SD or SDHC Cards at frame rates of up to 30fps – this is a decent specification for an entry level camcorder and genuinely useful.
The Toshiba Camileo H10 controls
Rear: Video record; 5-way multi-function keypad for selecting modes and menu items
Although substantially smaller than many mini-DV cams, the first thing to strike me after using the compact SDR-S7 and Sanyo Xacti is just how chunky the Toshiba is. It certainly won’t fit in your trouser pocket. It could be used to as a weapon and it feels like it’s hewn from billet alloy. The upside is that the larger size does make the Tosh’ somewhat easier and more comfortable to hold at eye level when compared to the Panasonic SDR-S7.
Fold the screen out and it switches on automatically to either present you with the video filming mode or the still camera mode depending where it left off last time. Switching between the two is merely a single key press away. Video recording is simply a case of pointing it at the subject and then pressing the record button on the rear of the camera body. There is plenty of control over shooting modes via the menu system, which is easy to navigate by virtue of the fact it is very simple and clear.
The Tosh’ is capable of recording in HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second (fps). This is quite some going for a budget model when you consider that most DV cams work at 720 x 576 and 25fps. You should be aware though that editing such large images is fairly demanding for any pc and some well-known photo-editing applications still aren’t HD ready. There’s plenty of other resolutions available that take up far less storage space if your needs are less demanding, however, it seems to be pointless using them unless you upload to a video mangling service like YouTube.
Accessing the menu system is not obvious initially and there is no menu key per se. It’s done via the centre-select key on the 5-way navigator keypad. The menu system has sensibly been kept simple and logical, but alas it has one really annoying flaw. Once you have selected an option it closes down the menu subsystem entirely to return you back to the camera view. What if you want to change another option or undo the changes you’ve just made? You have to navigate all the way there again.
The 5x optical zoom is quite limited when compared to conventional DV-cam opposition. This is typical for a budget camera. Unfortunately, the zoom control is extremely tardy and the lens is both slow to zoom and focus. This renders the camera less than idea for sports footage or fast moving subjects. In normal general filming it would be less noticeable.
I was pleased to see that the charging is done via the USB2.0 mini-socket. This means it should also be possible to charge from your computer when connected. The battery itself is a 3.7v/1050mAh item which gives a life of around 50 minutes – this was slightly less than I expected but probably reasonable given the higher definition. During charging and normal use I noticed that the entire camera got very warm – this is a bit disconcerting. The same heat was also transferred to the SD card which, doesn’t bode well for longevity of the card – another reason why a man might not wish to put it in his trouser pocket!
There is no conventional lens cover – instead the lens is protected by a large hard plastic cover. This is all very well, but the cover doesn’t appear to be replaceable so, if it gets scratched then you compromise image.
Toshiba Camileo H10 lens
Movie quality was entirely acceptable although I really didn’t notice any improvement in quality rendered by HD over SD. The whole thing is quite subjective really and depends upon so many things such as the quality of monitor it is viewed on, the physical size of the CCD, compression etc. I daresay if you had a HD tv then you would notice the difference. As a stills camera it makes a passable job and there’s no reason why it couldn’t be your only stills camera although the normal caveat still applies – if you want a stills camera then buy one.
You can download a sample video – taken straight from the H10 memory card with this link.
Conclusion:
The H10 is a versatile camera that should satisfy most users needs unless they are serious filmers. It’s easy to use, feels well put together and it’s not expensive. Really, for £180 the buyer is getting a decent machine for not much money and I feel it offers better value than the Panasonic SDR-S7 for a similar price. Having previously said I would be happy with the Panasonic as an everyday device, I am now having to revise that in favour of the Tosh’. Just beware of its bulk.
Yet another security flaw in the iPhone’s software had been found, and while it’s probably not particularly harmful to the majority of users, it is pretty interesting. Karl Kraft posted the exploit on his blog, but he wasn’t the one to uncover it. No, despite his skills with a computer and knowledge of the software, he didn’t find it. Instead he says it was found by his 12-year-old son.
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.