Wize Blog

Pentax K200D Video Review

Labeled as the camera for people just getting into digital photography and who want to grow with the camera as their skills grow.

Pentax K200D takes the K10D (rated 98 at wize.com), a camera that has awards around the world, and updates it, putting it in a more user-friendly package.

The video below covers a wide range of features that the K200D offers, including:

*modes and functions that allow the photographer to grow with the camera as their skills grow
*set to auto picture mode camera considers parameters of the scene to determine best settings for that scene--landscape, portrait, macro and action.
*has 8 scene modes--night, snow, food, sunset etc...
*has a Sv mode, pick ISO and camera adjust shutter speed and aperture

For more watch the video--

Bookeen's Cybook Makes for a Good Read

What is about 5x8 inches, weighs about 6 ounces and is used for reading ebooks. Well, it's the Cybook. It's no Kindle (Amazon's book reader), that's for sure as it has no Internet connection for immediate blog and multimedia access.

Here is a summary of all that the Cybook has to offer:

1. Within 20 seconds you can turn the thing on and start reading your book. It brings you back to the last page you read.
2. To put ebooks into the Cybook you connect it to your computer using a USB cable and then click and drag your files into the Cybook icon that comes up on your computer.
3. You can choose from a variety of font sizes so you won't need reading glasses to read.
4. The device supports MP3 files so you can listen to music while you read.

Shine a Step Below USA Today in Content

Yahoo launched Shine today, a Web site for women. The top story reveals how Kate Bosworth feels about her new movie 21. The article includes a video interview with the star talking about her card-cheating character from the new movie which takes place in Las Vegas. The feature pleases, but could have included at least a clip or two of her in the movie.

Shine dives into a variety of topics for and about women. Links to articles at the top of the page include: fashion+beauty, healthy living, entertainment, parenting, love+sex, work+money, food, at home, astrology.

Reaching into the healthy living section, one can find  good and bad articles, most, though, don't even live up to the academic sustenance of a USA Today article.  But what they do after the short, vapid articles is provide links to better-written fare from the major magazines.

All Shine ends up being is a glorified search engine with cool graphics and headlines for and about women. 

Five Flat Panel TV Trends in 2008

Consumer Reports is reporting that for the first time, there's a good selection of LCD and plasma HDTVs with 40- to 42-inch screens for less than $1,000.

That's not all, either. In an article entitled, "Flat-panel HDTV prices still falling, but not as much as last year," the consumer magazine laid out the trends for the flat panel TV market in 2008.

Here's what they reported:

1. Prices for flat panel TVs are continuing to decline, but not as much as last year.

2. OLED, a technology that's already being used in cell phones and digital cameras, could be what's in store for the future.

3. More people are buying LCD TVs than plasma TVs.

4. 120Hz, a technology that reduces motion blur on LCD sets, will be seen more and more as part of flat panel TV specs.

5. Samsung is the number 1 brand in America, Sony is second, and Funai is third.

Wize.com rates flat panel televisions. For the latest ratings on the flat panel TVs out there go here. 

Pentax Optio M50 Reviewed

Everyone wants a camera that has the ability to take a picture that is sharp throughout the frame. The Pentax Optio M50, which was reviewed recently at infosyncworld.com, didn't do well in depth of field tests.

"The camera is hampered by consistently shallow depth-of-field," the reviewer wrote, giving it a 59 rating. What that means, really, is that the images aren't clear throughout much of the frame--not a good thing.

Pentax boasts that the camera has a 5X optical zoom, which is good, but other point-and-shoots have more. In a video about the camera, Pentax focuses on the camera's ease-of-use, saying that it will adjust aperture, shutter speed and flash when you shoot. I don't know of a digital camera that doesn't do that.

The 8MP camera sounds great for people just starting to use a digital camera and who don't care much about getting the crystal clear images you get with many other point-and-shoots.

Inspiron 1525 Comes with Blu-ray Drive

Dell's adding a Blu-ray drive to its Inspiron 1525 notebook. The notebook costs $879 and you can get a Blu-ray burner for another $200. (Did you know that a A Blu-ray disc will hold up to 50 GB of data, vs. 8.5 GB available on the typical DVD disc?)

The laptop has HDMI output so that it can be connected to a HDTV.

The computer can be configured with the following specs:

Intel® Core™ Duo T2370 (1.73GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista ® Home Premium Edition
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
1 GB RAM
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
28 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (4 cell)
High Definition Audio 2.0

The Inspiron 1525 comes in a variety designs and/or colors.

LG Vu Offers Mobile TV

I don't know about you, but the thought of watching TV on a tiny cell phone screen isn't exactly thrilling, but that's not stopping AT&T Mobile TV delivery.

LG Vu (pictured to the left) and Samsung Access are the two mobile phones that will offer what's called FLO TV, the service that provides the television programming.

The LG Vu has an interactive touch screen, a music player and a 2MP camera.

The service will begin in May.

Top 5 Wii Games at Wize.com

Here are today's top 5 games for Wii with their wize.com ratings.

1. Super Mario Galaxy  rated 98
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess  rated 96
3. Happy Feet  rated 96
4. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent  rated 96
5. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption  rated 95

Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2 Video Clip

Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2 for Nintendo Wii (rated 94) is featured on wize.com, a game that also has a clip of the Cell Final Ending on YouTube (video pasted below). Enjoy!

How to Use Photoshop Express--a Review

Just as you can work on word processing documents online on Google docs, you now can work on image files online with Photoshop Express.

The web-based application lets you manipulate your photos after uploading them to the site.

After entering my information to create an account, it took about a minute for the site to process it.
When it was done, it, of course, asked me to check my email to verify. I opened the email and, viola, there was an email from Photoshop. After opening it, I clicked on the verification link inside. The prompts on the site then asked me to sign in.

Uploading a Photo

I clicked on upload a photo in the upper right side of the window. A navigation window came up displaying the contents of my computer. I then uploaded a 254 kb jpeg photo by clicking upload in the next dialog box. After about a minute it finished, then I clicked Done in the dialog box. The dialog box vanished and a thumbnail of my image appeared in the window.

Manipulating the Photo

I double clicked on the photo. It opened inside the workspace. I started playing with the tools on the left side of the window. When I clicked on any of them the directions for using it with options for use came up at the top of the window. Sometimes (after you click on Sharpen) multiple copies of the images appeared with different degrees of manipulation choices. Other times (when you click on Touchup) directions showed up with control sliders for manipulation size.

Over all it worked like a charm, much of it resembling what you can do in Photoshop Elements but without all of that program's options.