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Fuji Gets Serious About Image Quality With the FinePix F200EXR

Compact digital cameras have been treated rather poorly by camera manufacturers over the past few years by stuffing endless features into them with marketing being the forefront of concerns. These "features" have lead to a ridiculous number of pixels on a tiny sensor, which results in very grainy images for users. Fuji has just announced a potential powerhouse of a compact digital camera. The F200EXR offers a 12 megapixel sensor that operates in a number of image capture modes. Normally, I would scoff at a 12 megapixel sensor as too much for such a small sensor; however, Fuji's shooting options may make this camera work those pixels more effectively. The key to this camera's potential lies in the 3 modes in which the image sensor operates, which Fuji described in its press release as follows:

Fine Capture Mode (High Resolution) , which deploys all twelve million pixels, and is designed to offer the finest detail of intricate subjects when light is full and even; Pixel Fusion Mode (High Sensitivity and Low Noise) , which caps two adjacent pixels together to produce six million large photodiodes, which are big enough to absorb light in the darkest of conditions, to produce low-light shots of extraordinary quality with minimal noise and grain; and Dual Capture (Wide Dynamic Range), which captures different exposures with two sets of six million pixels, which, when combined, gives an excellent level of detail in highlights and low lights that would otherwise be lost.

While there is nothing truly fancy about the Fine Capture Mode, the Pixel Fusion Mode and the Dual Capture could give consumers what they need in a compact camera. We'll know more once this camera hits the market and real world sample images make their way online from the hands of users. It just might be the next big thing.

Eric is a guest author the Wize blog covering digital cameras. He is the Editor of Photography Bay, which covers digital camera reviews, rumors and news

Hands Free Cell Phone Law in Effect in California

There are a couple of ways to comply with the new law in California requiring that both hands are free to drive, meaning that you can’t use a handset while you drive. Furthermore you won’t be able to cover both ears, so that you’ll have to shop for a one piece earphone.

 

If you have to talk on the phone while you drive, you can opt for a cheap way out. There are corded headphones that can be had for about $20 at the AT&T Web site (link AT&T with http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/accessories/cordedheadsets.jsp).

 

If you don’t like wires, you can opt for wireless headphones with Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth creates a network from your device to the earphone. Those run $40 and up and can be found here. (link here with http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/accessories/bluetooth.jsp).

Those Arrogant Gadget Buyers

Early gadget buyers have a streak of arrogance according to the following headlines today:

Headline 1: Gadget buyers seen as assertive, even arrogant: study
Headline 2: Early gadget buyers are arrogant: study
Headline 3: Study Probes Gadget Zealots’ Minds

Yes, indeedy, gadget buyers have extremely high opinions of themselves. Here's what the study found item by item:
1. Tech lovers scored high (from a sample of 25,000) in leadership and assertiveness.
2. They scored low in modesty.
3. Adotas.com even went as far as concluding that tech lovers are "decisive, conceited boors."
4. People who purchased more 3 or more computers in the past 2 years tend to be inclusive and decisive.
5. People who know what they want and go after it were likely to purchase the latest model cell phone.

My guess is ads for technological gadgets will begin with the following question:
Are you dynamic, assertive and know exactly what you want? Then...

"Get Smart" Gadgets Do Exist

Everyone has a shoe phone. People just don't wear them on their feet. That's the idea conveyed in an article from the Canadian Press.

Today, the article says, "many of the movie's doo-dads do exist."

The weird gadget mania will soon be spreading across the world as the movie "Get Smart" appears on movie screens beginning next week.

In the movie, not only will there be the shoe phone made famous from the television series upon which the movie was based, but there'll be a two-way tooth radio and a spy fly.

The article mentioned that both the spy fly and the tooth radio actually exist in real life. Wize.com googled them and they really do. Here are the links:

Spy fly

Tooth radio

Get Smart comes to theaters June 20th.

Stargazing with the Best Telescopes

There's nothing like a clear night when the stars fill the sky and you wonder what's out there. Currently we are if you've been keeping up with the news. There's an International Space Station, which is fascinating when you get a minute to take a look.

Of course you can delve deeper into space with a telescope. It's a bit of technology where you can get away from clicking and punching all the devices around you.

Nothing puts you further into space than a telescope. Have you ever wondered how to shop for one? Well, you can start here with a list of a couple highly rated telescopes great for stargazing:

1.  Orion StarBlast Astro 9814 (267 x 114mm) costs just under $200. (pictured)
2.  Celestron NexStar 130SLT (31145) (306 x 130mm) costs about $400.
3.  Meade 70AZ-A (140 x 70mm) costs about $80.

Acrobat.com Launches

Adobe's doing two things new this week. It's launching Flash as part of Adobe Acrobat (the program that reads pdf files) and it's launching its site for free hosted services.

Adobe wants to compete with Google and others by offering more services. Google already has a doc creation site.

The word processing service is called Adobe Buzzword. Not only can you create documents, but you can also convert them.

I had a chance to take a peek at the system and found that you can export documents that you've made to your desktop in a variety of Word formats and in rich text format.

Google watch out! Adobe's catching up.

Windows 7 Touch Technology Discussed at Conference

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were appeared at the All Things Digital Conference, they were pretty mum about the new Windows 7 operating system that's due out in late 2009 or early 2010. They did, however, talk about the multitouch aspect  of the system.

The touch screen planned will use the same technology as Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's Surface table. The technology uses "five tiny cameras to take snapshots of the surface many times a second like an optical mouse does," according to arstechnica.com. The screen is somewhat shock and water resistant, and needs to be because they plan on having the system used in places like restaurants.

So what did Gates and Ballmer show at the conference? Not much. Just about the same demos that were seen with the Surface table. Nonetheless, arstechnica has a video, which lists Tyco Technology Elo TouchSystems as the company that's developing the technology.

It's interesting to note that Tyco Tech develops all kinds of touch technology--each of which uses a different method for managing how the "touch" interacts with the system. The site lists Acoustic Pulse Recognition, AT4 four Wire Resistive and Securetouch Surface Wave among others as some of the technologies  that are used for touch technology.

CNET Video Top 5 Worst Downloads

CNET has a video that makes fun of some downloads that are so "bad" that they're "good." A psychic color test comes in at number 1.

Here's the video--

Do Cell Phones Have Health Risks?

Do cell phones have health risks? Well, we don't know yet (or do we?) and Dr. George Carlo says since we don't, we should take precautions anyway.

Go ahead and watch...interesting stuff.

Geeksugar, Engadget and iMacs

Sure everybody follows Engadget for the latest news. But now Engadget's following Geeksugar on Mac leads.

Engadget reported today that Geeksugar says, "spec-bumped iMacs are due on Tuesday."

The machines, which are rated 91 at wize.com, are expected not to have a bigger price tag.

Hmmm, who is Geeksugar? She's a Web site with tentacles that reach from conversations about geeky things to those of money and sex. Just click on her links.