Camera Phones Plaza

When people are searching for a high-quality cell phone capable to take clear pictures they usually look for a Sony Ericsson camera phone or newest models from Nokia. Unfortunately, if a built-in digital camera specifies more than 1.3MP for the picture resolution it isn’t the best criteria to measure this capability. There are 1.3MP camera phones that capture high-quality photos and 3MP models that have worse results even compared to a 0.3MP-capable camera. That’s why it is so important to look first at the brand and make some research before purchasing.



As the most wanted camera phones are those from Sony Ericsson cell phone manufacturer, I will provide you some aspects of the models available in the United States and United Kingdom.
In US you can choose a Sony Ericsson camera phone from C902, K850i, Z550a, K550i, Z710i, K790a, K510a, and K750i, while in Europe you can find the C902, K850i, K800i, K770i, S302, C905, C702, K550im, K810i, K550i, Z710i, Z550i, Z530i and the K750i.



Sony Ericsson C902 is available in Europe starting this month and will come soon in the US too, featuring a 5MP camera with autofocus, image stabilizer, video recording at 30 fps, and flash, capable of capturing 2592 x 1944-pixel pictures. It has a secondary video call camera, and its main phone functionalities include a 2-inch TFT LCD display of 256K colors, MP3 player, 160MB internal storage, Memory Stick Micro card slot, 3.6Mbps transfer speeds via 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, push email, Instant Messaging, HTML browsing, RSS reader, FM radio with RDS, TrackID, picture blogging, and up to 9 hours of talk time.
Without a contract, it costs about $530.



The K850i costs around $450 and comes with a built-in 5MP camera of 2592 x 1944 pixels, providing autofocus, 30 fps video recording, Xenon flash, 3LED video light, auto lens cover, and a secondary camera for video calls. The 2.2-inch TFT display has a color capability of 256K and the cell phone has MP3 player, 40MB internal memory, Memory Stick Micro card slot, 3.6Mbps transfer speeds via 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, Instant Messaging, HTML, RSS reader, FM radio with RDS, motion sensor for auto-rotate, TrackID, picture blogging, and provides up to 9 hours of talk time using a Li-Po 930 mAh battery.



If you prefer clamshells, you may take a look at the Z550a, a Sony Ericsson flip camera phone available in the US with its European correspondent Z550i.
Both versions of the same cell phone model feature 1.3MP, 1280 x 1024 picture resolution and video recording capability. If you would compare this Sony Ericsson camera phone with a Nokia E51 you’d see a big difference in the photo quality. Even with few megapixels, the Z550 reveals clear pictures with cool colors, along with other functionalities such as 1000 phone book entries, 20MB internal memory, up to 1GB storage space via an M2 card, Bluetooth, email, HTML, RSS reader, push to talk, FM radio with RDS, multimedia player, voice memo, and 5 hours for talking. A Sony Ericsson Z550Ii is available at about $250.



Sony Ericsson K800i is available in Europe at about $500, not yet in the US, and is an advanced camera phone featuring 3.15MP with autofocus, video recording capability, Xenon flash, 2048 x 1536 pixels for photos, and a secondary videocall camera. The other functionalities are: a 2-inch display of 256K colors, MP3 player, 64MB internal storage capacity, M2 card slot, 384kbps 3G speeds, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, IM, xHTML, FM radio with RDS, picture blogging, and 7 hours talk time.



Same type of built-in camera is encountered at Sony Ericsson K770i launched in Europe, a $300-priced model with 3.15MP, LED flash, secondary camera, a 1.9-inch display of 256K colors, MP3 player, 16MB memory, card slot, 384kbps speeds, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, IM, email, HTML, RSS feeds, TrackID, FM radio with RDS, picture blogging, but providing double amount of time for talking.



Sony Ericsson K550i has a 2MP camera, 1632 x 1224 pixels, autofocus, video recorder, flash, while the main phone features include a 1.9-inch 256K-colors display, MP3 player, 77MB memory, card slot, Bluetooth with A2DP, infrared port, USB 2.0, email, IM, HTML, RSS feeds, FM radio with RDS, TrackID, Adobe Photoshop Albume, picture blogging, and 7 hours talk time.



The Sony Ericsson K550im version, which is only for Europe, differs by the fact that it features http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode i-mode, the popular wireless service in Japan, which is an inexpensive method of packet-switched high-speed communication, providing users access to email, sports results, weather forecast, games, financial services and ticket booking. Phone models with i-mode have a dedicated button for the service.



Another Sony Ericsson camera phone is the Z710i, a nice clamshell in masculine style with features like 256K-colors display, secondary mono display, MP3 player, 10MB memory, card slot, EDGE connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, HTML, RSS reader, push to talk, FM radio with RDS, 10 hours of continuous talk time, while the built-in camera is a 2MP with video recording capability and 1600 x 1200 pixels for pictures.



The K790a has a 3.15MP camera built-in with 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution for photos, autofocus, video recorder and Xenon flash, while in addition it features a 2-inch 256K-colors display, MP3 player, 64MB memory, card slot, 236.8 kbps EDGE speeds, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, infrared port, USB 2.0, email, IM, HTML, FM radio with RDS, picture blogging, and 7 hours of battery life. It is available in the US at $499.



K510a Sony Ericsson camera phone has a medium performance digital camera functionality of 1.3MP, featuring 1280 x 1024 pixels and video recorder, while coming with a 256K-color display, MP3 player, 1000 entries phone book, 28MB memory, no card slot, Bluetooth, infrared port, USB, email, IM, HTML, picture editor, exchangeable covers and 6 hours battery life.



One of the most popular Sony Ericsson camera phones is the K750i, available in both Europe and US, with a great camera and other functionalities at an affordable price of around $200. It has 2MP, 1632 x 1224 pixels, autofocus, video recorder and flash, in addition to a 256K-color display, MP3 player, 38MB memory, card slot, Bluetooth, infrared port, USB, email, IM, Xhtml, FM radio with RDS, voice memo, and 9 hours of battery life.



It’s time to take a look at the last 5 Sony Ericsson camera phones prepared for Europe and we’ll start with the S302, a new model that will be available in quarter 4 this year. With a 2MP camera, 1600 x 1200 pixel resolution for still images, flash and video recorder you can be sure you’re getting a high-quality Sony Ericsson camera phone without spending a large amount of money on it. It sports a 2-inch display of 256K colors, MP3 player, 1000 phone book entries, 20MB internal memory expandable via a Memory Stick Micro card, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, Xhtml, FM radio, TrackID, and 7 hours talk time.



About the Sony Ericsson C905 we wrote before and now I can consider it the best camera phone deal on the market. It will probably be expensive when it will be released at the end of this year, but it has the most advanced built-in camera, 8MP, autofocus, image stabilizer, 30 fps video recording, Xenon flash, and 3264 x 2448 pixel resolution for still images. There is also a secondary videocall camera.
The autofocus characteristic corrects the focus on a subject automatically, while the image stabilizer is a technique meant to eliminate the blur effect when the camera shakes during shooting.
Xenon flash emits high-intensity white light and can be accurately controlled.
The display is large, measuring 2.4 inches in diagonal, with 256K colors, enough to browse web pages, pictures and video clips on the Internet, using the accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate to view pages in landscape mode when you turn the handset sideways. It comes with MP3 player, 1000 phone book entries, 160MB memory, M2 card slot, 3G HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g module, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, Instant Messaging, HTML, RSS reader, GPS receiver, A-GPS, geotagging, FM radio with RDS, video player, picture blogging, and TV out, while the 930 mAh Li-Po battery provides up to 9 hours of talk time and 280 hours of standby.



Among the Sony Ericsson C702 features we find a built-in 3.15MP camera with 2048 x 1536 pixels, autofocus, 30 fps video recording capability, and flash. The secondary camera is not missing.
This model was released in June bringing a 2.2-inch display of 256K colors, MP3 player, 160MB memory, card slot, 3G HSDPA connectivity for up to 3.6Mbps speeds, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, email, IM, HTML, RSS reader, GPS, A-GPS, FM radio with RDS, video player, picture blogging, and 7 hours of battery life in talking mode. It costs $450.



K810i is another 3G model featuring a 3.15MP camera with autofocus, video recorder, Xenon flash and 2038 x 1536 pixels. In addition there are a secondary camera, a 256K-color display, MP3 player, 64MB memory, card slot, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 384 kbps speeds, email, IM, HTML, RSS reader, FM radio with RDS, TrackID functionality, picture blogging, and a battery providing 10 hours of talk time.



The Z530i is a Sony Ericsson camera phone with a medium-performance built-in 1.3MP digital model, video recording and lots of other medium-level features such as a 65K-color display, secondary mono display, MP3 player, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, infrared port, email, IM, HTML, RSS reader, exchangeable covers, but 9 hours of talk time.

As you can see, Sony Ericsson handsets have some common features like the RSS reader, which allows you to subscribe to all the news websites you use to read on the Internet, or directly from paper, so you to receive their latest updates on your cell phone. Also, some models provide Picture Blogging, meaning you can upload your coolest pictures made with the built-in camera, directly on blogs.
Having the email functionality enabled you receive messages from your friends with the possibility to send your own emails to the others as well, this when you are not online on any Instant Messaging application to chat with them directly via your phone.
The A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) transfers high quality audio like stereo MP3s from your cell phone to your car radio.
Assisted-GPS enhances the GPS capability by locating your phone after finding the cell site it is connected to, improves the satellite signal, provides orbital data for the GPS satellites to the phone, adds knowledge of ionospheric conditions and other errors affecting the GPS signal so it can make precise calculations.
And lets’ not forget about the geotagging, a new cool technology used with digital cameras, which allows you to add geographical identification metadata to your pictures, so at a later time, using applications such as Google Earth, to remember where and when was each picture taken.

To conclude, I am convinced that a Sony Ericsson camera phone is not only a great tool for taking pictures and filming while on the go, but also a multi-functional high-end device providing all that you need to stay up to date with the world news, retouch your documents to finish your work, and have the best entertainment break.

Two days ago I was telling you about the exclusive license announced by Circle Twelve for the DiamondTouch Table, but I gave you just brief information published in a press release. Some of you didn’t understand why I wrote about this multi-user multi-touch table describing it as the world’s first of its type, when Microsoft Surface is more famous and everybody knows it was invented before the DiamondTouch. Well, now I want to make a parallel between the two high-end tables and point out their functionalities, as well as the differences between them, but first I want to tell you more about their history.



Break! See why DiamondTouch is cool:



History

The DiamondTouch table was created in 2001 at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories as an experimental multi user system, and became available on the market in 2006.

When Microsoft unveiled the Surface:



<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->On the other side, Microsoft got the idea in the same year, 2001, when Stevie Bathiche from Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson from Microsoft Research started the collaboration for creating an interactive table, the Surface, capable to understand the manipulation of physical objects, with an intuitive interface but practical for any use. In 2003 Bill Gates saw the project, liked it and the prototype based on an IKEA table got a name: T1. It featured a hole cut in the top and a sheet of architect vellum used as a diffuser, while it was equipped with pinball, a photo browser and a video puzzle. The Surface could recognize the objects placed on it as well as transfer digital content. In the next years, there were over 85 prototypes built for researchers and developers, and the table got five cameras for natural movements and gesture detection, replacing the single camera in the vision system, which proved to be unreliable since the beginning.

In 2006, Microsoft’s Surface became a product and was ready for the market in May 2007, designed as a table with a 30-inch display featuring a translucent surface capable to respond to touch, natural hand gestures and physical objects. Its applicability would be in different environments from schools and homes to the business sector.

More from Surface:



Now let’s see each product’s base specifications!

DiamondTouch multi user system measures 76 x 60 x 6 cm or 99 x 77 x 6 cm at 8 Kg and 13 Kg respectively, while the active display area measures 64 x 48 cm and 86 x 65 cm respectively, having interpolated touch resolutions of 2032 x 1520 pixels and 2736 x 2048 pixels, with 40Hz and 30Hz refresh rates.
It supports up to 4 users simultaneously and uses USB computer interface and power source, featuring RCA plug type for user pads connectivity, and 1/100 to 3/100 of ANSI user current.
The developer kit includes the multi-user hardware, 4 receiver pads with 10-foot RCA cable, 16-foot USB cable, device driver software, mouse emulation software, the software developer’s kit, and demonstration applications.

Microsoft Surface, also known as Milan, has a 30-inch display framed in clear acrylic, and the entire product measures 22 x 21 x 42 cm. The inside is made of powder-acrylic steel.
Surface is a computer system running on Windows Vista and features connectivity options for Ethernet, WI-FI, and Bluetooth 2.0. It runs on an Intel Core Quad Xeon WoodCrest processor clocked at 2.66GHz and has 4GB DDR2-1066 RAM memory with 1TB 7200 rpm hard drive capacity.



Functionalities
But what are these tables capable of?
First let’s take a look at the DiamondTouch multi user system! This table supports multiple simultaneous users and can distinguish who is who. It supports also rich gesture inputs, coffee cups, spills and other objects, as well as controlling any Windows software via the mouse emulator. Options include the Mitsubishi Electric DLP projector with mount and stand, a set of 4 receiver chairs, and technical support.
On the DiamondTouch Table small groups of users can collaborate and work with GIS image analysis, design layout, gaming, and project management, using their both hands at the same time.

Microsoft Surface allows users to grab digital information, supporting up to 52 fingers simultaneously, and displays digital reactions after placing tagged objects on it, such as transfer of digital content. It is a useful and fun interactive table for restaurants, hotels, retail establishments and public entertainment venues, and is also commercially available.

As a parenthesis, the multi-touch technology enabled in both tables was not introduced by Microsoft or Circle Twelve. It removes the need for a mouse and keyboard, providing a touch-sensitive screen with software designed to recognize multiple simultaneous touch points, unlike touchscreens that distinguish one touch at a time. This human-computer interaction technology works with the use of several factors of influence including heat, finger pressure, infrared light, high capture rate cameras, optic capture and even shadow capture.

Maybe you didn’t know, but this technology was invented in 1982 at the University of Toronto and started as a finger pressure multi-touch screen, which became capable to manipulate images later in 1984, same year when Microsoft became interested in the field.
In 1991, a paper written by Pierre Wellner described a multi-touch Digital Desk with support for multi-finger and pinching motions, technology that was adopted later by Apple for its popular iPhone.



Getting back to the Surface, we have to add that it allows you to browse through music files, create a playlist by dragging and dropping your favorite songs, send postcards with pictures instantly with a finger tap, and all these while you’re sitting in a restaurant, waiting for your meal. When you place the glass of wine on the Surface it displays information about that type of wine including pictures and food suggestions.
The first large companies that are benefiting from the Microsoft technology include: Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and T-Mobile USA.

Harrah’s Entertainment has the Caesar Palace and the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, where people can use the high-end table to reserve tickets to concerts, check menus, watch images of popular nightclubs, book spa treatments, or plan itineraries for the next day.
At Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, guests can browse and listen to the music, send pictures home, download books, and order foods and drinks.

T-Mobile USA is placing the Microsoft Surface in retail stores so that customers can compare product features, prices and phone plans. Also, it can recognize their cell phone models and display information about them in parallel so the customers to be able to compare 2 cell phones at the same time, as well as view interactive maps. In the near future they will be able to drag and drop ringtones, pictures and videos, directly into the cell phone.

While Microsoft Surface uses projection and cameras, DiamondTouch front-projected table uses an array of antennas embedded in the touch-sensitive surface, and each of these transmits a unique signal when a user touches the surface. The receiver is located in the user’s chair and the signal is transmitted via the user’s body, as he/she is connected capacitively to this receiver. Because of this smart technique, DiamondTouch can distinguish between simultaneous inputs from multiple users, each user touching it with more fingers at the same time.

Microsoft Surface supports multiple users that take turn, but it can’t support multiple inputs from multiple users at the same time, and this is what makes DiamondTable the world’s first and only multi-user touch table.

Here is a nice and clear example which Adam Bogue, the President of Circle Twelve, gave to us:
“DiamondTouch allows multiple people to interact at the same time, and it knows who is who. For example, we could have a painting application where you and I could choose different colors from a pallet and paint at the same time, and it would know who wants to be painting with the thin blue line and who wants the thick yellow line. Painting is a simple example, but we think that "multi-user" is a key distinguishing feature that will enable what we call shared display groupware and support small group collaboration.”

Other Similar Products

Everything should be clear now but the story doesn’t end with Microsoft Surface and DiamondTouch Table. During the last years, there were several other companies that have created competitive products like the CUBIT, an interactive surface supporting multi-touch input, designed by Stefan Hechenberger and Addie Wagenknecht for NOR_/D. It perceives user’s fingers as points of location, areas of contact, and vectors, while generating graphical widgets.



Another product is reactable, developed by Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso, and represents a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface, on which multiple performers can share control over the instrument just by moving and rotating the objects. The surface is luminous and can create dynamic sonic topologies with generators, filters and modulators.
The hardware consists of a translucent multi-touch surface with a camera underneath which analyzes and tracks the player’s fingertips, along with the nature, position and orientation of objects. The visual feedback is produced by a projector located underneath the surface.



EON TouchLight is another interesting multi-touch surface, this time in the form of a 3D wall screen, developed by Andrew D. Wilson from Microsoft Research, and licensed to Eon Reality. It is an expensive high-end system priced at $60,000, but capable to record and project simultaneously. It can be used by 2 people owning this device, who want to communicate with each other from anywhere in the world. TouchLight captures high-definition images of all the things placed in front of it and displays it in 2D. In addition, you could use the surface to manipulate the image in size, orientation and position, using just your hands. The built-in microphone detects vibrations and the system responds to your tapped commands.



Talking about the price, both Microsoft Surface and DiamondTable are available at around $10,000 for single units, but the price varies depending on the final configurations.

You don’t have enough knowledge or ideas about creating a logo and you are in a big hurry and need to get a logo right away. You have the option to buy a nice logo for just $50 but you are still trying to find one for free. Yes, you’ve heard right, there are plenty of free online tools designed to help you in creating your logo but you start the applications and when you finish the design you just can’t save and download that logo because you just discover that it is not free at all. You have to pay for it first. They all let you play with these types of online applications but in the end no one gives you the logo for free, and here is where is come to help. I just found a nice tool, very easy to use to create a basic logo, and this one is 100% free so hurry up and create a logo for free! But first let me tell you what the steps are to see how simple it is and then I’ll show you the link to this website.



If you don’t believe it’s free then please read the website’s explanation for this and remember you can save and download up to 10 free logos. It’s very logic:

“So what’s the catch? There is no catch at all. Right now we are testing the market and working with one or two professional logo design companies to compliment our free logo maker software. If you need a custom logo design we suggest that you use our #1 partner The Logo Company. They will design you a completely unique and professional logo for just $149 with no hidden charges. The Logo Company also has well over a thousand client testimonials in their forum to prove they do what they say they do. On top of that The Logo Co also won a “best in test” trial conducted by the famous US magazine Wired!”

To start and use this online application and create a logo for free first you have to register on the website and login. This takes about 1 minute and you can do this later if you like, right before downloading your logo, like I did.



<-180x150 Small Rectangle - left->Go to “start your logo” and in the pop-up window choose your image category. Here you have various sections, from Abstract and Eye, to Animal, Money and Religious. Let’s say I want Transport. I click on Transport and I receive cool images with motorcycles, planes, ships, and cars. I choose the large car because let’s say I have a firm providing transport solutions for everybody. I am sent to another place where I have options of adding text lines up to 5, change fonts, scale, rotate, change colors, delete and save. I’ll start with the text and I’ll insert the name of my firm – TransGo Solutions – with 6809 Chargen font, size 22, and 2 colors – TransGo in dark blue to suggest the sky above where airplanes fly and Solutions in dark green to make you think of the on-land transport.

Now I’m saving the logo and I am arriving in a new place where I see my logo history and several options: modify logo, add a testimonial, delete logo and download logo, along with the preview. I choose to download it finally. Because I am registered I receive the download link in a new email and surprise! I received not only the 275 X 275 JPG image but also the 400 X 400 JPG and a 600 X 600 file, so I have 3 dimensions I can play with. Same thing happens with the PNG and TIF I just received. And what makes me happy is that I got also the EPS, a version of the Adobe Illustrator Artwork file format so after I learn how to use the software I can improve the logo at a later time.

See how simple it was? Now it’s your turn to create a logo for free on Logo Ease.

It is considered the best tool for worldwide Scrabble players because it was developed and optimized especially for this game, in a small and light form factor, easy to be held in your hand and carried everywhere as it measures 4.8 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches at 4oz.
People love to play it online or in their homes as it is a captivating game that never lets you get bored and exercises your mind.



The third edition of Franklin’s Official Scrabble Players Dictionary is available at a reasonable price of $49.99 and brings players of all levels the right solutions for anagrams being able to validate more than 100,000 words in seconds as well as showing brief definitions for these.
It helps Scrabble players improve their skills by creating real words from the letter patterns you provide, raking the results by score.



If we take a look at the technical aspects, we find that it requires four AAA batteries to function, has automatic shut OFF, and adjustable contrast control.
It supports only English and has Spell Check function, Electronic Dictionary, bringing three word games with: Jumble, Mistery Word and Word Deduction.

Now imagine how you can cheat!

When you have a lot of CDs or DVDs it is very hard to keep track of what you have exactly on each of them unless you create a catalogue or some form of list of contents and store it somewhere on your hard drive. For example, the computer magazines usually add a CD/DVD disc as bonus, loaded with small pieces of software (free or shareware). If you collect such discs, you might want to remember easily where to find a certain program or file. CD Catalog Expert has been on the shareware market for a long time and it offers a very good solution.

  

The interface is well embedded with the Windows Vista Aero shell (on the main site it is stated that it supports Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003/Vista). Since the 3rd of February 2007, the 9th version of this program has been released and a lot of changes have been made in order to improve compatibility with various media storage units: a new generation of database format, the kernel was rewritten, the user interface has been improved and the search function optimized. The functionality has also been extended with hierarchical categories, “favorites” features and with one more type of exporting format, XML, while the HTML/TXT format has been optimized.

   

There have been some improvements until the program reached the 9.22.7.826 version and even if the name remained as “CD Catalog Expert”, the DVDs are also supported. In each catalog you can create categories and start adding disc content information in each category you create according to the category name. As an example you can create a category called Audio CDs and then you can all your mp3 CDs by “scanning” them. The same can be applied for DVDs or hard drive partitions you may wish to add to the catalog.

   

Applicability:
Large collections of CDs or DVDs could be very well numbered and gathered in such a database contained by the catalog created using this piece of software. Why would you need to create such catalogs? For fast access, obviously! Just imagine what it would be like to have a pile of discs on your table and to start searching for some data on each of them… It will (probably) take a lot of time to find the right disc. You can save hours of search with such a program and find what you need in an easy and quick search query through the database.

Pro(s): The program is highly efficient and very useful for companies that deal with a lot of media storage units because of its indexing capabilities.

Con(s): What I didn’t like about this program is that when you create catalogs in it – you cannot rename or delete files from the indexed disc content: as an example – you have some catalogs that you wish to share with some friends, but some of the discs also contain some (private) files/folders you wouldn’t want anyone else to see – the only solution would be to re-burn the CD/DVDs without those – but that is not always cheap or convenient, especially if there are any. Maybe the developers didn’t even think of such a function, editing the indexed content that is, but other famous CD/DVD indexing tools do have this option.

Official site

Buy: $29.95

Download trial