The PRADA Phone by LG

Waiting for Apple iPhone? Here is one more choice from LG.

LG Electronics and PRADA, one of the world’s leading brands in the luxury goods industry, unveil the first completely touch screen mobile phone.

The PRADA Phone by LG (KE850) uses advanced touch interface. The phone is ultra thin (just 12 mm), nonetheless it hosts an array of additional multimedia functions, including an MP3 player and a music multitasking function for messaging. It also boasts an external memory slot.

The PRADA Phone by LG will be available with prices starting from 600 Euros (NZ$1,150) in mobile dealerships as well as selected PRADA stores in the UK, France, Germany and Italy as of late February, 2007, followed by countries in Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore from late March, 2007. The Korean version of the phone is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2007.

Features

• Capacitive Touch Screen
• Music Player (MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA, RA)
• Music Multitasking (Messaging)
• Video Player (MPEG4, H.263, H.264)
• Macromedia Flash UI
• Document Viewer (ppt, doc, xls, pdf, txt )
  

Specifications

• EDGE Tri-Band (900/1800/1900)
• 98.8 × 54 × 12 mm
• 2M CMOS Camera / LED Flash
• External Memory Slot (Micro SD)
• Innerpack Battery 800mAh
• Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, USB Mass storage
  

Who're the Top PC Vendors Worldwide in 2006?

The third week of 2007 has nearly gone. It's time to look at some stats of 2006. One of the most interesting questions is "who's the biggest PC vendor worldwide in 2006?". The answer is - Dell. According to IDC, although HP caught up in the last two quarters, Dell was still the biggest one for the entire year of 2006 by having 17.1% market share. HP was in the second position with 17.0% market share (yes, very close to Dell). Lenovo was the third one with 7.3% market share. Acer and Toshiba are fourth and fifth by having 5.9% and 4.0% market share respectively.

The overall PC market has increased by 10%, lower than the forecast of 10.4%. The delayed Windows Vista may be one of the reasons for the slow increase. Another noticeable trend is the ongoing transition in demand from desktop PCs to laptops.

Note: the PC sales figures include desktop, laptop, ultra portable PCs and x86 servers, but not PDAs.

Search Engine Market Share in the U.S.

According to comScore Networks, Google is still the No.1 search engine in the U.S. with 47.4% market share and 0.4% growth in December 06. Yahoo! was the No.2 with 28.5% market share and 0.3% growth. MSN is on the third position with 10.5% market share (decreased by 0.5%). Ask.com's market share has dropped by 0.1% to 5.4%.

Top Inkjet Multifunction Printers – Canon PIXMA MP960

Last time, we have introduced the Canon PIXMA MP600 All-in-One printer. Today, let’s have a look of the Canon PIXMA MP960. The MP960 is quite similar to the MP600, the main difference is the addition of film scanning capabilities. You can scan images up to 4800 x 4800 dpi.

The MP960 has all the functions of MP600 (refer to my last post about MP600). The other differences are the 7 individual ink system and the bigger 3.5-inch colour TFT screen.

Overall, if you’re a photographer who work with both film and digital cameras, the MP960 will be perfect for you. Otherwise, we may want to stay with MP600. But, the MP960 does look cooler than the MP600, doesn't it? Click the link for more information and pricing – Canon PIXMA MP960 All-in-One

Top Inkjet Multifunction Printer - Canon PIXMA MP600

The Canon PIXMA MP600 is a solid multifunction machine, which combines a printer, scanner and media card reader at a reasonable price. Although it doesn’t have a built-in fax and cannot scan film, it’s very easy-to-use and delivers high-quality prints and copies at fast speeds.

The MP600 has two paper trays. The cassette in the base is suited for plain paper, while the feeder at the rear is convenient for different sizes of photo paper. Each of them can hold up to 150 sheets. The built-in duplexer lets you print two-sided pages. The maximum resolution of printing is 9600 x 2400 dpi.

You can use the MP600 to scan images up to letter size at up to 2400 x 4800 dpi. But the scanner lacks an automatic document feeder for scanning several pages at once.

The new easy-scroll wheel works well with the 2.5-inch colour TFT screen for viewing images stored on your memory card and navigating the menus. Before printing an image, you can also edit your photos, such as red-eye removal and cropping.

The two media slots accept most memory cards. The IrDA port lets you beam photos from your camera photos and PDAs that have infrared transmitters. You can also use the optional BU-20 adaptor to print via Bluetooth. However, it doesn’t support printing from USB flash drives.

The MP600 uses 5 individual ink system which produces sharp text and precise image details. The print speed is also outstanding with 30 ppm black and 24 ppm colour. You can print a borderless 6” x 4” photo in around 28 seconds. In addition, it can print on CDs and DVDs (you’ll need the printable discs).

Overall, if you don’t need a fax, an automatic document feeder and film scanning, the Canon PIXMA MP600 will be a perfect machine for all your printing needs. Click the link for more information and pricing – Canon PIXMA MP600 Multifunction Printer

Top Advanced Digital Camera – Canon PowerShot S3 IS

If you’re looking for an advanced digital camera with big zoom and lots of manual controls, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS will be a very good option. It offers lots of features, including 12x optical zoom (36-432mm) with Optical Image Stabilizer, 6.0 megapixel CCD, a swivelling 2” LCD screen and fast maximum shutter speed (1/3200 sec). It also has plenty of control buttons for quick access to manual settings such as ISO, macro mode and manual focus.

The image stabilization is quite effective at countering minor camera shaking. The overall image quality is very impressive. The battery life is average. You can get approximately 331 shots on a single charge.

For more information and pricing, click the link – Canon PowerShot S3 IS Digital Camera

CES 2007 Best in Show - LG BH100

The format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD has been there for a long time. We're looking forward to a player which can play both formats. Now it finally comes to the CES 2007 show - the LG BH100. It can play both formats up to 1080p. The launch date will be February 2007 in the U.S. with the price tag of US$1,199 (NZ$1,730).

Apple iPhone - 8

Apple iPhone - 7

Apple iPhone - 6

Apple iPhone - 5

Apple iPhone - 4

Apple iPhone - 3

Apple iPhone - 2

In addition to my last post, the battery life of the Apple iPhone is 5 hours for talk or video and full 16 hours in music mode.

Apple's iPhone, finally unveiled.

Apple has unveiled its long waiting iPhone yesterday. The iPhone brings together the features of iPod, digital camera, smartphones, portable PC and an innovative input method.

The Apple iPhone uses the input technology called “Multi-Touch”. It only has one Home button. You can control the phone by touching the 3.5” display (320x480).

The iPhone runs Mac OS X operating system, has full iTunes integration and can synchronize with a Mac, PC (yes, the PC!), or Internet service. Therefore, you can transfer your music and video from iTunes, contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks and email accounts easily.

The phone is 11.6mm thick and weights 135g. It has a 2-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset/audio jack, speaker, microphone and a 30-pin iPod dock connector. It works on quad-band GSM network and has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities. The 3G version will come soon in the future.

The iPhone equips with a few sensors, to shut down the display and touch screen when the phone is held to the ear, to automatically adjust screen brightness to save power and to let the phone know whether to display in landscape or portrait.

Apart from the hardware, the iPhone is strong on software applications as well. Here is a summary of its features:

• A visual voice-mail feature allows you to skip directly to voice mails you want to hear
• An easy-to-use conference call feature allows you to connect two calls with one touch of the screen
• The text-messaging feature is similar to Apple’s iChat.
• Yahoo! will offer free push e-mail to all iPhone customers (similar to the email system on a BlackBerry).
• The iPhone uses Safari web browser and can view standard web pages, not only WAP websites.
• The iPhone integrates Google Maps for looking up maps and view satellite images
• It also supports Dashboard widgets, including weather and stock widgets
• Of course, it can play photo, music and video.

The iPhone has two versions, the 4GB and the 8GB. In the U.S. the price with 2 year contract is US$499 (NZ$720) and US$599 (NZ$865) respectively. However, it won’t come to Europe until the fourth quarter of 2007 and to Asia in 2008. So I guess it won’t arrive here until the mid of 2008.

For more images of the Apple iPhone, please click the following links:

• Apple iPhone - 2
• Apple iPhone - 3
  
• Apple iPhone - 4
  
• Apple iPhone - 5
  
• Apple iPhone - 6
  
• Apple iPhone - 7
  
• Apple iPhone - 8