Top 10 Camcorders

1. Sony DCRDVD608E DVD Handycam

Sony's chunky, DVD-based DCRDVD608E (NZ$900) is the current Best Buy. It has a 2.5" LCD touch screen and is easy to operate with just one hand, plus 40x optical zoom and Super SteadyShot.

2. Canon DC51

Canon's DVD-based DC51 (NZ$1,600) gives you a viewfinder, a video light, and optical image stabilization.

3. JVC Everio GZ-MG155

The compact JVC Everio GZ-MG155 (US$600, NZ$785) was the top-performing hard drive camcorder. It provides a one-touch backup button, a 32X zoom, and extra controls on the LCD bezel. It's not available in New Zealand yet, the MG145 is sold for NZ$1,300 (we really don't have a good price here compared with U.S.).

4. Panasonic VDR-D310GN-S

Panasonic's VDR-D310GN-S (NZ$1,200) burns footage to DVD and has three CCD sensors. It offers optical image stabilization, a viewfinder, and support for DVD-RAM.

5. JVC Everio GZ-MG555

At US$900, the JVC Everio GZ-MG555 is expensive. It has dedicated buttons for DVD burning and copying files, as well as supplementary control buttons on its LCD bezel, but video quality was subpar. We don't have MG555 in New Zealand, but we do have the MG575 for NZ$1,800.

6. Panasonic SDR-H200

Panasonic's hard-disk drive SDR-H200 (US$720) offers optical image stabilization, but it doesn't have a viewfinder. Again, we don't have it in New Zealand, we have the H250 for NZ$1,500.

7. Sony DCRSR42 HDD Handycam - 30GB

The DCR-SR42 Handycam (NZ$1,300) comes with a powerful 40X zoom, an LCD touch screen, and offers long battery life, but it lacks a viewfinder.

8. Canon DC210

Canon's low-priced DC210 (NZ$800) offers a powerful 35X zoom, a viewfinder, and many controls, but lacks a USB port.

9. Hitachi DZHS300A

The hybrid Hitachi DZHS300A (US$570, NZ$750) lets you dub video from its 8GB hard drive to a mini-DVD disc without a PC. It uses a viewfinder and electronic image stabilization.

10. Panasonic VDR-D220GN-S

The Panasonic VDR-D210 (NZ$900) has a low price, and includes optical image stabilization.

I'm using a Sony miniDV Hanycam DCRHC30EL at the moment which I bought 3 years ago. Sony is still my favourite brand for video camera personally. If I pick one from the list for myself, I'll probably go for a hard drive model - like the Sony DCRSR42E. But for the first time buyer, the first Sony DCRDVD608E will be a great choice. If you're going to upgrade your existing camcorder, like me, I don't think it's a good time yet. I'll wait for a really good high-definition hard-drive model. The coming Sony HDRCX7EK will be interesting to watch, which is the World's Most Compact AVCHD Handycam, said by Sony. It records on Memory Stick.

The 100 Best Products of 2007 - #1 Google Apps Premier Edition

Web applications; US$50 (NZ$67) per user per year

Google is much more than just a search engine, and with its invaluable Google Apps suite, the company is well on its way to challenging Microsoft for productivity-suite supremacy. Google's Docs & Spreadsheets (soon to be joined by a PowerPoint-esque presentation application) already makes for an interesting alternative to Microsoft Office. Combine it with Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar, and suddenly nearly all of your basic productivity programs and data can be available online.

For small businesses that need more than the free versions offer, Google Apps Premier Edition adds capacity, support services, and tools for integrating existing infrastructure so that all your employees can use Google's powerful Web apps - no matter where they are. Printouts may never die, but if Google has its way, the office-less office may become a reality long before the paperless one does.

Click here to find out more about Google Apps.

Apple iPhone TV Ads

Lots of you may already know, Apple iPhone is coming 29 June in the U.S. Apple has released some new TV ads. With 2 years contract, the 4GB iPhone will be sold at US$499 (NZ$666) and US$599 (NZ$800) for the 8GB version. Not too bad, lucky American.

Links below for the new ads:

• Never been an iPod
• How To
• Calamari
• Watered Down

Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows Vista

With Remote Desktop, you can connect to your work computer from home and access all of your programs, files, and network resources as though you were actually sitting in front of your computer at work.

Remote Desktop is disabled by default in Windows Vista, but it's easy enough to turn it back on. If you need to access your Vista PC from another location, it's an essential thing to turn on.

Note: The Remote Desktop Connection only feature in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.

First, go to the configuration page. You can either right-click the Computer icon and choose properties, or you can type in "system" into the start menu search box.













Now you'll want to click the Remote Settings link on the left hand side:














Now you can finally turn it on:
























To connect from another Vista PC on the same network, click the "Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication" radio button. If you need to connect from a Windows XP or Windows 2000 machine, click the "Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop" radio button.

Vista will set up firewall rules for you automatically.

Sure Delete

If you delete a file, it isn't really gone because Windows just marks the space they occupied as being available. And anyone with a program such as Restoration could probably recover them, meaning that personal data could get into the wrong hands. The author of Sure Delete says that this free program deletes the file, then wipes and removes the data left over.

Operating Systems: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows XP

Free Download

Toshiba's 1kg Portege R500 Laptop

Toshiba's sleek ultraportable laptop is an attention-getter that packs a ton of features into its compact package. Let's take a closer look.

Airy Portable

The Portege R500 weighs just 1.09 kg, including its 2.5-inch, 120GB (5400 rpm) hard drive and its optical drive. The notebook carries an estimated street price of US$2150 (NZ$2860) for the R500-S5002 (with Windows Vista Business), and US$2000 (US$2660) for the Windows XP Professional flavors, the R500-S5001X/S5002X. According to Toshiba, the R500 is the first notebook PC with a 12.1-inch wide-screen WXGA transreflective LED backlit display. A button below the screen lets you turn off the display's backlight--useful if you're outdoors, where the ambient light can go into the screen and be reflected back.

Sleek Lines

The R500 is slim and compact: It measures about the size of a sheet of paper--11.1 by 8.5 inches--and stands at just 0.77 inches deep (not including the feet). In its chassis, Toshiba fits a small motherboard with components on both sides. The guts of the R500 include an ultralow-voltage processor, Intel's 1.2-GHz Core 2 Duo U7600 processor (64-bit), 1GB of memory (1.5GB maximum supported), a 120GB SATA hard drive, and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 graphics core (the R500-S5002 adds dynamically allocated shared graphics memory).

No Ports at Back

Since the R500 has a drop-hinge design for its display, the unit has a clean presentation from the rear; it has no ports on its back. Instead, all of the notebook's ports are distributed along its sides. The chassis is made of what Toshiba describes as an advanced magnesium alloy that helps dissipate heat away from the notebook's components.

Drop Hinge

Like the Portege R200 before it, the R500 features a drop-hinge mechanism for the notebook's screen. The hinge is an extension of the back left and back right of the chassis; this design let Toshiba reduce the thickness of the notebook (it is 0.77 inches thick).

Attractive Touchpad

Toshiba paid attention to subtle design points, too: Here, you can see that the touchpad has the same matte silver finish as the rest of the notebook's chassis.

Ports and Slots at Right

At the right rear of the R500, a slider switch lets you enable or disable the wireless radio. The R500 offers Bluetooth 2.0, as well as 802.11 a/g/draft-n wireless connectivity (great! 802.11n is included). Also seen here: one of the notebook's three USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit ethernet port, and, cleverly tucked away beneath these ports, a PC Card slot.

The R500 crams an optical drive into its superslim, superlight form factor. The unit is the first with Matsushita's 0.7mm DVD Super-Multi drive; the drive supports a slew of disc write formats, including 24X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 8X DVD-/+R, 4X DVD-/+RW, and 3X DVD-RAM. Unfortunately, the drive handles writing only to single-layer DVD media.

This model is not available in New Zealand yet. But we do have the Toshiba Portege R400

For more Toshiba laptop models in NZ market, you can visit www.mytoshiba.co.nz

YouTube in deal to offer local television programming

Hearst-Argyle Television and YouTube have announced a joint effort to add news, weather and entertainment videos and original Hearst television programming in five local markets to YouTube.

Beginning Monday this week, Hearst TV stations in Boston, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Manchester, N.H., will begin posting local video to dedicated YouTube channels.

The deal marks the first distribution agreement between Google subsidiary YouTube and an independent television broadcaster, according to YouTube and Hearst. YouTube last week announced a deal with EMI Group to begin showing music videos and performances on the site.

For Hearst's part, the deal fits within its overall strategy to distribute its content on TV, the internet and mobile phones, says executive vice president Terry Mackin.

As part of the deal, Hearst will also use YouTube as part of its new digital video project and will broadcast high school football and basketball and local amateur entertainment on YouTube.

Websites operated by Hearst television stations nationwide generate 1 billion page views each year and provide Wireless Application Protocol content, podcasts, web-based newscasts, web videos and blogs in various markets.

Sony HDRHC7E HDV Handycam

Are you looking for a digital video camera? Is your pocket deep enough? Do you want to record all your important moments in HD? If your answers are “yes” to all questions, the Sony Handycam HDRHC7E HDV will be a good option.

The Sony HDRHC7E has high performance features include Optical Super SteadyShot, 6.1 Mega Pixel still image capture and HDV video recording. The video quality is excellent and photo quality is satisfying as well. It has a decent set of manual controls for leisure shooters and bundled FireWire cable (very helpful!). Some people don’t like the touch screen interface, but if you do like it, this video camera will be perfect for you.

Let’s have a look some of its features:

• High resolution 3.2 Mega Pixel ClearVid CMOS Sensor and Enhanced Imaging Processor for low picture noise, wide dynamic range and smear free images with vibrant colours
• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens
• Super SteadyShot Optical for stable recording and superior image quality for both video and still images without loss of data quality
• 2.7inch Wide Clear Photo LCD Screen with Touch Panel
• HDV/DV Compatible
• x.v.Colour a new international colour standard delivers true to life colour reproduction
• Easy Handycam mode to simplify operation for first time users
• Active Interface Shoe for easy connection of accessories
• 6.1 Mega Pixel still photo capable
• Memory Stick Duo slot for Still Photo storage
• Dual Record feature enables simultantous recording of high resolution photos without interupting your video recording.
• Smooth Slow Record with audio to capture motion that is faster than the human eye. Ideal for sports training and action shots captures 3 seconds and plays it back over 12 seconds
• HDMI connection for highest quality HD video and audio transfer
• Picture Motion Browser software and i.LINK cable included

Click the link for more information and pricing – Sony HDRHC7E HDV Handycam.

SanDisk Sansa Connect

SanDisk has just introduced the new Sansa Connect MP3 player. It’s a well designed MP3 player with lots of features and advanced wireless technology (the most interesting part). The Wi-Fi capability lets you access Internet radio for free and the entire Yahoo! Music catalogue with a subscription (of course, you have to be in the Wi-Fi network). You can also browse Flckr’s online photo catalogue on the go.

Apart from the wireless feature, it’s a high-quality MP3 player by itself, with user-friendly interface, good audio quality and 2.2” TFT colour screen. It even offers MicroSD card expansion slot and a built-in external speaker (although I personally don’t really think a tiny external speaker helps).

There must be something imperfect about this little device. Yes, it cannot communicate wirelessly with your PC and it cannot get past certain open Wi-Fi networks' "Terms and conditions" pages. The Wi-Fi battery life is also not very impressive.

The RRP is US$249.99 (NZ$340) for the 4GB model. However, it’s not here yet. We currently have the following SanDisk Sansa models in New Zealand market, if you don’t really need the Wi-Fi function:

• SanDisk Sansa Express MP3 Player 1GB
• SanDisk Sansa e280 MP3 Player 8GB
• SanDisk Sansa e270 MP3 Player 6GB
• SanDisk Sansa e260 MP3 Player 4GB
• SanDisk Sansa e250 MP3 Player 2GB
• SanDisk Sansa c250 MP3 Player 2GB
• SanDisk Sansa c240 MP3 Player 1GB
• SanDisk Sansa c150 MP3 Player 2GB
• SanDisk Sansa c140 MP3 Player 1GB
• SanDisk Sansa m250 MP3 Player 2GB
• SanDisk Sansa m240 MP3 Player 1GB
• SanDisk Sansa m230 MP3 Player 512MB

Click the above links for more information and the latest pricing.

VAIO Digital Living System

It looks like a stereo receiver, but it's a PC from Sony. The rack-style new Sony VAIO Digital Living System (VGX-XL3) is a full high definition 1080 Media Center PC with Blu-ray Disc technology and DVR capability. It's designed to integrate with your living room entertainment system and has a wireless keyboard and remote control, HDMI for single-cable connectivity and Windows Vista Home Premium. Apart from the normal PC functions, you can use it as a HD player and video recorder which records directly to the hard disk or Blu-ray discs.

Here are hardware specs:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400 2.13GHz
• Memory: 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (3GB max.)
• Hard drive: 500GB 7200rpm SATA
• Optical drive: Blu-ray drive
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GTL with 527MB Video RAM
• Networking: Gigabit Ethernet and IEEE 802.11abg
• Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium

It will be available in the U.S. market from mid-April with the price tag of US$3,300 (NZ$4,500). The closest one we have here is the new Sony VAIO Lifestyle Panel PC.