Gadgets – Page 2 – Walt-O-Matic

Canon Powershot SD890 IS

The Canon SD890 IS is a capable camera, but the one thing I’m not too fond of is the physical interface, and if I had to gripe about anything in particular, it’d have to be the on/off switch.

I love my Canon Powershot A570. Apparently, so does my wife. I know, because I don’t get to play with it very much anymore. That’s why I got the SD890 IS.

So, why would a photographer with a Canon EOS 5D that can produce images that look like these need with a point-and-shoot camera, you may wonder?

Turns out it isn’t always convenient to pull out a full sized digital SLR. Especially if you’re driving down the road, sitting at work, or floating down a river. What’s ideal is a camera that takes good enough pictures, and if it gets destroyed you won’t be mad at yourself. Well, not for long, that is.

As such, I found my self eyeing the Canon Powershot SD890 IS. It’s a small, 10 megapixel camera, with reasonable 5x optical zoom, image stabilizer, and face detection. The feature list is pretty neat, in that it an do sound recordings, movies, stop motion, high ISOs, macros, panoramic stitching, spot color, color substitution, and has all the manual goodies you’d expect from a real camera. USB connectivity, and even weirder, video out that looks like a USB connector.

However, what I’m not thrilled with is the physical interface to the camera. In an effort to be stream lined, it “feels cheaper” than my other power shots. And I’m not just talking the small 32MB SD card that comes with it.

To start with, the on/off button is plastic and needs to be pressed in a considerable way in order to turn the camera on and off. Not only does it need to be pressed in, but it has to be at a particular angle or nothing happens.

Originally I thought I had received a defective model and actually ended up returning it to the store, which incidentally was not BestBuy for good reason. The returns person was unable to turn on the camera. When it was turned on for her, she was unable to turn it off.

While I appreciate the need to not have the camera activate while in one’s pocket, it’s still imperative that the camera can be activated upon demand.

The zoom in/out ring on top feels rugged enough to hold up to use, but the mode selector for automatic/manual/scene/movie is so sleek in design, it’s uncomfortable to change modes. Instead of turning the side of a wheel, with most Powershot models, it requires more thumb torque than you’d initially expect.

I’m not thrilled with the review mode being a button instead of a setting on that dial, but I also have to admit that it makes the review process very easy. That, I assume will just take some getting used to.

The only other real complaint is the lower wheel-like interface for changing sub-modes and selecting menu items. It’s a rotating shuttle, that’s also a N/S/E/W rocker switch, that also has a button in the middle; all slightly smaller than the size of a dime. Navigation is difficult, and not for the reasons you’d think.

While the ring-wheel for selection is a nice way to change modes, you have to exaggerate the amount you turn it to change to the next selection. Thus the perceived required turn amount in the GUI is far less than what is actually required, making you think it isn’t working, when if fact it is. It’s not overly sensitive, but the exact opposite. I’ve yet to be able to find a way to adjust the spin sensitivity on the control dial.

There is tactile feedback which feels like little stops as the wheel turns, but it’s clear the GUI is not looking for how many of those pass by (distance), but rather speed. Slowly turning the wheel does nothing, no matter how many increments it literally feels like you’ve passed.

Luckily, since it also acts as a rocker switch, the GUI responds to this, so it’s not as big of a deal as one might think. It just feels awkward, though the GUI is totally usable.

Aside from that, the LCD is large and bright. The display shows all the settings you’d need for information, and it’s easy to find settings. In particular, I’m impressed that it’s possible to overlay a grid and 2:3 shading, which makes composition all the easier, especially with face recognition properly focusing.

The camera doesn’t have as many models as it’s smaller predecessor, but then again, it’s got better optical resources and a slightly smaller footprint, which scores high in the portability scale.

The one thing I wish it did have was the ability to use standard AA batteries. Normally, I use rechargeable AAs, but it’s nice to know in a pinch you can use a standard household battery. Nope, for this camera you need a special Canon NB-5L 3.7V 1120mAh(Li-ion) battery. Small, light, compact, charges quickly, lasts a while, but still — if it goes dead, you’re out of commission.

All in all, though, if I have to judge it based on the quality of pictures, I’d have to say it’s a very capable camera. Handy to carry, easy to use.

REVIEW: ~~Walt gives the Canon Powershot SD890 IS a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.~~

UPDATE: The camera does not have a Aperture or Shutter Priority mode.

REVIEW: Walt downgrades the Canon Powershot SD890 IS a rating to 3.5 out of 5 stars.

New iPhones? Speculation at the Apple Store.

At the Apple store, I was given an interesting tidbit about an “event” that happened, and passed by rather silently.

Total speculation follows.

This weekend, I was at the Apple Store, and managed to get into a rather in depth conversation with someone, who, well, really knew their stuff. More so than other store employees I’ve chatted with, and some of them were pretty good.

I was passed the observation that an interesting “event” had occurred rather silently.

They ran out of iPhones.

This person explained to me that Apple does a really good job of keeping them stocked, since they were a major supplier for the area. However, they were clean out.

The only times that ever happened, was when Apple was about to change inventory on them. Killing the 4GB model was one. Going to the 16GB was the other.

A 32GB or 64GB iPhone seems likely, as iPhone customers want as much memory as an iTouch allows.

This would be a good time to add additional gestures, which, incidentally would help out with the lack of cut’n’paste.

But the real feature I’m looking for? The ability to push my contacts to other people with an iPhone. We’ve got the same device, the same applications, the same data, and bluetooth, there’s no technical reason I can’t give someone my ‘electronic business card’.

iPhone Registration Problem

Here’s a nifty little screen shot of an Apple web site error that provides a little insight into what’s happening back on the server.

Last year when I bought my iPhone, I tried registering it at the store with an Apple Genius at my side.

This popped up. Amusing as it was, I took a snap shot of it and had been meaning to share it for a while now.

Perhaps it was a time when Apple’s servers were being over whelmed. Nonetheless, it might provide some insight as to what they’re doing.

NOTE: I tried later that evening and it worked fine; my iPhone has been operating just fine.

CES 2008: A Solid C-

CES 2008… in my books, it scored a solid C- for many different reasons. Is this a wake up call or a death rattle?

Every time I’ve gone to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I’ve never come back disappointed.

That was, until CES 2008.

CES Admittedly, I go to the show for a mixed bag of reasons. I’m a hobbyist, and I want to see what bleeding edge stuff is coming out next. I’m a reviewer, and I’m interested in identifying what works, what doesn’t, and conveying how to improve products. I’m an arm chair psychologist, and I enjoy people watching, mass crowd manipulation, and the interactions that happen between consumers and vendors. I’m a purchaser, looking for products that will improves my business and clients’ success. I’m an entertainer, and like to see performances by others. I’m also a marketer, and I like to see how others sell products.

CES, for me, is one of the rare times when all these elements come together. For instance, in years past, I’ve watched as entertainers and booth girls attract attention, pulling people out of the crowd into the vendor area. Then, with a promise of a prize or raffle, or perhaps some interesting swag, get the person to emotionally commit to giving a product attention. A quick, flashy, glitzy presentation subtly conveys memorable sales information, and when all is said and done, the consumer walks away happy, entertained, informed, and, if done right, has reason to tell others to come see that booth. Done real well, sales result for the vendor.

Effectively, you have many vendors competing for product attention at once, and the winner has to be good at not just the initial draw, but also at retention. That means starting with a good product. That means crowd manipulation. That means showmanship. That means sales. Everything.

At CES you never know what you’re going to find. Performers. T-Shirts. Gizmos. Great deals. Innovation. Music. Creativity. And, swag.

This year was different.

If I had to sum up CES 2008 in a single word, it’d be this: boring.

I didn’t see any stunning innovations or uses of technology that just blew my socks off as I had in years past.

Normally, I walk out of each day from CES with my arms filled with product information and swag. Instead, I literally walked out on CES this year by day two. I felt it had let me down.

And, it turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Whether back at the hotel, riding an elevator, or standing in line for a Vegas attraction, show, ride, or meal, I talked with other CES attendees, and they all seemed to focus on the lack of luster of this year’s conference.

My favorite story came from a gentleman who was a VIP, he explained that they were provided musical entertainment in the form of an exclusive show. Well, apparently the organizer of that event didn’t seem to realize that older, more conservative, business men weren’t exactly fond of rap music. The generation gap was dwarfed by the culture gap, and it conveyed a pretty negative message, and he questioned his future involvement with CES.

Even a number of big name vendors made a no show this year. Their absence was noticed as a vote of no confidence.

Vendors didn’t engage the crowd, the swag was pitiful, the drawings limited, and the product demonstrations infrequent. The last thing I want to do if I’m interested in a product now is to be told to return in two hours for the next 10 minute demo.

All in all, it was quite disappointing. And, while I have my speculations on what caused this year to be sub-satisfactory, I sincerely hope that CES 2008 becomes a wakeup call for vendors and conference organizers, rather than a death rattle.

Sticky Fingers: Logitech Mouse

Ok, not making this up. It’s been so long since I used my home Windows system that the plastic on my mouse is decomposing. Literally. Not the rubber. The plastic housing. The hard plastic.

This will give you an idea of how long it’s been since I’ve used Windows at home.

I had to hook up an LCD monitor to the Windows box, boot the system, and install a pile of updates [1 WGA; 34 express; 2 custom]. However, something else gave me a true sense of the time that had passed: when I moved the mouse, I felt something oily and sticky on my thumb. The plastic mouse had degraded.

Upon closer inspection of my Logitech iFeel MouseMan (M/N: M-UN53b; P/N: 830445-0000), the thumb button had ooze dripping on it.

Where did it come from? The answer was obvious. There was a thumb print above the button, where the hand naturally rests.

Apparently the natural oil in my hand left a finger print on the mouse. Undisturbed for so long, the plastic broke down and started becoming liquid mush in that one spot.

I’ve never heard of a mouse breaking down like that, but I’m holding the evidence in the palm of my hand.

Now, the larger question: do I buy a new mouse? Nah, Windows isn’t worth the pocket change or that level of effort to me anymore.

iPhone: American Express Came Through!

The nay sayers said it wouldn’t happen, but American Express came through. And stunningly so. That’s right, I got a refund on my iPhone. And you should see how clever American Express was about it.

Shortly after Apple announced the price drop on an existing iPhone product, without introducing a new one to take its place, I wrote about whether or not early iPhone adopters would get screwed. My take on the matter was, no, as Apple has a history of doing the right thing, at least in the long run.

American Express iPhone Refund Near the same time, a few people observed that the terms and conditions of their American Express card benefits would allow them a refund. Since it never hurts to go directly to the source and just ask, I did so, writing about my experience with American Express. Again, my take on the matter was that American Express, with no ultra compelling requirement to do could turn this into a massive marketing strategy right before the holiday season.

I learned two things.

First, I learned that there’s actually only a small number of rude people who don’t actually read posts before feeling they have to comment in the most vile language as they make false assumptions. (I’d clearly stated in a colorful sidebar box that I didn’t feel entitled to the refund, but that the opportunity could be used to build good will.)

Second, I learned that American Express came to the same conclusions I did about how to treat its customers.

Today I got a letter from American Express. In it, they explained that my recent purchase did not fall within the normal terms and provisions of the Purchase Protection Plan. However, as they value my business, they are processing the claim as an exception to the rule, and are crediting my card with $105. (They then sent me the actual terms, which covered a lot more than I was aware of.)

That made me, as a customer, feel special. And cared about.

With Steve Jobs’s refund of $100, with American Express’s refund of $105, I’m now $5 ahead.

I think American Express was smart.

They knew the product could have been returned completely, giving them a useless product, and me $300. And with my $100 from Jobs, I could have gotten a replacement phone.

They knew what I really would have liked, in the ideal case, was the $200 difference.

They most certainly knew that I’d be getting a refund of $100 from Apple, so they could just get away with providing $100 out of the kindness of their hearts.

And, but going $5 over that amount, which is trivial to them, it makes them look like the super good guys. The $5 bought a lot in terms of marketing.

At this point, as a customer, I’m so totally impressed with how well American Express took care of me, especially when they didn’t have to, that I’ll be using American Express for every major purchase, as well as now minor ones.

Prior to this I used Discover (for cash back) and Visa (when Discover wasn’t accepted).

American Express – you’ve won my heart this holiday season. Thank you.

Warning: iPhone AMEX refund isn’t dead yet

There was a blip of people who got AMEX to refund the difference, but that bubble is over. Or is it? I just got off the phone with AMEX and…

Let me clarify my position that I do not feel that I have an entitlement to a $200 refund.

That said, if I were running a company (like Apple or AMEX) where customer service is vital to my bottom line, I’d do everything in my power to build a burst of good will right before a holiday season.

For fun, let’s see of the sure fire headlines work.

Last night I went to the Apple Store in Tysons with a friend who bought his phone one week after me, putting him within the 14 day window. Apple credited him $200 on the spot.

I perhaps have one of the worse case situations, in that while early adopters have had their phone for a long time, I’m just outside of the 14 day window, meaning I don’t qualify for the price guarantee match, nor can I return my phone, nor did I get $200 of fanboy usage from the device.

Apple, however, was helpful and friendly. They looked up on my account and indicated that American Express was used to purchase the phone, and that I should call them. They even printed out a fresh copy of the invoice for me.

In the Jerry Seinfield and Superman commercial shorts by American Express, Jerry tells how, by using American Express, he’s protected from theft, damage, and so forth. Could it be true?

I looked at my American Express card, and found out I was a Platinum Member via Costco. Nice!

After looking up AMEX Best Value Guarantee with Google, seeing that a Gold Card Page mentioned BVG, and discovering Return Protection on Platinum Benefits, I felt it was worth a call to AMEX – given the Apple Store made the same suggestions as this newsworthy blog, this tech news article, and this tidbit.

I called 1-800-297-8019, and after a fairly long time on hold due to an enormous “unexpected” call volume, I reached a human who confirmed I had the right number. He explained that the Best Value Guarantee was discontinued in November 2006 (ah, the BVG article above was from 2003).

Turns out, the non-existent Best Value Guarantee would have meant AMEX would have had to pay $200. However, the “Apple won’t take my phone back [so I can purchase a new one at a cheaper rater] which is in affect puts them out $300 – though there’s the possibly you may have to send in your iPhone.

Follow along, cause this gets weird. Even if you paid $600 for the phone, a $300 credit from AMEX and a $100 from Jobs, gets you pretty darn close to the cost of getting a new phone (say if you’ve damaged yours dropping it or such); in fact, it might be just enough to make a point if you’re mad enough.

If you bought the cheaper phone, you very well could be beyond the break even point.

AMEX knows this, and they are well aware of the iPhone situation.

Because AMEX is getting hammered, they are looking for a compromise. Apparently there are enough people who are willing to return them iPhones that have been bricked in order to get $300 that AMEX doesn’t want to deal with that.

As such, they are looking at simply refunding the price difference (which is actually cheaper), especially if that means they don’t have to refund a larger amount and get stuck with a bunch of damaged phones with nothing in the file system and missing a SIMM card.

American Express took the date of purchase, the kind of iPhone, there price (with tax) of the iPhone, and the total cost of charges for the purchase and opened a case for me.

They claim they will review them individually, but the rep was fairly certain they’d be handled in bulk.

By bulk, I assume that means putting them in groups. Speculating here, I believe one group, will be the whining early adopters who will get nothing, another group will be those that are in the 14 day period and should be dealing with Apple, another group of questionable pro-rated matching, and a group that meets the intent of the policy (which is where I fall in), in that I’m just shy of being able to resolve it with Apple but haven’t had the long usage.

If AMEX comes though for me, then great, I will be using their card a lot more often.

If AMEX does anything, and I mean, anything at all, they come out looking like the heros, and have just secured themselves the holiday season as the card to purchase everything with.
Steve Jobs has one chance left to steal the thunder back, however. Tell people they are getting $100 back, but give a certain portion in the purchasing window $200 instead. Suddenly Apple looks beyond fair, but customer centric again.

I will note, however, that there were more people in line with iPhone receipts at Tysons than there were people buying the new iPods, while I was there. The early adopters are clearly gun shy.

iPhone TOS Rebuttal

I held off my iPhone purchase because of an article exposing the evils of the terms of service. However, those have been adequately rebutted, that I now own an iPhone.

One of the big things holding me back from buying an iPhone in the first place, aside from lack of SSH (which was soon resolved), was an article about the hidden evils in the Terms of Service contract.

Well, not sure about whether to take things at face value or not, I bounced my concern off my friend Phil, who’s extremely knowledgeable about telecommunications.

He wrote me back a wonderful point-by-point analysis, which swayed my decision. Feeling that other people might benefit as well, I sought permission from him to reprint it here.

iPhone Requires a 2-Year Contract with AT&T.
1. True; they make the 2-year contract requirement pretty clear. This isn’t a great thing but it’s pretty standard in the U.S. when you buy a phone.

Expensive: Requires $2,280, Over $1,730 in Wireless Costs.
2. Also true, though he overstates the price. The service plan runs about $60/month ($40 voice, $20 data); if that’s too expensive, the iPhone is probably a bad idea. That’s still less costly than a Blackberry or Treo (both about $80/month when you turn on the features needed).

Double Billing. You and the Caller Both Get Charged for the Same Call.
3. True, but not unique to the iPhone. Every cellular carrier in the United States save for a few Nextel plans will charge airtime on both incoming and outgoing calls. If you call another wireless phone user, I suppose you could call that double-billing (though if that other user is on the same carrier [ATT], the airtime rate is the princely sum of zero cents per minute).

All Use of the Networks Are Always Rounded Up to the Nearest Kilobyte or Minute.
4. Standard practice for the wireless industry. The per-kilobyte complaint is pretty funny, though, since the charge per kilobyte for domestic data usage is zero cents per kilobyte.

Customers Are Billed for â€œNetwork Errorsâ€ and â€œNetwork Overhead”.
5. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it makes no sense.

Billed Even Though the Call Doesn’t Go Through.
6. Basically untrue. Billing in a wireless system begins when the call is answered, though the timer starts when the call is initiated. In other words, if a call rings for fifteen seconds and then is answered, the clock begins at 15 seconds and counts up from there.

Bogus Fees Added to the Bill: Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge
7. While I agree that regulatory recovery fees are basically bogus padding, I challenge him to find a wireless (or, for that matter, conventional wireline) carrier that doesn’t do this.

$175.00 Termination Fee.
8. The early termination fee is pretty well standard throughout the industry. There are certain circumstances where you can avoid paying it (for example, if they raise rates during your contract term).

International Messages Are Charged Additional Fees as Are Files Over 300Kbps.
9. International text messaging (i.e. SMS) costs extra on every cellular carrier I’m aware of. The picture/video messaging charging he complains about isn’t even relevant to the iPhone. And the “additional fee” for large messages that he talks about is irrelevant to the iPhone. My phone communicates directly with my IMAP server over SSL; there’s no way that ATT can tell how large a message is, let alone bill me for those messages over 300K.

Over Your Quota: Get Gouged: 40Â¢ Per Minute and 69Â¢ Roaming Offnet.
10. Once again, he’s whining about something that’s absolutely standard in the industry: if you go over your bucket of minutes, you pay a pretty high rate. He conveniently neglects to mention that UNUSED minutes from your plan roll forward into the next month and can be used to offset high usage up to a year later. If that’s not enough, just call and switch to a higher plan and ask them to make it retroactive to your previous month’s usage.

The Services Are Not Secure and Can’t Block Your Phone Number.
11. “Not secure” is a leftover from the days of ANALOG cell phones, which could be listened in upon pretty trivially. And they’re saying that when calling certain toll-free numbers, you can’t block your caller ID since the recipient pays for the call. There’s a MENU on the iPhone that allows you set the default for whether you send caller ID or not; you can also set it per-call. In other words: JUST LIKE A LANDLINE.

The Current Mobile Email Service Doesn’t Support Attachments.
12. Absolutely false. You can send photos trivially (about the only sort of attachment that makes sense to create on a phone), and the iPhone will read a lot of formats (Word, Excel, PDF, JPEG at a minimum).

Prohibited Uses and â€œUnlimitedâ€ Sales Hype.
13. The prohibited uses language is pretty standard wireless carrier language. I agree with him that the claim of “unlimited” is pretty misleading marketing puffery, but it’s an industry-wide problem. If you use your FIOS connection at full bandwidth 24×7, you’ll soon discover that “unlimited” basically means that you’re not billed per unit of data, but that you can still be cut off if you abuse the service. There’s basically nothing you could do on the iPhone that would cause this to happen, though.

Service Is Not Intended to Provide Full-Time Connections: Unlimited is Hype
14. Same as above.

Wi-Fi Service is Limited
15. I think he’s deliberately misinterpreting this one. He’s talking about a completely different wi-fi service that one can purchase through AT&T that has nothing to do with the iPhone. There is of course no limit at all to the number of times in a given time period that the iPhone can connect to a wi-fi network.

â€œOffnetâ€ Restrictions
16. Another deliberate misinterpretation, I think. “Off-net” usage refers to areas where you’re roaming. Since cell phone roaming charges basically don’t exist anymore for the consumer (the carriers charge each other, though), what they’re saying is that you can’t buy the phone and then use it full-time where, say, T-Mobile has service and ATT doesn’t.

Plan Goobly-gook
17. He’s so incoherent here that it’s hard to figure out what he’s mad about.

Comparing US and Other Broadband Countries: America Is being Laughed At.
18. Perhaps he should move! He forgot to mention that countries using the metric system think we’re pretty silly too–but I’m sure he would have if he’d thought about it. Seriously, he has a point: mobile telephony is more advanced in other parts of the world (largely due to standardization on one network type–GSM). But I’m not sure why that would be the fault of ATT and the iPhone.

iPhone – Price Drop: Early Adopters Screwed?

Are early adopters of the iPhone going to get screwed out of $200? I don’t think so.

To provide some context here, I actually ended up purchasing an iPhone. The SSH problem I had concerns with was resolved by the new set of software that’s come out by third parties. The iPhone legal rant was adequately rebutted by my friend, Phil.

But that’s not the big news. The big news is that Steve Jobs just announced the iPhone price was being dropped by $200. And, we knew in our heart of hearts that was going to happen sometime, but early adopters who wanted the iPhone to be a success, paid the expensive price.

Now that Apple’s benefited, the real question on the table is: Are the early adopters going to get screwed.

My take is no.

On the surface, I’m not too happy about having a 3-week old phone, which is less than a month old, yet one week past the return point.

Yes, I made the decision to buy it then, so I do take responsibility for that. But, on the other side, Apple also didn’t provide me with data that could have made me make a more discriminating purchase plan. (And, one can argue, why should they?)

Apple now has an interesting choice. Because of all these early adopters, their phone is a success. However, pissing them off would do some serious damage. One, those people are never going to buy into an early adopter program again and are going to spread negative comments. Two, non-early adopters are going to view this as a model of how Apple treats its customers.

THAT SAID, -twice- in the past, when I have purchased expensive software (about the same cost as the iPhone or more), Apple has dropped the price, and upon doing so, wrote me a Snail Mail telling me they appreciated my business and enclosed was a check for the difference. Unprompted.

I’d like to think that Apple will have the foresight to do that now, and the amount of good will this would result in would more than make it up.

At the moment, I have -one- iPhone. My wife is on the fence. If I get a refund from Apple, she’ll be having an iPhone too (and being realistic, if Apple produces a better version with more memory, I’ll be buying the higher end model for myself).

If I’m to eat the difference because of a single week, I don’t have the right to complain, but I’m going to take it out of Apple’s future sales by not upgrading, not early adopting, not evangelizing, and not buy multiple machines. And, let’s be honest, Apple knows this.

iPee

Did I just have the first recorded iDream, because there was an iPhone in it… I wonder how AT&T is gonna charge this conversation. (Read on to see the conversation, which was just as strange.)

True story.

I was standing at a urinal when my iPhone rings. Now, normally I don’t answer the phone while in a restroom, but I was curious as to who was calling me as I haven’t made the number widely public yet. A huge green banner said it was my wife.

It was at that moment I woke up.

Or, more accurately, half-way woke up.

It was the middle of the night, I was under the covers, and when I turned my head, I could clearly see my wife sound asleep, and beyond her, my iPhone sitting in the charger, dark.

Yet, still half asleep, I could still ‘hear’ my iPhone ringing in my dream. Curious now as to what would happen, I decided as an experiment to answer it. I closed my eyes and instantly I was back in the dream in front of the urinal holding the phone.

I touched the answer button, lifted the phone to my face, and crystal clear I heard my wife say, very annoyed at me: “Clearly, you aren’t getting the symbolism here.” And then she abruptly hung up on me.

So, I put the iPhone in my pocket, woke up, and made my way to the rest room.

[Is this the first recorded iDream?]