What’s Hot On Site: Tech News and Notes from our Product Experts

By Our Various Product Experts on January 15th, 2008

We’re surrounded by experts here. So we’ve asked our Product Experts to weigh in on occasion and help the general public out with a little much-needed technical advice. Check it out. You might find something to think about, ponder, covet, etc.

We’ve got the latest scoop on everything from Lenovo IdeaPads to The Best Valentine’s Day Gifts for that special tech-savvy someone. We’ve even got the most popular Nokia phones on Yahoo. It turns out our In-House experts are pretty well informed. Read, Learn, and Enjoy!

Cupid’s Cure : Top Digital Valentine’s Day Gifts

-By PixelGal-

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, couples are pulling their hairs out over what to get each other on cupid’s extremely busy day. Traditional gifts such as chocolates, flowers and love cards used to qualify as the best Valentine’s gifts for the ladies. But women are much more technologically savvy then ever before, therefore wooing your mate will take more then conventional gifts. Try out the Pandigital 15″ Digital Picture Frame with a resolution of 1024 x 768. A great way to capture her heart and a perfect way to playback pictures of fun times shared together.

Is she a camera enthusiast? Then maybe a flash memory upgrade will suit her right. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to upgrade my memory cards. Not only are they useful for cameras, but also a variety of gadgets such as mobile phones, PDA’s, MP3 Players, notebook computers and other electronic device can use one. Transcend is one of the many top-quality manufactures that offer a wide range of memory cards in different sizes for your techie-sweetheart.

Or maybe a mobile gift that will keep you near her heart, literally… like the Matsunichi PV143 Heart shaped 1″ Key chain Digital Picture Frame that can keep precious moments with her all the time. Whatever the gift is, keep a mental note of who your gift is for… keen eye on hobbies and the rest will follow. How about it cyber world, any other nifty Valentine gifts?

The Nokia N95 and the Nokia N73

Two Of Yahoo’s Most Searched for Cell Phones
-By David-

N95 Unlocked Smart Phone It was just another day on Yahoo.Com. A little bit below mid-page, there’s a section where they always display the day’s most searched for keywords and products. Last week, I noticed that not one, but two Nokia phones just so happened to garner the honors of being one of Yahoo’s most searched-for cell phones.

Nokia N73 Unlocked GSM Phone Aside from the USB compatibility and various wireless functions, what I like about this new wave of Nokia phones are the cameras that are being built in them. The cameras in these phones keep improving dramatically with each generation. If the momentum in quality and build keeps up, it almost seems like the world of stand-alone consumer digital cameras will be overtaken by the ultra-convenient cell phone and camera combos.

On Board Carl Zeiss Optics Make for Incredible Pics right from your phone Case In Point: The N95 boasts a whopping 5.0 megapixel camera, while its little-brother counterpart, the N73, has 3.2 megapixels. Both have Carl Zeiss optics, which makes for a strong selling point. You can take the high-quality images that either of these two devices produce and feature them on your Flikr account (which can be uploaded directly from your phone) or even print high quality prints for your photo albums (these make perfect gifts to friends and family). The best thing about prints is that nowadays, you can do it all from your desktop computer and printer.

So if you’re looking for a phone that isn’t manufactured by company named after a fruit, but still has a similar punch; one of these Nokia phones are sure to bring kudos from jealous friends and photography aficionados.

Related Links: Nokia N95 and Nokia N73 Unlocked GSM Phones

The Race for the Best DSLR

-By PixelGal-

A long list of great cameras came out in 2007; according to the NPD Group three particular brands hit top marks. First one on the list is the Canon Digital Rebel Xti with its 10.1 Megapixels, nine-point Auto Focus sensor with F2.8 support and continuous shooting burst of up to 27 JPEGs. This new camera follows the design of the EOS 350D, being very compact and comparatively lightweight without sacrificing on manual controls or in operation performance. This makes the Canon a strong if not the most highly successful of models, and you really can’t beat the affordability.

Nikon doesn’t fall far behind with the D40 model. Offering a 6.1 Megapixel DX format CCD, Nikon Image processing engine, and a bigger viewfinder view of x0.8 magnification, the Nikon D40 is an all-new inexpensive, condensed, point-and-shoot digital SLR. It pursues the D50 (but at a notably lower price point) with a subtly different feature set. Nikon focused on perfecting the qualities that make a good digital camera and it’s noticable in the Nikon D40… If only Nikon would send me one!!!. lol

Last but certainly not least is the Olympus E-510 including an all-new (Matsushita) Live MOS Image Sensor that can offer Full Time Live-View on the LCD monitor and an updated TruePic image processor. It is a significantly more sophisticated tool with some important extra features that include naming options, customizable HQ mode and Auto ISO limit. The E-510 offers a more bulky body that can be appreciated by the ‘enthusiast.’

In the end it comes down to your own evaluations of what camera will best fit your everyday need. As for me, it’s what you do with your tool. Capturing irreplaceable moments and developing innovative ways in which to cherish them is what it’s all about. I welcome a new year with even better pixel moments. Any one with other recommendations on cool DSLR’s feel free to post your comments…
Happy Shooting…

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebooks

-By Desmond-

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y710 is a breath of fresh air for the world of notebooks. I’m happy to see a company break the mold. The technology found in this notebook is breathtaking. Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y710 notebook features a 17-inch widescreen display (WXGA+ 1440 x 900) and ATI’s Mobility Radeon™ HD2600 (256 MB) GPU perfect for everything from casual computing to hardcore gaming. But what’s a picture without sound, right? Experience amazing, theater-style sound from the Dolby® Home Theater™ premium audio system.

Dolby Digital Sound capability It was hard for me to believe that what I was hearing was actually coming from four built-in speakers and a bottom-mounted subwoofer. It really sounded that good. Login Passwords? Those are a thing of the past. With the Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC, your face is the password! You can use the unique features of your face to add a new level of security to your system with Lenovo’s VeriFace facial recognition software. Face Recognition Security Software The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook will even record the face of others who try to access your notebook. Talk about security.

Did I mention Lenovo invested just as much time into aesthetics as they did performance? The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC features a frameless screen that provides a unique, clean appearance, with a glossy display surface that extends to the very edges of the top cover. On top of that, colorful halo lighting gives the Y710 an exciting “living” appearance, illuminating the hinge and logo areas. Excellent Design Specs wise, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Notebook that surpasses the Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC.

The notebook sports Intel’s Core 2 Duo T9300 CPU with clock speeds of 2.5 GHz (800 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache). 2GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory, upgradeable to 4GB, accompanies two 250GB Hard Drives. Lenovo’s Secondary Hard Drive solution gives you two totally separate hard drives, one of which can be hot-swapped and used in other systems (via slot or cable).

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 also features a Dual Layer DVD Recordable optical drive with Blu-Ray playback capability, the leading format in the High-Definiton format war. Toss in Intel’s latest wireless-N technology and Windows Vista® Home Premium, and you’ve got a notebook that is ready to travel when you are. I fell in love with the notebook during my hands-on experience. It really is a feature-rich notebook that will provide the perfect experience for the casual user to the hardcore gamer.

Related Links: Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC