Hardware

Casio Z850 digital camera, the successor of Z750 has much worse video than it's predecessor. Below is the illustration of the "stair stepping" problem found in Z850.

Casio Z750

Casio Z850

Well my good old Canon S230 that I have used for many years and with which I took thousands of photos that you can see on my website has finally died on the last day of my Puerto Rico trip. Although the camera still was able to take photos, the display stopped working. But the good news is that I was thinking of upgrading anyway and this just sped up the process.

After a long debate between the lastest Canon Digital Elph Model SD500 and the latest Casio Exilim EX-750 I ended up going for Casio. This was a diverge from the Canon Digital Elph line that I've been loyal to from the first model S100, to S200 and to S230.

The deciding factor that made me steer towards the Casio camera is its video performance which has two advantages:

Casio's MPEG4 Movie Codec

Both cameras capture video at 30 frames per second. But Casio uses MPEG4 codec while Canon use Motion JPEG. What that means is that Casio's movie files are roughly a third in size of Canon's so I can fit 3 times as much of the video footage on the Casio.

Casio's Movie Audio Quality

What is surprising to me that Canon is capable of taking Video with quality almost as good as DVD, but the sound still sucks big time. It uses PCM compression at only 8 bit and 11 Khz which makes the bit rate 88 kbps. Casio uses MP3 compression at 4 Bits at 44 Khz which makes 176 kbps bit rate. With MP3 compression you can store much more audio data with that bit rate than with PCM, so the sound is almost CD quality.

I purchased my Casio at TechToysForLess.com for $367 which was the cheapest deal I could find. I was actually skeptical about buying the camera from them, but decided to bite the bullet. When I got the camera, I was relieved because it looked brand new as advertized.

So far I love it! The video quality is amazing, so be prepared or the higher quality videos on my website. I love the huge 2.5" screen too. It's very close to the size of my Treo 650. Let the snapping begin!

Here are the detailed reviews of the camera:

DPReview.com Steve's Digicams DC Resource Ken Rockwell

Casio Z750 User Manual

Update - July, 2005

I had to ship my camera to repair because of the focus problem that started to happen. I guess it happend because of multiple lens errors that I've had. The camere repair took more than 10 days. The replaced the lens assembly and the problem went away.

Update - August 25, 2005

Casio released AVI component for the Mac so that the video clips from the camera can be played back. Click here to download.

Finally my search for a perfect case for my Treo 650 is over. Today I received my TreoCentral S650 Skin Case. Prior to this I tried two other cases but I think this one satisfies my personal requirements the most. The requirements are:

No flip covers. I want to see the screen without flipping anything. Be as slim as possible. No belt clip (to help its slimness). I carry my phone in my pocket, not on a belt. (Don't want people to find out I'm a geek...) Have exposed keyboard for easier typing. Have exposed screen for easier access to screen edges. Have covered corners which are the most vulnerable parts of the phone when it's dropped.

I am happy to say that this case covers all of these requirements. When I saw the case at first I was wondering how to put the phone in there because I did not see how it could open.


Well the truth of the matter is that the case is made of flexible rubber.


To insert the phone into the skin, slide it through the screen opening.


Then stretch the rubber at the top of the phone and pull it over the antenna.


Here is what the phone looks like inside the case. As you can see, the speaker is exposed and there is a little hole for the status indicator. The keyboard is exposed as well.
As you can see the Palm buttons and the 5-way navigator are behind the case. You may think that pressing them is cumbersome. Well actually the rubber is so flexible that it's not a problem at all. In fact the rubber itself has bumps in shape of the buttons so you can feel them with your thumb and press them very easily. It's like having them outside the case.


On the back there is an opening for the speaker, camera and the mirror. On the bottom is a perfectly aligned cutout for the USB/Powercord connector and headphones. There is also a hole at the microphone although it's not visible on this photo.


On top of the phone is the opening for the speaker switch, infra red light, and the SD card.


The side buttons are not exposed, but pressing them is easy because of the rubber flexibility. Having the buttons inside is the only way because if they were outside, they would be difficult to press because of the rubber thinkness and they would not stick out as much.


Speaking of the rubber thickness, I think it's better at protecting the phone during drops than the leather cases because the rubber has greater shock absorbtion.
So bye bye my old cases. My first case was by PalmOne. I got it when at the same time when I bought my phone. The problem with this case is that it just looks plain ugly with that white thread. Also the belt clip mount was not removable and it made the case thick. Finally, the corners of the phone are exposed and are subject to scratches if it is dropped.

Then I tried Krusell Classic Case. I liked the overall look of it better than that of PalmOne. I did couple of modifications to the case. I removed the belt clip mount and cut the opening on top of the phone so that I can remove the SD card without taking the phone out of the case. I liked the fact that the corners of the phone were protected. However, the cut out at the bottom was misaligned with the connectors. I had to stretch the case to insert the jacks.

Both of these cases had the keyboard and screen behind the plastic. Although it does provide additional protection, it is not as easy to type on the keyboard coverd with plastic and use the stylus on the screen especially next to the edges.

So my third case is the charm. I like the way it looks too. It really does not even look like a case. Also it feels very good in my hand. There is plenty of friction and less chance of the phone slipping out of the hand.

Traditionally the phone cameras have been mediocre, but this one may start a new trend of high-quality phone cameras. In fact it looks like a camera with the additional phone functionality. Click on the picture for more information.

I've been watching Seinfeld episodes on the subway on the way to work on my Sony NX80V for more than a year now. But new stand-alone portable video players have started to come out:

More info later...

With this post I'd like to share with everyone how easy it was to upgrade Fujitsu P5010D laptop to have a built-in DVD burner. Panasonic UJ811B DVD burner drive is a perfect fit for the laptop. You can get one on eBay for around $170 with shipping. Search for UJ811B. Make sure you bid on the one that says Fujitsu, not Dell. The one for the Dell has a different face plate that will not fit the Fujitsu. Starting bids at the time of this writing is $159. I got mine from somebody with a user name electroengineer. He charged $10 for shipping. The transaction was smooth and my drive arrived in about 4 days by certified mail.

Installing a drive is a snap and takes couple of minutes. Here is the photo of the UJ811B DVD burner and the original CD-RW/DVD drive that came with the laptop.

As you can see they are identical in size. Note that the CD-RW/DVD drive has the plastic housing on it. This housing needs to be transferred to the DVD Burner. To do that, unscrew the four screws on both sides of the original drive:


and pull the housing up and to the side to slide it from the drive.

Put it on the DVD burner in the reverse fashion and secure it with the screws. You are all set. Just stick the drive back into your Fujitsu and Windows should recognize it. Here is what it looks like in my laptop:

As soon as I inserted the drive, I was able to burn DVD-R disks at 2X with Roxio Easy CD Creator 6.

According to the article published in a UK news publisher "Independent" they are not. I also have had instances where the CD-Rs that I have created years ago became totally or partially unreadable. Now I pay careful attention to making sure I store my recordable disks adequately.

Sony has announced the worlds smallest 5-megapixel digital camera and a the worlds smallest digital camcorder. The cool thing about the digital camera is that has this new MPEG mode which can take movies at 640x480 resolution at up to 30 frames a second with length limited by the amount of space on the memory stick. I bet those files are not going to be small. I am also wondering if it is using MPEG4 compression. Hopefully the bridge between still and video cameras will be smaller and smaller going forward. The camera will not be available in the US until January 2004

OK, it's finally here! Just like with my couch, getting it was not a smooth process, but I will not go into boring details of postponing the delivery date multiple times and shipping to a wrong address. To compensate me for all these troubles, laptopsinc.com (the place where I ordered it from), made sure that the laptop I was getting had no dead pixels.

This is the third laptop that I have owned.

Here are the laptop's specs:

• Intel M-900MHz ULV (Same as the Centrino Processor, but features the latest 802.11g wireless instead of 802.11b)
• 1MB L2 cache, 400MHz system bus speed, 32bit
• 512MB DDR (1GB Max 1-Slot)
• Vivid 10.6" WXGA TFT Display (1280x768)
• Intel 855GM with up to 64MB UMA
• 60GB Hard Drive
• Modular DVD & CDRW Drive
• 56K V.90 Global Modem
• 10/100mbps LAN
• 802.11g Broadcom (Wireless LAN)
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports
• Firewire Port
• Memory Stick/SD & Compact Flash Slots
• Line Out, Mic In, S-Video Out jacks
• 10.27” x 7.80” x 1.55”, 3.85lbs

Detailed Information (PDF)

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Videos

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Why did I buy it
The reason why I picked this laptop is because it has pretty much every feature under the sun and yet it's very compact and light. This laptop is going to be a perfect replacement of my old Sony VAIO which I used as a mobile karaoke machine. The new laptop has dual display support where I can have the window with the song lyrics be displayed on the TV via the built-in S-Video connector, and at the same time have the karaoke program control windows be displayed on the laptop screen.

This laptop is my first Wireless LAN compatible device and I was pleasantly surprized that in my apartment I was able to get the very strong and fast Wireless LAN signal. I have no idea where it is coming from, but I could surf the web at blazing speeds without any wires! This is so awesome! When I checked the IP address that I was getting, it turned out to be some Road Runner IP address. So probably my neighbors have Road Runner cable with a wireless router. Nice people! Too bad I already have Cable Modem at home, otherwise I would get totally free broadband internet connection, provided they keep it up all the time.

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Useful Links

• LeoG.net P-5000 Forum - This is a great resource for any future buyer or the owner of this or any other Fujitsu laptop.
• Fujitsu LifeBook P Series Notebooks - Fujutsu's own website.

More to come...

The following is the survival of the fittest among the computers that I have owned:

Desktops

8 Mhz, Intel 8088, 640 KB RAM, 720K Floppy Drive
33 Mhz, Intel 386, 8 MB RAM, 120 MB & 250 MB Hard drives
150 Mhz, Intel Pentium, 96 MB RAM, 1.6 GB & 8.4 GB Hard drives, CD-ROM
450 Mhz, Intel Pentium II, 128 MB RAM, 16 GB Hard drive, CD-ROM
2.2 Ghz, Intel Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 2 X 120 GB Hard drives, DVD-RW/ROM
3.2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4, 1GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Disk, 160 GB Removable Hard Disk, 8X DVD+-RW Dual Layer drive, DVD-ROM Drive

Laptops

Compaq - 20 Mhz, Intel 386SX, 8MB RAM, 60MB Hard Disk, 10" B/W LCD
Sony VAIO PCG-F590 - 750 Mhz, Intel Pentium 3, 128MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Disk, 15" 1024x768 Color LCD
Fujitsu Lifebook P51010 - 900 Mhz, Intel Centrino, 512MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Disk, 10.6" 1280x1024 Color LCD