FujiFilm FinePix S5200

The FujiFilm FinePix S5200 is a great camera. We got ours back in March 2006 and love it. There are a few minor complaints that I'll get to later, but overall it is a great camera for anyone wanting a step up from a point and shoot. It has auto focus (and manual focus that I can't quite figure out yet), optical zoom (10x), built in flash, full auto mode all the way through full manual mode. The auto mode lets you use it as a point and shoot...where it determines the shutter aperture settings automatically. You can flip it to shutter priority or aperture priority if you want a bit more control over those items.

The biggest bonus in my book is the fact that it shoots in the Camera Raw format. Each 5 megapixel file is about 10MB, which is HUGE compared to it's 2MB JPEG counterpart. The benefit here is there is absolutely no compression on the file written to your XDPicture card media. This gives you ultimate control over the image in post-processing. You have about 4 f-stops worth of exposure control after the picture is taken. Now for those who simply want to take a picture, and upload it to the computer....this is not a very efficient way to go. If you do like to play around with the images in Photoshop, this is the best way to go. You have to download the latest update for Photoshop for it to read the RAW (file extension is RAF) files, but it works great.

I prefer shooting RAW because I think the S5200 has too many compression artifacts and image smoothing when shooting in JPEG mode. It's a pain to get the files ready for emailing when shooting RAW, but it's worth the hassle in my opinion. The S5200 also seems to shoot everything a little too blue for my eye and I like the fact that I can adjust color temperature to make the pictures more true to life.....without recompressing the file.

The things that bug me about the camera:
1) Color temperature seems too blue in auto
2) Has a hard time focusing sometimes in low light or on moving objects
3) JPEG images have too much image smoothing and artifacts
4) Seems to take a bit too long to to write the image to the media...this means you can't easily take a quick sequence of shots.
5) Images get too grainy/noisy at 800 and 1600 ISO

The things I really like about the camera:
1) Shoots in the RAW format
2) Has great battery life (4x AA batteries)
3) Good video quality at 640x480 30fps
4) Great image quality when shooting RAW
5) Standard 55mm lens thread so you can use filters from other cameras

Read more detailed info here at Photoxels. Another good source of information is here at DPReview. I would highly recommend this camera if you're looking for an upgrade from a point and shoot.

U3 USB Flash Drives

Several months ago I was looking for a larger capacity USB Flash drive to take files to and from work so I could work on them from home. I found a Kingston 1GB drive for $20 at Buy.com so I started researching it. It had something called 'U3' technology which I didn't know anything about. What it allows you to do is run programs straight off the keychain sized flash memory stick as though it was a CD-ROM. There are several programs for these U3 drives and a lot of the most useful ones are free.

This allows you to load a web browser on your keychain and take it to any Windows XP machine and surf the web anonymously. No cookies or form data is saved to the host computer....it all goes on the keychain. So when you unplug the U3 keychain, it's like you were never there.

Web browsers, email clients, chat programs, office document reader/editors, photo viewers/editors are all available for free. If you need a new Flash drive and you work on Windows XP, definitely get a U3 drive.

The one complaint I have about my Kingston drive is that the little plastic part that connects to my keychain breaks all the time. I have to super glue it once every couple weeks. That is annoying. Other than that, I like it a lot. 1GB for $20 that also lets me take my email, favorite website links and chat programs with me wherever I go is great!!

6.25 MPH

That is what my evening commute home averaged to be today.....25 miles in 4 hours. It is a rare occasion that the roads in Seattle are so ice packed. There were cars, trucks and busses all over the place. I finally pulled over and chained up just so I would feel a bit more safe knowing at least I wouldn't be the one to crach into someone. I left work at about 7pm and arrived home just in time for the 11pm news. It was extremely stressful, luckily I had just recently made an MP3 disc of all my favorite tunes to listen to in the car. While stopped in traffic, I had a bit of trouble finding unsecure Wi-Fi hotspots to check the traffic up ahead on Google Maps for Mobile Devices....but there were a few areas I could find one. Would have been nice to have bluetooth internet through my cel phone, but I am resolved to the fact that it just won't happen.

No more Samsung A920

I've decided that it's not worth all the hassle to get internet on my PDA through this Samsung A920 Phone. While we would end up getting the phone for free anyway, I decided to return it for a different model that won't be so overkill for a new Cel Phone. The A920 is very cool....but it's way too much for me. It playes MP3s, takes pictures and video, connects to the internet and a lot more I don't even know about....but I don't need all that. I found a different phone that is much cheaper that looks cool and does everything I need it to do as an upgrade to my current Nokia phone. The Samsung A640 is the one I plan on trading 'down' to. It has a speaker phone, a VGA camera and Bluetooth technology. At this point I don't hink I need anything more than that.

The special deal we are getting through Qwest is that we got a $150 bill credit for renewing a contract on MY Nokia phone. By upgrading my wife's phone to a new one, we still get the special discouted price for the new phone ($99 for the A920 and $39 for the A640) So either way the phone is free PLUS a credit. This just means we get more of a credit by getting the cheaper phone.

In order for me to get the new phone and not break my current phones contract was to get my wife the new phone, activate it, then change the number. It all went very smoothly, but now that I want to trade phones, it's a bit of a hassle because the original contract on that phone was on my wifes number. Confusing I know. Hopefully it gets sorted out and we don't have to pay a $200 cancellation fee. We shouldn't need to since I am cancelling before my 15 day trail period is up.

Anyway, I am disppointed that I won't have all-the-time web access through my Palm TX, but I am excited about a new phone. While the Nokia 3586i worked great, the new phones are smaller and sound better....hopefully they can also pull in a stronger signal.

Samsung A920 wireless phone and the Palm TX

So I have this new phone that supposedly will allow me to connect my Palm TX to the internet through the phone via Bluetooth. I can get the phone and Palm connected as trusted Bluetooth devices no problem. But I can't get the phone to 'log on' to the network. I can connect to the internet on the phone through the phone's on board web browser so I know I have service.

I connect to the phone via Bluetooth and the Phone reads something like "connected to Palm TX as Data Modem" then a couple seconds later it drops the connection and gives me an error code saying Registration failure, PCS Vision username or password may be incorrect. I never got a password from Qwest.

I went through the Palm network setup and have the connections all set. I think the only thing I am missing is my Power Vision Password. The Palm asks for that in the setup process, but no one at Qwest will give it to me for some reason. One response via email from Qwest was to contact Palm to solve the problem. Earlier today I sat on hold for about 30 minutes waiting for some help. When I asked for the password she said she would do some troubleshooting then would be right back. Unfortunately my call got dropped due to another incoming call on my phone so I lost her.

My next step is to go to a Qwest Wireless store here locally and ask for some help. I think if they see the errors I get on the phone they will help me work through it....I'm doubtful though.

I did read somewhere on the internet that Palm does not support CDMA phone networks and I'm not sure what Qwest is. However I did read here http://forums.palm.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=20320033 about how to connect to CDMA networks and it is the same setup I went through normally....so I don't know.

The process is to connect to -phone- via bluetooth- and dial -#777- as the connection number. It also asks for username and password....which I don't have so I think this is the problem. http://forums.palm.com/pe/action/forums/displaysinglethread?rootPostID=20305990&returnExpertiseCode= The guy I talked with originally at Qwest said his buddy connects his laptop to the internet through the Samsung A920 and has no problems, also claims he never had to type in a username or password. Although I'm pretty sure connecting a laptop is different than a Palm.

All I want to do is connect my Palm TX to the internet through my phone so I don't always have to be on the lookout for a Wi-Fi network. I really really want this to work!!

Palm TX

I just recently purchased the Palm TX from OfficeMax. I ablsoutley love it so far. This was an upgrade from the Palm m130 and I like how much faster it is, the screen is much larger, it has bluetooth and Wi-Fi, displays pictures and video great and can easily sync to Microsoft Outlook which is great for keping contacts and a calendar up to date.

One of the big challenges I wanted to overcome was the fact that if you added video to the Palm through the Palm Desktop software, it would always re-encode it to save space....but I wasn't happy with the quality. So the solution (after a few days of research) was to get an SD Card reader and add MPEG1 files created with Sorenson Squeeze or TMPGEnc directly to the card. While those files will paly back in the default multimedia software that came with the Palm TX, I found it plays back better using TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player). So now I have great looking video playing back on the Palm....great for showing off video of my son or our company demo reel.

I have found that copying music to an SD card via a card reader is much faster than syncing Windows Media Player to the card through the TX. I don't know why it is, but the end result is the same....just a big speed difference.

I have had a few odd things happen when connected to Wi-Fi. For some reason it will lock up and I have to use the RESET button on the back, or the TX will just reboot itself. I have never lost any information from those reboots, but it is a bit annoying.

I just got a new Samsung A920 cel phone from Qwest that supposedly will allow me to connect to the PDA via Bluetooth and access the internet without needing to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. I'll let you know how that goes.

One super sweet free download for the Palm TX is Google Maps. You have to be connected to the internet to use it, but it is really really cool! You can actually have real time traffic conditions shown on the map. So far I have only used it to check traffic down the I-5 corridor in Seattle and seems to be pretty accurate. Side streets and non-major highways aren't monitored so it may not be helpful in all areas....but what a cool thing to have! I was thinking about getting a GPS add on for the TX but I think this is a much better solution if you just need to get directions.

If you're in the market for a PDA with great functionality and a large screen, I highly recommend the Palm TX.