Intel this week released its Reader, a new e-book device aimed at the visually impaired. Like the latest Kindle, the $1,499 device can read aloud from digital book files. Unlike Amazon’s device, however, the Reader can capture digital images with a high-res camera and read aloud from those as well. The device can also capture text from Web sites.
“We want people to experience the independence of being able to read on their own in a public place or anywhere they want to,” the device’s developer told Venture Beat. “A metaphor for this are the ramps that make buildings wheelchair accessible. This reader is like a ramp.”
The Reader is roughly the size of a paperback. It can read DAISY formatted text and plain text and can play MP3 files.
How good were sales for the Motorola Droid during the phone’s first weekend? Good–quite good, in fact, though Verizon’s first Android handset is certainly no iPhone. Analyst estimates put sales at “probably 100,000” units, given that Verizon stores had 200,000 units available, with most stores selling roughly half their stock.
Motorola has yet to issue an official tally, taking into account retail locations like Best Buy, which offered an instant rebate on the device. I visited a Best Buy in Manhattan on Friday evening, and the store was already nearing the end of its non-pre-order stock.
All said, the numbers seem to be a good sign for Motorola, which has been stumbling to stay afloat in the handset market for most of the year.
For a long time with Canon, if you weren’t dropping nearly three grand on a 5D, you were stuck with a vastly lesser DSLR. The $1700 7D is Canon’s first semi-pro DSLR, and actually it’s my favorite yet.
What’s New and Dandy
What makes it my favorite Canon so far is actually everything that’s completely new to Canon—DP Review has a nice summary here, in pictures. But in short, while this might sound weird, it shoots more like a Nikon than any Canon DSLR I’ve used. This is primarily because of the new 19-point autofocus system and the color metering system that goes with it. You’re able to select AF zones—clusters of AF points—while in the past with Canon you’ve been limited to a full AF blast or picking out a single point. The system is also more customizable, so it can be locked with different default focus points depending on whether you’re holding the camera horizontally and vertically orientations. Against Nikon’s D300s, Canon’s new AF system mostly kept up, and definitely performs better than autofocus on the 5D Mark II.
The new viewfinder now provides 100 percent coverage, unlike previous Canons in this range, and it uses a new polymer LCD network for the graphical overlay to display AF points, grids and other displays, so it’s more flexible and feels more fluid. (It also just looks swankier, and again, more Nikon-like.) Your other viewfinder (when you’re shooting video, anyway), the LCD screen, is a 3-inch, 920k dot display like the 5D Mark II and it’s still excellent, with a wide viewing angle, nice color and the right amount of crispness.
Sensor and Image Quality
Truthfully, I’ve been mildly surprised at the quality of photos that’ve come out of the 7D, which uses an absolutely stuffed 18-megapixel, APS-C sized sensor. (So, there is a 1.6x crop factor.) For comparison, the D300s has a 12MP sensor that’s the same physical size (Update: For nitpickers, yes, Nikon’s DX format is marginally larger than Canon’s APS-C sensor, with the D300s’s sensor coming in at 23.6 x 15.8 mm to the 7D’s 22.3 x 14.9 mm.) The the D3 only goes for 12 megapixels on its bigger full-frame (35mm-equivalent) sensor. The 5D Mark II has a 21MP full-frame sensor. And typically, the more pixels you try to cram on a sensor of a given size, the more the image quality degrades, especially when it comes to low light, high ISO shots.
I was expecting a noisefest, or at best, seriously noticeable noise reduction employed by the camera’s software. It is clear that Canon’s using incredibly sophisticated noise reduction algorithms with the dual Digic IV processors onboard, though the effects are less drastic than I expected. It’s most apparent, actually, when you directly compare photos taken with the D300s. Looking at photos taken with the 7D and D300s at 100 percent crops, the D300s’s images are noisier, but they also preserve more detail. For web-sized images, the 7D’s images look better, with less noise and more smoothness.
I’ve got two sample galleries—an array of sample shots, and then another directly comparing the 7D with the D300s in low light situations, using identical settings for photos. 100 percent zooms follow photos in both galleries. Or you can download full size photos from Flickr here and here.
Video
You can get sense of Canon and Nikon’s philosophical differences with the difference in their buttons for video: Canon makes a distinction between Live View and video mode, while Nikon is ready to start shooting video as soon you tap the live view button on the D300s. Creating video is a separate, dedicated event for Canon, in other words, and there is a semi-serious video camera that happens to be built into a DSLR. Nikon’s D300s, on the other hand, is a DSLR that happens to shoot video.
With video, the 7D simply has the upper hand—video is very much a legitimized use of this camera, not a secondary one like the D300s. (As expected from a company with an entire wing dedicated to camcorders for pros and consumers.) Not only does it have full manual controls, I find that it’s slightly easier to use that the D300s while shooting video—not to mention the whole shooting in a real video codec at 1080p, yadda yadda. Three clips here: A melange of video above, and then by two videos, one from the 7D, one of the D300s, that mirror each other. Both were shot at ISO 6400, and you should be able to catch them at full res if you click over to Vimeo.
Build and Controls
The 7D is heavy, heavier than the 5D, but it’s also slightly sturdier, with a build quality and weatherproofing that that’s slightly in between the 5D and Canon’s definitely pro 1D. It feels about the same in your hand, though. And it’s roughly comparable to the D300s.
Controls aren’t radically different from other Canon DSLRs of this caliber—that is, it’s what you’d mostly expect from a DSLR that sits in between the lower end 50D and the higher end 5DMkII, though it’s a bit closer to the latter. While the menu system feels completely unchanged—leaving more advanced features, like the orientation autofocus a bit inscrutable—a few things are new on the outside: The power switch is up on the top left, under the mode dial; there’s a dedicated button for switching to RAW/JPEG; a quick action button; and a new toggle switch for Live View and video, which you engage by pressing a start button in the center.
You Already Know If You’re Going to Buy This
The real question for Canon users who want something more than the lower end 50D is whether they go for the 7D, at $1700, or full bore to full-frame with the $2700 5D Mark II. The 7D has a 1.6x crop factor which is useful for sports, a better autofocusing system, shoots faster, is slightly more rugged, and is $1000 cheaper. The 5D is full frame—which I suspect is the real consideration for folks—and takes slightly better photos at higher resolutions.
Obviously, if you’re locked into Nikon, with thousands of dollars in lenses, you’re not going to jump to Canon, or vice versa. But Canon’s dedication to DSLR video is proving formidable in carving out a new kind of market that Nikon might have some trouble competing in, since they’re a dedicated still camera company, not a video company, too, like Canon. Really, both the D300s and 7D deliver for the money, though I think the 7D delivers more, since it’s packed full of newer technology and for the people who want it, the video component is truly killer. Either way, it’s proof that competition is good—it clearly wouldn’t exist without the D300, and the D400 will be that much better because of it.
New 19-point autofocus and metering systems plus the new viewfinder rock
Excellent 1080p video with full manual controls
Not full-frame, which might put off some people
I’d like a secondary SD card slot, like the D300s
Noise reduction can get pretty aggressive at higher ISO speeds, obscuring detail
While we’re busying ourselves with arguing about how to replace the perfectly usable book gadget, Intel is right to point out that plenty of people, for whatever reason, can’t read at all. Presenting its Reader as a necessity rather than luxury, Intel has shown off its vision for how visually impaired and dyslexic people can obtain access to the written word. Combining a text-scanning camera with a text-to-speech engine (powered by an Atom inside) is certainly no bad idea, but as the video beyond the break will show you, Intel’s execution isn’t exactly stellar. The arrhythmic, robotic reading from Alice In Wonderland left us shaken, but what floored us was the $1,499 asking price. Yes, it’s a customized niche device, but we reckon we could build something similar for a third of the price. Full PR and video after the break.
Reuters: A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.
The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost 3 million euro ($4.4 million) for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.
During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
Galactic Suite Ltd’s CEO Xavier Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the project will put his company at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecast space travel will become common in the future.
The Irish may be a few hours ahead of us Yanks, but that’s not stopping us from snooping on their web pages. Dell’s long-awaited Inspiron Zino HD has finally popped official over on the outfit’s IE portal, and considering that it even made a brief appearance on the US site over the weekend, we’re guessing it’s only a matter of hours, minutes and / or nanoseconds before the minuscule desktop shows up everywhere. A total of ten interchangeable colors and designs are being offered on the machine (which gets going at €329), not to mention an integrated HDMI socket and an optional Blu-ray drive. Unlike most of the mini PCs out there today, this one actually has a specs list worth drooling over, and if we can figure out how to get a TV tuner in here, we’d say we just might be looking at our next bedroom HTPC. C’mon US admins — it’s not that early in Round Rock.
[Thanks, Andy]
Update: It’s now live in the UK! Another market down, a few hundred to go…
Google is getting into the holiday spirit early this year, bringing the gift of free WiFi to 47 US airports, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis, and Charlotte. Free WiFi will be available in those airports now through January 15. The Burbank and Seattle airports will be getting their free WiFi on indefinitely.
Those who fly out on Virgin Airlines will be getting free WiFi the whole way, as the two companies recently announced their own free holiday WiFi partnership. The company will also be matching donations made to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation, and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative over the networks, up to $250,000. The airport with the largest donation total will receive $15,000 to donate to the charity of its choice.
The lines may have been subdued, but one way or another, it sounds as if Motorola managed to sell quite a few DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, the outfit managed to move around 100,000 of ’em during the opening weekend, with most stores moving at least half of their original shipments. He also estimated that Moto would sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (which includes the CLIQ, obviously), and that he viewed the first few days as “encouraging.” It’s been a long, long while since we’ve been able to say this, but hey — nice job, Motorola.
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New 19-point autofocus and metering systems plus the new viewfinder rock
Not full-frame, which might put off some people
Noise reduction can get pretty aggressive at higher ISO speeds, obscuring detail
