Recent Comments:
Belkin BreakFree adds magnetic breakaway connector to your guitar cable {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 5:41PM The extra connection is not gonna "detract from your tone". Come on, you're a guitarist. There are a million other things that are going to affect your tone before this thing will. Amp, amp settings, pickups, pots, switches, internal wiring, strings, effects, etc. How many pedals do you use? You ever see the setup Kevin Shields uses? About 20 different pedals running at once. Ditto for David Gilmour. You think those extra connections "detract from their tone"?
Bandai boldly introduces Smart Berry: the portable chat handheld for girls {Engadget}
Jul 18th 2008 11:28AM I actually *don't* think the naming was an intentional invoking of Blackberry. For one thing, Blackberries are not part of the popular consciousness there - they're not even sold to individual consumers at this point. Just businesses, and most businessmen use their own phones anyway. I have honestly never seen a single person in Japan using a Blackberry, or any references to it in pop culture.
I think it's more likely that this name was taken from "Love and Berry" or some other pop culture reference that has the word "berry" in it. (It's also possible that the word "berry" itself sounds similar to some Japanese word that means something else... that's the case with a lot of "English" words they use in situations like this, although I don't know what word "berry" would be invoking.)
Bandai boldly introduces Smart Berry: the portable chat handheld for girls {Engadget}
Jul 18th 2008 11:28AM I actually *don't* think the naming was an intentional invoking of Blackberry. For one thing, Blackberries are not part of the popular consciousness there - they're not even sold to individual consumers at this point. Just businesses, and most businessmen use their own phones anyway. I have honestly never seen a single person in Japan using a Blackberry, or any references to it in pop culture.
I think it's more likely that this name was taken from "Love and Berry" or some other pop culture reference that has the word "berry" in it. (It's also possible that the word "berry" itself sounds similar to some Japanese word that means something else... that's the case with a lot of "English" words they use in situations like this, although I don't know what word "berry" would be invoking.)
Poll: How's your iPhone 3G reception? {Engadget}
Jul 17th 2008 3:26PM Cagrino:
The problem is I don't remember there being a way of seeing the results without voting. I don't have an iphone but I was curious to see these results, so I voted the last option.
Panasonic's Lithium Vivi RX-10S electric bike does regenerative braking {Engadget}
Jul 7th 2008 11:20AM It looks pretty much like every other bicycle in Japan.
Sony pulls 2.40 firmware update after reports of bricked PS3s {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2008 5:08PM There's supposedly no rhyme or reason to it. I'm sure it's not random - nothing like this ever is - but there's nothing obvious that these people have in common at the moment.
This is why I turned off my automatic network login and only manually install updates when I actually need to. I'd advise everyone else to do the same. The way firmware on game consoles is updated once every few weeks these days as soon as you connect to the network is pretty obviously stupid.
Getting dirty with Mio's Knight Rider GPS {Engadget}
Jun 26th 2008 1:31PM Where can we see a list of the names it can speak? Given what it does, that seems to be pretty important. I doubt I'd consider buying one if I have to keep hearing it call me Michael all the time. Kinda would make me feel like I'm living some other guy's fantasy.
Matsushita goes with Panasonic brand name for all divisions {Engadget}
Jun 26th 2008 1:26PM Pfft. I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see one. And look, there's Magnetbox and Sorny!
Video: Knight Rider GPS asks, "Michael, where do you want to go today" {Engadget}
Jun 24th 2008 7:44AM The GPS will no doubt perform the same as pretty much every other PND on the market. There's not a whole lot that a manufacturer can screw up. They all use the same maps (there are only two providers), they mostly use the same chipsets, they have similar routing algorithms.
Yeah, it's worth waiting to see if there's some egregious bug that continuously sends you the wrong way down one-way streets or something, but short of that, I think you're going to be pretty safe. Most of the differentiation between PND's these days is in the interface (graphics/update speeds/voice, etc.). And the interface is most of the reason why anyone would be interested in this.
Olympus EVOLT E-520 DSLR gets purchased, sample shots abound {Engadget}
Jun 19th 2008 5:12PM I'm not sure where some of you are getting that he's not using a tripod (or as some say, that he's actually hand-holding the camera). He says, specifically, that he's using a "stand", whatever he means by that, but he's European so maybe there's some different terminology they use over there.
It's clearly *not* handheld, however, as each set of shots he's showing is at the *exact* same angle, which is 100% impossible when handheld.
Now, some of the blur could still be due to shake, depending on what this "stand" is that he's talking about. But his problem is not that his shots are handheld, and you'd have to be even more of a novice than he is to think otherwise. If these shots are handheld, then he is clearly the best photographer the world has ever seen. No photographer can be this consistent when handholding in low light situations.
As for taking shots at night, it is still a 100% valid criticism to say that the AF system does not work well in low light. 100% valid. Some cameras handle this situation better than others, so it is a definite consideration. Probably, the E-520 does do better in bright light - but it clearly doesn't seem to do too well in low light. And that's something most photographers would want to know.
(It didn't do too well on his bonsai tree either, and there don't seem to be any obvious signs of camera shake in those shots. And again, the camera is definitely on some sort of stable surface judging from the consistent angle.)
Is this a scientific test? No. I'd never base a decision on whether or not to buy this camera on this review. Wait for the review at DPReview instead.
But is there some useful info to be gleaned here? Probably. And a lot of the guy's critics obviously know less about photography than he does.
