Techie Gadgets

At CES 2009, Olympus gave in to a feature that consumers wanted in digital cameras: weatherproofing. And so the new 10-megapixel STYLUS 550WP digital camera was unveiled. Olympus describes this blue baby a “dunk and shoot camera” – it lets consumers shoot pictures underwater or in the rain without having to worry about it falling apart or paying for other features they won’t need. Because the 550WP is sealed by interior O-rings and rubber gaskets, you can take it up to 10 feet underwater.

Other fun features include an Intelligent Auto Mode, which lets the camera identify what scene is being photographed (portrait, night + portrait, landscape, macro, or sports) and automatically adjust the settings for best results. The Face Detection software can track up to three people, and the Digital Image Stabilization has fast shutter speeds and high ISO sensitivity. Perfect Fix also has in-camera editing options like Red-Eye Fix, Shadow Adjustment Edit, image cropping and resizing.

Watch out for the Olympus 550 WP this February, at a retail price of $199.99.

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Maybe it’s because I’m used to texting using a numeric keypad, but I’m not the biggest fan of QWERTY keyboards. And Nokia didn’t seem content with releasing the N97 as the bastion of all QWERTY phones; they just came out with the 5730 XpressMusic Phone. The new Nokia 5730 comes with a two-inch QVGA screen, a slideout QWERTY keyboard, as well as a numeric keypad. Other features include a Symbian 60 OS, GPS, a microSD slot, a dot-matrix styling on the QWERTY keys, and four and a half hours of battery life.

The downside? The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic phone doesn’t come with 3G. But then again, those who’d want to type on their mobile phones on the train to work and back are probably better off with an N97.

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Last week, I talked about the new Sony Walkman lines announced at CES 2009 and expressed my preference for the wearable Walkman W series. But after looking at what the touch screen X series has to offer, I realize that there’s a lot to get excited about.

Just like its main competitor, the iPod Touch, the Sony X Series comes in 16GB and 32GB options, and can be used to surf the Internet. While its screen is half an inch smaller than the iPod Touch’s, it’s an OLED screen rather than a LED screen, meaning it has more vivid colors and better contrast. What makes the X Series completely different from other media players in the market is that it comes with digital noise canceling! The X Series’ noise canceling feature allows any 13.5mm EX headphones to block out all ambient noise. That’s right, no need for you to invest in those costly noise-canceling earphones that eventually run out of batteries.

Other fun features include the ability to subscribe to podcasts and video feeds (automatic download of new content!), built-in search capabilities, an FM radio, and hardware buttons. Supported audio formats include MP3, AAC, MA, PCM, and supported video formats include MPEG-4, WMV, and AVC.

No news on when it will be released and for how much. But unless it retails for less than $480, I don’t think it will even be a threat to the iPod Touch.

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There is some truth to the rumor that Samsung and Sony Ericsson will be coming up with 12MP mobile phones! Consumers who want to take better-quality photos without having to invest in expensive and chunky DSLRs will be pleased to note that this year, mobile phones will be getting pro-camera features. Last year, Sony announced that they were developing a 12.25MP chip, which will be debuting on March. But it looks like Sharp might be beating Sony because theirs is coming out in February.

Once they start producing at full capacity, they’ll be churning out 300,000 12MP sensors per month. According to Know Your Mobile, these sensors will be offering the “highest performance in the industry”. Assuming that more megapixels = better quality photos, it looks like pro-camera quality mobile camera phones is a reality that’s not too far off.

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Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is now making their mobile phones compatible with serious fitness monitoring equipment, beginning with the soon-to-be-released Nokia N79. The new Nokia N79 Active set features the N79 handset and a Polar Bluetooth WearLink heart rate belt. Using the new Nokia Sports Tracker application, you can now monitor your performance, map out your exercise, and share these details online.

The Active Set also includes a pair of sports headphones, an armband for you to put the phone in when you work out, as well as the ability to use the N79 as an mp3 player. The N79 monitors and records your exercise route through its AGPS; you can even geotag photos taken with its built-in 5-megapixel camera.

The Nokia N79 active set will be available for about $495, and the Nokia Sports Tracker will be available for download as soon as the Active sets gets shipped out. No news about whether you can use the software and the WearLink belt with other Nokia handsets, but I’m guessing that the N-series phones and other Nokia phones with Bluetooth shouldn’t have a problem supporting the belt.

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