Digital Cameras

• We got our Dad a new digital camera for his birthday. Here’s some things we learned along the way. Plenty of new features, a plethora of options, and some words of caution. Which one did we get him? It’s the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3.

What is AVCHD and why should you care?

• When shopping for a digital camcorder or a digital camera these days, many will advertise that they shoot HD video. But they are pretty vague when detailing the format they use to store those videos. AVCHD is efficient for storing large files in small sizes, but there are some gotchas.
• VoltaicHD from Shedworx converts the files on your Mac to a variety of file formats.

iPhone App Wins Microsoft Contest

• Microsoft held a contest for developers. 15 companies entered. 14 of them actually wrote on the Microsoft platform. One did not. Oops.

$800 for a NetBook? Say What?

• Nokia is going to ship the Nokia Booklet 3G netbook with a hefty pricetag of $820 US. Is this still a netbook at that price?

Nerds of the Week

• Some geek birthdays of note. The Internet, Nerf and UNIX all turn 40.

Nerd Pick of the Week

• You’ve seen this one featured in the TV commercials. We decided to try it out. The Bump app for iPhone lets you share information between two iPhones/iPod Touches.

We lead off with the news that Microsoft is in talks to acquire Time Warner. This is regarded as a bold move by the Redmond software giant to become the leader in downloadable media in the living room.

Not to be outdone, Apple has entered into agreement with popular netbook maker Asus to begin selling a netbook preloaded with Mac OS X. We speculate on what version this could be (Snow Leopard?) but this is a significant move for Apple which has had few hardware models (Mac Mini) in the sub-$1,000 range.

Finally iPhone developers have uncovered hidden code in the new OS 3.0 beta that seems to indicate Apple will be incorporating iPhoto’s face recognition software into the iPhone. For what purpose? Listen to the show to find out. These are pretty cool when you think about them.

All this and more in Episode 9. Thanks for listening.

Movie Quote of the week

“I call you spam because that’s what you are.” – Adventures of Ford Fairlane