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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 07/07/2010 The times they are a changing
...and so is the pc and the electronics world - Part 3 Last week
I talked about how the pc has taken over the tasks normally done on other
devices – like playing music, and editing pictures, and burning cd/dvds
- which are normally tasks done by cd/dvd players and cameras. But it
seems that there’s a backlash now on certain devices trying to seize
back functions from the pc, realizing that the pc is trying to obsolete them.
Last week
I talked about how a low end RCA dvd player I bought for $ 60 can do some
impressive functions. In addition to being able to read all pc formats of
movies and picture and music files, it can actually rip cd’s itself,
and the biggest feature is that it has a usb flash drive port so I can play files on it
from my computer without having to burn a cd or a dvd – this is a major
strike back at pc’s. Digital
cameras have been taking a lot of heat from cell phones, as the picture
taking quality of cell phones has improved, and from pc’s as Windows
now has built-in photo editing software and attachments are available like
web cams which enable pc’s to shoot pictures and movies. I recently bought a new digital camera –
a Samsung
HZ30W at Costco for about $ 215.00 to replace a Samsung I6 camera I had
taken to Mississippi with me in 2006. One of the big differences, aside from
the price being about half what I had paid 3 years ago - is that my old camera had several
different modes I would select manually, and my new camera automatically
selects the best mode to shoot in.
I replaced the 2 Gb memory chip that came with it with an 8 Gb chip on
Sale at Office Depot for under $ 20, so now I can take almost 13000 pictures
or shoot 3.5 hours of movies. Both the
picture resolution and the movie resolution are twice as high as my old
camera too, if I want to select those higher modes. And it has a 15 power zoom with an
additional 5 power digital zoom. But the
biggest difference is that again I can see Samsung trying to steer people
away from using their pc to edit and print the pictures. The
camera has built-in editing software so you can edit and enhance pictures
onboard, and then you can bypass using a pc to print the pictures by
attaching your camera via the usb port cable directly to a compatible
printer, or taking out the memory chip and plugging it into a compatible
printer, having first set the print order and size you want while still in
the camera. We all
know competition is good and gives us more options and better prices, and now
we see consumer electronic devices getting smarter and less expensive. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2010 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html Call: (509)624-7230 |
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