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Filecrate Remote File Backup

The backup system you have working — in this case automatic, off-site file backup — is the system which will save your business some day. This one is very good.

Read Mark Goldstein's full review!

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Premiere Elements 8

A common organizer, auto-analyze, powerful JPG and RAW processing and wonderful video production make it a tough act to beat.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Digital Photography Books to Kick Off 2010

Camera makers should dump their dense, boring user manuals in favor of Busch's guides. There's more including WordPress, photo tools, blogging.

Read Howard Carson's reviews!

Rolling, Medium Size, Carry-On Camera Cases

Carrying too many bodies and lenses? Probably. Something sturdy, secure and carry-on compatible is needed.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Uniblue DriverScanner 2009

When the latest Windows update mangles a video card or network card driver, think about how nice it would be to have a really good driver updater.

Read Mark Goldstein's full review!

Think Tank Urban Disguise 35

Think Tank Photo seems bent on making itself the gold standard in pro camera bags. Is this shoulder bag one of the most versatile ever?

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Handy Folders v3.5

Productivity and organization fall flat when they run into the rather limited Windows file explorer. Fast access to regularly used folders is easier than you think.

Read Mark Goldstein's full review!

Think Tank Shape Shifter Photography Backpack

Medium size photo/laptop backpacks come and go. The best stay with us for years. This is one of the best we've seen.

Read Mark Goldstein's full review!

Think Tank Airport AirStream Rolling Camera Bag

If you travel with more than a shoulder bag full of gear, you need something that will protect the load and make it easy to go places.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Think Tank Skin Set Modular Component Camera Gear Carry System

Pros know that if you don't get the shot, you're out of business. Tough, crowded, fast moving situations require special solutions.

Read Jack Reikel's full review!

Crumpler Six Million Dollar Home Camera Shoulder Bag

Crumpler is a bag maker which insists on being different. Care and attention to detail help create wonderful photography products.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Think Tank Urban Disguise 40 Camera Bag

The mid-size entry in the Urban Disguise series provided us with enough incentive to physically beat it up and overstress it. The bag took it all.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Think Tank Urban Disguise 30 Camera Bag

There are camera bags and then there are Think Tank camera bags. Lots of competition means better products. Think Tank is at the top of its game.

Read Howard Carson's full review!

Nik Color Efex Pro 3

The best Photoshop plug-ins get better because the developers listen to end users. Nik Software listens. Digital photographers are demanding sophisticated processing effects.

Read Mario Georgiou's full review!

ION Slide2PC Scanner

If you've got boxes full of old 35mm slides and negatives, it's probably time to start scanning before everything falls apart, gets lost, or gets soaked in a flood.

Read Mario Georgiou's full review!

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TetherBerry v1.0.7

Connect a laptop to the Internet, anywhere you've got cell phone service, through your BlackBerry's data connection and avoid some really crazy per-megabyte carrier charges

HTC Touch Diamond Smartphone

HTC has steadily grabbed more market share by regularly turning out superb smartphones offering slick designs wrapped around great features

The Ultimate HTML Reference

A concise desktop reference guide for all standard, W3C-compliant HTML, which uniquely also includes browser compatibility charts for each element

UpStrap Shoulder Strap for SLR & Prosumer Cameras

Superb quality, purpose-built SLR and prosumer camera shoulder strap that's made in the U.S. and made to last

Monday, September 15, 2008

Media Giants Join Forces In Content Consortium

A big consortium of Movie, hardware, and digital companies have joined forces to form the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem. The DECE has at its heart the goal of making digital media like music and movies a "buy once, play anywhere" experience. The concept will allow consumers to buy digital media and be able to play it on any DECE compatible device anywhere they like — even when the content isn't with them they should be able access their content from a cloud-based media locker. Expect a major announcement which will cover standards and technology info at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2009.

The consortium currently includes Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox, HP, Intel, Lions Gate, Microsoft, NBC Universal,Paramount, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, Verisign, and Warner Brothers. The group's president and primary architect is Mitch Singer, who is also currently chief technology officer at Sony Pictures.

Apple are notably absent from the consortium, but dont expect any appearance real soon unless they, as a company, change their stance on DRM. For more info, read this article at digitaltrends.

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posted by Mario Georgiou at 6:35 PM

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Pirates & Game Producer Exchange Ideas

Cliff Harris, an independent game developer with Positech Games decide to open up a dialogue with game pirates to figure out just why people actually pirate games. It seems that there was quite a deluge of mail and Cliff seems to have paid attention. The main areas of contention appear to be -

Games are too expensive.
The quality of games is all over the place.
DRM hurts legitimate customers.

Positech responded by dropping DRM and lowering prices ... it'll be interesting to see how the pirates respond and if sales actually go up ... Read his summary of the feedback here.

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posted by Mario Georgiou at 6:04 PM

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Yahoos DRM Legacy...

Yahoo are closing its Yahoo! Music Store for good. They are also taking their DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. Problem is, that by doing so, they will be rendering any of the DRM based music bought through their store obsolete. Chalk one up for the protectionists in this one, congrats you just screwed a whole bunch of people out of their legally acquired music.

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posted by Mario Georgiou at 6:40 PM

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

HD-DVD Retired

Toshiba finally pulled the plug on the future of HD-DVD. Toshiba stated that they "carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," ... "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality." Toshiba plan to slow down shipments of HD-DVD players with the intention of stopping them altogether by the end of March.

So Blu-ray has won, but the battle may not be over yet. I for one would like to see Blu-ray succeed, even in light of increasing competition from digital downloads. For me the beauty of owning a disk is the additional content that comes along with it. Digital downloads need to offer that capability and the immediacy of playback without any kind of wait.

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posted by Mario Georgiou at 7:14 PM

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Music, Media & Money

I'm both fascinated and annoyed at many of the approaches the music companies are taking at making money. They bitch and complain about piracy and to be honest they are probably right to certain degree. However, I've been buying music for a long time, and much of my music until about 10 years ago was on vinyl. Every time a new device or media technology is announced, I cringe and think "does this mean I'm going to have to buy all the music in my library again".

I've previously bought music on LP's, Tapes, CD's, DVD's and even the odd piece of digital music online and on memory card. I love gadgets like many others, however I can tell you this, I won't be jumping to, or spending a lot of money on new mediums. I'll continue buying CD's and then ripping them to my media players. I'm happy enough with that.

Stop re-inventing the wheel ... Frankly I'm sick of spending my hard earned money to make some fat cat music executive or lawyer rich. If you want me to buy music I already have, you've got to offer me a lot more than a new package or a "remastered" version. Invest some money in value added content and pay the artists more ... you media moguls can certainly afford it.

In case you're wonder why I'm so pissed I sat down recently and figured out how much it would cost me to replace my record collection at £15 a CD ... I freaked. Think about this a moment ... the record companies sue the hell out of copyright violators and yet when it come to paying the creators of that same music, they drag their heels and cry saying the music business is expensive. Yet the RIAA and other organisations with similar interest have been trying to change the law as regards to royalties so that they dont have to keep paying the creators of the music they're selling. Read this article over at IGN for more, it details that the RIAA recently petitioned Judges to lower the royalties so that the record companies can make more money...

For another take on why the MPAA thinks piracy exists read another article again at IGN, it made sense to me.

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posted by Mario Georgiou at 5:58 PM



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