Twelve Black Code Monkeys

I just got some additional info from Epson about the P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer (AKA PhotoFine). I’ve written before about the P-2000, which to me looks like one of the best Personal Media Players out there because it not only caters to the general consumer, but to the high-end amateur, or even professional photographer. Here are a few new things that I hadn’t seen before:

• Ultra fine high precision processing for close positioning and alignment of pixels, thereby increasing pixel count to 256 per square inch for better resolution and detail (I can only imagine this will look very nice, and viewing a dvd video capture at full resolution on such a small screen should be quite impressive!)

• View images from memory card without downloading to the hard drive (I can see this being useful for some digital photographers. For example, say you don’t have the time to transfer all your images, but just want a quick way to view them (and show others) on the road. Instead of compromising your camera’s battery by having them view the images on the camera, simply transfer the memory card over to the P-2000 and view them on a much larger screen)

• NTSC or PAL (this is a nice feature so that one can hook the P-2000 up to TV’s and not have to worry about the compatibility with different TV signal standards in different parts of the world)

• Speaker: Dynamic (symbol) 28 x 1 (Mono) (I’m not really sure what this means except that maybe the P-2000 has a mono speaker on it, presumably for listening to sound files or the audio that accompanies the video files. While Stereo would have been better, it probably wouldn’t have made a huge difference coming out of a small speaker. Let’s face it, most of the time, you would probably use headphones for this purpose, but it’s nice to know that you can actually share the audio without having to go out and buy accessories like a portable speaker system.)

• 5.8” x 3.3” x 1.2” in. (W x H x D) Weight: 415 g or 1 lb. with battery (So, here we can finally compare it to other players. Let’s use the iPod Photo as an example. The iPod Photo measures 4.1 x 2.4 x .75 and weighs 6.4 oz. So, we’re talking about something almost twice as thick, almost 50% wider, and almost 50% longer. This isn’t a big shocker to me, because around 2/3 of the real-estate on the front is the screen. The screen measures 3.8 inches on the diagonal. Compare that to half that – 2 inches – for the iPod Photo, which takes up only about ¼ of the front. You also get 640 x 480 pixels, almost ten times the number of pixels as the 220 x 176 on the Photo iPod. So yes, it’s not going to fit nearly as well in your pocket as an iPod, and at twice the weight it will weight you down a bit more, but if your priority is actually viewing images on the device and not just using it as a portable hard drive or something to plug into a larger display like a TV, there’s just no question about which is the superior device).

This product category seems to be getting more and more filled with new devices, and I’ll be trying to cover some of the others as they emerge as well. I would love to do a hands on review of the P-2000, but unfortunately I’m still not mass-market enough for companies to be sending me loaners units and I don’t have lots of disposable income lying around to buy new gadgets left and right. I’ll have to see how much access I can get to some of these devices at a local retail establishment and take a few furtive pictures with my camera phone!

A Domain Name, that is! Yes, I’ve finally decided to get my own domain name for this weblog. I figured it was time. I’m being syndicated by DU Project, developing relationships with companies as media entity, even getting linked to by some pretty popular weblogs. For those who subscribe to my feed, you shouldn’t have to do anything. The Blog-City address is still valid for feeds and for viewing the site directly, but now you have the option of saving a few keypresses and typing in just “twelveblackcodemonkeys.com.” Now all I have to do is come up with a logo!

Well, finally all the rumors of an iPod with a color screen for viewing photos have actually amounted to something. Today, Apple announced a new iPod called iPod Photo. It’s a bit more expensive than the standard iPod at $500 for a 40GB model ($100 more than the standard 40GB model), and $600 for a 60GB version.

The most detailed page about the iPod Photo that I’ve found so far indicates that it will display Tiff, PNG, JPEG, GIF, and BMP, but no RAW. You will be able to output images to a TV via S-Video or Composite connections, and there is an improved 15-hour battery life, the color screen, of course. In addition to being able to synch your images with a new version of iTunes released today, it will also let you sync album art for your music (and maybe audio book?) titles. The screen will be 220 by 176 pixels at 65,000 colors. This is not terrible, but still pretty small compared to other photo viewers, or even some mobile phones like the upcoming Treo 650.

I actually upgraded to a 40GB 4G iPod just a couple of months ago, so it’s a little annoying that if I had just waited a little bit longer, I could have saved up an additional $100 and gotten the added capability over what I have. So pardon me if what follows sounds a bit grumpy.

While progress is always good, I can’t help but think that Apple has really been taking advantage of the fact that they control a huge chunk of the market to make this progress really slow. We’ve had for quite some time now other products that have given larger screens with higher resolution, plus the ability to watch video in addition to just viewing individual pictures. The iPod Photo will not allow for direct loading via memory cards, rather one will have to use an accessory like the Belkin Media Reader at added expense and with a fairly slow transfer rate. Neither will you be able to play RAW digital photo files. Although the last two features might only appeal to digital photography enthusiasts, the fact that no video file format is going to be supported, not even Apple’s own Quicktime, is I think a universally understood disadvantage. Why did it take about four years for Apple to get a color screen to view images? Maybe by 2008 they will have an iPod Video! I don’t want to sound like a naysayer, but I am just dying for some major company like Sony, or even a well-known name like Epson to provide us with a device that not only does a whole lot more, but is actually designed as nicely as the iPod is. This might just provide some decent competition for the iPod which it currently does not have. And that’s why Apple can take it’s own sweet time introducing features that have been on other devices for years!

Thanks Gizmodo, for the heads up!

The dust has settled a bit with announcements about the new Treo 650. We’ve gotten a much clearer picture as to what the phone will have and what it won’t. I thought it might be useful for those who already have a Treo 600 or a similar device to list potential reasons to upgrade to this new version, since some people have been dissapointed with some of the phones features, or lack thereof. I’m writing this for myself as well, kind of my own “thinking out” about whether it makes sense for me to buy this thing. Sure I would upgrade in a second if the money wasn’t an issue, but $600 is not an insignificant amount of money for me, nor for most people. Those who don’t own any kind of smartphone type of device but have been looking to get into this world with the release of the 650, I think, can really ignore most of the criticisms. For the most part it looks like a great phone. While there are definitely features that I would like to have seen which it lacks, features which will probably be available in a future generation Treo (the theoretical Treo 700), you could say this about almost any technology. The next generation will almost be undoubtedly better, and in many cases even cheaper to boot!

The disappointments have been given and while their definitely are some valid ones, none are actually items that are new to the 650. In other words, they are simply disappointments because leaks had made us believe that there would be big improvements that weren’t there, or that a feature might be added that, as it turns out, was not. So, for those things, the phone simply has not made IMPROVEMENTS, it’s not gotten worse or less functional.

So, here are the items that I can see convincing current Treo 600 (or similar devices) owners to go for a 650:

Higher resolution, more colors: although this is no revolutionary new feature and doesn’t carry the buzz of “Bluetooth” it still will make a huge difference in usability because the screen in general will be clearer, fonts will be smoother, you will be able to see more text on a given page, etc.

• Speed: This is actually two-pronged:

Processor Speed: the higher speed 312Mghz processor which will allow for much more processor intensive stuff, like better video, flash animation, and more sophisticated programs.

Communication speed: the 650 will be capable of communicating via EDGE or EV-DO, 3G technologies which will make doing any kind of data transfer many times faster than the more basic protocols that the current Treo 600 uses. So, downloading new programs, synching your data over the air, or just viewing web pages will get much faster. However, this assumes that your carrier employs these technologies in your area. AT&T (which is finally merging with Cingular) has the only national EDGE network. T-Mobile supposedly is in the process of upgrading to EDGE, but I couldn’t find anything specific or official about a roll-out. Verizon has an expanding EV-DO network and Sprint has plans to have a nationwide EV-DO network by sometime next year.

• Bluetooth: for Bluetooth fanatics, this feature alone will make them upgrade. I admit I am not one of them. I never quite understood this obsession. I mean it’s nice not to have wires, but it seems more of an aesthetic thing, rather than something super useful and while I can certainly appreciate aesthetics, it’s not top priority for me. In any case, Bluetooth will allow wireless headsets, wireless GPS devices, wireless synching, etc., and just means less wires to keep track of, which is always a good thing.

• Video: Ok, so the camera is the same crappy .3 megapixel as the 600, but at least there’s one big improvement here, Video capture. Being able to see video clips, albeit small and short ones, will actually improve the overall “capture of the moment.” Increasing resolution for a still image can add to the reality of a shot, but so can being able to capture multiple images over time and so actually capture what it was like to be there for 10 seconds (or whatever), not just a frozen moment in time. Sure it’s a bit of a rationalization, but you know you want to indulge it!

• Synch: for corporate-types who currently use a Blackberry, or just for those people who want a seamless solution to keep track of their mail, appointments, and to-do-list, this could be a big factor. Out of the box, the 650 will come with support for Activesynch, which will allow for synching of data between the Treo and an exchange server over the air, similar to what the Blackberry has, but maybe without the email. However, Versamail will take charge of the email aspect and synch that. For those who really like the Blackberry’s system, RIM will be coming out with it’s own Blackberry software implementation for the Treo, although this will be an extra purchase. And perhaps the Blackberry software will offer push email functionality, which I have not heard anything about so far for the 650.

• Battery Life: with a removable battery, the potential battery life of the 650 is infinite. Ok, well, maybe not practically, but theoretically. A lot of people will at least buy one extra and then me able to go at least a couple with heavy data usage and not have to be in fear of it dying on them.

• Keyboard: the Treo 600’s keyboard, while usable, is not something one would want to write long essays in! Not that one would want to do this on a 650 either, but from what we’ve gathered, the keyboard will be enhanced. It certainly looks nicer and the keys look bigger and flatter, and just more typable. We’ll need to check in with people who’ve gotten to play a bit with the 650 to really find out how this new one shapes up. I don’t want to get too excited for fear that this could be another disappointment, but at least potentially this could be something that makes the device much more usable as a mobile alternative to emailing and other things which involve a fair amount of typing.

I could be forgetting something, but I think these are the key feature upgrades from the Treo 600. I’m still not sure if I will purchase one myself. I’m a bit spoiled in that I got the Treo 600 for a ridiculously low price thanks to a very generous friend, so paying he full $600 or thereabouts for this phone is going to be difficult. On the other hand, I will definitely be keeping track of the early reviews and will try one out as soon as they are in Sprint Stores (I’m not a Sprint customer but they will be the first to carry the phones, so hopefully they will have them available to at least play around with), or other stores that sell Sprint phones/service. At the very least I will try to get my hands on a Treo 650 if even for a week so that I can write up a review and/or a comparison between it and the Danger Sidekick II.

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with a list of additional articles I’ve found on the unveiling of the Treo 650:

Want a Treo 650? Better Sprint - CNet

Finally! The Treo 650 Arrives - PC Magazine

PalmOne launches Treo 650 - The Register

Live From CTIA - Sprint and AT&T Announce Treo 650 Plan - BargainPDA.com

Sprint to be first carrier to offer Treo 650 - myTreo.net

Treonauts Spends 1 Hour with the Treo 650 In Hand - Treonauts

There’s a whole lot of buzz going on about the newly unveiled Treo 650. Unfortunately a fair about of it is actually a bit on the negative side. This is part of the problem with having lots of leaks getting out which at most match but in some cases have exceeded what was actually the case in regards to the 650’s capabilities.

The main overexpectation relates to camera on the 650. For weeks, the rumors and asserted pretty categorically that it would be a much improved 1.3 megapixels, a resolution at which one could actually print 4×6’s that look identical or nearly so to film. But as it turns out, this is not the case. The camera is the same 640×480 (0.3 megapixels) that the Treo 600 camera is. This is good enough for sharing some small images on the web, or between phones, but not much else. As a digital photography afficiando, this is of course very disappointing to me and especially considering that many much cheaper and smaller phones have been coming out with 1.3 or higher megapixel cameras, it really doesn’t make much sense. Heck, there’s even a 5 megapixel camera now! Oh, but wait, the new phone has a 2x digital zoom! Oh, I guess that makes up for any lack of resolution, hahah! To be fair, the camera is supposed to be enhanced, but I’m not sure if that means optically. What it does mean is that the phone will be able to take small video clips (no word on actual length or resolution specifics yet), so at least that’s something.

There’s also been some confirmation that Wifi will not be supported, at least in terms of an expansion card that offers this functionality. For the Treo 600, this was due to power capacity for the SD slot, but it seems that radio interference is what PalmOne is using as its excuse this time around. While this is disappointing as well, there wasn’t an expectation that it would be offered. I think such functionality should be, but then again, I think we will see within the next two or three years a kind of merging of current cellular technologies, wireless internet technologies, Voice Over IP, etc. As they all race towards higher speeds and larger coverage areas, this will undoubtedly mean competition for mobile users who want to talk and use network services at high speeds from anywhere and everywhere.

Sprint, which apparently will offer their 650 first, as with the 600, had PalmOne disable the Bluetooth functionality for their Sprint-branded phones. This is reportedly because they don’t want the Treo to use Bluetooth as a way for the phone to act as a cellular modem to connect a computer to the internet. I actually used to do this a few years ago with an old Palm Vx via the IR port, but I think Bluetooth offers a lot more speed. Then again, we are still talking about modem speeds at most and it’s hard to believe that users who would do this wouldn’t just try to do the same thing via a USB hotsynch connection. This is yet another example of how Sprint, as others, have actually crippled users capabilities for no good reason. Yes, it means some people will be using their connections more, but if the customer can talk on these connections instead, why not use data? Perhaps Sprint customers should signal their displeasure by calling people and staying on for hours (overnight?) during free calling periods.

Looks like the 650 will have the same smaller 2.5mm headphone jack, meaning that in order to plug in a standard set of headphones (say the ones you use for your portable MP3 player), you will need still need that extra adapter.

Ok, so much for the bad stuff, what about the good stuff? Well, for one, the multimedia press release, which is a series of videos of people using the Treo and its various features (note: the videos seemed to lean a little towards the business end of things. They did show a woman taking a picture of a car, but my main thought is that maybe they are trying to market the 650 more towards the business user, and this seems to be born out by the much tighter integration with MS Exchange. This would also explain, at least somewhat, the lack of improvement with the camera, since cameraphones are seen more as consumer/non-business devices), shows a wireless keyboard. If you check out the Treo 650 Add-ons product page, you will not that this is not Bluetooth as I had initially thought, but infrared. Still, this is new for the Treo and should provide a better interface for those who do extensive keying. It looks to be slightly larger than the Treo when folded up, but expands to be about ¾ the size of a laptop keyboard. Then again, with the improved keyboard of the 650, I wonder if having an external one will be much of an issue.

Luckily PalmOne will be coming out with their own Bluetooth wireless headest (no longer available) and at $100, it seems pretty competitive. Not quite as competitively priced – to the point of being entertaining – is a 256MB SD memory card that PalmOne wants to charge you $80 for. I realize that maybe they feel like they have to offer it and will actually make some serious profit from this from people who don’t know or care that you can get four times this amount for about the same price in many places online and offline, but still, it’s a bit shameless! Hmmm, that’s odd, another page on their site details their range of SD prices and lists the same 256MB card for $60 instead! Get it streight, will ya? Still way overpriced, but not quite as bad.

On PalmOne’s Bluetooth page, we do see mention of a “Bluetooth-enabled GPS accessory” but the link provided just goes to the general “Add-ons” page with no information about such accessories. Still, this type of GPS receiver has been available for other devices, so I’m sure that those will work fine with the 650 if it has a standard implementation of Bluetooth. This does lead me to wonder, though. Would it be possible for a company to come up with a device that provides Wifi connectivity and then routes that to a Treo via Bluetooth? I haven’t done the research to know whether this is possible or whether it’s already been developed, but that would be one way of getting around the lack of a built-in Wifi capability and the lack of support for a Wifi expansion SD card…

As far as software, the camera interfcase, the phone interface, and the web browser have been redesigned. The mail application has been replaced by Versamail, a much more full-featured product which will sync not only your email but also your calendar with Microsoft Exchange servers, although I still saw no mention of “push” delivery. Realplayer has also been added (replacing a free coupon for PocketTunes), which it looks like will only be used for listening to MP3’s rather than watching steaming (or non-streaming) video.

Here are a few other links to stories that haven’t been mentioned already:

Treo 650 is Official - Engadget

Even more Treo 650 pics - Engadget

Treo 650 Announced - very detailed report from TreoCentral.com

As promised, we hear today from PalmOne about the Treo 650. Thanks to the hard work over at Treonauts, here are a few links to official press releases about it:

• Official PalmOne Press Release
• PalmOne Multimedia Press Release
• PalmOne Treo 650 Product Page

This is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll be going through it shortly and posting more commentary, as well as additional links as they become available this morning, so stay tuned!

Even though the official announcement of the Treo is less than two days away, there continue to be leakes uncovered at Treonauts. The latest is a Treo 650 Specification page which confirms a bunch of things we’ve already heard but doesn’t introduce anything new and doesn’t answer all the questions out there. For one, we still don’t know if the SD slot will be fully SDIO compliant so that Wifi or GPS SD cards might work in the 650. However, there is the following:

Multi-connector for add-on peripherals: Yes

What I believe this refers to is the new type of connector that allows PalmOS devices to connect to hotsynch cables and chargers, and some peripherals like external keyboards. Theoretically this means that the Treo could connect to a peripheral that would provide wifi or GPS, but through this connector instead of the SD slot. I’m not sure if this is an advantage, but my hunch is it wouldn’t be because it means manufacturers can’t take devices that have already been built for PDA’s that have the proper SDIO slot and all they have to do to make it work for the 650 would be to create a new softare driver, or maybe just alter one for a similar device.

The other item that Andrew over at Treonauts mentions is the memory, which is specified at only 22MB. He brings up a valid point about how memory prices have dropped. One can now easily find 1GB of solid state memory for under $100. While the memory that’s used inside a Treo may have to be a lot faster than that in a memory card, it still seems crazy to have such an advanced phone in so many other ways but still sporting an amount of on-board memory that was common two or three years ago. It’s not just a matter of cost, it’s a matter of all the memory-intensive applications for Palm devices. One can use a memory manager program so that you can put a lot of them on an external memory card, but this slows the operation of these programs down significantly. It’s one thing if this was a feature of the Treo that you could upgrade, but to my knowledge internal memory has never been upgradeable in any PalmOS device. So we are forced to live with this weakness until the next Treo comes out.

In any case, I’m sure this will not prevent me, not most of the others out there that have been waiting anxiously for the release to not buy it. I still can’t wait for the announcement on Monday and I will try to post links to it and any other articles as soon as I can.

I’ve been having a bit of difficulty with my RSS feed within the last several days. Bloglines is giving me the [!] error which means there’s either a problem with the xml file or it can’t find it, but when I go to the address, it comes up immediately. I had changed the description of my blog recently and I think the problem might be an apostrophy that Bloglines maybe tripping over (as scripting languages often need to have single and double quotes escaped). So, I just too the apostrophy/sing quote out and tried to ping a few aggragators and waited 30 minutes but nothing’s changed, so I’m posting this entry to see if that will force Bloglines to refresh and then be able to see my feed properly. Let’s hope this works.

Update: That fixed it!

When I first heard about the new Epson P-2000, I thought it would be the perfect convergence media device. It has a hard drive and plays a bunch of different audio and video formats, and, given Epson’s reputation in the photographic print business, it provides some features not seen on other such devices, like ports for different memory sizes and support for numerous digital photo RAW file formats. With its huge 3.8” LCD and profusion of features, I suspected it would be at least as much as its predecessor, the P-1000, but Epson has actually dropped the price to $500! And it will be out next month here in the U.S.! Considering it has a 40GB hard drive, the same as the iPod’s current top-of-the line, plus has a huge amount of additional functionality, I can’t see why someone would pick the iPod instead.

Oh I suppose there is the user interface to consider. It’s hard to beat Apple in that area. But the UI on the P-2000 would have to be mighty clunky to opt for an iPod. Also, what about Apple’s online digital music store iTunes? For those who have downloaded a bunch of songs or hope to in the future, will this device be able to? It’s unclear. It is supposed to support AAC files, which is the format Apple uses with iTunes, but it’s not clear if that automatically means it can support iTunes specific DRM. I’m sure Apple controls which devices can and can’t access their DRM’d files and so far there’s been no mention from any camp. There is one more issue which probably is not a big one for most but is for me, and that is that I use the iPod primarily to listen to audio books that I download from Audible.com. These also have a proprietary DRM and while they can be played on an iPod, that also doesn’t mean by extension that they can be played by any device that can play an AAC file. I’ve been attempting to get answers to these questions from the various parties and I will post any information as soon as I get it.

Link to Gizmodo

Well, maybe I should say “less expensive” huh? The Fuji S3 Pro, Fuji’s top-of-the-line digital SLR announced last month and due to come out in November, is apparently going to be priced at $2,499. This is at least $500 cheaper than earlier estimates and almost half of the $4,000 that original rumors had said. With this kind of price tag, I think it will be even more irresistible to budget-conscious pros or even some amateurs who have a little more pocket change. The big difference that it will have even over the most recently announced Nikon D2X DSLR and Canon EOS 1DS Mark II, other than the vastly lower price tag, will be the newly designed sensor which according to Fuji expands the dynamic range of the images to be closer to film. (Briefly “dynamic range” relatest to how large a range of levels one has between black and white - the more levels, or the larger the range, the more ability to capture scenes with lots of contrast without either under or overexposing the picture) While it may not be as capable in other areas, like continuous shot speed, battery options, even sensor size and megapixels, this increased dynamic range could make it a must have even for Nikon afficianados (it takes Nikon lenses) who want to replace their backup film cameras and use it as a complement to their D2H or D2X. Unfortunately my wife reads my blog and I just know that this entry is going to have her wanting to start working a second job so that she can buy one of these (she has the current Fuji S2)!

Link to Photography Blog