Sony TX5 Waterproof, HD

Its time for another camera. Read about my earlier camera review.

My expectations from digital camera have increased over period of time.

Reasons for concluding on this camera.
* Water proof camera - Hope this does not disappoint me. I also dont have any deepdive plans.
* Small and very handy - Almost fits in the palm
* Reliable brand- Almost every one agrees, Sony is one of the best in electronics
* 10 FPs capability-Should be a good option when we know about a great shot.
* 720P HD video recording - This was another must have feature i was looking for. HD is awesome on TV.
* Sweep Panorama mode - Yet to really use this feature
* Design - Many others with similar features didnt look as good.


10 MP Camera!! I didnt see any change in this from my last camera. Having water proof was a great addition compared to increased mega pixels. Also higher mega pixels does not mean better picture :) Surprisingly many cameras have always been promoting higher mega pixels and have been successful in convincing the users.
Some more tips:
* Higher the class of your memory card, faster will be the save/retrieval operation (note the Class 10 memory card)
* Compare the best price you got on this blog, amazon should automatically show you the best possible price.


My latest wish list (I already miss some of these in this new camera)

* DSLR quality pics (highly desirable)
* 10+ optical zoom (highly desirable)
* Full HD video (Desirable -Well digital cameras are meant for pics not for great video, but if it can replace video camera that would great)
* Wifi Capability
* Bluetooth (Low priority)
* Projector? (Low priority)
as usually all these in a compact camera.

Convert Youtube to other formats

Ever wondered how to play youtube video in your cd player or how to watch it offline?
For those of you who havent explored or asked this question, here is some gyan.

Lot of freeware applications exist (do check their reliability from the reviews) that can take youtube URL (song address) and download it for you to almost any format.

http://www.vidtomp3.com/ Converts the URL in to standard or high quality mp3 file. You can play it strait in your car(Provided you have a mp3 player in your car). Found this site very handy.

Just search for download youtube + format you want and some website will convert it for you withought even downloading/installing any software.

Avatar & 3D Technology

I saw Avatar movie after 2 weeks of its worldwide release . I am writing about this movie now because its effects are still alive in my memory and worth blogging.

I wouldnt talk about the storyline of the movie or the facts and figures of the movie. You can read more about it on wiki. I watched it in AMC iMax 3D theater in harahan, Louisiana.

Stunning picture clarity and real to life characters keeps viewers on their toes. visual effects are a feast to every sci-fi movies fan. As James cameroon said, he had to wait close to 10 years as the technology wasnt advanced enough for the making this movie. That wait was worth the wait. This movie also bagged many Oscar awards.




I am sure this was a game changing movie. Future holds lot more innovations towards multi dimentsion movies.

My predictions: In the coming years more and more 3D, 4D movies and other new formats will be made and slowly 2D movies (which are most popular around the world today) may disappear (it may take few decades).

Why am i writing about it after 10 months of its release?
I see 3D technology penetrating in daily life and couldnt help but to blog about it. Here are some of the examples.

Televisions that can show any content in 3D format.

ESPN boasts a 3D channel.

Laptops are available with 3D technology.

Most of the future display technologies and games will be available in 3D which makes our brain "think" that real life characters are infront of us.

Google voice new revolution in how we send receive calls

I hadn’t imagined the next level of telephoning, although i had seen some glimpses of it when i worked on a voice mail application about 10 years back ;)
Here is the first cut review of Google voice.
Google guides us again and competes head-on with others in the business for decades. This time even the telephone carriers around the world may be forced to accept how little services/features they provided and how heavily they charged all of us all these years.

What’s new in Google voice

1. Screening spam call:

Anyone who heard my ringtones must have heard the spooky tone (Everyone asks what’s that for the first time) that’s set specifically for spam calls. Now Google lets me set a specific greeting for such calls including the one that says "I am sorry that number is not in service". Now that’s the right way to treat spams :)

2. Routing the calls:

You can route the calls to any number/carrier anytime. That relieves me from changing my number and potentially loosing connection with most of my friends. This is also a big boon for my friends back in India who went back from US. They usually want to have a local number which people here can use to keep in touch with them, but they end up paying for monthly service fee. I haven’t checked this in detail, but it should be possible to link a US number to Indian phone number.

3. Rignging multiple phones:

I can have one number that rings all my family numbers(including cell phones and home phones) so that any one can pick it up. Changing them is as simple as a few clicks.

4. Voice mails as text:

Set up Google voice and it can send voice mails as a text and a link to its voice. It may be very useful tool to read your voice mails instead of listening if you are busy person in meetings or pubs :) This can also be sent as email. Reply to email can go as SMS.

5. Customize greetings for each caller:

You can customize greeting for each caller or group of callers (cool ones for friends and professional one for colleagues and so on)

6. Conferencing:

Even if your phone or carrier does not provide options to conference with multiple friends, Google voice lets you do that.

These were the features that i was impressed with; you may find your own. Check them out at https://www.google.com/voice Telephony industry in on right track now.

Future cars tell you where they are parked.

One day cars could tell you where they are parked without you needing to remember.

Background : 5 floors of large parking lot with hundreds of cars often confuses me about where did i park my car. Going home for lunch doubles the confusion as i need to search my car twice. As most of you know during winter basements and parking lots are some of the coldest parts. Its drives you mad searching your car in the cold. I found that I am not the only one to find it hard to remember parking spots after checking with some more people on the way to parking spots. Almost everyone has the same problem once in a while(specially when they are pre-occupied with some thoughts and foget to actively remember where they parked the car).

I was wondering if we had the technology that could tell me where my car is parked on my iPhone.


Options: Yes technologies are already existing to achieve some of these. Here are some of them.

iPhone app can locate your parked location- This is the closest option for me. Yes this application can tell me only if I tell the app that i parked my car here(need to choose park here in the application). This does not track your car but remembers the location where I marked the location.

Your Car lock key can also beep loudly to tell you where it is located. I do have this feature, but if i am far from my car it does not reach the car.

OnStar service of GM is another closest technology that can track your vehicle. But no iPhone app or a website to track your car.

There are some keychains availavle that can mark the car location just like iphone app. This makes it a little bit easier, but again those compact devices arent yet as reliable and advanced as other GPS devices are.



Some advanced thoughts...
If there are 5-10 floors, GPS only marks the location in 2Dimension, so you wont be able to find out the floor where you parked it. There should be some way to figure out the height and map it to the floor number. I am sure some one picks this idea in future and makes a fundo gadget to locate your car.

Conclusion: Man finds more and more ways to get lazy and handover the thinking to machines/gadgets. This is one of mine. I am sure future holds lot of such smart features in cars.