It’s official: the MacBook Air is going to be a roaring success no matter what we say about it: Martha Stewart loves it, and that’s it. End of the story. She loves everything about it and, according to her, it looks great on her desk. So Brian, Walter, David et al, TFSU and read her comments, along the image of the MacBook Air sitting on her desktop:

• I was amazed by how razor thin and how light it is.
• I really love the trackpad.
• The MacBook Air is truly a technological thing of beauty.
• It has a full-size illuminated keyboard, which is terrific for working in a dimly lit car or on an airplane.

Or in jail when they turn the lights off. [The Martha Blog]

Via [Gizmodo]

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If you can’t bring the microbial parasite to the lab, bring the lab to the microbial parasite, goes the thinking of the Berkeley researchers who invented a microscope to attach to cellphones and smartphones, using the phones’ own cameras. The higher powered of their two microscopes delivers 60X magnification, capable of capturing the detail of cancerous cells, malaria parasites and other buggers. There are clear healthcare benefits here—doctors making housecalls in remote areas can transmit images to their laptops via Bluetooth or, presumably, a lab for analysis. Surprisingly, the LED-self-illuminating module cost just $75 to build with off-the-shelf parts, and will likely go to manufacturing after tests in Uganda this summer. [Technology Review]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Vista’s SP1 was officially released on Tuesday. That means people have had enough time to tinker around with it, test it out, and share their thoughts. The reviews are in, and here’s what the usual suspects (plus our own most eloquent commenters) had to say.

Personal computer World: “Pre-SP1, the [1.9GB] file copy averaged 384 seconds; post-SP1, the copy process showed a noticeable improvement, averaging just 348 seconds to complete the same task. That’s a 9 percent improvement, a difference you’re apt to notice… It’s not life-altering when you’re talking about just 2GB of data, but if the performance improvement holds across more massive data sets, that’ll be a huge boon to anyone copying data in the Vista environment.”

Personal computer Mag: “From the beginning, Vista had some significant issues with excessive hard drive use. The drive light would routinely stay fully or mostly lit for many minutes at a time, even when most programs had been closed. The downloaded SP1 improved this quite a bit, resulting in crisper performance… even with Office 2007 Professional, Adobe Creative Suite CS3, and Norton System Works 2008 on the machine and various components of each running (Outlook, Word, InDesign, Acrobat, and Norton AV, for instance), the drive light stayed remarkably unlit on the SP1 clean install. This issue bears watching: If the difference turns out to be as significant as it seems, then it alone is reason to upgrade.”

Anandtech: “Compared to where we were a year ago, our general suggestion for Vista is unchanged. We’re however impressed with the progress of the x64 versions of Vista over the past year, after feeling like it was lagging behind Vista x86 from beta up through the release version of Vista. Vista x64 is now clearly on par with Vista x86 and we have no concerns about its compatibility or performance.”

CNet: “Do you need Windows Vista SP1? Yes and no. It’s always good to install the latest (read: patched) code for any operating system. But downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems.”

Giz Commenters:
We received a huge response to our poll question the other day, “How’s Windows Vista SP1 working out?” Most of you didn’t notice much of a difference after the install, but a good portion of you thought it was either the ideal or worst decision you’ve ever made. Here are some of the most informative things your fellow commenters had to state about the upgrade:

Topcat: Installed without incident in ~20 minutes for me. RAM use is down 7-10% on average from the OS (Ultimate-32), and it fixed some of the problems I’d had frequently

shiftyeyedgoat: I have the ability to definitely notice a difference in network transfer speeds. I mean, it’s multitudes faster.

Claystil: My startup time seems to be shorter and windows connects to the network MUCH faster.

JoeStalin: No difference. Large file transfers still suck ass.

Darrone: …it boned my computer harder than Eliot Spitzer at Scores.

The majors seem to echo what everyone else has been saying; while updating is usually the right thing to do, SP1 doesn’t have enough noticeable changes to make you jump out of your seat. The commenters were more outspoken in their distaste for the update, some even reporting several crashes, but overall they seemed to like it as well. Putting all of the feedback together, we’re going to give Vista SP1 an “upgrade” verdict, but don’t anticipate too much from it.

Via [Gizmodo]

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The last time I used or even owned a camcorder was back in the mid-90s. They were always too huge and transferring video was only something a pro did unless you were just replicating to a VHS tape. It wasn’t worth the time or the effort. My, have times changed. As with most technology, things […]

The last time I used or even owned a camcorder was back in the mid-90s. They were always too big and transferring video was only something a pro did unless you were just duplicating to a VHS tape. It wasn’t worth the time or the effort. My, have times changed. As with most technology, things get smaller and easier to use. Such is the case of the Samsung SC-HMX10C 720p camcorder. I’ve used it extensively over the last few months to bring all of you videos from CES, Macworld, CeBIT and any other video I’ve posted on CG.

The HMX10C is capable of recording video in HD (720p) or SD and has 8GB of built-in storage. The flip out 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD makes navigating through the menus a breeze. The zoom, menu and record buttons are also placed on the side of the LCD for added convenience. On the body of the camcorder where the LCD usually rests you’ll find an HDMI port as well as Component/AV/S and USB port. You’ll also find an LCD brightness switch and display off/on button.

External controls are easily manipulated unless you’re sans thumbs, which would cause a problem. The power button, record, mode, easy, zoom and pic switches are well put. The one feature that I really, really like is the swiveling handle. It makes recording easier and causes less fatigue.

There are five scene modes: Auto, Sports, Portrait, Spotlight and Beach/Snow. I typically used the Auto mode and reached desirable results in all situations. Other features that can be manipulated include: WB, Exposure, Anti-Shake, Digital Effects (sepia, negative, etc.), Focus, Shutter, Tele, Macro, varying degrees of Quality (Super Fine HD, Fine HD, Normal HD, SD and Economy SD), Wind Cut, Back Light, Fader, and Digital Zoom. There are also a ton of variables for the 1.56-megapixel camera, but they’re nothing special or out of the ordinary.

When reviewing recorded videos, you can take screen shots in case you want to incriminate someone or you just like the pretty flowers. Transferring video to my MBP was simple and headache free. Drag and drop via USB and you’re good to go depending on your choice of video editing tools. Battery life was fairly good at a little over an hour for HD recording and closer to 1.5 to 2 hours for SD video.

Flash memory on the camcorder is its biggest asset. The addition of an SD slot that supports SDHC cards is also an added plus. I don’t think I ever came close to filling up the 8GB of internal memory, but having an SD card just made me feel more comfortable. However, what I didn’t like was that I couldn’t transfer files from the internal memory to the external card. I can do that on my Helio Ocean — just don’t comprehend why I can’t do it on the camcorder. But that’s just about the only downfall the HMX10C has as far as I can tell.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the HMX10C and it’s made our time at shows far more enjoyable and much easier to cover. Photos are fine for most things, but having video is 10x superior, right? The MSRP is around $750, but you can find it for much cheaper than that by doing a quick search on the Net.

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Via [crunchgear]

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It’s so rare to actually have actual child-like fun with the gadgets we get in that I had to put together this silly video. The Jasman toys are laser-tag-alike weapons with targets and a shot counter. When you run out of ammo the weapons pop open — the rifle shoots out its overheating fins and […]

It’s so rare to actually have actual child-like fun with the gadgets we get in that I had to put together this silly video. The Jasman toys are laser-tag-alike weapons with targets and a shot counter. When you run out of ammo the weapons pop open — the rifle shoots out its overheating fins and the top of the pistol pops up. You can recharge your weapon by pressing a button on the top and you take a few hits before your target stops registering and you lose like the loser you’re — that means you, Mike!

Here we see my friends shooting each other while my son cowers in the corner and the dog enters the fray. Good times.

The rifle is $139 and the pistol is $59. I strongly recommend these for a little inter-office laser tag Covenant action.

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Via [crunchgear]

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