Search is over...?

I think I have found my next digital camera...

The good points about this camera:

• Video 640x320, 30fps
• SD memory card, no limit to video except by memory
  
• Thin (making it easier to carry)
  
• Non-protruding zoom lens (coolness factor)
• Wi-fi (a plus)

Steve's Digicam already has a review on the Nikon Coolpix S6.

Wish list for next Christmas

It's never too early to think ahead.

One of the new purchases I would like to add to our entertainment center is a media server. Ideally, this media server would be able to work for audio and video. However, if we are to talk about audio only, the Sonos Digital Music System is pretty close to the ideal system.

• All music can be centrally stored
• Music can be streamed to any part of the house, independently (different streams to different areas of the house) or in sync (same stream to different parts of the house).
• Nice remote for controlling the music

At the moment, with all our music centrally stored, we can use Windows Media Player (or any other software) to access it. We have a computer hooked up to our entertainment system in the family room, but to listen to our music repository in the bedroom, we would have to carry a computer in there. Not quite convenient. This is where a system like Sonos would be handy. Of course there are other systems as well, but Sonos provides the best integrated system (with the ability to play the same stream in different rooms, having a simple interface, and so on).

A similar system for movies and other video we have would be ideal. Since many of our shows are still on ReplayTV units, then a central video repository for all recorded shows would be difficult. We have almost 2 TB capacity on our ReplayTV units and one PC with over 1 TB capacity.

The plans for this coming year's computer purchase is an ultra-small IBM, I mean Lenovo, desktop. This will replace the computer in the media room, and the one in the media room will become my work computer. This way, I can fit the small PC on the shelf along with the other AV equipment instead of on the floor. In addition, with the one I'll use as my work computer, I can easily swap hard drives, so I can boot up with a Linux computer and whatever.

The second purchase is the X41 tablet PC. I would prefer the tablet PC to be less than 3 pounds, but at 3.5 pounds and the fact it is a "convertible" with keyboard included and that there have been some very positive reviews about how it feels to "write" on the surface, I think this is a good choice. However, including the x4 base, it would be over $1800 (over $1500 for the computer alone). However, in Japan, even for IBM employees, it is over 22,000 yen (over $2000) just for the computer alone. Ideally, I would want to get one for Kyoko, too, although she'll say she doesn't need a new computer. What does need have to do with buying anything?

One obvious use of the tablet is to place on the kitchen counter and stream video to it, such as TV video. Another use of the tablet is to allow it to be easily carried to another room for playing music from the music repository. Hey, if I can do that, then why not just use bluetooth speakers to play music in the bedroom and not carry the tablet PC around? There have to be bluetooth speakers somewhere, right?

For the desktop, I noticed IBM, I mean Lenovo, was offering free CRT monitor or $99 for flat-panel monitor. However, since we don't really need a new monitor (especially not CRT), I thought I would wait to see what the next offer was... The monitor offer expired on December 27... And so far, no new offer! Sigh!

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Regarding other items, one interesting item I saw which hasn't even been advertised much anywhere is an hard drive enclosure for an external drive which also has video playback capabilities and a remote control from ByteCC. What this means is that you can hook up this enclosure to your TV and play videos from the external hard drive. This would be ideal for business trips, especially to Vienna where most of the channels are in German, so I can watch movies and other shows I record. I already do this, but this means I have to watch the shows on my ThinkPad. I would need to check though that the TVs allow external input. There are some limitations with this enclosure though. The big limitation is that it supports only FAT32 and not NTFS format. FAT32 has a limit of 4GB file sizes. Some golf recordings could be over 4GB. To be ideal, the remote should come with 30-second skip feature to help skip through commercials. Anyway, with these limitations, I'll stick with my ThinkPad, but it is an interesting concept.

PDA/Phone wish list

It's never to early to start thinking about your next phone/PDA:

PDA:

• VGA screen
• 20GB hard drive
• USB A-B port, ability to connect to external drive
• Wireless (bluetooth, wi-fi)
• Strong enough infrared to be used as a remote
• MP3 player / Video player
  
• GPS
• Phone/Internet/E-mail
• SD card slot
• External speaker
• Battery-life
• Security
  

Phone:

• Video Camera
• 1+ Meg Cameria (3Meg would be nice)
  
• SD card slot
• Speaker phone
• Bluetooth (or UWB?)
  
• Internet/EV-DO
• E-mail
• MP3 player / video player
  
• Voice recorder
• Battery-life
• Security
  

Of course the desire is that these are in the same device.

MP3 player

I am going to get an MP3 player, partially as a voice recorder for Kyoko, so when she sees a doctor or someone, she can record what they are saying in case she needs to remember what they said. Since she only needs to record it for things which are important, that means she would never need to record me with it. Hey, wait a minute! Anyway, therefore, prerequisites for an MP3 player are:

• Voice recorder
• Light-weight
• Stylish

If possible:

• Direct line-in recording
• FM tuner
• Ability to adjust speed of recording during playback

MPIO seems to have some MP3 players which meet these criteria. There is a slight question about their quality, so I will need to confirm that before purchasing. I am interested in their PMP media player, so even though it weighs about 40 g (less than 2 oz), it can also display digital pictures and video. Amazing! However, they have another model which is also worn as a pendant. The pendant only comes in blue, orange, and purple, so I would need to figure out which color would be fit Kyoko.

Anyway, ideally, the MP3 player could also act as a storage device. There was a good article on CNET how you can use a USB flash memory device so that you can take your info from PC to PC. And ideally, this also means your mail when you are not using just a web-based mail system. This would be great if I can take all my work and Lotus Notes data from PC to PC on a USB storage device, but unfortunately, I don't think Lotus Notes would support that the data folder is in two different directories. My archives are too big to carry on a USB flash memory device.

The direct line-in recording would be ideal on my overseas flights to Japan. American Airlines plays Japan pop but they no longer provide a listing of the songs, so I have no idea what the songs are. If I could record them, then it would be a moot point.

Ooops, was this MP3 player/USB flash memory device for me or Kyoko...? Hmmmmm... Sorry Kyoko, I need this for "work". Isn't this like in the movies when a cop commandeers a civilian's car to chase some bad guys...? Yeah, this is similar, I think.

Anyway, the light-weight is necessary so that if I, I mean she, uses this for listening to music for exercising, she would almost not even be able to tell she has it. And it has to be light and small enough so that she can always take it with her.

But by the way, thinking about the number of devices one carries, it would seem to me that a phone should also be able to suffice. That is, there should be phones which play mp3 files. Plus, what would be a better recording device than a phone? And since one is always carrying around one's phone, then she would always have it with her. They should allow files to be stored on the memory card, so can they be used as storage devices? Not the phones we have, but perhaps there is one out there which can. So the phone should also theoretically allow direct line-in recording. So really, the only advantage of a mp3 player is if it is small enough to have during exercising while a phone would be bigger. Of course, having one's phone is not a bad idea either, in case there is an emergency phone call or in my case, if I am jogging around the neighborhood in 100F Dallas temperature and am not able to get back home. It hasn't happened yet, but I could've used it back in my first year of cross-country in high school, and our first day of practice was about 14 miles. There were only two of us who participated in the afternoon practice session, and there was only one of us who made it back... I'll give you a hint, it wasn't me. Fortunately, he came back for me, but I am sure I would have made it back eventually... Maybe the next day after a good night's rest on someone's lawn.

Storage could be another consideration about MP3 players vs phones since there are MP3 players with 20GB and more capacity. However, to meet the light-weight criteria, it would have to be a flash player.

Secondly, couldn't an organizer be used for the large storage MP3 player? Yes, there are only 4GB organizers now, but no reason that cannot be expanded. Anyway, it should be a high-capacity hard drive for all types of multimedia, including video plus organizer, combined with a phone, camera, digital videocamera, too. Of course, the phone should be bluetooth enabled because organizers are too bulky, and small organizers have too small of a screen. This really shouldn't be that far away, so the only thing they would need to do next is to have a nice looking bluetooth headset. The current ones are too geeky looking. Not that there is anything wrong with being geeky-looking, but hey...

Golf simulator (Who wouldn't want one?)

Here are some links related to QMotions.

This is sort of the right idea for an inexpensive golf simulator--have something which can provide input into one of the golf video games.

However, QMotions itself is not quite right yet.

http://www.utahgolf.net/product21.html
http://mentalramblings.net/blog/archives/qmotions2.wmv
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/566/566348/vids_1.html

Golf cart

I tried to find the golf pull cart company I saw at the golf store in Vienna. I thought it was something like Golf Caddie and that it was based in Canada, but I could not find anything like that.

While surfing though, I saw a nice push cart by Club Glove. This may be a good cart to have. In addition, I saw that there is a fairly nice motorized cart found at http://www.hillbillyusa.com, so that is a consideration. However, the remote model seems a bit pricey and does not look as nice. I'll have to continue looking.