First, they conquered the world of mobile music players. Now, they got digital photo albums. What will be the next? PMP?
Apple has announced iPod Photo, which has a 65-k colour screen. There will be 2 versions: 40GB and 60GB. It will synchronise with iPhoto in MacOSX and Photoshop Album or My Pictures folder in MS Windows.
I guess the battle turns more difficult for other manufacturers like iRiver.
上星期五買了一部硬碟型的 MP3 播放機 iRiver H340。
自從蘋果的 iPod 推出了第四代，就已經想買一部。可是 iPod 最不方便的地方是必須使用蘋果的 iTunes 軟件來傳送 MP3。而且 iPod 隨機附送的配件有限，很多功能 ( 例如收音機 ) 都需要購買配件才能使用。所以就算 iPod 很有型，也不是個好選擇。
相對起來，iRiver 就有很多配件附上，例如外置咪、外置電箱，都是實用的附件，還有耳筒是 Sennheiser 的 MX400，音質實在不錯 ( 我對這方面的要求倒也不高 ) 。除了基本的 MP3 播放 ( 支援 ogg、wmv、asf 等格式 ) 、收音機和錄音外，還可以作為電子相簿，以它 40 GB 的容量，旅行時可以大派用場。
玩了一個週末，還有一些功能未試過 (USB host)。而且存進去的 MP3 還不是太多 ( 只有 3 GB 多 )。將我所有的 CD 都放進去後，就可以聽以往很少聽的歌。
今晚剛買了 DVD 錄影機，是 ACL 的 ACL-RW+8。它只支援 DVD+R 或 DVD+RW 格式。回到家裏，只用了 3 分鐘就接駁好，再用 5 分鐘調教好頻道，立即放了空白的 DVD+R 進去，錄影《棟篤神探》的第一集。
操作介面很簡易，由於是廉價的型號，沒有複雜的功能 ( 連錄影麗音的第二聲道也不可以，不過倒可用 firewire 連接 DV ) 。我選擇了延長模式 ( 即一隻 4.7GB 的 DVD 可錄製 4 小時的節目 ) 來錄影，畫面的質素不太好，就像用傳統錄影帶那般，可是錄製電視劇，這個模式也勉強可以接受。
其實買 DVD 錄影機的主要原因，是我爸四處去旅行拍下不少 DV 不知怎樣處理，等我替他轉錄去 DVD。用 DVD 錄影機，應該比用電腦 DVD 燒錄器方便吧。
I bought a Sharp GX series mobile phone again, a GX-32. This new phone was put on the market by Smartone on Tuesday. I missed the first shipment and got the phone on Wednesday. Quite a lot of people are interested in this phone, and the waiting list is long at every Smartone outlet.
The most fascinating feature of GX-32 is the built-in one mega-pixel CCD camera. The largest dimension of picture it can take is 858 x 1144. The camera also features digital zoom (7 levels for the smallest-size photo) and adjustable shutter. The camera can also be used to take videoes for length of one minute or less (I have not tried this function so I am not sure about the limitation).
GX-32 also has MP3 replay capability, with some limitations. In the manual, it is stated that the player only supports 128-bit sampling rate, non-VBR MP3 songs. Users reported that they can play 192-bit songs. Others said that Chinese song names cannot be displayed (a solution has been provided: just delete the id3 tag in the MP3 by using software like Winamp). I read these reports and applied the solutions, so none of these problems have happened to me. The problem I did encounter is that I cannot use my Bluetooth headset to hear MP3.
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