Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Photographs, by definition, capture and immortalize a small slice of life. There is little for the viewer to infer what happens before or after that moment. However, there are images that need to communicate motion. For example, you may want to capture a dog running, a train barreling down the tracks, or trees that are blowing in the wind. Each of these scenes can come alive within your photographs if you learn how to convey motion properly. Today, I'll describe how you can use different shutter speeds and panning to capture motion in your photography. I'll also explain a potential issue you might experience along with tips to resolve it."

Motion blur photography is a fun way to experiment, and also a great way to capture beautiful images that impart motion, speed, and time. This is a great article on some of the basic steps to taking these types of images. And if you want to see how beautiful motion blur photos can be (beyond the samples on the article page), check out these 45 great examples.

This is my review video of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Dell's first step into the world of low-cost netbooks. The Mini 9 that I ordered has Windows XP, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 16 GB solid-state flash storage, 1 GB of RAM, a 4 cell battery, and an 8.9 inch at 1024 x 600 resolution. The Linux-based versions start at $349 USD, and the XP-based versions start at $399. If you get the XP-based version with every option, it's about $480 USD.

There's a lot to like about the Dell netbook, but it's not without significant shortcomings from my perspective. On the plus side, the build quality is top-notch. In fact, I'd venture to say that it's the best-built Dell notebook I've ever had my hands on. It feel very solid and durable, with a fit and finish that's light years above other netbooks. Considering how cheap most other netbooks look, you might think that's not saying much, but holding the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 in your hands just feels...good. The keyboard is a bit on the small side, but that's not unusual for a netbook with an 8.9 inch screen. Read more...

"Apparently the shroud of secrecy that surrounds Windows Live and Wave 3 doesn't extend to help files, as our friend Picturepan2 at LiveSino.net discovered as he was snooping around doing some investigative reporting. While Microsoft has maintained that FolderShare would continue on, even in the face of what seems to be redundancy with Live Mesh, those outside the company have been wondering what would become of FolderShare. FolderShare was acquired when Microsoft bought ByteTaxi in 2005, and offers file and folder synchronization between computers with a web interface component. Folder synchronization between Windows and Mac computers is possible. However it does not offer "in the cloud" storage, or work on the FeedSync RSS underpinnings that power Live Mesh (at least in its current configuration)."

Live Sync? Meh. I'm not feeling that name - FolderShare is a descriptive name that Joe Average can understand - it's something that allows you to "share folders". Sync is a geek work that has virtually no meaning in the realm of non-geeks. Names aside, what I really care about is whether or not FolderShare is going to continue to survive. As Live Mesh improves faster and faster, and FolderShare seemingly stays the same, I worry that FolderShare isn't going to be allowed to survive much longer. Of course, if Live Mesh reaches feature parity with FolderShare, it might not matter.

This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Dell's first step into the world of low-cost netbooks. The Mini 9 that I ordered has Windows XP, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 16 GB solid-state flash storage, 1 GB of RAM, a 4 cell battery, and an 8.9 inch at 1024 x 600 resolution. The Linux-based versions start at $349 USD, and the XP-based versions start at $399. If you get the XP-based version with every option, it's about $480 USD. Check out the video below, and watch for my review to follow shortly.

[click through to YouTube to watch it in higher quality]

As a side note, this is the first video I've uploaded from my new Canon HF100 HD camera - unfortunately YouTube has no option for 16:9 wide-screen videos, so you'll be seeing ugly black bars on the top and bottom. If you have a YouTube account, do me a favour: email YouTube and encourage them to offer a 16:9 player for wide-screen content. Also, rate the video and subscribe to our channel. Thanks for your support!

"Microsoft just announced the availability of a number of new and updated online applications in its Windows Live suite: Windows Live Photos, Profiles, People, and Groups. In addition, Microsoft also announced that it will allow its users to integrate content from a large number third-party services, including Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, StumbleUpon, TripIt, Twitter, and Yelp. Microsoft will begin rolling out these new services to U.S. customers in the coming weeks and expects them to be available globally in 54 countries by early 2009."

Starting to look a lot like Facebook. They are pretty wise to allow integration of third party services, but again, something Facebook already has. This is clearly going to be an uphill battle, as most people go to a social networking site that their friends are already on. Speaking from personal experience, I only started using Facebook, Twitter, and LiveJournal as a result of my friends already using them. Hopefully the competition will bring innovation. I'd like to see them possibly integrate their social networking effort with the Xbox and Zune, then we could really see a deal changer.

"We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven't really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don't know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it's not what they are used to. They don't want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks."

That's a quote from MSI's Director of Sales, Andy Tung, and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. The average consumer tends not to embrace change very well when it comes to their computing experience - many people don't conceptually understand how software works, so they rely instead on rote memory, essentially memorizing through repetition how to do things. When you change the user interface, these types of computers users tend to become easily lost and frustration ensues. Just look at the reaction to Windows Vista and Office 2007 - with the people I've spoken to, when I drill down on their complaints, at the root of them all is the same thing: things were moved, things were changed, and now they don't know how to do anything. Linux on Netbooks is a great example of this principle in action: they think they're going to like it, but when they realize how different it is from Windows XP, they're no longer so excited about their netbook and back it goes.

This is a watershed moment: in the span of several months, both NewEgg and Amazon have started selling electronics in Canada. I don't think people outside Canada understand how limited our options were for online ordering, especially as it related to having a big selection. Quit often the Best Buy and Future Shop Web sites carried the same number of products as the local stores, so there wasn't a lot to be gained from ordering online. Unfortunately, bredth of product selection is something that both NewEgg and Amazon.ca are lacking, though NewEgg is far in advance of Amazon.ca. For instance, Amazon.ca's digital camera selection consists of 20 camera models total, and not a Nikon in sight. NewEgg has 171 in comparison. I'm sure Amazon's collection will grow - I'm just glad that I have more options when it comes to buying electronics!

"Computer maker ASUS is now offering a PC in the style of Apple’s iMac: all hardware is contained within the monitor. However, the Eee Top features a touch-sensitive 15.6-inch widescreen (16:9) display, making it more akin to HP’s TouchSmart range of all-in-one computers. What’s cool about the 4.3kg computer, which incidentally is based on the technology behind ASUS’ Eee PC mini laptop, is that the display can be controlled using either the supplied stylus or your kid’s grubby fingers. ASUS has even gone to the effort to develop exclusive touch-optimised software applications. Fear not, a wired keyboard and mouse are also included, should you want the machine to last longer than a week."

This looks like another great, value-packed device from Asus. But, I wish Asus would just go ahead and rename the company Eee so at least their branding strategy would make a little more sense.

"The main thing I hate about travelling is going through airport security. You know the drill, take off your shoes, jacket, metal items in your pockets and place them in a tray. Then remove the laptop from your shoulder bag and place it in another tray. It's always a hassle once your items come out the other end of the Xray machine because you have to hurry up and gather them before you hold up the line. How would you like to make your life a little bit easier with that task? How about if you didn't have to remove your laptop? Well now you don't have to thanks to the Checkpoint Flyer laptop bag from Tom Bihn."

$220? Yikes - that's one expensive bag. I'm all for quality bags, but considering it's nylon and not leather, I'm highly dubious that this bag would be worth the money. On the other hand, in some ways you're not only paying for the bag, but for the convenience of not having to remove your laptop and other digital equipment from the bag - and for a frequent traveller, that might be worth a lot more than $220. Now if there was only some way for them to invent shoes that I didn't have to take off...

"Remember that very first time you went out with your shiny new SLR, determined to shoot some Pulitzer-worthy people shots? You know, real stuff. Candid shots of people just living their lives and doing real things completely unaware that they were on camera. It's hard. People have a sixth sense for knowing when someone's taking their photo. Especially so when you've got an SLR and a big lens pointed right at 'em. Our Super-Secret Spy Lens is the answer."

I'm not entirely sure on the ethics of something like this - taking photos of people without their permission - but I have to admire the cleverness of it. I've heard of devices like this before, but haven't purchased one. I'm somewhat tempted to buy one, because I really like candid photography, but suffer from SPS (Shy Photographer Syndrome) and can count the number of times I've asked strangers if I could take their picture (here's one example). I also wonder what it does to the quality of the image captured. Anyone used something like this before?