When I am working at night I like to turn on the keyboard backlight on my MacBook Pro. But just a single tick is bright enough for me and allows me to find the keys without any problems. The problem is that OS X wants to change the backlight brightness. And after a while the keyboard becomes too bright. I didn’t have to search too long to find what I think is the perfect solution: Lab Tick.

Lab Tick is a very small program at just 1.2MB and it is free. The simple but effective program allows you to “Prevent Mac OS X from automatically adjusting the illumination”. You simply move the blue dot up and down to modulate the brightness of the keyboard backlight (see image to the left). The icon that sits on the menu bar perfectly represents the one on the keyboard.

The only feature that I would like to see in a future release is a numeric representation of the actual brightness, say 0 to 10, so I know exactly where I want the brightness to be. I really like the simple design of Lab Tick and hope to see more from them. Source: Lab Tick

Walk into a Verizon Wireless store and you’ll need to pay $300 plus tax to walk out with a Motorola DROID smartphone. You’ll only pay $200 plus tax if you walk into a Best Buy store. But if you want to pay even less, go to Sears and you only have to pay $150 plus tax. I don’t know if you can walk in, but the online store gives you free shipping via FedEx. So if you can wait a bit and want to save $50, Sears seems to be the best bet as of now.

Olympus‘ E-P2 is the follow-on to the E-P1 that transformed the digital camera market just about six months ago. The E-P1 brought DSLR-like picture quality and performance in a body slightly larger than prosumer compact digital cameras. In addition the E-P1 featured interchangeable lenses and took excellent 720p video. The E-P2 is still billed as the world’s smallest 12.3 megapixel interchangeable lens system with in-body image stabilization (IS). The GF1 from Panasonic doesn’t have in-body IS.

Accessory Port: This port, similar to the one in Panasonic’s GF1, can be used for the optional VF-2 electronic viewfinder (EVF). The EVF provides a 1.15x magnification and a 100% field of view. It can rotate up 90 degrees. The optional external microphone adapter (EMA-1) can also be used to connect the company’s ME-51S stereo microphone or any other microphone. Whether or not the VF-2 and the EMA-1 can be used together is unknown.

Full Control: Full manual control over shutter and aperture in video mode. This feature should usher in some creative video shots from the E-P2.

Continuous Autofocus (C-AF) Tracking System: This newly-developed AF tracks the subject across or back-and-forward through the frame and works in both still picture and video modes. This will be great for taking pictures of kids that like to move about exactly when you want to take pictures of them.

Faster Lenses Please: The lenses continue to disappoint. The 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 is not fast enough for me. I would like to see f2.8. At least. The 17mm prism lens is f2.8, better, but still slow compared to the 20mm f/1.7 that comes with Panasonic’s GF1. Thankfully the MMF-1 Four Thirds System Lens Adapter allows all Olympus ZUIKO Digital Specific lenses to be used with the E-P2. If you have a large collection of ZUIKO digital lenses the MMF-1 would be a must-have if you’re considering the E-P2.

Pre-Order Now: Expected retail price is US$1099.99, a bit more than both the E-P1 and Panasonic’s GF1. Pre-order the E-P2 with 14-42mm at Amazon! The E-P2 with the 17mm lens kit and the 14-42mm kit comes with the EVF, making it competitive in price with the GF1 since the Panasonic EVF (DMW-LVF1) goes for around $200.

Source:

• “E-P2″ – Olympus
• “Olympus E-P2 officially official outside of Japan” – Akihabara News

andyi, a flickr user, describes this photo taken with an iPhone 3GS:

The apples here are red without being oversaturated. There are shadows in the corner of the box, but there are details in the shadows. The image pops with depth. An excellent shot.

The user andyi posted up some great photographs comparing Motorola’s DROID and Apple’s iPhone 3GS. As most of you know having more megapixels does not necessarily mean better pictures. But in some cases the additional detail from the extra pixels might be helpful. The DROID took a decent stab at the apples and came out with a lot of detail in the image. Hop on over to flickr to see what wasn’t so good among a whole bunch of over pictures.

“Quintessential Aspirational Product” Dell’s Adamo XPS is just 0.4-inch thick, probably the thinnest notebook with a 13.4-inch display. The Adamo XPS sports a 13.4-inch LCD with a LED backlight and a resolution of 1366 x 768. The ultra-thin notebook is powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo ULV running at 1.4GHz. Graphics? Don’t expect too much with the integrated GS45 chipset. RAM is a healthy 4GB of the DDR3 variety. Storage comes in the thin-micro SSD variety at 128GB. And finally the Adamo XPS runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Connectivity options include: WiFi AGN, Bluetooth 2.1, “location awareness” (I don’t quite know what this is), DisplayPort, USB (2).

Limited Viewing Angles: In a quick hands-on from Engadget, Ross Miller did note that the viewing angles were “somewhat restrictive”. What this tells me is that Dell did not do a good enough job where it counts the most. Most users of the Adamo XPS will be spending the majority of their time looking at the LCD and not at the chassis, no matter how nice it looks. And when I hear things like limited viewing angles on a $1799 notebook PC, I automatically think overpriced. There is a cover glass that makes the 13.4-inch LCD quite glossy.

Touch Sensitive Case Latch: Miller also noted that he was concerned about the capacitive touch case latch. You need to slide your finger across it for the Adamo XPS to unlatch. Nice idea and probably came from some smartphone requiring you to slide your finger across to unlock it. But on a notebook that has a physical opening mechanism I think it’s a waste of time. I don’t think the capacitive touch sensor will break in any way since we have mobile phones that use this technology (think original LG Chocolate) that have been on the market for several years.

2 Hours 36 Minutes: That’s all you’re going to get with the 20WHr Li-Ion battery. The optional 40WHr battery gets you 5 hours and 17 minutes but most likely it will add bulk and weight. There are dongles for VGA and HDMI. As you might have guessed there is no integrated optical drive. External optical drive options include a DVD+/-RW or Blu-ray.

In Time For The Holidays: At this time there is no official launch date but I’m guessing you should be able to get one for Christmas. And when you do get one don’t be surprised at how large and heavy the box is. If you were worried that the unusual-looking hinge placement might make computing on your lap uncomfortable, Miller states that “… it is indeed very comfortable in your lap…” He concludes by stating that the Adamo XPS “… is a quintessential aspirational product…” that people will buy for its unique form factor alone.

Source: “Dell Adamo XPS coming ‘in time for the holidays’ for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!) – Engadget

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre A70z is a 19-inch all-in-one (AIO) geared for the business crowd. Lenovo is billing the A70z to save space, time and money. A 50% space savings over a more typical monitor, tower setup is promised. Thickness is at just 2.4 inches and is designed so that it can be easily mounted. Lenovo clearly mentions that this is not Atom-powered but business class offering more powerful CPUs. Setup takes just 3 minutes. Lenovo also wants you to know that the A70z is portable: it has a handle on the back. Here are the specifications:

• Display: 19-inch TFT LCD
• Aspect Ratio: 16:10
• Resolution: 1440 x 900 (my guess)
• Webcam: Yes (optional)
• CPU: Celeron or Core 2 Duo
• Hard Disk: 500GB
• Optical: DVD Burner
• Connectivity: WiFi (optional)
• OS: Windows 7 (35-second boot time)
• Price: Starts at US$499

The price is exceptional! You are getting a full-blown all-in-one computer with a decent display for the price of an underpowered finger-crimping netbook. Video after the break.

Here’s a video that tells some interesting bits of information about the A70z in how it saves you space, time and money:

Source: “Lenovo’s all-in-one ThinkCentre gets official, becomes A70z” – Engadget

Sony Ericsson is getting into the Android bandwagon with its stunning XPERIA X10 smartphone. Sony Ericsson has done a superb job of customizing Android to make it very unique as you will see in the video. The X10 makes use of the Snapdragon CPU running at a cool 1GHz from Qualcomm and here are the rest of the specs:

• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Specifications:
• Display: 4-inch Capacitive Touch Mineral Glass TFT LCD with 16,536 colors
• Resolution: 854 x 480 (landscape), 480 x 854 (portrait)
• Camera: 8.1 megapixel with auto-focus, 16x digital zoom, face recognition, flash (photo light), geo-tagging, image stabilization, smile detection, video light, video recording
• Memory: 1GB (internal), up to 16GB microSD (external), 8GB microSD card included
• Network: GSM, GPRS, EDGE (850/900/1800/1900), UMTS/HSPA 7.2Mbps (900/1700/2100)
• Connectivity: aGPS, Bluetooth, USB, WiFi G
• Colors: Sensuous Black, Luster White
• Weight: 135.0g (4.8 oz)
• Dimensions: 119.0 x 63.0 x 13.0 mm (4.7 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches)
• Availability: First Quarter 2010

There are three videos after the break: “Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Promo” and “Speed Forge 3D Demo” and a word from Erica Kato Marcus, Head of Application Planning for the XPERIA X10.

The Speed Forge 3D demo is a bit lacking in excitement but you can see the graphics capability of the XPERIA X10 is quite solid.

TimeScape and MediaScape is quite cool. TimeScape is a single place for all social media contact and communications. MediaScape gives you quick access to music, photos and videos in a single application. These two apps combine both local and cloud information and media.

Source:

• “Xperia X10″ – Sony Ericsson
• “Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 presents creative opportunities to developers” – Sony Ericsson
• “Sony Ericsson lets XPERIA X10 videos and press shots loose” – Engadget

HP’s G60-519WM is an exclusive built specifically for Walmart. Here are the specs:

• Display: 15.6-inch BrightView TFT LCD
• Resolution: 1366 x 768
• CPU: 2.2GHz Celeron 900
• GPU: Intel GMA 4500M (integrated)
• RAM: 3GB
• Hard Drive: 250GB
• Optical: DL DVD Burner with LightScribe
• Connectivity: WiFi
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Battery: 6-cell
• Availability: November 7 (in-store only)
• Price: US$298

$298 for a decently equipped 15.6-inch notebook PC from a brand name, HP. Now that’s a pretty good deal! I personally don’t like the off-centered keyboard and would rather not have the numeric keypad for a centered keyboard. But for $298 I can forgive that awkward design. If you were thinking of purchasing an additional notebook PC, this G60-519WM should be high on your list simply because it is so affordable. And Windows 7 should run decently with these specs.

Source:

• “HP 15.6-inch Pavilion G60-519WM Entertainment Laptop PC with Intel Celeron Processor 900 & Windows 7 Home Premium” – Walmart
• “Walmart’s $300 HP G60 laptop gets real, detailed” – Engadget
• “Walmart $298 HP G60-519WM Windows 7 Notebook Details Unveiled” – I4U News

Image source: TrustedReviews

TrustedReviews to get its hands-on with Canon’s EOS-1 Mark IV DSLR at the Canon Pro Photo Solutions 09 show in at the Business Design Centre in London.

• Handling: “… impossible not to be impressed.” The EOS-1 Mark IV weighs 1.2kg (2.65-pounds) without a lens.
• LCD: “… superb…” The 3-inch LCD has 920,000 pixels with viewing angles of 170/170. The cover glass is scratch-resistant. There is even a transparent plastic layer between the LCD and the cover glass to reduce glare and internal reflection.
• 16.1 Megapixel CMOS Sensor: “The most significant improvement…” This is an APS-H sized image sensor with a 27.9 x 18.6mm dimension and a 1.3x crop factor. The image sensor works with dual DIGIC 4 image processors leading to outstanding performance: 10fps continuous shooting with full continuous autofocus for up to 121 shots.
• ISO: “… the highest sensitivity of any current digital SLR camera.” The ISO range is 100 – 12,800 and expandable to 50 – 102,400.
• Autofocus: “… extremely fast…” It has 45-points of which 39 are cross-type that are more sensitive and accurate. Lots of light, not enough light… it doesn’t matter: “… the tracking function works superbly…”
• HD Video: The video recording system uses the same one used in the EOS-5D Mark II so that means 1080p. Stereo audio is only via an optional external microphone. 720p and VGA video resolutions are supported. Full manual exposure is supported while filming.

Looks like the EOS-1 Mark IV will unsurprisingly be the most advanced DSLR in existence come December. You can pre-order the EOS-1D Mark IV from Amazon.

Source:

• “Canon EOS 1D Mk IV – Hands-on Preview” – TrustedReviews
• “Canon EOS-1D Mark IV lands for a pre-production hands-on” – Engadget

Ideum’s 100-inch multitouch table named MT-50 is part of the Space Chase Gallery at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The MT-50 has 86 viewable inches, an odd 16:5 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2304 x 800. Yes, it is 2304 x 800; I didn’t miss an extra zero somewhere. The resolution is on the low side but Ideum and the Adventure Science Center have done a fantastic job of putting together multitouch, 2304 x 800 pixels, and a lot of information about celestial objects in various wavelengths. Over 50 simultaneous touch points can be processed and that means about 25 folks using just two fingers at a time can surround the MT-50 and learn about space. Here’s a video:

Source: “Ideum’s 100-inch MT-50 multitouch table supports 50 simultaneous touch points (video)” – Engadget