Back to you (Sony Ericsson T200)

It's already a week now without my HTC Touch Viva, I returned it for repair since it lost it's Camera function for no known reason.  That is why I resorted to using my old phone, the Sony Ericsson T200.  It was the first of it's kind (I think) back then when Ericsson and Sony merged to have a multi-purpose, multi-functional phone.  It was launched years back when Globe Telecom offered free mobile internet through GPRS service.  It's still in black and white LCD but has a better resolution compared to it's Nokia colleagues.  And just like my other devices it was used appropriately to its full functionality.  The good thing about free internet is that you can have it anywhere, anytime.

After using it again for a week it seems that it got me closer to my love ones most especially my wife.  Since Globe's GPRS service is no longe free then it left me with one of the basic functions of Philippine mobile phones, the SMS message.  I always text my wife to ask how she is and tells her what's on my mind.  Good thing I'm now a SUN Cellular subscriber I don't have to worry about diminishing load.  This made me think that the leaving you empty handed in functionality makes you more closer to your family.

Sony DSC-H5 Subic Pictures

Last week me and my family went to Subic for a vacation and I had a chance to borrow my Dad's Sony DSC-H5 to take some amazing pictures of the flying dolphins and the crouching tigers.  He bought it a couple of years ago somewhere in Hong Kong.  It is not an SLR camera but it did captured amazing shots since it has a 12x optical zoom to take a closer look at distant subjects.  And thinking that this is a H series then I believed that it is easy to operate and quite heavy on features.  It already has a built-in flash so you don't have to carry a separate one.  Below are the sample amateur pictures that I took.

Thanks to it's Super Steady Shot Optical Image Stabilization shot mode I have no hard time capturing those fast subjects.  Animals tend to move fast so you need a fast shutter and a lens that allows more light to have a brighter picture.  That is why the Carl-Zeiss lens is a superb main component in this digicam.  I just set the settings to Auto Mode since I have no time to browse it's built-in scene modes and I do not have the user manual with me.  Amazingly everything went fine and I felt like I'm holding a P200+ high quality camera after reviewing the pictures that I took on it's 3 inch LCD.  Some shots were taken with less than the maximum pixel rating of 7.2Mega Pixels to utilize Sony's Smart Zoom function.  Sony's digital zoom is the only digital zoom that I know that do not distort pictures compared to other digicams.  This camera is an entry level camera for those who knows nothing about taking pictures.  For me, this is the best camera that I got hold of.

For a complete review and full specifications of this camera visit the link below.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-reviews/sony/dsc-h5/sony-dsc-h5-review.html

Vista Slowly but Slower

Recently my friend asked me to copy some action movies into his Sony Vaio VGN-P688E, the one that I have reviewed a month ago.  I told in my review that Sony has just won the Vista lottery, but now I retract my statement.  After a month of usage Vista seems to degrade in performance.  Maybe because of the anti-virus that was installed and other connectivity managers like Nokia's PC Suite.  But despite these, I haven't experienced this type of slow down on XP or in Windows 7.  I also had another friend who is also a Vista user and attests on my comments about Vista.  It seems that Vista is Microsoft's Black Sheep and this one's not doing what it's parents are telling it to do.

Vista is a no-no for me from the moment that it was launched and I guess that will never change.  I just hope that Windows 7 will not exhibit the same thing when installed in netbooks.

High Definition - My Way

It's a good thing to have a PC around.  The almost all purpose device that we unconsciously use at work and at home.  Last night I just watched a movie in High Definition using my Asus A8He Laptop PC but instead of using the laptop's built-in LCD monitor I used the LG 42LC4R LCD TV instead.  And guess what?  The result is Spectacular! I say goodbye to the dream of having a costly Blu-ray Player since I already have my multimedia power house. The audio is fed into my CD-R King FM Modulator and into our Sony Stereo set. Not only you have a full detailed movie you also get a bass rich sound experience.

The LG 42LC4R displays rich colors and deep black content.  It has a contrast ratio of 8000:1 which is already good compared to other brands with the same dimensions.  It has a standard aspect ratio of 16:9 and with the dimensions 685.5 x 1032.7 x 88.5 mm.  It's color is piano black and is quite attractive and elegantly presentable.  I removed the stand since it came with a free wall bracked plus a free installation.  The wall bracket can enable the TV to tilt up or down but not sideways.  Maybe its because of it's viewing angle of 178 degrees since it already uses the S-IPS technology.  Refresh rate is 5ms which makes this fair enough to use for gaming.  With it's 1366 x 768 resolution this is comparable to its smaller brother LG W1642S which was posted just recently but this one has a brightness of 450cd/m2 and obviously weights heavier at 20kg.  Another thing that made it stand out is LG's 2007 XD Engine with 3D comb filtering.  It is 1080p ready but have'nt tried using it through the HDMI interface since I don't have a player with it yet.  Aside from the two HDMI inputs it also have S-video, VGA, Composite video, and Component video inputs.  As for the meantime I am using the VGA input so what appears on my Laptop screen has exactly the same resolution on the LG TV.  This makes this TV panel as my second monitor. 

This TV set introduced me the beauty of High Definition movies by playing MKV movie files using KM Player software.  But like other 42 inch LCD panels this one costs pretty high but not higher compared to other brands.  Good thing that the LG 42LC4R was given by someone who have much to spare.

LG W1642S LCD Monitor Review

Just bought a new LG W1642S LCD Monitor today in PC Home in Market-Market Taguig.  This will be used on our old Pentium II 233MHz PC that was bought way back in 1997.  I have revived the old fella since our Internet Shop is running out of workstations.  It will be used as a server to run the Cafe Manager Software that I acquired last month.  I just hope that it will last longer since it's past beyond its lifetime.  And if it will die on me then I am forced to buy another workstation to accommodate our increasing number of customers.

This monitor is not the best monitor available in the market.  The main reason that I chose it is because it's one of the cheapest and it is being offered for 0% interest for 6 months.  So it won't be a big bang on the budget.  Another thing is that it has lower ampere rating compared to other brands which made me think that it will consume lesser power even though I did not brought a power meter with me.  Among other choices are AOC and Acer but I chose it because of it's brand.  No offense to Acer and AOC but I already bought 10 of these LG's before and so far I have no problem with them.  I oftentimes opt for products that I have already tried and am afraid to try new ones thinking that I can't afford to do a trial runs.  Aside from this is that our LCD TV is also from LG.  That gets me to think that LG should reward me for being loyal to them.  Anyway, the LCD Monitor that I bought has only a resolution of 1366x768 which makes it a widescreen and it's diagonal size is approximately 15.6".  It's pixel size is 0.252mm with a contrast ration of 5000:1.

It is not ideal for gaming but after trying Special Force and Crazy Kart on these LCD's it gives you decent enough resolution to throw a flashbang and making sharp turns.  It is quite good when it comes to Internet Surfing but it would be better if it had a taller headroom.  Good thing that it does not have one of those glossy screen like the ones installed in cheap laptops so you won't see yourself when the gaming scene is pitch black.  One annoying thing is the power button which has a blue glowing LCD when the status is on. Although you loose to notice it after some time on using it.  The LCD turns orange when the PC is turned off or if the panel is not receiving any input signal.

So far so good, this LCD is worth the buy and is one of the cheapest available. But if you have more money to spare then better get yourself a bigger screen.