Canon Powershot S95, rating: 8/10

Good: Bigger lens, bigger sensor vs typical point and shoot resulting in seemingly clearer more detailed photos as well as very good low light performance.  Also, it has more background blur capability for near subjects.*  Numerous scene modes help deal with problematic focusing situations (such as those with glass) or fast moving subjects.  Fits in your pocket.  Currently less expensive than its replacement the S100.

Bad: Arguably still not as good as ‘real’ dSLR (sensor and lens still much smaller). Only 3.8x optical zoom.

* “A shallower depth of field may be desirable for portraits because it improves background blur, whereas a larger depth of field is desirable for landscape photography. This is why compact cameras struggle to produce significant background blur in portraits, while large format cameras struggle to produce adequate depth of field in landscapes.” — Cambridge in Colour

LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-160P6S

This is a really old IDE drive.  I am writing about this because it is a piece of sh*t.  I will never buy a LITE-ON drive ever again. At some point I got a firmware update for this thing which caused the drive door to never open if the drive is empty.  I was unable to revert the firmware update.  I have to force the drive open with a paper clip which doesn’t always work on first second or third tries and causes some motor to whir threateningly.  And so now I am required to always put a dummy blank disc in the drive when it is not in use.  Secondly at some point this drive lost it’s ability to read DVD media at faster than 1.4x speed.

I can hear laughter, but it’s not that funny.

T-mobile Comet aka Huawei U8150 IDEOS

Good: Android 2.2 (Voice input/dictation everywhere you use the on screen keyboard is awesome, swype less so), Android Market has lots of (free) apps, capacitive touch screen, Google integration is seemless, YouTube (flash?!) runs flawlessly, Facebook app already loaded, Aldiko reader is really great, fits easily in your pocket, Angry Birds is now supported [Mar 2, '11 version]!  Unlocked version is available at about the same price as the T-mobile prepaid one.

Bad: Small screen (2.8″ QVGA), wma format advertised as supported by built in player, but actually does not work (Update 2/11: So far I’ve found the $5 app PowerAmp is able to play wma). [I checked on android developer site and there is no native support for WMA.]  Pinch to zoom replaced by buttons (never had the feature before, so don’t care).  Seems a little slow at moments (still, not bad for a near-computer that fits in your pocket).

Comments:  The Google Voice app does work on Android, but Google Talk functionality where you can make a call using WiFi+Voip to a landline does not as far as I know.  (Google Talk instant messaging works of course.)  Maybe someone can write that app which will make the phone look like any computer where this is possible and free to US + Canada phones.  This would of course save minutes.

LG WM2050CW washing machine

Works like a charm.  Very energy and water efficient.  Need to put more clothes in mid-wash?  no problem.  Forget to set spin dry fast enough?  do second drain and spin only cycle.  Need a fast load? 20 minute cycle available.  Want to save money? get rebates from utilities and even state rebate (replacements only).

Blu-ray and 1080p

I finally had a close look at the amazingly perfect picture quality of blu-ray combined with a large full HD tv.  I think one thing that struck me unusually was that I actually felt like I missed seeing blurriness.  Now, this might seem like a rationalization — I actually have an old 720p tv with just a progressive scan dvd (480p) player — but the Blu-ray experience strangely felt more like watching tv (albeit hdtv) than a feature film.

It’s likely an entirely psychological effect.  Over time, I have associated the undistorted clarity of watching sports, dramas, documentaries, sitcoms and Jay Leno with HD television programming.  After having watched so many movies with blurry projectors and imperfect and grainy prints and slight out of focus aberrations from projection to a flat screen and wide angle lenses, and the imperfect mismatch of my dvd/tv equipment, this imperfect look is the look that I subconsciously actually associate with seeing a feature film.  Roger Ebert recently mentioned something like this in his dislike of 3-D movie experience (he says Avatar is an exception).  Part of the art of making a movie used to be having parts of the screen be out of focus and changing focus, having the entire field of view be in focus results in more work by the viewer to determine what he or she should pay attention to rather than having the director guide ones attention via this natural focusing mechanism.

I also wonder if computer effects nowadays seem to be rather too much in focus.  I.e. things that are computer generated are now rather too perfect and too clear, I think it might feel more realistic if such things were actually purposefully generated out of focus and with distortion of a wide angle ‘feature film style’ lens which I’ve read is the way Hollywood originally attempted to distinguish itself from television when color television came out (matching movies which had been in color for many years).  Now, one thing I don’t particularly like, is the Saving Private Ryan method of removing frames to increase jerkiness and old film-like quality.  Perhaps, it’s just going too far the other way.

It turns out I’m not alone in this line of thought:  http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?173099-Does-Blu-Ray-defeat-the-purpose-of-film-by-being-TOO-clear

Lenovo L215 monitor

Good:  Clear stable 21.5″ display, Full HD widescreen is great for movies or streaming video, Inexpensive

Bad:  Requires OS font size adjustments, no height adjustment, no HDMI connection, 45w operational power on the high side, contains mercury (cold cathode backlight), only 60Hz refresh

Nokia 2720 (T-mobile)

Just got this flip phone for <$50 (prepaid / no plan).  1.3MP video + still camera, stereo music player (useless because of space limitations) and headset, radio, voice recording (network independent/local files, i.e. free), bluetooth headset + file transfer, free t-zone web surfing including weather/stock quotes CNN/ESPN with reasonably fast response though still uses EDGE (T-mobile reception is a downside).   One major downside is tiny un-expandable built in memory.  You can delete some of the Nokia built in themes to free up space to take more pictures, but even then there is little more than 3MB.  There is nice huge clock display on the outside.  And since it’s a flip phone there’s no need to lock the keypad.  On the downside, Nokia has some particularly inefficient menu navigation.  What you can do with a single button press on a Samsung requires two on a Nokia.  There is however a way to set up shortcuts on the device which should make navigation to items you commonly use faster.  Overall seems a good value at that price.

Lenovo Thinkpad T400

Good: Quiet, LED backlight conserves battery power and can get very bright if conditions warrant, very useable ‘IBM’ trackpoint (easily bests the crappy HP trackpoint or any trackpad), sensible keyboard layout, crazy battery life (9 hours) with extended battery

Bad: not thin, extended battery sticks out and looks strange, extended battery is heavy, undock requires software intervention.