Gillian Shaw
Sun
BlackBerry Tour 9630, Research in Motion
Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera, Fujifilm
1. BlackBerry Tour 9630, Research in Motion, $230 with Telus on three-year contract,
$600 with no contract
A global smartphone that works with Telus international roaming for those who can’t imagine leaving home without a BlackBerry. I like everything about this little globetrotter except the roaming charges — but that’s not unique to Telus. Anytime you’re using your cellphone or smartphone on your travels, make sure you know what it will cost. The Tour 9630 has a QWERTY keyboard, a one-gig memory card included, plus it has a 16-GB expandable microSD slot if you need more storage for photos, videos, music or documents. The display is 480-by-360 pixel HVGA high-resolution, all the better to see Telus’s newly introduced video on demand. In collaboration with CTV, Telus customers can access news, TV shows like South Park, MTV’s The Hills and others. Pricing is by monthly subscription or a la carte.
2. Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital camera, Fujifilm, price to be announced
This is going to make your old point-and-shoot seem so yesterday. Fujifilm has announced a new imaging system that creates 3D images that don’t require 3D glasses to view them. It’s making waves in the world of digital photography even though it’s not expected to be available in Canada until this fall. Billed as the world’s first digital camera to capture 3D stills and video, Fuijifilm’s 3D system also comes with a 3D print service for the images. The new system includes the FinePix REAL 3D W1 camera, a 3D digital viewer FinePix REAL 3D V1, and the 3D prints. The viewer has an eight-inch LCD panel that lets you slide in a SD memory card to display 3D images — no special specs required.
3. Split Stick, Quirky Community, $20 US
Quirky indeed. A new take on crowd sourcing, quirky.com recently launched as a means of engaging a community of participants in the creation of new products. Quirky members submit ideas that are rated by the community, with popular consensus deciding which one is worthy of moving forward to product development. That product first becomes available for pre-sale at quirky’s online store, and once it reaches a pre-sale threshold, buyers’ credit cards are billed and the product goes to production and delivery. The Split Stick is a double-sided USB drive that lets users divvy up their USB storage according to work and personal or any other filing system they choose. It is two, two-gigabyte retractable USB drives built into one four-gig stick. If you’re a fan of social networks and you want to combine that with airing your ideas for great gadgets, check out www.quirky.com.
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