Indian actress & Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra, at the Filmfare Magazine launch in Mumbai, October 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

See here the UK Commercial for the camera from Nikon, the Coolpix S6300. In the video we see the beautiful Priyanka Chopra taking pictures. The video promotes the 10 times zoom feature of the digital camera, the fact it can record Full HD video, the backside illumination CMOS, the big screen and the nice available colors of the body. The price of this compact camera is about 199 dollars.

See the HD version here: http://youtu.be/j6QZsJGjdi8?hd=1

We could see Chopra also in the commercial for the Coolpix S6200. You can see this video here:

Related articles

• Nikon announces Coolpix S9300, S6300, S4300, S3300 cameras (news.cnet.com)
• Nikon reveals Coolpix S9300 and S6300 (techradar.com)

Image via Wikipedia

We occur into this entire world, we develop, we make close friends, we look for chances and ultimately, we’ve got to component with our buddies and family members. Each and every certainly one of us is via this or will cross this route within our daily life eventually. We wish to reside people lovely and unforgettable moments again by turning back time and for this we rely on images.

Photography features a quantity of various themes and one of essentially the most frequent is really a group photograph. Group pictures would be the best recommendations of age and experience. You’ll desire to tell yourself and generations to arrive that you’ve got dwell the very best moments in daily life, so you have to decide on the very best group photographer who understands the answer towards the hurdles that comes in path of significant group photography.

Many of the normal troubles, pertaining to group photography typically entail the group not fitting into the setting from the shot and arranging people to stand in the purchase of their heights. These troubles should be obtained as problems from the picked photographer.

Probably the most crucial requisite whilst making an attempt a group shot is always to figure out every one of the details like buying an notion of the place previous to the shoot, framing of the shot, positioning of individuals and deciding on their pose.

For greatest final result the group members must be informed regarding the timing of the shot and asked to assemble a couple of minutes beforehand so that there is certainly enough time for you to set up them in a very particular purchase.

The area from the shot plays an important function because it must be in context to your concept mirrored by the group. An excellent photographer understands what the best area is for the particular kind of group. For e.g. the most effective doable location and background setting for shooting the photo of the sporting group could be their subject of play.

Photographer ought to be capable to improve the good quality with the photograph by making an attempt to get as near a shot as you can, employing a variety of tactics with out reducing any of the members.

Certainly one of the main issues in group pictures is that not everyone in the group is looking in the digicam with the exact same time. Certainly one of the best ways of overcoming this difficulty would be to take an amount of pictures in swift succession as even if the initial shot is just not as very good the successive shots may very well be greater.

In a group image, it’s the pose that is certainly most significant and even though probably the most standard pose is where tall men and women stand behind and short men and women stand in front, it is up to the photographer to experiment with other arrangements. Should the group comprises of far more than a hundred folks you much better organize for appropriate staging. There are certain photographers that have designed staging together with the school group in mind.

The timing of the shoot along with the offered light in the surroundings are a number of the other elements, which have to be taken into consideration so that you can get the most effective possible results.

Final although not the minimum, it is the photographer who must be smiling probably the most because it is really a calm and cheerful photographer that is probable to induce his topics to smile broadly, whilst they are becoming photographed.so selection of correct photographer is utmost important.

Image by no22a via Flickr

Two printers, the Canon MP560 along with the Canon MG5220, are obtainable at an extremely very low cost position, allowing home photographers to try their hand at dwelling photo printing without a lot danger or expense. The Canon MG5220 is marketed particularly as being a photo printer, with “Photo Connect” support for a variety of media cards employed especially by customer digital cameras. The Canon MP560 is branded additional as being a multifunction, all in 1 remedy for house users who need to have a solution that presents far more flexibility than the usual easy dedicated photograph printer. Both of these solutions make use of the normal Canon Pixma cartridges and each the Canon MG5220 and also the Canon MP560 possess a broad assortment of handy features like wireless printing, easy to use LCD interfaces, scanning, copying and additional.

For buyers who may well want a bit more, the Canon MX860 and Canon MX870 are offered in a somewhat greater price tag level as opposed to Canon MP560 and also the Canon MG5220. Each the Canon MX860 and Canon MX870 are focused towards buyers who want a much more well-rounded all-in-one answer moreover to photo printing. The MX 860 and 870 provide top quality, higher resolution photograph printing capability similar to the MP560 and MG5220. In addition, the Canon MX860 and the Canon MX870 present fax abilities and higher scanning measurements as two extra attributes not observed the in Canon’s decrease price offerings. Similar to the others, the Canon MX860 and the Canon MX870 can print top quality images using Canon Pixma cartridges.

Because the Do it yourself photography marketplace grows, so will the demand for cost-effective, top quality picture printing answers.

Image by familymwr via Flickr

by Dan Feildman

Related articles

• Improving Digital Photography Skills (simonhaughton.co.uk)
• A Closer Have A Look At Digital Images (pctechmojo.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Panasonic’s Lumix GX1 takes a step backwards in order to move forwards: the camera may look much like the three-generation-old Lumix GF1, but manages to squeeze both the advanced controls and feature set of the Lumix G3 into its premium-build body.

Premium build

And very premium it is too. The GX1’s aluminium chassis body is finished with metal buttons and a raised leather grip to the front (though it feels more like rubber than leather to us). We’re yet to see a better-built compact system camera.

The build is complemented by a series of external controls that make the camera all the easier to use: there are two physical function (Fn) buttons and two more “virtual” function buttons on the touchscreen LCD. Add one-touch buttons to handle AF/AE lock, display, AF/MF, movie, iA (intelligent Auto) and Q.Menu (quick menu display on-screen) and almost all settings are just a button press away.

The Q.Menu makes great use of the touchscreen feature as it’s possible to drag and drop multiple settings in or out of the menu, much like a Smartphone’s apps can be reordered to suit. Whether you chose just three or four options or multiple screens with dozens of settings – the choice is yours.

Add a built-in flash and a hotshoe and the GX1’s room for expansion makes it a different beast to the consumer-targeted GF3. A new accessory port on the GX1’s rear means a 1.44m-dot electronic viewfinder (DMV-LVF2) can be added – though the extra cost will quickly stack-up and the resolution and size isn’t as class-leading as Sony’s 2.44m-dot OLED viewfinder.

One thing is clear: the ‘X’ series will be for more demanding users where physical controls and room for expansion are a must, compared to the ‘F’ series’ point-and-shoot style.

Keeping focus

Panasonic’s eye is on the ball when it comes to autofocus. Not only is the “lightspeed” autofocus system of the G3 ported over to the GX1 it’s even been improved to obtain focus in under 0.1sec. The GX1’s the variety and ability of focusing modes are also the best of any Lumix G camera yet.

In addition to the 23-area auto, face detection and subject tracking modes, there are two user-controlled options in the form of 1-area and pinpoint. Both work on the premise of positioning the focus area anywhere around the screen. There are no restrictions – the very edges of the frame are accessible – to obtain a more precise focus. Pinpoint goes one step further by zooming in on the image to actual size prior to capture to ensure the exact area is in focus – perfect for keeping eyes in focus in portraits or intricate flowers accurately focused in macro mode. And, of course, this is where the touchscreen comes into its own: the ability to press onto the screen itself makes adjusting a focus point’s position not only far quicker but far more accurate too.

Unlike previous G-series models the GX1 adds a new AFF (flexible) mode to its usual AFS (single), AFC (continuous) and MF (manual) focus options. In a nutshell AFF is halfway AFS and halfway AFC – though the camera will only continuously focus if the degree of subject movement prompts the camera to ‘think’ intelligently about maintaining focus.

The 1080i HD movie mode also reaps the benefits of the GX1’s capable autofocus. Continuous focus glides between focal lengths with ease and the accurate focus rarely drifts beyond the necessary focal point. However it is a shame to not see 1080p capture and as there’s no microphone input the in-built stereo microphone is the only way to record audio. Although the GX1 isn’t designed to be a movie-only camera, these shortcomings see competitors offer better moving-image capture.

Image Quality

The GX1’s 16-megapixel sensor is the very same as that found in the Lumix G3, though small tweaks provide the GX1 with an extra stop of high ISO sensitivity, ranging from ISO 160 through to ISO 12,800 at full resolution.

Image quality doesn’t differ between the two cameras otherwise, resulting in good quality images from ISO 100-800 that are still usable from ISO 1600-3200, though the ISO 6400-12,800 settings do suffer from muted colours, softness and excess noise.

Stick to the lower ISO settings as the GX1 delivers impressive image quality. It may not quite outsmart a larger-sensor DSLR, but then the smaller size of the Micro Four Thirds sensor means both a smaller build and selection of smaller lenses.

Power zoom

Among the variety of GX1 kit options is a new 14-42mm power zoom lens. This small lens extends to full size only when the camera is turned on and doesn’t use a zoom or focus ring – instead two small toggles to the side of the lens make it feel more like controlling a compact camera.

This one’s a bit of a Marmite deal: you’ll either love it or hate it. Traditionalists may feel the design is ill-suited, the toggle zoom is slooow, plus the additional ?150 price premium does make the ?758 kit expensive. The standard 14-42mm kit is a more reasonable ?599. Of course the smaller size of the power zoom is its biggest plus point. As we Brits like to say, “horses for courses”?as far as that’s concerned.

Verdict:

What’s not to like about the GX1? It looks wonderful, its build is superb and the layout and controls are fault-free. Autofocus is very impressive, the variety of focus options are capable and the image quality, while not the very best a compact system camera has to offer, is still pretty darn good. Besides, the image quality reflects the smaller size of the system and is a good balance between system size and final image quality.

Add the power zoom lens, however, and the ?758 asking price does mean the camera is a little pricey. There are cheaper compact system options out there, but none are as well-built or effortless to use. The GX1 is one of those excellent tools that just lets you get on with taking pictures.

Panasonic Lumix GX1 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:05:41 +0000

Related articles

• Panasonic Lumix GX1 with X-series lens appears in leaked photos (slashgear.com)
• Panasonic announces GX1 firmware update (techradar.com)
• Hands-on with the Panasonic Lumix GX1 (digitaltrends.com)
• Hands on: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 (techradar.com)
• Hands-on review: Panasonic Lumix GX1 (stuffmideast.com)
• Panasonic Lumix GX1 First Photos Leaked (geeky-gadgets.com)

With all new Apple laptops comes a new port – Thunderbolt. It promises to deliver super-fast transfer speeds to Thunderbolt drives or devices, so getting a file from A to B isn’t something that takes you longer than getting across town on a Friday night in rush hour.

So can the super-fast, super-expensive Little Big Disk solve your storage needs?

Design

It’s called the Little Big Disk because it is just that – an oxymoron – Big in file size, small in actual size – geddit? Anyway, random naming jokes aside, the small drive measures 85×40x145mm in size and weighs 650g. That’s surprisingly heavy for the size of the box, and that’s most likely down to the fact that it is made of metal. The metal is clever though, its ribbed design acts as a heatsink to save firing-up the internal fan constantly.

The front of the unit features the only button on the drive, and it just so happens that it glows blue when on. We suspect blue was chosen because red would remind you of HAL9000 and give you the hebegebies.

Memories of the scene “What are you doing Dave…” who echo in your mind every time you went to delete a file. Frightening.

Back to the design of the Big Little Disk and the back of the hard drive casing features the power socket, and two Thunderbolt ports. Frustratingly there are no other interfaces like Firewire or USB and that means that if you’ve not got a Thunderbolt port on your computer you’re stuffed.

While that might seem like a stupid statement on a drive clearly advertised as designed for Thunderbolt, it means that if you want to plug your drive into your colleagues computer you had better hope they had upgraded to a brand new Mac.

Thunderbolt and the daisy chain

Thunderbolt technology was initially developed by Intel and originally called LightPeak. You can have up to six Thunderbolt devices connected to each other in a big daisy chain. That can be six hard drives, a couple of monitors (depending on which Mac you have), or a combination of the two.

While we weren’t able to test the system with multiple Thunderbolt hard drives, we were able to test it with a standard monitor with a DVI to DisplayPort adapter. While our MacBook Air took a few seconds to recognise the connection, it works as it should.?

Performance

While the Big Little Disk looks pretty, we aren’t too fussed about looks here. We want performance, and the knowledge that the drive is going to perform.

Rather than opt for a standard hard disk drive giving you a 1TB of data, here you get two 120GB SSD drives that work together to deliver 240GB of storage. That will either be on-par with the hard drive in your computer – if you are a MacBook Air user – or faster, if you are a MacBook Pro user who hasn’t upgraded to an SSD already.

For testing purposes we used a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 MacBook Air with 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM running the latest build of Mac OS X – version 10.7.2.

LaCie promises average data transfer rates of around 480MB a second and we easily achieved this. It took us under five seconds to transfer a 1.45GB file from the MacBook Air SSD drive to the Little Big Disk. On the return it took six seconds.

Transferring a 43.71GB iTunes folder with 8008 files took us 3 minutes 16 seconds. That’s damn fast.

Our final test was to see how quickly we could create a Time Machine image of our system with the drive connected. The system backed up our 143.73GB image with almost 1m files in 57 minutes.

Software

In the box you’ll get a handful of LaCie utilities including Intego and LaCie’s own Backup Software even though the drive is Time Machine compatible. MacBook Air users be warned this comes on a CD.

Verdict:

There is no doubting the speed capabilities of the Little Big Disk. File transfer whether it is a single file or multiple files are fast. Thunderbolt certainly lives up to its claims.

On the design front, the Little Big Disk is small, stylish, and will look good on your desk, although we did notice some light leakage from the power light at the side of the device. Something we didn’t expect on a device this highly-designed.

So what’s the catch? Well the small drive isn’t very portable. The accompanying power pack is still pretty large, and there aren’t any other transfer options as a backup.?Then there’s the price. In the UK it’s ?750 ($899 in the US) and that’s a hefty prize for something that will expand your storage, especially if you aren’t too fussed about the speed.?Laughably, you don’t even get a Thunderbolt cable for that price.

If the price or portability isn’t an issue, then this this is certainly the best way to expand your Mac with a drive that will be as fast, if not faster, than your current internal offering. Just make sure you know how you’re going to use those blistering transfer speeds, because if it is just to store your MP3 collection this new super fast tech will be wasted on you.

?

Tags:
Hardware Hard drives Storage LaCie Lacie Little Big Disk

LaCie Little Big Disk – Thunderbolt Series originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

You’ve eaten too much, you’re feeling rather fat, and you need to do something about it. In steps Fitbit Ultra promises to track your movement before displaying it all on the accompanying website for you to digest.

So can something so simple really help you shave off the pounds? Or is it a device you buy during the madness of new year resolutions, and stop using two weeks in to January? To find out, we lived with the Fitbit Ultra for almost a month.

Design

The Fitbit Ultra is,?essentially?a high-tech digital pedometer in a small matte black clip. It’s really tiny, with dimensions of just 55×19.5×14mm and it weighs a?minuscule?11.34g. The idea is, it can be slipped into your pocket or, more likely, worn on your waist. For women Fitbit recommends you place it on your bra in between your cleavage, the idea is, to keep it central where it can be most accurate.

The device itself has a small OLED display that lights up when the single button is pressed. It allows you to scroll through the data from the device itself, but that’s just one way to see how you’ve been getting on.

In Pocket-lint’s case we’ve been wearing our Fitbit Ultra on our waist, underneath our belt. It’s small enough to not to bother you, and light enough for us to have actually forgotten that we were wearing it at times.

That has its pros and cons. On the plus side you aren’t going to notice it, and that’s a good thing. On the down side, we found is?diminutive?size meant we forgot about it occasionally when switching trousers either at the end of the day, or when going for a run.

On the go data

While most of the data that you collect is best viewed online at Fitbit.com, you will be able to view some of the data on-the-go, via the device.

That list includes steps, distance covered that day, floors climbed, calories, a clock, something to encourage you (i.e. make you laugh), and a flower that grows the more exercise you do.

It’s quick, at-a-glance stuff that lets you know how much you are walking, and it is surprising how quickly you can notch up a mile, just mopping around the house. The Fitbit has a battery that can sustain it for as long as a week too, which means you can collect plenty of data before recharging.?

Syncing

There are two ways to sync the device. You can either plug into the included docking station, when it comes to charge it, or just walk somewhere near the cradle when it is plugged into your computer. The Fitbit Tracker syncs wirelessly to the base station (included) using 2.4 GHz radio transmitter. That’s a lot easier than faffing with Bluetooth and a lot less power consumption too.

Sync occurs automatically, anytime your Tracker is within about 15 feet of any base station, and relatively motionless. The base station plugs into your Mac or PC’s USB port and your computer just needs to be switched on for it to happen.?It certainly makes the syncing process a lot easier.

Sleep time

If you aren’t walking here, there, and everywhere, Fitbit Ultra can also track your sleep, as long as you are prepared to wear it on your arm.

There’s a Velcro strap in the box and it’s pretty uncomfortable. The system works by monitoring when you are still, and therefore asleep. In practice we found it not only uncomfortable to wear, but also rather pointless. ?

Fitbit.com

So you’ve got the bug, you’ve decided to wear the Fitbit Ultra all the time, but what data to you get? The accompanying website lets you view and manage the data you are collecting.

In a move to “gamify” your exercise you will get to earn badges, medals, and virtual awards. These come in the guise of goals that you have to complete and doing so gets you pat on the back.?As default you get a challenge to walk 70,000 steps a week, walk 35 miles, or climb 70 floors.

?

The game element is?enhanced further with the ability to?add your friends who are also using fitbit and see how you are fairing on a shared leaderboard. And there’s nothing like the knowledge of your mate beating you to spur you on.

Aside from the gaming side, the website is a fully comprehensive affair.?You’ll get graphs on your steps, your distance, the floors you’ve climbed – it actually includes any time your altitude increases – and if you want to take it further: your weight. You have to enter that manually, along with the time you’ve slept, if you wear it in bed.

The whole site is incredibly easy to manage and incredibly easy to understand and use with plenty of ways to visualise the data to let you make the most of it.

Giving you more

While the Fitbit Ultra gives you walking stats and the like, there is also a focus on getting you to change your entire lifestyle to make it “fitter” all around.

That means that whilst the device won’t track what you eat, or your weight, the site encourages you to track that information yourself and enter it online.

That means it can give you better overall stats, and help you achieve your ultimate goals. But it will require a lot more work on your part.

Food tracking is easy or hard depending on what you eat. If you’re a “make your own food at home” kinda-person, tracking calories can be a real pain. If you eat ready meals with all that data on the back – not a great idea – then it is easy as pie.?Sadly we are of the former of the two, and we don’t own a set of scales either.

We do however use Runkeeper.com, and the you can connect the two services together to have your data from the Fitbit Ultra pumped into the running website.

Walking more

Very much like one of those electric meters that have been all the rage of late, showing you how you use the electricity in your house, Fitbit Ultra does the same. Whether or not that means you are going to walk more, or take the stairs more, is up to you. We haven’t found ourselves opting for the stairs because of the Fitbit Ultra, however we have found it interesting to see how much we’ve been walking and how much exercise we are doing without realising it.

Verdict:

The Fitbit Ultra is a fantastic low-effort way of tracking your movements and exercise you do on a daily basis.

What you do with that information will determine whether you’ll find the Fitbit Ultra amazing or a complete waste of time.

If you know that you are an active person already, then you probably don’t need the Fitbit Ultra. If, however, you are on the cusp of changing your lifestyle, and getting up off the sofa, then this could just be the kickstart you need.

Tags:
Sports Fitness Sports Fitness equipment Fitbit Fitbit Ultra

Fitbit Ultra originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:29:26 +0000

We all like noise when it comes to headphones. But only the noise coming out of our earbuds, we’ve no time for ghastly outside noise such as traffic, noisy commuters and helpful people shouting at us when we’re about to walk into a lamp-post.

So, to keep the peace, we thought it best we took the Sony MDR-NC13 noise cancelling headphones for a spin. Noise cancelling tech is becoming ever more common, with advances in technology meaning that the feature is often available in smaller in-ear buds, rather than just over the head cans, and at a price that isn’t going to break the bank.

The NC13s tick both of these boxes coming in at a price that shouldn’t top ?45 online (despite their ?82 RRP).

The noise-cancelling tech works by sensing outside noise using tiny, built-in microphones, positioned on the earpieces, and sending out an “equal-but-opposite cancelling signal”, effectively blocking continuous noise. Sony claims it will cut outside nonsense down by 87 per cent.

Design and Practicalities

“Fugly” would probably be too harsh a word to describe the NC13’s look. So we’ll go with “different” instead. But, as Pocket-lint’s teachers and parents always told us when we were growing up, different is good. The difference, at least in terms of comparisons with other in-ear buds, comes by the way of the rather obvious housing for the 13.5mm driver unit behind the buds themselves.

Their size and positioning give the impression that the buds may be uncomfortable and heavy and, whilst they’re certainly bigger than your average in-ear setup, there’s no noticeable strain whilst they are stuffed in your lug-holes and, with the three different sized bud options included, you’re bound to find a decent, if not perfect, fit.

You will need to make use of the clip on the back of the noise cancelling engine room though, as this part is rather bulky and will weigh down the (rather long, it has to be said) chord. It’s where the AAA battery that powers the technology is housed. It also contains an on/off button and a red LED light which should help you to remember to turn it off. The battery life is said to be up to 100 hours and we won’t argue with that. We’ve accidentally left it switched on overnight a couple of times and it is still good to go the next day.

Sound Quality

Good, but not spectacular. But these are not designed with audiophiles in mind. We tested the NC13s on an iPhone – and fiddled about with the EQ to get the desired result – directly into a laptop running 320kbps streams from Spotify and finally, plugged into an amp playing back a lossless audio file.

Bass is deep and not too shaky, the mids and trebles really come through when they need to and there is a definite warmth to the sound through the earpieces that defy their size. Once you get the EQ setting right that is.

Noise Cancelling

The noise cancelling tech on-board the NC13 earphones isn’t the greatest that we’ve come across, but at ?45 or less, it certainly does the job. It doesn’t cut out background chatter, loud traffic or the like too well, but then that that’s not really its job. It is tasked with making ambient, consistent noises more tolerable and, tested against the hum of a modern electric train and the annoying whir of a desktop PC, we have to say they worked with aplomb.

However, having the noise cancelling switched on does come with a slight cost – in that some loudness and warmness is emitted from your tunes. It’s not massively noticeable and, after a few seconds you’ll probably forget, but a slight drop in quality is definitely there – so we thought it best to warn you.

Verdict:

The Sony NC13 earphones are a good, mid-level option that offers some, if not comprehensive, noise-cancelling and a decent sound performance. Also, you don’t have to worry about the buds running out of juice as you can use them as regular ‘phones without the microphones in operation.

The design is not the NC13’s strong point, the ear buds themselves look rather bulky and the control box is pretty hefty considering it has no mic or remote options – just a power button for the noise cancelling.

But again, we have to come back to the price and at less than ?45 you can’t really go wrong. Although there are plenty of earphones in the same price region, some with a slightly better sound but no noise-cancelling tech, so be sure to asses whether the hum of an aeroplane or your office’s air conditioning is really that much of a burden to you first.

Tags:
Headphones Sony Sony NC-13

Sony NC13 noise cancelling headphones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Back in October, Pure, the radio specialist, officially announced Pure Music; a streaming service that sees it going head-to-head with Spotify. Although you won’t hear a Pure employee mention the S word, the similarities are obvious and it is impossible not to compare the two. Pure, however is keen to stress that its music streaming platform is built for an already existing ecosystem. That ecosystem is, of course, the numerous internet radio devices that bear the Pure name, as well as its online “Lounge” portal and its mobile app offerings too.

Building on the success of last year’s FlowSongs platform, Pure Music has again teamed-up with 7Digital to offer access to its extensive catalogue, but this time around it doesn’t require users to pay for individual downloads.

For ?4.99 a month Pure Music offers unlimited streaming across multiple devices. There’s a web-based player on the Lounge website, mobile apps (iOS available now, Android coming soon) and, of course, the service is available on all eight of the company’s internet connected radios.

One differentiating factor from Spotify is the tagging service, introduced with FlowSongs. This means that when listening to the radio, if you hear a tune you like, you can tag it and then explore the artist and stream their music. It worked well FlowSongs too, which scored a very respectable 8/10 in our review. The tagging service works almost flawlessly, which isn’t surprising as it’s all Shazam-powered and, with Pure Music, makes for an easy playlist creating tool.

The streaming service works on 3G and Wi-Fi and there are no limits to the amount of devices that you can hook-up to your account. Pure will be monitoring IP addresses though, so you won’t be able to share an account with your buddies.

The main event – the desktop player

Looks-wise, the web player looks a bit like Spotify’s paler cousin; with a white and grey theme going on. All of the usual ingredients are there, like playlists, recommendations, the ability to share tracks via social networks, email and so on.

In terms of navigating around the client, you’re looking at the same point and click based fun that you’re probably already accustomed to with the wealth of music players out there now. If you see an artist name that you like click it, and you’ll get top tracks, singles, albums and so on. There are recommendation tools on-board too, for similar artists and genres. There’s artwork where available and where not, a silhouette of a band looking suspiciously like Oasis. No bios as of yet, but hey – there’s always Wikipedia for that type of nonsense.

The front page has a few banners and tiles trying to lure you into certain sections: top tracks of the year, Christmas songs, movie soundtracks, highlighted albums and so forth, and there’s also sections for best selling artists and personal recommendations. From within these sections you are still afforded the usual array of options, such as adding tunes to playlists, sharing them or, if available, buying them. Once a song is purchased, or even just added to a playlist – you’ll be able to access these on your Pure devices and apps.

There’s nothing new about Pure Music’s UI and nothing too revolutionary about what’s on offer. But it does the job and is a decent standalone browser-based music player which, essentially, works well as a slave to get the tunes you want on your Pure radios and via apps.

The Music

Of the 15 million songs available on the 7Digital-provided catalogue, Pure states that “the vast majority” are streamable and that licensing deals will extend the offerings over time. We didn’t have many issues in not being able to find artists that we wanted; we did a test of around 50 artists from a wide genre and time-frame and the majority were all present and correct. However, we must stress here that we’ve been testing a preview version of the platform and the availability of songs to stream, download or both may differ when Pure Music goes live.

For now, the songs are purchased as DRM-free MP3s encoded at 320kbps that you can move to any computer or MP3 player, and 128kbps MP3 files for streaming. The platform is set to evolve though; we’re told that a lossless format will arrive along with launches in more countries – for now it’s UK-only.

On Pure radios and the apps

If you’ve got a Pure radio this is where the fun starts. Because, as well as the old FlowSongs tagging service, and the playback of songs that you’ve paid for – you can now access Pure Music so long as you cough up your monthly fee.

Yes, it’s clunky as hell trying to find anyone using a Pure radio’s control options (even on the touchscreen of the Pure Sensia) but if you’ve already created playlists using the desktop client then you’re away.

The mobile apps (iPhone tested) work in much the same way, although it is much easier to find artists, albums and particular tracks obviously. AirPlay worked without an issue as well, although there’s no caching, as per Spotify’s app, so you’ll always need a data connection to stream your music.

Verdict:

It’s impossible not to compare Pure Music to Spotify. As much as the company wishes that we wouldn’t, and, as such, it’s impossible not to mark the digital radio specialist’s effort down a touch on the few aspects where it falls a bit short.

Pure Music isn’t solely a music streaming service, but that’s certainly a large part of it, and as such, it would be nice to see the streams at a better quality than 128kpbs MP3s. Spotify, as a comparison, uses the Ogg Vorbis format for streaming at three quality ratings; q3 (96 kbps), q5 (160 kbps) and q9 (320 kbps) with the top level available for Premium users. As mentioned, there is talk that the quality of the platform’s streams would improve over time and we hope this is the case.

The next aspect where the service falls a bit short of its Scandinavian rival is the usability of desktop client. Sure, Pure Music’s web based platform is easy enough to use, but the fact that it’s web browser-based does mean it comes with certain limitations. You can’t carry on streaming a song, for example, and browse for more tunes without the song being cut mid-flow as the page refreshes – although there is a pop-out player to work around this. And if your browser crashes thanks to another rogue tab, it can bring down the whole show.

However, those slight faults shouldn’t take away from what is a brilliant service, especially if you’re already using Pure’s internet radios. The ecosystem, and the fact that you can access and stream tracks on any of your Pure web-connected devices and apps, means that, for half the price you pay for your Spotify subscription, you’re getting incredible value for money. Searching for artists and tracks using your Pure radio’s interface and controls may be a painful affair, but the fact that you can chuck over playlists from your browser and access your tagged and purchased tracks instantly means that you never really have to do this anyway.

Pure Music definitely has a whiff of “work in progress” about it, but it’s still a fantastic platform that will perhaps appeal to first-time streamers, especially those already on-board the Pure bandwagon, rather than tempting existing Spotify fanatics.

Pure Music is due to go live before 2011 is finished, we’d thoroughly recommend that you take it for a spin.

Tags:
Software music apps Music streaming Pure Pure Music

Pure Music originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Get ready with those new year resolutions. If one of them is going to include trying for a fitter, healthier you in 2012, Jawbone is here to help. Jawbone is best known as the maker of excellent Bluetooth headsets and a great portable speaker, the Jambox.

Its latest innovation is a wristband with built-in motion sensor. The idea is that if you’re trying to be healthy, just being conscious of your daily activity is likely to increase how active you are. The Up aims to be your fitness assistant.

What is it, exactly?

It’s a light, comfortable rubbery band that flexes open to put it on and off your wrist. To make the most of it, you need a smartphone. Right now, there’s an iPhone app, with Android to follow. There’s no Bluetooth on board this doohickey, so you connect it to your iPhone by popping off the little silvery Jawbone cap that sits on one end of the band.

Inside is a headphone connector that plonks into the phone so you can synchronise the Up’s data. You see, every step you take is noted by the Up, and recording the number of daily steps you take is one of its main functions. You can decide to start off low with a 5,000-steps-a-day target, or aim higher with 10,000, say. Synchronise the Up with your phone at the end of the day and it’ll give you the good or bad news. Manage 100 per cent of your target and the screen shows the achievement bathed in sunbeams.

If you’re going cycling, where your arm may not move much at all, you can use the iPhone’s GPS to measure your exercise accurately. And you can create challenges which other Up users can contribute to – walking to the moon (or the equivalent distance, obv) seems a big ask but if there are 1,000 of you, it’s doable. The idea is that communal challenges inspire you more.

Keeping track of sleep and food

There are two other elements Up manages – food and sleep. Food is average at best: when you have a meal, take a picture of it on the phone’s camera and a couple of hours later the phone will ask you to judge whether you’re energetic, stuffed, tired etc. The plan is you’ll get a clearer idea of what makes a good and nutritious meal.

Better is the sleep element. Press the end of the bracelet and it’ll switch to sleep mode, measuring your movements in that context. It knows when you’re awake, lightly asleep or deeply asleep just from the motion sensor. This gives you a clear analysis when you transfer the data the following morning. It’s excellent, confirming that you really did have a good night’s shut-eye or that you have good reason to feel bleary-eyed if you didn’t.

Wakes you up gently

And there’s another neat wrinkle: you can set a smart alarm. The best time to wake is when you’re coming out of deep sleep into lighter sleep. So if you set your alarm for, say, 7.30am, it’ll start monitoring your movements for the half hour before that. As soon as it senses you’re going from deep to lighter sleep, the bracelet starts vibrating. It has woken us with utter reliability, and has the advantage that if your significant other is waking later, this is a silent wake-up call that needn’t disturb everybody.

The problem is that in reality, it has almost always woken us 30 minutes before the alarm time, so we now set it 15 minutes later than we need to get up.

You can only set the smart alarms at 15 minute time differences: greater precision would be better. On the other hand, there have definitely been times when it has woken us at just the perfect moment, sleep-cycle-wise. If you have problems feeling lively in the morning, it may help.

A few little niggles

It’s a very cool device that has a lot going for it. But there’s one big downside and that’s the band itself. The silver cap that hides the earphone jack pops off easily. We’ve already lost one, and nearly lost a replacement cap about 20 times. It’s just not secure enough. Sure, it’ll work without the cap but it doesn’t look so pretty.

And the other end of the band has four sharp edges to the tip which scrape down the lining of your sleeve as you take a jacket on or off. It’s not hard to remember to take it off before you make this movement, but a less abrasive end would have been better.

Verdict:

If you need a nudge to become more active, the Jawbone Up is great to use, offers lots of detailed information. It can really help you to stay conscious of how active you are, what you’re eating and the quality of your sleep.

It’s light, comfy to wear for extended periods (make sure you get the right size) and even comes in a bunch of colours to suit your taste.

Tags:
Fitness Health Jawbone Jawbone Up

Jawbone Up originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000