I spotted this cute little guy in Heal's. Isn't it decidedly nicer than most webcams with the beige plastic? It's 1.3megapixels which is pretty low grade but certainly no worse than your average webcam plus it has a stills camera and poseable limbs. It's compatible with Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista but not Mac.
Buy it? £25 here.
You get two kinds of camera cases: smart and utilitarian or cute, fabric types. This is certainly the former and what it doesn't make up for in personality, it will in durability. Recycled from Columbian truck tyres, the military grade rubber and robust nylon thread will apparently protect your camera from extreme heat conditions, acid, alcoholic components and UV light. And just so you can be sure of its truucker origins, it comes printed with the miles it has travelled. From £11.95 at Tread.
If you haven't already bought a gift for your mother, there's still time to do it and you could even be super smart and get it organised online. Photo gifts are really popular not to mention an easy way to put a personal stamp on your gift using your own digital photos and there's something to suit every budget - just take a look at these ideas.
Clockwise from top left: Make a card for £1.50 with free delivery, put your mug on a mug for £7.99, get a colourful mini book with 31 pages, £5.99, create a collage photo print with multile snaps from £9.99.
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Whilst GE still isn't a hugely recognisable brand, they're certainly not newcomers now that they're entering their third year in digital cameras. The 2009 range is highly competitive with a minimum of 9megapixels, seven models have 12megapixels or more and a variety of features that include Auto Scene Detection and Pan-Capture Panorama along with blink, smile and face detection. No word on price, but if the previous range is anything to go by, they're probably round the £100 mark.
Included is the G3WP that is waterproof to 3metres, the E1250TW which has a touch panel screen and HDTV Output and three of the models have wide angle lens.
The first four models to be released in April will be:
A950: 9 megapixels, 5x zoom, 2.5 inch screen
A1150: 11 megapixels, 5x zoom, 2.5 inch screen
A1250TW: 12 megapixels, 5x zoom, 3 inch touch screen, HDTV-ready output, 28mm wide angle lens
E1255W: 12 megapixels, 5x zoom, 3 inch screen, 28mm wide angle lens
Samsung's latest offering isn't merely a camera, it's a portable media player (PMP) too. The camera aspect gets 9 megapixels, a 2.7" LCD screen, 11 picture settings including Night Portrait and Macro, Face Detection that prioritises those you photograph most (awkward/useful if you are fond of the self-portrait) and can also search photos by the faces too - love that!
Now for the PMP - there's an integrated MP3 player with button-touch access to stored movies and tunes and you can put together a slideshow of your photos with a music soundtrack. The PL10 will stay ready to shoot so you won't miss any photo ops even if you're watching a movie.
Available in silver, black, red, candy pink and purple, it'll cost £179 and will be out in April.
Samsung Camera
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Nokia have gone huge lengths to produce the latest in camera phones. The N86 boasts a brilliant 8MP camera (the industry average is around 2 or 3MP with a few available at 5MP) with wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics. There's video imaging too. "The aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera," says Juha-Pekka Sipponen, Director, Nokia Nseries. "Whether it's running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr."
8GB of internal memory means storage for up to 4000 images plus you can expand the storage with a microSD memory card up to 16GB.
As for the phone, it has an OLED screen with scratch-resistant glass, plays videos and has the latest version of Nokia Maps, a built-in compass and 3months license for voice and pedestrian navigation with location and picture sharing through geotagging. It can play 25 hours of music from one charge and can be coupled with the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-214, also just announced, with music downloading from the Nokia Music store.
It'll cost around Euro375, be out in Q2 (April-June) and is certainly on my wishlist!
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Whilst the attractive red aluminium casing of GE's latest digital camera should win on style, it's what's under the case that makes this £99 camera great value. The 10.1MP camera ensures you won't be tempted to update it for a while and can also get good quality large prints, plus there's a 3" LCD screen and wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom and 4.5x digital zoom for close-ups and wide group shots along with in camera panoramic stitching.
On screen instructions help out newbies as do advanced features including blink and smile detection, image stabilisation, red-eye removal and movie recording. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery is included.
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How old should you be to get into tech? From birth if these gadgets have their way. We've taken a fun look at the gadgets for hi-tech kids...
Combi iPod Bouncer with built-in sound, vibration and rear-mounted controls and a toy bar, usable from birth for $79 ThinkGeek; Lego digital camera made to appear as if it's built from Lego bricks, out this summer around $60 Lego; rechargable Kid-Tough DVD player in pink or blue $150 Fisher Price; the Plasma 7 iPod buggy with padded speakers and an iPod pocket for sound whilst you're out and about, £230.99 at Little Butterfly; Crayola MP3 player with 2GB storage and powered by a single AA battery, around $50 and clock/radio dock, around $30, out this year from Crayola.
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Dell have announced the Wasabi PZ310 Mobile Printer which should be great teamed up with your mobile phone for instant 2x3" photo printing. Hook it up with your phone via Bluetooth or PictBridge. The lightweight palm-size is largely thanks to the Zero-Ink technology which means ink is embedded in the paper and activated by heat. It's available in pink, blue and black but unfortunately only our American friends can get their hands on it for $99 from Dell. [via Unplggd]
Like this? Check out the PoGo Instant photo printer in our Valentine's Day feature
Ah, Valentines Day, what's not to love about love? And what we love the most is getting giving gifts to the people we love. Of course, you don't have to celebrate just once out of 365 days but if you are, here's a few last minute gifts that are sure to surprise.
From top left, Technika 1GB pink MP3 player with headphones and space for 320 MP3s, £9.75 at Tesco Direct; diamante studded USB mouse, £29.99 IWOOT; Heartware Vitrail Light USB memory key pendant with 1GB memory (up to 1000 photos or around 250 MP3s), £103 at Swarovski; Samsung S760 7MP camera, £53.27 Amazon; PoGo instant photo printer (camera not included)- send phone or digital camera pictures via Bluetooth for instant photo sticker prints, black or pink £99.95 Firebox; mini digtal photo frame, £39.95 Firebox.
