thomas fitzgerald.net

Nikon’s new low cost DSLR is officially announced after being much rumoured. It seems like a replacement for the D50 and a worthy competitor for the Canon 400D although it only has a 6megapixel sensor and lacks the 400D’s anti dust systems. But then, $499 so, you cant really argue with that for a good SLR. It seems that DLSR’s are now beginning to reach the prices budget film SLR’s had reached prior to their untimely demises.

See full details of the new D40 at dpreview , imaging resource and Engadget

(Caution – contains spoilers if you haven’t read the book or watched the movie – don’t read this it will give away the ending)

Two of my favourite books of all time have to be “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Daemons” by Dan Brown.

There, I’ve said it. I liked the “Da Vinci Code”

According to Engadget, Microsoft will soon start offering downloadable videos, of both TV shows and Movies in both standard definition, and Full 720p HD, giving them one up on Apple’s iTunes Downloads. The movies will be rental only though, but TV shows will be available for purchase. They have a pretty good walkthrough here.

It was only a matter of time really, since they pretty much had the infrastructure there already with xbox live. And before everyone starts sending hate mail because this can be remotely construed as anti Apple (seriously – I will get hate mail) Im guessing this is more a pre-emptive shot across sony’s bough than Apple’s.

This is pretty cool. BBC have a story about a radically new design for an aircraft from MIT that renders it virtually silent.

Engadget have posted a comprehensive video of Microsoft’s Zune Player’s interface. My initial thoughts are that although it looks pretty slick with the transitions and animations between menus, it also seems somewhat confusing and complicated. Also, having to constantly rotate the player seems somewhat silly. Also too, I can’t see how a d-pad (yes that big control wheel on the front of the zune is not in fact a wheel, but a d-pad made to look look a wheel) can give as a tactile a representation of the interface like a wheel would have.

My favorite mac writer, John Gruber has an excellent article on Adobe Soundbooth’s non PowerPC-ness and the furore surrounding it’s release.

Adobe has been critisised heavily by some for it’s new soundbooth beta been intel mac only. John Nack, Photoshop Product manager at Adobe explains the company’s thinking. Fair enough if you ask me.

pumpkinator, originally uploaded by fxgeek.

Happy Halloween!