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”

“The Da Vinci Code” was one of those popular phenomenons that, because of it’s popularity, became trendy to criticize. There’s always been a certain section of society that believes that criticising something popular makes them more intelligent. It’s almost as if liking a popular movie or book demeans you some how. It’s an arrogant elitism that is based on a need for superiority rather than any degree of artistic appreciation. Dan Brown’s novels aren’t Shakespeare, they’re action thrillers. So why people expect them to be feats of linguistic magnificence is beyond me. It’s like all those people that feel watching action movies are beneath them. It is what it is. This was certainly true of “The Da Vinci Code. Claiming to like the book among certain circles, was committing social suicide.

(Not to say that there are people who genuinely didn’t like the movie or the book. After all, opinion is opinion – a concept that’s also sometimes lost on people)

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.

Official Microsoft Xbox Announcement Here.

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.

There are some typical Microsoft stupid things about this too, like wireless on by default and the ability for others to see what you’re doing, listening too etc unless you go in and turn it off – which is fine for geek users but the average joe won’t know it’s there. It’s interesting to read the comments too, to see how easily people are wowed by a flashy cluttered interface without giving any thought to the functionality, and unfortunately that flashiness will win over a lot of people. It does look terribly like a cell phone though. It has that “how many buttons do I have to push to do what I want to do” problem that many modern phones seem to have.

What ever your feelings on Zune it’s a good, thorough review by Engadget.

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!