From the category archives:

Camera, TV and Portable Video Reviews

Cricket Australia Simultaneously Encouraging and Banning Taking Photos

I’ve always been a cricket fan. Last week I attended a T20 Big Bash league match at the Sydney Cricket Ground and found that the Cricket Australia terms and conditions of spectator entry regarding photography inside the venue were seemingly arbitrarily enforced. When entering private land you consent to rules that land owners impose on [...]

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Canon PowerShot SX230HS vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 Compact Ultrazoom Cameras Compared (Review)

Two compact ultrazooms are competing to be king of the ultra zoom digital cameras. I put Canon and Panasonic’s new geotagging marvels to the test. Compact ultrazoom cameras have progressed a lot in the last five years, It’s fair to recognise the great success of Panasonic’s Lumix TZ cameras in leading the pack but Canon’s [...]

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Internode Fetch TV (Review) – Subscription Pay TV via Broadband Internet

Until recently Foxtel and Austar have been the only mainstream ‘subscription’ pay TV options available to Australians. Fetch TV seeks to shake up this duopoly by providing subscription pay TV content delivered through broadband internet, connected to a dedicated digital video recorder that comes as part of the deal. It’s an interesting idea that has [...]

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Sigma 120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM Telephoto Long SLR Camera Lens (review)

The Sigma 120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM provides SLR camera owners an excellent value for money option for wildlife, astronomy, bird watching and other photography subjects that are far away and require a telephoto long zoom lens. It doesn’t matter which brand of SLR you own because Sigma offers the lens at the same price [...]

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Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I Camera Card (Review) Wildlife Photography

When you’re taking photos of wildlife like birds in flight at a lagoon or giant red and blue dragonflies you need perseverance, luck, skill as well as a digital camera, lense and camera card that are fast enough to capture a tiny fraction of a moment in time before the creature in question flies away. [...]

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Evolving IPTV Poses Worldwide Challenge To Incumbent Broadcast TV Networks

Like it or not, thanks to the rapid spread of internet access and constantly evolving consumer electronics the media industry lives in interesting times. This decade is an inflection point where changes in technology and the media are happening with potentially as great an impact as the introduction of broadcast TV and radio last century. [...]

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Kogan Elite 100Hz LED 32 inch TV Review KGNFHDLED32

I recently bought a Kogan 32″ Full HD 100Hz LED sidelit TV with USB PVR functionality to replace my old Kogan 32″ LCD TV because the new LED TV looks better, is much thinner, has lots more connection ports including 4 HDMI, can record digital TV to a USB drive, uses 40% less power and [...]

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ABC iView and Online Evolution: Technology & Strategies to Meet Changing Audience Needs

I’ve been closely watching for years as the TV, Radio and Online divisions of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) have dealt with changes in audience needs/wants and technological advances in how people consume and communicate with the media. The Online and Innovation teams have achieved a lot since the first ABC websites in the mid-late [...]

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Sony BDP-S370: Bluray DVD Player, Internet Video, Plays Network Shared Files DLNA (Review)

I was quite surprised When I found out the new Sony BDP-S370 player could play Bluray and DVD disks, photos/music/video files from a USB drive or shared home network and a wide range of internet video sources including Youtube, ABC iView, SBS TV and Channel 7 – all for less than $200 retail. So I [...]

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Future of TV and Watching Video: Audience Shatters Into Million Pieces

When I was a kid in the early 90′s in Australia we had 5 analog free TV channels. These channels had big audiences because there was nothing else to watch except VHS tapes. DVD’s hadn’t been invented yet and home internet access was a few years away. By the end of 2010 I’ll have 15 [...]

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Australia Fetch TV: Broadband Internet Pay TV PVR Hands On and Unboxing (Review)

Many Australians who get broadband internet access through Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Internode and iiNet will be watching Pay TV channels as well as Video on Demand movies and TV shows via their broadband internet connection within the next few months FetchTV is a content aggregator (buying internet rights to movies, subscription channels like [...]

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EXCLUSIVE: TiVo Australias CASPA Free Ad-Funded Pay Per View TV and Movies

EXCLUSIVE: Hybrid TV’s chief executive Robbee Minicola said that by late 2010 their CASPA video on demand service will have FREE advertiser funded pay per view TV shows and movies on TiVO Australia PVRs and other devices, in a one-on-one interview with Rambling Thoughts Blog late last week. EDITOR: As of mid-November TiVo Australia was [...]

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Nikon D90 w/18-200 VR II Lens Mini Review and Tips for Effective Use

I recently tested a Nikon D90 SLR digital camera with 18-200 VR II Lens for a few weeks to compare it against the Canon EOS 500D SLR Digital Camera I’d tested just beforehand. As expected the D90 offers more advanced features, better battery life and more configuration options than the Canon 500D/550D but was also [...]

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Canon S90 Best Compact Pocket Digital Camera for SLR Owners? (Review)

Canon S90 PowerShot is the best compact digital camera for SLR owners to buy as a backup to their SLR on photo expeditions and to keep in their pocket all the time for spur of the moment photos. The reviews of the Canon S90 from photographer friends and reputable digital camera review sites were so [...]

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Camera Phones Can Take Great Photos Because Theyre Always With You

“The best camera still is – and always will be – the one that’s with you” and for many people this will be a camera phone. This idea was originally put forth by Chase Jarvis, professional photographer and author of “The Best Camera“. I recently spent a whirlwind week exploring New Zealand’s lower South Island [...]

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