Accessories: February 2008 Archives
If you're carrying around a digital camera that's light, compact and pocketable, chances are you're not inclined to lug around a tripod with you. Even mini-three-leggers can put a cramp in a mobile lifestyle. Nevertheless, there are occasions when some extra stability can come in handy--most notably for self-portraits, self-timer snaps and low-light shots. That kind of stability, but without the bulk, can be achieved with the Klikk, made by an Italian company called TVBlob. The device is a lightweight rounded plastic wedge with a slot down its center. A thumbscrew can be positioned anywhere inside the slot. You use the thumbscrew to fasten your camera to the device and you've got a steady base for your snapper without holding it. There are two models of the Klikk--one for cameras with a center tripod mount and one for DSCs with an off-center mount. Both models are offered in either black or red. The Klikk and a padded case with a neckstrap to carry it in sell for 14.99 euros, or about US$22.56, and can be purchased at the product's Web site.
Since the dawn of personal computing, byte boffins have beat the drum about the necessity for periodic backup of important data. And for lo these many years their hue and cry has been often disregarded. What's happened in recent times, though, as more more people embrace a digital lifestyle, they're finding indifference to good PC hygiene won't just lose them colorless data, but many precious memories previously preserved on film. Why the resistance to backups? Inconvenience. There's software to install. There are cables to connect. There's a hard drive to buy and install. However, last week at the PMA show in Las Vegas, HP raised the curtain on a backup scheme that takes much of the hassle out of the process. It's called SimpleSave Photo.SimpleSave is a DVD-based system for backing up photos. Everything to make the system work is on the SimpleSave discs. You pop the disc into a DVD read/write drive and the software to perform the backup automatically loads from the platter. The program searches your computer for pictures and videos--the application supports more than 100 image and motion file formats--and writes them to the DVD. If it can't write all your images to a single disc, it will ask you to insert another one to continue the backup. HP estimates that about 2000 photos can be written to single disc. The discs are expected to be sold as a five pack starting in April for $14.99.
One drawback to this system is that it isn't incremental. Once you make a backup of your photos and videos, the next time you do it, the same files will be backed up again in addition to any new ones you may have saved since the previous backup. "[T]his is a write-once product and not meant for incremental back-ups," an HP spokesperson told me in an e-mail. "However, there is an options button on the screen, and you can go to the options field and simply check the files or folders that you want to back-up."
With so many new cameras being rolled out at the PMA show in Las Vegas last week, it was easy to miss some of the other neat gadgets introduced at the extravaganza, gadgets like the digital photo frame with a built-in printer from SmartParts, of Totowa, New Jersey. The OptiPix SP8PRT has an eight-inch LCD with a resolution of 800-by-600 pixels and a dye-sublimation printer incorporated into the back of the unit. If the word "printer" is synonymous with inconvenience in your mind, you can relax. The frame's printer uses an all-in-one cartridge that includes both ink and paper. It produces 36 4-by-6-inch prints before it has to be replaced. In addition to printing stills, the frame can play video with sound and accepts popular memory cards, such as SD, Memory Stick and xD cards. The frame is expected to sell for $279. No pricing for the printer cartridges was announced.
