Accessories: May 2008 Archives
A Korean company, Sellgino, has introduced a photo geo-tagger that's also a VoIP phone. The USB device runs on a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, which takes about two hours to charge, and is able to save all logged data for over eight months. The gizmo measures 3.89-by-1.29-by-0.7 inches and includes software for making VoIP calls and geo-tagging photos based on EXIF 2.1 or later information. Don't go looking for this gadget under the Sellgino name, though, because the company is strictly an OEM/ODM/bulk seller. That's also why pricing information and availability for the product, the GPS Photo Tour GS-200, has not been immediately available.
I'm as soft as sherbert on tarmac on a dog day in August when it comes to pets, but this item had me wondering today about the hairline between the sentimental and the macabre. A Web site called pet-urns.com is hawking something it's calling Digital Photo Urns.
"Display all of your favorite pet photographs with the latest in digital memorial technology," says the marketing copy at the site. "Available in Oak or Walnut wood, these photo urns represent a new generation in memorial design and capability."
It even added a human touch, as it went on to observe, "With a 7” diagonal screen you can display literally hundreds of your favorite pet and/or human memories."
According to the urn sellers, each unit has two compartments--one for the photo frame and a second one, which can accomodate the ashes of a pet that weighed up to 75 pounds.
The combo unit, originally priced at $289.95, is now selling for $249.99.
Panoramas made by stitching together several digital photographs can be fun to create but shooting their components can be a little unsettling. That's because the mind's eye and a camera lens don't always see eye to eye on where one shot ends and another begins. Bytecams with panorama modes make the process more precise by displaying the end of one photo at the edge of their displays while the next photo in the sequence appears live on the screen. But even that approach is imperfect, especially when bright sunlight is washing out the LCD. Panoramistas--at least those with tripods--need not despair, however. A company called Lenspen makes a gadget called the Panamatic ($24.95) that will take the worry out of shooting properly aligned frames for a panorama. You attach the Panamatic to a tripod and the camera to the Panamatic. The unit has a level that can be used to make sure that the tripod is perfectly horizontal. As you take each shot in a panorama, you rotate the Panamatic by one click. When you're finished, you upload your photos to your computer and cobble them together with stitching software. This definitely sounds like a useful item to have in the old gadget bag.
