Hawt Gadgets

Overall Rating
Design
Features
Performance

Panasonic PV-GS400 Introduction
The PV-GS400 is a great camcorder which produces truly stunning video both in normal and low light. In addition to its excellent image, the PV-GS400 offers a great four-way hybrid ring for controlling focus, zoom, shutter and iris. When you throw in additional manual control, audio control, a great zoom controller and 4 Mega Pixel stills, the PV-GS400 offers better value than any other consumer camcorder on the market today.

Panasonic PV-GS400 Design
The Panasonic PV-GS400 has the classic Handycam-style layout and a high-quality metallic-silver finish. It measures 3 inches high, 3 inches wide, and 7 inches deep and weighs 1.5 pounds. The Panasonic PV-GS400 offers the usual assortment of ports: composite A/V and S-Video, USB, and FireWire. The external-mic jack is essential for recording high-quality audio, and it doubles as a jack for the included MagicWire wired remote, a clever handheld mic that includes buttons to stop and start recording and control the zoom. The A/V port also doubles as a headphone jack.

Panasonic PV-GS400 Features
12x optical zoom with optical stabalizer.
700x digital zoom
Allows manual controls over these features: Focus, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, mic sensitivity
Leica Dicomar lens
Tape Format: MiniDV
Still Photo Resolution: 2288 x 1728 pixels
LCD Features: The Panasonic PV-GS400 is equipped with a 3.5 inch LCD, larger than previous Panasonic GS models. The LCD screen can be rotated 180 degrees. The GS-400’s viewfinder can also be extended and angled about 45 degrees. A dioptric adjustment slider is located on the underside of the viewfinder.

Panasonic PV-GS400 Performance
The heart of the Panasonic PV-GS400 is its three-chip imaging system. Each chip is 1/4.7 inch in size, relatively large for a consumer camera, and has a whopping megapixel of resolution, which accounts for the camera’s excellent wide-screen performance and decent still-picture capabilities.

What’s included in the package
* Panasonic PV-GS400 MiniDV camcorder
* CGA-DU14 li-ion battery
* AC Adapter / Battery charger
* Wired and wireless remote controls
* Lens cap w/retaining strap
* Shoulder strap
* A/V cable
* USB cable
* CD-ROMs with MotionDV Studio, SD Viewer, USB and Video Stream drivers, and ArcSoft PhotoSuite
* 101 page manual

Conclusion
This camera is great, the only negative feature found is it’s relatively short battery life. The small battery may only last about an hour of actual usage. The MSRP of this Panasonic PV GS400 is $1,499 however the street price is at about a thousand dollars at this moment.

(I am desperately looking for a new laptop, so please excuse the plethora of new laptop posts....) TrustedReviews has just dropped a glowing new review of the new Samsung Q35 Ultra Portable Laptop. It not only boasts a new ultra thin and light design, but they somehow crammed a DVD writer, bluetooth, and a 12.1" WXGA, High brightness & Glare in there.

You can check it out here on Samsung's website.

Overall Rating
Design
Features
Performance

The T-Mobile SDA makes it easy to stay connected and organized. Features a 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, Bluetooth® connectivity, plus EDGE, Wi-Fi, and the extra speed you need to take advantage of the T-Mobile Total Internet network.

T-Mobile SDA SmartPhone Design

Size: 4.53 x 1.82 x 0.69
Weight: 3.74 ounces

T-Mobile SDA SmartPhone Features

The three instant messaging programs: Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
1.3 Megapixel camera Video camera
Windows Media Player
Expandable mini SD memory slot
Bluetooth® wireless technology
Speakerphone
E-Mail integration options
Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
T-Mobile Internet ready (GPRS & EDGE)
Wi-Fi (802.11b) ready
Organizer with PC synchronization

T-Mobile SDA SmartPhone Performance

Included battery: Li-Ion
Talk time: Up to 4.5 hours
Standby time: Up to 8 days
Band (frequency): 850 MHz;900 MHz;1800 MHz;1900 MHz

What’s included in the package

* T-Mobile SDA Smart Phone
* AC Adaptor
* Stereo headphones
* USB Cable
* Carrying case

Conclusion

T-Mobile’s SDA Smart Phone is an excellent device for those who need a phone first and light PDA second. The SDA is very attractive, powerful and has an excellent display. It fits easily in your pocket, yet offers some of the same features as PDAs. It can sync to Outlook which means you won’t have to “T9″ your contacts list into the phone and will have your appointments and reminders with you on the go. Negative aspects of the phone are the buttons and keypad keys, they’re quite small and bundled too closely together. The joystick isn’t always easy to press straight down without moving sideways and thus changing your selection. With that said, the SDA SmartPhone is a good buy and could compete with the Blackberry.

Overall Rating
Design
Features
Performance

Linksys Compact Wireless G Internet Video Camera Introduction
A new product that’s hot in the market right now is Linksys’ wireless-g IP camera. With its’ compact design and sleek look it’s no surprise this $100 IP camera is gaining popularity. The Linksys wireless-g camera sends high-quality live video to your network wirelessly - viewable from Windows PCs anywhere in the world. The security mode can be enabled which will automatically send email alerts with video clips upon motion detection and supports up to four simultaneous remote users.

Linksys Compact Wireless G Internet Video Camera Details
Product Weight: 2.0 pounds
Item model number: WVC54GC

Linksys Compact Wireless G Internet Video Camera Features
The Linksys Compact Wireless-G Internet Video Camera sends live video through the Internet to a web browser anywhere in the world. This compact, self-contained unit lets you keep track of your home, your kids or your workplace. Unlike standard web cams that require an attached PC, this Linksys IP Internet Video Camera contains its own web server, so it can connect directly to a network, either over Wireless-G (802.11g) networking, or over 10/100 Ethernet cable. The SoloLink domain service (trial sign-up included) lets you access your camera using an easy-to-remember "name", even if your home Internet connection uses a dynamic IP address. You can also turn on Security Mode, which tells the camera to send a message with a short video attached to up to three email addresses whenever it detects motion in its field of view. You can then log onto the live video stream if the situation warrants. The included Viewer & Recorder utility lets you record the audio/video stream to your local hard drive, "live" or on a pre-determined schedule.

Linksys Compact Wireless G Internet Video Camera Performance
The advanced MPEG-4 video compression produces a high-quality, high-frame rate, up to 320×240 video stream. The Compact Internet Video Camera’s unique form-factor and wireless connectivity allows you to mount it on a wall nearly anywhere, or slip it into its included stand for desktop use. Once it’s connected to your home network, you can "see what it sees" from any Windows-based PC in the house, while the video stream is secured from the outside world, hidden behind your Router. If you want the video to be visible from outside your home network, you can open an appropriate port on the Router, and then create password protected accounts to manage access to the camera, or leave it wide open for the world to see.

What’s included in the package
Compact Wireless-G Internet Video Camera
Camera Stand/Wall Mount
Power Adapter
Ethernet Network Cable
Setup CD-ROM with User Guide
User Guide on CD
DDNS Installation Guide
SoloLink DDNS Free Trial Card
Registration Card

Conclusion
Several users of this security camera have complained about the dark resolution in low-light conditions. Other complaints are that the product gets extremely hot - so hiding it in a box wouldn’t be a good idea. Finally, some buyers of this product could not connect it to their WEP-enabled wireless network. For these reasons, I Review Electronics cannot recommend this Linksys Wireless-G Internet Video Camera.