Panasonic HDC SD9

The HDC SD9 is the latest camcorder from Panasonic that records AVCHD video in SD/SDHC cards. The cam records in true 1920x1080 pixels using 3 CCD's to correctly record the blues, reds and greens.

Whats my opinion? It's an awesome camcorder! It does record sharp HD videos contrary to many reviews in the internet. It is simple to operate and with enough manual controls to produce videos to your own standards.

This cam smoothly zooms in at 10x optical using the Leica Dicomar lens system. And scene modes enable the cam to adjust to a wide variety of situations such as low light. You have the option to turn on/off the Face Detection feature that detects Faces and automatically adjust the brightness and picture quality recorded. Sound clarity is exceptional with the ability to record in Dolby 5.1 surround system. And the OIS ensures stable video shots. The cams weighs a mere 337g using the standard battery. You hold the body by the palm of your hand. And record using the 2.7 inch, 300,000 pixel, LCD screen.

You can also use the cam as your back-up camera. It takes 2.1mp pictures. And can shoot 25frames/second or 72 shots in 3 seconds in high speed burst mode. A built-in flash ensures clear shots indoors.

There are various optional accessories you can buy to expand the functionality of the SD9 such as wide/tele converter lenses and video dc light.

On the negative side, Panasonic chose to hide the A/C and HDMI plugs behind the battery. You have to remove the battery to plug-in the A/C and HDMI cables. The other negative is the supplied software is inadequate for editing AVCHD videos.

This is a superb camcorder to own despite the negatives. It may not be the smallest but sure is fun to use. And despite bad reviews by bias websites, you will not be disappointed by videos it records. The best judge will be YOU.

A new and fun application to view entertainment and information content on your PDA is Zumobi. It comprises of 16 tiles, grouped into 4, to view information such as weather, stocks, news, and entertainment. Pressing the "z" will zoom-in on 4 tiles that displays a downsized content version on your screen. Tap a particular tile to see the full information. To zoom-out just tap the "z".

Tile content is still limited. You only have Associate Press for News. Other tiles of interest are Engadget, Weather, MTV Movie, Chinese Horoscope and DIY. And hopefully, more tile content will be available within the year.

You may also need to have a PDA with a speed of at least 400mhz to enjoy the use of this application. And a wi-fi or broadband plan to retrieve and update tile information. Click on www.zumobi.com to download the software. :)

SlideIt- a revolutionary text input for PDA's!

There are numerous text input alternatives for PDAs. And all fall short of my expectation in terms of speed to ender text. Enter SlideIt developed by Dr. Daniel Suraqi. His concept is to tap and slide letters to form a word. Does it work? The answer- YES!

Finally, a solution to speed-up your text input on your PDA. To form the word "YOU' tap on Y and slide the stylus to all the remaining letters. Then lift your stylus and a SPACE is automatically created to enter your next word. You can see word suggestions on the left side of the PDA screen which you can tap for quicker text input. For numbers and special characters, you may opt to write using graffiti in the left side of your PDA. I suggest you download and try the software. There is no trial expiration but only a nagging ad to purchase this revolutionary application.

There are 2 caveats to note. First, it is not possible to use the SLIDE mode when typing words such as www, Yahoo, and Google. The application will guess and input the best possible word that fits your first three letters. You have to turn-off the SLIDE mode and manually tap each letter on the keyboard. I have given an email to the developer to ask him to incorporate a feature that will turn-off word suggestions on SLIDE mode. And I received a positive YES reply.

Second, the developer is asking a steep price for the software at US$40.00! That is big price to pay. But for PDA users with lots of text to write - IT'S WORTH IT! No alternative text input application can compare with SlideIt- IPHONE included.

You can download and try the application at http://www.mobiletextinput.com/Product/SlideIT/SlideIT.php.