The Pentax K-7 is the new jewel in the company’s crown, with a long list of specs well beyond any previous Pentax DSLR. Existing Pentax users will be pleased to finally see a much-wanted pro-level upgrade, whereas those familiar with other manufacturers’ systems may also be drawn in thanks to an all-encompassing features list.

The Pentax K-7 has been built from the ground up by Pentax and, unlike the K20D and K10D which had Samsung GX20 and GX10 equivalents, is a standalone venture. The build quality is a key sell; ruggedly made, but following Pentax’s ultimately ‘classic’ design, the body is made from a magnesium alloy that’s both dust and weather-sealed at 77 points. Shooting in sand, getting splashed with rain or other treacherous conditions need not be a bother and, despite this upgrade, the whole camera is even marginally smaller and lighter than the previous K20D. The featured 18-55mm kit lens follows suit, as does the optional D-BG4 battery grip (which offers both AA and li-ion battery options) to complete a fully weather-and-dust-sealed unit in its entirety.

A high-resolution 14.6MP CMOS sensor is at the heart of the K-7’s body, which whilst not a step up over the K20D in terms of resolution, does double the number of output channels. The result? More information can speed through the K-7’s buffer for faster continuous shooting than ever before – a firm 5.2 frames per second sees the K20D’s 3fps barrier officially trounced; ideal for those looking to shoot sports or action photography.

Unlike its key competitors – namely the Nikon D300 and Canon 50D – the Pentax K-7, like many Pentax DSLRs before it, incorporates Shake Reduction (SR) into the camera body itself. Crucially this means even old K-mount bayonet-fit lenses can benefit from this function, and new lenses will not cost as much as their (hypothetical) stabilised counterparts.

A notable – and very much ‘flavour of 2009’ – feature is the inclusion of a 720p HD movie mode, plus the inclusion of a superior 1536×1024 capture that can be output at 1080i, though this is not ‘Full HD’ capture. Mono sound is recorded from the camera’s body, or there is the option to use the 3.5mm jack socket to plug in a microphone and record in stereo. Aperture can be set as fixed via the camera body for recording or there’s an automatic variable aperture mode, which adjusts the aperture according to the amount of light available throughout recording. Whilst in-camera shake reduction can also be used to full effect, it is not possible to autofocus whilst recording – though it is entirely plausible this will be possible in the future, if the clever bods at Pentax fix up the necessary firmware.

In keeping up with the competition, the Pentax K-7 adorns a 920,000 dot high resolution 3in LCD screen. Whilst it’s not a tilt and swivel screen as seem to be creeping into a number of camera bodies of late, it does auto-rotate images on the screen itself and, in keeping with orientation, has a virtual horizon level too – a really nice touch when in live view mode.

With customisable white balance settings, a shutter speed up to 1/8000th second, 77 segment metering system, the new SAFOX VIII+ 11-point AF system with AF illuminator lamp, in-camera HDR, and D-Range shadow and highlight adjustment options, the features list is certainly bulging. The K-7’s viewfinder has the much-sought after 100% field of view too, ensuring what you see is exactly what you’ll capture.

Now it’s your choice: which bargain are you going to take?
It’s either a Pentax K-7 with DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL Weather Resistant Lens bundle priced at US $1,104.99 (saving up to 47% over regular price, that’s $979.11!) or the body-only Pentax K-7 priced at $979.00 that’s $320.95 (-25%)!

Nintendo confirmed last November about a big display Nintendo DSi XL handheld console and now it’s going to be available next month.
Bearing a 4.2-inch screen that is 93 percent bigger in comparison to the original DSi, Nintendo will bring Nintendo DSi XL on March 28 in North America. Business Week reported that Nintendo will also push the ebook reader for the handheld console. Just like Sony gifted Comic Store to PlayStation Portable, Nintendo will bring a book store for DS owners.

With books for Nintendo DSi XL, the company in a way will compete with several existing players like Amazon (Kindle DX), Sony (Reader and PSP), Apple iPad Tablet, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Notion Ink (Adam) and so on. A downloadable package dubbed ‘ 100 Classic books’ is the App that is being talked about and will be released through Wii channels on June 14 for $20 (Rs. 960 approx.). We still have to wait for the list of books and novels included in these 100 Classic collection.

On the other end, Apple iPad Tablet is due to arrive by next month which too acts as eBook reader. And with 4.2-inch screen even DSi XL can serve as a good ebook reader just like many use iPhone albeit not for prolonged hours. If more ebooks are made available for DSi XL, then it may attract the casual gamers, who can also use it for reading some good titles. Apart from that, DSi XL will also have Opera mobile browser for surfing the web.

Similar handheld devices capable of more than the basic function like gaming make the choice wee bit difficult for consumers. Sony offers Comics on the PSPgo and now DSi XL will bring ebook reading capability. Are we heading for an eBooks vs digital comics clash in the near future? May be. But before that, let’s wait for the Nintendo DSi XL handheld console to arrive.

The new Nintendo DSi XL is priced at US $189.99 and available for pre-order now!

The BioShock team has pulled off another masterpiece. One that expands the mythology, but doesn’t lose any of the mystery. One that introduces fascinating new settings and characters, but doesn’t forget or neglect those previously established. One that gives the player devastating new power, but balances that with devastating new fear. One that takes chances and makes changes, but almost always for the better.
Thev’ve pulled off Bioshock 2!

Bioshock 2 begins as you take control of one of the first Big Daddies, a prototype called Delta, who must find his way across the Rapture of 10 years later in search of Eleanor, the Little Sister to whom he was bonded. Along the way he is taunted by Lamb, who believes he is nothing less than a threat to the future of humanity, and like his predecessor in the first game the people he meets on the way help to explain his past, while your behaviour towards them has the potential to define the future.

Once again you are equipped with plasmids and standard weapons, but now you can use both at once, loosing genetic powers with one hand and regular projectiles with the other. You can cycle between alternatives in each category, or pause the action momentarily to change your loadout through quick-to-use radial menus. As a Big Daddy you have access to new weapons, too, including a drill, a magnificent spear gun that pins enemies to walls by their appendages, and a grenade launcher the size of a filing cabinet.

The weapons are better. The plasmids are better. The enemies are better. At some points, even the storytelling is better. What’s most amazing and surprising about Bioshock 2, however, is that by diving deeper into Rapture’s tortured history and exploring more of Rapture’s haunted world, it actually manages to make the original BioShock better, too.

Get into Bioshock 2 now for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC; it retails (even underwater) for less than US $ 59.99 (check latest price!)

The American release of World Destruction-SEGA presents Sands of Destruction DS.
In a struggle to rid their planet of tyranny, a group of warriors seeks the power to destroy the world.

Sands of Destruction DS, an epic RPG created by the all-star Japanese developers at ImageEpoc, takes you through an epic adventure in a world surrounded by a sea of sand. In Sands of Destruction, a race of powerful beastmen known as the Ferals rule over the human population with tyranny and prejudice. A group of warriors, the World Annihilation Front, believe their only option for ending the corruption of the Ferals is to end the world as they know it.

This intense game puts gamers in control of an intriguing cast of characters including the crusading Morte Ashera as well as Kyrie Illunis, who unknowingly holds the key to global destruction. Gamers will explore a fantastic world, traveling across oceans of sand, battling colossal enemy monsters and unraveling the mystery of the creation of the world. Immerse yourself in dynamic battles taking up both the top and lower screens of the DS and an epic storyline with a twist, in this action-packed fantasy RPG exclusively on the DS

Sands of Destruction DS is available now for US $ 34.99, hurry up the fight has began!

Canon updated the mid-range section of the DSLR cameras with the new Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D.
Building on the popularity of the EOS 500D, the EOS 550D is designed to give you more access to video as well as Eye-Fi compatibility. Priced at US $ 899.99 with the standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens, the EOS 550D will be available from the 24th February onwards.

There are a few basic upgrades on the Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D. Notably is the ISO sensitivity top limit being raised to ISO6400 although you can still expand that to ISO12800 if you wish. An interesting point on this is that you can now cap the highest ISO point while in AutoISO, so it won’t use ultra high settings to get a decent shutter speed.

The new screen resolution should help with the new video functions of the Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D. It has a Full HD recording facility of 1080p with manual control as well as selectable frame rates. You can choose from 30, 25 and 24fps at full HD quality while pushing it up to 60 or 50fps will reduce the quality to 720p. Alternatively, putting the camera in program mode means you don’t have to worry about it. There’s also a Movie Crop function that reduces the resolution to a 640×480 area but means you get a magnification of 7x the focal length of the lens.

The metering system now matches the one found on the popular Canon EOS 7D using the new iFCL metering with 63-zone dual-layer sensor. IFCL stands for intelligent Focus, Colour and Luminance metering and it’s this information that the new system uses to meter with. It works in conjunction with the focus points to determine the distance from relative subjects and weights the exposure according to the algorithm results.

Order now, the Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D is priced at $799.99.

The Tag Reading System by LeapFrog is an optical pen that can read aloud from specially designed story books. Touch the pen to any word in the book and it says the word out loud. It can read a page of the story, the entire story, or just one word at a time. The pen also interacts with pictures in the book and can be used to play simple reading comprehension games. This is the up-to-date version of those read-along records (or tapes) many adults remember from their own childhood (when you hear the beep, turn the page).

For example, with Activity Storybook Disney/Pixar Cars: Tractor Tipping you can use your LeapFrog Tag Reading System to bring this story about Lightning McQueen and Mater to life as they stir up trouble amongst the sleeping tractors.

Moreover, parents can connect the LeapFrog Tag Reading System online to collect fun rewards their child has earned and to see their child’s play and learning on the LeapFrog Learning Path!

Order now the LeapFrog Tag Reading System priced at US $ 49.99 and enjoy free shipping!

Never dismiss an iPod, it’s always ready to surprise you with its outstanding featues!
iPod touch 2G and iPod 4G are now available with substancial discount.
Guess what? 35% off the Apple iPod touch 32 GB (2nd generation) means you’ll pay US $ 239.99 for one the best devices around!
32 Gig is a lot of space for videos, music and - mostly - apps you can download from App Store!

Be cool: Apple iPod nano with 16 GB capacity is now US $ 139.99, that’s 30% off regular price!

It’s a limited offer, so hurry up!

Miami’s Sun Life Stadium will host the 2010 Super Bowl, the most watched event in American Sports. Super Bowl XLIV features the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. Watch as they go head-to-head for the right to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

You may be able to watch it online LIVE. But how is it done? Here’s some advice.

• First thing first, make sure you have a good quality internet connection!
• You can check NFL.com, but you need to check on them every time. The streaming may not be that good as there will be heavy loads of server requests that you may not be able to obtain a slot which will cost you time.
• Are you thinking of watching on YouTube? No, I am saying this to you there is no live championship telecast on YouTube, how much more the Super Bowl, so don’t waste your time to check Youtube anymore.
• You can also check watching it using Sopcast through a Sopcast provider. There are so many Sopcast softwares available in the internet and too many providers. If you are lucky you can watch a clear reception which is a very low probability, but most of the time you will be shoved aside by the other users and you may not have good reception as there will be pauses and late responses from their servers due to poor handling of requests and limited server resources.We’ll be watching the Super Bowl 2010 with some geekery added, just like the Football Snack Bowl: we love it!
  Just press the air inflation button and the top of the football swings open and plays the FOX NFL THEME music.

  NO NFL fan should live without it!

Kodak is back with the brand new Kodak Z981 superzoom compact digital camera one year after the announcement of the Z980 super-zoom at CES 2009.

The model name “advances” by just +1, but the camera actually jumps to a 14mp sensor and 26X zoom ratio, up from 12mp and 24X.

The lens is also Schneider-branded, f2.6-f5, and has a 26-676mm equivalent focal range, enough for most photo-amateurs, along with image stabilization.

The Kodak Z981 sports a really useful vertical shutter button and a detachable vertical (non-battery) grip.

On the plus side, the camera has RAW capture and PASM which is short for Program, Aperture and Shutter priority, and Manual exposure: that means that Pro-oriented photographers will get their teeth on Pro-features and a less than 0.2 second click-to-capture specification.

Other features include a huge 3-inch display and (as required by 2010 standards!) one-touch upload to popular web-services (flickr, youtube, facebook, etc).

The Kodak Z981 takes four AA batteries, and Kodak actually includes four of the pre-charged (presumably LSD) types. This is a nice touch for AA cameras.

The Kodak Z981 is available for pre-order now at Amazon for $330.

Dante’s Inferno is available at last for PS3, XBox 360 and PSP, but who really dares?

In Dante’s Inferno, players assume the role of Dante as he travels on an epic descent through Dante Alighieri’s nine circles of Hell – limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Players assume the role of Dante, who descends into Hell after returning home to find his beloved Beatrice murdered, with Lucifer seducing her soul into the underworld. His mission is to save Beatrice, but he soon realizes he is also in Hell to face his own demons and ultimately to redeem himself.

To take down the demons of Hell, Dante is outfitted with two primary weapons: the Scythe he takes from Death and the Holy Cross given to him by Beatrice, which has spiritual powers that will help Dante collect souls and spells from the creatures he defeats on his journey. The game also features a deep upgrade system so gamers can customize their abilities to their specific gameplay style. Each circle showcases its own distinct look, with demons, monsters, damned and geography that are crafted straight from the poem’s vivid descriptions.

Key Game Features

• Epic story adapted from the first book of the Medieval Italian classic The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri.
• Nonstop action as you fight through Dante’s allegorical nine circles of hell.
• Wield the power of Death’s soul-reaping scythe.
• Beautiful fast-paced action and intense combat rendered at 60 frames-per-second.
• Choice-based finishes with enemies that allow players to punish the damned, or absolve them as they are defeated.
• Over 60 weapons, magic and combo upgrades and modifications.
• Huge destructive, ridable mounts that can be taken from defeated enemies.

Dante’s Inferno is available now for $56.99 (order quickly and save 5% with FREE Super Saver Shipping).

The Fujifilm FinePix HS10 is a long-zoom digital camera featuring a backside illuminated CMOS image sensor.

I must admit I’m a long time Fuji Finepix fan: I’m still in love with my S9600 bridge camera, which is two generation behind this Fujifilm FinePix HS10!

The Fujifilm FinePix HS10 is based around a 10.3 effective megapixel,1/2.3-inch back-side illuminated CMOS image sensor coupled to a Fujinon-branded 30x optical zoom lens. Maximum image resolution is 3,648 x 2,736 pixels in the camera’s native 4:3 aspect ratio, and both 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratio modes are also available. The HS10’s lens offers actual focal lengths ranging from 4.2 to 126.0mm, equivalent to 24 to 720mm on a 35mm camera - a generous wide angle to a powerful telephoto. The Fuji HS10 has a two-step aperture, offering either F2.8 or F11.0 at wide angle, and either F5.6 or F11 at telephoto. Minimum focusing distance is ordinarily 1.6 feet at wide angle or 16.4 feet at telephoto, but drops to just 0.3 feet in Macro mode at wide angle, or 6.5 feet at telephoto. A Super Macro mode locks the lens at an unspecified focal length, but allows focusing as close as 0.4 inches

There’s no true optical viewfinder on this model, but as you’ expect on a long-zoom digicam like this, there’s a 0.2-inch, 200,000 dot FLCD electronic viewfinder which takes its place. There’s also a 3.0-inch tilting LCD display with 230,000 dot resolution. Both EVF and LCD provides 97% frame coverage. The HS10 also includes a sensor that detects when the user brings their eye towards or away from the viewfinder, then automatically switches between the EVF and LCD as appropriate!

The sensor in the Fujifilm FinePix HS10 yields an effective resolution of 10.3 megapixels, and sits behind a Fujinon-branded 30x optical zoom lens with a generous 24mm wide angle. The Fujifilm HS10 includes both an electronic viewfinder and a 3.0-inch LCD panel. Images are stored on SD or SDHC cards, or in 45MB of built in memory.

Again, as the old S9600, power for the Fuji HS10comes courtesy of four AA batteries, with alkaline disposables included in the product bundle!
This means that you’ll never run out of power thanks to wide availability of AA batteries worldwide!

The Fujifilm FinePix HS10 offers USB 2.0 High Speed data connectivity, as well as both high-definition Mini HDMI and standard-definition NTSC / PAL composite video outputs.

Pre-order the Fujifilm FinePix HS10now for US $499.95 and get free shipping too!