By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MICROSOFT might have forced itself too much when it attempted to subdue Apple in the handheld media player business when it launched the 30 Figabyte Zune about a year ago. Sad to say, it didn’t fare as hoped. A year later, Microsoft again makes an attempt but has added to its repertoire two new models aimed at the Apple iPod’s smaller iteration, the Nano. It recently launched the Zune 4, Zune 8 and Zune 80, all of which now feature the Zune Pad, a look-alike of iPod’s tried-and-tested Click Wheel.

Zune 4

For this review, the Zune 4 will be the featured model and it’s the one Microsoft is pitting against the iPod nano 4 gigabyte, and as such, uses flash memory instead of the small hard disk drives of its big brothers. Physically, the smaller Zune is nearly identical in shape and size to the first and second generation iPod nano. Its dimensions are 1.6 inches by 3.6 inches by 0.33 inches, and it weighs 47 grams. It also comes in four colors (red, pink, green and black) of which the front is in matte finish, which gives it a rugged look. The screen is twice as large as that of the first generation iPod nano and is about the same size as that of the current generation iPod nano. Nevertheless, the Zune’s screen is equally bright.

The Zune has a total of three buttons (except for the lock slider at the top of the unit). Two smaller buttons on the left and right side below the glass screen serve as the play/pause and back buttons. The large oval button below the screen is Microsoft’s pride and joy with the smaller Zunes: the Zune Pad. Much like the iPod Click Wheel, the Zune Pad is largely the unit’s full control interface. It can be used as a four-way directional button but its best feature is its slider option where the user can just flick his or her thumb left-to-right or up and down to navigate through the unit’s options. Whereas the user has to rotate the Click Wheel on the iPod to navigate through voluminous content, the Zune user can just flick, then hold in one direction until the desired song, photo, or video is found. It’s also easy to deduce that the Zune Pad will be nearly as sensitive as the Click Wheel especially when the lock slider is not activated. Luckily, even without it, the user can put the Zune in a side pocket and not worry about the songs being changed while walking about.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

ONLY a few things would make a splash buff blush, and among them is getting a camera that can be taken underwater, be frozen down to below five degrees Celsius, and be dropped from a height of 1.5 meters (shoulder length).

This sounds familiar because Olympus already did this with the mju 725 about three years ago. Then it followed up with the mju 750 in 2006 and now, the company has recently introduced the mju 790 SW. So far, the mju 790 is the most high-tech all-terrain consumer camera from Olympus and it certainly lives up to the hype of the best underwater camera in the market.

Two months ago, I was able to test the mju 770 by sinking it in a bucket of water and chucking it inside my freezer. This time the mju 790 SW took a more sustained test when I brought it to Miniloc island in El Nido, Palawan. Of course, that’s the juicy part — and here’s an underwater video I took to show the mju 790 SW in action.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

PREVIOUSLY, we reviewed the Acer 5920G. Now we play around with another Taiwanese contender and the latest iteration of their gaming laptop, the Asus G1S and among the Taiwan-made notebooks, this one truly is a heavyweight.

It seems to be a trend among notebook makers now to push the bar further in introducing models that cater to the more demanding market of hardcore gamers, not to mention putting price tags that are still within the P100, 000 price range. While putting up a gaming rig is half as expensive as getting a notebook with the same specifications, having a souped-up computer that can be lugged around during frag fests can be a treat. Besides, notebooks that have been dressed up with stickers look way more cool than even modified PCs.

Anyway, the Asus G1S is an upgrade to Asus’ original gaming notebook, the G1. The G1S has new features commonly found in most gaming desktops: It uses the Intel core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 Gigahertz processor, 2 Gb memory (upgradeable to 4Gb), NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB video card, 160Gb SATA hard disk and an 8-speed DVD super multi-drive with Lightscribe and 15.4” LCD panel.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

TAIWANESE computer maker Acer isn’t exactly known among gamers as a good option for the kind of activity they do, largely because of its low graphics capabilities even in its high-end models. Even the company’s high-end Ferrari series was not as well received by gamers because of its exorbitant pricing. Only the more discriminating business and budget-conscious segments of the market were more familiar with Acer’s laptop models.

In the last few years, however, Acer has been slowly enticing the gamer market with a few models. One of its latest iterations is the Gemstone series, a totally redesigned scheme that makes Acer notebooks look more like toys than notebooks. The design does work well for Acer as it gives a fresh look to an otherwise gray-and-black laptop.

As such, the Gemstone 5920G (the G might mean gamer) is one of the most powerful models from Acer and is targeted at the gamer market. This model features Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 Ghz processor, a 2Gb memory, a DVD writer capable of HD-DVD, a 160 Gb hard drive and an Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT 256MB graphics card. The last specification is probably the more enticing feature of the 5920G since it is in GDDR2 (for the non-techie, it means it functions two times better than current generation PC graphics cards) and is already capable of high-definition gaming and video. In fact, the 5920G already has HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface), a video output that will allow a user to connect the 5920G to an HDMI-capable LCD monitor. Again, this last feature would be particularly useful when using the 5920G for either DVD/HD-DVD movie playing and playing video games. Luckily, most video games can be pushed for 720p or 1080i viewing.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

ONCE in a while, an electronic device manufacturer would try and compete with Apple in the portable MP3 device market. Most of the competition would try to make theirs look as simple as the iPod that they end up looking like the iPod.

Korean electronics giant Samsung has previously attempted to enter the MP3 device business with their small Yepp series. Now, the company is stretching its legs as it launched the K3 series. Not surprisingly, it looks like the iPod nano and because it is somewhat a clone of Apple’s mid-range MP3 player, the K3 admittedly looks good.

The unit is just slightly longer than the nano but is just as thick. It has a stainless frame lining while top is covered in seamless colored laminated glass with a large black-tinged LCD. The K3 comes in three colors: black, green and maroon.

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