Apple iPad Case (CASE-ZML MC361ZM/A) Review.

 "Best Case Available YET!" 2010-05-08
By Timothy K. Bryant (Chicago)

This is by far the best case available for the iPad yet. I've read some of the complaints. I've had no trouble keeping my case clean and I don't find the edges sharp at all. It's the only pad that I tried that does not add a huge amount of extra bulk or weight to it. It's sleek, form fitting, and protects the screen when I'm carrying it around. This case holds the iPad very snug. Is it perfect? No. But for now it's the best one on the market & I'm glad I was finally able to grab one.

 "Love this iPad case" 2010-07-07
By Karen Cox (Georgia)

Because I read several negative reviews about this case, I had not planned to buy one. However, when I got my iPad from ebay it came with the Apple ipad case. Since I was expecting to not like it, I ordered a different case from another company. It turns out that I love the Apple ipad case (& didn't like the other one). What I like most about this case is how thin it is-- you could slip this inside your purse or totebag & it wouldn't be too bulky. I like the way its designed, particularly the way you can stand it up in various ways. All of the buttons & ports are still easily accessible when the iPad is in the case. The ipad slips in easily, but doesn't slip out as easily. You have to pull on it a bit. Its not a case you'd want if you plan to mostly use the iPad without a case, and just need a case for protection while transporting it. If you're going to keep the iPad in a case most of the time, while you use it, this is probably the best for that.



The price listed here of $50.84 is ridiculous since the Apple store sells it for less, but I felt like a review here should be about the product.

 "Great case....don't pay more than $39.99" 2010-06-03
By S. Johnson

This is truly a great case for an iPad, but DO NOT pay more than 39.99 for this case. That is the List Price and the Apple store will have them back in stock soon. Also, Best Buy will be carrying these for 39.99 soon as well.

 "Better than the incase book convertible jacket..." 2010-04-19
By J. Dawkin

I returned the incase convertible book jacket for this case. It was too bulky and took away from nice thin attraction of the iPad. Personal preference I guess but you can't go wrong with this case.

 "Pleased with my iPad Case" 2010-06-26
By Andrew R. Perfetto (Orange, CT USA)

Amazon is always among my prime choices for the purchase of interest items contained in its inventory. I would have ordered the Apple iPad case in an instant from Amazon except for the inconceivably high asking price it assigned in collaboration with it "fulfiller". I made a local purchase at an Apple reseller and paid Apple's list price for about one-third less.

That said, I'm pleased with this Apple product for my wonderful toy. The case is thin, well designed, conforms well to the iPad allowing good access to its switches and openings. I'm relieved that my iPad is protected to some degree but I agree with the writer who suggested owning both the Apple case as well as a more shock resistant, bulky case when it is subjected to more activity in transport.

I've learned in twenty-five years that Apple really doesn't market inferior products; they just cost more.

Canon PGI-220 Combo Pack - Triple Pack (Black) Review.

 "3 pack is the way to go" 2009-02-24
By Tony Goodhew (Mercer Island, WA USA)

I have a Canon MP 620 printer which I think is a great device but it does tend to use a lot of ink (or maybe I just print a lot) so having the 3 pack makes it easy to be ready for when I need to.



What I've found works for me is to get the 3 pack of the PGI-220 and then the color ink (Canon 2946B004 CLI-221 4 Color Value Pack (Black/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow)) in the 4 pack and finally deal with any intermediate outages through an individual purchases.



This means I have replacements for all the ink as needed and never have to urgently get some.

 "OEM is usually the best way to go" 2009-01-12
By nozamadlog (Deep in the Heart of Texas)

What can I say? Canon ink for a Canon printer? Of course this is a good idea. Some of the generic inks with this newest generation of printers measuring picoliters can clog up the print heads. This ink and the printers it's used in are some of the best Canon has produced. This cartridge seems to last longer than the previous printer I had that uses the CLI-8 ink. I am very pleased with the output quality of this ink.



And this is one of the best prices available for original Canon ink.

 "INK" 2009-05-22
By Michael L. Knakal (MI)

BLACK INK ALWAYS RUNS OUT FAST. THIS 3 PACK WILL LAST AWHILE & WAS PRICED THE BEST ON AMAZON.

 "Canon ink cartrige 3 pack." 2009-04-13
By John N. Texas (Houston, TX)

I was surprised at how soon the black print cartridge that came with my new Canon Pixma MP 620 ran out of ink, but was pleasantly surprised to fine the 3 pack at what appears to be a reasonable price. I must confess that when these empty, I will check on having them refilled.

JH

 "Save some money" 2009-04-03
By R. Oblek (Phila., Pa. United States)

Basic, simple fact. In this case, buying a three pack from Amazon with free shipping offered savings. Instead of struggling to remember to bid on Ebay, or seeing $20 per single cartridge as the only option,it's easier to committ $34 for a three pack.

Canon's printer will use a cartridge up quickly. Save time and money in this case by going through Amazon. Check prices--you'll see what I mean.

Kingston 4 GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card SDC4/4GB Review.

 "Fast and Spacious" 2009-06-09
By Avid Reviewer (San Jose, CA)

The Kingston 8 GB microSDHC Card works flawlessly with all my memory card readers: Kingston Mobilite, Kingston microSD Card Reader, and SD Card Reader. Windows (XP) has no trouble recognizing it as a removable drive.



- Device Compatibility

Using a microSDHC to MS PRO Duo Adapter, I am able to use the Kingston 8GB microSD in my Sony Cybershot DSC-W170 Camera -- it works like a charm; the camera has no trouble capturing pictures and videos (at a frame frate of 30 fps and a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels). All of my devices, such as my Garmin nüvi 360 and my HP iPAQ 111, are able to recognize the full capacity of the SD card.



- microSDHC Format

microSD cards of 4GB or larger are known more specifically as microSDHC cards. This 8GB Kingston card is therefore a microSDHC card. Beware that some older devices are NOT compatible with the microSDHC format. Such devices will only work with microSD cards with capacities of 2GB (such as this Kingston 2GB microSD card) or less.



(The technical specification for the SDHC/microSDHC format supports capacities ranging from 4GB - 32 GB. microSDHC cards of 16GB, such as this Kingston 16GB microSDHC card, is the largest capacity available as of this writing.)



- Class 4 Speed

This SD card is rated class 4 (data transfer rate: 4 MByte/sec, or 32 mbps) - sufficiently fast for the majority of electronics. A decidedly small number of electronics, most notably some camcorders and high-end cameras, require a class 6 SD card (the fastest transfer rate as of this writing). Transcend makes one that's rated class 6.



- Frustration-Free Packaging

Kudos to Amazon for their Frustration-Free Packaging efforts in using only recyclable packaging materials and in keeping the amount of packaging used to a bare minimum. As a giant in the e-tailing industry, Amazon's move will no doubt serve as an impetus for getting the rest of the e-tailers to follow suit!



---

The Kingston memory card is compatible with devices that support the microSDHC format. It is a fast (class 4) memory card with plenty of storage. Definitely recommended if the specs meet your needs!

 "Works for BlackBerry 8310" 2008-09-30
By M. Krasilinec (Boulder, CO United States)

I didn't see any reviews for this product, so I wanted to let you know that the 8GB (7.4GB usable) works on my BlackBerry 8310.



Interestingly, although the BB showed 8GB with the new card, I only saw 4GB (3.2 or 3.4GB usable) when I first connected to my laptop and the computer asked to format the card when I enabled Mass Storage Mode (I used this mode to drag and drop into the BB). I could only see 4GB on my work computer as well.



However, after standalone reformatting the card (to FAT32) on my friends Compaq both of my computers (and phone) now properly see it as an 8GB card. My computer and phone information is below.



laptop: Win XP Pro w/ 4.2.2.12 BB Desktop Manager

work computer: BB desktop manager 4.6.0.12 with win2k pro

phone: curve 8310 with firmware: v4.2.2.170 and AT&T as provider



I'm looking forward to using the expanded storage!

 "Works Like a Charm!" 2008-01-30
By KT

I bought the Kingston 4gb micro SDHC card for my Blackberry 8830. At the current time, my particular Blackberry cannot accommodate a card larger than 4 gb, due to OS software that is not yet up to speed. The Kingston card is every bit as good as the more popular brands, with the exception of having a lower price. Be aware that using the included SD adapter is great...HOWEVER, if your laptop or desktop SD reader is not rated to read HC (high capacity) cards, then you may not be able to view the contents of the card or make changes using your computer(s). This happened to me, so I purchased a $10 USB SDHC card reader, and now I can use these higher-capacity cards in both my older laptop and desktop SD drives. Of course you can transfer data via a direct connection with your cell phone, for example, but it usually takes longer to do it that way.

 "Awesome SD Micro Card" 2008-10-22
By C G

This is a great SD Micro card. I'm using it as a memory card for my cell phone MP3 player. For those that are wondering, it does work with the LG Voyager.

 "Great for LG Dare" 2009-03-10
By Michael Cohrs (Alexandria, MN)

I ordered this 8gb Kingston micro sd for my LG Dare. It works perfectly for storing my music and pics.

Apple iPod touch 64 GB (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL Review.

 "WARNNING for new 8GB 3G owners and ipod touch 3G Review" 2009-09-11
By Hassan B. Bn Hadhram

Before i start let me just tell you "what's New" with the iPod touch Third generation" :



-Faster Cpu/Double the ram/Better graphic (faster Boot time/faster loading is all what i did notice)

-Double the storage for the same old price

-Voice control (I'll explain it in a second)

-Latest firmware for free

-New Earbuds with built in remote+Microphone (So you can use voice control)



And that is everything~ depends on your needs upgrading from 2G to 3G might be not worth it.



*Important Note* : only the New iPod touch 32GB/64GB are third generation ~ (8GB is repacked 2G) Details below.



About the new Voice control function, if you love to take your iPod with you to the Gym the new feature "Voice control" is pretty cool, it does allow you to control your music via your voice, no need to get the iPod out of your pocket you can simply say "Next" to move to next song, say "shuffle" for shuffle , say "Pause" and music playback will stop etc, that is why i recommend the iPod touch over iPod classic for gym users, my friend bought an iPod classic and now he complains that the iPod classic is too heavy for him when he goes to the gym and he will have to buy another iPod "properly Nano" for his Gym, for me i use my iPod touch for the gym, it's so light that sometimes i forgot that it's even in my pocket.



After playing with my iPod touch 3g for a while i honestly did not notice any difference from the outside or the inside compared to my old iPod touch Second generation (It's supposed to be faster but i did not notice anything during music and video playback or the menus, however browsing with safari and loading facebook was faster, same thing with boot time), you properly can only notice it being faster with heavy applications since video/music playback is already fast enough with 2G.



I got the 64GB iPod 3G for [...]$, if you think of upgrading your 2G iPod touch honestly do yourself a favor and save yourself the money unless you really need that much of a storage (I do that is why i bought one), also remember that the 3G battery lasts less than 2G,(3G battery = 30 Hours of music playback versus 2G 36 hours of music playback according to apple official specs)



*VERY IMPORTANT* for the people who wants the new 8GB version, the new third generation 8GB iPod touch is NOT 3G it's a second generation iPod touch but apple did repack it/renamed it to 3rd generation, which seems to be misleading by APPLE and it's not cool at all, it is IPod Touch 2G+Updated firmware and that is it.



The iPod touch 3rd generation 32GB/64GB versions comes with a free mic+remote with the earbuds while the 8GB do not (it comes with normal earbuds), the 32GB/64GB have the New CPU+Graphic (According to apple the new cpu is twice as fast just like the iPhone 3GS) while the new 8GB use the same old CPU/Chip from the old iPod touch second generation.



Here is APPLE description on the iPod touches page about the 32/64GB versions : """Enjoy all the great features of the 8GB model along with better performance, richer graphics and voice control"""



The iPod touch 3rd generation is the same awesome iPod touch second generation was.

You can play your music/watch your videos/play games, even read your kindle books/etc "you can read amazon big description of what it's capable of if you do not know yet, it's better than what would i say because it has pictures and everything.



The iPod touch got the best browser i have ever seen in a portable device, i do not even need to carry my netbook with me anymore thanks to my iPod touch, if you hated browsing with lame browsers that crash a lot or slow (many mobile phones) trust me on this one, the iPod touch browser is not a toy or a gimmick it is a browser you can depends on, it's super fast and smooth and after using it for like a full year it has only crashed on me once!



Short list of pros and cons about the iPod touch



Pros:

-Slick,small and light device

-Great touch screen

-The BEST web browser on a portable device

-Amazing video/music playback

-App Store (Too many cool applications for Free)

-Display screen is clear and bright

-No bugs and annoying stuff a very reliable hardware

-64GB Flash based mp3 player



Cons:

-Not much of an upgrade over 2G (people were disappointed because they did not get upgrades like camera/OLED/etc)

-Weaker battery, only lasts 30 hours for music playback versus 2G iPod touch 36 Hours music playback

-Expensive for the 64GB version

-Still no FM radio without the use of online applications

-Bluetooth is still half locked



Update : one more reason to avoid the 8GB ipod touch, Apple announced today "April 09 2010" that iPhone 4.0 OS will be released this summer and it will bring many new features to the iphone and ipod touch, however some features like Multitasking will only be available for iphone 3GS and higher or Ipod touch third generation and higher (As i said before the 8GB is second Generation only, a third generation 8gb ipod touch do not exist! so you wont be getting multitasking if you buy the 8GB ipod touch),



I hope my review was helpful :)

 "So Much **MORE** Than Just An MP3 Player!" 2009-09-30
By Alex Honda (Los Angeles, CA USA)

This is my first iPod and MP3 player. So far I've had the iPOD TOUCH (32-GIG/3RD GEN) for two-weeks and I'm loving it.



It's does so much more than just play music, which is why I wanted one. I'm not a Mac person at all but the iPod Touch...I love it.



Out of the box it found my Wi-Fi connection and had me surfing the net (the real Internet and not the cell phone web pages like the one on my Verizon phone). It was intuitive to use and I'm finally getting accustomed to using the touch screen to scroll and type away.



This review is mostly for other iPod newbies like myself. Here's what it comes with:



***The iPod Touch- slick and smooth and very thin



***A USB Cable- this hooks your iPod to your computer to recharge the battery and to sync it with iTunes.



***Plastic Docking Thing- this is a small plastic part that allows you to dock the iPod to an external device (I'm not sure what).



***Head Phones with Microphone and external volume control.



***Teeny-tiny insert- with bare-bones info. You have to access the full manual, which is available for free download in PDF format, at the apple website.



My advice is to buy an external cover for the iPod--the 2nd Generation iPod Touch skins/cover fit the new 3rd Generation ones because the body is the same--and buy a screen protector so you keep the screen free from scratches and such. I already scratched the shiny back of my iPod just by placing it down on the table so be careful when you first get it if you don't have a cover for it.



As long as you have Wi-Fi (wireless Internet connection) in your house/apt you can get full use out of the iPod Touch. You can also access free Wi-Fi hotspots in stores, restaurants, and other areas, so you can get on the Internet and download applications (apps) etc., check your email, go on facebook, youtube, even Amazon has an app, that can be downloaded onto the iPod.



The iPod Touch is configured to automatically search for Wi-Fi networks, it looks for both either locked (need a password) or unlocked (no password) networks, and displays them in the settings for "Wi-Fi." You really don't have to know anything about Wi-Fi to get it started. You just pick one of them and it connects to it.



I've tried my iPod at some hotspots like a shopping center with a Starbucks and it found the Wi-Fi and connected but since a lot of people were using it, it took a while to connect.



You need the program iTunes, which is a free down-loadable program for Windows or Mac, and an iTunes account to purchase and download the apps (most are free but you still need an account to download them). If you've used iTunes before for buying song downloads or just to register then you already have a login account...if you haven't used iTunes before it's free to download and easy to install. Then you sign up for an account which is also free, unless you plan on purchasing songs or videos.



The pluses on the iPod Touch:



===== Applications (Apps) =====

The apps are a plenty on the iPod Touch and there's an app for everything (practically). They're arranged by category like games, news, productivity, etc., and are furthered displayed by best selling, top-free, and release date. You can also search by keyword or check out the most popular and featured apps.



Some apps are free and some cost a one time fee of between $.99-$4.99 and up. If you're a news junkie like me, you'll really love it. I've downloaded Time Magazine, NPR (radio and print stories), BBC READER, New York Times, USA Today, AP (Associated Press) and ABC News...all for free!



I really like that the BBC Reader will download their stories into the cache memory, once you connect via Wi-Fi so you can read the articles offline (when Wi-Fi is not available). NYT and AP will allow you to save articles that you can read offline as well. And the AP will deliver breaking news as long as you're connected... ALL FREE!!!



I've downloaded a dictionary, spell checker, facebook, Grimm's Fairytales and Alice In Wonderland books to read...all for FREE! I also got this free app called "Pandora" which is a radio station that will only play songs by artists that you want to hear. Too cool!



I know that I sound like a broken record with the "free" stuff but being a Verizon Wireless user, I'm sure other VZW customers feel me, I'm amazed that one can download and install quality, portable applications onto a device for no charge or subscription plan.



===== Other Fun Stuff =====



Calendar for appointments etc., contact phone book, clock, weather, calculator (you can download a free tip-calculator), notes and maps. These all come with the iPod Touch.



iTunes will keep the stuff (music, apps, videos) on your iPod, backed-up on your computer so you'll always have a copy of those things. And you can tell it which play-lists to sync so that you don't have to carry around your entire music/video library from your computer on the portable.



Anyway, I'm loving my iPod Touch and it was the perfect birthday gift to myself. It really is like having a mini-computer with you at all times. The only thing that's missing is a camera, but that's not a big deal at all. It's great for people who want an iPhone, but don't want AT&T's lousy service. I also love not having to pay a monthly subscription charge to Verizon for apps on my cell phone, now that I have the iPod Touch!



The only thing I would advise getting--in addition to the iPod--is the cover protector skin and screen protector mentioned earlier, and the Apple USB Power Adapter which will allow you to plug the USB cord into an electrical outlet (though it isn't necessary, it charges a lot faster than when it's charging from your computer).



Since this is my first iPod, I don't know how it stacks up against the previous versions. But this one is great and really addicting! So if you've been wondering if you should get one and you don't have an iPhone, have access to Wi-Fi, then I'd say...yes! The iPod Touch has so much to offer the user that you can find something to do with it even if you don't plan on using it as an MP3 player all that much.



*** A Note About iTunes ***

Even if you don't buy MP3s--I've only purchased about three from iTunes; the rest was from Amazon through credits from special purchases and iPod can play them--iTunes is really handy because it makes taking songs from CDs so easy by capturing them and turning them into MP3s. The program will even retrieve song and artist information for you so you don't have to label the file once you import it. From there you can make your own playlists and burn your own CDs from those playlists, not to mention carrying them on your iPod, so it's definitely worth it and really easy to use.

 "Just Shy Of Perfection" 2009-09-15
By C. Franz (Zurich, ZH Switzerland)

This review could be summerd up in a short sentence: You are looking at the current killer appliance for personal entertainment. But I never, ever, do short reviews... So here's the long story. Grab a cup of coffee, as this review answers questions you never knew existed.



I have to admit that there have been few items that have captured and kept my enthusiasm for as long as the iPod Touch. Two years ago, I purchased the original Touch, last year I upgraded to the 32 GB, and now I have the 64GB version. Was the upgrade worth it? And what are the things yet to be imroved? Because even though the Touch is close to perfection, there are still many small things that can be improved.



Hardware

Physically, the new (64GB) Touch is identical to it's 2nd generation brethren. It's polished crome backplate is slightly curved, making it fit your palm perfectly. As before, the fact that it's made from polished chrome will guarantee that it attracts fingerprints and scratches almost magically. I'm no friend of any kind of protective covers, and my last (32GB) Touch had to live in my pocket with my keys, coins, and other stuff I threw in with it. After a year, the backplate did pick up a lot of scratches, and I expect that the 64GB to fare no better. Personally, I would have preferred a brushed finish for the backplate. This may have caused problems with the readability of the customized engraving that Apple applies to the Touch on the backplate for no additional charge (a nice 'touch' that becomes increasingly important as the Touch becomes more ubiquitious). This custom engraving you can only get if you order the Touch through Apple (it's also not available in the Apple Stores).



The front plate is made from one of the most impressive glass enhancements I've ever seen. After a year of heavy abuse, my old Touch's glass front has not a single scratch - not one. I don't know how Apple does it, but this is really impressive. Remember, I don't use any protective covers or films. The screen itself is brilliant, bright, and can easily be read outside, wich is a feat in itself. The Touch has an ambient light sensor, so it can dim the screen when the surroundings are darker.

This time around, the screen's color temperature has remained unchanged (the 2G shifted all colors from a blueish to a more golden tinge). Movie playback is simply astonishing. The image is crisp, and the on-screen controls natural. Again, there are niceties such as double-tapping the screen to change aspect ratio, or placing bookmarks etc. You still can't set a movie's contrast, but beyond that small issue, movie playback is perfect. Viewing movies on the Touch simply works great, but personally I think that the screen is too small to watch a full movie. Last week, I tried watching a TV episode while on a plane enroute to Hamburg (a 75 minute flight), but quickly decided against it, opting instead to play a game of 'Luxor'. Somehow I prefer a larger screen for consuming video, while I have no problems doing something interactive on it. Still, video plays great on the Touch.



Button and interface lay-out has remained the same from the last generation: volume controls on the left side, top holds the 'exit/on' button, buttom has dock and phones connectors, and the front holds the single home button. There is one thing that can be improved here: I would have preferred the audio connector to be on top (or either side), as the current configuration precludes the use of many applications (e.g. News- and eBook readers) when you want to place it upright -- for example in the Gym. Some apps do use the accelerometers and can be used positioning the Touch upside down, though.



The built-in speaker is unchanged from the last version. It's weak, tinny, mono, produces horrible sound, has no volume to speak of -- and yet it's one of the best additions to the Touch (the original didn't have it, the 2nd gen did). It simply makes casual gaming so much more fun. I don't care about the bad sound quality, I just love the fact that it's there.



The signatory white earphones that Apple sells with the Touch may look good, but I don't like them. In my ears they are too uncomfortable. Since I'm no audiophile, I can't comment on their audio quality other than that it's good enough for me. Anyway, I replaced them with my favorite non-Apple version. The hitch here is that Apple now delivers the 64 GB (and 32 GB) with earphones that sport a built-in mic and remote. And my head phones don't have that. While the remote is nothing much to write home about (the way it works is just too complex), the mic works well, and has just the right fidelity to pick out voice over the background noise. So, for now, I keep the white buds with me in case I want to use the IP-telephony capabilities.



Battery life appears to have been reduced somewhat from the 2nd gen - at least on paper. During the past few days the new 3rd gen Touch certainly performed as well as or even better than my 2nd gen - but then again, that one's battery is already one year old. One fact that I've become very fond of is the quick-charge ability, which works really well.



The built-in wireless connectivity is really nice, with astonishingly well executed integration. The touch does all it's wireless networking over WiFi and Bluetooth. WiFi works really well (especially here in Switzerland where Hotspots are particularely dense), and Bluetooth integration (which I tried on the 3rd gen for the first time) is flawless. WiFi reception (range) lags somewhat behind that of a Wintel laptop (no doubt due to the metal backplate) and is pretty much on par with that of a 15" Macbook Pro (which is also somewhat lacking in WiFi reception range). WiFi is still the 'g' variant though [interestingly enough, the built-in hardware does support 11n, but so far Apple has chosen not to activate it, presumably to conserve battery. This is interesting also from the fact that in the 2G Touch, Apple initially included Bluetooth capabilities, but only activated it with a later OS release. Perhaps the same can be expected for 11n]. Bluetooth now also works with headphones and BT-based car integration kits (works well in mine). I would have loved to try out BT-based printing from the Calender or Addressbook app, but hit a snag: it appears no Touch app supports printing...



Missing Hardware

There is some hardware that I expected, or whished that it was included in the Touch - especially as (some) of them are now present on other iPods:

No camera. I was somewhat ambivalent about this. No camera means no pictures and/or movies. But it also means that I can keep handling it rough, as I do not have to worry abou the lens. Also, I don't have to worry about taking it to the Gym (my Gym has very strict rules towards camera-equipped items). All things being equal, the addition of a camera (still and/or video) would have been nice, but I don't miss it much (truth be told, I yet have to use the camera on my mobile phone).

Unfortunately, there is also no built-in mic. This is much a more significant omission than having no camera. The Touch is a first class audio voice recorder and (more importantly for me) a first class Skype client. There are third party solutions for this (a mini-micro that directly plugs into the headphone connector), but if the touch had a built-in mike, it would make using world-class applications like Shazam (and Skype) so much easier

Likewise, there is no compass, nor a GPS receiver present in the touch. I understand that these are left out to better differentiate the Touch from the iPhone, but I would have welcomed them in the top-of-the-line (64GB) version of the iPod.

And, finally, there is no radio receiver. I'm definitely not a radio man, as I next to never listen to it. Still, some people do (as the ton of nicely selling IP radio applications shows), and anyway, the Nano has it now - even with a nice Tivoesque pause feature! Why not the Touch? Strange design choice.





iPod & iTunes

The original iPod's strength was the sheer brilliant ease of use - and the touch-based interface represented a mile-stone in improving on that. To date there simply is no better multimedia interface than that of the Touch/iPhone. It's natural after just a few seconds. It's drop-dead beautiful, with muted highlights, and cleverly accentuated by small (if flashy) animations that convey the different metaphors of the interface (e.g. the rubber-banded bouncing when you reach the end of a playlist). Like no interface before you can instantly use it to accomplish even complex tasks with just the flick of a finger. Using it is sheer, unadulterated fun. The 'Coverflow' album browsing may be one of the least useful, but it's definitely the most natural (and fun) way to flip though you music. And it is jaw-droppingly well executed (note: when you use coverflow you should make sure that you have installed the all cover art from any music you did not purchase from the iTunes Store).

At the base of all iPod music playing is the Playlist, and using playlist on the Touch is a joy. The interface whileplaying is also mature, offering niceties such as displaying a song's lyrics on a single tap, along with singularily simple controls for repeat and shuffle play. Unfortunately, this playlist feature also still has one of the most glaring shortcomings: the Touch is unable to play playlist groups. I usually group a small bunch of songs into very short playlist (e.g. '10 best Springsteen'), and then mix these playlist into larger ones by simply dropping a playlist into a group. Although iTunes supports this, all versions of the Touch have stubbornly refused to do that.

Also somewhat strangely missing on the Touch is the ability to search for an Artist or music title. Considering the fact that more than 10'000 songs fit onto the device the need for an ability to search for something would seem obvious (note: the Touch *does* have a global search function, which will also turn up songs - along with contacts and mails that match your search phrase. Having to leave the iPod app simply to look for a song is against everything Apple's ease of use is about, and it's not what I would expect). And while we are at it, I'd love the ability to also search the lyrics, but that would be the icing on the cake.

What is present, and what continues to amaze me is a function that I initially dismissed as some way to sell song: Genius Playlists. What it does is that given a song it finds other songs you already possess that would play nicely together. Since I have lots of songs (else I wouldn't be purchasing the 64GB), this feature has helped me to get an incredible amount of additional joy out of my music. There are lots of gems hidden that mass of music I never knew I owned. Of course, if you want to, Genius will also recommend songs you don't have but can buy right now on iTunes. That, of course, is the 'sell song' angle. But at least it's incredibly well executed (and yes, I've used it)

The 64GB now also supports voice recognition - and I'm sure it's a marvel of technology. But (much like the auto-correction system for text) it mostly only works in English. If you have set your system to German, you must pronounce english band names as they would be read aloud by a german-only speaker. Do it once, and everyone in the room stares at you. You'll never do it again. Plus, due to the greater complexity of the german language (I am german speaking), the commands only work half the time. A nice idea, and a boon while driving or typing. But *only* when set to english.



Rounding out the audiovisual feature set is the Touch's photo presentation ability, really showcasing the touch-based gesture interface. It was the pinch and flick gesture that originally sold me on the Touch, and it still does today. On the Mac, iTunes ties into iPhoto's image management, greatly facilitating the task of sorting out which images to synch to your iPod (on windows, this task is slightly more pedestrian, as you'll have to manually manage the 'My Pictures' folder). A strange quirk, though, is that during synch iTunes seems to downsample your images to a (to me unknown, but definitely) smaller size. Since I'm a photo nut (shooting with DSLR) this 'feature' annoys me somewhat, as iTunes currently does not provide any means to control the downsampling of photos.



The success of the original iPod has left some competitors scratching their heads, while it is blindingly obvious to most users: the tight, seamless integration with iTunes. Now in version 9, iTunes has become somewhat complex and not always that intuitive to use. It now also tries to manage Photos and Movies as well as Music and Applications. But iTunes is still very easy to use, and synchronizing the iPod Touch with iTunes is quick and simple. A small disappointment is the fact that you still can't synchronize your Touch wirelessly, and that it still refuses to mount as an external disk. Another disappointment is that although iTunes now allows you to share your music over the net with multiple Macs, it can't stream your Music to the Touch (A small, brilliant app from the AppStore can do this for you, though).



And while we are speaking of iTunes - there is one feature that I'd love to have on the Touch: the visualizer. iTunes' visualizer is really beautiful, and I would have loved the same functionality on my Touch.





Internet

While by itself the iPod Touch is an impressive and fun device, it comes into real swing when connected to the internet. The always-on nature and graceful handling of connection drops make the Touch one of the best internet devices I've used to day. The included Safari internet browser performs great - unless you try to load Flash-based content, which is not supported. The email client works great for receiving and viewing mail. Writing anything but the shortest of email is annoying, as the Touch is simply too small for comfortably entering any significant amount of text. Calendar and Address Book are well executed (even if entering a new date and merging multiple calenders is slightly more convoluted than necessary). Mail, Calendar and Addressbook can (if you have that service available) synch live to either mobile me (which Apple loves to sell you) or Exchange (which your employer loves to force on you) through a feature that is very similar to 'push' notification. In the past, using Exchange has been somewhat spotty, and mobile Me has had it's own share of problems. All in all, though both work nice, and exceedingly quick. You do need to be in range of a hotspot for this to function, though. Somewhat disappointing is the fact that notes are not synched. Another nice addition is 'Voice Memos' which is an audio recorder. Had the Touch an internal mic, this app would have been even better...



Applications

Next to the 'productivity' or 'PDA' suite (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) the touch comes with some other nice (but somewhat dull) apps (e.g. Maps, Stocks, YouTube) and two killer Apps: iTunes and App Store. While the former gives you instant access to all songs and movies that are currently available on iTunes (Warning: that, plus the incredible 'Shazam' can lead to unintented gross music spending), the latter (App Store) gives you equal instant access to an incredible number of applications that you can instantly download and use. The quality of applications on the App Store is quite uneven, and tends to cluster around some rather puerile topics (as a veritable, uh, heap, of Fart applications proves). That being said, there are a number of jaw-droppingly good applications that are able to utilize the touch interface (and other capabilities such as accelerometer) in new and surprising ways. Just to name a few are the aforementioned 'Shazam' that can identify a song being played and instantly link to iTunes (you have to see it in action to believe it), Flight Control, where you manage an airport by drawing the flight path for each plane, Bloomberg that provides stock information in an exhaustive way, and Wemlin that shows an up-to-date timetable for when the next tram arrives at my station. No matter what, there probably is an application that supports you with it.

And then there are games. Apple had quickly recognized that the Touch represents an immensely attractive and powerful game platform. Performance, screen, connectivity and control capabilities make it the ideal casual gaming platform. Accordingly, games represent by far the largest category in the App store. While inevitably there are some truly awfully executed, or simply dull games, the majority of the available games are at least somewhat entertaining, while some rival and exceed those that can be had for thrice the price on dedicated gaming platforms.



In the past, my Touch quickly filled up with app after app that I simply couldn't live without any more, and an unforseen limitation of the Touch's design surfaced: app management. Applications are arranged as icons on a 4x4 grid per page, with multiple pages that you can flick left and right to navigate. Unfortunately, re-arranging apps, although possible (and quite ingeniously implemented) is still a chore. Apple has done the right thing, and integrated a much nicer app manager into the (PC/Mac) iTunes application.



Speed Improvement

The iPod Touch, although seen by some as the 'iPhone's smaller sibling' was always either as nible as the phone, or even faster. The new, 3rd gen Touch is said to be 'up to 50% faster' than the previous generation. To be honest, I'm not sure that I see that speed improvent translate to much performance increase. That may be due to the fact that my Touch seldom maxes out on processor throughput or (for example when browsing) that WiFi bandwidth is the limiting factor. Some apps appear to be 'snappier' during start-up (smaller apps) or execution (games, mostly), but all in all, the Touch pretty much seems to be as fast as the last generation. This leads me to believe that the real bottleneck is it's internal execution memory (i.e. not the 64 GB storage, but processor memory), and ony applications that are specifically written to take advantage of new technology (e.g. OpenGL ES). Or in other words: the overall speed has not been improved that much.



SDK

So you want to be a geek? Already are? You can write your own applications for the Touch if you like. I've taken the plunge and downloaded the SDK. Note that you can download the SDK and develop for the Touch/iPhone without actually owning one. The development system comes with a iPhone simulator that you can use to test your applications without downloading them unto an actual device (it does have some limitations: for example, the accelerometers are not simulated, and you have no indication of the true execution speed). Well, you do need a Mac for this (although it can be a few years old). The SDK is impressive - overwhelming even if you are not used to Mac programming (and almost prohibitively complex if you are not used to frameworks like Cocoa and object-oriented programming). Still, crunching out your first (very basic) appliction is surprisingly easy, and if you roll that way, you'll get addicted quickly.



Summary:

It's the killer personal entertainment device. Buy it. You know you want it -- especially if you have read this far. If you have the 2nd gen iPod, you may need to ask yourself if the slight speed bump and the additional storage is worth the hefty price tag. To me it was, but your mileage may vary.



pros

+ world class touch/gesture interface

+ best iPod audiovisual experience around (music, video, photos)

+ killer feature: app store and application availability

+ killer feature: internet integration (browsing and push technology)

+ great movie playback

+ really good casual gaming device

+ slightly improved speed (allegedly, only for some games)

+ great integration with mobile me (calender, mail sync) or Exchange

+ really good SDK if you are geeky enough to roll your own apps





cons

- no built-in mic (headphones do have them)

- polished chrome backplate (I would have preferred a brushed finish)

- no gps, camera, compass

- no radio (nano has it?)

- no sync of notes, no wireless sync of music/movies

- spotty voice recognition in languages other than english

- no control over downsampling of photos

- no search function for music inside the iPod app

- no visualizer

 "64GB: even more Touch to love!" 2009-09-20
By Alan E. Moore (Sanford, FL)

I bought a 64GB Touch direct from apple on the day it came out -- I find it often takes longer to get newly released stuff from Amazon. I replaced my 32GB 2nd generation -- and to tell the truth, the extra 32GB is the main difference I notice. Now I can fit all of my music and video/tv shows and apps besides with room to spare, I love it!



A little about me, I'm a diehard mp3 player fan so I have owned a broad variety of iPods and iPod alternatives: Archos 604/605/5, iRiver Clix2, Sony Walkman X, iPod Classic/Nano/Touch 1,2,3,4,5, Creative Zen/X-Fi, Cowan U2, Samsung P2 etc. I will be comparing the iPod Touch 3rd Generation to all of these other players.



Let me just say that I'm not rating the quality of the update, but rather the unit as a whole. Admittedly, this is a pretty weak update especially if you were hoping for GPS or a camera. I am a little envious that the Nano gets a camera and the Touch doesn't, what's that all about? But ultimately, this is not a video camera for me (I have a Flip for that!) so I really don't care. I am rating the whole package as an MP3 and video player. I am considering how the Touch compares to competing products.



One other comment -- as to sound quality, I can't say that is either pro or con. If you want really good sound go get yourself a Sony Walkman! However, I find the sound (through my UE11 Pros) to be respectable, especially if you tweak the sound settings to your tastes. Neither remarkably good nor remarkably bad so I don't list SQ on either pro or con list.



Lets get to it then, what I loved about my Touch:



1) Beauty -- just raw esthetic pleasure, the Touch is without doubt the sexiest looking MP3 player I have ever owned! And it feels darn good in my hand too.

2) Software/iTunes -- what's the point of even mentioning an iPod without discussing iTunes? iTunes is for sure the best media player/store interface that I have ever seen. Definitely gives every iPod a leg up over the competition -- although Media Monkey is pretty good in many ways and that's what I use for my other players.

3) Apps -- nobody can compare with apple's App Store and the amazing assortment of Apps now available for the Touch.

4) Firmware/updates -- the apple firmware is probably the best out there. Sony Walkman is pretty good too, but I think apple gets top honors. The update process through iTunes is the smoothest software update process of any MP3 player I've ever seen -- although Archos comes close.

5) Play screen -- the Touch play screen really sets the standard that everybody else is aspiring to. I love how they fill the entire screen with the album art. The only other one that even comes close is the Walkman.

6) Accessories -- in the apple happy place there are accessories galore and readily available at your local store. Most of my other players require online shopping to find cases and whatnot.

7) Dedicated volume, home button, power button -- much as I love touch screens, its really nice to have a few dedicated buttons that you can hit without being able to see the screen.

8) Browser -- The Safari is one of the better browsers for an MP3 player, especially the pinch multi-touch interface for zooming is really nice. Keyboard is a little hard to use but can be done with practice.

9) Apple support -- these guys are fantastic about fixing/replacing faulty units. I should know because I've had to send a few items back over the years.

10. Speed -- they say its faster and I do notice the difference when playing with my apps which seem a bit snappier now. At this rate, the Touch is going to replace my laptop...



10 solid marks gives the iPod Touch 5 stars for being top of its class in so many categories! However, being an engineer, I always see room for improvement (I sure hope apple is listening!)



Things I don't like so much:



1) Play button? No dedicated play button means this is almost impossible to pause/play by touch. My first Sony Walkman had the best play button ever, the Archos 605 had a nice dedicated play button even though it was a touch screen. I just don't think touch screen should have to mean everything has to be done with the touch screen!

2) Battery -- its not pretty if the battery goes bad on this thing. Unfortunately, removable or even accessible batteries are becoming a thing of the past with MP3 players! Luckily they keep putting out new ones every year so I never use the battery up :)

3) Dock -- seems to me that the apple dock options are pretty weak compared to the Archos DVR dock.

4) Video cable -- if you want to watch those tv shows/movies you buy on iTunes on your TV you're going to have to buy a special video cable -- mine cost like $50!! Just keep that in mind...

5) Stylus won't work -- since this is a capacitance touch screen you can't use a stylus as much as you (or I) might like to. Looks shinier, but hard to use -- I like Archos better here.

6) Onscreen keyboard -- not great, Archos is definitely better for me partly because you can use a stylus if you have to.



Well there you have it -- 9 big pluses, 6 small minuses makes for about 4.7 stars by my calculations! If you don't need huge storage space or HD video resolution this is a great MP3/video player, not necessarily the best in every category but I would say it is the best overall unit available today.



My recommendations depending on your personal preferences:

- iPod touch if you just want an all around great music player, browser, video player, game playing, or if you are an App head (I'm rapidly becoming one myself!). It does everything!

- Sony Walkman if you want really good sound (the best I think) and/or you like Rhapsody

- Archos 5 if you want a big HD screen, great DVR capabilities, stylus friendly touch screen, and/or a big hard drive (500GB coming soon!)

- iPod Nano if you want a really small sleek player in fun colors and a @$*()^)# video camera!

 "The revised ipod touch despite new competition is still the best in the market" 2009-10-18
By Ben HT (New York, NY)

the ipod touch 3rd generation is definitely the best multi-functional music player in the market. I got the first gen. 16GB ipod touch when it first came out 2 years ago but I ran out of space but I decided to skip the 2nd gen. because ipods are expensive so I got the 32GB 3rd gen. when it came out. But if you already have the 2nd gen. ipod touch you should save yourself the money and wait for the 4th. when hopefully a camera and a built-in mic would be standard features because this is not such a major update besides a faster processor, new stock headphones, and lower prices.



However, this ONLY applies to the 32GB and 64GB versions as others have noted. The 3rd gen. 8GB version is exactly the same as the 2nd gen. except it is repackaged so even with the reduced price, the 8GB is an inferior deal.



The first thing I noticed was how much the price of the ipod touch has dropped since its debut. The 16GB was $399 when it first came out and now this 32GB is only $299 ($279 on amazon). This does makes sense because that is how the market works but this is a very good deal.



Obviously $300 is not money to be thrown around, but the ipod touch is well-rounded and offers many features other than just being a decent music player. I personally could not tell any difference in sound quality from my 1st gen. and my 3rd gen. touch, which is a major disappointment because the basic function of an ipod is a music player and improvements are always welcome if not necessary.



The 3rd gen. offers really shoddy and quiet internal speakers, which is better than nothing on the 1st gen. and the stock Apple headphones are just terrible. Note that the 32GB and 64GB versions come with headphones that have a built-in mic and music player controls, but they are basically the same. So you should factor in the cost of buying new headphones.



Some respectable brands for headphones or earbuds are Klipsch, Shure and Bose. I personally use Bose overear headphones because the noise that they block off really makes a difference on the crowded subway. While looking for headphones keep in mind that like all things out there, price and quality (and warrenties) have a direct correlation. But really, the ipod touch sound quality is not bad at all as much as I bash it.



What makes me give 5 stars to this 3rd gen. ipod touch is the fact that its overall package is unmatched in the market today, even with the new Zune HD (the Zune has a much inferior internet browser and limited apps). I am not going to make a comparison between them because both music players attract different audiences, where ipod touch users prefer the apps and the interface while zune users find the Zune Marketplace to be much better than itunes (Marketplace prices for music are cheaper and are a better value especially for heavy downloaders). But for the casual music listener, both are the very similar in form, function, and price.



The 3rd gen. ipod touch has a terrific internet browser that is superior to the Blackberry, but its limitations are that it requires a wifi connection and it does not support adobe flash. I use it to jot down notes quickly, to view my documents on my subway to study, check my mail, look up something quickly on the internet, and obviously to listen to music. There is a plethora of apps that can be downloaded and many are free and quite useful like AIM and SportsTap, and Remote. Apple advertises the ipod touch for the games that it can play and you will not be disappointed if you want to play something on the go.



Th 3.5 inch screen is crisp and watching videos is a pleasure. And the ipod touch does look great with clean lines but if you don't want to get the backplate scratched, you must by a case. The screen itself on the other hand is very scratch-resistant.



I highly recommend the new 3rd generation ipod touch for those who are looking for something in this price range and want a balanced music player that can also play vidoes, surf the web, and play quick games. In a way, people are also paying for the Apple brand, which is not a bad thing considering you can bring your ipod to the apple store to get it fixed, you can purchase many different accessories, and you can have special compatibility features with other apple products such as with macbooks if you already own one or your school/business uses them.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black) Review.

 "Very Good Photos with Great Video" 2010-03-19
By Photo-Am (Brooklyn, NY USA)

I've got my ZS7 today - the camera is just great! A superior Leica lens with a high-resolution sensor, advanced image processing, and plenty of sophisticated features in a small but very solid and stylish body.



PROS:



- Solid metal body, stylish design, nice dark-blue color

- Very convenient one-hand grip, unusual for such a small pocket-size body

- Short startup time (1-1.5 sec), no shutter lag, fast auto focus

- A dedicated Movie-button for instant recording

- Big 3" colorful "juicy" display visible even in direct sunlight

- Intuitive menu plus very convenient Quick-menu with a dedicated button

- Excellent quality Leica lens: sharp and contrast in the entire zoom range

- Wide 25mm (35mm equiv.) is very convenient for indoors

- Huge 12x optical zoom (up to 300mm equiv.) in such a compact design

- Two-speed of zooming - fast/slow controlled by the lever

- Smooth and silent auto focus and optical image stabilization

- Best in the industry "iAuto" mode - you can really trust it!

- New "Intelligent Resolution" feature greatly improves the image quality

- Creative Aperture- and Shutter-priority and full Manual modes

- Three independent scenery modes including "High Dynamic" range scene

- New GPS feature for those who travel a lot

- Very good movie quality in 720p AVCHD mode looks like a full 1080 HD one

- High-quality stereo microphones

- Accepts SD/SDHC and new SDXC huge capacity memory cards



CONS:



- A mechanical lever for switching between shooting and playback modes

- Some soft "sh-sh-sh" noise while zooming in and out (but no "clicks")

- I wish more sensitivity for low-light shooting



BUILD: The ZS7 camera looks and feels as good as it's predecessor DMC-ZS3. The design is almost as the same, just the power switch and the mode dial exchanged their places. One significant addition - a GPS mark on the top, right above the lens. The blue color is not that dark as on TZ5 and not so striking bright as on ZR1. A slight dent on the back with some prominence on the right side makes a very convenient grip to operate with one hand. A metal body looks pretty solid, however it is not that heavy.



PERFORMANCE: The new camera has a pretty good performance: the startup time is a little bit more than 1 sec and with almost zero shutter lag. Taking into account a new very quick "Sonic Speed" auto focus, which takes about 0.35-0.4 sec, you will be able to catch virtually every spur-of-the-moment photo. And a dedicated movie button allows starting video recording at any time without any preparation.



LENS: Leica lens is just excellent: unusually big for a so small body 12x zoom starting with the very convenient for indoors shooting 25mm up to telephoto 300mm (equiv.) plus a quick and precise auto focus (however might be somewhat slower in low-light), and good optical image stabilization in conjunction with the digital one which allows you to take sharp pictures in the entire zoom range and at the very low shutter speed around 1/8 and even 1/4. The auto-focusing and optical image stabilization work in absolute silence, and the only zooming produces some soft "sh-sh-sh" noise. Good news - without any start/stop clicks on the footage :).



DISPLAY: A large 3-inch high-resolution LCD monitor with 460K pixels has a very good contrast and saturation - the pictures look very "juicy". The brightness also is high enough to be seen even in a direct sun-light (just a bit darker) and in a wide angle of view. All that allows to share photos and videos immediately with other people.



MENU: For those who used the Panasonic P&S cameras before the ZS7 menu looks very familiar, just some new items added. Also there is a Quick-Menu button which is very helpful for a quick access to the most frequently used settings. The new camera has such a luxury as the Aperture, Shutter speed, and Manual modes and there is a new Exposure button (next to the video one) which allows to set manually the aperture using the Left-Right buttons and the shutter speed with Up-Down buttons.



AUTO SETTINGS: The best in the industry Panasonic's Intelligent Auto mode is getting better with each new model. Actually it's a whole bunch of sophisticated algorithms which help to take really nice pictures with minimum efforts. They are worth to be aware about so here is a brief list of most effective of them.



"Intelligent Scene Selector" - It quickly analyzes the light conditions as well as focusing results and selects either portrait, scenery, macro, night portrait or night scenery. It also displays a small icon of the chosen scene in the top left corner. The feature is extremely helpful when you need to shoot very fast on spur-of-the-moment.



"Intelligent ISO" - If camera detects that your subject is moving, it raises ISO and shutter speed to take shots without motion blur, otherwise it will try to keep the lowest possible ISO to reduce noise and to get nice clear pictures.



"Intelligent Exposure" - it's a kind of a small brother of the High Dynamic Range feature. If the camera sets the correct overall exposure but some areas happen to be too dark, this feature automatically increases the brightness of the dark areas to make the entire picture to look more balanced. It also pretty effective for the backlight conditions - instead of getting just a silhouette of your subject against the bright sky it makes the subject normally exposed but without washing out the nice blue sky.



"Face Detection" - is another great thing for taking good-quality pictures of people. It happened to me a number of times in the past that a presence in the frame of a more contrast element somewhere behind the person I'm taking picture of was making the camera to adjust focus at that unimportant distant object and therefore made the major person out-of-focus. The same way if there is a bright background behind the person then the camera will measure the luminance of that background while the person's image will be pretty much underexposed (dark). The Face Detection feature identifies the human faces and tells the camera to adjust focus and exposure for the faces first so the people on the picture will be looking well exposed, clear and sharp.



ADVANCED FEATURES: I guess the most interesting and advanced is a new "Intelligent Resolution" feature. Actually it combines a sophisticated noise reduction with a new picture enhancement algorithm. This feature automatically identifies the 3 type of the picture areas: outlines, detailed textures, and smooth gradation panes and provides an optimized handling for each of them separately. As a result the photo looks sharper at the edges and more clean in between. Many old P&S cameras had pretty fast picture quality degradation at the ISO around 300-400 and higher. The shots taken by ZS7 even at ISO 400 look pretty good on the small and even medium-size prints.



IMAGE QUALITY: Imagine on a sunny day you take an outdoors picture of a wall made of the new brown bricks with a $3000 DSLR and a small P&S camera from the distance about 6-8 feet. How could you recognize by which camera was taken a certain shot? The subject is plain so no Depth-of-Field is involved into comparison. However in this example the two characteristics will help to distinct the cameras: 1) The edges of bricks will be well outlined on DSLR shots and a kind of fuzzy on the P&S ones; 2) The new bricks do not have any structure on their sides, they are just plane and so exactly that way they will look on the DSLR shots, while on the P&S ones their sides will show more or less amount of noise. If you perform the same test for an evenly cut line of bushes (again DOF is not involved) you will see the same result plus the internal structure of each leaf will be more clear on the DSLR photos. So to make pictures taken with your P&S camera looking like the DSLR ones the P&S camera should make the outlines sharper, clean the noise on the plane or soft gradation areas, and slightly emphasize the internal structures, if any. That is exactly what the new "Intelligent Resolution" (IR) feature tries to do.



The "iAuto" mode in ZS7 is organized the way that you will have decent, good photos in virtually any situation right out-of-the-box. The several hundreds shots I took by now look good on my 24" display and so they will on the similar size prints. But if you look at them at 100% crop (magnification) then on many of them you might find some areas which do not look natural. If the IR-algorithm decides about a certain low-contrast part on your picture that it's a plane area then it will remove all the noise altogether with all the subtle details from that part of the picture. If you take a picture of a big tree with hundreds of branches (but without leaves) against a bright sky the IR-feature will treat it as a structured area and will slightly sharpen it to look clearer. But when you take a landscape picture with many distant trees in front and behind, those hundreds of crossing branches will create a low-contrast pattern which together with internal sensor's noise might look for IR-algorithm as just a noisy plain area and so it will obliterate all the details leaving only some average color in that part of the picture and so making it looking very unnatural. The thing is that unlike the previous models the noise reduction in ZS7 is pretty strong. I would not call it "aggressive" but it's really strong.



QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS: There is a way how to get the best out of this camera while shooting landscapes on sunny days. Here is a recipe for experienced amateurs:

- Switch the mode dial to the program "P" mode.

- Press the Menu button and select the lowest ISO 80 instead of "Auto" (this is the key-point! If there is no enough light to set that low ISO it will not work).

- Make sure you have the "Intelligent Resolution" feature on!

- Find on the 4th page of the shooting menu the item "PICT.ADJ." and press the right button to go inside. You will see the 4 pictures attributes:

CONTRAST

SHARPNESS

SATURATION

NOISE REDUCTION

- A default value for each of them is "0". Set "-1" for contrast (to reduce the clipping of highlights), "+1" for sharpness, leave the saturation unchanged, and most important set noise reduction to "-1" or even to its minimum "-2". Take this advice as a starting point and try to play with the SHARPNESS and NOISE REDUCTION settings and see what looks more appropriate for you, because some people prefer more sharpness while the others are more concern about noise visibility, so try different settings and choose which one looks better for you.



Those settings will allow you to take the most sharp and detailed pictures of landscapes, architecture, etc. if you like that. However you should be alert and check periodically the quality of pictures and if something is going wrong then switch immediately to "iAuto" mode. The ZS7's intelligent auto-mode is very sophisticated and might take into account the parameters you're not even aware about. For example, if you apply the full zoom then the aperture drops to a small F/4.9 value giving much less light for the sensor and additionally at that huge focal length 300mm (equiv.) the impact of your shaking hands might be as so much that the optical image stabilization can not completely compensate it and so the camera will have to increase the shutter speed to have the picture un-blurred. In that tough scenario the only high ISO around 300-400 might satisfy all those conditions and the camera will normally set it in auto-mode. But if you keep shooting recklessly at ISO 80 without getting the feedback such kind of pictures might be spoiled in some way. So, use this recipe only if you know what you're doing.



Update: Having using ZS7 for a while I've identified the 3 major types of pictures depending what is most important for you on those shots: 1) The main part are the areas with soft gradations like human faces, petals of flowers on macro shots, etc; 2) Mixed content of plain areas and patterns with no central subject; 3) Landscapes with plenty of trees, branches and leaves or small flowers. The above proposed recipe is most effective for the last category - it will give you the sharpest pictures with no low-contrast areas smeared by the strong noise reduction and on the other hand the higher level of noise will be effectively hidden by the complex image structure. For the 2nd category it would be wiser to decrease noise reduction just to -1 (not -2) to make the noise less visible on some plain areas, and for the 1st category it seems better to keep the default neutral setting since to have less noise on the human's face is much more important than lack of minor details around. Anyway you'll still have the advantage of less noise at minimum ISO.



I did some comparative testing of ZS7 with my Nikon D90 to find out how much that new IR technology and the above mentioned recommendations could help to improve the overall picture quality. I've uploaded some pictures and put a link into my comments dated 04/24/2010 with the title "Compare to Nikon D90". Don't assume, just take a look - you might be a bit surprised :-)



LOW LIGHT: Recently I performed a brief comparative test of my P&S cameras: Panasonic ZS7 and Sony TX7. Shortly - their low-light performance (in normal mode) is very similar. The medium-size 8"x10" prints without much cropping look good up to ISO 400. At ISO 800 there is a noticeable drop of the image quality of both cameras and at 1600 the shots look decent only for 4"x6" prints. Generally the Sony TX7's shots look smoother because of more aggressive noise reduction while the Panasonic ZS7's ones display slightly more details along with a little bit more noise. So it's the matter of taste to decide which shots look better. I would admit that at ISO 1600 while the Panasonic's shots became much more blurred because of the increased noise reduction strength, the Sony's shots became poured with much coarse noise which got even stronger at ISO 3200 making the pictures completely unusable. So neither of these cameras could be considered as great low-light performers.



In case when the shots become too dark because of big lack of light you can select the "HIGH SENS." (sensitivity) scene. The camera will automatically choose a high ISO in the range 1600 - 6400 and decrease resolution to 3MP (it was stated 3200-6400 but in some tests my camera set ISO 1600). It will not provide better quality but at least will allow to increase the picture's brightness.



NOTE! This camera is great outdoors, but if many of your pictures are indoors or in low-light environment then you'd better look for some other cameras like Panasonic LX3 or GF1, Canon S90 or G11, Fujifilm F80EXR, etc. which were designed especially for those conditions. The original model name of this camera is "TZ" which stands for "Travel Zoom" i.e. it was designed for travel outdoors, not for indoors.



DYNAMIC RANGE: means the difference between the most light and dark areas on the picture. If you're taking the shots of your friends on a sunny day with a bright blue sky above and some bushes with green leaves aside and those bushes happen to be in the shadow of a nearby building then the difference between brightness of the sky and the bushes will be thousands of times. On the shots taken by a camera with narrow dynamic range only one element - your friends might look good, but the sky will be completely washed out to white and the bushes will be almost black. For the cameras with a decent DR like ZS7 at least two elements of that picture will look good i.e. either your friends with a nice blue sky while the bushes will be very dark, or the friends and bushes good but the sky pretty much wiped out. The new Panasonic ZS7 has the two solutions to help in such situations: the "Intelligent Exposure" feature and the "High Dynamic (range)" scene.



Although both solutions aim at the same goal they work in a different way and should be used in different situations. The "Intelligent Exposure" feature once it is activated via the main or quick menu puts its white icon to the lower left corner and starts constantly analyzing the picture. If the difference in brightness of some significant areas of the picture exceeds a certain threshold then the icon becomes yellow and that feature decreases the overall contrast of the picture. Since that threshold is very high that feature would be mostly useful on the bright sunny days. Its effectiveness is not that big but it still can be helpful and anyway it's better than nothing so you can have it turned on all the time. The "High Dynamic" scene should be used only in low light conditions because even in a bright sun it will unconditionally set ISO 400 (or even higher) and decrease the shutter speed. Such a high ISO will greatly increase the amount of noise and therefore will cause a more aggressive noise reduction which will actively obliterate small details. That scene provides much more effective dynamic range compression but at the cost of significantly decreased picture quality. If you're shooting in a low-light condition you have nothing to loose, but if you're taking pictures on a nice day with a plenty of sunshine the loss of quality might greatly disappoint you, so that scene should be used only for the low-light shooting.



MOVIE MODE: By now I tried only the advanced AVCHD movie mode - it looked very well. Apart from the processing the still images in this model Panasonic applied their new "Intelligent Resolution" feature to video recording as well and the result is just gorgeous! Because of that special processing personally its 720p HD looks even better than from my Sony TX7 with its full 1080 HD resolution.



So this new Panasonic ZS7 camera is a very good device for taking nice still pictures and advanced video recording.

 "Improves on the already great ZS3!" 2010-04-05
By A. Sanders (SF, CA)

I just replaced my trusty ZS3 with the new ZS7 and, so far, I am very pleased with this camera. The output is much cleaner and smoother than the ZS3's, much more refined. Compared to the ZS7, the ZS3 produced images that look brittle and over-processed. As with virtually all small-sensor cameras, the ZS7's images are a little noisy (even at base ISO) if you look close enough. But noise is far less objectionable than ragged edges and smeared details, which is what I usually got from the ZS3. The images I'm getting from the ZS7 look surprisingly good even at 100% on-screen enlargement; whereas the ZS3's output was virtually unusable at this magnification. The improvement is dramatic. Considering that the ZS7's resolution has also increased from 10 to 12 MP (it's actually a 14 MP sensor that is masked to create different aspect ratios), I'd say that Panasonic has done a really good job here.



The ZS7 improves on the ZS3 in several ways; but for me the most important new feature is Picture Adjustments, which let you turn down the amount of sharpening and noise reduction that are automatically applied to every image. Photographers who do their own post-processing will appreciate the ability to apply their own preferred methods of sharpening and noise reduction.



The next most important new feature (imho) is the addition of aperture/shutter-priority shooting modes. There isn't much latitude for adjusting the f-stop in most small-sensor cameras because of defraction effects; but it's great to be able to control the shutter speed manually.



The ZS7 also adds GPS, which can (thankfully) be turned off. Leaving it on shortens battery life.



Other improvements that I appreciate include (1) improved image stabilization, (2) new Venus processing engine, (3) High Dynamic mode, and (4) the LCD now has a good anti-glare coating.



All things considered, the ZS7 is an impressive upgrade that is easily worth the price.

 "Almost Perfect 4.9 stars!" 2010-05-17
By K. Wheaton (Napa Valley, CA United States)

After using this camera for a few weeks I am amending my rating and giving it 5 stars. This camera is truly incredible. The intelligent automatic is amazing---I only move it to manual for a few special situations. The only real complaint is that I occasionally inadvertently hit the video button. Otherwise it is simply amazing.



It handles difficult situations with grace. Sunset with sky and foreground properly exposed. Delivery room newborn with no flash and low ambient lighting. Black and white is fantastic. Couldn't be happier.



This is a great camera for a beginner---Point and shoot. Lots of control for advance photographers. I'm sorry to say I don't lug around a camera bag and tripod anymore. Just slip this in my purse.



I waited a long time to upgrade from the first generation Panasonic Lumix TZ1 (complete with dangling lens cover & 5MP) Glad I did. The best improvements are the quick power-up and lack of a shutter delay for catching fast action. If you leave it in the completely automatic mode it does an impressive job---and if you need control there's plenty and then some. Lots of programs plus aperture and shutter priority or complete control.



Other notable improvements are in the macro end of things where capturing very fine close-ups are greatly improved---my TZ1 was always focusing on the background if I could get it to focus at all. This does an incredible job! Almost too much detail (if that's possible) Every speck on the petal of a flower is exposed. This camera is slightly smaller and has a larger display screen. Most of the functions and dials are similar and I find easy to use but that may be because they are familiar.



Flash is improved over the first generation.

The zoom on the original was 10X. 12X even better. I took incredible photos of bullfrogs 15 feet away. Unbelievable detail.



This camera isn't perfect and no camera will ever be. It would be nice to have a more powerful flash and nice if you could shoot in lower light with less noise without flash and it would be nice if it had a 20X optical zoom and a faster lens but for what it is its an incredible piece of engineering. AND don't forget the Leica lens which is just plain beautiful.



All cameras have limitations and this is no exception. However it will get you a great photo most of the time. The wide angle to long telephoto range is why I bought my first Lumix. This flexibility makes for great travel photos. I did side by side comparisons of a Sony, Canon, Nikon and the first Lumix in the store and then we printed them out on the spot. No comparison. No ghosting, better color correction, better macro. And I like the ergonomics. I always place the wrist band over my wrist and hold onto the camera with fingers and pad of thumb and it feels secure. Some of the ultra small cameras are almost too small for me. (Didn't compare to current models)



What is truly awful about this camera is that the manual is on a disk and covers this camera and its 2 predecessors making it a bit (if Not totally confusing at times). It also does not come with MAC compatible editing software which is really not a big deal for me. One person asked if it is MAC OSX 10.6.3 compatible and it is. The only problem I've encountered is in using Aperture (a MAC program)it doesn't want to import directly into a project that has other images from my other Lumix camera. Make a new project and problem is solved but irritating. (Manual software and downloading from card to MAC is compatible)



Haven't tried uploading video yet.



DO purchase an extra Panasonic Battery DMW-BCG 10PP. Make sure it has the PP (It won't work without it) Also you'll need a SD Card. It's not necessary to go to the Class 6 cards unless you are shooting HD video. A SDHC 4GB card will hold 700+ photos at full MP.For most people this will be more than adequate. I carry two cards in case one goes south. You can always find them on sale for under $20. I also like the Caselogic TBC-302 Ultra Compact Camera Case for under $8.

 "A Great Little Camera" 2010-03-27
By King Tut (Texas, USA)

First; I loved the ZS3 after I tried the demo display at the local Fry's store, then the ZS7 got announced with tons of improvement over the Zs3, then Canon announced the SX210 with 14X Zoom but it comes in unattractive colors and strange buttons layout. After all reading tons of reviews and comparison charts, and live demos; the Winner is the ZS7.



ZS7 Improvement over the ZS3:

Manual settings (ZS3 is only auto w/o manual settings), 1/2.33" CCD processor, 16X Intelligent Zoom/23.4X Zoom at 3 Meg resolutions, Sonic speed AF, Venus Engine HD II, Color Mode, Video divide, Happy & Custom Mode, Travel Mode "GPS", and more important Panasonic has moved the shutter button to its natural location (the ZS3 has the mode dial button placed closer to the finger, and the shutter button was somewhat far)



Panasonic ZS7 vs. Panasonic LX3 vs. Canon S90:

Panasonic LX3 and Canon S90 both offer better low light images due to lens opening at its widest aperture of f/2.0 that allow significantly more light versus the ZS7 f/3.3, also they offer RAW format and better light sensitivity, the ZS7 don't. However when it comes to the zoom power; LX3 offer only 2.5X and the S90 has 3.8X zoom, where the ZS7 has the best zoom in a compact size camera of 12X Optical, 16X Digital, and 23.4X extended zoom at around 3 mega pixel resolution. So it really depends on your needs and preference.





The ZS7:

This is a beautiful eye-catching camera; the all metal deep black color is Majestic, compact size but sturdy solid feel, you will love the astonishing 460K DPI 3" wide LCD display. The camera has a very fast focus with auto tracking, almost no shutter-lag (0.006 of Second), flash recharges quickly and always ready to shot right away. The main attraction of this camera its 12X zoom, but it also can extend to 16X digital zoom with little or no loss of quality picture (see the first few pictures on the customer's images to see a real life zoom example and other modes). The GPS is nice but it consumes battery life even if the camera is turned off!! The good news is that you can turn if off if you don't need it. The camera has 15 MB internal memory, Stereo (right and left) microphone for recording and play back, faster 2.3 fps continuous shooting. The buttons and controls layout is easy and every thing makes sense; the dial has the auto, manual, and even custom setting for creative users, also there is a separate button for recording HD 720P video. Other features; Macro zoom, Panorama assist, Clipboard, ability to Zoom while recording movies, play back slide show with music, face detection, O.I.S., digital red-eye removal, and auto back light compensation. There a lot to mention about this camera, but I'm sure more experts reviews to follow. The only negative would poor low light images without the flash, the lack of mini HDMI cable to play back on HDTV, and the tiny little user guide is useless. A screen protector for the LCD screen is definitely recommended for any buyer.



Finally, this is an Elegant, Sexy, and Powerful Camera that is sure to Satisfy.

 "Progress is fast" 2010-05-16
By iestyn Bleasdale-Shepherd (Seattle, WA USA)

I bought the original camera in this line (the DMC-TZ1) three years ago and have absolutely loved using that camera. I have taken over 60,000 photos with it and couldn't be happier. I never suffered any kind of technical problem with it - I only decided to get the ZS7 (or TZ10, as it is known in Europe) because the new features I read about were so enticing! In just 3 years, this line has raced through 4 generations and the improvements are amazing - despite which the price has stayed exactly the same.



Before I go into details, I should be clear as to what I personally am looking for in a camera, so that you may judge how relevant this review is to you. Things that I care about:

- I take photos everywhere I go, often at a moment's notice, so it must fit in my jacket pocket and be quick to use

- it must have a good zoom since that gives me the freedom to frame subjects tightly and remove them from context

- it should be good at macros since I love taking macro shots

- it needs to take photos with as close to SLR quality as possible, given that it's a compact



If you care about other things, like the packaged software (which I never use) or the various peripheral 'features' (e.g. face recognition, which btw does work - though sadly not on my cat ;) ), then this review may not provide the information you're most interested in.



Anyway, here's what I've found in my first few weeks using the ZS7.



Everything that I loved about the TZ1 is present in the ZS7, but in improved form:

- it's now even smaller and lighter

- I can get even closer for macros (down to 3cm!)

- I can zoom in even further (19x optical!)

- the awesome macro and zoom features now combine in the incredible 'telephoto macro' mode, which lets me focus on objects just 3 feet away at maximum zoom (the depth of field is simply gorgeous in these shots; bokeh like an SLR!). Definitely my new favourite feature!



In addition, I have been enjoying these lovely enhancements:

- image quality is improved along every axis:

-> noise: in addition to generally lower noise levels, 'noise reduction' can now be turned OFF and the overall improvements to image quality are fantastic - the ugly 'grunge' in the pixel noise that the TZ1 had was probably its single worst feature, and that is now completely gone.

-> dynamic range: images taken in bright sunlight are far less contrasty now, and I can take pictures of objects against the sky without ugly fringing and chromatic aberration around their silhouettes (as long as I get exposure right of course!)

-> colour balance: automatic white balance is in a new league compared to the TZ1. I was constantly changing the custom white balance settings for the TZ1, but with the ZS7 I'm happy to just leave it on automatic white balance 99% of the time (quite a relief!). Overall, colours look much more natural - they match how the scene looks to my as well as the SLRs that I have used.

- the new image stabilisation is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE - all but the most major jolts are smoothed out. This has a huge impact on the clarity of my shots when at max zoom or shooting in dim lighting (which let's face it is not the forte of these small-aperture compacts), and the jittery videos you'd expect from such a light camera are now smooth as butter. Really, really impressive.

- speaking of video, the HD video is absolutely STUNNING. You could shoot cable TV on this thing.

- minor but very welcome improvements:

-> in-built lens cap (yay!)

-> support for SDXC memory cards (I used to empty my TZ1's 2GB card every few days; my first 64GB card for the ZS7 isn't even a third full yet!)

-> JPG compression artifacts are noticeably reduced

-> the new program/aperture/shutter modes give me a little bit more control under certain circumstances (though not that much, given the small lens you get on a compact)

-> the new UI is very streamlined (the quick menu is extremely useful and photo browsing is much quicker)

-> GPS works well, and it's nice to have my photos automatically register on the world map once I upload them to Flickr.



Just so I don't give the impression that I'm gushing uncontrollably, I should also mention the things that I don't like:

- I wish the quick menu was customizable (e.g. I'd like to be able to use it to change aspect ratio and set custom white balance)

- I'm disappointed that zoom+scroll in review mode isn't any quicker than before

- I really don't like losing the 'review' button (review 'mode' resets the lens after a couple of seconds, to frequently irritating effect)

- auto-focus isn't noticeably faster (one of the big general down-sides of compacts, unfortunately)

- there is the occasional encoding error when shooting videos, which Panasonic needs to fix in a firmware update



Those are pretty minor complaints, compared to all the great new features I'm enjoying. My old camera, beloved as it was just a couple of weeks ago, is already languishing on a shelf, all but forgotten! Before getting the ZS7, I would have whole-heartedly recommended the TZ1 to anyone that cares about the same things that I do (portability, flexibility and image quality), and the ZS7 stands head and shoulders above it in every regard. What more can I say? Get one!