My Digital Life

The week of October 23rd in My Digital Life

Apple's iPod turns 5 today and in 22 days Microsoft will be releasing Zune. It is interesting that it took 5 years for the iPod to solidify its market position and for Microsoft to respond. Five years seems like a long time, however when you are developing new products it really is not. People or I should say technology pundits get upset when it takes a long time for the delivery of new OS' such as Vista or Internet Explorer 7, but fail to recognize all the minor updates in between. Even though Internet time was invented, things don't happen overnight, unfortunately the speed of information flow on Internet time makes us think that the delivery of new products should happen at the same speed. This perception has forced companies to provide Beta releases of products. I think this is a good thing, however for the wider distribution to the public it is important to have a solid product and that takes time. Just think; it took Apple 5 years to develop a character based search on the iPod! When it comes to product development Internet time is not reality.

One of the features; I really like on my Sony DSC-W70 is the ability to take high quality movies for viewing on a TV, however to date I have not found a single application that allows me to easily assemble still photographs, movies, and soundtracks. I have been using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Photo Story to create slide shows from my still photographs. It is a very intuitive application, helps you create a sound track and produces excellent results, however it does not allow you to insert movies. In order to insert movies, I have had to jump into Microsoft's Movie Maker which is an excellent basic movie editor, unfortunately there is very noticeable loss of image quality when you migrate the Photo Story to Movie Maker. This week I am off to see if there something better, even checking out Apple's iPhoto and iMovie.

My review of the excellent weather application Fizz Weather should be appearing on pocketnow.com this week and I am finishing up my review of the Mobility Electronics Sierra Bluetooth keyboard.

My flash memory rant and rave of the day

A continuing problem for the consumer with electronics is the lack of standards. Corporate competition is good for innovation and pricing, but it can also have a negative impact on the consumer. As a consumer we are left with choosing or duplicating our purchases. Case in point, my recent purchase of the Sony DSC-W70 camera. The W70 was designed with yet another flash memory card format; the Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo. In my collection I have a Compact Flash card from an old iPack, a MultiMediaCard for my Olympus digital camera, Secure Digital (SD) cards for several PDA's/ThinkPad X41, Mini SD cards for my T-Mobile MDA, Memory Stick Pro cards for my Sony DSC-P10 and now a Memory Stick Pro Duo card for the DSC-W70. It is good thing Lexar designed a small USB card reader (Trio) to read most of the formats. Clearly innovation has driven the size of the flash down and capacity up. Competition has driven the price down. All good things, however it has ended costing more since I have had to purchase cards for each new device not too competitive but good for corporate profits. I have tried to compare devices to for flash memory card compatibility but there are always trade offs in functionality and memory card format is low on my list, probably below battery format. In this case the lack of a standard cost the consumer and in my opinion stifles competition. Memory Sticks are still more expensive per MB than SD cards which are closer to a standard and more widely used.

I did find some interesting differences and similarities between the SD and Memory Stick standards.

Sony made an important design choice in miniaturizing the Memory Stick, they kept the pin connections identical. This allows you to use a Memory Stick Pro Duo card with a Memory Stick Pro card reader. There is no need for an adapter, although if the Memory Stick Pro device requires that the Memory Stick Pro card be fully inserted (flush with the case), you will need an adapter to use a Memory Stick Pro Duo card. The SD format chose to miniaturize by downsizing the entire package including the pin connections. This forces the use the an adapter for all devices with standard SD slot. I found it interesting that through the translucent packaging of the Memory Stick you can see the memory chip, it seems to be about the size of the mini SD card. It would have been nice for two formats to have come up with a compromise and saved all of us consumers additional costs and choice headaches!

And now here we go again with the Blue-ray and HD-DVD high definition DVD standards. I am hoping that the majority of consumers stand on the sidelines forcing a compromise between the two sides. It is funny or sad that Sony seems to always be in the middle of a consumer electronics standards fight; Beta vs VHS, SACD vs DVD-Audio, SD card vs Memory Stick, and now Blue-ray vs HD-DVD. I find Sony's technology innovations to be excellent but it seems that product marketing/design are not always in line with the consumer and they clearly are afraid of sharing with other companies.

Sony DSC-W70 / T-Mobile MDA - Emailing pictures

Updated 07/09/2006: added picture and screen shots.

Emailing pictures during our travels allows our family to be visually included in our adventures. The T-Mobile MDA  along with the 4smartphone Exchange 2003 email service make keeping in touch a snap. The biggest issue is transferring the pictures from the W70 to the MDA. I had the same problem with my Sony DSC-P10 digital camera and came up with a solution that works well. I use a combination of the Delkin USB Bridge and the Lexar Trio card reader.

This Delkin USB Bridge allows the transfer of files between two external USB compliant storage devices. The limitations of the USB bridge are:

• The entire content of the input device has to be copied.
• The directory structure on the output device is fixed. The USB Bridge creates a root directory called \Archive and sub directories called STOREnnn, n being incremented from 001 to 999 for each new copy operation. If the source files are not removed, they will be copied again under a new STOREnnn subdirectory for each successive copy. .

The W70 with the USB cable is plugged into the input of the USB Bridge, and the Lexar Trio card reader is plugged into the output. A mini SD to SD adapter is required to use the MDA's flash card with the Lexar Trio.

In order to keep the transfers to a minimum, the file management techique I describe in this blog entry can be used. The W70 USB mode must be set to PTP and the desired folder must be selected. Rather than transferring the full sized images, I  resize the pictures, with the W70, to VGA (640x480). To transfer the files power on the USB Bridge and press the transfer button. LED indicators provide feedback on the state of the transfer. Once the transfer is complete, the mini SD card can be placed back into the MDA for further editing/resizing (if needed) and emailing. XnView is a great freeware application that allows you to resize and edit your images on the MDA. Once you are ready to email use the menu/insert/pictures functions in Pocket Outlook to attach the selected photos.

The transferred files.

Inserting a picture with Pocket Outlook.

Select the desired image.

The email with the attached picture. This image was resized to VGA (640 x 480) with the W70 and is 129KB. XnView on the Pocket PC can be used to further reduce the size. 

This method can be used to post pictures to blogs, and sites like Flickr and Kodak EasyShare.

Sony DSC-W70 - File management

Updated 07/09/2006: added photos of various menus.

One of the reasons I purchased the 60GB iPod, over the 30GB model, was to have enough disk space to do some file backups while traveling. The iPod provides a great way to backup those precious travel pictures and is a means of clearing the camera's flash memory card. In order to import the data from your camera you will need to purchase Apple's iPod Camera Connector. This connector allows you to connect your camera's USB cable.

This setup works great with the DSC-W70, although I had some additional requirements which forced some file management on the camera. These requirements include:

• The ability to resize images with the camera for easy transfer to my T-Mobile MDA for emailing (I will discuss in further detail in my next travel technology entry).
• The ability to keep images and videos on the W70 's memory card for slide show purposes.
• Keeping the backup transfer times to a minimum.

As with most digital camera, a DCIM (Digital Camera Images) directory is automatically created on the memory card. Sony has chosen to create subdirectories named XXXMSDCF (XXX=101 - 999) they call folders. In the W70 this is a fixed naming structure and you cannot change it with the camera. The W70 has three key features to manage the subdirectories under menu.

Create REC. Folder. A new folder is created using the next sequential XXX number (p. 51 of user manual).

Change REC. Folder. Changes the folder to which the camera records images and videos (p. 52 of user manual).

In USB mode, Select Folder allows you to select which folder you would like to transfer.

In order to resize images for emailing, the W70 allows you to resize to VGA size (~100KB).  In order to simplify the transfer of these files I created a new directory and made it the current REC. Folder (Change REC. Folder). In review mode, under menu the first icon allows you to select the folder you want to view, you then select the picture to resize, go back into menu, go the resize icon (6th from the left). Select VGA, the selected image will be resized in the newly created directory. This directory can then be transferred for emailing.

I could use the iPod for slide show purposes but the iPod does not play mpg (MPEG 1) movies, only mp4 (MPEG 4), so I my only choice is to use the camera. In order to make the slide show selection easier I started creating a new folder (Create REC. Folder) every morning before going out on our day's trekking.

The creation of a daily folder also helped with the backup to the iPod. When you connect the W70 USB cable (USB mode must be set to PTP, p. 34 of manual) to the iPod connector, you can select the folder you want to transfer under menu. The iPod creates a new "Roll 1, 2, 3,..., XX" for every import (Apple speak) for transfer. The iPod is now organized by day, where Roll X equals day. Once I arrived home I transfered each Roll from the iPod using Microsoft's Digital Image Library. There is no need to use iTunes, since Windows XP recognizes the iPod as a removable disk drive.

This worked great, and I loved having the security of a backup while traveling, however there is no way to delete a folder directly from the camera.

Sony DSC-W70 - My initial impression

Before leaving on our trek through Scotland, my wife and I discussed taking our video camcorder wiith us. However, I wanted to keep the lugging around of mobile devices to a minimum. My trusty Sony DSC-P10 does have movie capability but the quality is poor, so I decided to research what technology was available in Sony's current camera line up. I found the DSC-W70 to have a 640 X 480, 30 fps movie mode which should work well with my standard definition TV. For a list price of $299, 7.2 Mega Pixel still image capability and a 2.5" LCD, this was a tough gadget to pass up. I had been looking at possibly switching to Canon because they use SD cards rather than Sony's proprietary Memory Stick, making picture transfers to my T-Mobile MDA and Thinkpad X41 easier, but I never liked having a separate charger. My DSC-P10 charges the battery internally and with the iGo tip, I only travel with the iGo power adapter for all my devices. The DSC-W70 uses the same iGo power tip which was another plus. I read some very good reviews on digitalcamera-hq and steves-digicams, so I took the plunge. Sears advertised a price of $269, but they had none in stock, the local Sony Style store was willing to match the price but had none in stock. I finely found one at a regional camera store (Penn Camera) who negotiated me up to $280. It looks like the current Internet price is around $270 with shipping. The camera has 58MB of internal memory but to use the 30 fps movie mode you need a Memory Stick Pro Duo. I purchased a Sandisk 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo for $94 from Circuit City, however Buy.com has them for $80 if you can wait for shipping.

I opened the box to find a separate battery charger, I was concerned that the camera did not charge the battery (one of my reason's for not going with Canon), the manual did not explicitly state that the camera did not charge the battery. I thought that not including a power adapter as well as no Memory Stick was Sony's way of cost cutting. So I left on our trip without the battery charger. After using the camera for several days, the battery needed a charge and I plugged it in overnight with my iGo 3500 power adapter. The next morning, the battery had not charged. Could the camera or battery be defective? Luckily we were in Glasgow and after finding a helpful camera shop, they pointed me to a Sony Style store. The sales people thought the camera should charge the battery but they were not sure. They could not do anything about the warranty since you have to ship defective cameras back to a Sony service center, not an option on our trip. They happen to have a Sony BC-TRG high speed charger. I purchased it for 45 pounds (~$84) to validate whether I had a problem with the camera or battery, not cheap but I was glad they had an option. The battery charged up in about 90 minutes and worked flawlessly throughout the trip. I decided to contact Sony when I got back. I fist emailed them and received, what looked like, an automated response that I should return the camera for warranty service, I was not convinced that this was appropriate. I called Sony and after talking to two different individuals I am pretty certain the camera does not charge the battery. All the Sony literature does not state that it does not charge, but it does not say that it does. I think they left this feature out, but are not willing to directly mention that you can only use an external battery charger, although the inclusion of one with the camera is a clear indication that the camera does not charge the battery. They also are now choosing to use a basic Lithium-Ion battery in their new DSC line of cameras versus the Info-Lithium battery which provided you with minutes left on the display. The change in battery design may also have something to do with the lack of embedded charging.

My DSC-P10 had a voice note record feature. You could make a voice note which attached to a picture. This is a great feature when traveling to make sure you don't forget what the shot was about, unfortunately this feature is not included in the DSC-W70.

I really like the size of the camera in my hand and the large LCD is great. I was able to store 390 7.2 MP pictures and 20 movies clips on the 2GB Memory Stick, although I backed everything up to my 60GB iPod for safety purposes.

When I got back, I created a DVD using Microsoft's Movie Maker 2.1 to edit and Nero 6 to create the DVD image. The results were very impressive, the clarity of the images is outstanding on standard definition TV and at 30 frames per second, no jerkiness. I will have to try it on an high definition TV. The 7.2MP pictures are excellent, although the CCD has a tendency to overdo greens. This is not a big problem since it can be easily corrected on a PC. The camera has enough manual settings for my use;  the one's that I use the most are the exposure +/- (EV) and white balance settings.

Pros

• Excellent movie quality
• Excellent still image quality
• Excellent digital zoom
• Great LCD
• Great size for pocket
• Still includes a viewfinder
• Lightweight

Cons

• No internal battery charger
• Proprietary battery size
• No voice note to picture capability
• Uses proprietary Memory Stick

In the end I am stuck with external battery charging and Memory Sticks, however I would highly recommend this camera. It is not perfect but the price/performance is tough to beat.

Here is a shot Portree, Isle of Sky, Scotland, resized to 370x278.

I created a category for the camera (Sony DSC-W70) to easily group my entries as well as my travel technology entries.

Update 7/7/06: I found the definitive answer on charging the battery pack in the camera on a diagram on page 18 of the users manual "If you connect the AC-LS5K AC adapter you cannot charge the battery pack".