New Samsung camera family

Samsung has announced a new family of compact digital cameras, the NX100 series. The new line is similar in concept to the Olympus PEN series of interchangeable lens, very compact cameras. I have become a big fan of the Olympus cameras and I can't wait to try the new Samsung cameras.

In the pics Samsung has released an external viewfinder is shown and that's a big plus. I always use one on my E-PL1 and wouldn't give the NX100 a second thought without it.

Free eBook

MSFT has made an eBook on online security that is aimed at teens available for free download. I've downloaded the PDF version and will take a look at it today. If hyou're interested the book is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=87583728-ef14-4703-a649-0fd34bd19d13&displayLang=en

New PENTAX cameras

Pentax just announced their new digital cameras, both compacts and a new dSLR.

The compacts are the Optio RS1000 and the RZ10. The RS1000 will appeal to people who like to customize their personal electronic. You'll be able to change the skin on the camera to have it look the way you want it to. It will ship with 11 skins and a gift card to www.skinit.com for ones you can design yourself. They even have downloadable software, Pentax Personal Skin Designer, that you can use. It will ship inj October for $149.95.

The dSLR is the K-r and it has all of the features you would expect from a high quality Pentax camera. It is also available in a number of colors to appeal to people who want a camera to reflect their personal style. I'm a basic black kind of guy but I know a lot of people who will want other colors. It will be available in October also.

For a lot more information go to www,pentaximaging.com

Apple relents

The all-powerful Wizard of Apple has graciously allowed mere mortals to once again develop apps for his devices!! I guess we should all fall down on our knees and sing his praise. The official word is:

We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.
In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.

What a day!

As a minor project today I decided to do a quick upgrade to our office LAN. As a result, I'm approaching suicidal. All I was doing was changing wireless routers to give some of our users a bit faster connection. Oh boy, was I wrong about the quick part!!

Most of the network is functioning fine again but our wireless printers are driving me nuts! I remember talking to a tech at a Showstopper event in Vegas many years ago when they first provided us with WiFi for our stories. When he was confounded by problems he looked at me and said: "it's radio and it's more magic than technology". Amen brother!!

Catching up

I'm finally getting caught up with my to-do list. I finished up my emails yesterday and will start some serious writing this afternoon. In between articles I still need to do some long term planning for upcoming issues. It looks like I'll be busy for a while!!

Summer vacations

Summer vacations are finally over, Labor Day has passed and it's back to work for everyone. You can expect many more posts now that we're all back in the office and can keep up with the news in the tech world.