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March 24, 2004 |
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Digital cameras are always popular with CNET readers. But this week, they
were more popular than usual. One reason: you're getting ready for spring
break and summer vacation. Also big this week: cell phones, wiretaps, MP3
players, and industry standards. |
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Cameras
Once again, cameras dominated our search logs. CNET readers were
particularly interested in the Canon
Powershot S410, the Fujifilm
FinePix F700, and the Canon
S500 photo printer. Meanwhile, our reviews crew has been writing up a
bunch of new snapshooters, including the Sony
Cyber Shot DSC-T1, the Konica
Minolta Dimage E323, and the Fujifilm
FinePix S7000, among others.
While no doubt tied to transient promotions, we'd guess the popularity of
digital photography is also seasonal: as the weather warms up, folks are
getting ready for spring break and looking ahead to summer vacations, and
they're lining up digital gear to record their adventures.
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More phones
Also big on the search logs for the umpteenth week in a row: cell phones.
The Kyocera
Slider SE47, the NEC
515, and the latter's Editors' Choice sibling, the NEC
525, all rode high in our search logs. CNET readers were also all over
our coverage of this week's CTIA
(Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association) trade show, where all
the major cell phone vendors unveiled their wares for the coming year.
Finally, we had our annual March madness cell phone tournament, in which
you, the readers, get to decide which phones deserve to be top of the league.
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Wiretap
For privacy fans, the news is chilling: the FBI is pushing for the
power to tap into broadband connections. One big reason: the proliferation
in Internet telephony (also known as Voice over IP, or VoIP) means that
more and more of us will be using our speedy Net connections to place phone
calls as well as to surf the Net. If that's the case, the G-men are going
to want the same access to those communications they can now get (within
limits, of course) to plain old telephone service. It's still just a
proposal, but already cable giant Time Warner Cable has
said it's going to start adhering to the Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 wiretap law with which cable companies are not
yet required to comply.
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Mini
MP3 players
Among the most popular stories on our site last week: MP3 Insider
Eliot Van Buskirk's picks for ultracompact MP3 players, a list headed by
the famed iPod
Mini. Not too long ago, Eliot asked the
question, "Is a microdrive MP3 player right for you?" And readers were
also all over our coverage of miniheadphones
to go with those miniplayers. According to an upcoming Personal Tech Radar
reader survey, half of CNET readers said they wanted an MP3 player to use
while exercising. Given all that and the time of year, we think you're into listening to music while you're getting into summer shape.
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Industry
standards
A bunch of our news readers were looking for stories on industry standards
this week. There were certainly enough stories for them to find, including
news that Web sites are turning their backs
on Microsoft's proprietary Passport service, waiting instead for an
Internet authentication standard to emerge; also, it turns out that some of
the latest rewritable
DVD discs may not be compatible with older drives; cell phone vendors
are working on a
standard for the increasingly popular Push To Talk walkie-talkie
services; and those same vendors are eyeing a new wireless networking
standard--802.16, or WiMax--nervously, because it could cut into their
business. In the technology business, the process of settling on one,
mutually agreeable way of doing anything--from sending e-mail to fighting
spam--is never easy, so many of these initiatives may come to naught. But
given our druthers, we'd rather see vendors wrangling over interoperable
implementations than trying to lock us into one proprietary solution or
another.
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