digital

Most popular dSLR lenses

Well, at least according to the Digital Photography School readership. These guys polled their readers and put together a list of the most popular Canon, Nikon, and third-party lenses. Scientific? Nah. But you could do worse than using their list as a guide for accessorizing your dSLR.

Oddly, the Nikon f/1.8 50mm lens tops the list. It's an inexpensive, predigital lens, but not exactly a general-purpose option that would attract large numbers of users. This probably says more about the site's readership than lens popularity overall.

But now I'm curious. Talk back and tell me … Read more

Western Digital 250GB My Book External Hard Drive for $94.99 after a $10 savings

Newegg.com has the Western Digital 250GB My Book External Hard Drive for $94.99, after a $10 savings >> Regular price is $104.99 >> Click here for deal

Plastic packaging, initial setup waiting times and a few other things that annoy me at home

We all have them, and we wish we didn't: annoyances that just don't seem to go away. For some they come in the form of husbands or wives. For others, annoyances come in the form of technology. Sadly (or is it gladly?), mine are the latter.

My fight against plastic packaging

Sure this point may have been belabored before, but it needs to be said again: hard plastic packaging is awful! Just yesterday I made my weekly trek down to my local electronics stores and decided to buy a few tech products for my home. While it would … Read more

Deal of the day: Olympus Stylus 1000 10MP camera & 256MB card for $200

Tomorrow's Independence Day, and practically the whole country has the day off. For once, you get to have your cookout on a Wednesday. How will you document your midweek antics? You'll want photographic evidence of how cute the nieces and nephews were when they made that pyramid in the kiddie pool. You need pictures to explain that funny thing that happened with the mustard squeezer. And even if you just enjoy some epic lounging in the shade, you'll want pictures to remind yourself of ease and leisure when you're cranking through 400 e-mails back at work … Read more

Hands-on: The Sonos Bundle 130

For the past month, I have been playing with (and enjoying) the Sonos Digital Music System (Bundle 130). Offering a sleek design and a surprisingly useful remote, the Bundle U130 raises the bar for other systems that take your music and transmit tunes throughout your home.

What's in the box

When you first open the bundle, you are immediately presented with a host of cords and the same products that you would find in the Sonos Bundle 100 or the Bundle 80 - the ZonePlayer 100 (ZP100), the ZonePlayer 80 (ZP80) and the CR100 controller. And while the same … Read more

Pentax's Super New SLR

With a nod toward the naming schema the company used in the late '70s when upgrading its popular ME film SLR to the ME Super, Pentax has announced its new K100D Super 6.1-megapixel digital SLR. An update to last year's K100D, this new SLR adds Pentax's Dust Removal system, as well as support for the company's high-end SDM lenses, to one of the more affordable digital SLRs on the market. Other than these additions, the K100D Super is essentially the same as the K100D, which included Pentax's sensor-shift Shake Reduction system, which helps reduce blur-inducing … Read more

Adobe Digital Editions: First Look

Adobe's Digital Editions lets you manage your e-book collection with large icons taken from the book covers, an uncluttered interface, and the ability to create playlist-style "bookshelves." Released for both Windows and Mac, the iTunes-style management might just help make e-books the Next Big Thing.

In this First Look video, take a quick tour of the app from its unusual install process onward.

Double dose of Disney electronics

Portable DVD players seem to come in all shapes and sizes these days--and sometimes in pairs. Yes, the Disney dual-screen Mobile DVD player has arrived at our New York offices, along with one of Disney's new Pix Max digital cameras, which sports a "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme.

The idea behind the dual-screen DVD player ($180) is that two backseat riders can watch the same movie at the same time, with neither person having to deal with the perils of off-axis viewing. Both screens feature a 7-inch LCD display that straps onto the back of a headrest; … Read more

Tech-books: Microsoft, Houghton Mifflin strike deal

Textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin said Monday it signed a pact with Microsoft to develop a new digital education system for school districts. Under the deal, Houghton Mifflin will build its learning system with Microsoft technology, including the.Net framework 3.0 and its latest SharePoint servers.

In 2001, Houghton Mifflin, an American institution in education publishing, bought instructional technology from IBM. That technology became what it called Learning Village, a system for school administrators and teachers to access curriculum, among other features. Now used by 45,000 schools in roughly 30 countries, the software is due for an update, according … Read more