A couple of weekends ago, WOMWorld/Nokia sent me and 9 other Canadian bloggers out to the Canadian Rockies for #NokiaUnfenced. The event was held in Canmore, Alberta at the Grande Rockies Resort and in Kananaskis Valley at the Rafter Six Ranch.

Armed with a Nokia N8, the Nokia X7 (which was announced especially for us) and a competitor’s phone, we were given several tasks over the weekend, while we dined, drove, climbed trees, and rode horses all with an amazing backdrop of beautiful greenery and mountains. It was the perfect setting to play with phones and try out their cameras, which was my main focus during the trip.

I immediately fell in love with the camera on the Nokia N8, which packed a Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/28 12MP AF lens. The picture quality was amazing, which wasn’t a surprised, cause I felt the same way about the Nokia N95 which I played with a couple of years back. I’ve always known Nokia to have amazing camera hardware on their phones. However, the big disappointment for me was the fact that the Nokia X7 didn’t have as slick of a camera as the N8, but it did have a sexy build (separate reviews forthcoming).

Though, I probably won’t be getting rid of my iPhone 4 anytime soon, it was exciting to see the innovations that were coming out of the Nokia camp. More importantly, although these two Nokia phones are on a Simbian OS, it is promising to see that Nokia has partnered with Microsoft and will be releasing a Windows 7 phone in the future, which could be a killer combo.

Below is a photo play by play of how the weekend went down. The second half of the photo gallery are all images taken with Nokia N8.

Nokia had us staying at the Grande Rockies Resort, which was pretty amazing, our suites included our own livingroom, kitchen, balcony with BBQ and Scenic views of the surrounding mountains

Tom brings in the stack of Nokia N8's

Armed with Nokia phones, we were tasked to find our way to the Iron Goat

The Iron Goat Pub and Grill was our dinner destination, The food and service was delicious, we even got free dessert samples because I tweeted that we were there.

Chad from Nokia Canada announces that the Nokia X7 will be coming to the Rogers network, and then we were armed with a second Nokia phone

By dinner time, I had 5 cellphones in my possession

Tracking our way to the Rafter Six Ranch from Canmore with GPS

When we got to Rafter Six Ranch we were suited up in personalized shirts with our twitter handles and cowboy hats

Getting strapped into harnesses for the Roping course, we spent a good couple of hours in the trees, making our way across 18 ropes and finally a zipline.

Simon making his way across one of the Ropes

After lunch we went for a bit of a photowalk down to the river, tasked to play around with the phone's camera

Saddled up for an awesome and scenic horseback ride through the Bow Valley Provincial Park

Getting ready for Cowboy College, where we learned lasso technique, and how to saddle a horse

The famous droptest between the Nokia C7 and an iPhone 4, The iphone ended up with a shattered screen.

Overall, I had an amazing time at #NokiaUnfenced, I met some amazing people and I participated in some amazing experiences that i wouldn’t have had back home in Toronto. Nokia did an amazing job of bringing a varied group of people to the event with different outlooks and focuses.

Attendees included
@SimonLR | Know Nokia
@mapperz | Mapperz – The Mapping News Blog
@rtanglao | Roland Tanglao’s Weblog
@Jen_Banks | A Busy Mommy
@4MKMobile | 4MK Mobile
@Gletham | AnyGeo
@MyChaos | My Organized Chaos
@richcampbell | Richard Campbell Blogs Too
@ACurrie | Andrew Currie Online

Special Thanks to Tom Hall, Donna Suffling and Chris Illman. You folks are amazing.

Did you ever want to be a filmmaker, but thought you didn’t have the right equipment? The Disposable Film Festival proves that you don’t need fancy equipment to create a modern masterpiece. The premise behind the festival is to celebrate the creative potential of disposable video: short films made on everyday equipment like cell phones, pocket cameras, and other inexpensive video capture devices. Last night, at the Underground Cinema, 25 films from the Disposable Film Festival were screened as a part of NXNE.

Funny, touching, creative, personal, beautiful and most of all inspirational, sum up a handful of adjectives I could use to describe the Disposable Film Festival. I left the theatre full of ideas, wanting to create a film of my own on my iPhone. Thrush above and Paper Memories below were two of my favourites from the screening, so it wasn’t surprising to see that both won prizes at the festival.

The festival was created in 2007 in San Francisco, this year they received over 1000 submissions that were curated down to the 25 shown at the screening. They are currently accepting submissions until November 30th, 2011.

Blossoms taken with the LG Optimus 2X

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to check out the LG Optimus 2X. It’s the world’s first smartphone with a duel-core processor, and it’s equip with 8 mega pixel camera. There’s a lot of bells and whistles on this baby, especially with gaming and HDMI mirroring to your TV, but what really caught my eye here was the built in camera.

The camera was super easy to use and comes with a whole lot of built in functionality and settings that mirror closely to a point and shoot type camera, giving you the ability to choose between scene modes, ISO speeds and white balance. It’s the first time I’ve really seen any of this in a mobile device and I was really pleased with the quick responsiveness of the camera. The photo above, was one of the test shots I took with the phone, I tried to take a similar shot with my iPhone 4, but it simply wasn’t as easy, especially trying to get everything in focus in such a close distance.

It’s devices like this, which are gonna slowly kill off the point and shoot market. Even with my iPhone 4, I rarely shoot with my point and shoot digital camera anymore, it’s just not convenient enough.

Handsfree/Speech Recognition

With more and more governments, banning the use of mobile devices while driving. Being able to use your device handsfree is becoming increasingly important. There are already devices on the market that allow for very basic forms of speech recognition. I can only assume that these technologies will likely improve over the next few years, allowing consumers to do more than just dialling pre-programmed numbers. Ideally, you’ll be able to tell your phone to update your twitter or facebook feed. Perhaps you’ll be able to even write entire emails simply by dictating into your phone. Imagine describing an event you are witnessing and posting it into your blog, via your smartphone, without actually typing anything into the device. That would be amazing. Perhaps this is still a few years down the line, but all ideas have to start somewhere.

Docking your phone

Currently, I’m an iPhone user and I love it because it can do all the basic computing things that I can do on my home computer. I’m able to read, and send email with ease, browse websites, listen to music and access all my social networks. Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply dock your phone, just like your able to dock a notebook computer to larger monitors and full keyboards? Having one device instead of two, would definitely simplify things. And everything now is bluetooth enabled, so set up should be a breeze. Which leads me to my last idea.

Universal Bluetooth/Networking

Just like the Lord of the Rings, with one ring to rule them all, imagine one device to control them all. So many devices are bluetooth enabled; keyboards, mice, controllers for video games, computers, headsets. Now imagine if all your household devices had bluetooth, or even simple network capabilities. You walk into a room and you can turn on your entertainment system. Your laundry finishes it’s cycle and you receive a txt or an email from your washing machine, telling you it’s done. Imagine not having to deal with half a dozen remote controls, or programming your PVR from your phone. Slowly these systems are becoming a reality, and with standards in bluetooth and wireless networking, it only a matter of time before every electronic device in your home will have the ability to connect to the home network.

Perhaps my ideas are a tad futuristic, but is it really that far off into the future? When I was growing up, we were still using film to take pictures with our cameras, and now we live in a world where my phone, can take a picture, shoot video and access the internet all in my pocket. I’m sure it won’t take long for that same device to take charge of many other functions in our day to day life.

So today, I’m hopping on a plane and travelling half way around the world to meet up with a bunch of other bloggers from 8 different countries. Sure we’ll get to tour around the beautiful city of Seoul, but we are also gonna get the opportunity to meet with LG engineers to see what’s coming down the pipe and perhaps plant ideas of flying cars and and universal devices that were once known as phones. How does your future look?

So for the last month, as a part of a blogger outreach program, I’ve been playing with the first Smartphone put out by the South Korean company LG, appropriately called the LG Eve (aka LG GW620). The phone features include a resistive touch screen, a tactile slider qwerty keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera (and LED flash) which shoots both photos and videos. Touted as a Social Media smartphone, the LG Eve runs on the Google Android OS, which allows for the download and use of any Android based applications.

Upon initial inspection, the LG Eve looks like a slightly smaller, slightly thicker iPhone wanna be, featuring a 3 inch screen (dimensions 106 x 55 x 12 mm). But you soon discover the discover a slider tactile qwerty keyboard and the impressive 5 megapixel camera. The phone was initially loaded with a limited number of basic applications and upon my first use of the phone, I wasn’t all that impressed. Being a full time iPhone user, Apple has done a very good job of training us to use our phones in certain ways, and using the LG Eve requires a bit of unlearning to get a full sense of the three available buttons available on the LG Eve. Underneath the touchscreen, there is a home button to the left, a round menu button in the middle and a back to the right. Once you figure out how each button works, the ease of use on the LG Eve increases massively.

Sample Video from the LG Eve

Out of the box, I wasn’t all that impressed with the applications built into the LG Eve. Being an Android phone, it came preloaded with all the various google applications, a very functional GPS application called Telenav (subscription extra), and a few other basic applications for email, web browsing etc. Also included was a Social Networking application called linkbook, which is supposed to be your one stop shop for all your social networking needs (I’ll get into this shortly). It wasn’t until I found the Marketplace application and started downloading various applications when I started to truly enjoy playing with the LG Eve. In the marketplace I was able to find apps for all my social networking needs. Twitter, facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, they had them all covered. I was also able to find Android versions of my favorite iPhone apps like Bump and Shazam. I think it was a very smart move on LG’s part to hop on the Android bandwagon, as opposed to building their own operating system for the phone. There is a whole community behind the Android movement and lots of apps being developed for it.

Linkbook

One of the biggest things they are marketing about this phone is it’s ability to connect you to your social network’s. The built in application made for that purpose, on the LG Eve is called Linkbook. The application allows you to connect to various social network from one central place. In theory, it sounds like an amazing idea, but in execution, LG does a poor job. When shown the application for the first time, I was deeply disappointed with it lack of features. The app, only provides support for Facebook, Twitter and Beebo (who uses that?). The software only allows you to access one network at a time. And there is a very limited number of things you can do from the application. Basically from a Social Network Manager application I would expect to see a number of features, which would include, but are not limited to; a large selection of networks to plug into (FourSquare, Flickr, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, MySpace etc), the ability to update my status once and have it posted to all (or selected) networks, and the ability to access more information like facebook events, or other information you might find useful while you are mobile. Of course, the redeeming feature of the phone, which I mentioned above, is it’s Android platform, which provided me with many application options for my various Social networking needs.

The Camera

When handed a phone to try, my first thing to check out is it’s camera capabilities. The photo of Wall-E above is the first I took with the camera and instantly I was impressed by it’s ability to take decent macro shots. But the real strength in the camera is built into the camera application itself. When you dive into the camera’s menu screens you soon discover, exposure compensation, flash and macro controls, shooting modes, white balancing and a whole slew of other settings you can control. Also in playing back the images on the gallery application, there are a number of edit features that you can do in-camera. Many people have asked me if I would trade my iPhone for the LG Eve. And for the camera alone, I might.

Photo Gallery of images captured with the LG Eve

Overall the LG Eve is a excellent initial effort by LG into the smartphone market. They’ve made a lot of good choices with this phone. The keyboard and touchscreen combo is a great feature especially for those who are fans of tactile keyboards, and I know there are a lot of you out there. The built in camera is a joy to play with. and the Android platform provides a ton of applications, for productivity, to games to social networking. The LG Eve is available in Canada on the Rogers network.

I think it’s quite timely, that they’ve asked this question, especially around here if you consider how much video I have posted in the last week. And really with sites as strong as You Tube, and our favourite Vimeo, I don’t see online video going away anytime soon.

The path is fairly simple. People are already creating their own video content to be posted online and it’s being watched by millions around the world. Look at the increase in the number of video podcast being created. With devices such at Apple TV and widescreen televisions and computer monitors. It’s hard not to see the appeal of HD video. Because if you are given the space, then why not utilize it?

I think a couple of things need to happen to get us to this point.

Affordablity
HD recording devices need to become more affordable for the average consumer. And including it in a point and shoot camera is an easy way to make that a reality. Last year, Canon introduced the Powershot TX1 which records at 720p while Kodak announced the V1253 and V1233. This year, announcements were made by Panasonic (TZ5 and FX35) and Samsung (NV24HD). Even companies like Aiptek released low end camcorders (A-HD 720p and the GO-HD) which are HD ready. All these products fall under the $600 mark. In the near future, devices that record 640×480 will hopefully be a thing of the past and HD compatible devices will be the norm and any point and shoot, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Ease of Use
Another important feature for the average person will be ease of use. Basically, when I shoot a video, I want to be able to dump it on my computer and upload to my favorite video sharing site instantly. Luckily, most devices, like point and shoot cameras are already making it that easy. Your average camcorder, not so easy. With more people wanting to create video, this ease of use factor will become more and more important especially if they want this market to grow.

Watching the Market grow
I’ve seen it happen before and I’m sure it will happen again. Over the years, I’ve watched as the digital camera market exploded. First everyone had a point and shoot camera. They got totally hooked on their new creative outlet and progressively moved to more sophisticated equipment. I see the same thing happening to video. Once people get a taste for creating decent videos in HD with an affordable piece of equipment, they will eventually outgrow and upgrade their equipment.

If you asked me 5 years ago, if I thought digital SLR would catch on among regular consumers, my answer probably would have been a resounding NO. The equipment was too expensive and most consumers were content with their point and shoot cameras.

If you ask me now if I think HD camcorders will be will catch on in the next 5 years, my answer is YES. The introduction to include HD video on point and shoot cameras is the first step to creating a bigger HD market in the future. You may not want one now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up owning one in the next 5 years. Let me tell you, I can’t wait to have my own.

Growing up on film cameras, you always have a special place in your heart for them. So coming across a digital product like this Pocket Camera Classic, you can’t help but hold a romantic notion. Apitek USA has designed this miniature digital camera with this awesome retro design for a mere $9.99.

Despite not being able to use this on my Mac, I’d gladly use it as a decorative paperweight.

So I was out window shopping this weekend and i came across these 3 photo related items designed to sell for the holiday season.

Photo Phone P-300 Amplified Telephone

Probably the worst of all the products. It’s basically a regular phone that you can program and customize with photos of the people you call most. Upon a bit of online research, the photo is designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Definitely, not on my wishlist. a) do people still have landlines? b) And if you do, isn’t cordless the way to go?

Photo Share 7

This is a 7 inch digital photo album which also doubles as a digital frame. It touts it’s portability as an asset. Personally, I can’t picture myself carrying such a large item around to showcase my photos. And I’m totally not sold on the idea of digital photo frames just yet. Although for under $100 it’s one of the cheaper ones out there on the Canadian market. If I were to carry around my images, I’d probably settle on using an iPod or even perhaps a PSP, but definitely not anything larger then that.

Picture This Digital Ornament

Of all the products, this would be the most practical and is the most inexpensive at under $30. Basically, it’s you traditional round Christmas tree ornament with a technological twist. It contains a 1.5 inch screen which can store and display up to 50 different images. It might make a nice sentimental gift for someone in your family. But I can’t really picture myself staring at it on my tree as it cycles through 50 images on a 1.5 inch screen. Also, this item is only PC compatible, so for you Mac lovers out there, you are out of luck. That being said, it’s definitely the best buy of all the photo related items I saw while shopping.

Personally, if I were to decorate my tree with sentiment, I’d probably do it in a more analog way. But that my friend will be for a later post.

So it wasn’t so long ago when I first wrote about the ipod Touch. And seriously, it’s been weighing on my mind for weeks and weeks now. Should I get one, or should I just sit here and lust for it for the next few months.

I suppose the answer would be clearer if I had a steady source of income, but for now all I can think about are the main ways it could help me stay organized and on track. One of the first things I noticed about the Touch was the fact that you couldn’t update your iCal on the device directly, but I know for a fact that there is an easy hack out their to fix that problem and I’ve seen it in action. The hack basically unlocks the device making it function like an iPhone without the phone or camera capabilities.

Luckily, I had a paying photoshoot today and have another on Friday. And I have a couple of backlogged invoices I need to send out, but with a exhibit next week and the holiday season here, other bills need to get paid first.

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Well if you are, you better already have it giftwrapped under the tree. If not, why not try Shoppers Drug Mart. I was in the Dupont and Spadina store earlier this evening and apparently Shoppers carry Wii now. I was very tempted to buy it and flip it on Craigslist, but I couldn’t be bothered. They had two in stock, so hurry up and pick one up.

Another cool gift idea for that spoiled tween, or grown up man-child of yours might be a Zoombox. I picked one up the other night at the Toys R Us on Steeles, just west of Yonge. Basically, I wanted a cheap projector. According to reviews, they are pretty fun, but you must watch them in dark rooms (like really dark rooms). Where else can you get a projector for $150 bucks? Strangely enough these puppies are listed at $399 US on amazon. I guess with the rate of conversion from US to Canadian Dollar, that makes it even.

Bonus Points if someone can track me down a copy of Guitar Hero for the Wii.

So I’m currently playing around with an LG 8700 (LG Shine) cellphone. Basically, I wanted to see how acceptable the camera was on the phone, it’s not connected to my provider, so I have no idea what the reception is like.

In any case, I’ve uploaded some of the pictures to a set on flickr.

I figured since we all take liberties editing our photos before we post them online. I figured I would give this device the same liberties. The photo in this post has been adjusted for colour and perspective. The photos in the flickr set however were not editted.

So since I picked up a 30 gig iPod a few weeks back, I’ve been on the hunt for some speakers, so I could play the iPod at work. Sure regular computer speakers could work, but I thought it would be nice to have speakers that also doubled as a docking station. Of course, generally these don’t come cheap and are a lot more high tech, meaning it’s not something I would want to leave at work. Most decent ones were over $100 which was more then I really wanted to pay for.

This week however, while browsing through the Canadian Tire flyer, I noticed they had a special on a speaker dock called iPodium by Astone. The price $29.99 which was just in my range.

So on Saturday, I went to the local Canadian Tire and picked up one. At first I was worried that they might be sold out, because the flyer touted that there would be limited quantities. I wanted to wake up early, but after an evening of playing on the Wii any hopes of that happening were smashed. So I headed over in the late afternoon. The large number of Christmas shoppers worried me as I entered the store. But once I was over at the electronic section, there were plenty to be had.

Let me say, I was totally impressed by the speakers. Sure they weren’t anything highend but the sound was decent, the price was right and I actually think I got a lot of bang for my buck. To top things off, there is both a iPod attachment as well as a PSP attachment. So you can dock either type of device. The speaker dock also comes equipped with a remote which allows you to adjust the volume as well as browse through your iPod menu (I am unsure if the remote works with a PSP, it’s untested). Let me say, I’m very tempted to go back and pick one up for home use.

It’s a definite pick for “Deal of the Week” and would make the perfect little Christmas Gift.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if Canadian Tire donated one to my contest.

Last night, we attended the official launch of LG Canada’s new Chocolate line of mobile phones. The first of the series, the LG 8500, will be hitting the market today through TelusMobility, with the other models being available through the other major Canadian carriers in late November. The phone itself is a sleek slider type that’s damn sexy. I almost wish I waited the extra couple of months before I got my phone.

The launch was also coupled with a runway show of Montreal based designer Shan, who debuted her Spring 2007 collection of swimwear and lingerie. With over 20 years of experience, Chantel Leveque’s designs were clean and sexy which made it a perfect date for the Chocolate phones.

If you are in Toronto, you can check out Shan’s retail space at 38 Avenue Road in the Yorkville area, but we are talking couture here so don’t let the sticker shock get to you.

After much food and drink we topped off the night by saying hello to the MC of the event Star TV’s Larysa Harapyn. Let me just say that she looks gorgeous in person and is so warm and personable.

So this weekend I bumped into Eli, Sameer (shown above) and Tanya, who were all reciepients of the Nokia 6682 seeding campaign.

The phone is so pretty, in a feminine kinda way, especially with it’s pearly finish. It’s a tad on the heavy size, but that just means it’s well built, right? And from what I have seen, it takes decent pictures, if the light is decent. In lower light, not so much.

On of my favorite shots so far from the cameraphone is this one taken by Jill of a son and his mother. Also check out Jeremy’s set of 25 on flickr.

Also check out Blaine’s full review of the phone on his site.

Basically, the technology searches for the retroreflective (means that is relfects light back to the source) CCDs from digital video and still cameras and neutralizes them with a beam of light, which would overwhelm the CCD.

It seems that the primary usage of this technology would be for movie theatres where piracy has become an international problem. Of course, the applications are endless.

The drawback is that this technology would have no affect on digital SLRs because of the nature of their construction, with their CCD sensors only being exposed when the picture is being taken and with any film cameras.

What they don’t discuss is the permanence of the neutralization process. It is unclear in the article whether the technology temporarily disables the recording device or permanently breaks it.

This of course could lead to many arguements regarding our civil freedoms. It should be interesting to see where this goes in the future.

I think that one of the biggest things people noticed when they transition from a point and shoot digital camera to a digital SLR is the lack of real time viewing on their LCD screens. Luckily, I was into photography well before the digital revolution, so it was really no surprise for me to adjust to.

The fine folks over Argraph corporation have come up with a solution for this problem with the Zigview and Zigview-R. Basically they have created the world’s first LCD attachment that connects to the camera via the viewfinder.

(Link via Mia, Myself & I)

You too can place yourself in an iPod ad. The folks over at photoshop 911 have a quick little tutorial on how.

Over on flickr I found these iPod Halloween costumes. Very inventive.