{"id":1325,"date":"2008-12-27T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-27T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/12\/christmas-gadgets-in-the-wilson-family.htm"},"modified":"2009-01-27T23:26:35","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T23:26:35","slug":"christmas-gadgets-in-the-wilson-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/12\/christmas-gadgets-in-the-wilson-family.htm","title":{"rendered":"Christmas gadgets in the Wilson family"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing this a couple of days after Christmas, as the great British public starts is looking for bargains in the sales.  If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re reading this blog, the chances are that technology plays a significant part of your life if which case it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likely that Father Christmas\/Santa Claus\/St. Nick\/whoever distributes presents to your house brought you at least one gadget for Christmas.<\/p>\n

The old saying is that giving is better than receiving and I gave away a couple of gadget gifts this Christmas with which the reciepients have been particularly pleased, so I wanted to tell you a little bit about them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Pure Evoke-1S DAB digital radio<\/h3>\n

First up is the DAB digital radio that I bought for my wife.  Normally, she despairs of my penchant for expensive electronic items but a few weeks back she returned from a girly weekend in Sheffield and told me that some friends of ours had a digital radio and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d really like one.  Naturally, I was pleased \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I’d toyed with the idea for a while but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listen to enough radio to justify it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I was even more pleased when it transpired that the model that had impressed her so was from Pure and it was the Evoke-1S<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PurePure is one of the better-known digital radio producers in the UK and the Evoke-1S is the current version of a model that has been around for a while.  Whilst some consider the wooden finish to be a little tired, I much prefer it to the cheap-plastic-sprayed-with-metallic-effect-paint that seems to be the current trend for consumer electronics.  It sounds pretty good too.  One speaker means mono but this is a radio (not the ultimate in high fidelity sound presentation) and anyway, this device lives in our kitchen (which does not have the best acoustics either).  For what we wanted \u00e2\u20ac\u201c access to digital radio in an attractive unit at a reasonable price, this unit is perfect.<\/p>\n

How perfect? Well, the setup process was easy enough for Mrs. W to get up and running in a few seconds with no intervention from me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good start.  It also has an alarm, and a kitchen timer.  There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s provision for a second speaker, as well as an auxiliary input (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably get an iPod dock and then I can use it to catch up on downloaded episodes of The Archers<\/a>).  Then there is a USB port for software updates (e.g. to DAB+, should it ever reach these shores<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Evoke-1S is just one of many models available from Pure (for a little more money I thought the Evoke Flow<\/a> looked good, featuring Internet radio in it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s capabilities) but it was also a bargain.  Available for around \u00c2\u00a396 from most electronics retailers (maybe less if you go for the Cherry version \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we preferred the Maple finish), I bought ours from John Lewis<\/a> Online.  John Lewis Online\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s packaging is terrible (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a strong plastic bag) so the box was a little beaten up when it reached us but they were happy enough to offer me a discount by way of compensation.  The next day, I saw it on sale in PC World<\/a> for \u00c2\u00a368.47 so I bought that (to guarantee stock) before getting John Lewis to price match (John Lewis Online won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t price match but the brick and mortar stores are never knowingly undersold and they refunded and resold the item to me, after which I returned the unit I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bought in PC World).  Why the complicated refund and resale?  Because John Lewis offer a 2 year warranty on all new electrical purchases and because, if I had to guess which of the two retailers will still be trading in 2 years time, John Lewis looks a more certain bet to me than PC World\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parent company, DSG International<\/a> (it should be noted that I have no information to back that up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purely a personal opinion).<\/p>\n

To find out more about the Evoke-1S, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an FAQ on Pure\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s support pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

VTech Kidizoom Multimedia Digital Camera<\/h3>\n

My children have grown up in the glare of my digital cameras and we thought that my 4-year-old would enjoy one of his own (for the last year or so he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been playing with an old disposable camera body that I glued shut and he loves taking pretend photos).<\/p>\n

\"VTechAfter looking into the various options for rugged digital cameras (i.e. those with rubberised bodies designed to withstand the inevitable knocks and bangs which will be inflicted by children), we settled on a VTech Kidizoom<\/a> (which we got 20% off by using a voucher at ELC<\/a>). What we hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realised was just how big a hit this would be.  By the end of Christmas day he had taken over 400 pictures and it was pushing 700 by the end of Boxing Day!  Furthermore, he takes his camera everywhere with him (just like his Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 although I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take mine to bed with me!) and looking at his pictures has given me a great insight into the things that interest a 4-year-old (pictures of Mummy, Daddy, his brother, visiting grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc., his toys, the food on the table, his teddy bears, the Christmas tree, the television, the view from the car window, boats on the lake in the local country park, the produce in the supermarket, etc., etc.).  I simply cannot stress how much my son loves this present \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have never seen anything hold his attention for so long.<\/p>\n

Ironically, we nearly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy it for him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most of the reviews concentrate on the poor quality of the pictures, the inadequate flash, the fact that the pictures in the internal memory are lost when the (non-rechargeable) batteries run out, etc. and, having experienced the device now, I wanted to set the record straight.  After all, I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m qualified to do so: as a parent; an amateur photographer; and as an IT bloke.<\/p>\n

Firstly, picture quality.  Yes, this is a 640×480 (0.3MP) camera and so the pictures are not great \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s putting it mildly – actually they are pretty awful, with sludgy colours and high compression.  But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also in the hands of a 4-year-old!  He may take the odd picture that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s OK but these are unlikely to be the family album shots and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than happy looking at them on the computer screen or the TV (the camera is supplied with USB and composite video leads for connection to a PC or a TV).<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an example of one of the pictures \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at 33% and a section at 100%:<\/p>\n

\"Sample\"Section<\/p>\n

Next, the flash \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not very powerful (probably for safety reasons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 as little people are bound to hold the camera the wrong way around and take a self portrait) and it bleaches out anything close-up, but it does the job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sort of.  I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to the conclusion that this camera is designed for pictures to be taken at a distance of around 1.5 metres (which is the sort of distance my son stands from his subject anyway!) but pictures taken outside are definitely better.<\/p>\n

\"Sample\"Sample<\/p>\n

The Kidizoom comes with 16MB of internal memory and the instructions do warn that it will be erased if the batteries (4xAA) run out but it also has an SD card slot and the pictures on this card are safe in the event of power loss.  I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve set my son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s camera to use an old 1GB SD card by default and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s around 33,000 of his pictures (it was just an old card that I was using for ReadyBoost on the PC and is too small to be useful in any of my cameras).  Basically, RTFM and then losing photos when the batteries run out won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a problem.<\/p>\n

\"SampleI haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used the supplied software \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both Windows and Mac OS X detected the internal memory and the SD card as removable drives and were happy to copy over the pictures.  The camera also includes a video mode and some games but we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used them yet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at this point still photos are a big enough attraction.  It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit too easy for the kids to turn the flash off (although I had to read the manual to work out how to turn it back on) and quite a few pictures seem to have had a novelty border added by accident but these are minor issues given the market at which this camera is aimed. There’s also no EXIF data and the date and timestamp seems to be added when the image is copied from the camera – not when it’s taken.<\/p>\n

In summary, this camera is far from perfect but I also have to remember that my 2-year-old will get his hands on it too and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than good enough to last the next couple of years until they can both be trusted with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grown-up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d digital compact.  In terms of entertainment value it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a huge hit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most children emulate their parents and mine are certainly happy to be snapping away like their Daddy.<\/p>\n

Nikon D60 DSLR camera<\/h3>\n

\"NikonMy brother used to be a reasonable photographer but these days he hardly picks up his film camera (a Minolta X300, which, incidentally, last time I used, I really enjoyed for it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s raw simplicity).  In an attempt to set things straight this Christmas, his other half bought him a Nikon D60 kit<\/a>, based on advice from me, including an 18-55VR lens (see DP reviews for a review of the D60<\/a>).  The lens is a standard kit lens \u00e2\u20ac\u201c cheap, built of plastic, slow glass \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but is enough to get him started (and he can borrow one of mine if he needs to).  He brought it over to my place on Boxing Day and I was impressed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in fact I would say that, as a consumer DSLR, the D60 is fantastic.  It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the top of Nikon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s range (far from it) but it matches or exceed most of the features in my aging D70<\/a>, packs in more pixels (10.2MP), includes image sensor cleaning, and is smaller, lighter, and more compact.  All in all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great DSLR \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially at around \u00c2\u00a3300.<\/p>\n

If you prefer Canon then all I have to go on is the fact that my Dad seems pretty pleased with his new 1000D, which appears to be broadly equivalent to the D60.  If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at any other brand for a DSLR I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d question why \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Canon and Nikon are the market leaders which means there is a huge range of OEM and aftermarket support (accessories, etc.) and both offer plenty of scope to progress to a more advanced model, if required, at a later date.<\/p>\n

Closing thoughts<\/h3>\n

Apologies to those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find these items remotely interesting but this website comes up on enough Google searches that hopefully my comments will be of use to someone.  And if someone bought you something for Christmas that you think is fantastic and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to share it with the world, please leave a comment on this post.<\/p>\n

As for me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what gadgets did I receive this Christmas?  Nothing in particular (I bought myself a netbook a few weeks ago<\/a> and most of what I asked for was books \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like the excellent Landscape Photographer of the Year<\/a> collections) but I do collect Pixar movies and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just about to sit down and enjoy the DVD of WALL-E<\/a> that Father Christmas left in my stocking!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing this a couple of days after Christmas, as the great British public starts is looking for bargains in the sales.  If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re reading this blog, the chances are that technology plays a significant part of your life if which case it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likely that Father Christmas\/Santa Claus\/St. Nick\/whoever distributes presents to your house brought … Continue reading Christmas gadgets in the Wilson family<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,182],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-digital-photography","tag-digital-radio"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas gadgets in the Wilson family - 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