Olympus announces its best quality camera

NEW DIGITAL CAMERA HAS THE BEST FROM POINT&SHOOT AND DSLR MODELS

Panasonic's 12.1 megapixel Micro four thirds cameras has all the bells and whistles while the Olympus E-P1 can actually fit in your pocket.

It’s not often a camera maker flies you to New York to show off its newest digital camera and let’s you play tourist with it all day long…with a handful of company technicians in tow. This included a sea harbor tour of New York, the Statue of Liberty, the colourful Conny Island beach boardwalk, an impromptu picture-perfect pass under the Brooklyn bridge  and a spectacular evening penthouse view of the New York skyline from the lower east side.

So what was all the fuss about last week in the Big Apple? Olympus announced its much awaited E-P1, 12.3 megapixel, interchangeable lens system digital camera. The classic looking aluminum/stainless steel body draws attention anywhere I have been taking it since, especially camera stores. It even has similarities with the original PEN film camera Olympus launched 50 years ago…imagine, that’s half a century!

But it’s what’s inside that’s special about the E-P1 (body $849.99, with ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom lens, $899.99) as well as two cameras released earlier by Panasonic, the Lumix G1 and  GH1.

It’s the new Micro Four Thirds system, adopted by Olympus  and Panasonic with a few new potential partners like Kodak, that uses the same size full four thirds sensor in Panasonic and Olympus DSLR cameras.

The prism and mirror are gone, the lens mount is smaller and the sensor is closer to the lens, allowing for better lens design (less retro-focus). This also allows for smaller camera and lens design but the new micro cameras also accept the full Four Thirds lens family from the consortium camera and lens makers, with an optional lens converter.

Call it a hybrid digital if you will…the size of enthusiast point & shoot cameras, the quality of DSLRs and interchangeable lenses and new features.

I have been testing the Olympus E-P1 since last Tuesday and I can tell you, without a doubt, its picture quality is equal, if not better to that of Olympus’ newest DSLR, the 12.3 megapixel E-620, in fact, showing even less noise at higher ISO settings.

Did I tell you it also shoots HD video? It shoots 720p (AVI format) with stereo sound recorded in audio CD quality. You can also record (or re-record) 30 seconds of audio on any still frame you shoot. All very handy for in camera slide shows.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

-Picture quality is the tell-all of how good a camera really is. Does the E-P1 12.3 megapixel on a larger chip translate to a better looking image than that of the 12.1 megapixel GH1? Yes. On the lower ISO settings the cameras are close, with the E-P1 showing richer colours, to some a personal preference. But as the ISO is notched up from 800 to 3200, the Olympus retained colours longer and less grain, yielding very usable pictures in dim lighting. But at 6400 ISO, the only camera to go that high, the E-P1 yielded noticeably grainer images and flatter colour. Still, the E-P1 is Olympus’ best image quality four thirds chip camera, beating out all company DSLR models. It also shoots twice the sequential pictures faster than the GH1.

-The E-P1 does not have an optical viewfinder, or a small secondary LCD eyepiece, like the Panasonic models have. But its 3-inch brilliant LCD can be seen clearly from angled overhead or ground-up photography, even in sunlight. The Panasonic Micros have a full swivel LCD, finer detail screen, but that also adds weight and bulk. The EP-1 screen has smoother motion having an adequate 230,000 dots compared to the noticeably finer detailed 460,000 dots of the Panasonic models. Still, the GH1 impresses with a print-like quality LCD screen which is also clear, even in dark rooms, unlike the E-P1 which gets grainy, but at the end, produces the best quality photos.

-The most important part, for me, is the camera’s response, commonly referred as shutter lag. Having been a professional photographer for more than 40 years, I know a few things about capturing the exact moment in photography. I compared the E-P1, GH1 and Olympus’ newest E-620 DSLR shooting a digital timer dozens of times (manual and auto focus). The Olympus E-P1 averaged .28 seconds lag, compared to the .30 seconds of the E-620 and the .36 seconds of the GH1. The E-P1 also can shoot more than twice the number of sequential frames.

-The video quality of the E-P1 maxing at 720p was similar to the GH1, both exhibiting slight image stuttering on fast moving scenes, typical or still cameras wanna-be camcorders. The GH1 also shoots an impressive 1080p, but with less panning smoothness, in AVCHD format. A plus, it also can shoot MPEG4 video. The E-P1 HD video is a feast for the ears with best-sounding stereo Linear PCM audio recording.

-Both cameras have excellent dust reduction systems.

-The extras on the E-P1 rock when it comes to applying live view art filters on still photos and videos, although the Pop Art and Vignette effects affect the video smoothness. Then there’s the multiple exposure feature which you can do live, while shooting, or after, picking from already taken frames.

-On image stabilization, the GH1 can take steadier pictures at slower shutter speeds. Oddly, the E-P1 does not have built-in flash, when it needs it more than competitors. But a small, metal finish external TTL capable flash is available for $100, after rebate.

-Both Micro cameras share a slew of similar features, including a 300-325 frames with some flash, on one battery charge. Both cameras have extensive menu options, but the E-P1 all in one info display, a carry-over from the DSLR line, rocks, allowing you to make 20 quick settings changes of one screen, and the new thumb operated vertical roller bar speeds up your menu navigation.

WHICH TO BUY?

The GH1 retails for more than twice the price of the E-P1, at $1,899.99 but you get more things to tinker with on-camera and an unquestionably impressive 10X  14-42 mm optical zoom lens. The G1 12.1 megapixel sibling goes for $799.99 with similar features, a 14-45 mm zoom lens but no video. If video is important to you, the GH1 has more options and its quiet lens does not make distractive audio sounds when zooming. The E-P1 zoom during video is so noisy, you have to turn the auto focus off. The GH1 comes with lens hood and runs directly off a power outlet if your battery is dead. Both cameras have mini HDMI output for flat panel TVs, but the GH1 can be controlled with your newer TV’s remote control.

But if you want small, cool style looks and best still picture performance, go with the Olympus E-P1, out the first half of July.

Palm Pre arrives in Canada for surprise visit

BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR BELL’S NEWEST PHONE

Toronto media got a short-notice invite Wednesday morning for a same-day sneak-peak of the new Palm Pre smartphone, available at Bell in the second half of this year. Reporters could not take pictures but they could see the phone.

A touch of drama for a phone that won’t be in Canada for months and that we all knew about at CTIA Las Vegas earlier this year.

You will have time to think about your next cellphone upgrade, Bell hopes. Should you wait? Before I get into some details about the Pre phone, here is the skinny:

Unless you don’t like everything that the hottest last-quarter top-selling PDA does, the BlackBerry Curve (yes, it outsold the iPhone in the U.S.) or the cool design functionality of the Samsung Omnia or you crave for the seamless multimedia, 35,000 (and counting) cool apps and best Internet experience of the iPhone, don’t bother waiting.

But if you want to manage your wireless life in different ways, Palm’s way, read on.

The Palm Pre is unique in many ways. You can read and see all the details on www.palm.com but briefly, it is a smart-looking PDA with curved sides, even front panel, designed with its own new WebOS platform, does deep multi-tasking and unobtrusive notifying, turns the large screen backlight off when outside for longer battery life and has a large touch screen but no touch keyboard opting for a real slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It’s loaded with 8 GB internal memory, all the goodies like 3 megapixel camera, Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS. Much thought seems to have gone into the Palm Pre from a diversified Palm engineering and design team.

As an option, it has an inductive power charger (a bit slower than a wall plug kind). You can set up HTML or pop email accounts. Palm does not have its own server, like RIM, so unless you get the Pre connected through work with email servers to do the pushing, consumer email accounts will not respond as fast as a BlackBerry phone.  

 Still, there are smart connections with social networking sites on the go, like Facebook, with automatic updates of other Facebook users on your Palm Pre device, when they change their contact information. You can organize and have faster access to both your business and personal contacts. Cool.

“The Palm Pre allows you to keep many applications and Internet sections open at once and move them around the screen with the touch of a finger, even moving them aside so the content isn’t lost,” said Bell Canada spokesperson Julie Smithers.

Palm is pushing the phone’s new WebOS platform claiming it is ready for prime-time application web development with new apps (no business model announced yet) that will be easier to develop than  competitors and the ability to run older Palm software in emulation, in native speed.

Where does the Palm Pre fit for you? It is a new offering, a fresh start from Palm who has managed to outlive its critics. Will it manage to carve itself a niche for customers who don’t care for BlackBerry, iPhone or Windows Mobility phones?

Matt Crowley Palm Product Line Manager in California, was straight forward:

“We are not competing with the multimedia aspect of the iPhone or the full business focus of the BlackBerry. It’s a consumer experience that is not a corporate environment and not 100 per cent competing in the multimedia crazy space of iTunes.”

At first glance from a distance,  I think the Palm Pre is a cool-looking PDA, smart in organizing your information, with a bit of iPhone and BlackBerry envy.

Bell is obviously excited about this phone. “We normally don’t pre-announce a device but we only do so when it’s unique,” said Smithers, adding Bell is the second carrier in the world to announce the Palm Pre offering, one more notch to its already largest Palm line-up in Canada.

 So with that, I will have to wait for a first-person experience for this “I’m no iPhone or BlackBerry” device for a final opinion.

Microsoft ups ante on browser wars

NEW BROWSER WARS

Microsoft’s much awaited official release of Internet Explorer 8 last week starts a new chapter on browser wars with much at stake.

Browsers have become the conduit for a fundamental shift to online offerings with unlimited business potential. They are also staging the set in next generation cloud computing where your browser will be like your OS, with everything running online, not your computer, whose final function is slated to be simply a local storage, screen and input device.

Microsoft still holds the lead in market share of browsers, but competitors Silverfox, Apple and Google and niche Opera are catching up. IE’s lead is not because it’s the best browser…far from it. Experienced computer users and purists, including, to be fair, Microsoft bashers, give high marks to browser competitors for cool, cutting edge features and “technical” speed.

In 2004, Internet Explorer had 90 per cent market share and now it is down to 70 per cent, so it needs to convince users its new IE 8 is up to snuff, which frankly is in many ways.

And despite Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 openness in letting you, for example, choose competitors search engines, even keeping your old ones after upgrading, new computer users end up using Microsoft Live services by default, if that is the first option offered.

Not to say IE 8 is not raising eyebrows. The one thing Microsoft is good at, when it has all its ducks in order, is to get it right the second or third time.

IE 8 has a few cool new features that will benefit web sites and end users:

-Web Slices are special “live” web-based shortcuts you easily create, assuming web sites have taken advantage of this feature. You are alerted when the content of these web sites changes, without you having to revisit the site. For example, if you are on the understandably very popular www.workoplis.com site, you can save your job search profile (such as kind of work, city, dates) as a Web Slice in your Favourites bar.  The shortcut notifies you whenever Workopolis has updates in your search profile. This means you don’t have to go back on that site to see if there are new results on your profile. You can set how frequently you want the Web Slice shortcut to refresh. The IE8 online help guide is-well designed including videos showing you how to use the new features. For more information go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx

“IE 8 answers the need to make technology that works for everyone,” said Roy Bernhard, Workopolis managing director, information systems. “These web tools are easy for developers to develop and end-users to use.”

Bernhard added there were more than 3,000 IT jobs available in Canada last week, so using tools like Web Slice can give job-seekers an edge in this competitive job market.

For more information go to: www.workopolis.com

-Accelerators are a real time-saver that allows you to do much more within the web page you are on, by simply clicking your mouse over words that have been linked for Accelerators.  As in Web Slices, the web site must have taken advantage of Accelerators, arming key words with these new hidden features. For example, if you highlight text with accelerator features, a special icon shows. CLicking it shows a drop-down list of things you can do, such as mapping, find the itemized word on eBay, map with Live Maps or even translate with Windows Live. Web sites can set their own Accelerator features on any selected text. You can also add additional Accelerators features of your own.

These web technologies and more, were shown to media in Toronto last week on the eve of Mix09, a convention in Las Vegas showing all of Microsoft’s Software Plus Services.

SilverLight, Microsoft’s web media player, now in its third generation, was shown in action on web-based TV. CTV, the first Canadian network to show streaming HD video online impressed me with SilverLight technology playing full-screen streaming video on a 50-inch flat panel that was indistinguishable from traditional cable or satellite feeds.

For now the network is only playing “catch-up” video showing some of its local recent entertainment content like Corner Gas, for free. CTV uses its own online player to play the HD video, automatically changing the quality depending on the users Internet connection speed.

No announced online monetization plans, according to CTV’s Stephen Argent. “We are learning along the way. This is breathtaking technology and fits the ‘user experience is our business model’”, he added.

We are still away from switching from Telus, Shaw or Rogers for delivery of TV content directly to our PCs, but for folks who live off their computer screen, this is the way to go.  For more information go to: www.ctv.ca

SOME PMA ACCESSORIES THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Some cool gadgets from the recent PMA photo show in Las Vegas that caught my attention:

 

The HoodLoupe 3.0 works on any camera screen up to 3-inches

The HoodLoupe 3.0 from www.hoodmanusa.com has multi-element optics and fits over any camera screen up to 3-inches in diameter. It’s great for viewing the LCD screen on your camera before or after you have taken a photo, especially on bright sunny days. It magnifies the image for closer inspection and is available online for $79.99 US  You can also get a special Cinema Strap for 19.99 US for attaching it to your camera. It’s rugged and its diopter covers a wide range of viewers who don’t want to use glasses when viewing their screens. A great idea and even better investment for any camera you own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Universal Adapter bracket with Fisheye and Macro lens from Jackar Optical fits on most consumer digitals

The Jackar Optical Universal Adapter and Fisheye Lens and Macro lens is expected to be available in North America soon. It will sell for about $80 US and consists of a quality-made adjustable bracket, a long-threaded mount to accommodate most point and shoot digital cameras with either flush lenses or ones that extend out. The lens is coated and gives you a 180 degree fisheye effect for some dramatic pictures and videos. The sharpness falls off on the edges but about have the center image is still reasonably sharp. Keep on checking the company site for North America at www.hkdcplus.com I am sure there will be a distributor from the PMA show willing to carry this innovative product. These folks carry a huge selection of lens converters for DSLRs as well as small device underwater bags and other accessories shown last year at PMA.

Canadian Youth Flirt With Online Danger

CANADIAN YOUTH KNOW OF ONLINE DANGERS BUT…

A new survey, released today, of more than 1,000 Canadian youth aged 9-17 by Microsoft Canada Co. and Youthography, revealed surprising results of their Internet habits.

The results show that while young Canadians are aware of potential dangers online, many of them still engage in risky behaviour.

For the most part, youth rely on the Internet to communicate with friends and family, research information for homework and play games. They are concerned about Internet safety and more than three-quarters of them are very careful about the personal information they give out online.

The good news is that parents are becoming more engaged in their children’s online activities, compared to previous findings, with 84% of respondents saying they have had a discussion with their parents about the potential dangers of risky online behaviour. Eighty-six percent say their parents have taken measures to ensure they are safe online, such as locating the computer in visible locations like the family room or kitchen, rather than in a child’s room.

The bad news is that despite all this awareness, many youth still engage in risky online behaviour. The survey identified a number of key areas where Canadian youth continue to put themselves at risk, including:

Social Networking

·        Youth post personal information for public view, such as a profile picture (39%), home town (16%), name of school (20%), relationship status (22%), and e-mail address (21%) to social networking sites. Sharing more than one of these pieces of data can allow predators to easily uncover someone’s real identity.

·        30% of youth have lied about their age on a social networking site, 15% have pretended to be someone they are not, and more than 30% have accepted a friend request from a stranger.

Adult Content and Sexual Behaviour

·        1 in 4 males use search engines to find adult sexual content. 

·        More than 20% of youth visit sites that have pictures or videos showing violent acts, fighting, or racist content.

Cyberbullying

·        40% of youth have been bullied online, up from Microsoft’s research in 2004 where 25% respondents reported being cyberbullied. 16% admit to being the bully and of those, 50% say they did it because they were bullied first.

·        In general, 67% believe others bully online because they can do it without getting caught and 63% believe that the same kids who bully online usually bully in person.

Online Gaming

·        1 in 5 of those who play games in online communities has made contact (phone, email, in–person) with someone they have only ever met online gaming.

·        1 in 4 youth has been harassed when online gaming.

 

Online Behaviour

·        Forty-five percent of teens and 27% of tweens go to cyberspace to escape their problems, avoid family, deal with stress, relieve anxiety, deal with sadness or depression or feed their online addiction.

·        Youth, especially tweens are concerned about online safety, more so than drugs, alcohol, smoking, body image or sexually transmitted diseases.

 

“This is Microsoft Canada’s fourth iteration of online safety research and we believe this study offers one of the most comprehensive looks yet at the online activities of Canadian youth including gaming, cyberbullying and social networking,” said Gavin Thompson, Director of Corporate Citizenship, Microsoft Canada. “There are many encouraging results in the research, including the fact that youth rank online safety as a very important issue and that a majority of youth are making smart choices online. Despite this good news, many youth still engage in risky online behaviour. Microsoft Canada has made online safety and security one of our highest priorities and we recognize that as a leader in our industry we have a responsibility to do all we can to make it a safer place – especially for our children.”

In some ways I am not surprised of the risky behaviour of young Canadians. They are aware of the risk factours online, but continue to show more trust or simply think they won’t be the ones directly affected by online dangers.

According to numerous previous studies, it takes only 20 minutes for a stranger online to gain the trust of a young person.  

“It is important for parents to be involved in their children’s lives, which includes their on-line and videogame activities, as much as knowing about their friends, sports, music lessons and other things going on in their lives. It is also important to educate youth about the positives and the pitfalls of the cyberworld – but to do so, adults need to understand it first and to see how it has influenced their own activities, family values and work actions,” said Dr. Bruce Ballon, Head of the Adolescent Clinical Education Service (ACES) for Problem Gambling, Gaming and Internet Use at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

To read more about the research please see the Fact Sheet.

To read more about Microsoft Canada’s online safety initiatives and Microsoft Corporation’s continued focus on helping to create safe and secure technologies and increasing awareness amongst Canadians, please click here.

 

This Internet Safety Report was prepared for Microsoft Canada Co. by Youthography, January 2009

Youthography conducted online, representative random sample surveys of 1,065 children age 9-17 across Canada.

With a representative sample of N=1,000, the results are considered accurate to within +/- 3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20

 

This DSLR thinks it’s Photoshop!

 

New Olympus E-620 and E-30 Art Filters applied while you shoot

 

 NEW DSLR GET’S ARTISTIC-Olympus pushes the envelope one more time with the release of the unique and affordable E-620 12 megapixel DSLR, available in Canada this May, for $799.99 (body) and $899.99 with  ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens.

I have not been able to play with one yet, but if it’s anything like its E-30 12 MP pre-cursor I have been using for the past month, released late last year, this camera is a win-win-win-win-win.

Why?

-It breaks the 10 megapixel barrier the past Olympus DSLR’s have been content with. Albeit, a touch more digital noise, when pushing the ISO to its limits, but the consistently excellent mechanical IS (image stabilization) modes make up for that. There are three IS modes: a 2D for general shooting and the other two allowing for horizontal and vertical panning keeping one axis sharp. They work so good, your tripod will be lonely again.

-It comes with six art filter settings, applied to the picture as you take it. Effects vary,  from grainy monochrome to pin-hole, saturated colours, soft focus and muted colours. Enough to make mundane photos jump back to life.

-Multiple exposures, up to two frames, can be taken live and are recorded as a combined photo (if you shoot in dual Raw + JPEG mode, the original frames are kept too. This requires planning and frankly, unless you are good at it, you are limited on how well your two sequential images will look when exposed on the same “frame.” You have some control on the density of the two overlapping images. What I find most exciting, is the ability to merge (double-expose after the fact) two to three pictures you have already taken on the E-620 with a wide transparency range you can control for each frame. On the way back from a recent trip to Mexico, I spent hours on the return flight, overlapping frames on the E-30 from several hundred frames for some spectacular multiple exposure effects. Overlapping photos later, lets you plan your shots beforehand, like shooting a variety of extra frames so key image elements effectively work with multiple exposures (see my examples on this page). For example, I made sure I shot full moon frames composed differently for combining with a variety of other photos.

-A simple feature, but wanting by every photog shooting in dark places…the camera controls light up!

-Small and light. The E-620 is similar in size to the E-420 with all the extra features, plus improved auto-focus in Live view. It also has a double battery grip option and complete underwater housing.

To me, it was like re-discovering the art of photography in a different dimension.

I don’t want to bore you with all the other camera details, all well thought out, in a small dynamic package with one of the sharpest optics from the get-go.

For a list of all the features of the new E-620, go to: www.olympuscanada.com

Merge several images after they are taken, on the E-30 and new E-620

Feb Blues with some bright spots

Like I predicted, Technology cutbacks and job losses are starting to flood in, just when some analysts said they could see light at the end of the tunnel. Today, I  don’t believe any comment from technology companies saying they are doing OK.

Except for cellphones and games, today’s necessities for survival!

I was at a classy Toronto press launch for Sanyo’s new line of “Dual Camera” Xacti, All-HD camcorders for 2009, out in a few months.

Full 1080p and 720p HD models, Including Waterproof HD Cameras with high still megapixel count will bring consumer all-in-one digicams to a new level. And to show how serious Sanyo is about doing stuff different, many of these models will be out in the original vertical handgun-like model, as well as traditional horizontal ones…still with smart one-handed functionality.  
For more information go to: http://en.ca.sanyo.com/News

TECH TSUNAMI

TECHNOLOGY MEETS REALITY

Well folks, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just when you thought technology would somehow escape the big black recession hole that has been consuming people, jobs, business and investments, came the first Tech wave of troubling news.

Microsoft is talking louder on expense cuts, including layoffs. The software giant will not be selling as many software licenses to computer makers and businesses will skip an upgrade to a new OS or back-Office system. Nortel officially fizzled to penny stock and Circuit City is closing its doors in the U.S., letting go of 30,000 workers.

Google is laying off 100 folks, which for a company of that size, is small change….but these 100 employees were recruiters!

Technology companies work on a different timeline than brick and mortar businesses. A furniture store for example, feels the pinch the same month consumers are spending less. So would, as we all know by now, car makers.

But technology produces stuff anywhere from six months to a year in advance, under earlier approved budgets and expectations.

The next few months will show the end of that previously healthy cycle and the beginning of today’s economic reality that people cutting back on technology, from enterprise to consumers, will not spend like the last cycle.

That means the chip makers, computer makers and IT business are realizing they won’t be selling as much this next year.

The result?

Warehouses are filling up with an overflow of electronic goods from TVs to stereos, DVD and Blu ray players and computers. And there is a wave of new consumer models coming this way in the spring.  

Hang on to your keyboards folks cause there will be more tech companies making bad news in the next few months.

New Year

Well folks here we are into another year and here’s hoping you all have a healthy, happy and virus, phishing and spam-free year!

Off course this is too much to hope for, especially on the security side of things. It seems people have a better chance of keeping healthy than their PCs do!

Check out my tech wish-list for 2009 in my Edmonton Journal Column at:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Technology/techie+utopian+vision/1137592/story.html

CES IN TOUGH TIMES?

I am heading down to the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week to mix it up with the movers and shakers in technology and will be reporting from the site. Sure there’s parties and receptions but I am just as excited walking the far edges of the exhibit halls looking for the small vendours with cool ideas. 

Needless to say the tough economy has also affected technology companies and it will be interesting to see how CES play out this year. I know fewer reporters are going this year and that is no surprise.

This time last year it was impossible to find a decent hotel room…even now, less than a week away, there are lot’s of rooms available with new discounts. The best gage of how things are going in Vegas are the cabbies…they have an amazing network of tracking the city that never sleeps economy. 

 

ZUNE WOES FOR CANADIANS

What surprised me more than Microsoft’s original Zune player skipping a beat over a leap year fixable programming bug, was the fact that a portable player can last three years! I use Zunes and frankly, I like them…they are solidly made and have a faster interface than iPods.

My biggest Zune beef, as a Canadian, is not being able to buy music online directly from the Zune Marketplace, open only to U.S. Zune users. Microsoft Canada officials have explained to me the complicated politics of getting agreements with artists and music publishers for a Canadian Zune Marketplace, not to mention the fact that the local iTune and all the other Windows compatible music download sites have most of the market share.

Microsoft Canada goes to great lengths explaining to me that unlike the U.S., more Canadians buy albums than digitally downloaded music. That may be strangely true, but according to the last Nielsen Co.’s year-end figures, more than 70% of  U.S. music transactions were track downloads, outselling albums by a ratio of 2.5 to 1. The report says total album sales dropped to 428.4 million, 14% fewer than in 2007, 45% down since 2000.

There’s even more benefits for U.S. Zune Marketplace members. A Zune Pass subscription which gives Zune owners access to millions of tracks for $14.99 a month now allows them to keep 10 tracks a month for free. Unlike the unlimited plan which restricts transferring music to a PC or burning CDs, the free songs let you do that and more. Unlike the unlimited plan where you lose all songs once you stop the subscription, these song give-aways are yours to keep.

Sorry folks, I have to go analog and buy myself another album for my Zune…

DARK CLOUDS AND LIGHT CLOUDS

NEW MICROSOFT OS IN CLOUD NINE

I am in Los Angeles at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) where Microsoft is announcing and showing new software and services that usually is for geeks. But this time there’s going be some exciting stuff for consumers and enterprise-end folks.

Worldwide media, including myself, were invited early for a preview of the, now official Windows 7. We were shown some cool new features in an immersive day-long session. I wish I could tell you what I saw, but attending media had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that lifts  this Wednesday 9 am EST.

Suffice to say, the Microsoft Windows 7 team, 1000-strong, have some cool new tricks up their sleeve for the next Windows OS, sort of being planned to be sort of ready by early 2010. Maybe.

Can’t tell you more, I wish I could, not to mention all this cloud stuff every Microsoft employee here is giddy about. So, check out the online news on Windows 7 and Microsoft’s version of cloud computing this Wednesday.

PRICE ADUSTMENT ON TECH GOODS IN CANADA COMING SOON

Just had a chat with Steve Boone from the Edmonton mymacdealer.com shop who is predicting some dark clouds about to hit Canada…not the Microsoft kind but a jolt of reality on how much more expensive it’s going to be to buy tech hardware here in November. With the huge drop of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. buck you can expect some harsh increases.

Currently, a new Apple MacBook Pro sells HP Pavilion dv7-1000 for $2,149 CDN off the Canadian Apple site. That’s $1,675 US compared to $1,949 US on the U.S. Apple site. So while Americans can get great deals up here with more than 15 per cent savings, we are stuck, again. If you are planning to buy a PC soon, or other pricey hardware, I would consider doing so before November.