Recently in CES 2008 Category

One common thread at CES 2008 was a number of new underwater cameras. A few are upgrades to existing product lines, but others are new entries in the market. Most specialize in being still cameras first, but a few like the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA65 shine as camcorders. One perk of the waterproofing is that these cameras will all do well in beach environments and anywhere else small dirt particles might get in your camera and gum things up, because the same stuff that seals out water also seals out dirt. You can watch the video to see several of the options and read through specs for the underwater digital cameras below.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1

This is the first handheld camcorder designed to be waterproof. 1.5 meters (roughly 5 feet) is the suggested depth, although you can likely go a bit deeper as long as you don't stay under for too long - it's pressure that ultimately breaks the seal on these things. Buttons are big enough for easy use underwater, as long as you aren't wearing gloves. Video records to either SD or SDHC cards. The Xacti E1 shoots MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 at 640x480, with an approximate record time of just over 5 hours with a 4GB card. While I have only tested this camcorder with great lighting, it's supposed to do well down to 2 lux, which is the equivalent of candlelight. One key feature that sets this appart is the flip out view screen - this is a plus for shooting video of yourself and a greater risk of bumping it underwater while swimming around. Still images are recorded with a 6MP CCD at up to ISO1600, with a 5x optical zoom, which should make this a solid choice for underwater use. There's a manual mode for still images, although I can't imagine trying to use it underwater.

Pentax Optio W30

Pentax was one of the first camera makers to get in on the waterproof camera market. The current Optio W30 is rated to 10 feet for up to 2 hours. Image recording is 7MP with ISO1600 and 3x optical zoom. Videos are 640x480 in MOV QuickTime MJPEG format. Both SD and SDHC are supported. In many the Optio W30 has an edge on the competition. While other digital camera makers on this list work out the kinks for their early generation products, Pentax is making updates to a proven product. In talking with one of their reps, it seems that the Pentax marketing team is much more conservative than competitors like Olympus, making the W30 look like it might not be able to go as deeply as it actually can.

Olympus SW Series

Olympus currently offers 4 different underwater cameras. Two are rated to 10 feet and two are rated to 33 feet. All four of them are designed to survive 14 degree temperatures and falls up to 6.6 feet. Top of the line Stylus 1030 SW is what I'll focus on here. Rated to 33 feet, this is the deepest water digicam on the list. At 10 Megapixels, ISO1600, and a 3.6x optical zoom, this may also be the most well rounded camera. Olympus gets low marks in my book for using the xD card format, which is primarily used only in Olympus cameras.

Panasonic SDR-SW20

Panasonic makes the one pure video camrea on this list. A 10x optical zoom is best in this class of cameras. Unfortunately the still imaging options are basically non-existent, with a 0.3MP 640x480 still imaging capability. On the plus side, the SDR-SW20 is waterproof to 5 feet, similar to the Xacti VPC-E1. The SDR-SW20 is a slight improvement over the SDR-S10, which was the previous Panasonic camera in this style. The body and design seem better designed for shooting underwater than some of the options on this list, although I'd still lean toward Olympus or Pentax for flexibility. Video is recorded in MPEG-2 format at up to 10 Mbps, making it easy to edit in virutally anything but Windows Movie Maker.

VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531T

At the budget end of the underwater camera class sits the VuPoint WPC-ST531T. This digital camera is available for under $100 and looks and feels like it should. I didn't get a chance to actually take pictures, so I don't have personal experience with image quality. Specs are rough, with 5MP and a max of ISO200, which means fast motion and low light are likely going to be rough on picture quality. There's no optical zoom. If there's one bright spot for this camera, it's that the company says it can go 50 feet under water, which crushes the competition. Video is limited to 640x480 at 20fps in an AVI format. SD is your card option up to 2GB. This might be a good option for your kids, but expect to get what you pay for with this camera.

DiCAPak Waterproof Camera Housing

If buying a new camera doesn't seem appealing, there is an afforable alternative for your existing camera - an underwater camera housing. As shown in the video, you can wrap your entire camera in a waterproof housing that's flexible enough to access camera controls, while providing you solid protection for damaging water. I'm of the opinion that a naked lens will take better pictures than one trapped behind hard plastic, but with some practice you can still get good results from one of these housings.

Camera Model	Water Depth	Megapixels	Max ISO	Optical Zoom	Video Resolution	Video Format	Storage Cards
	5 Feet	6MP	ISO1600	5x	640x480	MPEG-4 AVC/H.264	SD, SDHC
	10 Feet	7MP	ISO1600	3x	640x480	MOV	SD, SDHC
	33 Feet	10MP	ISO1600	3.6x	640x480 30fps	AVI MJPEG	xD
	5 Feet	0.3MP	N/A	10x	720x480	MPEG-2	SD, SDHC
	50 Feet	5MP	ISO200	N/A	640x480	AVI	SD

CamLeash was one of the most practical things I saw a CES 2008. Every point-and-shoot digital camera ships with a wrist strap, but I find the factory straps useless because they don't hold your camera in place. CamLeash addresses this by fastening securely to your wrist and including a snap-away plastic latch to allow you to disconnect your camera from the neoprene strap around your wrist. This comes in handy for taking a camera hiking, to the beach, or to places where you might be more likely to drop your camera. CamLeash would also be a great accessory for taking a camera underwater (with proper housing, of course), where you'd want to be sure your camera didn't slip off and disappear into the surf. I'd like to see the company include several of the little strings for the camera side of the leash in every pack, so I could easily swap between one of several cameras, but you'll likely see me toting a camera on the end of a CamLeash on a regular basis. The company also suggests the same solution (branded as GameLeash) makes an excellent strap for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP portable gaming consoles. At $12.99, the LeashTec straps are far cheaper than replacing a dropped camera.

Update July 2008: The review below originally appeared in January 2008. At that time, the sound quality of the Jawbone I tested was lousy. Shortly after the review went live, a representative from Jawbone contacted me suggesting my review unit was defective. They offered to send me a new one.

I got busy with packing and moving and didn't make the time to test the new unit. When the headset law went into effect here in Washington State in July, I finally unboxed the second Jawbone, tried it out, and found the sound quality to be dramatically better. I've had no complaints from anyone I talk to on the phone, which was my biggest gripe about the first unit. Jawbone has a new version out now, which I haven't tried, but if the experience is as good as this second unit, I'm sure I'd recommend it.

January 2008 Jawbone Review

Jawbone headsets were one of the hottest giveaways at CES 2008. Aliph, the company behind Jawbone, claims to be so confident that their product is the best cell phone headset on the market they offered a free Jawbone headset in exchange for any other headset. The headsets come with high marks, quoting Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal as saying, "The noise cancellation is far better than on any other cellphone headset I've tried." Engadget likes Jawbone. CNET likes Jawbone. Financial Times and MacWorld both like Jawbone. I came away disappointed and won't be using a Jawbone headset ever again.

The idea behind the headset is sound. It is supposed to pickup vibrations in your jawbone which translate to the audio the person on the other end hears, making it easier to eliminate background noise. In my case this apparently didn't work. I started using the Jawbone headset at the Pepcom Digital Experience event Sunday night and continued using it for most of the next two days. 3 different people who spoke to me on the phone commented on how hard it was to hear me and how loud the background noise seemed to be, without my soliciting feedback on sound quality. The headset comes with multiple ear fittings both for in your ear and over the ear. I tried combinations of these to achieve a better fit and still ended up with complaints from parties on the other end of my call.

Maybe I'm the only guy on the planet who will ever have a bad experience with the Jawbone, but I simply can't recommend this to anyone based on my own lackluster experience. $149.99 MSRP seems a bit steep for the kind of complaints I received from those on the other end of the call. The science behind bone conduction microphones is sound, so I may give Jawbone competitor, Invisio Q7 a try when it ships later this year.

Vonage is aiming to make it easier for people to convert from traditional landline phone service to the Vonage VoIP service. At CES 2008, Vonage introduced several affordable hardware solutions that eliminate some of the guesswork in setting up telephone handsets throughout your house. At the most basic level, new customers can now get a V-Portal box with easy configuration and helpful feedback for troubleshooting any service issues they may have. If you need several phones throughout your house, my landline to voip conversion hack still works, but there are a couple of more elegant solutions to getting handsets around your home. Vonage now offers a bundle with 3 handsets all working wirelessly from the same base station or you can use a networking over power line solution to get your phones to the rooms you need them.

Vonage V-Portal

The V-Portal includes a standard single Ethernet connection and RJ-11 connection for a traditional phone, coupled with an interface that provides feedback about your Vonage service, including handy messages when things go wrong. This is a step up from the solutions originally provided by third parties like Linksys because it takes some of the guesswork out of setting up your Vonage service at home. The box also includes handy features like caller ID, call logging and timing calls.

Vonage Multi-Handset Whole House Solution

If you want multiple phones for your Vonage setup, the VTA-CVR pictured below may be the easiest solution to configure. You connect the black box to the router on your home network and place the three handsets where they are most convenient to you. Each one requires power but needs no special connections to work with your Vonage service. The handsets support a 50 contact phonebook, include caller ID, and have a direct dial button for voicemail retrieval.

Vonage Phone Over Power Adapter

One thing every home includes is plenty of power outlets distributed in virtually every room. Vonage aims to take advantage of this with a phone over power outlet solution, combining the Vonage service box with 3 additional power line converters that can be placed anywhere in your home or office for additional phone jacks. This is especially convenient if you already have handsets you want to use for phone service in your home. The theory here is we all know how to plug stuff into the wall, so there's no need to learn anything new. Just plug the main outlet in someplace near your router so you can connect your Vonage service to the Internet, then choose additional locations for handsets throughout your home. My only complaint with this bundle is that the company didn't think to also build in Ethernet over power into all of the jacks, making them dual purpose for people who might also want to connect their game consoles or other network capable devices.

All three solutions show that Vonage is taking a more serious interest in making VoIP easier for the consumer. While I'd like to see better integration of whole house solutions, like the Ethernet support on all the power outlet adapters, Vonage is taking steps to differentiate from other competing solutions by being more than just a phone service. I'm told existing customers (I'm one) will be given the opportunity to get some of these new hardware options at a discount.

Two days into CES 2008 I'm rapidly compiling a ton of video footage and photos of new products from the show floor. Much of the show is hard to get excited about because like last year, many of the products are simply evolutions over previous offerings. One thing I'm particularly excited about is the number of digital cameras and camcorders that are designed to work under water without needing a special housing. I have some demo video of the new waterproof Sanyo Xacti shooting underwater that will be posted later in the week, along with a rundown of all the various underwater camera options.

Canon's new high definition camcorders are particularly interesting, with the HV30 offering both feature upgrades over the HV20 as well as backward compatibility with HV20 accessories. Two new flash recording HD camcorders offer some excellent features, but still leave me leery of the AVCHD format.

If you house is a cell phone deadzone, you might be interested to check out the zBoost Cell Phone Range Extender, which is meant to eliminate dead spots in your coverage up to 2500 square feet. Alienware has an amazing new 2880x900 OLED display that will be available later in the year according to recent updates. More updates to come throughout the week.

Download Pinnacle Video Spin

Pinnacle is attempting to encourage adoption of its video editing software with a slimmed down freeware product called VideoSpin. If you've ever used other Pinnacle Editing apps, the interface will remind you of a cleaner, easier to navigate version. If VideoSpin is your first exposure to a Pinnacle app, you should find it to be among the easiest video editors on the market.

Strengths: A solid selection of popular Pinnacle effects. Pinnacle paired down their robust movie title support for VideoSpin. Two audio tracks (for narration and music) in addition to the audio track attached to your video. Mapping to Music, Pictures and Video folders makes it easy for novice users to find relevant media on your PC. VideoSpin edits both high definition (HDV) and standard definition footage. Integrated upload to Yahoo Video.

Weaknesses: Pinnacle stripped the ability to import video from a tape based camera, which means you'll need to use something like freeware app WinDV if you still record video to tape, making this a file based editing solution. While you can import high definition footage, output is limited to standard definition resolutions. No DVD burning in the app. Needs integration with YouTube and other popular video sharing sites.

Long term support of all video formats does require spending some money for the Pinnacle Advanced Codec Pack ($14.99), which includes support for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3 (in DivX files), Dolby Digital and AAC audio. These codecs are included in the VideoSpin download for a 15 day evaluation period. If you opt not to purchase the Advanced Codec Pack, VideoSpin supports DV-AVI, MJPEG, WMV, and MPEG-1, and MP3 audio for free forever. Upgrading to Pinnacle Studio at some point in the future makes the same codec pack available in that app as well.

While VideoSpin is technically free, almost everyone will need to spend the $15 to find it useful, which still makes it a bargain for anyone making Web video. If you want to make DVDs, look at getting the full version of Pinnacle Studio, Roxio's Easy Media Creator or one of the other apps with DVD authoring support. [Windows XP/Vista $0.00]

The name Callwave brings me fond memories of desktop software for managing phone calls through a voice modem. As the POTS voice business gradually erodes to cell phone and voice over IP, the company is re-inventing itself with a service to replace your existing cell phone voicemail service with something more useful. If you switch to the Callwave mobile visual voicemail, instead of having to listen to voice messages on your phone you get them delivered to your inbox, which is similar to the GotVoice service I wrote about in 2005. By getting the voicemails in your inbox, Callwave also makes it possible to either automatically dial your phone to connect with the caller or respond to the voicemail via email, which might save you additional time over playing phone tag. Another cool feature of the Callwave service is call screening, so you can accept a call, send it to voice mail, or listen in on the voicemail to see if you really want to take the call. I recently switched my own voicemail to Callwave to try it out and everythings working so far. The service is currently in a free beta period - rumor has it if you sign up before the end of the beta, you'll never have to pay a subscription fee.

UPDATE from 8 January 2008: After living with Callwave Visual Voicemail for a couple of days I'm not impressed. I've received several complaints about the message quality from people attempting to call me, so I'm switching back to my core service. The voice to text feature that sends me SMS messages is also less than impressive - it does a lousy job of recognizing words and converting them to meaningful text. I'm still on a quest to find something more interesting to make it easier to work with my voicemail.