First of all I will thank all of you to visit Gadget Flash in its first 5 months! I hope you come all back in 2006. We are back at Monday the 2. January for a new year of gadgetnews.

I wish you all the best, luck and goodness in 2006!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

* 2006 *

Steves digicams has reviewed this digital camera from Pentax, the Optio S6.
Here is a little of their conclusion:

The Optio S6 is the latest addition to Pentax's popular Optio "S" line, and continues the tradition of compact and stylish design combined with ease of use, that users love. Many of its features are similar to past models, like the Pentax 3x optical zoom lens, its large 2.5-inch LCD, and 640x480 movie mode. However the S6 is improved with higher resolution at 6-megapixels, digital Anti-Shake system for Movie mode (Only) as well as a larger internal memory capacity (23MB over the 10MB seen on the S5z.)

You can read the full review over here.

by Mitchell Medford

Flat screen TV is one of the most popular and exciting TV technologies today. At only a few inches thick, flat screen TVs offer unparalleled flexibility and convenience. Older conventional TV's, in fairness to them, did offer crisp and vibrant images. However, these TV's, which operate through a cathode ray tube (CRT), suffered from one major drawback, they were bulky. As screen size increased, so did the bulk and weight. However, the TV of old has reached its twilight years. New television technologies have enabled TV manufacturers to create TVs with wider screen size yet still only a few inches thick. Thus, flat screen TVs usher home entertainment into the 21st century.

Flat Screen TV basically refers to two technologies: Plasma and LCD. The advances in these two technologies have enabled TV makers to build thin, lightweight TV screens with a large picture area. Plasma and LCD both offer similarly large, lightweight, flat screen TV's but the similarities are skin deep for their inner workings are different.

Plasma or LCD?

Plasma and LCD TVs generally look similar however they use very different technologies. Plasma utilizes a grid of tiny cells of gas plasma that light up and create a picture when charged by precise electrical voltages. LCD (liquid crystal display) screens on the other hand are made of liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates and create images by varying the amount of electrical charge applied to the crystals. Both Plasma and LCD offer excellent picture quality. The following are their strengths and weaknesses and edge over the other.

1. Plasma screens can display blacks more accurately compared to LCD. Thus, pictures in a Plasma TV have richer contrast and better detail especially in dark TV and movie scenes. LCD TV's are catching up however.

2. Plasma TV has better viewing angles than LCD TV. How far you can sit on either side of the screen before the qualities of the pictures are affected is what the "viewing angle" is. In LCD TVs, brightness and color tend to shift when angled too far while that of Plasma TVs remain solid.

3. Plasma TV can produce brighter color while light leakages in LCD screens affect the color saturation.

4. Plasma TVs are priced relatively less than their LCD counterparts especially in the large screen segment. Plasma TVs offer much larger sizes than LCDs, yet are still priced lower.

5. LCD has a higher native resolution than plasma TVs of the same size. This results to sharper images and makes LCD TV the better choice for HDTV.

6. LCD TVs consume almost 30% less power than Plasma TVs.

7. LCD TVs are generally lighter than similar sized Plasmas.

8. Among the two, LCD screens have a longer life span than plasma screens. LCDs can last up to 60,000 hours compared to Plasma that average from 30,000 to 60,000 hours.

9. Plasma TVs are more prone to screen burn-ins compared to LCDs although newer plasma technology are less susceptible to these.

If you are looking for a large flat screen TV, Plasma TV is recommended. Plasma TVs can give you better value for your money. The price difference between Plasma TVs and LCD TVs is big. However, if you have money to burn, then LCD TV is the better choice especially if you want the sharpest images. For smaller flat screen TVs at the range of 15” to 36”, LCD is the way to go. Ultimately, both technologies are still evolving and new innovations and improvements are definitely in the works.

About The Author
Mitchell Medford is an author and product development consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his website for more information on home theater, LCD TVs, plasma televisions: http://www.newtechnologytv.com.

Sascha Segan has reviewed the Samsung SCH-A970 mobile phone. It's one of the first two phones with optical zoom available in the US, she says.

Pro's:
- Optical zoom
- Memory card slot
- Excellent voice recognition, including speech-to-text

Cons:
- Blurry pictures

Read the full review at pcmag

Bargain PDA has reviewed the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It is a device in a class of its own, they say.

Pro's:
- Great display
- Stable Linux-based OS
- Outstanding internet experience

Cons:
- Poor handwriting recognition

Read the full review at bargainpda

The Inquirer reports about Open Source for iTunes.

Lord has come up with a wizard idea to have an Open Source music machine called "Songbird" which is based on the same underlying open-source technology as the Firefox Web browser.
Songbird will play all the music that an iPod will play, and all those that it won’t. The thing is that it is Open Source and this is where the fun is starting.
In the pre-marketing material, Lord is daring to speak the Apple name in a derogatory way and referring to iTunes in a manner which is getting Jobs Mob cronies getting their burning crosses and nooses together for a good righteous lynching.

Read on at the Inquirer

Harvey Lee has reviewed this PDA. The OQO model 01+ is a truly amazing handheld computer and has won many awards for technical excellence and advanced mobility, he says.

Pro's:
- Small size
- Good performance
- Integrated WiFi and Bluetooth
- Docking Cable
- Good battery life
- Excellent screen with Ambient Light Sensor

Cons:
- Not upgradeable
- Small keys
- 800 x 480 screen resolution

Read more at PDA Today

Shams Tarek has reviewed Kodak's Easy Share P880, digital camera.

Pro's:
- very wide (for digital) 24mm lens
- user-friendly and comfortable SLR-like body design
- solid shooting speed in JPEG format

Cons:
- photo quality unacceptable for an advanced amateur camera
- raw implementation close to useless
- slow shooter when using uncompressed file modes

Read more at cnet

Sony will show a LCD-TV of 82-inch at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) from 5 till 8 January in Las Vegas. Sony isn't the first with a TV like this. Samsung has announced earlier this year an LCD-screen of that size. Further specifications aren't know yet.

Mass production is planned for the end of 2006.

It's Christmas and Commodore has announced its own comeback.

Launching at CES (which, naturally, we will be covering with the same intensity that a Bloodhound would sniff out Black Pudding) are three new products from the 80s icon. Previously, it had been messing about with some fairly ropey looking digital media players, but now its making a real effort.

Still a massive distance from its personal computer roots, the Multimedia Tower and MediaBox stick to the company’s reinvented audio and video roots. The former is a business orientated device which compiles music from a store and lets customers browse, listen to and eventually purchase content for direct download onto their mp3 weapon of choice. We’re not sure how this is meant to compete with online sites like iTunes, but then again we’re not sure how high street record stores compete these days either…

Read on at Trusted Reviews

Bonnie Cha has reviewed the Nokia 3155i. You just want a basic cell phone without all the multimedia stuff? Well, here is the Nokia 3155i.

- easy to use

- features a roomy dial pad, a speakerphone, and an FM tuner

- supports text and multimedia messaging

- call quality is a bit muddled

- you have to purchase a separate headset to use the FM radio

Read more at cnet

Vr-Zone has reviewed this MP3Player of Creative, the Zen Vision: M. On the 8th of December 2005, we saw the launch of the Zen Vision: M, which I believe would be “battling” it out with iPod video market. From the looks, it does look impressive compared to the earlier review on the Zen Vision which seems rather bulky, he says.

Pro's:
- Sound is crystal clear
- Outlook is pleasant and light
- Longer hours of playback time for both audio and video ( 14hours for audio and 8 hours video)
- Built-in microphone
- Transferring of files are fast all thanks to USB 2.0
- PIM support
- AV support
- Themes can be changed
- 2 interchangeable power socket
- Able to plug and play even without the need to install the bundled software for organizing and transferring of files
- FM Radio Support

Cons:
- Pictures are “blocky”. Lines and edges are not smooth
- Too much plastic
- Encoding of video files are slow
- Battery cannot be changed
- Lack of cables or connector for AV output
- Touchpad too sensitive

Read more at vr-zone