Archive for June 18th, 2007
Gadgets for women have to go beyond cute and pink
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Product Reviews, UK
A growing number of women are embracing consumer electronics just as the technologies are reaching out to embrace them. Behind this quiet revolution are engineers and designers who are bringing a more feminine sensibility to products historically shaped by masculine tastes, habits and requirements.
Only a few years ago, feminizing a consumer electronic product meant little more than creating a pink or pastel version of the same black or silvery item coveted by men. And, some retailers note, that kind of marketing still goes on. But feminizing technology is more about a product’s fundamentals, often expressed in its ease of use. It is not always aimed exclusively at women, but it is female friendly.
The impact is being noticed. Women bought slightly more than half the digital cameras in the first four months of this year, compared with 48 percent a year ago, according to the NPD Group, a market analysis firm.
There are more subtle touches, too, such as the wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook that goes on sale next week. It accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have. Some of the latest cell phones made by LG Electronics have the camera’s automatic focus calibrated to arm’s length. The company observed that young women are fond of taking pictures of themselves with a friend. Men, not so much.
Nikon and Olympus recently introduced lines of lighter, more compact and easy-to-use digital single-lens-reflex cameras that were designed with women in mind because they tend to be a family’s primary keeper of memories.
The Nikon D40X is 20 percent smaller than a standard Nikon digital SLR camera and can be easily carried around the neck or slipped into a handbag. It has many of the automated features normally found on a point-and-shoot camera, such as preset shooting modes. Camera makers wanted to reach the female market with digital SLR cameras because they carry a higher profit margin than point-and-shoot models.
“Spouse acceptance factor” is a phrase often tossed about at DigitalAdvisor (digitaladvisor.com), an online information and shopping site for consumer electronics based in Cambridge, Mass. That spouse, said Mike Brady, the Web site’s editor, is usually a woman. “If a man brings home a big whooper of a television, the woman is going to say, ‘That’s stupid; it’s too big for the wall,’ ” he said.
Brady said that men and women tend to have radically different approaches to televisions in the home.
“Men want the TV to dominate the room,” Brady said. “Women look more at the TV to not be the centerpiece of the room, but more of an accent piece.”
Television makers have responded to more feminine considerations in several ways. Westinghouse Digital Electronics has recently released flat-panel liquid-crystal-display televisions — at the modest screen sizes of 32 and 40 inches that are more appealing to women — with built-in front-loading DVD players.
Those are even more appealing to women, said Rey Roque, the company’s vice president for marketing, because the room will not be cluttered with a black box to view DVDs, or another set of unsightly wires.
Technologies designed to camouflage electronics such as televisions and home theater speaker systems are rapidly becoming a whole category unto themselves.
Acoustic Research sells a compact speaker system concealed in what the company calls “acoustically transparent” covers.
The system, called Home Decor, disguises speakers as vases, books, planters, mantel clocks or candleholders, said Tom Malone, president of Audiovox, the parent company in Hauppauge, N.Y.
“The concept was to make a good audio system and then literally make it disappear,” Malone said. The speakers cost $800 and the covers range from $40 to $120 each.
Energizer, went so far as to create a battery charger for each sex. The Dock & Go, at $33, is aimed at men. Black and gray with shiny trim, the two pods hold up to four batteries each (AA or AAA). A light glows red when it is charging, yellow when the batteries are charged.
The second device, the $20 Easy Charger, is aimed at women, who usually end up managing the household’s batteries. This charger is flat, round and sold with interchangeable faceplates in silver, black and eggshell to help it blend in with kitchen appliances. Large LED readouts spell out what the countertop charger is doing at every phase of the charging cycle.
Focus-group testing indicated that men were turned off by the Easy Charger, especially in how its readouts appeared to tell them what they thought they already knew, said Mandy Iswarienko, the brand manger for rechargeable products.
“We found that how people use chargers is very different,” she said. “For her, she wants it to be instantly understandable.”
June 18th, 2007
Kodak’s stock lift gives only a brief breather
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
Matthew Daneman
Staff writer
(June 17, 2007) — Eastman Kodak Co. built its fortune on film photography. The imaging giant has had a tougher time figuring out how to make money in a digital world.
But after a couple of years of sluggish stock performance, the market rewarded the company last week after Kodak unveiled new photo sensor technology that it says could mean no more too-dark or muddy results when snapping shots in low light.
Kodak stock closed the week at $29.31, up 10 percent for the week from a close of $26.57 on June 8. The last time the stock was this high was March 2006.
It will be months yet before the first consumer products containing the new sensors show up on store shelves, assuming the company even finds customers for its invention.
“The impact of the product will show up when it gets into market,” said Gary Pageau, publisher of Photo Marketing Magazine.
Image sensors are a $7 billion market, with Kodak claiming about $100 million of that, mostly in industrial applications, according to an analysis by Citigroup Global Markets.
“In order to take on some of the more established names in the market, Kodak will need to provide a technological breakthrough leapfrogging the competition,” Citigroup said. Its analysis came out a day before Kodak publicly announced its camera sensor technology.
“Digital image sensors have captured color for 30 years,” said Chris McNiffe, vice president of Kodak’s consumer digital imaging group. “We do think it’s significant now we’ve come up with a new, elegant, innovative way to do that.”
The new image sensor is part of a series of sensor advancements the company is working on.
“We’re also looking at how to make the color itself more rich and full for the digital images and what kinds of features that are in the camera we can make more efficient, maybe different ways to do focusing or color correction,” McNiffe said.
Despite the jump in its stock, Kodak still has notable business hurdles, including anemic sales growth and low profit margins, according to an analysis by Matrix USA, which on Friday continued to rate Kodak stock a “hold.”
For the last couple of years, consumer camera manufacturers have focused largely on image resolution. But with even five- and six-megapixel cameras readily affordable, Pageau said, “the pixel race has kind of slowed down …, so now manufacturers are looking for things that will differentiate their cameras. Clearly something that would eliminate the need for a flash would be something different.”
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com
June 18th, 2007
Digicams Take to Water
PC World
Underwater photography goes digital with a selection of compact, capable, budget cameras.
Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service
It’s summer holiday season, and eventually your camera’s going to end up near the water — hopefully not in it, unless of course, you’re taking advantage of the numerous advances in digital photography that make the submerged two-thirds of the world much easier to photograph.
Digicams Adapt
Once the domain of bulky cameras and cumbersome housings, the shrinking size of digital camera bodies means that even enclosed in a protective plastic shell, photography underwater has never been easier.
Aside from a camera’s electronics’ obvious distaste for moisture, units taken underwater face a separate challenge: pressure. Between the water’s surface and 33 feet (10 meters), ambient pressure doubles, a stress test not generally taken into consideration for sea-level designs. The result can be buttons that depress themselves and other malfunctions.
That said, camera makers are now taking to underwater use.
“The point-and-shoot world is very in tune with being able to take cameras underwater,” said Stephen Frink, one of the world’s top underwater photographers and founder of Stephen Frink Photographic in Key Largo, Florida. “Most of the mainstream camera companies provide housings for their various models of compact digitals, which are terrific bargains really. They offer depth protection to 130 feet (40 meters) and are nicely form-fitting and ergonomic, all for about $200.”
Tips for Adjusting
Two of the biggest adjustments for underwater photographers are light and latency. “Shutter lag is the time between when you push the shutter release and the camera actually records the image,” Frink said. “The newest compact digitals have significantly reduced shutter lag, but are still not as quick as the D-SLR [Digital SLR]. And, when a fish is moving quickly underwater, instantaneous reaction is necessary to predictably record the peak action.”
As for underwater lighting, a flash can help restore much of the natural color, but power settings and distance can present limitations. “As for external strobe [flash], water is 600 times more dense than air, so it takes a powerful strobe to punch through the water and bring out the color and detail in a subject even three feet away. The small built-in flashes on digital compacts aren’t up to the job, and even if they were stronger, being in proximity to the lens, they would front light particles in suspension in the water column, creating unsightly backscatter,” Frink said. Whenever possible, use an external strobe, he recommended, although it does take a bit of practice and equipment beyond what a normal camera and housing will offer.
Frink had an easy suggestion for newbie underwater photographers. “There is an axiom among photographers in general: ‘If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.’ This is all the more true in underwater imaging because of the density of the medium, and its propensity to filter out color as a function of depth. The underwater world is vibrant and colorful, so long as a shooter can work close and artfully apply strobe light,” he said.
Long Under Water
Nikon launched what became the standard for underwater photography, its Nikonos line, in 1963, having developed the camera in cooperation with scuba pioneer Jacques Cousteau. Nikon ended production of this dedicated underwater SLR (single lens reflex) line in 1984 with the Nikonos V. The vendor still uses the Nikonos name for the waterproof housings available for its Coolpix digital cameras. Coolpix cameras are easy to use underwater and the Nikonos housings are readily available. Bear in mind that any housing may need to be ordered, and that the average photography store may only have one or two on hand, if any, for their entire camera range.
Sony offers dedicated Marine Pack housings for its Cyber-shot line through dealers or the company itself. Prices have come way down: once a $300 investment, housings for most models can now be had for $200 or less.
Selection Expands
Earlier this year, both Olympus Optical and Pentax introduced purpose-built underwater cameras, at 7.1 megapixels and 7 megapixels, respectively. The Olympus Stylus 770SW is rated to 33 feet, with a built-in alarm that alerts you as you approach crush depth, and is available for $380. Pentax’s Optio A30 is rated to only 10 feet, perhaps befitting a splash in the shallows more than a deep dive. It retails for $300.
In March, Vivitar brought its ViviCam 6200W to market. Available for a suggested retail price of about $230, the 6-megapixel camera is waterproof down to 33 feet. However, it does lack an onboard flash, potentially making it more appropriate for snorkelers or even boating enthusiasts concerned about spray than for divers who’d take it to its pressure limits.
Instruction Offered
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors Americas, the world’s largest diver training organization, offers a digital underwater photography course to certified divers at many of its training centers. The course can be completed in one day and provides an introduction to underwater digital photography equipment and techniques.
June 18th, 2007