Brian's Brain

It's mid-afternoon Saturday, and CES is thankfully winding down for me. Having been gone for a week, I'm looking forward to my late evening flight back to Sacramento and a few days at home (although I'll be traveling again Tuesday). I feel compelled to plug two products that have sure made my life easier this week.

The first is Verizon's EV-DO service, which I've written about before. I had BroadbandAccess service in Sacramento's airport Sunday morning while I waited for my flight to leave, and I was happily surprised to find 1xRTT NationalAccess coverage at both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks (which, if you've ever been, you already know are 'in the middle of nowhere'). Once I returned to Las Vegas I enabled Wi-Fi on my laptop when I got to my room at the Sahara Hotel....and found a $11/day charge staring me in the face. Instead, I relied on Verizon's BroadbandAccess EV-DO the whole time I was in my room....and while on the Monorail....and while at keynotes at the Hilton....and while on the CES show floor....you get the drift. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I admit that right now I'm sipping Wi-Fi from an unsecured access point with SSID 'Linksys' somewhere nearby the Storage Visions keynote room.

The second attaboy goes out to Kodak and its DX7590 (recently renamed the Z7590) camera. I've owned a prior-generation DX6490 for around a year, and jumped on the upgrade when a) Mom hinted that a digital camera might make a nice Christmas present (yes, I gave her a gently-used unit, but I also admitted to her that I'd done so!) and b) I found a refurbished DX7590 for sale at SmartBargains for just over $220 after coupon discount, inclusive of shipping, and with no sales tax. Based on the reviews I'd read, I also hoped that the DX7590 would eliminate some of the minor shortcomings I'd encountered with the DX6490; slow and sometimes inaccurate auto-focus, etc.

I consider myself a fairly serious amateur photographer, and so in addition to the DX7590, I dragged along to SW Utah my Pentax *istD DSLR and three lenses. I confess; I didn't take a single shot with the DSLR, although I took plenty of pictures with the DX7590. Worse yet, I kept the DX7590 in fully automatic 'Program' mode the entire time. But I ended up with beautiful shots. It was approximately a 3.5 hour drive up to Zion, 2.5 hours from there to Bryce, and 5 hours back to Las Vegas, and I was only away from Las Vegas Sunday morning through Wednesday mid-afternoon, so I didn't have much time on the hiking trails. Plus, I was dealing with shortened winter days, and double-plus I was dodging the cloud-and-raindrop side effects of the storms that were pummeling California.

There just wasn't time to mess around with all my complex DSLR gear; instead I just slipped the small digital point-and-shoot in my pocket and clicked the shutter whenever the scene warranted and the weather allowed. It wasn't a perfect experience; I'd left the wide-angle accessory and corresponding filter thread adapter at home, and the DX7590 doesn't have an ultra-wide native angle of view (a situation that a camera Kodak just announced at CES attempts to fix). But all in all, I'm quite pleased with my new-to-me purchase. And amazed at the pace with which digital imaging technology has matured.

p.s...And Mom's happy with her new-to-her toy, as well.