Vivitar 690HD Digital Video Recorder

690HD Camera

Vivitar calls its 690HD camera a DVR. This is an abbreviation for Digital Video Recorder, but it has nothing to do with what your TiVo does.

The Vivitar 609HD is a handheld camera that looks like it should be held horizontally, but it is best used vertically as the user can see the 2-inch preview screen.

The 690HD has very little built-in memory (8MB), but it can support an SDcard of up to 32GB. The SDcard is not included, but it does come with an AV Cable for watching the footage on your TV.

One major feature of the 690 DVR camera by Vivitar is that it is waterproof up to 10 feet. The packaging has scuba divers on it, which leads me to believe that this camera is marketed to the rugged extreme crowd.

Other features include anti-shake and face detection. You should be able to purchase it for about $59.99.

Google gives Social Networking

Something you have to admire about Google is the fact that they can be extremely persistent when they want to be. This is certainly the impression that I got when they recently announced their plans to roll out Google Plus; their latest attempt at social networking. Previously, Google had tried to enter the Social Networking scene through acquisition (Orkut), stealth (Buzz) and innovation (Wave). While, none of these brought success, they did teach Google some valuable lessons. This time, Google has dreamed big and put in a lot effort to realize that dream.

If I could describe Google Plus in one word, I might choose “intimate” because thatword seems to properly represent the philosophy behind this endeavour. To me it seems that Google has identified a fundamental reality of our average social experience: we are not the same person to everyone. Hence, it has built a system that can seamlessly allow us to customize the level of social interaction we want with different people.

There are some very impressive features that have gone into Google Plus that could really enhance the social experience. To give proper context to these features, I have compared them with Facebook.

Google Plus: Cricles

At first glance, Circles seem to be a simple method of categorizing your friends: putting relevant friends in relevant Circles. However, you can also post material and directly interact with members of a specific circle. This is great if you want to avoid mentioning the same thing to two very different groups of contacts.

For example, you could post academic material in a circle containing your study friends, while posting work material to a circle dedicated to your colleagues.

Facebook: First of all, adding friends to different friend categories only influences the chat feature. To my understanding, the best ways to customize your social experience on Facebook would be to create different groups and add relevant friends into it. Also, do not forget customizing privacy settings to allow/deny access to albums or other material. Tagging people in posts also helps.

The problem is that this is very cumbersome. Most of us are in at-least a dozen groups and sooner or later people lose interest in interacting within groups because the primary method of keeping tabs is through the news feeds. Even this feature is not the best because it does not do a good job filtering out the people I am less interested in (the only option is blocking them out, which is something people are hesitant to do). Also, blocking out some content could really offend some people. Tagging people does help, but that also draws everyone’s attention, not just the ones you tag.

The Verdict: Circles are just simple; add your friends to a circle and you are good to go. The privacy, the posts and the entire social interaction is automatically customised. In comparison, Facebook is more complex and even though it does deserve credit for simplifying the privacy settings, it is still very complicating and still requires a lot of micro management.

Google Plus: Hang out

This feature allows users to invite specific contacts or even entire Circles to a video conference. What I like about this is the fact that different participants can invite different people to the conference. The total capacity is actually 25.

Facebook: When I started writing this article, Facebook just announced that it would allow Skype video chats. However, judging by the initial feedback the video quality does not seem to be very good.

Verdict: In its current form, Facebook is structurally incapable of rolling out something similar to Hangout. It would require a completely new approach to the chat interface in general. Skype is wonderful as a standalone app, but efforts to integrate it into Facebook or other platforms will not provide satisfactory results overnight. Meanwhile, Google already has a lot of experience with audio and video services via Google Voice and its own Google Talk.

Google Plus: Instant uploading

A lot of our pictures and videos are still lingering in our cameras and smartphones and some may never grace Facebook because we may simply be too lazy or too busy to upload them. Google’s instant upload solves this problem by automatically uploading all your pictures and videos to a private Google+ album. Later, you can decide on editing or posting it. Unfortunately, this is only available for Android phones right now.

Facebook: As far as I know, there is no comparable feature.

The Verdict: Google+ is the clear winner here.

Google Plus Pictures

Adding and tagging pictures is very similar to Facebook. However, Google’s interface with regards to editing and commenting is somewhat different. Also, as mentioned earlier, you can post pictures directly to different Circles. This means you do not have to go through the added problem of customizing privacy settings and offending people in the process.

Facebook: The only option is to upload pictures to different groups. However, as I mentioned earlier, this is a very cumbersome process especially because people tend to interact very little on groups. Circles in comparison make the specific social interaction more flexible and meaningful.

The Verdict: Uploading and sharing pictures on Google+ is easier but the only real difference is because of Circles. There are added features but I am not giving it too much credit for this feature.

Google Plus spark

An exciting name for a rather bland feature. Sparks allows you to add your interests (eg. Technology, history, fashion, etc.) and allows you to share and comment on these sparks with your Circles or other friends.

Facebook: posting links on your profile or adding interests to your profile list is quite similar to sparks. There is no great difference here.

The Verdict: I suppose I saved the last for the least, even on Facebook, I doubt people pay a lot of attention to the “interests” on the profile page. However, the only difference with Google+ is that you can post directly to your Circles, which might make the experience better but by itself, it is not much.

Google Plus: Social Sharing

Just like with the Facebook button, you can now add a Google +1 button to your pages. With Facebook it shares the link on your Facebook wall. With the +1 button, it shares the link on your Google Plus page… but unlike the Facebook button, the +1 potentially influences search results when people in your circles searches Google for related terms. This is how the buttons look like… If you’d like to click each of them once, to share this article, that would be much appreciated!

Google Plus: Huddle

This allows group chats across different platforms such as mobile (also currently restricted to Android) and PC. Users can initiate chats directly with specific Circles or friends. There are 3rd party apps that allow this sort of flexibility but as far as I know, this is the first time it has been fully integrated into a single social networking system. Facebook: The chat interface has improved and now you can initiate group chats. One thing I personally dislike is that Facebook displays chat histories and messages together. This really makes it difficult for me to keep track of anything properly.

The Verdict: Google’s chat interface is very simple and hopefully it will probably incorporate the experience it has gained through Gmail Chat. If it does, we are looking at a much better chatting experience. Chat histories are saved into the “chats” on the Gmail page.

I know I have not gone into the nuts and bolts of some of these features but I hope this gives people a good understanding of what Google Plus is all about. If there were anything you guys would like to contribute, please let me know. Also, I am interested to know how many of you are willing to switch over from Facebook and if so, why?

Google+

Google To Revive Realtime Search, Thanks to Google+

Realtime Search was, until last month, the search giant’s method of delivering relevant data from Twitter, Facebook and other social media services in real time. Whenever a major current event made headlines — such as Osama bin Laden’s death — Google Search would start displaying tweets and Facebook updates from users talking about the recent developments. It made Google‘s search engine more relevant during major world events.

It didn’t last, though. Google took Realtime Search down in July after it failed to come to an agreement with Twitter for continued access to Twitter‘s firehouse of data. Without a constant stream of tweets, the product was far less useful.

“The value the product was providing was not enough,” Google Fellow Amit Singhal said about the decision to turn off the feature during a search panel in Mountain View, California.

When asked about if or when Realtime Search would return, Singhal responded by saying the Google Search team is “actively working” on bringing the product back. He added that the team was experimenting with adding data from Google+ and other sources. It seems as if Google doesn’t believe it needs Twitter data to deliver a compelling real-time search offering.

Danny Sullivan, the panel’s moderator and Search Engine Land editor in chief, also asked the panel why the Google+ stream doesn’t have its own search engine (it’s one of the social network’s most requested features).

Windows 7 desktop gadgets

How do I make Windows 7 desktop gadgets visible on mouse-over only?

With Microsoft Windows 7 desktop gadgets, people either love them or hate them. Those who love them feel the various gadgets add features to the desktop that the standard desktop doesn’t offer. Those who hate them feel like the gadgets only get in the way of a working desktop. For the latter users, there is a way to use gadgets and keep them out of the way until you mouse-over the area of the gadget. This will allow you to take advantage of gadgets without letting them clutter up your desktop.

By default you can make a Windows desktop gadget visible and you can even change the opacity of a viewable gadget. When you set a gadget to a less-than-100-percent opacity, a mouse-over will bring that gadget back to 100 percent. With that in mind, you would think it would be possible to set a gadget’s opacity to 0 percent and then see the gadget with a mouse-over. The problem is that the lowest opacity offered is 20 percent. So how is this done?

In this How do I article, I am going to show you how to get those gadgets to 0-percent opacity, which will then revert to 100 percent upon mouse-over.

First things first

Just in case you’ve never used a gadget before, I thought I should first show you how to view and add gadgets to your desktop. To view the gadgets on your desktop, right-click the desktop and then click View | Show Desktop Gadgets (Figure A).

Figure A

This is also the only way you can toggle gadgets on and off. So if you do not want to make all your gadgets set to 0 percent, you can toggle all gadgets off here to hide them (regardless of opacity).

Now that you have your gadgets visible on the desktop, you will have to add gadgets. To do this, right-click on the desktop and click Gadgets. In this new window (Figure B), you can drag and drop gadgets to your desktop.

Figure B

Don’t see a gadget you need? Click Get More Gadgets Online in the bottom right corner.

When you add gadgets from the online Web site, know that there are a ton of them. You should scan the downloaded file with your antivirus and/or antimalware before you run the installation. Just because the gadget is on the Windows Live site doesn’t guarantee it to be 100 percent free of malicious code.

In order to change the opacity of a gadget, all you have to do is right-click the gadget in question and then click Opacity | X%, where X is a numerical value (Figure C).

Figure C

Why Microsoft doesn’t include a 0-percent value here I will never know. Fortunately, there is a way around this.

The configuration

Now it’s time to configure gadgets so that they have 0-percent opacity. To do this, set the gadget you want to work with at 20-percent opacity. You will then need to follow these steps:

• Step 1: Kill the Windows Sidebar Task. Just right-click the Panel, select Start Task Manager, and then kill the process sidebar.exe. If you do not kill this process, you will not be able to make the necessary changes for the next steps. NOTE: When you kill this process, all your gadgets will be removed from your desktop.
• Step 2: Locate and open the settings file for the desktop gadgets. This file is typically in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsSidebar\. The file you are looking for is called settings.ini. Open this file in Notepad and look for the following string:PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity=”{20}”Replace the “20″ with the value “1″ so that the entry now looks like: PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity=”{1}”
  Once you have made that change, save the file and close Notepad.
• Step 3: Now it’s time to restart the process that handles the gadgets. Click on the Start button and then type sidebar.exe and hit Enter. Your gadgets will now reappear, except the one you set at 20 percent is gone! Ah, but it’s not. If you hover your mouse over the area where that gadget rests, it will magically appear! Voila! You have now made a gadget visible only via mouse-over.

You can do this with all your gadgets if you like. Continue with this process, setting each gadget at 20-percent opacity and then change the value to “1″ in the settings.ini file. Just make sure you kill sidebar.exe before you make any changes in settings.ini and then restart it when you’re done.

Final thoughts

I am a fan of using small apps to make the desktop life easier. In Linux, I use Screenlets for the same function. But when you get enough of these tiny apps on your desktop, the desktop can grow to be a cluttered mess. To achieve desktop organization, you often need the ability to control these apps in ways that might not be allowed by default. But, where there is a will, there is a way. Hopefully this little trick allows you to take advantage of desktop gadgets and still have a clutter-free desktop.

Mouse-Over In Windows 7

Make Gadgets Visible Only On Mouse-Over In Windows 7

Desktop gadgets, love them or hate them. Some can be pretty useful in specific contexts while others are plain dispensable. Who for instance needs a clock gadget if a clock is displayed all the time in the Windows 7 Taskbar.

Gadgets are displayed on the desktop all the time. It is possible to hide them by right-clicking the desktop and selecting View > Show Desktop Gadgets to switch between visible and hidden mode.

windows 7 gadgets

It is furthermore possible to change the opacity of individual desktop gadgets. Allowed values range from 20% to 100%. The gadget is always displayed with a 100% opacity regardless of its custom value if the mouse is moved into its window.

gadget 20 percent opacity

The guys over at Windows 7 News have now found a way to make individual desktop gadgets invisible on the desktop.

The process involves some basic hacking of system files and terminating a system process. Users who feel uncomfortable doing that should stay away from the change.

The process is divided into five steps:

• Set the gadget’s opacity to a distinct value.
• Kill the Windows Sidebar task.
• Open the settings configuration file.
• Change its opacity to 1%.
• Start the Windows Sidebar task.

Steps 1 and 2 are easily done. Just set the opacity of a gadget that you want to make invisible to 20%. The value should be different from other values to make identification easier. The sidebar.exe process needs to be killed to be able to make the changes in step 3 and 4.

Please note that all gadgets are removed from the desktop once the process has been terminated.

Locate the settings file, it is usually located in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini.

Open the document and search for the text PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity=”{20}”. Replace 20 with the opacity value of the gadget that you want to make invisible. Change the value to 1 and save the file.

Now restart the sidebar.exe process and watch the magic happening.

Pretty cool, eh? It is possible to change the opacity of all gadgets that should be made invisible in one go to optimize the process.

LG Optimus White

LG Optimus white is stamped as parallel to iPhone in its specifications at reasonably low prices. Optimus series is one of the most successful series by LG company. LG Optimus White has IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen which has a sharper and clearer display. The shape and styling of this latest LG mini machine is akin to most of the touchscreen gadgets by different companies like Samsung, Nokia and others.

LG Optimus white boasts appealing specifications with quality in a single touch. This LG handset, in spite of having good features as face and smile detection, Gorilla Glass display, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Touch-sensitive controls, Optimus UI 2.0, Gesture UI 2.0, Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo), upgradeable to v2.3 CPU 1 GHz Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 2 GB storage, 512 MB RAM and elegantly smart look, also boasts some flaws in it.

LG Optimus is an expensive cell phone with all those specs that a cell phone at a cheaper rate can boast, i.e. its 5MP autofocus camera and other such features that we can experience in a handset which prices almost 30% cheaper than this handset. Another draw back noticed in this handset is that it resembles with LG Optimus P970 in shape and specifications.

LG EGO Wi-Fi

LG has just released full touch screen Smartphone simplify designed and easy- use and this model is so called LG EGO Wi-Fi. The smartphone feature having the internet access ability at 3G network. LG positioned EGO Wi-Fi as phone feature in medium budget price level. It has been marketed in England with the legal price of GBP 65 or about $ 150. Based on the specification displayed in GSMArena site, EGO Wi-Fi presents with 2,8 inch screen and the ability to spread the picture up to 256.000 colors, as level as Samsung Corby.

But, there is no information for screen resolution; whether using capacitive or resistive. But, glance at the price; I consider EGO Wi-Fi still uses resistive screen. This smartphone can be used to surf at hotspot, it is also already equipped by the ability for 3G internet. However, in other capabilities, we can say it is just ordinary. Its external memory slot just accommodates maximum capacity of 4GB. To open webpage, it still relies on WAP 2.0 browser. Besides, EGO Wi-Fi provides pre-installed Facebook and Twitter application, also support Java based application.

Although, its music entertainment facility is supported by 3,5mm standard jack audio port, audio quality via loudspeaker is not so impressed. It is below audio quality from Nokia 5233 or with several Samsung smart phone model. At imaging sector, EGO Wi-Fi offers 2MP camera of which is still ordinary for its class. Its camera shot is still blur, moreover its camcorder video recording.

LG Optimus Pad

What is the right size for a tablet? 9.7-inches? What about 7-inches, or maybe 8.9-inches? If you’re struggling to answer that question, don’t worry, tablet makers are too, and so we have the latest challenger to Honeycomb tablet market: the LG Optimus Pad. It sports an 8.9-inch widescreen display that means it’s the same width as an iPad 2 when in landscape, but considerably thinner in height.

Design

Open the box and the LG Optimus Pad stares out at you ready to be fondled. The Optimus Pad measures 243 x 149 x 12.5mm and weighs 630g. The front is not only dominated by the glass touchscreen display, but it’s actually the only thing present. There are no buttons on the frame, physical or soft, and it’s strange that it’s so wide. We understand the argument for having to have something to hold on to when you use the “Pad”, but it appears overly large, especially as it doesn’t have a purpose in the same way the frame does on the BlackBerry PlayBook for example.

Perhaps it is there to hold the large silver LG logo? The 3-megapixel forward-facing camera can also be found in the top right-hand corner, and a notification light that flashes when you’ve got mail. It’s either the best feature in the world or most annoying - we’re sure you’ll know which.

The sides are far more interesting (if that’s possible) and feature three mini speakers for a more all-around sound (it works, but the sound levels are overall quiet), the volume controls, a power and lock key, dock connector, HDMI out and USB sockets in addition to a dedicated power socket. There is also a 3.5mm jack for connecting headphones.

It’s not until you get around the back that you realise there is something hugely different to all the tablets (Android or otherwise) that have gone before the LG Optimus Pad. Central to the rear design are two cameras sat side-by-side, next to an LED flash, capable of letting you record 3D footage on the go. But that’s not all the back offers. While the battery isn’t replaceable, an element of the plastic backplate slides off to reveal a SIM card slot for the 3G connectivity. Sadly there is no microSD port.

Build-wise the LG Optimus Pad is akin to the company’s recently launched LG Optmius 2X (or G2x for US readers). It’s solid, well built, although the plastic backing feels cheap compared to the metal back of the iPad 2 or HTC Flyer. The screen and the casing are prone to smudging, but no more than any other tablet we’ve tried in the past. If you’ve got greasy hands, you’ll be forever cleaning your Optimus Pad.

At 630 grams it’s considerably heavier than other tablets at this size. It’s also considerably thicker - the 8.8mm thick Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 will blow this out of the water.

Inside

Looks are one thing, but what about performance? As we’ve already said the Pad’s design is dominated by that 8.9-inch touchscreen display. It comes with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels giving it a ppi of 167. That makes it higher than the iPad because of the smaller screen, but also means in practice and reality you get a better visual experience. Viewing angles are good, it is crisp, and the screen really does sing out at you when it comes to playing back games or video. Angry Birds Rio for example looks really sharp, as do websites and even icons within Honeycomb’s menu system.

Get past the screen and the LG Optimus Pad still packs plenty of tech. There is the Nvidia Tegra 2, 1GHz dual-core chipset and 1GB of memory that means that we have had no problems with running apps. There is 32GB of storage inside, although this isn’t expandable via a microSD slot. There is zero lag time opening apps, running them, or doing more intensive tasks like playing back 720p video, or visiting Flash-based sites like wechosethemoon.org.

We tried playing a 1080p video and while for the most part it played perfectly there were times when the system felt it was struggling, dropping the odd frame, or stuttering with sweeping shots giving a jaggedy feel to the proceedings. This will very much depend on the type of file you throw at it.

The 3G SIM means you can surf on the go wherever you are regardless of whether you are in a Wi-Fi hotspot, and of course those dual cameras we’ve mentioned already.

3D filming

LG, big on 3D in their TVs and with the Optimus 3D Android smartphone due out shortly, has added a 3D capability here too. You get the ability to record it, but also to view it with a dedicated 3D recorder and player app called 3DCamcorder and 3DPlayer. Before you get excited that you’ll be able to watch 3D movies on the go without glasses, don’t.

The technology used to view it back on screen is anaglyph. That means that, unlike the Nintendo 3DS that has a lenticular display, on the Optimus Pad you’ll need to wear a pair of blue and red shades (shipped in the box). The glasses themselves are better than the paper ones you used to get on comics, however they are still retro-tastic.

LG Optimus Pad 3D test video

When it comes to filming 3D there are a number of modes you can film in: Mixed, Anaglyph, Single, and Side-by-Side. Recording in anaglyph lets you to watch it back on the screen straight away albeit with those blue and red glasses. Side-by-Side lets you play it back on a 3D television thanks to the inclusion of an HDMI socket and cable in the box. Thankfully which ever of the two you choose you can switch it to the other - ideal for playback on a 3D TV.

Of course you get the ability to change some of the settings. There is white balance support, the ability to change the strength of 3D, and basic controls regarding audio (i.e., whether you want it on or off). Playback on screen is pretty laughable. Not because it fails to do what it says it can, but because we just don’t see who in their right minds is going to record anaglyph 3D and then sit there on the tube wearing the glasses watching it, no matter how good the content is. Even if you are brave enough, the experience is pretty dire anyway. Everything is green, resolution isn’t great, and the whole experience is incredibly naff. It’s like being a kid again reading a 3D copy of Beano. In reality this is for previewing only, checking your 3D recording worked before you do something more useful with it.

Of course you could argue that you’ll use the new 3D camera for filming standard “side-by-side” 3D to watch on your television and that’s great, but again in our experience here and with other tablets, you look like a dork holding the tablet up in front of you at a party, an attraction, or anywhere really. There’s nothing like saying “look at me, I’m holding an expensive tablet in my hands” than doing just that with the Optimus Pad. It’s not as embarrassing as holding the iPad 2, but it’s no compact camera.

If you have been brave enough to make a recording you will be rewarded with the footage. It’s by no means amazing, but the 3D element is fun for about 2 minutes.

There's 2D too

If 3D isn’t for you, you can still just use one of the cameras (the left one) to capture 2D still and 720p video footage. The photos we took were rather flat and washed out, even though we were shooting on a sunny day, however the video was better than other tablets we've tried. 

Thanks to this being a tablet, you probably won’t be buying this for the camera even if it is better than the iPad 2 and the HTC Flyer.

With YouTube supporting 3D content, you’ll be able to upload directly from the Optimus Pad to YouTube in 3D, so at least others can benefit from your creation.

Screaming screen

One of the big selling points of the Pad is the 8.9-inch 15:9 ratio screen and the ability to enjoy movies and games on it. That dimension really gives you a thin widescreen appeal, which does suit movies nicely as there are no black bars top and bottom - something that iPad owners always complain about. Likewise the smaller size means that it fits more snuggly onto a fold down tray on a train or a plane and that is likely to appeal to the hardened commuter.

Games benefit from the screen too. Everything from Angry Birds to the latest Gameloft or EA titles look great, and everyone we showed only had good things to say about their look and performance.

Despite the LG Optimus Pad trying to offer something different to make it stand out from the crowd, in practice we have some concerns about LG’s entry into the tablet market. We just aren’t sure about the size of the screen, or the ratio. While fantastic for watching those movies or playing games, everything else seems to come across as a bit restricted.

Honeycomb

Rather than follow the routes of some other manufacturers and customise the Android 3.0 Honeycomb experience, LG has left Honeycomb on the LG Optimus Pad untouched. It’s the same experience as you will get on the Motorola Xoom, leagues ahead of the non-Google Froyo tablets that languish at the budget end of the tablet scale. There is the addition of the 3D apps, and LG have also included Polaris Office for the workers. The unfettered Honeycomb experience works as expected and you can read our extensive review of Honeycomb to find out more. For the record, our LG tablet was running Android 3.0.1.

For those who don’t know anything about Honeycomb, it gives you the same logical and customisable Android experience that you’ll find on your phone, but optimised for tablet use. That means that notifications make sense, it’s ideal for landscape use and core apps – like contacts, calendar and Gmail – make much better use of the screen space available.

Honeycomb isn’t without its shortcomings. We’ve repeatedly found the browser is a little unstable, occasionally quitting without notice, but it does support Adobe Flash, so you’ll be able to enjoy a fuller Internet experience, even if you might need to download Dolphin Browser HD from the Android Market to get better control of how websites appear. The app support is a little light (although all current Android apps work and scale much better than iPhone apps on the iPad do) but more apps are being updated to be “Honeycomb optimised” and you can always check out our running list of favourites here.

Battery life

With a big 6400mAh battery the Optimus Pad battery does its part to keep you going. Clearly doing certain tasks will have a greater impact on how long it lasts. Video and use of the 3G antenna had a noticeably detrimental effect on things, but browsing, emailing and general use meant that you could easily go a couple of days without worry. Even with heavy use we would expect you to get through the day or a long-haul flight.

ADS BY GOOGLE

• SIMI 3D motion analysis software solution for video based motion tracking and analysiswww.simi.com
• Android 2.2 Tablet PC 7" Free Delivery Any Where in Pakistan Rs.9500 Wifi Excel Word PDF Flash www.shoptime.pk
• Touch Panel PC All-in-one solution. Ideal for POS, POI, HMI & gaming applications.buy.advantech.com.my/

Verdict

3D is very much an industry led thing at the moment and the Pad taps into that without really committing. The 3D recording and playback is fun, but we doubt you’ll use it unless you’re a hardened 3D fan. It’s a shame because the 3D experience on the Optimus 3D, the company’s smartphone due out later in the year, is so much better and something that impressed us a lot. We can understand that LG would want to add an extra component to their 3D creation story, but the 3D camera without a 3D screen feels like a step too far.

And then there’s the final crazy element: the price. Carphone Warehouse has the Optimus Pad listed at £749 which is absurd. It might be fast, it might be great for watching movies, but it’s just simply not worth that much money. Heck you could buy a Asus Eee Pad Transformer and a Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 camera for that price!

Ultimately LG has failed here. It has added technology that’s not needed and made a device that’s likely to be overlooked by many. There are just better Honeycomb experiences on the market.