It has been a couple of weeks since Sony’s local summer launch was held, but the vision of some products that we saw during the event still lingers in our head. One of them is the Walkman NWZ-W202 which was introduced by the consumer electronics giant as their new concept music player. Sony, as we know them, has a reputation of creating cool stuff, and in our view, the NWZ-W202 is definitely one of those.

Tipped as Sony’s response to Apple’s iPod Shuffle, the Walkman NWZ-W202 is a crossbreed of a 2GB music player and a pair of ear-canal phones. The key proposition here is “wirelessness”. The earphones hook into the ears while the band goes across the back of the neck – minus any annoying wires. Before we proceed further, let us tell you that the NWZ-W202 is also available in purple, white, yellow, and black, so the color pink should not be a big deal here.

Believe it or not, we Filipinos are amongst the jolliest people on Earth. While this statement is seemingly satirical, it is quite surprising that many think tanks around the world often agree with this observation. It could be because of our innate character that, amid the disheartening economic, political, and social atmosphere, we could easily and relentlessly find joy in the relationships that we have with our loved ones. As an implication of this nature, we are also very fond of images: images that enable us to cherish the good times, and smile even in hard times. Valuing these characteristics, Canon has been ardent in keeping its Filipino consumers delighted as always. 

Giving us many more reasons to smile, Canon Philippines recently staged the Canon Expo Smile ’09 at A.Venue, Makati City to officially kick off the ImageNation Celebration, an annual event which is customarily anticipated as a grand occasion where the company showcases its latest imaging devices. This year, the expo introduced 33 new products from Canon’s lines of digital cameras, camcorders, printers, and copiers, giving consumers 33 more reasons to smile.

Notwithstanding the fact that they have long been a byword among PC users when it comes to keyboards and mice, it seems that Logitech is tireless in keeping up its reputation as a major player in the computer peripherals business since the 1980’s. Realizing that the market is continuously breaking down into more specific fragments with diverse tastes and demands, the Swiss company is zealous as well in bringing up to date its extensive product portfolio. At the latter part of last year, Logitech introduced three new products, namely the Illuminated Keyboard, the diNovo Keyboard, and the Cordless Desktop S520 keyboard-mouse combo. Fortunately, our friends from GoldTech International Distributor Inc. recently brought to our doorstep the Illuminated Keyboard for a once through.

 The product name itself certainly speaks of the primary feature of this keyboard. Making use of LED backlight, the laser-etched character on each key lights up, allowing its user to type easily even in the dark. It could be a sensible proposition, especially for those who are quite mindful about power consumption. Because it is a LED-backlit keyboard, it means that its user would no longer have to switch on the light while computing, just to see the characters on the keyboard visibly.

The PowerShot brand of Canon has been thriving in the digital imaging industry for a long time. For your information, Canon kicked off the brand way back in 1995, hence, it is celebrating its fourteenth anniversary this year. Under its umbrella, the PowerShot brand encompasses different series of cameras, ranging from digital compacts to prosumer models. The G series is the flagship lineup of the brand. Another series, the SX, consists of ultrazoomers. But presumably, the most popular is the A series, whose target market is the masses. For the majority’s delight, Canon brought to us the latest release from the said lineup – the PowerShot A480.

 An essential digital compact that is easy on the budget, the 10-megapixel Canon PowerShot A480 espouses a simple design dabbed with subtle curves on the edges. The model that we received was dressed in red. For those who are uncomfortable with this color, the A480 is available in black, blue, and silver as well.

It’s that time of the year again when people from all walks of life escape from the stress of urban living, go to the countryside, or flock together at the beach to enjoy the sun and beat the sweltering heat. Yes, summer is officially here, and Sony Philippines is tempting us to have a summer "like.no.other" with its latest array of imaging products that allows you to explore and experience the excitement of the season.

Setting a festive summer mood within the grounds of the C3 Event’s Place in Greenhills, Sony showcased a number of sizzling stuff that are both gorgeous on the outside and ingenious in the inside.

For those who are oblivious and who haven’t read any print or online material that possibly has an association with it, it is easy to think that the EX300 is a new gaming notebook from MSI’s camp. Such a perception could come to mind, taking into account that many of us are pretty much familiar with the “flashiness” of gaming notebooks these days.

Barely a month after getting our hands on the WD TV, our friends from Western Digital recently brought in a few new goodies from their stable, which included the My Passport Elite, My Passport Studio, and My Book Mac Edition.

Shure has long made its name in the most demanding of professional studios, and the company has always applied itself to the same level of quality and performance in its consumer line. One of the best examples of their successful consumer series is the Shure SCL2, successor of the very popular E2.

Defying the general perception of a “slow” year and the perceived need for caution and consolidation, Gateway is pushing ahead with their Philippine launch entitled HotSpots [Revealed], and it’s not just a single product that’s being introduced, as the HWZ boys saw last February 24, 2009 at the Renaissance Grand Ballroom.

Where does this Gateway lead to?

The tech market is replete with stuff that you wouldn’t normally place under the “required” column in your “to buy” list. Yet somehow, many products end up as must-buys even if they don’t have the same importance as say, a stick of RAM or a new display. The newest entry into my “to-buy” list is this neat little device from Choiix named the Mini Air-Through Notebook Cooling Pad, which is designed for netbooks with LCDs 7" to 10"in size.

Choiix is an off-shoot of the well-respected Cooler Master company.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 describing the recording studio professional or serious sound connoisseur, I would probably rate myself a 3 or 2. I’m not proud to admit it, but I have as much musical taste as a sorbetero hawking his new macapuno flavor (that is to say, Häagen-Dazs versus dirty ice cream, like YouTube audio versus 192 kHz/24-bit DVD-audio seems to be the same to both my ears and to my palate). Fortunately, the Ozaki WoW WR580 does not require copious amounts of listening talent, as this product, from its marketing, specifications and its appearance, scream “bass” loudly and without consideration to whether you prefer macapuno to ube.

You have to wonder if there's a little bit of cross-genre marketing going on here.

Getting handed the Edimax nLite Wi-Fi device one day, I was expecting to write about a small peripheral that would extend my Wi-Fi range, and not much more. Such was the size of the device (not much bigger than half a regular USB flash drive with a 3 dBi antenna attached) that it did not occur to me that the Edimax was a whole Wi-Fi dongle in and of itself. The Edimax EW-7711UAn Wireless nLite High Gain USB Adapter has a mouthful of a name, a bunch of features, all in just a fraction of the size of a traditional wireless adapter.

Aiptek is going up a steep incline in trying to wean consumers off their image as producers of budget imaging devices. First gaining fame with their line of pistol-grip type web-cam quality videocams, they’ve sent us one of their newest products for review, and lo and behold, it’s now a more standard, horizontally-oriented  videocam, and now sports a neat gold-and-black “HD” logo.

The Aiptek name has long been connected to the chintzy but affordable.

The many electric conveyances I’ve posted in this blog have so far been essentially regular petrol car-bodies with a lot of batteries under the floorboard (not to downplay the hard work that’s gone into these machines), but many manufacturers, including Michelin, seems to have realized that there’s a lot more innovation to be done with the concept of electric-powered vehicles. Michelin and Valeo, French automotive companies (Michelin being the tire company and Valeo an automotive engineering ) have agreed to work together to develop electric and rechargeable hybrid vehicle systems, including the pictured “e-wheel” system.

That's what I call an all-in-one package.

Freecom is not a name most Filipinos are familiar with, but the company is seemingly aiming to change this – they are starting to show up in local news items and have sent some notable publications some of their products for testing and demonstration purposes – one of these publications is our very own HWZ. We have with us two products, namely the Mobile Drive XXS and the succinctly named Tough Drive, both rubbery portable 2.5” hard drives.