Canon broke with its tradition of upgrading the line every 18 months, introducing the EOS 50D just 12 months from the introduction of the 40D. The move has helped Canon catch up with the Nikon D300, which made quite a splash in the market. With the same rugged, conservative body as the 40D, the Canon EOS 50D’s only distinguishing mark is the silver bezel on its mode dial. There are a few minor changes to how the buttons and controls are used, but for the most part the Canon 50D’s body is unchanged.

he 50D features a proprietary CMOS sensor with an effective 15.1 megapixels of resolution (an increase from the 40D’s 10.1 megapixel sensor), a new DIGIC IV 14-bit image processor, a new menu system, and better weather sealing where the various parts of the camera body come together. The 40D’s bright viewfinder with interchangeable screens and nine-point auto focus system return, with the addition of live view with enhanced contrast-detect AF. The 50D also gets a new “Clear View” 3.0 inch LCD with improved resolution and greater visibility in direct sunlight.

LCD size, resolution, and sunlight readability is particularly important for the 50D since it sports a live view system, allowing the screen to be used for shot composition. The 50D’s live view implementation is a significant improvement over the first-generation live view feature on the 40D, with the addition of a contrast-detection AF mode that allows the camera to auto focus without interrupting the on-screen preview as on the 40D.

The Megapixel-count may have increased by around 50%, but there’s only a fractional drop in continuous shooting performance with the EOS 50D boasting 6.3fps to the 40D’s 6.5fps. Image processing is courtesy of the latest DIGIC 4 which offers ‘Peripheral Illumination Correction’ on JPEGs to reduce the effect of vignetting where the image darkens towards the corners. Staying on the subject of lenses, the EOS 50D also features the welcome facility of fine-tuning the AF on lenses, inherited from Canon’s pro range.

The F029 measures 3.9 x 3.8 x 1.3cm and is held in place with a large, translucent plastic strap that wouldn’t look out of place on a Swatch. The 1.3in, 160 x 128, 26,000-colour OLED screen is surrounded by a brightly coloured removable bezel which, with the strap, gives the gadget a real kid-friendly feel. On the left side of the watch there are a pair of volume controls, a menu buttons and a 2.5mm earphone socket – so don’t expect to be able to use a different pair in place of the set that Aigo bundles, which are almost identical to Apple’s icon iPod set, right down to shape, size, colour and construction.

It feels slightly odd having your earphone cable running from your wrist, but you can always wear it tucked up your sleeve and out at the neck, I suppose. The F029 is crying out for Bluetooth stereo support, even more than regular MP3 players do.

The right side of the watch is home to the track skip and play/pause buttons. The top and bottom of the watch both have tiny holes that could be placed over microphones – the F029 certainly has a voice recording facility, but since it’s unclear how it’s activated, I couldn’t be sure which hole was the mic. The watch’s manual has yet to be translated from Chinese – another penalty imposed on early adopters. The top side of the watch also as a modified mini-USB port, though it’ll take any mini-USB cable.

In the technology and gadget industry, direct imports from the Far East aren’t always success stories in the UK, and Aigo’s rather peculiar F029 digital watch appears to have all the ingredients to follow this trend.

The Aigo F029 is a fully-featured multimedia player, including a photo viewer, mp3 player, video player, e-book reader and voice recorder.

It’s also worth mentioning that you can configure the screensaver to show the time, and if you disable the ‘auto off’ function it behaves as a proper watch when idle; considering it is a watch, these features are pretty handy. Of course you’ll have to remember to charge it each night, so it’s not something you’d want to rely on to get you to important meetings on time.

Aigo F566 glasses short reports – Aigo has just announced the release of its glasses MP3 F566 +, equipped with a MP3/WMA player with a capacity of 128MB to 2GB and a spy camera 1.3 MP (1280 × 1024px)! Approximately $ 120 in Asia.

Glasses more Aigo F566 are not new, but you should be present because of their abilities and all understood that their use requires … These are sunglasses with a camera equipped with a CMOS sensor 1.3 megapixels but headphones. The internal memory, except to save the pictures taken in the street is also used for installing MP3 and WMA files to listen. But going on with really incognito.

We’re totally stumped about what inspired Aigo’s design for their pair of F566 MP3 sunglasses. Long Pause. NOT. Aigo’s pair of MP3 sunglasses also plays WMA files and functions as a mass storage device and it has voice recording features. Aigo’s F566 is available in 128MB/256MB/512M/1G capacities and it claims to have a very pathetic 6.5 hour battery life. Unless, they push these out at a lot cheaper then Oakley’s versions, they don’t stand a chance.

FEATURES:
- 512K model
- Superb combination of MP3 player and UV sunglasses
- Support multi-format music playback
- Digital voice recording with built-in mic
- 4 LED indication light
- UV 400 lens, scratch resistant
- Auto-power off function
- Multi Equalizer mode and repeat mode
- Support multi-format mass data storage
- Rechargeable Li-ion battery for up to 8.5 hour continuous play (2 hours charging)

SPECIFICATION:
- Support music format: MP3, WMA, ADPCM etc.
- Lithium-ion Polymer battery: 230mAH
- Audio output:5mW +5mW

ACCESSORIES:
- CD-ROM driver
- Sunglass case and cloth wipe
- USB cable
- Users Manual

Aigo’s E868 has a chunky white plastic coat that does nothing for its desirability. But the Aigo E868′s 2.5in widescreen knocks spots off some of the opposition, giving video a sharp, bright appearance. So long as you hold the Aigo E868 directly in front of you to negate the effects of the poor viewing angle, that is.

It’s a pain to navigate the Aigo E868′s interface. You can’t move between files at the same time as a song or video plays, and you have to contend with tiny plastic buttons. Even volume is controlled in this way, which precludes using the Aigo E868 with one hand. It’s far too fiddly to be much cop as a portable music player. The sound quality isn’t great anyway, even at the higher sampling rates. We didn’t think much of the pre-loaded EQ settings, either.

Usefully, you get an AC charger and USB cable, as well as an AV output lead to port content to an analogue TV. And the Aigo E868 comes in a smart padded box which you may wish to keep. But the supplied headphones are a waste of space.

We liked the broad range of file formats the Aigo E868 can handle. You can use it as both a voice recorder and an e-book reader. Refreshingly, loading content on to the Aigo E868 is a simple case of drag and drop. Aigo supplies a driver disc, but no proprietary software is required. This makes loading content straightforward, but limits your ability to organise files.

It will also hook up to your TV or home entertainment system and act as a multimedia jukebox.

You’ll find a 2.5in LCD built onto a device that’s smaller than a pack of cards and exceedingly light. The white rather cheap looking finish might not appeal to all, but it’s certainly got portability in mind considering the features on offer.

Four folders make it obvious where to drag and drop your content – namely video, audio, text files and photos. At this point you can either use the Aigo as a more conventional mp3/video player or hook it up to your TV.

Are you looking for an digital audio system that supports the MP3 format while offering decent audio performance? The Aigo F529 Omnisphere sound system fits the bill perfectly. It is equipped with 1GB of built-in memory that should be sufficient to store approximately 250 hours of music. If that is not enough, you can bump up your musical experience via the MMC/SD memory card slot. The speaker boasts 360-degrees of multi-directional sound and a 4,096 color LED that blinks in tandem to the track being played. Proudly show off your music collection on SD cards to visitors, since audio CDs are now so passe. You can pick one up for $133.

If you want to use the MP3/WMA player onboard, then simply connect to your PC, wait for Windows to go through its ‘found new hardware’ routine, and then the Omnisphere shows up as a drive on your computer. Drag and drop music onto the drive and that’s it! Be aware that you can’t play copy-protected tracks which use the DRM9 or 10 security system, so that means Napster downloads and the like are out. Sound quality is surprisingly good. The unit goes very loud with little distortion (to my untrained ear at least), and the sound is well-balanced overall. Just as well really, because if you don’t like it, there’s nothing you can do about it. There is no equaliser to adjust the sound.
In fact, controls in general are quite limited. The unit is controlled by pushing the clear perspex at the top of the unit either North, South, East or West depending on what you want to do. Basically, you can turn the unit on or off, change the volume, adjust the way the light display works, decide whether you want the tracks in order or shuffled, and skip through the tracks. Like the ipod shuffle, there is no screen, no way to set up playlists etc, so if this is important to you, look elsewhere, or, use the omnisphere as a speaker system for your separate MP3 player! When you use the omnisphere as speakers for another device, you can’t change the volume using the omnisphere’s controls, you have to use those of the device in question.

In fact, it’s quite nice to have a speaker system with some inbuilt storage, so when you can’t be bothered to get out your player, or if you need to recharge, you’ve still got some music. Or, you could just use that 1GB for storage of other data you don’t want to lose. One other nice little touch is that there is an SD card slot, so you 1GB isn’t enough storage for your music, you can add more on SD cards (supports up to 2GB), and these are really quite cheap these days. When connected to your pc via the supplied USB cable, you can use the Omnisphere as a card reader too.