We needed a good camera bag for our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2, which we recently purchased. It had to fairly compact but strong enough to protect the camera with a 14-42mm lense attached and also it had to carry the extra 44-200mm lense,  a spare battery, some lense hoods, a battery charger, power cable, memory cards and a manual. A bonus would be if the bag was waterproof because one never knows when it is likely to rain in sunny England.

We opted for the Lowepro Rezo 160 AW and found Amazon to have the best price and the most reviewers (118 reviewers giving positive feedback).

The camera bag also met all our requirements:

• It had to be lightweight and easy to carry.
• It should have a shoulder strap or handle.
• It must have multiple compartments or pouches for memory cards, cables, batteries, lenses etc.
• It must offer protection to the camera in the way of padded edges.
• Designed specifically for digital equipment.
• Waterproof.

To give you an example of what it can hold, a reviewer on Amazon mentioned they had a Nikon D5000 DSLR. The Nikon camera is a lot larger (127x104x80 mm) than the Panasonic DMC-G2 (124x90x74 mm), and the reviewer had the standard kit lense 18-55mm + he managed to get another lense in the bag. So the bag is big enough for our camera, lenses and all the accessories.

I have a taken a whole bunch of photos of the Lowepro Rezo 160 AW camera bag from various angles, showing it with our camera and lenses in and out of the bag. They can be found in our photo gallery.

Related Websites:

• Lowepro – The trusted original
• Lowepro – Rezp 160 AW

After reading many reviews, comparing dozens of media centre devices, and waiting for over 2 years for the ultimate media centre to arrive, I have finally settled on a product made in South Africa of all places. It’s called the MEDE8ER. I will be blogging and giving my opinion of the device as soon as I get it! I just ordered it from Digital Era.

Some of the highlights that ticked my boxes was that it supports the latest 2TB SATA hard disks, is HDMI 1.3, has SD card support, NTFS / FAT32 file system support meaning connecting to will be a breeze from any PC in the house. It’s got a remote that exists in the Logitech Harmony One database and has some awesome recommedations from the likes of MPC Club.

Specifications
Processor: Realtek RTD1073 – 128MB SPI Flash – 128MB DDR2 SDRAM
Video Codec Supported: MKV, H264, DVD (VOB – IFO – ISO), DIVX, XVID, DAT, AVI, MPEG, HD MPEG-2, TS, HD MPEG-4, SP, ASP, AVCD (H.264), MTS, M2ts, WMV9, FLV, VC-1, Real Networks (RM/RMVB) 8/9/10, up to 720p

Audio  Codec Supported: MP3, MP2, OGG Vorbis, PCM, LPCM, AAC, RA, Dolby AC3 Passthrough, Dolby AC3 Downmix, DTS Passthrough, DTS Downmix, FLAC, WAV,
WMA Standard (DRM, & Advanced Profile not supported)
HD Audio support
Dolby digital                  – support decode & bypass
Dolby digital Plus            – support decode – bypass is in testing
Dolby digital EX              – support – compatible up to 5.1
DTS digital Surround       – support decode & bypass

Photo format Supported: JPEG, BMP
File System Supported: FAT32, NTFS – UI Format Feature

Input / Output
•  HDMI 1.3, Component video, Composite Video
•  Stereo RCA audio for analog audio connection
•  SD / Sony Pro Duo Card Slot
•  S/PDIF optical Output / Coaxial Digital RCA Output
•  Video output resolution – NTSC, PAL, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 1080p24hz
•  USB – 2.0 HOST port x 2 (compatible to USB 1.1)
•  USB – 2.0 SLAVE port
General
•  3.5″ SATA Internal Hard Drive Bay up to 2TB compatible
•  Built in 40mm cooling fan – TPE mounts for low noise
•  Playlist creation from remote
•  Built in NFS Client
•  Screensaver – Selectable in GUI setup
•  In folder JPEG preview feature
•  Easy navigation button use (excl DVD files)
•  Time Bar FF/FR and Time Bar jump
•  Media Library Jump To file number feature
•  Resume playback feature
•  Photo slide show with background music
•  Network – Ethernet 10/100 Mbps – Streaming MAX Samba 26Mbps / NFS 36Mbps
•  Optional Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
Achievable Streaming G router – Samba 12Mbps – NFS 18 Mbps @ 1m – unprotected
Achievable Streaming N router – Samba 14Mbps – NFS 22 Mbps @ 1m – unprotected
(Typical MKV 720p Play 10Mbps max FF/RW 15Mbps)
•  Samba server – NAS storage
•  A/V streaming via UPnP Media Server (CNN – YouTube etc via optional program such as PlayOn, Tversity etc)
•  Internet Radio (SHOUTcast)
•  File Copying – Card, USB, HDD and Network
•  Subtitle: SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI format

The Internet is an amazing place for fixes and solutions and this post will explain why?

Gone are the days when something happens and you have to trudge down to the store where you bought something to find out how to fix it or waste time sending  the item back because it broke unexpectedly, and electronics can be a bitch sometimes. One minute they can be working and the next thing they are dead.But not all electronics are stupid like that, normally there is a back door or secret pass code that allows you in.

I have had my Nokia BH-905 headphones for little over 7 months now and I cannot fault them, in fact whenever I can emails or comments from people asking what I think of them, I can only praise them. They have been fantastic.

Today the unexpected happened. They just stopped working. I was listening to music via Bluetooth on my Nokia N900 and received a phone call through Skype. The music stopped like it should and the headphones picked up the call. I could hear the other person talking, but they couldn’t hear me back. I switched between headphones and phone and could hear fine, but still the other person couldn’t hear me because the microphone in the headphones had control. I switched off the headphones after the call was lost and then attempted to switch it back on – nothing. No green or red or orange or blue lights, just nothing. You know that sicking feeling!!!

Strangely though the noise cancelling light (orange), which is on the left headphone came on when I switched on the ANC button. Aaah, I thought, so the battery is not dead and the noise cancelling was working in both headphones so that was a good sign that all was not lost.

I decided to recharge the headphones before attempting any fixes. Once charged, I did a search on Google using the following keywords – “nokia bh-905 not switching on” and found a Nokia Support Discussion from the 14th of October 2009, where someone had a similar problem. Reading through the forum, I noticed some folk had the exact problem I was experiencing. One smart person (mseln) even wrote what he had tried to fix the problem, followed up by another post stating he had fixed the problem and gave the solution. It’s people like this that make the Internet work.

So here is the solution or fix as I have tried it and it worked just fine:

Hold down “pause + rewind + volume down” on the right headphone for about 15 to 20 seconds and you will see an orange light then a fast flashing blue light appear.  The headphones are now in search mode looking for a pairing. I was able to connect immediately on my Nokia N900 and everything is working again.

Thanks again to Last.FM I have just discovered a brilliant band called Stroke 9.

Stroke 9 formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. The band has since recorded five albums and toured extensively in the United States, Canada and Europe. Fueled by the commercial success of the hit song “Little Black Backpack,” their third album, “Nasty Little Thoughts,” went gold in 2000. The single “Kick Some Ass” from their fourth album “Rip It Off” was featured in the movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

I’ve been listening to the album “Rip it off”… bloody awesome!

We have used our Sony Playstation 3 perhaps four or five times to watch hired Blue Ray disks from Blockbusters. It’s time this PS3 moved in with someone who is going to use it in the way it was meant to be used (games / movies  / online browsing / facebook / twitter / social entertainment console).

We have an XBOX which we use all the time so that is the only reason why I am selling the PS3.

Note: This is not the slim version of PS3.

Specifications:

This the the 40GB version that comes with a built in Blue Ray disc drive for high definition gaming, movies and entertainment. It’s got true 1080p HD support. The box includes the motion sensitive SIXAXIS wireless controller. The built-in hard drive means there is plenty of space for movies, music, games and downloads. There is also a Gigabit network port and full broadband connectivity for easy access to the Playstation Network and online entertainment. It’s WIFI certified (B, G), can support up to seven Bluetooth devices, has USB ports on the front, which support USB Keys, USB Hard disks etc. It outputs Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, DTS Digital Surround, has an HDMI port and can read DVD Video/Rom. Finally it is a region 2 player with PAL support. The box weighs 6.5kg with everything packaged inside.

I am also throwing in a Bluetooth remote control + my only two games (Grand Turismo 5 Prologue and Formula 1 Championship Edition).

If you are interested, you can contact me via email on lookatbowen@gmail.com. I can also be found on Twitter under the name @lookatbowen and on Facebook if you are lucky enough to be in my circle of friends. Of course you can leave a comment below with your name and email address and I will get back to you. All comments are moderated as it is.

Name your price – I will tell you YES or NO!

This Welsh guy calls up ASDA service team to complaint about a pizza he bought and when he opened the box he noticed the pizza had no topping on it…

Take a listen at the shortened version (this is a real call):

[audio:http://www.lookatbowen.com/wp-content/uploads/WelshPizza.mp3]

and here is the full length audio in a some what dumb video format.

Google seem to have a knack of producing software or tools that are so very useful, and Fast Flip is yet another web application that works really well. Google describe it as follows:

Google Fast Flip lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to “flip” through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom magazines around searches.

How does it work?
Google capture images of the articles on their partners’ websites and then display them in an easy-to-read way. The stories are grouped by categories, such as Entertainment, Business, Opinion, Politics and Most Viewed. Readers can flip through stories quickly by simply pressing the left- and right-arrow keys until they find one that catches their interest. Clicking on the story takes them directly to the publisher’s website.

How are the Topics selected? Can I choose my own?
The Topics are generated automatically by rising stories in the news. Users can also search for any subjects they want and basically create their own topics, almost like a custom magazine, on the fly.

How are stories recommended in the Recommended section?
The stories in this section are recommended by users of Google Fast Flip in direct and indirect ways. We take cues from how often they read stories, e-mail stories and register a public vote for stories by clicking on the “Like” button on each article.

Can I recommend stories that I like to other people?
Google Fast Flip allows readers to vote on an article to tell the world they liked it. Clicking on the “Like” button on a story page lodges a public vote for that story, which is one of the factors in whether Fast Flip includes stories the “Recommended” section. At the bottom of the home page, Fast Flip users who are signed in to their Google Account can see which stories friends in their Gmail contact list have “liked.”

Source: Google Fast Flip

Up until recently there was a very similar web application called searchme:, but unfortunately they were seeking over $100 million dollars to stay afloat.  CEO Randy Adams knew when they started the company that to compete with the likes of Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, it was going to take at least $100 million, half to build the back end across thousands of servers and half to get distribution (maybe more with Microsoft spending $100 million on Bing advertising alone). What they didn’t plan on was the terrible downturn in the economy which made it impossible to raise another $50 million to get distribution (mainly through toolbar deals). So they were fucked by ED!

There is this great new application called Mobbler, that allows you to login to LastFM account on your mobile and to stream music. The set up is pretty basic and it worked very well provided there was signal.

I tried it out on the train this morning, and it was not as reliable as I had hoped. Once it loses connection, you have to manually reconnect. (Lets hope this gets changed in newer versions as it is a right pain if your phone is buried in your pocket).

Overall I like where they are going with this application and would highly recommend using it!

Note: you need to have an account on LastFM before trying to use this application. You can sign up here.

If you log into LastFM on the web, you’ll notice they have updated your library, which is very cool.

Wireless HD operates in the 60GHz band, is designed to be a worldwide standard enabling devices including televisions, HD disc players, set-top boxes, camcorders, gaming consoles and adapter to communicate high-definition content, and the initial standard offers data throughput of 4Gbps with secure content protection.

I can’t wait for this to come out, just so we can get rid of all the mess. It’s going to be a while though, as companies such as Intel, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), NEC Corporation, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, are only just signing up to this idea, so they still have to design new hardware to work with this new standard.