Hands-on: Sony DSC-TX1 review

Sony showed off its new camera range in London today, and while the weather was drab the goods on show were not.

Starting with the slim-line Sony TX1, TechRadar was given a hands-on with the device which, despite its diminutive size, boasts a number of interesting new features.

Straight from the off the TX1 is a lovely camera to use. Its brushed aluminium styling makes it a great looking device and its size means that it fits nicely in the hand when taking an image. Once you've shot your masterpiece, the large LCD on the back means that you can view and tweak images with ease.

But it's when you turn the lights out that the TX1 really gets to work. Blessed with an EXMOR R technology (which offers backlight to the CMOS sensor), the camera is said to work superbly well in low-light situations. While we couldn't try this out in the mid-morning – even though the weather was pretty dire – the demos we were shown were impressive. Blacks were really black (no, really, they were) and the pictures generally looked sharper.

Sony told us that they were not "chasing the megapixel count" anymore and focusing more on making the likes of the 10MP sensor that the TX1 is equipped with. It's a good move, too.

What we could try out was the impressive touchscreen back. Controls have definitely improved since Sony's last iteration. Pictures can viewed with the flick of a thumb and turning on features like Smile detection and zooming on particular parts of an image are better that before.

One of the most impressive things about the TX1 is that it takes the Panorama Sweep mode last seen in TX1's bigger brother, the DSC-HX1. Even with a smaller body on the camera, the mode is a joy to use.

Flick to the mode and you can pan either left or right, and even up and down to get a 185-degree panorama shot. The best thing about the feature is that it works. And quickly.

Within seconds you have a full-flowing picture of the vista you've just shot. While these images can only be played out on computers and TVs – and the back of the camera if you want to squint – Sony did hint that it is in talks with getting certain photo-labs to print the long-ified pictures out.

Clean, slim and easy to use, the TX1 carries on Sony's seemingly effortless task of bringing cameras with both style and substance to the market. And if you want to check it out for yourself, you can do so in September when it will be out in the shops costing around £350.

More pictures below:

Hands-on: Sony Party-shot review

One of the more intriguing devices to come out of the minds of Sony has to be the Party-shot.

Read the press release about the device and you are fairly underwhelmed: "A totally new concept in fun photography, Party-shot acts as your 'Personal Photographer', automatically taking beautiful pictures without your intervention."

But seen it in action and it's actually pretty impressive. Well, to watch it do its thing at least.

The device clips on to the bottom of your camera – if you have one of the new WX1 and TX1 Cyber-shots – and, without any human interaction, scours the room for faces to take photos of.

Watching it do its thing is quite unnerving. Like some mini Terminator, it positions the camera at face height, then it whirs, rotates finds its victim and snaps away. Continuously. Until you move your face.

While the whole thing sparks of gimmickry, it could be pretty useful for those who are too lazy to pick up a camera and point it at someone or, more pertinently, for the host of a party who wants to be in every photo and not just taking them.

The Party-shot is battery operated and with just two AA batteries inside it should last around 10 hours – enough time then to take pictures of yourself cleaning up the puke left by over-eager partygoers.

We suspect that the battery on your camera will probably run out before this though, as the Party-shot does constantly control your camera's zooming focusing.

So, if you are at a party in September and some weird thing in the corner of the room starts to turn menacingly at you, don't get scared and think it's a robot from the future sent back to kill you but the Party-shot (which will set you back around £130), ready to "keep you in the picture as you enjoy special moments with friends and family".

Be warned though: It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until its batteries are dead... or if you switch it off.

Robot drives Le Mans using two AA batteries

If you're lining up a publicity stunt for something as humdrum as a battery then you could do a lot worse than the eye-catching bash Panasonic just pulled off with its long-life Evolta cell.

Using just two of the AA flavour of the battery, Panasonic's PR flacks coaxed a tricycle-riding robot known as Mr Evolta round the Le Mans racetrack for the fabled 24 hours.

Full day's racing

The impressive endurance feat saw the robot cover almost 15 miles, or 5.6 laps of the track, in the 24-hour span, which saw it recognised as a Guinness world record.

While it sounds like a fantastic achievement for relatively eco-friendly power, concerned citizens might want to look away when we tell you that Mr Evolta spent the entire 24 hours following an infrared beam from a lead car that drove just ahead of it.

Asus readying Eee PCs with Moblin OS

With Windows 7 definitely a viable choice for low-powered netbook computers, later this year seems like a great time to be choosing the OS for your new PC, particularly if rumours about Asus and Moblin prove true.

According to Engadget, a German site with a believable record on such gossip says Asus will be offering the open-source Moblin OS on new Eee PCs from October.

Cheaper option

As is usual with Asus, it's highly likely that any Moblin version will be a cheaper option than equivalent PCs powered by Windows.

On top of the imminent Moblin debut, it also seems sure that Asus will be in the vanguard of companies offering Google's Chrome OS when that arrives sometime early next year. Choices all round, it seems.

Via Engadget

Multi-terabyte hard drives coming in 2010

If we ever needed evidence for the booming market in hard drives with previously unthinkable volumes of storage, then look no further than TDK's upcoming jumbo HDDs.

According to the Register, a TDK presentation to financial analysts revealed, among other things, a new manufacturing process that will put 640GB on a single HDD platter.

Coming soon

As the 3.5-inch drives used in desktop PCs typically hold four or five platters, that suggests a whopping 3.2TB hard disk before long.

Looking at the likely timing, the presentation suggests the new manufacturing technology could put the giant drives in shops as early as February next year.

Careless Facebook use may cost you a job

Generally, stating the obvious is a very annoying habit of far too many people, however when it comes to commonsense and social networking it seems like the imperative to be sensible is well worth repeating.

The latest example of what not to do online comes from a Reuters report advising us all not to give away too much on FaceBook or Twitter in case prospective employers find out about it.

Dead dogs

It cites a PR specialist, pointing out FaceBook posts about, "colonoscopies, dead teeth pulled, dead dogs, flatulence, adult acne, marital breakups, battles with mental illnesses and drinking problems."

Going on to put that avalanche of banality in the context of someone looking for a new job, it concludes: "If this information can make friends cringe... imagine the impression it would make on a potential employer."

Drugs as well

Throw in examples of people posting photos of themselves smoking drugs and making racist and/or sexist jokes and you have a pretty bleak picture of an online confederacy of dunces who'd likely never get up most days, never mind find a job.

Our advice, for what it's worth - next time you're considering putting anything at all personal online, just don't; it's tedious for us to read and might just stop you from snaring that big fat contract.

Red hot sources say Apple tablet is 100% real

Another day, another Mac OS X tablet computer rumour - this time from the granddaddy of all Apple analysts, Gene Munster.

The prominent Apple watcher says he's absolutely certain that the fabled tablet device will arrive early next year and that it will sell for somewhere between $500 (£295) and $700 (£415).

App Store software

Munster says he knows this because one of the regular Apple hardware suppliers in Asia told him it has orders from the company for a touchscreen device that are due by the end of this year.

He also states that the new tablet Mac will run App Store applications, suggesting it is indeed the swollen iPod touch we all believe it to be.

Kindle rival?

However, Munster throws a wrinkle into the prediction by suggesting Apple could be about to start selling e-books through iTunes, thereby positioning the new machine as a direct competitor to Amazon's Kindle.

As always, Apple has had nothing to say about the speculation, although we somehow feel this all has a ring of truth to it.