Consumer Reports Picks the Best Digital Cameras of 2008

The editors of Consumer Reports made some surprising discoveries in their recent test of 77 digital cameras on sale this holiday season.

In this edition of PC Talk, Terry Sullivan, associate editor of Consumer Reports, shares the test team’s findings, and provides buying advice for anyone giving or angling for a new digicam this year.

Here’s a peek: One of the best digital point-and-shoot cameras costs under $150, and comes from a company nobody associates with photography. More startling still, one of the most expensive famous-maker digital SLRs produced the worst images of all cameras tested.

Capture some bottom-line take-aways in my interview with Terry Sullivan, and then read the December issue of Consumer Reports for the full test results.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

A Captivating Approach to E-Learning

When Adobe asked me if I'd like to take a look at their new 3.0 version of Captivate, I assumed I'd be testing a tool that captures screen output and saves it as a Flash video. That's because, when I glanced at Adobe's Web page for Captivate, I saw it described as a tool for "screen recording and demos" and "presentations."

It turns out Adobe Captivate 3 is that, and a lot more. While you can use it to create screen videos and demos, you can also use it to create simulations, interactive computer-based training sessions, tests and quizzes, and more -- without having to learn scripting or video editing skills.

I spoke to R.J. Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe Systems, about this new Captivate release, as well as how Captivate works with Adobe’s other e-learning solutions (such FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and Acrobat, Presenter, and more).

If you only think of PDFs or Flash when you think of Adobe, you'll enjoy this expansive interview with Jacquez, which explores reasons for using an e-learning platform over traditional video capture for training and demos.

We also touch on the broader Adobe story, e-learning in general, and the mythology of competing against Microsoft and Apple.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

From pen computing to the computerized pen

Are you ready for a new computing paradigm? The folks at Livescribe think so. Their new Pulse pen goes beyond pen computing, tablet computing, and PDAs to usher in an entirely new way to work: the computer pen.

Instead of creating a computer capable of dealing with digital ink (such as a tablet PC or smartphone), Livescribe’s Pulse is a pen that’s capable of dealing with data. The user interface is paper, and you can program the pen by tapping on icons printed on special paper or cards.

In addition to being able to record everything that’s written with it, it can index the data, attach audio files to hand-written notes (e.g., meeting or lecture audio can be connected to notes), and much more. It’s the physical manifestation of some really big thinking by Livescribe’s engineers.

But does it work in the real world, or is the Pulse simply a cool gadget that nobody really needs? Listen to my interview with Livescribe founder and CEO Jim Marggraff, who fields some tough questions based on my experience with the Pulse.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

How to Get a FREE College Education

Instead of sitting on your butt playing Halo and slugging Mountain Dew, you could be collecting thousands from wealthy benefactors who want to foot the bill for your college education.

My next guest, scholarship coach Ben Kaplan, qualified for over two dozen scholarships totaling $90,000, and used the cash to cover the cost of his Harvard degree. He says his technique can work for anyone, even those whose grades aren’t the greatest.

Tune in to find out what you need to do to kick your college fund into high gear.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

The Many Nuances of PDF Converter Professional

There are many ways to produce PDFs, but only one that balances the power of Adobe Acrobat with the ease of use and low cost average knowledge workers need: Nuance’s PDF Converter Professional, recently upgraded to version 5.

Nuance says it’s “the only complete PDF solution designed specifically for business users,” and I think they’re right. I spoke with Mike Angelo, senior product manager for PDF Products in Nuance's Imaging division, about the new PDF Converter Pro, and how it’s used to create, convert, and edit PDF files.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

Crunch Time for the Candidates: TechCrunch Endorses Obama, McCain

Technology education. Immigration and H1B visas. The “Digital Divide” (that’s still with us?). Identity theft and fraud. Mobile spectrum auctions and rules. China. Internet taxation. Network neutrality. IP (the cranial kind). Renewable energy.

These are some of the issues the editors of TechCrunch say we should be using as a litmus test to choose the next President. And based on their analysis of the candidate’s stands and proposed policies on these issues, they offer us two endorsements: Obama and McCain.

Who would have known that Obama actually has a tech policy? Or that McCain understands the potential of the right-click (I still believe he has his secretary print out his e-mail).

Regardless of where you stand on the candidates or the issues, be they tech or non-tech, my discussion with TechCrunch editor Erik Shonfeld sheds light on the political issues Silicon Valley insiders are most concerned about.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

After the Ordeal: CES and Macworld Retrospective

Ben Patterson is Yahoo’s "Gadget Hound." He sniffs out the latest and greatest tech toys so you don’t have to -- and he did a lot of sniffing around 2008 International CES this month.

You’ve read the news that came out of CES. Now go behind the scenes with Ben Patterson, as we discuss cool stuff he saw that didn’t hit the radar, but should have.

Ben also shares his take on recent news out of Macworld Expo, and joins a lively discussion on the long-term future prospects for Microsoft and Apple.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

Blog Different

Pundits vilified Chrysler when the company launched The Firehouse, its corporate blog, in 2005. The reason: Chrysler executives opted to make the blog available only to bona fide journalists.

By daring to experiment with a private journalists-only blog, Chrysler was "completely misunderstanding the point of a corporate weblog," according to AdRants’ Steve Hall. B.L. Ochman wrote that Chrysler’s "move ... shows how completely clueless they are about blogging," in her What’s Next blog. TheFirehouse.biz, the pundits widely opined, was doomed to fail.

Not. Fast forward to 2008. The Firehouse is alive, well, regularly tapped by the media, and directly responsible for a string of media hits that have helped polish the automaker’s public image.

Find out how and why Chrysler’s bloggers, former journalists all, bucked conventional wisdom to blaze their own path in the blogosphere, and the rewards that apparent risk delivered in the end.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail

A PC Magazine Christmas

The digital clock is ticking. There are only 3 shopping days left until Christmas. And there's no better time to check in with PC Magazine's executive editor Jeremy Kaplan, and get his take on the best gifts for geeks for Xmas 2007.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes
Subscribe via e-mail