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This $70 Casio Exilim is purple but it’s priced at over $100 just about everywhere else, so let’s just go with it. It looks more pink to me, but Woot says it’s purple and who am I to question Woot? Speaking of Woot, that’s where you can get this deal (today only).

Features!

• Casio Exilim EX-S5PE digital camera
• 10 megapixels
• 2.7-inch LCD
• 3x optical zoom
• Less than 3/4 of an inch thick
• Takes video at 848×480 and 640×480
• Uses SD cards

So it’s portable and purple. That’d be the main takeaway there.

Casio Exilim 10MP Digital Camera [Woot.com]

Casio is no stranger to teaming up with major toy makers, licensing super-cute cartoon characters, using them on existing digital camera models and offering up super-cute limited editions to a fanatic fan base. After cartoon cats Doraemon and Hello Kitty, it’s now time for Rilakkuma, an adorable teddy bear.

The result is the Casio Exilim Rilakkuma edition that was announced [JP] today. This model is based on the Exilim EX-Z330, which features a 12.1MP sensor, 3x optical zoom, face detection, Eye-Fi connectivity, HD recording, an SDHC/SD memory card slot, and a 2.7-inch LCD. But who cares about specs when you can have a design like this?

Bandai Namco Games, the company that actually sells the camera, throws in a super-cute Rilakkuma pouch. It also saw to it that Casio builds in a special home screen that shows the bear together with his friend Kiiroitori, a yellow chick (see picture above). You can also add special Rilakkuma icons to pictures and movies you made with the camera.

The Exilim went on sale today on a special Japanese web site for $290 (pouch included). If you’re interested but live outside Japan, I suggest you contact import/export specialists like Rinkya, Geek Stuff 4 U or the Japan Trend Shop.

Via Digikame Watch [JP]

The rest of the specs are pretty much the standard “nice point and shoot”: 12.1 megapixels, 5x zoom, 720p movie recording, 2.7″ 16:9 LCD, HDMI port, image stabilization… the usual fixins. One bonus is the “digital microscope” mode, whereby it can focus on things as close as 1cm away from the lens. To be honest, I think that’s pretty damn cool. Macro is something that’s missing from a lot of pocket-sized cameras. $330 is a kind of a lot of money, though. Just saying.

Honestly, if this thing performs as well as it seems to think it will, it may just be a replacement for the Casio Exilim FC series for my “perfect everywhere camera” recommendation. Looking forward to testing this sucker out.

Update: AHA! More pictures!

By David Ponce

No one really likes cables. And the more electronic devices we own, the worse it gets. Anything anyone does to do away with all the spaghetti-like clutter is a good thing by my book. So that’s why I’ve always been a fan of Eye-Fi, makers of an SD card with an embedded Wi-Fi chip. Not only because it allows me to do away with the always-hard-to-find USB transfer cable, it actually makes my camera more useful (well, not quite my camera, no fault of Eye-Fi, but more on that in a minute). How so? By making it a snap to actually offload pictures from it and sharing them with whomever I like. This happens to be the entire point of cameras, but being the lazy person I am I’ve been known to leave pictures in there forever.

So does it work? Absolutely. Keep reading for a short review of the product.

I was sent the 4GB version of the card. Great! Being the owner of a Powershot A540 this meant I was out of luck: the camera only supports SDCH cards with a maximum size of 2GB. So I borrowed a friend’s Casio Exilim EX-FC100.

Installing the software that comes with the Eye-Fi card was simple. Just plug into your computer with the supplied SD card reader and the installation takes care of itself. Answer the prompts, enter your WiFi password and any one of 20 sharing sites’ info. After that, you turn your camera on and take pictures. They’ll be automatically sent to your PC as well as to the sharing sites you’ve specified, as long as you leave the power on since the card uses the cameras’ power. Go out, take pictures and come back home. As soon as you turn it on, it dumps everything you took right into your PC once again.

And that’s really all there is to it. It’s a simple product to use that works as advertised. Just make sure you check whether your camera accepts SDHC cards and that it won’t limit the maximum allowable size. This particular model is $79.99.

For a little more info, check out the below video.

[ Eye-Fi ]

A while back I was at AMD’s overclocking challenge, and for shooting video I had a Kodak Zx1 and a Casio Exilim FC-100 for slow motion. Both are great cameras, but 720p on either one is a bit indistinct, and the Zx1 has a fixed focus lens, which makes up-close shots difficult. Vince from SlashGear had a pistol-grip Sanyo, which I had dismissed before as gimmicky, but having gotten a chance to handle it, I decided I liked it and would pick up the next generation when they came out. Well, they came out a while back and I’ve been using it since. And now I’m reviewing it.

There are a few cameras like this one, so let’s be clear: I’m talking about the CG10, which is sort of the lowest-end Sanyo you can get. 720p is its maximum resolution, which is more than enough for any home video or web media. They make a big deal about how “It’s a Dual Camera! Photos & Videos” but really now, camcorders have been taking pictures for years and years, and I don’t advise doing it if you don’t have to.

Build and layout

The CG10 differs from many other cheap camcorders and pocketcams in that it actually has a real lens. It’s far from a real real lens, but it’s not the fixed-focus pinhole crap you see on Flips, Kodaks, and Nanos. This means it has a 5x optical zoom and better light sensitivity than those other options, at the cost of a slightly larger size.

The CG10 is about the size of a large mouse, just to give you a general idea. It feels pleasantly weighty and is well-balanced. Remember, this isn’t a pocket camcorder, it’s merely compact; it’s certainly small enough to bring everywhere, but unlike a Flip (or an iPod Nano, I suppose) it’s not a front-pocket kind of thing. Though it does sit comfortably in your back pocket if your pants aren’t too tight. Just don’t sit down on it.

As you can see in the pictures, it’s got a nice little 3″ flip-out LCD, which is bright and reasonably sharp. Controls are all situated for your thumb to operate; your other fingers have nothing to do but grip. This works pretty well once you get the layout down. The menu layout is the normal sort of thing, though I have to say I searched for ages for a way to delete things on camera before I realized that the “menu” button was taking me to the wrong place. The usual options are there, with several choices for exposure control, stabilization, and face tracking.

Quality and features

One feature I found extremely handy was the manual focus mode. For keeping a device in focus while I or my hand move in and out of the shot, it’s invaluable. I used it (to great effect) in my Zune HD and Sleek SA-6 reviews. Its macro mode focuses down to 1cm, which is fantastic for getting close-ups of components, plus it gives a great depth of field effect. I found the autofocus to be a bit slow in general (though accurate), so I use manual whenever I can.

For a $200 camera, I found color and sharpness to be good, though the small sensor and major compression mean motion will always be kind of smeary. Of course if you whip it back and forth you’ll get that wobbly skew action, but that’s something you can avoid. Exposure was pretty decent, and you can select center-weighted or spot, but not manual. Low light performance is nothing to write home about, but again we’re talking about a $200 camera here. Make sure you have your lights on or you’ll be seeing noise.

Sound is pretty basic, and the microphones are located on the back of the LCD, which is good if you’re filming the thing creating the sound. Bad if you’re filming yourself and you have reversed the LCD so you can make sure you’re in frame. I didn’t have any issue with the sound other than the fact that it was about as medium-quality as you can expect from a budget device.

Battery life seemed normal for a small camcorder with no moving parts. The battery is removable and comes with a charger, as you might expect. No surprises here.

File sizes are manageable. I set it immediately to the highest quality and a 22-second video took up 25MB, for reference. 640×480 should be about half that, though it will also shoot 640×480 at 60FPS, which obviously will take up more space. It uses H.264 and the files are MP4. It has a tiny amount of internal space (40MB) so you’ll be shooting to SD. One annoying thing I found was that the SD slot can’t be accessed without flipping the LCD up and consequently turning on the camera. Not a big deal but vexing nonetheless.

Bottom line

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 can be found for far less than $200, and I think at $200 it was already a good deal. It’s not pocketable, but in every other respect it bests the pocket-cam army. If you’re looking for a basic around-the-house camcorder, I highly recommend the CG10.

Hi Nicole, I’m thinking of upgrading my mobile phone in the near future. I’ve been a BlackBerry user for the past couple of years, and I’ve really given this thing a beating. I have dropped it more times than I can count, sometimes at a great enough velocity to send the battery cover flying well past the rest of the phone. What I am wondering is, how durable are today’s touch-screen phones? I’ve heard that the Pre is particularly fragile. Are the OLED devices any better or worse? Would you recommend someone like me sticking with a non-touch device, since once you crack a touch screen, you are left with an expensive paperweight? — Jay, via e-mail.

If you abuse your phone that much, I would say touch-screen phones are probably not the best for you. Touch-screen phones usually have a glass surface as the display, which, of course, is particularly susceptible to cracking. You might consider a durable case of some kind to prevent everyday nicks and scratches, though. There are also many manufacturers that make scratch-resistant screen overlays, like the Zagg invisible shields, for example. But if you’re truly concerned, then yes, perhaps a more durable phone is in order. You can check out phones like the Sonim XP3 Quest or the Casio Exilim C721, both of which are rugged enough to withstand the elements. Check out our reviews of other durable phones, too, if you want more options.

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The HTC Touch Pro 2's keyboard is very roomy.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET

I am due for an upgrade in October and was seriously considering a BlackBerry Tour on Verizon Wireless. The only thing is that I have big hands and while some people might laugh it makes for an uncomfortable experience on those BlackBerry devices. My question is this: Does RIM have any plans on coming out with a BlackBerry device that has bigger keys? Or am I doomed to never be able to use a BlackBerry device at all? — Stu, via e-mail

RIM has been pretty consistent with the size and shape of its BlackBerry handhelds, so I don’t think RIM will enhance the size of its keyboards any time soon. …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

The EX-Z280 is the mid-range-budget one, at $180. It’s got 12.1 megapixels, a 26mm equivalent lens with 4x optical zoom, and it records 720p video. It’ll do face recognition and stuff but it seems pretty run-of-the-mill.

EX-Z33

At $120, the Z33 is the true budget offering. As always, I recommend against buying these. They have to cut corners somewhere, and they’re not going to tell you where that was. In the meantime, 10 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom isn’t bad for just over a bill, but I still recommend going up the price ladder a bit and finding something you’ll want to carry around.

And of course, if you’re in the market for a point and shoot, I do still recommend the Exilim FC100 or FS10 over anything else. And if you can get one of those for under $250, why buy anything else?

Fact: Hello Kitty is turning 35 this year. Fact: most guys reading this are hoping their girlfriends and/or daughters are nowhere near the computer. Yeah… keep them far, far away gentlemen, or you’ll likely be $500 lighter before you know it. And for what? An Exilim EX-Z2 with 12.1MPs and 3X optical zoom, nauseating amounts of cutesy pink, a bunch of Swarovski crystals and that little cat plastered all over the place.

Sure, it’s completely worth every penny. No, really, it is…

It’s currently on pre-order.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]