Despite the good and bad publicity, GTA IV proved to be a very popular game when it launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Shortly after launch, Rockstar announced that the Xbox 360 version would also get exclusive download content. Today Rockstar announced that GTA IV is now available on the PC.

Many ardent PC gamers have been waiting for the game to come to the PC. Rockstar says the PC version has new features, including multiplayer modes with 32 players per map. The console version multiplayer maps stop at 16 players. PC gamers also get video capture and editing capability and higher resolution graphics along with a custom radio station that allows uploading of personal music library to listen to in game.

Take 2 Games

MotoRokr EM35 In Various Views

MOTOROKR™ EM35 boasts audio-enhancing CrystalTalk™ technology and virtual surround sound with elite music functionality
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – Dec. 2, 2008 – Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced the addition of MOTOROKR EM35 to the ROKR portfolio. A device designed for supreme audio performance both as a mobile device and music player, EM35 delivers an exceptional audio experience for both music and talk.
“As the popularity of integrated music and talk functionalities on mobile devices increases, so does the demand for enhanced audio to ensure the best experience,” said Tracey Koziol, corporate vice president, mid-tier and feature products, Mobile Devices, Motorola. “With virtual surround sound and an abundance of top features, the EM35 is perfect for the consumer looking to receive the highest multimedia and sound performance. When listening with earphones, a unique algorithm enables music to sound as if it is playing in the space around your head, rather than inside of your eardrums, enhancing the way you listen to music.”
EM35 amplifies your conversations and helps reduce background noise with CrystalTalk technology, so virtually nothing comes between you and your call. From more superior voice quality to personalized noise adaptation, CrystalTalk makes a noticeable difference in the clarity and intelligibility of conversations while in a noisy environment. EM35 further enhances the audio quality with the addition of a second microphone, which helps eliminate more ambient background noise from the call.
ROKR EM35 is a robust music player with a full suite of dedicated keys to easily launch and control music. Whether listening via the built-in dual speakers, stereo Bluetooth wireless technology or 3.5mm stereo wired headphones, the EM35 rocks. Users can quickly access content or search through an entire music library to find a song that suits the mood by simply moving a thumb across the FastScroll^TM navigation wheel. Pressing or holding the dedicated “play” key launches shuffle mode.
Slide the device open to send a text or surf the web while listening to music, or to pause the music and make a phone call. Also, find pre-installed and downloadable widgets – third-party web applications – for access to real-time information such as weather, sports scores, stock tickers, flight information, social media, news headlines and more.
MOTOMUSIC player is an exclusive application that enables users to listen to music while simultaneously being connected to the music store. Once connected, users can discover and access new music, preview and purchase music, retrieve artist information, share favourite tracks with friends, gift tracks from the EM35 and watch videos and free podcasts.
Compatibility with Windows^® Media Player 11 gives consumers the freedom to manage music on the PC and discover new music by downloading  it from a PC to the phone from more than 200 on-line music stores worldwide. ROKR EM35 has an integrated FM antenna that enables FM radio to be played over stereo Bluetooth or external stereo speakers without the use of a headset. FM radio with Radio Data System (RDS) technology makes identifying songs and artists easy by displaying available FM station information like song, artist and genre. SONGID technology completes the music experience and gives you new ways to discover music while on the go.
Availability
MOTOROKR™ EM35 is expected to be available later this quarter. For more information on technical specs, please visit www.motorola.com/motoinfo.

ROKR™ EM35:  Rock and Talk with Unmatched Audio
MOTOROKR™ EM35 delivers an exceptional audio experience for both music and talk.  The phone features advanced audio-enhancing CrystalTalk™ technology, a robust music player, virtual stereo surround sound– bringing you beyond a typical listening experience to becoming a part of it – and MOTOMUSIC player⁶ which enables users to play, discover and purchase music. With access to online music stores and stereo Bluetooth®, EM35 offers an all-around multimedia experience.

Audio Excellence Delivered: EM35 delivers incredible audio with virtual stereo surround sound, connecting you with your music like never before.  When listening with earphones, music will sound as if it is playing in the space around your head, rather than inside of your eardrums.  Whether listening via the built-in dual speakers, stereo Bluetooth or 3.5mm stereo wired headphones, the EM35 rocks.

Hear and Be Heard:   Enhanced CrystalTalk technology amplifies your conversations and helps reduce background noise so virtually nothing comes between you and your call.

Bring Your Music Alive: With MOTOMUSIC player¹, listen to music while simultaneously being connected to the music store.  Once connected, access, discover, preview and purchase music from the phone or a PC, get artist information, share favorite tracks with friends, gift tracks from the EM35 and watch videos and free podcasts¹ Over time, MOTOMUSIC player will even make personalized recommendations to match your musical tastes.

Discover New Music: Windows® Media Player 11 gives you the freedom to manage your music on a PC and discover new music from more than 200 on-line music stores worldwide^1,3 ROKR EM35 has an integrated FM antenna that enables FM radio to be played over stereo Bluetooth or external stereo speakers without the use of a headset, and built-in FM radio with SONGID technology¹ to complete the music experience.

Rock On-The-Go: The ROKR EM35 has an integrated FM radio with Radio Data System (RDS)⁴ technology that makes identifying songs and artists easy by displaying available FM station information like song, artist and genre. With an optional 32GB micro SD removable storage card, you can store your favorite songs and take your entire music library wherever you go.  And use the FastScroll navigation wheel to quickly access content and search for music (music mode), calendar (phone mode) and multimedia (imaging mode). 

Create Memories: Catch life’s moments with the 3.1 megapixel camera that captures still images and video.  Edit images and share memories with friends and family through the web or messaging features.

Real-Time Information On-the-Go: Pre-installed and downloadable¹ widgets give you access to real-time information such as weather, stock reports and more.

Posted by: John

Have a look below at the front of the camera and judge for your self...

The Canon Digital IXUS 85IS

Canon have certainly stuck to their initial plans from the very first IXUS ranges, and this latest version doesn’t really differ too much in functionality from some of the original cameras. Obviously the electronics have got faster, lenses smother in operation and Image Resolution has increased but the look and feel remains around the same. Don’t expect technical wizardry, in camera editing or a host of scenery effects with this little camera, Leave that for Photoshop. Canon have however built in a really good Image stabilisation system into this camera so there is a little of something for everyone. The processing power of the DIGIC III engine is actually very good, and whilst some of the options seen on other cameras may not be included, the more important benefits really shine through such as very fast focusing and excellent colour capture and reproduction..

What’s in the Box?

Not surprisingly, pretty normal for a compact Digital camera, LI-ON Battery, Manuals, Charger, USB connection and AV cables. Wish I had the patent for those AV cables everyone uses.

Canon IXUS 85IS Specification

• Type: Type - Ultra Compact
• Pixels: CCD - 10 megapixels / Resolution (in pixels) - 3648 x 2736
• Optical: Optical Viewfinder - Real-image zoom, optical viewfinder / LCD display - 2.5" (6.35 cm) PureColor II TFT screen 100% coverage 230,000 dots Up to 15 brightness settings / Macro Distance - 3 cm / Normal Distance - From 30 cm upwards / Optical Zoom - 3x / Digital Zoom - 4x / ISO range - Auto, High ISO auto (with movement detection), 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 ISO /
• Storage: Image formats - JPEG / Memory Card Type - SDHC, SD, MMC Plus, HC MMC Plus cards / Included Memory Card - 32 MB / Internal Memory - No
• Video: Video mode - Yes, with sound / Video Sequence - 640 x 480 at 30 images/sec. / TV Output - No / Webcam - No
• Classic IXUS design
• 10.0 Megapixels
• 3x zoom with optical IS
• Motion Detection Technology
• Face Detection Technology
• Red-Eye Correction
• DIGIC III processor and iSAPS
• 2.5" PureColor LCD II
• 19 Shooting Modes
• Creative movie options

General

The IXUS 85IS, takes its lead from the earlier IXUS80 taking the well tried and tested Image stabilisation introduced with this earlier version and increasing the Image resolution to 10megapixels. This should really be enough for almost anyone allowing a substantial range of enlargements whilst retaining high quality.

Looking at the camera starting at the back shows a very uncluttered set of controls.

A simple “Shoot or Play” switch at the top, menu access via pretty standard buttons, but with direct access to some of the most common used controls such as flash, autotimer and macro settings. It certainly would not take anyone who has used any compact camera before very long at all to use this camera to full effect.

Unusually though for a compact camera is a built in viewfinder which in my opinion is a very useful addition. Seeing any compact camera screen clearly in a very bright sunny day can be difficult, and with additional power saving of not using the screen a further advantage.

A standard SD card slot is provided which will take SDHC cards located right next to the battery location.

Shutter controls and zoom functions are located at the top of the camera, initially I thought the zoom control was slightly too far to the centre of the camera but this turned out to be quite comfortable.

With the majority of the case metal, the look and feel of the camera are very good, controls are simple to operate and menu response very fast when jumping through settings.

Highlights

• Very fast to operate – Average start up times of the camera around 1 second
• Fast focusing of the autofocus engine is very good, allowing shots to be taken very quickly. It takes about 1.5 seconds between shots which is average for a camera of this size and type. Continuous shooting allows a couple of frames a second, but the camera does not refocus though.
• Good colour and Saturation of images and shots taken
• Image Stabilisation helps remove lots of camera shake allowing pictures to be taken in lower light levels (This is more important as the IXUS 85IS does suffer from noise at higher ISO levels)
• Simple to use menus and controls

Lowlights

• Noise levels on High ISO values over around ISO 400 do start to affect image quality
• Levels of purple fringing on some shots taken outdoors in bright Sun

Review

This little Canon really looks and feels like its earlier stable-mates from the original IXUS mould. Enhancements have been made, and the increase in image resolution and Image Stabilisation are great benefits but are becoming more and more standard across all manufacturers. What sets Camera this apart is the IXUS style, build quality and performance. Built to take knocks and I’d suggest a reasonable amount of abuse. It’s almost akin to what that certain “Fruit Named” manufacturer did with MP3 players – Added style!

The lens is relatively standard 3x Optical zoom equivalent to a standard 35-105mm lens, perhaps not offering quite the range of some other cameras – I missed a slightly wider angle. Quality though was excellent and zoom in and out times quite impressive. Built into the lens is Canon’s tried and tested image stabilisation which again does the job very well.

Images taken were very sharp and very crisp to view, even when zoomed in at very high levels. The 10MP CCD is certainly well up for almost every demand that most photographers would throw at it. Some issues were seen with shots, mostly with outdoor images in bright sun, with some fringing in a great shade of purple against edges of images. I had seen reports of softening of images towards the corners but I found this acceptable and not overly soft.

Image noise on high ISO values (mostly above 800) was quite high and got worse as the ISO level was increased. I’m sure most users would not really use these high ISO settings on a day to day basis though so probably would never been noticed.

The controls are synonymous with most of the other cameras in the IXUS range as well as most other compact cameras. The simple DPAD and switches to choose Picture, Video or Play mode are located in sensible places, very clearly labelled and simple to understand.

The 2.5” LCD is clear, crisp and very bright in most light levels with the added advantage of a small but very useful viewfinder.

Conclusion

Staying true to the IXUS brand, the IXUS 85IS is a commendable well built and performing compact digital camera. It is very simple to use, light weight (Whilst still feeling very well built) and a fast performer with autofocus taking around ½ second even in low light situations.

The evidence of some fringing in bright shots and the noise on High ISO settings did let things down a little, but most normal photograph takes would never notice these issues.

Overall another worthy contender to the IXUS brand, with prices now coming down on this little unit to very reasonable levels around £140 advertised on various web sites it is a very good day to day camera with some good nifty features.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced, point and shoot camera, with some nice additions this one should be on your list.

Review by: John

The D3x features a 24.5 megapixel FX format CMOS sensor which is more than double the one used in the current D3, and has an ISO range of 100 to 1600.

It also features a 16 bit image processor as opposed to a 14 bit which is in the current D3.

Check out the specs.

Post from http://www.gadgettastic.com

Nikon D3x DSLR

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Nokia plans to ship the next N97 in the first half of 2009. Mentioned as ‘handheld computer’ the N97 features large 3.5 inch touch-screen display with 640×360 pixels resolution, QWERTY keyboard, up to 42 GB storage, DVD quality video capture, and up to 5 MP image capture.

“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.

Read

OK, let’s get started with the features - a huge 3.5″ touch screen with 16:9 ratio, full kick-out QWERTY keyboard, 32GB of space for your files plus the ability take up to another 16GB via microSD, and of course location awareness! Nokia N97 has an A-GPS receiver and software to keep you close to your friends. We still do not know about dynamic navigation but we can’t imagine they’d leave out such an old technology :)

Even more features of the Nokia N97 include a 5MP with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth connectivity.

Here are some specs for you:

• Technical Profile
• System: WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA), EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• User Interface: S60 5th Edition
• Dimensions: 117.2×55.3×15.9 mm
• Weight: Approx. 150 g
• Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors
• nHD 16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
• Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L, 1500 mAh
• Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory,plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
• Video playback: MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264,up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
• RealVideo up to QCIF @ 30 fps
• Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30 fps
• Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in internet browser
• Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
• Camera Lens: Carl Zeiss Tessar
• Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938)
• JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
• Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
• Aperture: F2.8
• Focal length: 5.4 mm
• Flash: Dual LED camera flash and video light
• Talk time: Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
• Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
• Video playback: Up to 4,5 hours (offline mode)
• Music playback: Up to 37 hours (offline mode)
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support
• Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR)
• GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

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Micro Spy Kit-X2D - $18.75

This spy utility belt keeps all the latest spy tools at the ready. Four of the most secret tools for the budding secret agent: Micro Ear Light, Secret Agent Pen, Spy Micro Listener and Spy Motion Alarm. All on an easy to clip on, clip off belt.

The Micro Spy Kit-X2D is available from Amazon for $18.75.

Electronic Spy Listening Device - $51.95

Our Electronic Listening Device is so Powerful a Human Conversation Can be Heard over 300 Feet Away! The \”ears\” and \”eyes\” are powerful enough to hear from one end of a football field to the other. You can capture distant sounds (and voices) that would otherwise not be heard with the help of our sophisticated Electronic Listening Device. Imagine standing in the end zone of a football field and being able to hear what someone is saying at the other end! Outdoors men and field observers can tap into Nature\’s secrets like never before. Bird watchers and nature lovers will be thrilled at the sound quality of this ingenious listening device.

The Electronic Spy Listening Device is available from Gadget World for $51.95.

EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Goggles - $68.88

Enjoy the thrill of real night vision technology with EyeClops Night Vision stealth goggles! These super stealth goggles allow kids ages eight and older to see in absolute darkness using infrared illumination so they can explore the dark landscape around them. These fun goggles are the perfect companion for slumber party sleep-overs or camp-outs.

The EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Goggles are available from Amazon for $68.88.

Spy Sunglasses with Digital Camera - $75

A cool pair of sunglasses supplied with a digital camera to attach to the side, and a hand held remote control to actually take the pictures. This is something that Bond would like to get his hands on!

The Spy Sunglasses with Digital Camera is available from Spy Catcher of Knightsbridge for $75.

Wireless Bullet -Size Hidden Color Spy Camera - $75

The \”Bullet\” 2.4Ghz Wireless Camera with Audio incorporates a tiny colour video camera, a highly sensitive microphone, and a 2.4 Ghz transmitter in a tiny bullet shaped capsule! And at a great low price. Its size makes it ideal for discreet surveillance. Now you can investigate your own suspicions with ease! The wireless technology means there are no wires to conceal and installation is minimal!

The Wireless Bullet -Size Hidden Color Spy Camera is available from VizonTech for $75.

R/C Spy Car - $129.99

Something is going on in the breakroom. You walked by and thought you heard your name whispered as well as the word \”cake.\” It\’s imperative that you discover what\’s going on. So you do the only thing you can do: you sit comfortably at your desk and deploy your R/C Spy Video ATV-360.

The R/C Spy Car is available from Think Geek for $129.99.

Remote Control Photo Reconnaissance Plane - $199.95

Modeled on a modern AWACS jet, this remote control plane has a detachable digital camera that takes still photos from hundreds of feet above the ground, allowing you to reconnoiter your area. The camera records up to 26 VGA (640 x 480 resolution) photos at the push of a button which can then be easily downloaded to any PC.

The Remote Control Photo Reconnaissance Plane is available from Hammacher for $199.95.

Wireless Remote Controlled Pan And Tilt Surveillance Camera - $249.95

This is the remote-controlled surveillance camera that pans and tilts at a touch of a button for a range of motion unavailable in lesser cameras, and it sends crystal clear images and audio to an LCD on the handheld remote, allowing real-time monitoring from up to 330\’ away. Unlike cameras rooted in a fixed position, this one pans 210° and tilts 63° for an optimal field-of-view.

The Wireless Remote Controlled Pan And Tilt Surveillance Camera is available from Hammacher for $249.95.

Control From Anywhere Home Sentry - $299.95

This robotic sentry can be controlled by any remote device capable of browsing the internet, allowing you to monitor your home from anywhere in the world. Audio and high-resolution (640 x 480) video are streamed in MPEG4 format, and it can take still pictures and e-mail them to you; it has a two-way microphone and speaker that enable real-time interaction with subjects.

The Control From Anywhere Home Sentry is available from Hammacher for $299.95.

Wireless Spy Watch Video Camera w/ DVR - $399

Our covert wireless spy camera wristwatch contains the latest in miniaturized wireless video technology - squeezing a full color video camera, microphone, power source and a 2.4GHz transmitter inside a stylish wristwatch. And the watch works tooJ

The Wireless Spy Watch Video Camera w/ DVR is available from David Steele for $399.