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The ProductCritic Blog

The ProductCritic Blog
Need an easy way to determine whether a specific Digital Camera, Camcorder, or Cell Phone is worth it? ProductCritic is a free site that gives you one location to find professional reviews of a particular product. The site also calculates a score of

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Super Cool Do-It-Yourself Tripod That's Better Than Mine
2007-07-09 15:52:00
I have one of those cheap bendable tripods that you can get for your point-and-shoot camera. I've seen the Gorillapod which looks to be a pretty good improvement on my cheaper version.I saw this video on creating a cool do-it-yourself tripod though that doesn't look as pretty but would do a much better job than my cheap tripod and would also work for my camcorder. Even better than that is that it costs about $1 in materials and about 10 minutes of your time to make (if you're not very handy with tools).
More About: Cool , Super , Mine

ProductCritic's Apple iPhone Review Roundup
2007-07-03 09:32:00
We've just posted all the current Apple iPhone reviews up on our main consumer electronics review site. At this time, not surprisingly (given the hype surrounding the iPhone), it is the highest rated phone on ProductCritic (just barely edging out the Sony Ericsson K800i).Most of the reviews are from the main stream press (like USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and CNET). Over the next few weeks, I'd expect the real in-depth reviews from the more tech-centric sites.
More About: Iphone , Review , Roundup , Apple iphone

Don't Get Scammed By Online Camera Stores
2007-06-28 17:33:00
We've posted about being scammed by online camera stores in the past but yesterday we received an e-mail from a visitor of our digital camera reviews warning us about an experience with one of the worst online camera "stores", bestpricecameras.com.I just wanted to warn your readers of a "supplier" of digital cameras that I regard to to be highly suspect: bestpricecameras.comI found that they had the best price advertised anywhere for a new Canon Rebel xti 400d and for the lens, a 17 to 40mm L. All for around $960+/-. Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. Please post this on your website so that others do not suffer the strange tactics of this company. I cannot imagine what they hope to obtain from their methods.I ordered the camera and lens (which I suspect will be of outstanding quality). After waiting a couple of weeks, I called them and they said it was on back order and that I should receive it within a week. After 2 more weeks, I called them again and got so...
More About: Camera , Online , Stores , Line

A History Of Cell Phones - In Pictures
2007-06-25 18:40:00
MSN has a nice slideshow of 15 pictures showing a history of the cell phone from the initial Motorola's (still an amazing achievement) all the way to the soon-to-be released iPhone.Makes me feel both a sense of nostalgia and awe at the amazing achievements of all the engineers that have created something many of us now just for granted and couldn't live without.
More About: Pictures , History , Cell Phones , Phones , Cell

Learn To Use Scene Mode On Your Digital Camera
2007-06-21 09:04:00
Most Point & Shoot cameras these days have a large number of "scene modes" that set up your camera automatically to take a variety of pictures in a variety of locations (e.g. "fireworks", "beach").While you might use "landscape" or "portrait" or "night shot" once in awhile, it would be helpful to learn what the other modes do. TeachMeToShoot.com has a summary of some of the scene modes:Night Portrait/Night LandscapeSports Mode Sunrise/SunsetCopy ModeBeach/SnowPanoramaParty/IndoorsBackli ghtI've seen some cameras with as much as 50 pre-programmed scene modes. My bet is that most users never use more than a handful.
More About: Digital Camera , Camera , Scene , Digital

What's Happening To The Popular Camera On Flickr?
2007-06-18 10:13:00
Since one of our main focuses is Digital Camera Reviews, we regularly look at the popular cameras owned by users of Flickr and we've blogged about these popular cameras (and their ProductCritic Scores) in the past.I was surprised when I recently looked at the charts on Flickr and noticed a distinct drop in the use of the most popular cameras. Is there a simple explanation for this? Are people just replacing their cameras with newer models and those models have not shown up on the popular charts yet? Are they switching to other brands that also don't have enough market share yet to show up on the top lists? This is happening for both DSLR's and point and shoots though.Anyone think they have an explanation?
More About: Popular

What's Happening To The Popular Camera On Flickr?
2007-06-18 10:13:00
Since one of our main focuses is Digital Camera Reviews, we regularly look at the popular cameras owned by users of Flick r and we've blogged about these popular cameras (and their ProductCritic Scores) in the past.I was surprised when I recently looked at the charts on Flickr and noticed a distinct drop in the use of the most popular cameras. Is there a simple explanation for this? Are people just replacing their cameras with newer models and those models have not shown up on the popular charts yet? Are they switching to other brands that also don't have enough market share yet to show up on the top lists? This is happening for both DSLR's and point and shoots though.Anyone think they have an explanation?
More About: Popular , Pula

Armor For Your Camera. That's Hardcore.
2007-06-13 09:09:00
For the photographers who either travel in war zones or are really worried about keeping their gear in pristine condition (so you can sell it when you upgrade to the next hot DSLR?), get this camera armor from cameraarmor.com.I think this is so cool. The "body armor" is customized for a variety of cameras and includes a clear shield for the LCD and a hood that stretches over the lens for protection.The following cameras are supported:Canon 30DCanon Rebel XTi/400DCanon 5DNikon D70/D70SNikon D80Nikon D200Nikon D40Sony Alpha A100If you get one of these, send me a picture of how it looks being carried around and used.
More About: Camera , Hardcore , Armor

How Long Will Your Shutter Last?
2007-06-08 09:02:00
I worry a lot more about dropping my camera (or losing it) before worrying that the shutter on my Canon 20D is going to malfunction and die on me.Oleg Kikan has a cool user-contributed database of average shutter lifespans for tons of different cameras. Looks like my Canon 20D should average at least 45,000 shots before the shutter mechanism dies. If I make it that far, I'll probably be buying a new camera. Then again, with another kid coming, I just might hit that 45,000 mark sooner than expected.Definitely take some time to go to Oleg's database and input how many shots you've taken on your camera so far.
More About: Long , Shutter

Have You Lost Your Cell Phone In The Toilet?
2007-06-05 17:25:00
I found a cell phone in the bathroom at a FAO Schwartz the other day so I looked up how many people have lost their phones in this way.I'm not sure how much I believe this "research" done by SimplySwitch.com but the Telegraph in the UK reports that in the study, 885,000 people flush their cell phones down the toilet every year. Does that sound right to you? I find it hard to believe that nearly a million people don't notice their cell phone fell in the toilet before they flush it. Still, with the increasing use of automatic flushers when you stand up, maybe people just don't get a chance to realize that their phone fell before the flush happens.In addition to the loss down the toilet, 810,00 lost their phone in a pub, 315,00 lost theirs in the back of a taxi, and 225,000 lost theirs on the bus.Finally, 58,000 phones were chewed up by pets and 116,000 went through the laundry. I definitely can believe both of these numbers!As phones get smaller and lighter, they become easier to l...
More About: Lost , Phone , Cell Phone , Cell , Toilet

What Type Of Camcorder? MiniDV, Hard Drive, or DVD?
2007-05-29 15:47:00
One question I get asked quite a bit (and one I see being asked on many forums) is what kind of camcorder to purchase? One that uses older MiniDV tapes, or the newer Hard Drive and DVD-based camcorders?MiniDV:These are the small tapes that are currently the oldest form of storage in new camcorders. They are quite cheap and each tape will hold about 60 minutes of footage at the highest resolution settings. The data is still stored in digital format on a MiniDV (so transferring to another tape won't degrade the original footage). My current camcorder uses this type of storage and I like it because I can keep a lot of blank tapes with me, and they are generally easier to find and purchase when you're on vacation. They store well and have a shelf life of about 10-15 years. The are two huge negatives about MiniDV's. The first is the same problem you find with any tape-based format...you can't easily jump to any footage you have recorded. The second problem is that, because the footag...
More About: Camcorder , Type , Hard Drive

Don't Get Scammed From Online Camera Stores
2007-05-25 16:23:00
The Wise Bread blog has a post entry titled "DO NOT buy a digital camera online until you read this". The post is a detailed account of exactly what happened when he tried to purchase a digital camera from one of the most notorious online camera stores, Bestpricecameras.com.The usual way these Brooklyn-based online camera stores scam you is the simple Bait-and-Switch tactic. They lure you to make a purchase by showing cameras that are well below the prices you see elsewhere (as much as half as much). That's the bait. Then, once you place an order, you'll get a call or an e-mail saying that your order is backordered or you find out it's for the camera body only (no battery, manual, box, or anything else) and you'll get pressured to purchase a bunch of different stuff (or a different model of camera).In a previous post, I talk about how I look for these scam stores advertising on ProductCritic via Google Adwords. The only way to ensure that the visitors on your site don't go to o...
More About: Camera , Online , Stores , Scam , Line

Google's Doing Something About MFA Sites. Finally!
2007-05-23 09:36:00
As I've written about before, I hate MFA sites! They are such huge leeches on the Internet but I certainly can't blame them for taking advantage of a legal, money-making opportunity.Given my hatred for MFA sites, I was ecstatic to hear on Monday that Google has sent email out to MFA publishers that their accounts will be disabled starting June 1. This is great news. Although Jen from Jensense.com stated that both MFA publishers and arbitrage publishers are getting their accounts disabled, Shoemoney has a video blog post refuting the news that arbitrage publishers are getting disabled.I don't mind arbitrage publishers (that's where you buy ads for a low price and get people to visit a site where you hope they click other ads that get you a higher payment than you paid to get the click) because it's a legitimate strategy in many traditional markets (not just online ads). Although part of MFA sites strategy is arbitrage, the fact that they have absolutely zero value (they don't e...
More About: Sites , Finally

Google's Doing Something About MFA Sites. Finally!
2007-05-23 09:36:00
As I've written about before, I hate MFA sites! They are such huge leeches on the Internet but I certainly can't blame them for taking advantage of a legal, money-making opportunity.Given my hatred for MFA sites, I was ecstatic to hear on Monday that Googl e has sent email out to MFA publishers that their accounts will be disabled starting June 1. This is great news. Although Jen from Jensense.com stated that both MFA publishers and arbitrage publishers are getting their accounts disabled, Shoemoney has a video blog post refuting the news that arbitrage publishers are getting disabled.I don't mind arbitrage publishers (that's where you buy ads for a low price and get people to visit a site where you hope they click other ads that get you a higher payment than you paid to get the click) because it's a legitimate strategy in many traditional markets (not just online ads). Although part of MFA sites strategy is arbitrage, the fact that they have absolutely zero value (they don't e...
More About: Sites , Finally , Something , Thing

The Secrets Of Taking Camera Phone Pictures
2007-05-18 17:15:00
ABC's Good Morning America did a segment on tips for taking camera phone pictures. To summarize:Get to know the camera phone settings for different lighting conditionsLearn to store your pics properlyShoot lots of picsTry black and white if you canUnderstand the limitationsTry to get enough lightGet close when scene is backlitAnticipate shutter lagSet to highest resolution you canGet a case for your phone to avoid lens scratchesGiven that the segment was on Good Morning America, I'll give them a slight break on the "absolute beginner" nature of the tips.With the cameras on phones being better and better, I'm even amazed by the quality of some pics you can get from phones now. Unfortunately, I still haven't bought a new cell phone yet and am stuck with a Motorola that has a pretty poor camera in it. Worst yet, the lens in it is very recessed so dust covers the lens over time and the placement of the lens makes it tough to clean.
More About: Pictures , Phone , Camera , Secrets , King

Amazon Purchases DPREVIEW.COM!
2007-05-16 10:15:00
On Monday, one of the largest and most-trusted camera review sites, dpreview.com, announced that they had been purchased by Amazon .Almost immediately, some in the community were skeptical that dpreview.com could maintain its objective reviews as poor reviews would mean less people would want to purchase that particular product from Amazon. Also, would Amazon ruin the site by putting Amazon links all over the place?ZDNet has a good article about the questions involved in the dpreview purchase.On ProductCritic's digital camera reviews, we weight the reviews from dpreview very high as they are among the most comprehensive and objective of all the reviews on the Internet. I hope it stays that way because they are a fantastic resource for consumers and the community in their forums are composed of very knowledgable, helpful people.
More About: Chase , Purchase , Hase

What Do You Hate Most About Cell Phone Service?
2007-05-14 17:21:00
Information Week has listed Six Things Customers Hate About Cell Phone Service .Disabled FeaturesPhones locked to one networkRestricted Internet AccessUnreliable ServiceIncompatible products and servicesCan't use phones as laptop modemsPersonally, I'm really frustrated by #1,3, and 6. The restricted Internet Access bugs me quite a bit. First of all, my phone is pretty slow in accessing the Internet, and when it does, there are many sites I can't access. I have no idea why I can't get Google maps on my phone even though the phone is definitely supported by the mobile version of Google maps.Also, I switched from my last provider because they were on CDMA instead of GSM. When I called to ask my old provider when they'd be switching to GSM, the service rep said "probably never". I said, "OK, then please cancel my service" and instead of trying something to keep me as a customer, the rep just said "OK!". Sheesh, that's pretty poor training....also the guy who cancelled my account wa...
More About: Cell Phone

Making a Friendly Multiuser Rails Database Configuration Files
2007-05-11 17:07:00
Many people and sites recommend not checking in your database.yml file directly in the subversion repository but instead check in a database.example.yml file that each developer is responsible for modifying themselves. The reason for this is because if other developers are working on the project at the same time you will both end up clobbering the file as one person changes the information to match their machine and you change yours back to match your machine.Fortunately the database.yml (along with all the other rails config files) can contain code in them. This makes is possible to write this:development: adapter: postgresql database: critic_development username: test: adapter: postgresql database: critic_test username: production: adapter: postgresql database: critic username: deployFor development and test configurations we use a local database that runs on our local development box with the username we logged in with but for the production server it runs as the 'dep...
More About: Database , Configuration , King , Rails , Friendly

A Portable Rails Development Environment
2007-05-04 09:11:00
Tony being the 'biz guy' just has to have his Windows Office Suite and thus any work he does on the site is done from Windows.Our site is built using Subversion, Ruby, Rails and PostgreSQL. All of these work on Windows but none of them are first class citizens. We did get him setup using the various installers but it wasn't easy and took some time.When I got the IM that he got a fresh laptop and needed his development environment setup again I didn't reply for 3 days. After that I got the idea of having him use an Ubuntu install on the free VMWare player. This way we could setup a complete development environment once and he could move it to any machine he wanted.We still needed to setup a working Rails stack on Ubuntu but with there are various good resources on how to do that. The free PeepCode screencast (download the free preview for the server setup video) would be my first choice if I was doing it from scratch.Once you get your virtual server running on your desktop ...
More About: Environment , Portable , Development , Table

Unbelievable - People Love Cell Phones As Much As Internet
2007-05-02 17:13:00
Jacobs Media has released the results of their 2007 Tech Survey on Cell Phones . Despite some people thinking that the cell phone is the worst invention ever, the Jacobs Media survey tells us that for ages 18-34, they rate cell phones as high as the Internet for tech they can't live without! That really is surprising to me since I could easily do without a cell phone but would have no idea what to do with myself if there wasn't the Internet.Also, while the cell phone manufacturers keep including more and more features on their cell phone offerings, the top 3 features are text messaging, calculator (!), and taking pictures. I'm very surprised that "listening to mp3's" is near the bottom. My impression is that the cell phone companies are really focusing on the mp3 feature (now that every phone can take pictures) and there's some fantastic mp3 phones out now like the Sony Ericsson W880i.Finally, what is interesting is the percentage of people who only have a cell phone and no long...
More About: People , Love

Don't Let Scammers Hijack Your Site
2007-04-30 15:24:00
In a previous post, I talked about getting rid of MFA sites. I just dislike the thought of a visitor to ProductCritic wanting to read digital camera reviews and clicking on an ad they think they want more information about only to reach a "made for adsense" site that just leeches clicks from ProductCritic visitors who are looking for genuinely helpful information.But, blocking MFA sites isn't enough. In the niche that ProductCritic sits in, many of the adsense ads shown are from sites selling cameras and camera supplies. Unfortunately, there are quite a few instances of these camera stores running scams of various sorts. Some of these scams (and how to avoid them) are described very well by Photo.net and Bob Atkins.I don't like the idea of some scam store using ProductCritic as a vehicle for scamming innocent visitors to our site. So, while it takes some extra effort, I pay attention to the ads that are being displayed on ProductCritic and, in addition to looking for MFA sites, wh...
More About: Site , Jack , Scam , Scammer , Hijack

Get More Complete Web Analysis With Performancing
2007-04-27 09:18:00
We use Google Analytics to get stats on visitors and pageviews for ProductCritic. Late last month, we signed onto Perform ancing. Although their tagline is "Helping Bloggers Succeed", it's useful for all sites like our Digital Camera Reviews site which is not a blog. I had been meaning to write a blog entry about it but by coincidence, today, I noticed that Performancing has a blog entry up that will provide pMetrics free for 12 months for a review. Great timing!Although I think Google Analytics is pretty complete, the additional features of Performancing are a really good companion to Analytics. Here's a walkthrough of Performancing.First of all, when you go to Performancing.com, it takes you to their blog. I don't quite understand that. The value of their site is in pMetrics, not the blog! They should really take you to the value part of their site by default. Instead, you have to click a top link (labelled "pMetrics") to even find the good stuff (not that the blog is bad at all...
More About: Analysis , More , Form , Complete

Most Insane Tourist Photographer Ever
2007-04-24 15:38:00
I've travelled fairly extensively and as a tourist, you know that you usually only have a limited time in any one spot and you want to get the best photos that you can.When I read this post about an ultimate crazy cameraman at the Grand Canyon, it was hard for me to even imagine what must be going on in this guy's mind to go to these lengths to get a shot (especially when it looks like you don't really need to - why not just take the shot on the higher outcropping?) The shot below is the crazy cameraman's leap to the safer rock...with camera and tripod in his left hand.Luckily, DigiSniper added a PS at the bottom of the post that gives you the whole story. Great stuff!
More About: Insane , Photographer , Ever , Most , Tourist

Cell Phone Market Growth Slowing In 2007
2007-04-23 15:07:00
Cell phone sales growth increased by 10% in the first quarter of 2007 over the same quarter in 2006. Still, this healthy 10% growth could not keep up with the previous quarter.IDC has published a new press release showing that so far, 2007 probably won't keep up with the record cell phone sales of 2006 which saw an amazing 20% year-on-year growth in each quarter of that year. The release states, "this reflects IDC's expectations that as more subscribers are added to the network, fewer new subscribers are left to be added".The release also provides the Top 5 Cell Phone vendors in this order:NokiaMotorolaSamsungSony EricssonLG ElectronicsSamsung and Sony Ericsson benefitted from Motorola's missteps by posting a year-on-year growth with Sony Ericsson showing the largest growth. It's interesting to compare this to ProductCritic's cell phone reviews. While Samsung phones have only had quite average reviews, the latest crop of Sony Ericsson phones are mostly getting quite good marks ...
More About: Cell Phone , Market , Cell , Growth

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