Canon Rebel T3i vs T4i: Which Should You Buy?

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As many of you know, I'm a proud owner of the Canon EOS Rebel T3i (Kiss X5) DSLR. However, thanks to my job at Best Buy, I was able to spend some quality time with the T4i during one of my shifts. After comparing the two, let me describe the perfect buyer of each camera.



I'd suggest that if this is your first DSLR, you should save the money by buying the Canon T3i and then use that cash to pick up some higher quality lenses for your new camera, such as the recently released 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens or a nice 75-300mm zoom lens. Maybe even use that money to pick up a higher quality microphone if you are going to be using this camera for YouTube. The T4i would really only be the choice for you if you feel you will significantly benefit from the continuous auto-focus in HD video mode, which as mentioned in this video, you can achieve a similar type effect if you keep your camera's lens in automatic.

No matter what interchangeable lens camera you choose, I'd love to hear your thoughts and decisions below! Leave any specific, personal questions about SLRs below as well :) Thanks so much for watching!

Has RIM Missed the Tablet Market?

I think by now, everyone understands how quickly the technology market moves. In the time it takes for someone to decide on a mobile device or tablet and then go ahead and purchase the product, the markets will have moved on. I will use a quick example here, I know someone who has recently purchased a HTC Sensation XE. This is an excellent phone and offers some decent specs including its 1.5 GHz dual-core processor however there has been confirmation that HTC will soon be showing off a range of new devices at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. The one that comes to mind for me is the upcoming HTC Zeta which has a beautiful design and some breathtaking specs. It will be running Android 4.0 Ice-cream sandwich and will be one of the first devices to come pre-installed with it. I think more breathtaking than that is the fact that it will be sporting a 2.5 GHz Quad-Core processor offering a real powerful punch, but I think I am getting off topic.

I want to look closely at the Blackberry Playbook which was first launched by Research in Motion last April but immediately had problems. The playbook launched with its own operating system called Blackberry tablet OS based upon the QNX Neutrino kernel. The problem here was that the system was very slugglish and at times I found it to be completely unresponsive or attempting to the complete opposite of what you were trying to achieve. There were concerns about the operating system from day one though, there were many comments made that the operating system crashed completely and criticism soon emerged suggesting that RIM had launched the device too early without testing it.

The other major criticism for the launch of the playbook came after users found that it came with no email client or calendar. This was very surprising for a company that works around productivity and business and the battery life saw in come in at second from bottom compared to other tablet devices around that time. The final nail in the coffin for RIM at launch was the price was over priced for an unfinished tablet that did not appear to be anywhere in the same league as its rivals such as the Motorola Xoom or the iPad 2.

We move a few months down the line to yesterday when the announcement came that Research in Motion would be releasing a software update for the playbook called 2.0. This would certainly fix most of the problems that the playbook started with and added features that should have been available at launch. This includes a native email client and a calendar application. It now also sees an update for documents to go and print to go and allows IT managers bring in Blackberry fusion.

There also comes an update for Blackberry Bridge allowing users of the playbook to make it communicate with blackberry phones and allows them to become remotes for the tablet device. The question that must be asked now though is this too late to allow RIM to continue making decent sales figures from the playbook? I think that Blackberry Tablet OS 2.0 is aimed primarily at users who already own the playbook rather than trying to get new users because lets be honest, the playbook has pretty much lost the attention of consumers now. The market is pretty much commanded these days between Honeycomb and iOS with many companies producing android tablets and Apple continuing their march against rivals.

It is an excellent decision for RIM to finally add these features to allow those who forked out the money for the device to get some use out of it yet I think its a lost cause in getting new users interested. If RIM are looking to gain the attention of consumers once more I think the correct thing to do is start from the bottom up and scrap the playbook completely.

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Review: Beats by Dr. Dre iBeats (Chrome)

In this video, I give a detailed review of the Beats by Dr. Dre iBeats in-ear earphones, as well as the accessories that come provided with this product. The sound that comes from these earphones is outstanding, I love it. These are great for any music fanatic. 

Check them out!:

Buy - "Beats by Dr. Dre iBeats" 

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YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kieransmithtech/
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My Written Review: 2011 Apple MacBook Air 13"

The new 2011 MacBook Air 13.3" is truly a stunning machine with an awesome 1.7GHz duel-core Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM packed inside this beast. Surely this is the perfect notebook for students who want something which weighs in at just 2.96 pounds and is less than an inch thick!

In this article, I am going to cover the good, the bad and what can be improved, followed by me awarding it a score out of 10.

Starting with the Good - 

Apple's MacBook Air 13.3" LED-backlit widescreen has got to have been the nicest screen I have ever looked at, the resolution of the screen is 1440x900 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The colours are so vibrant and films look amazing on screen, too.

The MacBook Air 13.3" is as beautifully thin as ever, at it thickest end it measures 17mm thick and it's thinnest point is only 3mm thick which is incredible!

The 2011 MacBook Air 13.3" comes standard with a 1.7GHz, dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM. The notebook also built in flash storage tucked inside its aluminium unibody chassis, this is great for students who want tasks completed quick such as word processing and music, photo and video editing. I am able to get roughly 6 and a half hours of battery life out of the MacBook Air and is capable of staying in standby mode for 30 days without dying from loss of battery.

The Bad -

I am a little disappointed that there is still only 2 USB ports on the MacBook Air 2011, even if apple added just one more USB port would be a wonderful add-on. I am also a little unhappy that there is no USB 3.0 port to be found on the notebook, this would be another huge key selling point for the MacBook Air. The third thing I am disappointed about is the low resolution built-in FaceTime camera. Apart from that, the laptop is great.

Room for improvement? - 

As always, nothing is perfect. In the future, I would like to see Apple introduce a FaceTime HD camera (featured in the MacBook Pro's and iMac's). As the MacBook Air's FaceTime Camera performs horribly in when in low-light. I would greatly appreciate more flash storage inside this elegant machine, aswell.

Over all, I give the 2011 Apple MacBook Air 13" a whopping 8 and a half out of 10. If you want to check my new YouTube channel out for plenty of tech coverage, please feel free to do so and don't forget to subscribe! - kieransmithtech 

Unboxing: Incase Magazine Jacket for iPad 2

I really am a big fan of the Apple iPad case so I wanted something similar for my iPad 2. After trying a bunch of different cases from Best Buy I finally found the perfect one: the Incase Magazine Jacket. It is thin, light-weight, protective, productive, and stylish.

www.goincase.com

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