Word: wi-fi
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Several weeks ago, I took a look at Nikon's CoolPix P2 Wi-Fi camera. My conclusion was that the camera's bonus Wi-Fi capabilities didn't do a lot to augment its appeal. Kodak's approach was to make a connected Wi-Fi device that does a lot of things- taking pictures is just one of them. By presenting this not as a camera but as a whole new way of managing and sharing pictures, Kodak succeeds where Nikon failed...
Tired of searching for "hot spots" at Starbucks to get high-speed wireless Web access on your laptop? That wi-fi era may be over, thanks to EV-DO, which stands for evolution data optimized. The new 3G technology, offered first by Verizon Wireless and now by others as well, uses a credit-card-size "antenna," which users slip easily into their PCs, allowing superfast broadband in areas covered by the phone companies. You can use it in moving vehicles, hotel rooms, even local parks and beaches. "It's a huge jump in technology," raved cybergadfly Matt Drudge earlier this...
...trouble with the CoolPix P2 is that it lacks the range and battery life to effectively carry out its missions. Over the Labor Day weekend, I walked around the inside and outside of the house with the camera, for the most part getting a reasonable connection to our Wi-Fi network (a router located in my home office). But when I took the P2 and laptop out to the deck to create a live slideshow there, the camera had an awful time. OK, so Wi-Fi can be tricky, but at the same deck table both an Apple PowerBook...
...Every time the camera would lose the connection, it forgot what I was doing. I would have to wade through a bunch of menus just to get back into the photo shoot-and-transfer mode I'd been using. And after some time playing with the camera in Wi-Fi mode, certainly less than an hour, I was alerted that the battery was drained. Maybe I shouldn?t be too bothered ? after all, I was heavily testing the camera?s wireless features, which isn?t necessarily typical use. Still, it would be nice to know I could get through...
...solidly performing 5.1-megapixel camera with 3.5x optical zoom and a lot of great automatic and manual controls. (There?s also an 8-megapixel version, the CoolPix P1.) Am I saying go out and buy one? No, but stay tuned, because when the time is right, I think Wi-Fi cameras will be quite desirable...