HD pocket-sized camcorders abound these days, but this one called the Kodak Playsport excels not just on land – but up to 3 meters underwater. More keen on a swim than a mere splash, this full 1080p HD shooter is ready for your next wet-and-wild weekend – with fun-in-the-sun included thanks to a glare-reducing 2-inch LCD. Snap the scenery with 16:9 widescreen 5MP stills, catch the fishes unawares with the 4x digital zoom and save everything on up to 32 gigs of removable storage that won’t suddenly decide to retire early. Available now from Firebox.com, you can capture a Kodak Playsport of your own for $185 | £130 | €151.

Kodak have unveiled their latest Zi8 pocket camcorder which features Full-HD 1080p recording, 5MP 16:9 widescreen stills, an SD / SDHC card slot and electronic image stabilization.

The Zi8 will go head-to-head with the likes of the popular Flip Ultra HD, Creative Vado HD and the more recent and similarly spec’d Samsung HMX-U10.

Recording 1920 x 1080px Full-HD video at 30fps, the Zi8 also includes a 4x digital zoom from its 6.3mm f/2.8 fixed focus lens, a 2.5-inch LCD and an external microphone jack for stereo sound. There’s 128MB of internal memory and unlike all but the HMX-U10, accepts SD / SDHC cards so you can swap out your storage media for longer recordings. Like the Flip, the Zi8 also sports a swing-out USB arm for charging and uploads, but offers up a little more flexibility with a removable battery and a charging adapter and cable in the box.

Including the obligatory one-touch Facebook and YouTube uploads and with a battery that will get you up to 10 hours of recording, the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Camcorder is available now on pre-order from Amazon.com for $179.95 in either raspberry, aqua or black. Shipping will commence on September 1st.

Sources:
Kodak and Amazon.com
Via: Gizmag

Kodak announced its impressive, but expensive, world’s first consumer-level OLED photo frame back on September 17th. We now have a couple of video reviews of this little marvel (one from CNET below), giving us a better look at the 7.6-inch OLED display and its touch-sensitive border.

CNET calls the high-end panel a “vanity piece” with its $1000 price tag. For this you get 800 x 480 pixel resolution with a 30,000:1 contrast ratio. The digital photo frame packs plenty of connectivity with WiFi access to your PC, as well as Flickr and Kodak’s photo sharing service, a USB and miniUSB port, an SD card slot as well as audio-in and out for video playback.

Mac users seem to have been overlooked a little; being limited to USB, SD and Kodak’s online gallery, but you can still get plenty of functionality out of these options.

Note that there is no remote and only the “frame around the frame” is touch sensitive, not the screen itself – though the navigation still looks pretty slick. It comes with 2GB of internal memory which can be expanded via your choice of SD card capacities.

For another video that got in a little earlier than CNET, check out The Gadget Show. If Kodak had managed to curve the display like AUO, then maybe the price would be justified.

UPDATE:
Kodak’s OLED frame is now available through Amazon.com for $883.69.

Sources:
YouTube and Engadget

Motorola has announced its new MOTOZINE ZN5 handset which, through a partnership with Kodak, includes a 5 megapixel camera, xenon flash, image stitching and full integration with Kodak Gallery.

The candybar style handset includes WiFi connectivity on top of support for quad-band GSM and EDGE networks.

It includes Motorola’s CrystalTalk Technology to improve the clarity of voice communications even in noisy environments.

Photos can be transferred to computer by WiFi, Bluetooth or USB and can also be printed directly and wirelessly at Kodak kiosks or with Kodak all-in-one Bluetooth printers.

From the press release it doesn’t look like this handset is set to compete with the recent announcements of Bio-Plastic or Waterproof handsets.

Motorola will kick-start the launch in China next month and will introduce the new model to the rest of the world throughout the remainder of 2008.

Sources:
Engadget
Motorola Press Release