Found this cool OLED watch on ThinkGeek. Thought it would be nice to mention it in a post here.

Anyway, the screen quality is apparently crisp and bright which is a bit surprising since the watch itself is well proportioned. It has MP3/WMA playback and 5 equalizer modes. A built-in microphone allows recording of notes. The battery is charged via USB and has a 7 hour play time (4 hours for video playback). The model is available with 2GB storage capacity.

For more info check out ThinkGeek.

Sony Ericsson has developed a phone that basically just sends text messages and handles phone calls. The Z250 is a simple phone for the not so demanding consumer. It has a camera but only with 0,3 megapixel, making it more or less a joke in comparison to other models on the market. The screen has a 128 x 160 px resolution.
It’s supposed to be launched in the third quarter. The price is yet unknown, but is expected to be low because of the scarcity of functions.

Everyday I see creative people on the internet that contribute to the community in various ways. Photoblogs is a category of websites that enhance the web through their creativity, playfulness and color. And I believe that these people (the photobloggers) deserve more attention and appreciation. I remember the good old days when most websites didn’t have pictures at all. In one of my first websites I collected animated gifs, not exactly sexy but amusing. Nowadays we can enjoy beautiful photos on private websites.

Some people talk about the ever increasing competition on the net, a phenomenon that is represented in the arena of photobloggers as well. The high competition can been critized since it makes it so much harder for amateurs to reach out to a broader public. But I think it’s a good thing since the competition force people to be innovative.

I’ve searched the net for intresting photoblogs that I believe to have quality content. Since I feel that some photobloggers deserve more attention I thought I’d list some of my findings. Here’s what I found:

1. http://www.montmartrephotoblog.org

“Montmartre is a small town on a hill in Paris. It is a corner of creative artistry and for me signifies what I want this site to be.”

“Freedom, expression, inspiration, hope, love, stories told through pictures that I love to create.”

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2. http://catherinebuca.com

“My art begins with a photograph, either digital or analogue, out of which something else grows. Photography is the medium I have chosen as the primary basis for my work, which is why I call myself a photographer. If I’m feeling particularly self-indulgent I call myself a fine art photographer.”

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3. http://paulojorgeoliveira.com

“Immortalize feelings and moments!”
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4. http://www.fotobyimran.com

“When my long-suffering hard disk gave up the ghost and crashed - I lost years of work. 5 years worth of pictures I’ll never recover vanished in a blink of an eye. With the lesson learnt, I’ve decided I should store my photos, or at least the JPEGs elsewhere. Besides, it was something I’ve been meaning to do for the longest time. So here it is my humble photoblog of sorts - fotograf by imran.”

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5. http://www.photoschau.de/index.php

A photoblog that has been nominated to a couple of awards, most recently in the genre studio and abstract photography.

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6. http://www.myphotolounge.ca

“My expectation for this photo blog is to post one picture per day showcasing my visual experiences.”

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7. http://shotzz.eu

“My name’s Paweł Swinarski, born in 1986 in Warsaw. I’m really fond of photography that is my greatest passion, however I’m an amateur. I take photos of almost everything; I cannot stay within the narrow frames of one category. Favourite subjects : places, people, animals, nature, landscapes etc.”

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8. http://www.photoflavor.com

“It’s a continually expanding and evolving collection of photos. The most recent image will always be first, and you can travel back through them chronologically. Some will be largely unprocessed, giving you a very accurate representation of what I was looking at when I took the shot. Others will be heavily processed… because it’s fun”

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9. http://www.exposuretime.com/

“Well, I live in Mississippi so that’s where most of my photos are taken. I started this site for pretty much the same reason everyone else does. It’s just down right FUN!!”

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10. http://www.davidkphotography.com/

“I started this photoblog back in November 2005 after being inspired by other blogs I visited. This site enables me to show/share my images that probably would have otherwise stayed hidden away on a CD under my desk!”

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11. http://www.look-s.de/ 

“When I started to take photographs at the age of ten with an Agfa Click-I and somebody would have told me at that time about the internet and photoblogs, even my invantile simplicity would not have been big enough to believe this. Nowadays I am not as naiv as 30 years before but every day when I am turning on my computer and it starts up without a bluescreen my facial expression is somehow like that of child which look-s at a christmas tree for the first time.”

There are and there has been numerous ways to improve traffic on your website. Recently I’ve stumbled upon a couple of sites that are giving away products in exchange for backlinks. One could question the method. I mean doesn’t it feel a bit like a bribe more than an exchange. And it’s not even a decent bribe, more like a lottery. There has also been mentioned in a thread on Digitalpoint. Some examples are:

• Cutmeinhalf - Read more about the “gift” here.
• Upstartblogger - Read more about the “gift” here.
• John Chow - Read more about the “gift” here.

I like it even if the method is a bit questionable. “All is fair in love and war”, and the battle over the traffic on the net is certainly a war. I wouldn’t use this method myself (I think), but it’s probably really effective.

Apparently the flash based video iPod has been put on ice and won’t come this year. It’s no secret that Apple has been exploring the possibility of making a flash memory video iPod, put the exact time table is not set. Some rumors has leaked out from Taiwanese memory manufacturers and consumers are getting impatient.

Engadget writes that iPhone will be released June 29th according to their source.

“The commercial just aired on 60 Minutes, and now you can finally mark your calendar and get on with your life — for the next 25 days or so, until you get in line for your spankin’ new $600 iPhone (provided you’re still willing to undergo that ugly but required two year service agreement).”

The big question for me however is when it’ll appear in the stores in Europe. I heard some rumours a long time ago that it might hit the market in november or december, but I hope that’s BS.