is

It's never a good sign when you have to consult a program's Help file just to get started, but that's what we had to do with WhereIsIt, a tool designed to organize your hard disk and media collections.

WhereIsIt actually has an attractive user interface that resembles MS Office programs. Tabs running across the top of the interface contain commands for adding disk drives, modifying drive properties and settings, and searching drives. A tabbed sidebar on the left lists catalogs and tags, and a large panel on the right displays the contents of those catalogs. The program … Read more

It seems like creative shooting modes are popular on this year's compact cameras. For example, though Canon has long given its cameras controls for playing with colors, this year it's just gone and added a handful of simple point-and-shoot options for getting more unusual results. One of them, Miniature Effect, applies a selective focus to scenes making full-size, real-life subjects look like miniature models.

The effect is similar to tilt-shift photography. (Here are some great examples.) Canon doesn't call it that, though, probably because those words don't mean much to most snapshot photographers and because it'… Read more

Yasu is a free utility that gives you a very simple interface for running system-level maintenance tasks. It is not a feature-filled system-optimization app, but rather a one-stop shop for executing Unix shell scripts that you would otherwise have to run manually through Terminal (or through some other maintenance app).

The interface is a bare-bones window with check boxes for 24 different tasks, everything from cache- and log-clearing to the Mac's "cron" scripts (which are otherwise executed automatically daily, weekly, and monthly). Yasu--which stands for Yet Another System Utility--recognizes that many system utilities offer an often bewildering … Read more

What's purple and can see things a long way away? Give up? It's the Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, of course. The SX210 packs a 14x optical zoom in a compact camera frame, but doesn't make for very good jokes.

Not to be confused with the Canon's own IXUS 210, the SX210 is the follow-up to the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS. It's a more rounded piece of work, adding an undulating silver trim, although it loses the SX200's signature bent hand grip. It comes in this fetching purple, hideous gold, or boring black.

Read more … Read more

AT&T raised the stakes in the fight for the world's toughest phone Wednesday when it announced the new A25is from Airo Wireless. Billed as the word's first "intrinsically safe" smartphone, the A25is won't produce a spark so it's built for people working in potentially explosive environments like process and chemical manufacturing, petrochemicals, the military, utilities, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods manufacturing.

Like the ultra-rugged Sonim XP3 Quest, the candy bar A25is isn't a looker, but it's certified to military specifications for durability. Among other things, Airo promises that it can … Read more

There was a lot of automotive eye candy and information to take in at the recent 2010 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Arena in Detroit, and yesterday's highlight reel clip from Inside Line barely scratched the surface on covering all the exciting new automobiles potentially on the make both domestic and international. Today, I bring you another quality video from Inside Line, but this time we focus on BMW's stand from this year's Detroit auto show and a few of the more interesting cars that the German luxury vehicle manufacturer brought stateside for this big … Read more

Last week, we showed you Toyota's FT-86 G Sport concept and highlighted a very cool feature called "GPS-track day" that allows users to playback GPS replays from a real life racetrack session on their copy of Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. Polyphony Digital, maker of the Gran Turismo franchise, has released even more information about the system and a demo video. As it turns out, there's more to it than just GPS positioning.

The proper name for the "GPS-track day" feature is Gran Turismo Data Logger Visualization. When an appropriately equipped car is … Read more

Canon's A-series PowerShots have a lot of fans because, along with good photo quality, they're reasonably priced, run on AA-size batteries, and occasionally have optical viewfinders. The A3100 IS and A3000 IS won't please these fans.

The lack of optical viewfinders isn't shocking; they're all but extinct. And the price, well, I'll get to that later on. But Canon scrapped AA batteries on these two, opting for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries to keep the size down. I'm not sure why you wouldn't just go with one of its Digital Elphs.

The cameras are … Read more

After giving away a $500 gift certificate a couple of weeks ago, newegg.com is back to provide a sweet little prize today, the Canon PowerShot SD940 IS digital camera.

Josh Goldman, CNET's point-and-shoot professor, says in his review that, "[a]ll things considered, the SD940 IS is one of the best ultracompacts available." (Read the full review).

In case you don't know what Newegg.com is, it made its name selling computer gear and accessories at really low prices. But now it sells not only computer stuff but tons of electronics, so you're looking … Read more