The easiest fix for an appliance that I've ever seen

 So I had a GE dishwasher that suddenly wouldn't fill up with water (after multiple power outages New Year's Eve and a garbage disposal dying, but that's another story).  Before trying to call an appliance repair company, I tried the following fix suggested by GE.  It worked and saved at least $100.

Google Assistant - now hearing things

 Over at least the past couple of months, the Google Assistant experience has been getting worse - where it once only responded when something was asked of it, now it is hearing things.  Even after a notification to retrain my voice and using the lowest sensitivity setting, the Google Assistant will randomly answer to try to do things.  The latest experience was just a couple of days ago - opening my garage door, I'm not talking, nobody is around me, no television or radio is playing.  Suddenly, the Google Assistant thinks I want to open up YouTube.  It's getting ridiculous.

Out With the Old Fitbit, In With the New Fitbit

My old Fitbit, which I think they call the Fitbit Classic, but looks like the Fitbit Ultra, started being problematic at least 6 months ago. Even though it had a full charge, it would randomly and suddenly not track steps and I would have to plug it back into the charger to have it work again. Once or twice I even had to press a button on the charger to get the Fitbit to "reset" itself. Then, starting in September, the Fitbit would constantly not track steps, even though plugging it into the charger would show that the Fitbit was charged. It was becoming annoying. Plus, the holster for the Fitbit had chipped off a bit a few months before hand and had a sharp edge. It was time for a new Fitbit.

A friend of mine has the Fitbit Flex, but as I already wear a watch, I really didn't want to wear more than one thing on my wrist. I could have gone with the Fitbit Zip, but was more inclined to go with the Fitbit One, as it would also track the number of stairs that I take. The sleep tracking capability really isn't important to me. I used it once on the old Fitbit, but trying to wear something on my wrist as I sleep is too annoying.

The Fitbit One has some improvements over the Fitbit Classic that I like - the charger is a shorter dongle that is much easier to pack than the old one. The holster is more of a soft rubber sort of material - similar to the OtterBox I used on my old Samsung Droid Charge phone. It can be a bit challenging to get the Fitbit completely in there at times and I wonder if the holster will become very loose to where it does not hold the Fitbit as well as it does now. Removing and reinstalling the OtterBox on my phone caused it to become looser. So far, after a month of use, I have not seen that problem.

The Fitbit One is supposed to sync via the Fitbit app for various Android phones. I haven't gotten it to work yet on my Moto X or Nexus 7, but another page (which is not easy to find) listed a problem with the Bluetooth drivers on Motorola devices and that a bug was submitted for Nexus devices. I hope this gets remedied soon, as it will be nice to sync my steps if I am away from my computer for days at a time.

Experiencing the Nissan Leaf

I was given the opportunity to use the Nissan Leaf that is in my employer's car fleet for some travel that I have to do tomorrow.  Curious as to how it would drive compared to a Toyota Prius that is also in the fleet, I went ahead and got a quick training on using it and drove it from where the fleet cars are located to the electrical charging station that we have - a short drive that is maybe a tenth of a mile.

Instead of a key, the fob that also locks and unlocks the car doors is used.  Unlike the Prius, where the fob is inserted into an ignition like you would insert a key, the fob just needs to be nearby (in my case, in one of the drink holders) and then press start.

I'm not too crazy about shifting into reverse, drive, the "eco" mode, and back to park.  Instead of a normal stick, it's more like a flattened knob that you shift to the left and then up or down, depending on what you wanted to do, which then went back into it's original position.  Setting park consists of pushing a button.  The emergency break is a small latch instead of a lever that I am used to in other cars.

Otherwise, it felt like a normal drive.  I'll have to see how I feel about it after a 6 mile round trip tomorrow.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Review

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I had been watching tablets for a while, not really committing myself to the idea of buying one for myself.  Slowly, over time, that opinion changed.  EBooks were the biggest influence of me changing that idea - I could get books through Overdrive from my library, sometimes I can find books I want cheaper in the digital format than in the paper format, and most of all, I could carry one tablet containing many eBooks instead of a few paper books while on long travels, especially by plane.  In addition, there are some nice tablet applications out there, and having something I could quickly and easily browse the Internet and check email via a wi-fi connection is a nice bonus.

I've played with an Apple iPad 2 at work, and while it is okay, I'm not really thrilled with it being so tied to iTunes.  Trying to get files onto the iPad was not as easy as it should have been.

I have Android on my smartphone and like it, so decided to go for an Android tablet.  I looked at those Android tablets that were easily available locally and that seemed to be getting favorable reviews, so I basically looked at Amazon's Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble's Nook Tablet, Samsung's Galaxy Tab series, and Asus' Transformer Prime.

While their prices were nice, I ruled out the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet pretty quickly, as I did not want to be tied down to their markets for apps, books, or media.  I wanted to shop between the various stores for the best price and did not want to go through the hassle of having to root a device to have that freedom.

The Transformer Prime was tempting for quite a while, and while the wi-fi problems made me a bit reluctant to go with it, the main reason why I did not go with it was because I did not want the weight and bulk of a 10 inch tablet.  Sometimes I like to read while eating and hold a book in my left hand.  I thought the size and weight of a 10 inch tablet would be too much.

That left things to the Galaxy Tab.  As I did not want the cost of a 3G/4G connection, that narrowed things down to the Galaxy Tab 7.0 and Galaxy Tab 8.9.  I narrowed the choice down to the Galaxy Tab 8.9 because I wanted a bit more screen size and it still felt light enough.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 has some nice things going for it - it has a nice screen, feels comfortable in my hand, and is eventually supposed to be upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich.  Disappointments from the start - no SD memory card or USB slot.

When it comes to using it, I am pleased.  Operation feels smooth and similar to my Samsung Droid Charge.  The mini task bar at the bottom allows me to select from a number of functions, but I usually just go into the Task Manager to close an application that is still running.  I look forward to see how things will be when the Galaxy Tab 8.9 gets Ice Cream Sandwich.

My biggest gripe ended up being getting my files to the tablet.  Unlike my smartphone, computers do not see the Galaxy Tab 8.9 as a USB drive; instead the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is used.  Samsung provides their Kies program for transferring files to the Galaxy Tab, but this is only available for Windows and the Mac OS.  On top of that, it limits the files you can transfer to contacts, music, photos, video, and podcasts.  Tough luck if you want to transfer eBooks you purchased outside of the Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Google Play.  Still, I tried using Kies in OS X.  The first time, Kies just wouldn't connect with the Galaxy Tab.  Later, Kies didn't see the Galaxy Tab at all.

One solution to this is to upload files from a computer to some sort of cloud storage, such as Dropbox.  In my case, I used Pogoplug.  It was not a big deal here, as there is an Android app for this solution, but if you want to transfer a large file, such as a video, this solution can take a long time.

I ended up following a solution for setting up the Galaxy Tab for file transfers under Linux.  I could not get the applications I would need on my Sabayon Linux desktop, but varied things a little for my Linux Mint laptop.  The necessary MTP applications were for the most part already installed, but I ended up using Qlix.  I connected the Galaxy Tab to my laptop, ran Qlix, it saw my Galaxy Tab, and I was able to transfer files to the Galaxy Tab quickly and easily.  Whether or not there are easy workarounds for Windows or OS X, I do not know - I didn't pursue it.

Despite the extra work to be able to transfer files easily, I am pleased with the Galaxy Tab 8.9, though it would be nice if the price was lower.  It will be interesting to see what happens to the market after the rumored Asus made Google tablet comes to the market.

Update (4/11/12) - I found a workaround for transferring files on my MacBook Pro.  As it has Bluetooth, I went into the Bluetooth section of System Preferences, paired my MacBook Pro and Galaxy Tab, then was able to transfer files via Bluetooth.  There are probably ways to do the same thing with Bluetooth on Linux and Windows machines.

Jabra Journey review

With a state law not allowing texting or talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device recently going into effect, I've been looking for such a device for my needs. The earpiece never really appealed to me, so I looked into getting a car kit to go with my Droid Charge. I ended up going with the Jabra Journey, which I purchased from Costco.

The Jabra Journey takes about 2 hours to charge. My Bluetooth experience has been limited to printers and seeing others operate earpieces, so I wondered how much difficulty there would be setting this up. As it turned out, it was not difficult at all. Upon turning on the Jabra Journey for the first time, the Jabra Journey voice walks me through getting things setup, which basically consisted of turning on my smartphone, going to the settings, and turning on Bluetooth. In only a few seconds my smartphone was paired with the Jabra Journey. When I've turned on the Jabra Journey, it indicates that it is on then lets me know when it has connected to my smartphone. If I've left my Jabra Journey on, which goes into a standby mode after 10 minutes or so, it is able to sense when I am back in the car and connects with my smartphone. One time when it woke up from standby mode it appeared to not connect to my smartphone. It went into standby mode 10 minutes later, then within a few seconds, woke back up and successfully connected to my smartphone.

The speaker for the Jabra Journey is clear and loud. The Jabra Journey does not have the ability to transmit to an FM frequency like other car kit devices go, but I don't feel too concerned about that. I may miss it if I ever take advantage of the Jabra Journey's ability to stream music from my Droid Charge, as I don't know how it will sound through the Jabra Journey's speaker, but most of the time I am listening to music on the radio or a CD.

The Jabra Journey contains the usual volume buttons and answer/end button. It also has an on/off switch, so there is no need to leave the Jabra Journey in a standby mode. The Jabra Journey is supposed to have up to 20 hours talk and 45 days standby time. The Jabra Journey has no visible indicator of how much battery charge is left, so I wonder if I will get some sort of warning through the status light, which flashes blue when paired with a cell phone and was a steady red while the Jabra Journey was charging (it went out when it was fully charged). The Jabra Journey came with a car charger but also came with an AC adapter, a nice touch that seems to be rare with other car kits. This is especially helpful for me as I am using a Droid Charge car charger and I would rather have the Jabra Journey charge up while I am at home.

The Jabra Journey's voice button is used for activating voice dialing. I never make calls while I am driving, so do not expect to use this. When I receive a call, the Jabra Journey tells me who is calling if they are in my contacts, otherwise it gives the number. It then asks me if I want to answer the call or not and it understood my command just fine.

The Jabra Journey is narrow and does not take up much room on my visor and has stayed on it just fine. I see no indication that it will eventually slip off.

I've been pleased with the Jabra Journey so far and would recommend it if you are looking for a car kit.

Review of the OtterBox Defender for the Samsung Droid Charge

With the recent purchase of my first smart phone - the Samsung Droid Charge - I wanted to make sure it was adequately protected. After looking around at the options, I went with the OtterBox Defender.

The OtterBox Defender contains a polycarbonate frame and screen protector, which is then wrapped with a silicone cover. It also contains a belt clip so you can have the phone on your waist instead of in a pocket.

I was concerned about the frame, as it covered portions of the Charge's keys on the front. While I may to position my finger just right and apply enough pressure to have a key press, it's not as bad as I was afraid it would be.

The screen protector is not noticeable at all. Interacting with the phone's screen is like the protector isn't there at all.

The silicone cover covers all buttons, ports, and keys. Space is left for the microphones, speakers, cameras, flash, and light sensor. The tabs covering the USB power/accessory port, earphone port, and HDMI port open, allowing easy access to the ports. On the back, part of the frame that surrounds the camera, flash, and speaker is exposed. This removes any resistance provided by the silicone cover, so the phone can slide around easily - for better or for worse. Plus, as the cover covers the keys, it also covers the light they give off when turned on. This hasn't proven to be a big deal for me, but may for you if you try to fumble around with the keys in low light. The silicone cover gives the phone a nice, solid feel.

I thought that I might want to use the belt clip instead of carrying the phone around in a pocket, but I have decided not to use it. Like the leather belt clip case, it can feel odd having that big of a phone on my belt, plus I already have my FitBit there. Having the phone there as well would cover my pocket and I prefer having stuff on my right side. Additionally, it was too difficult to get the phone in and out of the belt clip case that comes with the OtterBox Defender. I don't want to mess with that when I need to take a call, make a call, or do something on Android.

Another option is to go with the OtterBox Commuter, which does not come with the belt clip, but uses a film for the screen protector instead of the built in protector. Even if I knew ahead of time that I did not want the belt clip, I would still go with the Defender, as I prefer not to use a film for screen protection.

3D hurts your eyes and brain

I've wondered if my getting a headache after watching a 3D movie such as Avatar was just me or not, and now it turns out that 3D at the theater can cause visual discomfort, fatigue, and headaches. It apparently mainly happens at long distances and not things you are close to, such as monitors and smartphones.

Networked Media on the Oppo BDP-93

I've been playing around with my Oppo BDP-93 to try to get it to stream media on my network. I tried installing the Plex Media Server (Nine), but the Oppo would not see it, due to Plex Nine not supporting UPnP anymore. I then tried XBMC, which the Oppo easily discovered, but it took some work figuring out how to get the media to show up and play. Building the library did not work as nicely as Plex Nine did.

I next tried Plex Eight, as it still had UPnP support. The Oppo could see that, and I could get it to see some of the media files (the nice building of the library only came about in Nine), but the ones it could see would not play - it may have been a codec issue, as I tried different media each time.

I've been pondering different media streaming hardware, such as the Boxee Box and the LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader, but have been feeling hesitant on those. It turns out that Plex now has a Roku app so network media streaming would be possible there, as well as use the most recent Plex Media Server, so I am pondering that now. In addition, Plex just released their Plex Media Server for Linux. It's still in Beta, but I am glad they are getting there, as I would prefer to have it run on my Linux box as opposed to my Mac (where it now sits).

AT&T Internet Service, Their Router, And Security

I helped someone out with setting up their modem/wireless router for AT&T after their old one got fried. The new one was by 2Wire. I was extremely disappointed to find that the wireless router uses WEP by default. In addition, AT&T does not make it obvious on changing this, nor do they make it obvious on how to connect to the router to change settings.

It was easy enough for me to find the IP address for the router, simply by looking at the status of the network connection in Windows and looking at the IP address for the gateway. Thankfully it was easy enough to get into and work with and see that they offer WPA2. Still, AT&T should force this to be the default, not WEP.

Ironically, someone from AT&T came by my house this evening to try to get me to buy into their U-verse product. As I got home later than expected and it was too cold outside for me to want have a long conversation with them, I held back from asking about compatibility with Linux, what wireless encryption their router uses by default, and going into how dangerous their DSL router default settings are. Aside from those arguments, I don't watch much television, and when I do, it usually ends up being British. There's also not enough of a speed and price difference for me to leave the local ISP I get my service from (which they never heard of, despite being the largest local ISP in the area). And switching ISPs feels like too much of a pain - like moving.

The Death of a Video Card

It all started out on Halloween, of all days. My dual monitor setup would quickly blink on and off, eventually getting graphical glitches all over the screen, particularly when I was moving my mouse cursor around, opening programs, and moving windows. The system was becoming unusable quickly - but was it a hardware problem or a software problem?

I tried loading a Kubuntu live CD. I would get the blinking, but not the glitches. I tried upgrading the Nvidia drivers and XOrg. There was no difference, so that left it to the video card (an EVGA GeForce 8500 GT) or potentially the motherboard.

I purchased a new video card, but was hoping to find another one to test and verify if it was the video card before opening the package in case I needed to return it. Thankfully, a friend had one, but I could not get it to work. My monitors would detect a signal, but would not show anything.

At that point, a closer look at the EVGA video card brought attention to one of the capacitors, which had bulged and burst, pictured in this post. I plugged in the video card I purchased, and things were running again.

The EVGA video card ran my system for about 3.5 years. It's the first time I've had a video card fail on me.

Fitbit Review

I've used regular pedometers in the past and once I heard about the Fitbit, probably a year before it was released, I was extremely interested in getting one.

The Fitbit uses a technology similar to what you find in a Nintendo Wii to track how many steps you take. Once you are in range of the charging station, which also doubles as a receiver for grabbing the number of steps you've taken from the Fitbit as well as information on how much battery charge is left. The data is then uploaded to Fitbit's own site, where it keeps track of your steps and determines the number of calories you've burned. Additionally, the Fitbit site can be used to also track your calorie intake and has a database of a number of foods. For what it doesn't have, you can enter manually and have it available for you to use in the future. If it is something you eat pretty often, you can mark it as a favorite and have it available on a side menu instead of having to search for it each time. You can also enter activities such as running and bicycling or select an activity from their database. The site also indicates how much power is left in your Fitbit and can be used to track your weight, mood, and various other indicators that may or may not be important to you. The Fitbit site can be used for free without the purchase of a Fitbit and there is also a premium version of the site where you can track more data, but I do not use it.

The Fitbit can also be used to track your sleep. Included is a cloth wrist wrap with velcro that contains a sleeve for the Fitbit. When put into sleep mode, the Fitbit then tracks how restful your sleep is. I used this functionality only once. I don't care for having something on my wrist while I am trying to sleep and the Fitbit eventually fell out of the sleeve. I usually have a good, deep sleep so this information is not important to me.

I found the Fitbit accurate, reporting the same amount of steps that I normally got with a regular pedometer. I don't wear it when riding a stationary bike, lifting weights, or working out with a kettlebell (which, sadly, is not in Fitbit's activity database) and instead keep track of how long I did the activity, and in the case of the stationary bike, what distance I went. The holster you can place the Fitbit in and attach to a belt (or some other kind of clothing) works well, though can be annoying when it rubs against skin.

Be wary of using the Fitbit site to monitor how much battery charge is left in the Fitbit. It records full for a bit after fully charging the Fitbit, but then tends to stay at a status of high, even when it may not reflect reality. I had one morning where the Fitbit site indicated a high battery charge status, but the Fitbit ended running out of power 5 hours later. The Fitbit runs for about 5 days on a full charge, so I would expect a status of medium about 2.5 days later and a status of low when there is about 1 day left. As a further example, the Fitbit site recorded a high battery charge status, but when I plugged the Fitbit into the charging station, the Fitbit indicator (which can also show steps when you push the Fitbit's button) showed 1 bar of battery power left. I'll end up putting a calendar reminder every 5 days to charge the Fitbit.

Overall, I am pleased with the Fitbit and look forward to using it as a weapon in the battle against the bulge.

Is Your Router at Risk?

Apparently there will be a session at the Black Hat Conference this month entitled "How to Hack Millions of Routers". Forbes lists the routers that have been tested and goes into a little bit more detail about the hack. Notebooks.com talks about this story and offers tips for securing your router, but it should be noted that these are generic security measures and will not necessarily protect you from the hack.

Drobo in a Linux and Mac Environment

I purchased a Drobo (without Droboshare, the add-on network capability, as I've seen reports of it being slow and the price is a bit much for what it does) with the intent of backing up the music and various documents on my Linux box as well as photos and video that I've taken and have on my Mac. It's very quiet and seems to work well, once I worked through various things to get it working on my Gentoo box. It worked fine on my Kubuntu laptop.

Drobo Dashboard, that software that comes with the Drobo, only works on Windows and OS X, so I installed it on my Mac. Drobo Dashboard only allowed formatting in NTFS, HFS+, and FAT32. EXT3 is only an allowable option with Droboshare, The Drobo website does point out Drobo-Utils, the Linux equivalent of the Drobo Dashboard, which does allow formatting in EXT3, so I installed that on my Kubuntu box and formatted the Drobo (I purchased 2 Western Digital 500 GB drives separately) for 2 TB. While it could go higher, the Drobo website mentions a limit of 2 TB, and I did not want to go beyond something that is known to work fine.

From there, I learned about using MacFUSE and fuse-ext2 on OS X to mount EXT3 partitions. I followed those instructions only to find out that the binary mounts the partition as read-only. Writing to the partition is in beta and would require changing a parameter in the source code and compiling it to get that capability. I really did not want to go that direction, so decided to look at formatting Drobo with HFS+.

I had difficulty getting the drive the mount in Gentoo. I already had HFS+ support compiled in the kernel, but found out that I needed to have advanced partition selection, EFI GUID partition support, and support for Large Block Devices enabled in the kernel. 64 bit apparently already has the Large Block Devices support enabled by default. I just had to enable the other two. Things worked fine after that. I plug in the Drobo and KDE finds it just like it does a flash drive. At this time, however, HFS+ support does not work for sizes greater than 2 TB. That's not an issue for me right now.

The iPhone: Not Necessarily For Work

I had my first hands on experience with the iPhone yesterday, setting one up for someone at work, and I have to admit that for what time I have spent with it, I am not impressed.

First of all, the requirement of having iTunes installed on a computer, and then connecting the iPhone to the computer to be able to use the phone functionality is ridiculous. iTunes installation is blocked at work and I doubt that it is that unusual in the workplace.

Second, the keys on the iPhone were not always responsive to my touch. And when it was, once in a while it would press the incorrect key.

Third, not all of the functionality is as intuitive as it should be. Pressing the phone button was unresponsive or cause all icons on the screen to shake...no phone pad to dial a number to call was in sight. Phone functionality should not be that difficult to find or use.

I have no desire for any kind of "smartphone", but even if I did, this experience would turn me away from going with the iPhone.

Experience with the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 on Linux

I recently purchased the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 to replace a very old 3Com HomeConnect webcam. I received the July 2008 version of the webcam, of which I was disappointed and surprised about considering that I purchased this in August 2009. This version apparently has some incompatibilties with many host controllers on Linux, so your experience may vary.

The install was simple enough. I compiled UVC support into the kernel, rebooted, and my camera was detected. The image quality is great - I am really pleased with it. When it comes to using it with applications, however, I have mixed results.

• Skype - works fine


• Cheese - Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. The colors seem a bit off.


• Camorama - Fails to connect to the device. I think this is more a problem with the program than the webcam.


• Luvcview - Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. The colors seem a bit off. This is not marked as stable in Gentoo and the program showed errors while trying to adjust settings.


• Kopete - Works fine. I was able to adjust setting for the webcam here.


• Flash - Webcam crashes a few seconds after starting it. This appears to be specific to Flash on Linux, as I had the same problem on my Kubuntu laptop. I plugged the webcam into my Powerbook G4 running OS X and it worked fine there.

I hope to try it in Pidgin 2.6.1 or higher once it becomes stable to see how well it works there. I rarely use a microphone so have not tested it's functionality yet. I'm disappointed with the problems I'm seeing in Flash and hope future updates to Flash and/or the UVC drivers fix this.

Is my DSL Modem Dying?

For the past couple of days my connection would be slow to connect to sites and downloads. Once a download started, however, the download speed was fine. I rebooted my DSL modem and it appears to have fixed the problem. But my modem is six years old. I'll have to see if it starts having this problem often, like I did with my old router before it slowed my connection down.

Invisible flash

New Scientist has an article about invisible flash, which is a use of infrared and ultraviolet light to come up with a picture similar to a regular flash, but without the flare.

The photos in the article are interesting to see, though I would like to see exactly what they are doing with their software to get this to work. It sounds more complex than it probably is.

Fitbit - pedometers meet modern technology

The Fitbit is a pedometer with motion sensing technology similar to what is found on the Nintendo Wii.

It goes beyond the typical pedometer in a few ways:

• Wear it while you sleep to detect REM tremors and determine how long it takes to fall asleep, how often you wake up, etc.


• Rechargeable.


• Wireless - transfer information to the software and get more detailed information on their site.

It looks very interesting, but I do have a few questions that are not answered. It mentions OS X support (and Windows XP/Vista), but which version? Tiger and above? Leopard only? And is it a universal binary or Intel only?

Update (September 22, 2008): I emailed Fitbit and, according to them, "At launch, it will be Leopard / Intel. We are limited by driver support provided by our USB chip manufacturer."

Mini Canon PowerShot SD890 IS review

Canon PowerShot SD890 IS

Jun 11, 2008 by Steveproduct

Canon PowerShot SD890 IS

4 out of 5 stars
When I decided to purchase another camera (having an old Kodak DC3400 that collects dust, a Canon Powershot G6, and a Canon Digital Rebel XT), the Vapor's song "Turning Japanese" goes through my head as well as the scene from Airplane where the Japanese tourist falls over from having too many cameras hanging around his neck.

My decision to buy a camera was not just for the sake of buying a camera, though. The main reason was to have a camera that I could take with me wherever I go. I did not want to carry a camera bag or wear the camera around my neck all of the time. I ended up going with the Canon PowerShot SD890IS. I went with it because:

• It is small enough to fit into my pocket.


• I can access Manual mode through a dial and not layers of menus.


• It has an eye view - other models did not have this and I did not want to rely on an LCD screen, especially in brightly lit places.


• It has a rechargeable battery.

I also wanted a good resolution, but it was not that important, as I am using this camera so I do not have those moments where I come across something and wish that I had a camera with me. For any planned, important images, I will take my Digital Rebel XT or my Powershot G6 (only if I do not want to bring the Digital Rebel XT for some reason).

I have not liked how my shots with flash in low light settings have turned out, but I chalk that up to my lack of experience with flash photography. The main thing that bugs me about this camera is the power button - it is tiny, difficult to press at times, and has to be pressed at the right angle for the camera to actually turn on or off.