Blackberry Bold 9000

I just got a Blackberry Bold 9000 because I need to test using it for a project. I'm upgrading from a Curve 8310 unit. My curve already has GPS and 2 megapixel camera/camcorder with LED flash. The Bold adds WiFi and 3G support. The keyboard is also better. The keys are larger and feel more solid. The MicroSD slot has been moved from inside under the battery, which is the stupidest place to put a memory card slot to an outside external slot with cover. The screen was the biggest upgrade. The curve was a 320x240 screen. The Bold is 480x320 screen which is the same as iPhone. But physical size is smaller, because the bottom half is physical keyboard. The internal memory went from Curve's 64mb to Bold's 1GB. This is a big deal on Blackberry. Since you can't store apps/SMS/MMS/Email on external memory card. I was always uninstalling apps on the Curve to make room. The browser still sucks. But the email is much improved. I can now view html email. Word/Excel/Powerpoint docs can now be opened directly using Docs To Go both for viewing and editing. The media player also saw some improvement.Though I can't believe there is no way to download podcast on Blackberry still. Even if I use the browser to download the mp3 directly, it just dies with error "file too large". The phone's build quality is also better. Curve was pretty much completely plastic. The Bold is metal top with plastic backing, just like iPhone. Thanks to the doubling of the CPU speed, both the UI and the apps are far more responsive. I don't feel the lag that I feel sometimes with Curve. The IM support is as good as Curve before. I installed client for Yahoo IM, AIM, and Google Talk. I don't really use MSN Messenger or ICQ. Starting with Bold, it also looks like I can add Chinese/Japanese/Korean support. I'll have to try that. Since I regularly get email in Japanese and Chinese, iPhone's UTF support has been a god send. All in all, a solid upgrade. Blackberry Curve was my 2nd favorite phone next to iPhone. Bold now replaces it as my second favorite phone.

New Camera #1: Nikon D300

I have been a Canon fanboy for a very long time. The week after Thanksgiving, I switched to vendor neutral. I got a Nikon D300 with the 18-200 VR lens. It's a very complicated camera with very steep learning curve. Especially since I'm used to the "Canon way". It took a while, and reading the manual from beginning to the end, page by page. But I'm happy to say now I know what every button does, and where every menu item is. I was surprised how heavy the camera is. Just the body with no battery or memory card is 1.8lbs. It feels heavy and massive. Why did I pick D300? Two reasons. 1: 51 point autofocus system which also tracking the focus target in 3d. 2: Low light performance that is the best in non-full frame camera. I'm constantly amazed how I can take pictures in very bad available light situations. I've also gotten a couple of lens to experiment with it. I got the 50mm 1.4 prime, and 85mm 1.8 prime. Very happy with the results so far. Here are more photos. And here is the camera in all its glory.