Windows Phone Thoughts: Checking Out This Fall's Gadgets: Pepcom's Holiday Spectacular Press Event

Figure 41: Canon EOS 20D

Canon was up next, much to Suhit's delight. After being amazed by the Nikon D2X, he was looking forward to some Canon relief. :) The Canon representative just smiled when he asked for information on the EOS 1Ds Mark II. But they did have the EOS 20D (the successor to the 10D) on display.


Figure 42: EOS 10D (left) vs. EOS 20D (right)

As most of you (at least most on DMT) know, Suhit has the EOS 10D (most of the pictures in this article have been shot with it), and we got to take good comparison shots of the two cameras. As you can tell they look very similar.


Figure 43: EOS 10D (left) vs. EOS 20D (right)

The 20D is wider than the 10D, but is thinner and much lighter. It has 9 AF points and is much faster than its predecessor, both in focusing as well as in taking pictures.


Figure 44: EOS 10D (left) vs. EOS 20D (right)

The 20D improves over the 10D with an 8.2MP sensor but the interface and the controls seem identical. Unsurprisingly, Canon said 'NO' to Suhit's request to swap his for a new 20D. :P


Figure 45: Rio Carbon

What an incredibly sexy gadget! Suhit thinks that it puts the iPod mini to shame. It is very tiny, with a clear, very readable display. The obvious criticism is the interface since the iPod mini has the scroll wheel, but the Rio Carbon was quite easy to navigate with its own thumbwheel in the corner. Janak concurs -- the device is very comfortable to hold in the hand, the only nit is that the display isn't as big and the UI as convenient as the Mini.


Figure 46: Rio Carbon with iPod (3rd gen.) and iRiver iHP-140

We placed the Rio Carbon side by side with Janak's iPod (3rd generation 30GB) and Suhit's iRiver iHP-140 and there is no question about the fact that it is much smaller, much lighter. Of course, it's only 5GB.


Figure 47: Rio Carbon with iPod (3rd gen.) and iRiver iHP-140

Another shot of the three devices to show just how small the Rio Carbon really is. For those who don't know, the Rio Carbon is a 5GB MP3 player in the $250 price range, ergo direct competitor the the iPod Mini.


Figure 48: Rio Forge

The brand new Rio Forge was on display. It's an MP3 player available in 128MB, 256MB and 512MB formats. It too is very small, very pager like, and extremely light. It seems like a perfect device for gym-goers.


Figure 49: Rio Karma

The 20GB Rio Karma completed the different Rio players on display. This is a device we have seen for many months now, and the design looks just as weird in person as it is in those pictures that you have all seen. When asked if that will be worked on, we seemed to get the impression that Rio will be doing something different in the next revision, but they refused to elaborate on "future product offerings".


Figure 50: Rio Carbon packaging

We've talked many times about how Apple really concentrates on the UI and the look and feel of a device. One thing that's often overlooked is the packaging -- Apple's is particularly easy to open and navigate. Sadly, both the iRiver (and now the Rio) use difficult-to-open plastic packaging. Ugh!


Figure 51: Rio Karma and Carbon

A final shot of the Karma and the Carbon, side-by-side.