We’ve just traveled to Atlanta for about a week to see family and friends and we’re staying at a Crowne Plaza hotel. As far as hotels go they’re not that bad when it comes to Internet connections; they have free wired Internet in all the guest rooms and free Wi-Fi in most public areas. However, we have two MacBooks so what do we do in our room?

Apple Airport Express to the rescue!

From previous trips we’ve got it set up already and usually we just plug it in and it works. Sometimes we have to change some setting on it to get it to work but not this time. Once connected it gives us Wi-Fi for our two Macs, iPhones, and more.

I recall once in Salalah, Oman, where they charged for the wired Internet connection in the room per computer but you had to accept the charges using Internet Explorer, as the instructions read. We plugged in our Airport Express, never had to accept any charges, and when we checked out they had no record of any Internet usage so we didn’t have to pay. Way to go!

Of course more and more hotels now have Wi-Fi everywhere, which is great. However, I don’t foresee us not bringing the Airport Express on our trips for many years to come.

Panasonic’s strategy for Viera has three prongs: a move from conventional (watching) to multifunctional (use), ecologically oriented products (all Viera TVs are lead and mercury-free), and largest variety of flat-panel TV sets. In the segment of flat-panel TVs over 37-inches in size, Panasonics aims to be the market leader with 25% market share. In their expansion plans, a Panasonic executive said at the event, Middle East is the most important “emerging market” for electronics company.

Panasonic’s VIERA range of TVs, established in 2004, derives its name from condensing “VIsual ERA”.

Recently Sony launched their Bravia WE5 line of TVs in the Middle East. The WE5, Sony claims, is the “world’s first eco-friendly LCD TV” and it’s capable of reducing the energy consumption of a regular household by AED100 per year by its energy-saving features.

Mr. Mohamed Abu Issa, Managing Director, Grand Stores

Grand Stores and Nikon launched the Nikon D3X Digital Single Reflex Camera (DSLR) at event in Dubai tonight. The D3X is Nikon’s flagship professional camera, featuring 24.5 megapixels (6048×4032 pixels), 12 or 14 bit digital conversion, 51 point autofocus system, top speed of 5 frames per second continuous shooting (up to 130 frames), ISO100-1600 (can be extended to 50-6400), a 3-inch LCD display with LiveView functionality, magnesium-alloy construction with weather sealing, and a shutter release time lag of 0.04 seconds. All in all the D3X is clearly built for professionals demanding the highest in quality and functionality of their camera. Retail price for the Nikon D3X is AED32999 and it is offered a special introductory price of AED29999.

Together with the D3X, Grand Stores announced the Grand Stores Professional Services program GSPS, aiming to give improved service to professional photographers who buy their Nikon equipment from Grand Stores. Provided that the photographer buys his or her equipment from Grand Stores they’re eligible for membership in the GSPS. Once a member they will qualify for discounts on purchases and other benefits. Grand Stores is also establishing a trade-up program as a part of the GSPS, which should help professionals stay current with technology.

We’re hoping to be able to bring you a review of the D3X shortly.

Personally I usually don’t like seeing ads online and particularly in RSS feeds. Especially the RSS feed ad is an experiment and we’ll see how it works out before we make a final judgement about whether to keep it. But we know that advertising money is moving online as advertisers find, correctly or not, that it’s more cost effective to advertise online.

Let's hope it won't turn out looking like this

I read yesterday somewhere that online advertising in the US contracted over the recent period. Now I can’t find the reference for that but it seems to make sense. Advertising in our region is also going through some tough times as companies are cutting back on advertising spending when revenues decline.

There is still advertising spending going on although it might not be as much as before. We’re seeing progress when it comes to Shufflegazine and we will continue to bring you the only Apple lifestyle magazine in the Middle East.

In print I think it’s different than online. Take newspapers, for example. Today I read through newspapers to a large extent to see the ads, not so much for the stories. We hear from Shufflegazine readers too that they like seeing ads in the magazine. Not too many ads perhaps but ads nonetheless.

We will see how this experiment unfolds. How effective ads are and what readers think is something we’ll certain keep close attention to.

BMW, the company behind the MINI brand of small cars, has launched an initiative in the form of a web site at MINIspace.com. BMW writes in the press release that “the website provides an inspiring framework for like-minded people to share and celebrate their creativity via competitions, projects, parties and events.”

The site is full of displays of art projects, competitions, information about events and more. You can sign up for membership in the site and be able to submit your work in competitions and get invitations to BMW/MINI events.

The competitions focus on how to use space creatively and members will be able to submit photos and other types of graphics for consideration. If successful, your work could be shown in the web site for the world to see.

Now go to your Mac, fire up whatever software you use to be creative and create something around the “creative use of space” idea.

Nokia N97, it’s not bad but it’s no iPhone. No doubt a lot of people will buy the N97 but there are better alternatives out there for most of them.

We hope you enjoy it. Please let us know any feedback.

USB connector types, Micro USB on the far left.

According to Reuters, Apple has joined other mobile phone manufactures in backing a European Union initiative to standardize mobile phone charger connections to the Micro USB connector type. Under the agreement, phones compatible with the standard connections will be available in Europe starting next year. Apple is joined in this effort by Nokia, Sony Ericson, Motorola, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.

This should be good news for mobile phone users as once fully implemented we need no longer worry about what type of plug our particular mobile phone accepts when the battery has run flat.

We’ve been buying as well as selling on eBay so we have both sides of the perspective. It used to be that there were just auctions, a transaction where interested buyers put in increasingly higher bids until the time runs out and whoever has the highest bid wins and buys the item. Now there are more and more fixed price transactions, which we can’t call auctions, and that is drowning out the auctions, I think. It seems to me that eBay, in a rush to be more than they were, to make more money, is killing off the very thing that made them successful.

But I wanted to tell you that you can still find a bargain on eBay if you try. Recently I bought a couple of lenses and they’ve arrived safe and sound in Dubai and I saved about 50% compared to buying them new in US and even more compared to prices in Dubai. They are used and there is no warranty but that’s a significant saving.

If you want to buy on eBay it’s not complicated. Sign up for a free account and start bidding. The tricky thing for us in the Middle East is payment: how do we pay for the items? Even before eBay bought Paypal some years ago it was the dominating way to pay for auctions and it’s even more so today. So go to Paypal and get an account, add your credit card and make sure you verify your credit card. This means Paypal makes a small charge to your card with a code and you have to enter that code into the Paypal web site to verify that it’s your card. This is important.

Also sign up for an ARAMEX Shop and Ship box in the US. This cost a bit of money, not much, but since a lot of sellers on eBay only ship within the US it enables you to bid in a lot more of them. And even with the added ARAMEX shipping you can save a lot of money. Then you add the ARAMEX Shop and Ship US address as your confirmed Paypal address. This is also important since many sellers say they will only ship to your confirmed address.

If you can this will also help: set your ARAMEX Shop and Ship US address as your billing address in Paypal. You may have to call your credit card company to make this happen and then enter it into Paypal. Some sellers on eBay say they will only ship to the Paypal billing address. If you do all that, you’re covered for pretty much anything on eBay.

Buying items on eBay is easy but here are some things to look out for:

• Check item specifications and prices elsewhere online. For photography items I always check prices at BHPhotovideo.com and Amazon.com to see how much they cost there. That’ll give you a good indication of what you should pay on eBay.
• Check reviews online, they can help you figure out what questions to ask about an item. For example, if a particular Mac model often has a problem with the fans, then make sure the auction mentions this or that you ask that question of the seller.
• Item descriptions and photos should be detailed. If an item has a blemish like a scratch then make sure there are photos showing that.
• Assume that whatever condition the item is in when it arrives with you, there is no return or money back. Once you win and pay it’s a done deal.
• Ask questions before you bid. Most sellers are very accommodating when it comes to answering questions.
• Look out for sellers writing “US Paypal only” or something similar in the auction. That means they will not accept your Paypal payment so you have to pay them in a different way, if they accept that, or move on to the next auction. Western Union money transfers are accepted by many sellers but it’s a good idea to ask them first since most of them will not list it as acceptable payment method in the auction.
• The best bargains are to be made on the auctions but you can also find good deals with “Buy it now” items. Those are items where the seller has set a fixed price and if you accept it you can buy the item right away without having to wait for the auction to finish.
• Once a transaction is concluded, leave feedback. It’s an important part of eBay for sellers and buyers to leave feedback about each other so that others can judge for themselves whether they want to enter into a transaction with them.
• Look out for padded shipping prices. I’ve seen sellers charging $50 in shipping and handling for an item that they put in a small padded envelope. It’s common practice to pad a price of an item a bit by charging higher shipping and handling fee and I’m okay with that within reason. Make a judgment for yourself whether the fee charged is okay before you bid.
• You have to be patient. This is something I’m not good at but it pays to be patient and wait out those auctions. Perhaps this means a week or longer before it closes but that’s what it takes.
• Finally, have fun! If you need something quickly and badly enough buy it locally or through a regular online merchant. A site like eBay is a compliment to regular channels and to rely on it for things you absolutely have to have is perhaps not a good idea. Have fun with it and you can find a rare item and perhaps save some money in doing it.

I currently have a 16GB Kingston SD card that I use mainly in my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, which is a 10 megapixel camera. Even after shooting for quite a while on highest-quality JPG setting, it says there is room for more than 3500 shots. I don’t really need the speed of this card necessarily but it would be nice to have the capacity. Once it’s available in the market and we know about the price I’ll make a decision about getting it. Currently, other 32GB SD cards are available on Amazon.com for about $90-100.