Pixel Nation

My fascination with pixelating the world kicked into full gear this week as I went to reclaim my Canon Elura 50 from my sister, who had borrowed it about a year ago. (I’d almost forgotten about it; can you imagine?) It’s an excellent little camcorder that I plan on taking with me on my trip to Maine at the end of the month, but I may make a few movies before then, just to get used to the thing.

Aside from the Elura, I’ve got several other little tech candies that pique my excitement. For instance, my Ericsson phone, which I’ve had for about 8 months now and has been surprisingly tough, and our new Envision 32-inch HDTV, which I watch all my movies on. Then, there’s my favorite gadget of them all: my handy-dandy Cybershot camera. I’ve been using Cybershots since a time when clunky 3.1 megapixel models were cutting edge, recently upgrading to my current slim W30 after my own aforementioned clunker was stolen from my dorm during my summer semester in Prague last year. (Best not to relive those memories…) I take it everywhere with me now, because I never seem to have it around when the leprechauns attack.

While all these things are relatively new and great for me, what is current always pales in comparison with what just came out 2 weeks ago. Or, heck, even 2 months ago. Last night I was browsing the pages of engadget and AkihabaraNews with envy, curiosity and, at times, confusion. We know by now that not every new item on the block is all it’s cracked up to be. Some items, like this Seiko bluetooth watch, are more apparently flawed than others. If you watch the video in the provided link, you’ll get a better idea of how huge it is. They look like shackles on that poor woman. Despite appearances and hype, these items are more evolutionary than revolutionary, adding to the progression of technology but not really opening up new branches of research.

Don’t get me wrong, upgrading an old concept to make it better is great in most cases. In fact, I think we’ve come to appreciate the practice of improving technology more than innovating new ones, maybe because we have so many modern conveniences already, or possibly because the markets have been infected by Obsessive Branding Disorder. Either way, cars are becoming more eco-friendly, electronics are becoming easier and more enjoyable to use, and everything seems to be getting smaller. Take this Sanyo Xacti, for instance, which has great picture quality and is maybe a third the size of my Elura.

Then there are other things like the advent of retrotech keeping us younguns enamored of flashy old-looking stuff (all the better if it’s been popularized by anime) and copycats to keep groundbreaking technologies at bay. But I’m not complaining; I’m hardly done with enjoying what I’ve already got, much less ready to explore the possibilities of what’s coming out tomorrow. Plus, I’m pretty sure that I’m not ready to buy into a new God Machine, no matter how spectacular it is. My beloved phone and cameras would become so lonely…

-Ray