Many of us are used to reading greenwash from manufacturers without actually seeing it transformed into action.  Something real.  We're not saying nothing's happening, just that there could be a whole lot more.  

Korean manufacturer Samsung has recently announced a large publicity campaign that will be launched in the United States in October to encourage consumers to recycle unwanted or faulty equipment supplied by the brand.
The initiative, Samsung Recycling Direct, will also accept products from other manufacturers for a fee based on the weight of the item to be recycled.

Collection Centers in every State

To make its' customers' lives easier and to cut down on the number of middle-men, Samsung plans to open Collection Centers across the country.  The choice of partners for the program has been particularly strict, according to the manufacturer, because all of the equipment collected will be correctly recycled.

And ensuring that the waste is correctly treated without any nasty surprises is the next big challenge for the manufacturer.

Samsung hid the identity of the screens on show

One surprise from Berlin's IFA came during a meeting with two representatives from Korean manufacturer Samsung, who told us that their screen with a 1 ms response time won't be launched before the end of the year as had previously been announced. 

In fact, they do not foresee the product ever receiving an official launch, because they no longer intend to use response times as a measurement of the quality of their monitors.

This change has been brought about by the arrival of a new generation of 120 Hz monitors, whose reactivity scores are likely to be even more difficult to interpret than those we already have.*  A simple example is enough to illustrate the problem: what's faster today, a 5 ms screen at 120 Hz or a 2 ms screen at 60 Hz?

Having seen them side by side, the 5 ms, 120 Hz model certainly takes the upper hand.  But given that the official standard for measuring response time was never that great, should we really set so much store behind these readings?  We've already criticized it a number of times …

Samsung kills its own 2 ms screen

The two representatives we spoke to went on to confirm that, as soon as a screen reaches 120 Hz, afterglow is no longer a problem.  Our opinion is that we'd very much like to test this with our own software, but they're mostly probably right.

In our experience, an up-to-date 5 ms model will only really irritate around 10% of users.  And that 10%, mostly made up of gamers, will most likely say, 'well, it's a bit fuzzy in part x of game y' before forgetting about it and getting absorbed in the moment.

To show how they felt about measuring response times, or the idea of having a standard measurement at all, during our first meeting with Samsung, they showed us two different monitors.  The first, on the left, was the SyncMaster 2253BW, a TN panel running at 60 Hz with a response time of 2 ms.  To the right, meanshile, was the new SyncMaster 2243, another TN panel, this time at 120 Hz whose response time is 5 ms, which certainly had a much better image quality.



But here's what the public saw:



So what magic was needed to transform both of these screens and invert their capabilities?  We can't get hold of the spell, unfortunately, and we're not sure we care anyway.  By all accounts, the ISO standard, despite all its faults, is no longer in play for Samsung.

At the end of the day, the most interesting thing is that Samsung seems happy to wave a magic wand and adjust the ratings of its most powerful monitors without even flinching …


* It's already the case that a 2 ms TN panel is not necessarily any faster than a 6 ms PVA panel, or a well-adjusted 8 ms MVA.  It's a very unusual measure, response time, because it was badly defined when it was first standardized for screens much smaller than today's models.

While we wait for the long-rumored replacement of its EOS 5D, Canon has recently unveiled its EOS 50D.

It's a big change from the EOS 40D - so much so, in fact, that it's not replacing the earlier model, which is staying on the manufacturer's list for now as an 'expert entry-level' camera, whose fast speeds and excellent rapidity make it a great prospect for amateur sports photographers everywhere.

Innovations

The EOS 50D brings with it a new sensor.  As well as rising up to 15 Megapixels, Canon has also claimed better sensitivity thanks to two innovations:

• a new Digic 4 image handling processor, with better electronic noise handling

• a new network of micro-lenses, focusing light over a wider spread of photosites, each one of which is slightly smaller.

We're looking forward to testing these out, and in particular to comparing the results with its most serious competitors, the Sony Alpha 700 and the Nikon D300.

The new Canon model is also blessed with a screen that is worthy of comparison with these two big hitters, a 3 inch VGA that improves on the EOS 40D's QVGA.

The EOS 50D brings face recognition technology for focusing on the screen and an 'automatic creative' mode which will interest those who don't really understand shutter speeds and depths of field, and which seems a strange omission from another recent model, the EOS 1000D, apparently destined for technophobes.

Pricing

All of these strong points aside, we're still rather worried by Canon's pricing, which has so far been called at 1499 euros.  The good news is that several Internet retailers have already adjusted this, with at least two respected resellers offering the model for preorder at 200 euros below its recommend price;

> Our comparison of digital reflex cameras

In April of this year, we wrote about the falling price of 22'' LCD monitors which came under 200 euros for the first time.

Now in Septmber, the floor has dropped away again and the Hyundai N220W is now less than 149 euros including shipping.

We tested this screen when it was first available, and appreciated its good quality finish and its attractive case which set it apart from other entry-level monitors which are all too often bulky. And after a few adjustments to the settings, it's capable of good colors, too.

In technical terms, the screen performs fairly modestly. It has a TN panel, which leads to a very small vertical viewing angle - everything looks black when you look down on it from above - and its response time is 5 ms. This is perfectly acceptable for everyday use, even if it will frustrate the most demanding gamers.

Importantly, it only has a single VGA port, with neither DVI nor HDMI. This is irritating, but not a deal-breaker given that it doesn't alter the monitor's reactivity or its color - it just makes life more complicated if you want to attach it to a console or a graphics card that only comes with DVI, for instance.

This is a screen that we have already recommended to our friends and family, all non-gamers who wanted a simple screen that wasn't too expensive but big enough to be good for surfing the web.

Even we don't always go for the 5-star options: when budgets are tight, you've got to know how to shop wisely.

> Our original test: Hyundai N220W

NB: the Hyundai N220W just celebrated its first birthday, having been launched in summer 2007. Even then we were stunned by what we though was its low price: 249 euros.

Choosing from amongst all the TVs available on the market today is no easy matter, especially for technophobes.  If you just have a regular old cathode-ray-tube television and aren't too hot on the latest developments, then we'll take you through the key questions that you should be asking, including:

• LCD or plasma technology

• A HD ready or Full HD screen?

• HD for your digital tuner?

> Chooising your new TV