The latest challenger to the Panasonic FX38, the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS, has just finished going through our initial lab tests and has joined our Product Face-Off for digital cameras.

Canon PowerShot SX20 IS STORES £     Camerabox limited  269.99  Atlantic 2U  289.99  Argos  329.99              Compare prices

When we say 'it's staying', that's because we had to remove the test shots of the new Canon G11 because at the request of the manufacturer's European division, because the model we tested was not necessarily an entirely final version. The SX20 IS won't have the same problems though: Canon has confirmed that the camera we've tested is a final production model.

> Canon PowerShot SX20 IS vs. Panasonic DMC-FZ38 in our Product Face-Off

Canon's latest compact digital camera, the PowerShot G11, is still not yet on sale in the UK, but its official RRP will be £569.  Surprisingly, though, it's just appeared in the US on Amazon, at a rather different price:

Amazon.com $498.00

Using a rough dollar-pound exchange rate of $1 = £0.61, that leaves the G11 at around £304. Ah, but what about the VAT? Well, let's add that in: £304 + 17.5% = a grand total of £357.20.

So, the question is: what justifies such a massive difference in pricing--37%!--between Europe and North America? Canon will have a difficult time preventing UK stores from going elsewhere to obtain their stock to undercut the official supplies. But we all know the risks that consumers run buying in this way: products that are missing manuals, come with the wrong charger, and, often, no guarantee … When will we get fair prices to avoid this circus?

Same story with the S90

It's exactly the same with another new camera from Canon, the S90, which is already available in the US for $430, or £265 before VAT and £311 all-in.  The list price in Canon's press release, though, is £449.

Amazon.com $430.00

This time, the difference is a 'mere' 30%, rather than 37% with the G11 … but that's hardly much of an improvement …

> Product Survey: Compact Digital Cameras

Disney has bought Marvel for $4 billion. With this acquisition the Disney family has increased by 5000 members, including, to cite those now available in Blu-ray, Spiderman, Iron Man, Hulk, the X-men and the Fantastic Four…
The acquisition will be a boon for Pixar (bought by Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion), who have already met the staff at Marvel. 3D superhero adventures here we come!

PS: Batman is not a Marvel hero, but part of DC Comics. He won’t therefore be gaining a couple of big ears. Nor will Superman or the indispensable Wonder Woman.

OpenOffice version 3.1.1 is now available. No major innovations, just the correction of bugs.

The list of revisions is available online.

To recap, OpenOffice is a desktop suite, very similar to Microsoft Office. It includes the word processing application, Writer (equivalent to Word), the spreadsheat programme, Calc (Excel), a presentation tool, Impress (Powerpoint), and a design system (Draw). Version 3 was given a run through here, in a previous news.

Downloads available here

Player Addict and Player HD users will be the first to benefit from the 300 odd applications planned for the opening of the Application Store.


''With the launch of the Application Store, we hope to add value for Samsung phone users'' declared Hosoo Lee, Executive VP of Samsung’s Media Solution Center. Although the brand can pride itself on selling a whole range of phones, the lack of associated services was starting to be noticeable.

After the UK, France and Italy, 30 other countries should soon benefit from access to the store.

The first two phones for the apps are based on Windows Mobile (Player Addict) and Symbian (Player HD). In time all Samsung branded smartphones are likely to have access to the service, whether based on Android, with Android Market, Symbian or Windows Mobile. There are still the phones based on the in-house OS. Samsung tells us that specially conceived applications have been envisaged for this system but no dates have yet been given for availability.

Games, electronic books, social networks... the platform of applications promises to include an eclectic selection of software. Although the catalogue will be fairly thin at first, Samsung is planning for over 2000 applications before the end of the year.

Payment for applications will either be with the phone bill or by bank card.
The Application Store will be introduced at the IFA, the annual new technology party that we will be covering.