Saturday, May 28, 2016 -- Nothing About The Bakken

If you came here for the Bakken, scroll down or over to the sidebar at the right.

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The Camera Page

Canon has an incredible SLR offering: the SX410 IS. It's listed price has been $199 for quite some time, I suppose, but it is now being sold everywhere (including by Canon) for $179. I assume the drop in price suggests Canon is getting ready to phase out this model.

Some years ago I stumbled across an incredible buy at Target, the Canon SX510 HS. The model was being phased out. The one I bought was the "floor model" and was the last one available. I thought it was an incredible camera at an incredible price.

Now comes the SX410 IS at $179 -- even less than what I paid for the "510." My camera:

• 12.1 megapixels
• 30x optical zoom

The SX410 IS:

• 20 megapixels
• 40x optical zoom

The only other difference between the two cameras from what I can tell: my camera has "wi-fi." The "410" does not have "wi-fi" capability. As much as I use my camera, the internet, and Flickr, I have never, never used my camera's "wi-fi." I have always used the little SanDisk slot on the side of the MacBook Air.

It should be noted that Apple is moving to new thin laptops that do not include the SanDisk slot and that "wi-fi" capability may come in handy yet.

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Interesting Little Secret

For those few of us who refuse to give up our clam shell dumb phones but who still want all the features of an iPhone -- our younger daughter has come up with the solution: the iPod.

It's hard to find the iPod over at the Apple site. But it's there, and I think the iPod was updated last year (2015).

I assume there are some things I'm missing but it appears with the iPod and "wi-fi" one gets the iPhone without the voice phone. It's a very, very clever option. My hunch is that ATT, Verizon, Sprint, et al, have thought about this, also, as a concern. Obviously the number of folks that will carry about a clam hell dumb phone and an iPod is insignificant, but, wow, for those us who don't want the huge monthly cost of the iPhone, this is an interesting option.

At the Apple retail store in Southlake (Texas) -- and I assume everywhere -- Apple has a counter devoted to about six iPods paired wirelessly with Beats headphones. The elegance is incredible.

I see Beats has MLB editions of their headphones -- Atlanta Braves, or LA Dodgers, for example. Absolutely incredible marketing idea.

These were the ones we were looking at paired with matching iPod:

The one above is $300; the "identical" MLB version is an extra $30. I had never -- in a million years -- ever thought that I would ever consider a pair of Beats head phones, but they are tempting.

Buds are out; headphones are in.