div>There is lots of buzz surrounding a special event Apple will be hosting next Wednesday. The general consensus is that Apple is introducing an iPod with more features. Forbes seems to think iPhone-like features are likely, such as a large, touch-sensitive display. Another possibility is that of a Wi-Fi receiver which would allow the iPod to browse the Internet and/or send and receive e-mail.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) brings cost into the equation by saying that Apple “is expected next week to introduce new versions of its digital music players that have more features, but cost the same.” The WSJ, however, doesn’t admit to its own speculation, instead relying on a new source: “Apple fan sites.” Here’s another excerpt:

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Canon has always made good subcompact digital cameras. And now that they have produced a couple models in their IS (image stabilization) line, the SD800IS has taken things to a whole new level. With a 28-105 zoom lens, you start at a wider angle that almost every other camera in its class. If you’ve ever backed yourself up against a wall trying to fit everyone into the picture, you’ll really appreciate the slightly wider angle. And there still plenty of zoom to get up close. But most important of all, the image quality is AWESOME!

There is a slightly more expensive SD850IS model, which boasts 8 megapixels instead of the SD800IS’ 7.1. But the wider angle is not available on the SD850IS, so I would stick with the 800 for that reason alone. Plus, 7.1 megapixels provides as much fine detail as 35mm film so you can make beautiful prints up to 11×14 inches. While no subcompact camera will ever compare to high end digital SLR cameras, you will have a hard time convincing people you took your pictures with a pocket camera, which the canon sd800 is certainly is. For under $250 at Amazon, I am sold on this little camera.

Look out for my next review where I compare the canon powershot sd800 is to the canon elph sd800 is.

div>TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips.

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div>The Economist (subscription required) has an interesting article out on how epidemiologists (those who study epidemic diseases) would like to use World of Warcraft (for the unofficiated: an extremely popular MMORPG or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) as part of research to see how people will react when faced with wide spread disease. This type of situation, obviously, can’t be introduced in the real world for study (at least not very ethically).

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div>It’s official. The iPhone has been unlocked. Less than two hours ago, Engadget broke the story, including posting a video of the process. The group that came up with the software unlock is iPhoneSIMfree.com. The currently have a text-only website up with now, as they will certainly be pounded with traffic for the next few days. Once you have unlocked your iPhone, you will still have to manually activate the YouTube video widget. Here’s how, and, of course, all this is use at your own risk. Anyway, congratulations to the iPhoneSIMfree team!

div>TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips.

Here’s the latest in TechConsumer news:

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div>Sharp unveiled a new ultra-thin LCD TV today in Tokyo. Unfortunately, this next-gen TV won’t be ready for mass-production until 2010 when Sharp plans to have its new $3.2 billion plant in western Japan operational. Here are some of the basic specs:

The 52-inch model will be just 29 millimeters thick (1.1 inches), which is about a third the thickness of the company’s thinnest model currently. The TV will also weigh 20% less and consume half as much power. All this with the claim that the picture quality will be five times as vivid. As of yet, no talks of price. See below for more pics.

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div>I must say, I love this day and age where information flows freely. I remember back (what, ten years ago?) when I took magazine and/or newspaper subscriptions seriously. There were (are) so many, and they all cost money. Which ones should I subscribe to? Which are worth the time of sifting through pages to find what I really want?

But now, finding information to stay up-to-date on your news or hobbies? Who spends time actually searching for information they used to get in a magazine or newspaper? I know I don’t. It’s almost in front of me before I’m ready for it; I’m still catching up with what’s considered olds news because it’s been a couple days. Sites like Techmeme or Google News aggregate it for me. Combine that with my favorite RSS feeds via Google Reader (all of which are free daily updates of what I used to pay for via magazines or newspapers) and I have some good, quality information that interests me.

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div>Wal-Mart is trying to step up its competition with Apple iTunes. The retail giant, which is already the No. 1 seller of recorded music because of CD sales, will now sell digital downloads of songs without any copy protection (DRM) via walmart.com for 94 cents a track, or $9.22 an album. The service will launch with music from two of the major record labels: Universal Music and EMI.

The company plans to continue offering its existing WMA protected format for other music downloads, which cost 88 cents a track but won’t work with iPods and plenty of other digital music players. Here’s what Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart senior director for digital media, had to say, “As we consistently strive to help our customers shop smart at Wal-Mart, our new ‘DRM-free’ MP3 digital tracks give them the ease and flexibility to play music on virtually any device at a great value.”

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div>A new feature we are experimenting with here at TechConsumer is providing a couple posts per week which follow interesting news specific to our sphere of consumer technology. Some of these stories may be a day or two old, heaven forbid. But the idea is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing. We also plan to continue with more of our own original content. So without further ado, here’s some TechConsumer news:

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