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Please visit www.talktechnews.co.uk, which is the new home for my technology blog.

Why LED televisions are the best...

There is something that I should point out here. Most televisions that are labelled as 'LED televisions' are not a true LED television! The reason is that these televisions are actually LCD televisions with LED back lighting.

However, these LED back lit televisions are still very good and give a better contrast than both LCD and Plasma televisions. Also, they give a brighter viewing experience.

Is the ipod on its way out?

If sales of Apple’s iPod are any indication, then the ipod may be on its way out!

Sales of iPods have been steadily declining since their peak at 22.7 million in December 2008.

Apple still owns 70 percent of the MP3 player market, but it’s clear that other devices, such as smartphones and tablets, can do the job of an MP3 player, as well as performing many other functions.

Smartphones are increasingly accounting for larger amounts of phone purchases, and as consumers purchase these feature-rich devices, they no longer have a need for a single-purpose MP3 player.

If Apple was to end production of one of the iPods, the most likely casualty would be the old iPod Classic.

New Nikon micro lens announced

Nikon have announced a new lens, the AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 40mm f2.8G.

On a crop-sensor body the 40mm becomes 60mm. The lens focuses down to 16.3 cm (6.4 inches), giving a 1:1 sized image on the sensor. It has Nikon's M/A auto focus mode, so that it will focus when you shut the shutter button and also allow you to still use the wheel to take control. You can of course use it for complete manual control.

The lens is fast and wide enough for general use, with the added ability to focus to 1:1 life size, making it a good walk-around lens.

The lens uses Nikon's close range correction system to help to maintain lens performance at close distances. This system works by allowing each lens group to move independently to maintain focus.

The lens uses silent wave technology, which means that you will be able to get to the subject without disturbing it.

It will be available from August.

Nikon D5100 now on sale

The Nikon D5100 that was announced in April of this year is now available for purchase. A look at the specification reveals the following:

This Nikon has a DX CMOS sensor with a resolution of 16.2 MP. It inherits the 14-bit Raw shooting that helps to give the D7000 its impressive dynamic range. However, the RAW files are not uncompressed.

While it has features common to the D500 that it replaces, it has the addition of the ability to record full HD video in 1080p at up to 30fps. There is also a HDMI HD video output, which many people can make use of with the proliferation of flatscreen tvs that include this connection.

The screen is a 3 inch articulated LCD with a VGA resolution of 640x480 and along with a number of recently introduced DSLRs, the D5100 supports live view, helping you to compose your shot with the LCD.

The D5100 can shoot at up to 4fps and has a bracketing button, which allows you to take a picture at the current exposure, as well as one that is underexposed and one that is overexposed.

There is a built-in sensor cleaning system (vibrating low-pass filter) and airflow control system.

The lithium-ion battery allows up to 660 shots per charge and the ISO range is from 100 to 6400 and up to 25600 with a boost.

The Nikon D5100 sports an AF-S lens mount that lacks an in-body autofocus motor, which would support older AF lenses whose focus mechanisms were driven from the camera.

Creator of the net speaks out about social networking policy

Tim Berners-Lee, credited with creating the net, has spoken out against social networking companies such as Facebook that collect personal information. Time Berners-Lee says that these companies collect data such as date of birth and favourite colour and make it only available within the site. Such information he says, should be made freely available for other sites.

Samsung launches Galaxy Tab

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Tab, its take on the tablet computer. It will begin shipping in Europe from October but no date has been set for the US market yet. The tablet computer can be used to surf the net, read e-books, watch movies, navigate using GPS and make phone calls. It runs on the Android 2.2 operating system and has a 7-inch touch screen, with a resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels. It uses a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with 16GB of internal memory. There is a MicroSD slot that can be used to expand the storage up to 32GB.

The tablet weighs less than the iPad and this coupled with the ability to make phone calls is touted as two advantages it has over Apple's starlet!