It’s July 4 here in the USA, which is when we celebrate our independence from Britain. Hey Canada! It’s never too late!

Yeah, Australia, too.

Anyway.

Digital Film Adventures. Just got back from a nice vacation. Used a Nikon Coolpix to take my vacation shots. Great little camera. Smart gizmo. Took some great pictures, but the battery life sucked.

I don’t know whether my Coolpix has a bad battery or all of them do. I looked online, but didn’t see any complaints. Still, each night when I switched the camera into night mode (which works very well), the battery would die after a few shots — sometimes right away. That was terrible.

Oddest thing on the vacation: One person was using a film camera. How embarrassing.

Galaxy Tab On-The-Road. Rather than take a computer, or a cell phone, I took my Galaxy Tab along with me on vacation. It was a worthy companion.

On the flight, I used the Tab to play games, read Kindle books, and sneak in a few peeks at the GPS to see exactly where I was. Sometimes the GPS worked, but most of the time it didn’t.

When I could find a wireless signal, I would connect to the Internet and use Skype to connect with my pals. Calling my Skype contacts was free, but I did load up my Skype account with Skype Bucks so that I could make real phone calls as well. Made a few of those when I could; you really need a solid wireless connection to phone someone on Skype.

I was also pleased with the Tab’s 10-hour battery life. My son and I were able to play games and basically use the tab non-stop during our adventures. It was pretty sweet.

Speaking of the Galaxy Tab:

The 10.1 Galaxy Tab is Coming. I have only the 7″ Galaxy Tab, which was Samsung’s first stab at a tablet. It’s a good thing to have, and I enjoyed using it, but I’m really eager to see how well they do the 10.1 Tab. I think that’s truly going to be a competitor for the iPad.

Then again: The Motorola XOOM tablet is supposed to be an iPad competitor, yet you really don’t hear much about the XOOM these days.

Speaking of not hearing about things these days:

Whatever Happened to the AT&T Atrix? The Atrix is a nice 4G phone, but what makes it sexy is the Lapdock, which transforms your Atrix into a laptop-like thing. After all the initial excitement, I’ve not heard much about the revolutionary Atrix and its Lapdock — which I find disappointing because I think that’s the way all cell phones will go in the future.