Archive for: photo
Flickr users and BlackBerry abusers need to find a new combination to swoon over. New text found inside a help article on RIM’s website points to an EOL date of March 1st, 2011 for Flickr For BlackBerry. After said date, users who want to upload pictures to Flickr will have to make use of the popular photo sharing site’s mobile web space. Considering that there aren’t really any noteworthy 3rd party replacements, BlackBerry users are going to find it a little more cumbersome to share the most favorite pictures with friends and family.
Anyone think it’s odd for RIM — A company who is constantly pushing their more consumer friendly image — to up and drop Flickr like that? Or is the lack of 98xx support and infrequent updates the real reason behind its death?
I’m not a photographer. Even still, I enjoy getting a few hours here and there to play around with my Nikon D90. Not a pro model by any means, but certainly better that all of those dinky little point-and-shoots.
So far I haven’t upgraded anything on my D90. Still, I have my sights set on a bigger lens at some point. How big of a lens is only limited by my wallet. (Damn, short leash there…)
For those with a bit more monetary breathing room, Nikon’s new 200-400mm $7,000 monster is waiting to be called “yours”…
- February 25, 2010 4:00 pm
The big draw to HDTV or even digital TV in general is the eye candy over standard antenna based TV. While it is now all digital in the US (and many other countries around the world), it’s design and basic technologies used cause vast amounts of interference and less than stellar picture quality. To some, they’ll take a bit of noise and sparse channel selection for a much lighter deduction in monthly bills. Besides, with the internet being as amazing as it is these days, who watches TV on an actual TV anymore anyway?
For you, oh normal cable/satellite hating antenna loving TV watcher, I bring you the Hidden Antenna Picture Frame. This is at the very basic level of picture frames — no digital junk here. Just plain ‘ol film paper support. Even better however is the hidden TV antenna that’s tucked behind. From now on, wow your friends and clean up your living space by concealing the stuff that no one ever really cares to see.
As far as antennas go, it’s pretty feature packed with support for DVB-T, ATSC, and DAB, and — Gasps! — even analog! Though good luck finding one of those those channels anywhere around these parts.
If you hate visible cables and antenna’s that much and still cling to the classic way of TV life, is $40 really too much to ask? Oh yeah, don’t forget your can display (1) whole picture too. Now how about it?
Dvice > CrunchGear
One of the chief complaints I see with certain Apple laptops is the lack of more ports. The SD port in particular was a big one until Apple recently added them to the Macbook Pros. But an iPhone? The makers of “ZoomIt” seem to think the iPhone platform is a perfect fit for their services. In order to get the full experience, you’ll need to pick up both the iPhone ZoomIt app and ZoomIt SD card adapter that attaches itself to the phone. Once plugged in, users can transfer over photos from the iPhone’s memory and save them to any plane jane SD card for easy, expandable storage. Likewise, you can push images form the SD onto the iPhone where they are viewable within the photo app.
Those hoping for a true USB-disc mode like environment will be disappointed to know that the ZoomIt only supports actual picture images at this time. That means that any data you do happen to push across to the iPhone’s memory that isn’t a photo is invisible as far as the phone is concerned. You can’t really fault ZoomIt too much for this as any feature that would allow access to any and all data types via the app would surely be rejected from the app store.
These rather limiting issues aside, mobile iPhone picture taking warrior may see the $60 price tag as quite the deal. From here however, it just looks like an over priced adapter, backtracking on the whole idea of cloud storage. Anyone use the ZoomIt and think otherwise?
Dvice > GadgetLab
- December 16, 2009 11:22 am
Gushing over the 8+ megapixel camera phones grabbing all the headlines and attention in 2009? Psh, that’s nothing compared to what 2011 will bring us. Broadcom announced today a new processor of theirs that will usher in a new era and raise the bar as far as mobile picture/video taking is concerned.
The chip, named the Broadcom BCM2763 VideoCore IV Processor will enable mobile phones and other MID’s to support Full HD 1080p video recording as well as 20+ megapixel stills. But that’s not all. Other features that are currently reserved for stand alone cameras such as multiple shots per second, image stabilization, face and smile detection, and panorama mode will also make their way to the small screen.
For mobile photographers, the above is awesome enough. But pictures and video aren’t the only things mobile devices are being asked to do these days. Joining the increased picture/video chops provided the the Broadcom BCM2763, mobile gaming will also receive a rather hefty bump to the tune of native 1080p rendering that when coupled with HDMI outputs makes the topic of traditional console gaming dying out sound even more likely and closer than one would assume.
Ultimately, the 40nm chip (pricing still unannounced) will bring yet unseen amounts of visual eye candy and multimedia capabilities to mobile devices that will make even such gadgets as the upcoming Nexus One seem like a fisher price toy in as little as 2 years. Technology is practically leap frogging ahead. Can you keep up?
Pocket-Lint
[Image Source]
- October 25, 2009 10:22 am
When taking pictures in low light conditions, using a flash often casts an unnatural, harsh directional light on the subjects or focal point in the picture. Professional photographers often make use of umbrella like attachments that help diffuse light and give it a more natural glow. But we’re not all photographers with countless attachment bags or the associated deep pockets that it takes to buy such equipment. Thankfully nifty and affordable attachment called the “Lightscoop” may just have you taking professional looking low light shots for a fraction of the price.
There really isn’t anything hi-tech behind the Lightscoop. All you do is attach it to your camera’s hot shoe and enjoy. The ‘Scoop redirects light upwards, bouncing it off the tops of walls and ceilings which ends up giving the immediate surroundings more of a glow instead of spotlight appearance. I don’t have one to try, but the concept seems plausible. If you’re having doubts about the effectiveness, a simple test can be done with a flashlight. Go into a dark room and point the flashlight around at a horizontal angle. Next, shine it at the ceiling and see how the room grows brighter.
Heck, at $35, you might as well give it a try. It’s by far one of the cheapest photography accessories you’ll ever find.
Specialized Lightscoop instructions for a few popular camera brands inside..
- September 17, 2009 5:29 am
The digital touch is creeping into everything these days as is internet access it seems. A perfect example of this is the HP DreamScreen. A 10.2″ or 13.3″ picture frame that also connects to the internet to allow you to stream Pandora tunes, view Facebook, and more — all from a picture frame. Prospects of said frames will be able to also enjoy snap fish integration and the ability to choose from over 10,000 different internet radio stations. The choices we face.
Now, the technology is certainly cool and shows how the internet is becoming a necessity in every aspect of our lives, but I just don’t see the real usefulness of such features on a device. Heck, you nor anyone else is going to spend more than 20-30 seconds on average in front of this. Still, if you feel so inclined, that 10 incher will set you back $250 while the 13.3 inches of photo frame glass will come in a dollar under $300.
Specs:
- 800 x 400 10.2″ or 13.3″ display
- 2 GB (1.5 GB available) built-in memory
- I/O: USB/Memory Card reader/headphone port
- Memory Card Support: Compact Flash I/II, Micro Drive, Secure Digital High Capacity, Memory Stick & Memory Stick Pro, XD picture card
- Networking: 10/100 LAN & Wireless 802.11 b/g
- Media File Support:
Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV
Video: MPEG 1, 2, 4, H.264
Source: Dvice, HP
