Friday, May 25, 2012

Toshiba bows out of netbooks in the US, sees Ultrabooks as the wave of the future

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/toshiba-bows-out-of-netbooks-in-the-us/

Toshiba NB550D

The pace of netbook launches has visibly slowed between the dual-pronged pressures of tablets and ultrabooks, and at least for Americans, it's about to get a lot slower. A Toshiba executive has warned that there aren't any plans to bring more netbooks to the US; the NB510's presence at CES this year is now as close as Yankees will get to any more Atom-powered notebooks from the outfit. Instead, all of Toshiba's enthusiasm for ultraportables in the country will be spent on Ultrabooks like the Portege Z835. It's a sad day for those who like their computers tiny, especially as it hikes the minimum price for a super-light Toshiba laptop to $800, but it's hard to ignore a rapidly declining market. We also imagine that Toshiba will gladly steer you to one of its Excite tablets if you're looking for the basics in a small shape.

Toshiba bows out of netbooks in the US, sees Ultrabooks as the wave of the future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy S III review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review/

It's a strange feeling, receiving such a keenly anticipated phone to review. The hubbub of launch events, hands-on previews and heated debates suddenly dies away, leaving you with one small and intensely silent cardboard box. In this instance, the packaging contained the "marble white" version of the Galaxy S III (not the more daring "pebble blue") alongside one burning question: apart from all the hype, do this handset's paper credentials translate into a product that is worthy of serious cash and a 24-month commitment?

Those credentials are certainly more subtle than those of other recent devices. There's no unusual camera, stand-out display or unibody build. Instead, we get an abstract design statement about the phone being "inspired by nature" alo! ngside a list of incremental hardware improvements such as a quad-core processor, as well as fresh additions to Samsung's customized Android 4.0 skin. As it turns out, these specs forgo immediate swagger in favor of creating a solid workhorse of a smartphone that is intent on attracting a long-term following. Read on and you'll discover just how it pulls that off.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S III review

Samsung Galaxy S III review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here's the Easiest Way to Take Better Pictures [Photography]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5913050/heres-the-easiest-way-to-take-better-pictures

Here's the Easiest Way to Take Better PicturesYou ever notice why some of your pictures look like they've been stained yellow or red while others look swamped with green or blue? It's because of your camera's white balance setting! The easiest way to take better pictures is to fix your white balance and this chart tells you how.

Different lights light up differently. As in, some are redder or yellower and you need to adjust your camera accordingly. The color temperature scale made by Digital Camera World shows where different light sources fall and what setting your camera's white balance needs to be. Simple! You'll get much more accurate pictures that actually look like real life as opposed to terrible and awkward shots that look like they've been peed on.

To be more specific on the color temperature, Wikipedia categorizes different light sources like this:

  • 1,700 K - Match flame
  • 1,850 K - Candle flame, sunset/sunrise
  • 2,700–3,300 K - Incandescent light bulb
  • 3,000 K - Soft White compact fluorescent light bulb
  • 3,200 K - Studio lamps, photofloods, etc.
  • 3,350 K - Studio "CP" light
  • 4,100–4,150 K - Moonlight,[2] xenon arc lamp
  • 5,000 K - Horizon daylight
  • 5,000 K - Fluorescent light tubes or Cool White/Daylight compact fluorescent light bulb
  • 5,500–6,000 K - Vertical daylight, electronic flash
  • 6,500 K - Daylight, overcast
  • 6,500–9,300 K - LCD or CRT screen

Here's the Easiest Way to Take Better PicturesLearn the numbers! [Digital Camera World via PetaPixel]

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What Is Nokia's PureView Technology? [Nokia]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5913264/what-is-nokias-pureview-technology

What Is Nokia's PureView Technology?You've seen the kinds of monster photos the Nokia 808 PureView can snap, and read how it's got a digital zoom that doesn't turn everything into a pixelated mess. But how does it actually perform these miracles, and what the hell is Nokia doing shoving a colossal 41-megapixel sensor in a phone anyway?

It's a new camera technology that has been under development for over 5 years…

Nokia's been working in conjunction with the lens masters at Carl Zeiss for ages, but it set about the PureView technology project five years ago. The duo set out to revolutionise the camera phone market with "the next benchmark in imaging". Nokia believes that rudimentary megapixel bumps aren't worth the silicon, and that you have to at least double the resolution of the photo to actually see any convincing difference. Not to mention that 5MP images are enough for any consumer; it's just the way you create them that needs revolutionising.

…that shoves 41 actual megapixels in a phone camera…

It took an incredible number of man-hours and research to overcome the various challenges related to upping the ante in the imaging stakes. Nokia discovered that customers wanted a 3x zoom, but the problem was that optical zooms on a camera phone are near impossible due to size, and they reduce the amount of light you can get onto the relatively small sensor anyway. So the answer was a zoom that you could do purely digitally, and that wasn't a piece of garbage.

What Is Nokia's PureView Technology?5MP is the ideal image size according to Nokia, so to zoom three-fold on a 5MP image you have to have a much higher resolution sensor. Doing the maths, it works out that you need a 41MP image sensor to get a 3x zoom without having to stretch and expand pixels, destroying the quality of the image in the process. What Nokia decided was the best approach was to use "oversampling".

…and uses "oversampling" to give you all the advantage of much larger pixels…

The PureView technology takes 41-megapixels' worth of information and condenses it down to 5MP. In essence, 7 individual pixels are collated together and combined into one "superpixel". This process means you benefit from the same amount of light that would hit the much larger pixels of a 5MP sensor, if it fitted into the same physical footprint. You benefit from solid low-light performance and at the same time you can remove noise and digital artefacts from individual pixels through the oversampling process. It's all done at the raw sensor information level too, but its lightning quick utilising a dedicated processor to get the job done. The result is a super crisp 5MP image that's much sharper, with greater detail than an ordinary 5MP sensor can achieve.

What Is Nokia's PureView Technology?Producing razor sharp images is all well and good, but having that massive sensor (as you can see above compared to regular camera phone sensors) allows lossless digital zoom too. It works by essentially zooming in on a 5MP patch on the image sensor. As you zoom the oversampling is decreased until you're seeing actual pixels - you never go beyond real pixel information. You gradually lose oversampling, but it's not the kind of interpolation that digital zoom is marred with. The result is quite impressive, and certainly adds to the utility of a phone camera without the extra bulk of a moving optical zoom lens assembly.

… but it's not all about massive amounts of megapixels…

Nokia and Carl Zeiss are quick to stress that massive megapixels aren't the be all and end all. Quality optics and intelligent image processing are just as important when you're trying to squeeze that kind of raw power into a phone. Carl Zeiss managed to make a relatively compact lens for the size of the sensor complete with a low f/2.4 aperture. While this is on par with the likes of the iPhone 4S, compact cameras normally fall in the 3 to 5 range so it has them soundly beaten. In general, the lower the f number the more light can hit the sensor resulting in better low-light performance. It also produces a faster potential shutter speed, so your pictures are sharper, even when you've got a bit of the shakes.

… and isn't limited to just bulging 41-megapixel beasts.

There's one big draw back to the current implementation of Nokia's PureView and that's size. The 808 PureView is a bit of a chubster, and Nokia's very aware that anorexic phones are the name of the game. To that end we're going to see the PureView technology in other guises. Nokia specifically said that it wouldn't just be restricted to 41MP sensors, and the bulk that comes with it.

What Is Nokia's PureView Technology?That doesn't mean Nokia will skimp on imaging prowess though - any PureView-packing phone will supposedly be the "best possible camera phone" in its class. That should give hope to anyone with skinny jeans looking for the next step in the camera phone revolution. Nokia's not done optimising the current 41MP form from the 808 either - the next implementation should be smaller, although Carl Zeiss admits that there are physical limits to how small you can make a lens to fit the size of sensor due to the pure physics of optics.

At any rate you should be excited to see what Nokia's PureView technology is going to bring to the Lumia range. If it's able to replicate the kind of impressive picture quality and detail the 808 PureView is capable of, in a smaller, slimmer package, the next Lumia might be something truly lust worthy. I can't wait to see what it's got up its sleeve. [Gizmodo UK]


What Is Nokia's PureView Technology?Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix.

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Visualized: ThreadWatch tracks daily workflow on a Mac, turns the data into eye candy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/visualized-threadwatch/

Visualized: ThreadWatch tracks daily workflow on a Mac, turns the data into eye candy

Sure, time tracking comes in handy when trying to make your workflow as efficient as possible. Perhaps you're looking for a more visual indication of how your time is spent on that MacBook Pro. That's where ThreadWatch comes in handy. Thanks to developer Alex Milde, you can visually analyze your daily task habits on a Mac. After a rather quick and painless app download, the tech monitors software being used on the desktop, taking notes on their individual memory and CPU consumption. The collected info is placed in a text file that you'll then upload to ThreadWatch to create the graphical splendor you see above. Each color indicates a different application and you won't have to worry about having your tracked data catalogued. To take the kit for a spin, hit the source link below to start monitoring your procrastination... er, work sessions.

Visualized: ThreadWatch tracks daily workflow on a Mac, turns the data into eye candy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel posts x86-friendly Android 4.0 image, lets you feel the need for speed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/intel-posts-x86-friendly-android-4-0-image/

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Android developers are all too familiar with not-so-hot emulator performance, so it's a relief that there's now an system image in a native x86 for testing. While you'll still likely want to test on ARM, the x86 image will both help ferret out bugs specific to Intel's architecture as well as provide a much faster experience debugging apps now that the ARM-to-Intel translation isn't needed on top of running a whole second operating system. It's not perfectly up to date, running on Android 4.0.3, but it's close enough that the environment will mimic much of what users see -- and a big help if you're jumping into writing specifically for Intel devices. If speed is of the essence, or you're not keen on importing a Lava Xolo X900, you just need to update the SDK Manager to start testing with an Intel-flavored green robot.

Intel posts x86-friendly Android 4.0 image, lets you feel the need for speed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly LTE

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/asus-transformer-pad-tf300tl-hits-the-fcc/

ImageASUS isn't known for offering its tablets to North American carriers with 3G or 4G; an FCC filing for a cellular-capable Transformer Pad TF300 could be a clue at a break in the WiFi-only trend. Along with the usual wireless, a TF300TL variant of the Android 4.0 slate has stopped by the agency with the 850MHz and 1,900MHz frequencies needed for HSPA 3G as well as, best of all, 700MHz and 1,700MHz support for LTE-based 4G. All four are what we'd look for in an AT&T-oriented tablet, so don't be surprised if Ma Bell carries a 4G Transformer Pad before long. All but the 700MHz band would be handy for Canadian networks as well. There's no surefire evidence of when the tablet might make a more formal appearance, nor hints of whether or not it will keep the quad-core Tegra 3, although the slight spin on the regular TF300 formula could keep the wait short.

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 20:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA touts 30 Tegra 3 smartphones set for this year, teases next-gen Grey SoC with on-board LTE

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/nvidia-teases-grey-soc-with-built-in-lte/

NVIDIA touts 30 Tegra 3 smartphones set for this year, teases next-gen Grey SoC with on-board LTE

We're nearly halfway through 2012, but for NVIDIA, it seems the best is yet to come. The company's GM, Mike Rayfield, announced today that 30 smartphones with Tegra 3 chips are now slated for availability this year, which is double the success that the company had with its Tegra 2 platform during 2011. Perhaps more interesting, Rayfield also let it be known that the Grey platform -- not due for arrival until next year -- will be the first of NVIDIA's system-on-chip designs to include a built-in LTE radio. Specifically, we can expect it to include the Icera 500, a next-gen LTE modem that's set to supersede both the Icera 410 and 450 designs. The Icera 500 will initially debut as a standalone unit, but will later be integrated into the Grey platform. All things considered, perhaps its 2013 that NVIDIA should be most excited about.

NVIDIA touts 30 Tegra 3 smartphones set for this year, teases next-gen Grey SoC with on-board LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 21:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MIT's needleless injections help you get drugs faster, doesn't even hurt (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/mit-jet-injector-needleless-injection/

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Afraid of needles? You may not have to be if a team of MIT scientists get their way. Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering are developing a jet-injection device (similar to this one) that allows professionals to pump you full of meds without poking you with a needle. The key to puncture free pharmaceuticals is pressure -- the device uses a Lorenz Force actuator to push medicine out of an opening about the diameter of a mosquito's proboscis. The nozzle pulls liquids out just as fast and efficiently as it administers them, researchers say, and can even deliver powder-based drugs as if they were a liquid, thanks to a bit of supersonic trickery. This tech could be a boon to healthcare workers who get pricked on the job or patients who get daily insulin shots. Promises of painless inoculations piquing your interest? Hit the video after the break to see how its done.

Continue reading MIT's needleless injections help you get drugs faster, doesn't even hurt (video)

MIT's needleless injections help you get drugs faster, doesn't even hurt (video) originally appeare! d on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leap Motion gesture control technology hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/leap-motion-gesture-control-technology-hands-on/

Leap Motion gesture control technology hands-on

Leap Motion unveiled its new gesture control technology earlier this week, along with videos showing the system tracking ten fingers with ease and a single digit slicing and dicing a grocery store's worth of produce in Fruit Ninja. Still, doubts persisted as to the veracity of the claim that the Leap is 200 times more accurate than existing tech. So, we decided to head up to San Francisco to talk with the men behind Leap, David Holz and Michael Buckwald, and see it for ourselves. Join us after the break to learn a bit more about Leap, our impressions of the technology, and a video of the thing in action.

Continue reading Leap Motion gesture control technology hands-on

Leap Motion gesture control technology hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Why Won't Twitter Tweet These Tweets? [Twitter]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5912896/why-wont-twitter-tweet-these-tweets

Why Won't Twitter Tweet These Tweets?Do this right now: Go to Twitter and type the words "get help." Or try "get hungry" or "get high" or "get laid." Really, any two-word pair beginning with "get" will do. Now send the Tweet. What's that? It vanished? Exactly.

Until just moments ago, I, like you (probably), had been naive to this snafu. It was Former Gizmodian John Herrman who shed light on the situation.

The "get" glitch, as it were, is actually an anachronism from an earlier iteration of Twitter as an SMS service. There are others, too. A whole list of text commands exists to this day, from which weird Twitter traps can be deployed.

Among them:
WHOIS [username] - retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter. Example: whois jack or w jack, for short.

HELP - texting help or info to Twitter will bring up helpful tips.

and, of course...
GET [username] - retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by that person. You can also use g [username] to get a user's latest Tweet. Examples: get goldman or g goldman.

That the "get" command lives on is both surprising and not at all; get + ______ is such a seemingly common word pairing, but alone not enough to constitute an entire Tweet. (I guess?)

There are definitely other code artifacts elsewhere, besides on Twitter, but right now none come to mind. Do you know of any more like this? [BuzzFeed]

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Olympus adds 75mm f/1.8 portrait lens to Micro Four Thirds lineup

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/olympus-75mm-f-1-8-micro-four-thirds/

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During our first encounter with the OM-D E-M5 in February, Olympus told us to expect several more lenses to launch throughout the year, including a 75mm f/1.8 variant suitable for portraits and a splash- and dust-proof 60mm f/2.8 macro. Well, that first optic will be coming sooner than you may have thought -- it's expected to hit stores this summer with an estimated price tag of $900. The lens offers a 150mm 35mm-equivalent focal length when paired with a Micro Four Thirds camera, and consists of 10 elements in nine groups, including three ED elements that assist with correcting aberrations. Everything else you need to know can be found in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Olympus adds 75mm f/1.8 portrait lens to Micro Four Thirds lineup

Olympus adds 75mm f/1.8 portrait lens to Micro Four Thirds lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google pumps cash into UK classrooms, will buy Arduino, Raspberry Pi sets for kids

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/google-teach-first-raspberry-pi/

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Eric Schmidt has said that Google will make cash available through its investment into Teach First to buy Raspberry Pi and Arduino units for British schoolchildren. He was at the UK's Science Museum to talk about Mountain View's partnership with the charity, which puts top university graduates into schools to teach disadvantaged kids. The Android-maker wrote a cheque to fund over 100 places on the scheme, aiming to get bright computer scientists to reintroduce engineering principles to pupils. Mr. Schmidt hoped that with the right support, kits like the Raspberry Pi would do for this generation what the BBC Micro did three decades ago.

Google pumps cash into UK classrooms, will buy Arduino, Raspberry Pi sets for kids originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 05:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

LG's 55-inch OLED TV gets official design, possible â¬9,000 price tag (update 3: LG fills in more)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/lg-55-inch-oled-tv-gets-official-design-possible-9-000-price/

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LG has been coy quiet about details of its 55-inch OLED TV since we saw its hyper-rich organic colors at CES, but it just nailed down a number of details at a Monte Carlo Monaco event. The 55EM9600 has seen its display base get visibly bigger now that the screen isn't being specially perched at a trade show, but the redesign and using a carbon fiber back has let it shed an extra millimeter of thickness, down to 4mm (0.16 inches). The steadier footing puts all the AV connectors at the back, while a trio of USB ports sit on the side for those who often share media from their cameras and flash drives. LG wouldn't give our Spanish team definite release info about the OLED set, but there's been repeated murmurs of a European price of about €9,000 ($11,313) and a possible release as soon as July, just inside LG's official target of the second half of the year. Certainly not the most frugal TV you can buy at this size if that's true, then, but it'll certainly get everyone's attention -- now where's our US details?

Update: There's now a swishy promo video below, plus some English language details at the source link.

Update 2: For those who'd like a bit more reading material, we've added the full PR after the break.

Update 3: LG has also helped settle some of the details that it can share at this early stage: July isn't looking likely, but the price could be on the sunnier side, tentatively edging closer to €8,000 ($10,063).

Continue reading LG's 55-inch OLED TV gets official design, possible €9,000 price tag (update 3: LG fills in more)

LG's 55-inch OLED TV gets official design, possible €9,000 price tag (update 3: LG fills in more) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink < a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%:%/%/es.engadget.com%/2012%/05%/23%/lg-55em960v-hdtv-oled%2F" target="_blank">Engadget Spanish (translated)  |  sourceLG UK Blog  | Email this | Comments

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CHART OF THE DAY: Time Spent On Facebook Has Gone Flat* (FB)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-facebooks-engagement-has-peaked-and-now-its-falling-2012-5

Note: This post has been edited from its original version, after we learned that the data we initially used was flawed. We have our original post below the chart, as well as an explanation.

Time spent on Facebook on desktop computers in the U.S. has been totally flat for the year, according to data from comScore. For a while now Facebook's engagement had been on the rise, but it appears to have hit a wall.

Part of the reason is that Facebook's users are going mobile, and spending their time there. This is bad for Facebook because it makes almost no money on mobile.

Note: This chart is flawed, comScore told us after we published. ComScore's previous data was unintentionally inflated due to existence of non-user requested URLs. However, ComScore has analyzed data since the beginning of the year using the same filters, and it tells us that the trend for Facebook is flat this year.

 

chart of the day, social network engagement, may 2012

Follow the Chart Of The Day on Twitter: @chartoftheday

Original post: Time spent on Facebook on desktop computers in the U.S. has peaked and now it's falling according to data from comScore, via BI Intelligence.

BI Intelligence analyst Alex Cocotas attributes the drop to a "shift to mobile" as well as the rise of rival social networks like Tumblr, and Pinterest.

The shift to mobile is better than losing out to rivals, but it's bad for Facebook's business, because it makes significantly less money from mobile users than desktop users.

As for those rivals, take a look at Pinterest, which seems to have its own engagement problems. Our guess on what's happening there: The company got a lot of buzz, had a crush of new users, which inflated its numbers, and many of those people left.


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AT&T launches Samsung Galaxy Appeal GoPhone, available at Walmart on June 5th for $150

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/att--samsung-galaxy-appeal-gophone/

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What's in a name? For the Samsung Galaxy Appeal, everything. The moniker of AT&T's new Android GoPhone fits the manufacturer's current legal situation perfectly, though admittedly its side-slider QWERTY-packing form factor is the least likely of Sammy's lineup to catch the attention of Cupertino's team of suits. Joking aside, the 4.3-ounce Appeal offers Android 2.3, a 3.2-inch HVGA (that's 480 x 320) display, 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7225A processor, 3MP rear camera and 512MB of RAM. It's also made with 80 percent recycled material and has a microSD port and 1,300mAh battery. The Appeal will begin its wireless sojourn on June 5th at Walmart for $150, and will pop up at other AT&T outlets beginning July 15th. Head below to find the legal team-approved press release.

Continue reading AT&T launches Samsung Galaxy Appeal GoPhone, available at Walmart on June 5th for $150

AT&T launches Samsung Galaxy Appeal GoPhone, available at Walmart on June 5th for $150 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Backpack Flash Turns You Into a One-Person Photography Studio [Photography]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5912403/backpack-flash-turns-you-into-a-one+person-photography-studio

Backpack Flash Turns You Into a One-Person Photography StudioIt's hard for clients to understand why photographers charge so much for photos. So if you find yourself in the same situation as Ian Spanier—who was hired for a shoot with no money for an assistant—you too can build this impressive looking backpack studio flash rig.

The getup starts with a sturdy LowePro backpack designed for bird watchers carrying a large tripod into the wilderness. But since Ian needed to be able to shoot handheld with lots of freedom of movement, he instead filled the pack with a rechargeable battery powering a Canon flash unit, the necessary framing and mounts to position the diffuser dome about five inches above his head, and of course wireless receivers so the flash could be triggered without annoying cables tethered to his camera.

Despite looking just a bit nerdy, the rig worked perfectly for Ian's shoot, even allowing him to adjust and position the flash exactly where he needed it just by twisting his body. With all that weight on his back there's the chance the rig could shorten how long he's able to work on a shoot, but the money he saved working without an assistant might just make it worth it. [Ian Spanier Photography via PetaPixel]

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