Monday, November 07, 2011

drag2share: HTC Edge may be the first quad-core smartphone to market

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/07/htc-edge-may-be-the-first-quad-core-smartphone-to-market/

Color us skeptical on this one, but rumors are coming down the pipeline about an HTC phone called the Edge. It's supposedly going to be the first Tegra 3-powered smartphone. According to Pocketnow, the device will supposedly offer a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, 4.7-inch 720p HD display, 1GB of RAM, an 8MP rear camera with f/2.2 lens and Beats Audio. Curiously, no LTE capability was mentioned specifically, though 21Mbps HSPA+ appears to be good to go, and there's a slight possibility of Sense 4.0 being included -- which given its proposed launch window of late Q1 / early Q2 2012, wouldn't be a huge surprise. We'd love to start seeing more quad-core goodness headed our way, so we're definitely keeping our fingers crossed to see a lot more of the above show up at CES and MWC.

HTC Edge may be the first quad-core smartphone to market originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:43 PM

drag2share: This Image Shows How Camera Lenses Beautify or Uglify Your Pretty Face [Photography]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5857279/this-is-how-lenses-beautify-or-uglify-your-pretty-face

This Image Shows How Camera Lenses Beautify or Uglify Your Pretty FaceEver wonder why you may look prettier in some photos and uglier in others, even with the same smile and the same lighting? It's all about the camera lens. These portraits—taken by Stephen Eastwood—show how this works.

If you have ever used a dating site and thought——"damn, he/she looked so hot in those pictures! What happened?" or "wow! He/she looks a lot better in person!"—you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It's all about the lens distortion (which is also affected by the subject's distance to the camera). Lenses make the world look different than it does through your eyes. They bend light rays, capturing the scene within a certain field of view into a limited bi-dimensional frame: the photograph. Depending on the lens' focal length, the image will deform more or less, affecting how faces and objects look in photos.

You can see how the deformation works in this Eastwood's series, who took the same photo with a wide range of optics, going from a 350mm to 19mm. Eastwood moved the camera to frame the subject in exactly the same position so you could clearly see the effect.

The shorter the focal length, the more field of you view you can capture. With something like a 15mm fish eye lens or the 19mm that Eastwood used, the effect is really obvious. Your face would be extremely deformed, like the rest of the environment. But as you go up, the distortion gets more subtle. Sometimes this distortion can make a face prettier than it actually is. Sometimes the effect makes a face uglier. Since this subtler distortion is not obvious, your mind just buys the image thinking that this is what the person looks like.

The same happens with larger focal lengths. At 350mm there's also a distortion of reality: the face of the model becomes flatter and wider.

In theory, shooting with something like a 135mm would produce the best, most accurate results, but there's no right or wrong here. It depends on your subject's anatomy. That's why some people are "photogenic" with certain cameras and at certain angles, and look horrible with others.

If you pay attention, you can really observe this effect in everyday photos taken with cellphones and compact cameras. You can even see it without even changing the lens focal length. While taking photos with my iPhone on a recent trip, placing some people on the center of the frame made them look better, especially from a distance. Then, as I moved them to the sides of the frame, they looked sightly different. The distortion is more obvious near the sides, and it was enough to make them less attractive. The funny thing is that the contrary happened with me: I looked better on the sides than on the center. Or maybe it was just that I had a horrible hangover the whole trip.

Images by Stephen Eastwood via Petapixel

You can keep up with Jesus Diaz the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:34 PM

drag2share: Swann releases Freestyle HD, begs you to capture 1080p underwater via LCD viewer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/07/swann-releases-freestyle-hd-begs-you-to-capture-1080p-underwate/

Looking to step your game up when capturing surfing footage from atop your longboard? Swann is aiming to lend a helping hand with its newfangled Freestyle HD wearable video camera. This offering is the company's first that sports a detachable 1.5-inch LCD viewer for taking a peek at your 1080p video capture in real-time -- which you can capture at up to 30 fps. You'll also be able to snap eight megapixel JPEGs should you so choose with 3x digital zoom at your disposal. Waterproof at depths up to 65 feet, the Freestyle HD can be helmet-mounted, attached to your favorite fixed-gear or the roof of your rally car via the three included mounting brackets. The camera will connect directly to an HDTV for viewing, or you can hop over to a PC via a microSD card or USB transfer. You can expect 2.5-hour battery life and a $279 price tag to boot -- too bad that flight to the southern hemisphere isn't nearly as affordable.

Continue reading Swann releases Freestyle HD, begs you to capture 1080p underwater via LCD viewer

Swann releases Freestyle HD, begs you to capture 1080p underwater via LCD viewer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 6:59 PM

drag2share: Massive Time Warner Outage Hits the US [Internet]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5857010/massive-time-warner-outage-hits-the-us

Massive Time Warner Outage Hits the USTime Warner internet services are taking a dump all over the country today, with users in New York, LA, San Francisco, Kansas City, Dallas, Ohio, and other cities and regions without internet. Many areas are reporting that service is back to normal, but we've put in a call to Time Warner to see exactly what happened.

Were any of you guys affected this morning? I thought our fearless leader Joe Brown was going to start decapitating people if he didn't get his morning FPSRussia fix. For now, this seems like it was a minor outage, but it certainly puts the fear of god in us of something nationwide and longer lasting. [Twitter]

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Posted by Augustine at 2:23 PM

drag2share: Fingertip Sized Camera Does HD Video On the Cheap [Camera]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5857002/fingertip-sized-camera-does-hd-video-on-the-cheap

Fingertip Sized Camera Does HD Video On the CheapIt's not quite as adorable as its predecessor, but the new Chobi Cam Pro manages to gain 720P video recording while making a convincing case for it being the world's smallest HD camcorder.

The miniscule camera is barely larger than the tip of you finger, but JTT is trying to dispel the idea that it's just a toy, adding a matte metal housing they hope will make it feel more like an SLR. But they're not going to fool anyone with that tactic. What might actually make the Chobo Cam Pro rise above being just a novelty, though, is its ability to snap 4032×3024 still images and record videos at 720P. Combine that with a 64GB microSD card and you're ready for a covert overnight stakeout.

A built-in mini USB port allows photos and videos to be dumped to a computer if you're lacking a microSD reader, but it also facilitates an included AV cable letting the Chobi Cam Pro be connected directly to a TV. Although you'll be limited to just navigating menus and browsing photos, since a 720P video signal can't be sent over a single composite video cable. And even though JTT is trying to position this camera as a serious alternative to toting a P&S, the $76 price point speaks volumes about how "pro" they think it really is. [JTT via Fareastgizmos]

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Posted by Augustine at 2:23 PM

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