Canon's bringing back the square selfie cam with PowerShot N2

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/15/canon-powershot-n2/

Early last year, a Canon rep pulled out a point-and-shoot with a very peculiar design. Instead of the rectangular form factor we'd grown used to, this camera was square. The PowerShot N was designed to be held any which way, making it a good fit for both righties and lefties, but without any pronounced grip, it didn't feel quite as natural to hold. We were a bit relieved, then, when Canon debuted the N100 with a more familiar look and feel, but at Photokina, the company's returning to the original shape and size with the PowerShot N2. The N2 replaces the original N -- the N100 will remain on the market -- bringing a slew of new features for social sharers and video bloggers alike.

There's a new 16.1-megapixel sensor, a faster DIGIC 6 processor, a 28-224mm f/3.0-5.9 8x optical zoom lens (with improved IS) and a 461k-dot, 2.8-inch touchscreen that now flips 180 degrees for self-portraits (and videos). You still get WiFi (after all, this camera's all about creating sharable content), but the N2 now includes NFC, making it easier to get up and running with a new device. The camera can capture 1080/30p video and thanks to a few added touchscreen controls, you can tweak exposure compensation, turn on the flash and adjust the smoothness of your skin (to decrease sharpness with certain facial features), all from the selfie mode. Canon's expecting to ship the PowerShot N2 to customers this December; the camera is priced at $300.

Filed under: Cameras, Canon

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Panasonic's 'connected camera' pairs an Android smartphone with a one-inch sensor and f/2.8 lens

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/15/panasonic-lumix-cm1/

Compact, point-and-shoot cameras are dying, simply because people would rather use smartphones and tablets to snap their dinner and instantly share them to Instagram. Unfortunately, that's a segment of the market that Panasonic abandoned (at least in Europe) back in 2013. That left the company without a convincing rival to the Lumia 1020 and Samsung's various phone / camera hybrids. That's why the company has now launched the DMC-CM1, a "connected camera" (i.e. a smartphone with a proper lens) that's capable of taking 20-megapixel stills and record 4K video thanks to a one-inch MOS sensor.

For its part, Panasonic knows that the device won't beat equivalent smartphones on a spec-for-spec basis. Instead, it wants people to concentrate upon the photographic equipment that's been crammed into this slender device. Perched atop the aforementioned one-inch sensor is an f/2.8 Leica DC Elmarit lens. The lens is fixed, but works equivalent to a 28mm zoom lens, packing an aperture that'll run all the way up to f/11. A manual control dial runs around the lens, which you can assign to a function of your choice, lending this an old-school feel. In fact, the CM1 looks like the Lumia 1020 by way of Dieter Rams, all austere chrome with cracked-leather style back, and has a weird retro-futuristic look that's tremendously attractive.

On the surface of it, it's no slouch in the phone department either, packing a 4.7-inch full HD touchscreen that'll offer full manual control of your images. Sandwiched between the frame is a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 with 2GB RAM and Android 4.4. The 16GB of internal storage can also, thankfully, be improved with microSD cards up to 128GB in capacity. Battery-wise, there's 2,600mAh unit lurking inside the hardware, although we'd be concerned that it won't hold enough juice to get you through a full day of snappin' and callin'. If there is one downside, it's that the CM1 is only earmarked for release in France and Germany of Christmas of this year. Still, we imagine that plenty of camera enthusiasts will be racing to get back in contact with some long-lost Gallic grandmother in the hope of scoring one of these as a present.

Steve Dent contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cameras

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Article: The State of Antivirus for Android

Over 80% of smartphones today run Android. With such a large amount of phones using Google's operating system, Android has become an ever more viable target for malware developers. The question is, are currently used antiviruses effective? The answer is more complex than yes or no, but is leaning...

http://www.androidauthority.com/state-antivirus-android-523684/

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Voice Calling Spotted in the Latest Version of Whatsapp on iOS

Source: http://gizmodo.com/voice-calling-spotted-in-the-latest-version-of-whatsapp-1634763542

Voice calling is definitely , definitely coming to WhatsApp and what's more, it's round the corner. A reference to the feature was spotted in the latest iOS update to the app by NDTV Gadgets, an Indian news portal.

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Artist gets Google results removed to 'highlight' his new work

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/14/google-right-to-be-forgotten-artist/

Ever since Google announced that it's complying with the European Commission's "right to be forgotten" ruling, it's been inundated with requests to take down all sorts of search results. Many of those sought to bury negative reviews or write-ups, but in this particular case, the search result Google took down was neither negative nor damaging. In fact, it used to lead to a five-year-old article published on Worcester News, which called the piece's subject (an artist by the name of Dan Roach) "excellent" and "very talented." That's right -- you can apparently ask Google to remove anything from its results pages in the European Union, even if it's not dangerous or offensive... and maybe even if it's helpful to some people. Worcester News editor Peter John was so dismayed by what happened, that he called it "the most absurd and silly piece of censorship" when he talked to The Guardian.

If you're wondering, it was likely Roach himself who asked the tech giant to remove a link to an article that describes him as a brilliant artist, based on the statement he gave Worcester News. Roach, who's now fully experiencing the Streisand effect, said: "The decision to ask for the link to be removed from Google was based on no more than a wish to highlight my new work, rather than the old." John, however, couldn't help but question why the request was granted.

He told The Guardian:

An artist wanting to remove part of his back catalogue did not strike us as the sort of principle that the European court of justice had in mind when it came up with the right to be forgotten ruling. Would Google remove early Hirsts or Monets on request?

To be fair, Google itself was opposed to the EU Commission's ruling from the start, but it had no choice but to comply.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: Poynter

Source: Worcester News

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