Add Photo Lenses to iPhone Camera

Although in any serious photographer’s book, taking photos with a mobile device (generally, a mobile phone) is a deadly sin, the truth is that a lot of people make use of these devices in order to take snapshots of something interesting even going on in front of them. However, despite the fact that camera modules inserted in mobile phones have evolved quite a lot over the recent few years and are now able to produce high-quality photos, they also present certain drawbacks, as for example the lack of interchangeable lenses.

But don’t despair, there’s a solution to this problem after all, especially if you happen to be an iPhone user. Thus, as GearDiary informs us, USB Fever is offering three different types of lenses that will help improve the quality (and variety) of photos you can take with your iPhone, all of which attach very easily to Apple’s handheld via a magnetic ring.

Wait, you’ll say, how can a magnetic ring attach to the iPhone 3G, which is made out of plastic? Well, it’s a very simple system, actually, since users will first have to attach another ring to the case via adhesive tape, and then the lens itself. Moreover, this very innovative system allows users to attach these tiny lenses to just about any embedded digital camera, including that of a notebook, for example.

Now, let’s take a quick look at what each of these lenses can provide. First of all, there’s a wide angle lens, which provides a 0.67x zoom with Super Macro. Then, there’s a Telephoto lens, which offers a 2x magnification factor, and finally a 170-degree Fish-eye lens, featuring four elements in four groups. The best thing about these lenses is their price, which is quite OK given the overall features they provide. Hence, the Wide Angle lens and the Telephoto lens sell for around 17 US dollars, while the Fish-eye lens is a little bit more expensive, being priced at around 20 US dollars.

GPS Angel Speed Cameras

Speed cameras are without a doubt any driver’s worst enemy, since they can easily pick your speed up exactly when you least expect it (and when you’ve just hit the gas pedal really hard). Of course, there are quite a few solutions available out there that can help you avoid being picked up by these cameras, most of them being somewhat related to GPS devices.

As some of you might know, quite a lot of the GPS navigation devices available on the market provide speed camera detection capabilities. However, most users don’t spend enough time browsing through the PNDs menus in order to discover the respective functions, and end up getting caught while speeding anyway.

If you want to try something simpler, though, you can always go for the GPS Angel. This tiny device installs very easily within a vehicle (just connect it to the cigarette lighter slot and place it as close to the windshield as possible) and, by constantly monitoring the car’s speed, as well as its relative position compared to its built-in database of speed cameras, constantly keeps the user alert whenever danger is approaching.

By using its connection to the global positioning system, the GPS Angel calculates the distance to the next risk area. As one approaches the respective area, the alert system issues a warning before one can reach the exact location of the risk. Furthermore, once within the risk area, the GPS Angel will issue a warning every time the driver goes above the speed limit.

The GPS Angel sells for around 130 US dollars, which is not exactly a very small price, given the device’s relative limited functionality, but not exactly too exaggerated either, considering the fact that it could actually save you a lot of money (otherwise spent on speeding tickets).

Netbooks: Tomorrow’s Laptops or Just a Phase?

Slate Magazine has an article on the netbooks trend — a move towards smaller, cheaper and less powerful laptops. A netbook is usually a minimalist laptop, free of the bloatware and resource-heavy OS that my laptop came with (did yours?), with the minimum requirements and maximum portability.
I know I can’t stand typing on a less-than-standard size keyboard, but everything else sounds perfect for computing while traveling.

Minimalism pervades Amazon’s laptop list; over the last few weeks, the
great majority of the 25 best-seller slots have been occupied by
various permutations of the Eee PC and other souped-down, sub-$500
machines. In the computer industry, these miniature computers are known
as “netbooks.” The term is vaguely defined, but the best way to spot a
netbook is to peek at the specs: Today’s bigger laptops run on Intel’s
speedy Core 2 Duo processor, while netbooks use a smaller, less
powerful, and cheaper Intel chip, the Atom. Netbooks also run older or
more lightweight operating systems—generally Windows XP or some flavor
of Linux.

PC companies are looking to these machines in much the same way John McCain once looked to the governor of Alaska—as an easy way to put a fresh face on an otherwise aging product line.

Via What does the “netbook” craze tell us about the future of laptops. – By Farhad Manjoo – Slate Magazine

Audioengine W2 Wireless Adapter For iPods

Wish your iPod could transfer audio to a stereo system wirelessly? That pie-in-the-sky dream is now a reality with Audioengine’s W2 wireless adapter for Apple’s popular iPod. Audioengine is going so far as to claim that the all-digital PCM signal will maintain audio quality, although it remains to be proven in benchmark tests. The sending unit is hooked to the dock connector, while the receiver is directly connected to the compatible amplification equipment. Wi-Fi Technology is favored by Bluetooth or FM, sending audio by the 2.4GHz band within a 30 foot radius. The circuitry within is smart decent
to split the band into 40 subchannels so that it can remain on the clearest frequency at all times. The Audioengine W2 works with the iPod classic, touch and nano 2G or higher. Each $170 purchase will come with the sender, receiver, USB capability adapter, 3.5mm TRS to RCA adapter and an audio cable.

iStation T3 Portable Media Player

The iStation T3 portable media player looks pretty sweet, as though it is an iPod touch clad in some sort of rubbery skin. Specifications and features include :-

* 4.3″ touchscreen display at 480 x 272 resolution

* SDHC memory card slot

* Supports WMA, MP3, Ogg, FLAC, APE, AC3 and WAV audio files

* Supports MPEG-4, AVI, DivX, XviD and WMV video files

* TV Out

* USB connectivity

* Integrated FM radio tuner

* Voice recording capability

* E-book support

Powered by Windows CE 5.0, the T3 will come in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB capacities, boasting a 10 hour battery lifespan for video. No word on pricing or availability Stateside though.

Blu-Ray disc sales shoots to more than 150%

The Blu-ray Video Association is celebrating what they are seeing as a “breakthrough year” for Blu-ray, with November’s disc sales up 165 per cent from October.

Accounting for 21 per cent of all these sales was The Dark Knight – marking the movie out as what The Matrix did for DVD sales way back in 1999.

Speaking of the humble DVD, the BVA is also claiming that sales of Blu-ray Discs are actually much faster than the rate DVDs sold more than a decade ago.

Unparalleled home entertainment experience

Speaking about the upsurge in sales, Jim Bottoms, Managing Director, Corporate Development, at Futuresource, the company who compiled the statistics said: “The Blu-ray disc format offers an unparalleled home entertainment experience, something all those involved with this technology have always known.

“We fully expect Blu-ray to keep on bucking the current economic trend and continue its rapid growth over the next few months and beyond, stimulated by falling prices and even more bundling deals with large screen TVs.”

In other Blu-ray related news, the sale of BD players is set to triple in 2009, with an estimated 2.5 million players to be sold in the UK.

As this figure does not take into account the sale of PlayStation 3s, despite the economic downturn, the future for Blu-ray is looking very bright indeed.

Apple to launch 3D OS ?

A patent has been leaked, which may well reveal the secrets behind Apple’s next operating system.

Dubbed a ‘multidimensional application environment’, the patent, uncovered by Mac Rumours, essentially shows a 3D desktop unlike anything that has been seen on a computer before.

Unlike Windows Vista and OS X, which dabble in 3D purely from a cosmetic point of view, this 3D sketch shows off things like three-dimensional function icons that will fall if not placed correctly on the desktop – a bit like the physics model used in LittleBigPlanet.

Not Snow Leopard

Another new feature is when you open a window it will act differently depending on where you drag it. So, instead of a 2D flat image in the middle of the screen, drag it to the side of the desktop ‘room’ and it would change appropriately.

Using a similar stacking system as employed in OSX, documents can also be stacked behind each other in multiple rows.

The patent looks to be for a completely new operating system, so don’t expect these 3D tweaks to magically appear in Snow Leopard next year, but the drawings do give an interesting insight into how Apple perceives the future of OS design.

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