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Monday, July 11, 2011

Olympus PEN EP-3: Micro Four-Thirds Is Starting to Get Good. Real Good. [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5819506/olympus-pen-ep+3-micro-four+thirds-is-starting-to-get-good-real-good

Micro Four-Thirds cameras have long promised to bridge the quality of DSLRs with the size of point and shoots. The Olympus PEN EP-3 is the fullest realization of the Micro Four-Thirds dream so far, even if it's not quiiiiiiite perfect.

Why It Matters

The EP-3 could very well be the first camera that will satisfy the desires of the weekend photo hobbyist. The person who knows the difference between a zoom and a macro lens. Knows how to adjust ISO, exposure, and shutter speed accordingly. Is curious about HD DSLR video. Basically, they want to take relatively straight forward photos that look great and don't need the power of a full-bore DSLR. The EP-3 is for this person.

Nyko Zoom gives space-limited Kinect users more room on August 23

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/10/nyko-zoom-gives-space-limited-kinect-users-more-room-on-august-2/

Maybe you're one of the lucky few who have plenty of space where 65-inch televisions are barely big enough to outfit your palatial estate. If so, we hate you (not really). Or perhaps you're like us at Engadget HQ where our city apartments are barely big enough for our Nabaztags. If so, Nyko has a $29 device coming August 23 called the Zoom that'll attach to your Kinect sensor to reduce the amount of flail-space required by about 40 percent. That translates to just four feet of distance from your Kinect. How does it do it? With lenses that refocus the sensors, so it has no power requirements. Call them glasses for your Kinect without the jabs from your classmates because they can't see you playing Kinect Adventures anyway, trooper.

Nyko Zoom gives space-limited Kinect users more room on August 23 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google pulls co.cc subdomains from search, brings our global malware nightmare to an end

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/10/google-pulls-co-cc-subdomains-from-search-brings-our-global-mal/

Google's been on a creative tear lately, rolling out new products and revamping older ones. But there's a reason the phrase "search giant" is synonymous with Big G, and it's always working to return better results. Sometimes that means tweaking its algorithm to prevent SEO-gaming; other times it means dropping over 11 million sites from search results, as the company just did in blocking the .co.cc subdomain. Google classifies it as a "freehost" -- it belongs to a Korean company that provides free or cheap domains, often bulk-registered -- and after automated scanning revealed a high percentage of malware-hosting sites, decided to scrub the entire lot from its results. Of course, this is something like using a nuclear weapon against cockroaches: it causes a lot of collateral damage, while your real target scurries to its next hideout. Still, we wish Google well in its bravely quixotic mission.

Google pulls co.cc subdomains from search, brings our global malware nightmare to an end originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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European Space Agency creates one billion pixel camera, calls her GAIA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/10/european-space-agency-creates-one-billion-pixel-camera-calls-he/

When we hear the name GAIA, our memory automatically zooms back to the Whoopi Goldberg-voiced Mother Earth from Captain Planet. This isn't that GAIA, but it does have to do with planets. Back at the turn of the millennium, the European Space Agency devised an ambitious mission to map one billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy -- in 3D (insert Joey Lawrence 'whoa!'). To do this, it enlisted UK-based e2v Technologies and built an immense digital camera comprised of 106 snugly-fit charge coupled devices -- the largest ever for a space program. These credit card-shaped, human hair-thick slabs of silicon carbide act like tiny galactic eyes, each storing incoming light as a single pixel. Not sufficiently impressed? Then consider this: the stellar cam is so all-seeing, "it could measure the thumbnails of a person on the Moon" -- from Earth. Yeah. Set to launch on the Soyuz-Fregat sometime this year, the celestial surveyor will make its five-year home in the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, beaming its outerspace discoveries to radio dishes in Spain and Australia -- and occasionally peeping in your neighbor's window.

European Space Agency creates one billion pixel camera, calls her GAIA originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer's C110 and C112 pico projectors aim to please, travel well

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/11/acers-c110-and-c112-pico-projectors-aim-to-please-travel-well/

Ah, the pico projector. An idea that flourished if but for a moment, but never really hit that critical mass that CE companies yearn for. Evidently that matters not to Acer, who has decided to kick out two more for good measure. The downright diminutive C110 (seen above) is a DLP-powered beamer that gets all the juice it needs via USB, measures just 110- x 85- 25mm and offers up a WVGA (854 x 480) native resolution. The LED bulb is said to last up to 20,000 hours, and it'll go from dead to dazzling in five seconds flat. Moving up a couple notches, there's the C112 (pictured after the break), complete with an optional external battery (good for two hours, we're told), a 1,000:1 contrast ratio and an identical WVGA resolution. Both of these guys are slated to hit UK shops at the end of the month, with prices set at £199 and £220, respectively.

Continue reading Acer's C110 and C112 pico projectors aim to please, travel well

Acer's C110 and C112 pico projectors aim to please, travel well originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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