Panasonic's new prototype TV can hide in plain sight

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/04/thats-not-a-tv/

Panasonic showed off an early transparent TV before, but the company has now improved the image quality to the extent that the idea of a TV built into your furniture's glass panes is not only possible -- it's right here. The OLED screen is made of a fine mesh, embedded into the glass sliding door. While the TV image is visible even with the backlighting on, once it's dimmed, the image is clear and bright enough to be almost indistinguishable from existing TVs. (The last model was a bit too dim, and required undershelf lighting to boost the image.) Turn the TV panel off, however, and it's hard to tell it was ever there to begin with. Want one? Panasonic's spokesperson says the TV is likely to stay in development for a few years longer: at least another three years.

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This High-Speed Simulator Suspended From Cables Looks Like So Much Fun

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-high-speed-simulator-suspended-from-cables-looks-l-1787152726

The most immersive virtual reality experience is still going to feel fake with your body plopped motionless in a chair. Adding motion into the mix, through the use of a simulator, greatly increases the realism of the experience—particularly if it can fly around a room like this amazing cable-controlled contraption.

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A first look at Sony's full-frame A99 II

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/23/first-look-sony-a99-ii/

In the last year alone, Sony launched three major E-mount cameras, the full-frame A7S II and A7R II, along with the A6300 -- all impressive mirrorless models. So you might think it was losing interest in its A-mount single-lens translucent (SLT) series, having just launched one, the entry-level A68, late last year. At Photokina, however, Sony unveiled the Alpha A99 II, the long-awaited successor to its flagship A99 model.

We got our hands on one at the camera show in Cologne, and it a pretty nice combination of speed and resolution: 42.4 megapixels at a 12fps RAW shooting speed with continuous AF and exposure. To get that kind of performance, Sony incorporated its hybrid 4D Focus tech with 79 dedicated phase detection and 399 focal plane phase detection points. It's also got a max 102,400 ISO and new 5-axis stabilization system, so shooting in low-light won't be an issue.

The A99 II is also well-suited for video, allowing full-frame 4K recording at 30fps max. If you use it in crop-frame, "super-35" mode (at a 15-megapixel still resolution), it can do 4K with a full sensor readout, 1.8X oversampling and no pixel binning. If 1080p is okay, you can shoot at 120 fps for optimal slow-mo. Like other Sony models, it uses the XAVC S format to capture video at up to 100Mbps.

A show floor isn't an idea place to try out a camera, but we did get a feel for the handling. The camera is smaller and lighter than the original, so with the new grip, it's easy to heft. Like the original A99, it doesn't have an optical viewfinder -- the translucent mirror is only used for focusing. However, the XGA, 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder is bright and sharp, and allows up to 10X magnification to nail manual focus.

You can shoot at up to 8fps with live view activated. Based on an informal try, the 12fps burst speed, meanwhile, seems to work as advertised, and it could sustain that rate for several seconds -- not bad considering that each 42.4-megapixel RAW file is as large as 50 MB. All told, this camera should be a worthy flagship for Sony's A-mount series -- we'll know more when we get a look at it later this year.

Aaron Souppouris contributed to this report.

We're live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Photokina 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

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Opera's VPN-equipped browser is now available to everyone

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/20/opera-vpn-browser-available-to-everyone/

You no longer have to grab test software to try Opera's VPN-toting web browser. The company has released the finished version of Opera 40 for desktops, which revolves around a free virtual private network (provided by SurfEasy) that offers both a more secure connection as well as access to foreign content that would otherwise be blocked. Hi, Hulu and Pandora! It can automatically choose whichever VPN server will provide the fastest connection, but you can specify one of five countries (Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore and the US) if you're more concerned about visiting region-specific sites.

The update also brings a reworked battery saver and RSS feeds in personal news, so there's something to check out after the novelty of the browser's central feature wears off. One thing's for sure: it's worth a shot if you hate paying for VPNs, but want to stick to a mainstream browser that includes plenty of familiar elements.

Source: Opera

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Kodak's latest 4K action camera captures VR-ready video by itself

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/20/kodak-4kvr360-action-camera/

The Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K action camera had a branding problem. Yes, you could shoot 360-degree videos, but they weren't spherical -- you needed two cameras to do that, which made it less-than-practical for full virtual reality videos. You won't have to do some extra shopping with the 4KVR360, though. The newly launched cam fuses a 20-megapixel sensor with lenses on both the front and back, letting one camera shoot fully immersive VR video all by its lonesome.

As you might hope, the camera is also very connected: there's WiFi and NFC to help talk to your phone, and Bluetooth to talk to an optional remote control. You can record up to 128GB of footage on a microSD card, so you shouldn't have trouble recording many of your adventures in VR. Kodak's name might be historic, but it's going up against mobile giants like Samsung and camera stalwarts Nikon.

The catch? JK Imaging (which oversees the Kodak camera brand) doesn't expect the 4KVR360 to ship until sometime in early 2017, and hasn't revealed a price. Though we'd expect it to be somewhere between the Nikon's $500 and Sammy's $350 though.

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