Geek News: Latest Technology, Product Reviews, Gadgets and Tech Podcast News for Geeks

Barber Tech SteddiePod

Posted by Andrew at 9:31 AM on February 21, 2012

BarberTech SteddiePodThis is the funniest CES interview I’ve seen (which isn’t saying much, to be honest). Jeffrey and Jamie get a hands-on demonstration of BarberTech‘s SteddiePod by Eddie Barber, which actually looks pretty handy, all joking aside.

The Barber Tech SteddiePod is billed as the “world’s most versatile camera support” and it’s a handheld camera stabiliser with extra features designed in, so it can be used as a tripod or with the boom extended to give overhead shots. The setup looks amazingly straightforward – there’s a good video on the Barber Tech website – and with just a few minutes easy work, the SteddiePod can be accurately balanced for a video camera.

The SteddiePod starts at $499 and is available from dealers nationwide. Barber Tech is “Emmy Award Winning” and has other products such as camera booms and teleprompters for the TV and film industry.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine and Jamie Davies of the MedicCast and the Nursing Show.

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Posted in ces, Film, Interview, Photography, Special Media, TV, video

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Canon G1X Point and Shoot Camera

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 9:10 AM on February 14, 2012

Canon is considered by many to be the premier camera maker in the world right now and they didn’t disappoint with their latest offering, the G1X, which they were showing off last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  The G1X is the new flagship of the popular PowerShot line of cameras.

The Canon G1X boasts a very large 1.5 inch sensor, making it almost as good as an entry-level DSLR.  The large sensor allows for great low-light performance and the ability to give your photos that professional-looking “background blur”.  Other features include a 4x optical zoom, a rotating 3 inch LCD display, 1920 x 1080 video recording, 14-bit RAW shooting, and the ability to attach EOS accessories to the lens.  That last feature is perhaps the coolest part, because now amateurs can begin experimenting with upgrading their photos without making the DSLR investment.  Plus, those EOS accessories can be used later if you do decide to make the jump to a Canon DSLR.

You can expect about 250 shots out of the lithium-ion battery between charges and you can use any standard SD card.  The Canon G1X will be available later this month with a MSRP of $799.  Keep an eye on the Canon PowerShot site for it’s release.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine.

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Canon Vixia Camcorders

Posted by Andrew at 9:07 AM on February 14, 2012

Canon Vixia CamcordersThe Canon Vixia camcorders have been popular with consumers and Canon have upgraded the range with six new models. Jeffrey Powers has been a Vixia owner for some time and chats to Ben Thomas from Canon to learn more.

Some of the new models have built-in wi-fi allowing live streaming from the camera to iOS devices such as the iPad and iPhone. The footage can be captured by the free Movie Uploader app and, if desired, uploaded to Facebook and other video sharing websites.

There’s also new dynamic image stabilization technology that has four different stabilization modes that kick-in depending on the particular situation.

The Vixia camcorders normally record the AVCHD format but they can record direct to MP4 which is great for sharing on media players and mobile phones. The cameras take SDXC cards (up to 64GB) and have internal memory; the price determines exactly how much. Roughly, 32 GB will give 12 hours of 720p footage.

Prices start from $349 for R-series and $549 for the M-series.

Sorry we didn’t get to see Kellie Pickler. Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine.

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Posted in Apple, ces, Facebook, Interview, iOS, IPAD, iPhone, ipod, Photography, Special Media, wifi, wireless, YouTube

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Keep Your Tablet Clear with the Lenspen SideKick

Posted by Andrew at 5:16 PM on January 28, 2012

Lenspen LogoLenspen have a long history of products in the photography market and they’ve brought their expertise of lens cleaning to the mobile gadget space. Their client list reads like a who’s who of the photography market with Nikon, Canon and Sony all producing OEM-branded version of Lenspen’s lens cleaning tools. Todd and Don chat with Peter from Lenspen to get an update on the latest products.

Last year, Lenspen introduced the first SideKick and since then the product line has been expanded with new colours and new packaging. The SideKick is a matchbox-sized sprung-loaded carbon pad that is wiped over the screen and completely removes fingerprints from tablet and smartphone screens. Using a carbon-based technology, the SideKick absorbs oils without any abrasion leaving a perfectly cleaning screen. It then closes up to keep all the carbon inside and one cartridge will do 300-400 cleanings before needing to be replaced. The SideKick is available online and in retail stores from $14.99 for a single SideKick. Other package combinations are available.

Lenspen also has specific cleaning products for LCD monitors and screens, such as the Laptop-Pro, that removes both dust and fingerprints.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Don Baine, the Gadget Professor for the TechPodcast Network.

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Posted in Android, Apple, ces, Gear, IPAD, iPhone, Photography, smartphone, Special Media, tablet

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Pextor’s PlexEasy Burns Without The PC

Posted by Andrew at 1:48 PM on January 11, 2012

Plextor LogoToday at CES International, Plextor announced the PlexEasy, a standalone external 8x DVD and CD burner that will burn discs from SD cards and USB-connected devices without the need for a PC. It can connect directly to a wide variety of devices including both mass storage devices and Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) devices such cameras, smartphones, tablets, and camcorders. Photos can be burnt directly from digital cameras and smartphones, regardless of OS, without copying the pictures onto a PC first or fiddling about with a disc-burning software.

With the Plextor PlexEasy, it’s now a three-step process:
1. connect the device,
2. insert a DVD or CD and
3. press a button to burn a backup.

The PlexEasy’s compatibility with mass storage devices allows almost any storage device to be connected – MP3 players, flash drives, external hard disks and even tablets. The PlexEasy can also copy from an inserted SD-card to the mass storage device for quick backups. Of course, the device can be connected to a PC and it then offers all the features of a high-end DVD burner with support for all types of CDs and DVDs.

Pictures, pricing and availability to follow.

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Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, ipod, MP3, Photography, smartphone, storage, USB

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Samsung’s Smart Cameras

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 10:31 PM on January 9, 2012

DV300F There are more than 2.5 million digital photographers in the world and over one half of them share their photos online. Once upon a time in order to share your photos you would have connect your camera to your computer by a usb cable, download your photos from your camera to your computer. Finally after you did all that you could then upload them to your favorite sharing site. No more, now with Samsung Smart Cameras you can share to your favorite social sites or upload to your computer wirelessly using WiFi. You can also use Auto Backup to automatically transfers pictures to your home computer. By using customized back-up options you are ensured that you only share what you want. Smart Auto is also available giving you the right setting no matter the conditions, for the best results every time.

Samsung Smart Camera wireless line consist of five cameras and camcorders. At the low-end is the ST200F. The ST200F allows you to back up your computer by way of AutoSharing or the cloud using Samsung’s Allshare® or Microsoft’s SkyDrive®. The ST200F can take pictures up to 780/25p. It is beautiful and slim easy to slip into a pocket ready to use at anytime. If you want something with a little more power and love taking self portraits then the DV300F is for you. This is a 16 megapixel with a 5x lens camera. It has both a front and rear LCDs. The front LCD allows for great self portraits. Using the social sharing feature you can upload your photos directly to Youtube or Facebook. At the high-end of the line is the WB850F travel camera. It takes pictures up to 1080/30p and 1080i for scenery shots. It has GPS and Live Landmark installed, so you always know where you took that picture. It has a crystal clear 3.0 VGA AMOLED screen with Bsi CMOS sensor technology to reduce noise and distortion. It is great for travelogues who can upload their best travel photos directly to Facebook, Photobucket or Picasa.

WB850

The Samsung Smart Camera line is a camera for todays social world. As Mr Myoung Sup Han, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business, Samsung Electronic said, “The ability to instantly share, securely save and automatically back-up images on the go make our newest line-up of SMART cameras must-haves for a whole range of photographers.”  If you are ready to move up from the camera on your phone, then your are ready for a Samsung Smart Camera. Samsung will be at CES 2012 showing off their products.

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Posted in Information, Photography

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Lexar Takes CompactFlash to 150 Mb/s

Posted by Andrew at 10:29 AM on January 6, 2012

Lexar CompactFlash ProfessionalEach year, CompactFlash gets faster and more capacious, despite being one of the older memory card formats around, and it looks like 2012 will be no different. Lexar has announced a new addition to its Professional range with 1000x CF cards that support minimum data transfer speeds of 150 Mb/s, allowing the capture of high-quality images and 1080p full-HD and 3D video from a suitable DSLR camera.

Available in 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB capacities, the CF cards support the VPG-20 specification meaning the card has been tested and guaranteed for professional video capture streams at up to 20 MB/s. To get the video off the card, Lexar offer a high performance USB 3 card reader.

Included with the purchase of a Professional CF card is Lexar’s Image Rescue software (downloadable) which will help recover accidently deleted photos and videos from the card.

The new Lexar Professional 1000x CompactFlash card will be on-sale in February, though the 128 GB variant won’t be ready until April. Recommended prices are 16 GB – $169.99, 32 GB – $299.99, 64 GB – $529.99, and 128 GB - $899.99 (ouch!)

You might be wondering what significance the “1000x” is. The original CompactFlash cards had a transfer rate of only 150 kb/s which itself was based on the data transfer rate of CompactDiscs (CDs). Geek fact for the day.

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Posted in 3D, Information, Photography, USB

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Vivitar Vivicam-T135 and Vivitar DVR 790HD

Posted by JaimeDavis at 11:29 AM on November 18, 2011

ViviCam VT135Do you have a buddy photographer in the family or perhaps the next Steven Spielberg and are looking for a still or video camera for them for the holidays. Take a look at the Vivitar’s ViviCam VT135 or the Vivitar 790HD. The Vivitar ViviCam VT135 is a high-definition, 3D digital camera. It has 12.1 megapixel and 5x zoom. You can preview what you took in its 2.7” preview screen. It is HDMI compatible and operates with a lithium battery. I know what your thinking I can’t afford that, its got to be hundreds of dollar. Besides I know my kid the more expensive it is the more likely they are to break it within a week. How does $99.00 sounds to you, that’s right the Vivitar ViviCam VT135 is only $99 SRP. For $99.00 you can give a gift that will allow your kid or favorite adult to take beautiful pictures in 3D

Vivitar DVR 790HD

If you have a budding Spielberg then you may want to take a look at the DVR 790HD. It is 5.1 megapixel, 3D video camera. with 4x zoom. You have the ability to shoot and view all the action in 3D on a 2.7” preview screen. It also is HDMI compatible and operates with a lithium battery. Again it is available for $99. Vivitar the maker of both these cameras has been around for over 70 years and is constantly innovating and developing ways to create a rich heritage of photographic products. You can find these cameras and other Vivitar products at select Target stores near you and online.

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Posted in Gadgets, Gear, Photography

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Photo Stream, Rough Waters Ahead?

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 8:05 PM on October 13, 2011

Photo Stream One of the features that was released with iOs 5 was Photo Stream. Photo Stream takes the pictures you shoot with your iOS device and automatically uploads them to your iPhoto Library, Apple TV, and any other iOS device you have. For this to work you have to set up each device. On the iPhone, you go into Settings, then Photos and turn Photo Streaming on. Under that same setting you can also set up how you want the Photo Stream slides to run and whether you want to keep standard photos along with the HDR versions. Also make sure that Photo Stream is turned on under iCloud in Settings. Do the same thing on your other iOS devices. On your Mac go into System Preference and under iCloud there should be a check mark next to Photo Stream. You also need to make sure your iPhoto or Aperture application have been updated, if it has you will see Photo Stream in the left side bar. If you have an Apple TV you will need to update that also.

Photo Stream on iPhone

Once you have everything set up, anytime you take a picture on your favorite iOS device it will show up almost immediately on your Mac, Apple TV and any other iOS device you have. You can also set it up so that pictures you import from a digital camera to your iPhoto or Aperture library will go into your Photo Stream. When I say almost immediately I mean it. So if you share your iPhoto or Aperture library with someone else, beware that they can see the pictures you take as soon as you take them. If you are taking pictures of something that you shouldn’t be doing to show off to your friends make sure you turn Photo Stream off first. I can bet that someone somewhere is going to get in to a lot of trouble because of a picture posted by mistake to a Photo Stream. The other problem with Photo Stream is that once a photo is on Photo Stream it stays there for 30 days. The only way to delete a photo is to delete the whole photo stream. I like the idea of Photo Stream and if you don’t share your iPhoto library it’s a great feature. However as I said above I do see potential problems if you share your iPhoto or Aperture Library.  Do you like Photo Stream or do you see it causing more problems than it solves.

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Posted in Apple, Information, Photography

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Flickr Releases Photo Session and Android App

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 5:17 PM on September 28, 2011

Flickr today announced two new releases – Photo Session and an app for Android devices.  While the Android app has been wanted by users for a long time, the Photo Session app came as a bit of a surprise and also a treat, especially for those who have family in far-flung locations that they want to browse photos with.

The more popular of the two releases is likely to be the Android app.  The app allows users to take pictures, edit them, and then forward them on to not just Flickr, but also other locations like Facebook and Twitter.  According to their announcement, “Browsing and navigating has been custom designed for Flickr to make use of maps, tags, and activity around your photos.”  It allows users to view comments and also go full-screen and set up and play slideshows.

Photo Session has been overshadowed in today’s news cycle thanks to anything Android being what the media takes and runs with.  It’s a cool release on it’s own though, as it allows users to view pictures, through a web browser, with friends and families who can be located anywhere in the world.  Once you create a new photo session you can send invitations to others.  In turn, you can all get together in real-time and view and discuss the shared photos.  When you move from one photo to the next it changes for all viewers in your session.

You can find the Android app in the Android Market and Photo Session at Flickr.  Both are free downloads.  Photo Session is only available in English and is still in beta.  You can see a preview video below.

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Posted in Android, Photography

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