Sony A57 translucent mirror digital camera announced: 16-megapixel sensor, 12fps for $699.99 (video)

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  • March 14, 2012 at 7:01 am

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Sony SLT-A65 digital camera front sensor

With the entry-level Sony A55 gone the way of the dodo, the company had to fill the gap in its DSLT (digital single lens translucent) camera line-up. The just announced A57 is the official successor to the A55, which was initially released in 2010 and was the first camera to feature Sony’s translucent mirror technology.

Sony’s SLT cameras have a DSLR-style body and a mirror, but unlike DSLRs, the mirror doesn’t move. The translucent mirror allows most light to hit the sensor while some of it is reflected to a phase detection autofocus sensor. Because of this setup, DSLT cameras feature electronic viewfinders (EVFs) rather than optical ones.
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Sony 3.7-inch Xperia Sola smartphone does touch navigation from afar (video)

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  • March 13, 2012 at 4:50 pm

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Sony Xperia Sola Android smartphone in red lying down

Sony has just unveiled a new smartphone in its Xperia NXT series. The Xperia Sola is a 3.7-inch Android smartphone coming in between the 3.5-inch Xperia U and the 4-inch Xperia P. The Sola shares a lot of the design cues that we’ve come to love in recent Xperia smartphones, though it’s missing the transparent acrylic strip at the bottom that we first saw in the high-end 4.3-inch Xperia S.

Nevertheless, the Xperia Sola has something unique. It’s the first smartphone to feature “floating touch” navigation technology. That is the device can sense a finger above the display and allows users to move an on-screen cursor by hovering a finger above the screen, you then tap the screen to navigate.
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Apple’s new iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) packing 1GB of RAM and 1GHz processor, gets early unboxing and benchmark

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  • March 13, 2012 at 1:40 pm

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3rd generation iPad box shot

Although Apple is keeping the new 3rd generation iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) under lock and key until the official March 16 release date, a pair of Vietnamese tech journalists managed to snatch an early copy.

As normally happens in these cases, the pair has duly unboxed the new iPad, which is a 16GB 4G model by the way, in front of a camera and also ran a quick benchmark. No surprises with the unboxing, the new iPad comes in pretty much the same box as the iPad 2, and you still get a power adapter and a USB to 30 pin connector cable. But anyone anxious for some early retina display action is welcome to the 4 minute video just below, and we’re sure you won’t mind that it’s in Vietnamese.
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HTC shows off its ImageSense smartphone camera technology (pictures)

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  • March 11, 2012 at 5:50 pm

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HTC One X ImageSense camera

With all the attention Nokia’s 41-megapixel PureView camera (found in the 808 smartphone) has been getting, HTC is feeling kinda left out. The Taiwanese company wants you to know that it’s done its homework on smartphone cameras and the result of its efforts is the new ImageSense imaging technology that can be found in the HTC One smartphone series.

ImageSense comes in two parts, the camera and a companion chip. The HTC ImageSense camera is made up of a pretty standard 8-megapixel 1/1.2-inch sensor but has a new fast f/2.0 28mm lens. The new lens will allow more light into the sensor, improving low-light performance and allowing for shallower depth of field. The module’s own image processing chip takes over all picture taking duties from the regular processor and allows for 0.7-second shoot times and 0.2-second autofocus.
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Nokia 808 PureView 41-megapixel sensor drew its inspiration from the skies

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  • March 10, 2012 at 7:25 pm

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Nokia 808 PureView held by woman taking pic

We live for the moments when companies think out of the box, and Nokia has been doing a lot of that lately. The latest innovation from the company is the 41-megapixel camera sensor in the newly announced Nokia 808 PureView. Yeah that would be an insane number of pixels even for a full-frame DSLR and that’s actually stuffed in a smartphone.

The camera phone turned heads at this year’s MWC 2012, and although the Symbian Belle-powered 808 will not be released in the States, Nokia’s PureView technology will soon find its way into the company’s Windows Phone devices.
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The 3rd generation iPad is the first tablet with Bluetooth 4.0, what’s in it for you

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  • March 10, 2012 at 8:09 am

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3rd generation iPad multiplayer

Apple has been progressively bringing Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to its mobile devices and personal computers. The mid-2011 MacBook Air (full review here) and Mac mini were the first to get Bluetooth 4.0 and were followed suit by the iPhone 4S, which was the first smartphone ever to get Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

All the above are Bluetooth Smart Ready devices, i.e. they can connect to every legacy Bluetooth device out there, like Bluetooth mice and keyboards, and new Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready and low power Bluetooth 4.0 Smart devices, like body monitors and watches. Here’s a table below of what can connect with what:
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Fujifilm X100 Black Limited Edition shipping now for $1,699.95

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  • March 9, 2012 at 7:17 am

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Fujifilm X100 Black limited edition in leather case

Let’s just say that the we respect the 12.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, 23mm f/2 lens Fujifilm X100 digital camera immensely; but for a more in-depth look better have a read at our lengthy review here. After almost a year since the original X100 was released, Fujifilm is following up with an all black edition of only 10,000 pieces worldwide.

The appropriately named X100 Black Limited Edition set includes a sweet black X100 digital camera, black leather case, adapter ring, lens hood and a 49mm filter. The package can be had for $1,699.95 over the $1,200 which would buy you the plain old two-tone X100. That’s a hefty premium considering you can get the leather case and the adapter ring and hood for less than $300.
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HTC Sensation and Sensation XE receiving Android 4.0 and Sense 3.6 update in Europe, here’s how to update yours now

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  • March 9, 2012 at 4:58 am

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HTC Sensation running Android 4.0 ICS and Sense 3.6 homescreen

Limited numbers of HTC Sensation and Sensation XE owners in Europe have been receiving over-the-air (OTA) updates to Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 3.6. HTC had eluded in a previous statement that the Sensation and Sensation XE would be getting an early taste of Ice Cream Sandwich in Europe with entire line (including the Sensation 4G and Sensation XL) to be updated by end of March.

The update comes as a hefty 200MB+ download and seems to be rolling out to individual countries in stages and specifically to unlocked (i.e. without carrier branding) handsets. If you have an unlocked European handset and are anxious for the update, you can download the leaked HTC RUU 3.30.401.101 and 3.30.401.1 on a Windows computer to manually update either handset.
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iPad 2 vs. 3rd generation iPad 3 comparison

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  • March 8, 2012 at 6:27 pm

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3rd generation iPad with retina display - white and black

 

The 3rd generation iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3) has been announced and we’re sure you are itching to find out if it’s a worthy upgrade from an earlier device. Also given that the iPad 2 has just received a $100 price drop, you might want to consider it as a budget, but still very capable option.

In the table below we will be comparing the new iPad to the iPad 2. The key new feature in the 3rd generation iPad is the inclusion of a higher resolution display, a faster graphics unit necessary to push the extra 2.4 million pixels in the new display and a new 5MP iSight rear camera. You also get a few other nice features like Bluetooth 4.0 and 4G LTE connectivity options. Performance-wise the new iPad should be equivalent to the iPad 2.

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Put your mayor’s hat on, SimCity 5 PC game coming from EA Maxis in 2013 (video)

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  • March 8, 2012 at 12:53 pm

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SimCity 5 trailer

Veteran computer gamers will remember the popular city-building simulation series created by Maxis with a dose of nostalgia. The original SimCity game was released in 1989 and since then countless hours and billions of brain cells have been spent on creating the best virtual habitat for your sims. This is because, and let’s face it, there is a lot of pleasure in watching a city grow from a bunch of houses and factories to a bustling metropolis lined with skyscrapers.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost ten years since SimCity 4 came out, but aspiring city majors now have something to look forward to. SimCity is back, with Maxis heading the development and promising to release the new title in 2013. Of course, the new simulation will bring a new game engine and new 3D graphics with, wait for it, curvy roads.
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The new iPad is here: retina display, A5X with quad-core graphics, better cameras and 4G LTE

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  • March 7, 2012 at 1:47 pm

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3rd generation iPad with retina display

So the well published Apple event is under way and the company has finally come clean with its updated tablet. The third-generation iPad is called just that, iPad — Apple chose not to name it iPad 3 or iPad HD as was previously rumored.

The new iPad comes with a very high resolution 2048 x 1536 display, with four times the number of pixels found in the iPad 2. Apple is calling its 264 pixels-per-inch density display, retina worthy.

To drive such a high resolution one needs a powerful graphics unit and the third-generation iPad comes with a new A5X chipset featuring quad-core graphics that’s two times as potent as the one found in the iPad 2. Apple is also claiming that the A5X graphics unit is four times as fast as the quad-core Tegra 3, a pretty bold statement.
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Apple announces new Apple TV with 1080p support for $99, shipping March 16th

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  • March 7, 2012 at 1:33 pm

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Apple TV in hand

As expected Apple has announced the next generation of its set-top box- The new Apple TV will be selling for $99, the same price as the previous model. They key feature of the new device, which look identical to the previous model, is its ability to output in 1080p high definition. The previous model was limited to 720p only.

The new Apple TV will also have a redesigned high definition user interface and can stream movie purchases directly from iCloud.
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Google reaches for the cloud: Android Market, Google Music and Google Books become Google Play

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  • March 6, 2012 at 2:32 pm

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Google Play

Google just made a big play of its content and cloud efforts, pun intended. The search giant is bringing all its mobile content offerings into one umbrella, titled Google Play, this includes music, books, videos and of course Android apps. Starting today the Android Market, Google Music and Google Books all become Google Play and are accessible through play.google.com on any browser. For now this is just a name change as the individual services will continue to look as before.

Over the next few days Google will also be updating the standard Android apps on phones and tablets running Android 2.2+. The Android Market app will become Google Play Store, and respectively you’ll get Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and Google Play Books apps, depending on availability of the services where you live.
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