The white Leica M9-P limited edition is for the très riches

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  • March 24, 2012 at 7:42 am

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White Leica M9-P limited edition with 50mm/0.95 Noctilux lens

Neither Leica cameras nor its lenses are very cheap, but when it comes to limited editions, things really get out of hand. The German camera maker has announced the new limited edition white M9-P digital camera, that you see above. The 50 piece only run coincides with the opening of the new Leica Daimaru camera store in Tokyo.

The limited edition goes for a whopping 2,620,000 Japanese yen, translating to around $31,800. Your big pile of cash buys you a limited edition 18.5-megapixel Leica M9-P full-frame digital camera with white leather styling and a matching strap — the standard edition goes for $7,995. You also get the incredible Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux-M lens that by itself commands $10,995.
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Your new iPad is begging for these geometric retina display optimized wallpapers

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  • March 24, 2012 at 4:41 am

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Cuben Space 2 new iPad Retina Wallpaper

The incredible retina display of the 3rd generation iPad deserves some incredible wallpaper and we think we just stumbled on them. This set of seven colorful geometric designs was created by graphic designer Simon C Page specifically for the new iPad. They are each 2,048×2,048 at 264dpi so they work both in portrait and landscape.

We’ve loaded them up on our iPad and they look absolutely awesome, fan and playful with an air of sophistication. The easiest way to get them on your 3rd generation iPad is to click each download link from Safari on the iPad and then press-and-hold to save.
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Nokia N9 gets Android Ice Cream Sandwich port thanks to Project Mayhem (video)

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  • March 24, 2012 at 3:55 am

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Nokia N9 running Android Ice Cream Sandwich

So what do you do when you end up with an awesome handset but with a dead operating system? Well you port a very much alive mobile OS to it. The Nokia N9 is running the now defunct MeeGo, which was abandoned by the Linux Foundation in favor of the HTML 5 Tizen. Owners of the polycarbonate body beauty should not despair just yet, developers are at at work, and they’ve already managed to create a pretty solid port of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the device.

News of Project Mayhem, as it’s called, broke a few weeks ago when the first images of a Nokia N9 running Android ICS appeared, but now a developer has released the first Alpha version of the port, which anyone can download and try-out — at their own risk of course. The port even allows Nokia N9 owners to dual-boot between MeeGo and Android 4.0.3.
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Fujifilm X100 v1.20 firmware update brings control refinements and AF improvements

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  • March 23, 2012 at 3:12 am

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Fujifilm X100 digital camera - customized looks with Kaza case, Bop soft release and filter adaptor

We thoroughly reviewed the Fujifilm X100 here, which we loved for its amazing image quality. Our main gripe with the camera was its secondary controls. Well, Fujifilm has just released a new firmware v1.20 for the X100 that tackles these specific issues.

First of all, we asked for the ability to be able to customize the RAW button in the back, i.e. use it as second function button, and it seems we got our wish. Next up, ISO Auto Control has now been moved to the more logical ISO menu. Unfortunately however, it is not accessible from the FN/RAW buttons when you pull ISO settings, you still need to go into the menu to enable or disable it.
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Superconductors have a taste for French red wine

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  • March 22, 2012 at 5:20 pm

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Macro shot of candle light through a glass of red wine

Electric charge travelling through conductors encounters resistance and voltage has to be applied in order to maintain a flow of current. However there are materials, called superconductors, whose resistance drops to zero when cooled below a critical temperature. In superconductors, electricity can flow indefinitely without the need for a power source.

Last year a group of Japanese scientists at the National Institute for Materials Science made an incredible discovery at their own little party, they could induce superconductivity to a piece of iron telluride by first soaking it in a liquid. Most liquids worked, but alcoholic beverages, like whiskey, beer and sake worked better, and red wine worked best.
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Sony airs first stop-motion animation ad directed by Wes Anderson showing us how mobile phones really work

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  • March 22, 2012 at 4:09 pm

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Sony "Made of Imagination" ad by Wes Anderson

Sony has just released the first ad in its new “Made of Imagination” campaign set to promote the company’s Xperia smartphones. Sony enlisted the help of director and writer Wes Anderson — if you haven’t watched his movies you’re missing some of the most incredible and quirky films of all time. Wes is responsible for The Royal Tenenbaums, Darjeeling Limited and last, but not least, the stop-motion classic Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In creating the Sony ads, Wes interviewed the most imaginative amongst us, a bunch of kids that is, and used his stop-motion animation experience to bring their ideas to life. Children were asked how they believe Sony’s Xperia handsets work and this first ad comes courtesy of 8-year-old Jake Ryan. We don’t wanna spoil it for you, so lets just say that what makes the device tick are hundreds of tiny little robots.
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YouTube can now fix shaky and underexposed videos with one click

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  • March 22, 2012 at 12:50 pm

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YouTube camera shake and exposure auto-fix

When Google bought a lesser-known digital video technology company called Green Parrot Pictures last year we were promised that some awesome automatic video enhancement technology would be coming to YouTube. It seems Google has been working hard in implementing this image processing technology on YouTube and today we get a look at the first set of improvements.
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Sony Xperia S 4.3-inch Android smartphone is shipping now globally

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  • March 21, 2012 at 4:49 pm

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Sony Xperia S - transparent strip close-up

The Sony Xperia S began its lengthy road to the market back in November, when it was it was initially known as the Nozomi. Well the Playstation-certified Android smartphone has finally started shipping today to retailers globally.

We have to admit that the Xperia S is one of the best looking smartphones out there, thanks to its unique translucent navigation bar running along the bottom half — though still not as good looking as the Xperia Glass concept.
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Seagate demos laser-heated hard drive technology that will enable 60TB drives

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  • March 20, 2012 at 4:21 pm

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Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) vs. Perpendicular diagram

It’s hard to keep up with our insatiable appetite for more and more data storage and hard drive manufacturers really have their work cut out for them. To increase hard drive capacity, manufacturers have to fit information ever more densely, but you see physics has a thing to say about packing our bits too tight on magnetic media. The first technological ‘snag’ was overcome in 2005 when perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) was commercialized taking the reigns from longitudinal magnetic recording (LMR).
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If you drop it, it will break; the new iPad’s screen that is

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  • March 19, 2012 at 12:38 pm

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3rd generation iPad vs. iPad 2 drop test

A reminder to all: glass shatters, even fancy fortified glass like Corning’s Gorilla Glass. If that glass happens to be attached to the screen of your favorite gadget, then an unfortunate mess ensues.

Take the iPad, a 9.7-inch screen dominates the tablet’s front, which in turn is covered by glass. The iPad 2’s screen was protected by Gorilla Glass, while it has been rumored that the 3rd generation iPad would feature the latest Gorilla Glass technology that we saw this year at CES. So is the new iPad more impervious to drops compared to the iPad 2?
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Panasonic Lumix GF5 Micro Four Thirds camera leaked

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  • March 18, 2012 at 4:31 am

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Panasonic GF5 leaked image

An image of a new model in Panasonic’s entry-level GF series of Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mirrorless cameras has just emerged. Skipping number four, which is an unlucky number in Asia, the Panasonic GF5 looks very much like its predecessor the GF3, but with a more substantial rubber grip. In the image you can see it together with the Lumix G X VARIO PZ 14-42mm collapsible zoom lens.
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The pieces fit, could this finally be the Samsung Galaxy S III getting ready for a May 22 announcement?

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  • March 17, 2012 at 10:50 am

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Samsung Galaxy S III leak

We’ve been hearing a lot about the Samsung Galaxy S III, the successor to the incredibly popular Galaxy S II smartphone. There have been numerous rumors on its release date and several very fake renders of the device. Now we are sharing the above image, which appeared on Reddit this morning, because it certainly looks more credible than whatever we’ve seen so far — note we’ve cleaned-up the original image a bit and you can click to enlarge.

First off, we have what seems to be a photo of a projected image on a screen, rather than a ‘perfect’ render. Then, there is the logo of PR firm Weber Shandwick, with which Samsung has been working with in different regions. The actual device follows what we’ve been hearing so far, i.e. a very slim left and right bezel (and you know how much we loath big bezels) and a very slim profile, perhaps even just 7mm thick.
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iPad 3 receives untethered jailbreak and Cydia install on its first day out

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  • March 17, 2012 at 6:23 am

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Cydia running on 3rd generation iPad - chpwn method

You know how it goes, Apple releases new iOS hardware and the chase to jailbreak the device begins. With the third-generation iPad running iOS 5.1 barely out, developers are showing off their skills having been able to to jailbreak the tablet within a few hours.

What’s amazing is that so far there have been three different developers/teams showing off jailbreaks that they claim have been done using different methods. There’s no public release of a jailbreak just yet, but you should expect one to be out before too long.
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