Smart Power Strip now works with SmartThings WiFi hub to keep your home always connected

If you couldn't tell by its name alone, the Smart Power Strip's a card-carrying member of the 'internet of things' or, for those of you without jargon translators, 'connected devices.' The current Kickstarter project (and recent Insert Coin semifinalist) is nearing the final throes of its funding goal and to sweeten the pot for potential backers, its creators have announced SmartThings compatibility. We know... that's a lot of 'smart' being thrown around. Allow us to explain. SmartThings is essentially a remote-controlled WiFi hub that monitors and governs all of the (wait for it) smart things, like the thermostat or lighting, around your house. The Smart Power Strip does just the same, granting users access to plugged in objects via a smartphone app. It's easy to see why the two would want to link up in an happily ever internetted world. But buyer beware: you'll have to specifically elect to receive a SmartThings compatible Smart Power Strip when you back the project, otherwise you're in for a plain 'ol intelligent power strip. How very common, we know.


Source: Kickstarter

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The Last Days of the DSLR

The DLSR is everywhere. You see it around the necks of tourists, against the faces of pro photographers. Since Canon introduced the Digital Rebel in 2003, the DSLR has come to dominate photography outright. That ubiquity is about to come to an end so abrupt, you might not even have time to notice it.

No, this isn't another smartphone screed. Yes, they're popular, but they're still not anywhere near winning over the enthusiast demand for more expensive, higher quality devices like DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. This is about a turning point in photography, and the relegation of one of its most popular formats into a purely niche product for pros. It's already begun.

Back in the DSLR

Digital SLR has become such a common acronym that most people confuse it for any camera that has interchangeable lenses. It's actually a very specific type of camera, with one very specific mechanism: the single lens reflex. That SLR mechanism dates back almost a century, and it has dictated many iconic camera attributes such as size, shape, and some aspects of performance.

The SLR accounts for what you see when you look through your camera's viewfinder. When light enters through the camera's lens, it strikes a little reflex mirror that bounces it up into a prism, then onto ground glass, which is what you look at when you bring the camera up to your eye. When you finally press the shutter button, the mirror swings out of the way so that the light can strike the digital sensor (or film) that sits behind it.

That's where the single lens part comes in; it merely distinguishes SLRs from older twin-lens reflex cameras, which feature an entirely separate lens solely for delivering light to a viewfinder. The SLR became popular simply because it was the best way to frame your shots—letting you see exactly what the lens saw. This was only possible by physically bouncing the light from the lens into your eye, by way of the reflex mirror.

Room With a Viewfinder

In the last couple of years a new type of camera has appeared, one that has interchangeable lenses but ditches the SLR part. These have come to be known as mirrorless cameras (for want of a snappier name). They include the Sony NEX, Olympus PEN, and FujiFilm X cameras, among others. In place of the SLR, these devices make use of a large LCD you hold away from your face, and/or a tiny LCD you hold up to your eye—the electronic viewfinder.

Many enthusiasts love the compact sizes and throwback feel of mirrorless cameras, but they haven't yet found broad appeal. They're too unfamiliar and they can seem expensive to a marketplace that equates "quality" with "big and bulky." Simply put, DSLRs look more professional. They let the world know that you are doing Serious Photography.

But despite the sluggish dissemination of mirrorless cameras, changes in technology are taking place that will threaten the dominance of the DSLR with brute force, whether the public even knows it or not.

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Electronic viewfinders are starting to rival or exceed the quality of experience in optical viewfinders. Where EVFs were once pixelated and laggy, they are now big, bright, and accurate. Using a great EVF means having access to features just not possible on a DSLR. Being able to preview exactly how your photo will be exposed before pressing the shutter is invaluable. Manual focus aids like image magnification and peaking, where edges of in-focus objects are highlighted, make it easier to use vintage lenses successfully.

Focus systems are also evolving rapidly. The reigning champ of focus systems, phase-detection, was once dependent on a reflex mirror to bounce light into a separate sensor in charge of calculating focus. Now, on-sensor phase detection is replacing the need for mirrors, and contrast-detection auto focus is improving as well.

The result is a new breed of high-performance interchangeable lens cameras that are smaller, lighter, and more durable.

The New Regime

The final step for mirrorless hegemony is tackling the high end. Sony will soon ship its milestone A7 series, two compact mirrorless bodies with full-frame sensors, the lynchpin of top-tier camera bodies and the harbingers of the DSLR's doom. They are, simply put, the best of both worlds.

The 24-megapixel A7 and the 36-megapixel A7r feature these high-performance sensors, eliminating the gap in image quality between mirrorless cams and pro DSLRs. The A7 series is priced at $1700 and $2300 respectively (body-only). That's on par with entry-level full-frame DSLRs like the Nikon D600 and Canon 6D. But what you get in return are cameras that are much easier to carry around and that are less intimidating to subjects, while not sacrificing anything when it comes to the ability capture pristine images. They aren't anywhere near perfect cameras, but they are different cameras.

 

More and more manufacturers are throwing their weight behind mirrorless cameras, but it's the big guys, Canon and Nikon, playing catch-up. That makes sense; they profit heavily from DSLR sales, and have failed to capitalize on the turning of the tide. Both brands have introduced limited mirrorless offerings that have failed to live up to the competition from the likes of Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, and Fujifilm. It's a sign that they are unwilling to invest heavily in this new product category, hoping the storm will pass. Nikon just announced the Df, a slightly smaller full-frame DSLR that borrows the retro stylings of the most popular mirrorless cameras, but is stubbornly conservative in its insistence on retaining the mirror and pentaprism.

DSLRs aren't going to disappear entirely; they still reign supreme in areas like continuous autofocus, where tracking moving subjects requires the robustness of traditional phase-detection. And they still are better suited to carry humongous telephoto lenses. There will always be studio pros, sports photographers, and others, who have no concern for size and weight, who just want the most heavy-duty, reliable, speediest beast they can find. And they will soon make up the brunt of DSLR owners.

But for most people, there's little reason to own one now. We have mirrorless cameras that can match or exceed the DSLR in user experience, image quality, and handling. Why strap an extra pound of glass and metal around your neck for no reason?

Lighter and smaller means easier to have with you at all times, and for many shooters like myself who take pictures on the streets and while traveling, that is hugely important. Yes, DSLRs will continue to provide niche benefits. But when it comes to the vast majority of camera users, the hobbyists, amateurs, and first-timers, the moniker and mechanics that have been a mainstay of photography for decades—the single lens reflex—is likely to fade away.

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Nokia Lumia 2520 has arrived, check out our hands-on

The Nokia Lumia 2520 is the Finnish company’s first tablet to boot Microsoft Windows. Like the Microsoft Surface 2 we reviewed recently, the Lumia 2520 comes with Windows RT 8.1 out of the box.

We got our hands on an AT&T version of the Nokia Lumia 2520. The highlights of its spec sheet include a beefy Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, 10.1” ClearBlack 1080p display, 32GB of expandable memory, 2GB of RAM, 6.7MP Carl Zeiss camera, and LTE connectivity.
The Nokia Lumia 2520 features the same design as the manufacturer’s smartphone range. With its curved polycarbonate body, it literally looks like a stretched Lumia handset.

Nokia Lumia 2520 live photos
Windows RT 8.1 is the OS of choice for the Nokia Lumia 2520. You can see it in action below.


We are already hard at work on a full review of Nokia’s first Lumia tablet. Stay tuned!

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2 Million Gmail, Facebook and Twitter Accounts Reportedly Compromised In Pony Botnet Hack

Here's a bit of news that's far from deserving of a "Giddyup!": Thanks to the work of a botnet called "Pony", hackers have gained access to credentials for over 2 million individual accounts. These accounts span the entire gamut: Facebook, Twitter, Google (Gmail), and even a payroll service provider - perhaps the most dangerous of them all.
Pony works as a keylogger, capturing login details as users type them in. In this particular instance, the transactions end up going through a central server in the Netherlands, one that security analysis firm Trustwave has been tracking. After discovering all of the accounts that Pony had been exploiting, the firm notified the biggest companies in question, and prepared some in-depth analysis of just what it was that the botnet gathered, and from where.

Of the user credentials stolen, 1.58 million were website logins, while 320,000 were for email. Further, 41,000 FTP, 3,000 remote desktop, and 3,000 secure shell credentials were also taken.
The leader of the pack here was Facebook, with a staggering 318,000 accounts compromised; Yahoo!, by contrast, placed second, with 59,000. Clearly, these 2 million accounts encompass a wide variety of websites.
When analyzing the geo-location stats, it was discovered that the vast majority of credentials were routed through the Netherlands - something that was expected, given Trustwave's focus on a particular server there. Other countries might as well not even rank.

Whenever credentials get leaked en masse from a breach like this, passwords are often something that are looked at simply because they're sure to trigger  a head-scratching. This case is no exception. About 16,000 people used the password "123456", and 2,200 used "password". Further, the number of people who used multiple character-types in their passwords is, as expected, far too low.
The thing to note about this data-gathering effort is that this is just one operator. Pony's source code has been floating about, which means there are sure to be other operators around the globe taking advantage of it as well - a scary thought.

Via: Spiderlabs | News Archive|

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Fleksy predictive keyboard for Android exits beta, multilingual support and iOS integration in the pipeline

Almost a year after it made its debut, Syntellia's Fleksy keyboard for Android is finally out of beta. It actually arrived on Google Play six months ago, but was only available to those who joined the company's Google+ community as testers. Now anyone who wants to use Fleksy's predictive keyboard can go ahead and download it from Google Play -- it's free to try for the first 30 days, after which you'll need to fork over $3.99 for continued use. That doesn't mean Syntellia's done improving it however; it'll continue to keep the beta app alive for testing purposes. In fact, it rolled out a new update to the beta today that adds multiple language support.

Things are moving along on the iOS side of things as well. The company introduced Fleksy 2.0 for the iPhone a couple days ago with a completely revamped engine that promises better responsiveness, a new user interface that matches iOS 7, additional keyboard-hiding gestures, plenty of bug fixes and more. According to Fleksy founder Ioannis Verdelis, these changes are in preparation of the company's SDK launch with app partners that could result in users being able to replace the standard iOS keyboard, a huge first on Apple's mobile platform. We've reached out to find out just which apps have signed onto the SDK so far, and will be sure to update you when we find out. In the meantime, Android users can enjoy having first dibs at a keyboard so intuitive that it's been implemented on a smartwatch.

Source: Fleksy, App Store

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iPhone Anamorphic Lens Lets You Shoot Wider Than Widescreen

Even though 35mm film dominated the film industry for years and years, the majority of movies released to theaters were much wider than the stock's 4:3 aspect ratio. But instead of sacrificing resolution and simply cropping off the top and bottom of a frame to make it widescreen, filmmakers used special lenses that squeezed a wider vista onto the 35mm film stock, and then unsqueezed the images when they were being projected. They were known as anamorphic lenses, and soon you'll be able to get one for your iPhone.

What looks like one of the many external lenses you can get for your smartphone is actually one of the first to do an anamorphic squeeze on your footage, letting you shoot video that's approximately 33 percent wider than the iPhone's standard field of vision.

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So if you're shooting video in an old-school 4:3 aspect ratio, when the footage was unsqueezed in your video editor it would have a wider 16:9 vista. And if you're shooting in 16:9 to start with, the resulting footage would have an even wider and more majestic 2.4:1 aspect ratio. For still images the iPhone's panoramic mode easily accomplishes this, but this is currently the only way to pull it off for video.

The anamorphic adapter lens is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, and with a pledge of $85 or more you can claim one of the first production units when they're available sometime closer to March of next year. In the meantime, you'll have to keep stomaching the limited 16:9 videos you can shoot with your phone, or go out and buy yourself a proper 35mm movie camera. [Kickstarter via DPReview]

 
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Nokia Wins Ban on HTC One Mini in U.K.

A U.K. judge this week granted Nokia's request for an injunction against the HTC One Mini in the region, but declined to immediately extend the same ban to the flagship HTC One.
At issue is a hardware patent for a "modular structure for a transmitter and a mobile station," technology found within the HTC One and HTC One Mini smartphones. HTC failed to secure a license for the technology from Nokia, prompting the lawsuit, which kicked off in May 2012, and has since expanded to dozens of courts, including the U.K.'s High Court.
Judge Richard Arnold ruled in favor of Nokia on Oct. 30 and this week, he agreed to Nokia's request for an injunction on HTC devices. The ban on the HTC One Mini will go into effect this week, but an HTC One ban in the U.K. will be delayed pending HTC's appeal because pulling the HTC One from the market would significantly impact HTC's business.

HTC One Mini (AT&T)

 

 

 

 

 

"HTC's evidence is that the consequences of an immediate injunction will be catastrophic for its U.K. business because the One is its flagship model," the judge concluded. "HTC paints a dramatic picture of what will happen."
Judge Arnold said he was "skeptical" about HTC's evidence since the phone maker "will shortly be launching its new flagship phone." Still, he acknowledged that there was a "period between now and February or March 2014 when HTC is vulnerable," and could suffer considerably.
Since the HTC One Mini was released more recently, however, the judge did not believe HTC would suffer as much by having it pulled from the U.K. market.
HTC's appeal will likely be held in July or October 2014, the judge said, so the HTC One will remain on the market at least until then.
"HTC is pleased by the decision of the High Court of England and Wales to stay an injunction against certain chipsets, including those in our flagship HTC One, pending the outcome of our appeal," an HTC spokesman said. "Whilst the Court also granted an injunction that affects other third party chipsets, we have filed urgent application to appeal. In the meantime, we are working with our chip suppliers to explore alternative solutions. As always, HTC's primary focus is on supporting our customers and ensuring minimal disruption to them and our business. Rest assured that our award winning HTC One handset will be available as usual."
No other details about that new flagship phone were mentioned, meanwhile, but HTC unveiled the HTC One in Feb. 2013, so an upgraded device in early 2014 wouldn't be too surprising.
For more, see PCMag's reviews of the HTC One and HTC One Mini.   

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