Sony just introduced a mirror-less camera aiming to replace its predecessor Sony NEX-C3 and your incumbent DSLR as well. The camera is touted as the smallest and lightest interchangeable lens camera.

The NEX-F3 comes with a new grip on the body; a pop-up and angle-adjustable flash as well as a flip-up LCD screen in the back, the LCD can tilt up to a complete vertical position should you need to see you when taking self-portrait photo or video in front of the camera.

The device is using Sony second generation 16MP and DSLR-sized APS-C sensors; the NEX-F3 can take HD video in AVCHD 1080 in MP4 formats. You will find the Sony accessory port for an optional electronic viewfinder or a stereo microphone. The bundle includes the E-mount 18-55 kit lens. The optional 18-200mm lens with 11x zoom It will start shipping in July.

The camera features Auto Portrait Framing, which uses face detection and the rule of thirds to  trim the scene into an optimal composition while maintaining a copy of the original image.

Feature highlights:

• 16.1MP CMOS sensor
• ISO 200-16000 (200-3200 in Auto)
• Built-in flash
• AVCHD 1080i60 HD movie recording with built-in stereo mic
• Rear LCD that tilts up 180º

The new model is going on sale for $600

People, in our days, constantly need the phone on their side as much as the wallet. Whether you work or have regular activities in a wet environment, protective cases are not always effective. The waterproof cases are often bulky and not convenient.

At Smartphone&Moble EXPO 2012 in Japan, a new technology just surfaced and presented, It’s called “the Case Marine” by Gooma, a waterproof soft case for smartphones, the case has a waterproof rating of IPX8, which is the highest class in JIS (Japan Industrial Standards).

"This is the Case Marine. Until now, waterproof cases for smartphones haven’t looked very good, as they’ve all been bulky. But we’ve developed a stylish, attractive case. It’s made of 0.25mm polyurethane with a special finish. The screen part is made of acrylic. It can be used for an iPhone or a Galaxy S2. With a bit of practice, this case can be put on in about 5 seconds. When it’s attached, there’s a bit of slack at the back. Even if the phone is placed in water, the case makes it waterproof to everyday standards. The seal on the back has been certified by Oki Engineering; it has a JIS rating of IPX8, which is the highest level in Japan. So it keeps your smartphone waterproof down to a depth of 10m."

As shown in the below video, the case is merely a thin transparent cover, you can probably leave it on. You device with the cover on can even fit in to the your daily case. 

"Our current line-up is for the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S2. Next, we plan to release an iPad case. The Premium versions are priced at 3,000 yen ($37), and the Lite ones at 1,200 yen ($15(). The iPad case will be available for about 4,000 yen ($50)."

No words on the availability outside of Japan.

[Source DigInfo]

On the heels of Microsoft releasing  Bing’s frictionless integration with Social circles in to your search results, Google is rolling out its new “Knowledge Graph” integration in its search service. It’s also going to be available on smartphones and tablets.

Google’s next generation of search, uses Knowledge Graph to provide a Symantec sense what you actually mean instead of just keyword search. As an example you can enter in your search argument “Jaguar”, the information search would provide bunch of links but the knowledge search engine would try to understand that you meant “Jaguar” as an animal or “Jaguar” as the car. Google will use its advanced algorithm to understand what you mean  in the right context  Google has created a 500 million-item database of people, places, and things. The results of the effort will start appearing supposedly from Wednesday in search, offering encyclopedic capsules of information on various topics. When you have this feature, a small window will appear on the right hand side  showing the results found from the Knowledge graph.

“Get an under the hood look at the next frontier in Search, from the team at Google behind the technology. The Knowledge Graph is a huge collection of the people, places and things in the world and how they’re connected to one another. With this technology, Google can get you the best possible answers and help jump start your discovery.”

These features raise concerns about cluttering the spartan layout of Google especially on the mobile format. At this time of typing, we still don’t see the feature enabled to give a thorough impression.

Business presenters don’t have to lug around anymore a laptop to give a presentation. Brainshark just released a free iPad app called SlideShark that can read your PowerPoint presentation, projects  the slideshow on projector (you still need the iPad dock to VGA adapter) and lets you navigate slide and simultaneously view the slide note on your iPad. Along with the slide note, presenter can also view separate timers for time spent on individual slides and the overall presentation, an animation counter, and current, previous and next slides.

The long battery life, small form factor and just because it’s an iPad, you certainly win some hearts  from the audience, even before you start.

The free account offers 100MB of storage that you can use to up load your PowerPoint presentation on SlideShark web site. The service then speedily compresses the file that can be downloaded to your iPad for offline use. Note that you might want to upload the files you are about to present and delete when you are done. 100MB should be sufficient.

Below is the presenter mode, which is only seen by you. While the audience sees just the slide.

SlideShark version 1.6 includes the following new features:

• Presenter Mode capabilities – iPad 2 and new iPad users can plug into a projector or TV to simultaneously view slide notes, separate timers for time spent on individual slides and the overall presentation, an animation counter, and current, previous and next slides – all while their audience sees the presentation in full-screen mode. Users can also choose a full-screen mode for both the presenter and the audience. In either mode, animations will display on both screens.
• iPad 1 projector/TV support – First-generation iPad users can now plug in and present to audiences in full-screen mode, a feature that was previously only available on the new iPad and iPad 2.
• Dramatically faster conversions – New processing improvements allow users to upload and convert their presentations three to five times faster than before.

SlideShark Plus, which offers additional storage options with cost.

"SlideShark was the first – and remains the only – app that allows iPad users to dependably view, share and track PowerPoint presentations," said Brainshark CEO Joe Gustafson. "This new version gives users a host of powerful new tools designed to make them stronger, more polished presenters."

For more information about SlideShark or to download the latest version of the app, please visit www.slideshark.com.

Available in Apple’s App Store

Flipboard, the social and visual news aggregator app for iPhone, iPad and recently has been ported to Android, just added sounds to the available list of selection. Other sources include your Facebook newsfeed, your Twitter timeline, photos from Instagram.

Similar to reading contents, Flipboard team curates and make available few well known audio sources such NPR, PRI, TWIT, etc.. Power users can always add the RSS from their favorite Podcasts. Once added, app users can play the audio. If the feed contains a list of mp3, then the audio files will be played sequentially. There is a small pop-up navigation  to control the playback, located at bottom left of the screen.

The most notable addition is the popular SoundCloud social sound network, which is similar to Instagram for photos. Adding SoundCloud permits to playback one’s sound files as well as sound files from  followers, following SoundCloud users, add your stream, like sounds, make comments, etc…

The SoundCloud addition, essentially makes the magazine to a social audio player all within Flipboard to make a powerful platform to consume multi-media contents. Note that SoundCloud has its own iPad and iPhone app for audio discovery and playback.

Another addition for visually impaired users: If Apple’s VoiceOver features are turned on in the settings of an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, the gestures to control Flipboard change and everything on a page is read out aloud. For instance, with one tap on a section a voice reads the title; a double-tap opens it and the voice reads the article.

The app is available for free in the App store

[Source Flipboard]

A Japanese company just shows off a prototype of an Android powered mirror mount on a washstand or in a bathroom. The mirror is acting as a giant monitor translucent screen that interacts with the user via sensors hidden behind the screen.

The Android embedded device is connected to the Web via WiFi, Ethernet wire or even cellular network for its versatility in placement in public environment such bathroom in mall, Hotel, Airport, etc… 

The use cases are numerous such providing weight, taking photo, etc.. for healthcare facilities, product demo, weather, map, or just purely advertisement .. Since it runs on Android, app development should not be an issue.

[Video courtesy of DigInfo]

Today Google released  a stable version of its Chrome browser that lets users find their open browser tabs from one computer to another or even on Chrome for Android Beta. This feature is enable when you sign-in to Chrome. Along with the open tabs, you also syncs your bookmarks, apps, extensions, history, themes, and other settings as well. Oh did we mention that the back and forward buttons will even work, so you can pick up browsing right where you left off.

When you sign in to Chrome, you can have your personal Chrome experience on all your devices. Just go to the Chrome menu and select “Sign in to Chrome.”

If you are on a public computer, don’t forget to sign-out by clicking on the same wrench located on the top right corner – select signed in as… and stop the sync.

Needless to say Mobile photo sharing is hot. As Apple is readying to announce its new mobile version, iOS6, at the company Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, this morning, the WSJ reports the Cupertino giant will add more features on its iCloud, a cloud centric service already used by 125 million Mac, iOS users to keep in sync their contents. The notable new feature is the ability to share photos. Until now, photos can only be sync’ed and displayed on the iOS/Mac devices.

iCloud has been available on the Web, but only displays contents such Calendar, email, iWork documents. It is not clear if users can display personal photos and videos on the Web interface in the next release. After all, Apple intention is to force users to buy their iDevices to take full advantage of these services.  Instagram does not offer a Web version neither.

Adding photo sharing capability is definitely a needed move to recapture the mobile users that currently use popular services such Instagram to share photos taken from iPhone and Android devices. Instagram was recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Instagram’s most valuable asset was its mobile audience, which is last estimated at 50 millions. Open up photo sharing, Apple will instantly have 125 million users without much sweat.

Furthermore, the news paper also reports that Apple will open up iCloud to personal video, Notes and Reminders.

[Source WSJ]

Let us introduce you to another awesome tool for your iPhone 4S videography enjoyment. A new utility called SloPro, which can simulate video capturing at 720p 60 frames per second on your iPhone 4S. The magic is in the next editing step that SloPro lets you render a portion of your footage in smooth slow motion with total absence of choppiness.  The rendering amazingly does not take usual additional time at all.

Once you are happy with your creation, the app lets you share to your popular Social Networking circles and even exporting your raw video to iTunes.

The app is free in the app store with a small watermark, which can be removed via an upgrade to paid version that costs $1.99. Note that SloPro only works with full feature on the iPhone 4S only.

Google just released a major update of its mobile social network Google+, first for the iPhone. A version for Android will be available in few weeks with additional features as promised by the search giant. There is no mention about an iPad version.

The new version is focused heavily  on visual immersive appearance with large photos in the background and sleek user interface design, a great departure from Google traditional simplistic color scheme. The release timing is perfect to get ahead of the rival Facebook, which is admitting a weakness on its mobile side and the growing adoption of all visual and less-text focused services such Pinterest, TheFancy, Instagram, Flipboard, etc..

Once logged-in to your Google or Gmail account, the app greets you first with a quick Google flash page and switches immediately to your social Stream pulled from your circles. You can easily use the top center drop-down menu to filter What’s Hot, Nearby, or selected circles you might have defined on the Web version of Google+.

Top left menu provides your main personal menu including Home, Profile, Messenger, Photos, Circle management.

Top right pencil icon allowing to write your new status. On the status posting, flipping the keyboard by tapping on the icon located at the bottom right corner on the writing box, reveals the circle selection as well as option to add a photo from your smartphone camera or from the camera roll.

The new Google+ app carries over the auto upload photos feature from your smartphone. All your photos taken will be uploaded automatically in a private folder and ready to be shared.

All in all, it’s a very aesthetic experience when compared with Facebook mobile app. However, beside the eye pleasing design, many users already requested a text only version for more reading & browsing reading contents. The major design departure on the mobile platform when compared to the Web interface also creates an overwhelming feel  to casual users..

The app is available for free from App Store .

Starting this summer, AT&T will launch a mobile connected home-automation service called AT&T Digital Life. Subscribers of this program will be able to control and monitor many devices, appliance, surveillance, thermostat, locks, etc..  from afar via a smartphone, tablet or computer. Should an abnormal event occurs, users can also “take action” .

A try-to-buy program will be available starting in Dallas and Atlanta at an AT&T store or other AT&T affiliated distribution channel.

This morning Google+ opens to public the way to live broadcast your “hangouts” experience to public via your Google+ profile, your YouTube channel, and your website. Google calls it Hangout On Air. The feature until now only reserved to few celebrities.

The session will be shareable even after the live session on your YouTube channel.

To initiate a Hangouts on Air broadcast, users just need to select the option to record the session. Up to nine can actively participate to the conversation but the world can view and listen to it.

• Broadcast publicly. By checking "Enable Hangouts On Air," you can broadcast your live hangout—from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website—to the entire world.
• See how many viewers you’ve got. During your broadcast, you can look inside the hangout to see how many people are watching live.
• Record and re-share. Once you’re off the air, we’ll upload a public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post. This way it’s easy to share and discuss your broadcast after it’s over.

Hangout on air only available to desktop/ laptop.

The iPad has become a productivity tool replacing the laptop in many cases, especially with its long-lasting battery, its weight and its small form factor. However typing on the soft keyboard, especially when it comes to repositioning the cursor or to select text, standard iOS gestures are not quite easy to master.

Daniel Hooper, an iPad user has come up with a concept to simplify the action needed for editing, copying, moving text, etc.. just by swiping with single finger (combing with holding shift key and 2 finger swipe)

Today, Kyle Howells. a jailbreak developer, made this concept into reality  by implementing the hack on its iPad and promises to release SwipeSelection via Cydia, allowing Jailbroken devices including iPad and iPhone to take advantage of the new gestures on the soft keyboard.

[Via iDownloadBlog]

Today, in London, Samsung just unveiled their most anticipated flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S III. The handset includes a 4.8” Super AMOLED1280 x 720 resolution with Gorilla Glass technology II, Quad-core Exynox 1.4GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and dedicated graphic processor; 16GB or 32GB versions and other high end specs you should expect in a top of the line handset.

Instead of emphasizing on the specs, Samsung has added on many in-house software features along with an exclusive Flipboard version for Android that differentiate with other handsets. 

S Voice

Samsung introduces ‘S Voice’ on the Galaxy S III, a Siri-like voice command that is capable of taking commands without the need of pushing any button. To wake the phone up and activate the voice sensor, you simply say "Hi Galaxy!" and the phone wakes up; You can send email, text, check on the weather, launch camera app, volume controls, etc…

Motion Detection

When texting to someone, raise the phone to your ear, the handset launches the telephone app and automatically calls the person you were texting.

S Beam

The Galaxy S III comes with an NFC chip that allows you transfer photo or video to other Galaxy S III device by putting the phones together, S Beam uses a combination of the NFC technology and Wi-Fi Direct.
Samsung’s All-Share Cast, let user beam your screen to any DLNA-compatible

Pop Up Play

"Pop up plal" will allow you to play a video anywhere on the screen in a pop-up window while performing other tasks,

Burst Shot

The Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera comes with fast burst photography: Holding down the shutter will take twenty photos in a row; you can then choose the best photo and the phone will automatically erase the other 19. Alternatively, user can select a burst mode, which takes 8 photos in a row and then automatically choose the best one,

Buddy Photo Share

The photography software comes with smart facial recognition: When you take a picture of a friend, it can recognize their face and will prompt you to send that photo to that person’s phone or email address.

Smart Stay

Essentially an eye recognition technology, the Galaxy S III can sense when you are and are not looking it: When you are looking at your screen, the display will stay illuminated; when you stop looking at your phone, the display goes dark to save power. The feature can be toggled on and off, if you prefer to just let your screen time out.

• Quad-core Samsung Exynos chip @ 1.4 GHz,
• HSPA+21 and LTE versions
• 4.8-inch HD SuperAMOLED 720×1280 screen
• 8MP / Front 1.9MP camera (720p video recording)
• 2100mAh battery
• 1GB RAM
• Wifi Channel Bonding
• Bluetooth 4.0(LE)
• Accelerometer, Notification light, Digital compass, Proximity sensor, Gyro, NFC, Barometer
• 1080p video playback
• Various multimedia codecs supported
• MHL/DLNA
• Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm
• Weight: 133 grams
• Available in blue and white
• The handset will be available first in Europe this month and in the US starting June.

Spotify, the music subscription & discovery service just released a new app designed specifically for the Apple iPad. Until now iPad users have to use a scaled up iPhone version when using the app.

Granted, it is an app that servers audio to listeners, visual interest is not really necessary, except in the Retina display era, Spotify wants to take advantage of larger and beautiful  screen real estate to showcase artwork cover and other artist relevant info to improve listener experience.

Users can use it as a remote control for a party and stream the audio to larger stereo system via Bluetooth or AirPlay capable devices.

Please note that, the mobile app (iPhone, iPad, etc..) only works for  Spotify’s premium subscribers and trial users.