If you're a gamer and love you some bright colors, Nintendo's got just the bundle of joy with a couple of new 3DS models. "Pink Gloss" and "Light Blue" colors will arrive to the handheld console on March 20th along with a boost in memory from the usual 2GB to 4GB for 15,000 yen (about $160). The rug might be pulled from under your brightly-hued dreams if you're not in Japan, though -- only players in that country will be able to nab it.
Via: Engadget.jp
Source: Nintendo Japan (translated)
Sigma Corporation announces pricing, availability of Sigma DP3 Merrill compact camera
Pocket-size, 46-megapixel camera available in early March for street price of $999
RONKONKOMA, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2013 – Sigma Corporation of America, a leading researcher, developer, manufacturer and service provider of some of the world's most impressive lines of lenses, cameras and flashes, has announced that its DP3 Merrill compact digital camera will be available in early March for the street price of $999.
As the final camera in the Sigma DP Merrill lineup, the DP3 Merrill features a high-performance 50mm F2.8 lens, which is equivalent to 75mm on a 35mm SLR camera. Like the previously released DP1 (19mm F2.8) and DP2 (30mm F2.8) Merrill cameras, it is equipped with the Foveon X3 direct image sensor, which uniquely produces outstanding resolution and a natural rendering with rich gradation, resulting in a 3D feel.
"The trio of DP Merrill cameras is a complete compact camera tool set," said Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. "While the DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill cameras are known for their wide angle and standard range, respectively, the DP3 Merrill delivers impressive optical performance for mid-telephoto and macro shooting."
Other features of the DP3 Merrill include:
* A unique, dual, Three-layer Responsive Ultimate Engine (TRUE) II image processing engine, which is dedicated to Foveon X3 direct image sensors to improve the processing speed and overall quality of the final image, and provide high-resolution power
* The use of Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass that is accompanied by aspherical lens elements to compensate for a variety of aberrations and allow for a more compact size. The superior telecentric optical design improves image quality throughout the frame and adds depth to the image
* A minimum focusing distance of 8.9 inches and a maximum magnification ratio of 1:3, which can offer quality macro shooting
* Easy-to-use auto focus that features a nine-point select mode to set the desired focusing point from nine different frames, and "free move mode," which can move the desired focus point. Manual Focus is available when autofocus or focus lock is not desired
* The new Face Detection AF prioritizes focus on the face of the subject when detected by the sensor. AF Limit Mode can adjust the range of auto focusing and "Shutter Priority AF" offers faster focus adjustment by stopping the live view to increase the speed of the auto focusing.
* The new AF+MF mode adjusts the focus manually after verifying the AF by rotating the focus ring
* RAW+JPEG format recording
* The supplied image processing software, Sigma Photo Pro 5.5, converts RAW data quickly and easily. It renders the full, 46-megapixel data. SPP 5.5 is an easy-to-use editing software with all the necessary functions needed to process an image. Moreover, the new Monochrome Mode makes it possible to generate monochrome images by fully optimizing the Foveon X3 direct image sensor capabilities
Facebook’s quest to boost revenue marches forward as we are now hearing reports that the social network will introduce video advertisements by the second quarter of next year. These ads, much like the simple text and graphic ads that already appear on the site, will be integrated directly into a user’s news feed.
Advertising industry executives say the video ads will appear on both the desktop and mobile versions of the social network. They will begin playing automatically without a user having to click to play or even roll over them but it’s undecided at this hour if audio will also accompany the video playback automatically.
As Business Insider points out, the site already allows advertisers to show video clips but Facebook users must click the ad to activate playback. Furthermore, in most cases, a friend of a user would have first had to like the advertiser’s profile page or comment on a particular video for it to show up in a news feed.
The idea behind the new ad platform is to attract advertisers that have traditionally purchased television commercial spots. Jason Del Ray from AdAge believes the length of each video could be capped at 15 seconds, a format that is becoming more common with television commercials these days. Such a format could allow ad agencies to share ads between the web and broadcast TV.
It comes as no surprise that many are concerned with the idea of the video’s autoplay feature, especially if audio accompanies the video. Ads such as this are usually seen as little more than an annoyance and could pose a serious problem for those who surf the social network while at work (maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all). One also has to wonder how audio-embedded ads would function on a smartphone while music is playing or even during a call.
Remember how long it took Spotify to end up in the States? The issue? Music rights, of course. Before it could make its way to our shores, the service had to strike deals with a bunch of record labels, making sure the artists, the executives and EMI janitorial staffs all get paid. Whyd, a new French music service that will be clawing its way out of beta later this month, offers a bit of a workaround to that conundrum, pulling music from sources like YouTube and SoundCloud, aggregating them into a single dynamic location. That means that all content can be brought in, from some kid playing acoustic originals in her bedroom to long time music streaming holdouts like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
Once you signed in via Facebook or created a new account, you get started with the search field at the top of the page. From here, you'll find tracks posted by other users. Click on a track and you can watch / listen, Like it, add it or post it to Twitter or Facebook. Songs that are added pop up on the Your Tracks page, a sort of central hub for the site. Playing the tracks from here will pop up a toolbar on the bottom of the page that lets you pause, scroll through the track and skip between songs. For the sake of organization, it's also possible to divide songs into different playlists.
If you don't find a track you like through that method, the big, green plus button at the top of the page lets you search through YouTube and SoundCloud among other party sites. Plenty of the songs I went hunting for weren't available through the standard search bar, but, not surprisingly, were numerous when looking through YouTube's collections -- of course, as ever with YouTube, there's the standard quality disclaimer here: there's a decent chance you're not getting the same studio quality tracks you're going to see on a Spotify. Again, these things are user-uploaded.
If you do opt to pull the track in, it'll show your name and profile pic next to the song. This is where the social functionality comes in -- from here, you can subscribe to fellow users, which will populate your own stream with their newly added tracks, bringing new songs to your attention when you visit the Whyd font page.
The stream is really at the center of the service's functionality, and as such, it's not as full featured as a Spotify or a Rhapsody, and certainly making playlists of every track isn't quite as user friendly as listening to full artist for album playlists on those all you can eat services. What the service does offer, however, is a nice little bookmarklet. Drag it up to your browser's toolbar and it will search pages like Facebook for songs and videos to import.
Whyd's certainly an intriguing little product -- and a well built one. It's got a nice, clean UI and great playback capabilities. It's not the great music repository of an Rdio, but it'll give you those hard-to-find tracks that, for whatever reason, haven't made their way to more mainstream services. The site could, however, potentially be cursed by its own success. If it does achieve mainstream popularity, song owners may not take kindly to its gray market approach to song discovery.
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