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Holga’s TIM 3D Camera Stares Into Your Soul, Takes 3D Photos Of It

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 04:51 AM PDT

TIM is a new $60 camera kit from Holga that – get this – shoots in 3D and half-frame without digital technology! Groovy, right? It includes a detachable flash with color filters and uses something called 35mm “film,” which seems to chemically recreate patterns of light and dark on something called “photo paper” when used with the proper “agents.” It was very popular at the turn of the century.

You can also take multiple exposures and twist TIM’s face to turn off various effects. Photojojo claims it’s like 10 cameras in one although I’ll believe it when it can shoot 1080i video.

The Holga is made of plastic and has very few focusing capabilities, which makes it perfect for artistes.

Product Page

Holga-3d-banner stereo-view go-crazy


MSI WindPad Enjoy Sneaks Out Thanks To The FCC

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 03:55 AM PDT

What does MSI’s new WindPad want you to do? Enjoy (but only a little) that’s what! That’s why their latest 10-inch Android device, the Enjoy, looks so underpowered.

The device has just appeared on the FCC website and is running a 1GHZ ARM Cortex-A8 processer and, get this, Android 2.3. Feh.

It also supports HD video playback, 802.11N, and an SD card slot. Otherwise, this thing will probably hit bargain bins around the world sooner than later for about $300.

via Netbooksnews.de



Goodbye, Fake Chinese Apple Stores

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 02:51 AM PDT

Bloomberg is reporting that the recently popularized Kunming-area fake Apple store is being investigated by Chinese authorities and it, along with another store, has been ordered to shut down.

The owners of said stores, including one Yu Cheng (who claims he’s doing Apple a favor), have been trying to become official, authorized retailers for years and they say they’re not violating any laws.

Not everyone is pleased:

"The authorities should stop these fake stores from operating and selling whatever they want," said Xie Yonglin, an employee at Nanfang Yuan, one of Kunming's authorized Apple sales agents. The unauthorized stores "have a negative impact on our products and brands."

The funniest thing? Yu says Apple stores are woefully easy to copy, calling them on par with a school chemistry lab. We must also remember that except for the whole authorized reseller issue, it’s not completely illegal to have a nice, well-lit environment with lots of stuff for hipsters to do. If that were the case, Starbucks could sue almost every single modern coffee shop in Western Europe.

Gadgets Week In Review: Game Set-Up

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT

iPad Book Apps Hobbled: Only Existing Account-Holders Can Use The Apps, Google Books Booted

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 12:49 AM PDT

At the beginning of the year, Apple said it wanted 30% of everything sold through the iPad platform. You could sell almost anything – books, downloadable content, magazines, pictures of kittens – but, according to their subscription rules, everything had to go through Apple itself and you could not, in short, go out to a web page to complete the transaction. That promise – to shut down external web stores on the iPad – has been fulfilled and the Nook, Kindle, Kobo, and Google Books apps have just been either drastically changed or removed from the App Store entirely.

Nook, Kindle, and Kobo now have no access to the web-based bookstore and you can no longer create accounts in the app. Only users with current accounts and books on file in the various stores can read them and book purchasing. For example, as of today, users of the Nook Kids app are no longer able to access the Barnes & Noble web store while Kobo users cannot create accounts or buy books from the app.

You’ll also notice that the Google Books app is now missing from the iTunes store, presumably for either a full overhaul or (and I doubt this) out of spite.

I’m of two minds when it comes to moves like these in the App world. On the one hand, magazines like The Daily (remember them?) and, more pertinently, the New Yorker prove that inside app sales and subscriptions works quite adequately and allows everyone – from the content providers to the “carrier,” in this case Apple, to maintain a revenue stream necessary for the continuation of our cultural heritage.

But here’s where things get a little rough: Apple is basically saying that it’s our way or the highway and those who don’t like it can drop off of iOS entirely or rededicate their efforts to HTML5-based readers that may or may not be superior to app-based systems. Again, this is Apple’s device and Apple’s rules but the freedom-loving self-publisher in me says “Hey, Amazon already takes their cut, why do I have to risk them taking a bigger cut because of this goofiness? And why do I have to settle for a potentially sub-par reading experience because Apple wants 30 cents out of my buck?”

As someone who despises the current publishing industry, I’m glad Apple’s cracking down on folks who have had it too good for too long. However, I worry that the author and the reader and not the publisher will be the ones to pay in the end.

Sony Cybershot TX55 Shoots HD Video And 12-Megapixel Stills, At The Same Time

Posted: 24 Jul 2011 11:24 PM PDT

Although I’ve never been a huge fan of the Cybershot line, it’s interesting to see how much tech Sony has been dumping into these things of late. For example, this $350 camera shoots full 1080i video and 12-megapixel stills at exactly the same time with no interruption.

It has 5X optical zoom and some sort of 16-megapixel 10X digital zoom and can also shoot in 3D. Panoramas are easy and massive at 42 megapixels. It will be available in September.

I’d love to see the final quality that comes out of this slim shooter and, while I’m sure it’s technically impressive, I’d worry wee bit about overkill.