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Dec

Macro Cell Lens Band Is A Really Simple Solution For Taking Close-Ups With Your Smartphone's Camera

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News

In my opinion, some of the best inventions also happen to be the simplest. You know the products - the type that you see and question why didn't I think of that? One such product is the Macro Cell Lens Band from Photojojo; honestly, this thing is bloody brilliant, partly because it's so insanely simple.

If you haven't already guessed by the name, the Macro Cell Lens Band adds a macro lens to your phone's camera. It doesn't do so by adding an massively bulky (and ridiculously impractical) add-on to the camera - it's just a simple rubber band. A rubber band with a camera lens.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Android's New Camera Packs A Serious Punch, Offering Sophisticated Still And Video Options

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

One of the features I'm most excited about in Ice Cream Sandwich is the camera. The new camera app really raises the bar, bringing a heap of improvements, as well as plenty of features we haven't seen before.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of ICS' camera is that it has zero shutter lag. That's right - zero. Photos are taken as soon as you hit the shutter button. In last night's demo we got a glimpse of how powerful this is, as the presenter snapped off several images back to back with no wait time in between.

Before you hit the shutter, though, the new camera app is already helping you compose a better shot.

Sep

Lumix Phone 101P To Debut In Japan This Fall, Promises A 13.2MP Sensor And A Host Of Other Features

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Panasonic

Panasonic has announced a unique Android offering headed for Softbank, a Japanese carrier, officially unveiling the Lumix Phone 101P today.

The Lumix Phone looks almost exactly like a pocket-sized digital camera, except for its 4" touch screen and Android 2.3 software. Under its surprisingly slender frame, it houses some interesting specs:

4-inch QHD LCD screen with 960×540 resolution
13.2MP CMOS Lumix sensor with “Mobile Venus Engine“
Waterproof body
TI OMAP4430 dual-core CPU (1GHz)
Ultra Speed compatibility (Softbank's broadband network)
microSD card slot
Infrared connection
E-wallet function
Digital TV tuner
A sleek body (64×123×9.8mm)
Android 2.3 Gingerbread

There's no word yet on pricing, or whether this phone will make an appearance in other countries, but it seems like a unique fusion between a point-and-shoot camera and a mobile phone, and it will be interesting to see how its 13.2MP sensor performs, especially next to Samsung's newly-announced 16MP sensors.

Aug

[New App] Paper Camera Is Unlike Any Other Camera App We've Ever Seen

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

When it comes to camera apps, it has been a while since I've really been wowed by anything I've seen. Most offer the same features - saturation, color effects, maybe some sort of Polaroid replica... you get the idea. I guess the dev team at JFDP Labs felt the same way, because they have put together the most impressive camera app that I've ever seen, simply called Paper Camera.

^{I had to throw this in, because I really like that tiny... paper camera.}

Paper Camera offers some very cool effects like cartoon, sketch, comic book, old printer, neon, bleaching, half tone, noir, old newspaper, and more.

Jun

New App: ObscuraCam Automatically Detects, Blurs Faces And Strips Metadata From Your Photos

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

OK, this is probably one of the cooler apps I've seen in a while. ObscuraCam is an open source photo anonymizer project made in concert with the folks over at Witness.org - a human rights violation watchdog. Why is a human rights organization helping you blur those photos you took that night you accidentally [insert potential human rights violation here] but still thought would be hilarious to upload to Facebook?

Well, Witness wants this app to be used by political dissidents in countries where things like facial identification and metadata scraping are major barriers to posting photos of political protests online.

Jun

Motorola Droid 3 Shows Off Its Updated Looks And Hardware In 3 Leaked Videos

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid 3, News

Last Updated: June 6th, 2011

Not much was known for a fact about the next crown jewel in the Droid line of Android phones that played a such a crucial part in the growth of the OS in the past 2 years. We had a suspicion that it would have a 4" screen, lose "the lip," and gain a dual-core CPU and a front-facing camera, all while bearing the name Droid 3, but no concrete proof of any of those.

A series of Droid 3 training videos surfaced today, well ahead of the device's release, which is rumored to be sometime this summer. The videos clearly show and confirm a larger form factor with curvier lines (4" sounds about right now), an 8MP HD camera that is capable of 1080P video recording, an updated version of MOTOBLUR (just look at that lock screen), a 5-row keyboard with a dedicated number row, and an HDMI output.

May

PayPal App Finally Gets Check Scan And Deposit, iPhone Users Have One Less Thing To Brag About

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

PayPal for Android has, at long last, been updated with a killer-feature iUsers have enjoyed since last October: camera-based check scanning and depositing. As a frequent PayPal user, myself, I have to say: this is awesome. Checks are the very bane of my (financial) existence; I mean, who uses checks? Every time I get one of those evil little slips, I scurry down to my local Wells Fargo, wasting precious gasoline and time - assuming it doesn't just sit on my desk for a month, taunting me with its hand-scrawled promise of currency (if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of lazy.)

Yes, I'm poor

While I could wait for Wells Fargo to implement such a feature, I might be waiting a while: their Android app is still just a URL bar-less mobile web page.

May

Dell Venue Review: It Really Is Better Than You Would Expect

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, Dell, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Thunder, Venue

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

After being thoroughly unimpressed with the sleek and sexy DROID Charge last week, and knowing that the Venue was next on my device-review checklist, I was prepared for yet more disappointment. Let's face it - Dell has been the butt of quality control, technical support, and advertising (Dude! you're...) jokes for years now. Whether or not it has at all been deserved is another matter entirely - after all, Dell is a hugely successful company (I happen to be writing this review on a Dell netbook, in fact).

The Venue, then, is a device I went in having some doubts about.

May

Samsung DROID Charge Review, Or: How Slow, Buggy Software Ruined A Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Charge (i510), Phone Reviews, Reviews, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Make no mistake, the DROID Charge is a cool phone. It looks cool. Its boot screen looks cool. Hell, even the camera has been carefully crafted to look like some sort of crazy piece of future-tech.

In the past week, I've had three separate people ask me what phone it was (something that I never experienced with my Nexus One or the HTC Inspire), and then proceed in some way to compliment its appearance or the vividness of its display. Unfortunately, this just goes to show that the Charge is a classic case of "don't judge a book by its cover." Why?

Apr

Compared: HTC Droid Incredible 2 vs The Original Droid Incredible [Specs]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Editorials, HTC, Incredible, Incredible 2 (Vivow)

It's April 28th, the official release date for the 2nd generation Droid Incredible from HTC, and if you haven't studied this phone in detail yet, you're probably wondering just what exactly has changed since the original "Dinc" entered the market last April. Let's have a look, shall we?

Key Differences

Network

First and foremost, just like the Droid 2 Global Edition, the new Incredible 2 is a world phone with both CDMA and GSM frequencies. Verizon Wireless provides the following interesting numbers: