Hasta La Gadget!

Proper camera remote control using your iPhone comes a step closer today, as Onone software’s DSLR Camera Remote v1.1 hits the iTunes App Store.

The software is a big upgrade from the original, and adds support (at last!) for Nikon DSLRs, as well as a slew of essential new features. To use DSLR Camera Remote you need to hook the camera up to a computer via USB cable and switch it to Live View mode. Then the computer takes over and beams the video stream to your iPhone, as well as offering you remote control of the camera.

In this version the camera can actually autofocus while hooked up (a rather big omission from v1.0), images can be automatically imported into Lightroom, and Onone has added a burst mode (for action) and auto-bracketing.

Useful carry-overs are an intervalometer (you might want to hook the camera up to some power if you use this one) and full camera control (aperture, ISO, and so on).

It’s not perfect, of course. It would be great to leave out the computer altogether, but until we get matching dongles for both iPhone and camera, that’s impossible. The full version of DSLR Camera Remote is $20, much cheaper than the dumb-remotes both Nikon and Canon will sell you. There is also a $2 Lite version which lacks many controls and Live View, but will trigger the camera. I’m downloading now, and will be giving it a full workout this week.

Product page [iTunes]
Product page (Lite) [iTunes]

See Also:

• Camera-Triggering iPhone App Allows Remote Viewing
• IPhone Camera Remote Gets Improved UI, Nikon Support

Are you familiar with One Less Car? It’s a Maryland campaign to get cars off the road and people onto bikes, but you’ll find stickers (what is the bike equivalent of a bumper sticker? A fender sticker?) from elsewhere all over the world.

We’d like to start a similar campaign, only not for bikes. No, this insidious form of pollution isn’t confined to the streets, but it invades and takes over our homes. The campaign will be called One Less Cable, and freeing us from the tyranny of rubber coated cords is its aim.

We begin with the PocketDock from SendStation, a tiny replacement dock for the iPod and iPhone. It is extremely simple. On one end there is a male dock connector which slides into the iPod. On the other, a jack socket and a mini-USB port. Why is this useful? Because it means you can sync and charge your iPod with any old USB cable. On trips, there is no more bringing Apple’s white cord along with the cable that hooks up your camera, your cellphone and everything else.

The price is $30, or €30, depending on where you are in the world, $20 less than Apple’s dock, although it lacks a remote control. There is one problem, though. It comes with a pair of six-foot cables to hook to your stereo’s line-in sockets, so we guess the PocketDock won’t be receiving “One Less Cable” certification just yet.

Product page [SendStation]

When it comes to enunciation, Bob Dylan falls somewhere between Scooby Doo and Miss Teen USA South Carolina. But people love their celebrities (and irony) so even Dylan could have a bright future in GPS navigation voiceover work. Mr. Zimmerman admitted to “talking to a couple of car companies about the possibility of being the voice of their GPS system,” during his late-night BBC radio show. Naturally, it will happen with all the press he’s received. And when it does you’ll be on you own with no direction home, dig?

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Bob Dylan to mumble GPS directions? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, Magellan itself may not be saying much about it just yet, but it looks like company’s new RoadMate 1700 nav unit is doing its best to make itself known, with it now showing up for order on at least a few retailer’s websites. The big selling point with this one, as you might have surmised, is its spacious 7-inch widescreen display, which gets paired with a number of other features right in line with Magellan’s other recent RoadMate offerings. That includes complete maps of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, built-in AAA TourBook listings, six million points of interest, text-to-speech, and a microSD card slot for expansion, among other standard fare. No firm word on a release date, but Best Buy is estimating availability between September 14th and 21st, and currently has it listed for $299.99.

[Via GPS Review]

Filed under: GPS

7-inch Magellan RoadMate 1700 slips out to retailers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This’ll probably end up being important for Bell and Telus up in Canada (even though they’re taking an intermediate step from CDMA to HSPA), but Verizon must absolutely love the fact that the infrastructure guys have now figured out how to hand off data packets between CDMA and LTE networks in a standards-compliant way. LG and Nortel — what’s left of it, anyway — have collaborated to complete the handoff in Nortel’s Ottawa research labs on 700MHz spectrum between EV-DO and the Canadian firm’s LTE hardware, using LG’s so-called M13 prototype modem that roughly resembles consumer-grade equipment that LG wants to release next year. This is great news for customers who not only won’t need to choose between a fast modem with crappy coverage and a slow modem with awesome coverage — they’ll be able to have both in a single device — but they’ll also be able to continue to torrent last night’s True Blood as they move between technologies. Cheers to that.

Filed under: Wireless

LG and Nortel complete first legit LTE-CDMA handoff, Verizon swoons originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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