Hasta La Gadget!

Blackmagic Design’s innovative Cinema Camera has been hamstrung by flaws in the sensor glass, forcing the company to freeze preorder shipments and re-manufacture them with new, fixed components. Initial supplies of the Cinema Camera had been ready to ship a month ago, but failed production testing after blemishes on the sensor marred the final video. After some investigative digging, CEO Grant Petty says, a series of problems were identified at the sensor supplier.

According to Petty’s lengthy explanation over at the Blackmagic forums, the issue was a combination of blemished glass – which is fused to the sensors as a protective layer, before they’re shipped to Blackmagic for inclusion into the Cinema Camera as a whole – and bugs in testing software designed to check quality. The flaws in the glass itself was apparently traced to contaminated packing materials used by the original glass supplier:

“Over a month ago now, we completed the testing of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and started production. Very quickly we started to see cameras failing our production testing as they suffered from blemishes on the sensor. These are high end cameras so need to be built to a very high specification.

We started testing to discover the cause of the problem and discovered that the problems were from our second shipment of sensors. The first shipment of sensors were fine. All the cameras you currently see people using had been built from this first batch of sensors and that is why we did not see any issues until we started to build cameras in volume.

While investigating the problem our engineers found the blemishes were in the glass that covers the sensor, and not the sensor itself. This is good because the glass might just be dirty so we saw this as a quick fix, but wondered how a supplier could deliver us sensors that had blemishes, as they are supposed to pre test them … When talking with the supplier, it turned out they had a bug in their test software that tested sensors after the glass had been applied. That’s why they shipped us bad sensors and did not notice. They fixed that problem and could then see the problems we saw and stopped production as about 95% of sensors were suffering this problem with the glass” Blackmagic Design

The end result is that Blackmagic must rework its existing stock – which it has been sitting on for a month – with new sensors. They won’t begin production until later this week, however, when the sensor manufacturer receives new, hopefully problem-free glass; Petty says that Blackmagic will be able to ship out cameras the day the company gets new sensors in.

Meanwhile, there’s a new software update for the Cinema Camera, v1.1, which will arrive in a few days time. It adds DNxHD support, as well as support for lens stabilizers  and a number of other minor tweaks.

The Cinema Camera is a $3,000 re-visioning of the professional video camera, offering 13 stops of dynamic range and a high-resolution 2.5K sensor that records directly to an internal SSD. The difference from existing video cameras, Blackmagic says, is that the broadened dynamic range preserves more highlight and shadow detail, resulting in a film-like picture despite the convenience of digital.

[via DSLR News Shooter]

Blackmagic Cinema Camera delayed after sensor glitch is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There are few things more pleasant in life than having a nice comfortable sit down. Apart, perhaps, from pork. So why not combine the two? More »

Most homes in developed countries these days come with not only any Internet connection, but rather, a speedy one at that. Having said that, the way we consume media has also changed rather dramatically, no longer do we rent DVDs from a store or a kiosk, but rather, we prefer to just stream whatever we want to watch right there and then onto the TV itself. Not only that, it has been possible for a fair number of years now to be able to record what we do not have the time to watch for consumption later on. Well, Netgear has introduced a trio of new streaming players to the masses, where all of them offer features such as 1080p HD, built-in WiFi, Intel WiDi, access to personal media and hundreds of popular streaming channels including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu and many others.

All three of the new Netgear streaming players fall under the NeoTV name, where one unique point of these new streaming players would be the fact that they are one of the first few in the market to support the HTML 5 standard, a standard which is rapidly being adopted by content providers as the ideal method for streaming entertainment into homes.

You will find in the new NeoTV Streaming Players a widespread use of HTML 5, HLS, and digital rights management tools like Microsoft PlayReady in order to provide access to hundreds of HD streaming channels in addition to a variety of entertainment features, where you as the end user or consumer will be able to enjoy an outstanding home theater experience.

If you have wanted to get a smart TV but have yet to make the upgrade, then fret not – the new Netgear streaming players will be able to get the job done just as well for a presumably far more affordable price. Not only that, if you are not satisfied with the content availability or ease-of-use of your smart TV, NeoTV will be able to broaden your access to content and features apps which are capable of transforming smartphones into remote control devices, making it a snap to find and play content.

The streaming players are the NeoTV (NTV300), NeoTV PRO (NTV300S) and NeoTV MAX (NTV300SL), playing nice with Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Best Buy CinemaNow, Pandora, Rhapsody and many other channels.

The whole Netgear NeoTV Streaming Player range is already in the US, where the NeoTV Streaming Player (NTV300), NeoTV PRO Streaming Player (NTV300S) , and the NeoTV MAX Streaming Player (NTV300SL) will retail for $49.99, $59.99, and $69.99, respectively.

Press Release
[ Netgear introduces new streaming players copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Finnish game studio Rovio went from relatively unknown to center stage with the Angry Birds franchise. And in record time, too — the first Angry Birds landed on Apple’s iOS App Store in December 2009, less than three years ago, and has since become an international sensation. The birds spawned a flock of sequels, branded tie-ins, and tons of merchandise. All this adds up to quite a bit of chicken scratch for Rovio, and also quite a bit of pressure to keep the money train rolling.

Today marks Rovio’s first true sequel to the original Angry Birds, and it’s focused on the other side of the farm: the pigs. Enter Bad Piggies. Unlike Angry Birds, Bad Piggies isn’t about flinging anything towards a complicated structure in order to knock it down. Instead, it’s about moving one very green, goofy sounding pig to various points on a map to collect items and reach a goal — it’s much more Cut the Rope than Angry Birds. The same physics-based game mechanics are at play in Bad Piggies that made both Cut the Rope and Angry Birds so popular, and they’re just as fun in this time around. But how do you get said piggy to the goals? You build a contraption, of course.

Each level starts with a build section, allowing players to create all types of vehicles in order to transport the pig from point A to point B (while grabbing collectibles along the way). Only a small handful of build options are available, keeping Bad Piggies just as speedy of a game — to pick up and play while commuting or while waiting at the dentist’s office — as its wildly successful progenitor. It’s hard to say if Bad Piggies will recapture the success that Rovio found with Angry Birds proper, but all the hallmarks are there: quick, fun gameplay, colorful characters, goofy sounds, and accessibility (we couldn’t help but get all three stars on every level, but you don’t have to in order to proceed, should it prove too difficult). Bad Piggies launches tomorrow morning for iOS devices, Mac, and Android.

Filed under: Gaming, Mobile, Alt

Angry Birds sequel ‘Bad Piggies’ launches tomorrow, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

If you were planning on getting your hands on Assassin’s Creed 3 for the PC instead of on the console, Ubisoft has revealed the minimum specs that your PC will need in order to run the game. Rather interestingly the requirements revealed has not included Microsoft Windows XP and has thrown Microsoft’s Windows 8 into the mix. This is bad news for XP gamers, but good news for PC gamers who were planning on upgrading to Windows 8 down the line. The rest of the specs are available after the break. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Assassin’s Creed 3 multiplayer trailer spotted ahead of schedule, Assassin’s Creed 3 DLC plans revealed via alleged leaked letter,