Hasta La Gadget!

If the name “Pelican Imaging” rings a bell, it’s possibly because we covered the company’s array imaging camera prototype back in 2011. The technology uses multiple lenses that are relatively tiny in terms of how much space they take up in a mobile device, but which work together to capture an image of the same quality as a much larger camera — just as array telescopes replace the need for one huge telescope. Now, it appears we weren’t the only ones taking an interest, because Nokia’s investment wing has revealed to Bloomberg that it’s been watching the startup since 2008 and is currently planning to invest in it. Bo Ilsoe, of Nokia Growth Partners, describes Pelican’s technology as being “on the cusp of being commercialized” — so who knows? One day, a future Lumia might house 41 megapixels, image stabilization and the voodoo known as plenoptics. In the meantime, there’s a video after the break which sort of explains how the technology sucks in enough data to allow for focus to be adjusted after a picture is taken — a trick which also sounds rather familiar.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: Bloomberg

As Best Buy attempts a return to financial well-being, it’s decided to sell the 50 percent share it still owns in Best Buy Europe to fellow joint venture partner Carphone Warehouse. The price is set at about 500 million GBP ($775 million, mostly in cash) and is expected to close by June. Best Buy paid $2.15 billion for its share of the business back in 2008 and the first branded store opened in 2010, but it was already looking for a way out by 2011. That’s when it closed its UK stores and paid Carphone Warehouse $1.3 billion for its share in the US Best Buy Mobile business. reporting the joint venture as discontinued operations for its next fiscal year will cause Best Buy to take a $200 million charge, and it’s tossing Carphone Warehouse another $45 million to satisfy outstanding obligations like closing the Global Connect JV the two started in 2011. There’s no word on any moves for its business in Mexico, Canada and China, and CEO Hubert Joly says this sale “should not suggest any similar action” elsewhere.

Filed under: Cellphones, Household, Mobile

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Source: Best Buy

Twitter user Jonathan Gottfried spotted a tweet using the #throughglass hashtag that has since been deleted, but that suggested Twitter has created a Glass app and that it is up and functioning on at least one pair of Google‘s frames. The tweet was sent out by Twitter user Shivster Muddler accompanied by a picture of some trees with the caption: “Just shared a photo #throughglass.”

The discovery was first reported by the folks over at TechCrunch, which pointed out that hints have been dropped in recent times by John Doerr that Twitter would be announcing a Glass app at some point. Twitter hasn’t said anything about the image, and it is possible it was a Photoshop job. There are some things that point at it being a legit screencap, however, including what appears to be default placeholder text in the absence of a user-created tweet.

Likewise, although both the tweet itself and the account that was used to send it – @mogroothmuddler – are now gone, the URLs for them remain, meaning if it is a con job, it would have been a tad involved to pull off. Regardless, if it is true, it indicates we could be hearing an announcement from Twitter regarding a Glass app in the near future.

As we reported yesterday, some of Glass’s earliest adopters have already jumped into hacking the device, having successfully got Android software to run on the device. And this followed an earlier statement from developers that it is not only possible to root Google Glass, but that it is easier than expected.

[via CNET]

Twitter for Glass app hinted at in tweet is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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While we’re used to connected hard drives that share their contents with phones and tablets, the reverse isn’t common — why don’t many of these drives safeguard our mobile content from the start? Toshiba is as baffled as we are, so it’s launching its Canvio Connect portable drive with handheld access in mind. While the USB 3.0 disk has no built-in networking of its own, a software bundle for Macs and PCs (we’ve confirmed that it’s Pogoplug) lets travelers back up photos and videos from their Android and iOS devices, reach the drive’s files through the internet and partake in 10GB of free cloud storage. The new Canvio can also serve as a traditional external drive for computers, although it’s still improved in that space when the enclosure is about a third shorter than that of its predecessors. Toshiba expects the mobile-savvy Connect to arrive in mid-May at prices ranging from $99 for a 500GB model through to $190 for a 2TB version.

Filed under: Storage, Internet

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Source: Toshiba

ASUS is also bringing you their newest portable DVD writer, the SDRW-08D3S-U. Measuring W148mm x D144mm x H20mm and weighing 335g, this slim DVD writer features a USB 2.0 connection interface and provides write speeds of up to 8x for DVD+/-R/+RW. The SDRW-08D3S-U retails for 4,400 Yen (about $45). [ASUS]