Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft has been hinting for awhile that one of the features of the Xbox One would be its ability to run apps made for Windows 8, a pretty awesome feature that will transform the gaming console into a device that can do more than just game. However apart from dropping various hints, Microsoft has yet to come forward and fully confirm said feature, but it looks like their OEM partner, Dell, has decided to do that for them instead. Spotted on a pre-order page for Dell’s online store, the company has seemingly confirmed that all Windows 8 apps will be able to run on the Xbox One.

According to the page which was for Dell’s Xbox One pre-orders, it reads, “Consider the game officially changed. With all your favorite Windows 8 apps able to be run on and synced to your Xbox One, now your phone, desktop, tablet and TV can all give you a unified web and entertainment experience.” While Dell definitely has experience in field of Windows 8 products, this is hardly an official announcement meaning that there is an off-chance that Dell could have their facts wrong. Either way hopefully Microsoft will catch wind of this soon and either confirm it themselves, or issue a statement correcting the matter, but for now what do you guys think of the Xbox One running Windows 8 apps?

Dell Seemingly Confirms Xbox One Can Run Windows 8 Apps original content from Ubergizmo.

Here we are with yet another leak from the good people over at @evleaks, where they have shown off what does seem to resemble the Nokia Lumia 929 that will be headed for Verizon. Just what kind of smartphone will the Nokia Lumia 929 be? It is more or less a physically less imposing version of the Nokia Lumia 1520 handset, sporting a 5” AMOLED display that delivers 1080 x 1920 Full HD resolution which should make watching all those movies while you are on the go a cinch. Not only that, it comes with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor alongside 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory.

Not only that, the Nokia Lumia 929 is also said to feature a 20.7-megapixel PureView camera that is located at the back, where it boasts of a ZEISS lens, dual-LED flash and the ability to play nice with the Nokia Camera app. Not only that, it also sports dual-capture mode (5-megapixels and 16-megapixels) with the inclusion of optical image stabilization. It ought to arrive in both black and white shades, too.

We ought to take note that this is not the first time that such a press rendering has been leaked out for the Nokia Lumia 929 that indicates it is arriving for Verizon, but as the possible release date draws nearer, I guess that means a leak then would be an indicator of its relevance.

Nokia Lumia 929 Leaked, Apparently Heading For Verizon original content from Ubergizmo.

With its Nov. 15 IPO less than a month away, Twitter recently explained its latest revenue model additions. They include lead generation, traffic conversion and TV targeting. Having been in business since 2006 but yet to show a profit in any year since, Twitter is under pressure from the investing community to show why its […]

Just admit it. Sometimes you’re jogging in the park or you’re on the treadmill and you visualize yourself running in slow motion. Sweat pouring off you, hair swinging, face contorted as you fight for your goal. It’s pretty epic.

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If you like the look of tilt-shift and low-fidelity images, you should probably have a camera that looks the part. I’ve been playing around with one particular camera that fits both bills – creative lo-fi images and retro style.

The Bonzart Ampel Dual Lens camera is an unusual little camera that looks like an old-school twin-lens reflex camera, but in this case, each lens is being used to feed a five-megapixel digital image sensor. The top lens offers normal images, while the lower lens offers an optical tilt-shift effect.

The camera even has a clever pop open viewfinder like old cameras, which conceals a small 2″ LCD screen inside. This top-down position for viewing images while shooting takes a little getting used to, but is actually kind of fun once you do. As an added bonus, the pop-up sides around the viewfinder keep glare off of the LCD.

In terms of storage, the camera accepts standard SD memory cards, and gets its power from three inexpensive AA batteries. Controls for switching between effect and shooting modes are located on side of the camera, while the shutter and lens select buttons are on front. Menu controls for changing resolution, exposure, date/time and other settings are located on back.

So how about image quality? Well, I won’t say that the Bonzart Ampel can compete with today’s better digital cameras, but that’s not what it’s designed for. It’s designed to allow photographers to explore their creativity in the capture of artful, lo-fi imagery – and it does that well. Check out some sample images I shot below:

As you can see, it performs quite well in daylight conditions, and the tilt-shift effect is spot on.

Without any focus controls at all, it even captures pretty impressive macro images, complete with unplanned depth of field effects.

The camera also offers digital effect modes for vivid color, black and white, sepia tone, and something called “REF”, which seems like a washed out Fuji film style. While you could achieve many of these effects in post-production with image editors, it’s kind of fun to see them in real time on the LCD, and without need to boot up Photoshop.

In addition to still imagery, the Bonzart Ampel can shoot video in resolutions from 320×240 up to 720×480 at 30fps. It also offers a 1280×720 HD mode, but the frame rate is extremely poor at that resolution. Suffice it to say, this isn’t really designed for HD videography. Still, it’s kind of neat to be able to shoot SD video through a tilt-shift lens.

One caveat with this camera is that it’s pretty much useless in low-light conditions. It captures great daylight images, but even in dimly-lit indoor rooms this is the sort of result I got, even when playing with the manual exposure controls:

For those of you who like to use Instagram, the camera also has a built-in 1:1 proportion mode, so you can capture ready-cropped images for upload to the service (or for square picture frames).

Overall, this quirky little camera really grew on me, and I think it’s a fun addition to any photographer’s bag of tricks. If you keep in mind that it’s designed for creative imagery and not for precision, you’ll be much happier with the surprising and serendipitous results it produces.

The Bonzart Ampel Dual Lens camera is available from AC Gears for $180(USD).