Rumors of the next-gen iPhone donning a scratch-proof sapphire screen have been going around since the Apple sapphire plant announcement, and it appears that Huawei wants in on the hype, as it prepares for the launch of a sapphire edition Ascend P7….
Can’t get enough movie props? Hollywood Collectibles Group has rolled out a limited supply of batarangs from the Michael Keaton-era Batman movies, one of which includes an LED display as seen in Batman Returns. They’re sent in a case for display in your collection, but there’s no shame in taking one out and letting it fly. Three batarangs are included … Continue reading
There is practically only 4 months left before 2014 ends and BlackBerry seems ready to end the year with a bang. Leaked slides of the company’s 2014 roadmap reveal device launch targets as well as how the company plans to market its smartphones based on particular user groups it has in mind. Until recently, BlackBerry seemed like a company without … Continue reading
Spotify has opened up free access to Windows Phone, with shuffle playlist access and new music discovery without requiring a premium account. The streaming music provider has been offering free play to users with iOS and Android devices for some time, leaving Windows Phone owners left out in the cold until now. With the new update, available in the Windows … Continue reading
If you’re in the market for a new compact camera, you might be interested to learn that Fujifilm has recently announced the X30, a camera which the company claims they are targeting at the enthusiast and professional photographer. The camera, as you can see in the image above, features a pretty retro design so if you wanted something that looks vintage, this could be the camera for you.
As far as the X30’s specifications are concerned, the camera will feature Fujifilm’s 2/3-inch X-Trans II CMOS sensor and a 28-112mm equivalent f/2.0-2.8 lens. Given its relatively wide aperture, it should do pretty well in low-light situations, and with an aperture of f/2.8 at 112mm, well that would make some pretty interesting and speedy zoom photos.
The camera will also sport a 3-inch LCD display, an XGA OLED electronic viewfinder with Fujifilm boasts has a 0.005 second lag time, and a control wheel around the lens which will allow photographers to adjust certain aspects of the camera on the fly, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and so on.
The Fujifilm X30 will also sport a longer-lasting battery, at least according to the company. They claim that photographers should be able to get about 470 photos before the camera requires a recharge. The camera will also feature WiFi so photographers will be able to transfer photos wirelessly. Priced at $599.95, the Fujifilm X30 is expected to go on sale late September.
Fujifilm X30 Compact Camera Is Aimed At The Enthusiast
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According to a rumor last week, there was talk about Nikon possibly getting ready to release a full frame camera in the form of the Nikon D750, and now thanks to the folks at Nikon Rumors, they have managed to get their hands on a screenshot which allegedly reveals additional specifications about the camera.
For starters apart from the full frame sensor that Nikon will allegedly use in the D750, the camera is also expected to sport 51 AF points, thus making it easier for the camera to focus on certain objects or people. It is also said to feature continuous shooting speeds as fast a 8fps, so combine that with the 51 AF points, it seems that the Nikon D750 could be positioned as an action camera.
The D750 is also rumored to sport a 24MP sensor and till feature TTL exposure metering that uses a 91K-pixel RGB sensor, which is the same sensor found in Nikon’s other cameras like the Nikon D800, D800E, and the D810. Of course there is no way to actually verify the specifications so take it with a grain of salt for now, but hopefully more information will be revealed at Photokina 2014, so be sure to check back with us then for the details!
Additional Nikon D750 Specs Revealed [Rumor]
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While using the selfie pose is a great way to try and fit in a group shot, sometimes the group might be too big to fit into the frame, or perhaps you’re looking for a different kind of pose. There are alternatives such as using a timer or a remote shutter, but if you’d rather use a remote shutter as it can be more convenient, then Casio’s upcoming EX-FR10 camera could be of interest to you.
According to the reports, Casio is apparently set on announcing the EX-FR10 action camera in the near future. As you can see in the image above, the camera is not your typical looking camera and actually looks more like a webcam, although there is a reason for its design. As you can see in the bottom portion of the camera, it can be detached from the lens and act as a remote shutter.
It also functions as the camera’s LCD display, although it is admittedly pretty small, but then again the camera is meant to be an action camera so we guess its compactness makes it easier to bring around with you. Apart from that nifty feature, the EX-FR10 is expected to be both dust and shock proof and water resistant.
It will sport a 1/2.3-inch 14MP sensor and a 21mm f/2.8 lens with 4x digital zoom. It will be able to capture video at 1920 resolution at 30fps and will support microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC memory cards. No word on when on how much it will cost, but we will be keeping our eyes peeled for more info.
Casio EX-FR10 Camera With Detachable Remote Shutter Could Be Announced Soon
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The iPhone 6 is expected to be announced on the 9th of September if the rumors are to be believed, and so far assuming that all the leaks we’ve seen so far are accurate, we pretty much know what the iPhone 6 will look like now. That being said there is always a chance that the rumors and leaks are wrong but apparently case manufacturer Spigen is pretty confident about it all.
The case manufacturer, who has been known in the past to jump the gun, has recently listed several cases which the company has designed for the iPhone 6. Like we said we can’t be 100% of the iPhone 6’s design yet, so Spigen is pretty much basing their cases on the leaks and schematics of the iPhone 6 that we’ve seen so far.
However Spigen did not mention if the cases they listed were for the 4.7-inch model or the 5.5-inch model, although they do seem to have gotten the general shape of the phone right, which is the rounded edges of the phone compared to the iPhone 5s. They have also gotten the repositioned power button correct, which has since been moved from the top right corner of the phone to the right side of the phone.
In any case it remains to be seen if Spigen’s gamble will pay off as they would be one of the few manufacturers with cases ready out of the door, but either way do check back with us in the coming weeks to see if Apple sends out invitations to an event held for the 9th of September!
Spigen Lists iPhone 6 Cases On eBay
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By James M. Dorsey
Israeli destruction of Gazan infrastructure has turned the strip into a modern day Dresden. But returning Gaza to the Stone Age has not stopped Hamas, the Islamist militia in control of the territory, from inflicting significant political and psychological damage on Israel. Israeli military and intelligence sources fear that fundamental Israeli intelligence failures have put Hamas in a position to increase Israel’s political cost and determine when Israel’s longest war against the Palestinians will end.
Already, Israel’s almost two-month old war against Hamas has shifted from a sledgehammer approach intended to shock the Islamist militia into accepting Israeli demands for demilitarization into the one thing Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu had wanted to avoid: a war of attrition that would strengthen his right-wing critics at home and risk Israel losing control of ceasefire negotiations in which Egypt did Israel’s bidding.
Hamas’ refusal to bow to Israeli military superiority as well as its uncompromising insistence on a lifting of the eight-year old Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip and the right to furnish it with an airport and sea port caught Israel by surprise. Hamas’ steadfastness leaves Israel with few good options: continuation of a war of attrition that works in Hamas’ favour; unilaterally declaring an end to the war that would be rendered meaningless by the continued launching of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza; and/or accepting in the face of failure of Egypt’s biased mediation a shifting of efforts to end the fighting to the United Nations where Israel is likely to get a less sympathetic hearing.
The effects of Hamas’ strategy are already evident on the ground. Beyond having been forced into a war of attrition, Israeli towns and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip have turned a majority of their residents into internal refugees. “This is a strategic achievement on a par with Hamas’ success in closing (Tel Aviv’s) Ben Gurion international airport for a couple of days last month,” commented DEBKAFile, a news website with close ties to Israel’s military and intelligence establishment.
Hamas is likely to cement its achievement with the war threatening the September 1 opening of the school year in chunks of Israel. Parents in cities beyond Gaza’s immediate parameters have warned that they will not let their children attend school as long as the Palestinian threat persists. In addition, Israel’s international standing has been significantly dented highlighted by US and British suggestions that they may review arms sales to the Jewish state more stringently. A recent Israeli newspaper headline read: After seven weeks of Gaza war, Hamas: 1, Israel: 0
Israeli military and intelligence sources attribute their failure to predict Hamas’ ability to stand up to punishing military strikes to a decision in the last decade to focus the country’s intelligence resources on gathering tactical intelligence and its military on ensuring weapons and training superiority rather than on understanding the enemy’s strategy, mindset and evaluation of the local and international environment in which it operates. As a result, Israeli intelligence and security agencies have cut back on personnel seeking to understand the broader picture in which Hamas and other groups operate.
Proponents of the shift in focus point to Israeli successes in recent years including the 2008 assassination in Damascus of Imad Mughnieyh, a widely respected Hezbollah and Iranian operative, who masterminded attacks on Israeli and US targets as well as a host of kidnappings of foreigners in Lebanon, including the CIA’s station chief. They also list the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran and elsewhere, the Stuxnet cyber-attack on Iranian computer systems related to the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, and the 2007 destruction of a Syrian plutonium reactor built with the help of Iran and North Korea. They further argue that Israeli forces involved in Gaza benefitted from superior tactical knowledge.
Those successes notwithstanding Israeli intelligence was unable to provide Netanyahu and members of his security cabinet with the necessary strategic analysis to pre-empt what has become a classic example of Machiavelli’s pursuit by Hamas of diplomacy by other means. Israeli intelligence’s inability was already evident in faulty analysis of the popular Arab revolts that toppled the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen as well as of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strategy of allowing the Islamic State, the jihadist group that controls a swath of Syria and Iraq, to emerge as the major rebel group so that he could substantiate his claim that he was fighting a terrorist phenomenon that threatens not only his regime but also the region as a whole and the West.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon appeared to concede that Hamas had succeeded in imposing a war of attrition on Israel by insisting that the Gaza war would only end “when quiet returns to southern Israel” and that Israel preferred a diplomatic rather than a military resolution of the conflict. “This approach leaves the initiative in Hamas’ hands and Israel ignorantly navigating its military moves towards a ceasefire instead of winning the war. Despite its inferiority in fighting strength and weaponry, Israel’s enemy uses this ambivalence to retain the element of surprise and keep the IDF moving without direction,” DEBKAFile said.
It has also made Netanyahu more vulnerable to criticism that Israel will be unable to militarily defeat Hamas in a war of attrition that takes an increasing toll on Israel’s population and that only full disarmament of Hamas will restore Israeli security. Ironically, some of the prime minister’s critics, including former defence minister Moshe Arens, would be willing to cut short the war of attrition and concede to some of Hamas’ demands in the absence of a military campaign aimed at complete disarmament on condition that the government prepares for another round of fighting which they view as inevitable at some point in the future.
Even that seemingly conciliatory approach could backfire in the absence of a bold Israeli initiative to sincerely negotiate an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The war in Gaza and the failure of Egypt to politically undercut Hamas in the ceasefire negotiations have raised the spectre of internationalization of the conflict. Palestinian factions are making it increasingly difficult for Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to avoid filing war crime charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court. In addition, European efforts to shift ceasefire talks from Cairo to the United Nations in New York are more sympathetic to Hamas’ demands for a lifting of the siege and international supervision of border crossings and reconstruction of Gaza – the very steps that could reduce Israeli control of the process.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
