Hasta La Gadget!

Following hot on the heels of Verizon’s new prepaid FiOS plan, Comcast announced on Thursday that the company will offer a prepaid version of its own Xfinity internet.

Not all smartwatches are created equal, and the folks over at Diesel know this. In fact, the new collection of Diesel On touchscreen smartwatches that run on Android Wear 2.0 will do its bit to fuel customization options, as Diesel works on expanding their influence when it comes to wearable technology. The new range will include bold, moto-inspired, full-screen smartwatches for its dedicated customer base.

The Diesel On touchscreen smartwatch merges the rebellious spirit of the brand with world-class technology, resulting in a one-of-a-kind touchscreen smartwatch that ensures you will not lack any kind of attention while wearing it. Standing out from the rest of the competition thanks to seven bold, customizable dial options, each of can be modified in a myriad of ways. Apart from that, there will be unique dial effects that ensure even more personality will keep this timepiece company, where visual enhancements such as the appearance of a cracked screen when a private notification is received, to unique weather filters that change based on the climate.

The Diesel On touchscreen smartwatches will play nice with both iOS and Android smartphones, and run on Android Wear 2.0. There will be Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor running proceedings from underneath the hood, where it relies on Bluetooth technology to hook up to your smartphone. You are also able to download third-party apps and obtain help from your Google Assistant with the Diesel On, not to mention enjoy the Google Fit workout experience as it tracks your runs, bike rides, and strength training (for example, pull-ups and push-ups), among others.

In addition, you are able to customize its straps with eight available options, where among them include leather, silicone, denim and canvas with novelty stitching as well as hardware details. The asking price for the all new Diesel On smartwatch collection stands at $325 onward, depending on which particular model that you decide to bring home as it hits stores this holiday season.

Press Release
[ Diesel forges ahead with new touchscreen smartwatches copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The trend of having dual-cameras has established itself in the smartphone world, and it adds one more question to prospect buyers: are dual-camera better or worth the potential additional cost? As usual, the answer to this question depends on how you use the camera. With a clear explanation of what dual-camera system can, or cannot do, you can assess their value to you.

It is necessary to establish that “two” isn’t always better than “one”. Don’t let yourself fooled into that kind of thinking. Adding more cameras simply don’t scale the photo quality linearly, if at all. A secondary camera is often a supplement that creates new functionalities (artsy, effects) instead of increasing image quality (in the strict sense, not the artistic sense).

Dual-camera smartphone systems are truly useful for three things:

1. Portrait photo (bokeh/blur).
2. Telephoto (zoom)
3. Wide-angle photo

Would using a second camera and sensor fusion (merging data from two sensors) beat the best single-lens system? So far, this remains an unproven concept. The best mobile cameras are single-lens ones. More on that later…

Portrait Photography (Bokeh)

Introduced by HTC (HTC M8), perfected by Huawei (Huawei P9) and followed by Apple (iPhone 7+), portrait photography refers mainly to the ability to take photos with a nice background blur (called Bokeh, from a Japanese term). The blur makes the photo subject “pop” and brings to focus to it, making for nice photo art. The photo below shows how the iPhone 7+ dual-lens produces better bokeh than the single-lens Galaxy S7.

With large cameras, this effect happens naturally when the size of the lens and the aperture size are large enough to create an analog blur wherever the pixels are out of focus. The Wikipedia Bokeh page has a more detailed explanation of why this happens if you want to know it all.

Mobile phones have lenses and sensors that are too small for this to happen naturally (in the analog space). Therefore, a software emulation process is devised: as pixels are located farther away from the focus area or focus plane, they are blurred artificially using one of the many blur algorithms commonly used in image processing.

To know how far each pixel is from that focus area, it is best and faster to do it with two photos taken with a ~1cm separation. Because of the fixed separation length and the ability to snap both views at the same time (avoiding motion noise), it is possible to triangulate the depth of every pixel in the photo (using a multi-view stereo algorithm). From there, it is easy to have an excellent estimation of the position of each pixel, relative to the focus area.

Without getting into the details, this is a very complicated thing to do, but dual-camera phones streamline the process because they can snap two photos simultaneously. Single-lens systems have to either the user to snap two photos consecutively (with different angles) or use a lesser depth approximation.

The result is that taking portrait/bokeh photos on dual-camera phones is a much nicer experience (than with an emulation). You almost always have to switch to a different “photo-mode”, which adds a little friction. The iPhone 7+ and the Huawei P10 are the leading contenders for this.

The downside of having a separate “photo mode” is that it adds just enough user-interface friction that the feature is not used very often. Ideally, the switch between cameras should be done automatically, but it is very difficult for the camera to “know” what the user intent is.

Alternatively, the camera could always take a bokeh photo in addition to a normal one. However, that would lead to a huge waste of space and may add processing time (lag) to the camera user experience.

Finally, note that every software variants of Bokeh will have some odd things happen at the edges because there isn’t as much information as with a large camera, sensor, and lens. How odd things get will depend on the methods used to generate the depth map, and the blur itself.

Telephoto (zoom)

It is fair to say that zooming is a natural thing to do when you want to frame a photo. Every single smartphone can zoom using a digital zoom (magnifying the image). The cost of it is of course that you lose some resolution in the process, but it is not a horrible trade-off for a well-framed image.

With the iPhone 7s, an optical zoom (2X) was introduced as a secondary lens. As such, it is possible to zoom by a factor of two, without losing resolution. As you zoom further, the camera app falls back to magnifying the optically zoomed image, and again you start losing resolution.

Although the image quality of an 8X or 10X zoom image is better than not having an optical 2X zoom, the result is still blurred. Also, a 2X optical zoom is more or less equivalent to moving forward by ~1 yard (1 meter) if you are not zooming further. It is therefore always best to move forward if you can.

Of course, the view angle will not be the same, and the zoom lens can be great for portrait photo because it induces less deformation. However, my opinion is that a 2X zoom is too little to justify a second camera module. The 5X zoom of Oppo would be much more interesting, but it is voluminous. If it is really important to you, it is a good thing that someone is offering it.

Wide-Angle Photography

Wide-angle photography is the exact opposite of telephoto. Instead of wanting to get closer, the wide angle shows you “more” of what’s in front of you. Wide-angle photography was introduced as a second lens system on the LG G5 and subsequent phones (V20, G6).

LG Nailed this one from day one and remains the only game in town for mobile wide-angle photos. I highly recommend trying this if you have not experienced it. The two photos above were shot with an LG wide lens.

“I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TRYING WIDE-ANGLE MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY”Wide-angle photography is particularly useful to capture immersive experiences like being in a concert crowd, or a place too large for a narrower lens to capture. It is also usually great for cityscapes, capturing tall buildings and other things that regular lenses simply can’t see.

In my opinion, this is the best, or most valuable, implementation of dual-lens today. Why?

1. People use it very often
2. You cannot do/emulate this in any other way

There is no need to switch to a specific “mode” because the camera switch happens as people zoom in or out, which is perfectly integrated into the normal camera experience.

According to LG, 50% of its dual-lens cameras users have the wide-angle as their primary camera. It is a huge number, which probably dwarves the usage rate of Portrait mode.

When compared to telephoto photography, one would argue that wide-angle photo brings a lot more value: while an optical zoom increases slightly the quality of a photo that could otherwise have been taking without, wide-angle allows taking a shot that would otherwise be impossible.

Dual Lens and Higher-Quality Photography (Sensor Fusion)

The idea of using multiple lenses to increase the quality of one photo by merging and exploiting the data may intuitively make sense, but there isn’t a single mobile dual-camera implementation that beats the best single-lens mobile cameras.

You may have heard that of the two cameras, one may only capture the light, while the other captures the colors. The “light-only” camera could even have its RGB filter removed to allow more light to come in. It sounds great, but in reality, there are many issues at play:

1. Dual-lens system have too often two lower-quality (surface area, pixel size) sensors and lenses
2. It is difficult to align the data from both sensors. This could lower sharpness
3. Image tuning varies greatly from OEM to OEM

It is not dissimilar to trying to use two small telescopes to beat a larger one. In general, it simply doesn’t work this way. Ideally, you would at least want to have two “top” cameras, but in reality doing that costs much money, so the dual-camera quality leads to hardware quality compromises.

“MORE CAMERAS SIMPLY DON’T SCALE THE PHOTO QUALITY LINEARLY, IF AT ALL”The internal volume of the mobile is also a premium resource is that not infinite. Not only having dual-cameras could be expensive, but it does occupy more space as well. Interestingly enough, dual-camera is used with smaller sensors by many phone-makers to enable designs with cameras flush to the surface. Qualcomm’s Clear Sight is one popular implementation of dual-lens cameras.

Finally, it is possible to take very quick consecutive shots with a single system lens (that’s even more power-efficient). This is not without creating its own set of problems (motion ghosting, image alignment…) but Google has done it successfully with the Google Pixel, leveraging the power of algorithms into making it a top mobile camera. I think that the LG G6 also does something similar to compensate for its relatively small sensor.

Today, the Galaxy S7/S8 and the Google Pixel are the two best mobile cameras available, thus proving that dual-camera system some great advantages (easy portrait mode), but don’t match the quality of the best single-lens systems.

Looking forward

With mobile cameras being severely limited by how big (or thick) they can get, having more lenses is a good idea. In fact, if you ignore the form-factor for a moment, it has been demonstrated that adding many lenses can contribute to increasing the image quality significantly.

The Light Camera has shown that by combining and processing data from 16 (!!) mobile cameras, it is possible to capture amazing photos (see their gallery).

However, you can see that the model has needs that simply don’t fit into what people are willing to carry and spend today. When does it become beneficial to smartphones remains to be seen, but it is one thing that I hope all OEMs are exploring.

At the end of the day, it’s a difficult balancing between:

1. How much one is willing to spend
2. How much room there is to fit the hardware
3. How smart one is at using the hardware

Conclusion: multi-lens is very useful, but single lens quality still wins, for now

Two isn’t always better than one, that is for certain. What’s best “for you” depends on how you intend to use the camera and how much “effort” you are willing to make. If you are OK with switching modes (most people laze out most of the time), you can take advantage of dual-cameras’ abilities for Bokeh and Portrait.

If you travel a lot and visit interesting places, a wide-angle camera is definitely worth looking at, even if its nominal quality is not the absolute best.

Finally, if you are a point & shoot person who just want to capture a great moment without going “artsy” or put any extra effort, the best single-camera systems will work perfectly for you.

Dual Cameras vs. Single Camera (Phones) , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

WASHINGTON ― A week out from Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation vote, there are some moody senators wandering the halls of Congress.

Democrats, under pressure from their progressive base, are waging war on Gorsuch, vowing to block his confirmation by denying Republicans the 60 votes they need to advance his nomination. They’re demanding that President Donald Trump put forward a new nominee. Republicans, eager to fill a court seat they held open for Trump for a year, are signaling they may retaliate by changing the rules so it only takes 51 votes to advance a Supreme Court nominee, which would shut Democrats out of the process entirely.

This doesn’t sound like the chamber of Congress that traditionally prides itself on collegiality and bipartisanship.

As senators gird for this fight, they don’t feel very good about what they’re doing to the Senate. Even the prospect of getting rid of the filibuster rule for Supreme Court nominees has them on edge. The whole point of the rule is to force both parties to reach a consensus on important matters. It’s how the Senate proudly differentiates itself from the House, where a simple majority rules. Democrats nixed the filibuster rule for lower-court nominees in 2013 (to the ire of Republicans), but it still takes 60 votes to advance a Supreme Court nominee and to pass bills.

If Democrats hold their ground on Gorsuch, and Republicans get rid of the filibuster rule to confirm him, lawmakers in both parties worry it’s a slippery slope toward eliminating the filibuster rule altogether.

“Lets face it: We’re one hair away from doing the same thing on legislation,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “Both parties have helped take us on this downward spiral.”

“We can turn the Senate into the House of Representatives with six-year terms. Does that really benefit anybody?” grumbled Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Gorsuch’s confirmation vote is set for April 7, and his fate is coming down to eight votes. There are 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats (including two independent senators who caucus with them), meaning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs to find eight Democrats willing to vote with Republicans. For the moment, McConnell doesn’t appear to have those votes. 

It makes me very sad.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on the prospect of the Senate weakening filibuster rules.

That’s where the “nuclear option” comes in. Republicans can go around the 60-vote requirement by using a rarely invoked procedural maneuver to change the rules, so it would only take 51 votes for move forward. They could confirm Gorsuch by doing this, but down the road, it means whichever party is in the majority can confirm a Supreme Court nominee without needing any votes from the minority.

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Today’s SpaceX launch will be logged in the history books as the first time a flight-proven orbital class rocket has successfully been relaunched and returned to Earth. “We just had an incredible day today,” CEO Elon Musk said after the first stage F…