Hasta La Gadget!

Are you a true contrarian looking for a camera that befits your nonconformist lifestyle? Well, Canon’s latest entry-level DSLR may not be the most unruly camera out, but at least it sports a moniker that fits the bill. The Canon T3 Rebel, also known as the EOS 1100D, is a 12.2-megapixel affair designed with the DSLR newbie in mind, and according to a review over at PhotographyBlog, it doesn’t sacrifice image quality for ease of use. Touted as a successor to the Rebel XS, the T3 actually carries over some useful features from its more sophisticated sibling, the T3i, including a user-friendly control layout, but lacks the camera’s Scene Intelligent auto mode and extensive list of creative filters. Aside from that, the reviewer found T3’s grips too slick and its diminutive LCD screen a minor setback, but was quick to point out that none of these is a deal-breaker. In fact, aside from a bit of noise encountered at the highest ISO setting, the camera delivers high quality photographs even in low light. All things considered, it looks like the Rebel T3 is a “responsive and intuitive DSLR” for the novice photog, and at $600, it’s got at least some of the competition beat. Now, we won’t tell you what to do, but if we were you, we’d click the source link to see how the T3 stacks up.

Canon Rebel T3 DSLR reviewed: a safe bet for first-time shooters originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NeuroFocus’ Mynd headset is the first wireless EEG headset

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

NeuroFocus Mynd Is a Wireless EEG Headset
Have you ever wanted to record exactly what you’re thinking? NeuroFocus’ Mynd is a sensor covered EEG headset that records your thoughts—it captures mental activity 2,000 times per second—and relays that information over Bluetooth. The Mynd’s mind-reading capabilities have applications in the medical field, as a product for people with neurological disabilities, as well as with tracking Internet surfing habits for advertisers and marketers. Compared to other brain-wave monitoring headsets, it doesn’t look too terrible… kind of like you’re wearing a spidery plastic and metal clamshell on your head.

NeuroFocus Makes First WIreless EEG Sensor Headset [Engadget]

FREEWAY Speakerphone Uses HD Voice Ready Technology and 3 Speakers
The Jabra FREEWAY claims to be the first Bluetooth speakerphone to be HD Voice compliant and use three speakers. It can be controlled using voice recognition for tasks like answering, dialing, ending, or rejecting phone calls, and an automatic power feature keeps it in standby mode when you’re in the car, and powered off once you get out. HD Voice should provide better quality audio during calls, as long as your phone is compatible. It’ll be available in the US in May for $129.

Jabra FREEWAY Intelligent Triple Speakerphone [Slashgear]

Tiny Thanko Micro Camera Weighs 14 Grams and Shoots HD Video
The size; 45 x 29 x 10 mm. It’s an 8-megapixel camera with both microSD and microSDHC card slots for storing up to 32 GB of data. It shoots HD video (1280 x 960) and can capture JPEG format pictures up to 3264×2448 resolution. And it’s so small you can wrap it in the palm of your hand.

Mame Cam 2 [Thanko via Akihabara News]

Water-Powered LED Color-Changing Shower Head Provides Mood Lighting While You Wash
For about $13, you can change your shower into a glowing, color-changing wonderland. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration; it’s a bit more practical than a bathroom discotheque. This particular LED color-changing shower head changes from green to blue to red depending on the temperature of the water, so you immediately know if it’s chilly (below 90 F), just right (91 to 105 F), or on the hot side (107 to 113 F). Any hotter than that, and it flashes red to let you know that you might scald your skin a bit if you don’t make it colder.

LED Color Changing Shower Head [China Vision via Oh Gizmo!]

Everyday is an iPhone app to make a movie of yourself getting old

Everyday is a single-serve iPhone app which looks like a lot of fun — if you have a little discipline. Essentially it is an app for snapping self-portraits, but it brings an extra feature not found in other photo-apps: time.

The idea is to snap a picture of your face every single day (that’s where the discipline comes in). Then, once you have a bunch of photos saved, you can stitch them together into a time-lapse movie. You may have seen this kind of thing before — movies spanning decades done by patient people with regular cameras. The difference with Everyday is that it is easy, even if you’re forgetful.

To take a snap, you line up your face with on-screen guides, or show a ghostly overlay from a previous shot. Then snap! That’s it. You can share the individual photos manually or automatically to the usual places — Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr — and you can also have the app pop up a daily reminder for you to take the shot.

But the best part? It’s actually not the app, but the accompanying video spot, filmed by the ever soporific-seeming Adam Lisagor, the go-to commercial-maker for nerdy companies with something to sell. Check it out:

Everyday will cost you $2, and is available now.

Everyday product page [iTunes]

See Also:

• Portrait Machine
• Top 10 Wired Reader Self-Portraits, Decided by You
• Self-Portrait Add-On for iPhone is All Done With Mirrors

Enjoy the frustrations of unpredictable analog tech with Incredibooth for iPad 2

Photobooth, Apple’s hall-of-mirrors-like self-portrait app for the iPad 2, is fine and all, but does it give you the experience of a real Photo booth? Does it take four photos in row, snapping each one as you least expect it and wasting your hard-earned coins?

Does it combine these photos into a single strip that can be sent up to Facebook? Does it let you filter you pictures through the currently fashionable Holga-style filters, dating them forever to the early twenty-tens? No, it doesn’t. But Incredibooth, from “the guys that brought your Hipstamatic,” does, and it costs just $99, which is less than you’d spend in a real photo booth.

Just hit the switch, crowd you and your friends in front of the iPad’s front-facing camera and hit the big red button. Four shots will be snapped in any of four lens and effect combos, and the strip of photos will be delivered outside the booth.

All you need is an uncomfortable spinning stool and a few nastily colored, pleated curtains and you can pretend that you have traveled back in time 20 years.

IncrediBooth by Synthetic Corp [iTunes via Mac Stories]

IncrediBooth product page [IncrediBooth]

See Also:

• FaceTime, PhotoBooth and Camera Icons 'Confirm' Dual-Camera iPad 2 …
• Photo Booth Grotesques Make Freaky Rubber Masks
• Print-Sending App Turns iPhone Into a Photo-Booth
• $10000 Photo Booth Takes Tiny, Low-Resolution B&W Pictures …

The BosStrap hangs your camera from its purpose made strap lug

BosStrap is another take on the shoulder-sling school of camera straps. I’m so used to wearing cameras across my chest — bandolier-style — that even looking at somebody’s poor neck being dragged down by a regular strap makes my muscles ache.

The BosStrap strap differs from most other designs in one key way: it joins onto your camera’s strap lugs instead of screwing into the tripod mount. This is theoretically better, as the lugs were designed to take the weight of a camera, and a tripod-screw can unscrew.

The kit comes in two parts. A BosTail, which threads through the strap-lug like any other strap, and terminates in a metal ring. The other part is an adjustable webbing loop with a locking hook on the end. This hooks into the tail’s ring. The soft seatbelt webbing keeps it comfortable, and the relatively wide 1.5 inch band distributes the load of a heavy camera.

The advantages of shoulder straps don’t end with their comfort. They are usually longer than neck-straps, and the camera is held down at your hip, tucked out of the way. This protects it and stops it bouncing off your belly as you walk. Also, the single-point attachment keeps the strap out of your way when shooting. And in the case of the BosStrap, its free-spinning metal joint means no tangles.

The BosStrap (which should be more amusingly re-capitalized to BossTrap) will cost you $40, and includes one tail. More tails can be had for $7. Available now.

BosStrap product page [BosStrap. Thanks, Tom!]

See Also:

• Camera Strap Buddy Makes Any Camera Comfy
• LumaLoop: Finally, a Camera Strap Done Right?
• Buckle Up! Seat-Belt Camera Straps
• Straps
• R-Strap: Sharp Shooting on the Mean Streets