Hasta La Gadget!

Remember Nikon’s neat little S1000pj, the compact camera with the built in projector that we got all excited about but the buying public ignored in droves? Well, it may be about to get updated to something a whole lot more useful.

According to Nikon Rumors, which dug up the info in the French magazine Chasseur d’Images, a new Nikon compact will have a projector combined with a video input. This would essentially mean that you are buying a video projector that has a camera built in. This small tweak would take Nikon’s point-and-shoot from a novelty to a seriously useful accessory. You could hook it up to your laptop (or maybe even your iPad, if it has a VGA input) and enjoy an impromptu big-screen movie-show wherever you are.

Chasseur d’Images, in its print form at least, has broken several stories that escaped internet writers thanks to the long lead times of print publications. In fact, the magazine was first to leak the original Nikon projector-cam in August 2009, so the track record is good. Not having access to the actual paper magazine, though, we can’t provide a link.

Nikon Coolpix S1000pj replacement will serve as a conventional projector [Nikon Rumors]

Projector photo: pedrosimoes7/Flickr

See Also:

• Hybrid Camera and Projector Planned by Nikon?
• Leica D-Lux 4 Leaked in French Magazine
• Leica Announces World's Fastest Aspherical Lens
• Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj
• Nikon Crams Projector Into Compact Camera

With less than a week to go until the iPhone 4 gets into our hands (or at least, the hands of the lucky 600,000 who managed to order one) is there anything we don’t already know? After all, between Gizmodogate, Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation and Apple’s own website, the new features are all covered.

Or are they? “Happy Swenak”, reader of Czech blog Jablíčkář.cz has gotten his hands on yet another stray iPhone 4 and has put the camera through its paces. Apple’s sample photos might be un-retouched, but they are also taken in almost perfect lighting conditions. Swenak took some more regular snaps, along with unedited video, and despite a little over-exposure, the results look fine.

The site is taking a hit right now so the video footage is almost impossible to stream, but I managed to download the 13.2 MB file to view offline. The quality is surprisingly good. Viewed full-screen on my 20-inch monitor, the picture is sharp and (when paused) detailed. The lowdown: H.264, 1280 x 720, at 29.97 fps, AAC audio, 10.87 Mbit/s data rate. Despite the rather large depth-of-field, which is caused by the small sensor, this could easily be taken for footage from a larger digicam.

Finally, Jablíčkář.cz also shared some info on battery life. After an hour of pretty intense use, including gaming and video, the battery had dropped by just 10%. It seems like Apple’s claims for battery life are getting more and more accurate.

Czech user testing iPhone 4 [Jablíčkář]

Photo: Happy Swenak

See Also:

• Apple Sells 600000 iPhones Despite 'System Malfunctions,' Orders …
• Photo Gallery: Hands-On With the iPhone 4
• Why the iPhone 4 Camera Is So Promising
• iPhone 4 + Glitchy Launch = Huge Demand Anyway

IOS4 will bring many of the new iPhone’s features to older models, but it won’t add a front-facing camera. To take self-portraits, you’ll need to either guestimate the framing, or spring for the iSnapMe, which is a kind of stick-on periscope for your iPhone.

The $20 mirror has a pair of suction cups which hold it in place and reflect your handsome face into the old-fashioned 3MP, rear-facing camera found on your tired old iPhone. Because you can now stare at your own enchanting visage, you’ll get perfect framing and focusing every time.

There may even be other uses. This could function as a rear-view mirror so you can check what caused that suspicious shadow that just flicked across your peripheral vision, all without turning away from Plants Vs. Zombies, and… Well, I can’t think of anything else.

So, persons with an Oedipus complex who have no friends to take their photo, and no sense of where to point a camera, this is the perfect accessory for you. Go get it now.

iSnapMe [iSnapMe via Oh Gizmo!]

Cameras? IR emitters? Natal? Kinect? Xbox 360? WTF? Give us three minutes. We can explain everything. More »

The AirStash is a USB card reader combined with a Wi-Fi hotspot. Its purpose in life is to stream media to other devices, which means sending movies, music and video to phones, tablets and other memory-limited gadgets.

We first saw the AirStash back in January when a prototype was shown at CES. Since then it has gotten a price ($100) and gone on sale. You might also remember that, in the meantime, Apple released a new kind of computer.

Now, the AirStash won’t help you if you are desperately waiting for the sold-out Apple Camera Connection Kit (the AirStash is similarly back-ordered), but it could be ideal for iPad-toting photographers who hate plugging things in. You just pop your SD card into the slot and then dial in from Safari. From there you can browse a list of photos, view them and save them to your photo-roll. Better, it works as a mass-storage USB device, so you could actually plug it into the iPad via the connection kit.

The only problem is that the transfer is a little clunky: there’s no way to grab all the images at once. What may work, though, is using an iPad app called ShutterSnitch (also covered in Gadget Lab, this time in May). ShutterSnitch has its own FTP server, and normally pulls in images as you take them from an Eye-Fi card or a wireless transmitter. In theory, you should be able to combine the two for some fast wireless transfers (or fast-ish: the AirStash has a 802.11b/g radio).

It’s still a little awkward. The AirStash folks really need to write an App that pulls from their dongle to make things a little easier. Otherwise, this looks like a neat photographers’ toy.

AirStash [AirStash via John Nack]

See Also:

• Airstash: A Teeny-Tiny Wi-Fi Router and Card Reader
• ShutterSnitch Beams Photos from Camera to iPad
• IPad Camera Connection Kit Sells for $187.50 on Ebay