Panasonic launches tweaked AG-AF105A MFT pro camcorder with 10-bit HD video

Panasonic launches AGAF105A tweaked pro camcorder with 10bit video output

Panasonic has just launched the AG-AF105A pro camcorder, an updated version of the AG-AF105 model, and for lovers of fine color gamut, there’s good news. You can now output 10-bit HD video through the live view SDI port to an external recorder, boosting the color range to a billion hues and 1024 shades of grey. That addresses one of the main gripes with the previous $6k, 8-bit camcorder: it had to live in a world of Red Scarlets and Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera MFTs, which already have deep color. The revised model also brings a new PS recording mode with 25Mbps data rate, full HD progressive modes (1080/60p, 1080/50p), higher fidelity 16 bit LPCM audio and enlarged focus assist. It’ll hit shelves on November 15th in Japan (there’s no mention of an international date yet) with pricing up to the dealer, so sharpen up those haggling skills if you want one.

Continue reading Panasonic launches tweaked AG-AF105A MFT pro camcorder with 10-bit HD video

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Panasonic launches tweaked AG-AF105A MFT pro camcorder with 10-bit HD video originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Refresh Roundup: week of October 29th, 2012

Refresh Roundup week of October 29th, 2012

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Refresh Roundup: week of October 29th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation

The ISS celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation, NASA releases web app to help you spot it

The International Space Station just celebrated its 12th anniversary of having a crew continuously onboard, and to mark the occasion, NASA’s unveiled a new service to help folks catch the station in the night sky. Dubbed Spot the Station, the web app texts or emails the time that the ISS will pass over a user’s location to their phone. The calculations are done for more than 4,600 places across the globe by NASA’s Johnson Space Center, which determines when the ISS will be high enough in the sky to be seen above obstacles such as trees and buildings. Since the station is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon, it’ll appear to the naked eye as if it were a star moving at a steady clip. To get pinged with sighting alerts by NASA, hit the second source link below.

Continue reading NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation

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NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of October 29th, 2012

Mobile Miscellany week of October 29th, 2012

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, Cricket added a compact smartphone to its lineup, new press images landed for Verizon’s next QWERTY-enabled handset and Canadian carriers grabbed a rugged smartphone from Samsung. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of October 29th, 2012.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of October 29th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bell gearing up for November 15th HTC 8X release

Bell gearing up for November 15th HTC 8X release

Windows Phone fans in the Great White North shouldn’t have to wait long to get their hands on HTC’s latest piece of kit — a internal Bell document obtained by MobileSyrup pegs the 8X for a November 15th launch. The reported Canadian launch date trails T-Mobile’s availability by a mere day, noting that pre-ordered devices could ship out as early as November 9th. Not too surprising, considering the phone just skipped through the FCC with support for the entire north American continent. No word on pricing, but the page’s listed specs nicely match the brightly colored 4.3-inch, 1.5GHz dual-core slab we reviewed. Not a Bell customer? Don’t worry — MobileSyrup is hearing murmurs that the same date applies to Rogers, as well.

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Bell gearing up for November 15th HTC 8X release originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency

A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency

Move over, Western Digital. A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute (DSI) has developed its own 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, and it’s packing a 1TB HDD and a 32GB SSD within its 2.5-inch confines. Aptly dubbed A-Drive, the firm’s razor-thin hardware relies on a new proprietary motor and 30 additional design patents to lower power consumption and achieve its diminutive form factor. The outfit envisions the drive being put to work in tablets, where it could stretch battery life by up to 30 percent, and in ultrabooks or business-centric storage solutions. To top things off, A*STAR says its hybrid drive will be cheaper than SSDs currently used in ultrabooks, and Yahoo! News reports the device could ring up at roughly $73. Can’t wait to have the hardware in a machine of your own? Hold your horses, vaquero. According to DSI Executive Director Pantelis Alexopoulos, it might take six to eight months to kick off production after they strike a deal with a manufacturing partner, which hasn’t happened quite yet.

[Image Credit: Yahoo! photo/ Deborah Choo]

Continue reading A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency

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A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s Lightning to micro-USB adapter now available in US, not just Europe anymore

Apple's Lightning to microUSB adapter now available in US, not just Europe anymore

Just in case you thought the Lightning to micro-USB connector was Europe-only (to stave off that pesky European Commission), Apple has decided to sell it stateside as well. The tiny choking hazard recently made its way to the company’s online store in the US for $19 each (over in Europe, it’s £15 / €19), and brick-and-mortar locations will probably get them too — if they’re not in stock already. We’re not sure if there’s a huge demand for this, but if you’re a recent iPod, iPhone, or iPad (Mini or 4th gen) owner with a plethora of existing micro-USB cables, an adapter like this could help lighten your nest of wires.

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Apple’s Lightning to micro-USB adapter now available in US, not just Europe anymore originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Redesigned PlayStation Store now live in North America

DNP Redesigned PlayStation Store now live in North America

PS3 owners: do not adjust your TV sets, the PlayStation Store has received a makeover. Sony’s new revamped media portal is now available in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. If you’re experiencing a case of déjà vu, the update was originally set to hit back on October 23rd, but was sidelined after its UK launch was derailed by some early performance hiccups. Now that it’s here, users will be treated to a snazzy new UI along with Most Popular charts, streaming videos on item pages, improved filters and an enhanced search engine. If you haven’t already, you can grab this update by firing up your PS3 and directing the XMB to the PlayStation Store icon.

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Redesigned PlayStation Store now live in North America originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender pre-orders are live, ship November 30th for $179

Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender preorders are live at Newegg, ship November 30th

The newest option for Windows Media Center users is nearly here, as Ceton’s Echo extender has been listed for pre-order at Newegg. Available for $179 with a $10 gift card and free shipping, the diminutive accessory enables WMC streams of your live and recorded TV in up to 5 other rooms. That’s been possible with other extenders — especially Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 console — but the Echo claims its advantage is being purpose built to do the job with less noise and power consumption, plus support for features like DTS surround sound*. We’ll be reviewing it as soon as the software is final, early adopters that are ready to jump but missed the beta offer can snag one at the link below — the first shipments are scheduled to go out November 30th.

Update: DTS support was announced at NAB but that was before the hardware change to the smaller boxes. As a result, it will not support DTS at launch.

Continue reading Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender pre-orders are live, ship November 30th for $179

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Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender pre-orders are live, ship November 30th for $179 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details)

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Rogers mobile payment with CIBC

Rogers and its banking partner CIBC have been making much ado over bringing NFC mobile payments to Canada since the spring, but the companies have been mostly silent on actual availability and let a rumored October 15th launch date pass by without fanfare. The two partners are at last ready to swing into action, at least symbolically — a photo-op at a Tim Hortons in Toronto on Friday will officially represent the first instance of their payment system being used in the wild. What we’ve seen officially and otherwise hasn’t changed, which means that event star and triathlete Simon Whitfield will be using one of two NFC-equipped BlackBerry phones with a special SIM card while he buys a meal that we imagine involves coffee and maple-glazed donuts. Rogers hasn’t said how soon the less sporty among us will be making payments, although the limited choices of phones (two) and carriers (one) will only give a handful of Canucks a chance to join in.

Update: Just as Whitfield’s coffee is cooling off, Rogers has given out full details: the CIBC mobile payment option will roll out later in the month to at least 2,300 Tim Hortons restaurants across Canada, with 3,000 more joining in by December. It’s called Suretap, as the earlier leak confirmed, and there’s no surprise support for Android, Windows Phone or other platforms.

Continue reading Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details)

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Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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