Hasta La Gadget!

Ready for the world’s first consumer light field camera — you know, the spiffy kind that can infinitely focus? After demoing the tech earlier this year, Lytro’s unveiled the world’s first shipping product — a little something it calls the Lytro camera. Within the anodized aluminum frame, the consumer-friendly camera totes an f/2, 8x zoom lens which utilizes an 11-mega-ray light-field to power all that infinite focus magic. It’s instant-on and the rubber back-end wields only two physical buttons: one for shutter and the other for power. The company’s added the ability to change the focus on-camera, a task accomplished via its touchscreen glass display.

It’ll ship in two versions: the $399 8GB flavor can hold 350 pictures, and comes in graphite or blue, followed by a $499 16GB model, which sports an electric-red finish and stores up to 750 images. Pre-orders go live at Lytro’s website today, and will ship in early 2012 on a first-come first-serve basis. Our hands-on impressions are here, with PR and sample images after the break.

Continue reading Lytro introduces world’s first light field camera: f/2 lens, $399, ships early 2012

Lytro introduces world’s first light field camera: f/2 lens, $399, ships early 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nothing ruins a Kodak moment faster than taking a timeout to set up a tripod, which is why the folks at Gomite went magnetic when developing its tiny new Tiltpod. Designed for compact cameras or video recorders, magnets enable users to sidestep the whole “screw-in” process that typically eats away precious pre-shot moments. The underside is made of an elusive “grippy material,” enabling it to perch easily on rocks, car hoods, bathroom sinks or any other odd place you may want to recall vividly. Kind of like a cheaper version of this guy, the Tiltpod is available online now for a cool $17.95. For those still struggling to grok the purpose, there’s a gallery’s worth of explanation just below.

Continue reading Gomite Tiltpod magnetic tripod: snapping awkward family photos just got easier

Gomite Tiltpod magnetic tripod: snapping awkward family photos just got easier originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, in pixels

Ixxi is like pixel-art for your walls. The wall-hangings are made up of 20 x 20cm (eight-inch) cards which clip together to make a mural. You can pick from designs already on the site, or you can upload your own.

Once you have picked a picture, you need to put the thing up on the wall. Ixxi consists of plastic-coated “tiles” that are joined together with snap-on x-section clips (with simple i-shaped clips for the edges). These clips then stick in turn to “powerstrips,” essentially double-sided tape that sticks to the wall.

Ixxi uses x-shaped clips to hold it together

The best designs are clearly the pixellated versions of old masters. I like the Van Gogh self portrait, and Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Necklace. Right now you can’t pixelate your own images, but as anything you upload is split amongst your chosen number of tiles, you could use a pre-pixelated picture to get a similar effect.

The Ixxi kits are available now, from €25 ($35) for a 4×3 to €85 for an 8×8 mural. I’m totally going to make a giant space invader for my living room.

Ixxi product page [Ixxi via Yanko]

See Also:

• Pixel-art Retro Tie
• Rubik's Cube Pixel Art
• Pixel-Tastic eBoy Skins for iPods

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