At $11,999, this latest Canon 1D is hardly set to become a DSLR bestseller, but there are certainly a few pro shooters willing to line up for an incredibly versatile 18-megapixel 4K cam, with EOS lens compatibility and a full-frame sensor. We were expecting Canon's top-of-the-line beast to sell for just shy of $15,000, so this new sub-$12k sticker is a pleasant surprise. You'll also need to invest in a battery of high-speed (at least 100MB/s) CF cards -- the 1D C captures 4096 x 2160 video at 24 frames per second with an approximate file size of 3.76 gigs per minute of footage, according to the camera's instruction manual, which you'll find, along with a purchase link, at the source link below. The EOS-1D C is expected to hit stores in the US later this week, but a few lucky shooters have been out and about capturing demo reels for the last few weeks -- you'll find some of that footage after the break, along with a few more clips at the coverage links below.

- Engadget

GOOGLE is working on a new top-secret handset codenamed the 'X-phone' which the search engine giant hopes will allow it to muscle in and compete with Apple and Samsung for a share of the $219 billion smartphone market.

Having acquired Motorola seven months ago for $12.5 billion, Google wants the phone to boast as yet unspecified cutting-edge features which will set it apart from the iPhone 5 and Galaxy models which have a controlling percentage of the lucrative smartphone market.

However, the software giant is said to have encountered practical problems with producing hardware, causing a re-think for initial plans for the X phone - such as using a bendable screen for greater flexibility.

Cell phone pioneer Motorola is said to be working on two fronts with the X phone. The first is a device which will be sold through service provider Verizon and the other is an X tablet which it hopes will compete again against Apple and Samsung's market leading products.

The Wall Street Journal has claimed that the development of Google's next generation smartphone is fraught with difficulty for the Mountain View, California firm as it attempts to manage complex relationships with Samsung who utilise Google's Android operating system.

According to the newspaper, Dennis Woodside, a former Google executive who is now Motorola's CEO declined to discuss any products under development.

He did say though tha the company is 'investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches.'

He said while Motorola has 'fallen under hard times,' it 'now has the support of a shareholder in Google that has resources to do big things.'

Looking at the development opportunities for a successful handset, Woodside added that only one billion of the world's seven billion people use smartphones, calling that 'an incredible opportunity.'

 

Google has long desired a share of the smartphone market which is estimate to be worth over $250 billion by 2015

It is thought that the design features that Google and Motorola are looking to introduce include high quality applications for the phone's camera and photo software, including better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots said two sources to the Wall Street Journal.

However, the development teams are said to have found that the proposed features are too draining on battery life or have already been utilised successfully on the iPhone 5 which was launched earlier this year.

They also encountered problems when they tried to use a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the X Phone to be stress resistant and be made into different colours.

One of the key research areas for the X Phone was Google's recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software.

 

 

 

Apple and their iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy smartphone dominate the market and Google's new X Phone hopes to gatecrash that

Despite the issues that have been experienced in the production of the phone, the handset is still expected to be released some time next year.

When Google purchased Motorola in May, industry analysts thought the move to be controversial and believed the Internet giant to have bought up the struggling cell phone maker in an effort to acquire patents in case Apple of Samsung sued Google for any technologies produced in a smartphone they released.

Indeed, if Google was to produce its own phone and operating software package it could threaten the relationship it has with Samsung and their popular Galaxy handsets.

Google Chief Executive Larry Page has told the Motorola team to 'think big' and aspire to reach the scale of Samsung's mobile business, and promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, said people familiar with the matter.

-  Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252382/Google-working-X-phone-X-tablet-rivals-Apple-Samsung.html#ixzz2FxdpjYoZ
 

I am not a fan of bugs. I am also not a fan of global warming. The day may be approaching where I have to choose between the lesser of two weevils, thanks to the results of a recently published study, which "clearly shows that mealworm should be considered as a more sustainable alternative to milk, chicken, pork and beef." Um, ew?

Taylor Binns never planned to experience a simple delight of the world again: seeing it. The world was slowly going black, and time was running out. So he took his only options: a new procedure using stem cells. What we all take for granted became his gift: he could see again.

Over these last few gift-consideration weeks, I've gotten numerous queries about and given multiple demonstrations of Apple's iPad mini, both from people interested in giving one and from those interested in getting one. Nearly universally, the response from women I spoke with to the iPad mini is a variation of my wife's "it's so cu-u-u-u-te!"

Over the same period of gift-consideration weeks, I've gotten absolutely zero queries about anything related to Windows 8: not about Windows 8 desktop PCs, not about Windows 8 laptops, not about Windows 8 tablets, not about Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

And apparently I'm not the only one apathetic about Windows 8.

Knowing how to keep kids safe is never easy. Ideally, you'd want to provide as much realistic safety as possible without being disruptive or invasive, but that can be a hard compromise. This backpack may not be a compromise at all: it comes with princesses or Avengers on it and will also stop rounds from a .44 Magnum.

 (Click to see the panoramic image of the Himalaya in gigapixel navigation)

The image is the result of a project by David Breashears, who has already climbed the highest mountain in the world five times. He used old images of Everest and its glaciers and combined them with new ones.

The photo is part of a broader project called GlacierWorks by the mountaineer Breashears, who made the much-acclaimed IMAX documentary “Everest.”

This is a short video of a group of friends who were out wakeboarding in the ocean when one dude pushes another guy overboard WITH A BIG SHARK NEARBY. Now I have no concept of what kind of that shark that was, or if it's even dangerous to humans, but it was definitely LARGE. Man, I would have pooped my wetsuit so hard you'd have to call it a muddysuit. Then crawled back in the boat, thrown my "buddy" overboard, chummed the water with my own blood, and sped off toward shore. You can't prank the prank king!