digitizing

A couple months ago, Pure Digital Technologies hinted to us that it would soon have a new version of its inexpensive, YouTube friendly Flip digital camcorder, and good to its word, the company announced a new line this morning called the Flip Video Ultra.

The Flip Ultra comes in orange, pink, black, and white (we got a review sample of the white version this morning) and the press release says the "higher-end addition to Pure Digital's line of pocket-sized, easy-to-use camcorders features upgrades to all its software, including DVD quality video and advanced editing features. Still affordable, the … Read more

Just last week, CNET blogger Stephen Shankland, shared his thoughts that recent changes affecting the professional photography market have a "silver lining that shouldn't be overlooked." While his optimism is a nice respite amid increasingly weary economic times, six professional photographers' trade associations are now speaking out against a new pricing scheme by stock photo giant Getty Images that offers its high-end Rights-managed and Rights-ready images, alongside its lower-priced Rights-free images, for the same low price of $49 when used on the Web. For all but the Rights-free images, this represents a price reduction of more than … Read more

If you're a Flickr user, you might be unaware there's a whole world of tools that take advantage of Flickr's API to let you tweak and repurpose your shots. This morning I've been enjoying BigHugeLabs, a site that's home to about 40 tools that let you play with Flickr photos--yours and everyone else's. Several provide simple ways to add text, or a filter to your photo. Others dig deep into the heart of service to let you turn your photos into desk kitsch and conversation starters. I've picked five of my favorites.

Trading Card. … Read more

After Jim Gray, a technical fellow for Microsoft Research in Silicon Valley, was lost at sea in January, Amazon.com set up its Mechanical Turk service to let the public help examine Digital Globe satellite photos of the ocean outside of San Francisco Bay for signs of Gray's sailboat. Unfortunately, Gray was never found.

I spent an evening going through these images on Mechanical Turk because I knew who Gray was (coincidentally, his home page at Microsoft Research was the first entry in my "People" bookmarks collection) and because… Read more

Editor's Note: This review has been updated to include new information.

Once upon a time, there was an idea to electronically, immediately read and search major literary works online.

This is how Google Books first entered public consciousness, as a tangled controversy between publishers who feared copyright infringement and Internet enthusiasts championing Google's momentum to search everything.

Liberating information is good, those publishers said, but not at our expense. Not so, replied Google, who promised it could increase awareness for niche publishers, protect copyrights, and create opportunity for greater sales all while promoting a valuable public service.… Read more

Although it made its unofficial debut under glass at last winter's PMA show with naught but "Sony's amateur dSLR" to identify it--and an equally and still mysterious big brother by its side--Sony's Alpha DSLR-A700 finally gets a name, a price, and some specs today.

The long-awaited (at the very least by Konica-Minolta diehards) midrange dSLR incorporates Sony's latest 12-megapixel CMOS chip. Unlike most other sensors, this new model performs its analog-to-digital conversion on its chip, rather than in the imaging pipeline, which Sony claims delivers better control over image noise.

I had a chance, … Read more

With a freshly signed check for $30,000, some student Web developers won't have to eat instant ramen, that venerated mainstay of U.S. student diets, ever again.

Each year, five groups win grants from Digital Incubator, a contest co-sponsored by mtvU (MTV University) and Cisco to reward up-and-coming, college-age Web application developers. One project, cryptically called The Osiris Project, links MP3s to Flickr's photo library to create on-the-fly music videos tailored to a given song. Intrigued? So were we. Pull over for more about The Osiris Project and the other winners--including a rap studio and social networking espionage game.… Read more

Update 9/6/07: Okay, I got the version names confused--two years ago the "X" in the product name meant "10," then was switched to mean "X." As a result, I miscalculated the product cycle. Corel actually shipped a new version last year. So please ignore my attempt at a clever lead-in.

It's been three years since Corel acquired Jasc Software, and about two years since its last major release of Paint Shop Pro; that's a couple of lifetimes in the consumer software market. Today Corel finally announced and shipped a new … Read more

It's no secret that Panasonic's first digital SLR, the DMC-L1, wasn't very well received. But Panasonic's not worried about that. They viewed the L1 as a "technology statement," to show that they're serious about jumping into the SLR market. The company's new dSLR, called the Lumix DMC-L10, is aimed at people stepping up to a SLR from compact cameras, and marks a big step forward for the company's SLRs. The L10 features a Four-Thirds-sized, Live MOS imaging sensor with 10.1 effective megapixels and a Supersonic Wave Filter system to rattle … Read more