Social Web surfing tool Me.dium is one of the first apps ready for Internet Explorer 8 beta, which Microsoft unveiled at Mix '08 in Las Vegas Wednesday.
The browser add-on enables users to chat with each other and see which Web pages they're visiting. This release takes advantage of new WebSlices and Activities features within IE 8.
With WebSlices, users can subscribe to dynamic updates of specific parts of Web pages they visit, with new content displaying within the Me.dium sidebar.
Activities capabilities enable users to bring up maps or Web searches of highlighted text on a page. The Discovery activity offers real-time content recommendations related to the pages users are browsing. The feature maps and ranks the popularity of users' ongoing activities.
Upon Microsoft's request, the Me.dium (more here) team reportedly built the tool for IE 8 within a week.
For the sake of security, Me.dium allows stealth settings so users can hide from each other, and it shuts off at bank sites.
Users testing IE 8 can download Me.dium here. Some rival social browsing tools, however, don't require installation.
The extension, also available for Firefox, added support for IE 7 in September.
Me.dium is ready for Internet Explorer 8.
(Credit: Me.dium)Mamiya, along with competitors such as Pentax and Hasselblad, is working to bring the digital revolution to the higher-end, medium-format camera industry. On Friday, the company plans to announce a $9,999 technology bundle for a 22-megapixel camera.
Mamiya's ZD Back and 645AFD II camera
(Credit: Mamiya)The bundle includes Mamiya's 645AFD II camera, the 22-megapixel ZD Back and the 80mm f/2.8 AF lens, which is equivalent to a 50mm lens in terms of field of view of a more ordinary 35mm camera.
Medium-format cameras often use separate interchangeable "backs" that in the old days housed film but now house an image sensor. The new Mamiya ZD Back alone costs $6,999, and purchased that way or with the camera bundle it includes a copy of Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom software for raw image processing. It can shoot 1.5 frames per second, uses a 14-bit sensor that generates 12-bit images, and supports Compact Flash and SD cards.
Shelling out $10,000 for a camera may sound like a lot, but that's a notch cheaper than digital Hasselblad models that cost north of $30,000. These babies are geared for serious pros.
The ZD Back uses a CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensor measuring 48mm by 36mm. That's twice the size of an ordinary 35mm film frame, but considerably smaller than the 60mm-by-45mm film size 645AFD II can also accept.
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