Following on from rumours yesterday, Nikon has officially unveiled the Coolpix S1000pj, a high-end compact complete with built-in projector.

Able to project images from 5 to 40-inches in size, Nikon said it hoped the built-in projector would be a new way for friends and family to share photos with one another, when showing off your snaps on the camera’s 2.7-inch LCD screen just won’t do.

To set the projector going, you simply press a dedicated button to play stills or video onto any flat surface, and use the slider on top for focusing. As you’d expect, the closer you are to a wall, the sharper and brighter the image is.Aside from the projector, the camera also packs 12.1 megapixels, a 5x wide-angle optical zoom, and high sensitivity up to ISO 6400.

It will also come complete with Nikon’s Scene Auto Selector mode, a “skin softening” function, face tracking, and anti-shake functionality.

The S1000pj will be available in September for £399.99, and you’ll be able to pick it up in a choice of black or silver.

Following on from the launch of the Coolpix S1000pj, Nikon has also added two more compacts to its Coolpix range – namely the S640 and the S570.

Both cameras offer 12 megapixels, a 5x wide-angle zoom and 2.7-inch LCD screen, but the S640 steams ahead in the specs race thanks to an autofocus offering speeds as fast as a DSLR and a start-up time of 0.7 seconds – touted as the fastest in the compact camera industry.

Similarly to its S1000pj sibling, the S640 also boasts a good performance in low light conditions thanks to an ISO range up to 6400, and will be available in a choice of black or silver.The S570 on the other hand is being aimed at the “fashion conscious” in a choice of red, black and silver, and makes taking good photos as easy as possible, as it chooses the correct mode for your snap based on the distance, brightness and positions of faces in shot. 

It also boasts a Smart Portrait System with blinkproof technology, taking two photos automatically when the subject smiles and only saving the one where eyes are open, and the “skin softening” function for that airbrush effect to keep your mates happy.

Both cameras are set to hit shelves in September, and will set you back £249.99 for the S640 and £199.99 for the S570. Be sure to check out our hands-on pictures with their new Coolpix sibling, the S1000pj projector camera.

That Nintendo DSi update announced at E3 that’ll bring Facebook to your handheld has finally arrived in Japan – but it also comes packing some anti-piracy software to render bootlegged games useless.

The R4-type device, based on the R4 cart developed for the original DS, allows you to play downloaded, pirated games on the DS for free.However the new update is set to now make this impossible, and the DSTTi, Hyper R4i, ak2i, R4 Ui, R4i Gold and EZ Vi cartridges will all be useless if the DSi is updated to the latest version.

It certainly seems Nintendo is determined to put the reign of the R4 devices to bed – last year it joined forces with 53 other companies to take legal action against the R4 manufacturers, and now it seems Nintendo is attacking DSi cartridges by making shady gamers choose between Facebook on their handheld or pirated games. 

Luckily, UK gamers won’t have to make such a choice just yet as the update isn’t expected on these shores until sometime in the autumn.

Is Facebook a big enough draw to make gamers give up their cartridges, and will you be updating? Let us know below.

The best Photoshop interface ever

Click the picture to enlarge

Nikon D300s has some important improvement from Nikon D300 to stay competitive in the market. Most of the  improvement are exactly the same as rumored.

Here is the recap on what is improved according to Nikon USA site:

• 7 fps body only, 8 fps with battery grip
• Refined D-Movie function including an external microphone input for clear stereo sound recordings
• Dual card slots for CF/SD memory cards
• Quiet shutter release

What features remain the same

• Multi-CAM 3500DX AF sensor module featuring 51 AF points offers fast, efficient and precise autofocus coverage across the frame
• Large, bright viewfinder with approx. 100% frame coverage and approx. 0.94 magnification
• Nikon’s original DX-format CMOS image sensor; 12.3 effective megapixels
• Magnesium alloy body for light weight and rugged durability
  

Because most of the cameras released in 2009, has movie mode, Nikon have the pressure to release include it on the D300s. But the video mode might still not the best in DSLR camera world. First, it is only 720p @ 24 fps. Which is the same as Nikon D90 and Nikon D5000, while its competitor, Canon already ahead with manual exposure control in Canon 5D. Panasonic GH1 also is serious in video business and regarded as the best implementation of video mode control so far.

It is also interesting to see that Nikon stand still in megapixel race. D300s will still have 12 megapixel sensor while Canon 50D, the main competitor of D300 already at 15 megapixel. While big resolution is good for extra large print, but generally it make the photos noisier when zoomed 100%.

Nevertheless, improvement like rapid 7 fps, dual card slot and quiet release (first introduced by Nikon D5000) is nice. For Nikon D300 users who are shooting primarily in still images, the D300s might not look like a worthwhile upgrade, but for Nikon D90 or D5000 users or who likes to have movie recording feature, you might feel this camera is significantly better in most aspects.

LG today has officially revealed its next Chocolate phone LG BL40. The fourth handset of the Black Label Series boasts a 4.0-inch wide screen high-definition LCD with an 800 by 345 pixel resolution, enable 21:9 aspect ratio support for video viewing. The 4.0-inch display also features a Dual Screen UI that can efficiently display two different types of content simultaneously.

The new LG Chocolate’s wide screen is overlaid with curved tempered glass and is seamlessly encased in a glossy black finish and iconic red highlights. The new LG Chocolate will be available beginning Q3 in 54 countries.

Today announcement did not include a shorter version of LG BL40, which was leaked  2 weeks ago as LG BL42

Back at the end of 2007 I had seen a company called Fusion-IO, which was producing hard drives that ran on your PCI-Express slots. It was a pretty cool idea then, but unfortunately their offering was really salty, and aimed primarily at enterprise customers. Well since one of the co-founders is a hardcore gamer, they decided to branch out and try to bring the same incredible performance to a new crowd.

Enter the ioXtreme. This card holds 80GB of storage (NAND Flash) which is capable of giving you a performance boost that you won’t see by just upgrading your CPU and RAM. Games, large applications like Photoshop and Final Cut will open almost instantaneously. They likened it to bringing up a program that was minimized on your start bar, which is pretty incredible. They even said that it would be possible to boot Windows in just one second. Unfortunately this feature won’t be available at launch, due to them still working out bugs with a few different BIOS, it will however be available via a driver update. The card should be launching later this year for somewhere around $895, though the price is subject to change.

ioXtreme Performance Chart- HD Tach 3.0.4.0

ioXtreme Specifications:-

Capacity: 80 GB

NAND Type: Multi-Level Cell (MLC)

Average Bandwidth (HD Tach 3.0.4.0):  520 MB/s

Burst Bandwidth (HD Tach 3.0.4.0):  617 MB/s

Latency: < 100 µs

Mean Time Between Failure: 2,000,000 hours

Write Endurance: 6 Years

Form Factor: PCI Express (x4)

Power: PCI Express Power Spec 1.1

System Requirements:

Operating Systems:  Windows XP 64-bit

Windows Vista 64-bit

Linux 64-bit

Minimum Hardware: x86 processor
2 GB RAM
x4 PCI-Express slot

Preliminary sales numbers are in and Wii Sports Resort is a huge hit.

The first big Wii game of 2009 was released over the weekend in Europe and America and VGChartz brings you our preliminary sales figures for the game.

Wii Sports Resort has already sold nearly 1.5 million copes worldwide according to our preliminary figures and like Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii is expected to be a strong seller for the remainder of the year. Hardware sales saw a small bump with the release of Wii Sports Resort, but with the game expected to sell primarily to existing Wii owners (at least in the short term) then the effect is expected to be more long-term.

When comparing Wii Sports Resort to previous Wii openings, the title is only beaten by Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit. With Wii Sports Resort releasing on Sunday in America, “week one” will be a whole seven days which we are estimating from the strong day one sales (~300,000) to be around the 700,000. The ten largest debuts for Wii titles are shown below.

Nokia 6760

The Nokia 6760 Slide is a messaging device with a slide-out QWERTY keypad. Designed for typing, users can keep their status and tweets up-to-date on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The handset can also access to popular email and instant messaging services including Google Talk and Windows Live. Push email is available through Nokia Messaging. Setting up an existing email is simple — only the email address and password are required. Push email is available through Nokia Messaging and instant messaging offers access to Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger. Built-in A-GPS with Nokia Maps offers 3D landmarks and terrain maps. Additional functions include a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3.2-megapixel camera and support for up to 8GB of storage with microSD cards (2GB card included).

Nokia 6760 Slide Features

• Integrated full-focus 3.2-megapixel camera takes pictures and videos
• Mobile email supports up to 10 accounts from popular service providers with push email and Nokia Email service
• Instant messaging services to email and share content at the same time
• With built-in A-GPS and Nokia Maps, users can get 3D, terrain and satellite maps to find places, events and locations (Premium navigation services require a valid navigation licence)
• See the Web, play games and view media clearly on the 2.4-inch display in either landscape or portrait mode

Time Inc., which publishes Sports Illustrated, home of the famed Swimsuit Issue juggernaut, announced today that one day after launch its “SI Swimsuit 2009″ iPhone app is the number-one paid lifestyle application in Apple’s App Store.

The app, developed by Acton, Massachusetts-based Azuki Systems, retails at $2.99 and is the first one by Sports Illustrated. It offers photos and video of 20 models, as well as a calendar feature that allows users to apply photos for each month and track schedules and scores for six sports teams.

Funnily enough, the top three apps in the paid Lifestyle category, for now at least, are SI’s Swimsuit app, Ajnag’s “Cannibis” app (which helps you locate medicinal marijuana collectives), and Digital Outcrop’s “Mixologist – 7900 Drink & Cocktail Recipes.” I guess this says a lot about who’s currently cruising the Lifestyle category for iPhone entertainment.

But the Swimsuit app has enjoyed a swift ascent to the top rung—a Time Inc. spokesperson said the app shot to number six within hours, then went to number two, then hit number one by its first full day in the app store.

Is social media turning into one of the main reasons for purchasing trendy, fashionable and tech products these days? How dependent are we becoming on social media channels when it comes to purchasing decisions? Is it fair to solely depend on social media channels such as Youtube in order to decide whether to purchase a certain product or its competitor?

I somewhat feel nostalgic for the good old days when all we needed was a couple or more simple radio or TV ads in order to make purchasing decisions of either cheap or expensive products and services. Back then, things were too easy and so much less burdened with the complications of having many choices and competing ads yearning for our attention!

Yet again, at those times, we were “ignorant” customers, unaware of all the ins and outs of advertising and the tricks and games of marketing! As we stepped into the world wide web and Web 2.0 at a later stage, purchasing decisions became harder, nevertheless, more conscious!

Depending on Social Media:

After watching the Blackberry Storm vs. the iPhone 3G ad campaigns, and as I eagerly listened to Jon Rettinger’s comparison and analysis of the two products, trying to decide which device to purchase. Right then and there, it struck me: What would I have done without Youtube? How could I have made the “right” decision about this particular purchase if I didn’t have this complete analysis of the features each of those phones had?

In a way, I feel that we are growing dependent on social media in many decisions that effect us on a personal level: the money we spend, the people we meet and the things we discuss. Social media channels have not only developed into a medium for two-way interactive communication and entertainment, they are turning into influencers and some sort of decision makers!

Social Media Responsibility:

Since mass exposure through social media is the new trend, social media users, companies who utilize social media for marketing products and services and those who monitor the flow of information through social media channels have a great responsibility which should not be taken lightly!

Whether you are influencers or marketers, you should be more aware of how you use the different available social media channels and for what reason you use them as well.

Social Media Power:

Be ware! The power of social media could be overpowering to you, your product and/or your service. Allow me to share one of my friend’s experience as an example. He said:

“A few weeks ago, my Macbook charger was simply ruined! I’ve had my Macbook for less than a year now and I am really careful of how I use it. I went online to try and order a new one when I was shocked to find out all these forums discussing the flawed production of all of the same Macbook charger models. That got me thinking: Maybe we should all create a social media campaign attacking Apple and demanding that we are reimbursed for the damages!”

A while back, before the age of Web 2.0, there would have been no way to find out that the damage was due to production flaw and the natural cause of action would have been to simply order another charger and pray it lasts!

Finally, I will leave you to think about the following: How biased can social media be and can this great power social media has be harnessed negatively for the benefits of larger corporations who have the ability to manipulate the social media channels they use?

UK-based online retailer Expansys has revealed the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 (previously known as the ‘Rachel’) ahead of any official announcement from the company, and thrown in detailed specifications too.

The big news is that the X3 will be packing Google’s Android operating system, although the familiar 9-paned 3D interface from the first Xperia will be gracing the home screen. In fact, here’s a cool video of the new interface – and we must say, it’s mighty impressive.

The specs sheet on Expansys says the X3 will be sporting a 4-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800×400 pixels, although a few sites say that the unusual aspect ratio probably means it’ll be more like 852×420 pixels. Hey, as long as it’s over 800 pixels, we aren’t complaining.

And the developers thrown in an 8-megapixel camera in there, complete with 8x digital zoom, autofocus, LED flash, image stabilisation, face and smile detection, and VGA video recording at 30fps – the first on an Android OS.

What’s important to note is that Sony is really starting to get rid of its proprietary formats as it had announced earlier, with the Xperia X3 having a microSD card slot for all your memory needs and a standard miniUSB port to connect to your PC.

Speaking of connectivity, the X3 will support 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AGPS, as well as push email. The Internet-access capabilities are welcome, considering how the OS seems to be primed for social networking and Web 2.0 services.

See the Xperia Video Here

Source:- GSMArena

No….Firefox can’t do this….MS IE wins.

Asus is set to release the P6X58 Premium motherboard which features two USB 3.0 “SuperSpeed” ports. The board also supports a Core i7 processor, six DDR-3 slots, 3 PCI-Express slots, and a SATA 3.0 interface capable of 6Gb/sec transfer speeds.

Asus has yet to announce pricing and release date information, and no benchmarks have been carried out. Early adopters are going to be disappointed with the lack of available hardware capable of harnessing USB 3.0’s super speeds—but they can take solace in the sweet blue color scheme of the new ports while looking down at the masses’ blah gray connectors.

Image Courtesy:- XFastest

Sometimes “deluxe” or “collector’s” editions of games come with useful things, like codes to unlock exclusive in-game content. Sometimes they have less useful things, like mini lockers for storing your games or Batarangs for bludgeoning your co-workers.

And other times developers just go completely insane and throw in the most expensive, non-gaming related object they can find, like fully functional night-vision goggles. What?!

Infinity Ward has posted a video detailing what will be included in the “Prestige” edition of the upcoming Modern Warfare 2, and along with the things you would expect – an art book you can “scroll through” (too much time developing video games, eh?) and a token for a free download of the original Call of Duty – is the aforementioned NVG headgear, complete with alternating modes and the Modern Warfare 2 logo… which you won’t be able to see… because it will be dark when you’re using them.

The Prestige edition will also include a foam head to put them on, if you don’t feel like using your own. We look forward to blinding ourselves by trying to use them while playing the actual game. Night-vision goggles as a collector’s-edition bonus; the video-game industry is never short of surprises.