62242141
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Israeli scientists from the Tel Aviv University perfected a method for using cell phone service towers microwave emitters to measure rain, snow and even (for the first time ) detect fog with great accuracy over vast areas in real time.
The research team members have analyzed endless amounts of raw cellular data and developed more accurate ways to measure meteorological information and added more parameters that they can now measure using their growing database. When combined with existing meteorological monitoring technologies such as radars and local ground based weather stations, the results show unprecedented level of accuracy that can give better and further weather forecast as well as special warnings about upcoming floods, fog and hail which can affect both people and crop production.
61750999
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
The next version of Android known as Android L (or 5) will bring a whole host of new features including several interesting features for photographers.
During the recent Google I/O 2014 event Google gave an interesting demonstration of some of the features we should be looking for in Android L including a lot more direct manual control over the camera and the ability to shoot in RAW. Other interesting features including a much faster shooting rate (depending on your Smartphone capabilities — Nexus 5 — up to 30 frames per second). In the demo on the following link you can see some interesting HDR capabilities and a look into a few more things that might be the basis for a new generation of photography apps.
61682861
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Connected devices are becoming ubiquitous — a number of new companies are now offering WIFI and BT enabled devices that can let you control almost all aspects of your garden from your smartphone or tablet, save you money on water and allow you to monitor your plants health from a distance.
In the past few months we are seeing an expulsion of new companies and products belonging to the "Internet Of Things" (IOT) and this trend isn't skipping the garden. For years irrigation controllers were amongst the most hated non intuitive devices around but a new generation of small start-up companies such as Rachio, GreenIQ and GreenBox are looking to change that and create a completely new was of interaction with our garden which will be more wireless and more connected (with lots of smart sensors that will tell us what is going on with our plants before its too late).
61573651
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
An Israeli entrepreneur has developed a smart building block that has the potential to revolutionize the construction industry, reducing building and running costs for new homes.
The new block, currently under development, is called S-brick. It looks like a large concrete Lego piece with built in holes and a v-shape part which can be removed, exposing the inner porous structure. This design combines several distinct advantages. The S-block is made from a special concrete developed in Germany that is as strong as steal — eliminating the need for expensive and time consuming metal reinforcements in the building. Each block has holes for running pipes, plumbing and electrical wires. The outer part of the block is removable, allowing easy access for inserting the pipes during construction and inspecting and maintaining them later on. These are just two of almost a dozen unique advantages of the S-brick compared to any existing comparable building technology which according to the developers could reduce building costs by as much as 50%.
61463129
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Last Thursday a unique miniscule solar-powered satellite built by a group of Israeli high school students was launched successfully from the Yasny launch base in Russia. The satellite will demonstrate the capability to help travelers in remote locations use a simple low-cost radio transmitter to report their location in case of emergency.
This is only the second nano satellite in the world to be built by high school students (the first was TJ3SAT launched with the help of NASA in late 2013). Almost 200 students worked on the project over the years, with 40 working nonstop over the past several months to complete the satellite in time for the launch.
61311207
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
It took almost a full year but Adobe finally released a working fix for Windows 8 users who are working with ultra high resolution displays. This problem prevented many users from working with their Photoshop CC (even when reducing their resolution). The new fix is part of a new version of Photoshop Creative Cloud released today called Photoshop CC 2014 which brings a host of new and interesting features including a new focus mask feature which allows the user to quickly choose only the areas in focus in the image. Other changes include a new version of Camera RAW, better content aware functionality, realistic spinning blur function and much more.
Adobe released a long list of videos showing many of these features which you can check on the following link (which also includes an explanation on what to do in order to fix the HiDPI issue after installing the new version of Photoshop CC.
61097921
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Earlier today Adobe shared a short glimpse at the next version of Photoshop which will be unveiled next week released. In what it calls a sneak peek video, Senior Photoshop Product Manager Zorana Gee demonstrated an upcoming new feature called focus masks.
This new feature which will be added to the select tab of the next iteration of Photoshop CC is capable of selecting an object from the background based on focus. This means that if you have a subject which is distinctly separated from the background you will be able to select it in a very quick and easy way – as it was demonstrated on the video (including refine edges for choosing hair and other fine details that might be missed by the automatic algorithm).
60666007
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Researchers from MIT alongside colleagues from Adobe and the University of Virginia, have developed an algorithm that could allow the use of a portrait image shot with a particular style to be the basis for a image filter that can be added to any image.
The new algorithm can use any great portrait image as the basis for creating the filter. The researchers even demonstrated a version of the algorithm that can work as a video filter which can add a unique look to your video. Adobe is already working to implement this technology into a future commercial product.
A short video demonstration shows the algorithm in action promising some very interesting capabilities far ahead of current day filters.
60549687
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Two Chicago based film guys developed one of the first commercial flexible lighting system which you can carry anywhere with little to no install time. This new system looks and acts like a fabric, can be made water resistant (in fact they have a video of it working in water), and is based on LEDs which are said to be flicker free, dimmable and color accurate.
The developers of this technology called Raglite are looking for funding on Kickstarter from anybody who is a film buff, planet grower or simply needs a type of indestructible flexible light which you can use anywhere and carry any place.
60419953
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Forget about 4K displays, are Ultra Widescreen “cinematic” displays the real deal? earlier this year LG announced its new 34UM95 – a 34 inch Ultra Widescreen monitor with a “cinematic” 21:9 aspect ratio and a generous 3440 x1440 resolution — a recent hands on review suggest that this monitor might be the new productivity king, for those who simply can't stand that annoying bezel between their multiple monitors.
linus sebastian had a chance to play with the new LG 34UM95, and although he seem to start as a skeptic (after all how really useful can a 21:9 display be right?) he ended up his review fully converted with no going back. We still think that pro graphic users will not rush to switch over their EIZOs and NECs for this baby, but video editors, gamers, programers and basically anybody who loves multitasking, might be very tempted — what do you think?
60292625
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Earlier today Microsoft announced its new and more advanced Surface Pro 3 windows based tablet which works on Windows 8.1 OS. As part of its unveiling Adobe representative revealed that his company is working on a touch version of its existing Photoshop CC that will work with touch based windows devices such as the Surface Pro 3.
Anybody who used Photoshop CC with super high resolution displays in the past year will also appreciate this move. Adobe has said that it is working on a fix for the problem of tiny UI elements on ultra hi res displays, but so far (7 months and counting) there doesn’t seem to be any complete solution. In the demonstration the UI elements and icons of the new Photoshop CC have been doubled in size so they can be used more easily with the hand or stylus — giving hope to all users of HIDPI based systems using Photoshop that this problem is finally close to being resolved.
60130281
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Sony introduced today the first ever camera with a pop up viewfinder — the new RX100 Mark III – the third incarnation of the popular large sensor advanced compact camera.
This feature allowed Sony to keep this camera small (almost tiny) but squeeze a much needed high res viewfinder for use in bright sunlight.
There are a few other interesting new features in this camera including a new fast lens from Zeiss (equivalent in 35mm to 24-70mm with a super fast f/1.8-f/2.8 aperture), and support for the new XAVC S video format (which was introduced on the Sony A7S — which also got its official pricing today).
In the very quick hands on video above Chris Niccolls from from the Camera Store in Canada shows the new RX100 Mark III (this is the first non Sony official video of the camera) and seem to be pretty excited by the changes (to be fair they are much more significant than the previous revision).
59668371
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Photographer and videographer Alec Weinstein was in the market for a new smartphone. He realized that the new Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Note 3 both have 4K video recording capabilities and decided to compare those to his 1080p 5D MKIII pro DSLR camera – the results are extremely interesting — Can you tell the difference between a the of Canon 5D MKIII shooting 1080p video and a the Samsung Galaxy Note III smartphone shooting 4K video?
59177893
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
Earlier today Lytro introduced a new light-field camera called Illum. This is the second camera with this innovative technology from the California based company founded in 2006. The new camera is a more advanced version of the first camera introduced in 2012. It has a much larger sensor with 4 times the resolution (Lytro still uses the term megarays instead of megapixels), a much larger and longer zoom lens with an impressive f/2 constant aperture and of course the ability to refocus after you take a picture (the new Illum can refocus on many more points in the image compared to the older version). You will also have more control of the camera, larger screen, and the ability to create regular JPEG images or videos made from the refocused images you capture.
57316171
submission
Iddo Genuth writes:
2013 was the worst year for the photography industry in a long long time (possibly decades). The official numbers have been published by the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) and they are truly unbelievable.The rise of the camera phones and the global economic crisis all had there share but it seems that there is something more that caused the big collapse in 2013...
