camera

With the great multitude of camera applications available in the Google Play store, it is understandable when users become overwhelmed by the choices. Camera Plus claims to enhance the stock camera beyond its current capabilities. While it does supply the user with some effects that can be visually appealing, it unfortunately fails to deliver high-quality images.

Camera Plus downloads almost instantly due to the fact that it is only 2.5MB in size. Following an easy installation, the user is instantly prompted to accept the installation of a promotional search tool that will appear on the device's home screen. … Read more

We're inching closer to a paperless existence, but until then, a new image-processing development by Fujitsu could make it astonishingly simple to copy content from paper and turn it into digital data.

Merely relying on an ordinary camera and projector, Fujitsu's touch-based interface makes quick work out of copying printed text or images by simply requiring the user to drag across content with a fingertip. The projector shines an illuminated frame that dynamically resizes based on how far the finger travels, and the observing camera scans, crops, and turns that selection into a digital file -- in just a few seconds.… Read more

No diversion can divert me from the fact that treadmills are boring. Even if the weather is bad, I'm not much of a TV viewer -- on or off the treadmill. And I often find the most energizing music to also be the most annoying. Reading on a treadmill can be downright nauseating.

But thanks to an experimental system out of Purdue University, I soon may be able to catch up on my backlog of New Yorker digital issues while clocking time on the dreaded tread.… Read more

Back when Microsoft and Symbian ruled the smartphone market, before iOS or the iPhone even existed, Android was an operating system for cameras.

Android co-founder Andy Rubin said today that the operating system, now a dominant force in the smartphone market, was actually built for digital cameras. When smartphones took off, the Android team switched gears and tweaked the system accordingly.

Rubin -- who recently left the Android team to head up a new endeavor within parent company Google -- talked about Android's beginnings at an economic summit in Tokyo, according to PC World.

The Android creators intended to … Read more

As rumors swirl about Apple's manufacturing partners kicking into high gear to produce the next version of the iPhone, a new report adds some more detail on what could be inside the new device.

The latest comes from Vietnamese site Tinhte, which says Apple's next iPhone (expected to be called the 5S) will sport a 12-megapixel camera. That's as compared to the 8-megapixel sensor found on both the iPhone 5 and 4S.

Now it wouldn't be unusual for Apple to make improvements to its camera, which it's done with each successive iPhone model. But the … Read more

If your smartphone has become your point-and-shoot camera, you're probably missing some of your go-to shooting modes. Camera 360 will help bring them back and add some cool effects, too. It's a big shift from what you're used to in Android's default camera, but it's a switch worth making.

This app does away with the translucent viewfinder tools you'll find in most camera apps. That means there's not as much room for you to actually frame your shot, sadly. It's even worse when you factor in the ad that the app floods … Read more

There are thousands of camera applications available in the Play store that offer legitimate alternatives to the stock camera application. Vintage Camera, however, is not one of them. It proved easy to use, but produces low-quality images and has limited features. Most users may find this application amusing at first but this isn't really an app with staying power.

The installation runs easily and the overall operation of the application is intuitive. While the user interface is simple, it lacks many features. The main screen consists of a viewfinder and a scrolling menu for the various effects. Eight different … Read more

Now that winter has passed, those of us who live in cold climes can once again appreciate the beauty of snowflakes without feeling the urge to curse them for making us dig out the shovel. And if ever snowflakes looked lovely, it's in these images shot by a high-speed camera system developed specifically to photograph them in 3D as they fell.

"Until our device, there was no good instrument for automatically photographing the shapes and sizes of snowflakes in free fall," says Tim Garrett, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah and one of the developers of the cam known as MASC, or Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera. "We are photographing these snowflakes completely untouched by any device, as they exist naturally in the air."

MASC -- under development for three years -- takes 9- to 37-micron-resolution stereographic photographs of snowflakes from three angles while simultaneously measuring the speed of their fall, a highly influential factor in the location and lifetime of a storm. … Read more

Go to any live concert these days and you'll see many audience members watching the performance through a small screen instead of their own eyes.

In response to this epidemic of diverted attention, indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently put the proverbial foot down on concertgoers with a sign that instructs those with a smartphone, tablet, and/or camera to "Put that s*** away."… Read more