digital

Does it still make sense to buy a digital camera? (Poll)

A little over a year ago I asked CNET readers if it still made sense to buy a camcorder.

After all, as my thinking went, smartphone cameras can now capture 1080p video, and they have the virtue of riding around in your pocket, always at the ready for memorable moments.

The consensus? Not everyone has a smartphone, thank you very much, and smartphones almost universally lack optical zoom -- meaning they're far from ideal for faraway shooting. Verdict: for some folks, camcorders remain the best way to capture video.

OK, but what about cameras? Some of the same reasoning … Read more

Lytro unlocks Wi-Fi for shoot-and-share iOS app

Instead of ignoring early adopters of the Lytro light-field camera, the company continues to reward them with new features brought to life through occasional software updates.

Since the hardware itself hasn't changed, though -- the camera is still the same as it was when it became available a little more than a year ago -- any new hardware-related features have to take advantage of what was there from the get-go. That includes the latest feature to be unlocked: Wi-Fi.

A free software update via Lytro's desktop software is all that's needed to unlock the camera's wireless … Read more

Ready or not, compulsory Creative Cloud cometh

It's been a bumpy few weeks for Adobe since announcing its controversial decision to move all its "perpetual license" Creative Suite applications to a subscription-only plan -- almost 32,000 people have signed a petition against the move and our own survey with Jeffries indicates that "Creative Suite users loathe Adobe's subscriptions" -- but as of Monday night it's officially here.

If you've bought into or opt to buy into the plan, you'll get a host of interesting application updates, settings sync via the cloud, and access to all of Adobe'… Read more

Take a 3D tour of Paris -- as a rat

Let's say you're a cat touring Paris, and you swing by the Place Vendome. What does it look like? Well, a lot like what humans see, it turns out, only much greener. That's because cats are dichromats and don't see the color red.

I viewed the Place Vendome from a feline perspective while scrolling around All Eyes on Paris, an interactive 3D digital simulation that shows the City of Light through the eyes of common critters.

Now on display at the Futur en Seine international digital festival in Paris, the project aims to teach about animal vision by letting you see a bit of the world as a cat, dog, bee, hawk, or rat would. And let me just say that rats don't have Paris anywhere near as gorgeous as they do when Pixar takes them there. … Read more

Samsung's NX series gets the fisheye

Adding to its growing lineup of lenses for its NX series of interchangeable-lens cameras, Samsung plans to release a 10mm f3.5 fisheye later this year.

The lens is Samsung's widest-angle model to date, and it looks like a pancake.

Here be specifications:

Mount Samsung NX i-Function Focal range 10mm (15.4mm equivalent) Aperture range f3.5 - f22 Aperture blades 7 Minimum focus distance 3.5 inches Angle of view 180 degrees Elements Seven elements in five groups (one aspherical lens) Filter diameter n/a Minimum length 1.0 Maximum length 1.0 Weight 2.5 ounces (est.) … Read more

Meet iTunes Radio, Apple's long-awaited streaming-music service

After more than a year of negotiations with the music labels and publishers, Apple Monday unveiled its much-talked about free, streaming radio service -- called iTunes Radio -- at WWDC in San Francisco.

"It is the best music player we have ever done," said Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue, who showed off the product.

Apple's product aims most squarely at Pandora, which has more than 70 million active monthly listeners but is available only in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. iTunes Radio will launch in the U.S. this Fall, but Cue said it will roll out in other countries soon after. … Read more

Apple signs Sony/ATV to iRadio, last major hurdle before WWDC

At this point, Apple is all but certain to unveil iRadio -- or whatever it calls its Internet radio service -- at Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Early Friday, Apple reached a deal with Sony Music, the last of the three major labels it needed to sign up, according to people familiar with the deals. And now Apple has also signed up Sony/ATV/ That deal, first reported by Billboard, was confirmed to CNET by a Sony/ATV spokesperson.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Sony/ATV, the world's largest publishing house, is jointly owned by … Read more

Review: Digital Camera & Flash Light provide two core tools but few features

Digital Camera & Flash Light provides two very basic functions that every iPhone user will appreciate, but in very bare-bones packages that do little to enhance existing tools or apps. The digital camera component is barely an upgrade over the built-in camera and with unnecessary extra menus to boot, while the flashlight is the same as many other free tools in the same field but with no color options.

Your first choice when opening the app is to open either the digital camera portion or the flashlight. In both cases, options are minimal but required before you can use the … Read more

Apple now has all major labels on board for Apple Radio launch

After more than year of off-and-on negotiations, Apple has now reached deals with all three major music labels, making it increasingly likely that Apple will unveil its free Internet radio service at next week's WWDC event.

The latest deal is with Sony Music, according to industry sources who said the two sides struck a deal Friday morning. Sony had been the lone holdout of the three major music labels, haggling over some details that frustrated execs at the other labels. The world's largest label, Universal Music, was the first to sign on, followed by Warner Music and its publishing arm, Warner/Chappell. … Read more