iOS 8 to Expand Manual Controls for iPhone Photographers
Apple is working to open up camera controls in iOS 8, giving photographers granular control over settings such as ISO, shutter speed, and more, reports AnandTech. While only a few manual controls will make it into the stock camera app, almost full manual control will be made available for third-party app developers to implement as of iOS 8.
According to AnandTech, iOS 8′s AVCaptureDevice APIs will let developers tap into advanced controls such as ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, exposure bias, EV bracketing, and shutter speed/ISO bracketing. The ability to manipulate these controls will provide photographers with new ways to creatively compose a shot or a video clip. Developers also can use these controls to offer a variety of camera presets and other behind-the-scenes algorithms that manipulate images during the capture process.
While only the exposure bias controls will make it into the stock camera application, all of these new controls exposed through the AVCaptureDevice APIs will enable camera applications similar to Nokia’s Pro Camera or HTC’s Sense 6 camera application. It’s been said that Apple is one of the few OEMs that take camera seriously, and these new controls can only cement that position.
Apple has steadily boosted camera performance in its iPhone models by improving both the hardware and software that powers this feature. As a result, the iPhone is known for its exceptional camera performance and has been among the most popular cameras on Yahoo’s image hosting service Flickr.
The next-generation iPhone 6 is expected to continue this trend with iOS 8 camera improvements such as time-lapse mode as well as new iPhone camera hardware that may include optical or electronic image stabilization, a wider aperture, as well as an ARTON filter to minimize CMOS color shifts.
Retina iPad Mini as Low as $300 With Best Buy EDU Discounts [iOS Blog]
Best Buy is currently offering a $50 discount Apple’s Retina iPad mini as part of a Grad sale, dropping the price of the entry-level tablet to $349. Combined with a student deal that offers an additional $50 off, it’s possible to get a Retina iPad mini for as little as $300.
The combined $100 discount is good on any Retina iPad mini, cellular and WiFi and with all storage capacities. To take advantage of the full deal, a valid .EDU email address is required, but prospective buyers without an .EDU email address can still get a $50 discount on any Retina iPad mini.
The $50 grad sale will last from June 19 to June 21, while the $50 student discount will last until July 12.
Best Buy’s deep student discounts on 2014 MacBook Air models are still ongoing as well, dropping the price of the entry-level MacBook Air down to $649 with an .EDU email address. Students can also get $150 off any Mac by taking advantage of Best Buy’s student deals.
MacRumors is an affiliate partner of Best Buy.
Access your important stuff quicker with Nokia’s new Z Launcher [App of the Day]
Introducing Z Launcher from Nokia Z Launcher on Vimeo.
Samsung is not the only hardware maker to debut a new launcher for Android this week. Indeed, Nokia has thrown their best effort at us, introducing its new Z Launcher app. Designed with the premises of helping users more quickly get to the important apps and “stuff”. How does it work? From the moment you install it and start moving about your device, it’s learning what you do. Toss in some gestures on the home screen and you’ve got instant, simple access to your apps.
Throughout the day, Z Launcher is learning how you use your phone and promoting your favorite apps so you can get to them faster.
Whether you’re texting a certain someone, trying not to search for apps in the car, or multi-tasking at the office, your screen changes based on your everyday life. The more you use it, the better it gets.
This one’s not yet available in the Google Play Store; interested parties can sign up for the limited beta directly through the website.
The post Access your important stuff quicker with Nokia’s new Z Launcher [App of the Day] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘Bleeding’ pants can show paralympians that they’re injured
One of the biggest worries paralympians have is sustaining injuries in areas where they won’t be able to feel it. After all, if they don’t even know they’re injured, they might end up bleeding to death. That’s why a group of students from London’s Imperial College and The Royal College of Art have teamed up to create Bruise pants, which show paralympians where they’re injured and how severe it is. The designers sewed pressure-sensitive films made by Fuji onto a pair of Lycra leggings, marking vital points where injuries would be most damaging. In the event that any of those areas sustain impact damage, the film develops a red stain similar to blood seeping through cloth. If the color’s showing up as a deep, dark magenta, that means it’s time to stop and find the medics.
In order to provide users a guide on how to distinguish minor scrapes from major injuries, the students tested the film out by draping some over animal bones and subjecting them to repeated blows. Their efforts resulted in the current prototype, which is especially useful for athletes who play wheelchair basketball, sit skiing and motor racing (in fact, it just debuted at the Silverstone Circuit). In the future, the developers hope to make a full suit that will be more useful for other sports — even ones played by able-bodied athletes. As Paralympian Talan Skeels-Piggins (who’ve worked closely with the students to develop the Bruise pants) told Wired UK:
It could be used by any able-bodied athlete that is involved in activity where blunt force trauma could cause injury. Athletes are renowned for going through the pain barrier, and that also includes training with fractured bones that could either fail catastrophically or cause long term damage to the athlete.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Imperial College London
Teenager builds browser plugin to show you where politicians get their funding
The murky world of lobby groups bankrolling politicians is garnering more attention, but is there a way to find out which representatives are in the pocket without a lot of tedious research? A 16-year-old programmer has developed a browser plugin that, when you mouse-over the name of a US lawmaker, will serve up a list of which parties have donated to their campaign funds, and the quantities. Greenhouse (geddit?) is currently available for Chrome and Safari, with Firefox coming at some point in the future — although our lawyers have (probably) asked us to point out that the data is from the 2012 elections, so they may not be entirely up to date.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Represent.Us
Source: Greenhouse
Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ wants to reboot his classic show, but isn’t sure it makes sense
Bill Nye co-hosting The 2014 White House Science Fair livestream
Bill Nye — known to most as “The Science Guy” — doesn’t get paid for his regular appearances at The White House. “I have to pay my own way here!” he says. “I just support it. Generally, the kids are happy to see me and that’s good!” Nye was one of the hundreds of guests attending the first White House Maker Faire yesterday morning; he’s appeared previously at the annual White House Science Fair and other STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) events. When we caught up with him, he was carefully framing a selfie with a young maker so that George Healy’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln ended up in the shot.
Having grown up with Nye’s excellent show Bill Nye The Science Guy, we immediately asked what happened to the planned reboot he once teased:
“People talk about it all the time; I’m going to a meeting tomorrow. We’ll see if that works out.”
That is not what we expected to hear. Back in 2012, Nye said on Reddit that he would consider new episodes, but “it would have to be with the right producers, and it would have to be a less unfavorable contract.” When asked if he might do it on YouTube or some such, he was coy. “Stay tuned” he wrote, with a wink symbol.
We put similar questions to him yesterday: How about a Reading Rainbow approach, with Kickstarter? The Levar Burton-hosted show is coming back after tremendous support from fans on Kickstarter last month.
“I can make a new show. I own the rights to ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’,” Nye told us. But does it make sense now, in the age of ASAP Science, CGP Grey and other YouTube greats? “It’s hard to… that was a special time,” he said. “Now there are millions, just literally millions of competitors. Certainly tens of thousands.” Nye’s even appeared on those internet shows — “I love IFLS [I Fucking Love Science]! IFLS! I’ve got t-shirts!” he said — so he’s not against changing up the formula. “It’s just a different time.”
As for his battle with creationists, he told us the debates are off. At least for now. “I’m not gonna debate that guy again. He’s zero for one as far as I’m concerned,” Nye said, in reference to his debate with author Ken Ham. His next step is a book being published this fall: Bill Nye’s Evolution: The Science of Creation. Unlike his classic show, the book is aimed squarely at adults, though he said it’s not as complex as a Richard Dawkins book on evolution.
Characteristic of Nye’s charm, he put it this way: “This book is for grown-ups, not kids. Grown-ups don’t know much about evolution.”
Hidden ‘City Tours’ Flyover Feature for iOS 8 Maps Discovered in Beta 2
One of the many new features coming in iOS 8 that Apple did not directly address during its Worldwide Developers Conference is “Flyover city tours”. The feature is not currently available by default to those running iOS 8 betas, but developer Pierre Blazquez has discovered how to unlock Flyover city tours and partnered with Mac4Ever [Google Translate] to publish a video showing the feature in action for Paris.
At the moment, only the cities of Rome, Stockholm, Barcelona, New York, Paris, Glasgow, Cape Town, Perth, Bordeaux and the San Francisco Bay are available. One imagines that the visit was carefully prepared manually, and the list is therefore extend gradually over time.
Apple’s Maps app received significant criticism following the shift from a Google-powered app to an in-house version for iOS 6. But over the past two years Apple has continued to improve existing features and build out new ones to better compete with Google Maps. The Flyover feature showing 3D perspectives of buildings and physical features has been a particular emphasis for Apple, and the company has been working steadily to extend it to new areas of the world and improve the quality of its renderings.
Still, Apple’s Maps team is said to be struggling with internal politics that have resulted in the departure of several key employees. While improvements such as transit information for Maps have been expected for iOS 8, the company mostly glossed over mapping issues with the exception of some new indoor mapping initiatives at WWDC. As a result, it is unclear just how many of the Maps improvements will make their appearance in time for the public launch and how many might be folded into later updates.
Apple Looks at Using Wearable Sensors to Auto-Adjust iPhone Notifications and Alarms
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published several patent applications describing an iPhone-based system to collect and analyze data from wearable and other types of accessory sensors, reports AppleInsider. Under the system, the iPhone could then track the owner’s activity and respond with appropriate notifications and changes in the device settings.
One patent application, “Method and apparatus for automatically setting alarms and notifications,” describes a method of associating motion data with a set of alarms. In this described invention, the iPhone could detect whether a user is sleeping or awake and adjust the settings for features such as “Do Not Disturb,” for example. These motion data points may be collected from a device that is worn by the user.
In a second patent application, “Method and apparatus for automatically repeating alarms and notifications in response to device motion”, Apple proposes methods to control the timing of notifications that are delivered to an iPhone owner. In this invention, the iPhone can use sensor data to determine when a user is napping and can turn off all notifications until the owner is awake and moving again.
A final patent application, “Method and Apparatus For Personal Characterization Data Collection Using Sensors,” describes how an iPhone-driven system could detect a user’s activity level from “motion sensors, location sensors, ambient light sensors, and the like.” This sensor-based data may be used to create a “personal scorecard” that compares your activity level to others in a group.
A processor-based personal electronic device (such as a smartphone) is programmed to automatically collect data sent by various sensors from which the user’s activity may be inferred. One or more of the sensors may be worn by the user and remote from the device. A wireless communication link may be used by the device to obtain remote sensor data. In certain embodiments, data from on-board sensors in the device–such as motion sensors, location sensors, ambient light sensors, and the like–may also be used to deduce the user’s current activity. In yet other embodiments, user data (such as calendar entries) may also be used to characterize the user’s activty.
As with many patent applications, these inventions may or may not be incorporated into consumer-level products. In this case though, these methods align with Apple’s rumored iWatch device, which is expected to ship with a variety of sensors to measure basic health and fitness parameters. Apple also recently announced a new Health app and HealthKit API that allows for the aggregation of health and fitness data from apps and wearable devices into a central repository that can provide an overview of a user’s relative health.
Google’s Made with Code encourages girls to embrace computer science
Less than one percent of high school girls are interested in computer science, but Google wants to alter that script with a new initiative called Made with Code. Created in conjunction with heavy hitters like the MIT Media Lab, Chelsea Clinton and the Girl Scouts of the USA, the campaign connects girls with coding resources, inspirational videos and more. The effort sprung from Google’s own research showing that kids are more likely to get excited about computer science if they try it at an early age and are shown how it can benefit their careers. It hopes the effort will help girls to not just consume technology, but also use it as a creation tool in whichever profession they choose.
One project will have girls designing 3D-printed Shapeways bracelets using Blockly visual coding and creating animated GIFs or music beats. Meanwhile, The Girl Scouts will introduce its network to Made with Code and encourage them to complete their first coding experience. There are also videos featuring high-achieving women who use programming to fight cancer, create 3D animations and design dance sets, to name a few. Google has also created resources for parents and put aside $50 million over three years to encourage female students to get into computer science. The event will kick off tonight in New York with 100 local teenage girls, who’ll try some coding first-hand and see it used by women like Danielle Feinberg from Pixar. Overall, Google’s message to girls is that coding isn’t just for engineers, but is rather a “tool that lets you write your story with technology.” Naturally, we couldn’t agree more.
Source: Google
Intel launches messaging app that lets you speak through video avatars
It’s easy to think of Intel as a hardware company, the sort of chip-making giant that helps build wearables, cable-free laptops, smart baby onesies. Today, though, the company is showing off software, for a change. The chip maker just unveiled Pocket Avatars, a mobile messaging app that lets you send video messages to friends. Actually, “video messages” doesn’t really describe it. These aren’t so much videos as 3D avatars that happen to speak in your voice. In particular, the app makes use of facial recognition — a pet project of Intel’s — to mimic gestures like nodding, blinking, sticking out your tongue, and raising your eyebrows. All told, it’s a lot of real-time processing, which means the messages are going to be fairly short: You’ve got 15 seconds to say what you want to say.
The app, available today for iOS and Android, includes an avatar store of sorts, where you can download 45 avatars, either for free or 99 cents. Of the bunch, you’ll find some familiar characters, including those from the Lego series, Gumby, Care Bear and The Jim Henson Company (gotta give Intel credit for being thorough in its avatar-making deals, we suppose). In addition to sending to folks in your contact list, you can also post your clips to the usual services — Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. That doesn’t mean you should (we might unfollow you), but hey, at least it sounds less annoying than Slingshot.
AIVAnet 