Digtal Camera Reviews – The Imagery Resource!

Now you’ve got something to aim at

First there was the Angry Birds plush birds, but the biggest complaint at the time was that you couldn’t get any pigs to fire them at, that was, until now.

Rovio Mobile, the developers behind the immensely popular Angry Birds games on the iPhone and Android phones has launched four plush pigs (that’s soft toys to you and me) on Tuesday night.

The pigs, which include a standard pig, the one with the red moustache, the king pig, and finally the one with a cracked helmet, will cost $14.99 and be available from January 2011 say the company.?Rovio is happy to ship worldwide.

Earlier in the year the company announced the range of soft toys featuring the first five birds. Those birds are already starting to be catapulted out to fans around the globe.

The news follows earlier reports in November that Rovio would be selling the Pigs after Christmas.

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Toys Angry Birds

Pigs added to Angry Birds soft toy range originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:09:00 +0000

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For THX-certified digital recordings and podcasts

Blue Microphones has had great success with its Snowball USB mic over the years, and we’re big fans of the audio quality it offers. But it doesn’t reach the mountainous heights of the company’s latest entry into the market: the THX-certified The Yeti.

Also a USB connected model, with analogue to digital processing, The Yeti comes across like radio microphones of old. It’s retro, but with many modern twists.

For starters, it features four different recording modes, accessible using a switch on the back, and recorded through three 14mm tuned condenser capsules:

“Stereo” records from either side and captures accurate stereo imaging, even adding a little reflection from the rear so that there’s a distinct spatial sound to recordings.

“Cartoid” offers a front facing cone, and will possibly be the most used mode for podcasts and vocal recordings.

“Omnidirectional” picks up sound from all four directions: sides, front and rear. It’s perfect if, for example, you’re recording different people sitting around a table. Or just ambience.

And lastly, the “Bidirectional” mode picks up sound at the front and rear.

It is the variety of these different methods of recording that make The Yeti so versatile. However, it’s not these that impress the most.

The build quality of the microphone is extraordinary. It could easily be used as a weapon in an episode of Midsummer Murders. The weight and sturdiness of metallic beast is such that there is no wobble or shake during recording. We suspect that it could withstand a fair amount of abuse before getting more than a superficial scratch.

There are switches and nobs for headphone volume (zero-latency), gain, pattern (audio mode), and a mute button. And USB and ‘phones (mini-jack) connectivity is offered on the bottom of the mic itself. There’s also a tripod mount if you don’t want to use the supplied desktop stand.

But the most impressive is the audio capture performance itself. Considering that there’s analogue to digital processing going on, the end result is as clean as the language in the Vatican. It depends on the recording software and compression at the computer’s end, of course, but end results are always note perfect.?It is the podcaster’s dream.

In fact, it is this specific podcaster’s dream, as I currently use The Yeti for my part of the Pocket-lint podcast, which you can hear from episode 24 and on. Also, as the podcast is recorded via Skype, and output is a 128kbps MP3/M4A, I’ve recorded a test using a much higher bitrate, which you can listen to below… So you don’t need to just take my word for it.

The Yeti USB microphone costs ?129.99 (although we’ve seen it for ?99.99 on Amazon.co.uk) and is available now.

Hear a test recording

Download the test file (right click)

Listen (mp3)

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Audio Blue MicroPhones The Yeti Blue The Yeti Microphones USB microphones

Blue The Yeti USB microphone hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:52:00 +0000

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Despite a few shortcomings, the FZ45 superzoom offers excellent value. It resembles a dSLR put on a hot wash, but it’s easier to use and packed full of the latest must-have features. It feels like we’ve seen much of what’s on offer here before, however. View full post on Latest Cameras and Camcorders

3D trees arrive in latest update

Google has released the latest instalment of its massively popular Google Earth platform, version 6, bringing along 3D trees for the ride.

The 3D trees can be seen in the 3D buildings view, and there are “dozens” of species on show.

“While we’ve just gotten started planting trees in Google Earth, we already have more than 80 million trees in places such as Athens, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Tokyo”, said Peter Birch, product manager at Google Earth.

“Through our Google Earth Outreach program, we’ve also been working with organizations including the Green Belt Movement in Africa, the Amazon Conservation Team in Brazil and CONABIO in Mexico to model our planet’s threatened forests”.

Another major edition to Google Earth 6 is fully integrated Street View. Pegman sits right on the controls dock now and, just like in Google Maps, you can now drop the little fellow anywhere with Street View imagery and take a closer look around a destination.

Finally, Google has made it easier to find historical imagery, with the date of the oldest information for a selected place shown in the status bar at the bottom. Clicking the date takes you back in time, without the need for a nuclear reaction to generate 1.21-gigawatts of electricity.

Google 6 is available to download free right now.

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Google Earth Internet Online Google Video

Google Earth 6 goes tree hugging originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:30:00 +0000

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Bada, bada, bada, bada….Bing

The web is a glorious thing. It gives us an unprecedented wealth of knowledge, with a vast amount of information available to us at the click of a button, or the stroke of a key.

In seconds, we could be reading Captain Alexander Grant’s memoirs from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, taking a virtual tour of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or learning how to speak ancient Greek.

Or, we could be looking up American socialite Kim Kardashian and seeing what the glamorous celebulante is up to.

And that’s the option that most of us seem to be taking, with the 30-year-old taking the honour of being the most popular search term on Bing for 2010.

The fact that Kardashian has (apparently) got a sex tape on the internet undoubtedly boosts the reality TV star’s search appeal.

The 10 most popular searches on Microsoft’s search engine were: 1) Kim Kardashian, 2) Sandra Bullock, 3) Tiger Woods, 4) Lady Gaga, 5) Barack Obama, 6) Hairstyles, 7) Kate Gosselin, Walmart, 9) Justin Bieber and 10) free.

We really are a celebrity obsessed, vain and tight society aren’t we?

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Kim Kardashian Bing Search engines Online

Kim Kardashian getting the Bing hits originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:52:00 +0000

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