Facebook isn’t the type of company content to be outdone by other people’s apps, so the company launched a new app called Facebook Camera for the iOS platform. The new app promises to make using Facebook photos faster and easier. When the user launches the app, they will see the photos from the people on their friends list.

The app lets people swipe to see more of any album or an individual photo to enlarge it. It also allows you to share your own photos by uploading multiple images at one time rather than having to upload individual images. It also has basic tools for editing pictures and adding filters. It’s not as full featured as Instagram, but I still vote we call this app Facegram.

It’s just puzzling that Facebook would release this app so soon after buying Instagram. Perhaps this app was already in development long before the purchase was announced. If you want to check it out, you can grab Facebook Camera over on the App Store for free.

The Leica M Monochrom Camera has got an 18 MP CCD that stores true luminance values, which means that it can’t see any colors. Unlike other digital cameras, it doesn’t start with a color picture and then remove the color. Instead, it shoots true black and white only.

The rangefinder camera has Leica’s typically rugged build quality and classically minimal styling. ISO goes up to 10,000, it also has a 2.5-inch LCD screen, a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 sec, and it’s compatible with all sorts of Leica M lenses. Unfortunately, the M Monochrom will cost you almost $8,000, so better sell your car if you want this baby.

You can find some hi-res sample images over on the Leica website, and check out the video below for a L-Camera Forum’s review of an early build of the Leica M Monochrom:

[via Uncrate]

The wood and aluminum camera is wirelessly mated to a digital photo frame, to which you can send your images when the camera is nearby. This is the only way to view the photos since the camera has no LCD viewer of its own – just an analog viewfinder. The camera only has a small amount of storage, so you’ll be forced to send your photos wirelessly to the frame frequently.

Brian is a design student at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and he wrote a series of posts about how he came to his design over at his blog, and more details on the build here.

[via Yanko Design]

ADR-Studio hypothesized since Instagram was recently bought for a billion bucks, it might have enough money to come out with its own branded camera. This square concept camera looks like an oversize version of the Instagram logo, and snaps square pictures. The camera would have 16 GB of storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a 4:3 touchscreen, 2 different lenses, webcam applications as well as QR code scanning.

It also would offer optical zoom, an LED flash, as well as an internal printer, capable of outputting Post-It like sticky photos annotated with the Instagram user’s nickname and a QR code you can scan to follow them.

What do you guys think? Would you buy a camera like this? I’m not sure it’d be anything more than a novelty, but the design is kind of cool.

[via Thaeger]

Eric Siu, from Hong Kong, has conceived a new kind of tactile camera and he’s named it TOUCHY. It was developed while he was a resident artist at the Ishikawa Oku Laboratory at the University of Tokyo in Japan. The TOUCHY camera sits on top of the user’s head, blocking out his sight with oversize shutters until another person activates it. Only while the wearer is touched will the camera capture images, once every ten seconds, leaving them blind when not touched by another human.

Think of TOUCHY more as a social experiment than an actual product concept. The device itself is quite bulky and rather ridiculous looking, but it definitely makes you think about how we broadcast our lives on the web, thanks to smartphones, at the same time being more and more self-absorbed in our gadgets while we walk around.

[via designboom]

Made by NHK and Panasonic, the display has a maximum resolution of 7,860 x 4,320, has almost 34 million pixels and other numbers bigger than the ones that your TV has. It also has “a new drive system to stabilize the picture throughout the panel, by scanning several pixels simultaneously in the vertical direction.”

I predict that in a hundred years, Sony will partner with ImprovEverywhere to bring us Liv3Theatr, an Ultra Hyper Mega 26-Hit Combo Finish High Definition Display that looks so real because it is real. Pick a channel and Sony will teleport improv actors behind your display to perform whatever show is on that channel or teleport you to where the show is being held. If you can find the remote.

[via Diginfo via Reddit]

Inventor Matt Richardson simply calls it the Descriptive Camera (soon to be called Photo2Text). The technology behind it is not really as cutting edge as PhotoSketch, although the concept certainly is. When an image is taken using the Descriptive Camera, it sends the digital photo to a person, who will then describe what’s in the photo. Richardson uses Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service to find people who will describe the photo. Finally, the camera’s built-in thermal printer will print out the description. I’m not sure where the digital image goes, so there could be a privacy issue there. All in all this “development” process takes 3 to 6 minutes.

The camera can also be switched to “accomplice mode”, which can be used to send an instant message to another person so they can describe the photo. So for example instead of asking a worker who doesn’t know a thing about you, you could ask your mom to describe a picture of you when you were a baby. Or you’d send yourself pictures taken while you’re drunk for your sober self to try to piece together later.

So why would anyone want a description of a picture instead of the picture itself? Richardson doesn’t actually want just the text. Rather, he envisions future digital cameras to add this kind of valuable information in the metadata of digital images, not just the camera that took the picture, its resolution, ISO and other technical stuff.

Not only will this make it possible to search for a picture by describing what’s in it, but it will also preserve the human element of the photo. Like how much your friends used to love hanging out at your house, or how really they only went there because you had a Famicom because man you were quite the weirdo in 5th grade, or that you absolutely suck at taking pictures in general. That kind of stuff gets lost in time you know. For good reason. What was I talking about again?

[Matt Richardson via Cnet]

This “disposable” camera uses two AA batteries and can store up to 40 photos in the built-in memory. Once you’ve filled it up, you can download the images to your computer using the USB connector that swings out of the corner of the camera.

The IKEA Cardboard Digital Camera was created as part of a press kit for the 2012 Fuorisalone, a design expo in Milan – so, no you can’t pick it up at your local IKEA store, but you might be able to do so in the near future if enough people let them know they’d like one.

[via Fancy via PetaPixel]

The lens was first introduced in 1970 and offers an angle of view of 220º, making it quite wide indeed. Production was started in March of 1972 and it was only available on special order. It was located overseas and it took Tony Hurst and Gray Levett over six months to find one. The lens is in mint condition and uses 12 glass elements in nine groups, and weighs in at a staggering 11.46 pounds! Its minimum focusing distance is 25cm.

You’ll have to spend at least £100,000 (~$160,000 USD) to buy this lens. At least it comes with with a lens cap as well as rugged carrying case for that price.

[via British Journal of Photography]

A concept design that I think will benefit amateur cooks all over the world is the Almighty Board.

It’s a digital chopping board that also functions as a cookbook and a weighing scale. If you think about it, those three things are the most important objects to have when you’re preparing your ingredients.

The Almighty Board was designed by Jaewan Jeong.

[via Yanko Design]

Google says that friends at The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science have been working to devise a method of collecting the sort of imagery that’s cheap and easy to access for all people. The kit that the Public Laboratory came up with has been dubbed the balloon mapping toolkit.

It allows anyone to take their own aerial images using a cheap point-and-shoot digital camera and a few other items. The kit would cost about $100 including the balloon, helium, line, and other items needed. The Public Laboratory also has an online tool called MapKnitter that aligns the photos into a geo-referenced image that Google Earth can use.

[via Google Lat Long Blog]

Bringing 2Pac on stage was the idea of Dr. Dre and 2Pac performed a very realistic set on stage with Snoop Dogg and other stars. The company that provided the projectors was called AV Concepts and a CGI studio called Digital Domain actually created the digital 2Pac. Digital Domain is the company that created the CGI effects that brought the young Jeff Bridges to the screen in Tron: Legacy. The exact details on how exactly the effect was pulled off are being withheld, though you can see a bit about how the technology works in the video clip below:

The process of projecting the image uses overhead projectors and a thin sheet of reflective mylar film. The illusion was so well received that there is talk of the holographic 2Pac going on tour. There are numerous videos online of the holographic performance, but be warned they contain NSFW lyrics:

[via WSJ]

The Polargrams make great gifts for your family members, but would also be cool to have for your own photo collection.  Yes, you could just save the images online, but there’s always something special about image printing.  “It’s really expensive?”  No, that’s not special – I know plenty of things that I can’t afford, and they don’t give me the special feeling.  “You buy things you can’t afford?”  It’s called a credit card - have you ever heard of it?  Pssshh – moron.  “You know you have to pay those, right?”

These retro Polaroid Instagram photos are actually not very expensive: you can print up to 24 pictures for $23.79!  Why didn’t they just make it an even 25 pictures and charge you $24?  ”25 is an odd number.”  Perhaps, but the world may never know.  ”No, I know.  I’m telling you that 25 is odd.”  Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re not.  ”I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT 25 IS ODD.”  No need to get angry just because you’re wrong.

Polargrams are available at Firebox, who has provided a way to choose your photos by logging into your Instagram account and then purchasing the package.  If you’re interested, click on that link, if you’d rather look at some other great articles, then check out the Stickygram Magnetic Instagram Photos and the Snapstagram Service, which is almost as cool as Polargrams.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Jack Kieffer owns Cool Gizmo Toys, a site that loves all things geeky.

Late last year, a service called Prinstagram surfaced on the web. It allowed users to order mini prints, photo books, and posters of their Instragram shots all compiled together. But if you’re looking to get larger prints of your shots without having to go edit them in Photoshop, then you can go for Snapstagram.

The web-based service will offer an easy-to-use interface to select batches of 12 photos from your Instagram account and have them output into 4″x4″ square prints. A “roll” of 12 prints will cost you $6 (USD) including shipping.

Snapstagram is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $5 will get you a promo code for 1 roll which contains printouts of 12 photos. They’ve already hit their goal, so they’re definitely moving forward with the site.

A lot of people probably share the same sentiments when it comes to getting groceries, because it was enough to convince one company to launch a completely virtual supermarket, which displays ample products, but does away with the need to carry them around.

A little while back, we mentioned a small virtual shop opened by Tesco/Homeplus in Korea, and apparently the idea has taken off in the country. Another, larger virtual store recently opened in Seoul, where all shoppers have to do is point their phones at the QR code to scan it to put an item into their virtual cart for home delivery.

The store, which is located at the Seoulleung subway station, offers approximately 500 different items on its shelves. The obvious downside is that you can’t check or inspect products as you normally would before putting them in your cart. One of the trade-offs for convenience, I guess.

What do you think?

[via Pop Up City]

The magnets are almost as big as how they appear on the iPhone –  2″ x 2″  – so you can fill your fridge with dozens of your heavily filtered pics.

Sign in with your Instagram account on Stickygram’s website to get started, then pay $15 (USD) for every 9 photos that you want to convert into fridge magnets. If you want to be a smart-ass, take Instagram photos of your current magnets and then StickyGram them. You’re welcome.

[via Cool Material]

Bell already has a newer prototype that no longer includes an actual Kinect, but in essence Matterport works the same. A user sweeps a Kinect – or whatever similar device Bell is using now – around the object or space that will be replicated, taking millions of images in seconds. Matterport then stitches these images together, creating “one 3D mesh image that can be tilted, rotated and annotated.”

Bell is targeting professionals who work with space, such as real estate agents, engineer and architects, but he’s aware that other people will find novel uses for his system. For example, a family wants to use Matterport to save a 3D image of their houseboat. The Matterport can also be used as a non-invasive and non-destructive means of measuring fragile or precious objects, like rare plants or artifacts.

As with the Kinect turntable 3D scanner, I think that Matterport could also be used in videogames. Developers could use it to make maps out of real world locations and 3D models from real objects. But mostly I just want holograms to take off already.

[via Matterport & Mashable]

Researchers have developed a “poster” equipped with a distance sensor that makes the image in the photo react when it is kissed. Ok, it’s not really a poster at all – it’s just a flat screen display.

The system was developed by a research group at Keio University, who are still thinking of how it can be used commercially.

This system is very simple. There’s an ultrasound sensor here, to detect how far away your head is. As you approach the sensor, the picture changes. When you get closer, the picture becomes a kissing face, and when you move away, it becomes a blushing face.

The research team are still coming up with ways to improve their system and are looking to create an iPad app that works in a similar fashion in the future.

The current system only produces visual changes, but we could also include the scent of shampoo from the person’s hair, or a lemon-flavored film on the lips, or a speaker that whispers ‘I love you.’ People who’ve tried this system advised us to do those things, so we think there’s still plenty to be done. We’ve learned a lot from talking to users.

It seems like interactive posters might soon take over the world, although you can give the technology a couple of years or so before it catches on.

[via DigInfo]

What that means is the camera is able to capture much more accurate photos of things such as “red hydrogen emission” nebula and other celestial bodies.

Like the standard EOS 60D, the Canon EOS 60Da camera has an 18MP CMOS sensor that is sharp and offers good contrast.  Its rear LCD is a three-inch clear view unit with 1,040,000-dot resolution. The display can flip out and is adjustable for angle making it easy to view no matter how positioned. The camera also ships with a stereo AV video cable output images directly to the TV screen for viewing, though it’s unclear if there’s an HDMI port or not. Given the fact that the 60D has HDMI, I’d expect the 60Da to include it as well.

The camera can handle ISO speeds up to 6400 – with the ability to expand to ISO 12800. It has nine different autofocus points, full manual controls, you can store images in RAW, JPEG, and RAW plus JPEG formats. An optional remote accessory is available for controlling longer exposure times. The camera MSRP is $1499, presumably for the body only and it will be available later this month. That’s more than $500 higher than a stock EOS 60D, so you’ll definitely want to wait for some reviews to come out before taking the plunge on this one.

The aluminum TurtleJacket case has two tripod mounts, two strap holds, allowing you to hang your iPhone around your neck or wrists, and a 37mm thread for conversion lenses. The base package includes a UV filter and a 37mm wide-angle lens.

There’s even an SLR lens jacket version available, allowing you to mount your Nikon or Canon lenses to the iPhone if you want to go crazy. I think this could get a bit awkward and cumbersome, but anything for that perfect photo, right?

Unfortunately, all this photographic flexibility comes at a price – the TurtleJacket starts off at 980 Hong Kong Dollars (~$126 USD) while the DOF versions will set you back about twice that.

[via Ubergizmo]