Daily Archives: November 3, 2011

3 posts

Amazon Flow for iPhone converts barcode scans to online sales

Flow Powered by Amazon App, Now Available for the iPhone

A9.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a new iPhone app: Flow Powered by Amazon. Flow is a new augmented reality app that makes it easy to explore and discover tens of millions of products in a real world setting – from books and DVDs to packaged electronics and toys – and offers shoppers interactive product information about the items around them.

With Flow, customers simply point their iPhone toward a book, video game, CD, DVD or millions of other products with UPC barcodes. Upon visual recognition of the product, the app displays Amazon.com product information, including the option to play multimedia content and read customer reviews.

“This is our first step towards integrating product search technology with augmented reality,” said Bill Stasior, president of A9.com. “The integration of a live camera display, graphical overlays, and visual recognition technology creates a seamless experience for a customer looking to discover information about objects in their physical surroundings.”

Flow uses continuous scan technology developed by A9.com’s visual search team to identify products and provide related information found on Amazon.com. The app displays Amazon’s popular shopping features such as product details, customer reviews and ratings, as well as sharing options via Twitter, Facebook, or email.

Flow Powered by Amazon is available as a free download from the Apple App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore. To learn more, visit flow.a9.com.

LomoKino Super 35 Movie Maker

The Lomographic Society Proudly Presents: The LomoKino – Super 35 Movie Maker

Lomography in Motion: Take the next step in Lomography with the first consumer movie camera that makes your Lomographs movie on any kind of 35mm film

Unique Art: Become the director of your very own LomoMovies and produce unique and precious pieces of movie art by simply winding a crank

True Gadget: Irresistible design and unlimited creative possibilities will make gadget lovers’ hearts pound faster

LomoMovies Online: Upload, watch and share your very own LomoMovies on www.lomography.com

Lomography in Motion
How great must it have been to witness the first pictures as they started to move or to see the Lumiere brothers amazing the crowds of thousands with their very first short films? After 200+ years of movie making, million-dollar-special-effects (thanks Michael Bay), big scale film studios and endless Hollywood dramas, Lomography gives consumers the chance to return back to the roots of movie making and witness the very first steps with the Lomokino. The LomoKino allows you to become a director yourself and capture Lomographic movies on 35 mm film of any kind: no sound, no special effects, and no post production – just simple Lomography in motion.

Unique Art
To become a true LomoMovie director, simply load the film of your choice and wind the crank of the magic box to capture 144 shots on one roll of 35 mm film, or approximately 50 – 60 seconds of LomoMovie. You can use any kind of 35 mm film for different effects: Slide film, color negative, redscale or B/W. After developing the film, spool it into the specially developed LomoKinoScope, point it to a light source and watch your Lomographs moving over and over again. What sounds very simple produces a unique piece of art which can either stay in your hands only or can be given as a special present to somebody who really deserves it. Show your sweetheart how much you love her with a film, capture your sons first birthday or deliver a Charlie Chaplin like short that will take your grandmother back to a simpler time.

True Gadget
A wise man once said “form follows function” – naaaah – we like to say “form follows motion” and that’s why we designed this camera as a true compact gadget. Its irresistible design takes you straight back into the time when people left the audience screaming because a locomotive was speeding towards them on a movie screen and the movies were still a true business without special effects. It comes in a package either alone or with the LomoKinoScope, one film canister and a marvelous book. Its creative possibilities are so diverse that not even we can tell the limits. It’s up to you, gadget lovers, to take this baby in your hands and explore what movies used to be like the Lomographic way!

LomoMovies Online
Unlike the very first filmmakers we can call a powerful tool our own: the internet! Linking the simple technology of the LomoKino with our website, we enable you to upload, watch and share your own LomoMovies online. To give you a taste of the special LomoKino aesthetics and the sheer endless creative possibilities, we asked filmmakers from around the globe to create their own LomoMovies. Visit our website (www.lomography.com) to get some inspiration and start shooting your first LomoMovie today!

Technical Details
Retail Price: $79 for the Lomokino, $99 for the Lomokino + lomokinoscope
Film type: all kind of 135 roll film
Lens: 25mm
Exposure area: 24mm x 8.5mm: 144 images/film
Continuous Aperture: f/5.6 – f/11
Shutter: 1/100
Hand cranked: approx. 3-4 fps, 36-48 sec. movie per roll
Film counting: volume display
Focusing: (normal) 1m~infinity,(press button for) 0.6m close up
Tripod mount: yes

Opera Mini 6.5 for Android iOS, Symbian, J2ME and Blackberry

Opera Mini 6.5 is now ready for iOS, BlackBerry, J2ME and S60 (the latter’s in the form of Opera Mobile 11.5). Opera Mini 6.5 for Android was released recently, reports the Opera Mini Blog

“Opera Mini 6.5 will now show you exactly how much data you have spent and saved. A dedicated page, easily accessible from the help menu inside the Opera Mini, keeps count of how much data you are spending and saving.

The number of megabytes saved while using the Opera Mini browser can directly translate into money saved if you are roaming or on a pay-as-you-go plan for data traffic.

For people on capped data plans, this is a handy feature to make sure you don’t max out reaching those slow, punishing network speeds you might encounter after using up your allow”