Sigma DP1 Merrill Compact Digital Camera Review

Back in February we took a look at Sigma’s DP2 Merrill, a compact shooter with the company’s characteristic 15.3-megapixel APS-C-sized Foveon X3 sensor parked behind a fixed 45-millimeter equivalent f/2.8 lens and now six weeks after the DP2 was released to consumers, Sigma is announcing the release of its fraternal twin, the DP1 Merrill. The Sigma DP1 Merrill's resolution has grown by moving from Foveon’s 14.6-megapixel APS-C size image sensor to the 46-megapixel APS-C image sensor found in the company’s flagship SLR and the full-color Foveon X3 direct image sensor ensures outstanding resolution, richly gradated tones and images with a three-dimensional feel.

Sigma Corporation of America, a leading researcher, developer, manufacturer and service provider for some of the world's most impressive lines of lenses, cameras and flashes has announced that the Sigma DP1 Merrill compact digital camera will be available in the United States in mid-September for the street price of $999. "We are extremely pleased with the engineering and design involved in the upgrade of the DP1 Merrill." This upgraded, high-resolution, compact digital camera with a fixed lens is named in honor of Richard "Dick" Merrill, the co-creator of the Foveon X3 Direct Image Sensor technology that powers Sigma's unique lineup of cameras. It differs from its predecessor, the DP1x, because its lens now includes one "F" Low Dispersion glass element to correct aberrations, and its resolution has grown by moving from Foveon's 14.6-megapixel APS-C size image sensor to the 46-megapixel APS-C image sensor found in the company's flagship SLR, the Sigma SD1 Merrill. The full-color Foveon X3 direct image sensor ensures outstanding resolution, richly gradated tones and images with a three-dimensional feel. A focus ring and custom Quick Set (QS) mode also improve the user interface. "We are extremely pleased with the engineering and design involved in the upgrade of the DP1 Merrill," said Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. "Its wide focal length, fixed lens and impressive sensor capture stunningly sharp images that are truly incredible, especially given the compact nature of the camera's design."

The Sigma DP1 Merrill boasts an exclusively designed, high-performance, telecentric 19mm F2.8 lens, which is the equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm SLR camera. This camera differs from the DP2 Merrill, which was released in June, due to its wider focal length. The DP2 Merrill has a 30mm F2.8 lens, which is the equivalent to a 45mm lens on a 35mm SLR camera. Both cameras are compact and lightweight, and feature Super Multi Layer Coating to reduce flare and ghosting. Other features of the Sigma DP1 Merrill camera include:

• A dual, three-layer responsive ultimate (TRUE II) engine that now incorporates two TRUE II processors to improve the processing speed and overall quality of the final image
• RAW and JPEG format recording to retain the full image detail of the utmost quality captured through the direct image sensor, as well as a JPEG recording format for convenience
• Sigma Photo Pro processing software to convert RAW data quickly and easily
• Manual focus for use when autofocus or focus-lock is not desired
• Easy-to-use auto focus with a “nine-point select mode” which can select the desired focusing point from nine different frames, and a “free move mode” that allows shooters to select their desired focusing point
• An advanced user interface complete with a custom QS menu and the metallic command dial to improve usability
• Continuous shooting capabilities to capture up to seven RAW images per sequence
• A large, highly visible, three-inch TFT color LCD monitor for great visibility
• A hot shoe for the use of the dedicated external flashgun EF-140 DG (optional)
• Movie mode for movie recording with VGA (640×480) size, with 30 shooting frames per second

Specs:

• TYPEPoint and shoot
 
• RESOLUTION (EFFECTIVE)46 megapixels
 
• SENSOR SIZEAPS-C
 
• MEMORY CARDSD
 
• WEIGHT12 oz
• ANNOUNCEDFebruary 9, 2012

General

• TypePoint and shoot

Sensor

• Resolution (effective)46 megapixels
• Sensor sizeAPS-C
• ISO modes100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400

Viewfinder

• Viewfinder typeLCD
• Screen size3 inches
• Screen typeLCD (Active, Color)

Storage

• Memory cardSD

Image formats

• Image formatsJPEG, RAW
• Video recordingYes
• Resolution (max)640 x 480 (VGA)

Size & weight

• Weight12 ounces

Pricing & availability

• AvailabilityPre-release
• Announced (US)February 9, 2012

Colors

• Black

World's First Large Screen Mobile Entertainment Android-Based Smart TV Review

Chinese web titan Tencent and TCL Multimedia have torn the wraps off the Ice Screen, a jointly developed 26-inch smart TV with a 1,366 x 768 display that allows users to browse the web, access videos, music and games through QQ services and the Android-powered television houses a dual-core Cortex A9 1GHz processor, a Mali 400 GPU, 4GB of RAM and support for a memory card of up to 32GB in size. An IR remote and an app for devices sporting version 2.2 or higher of Google's OS can be used to control the tube, which can sit horizontally or vertically in its stand and the panel packs Wi-Fi, a pair of USB ports, HDMI and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The MSRP works out to approximately $315 in terms of US dollars and the device can be pre-ordered in China now with an official launch date set for September 3.

TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Limited and Tencent, China's leading integrated internet service provider jointly launched iCE SCREEN, the world's first large screen mobile entertainment smart cloud product, creating a new form of consumer electronic products and bringing the evolution of the cross-industry integration between China's consumer electronics industry and internet industry to a higher level. Featuring a large 26-inch screen, iCE SCREEN is the first large screen mobile smart cloud product in the world. With four core applications -- a "large portable screen", a "high-speed video player", a "stylish music and photo album" and "high-definition video communications" -- the product offers consumers the ultimate 3C (Communication, Computer and Consumer electronics) experience. Installed in iCE SCREEN is an independent operating system which enables internet connectivity, thus offering users audio visual, music, photo album, game, communications and many other major smart cloud applications. It is also equipped with a portable power source and features a slim design, allowing free and easy movement and storage. The iCE SCREEN has the characteristics of a high quality screen, ample cloud resources and portability, and represents a brand new type of smart cloud product. iCE SCREEN is a specialty smart cloud product which was developed to cater to customers' latest needs. Its screen is bigger than that of handsets and tablets, offering stunning visual effects on a large screen, while providing portability that is not found in traditional TV sets. Meanwhile, it provides the same functions, including communications, social networking and Internet surfing, as found on handsets and computers. It has fashionable design and offers fast, convenient and comfortable use. Mr. Li Dongsheng, Chairman of TCL Multimedia, said, "TCL and Tencent are jointly launching iCE SCREEN to create an innovative new form of 3C product, the first of its kind in the world, all in an effort to meet this new demand from consumers and to offer consumers and their families more trendy, enjoyable and cutting-edge experiences. As a new form of consumer electronics product with considerable market potential, iCE SCREEN will build a massive differentiated market much like the markets for tablet computers and smartphones. In the meantime, it is expected to drive the joint development of the relevant industries and to open up a new frontier in the global consumer electronics industry." 

As TCL's content provider partner, Tencent brings to the iCE SCREEN a wide array of QQ services and popular applications such as QQ Video, QQ Album, QQ Music, QQ Messenger and QQ Game. Users can enjoy different forms of exciting mobile, large screen cloud applications such as online communications, leisure and entertainment. In addition, iCE SCREEN also comes with a rotary hanger which allows users to easily switch between horizontal and vertical positions. When in a vertical position, users can listen to music while viewing an automatic slide show, which combine to create a striking visual effect. When watching the online videos like those offered by Tencent QQ, the videos run smoothly on the high quality large screen with the exclusive leading "pre-installed back platform" technology, making the iCE SCREEN suitable for the enjoyment of a number of people at the same time. Moreover, it separates itself from the other consumer electronic products on the market which are available in a very limited range of colours, breaking the tradition of black television sets to offer consumers four colour choices, namely sapphire blue, fantasy pink, champagne gold and green tea green. This revolutionary new product overturns the conventional thinking about what smart cloud end-products and screens should be, marking the first major breakthrough in the systematic innovation of China's enterprises. TCL and Tencent have worked together numerous times in pushing innovation in the area of smart cloud TVs. This time, the cooperation between the two industry leaders integrates the core technologies and advantageous resources of the two companies to ensure the best combination of hardware and software in the iCE SCREEN. Mr. Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, said, "Cooperation across industries can facilitate the further integration of industry resources and push forward cooperation and innovation between companies in different industries. Tencent has committed itself to adapting internet services for more application environments to facilitate easy access. This is our first attempt to adapt the services for the home application environment. We aim to provide high quality internet services to hardware manufacturers in different areas, so as to fulfil the users' desire to quickly switch between different applications." Mr. Li Dongsheng, Chairman of TCL Multimedia, said, "iCE SCREEN is also an important milestone for TCL to achieve its full cloud strategies. This April, TCL Multimedia took the lead to announce its full cloud strategies as the cloud era in China's consumer electronics industry approaches. Launching the iCE SCREEN represents another strategic deployment and innovative breakthrough in smart cloud products following the successful introduction of TCL Multimedia's 3D smart cloud TVs." iCE SCREEEN, the world's first smart screen jointly launched by TCL and Tencent, expands on the forms of existing smart cloud products and will represent a revolution in smart cloud life. Besides working together on product innovation, TCL and Tencent will launch the first batch of pre-sales of iCE SCREEN through the official TCL online store and QQ's online store at 00:00 a.m., August 23. This innovation in sharing sales channels and business models is another highlight of the partnership between TCL and Tencent, in addition to being the first time that the concept of "one-stop online-life" was extended to the brand new smart cloud product in the Internet industry. This innovative cross-industry integration model has also set a benchmark in innovation in the consumer electronics and Internet industries.

Adobe Revel 1.5 Cloud-Based Photo Management App Review

Adobe updated their cloud-based photo management app, Revel o version 1.5 across both Mac and iOS apps, which includes the ability to sort photos into albums, share private web albums on the Adobe Revel website, and add captions to photos. Along with an updated user interface and new photo themes, you can use your Facebook ID to sign up for a Revel account and when you sign up for the service via Facebook or one of the apps, you’ll get 30 days of service for free. The subscription fee gets you unlimited photo imports, as well, and you can share your photos from Revel to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr and an Adobe Revel subscription account is available for $6 per month.

Adobe announced the immediate availability of Adobe Revel 1.5. Available in the Mac App Store and the iTunes App Store, Adobe Revel is a photography app that marries powerful and intuitive organizing and editing tools with a cloud technology uniquely designed for photos. With Revel users have one place for all their photos, which they can access using their iPad, iPhone and Mac. And thanks to automatic syncing of everything a user does – importing and editing photos, creating albums – Revel is the only app that allows consumers to access and manage one photo library on virtually any iOS device or Mac computer. "My favorite things about Revel are having my whole photo library always with me and automated syncing," said Gayle Vehar, blogger at Mom and Camera. "I love being able to make adjustments and manage photos on-the-go without having to manually sync when I get home-Revel just handles all of that for me. Revel is the perfect photo app for families because we'll never miss a moment." Revel helps users keep their photo library organized with the ability to create albums and apply event tags. In addition, Revel makes it easy to create better-looking photos - users can crop, apply Looks (filters) or use sliders that control lighting, color and clarity. With effortless syncing and no limits to the number of photos that can be imported, consumers now have the freedom to use any device of their choice to play with all their photos anytime. Users with an expired trial as of August 21, 2012 will have another 30 days to try the new version. To start another 30-day complimentary subscription, users need to login with their existing Adobe Revel ID. Users will not be automatically charged at the end of their complimentary subscription; this applies to all users of the Adobe Revel 30-day complimentary subscription. The Adobe Revel 1.5 desktop app for Mac is immediately available in the Mac App Store and the apps for iPhone and iPad is on the iTunes App Store. Upgrading these apps is free for all existing customers. Subscription pricing for an Adobe Revel account is available for $5.99/month. New features available in Adobe Revel 1.5 include:

•  Albums to organize photos : Create an album on one device and it is automatically updated and accessible everywhere
• Sharing albums on the Web : Share private albums with friends and family via AdobeRevel.com
• Captions : Add context to memories with text descriptions
• An updated all new UI makes the app more intuitive and easier to navigate
• Library grid view – Browse photos in track or grid view
• Sign in with Facebook or Google IDs – Eliminate the hassle of remembering another password by logging in with a Facebook or Google ID and password

EUROCOM Scorpius Ultra High Performance Notebook Review

Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop with 8 GB Of video memory with dual NVIDIA geforce GTX 680M And Intel Core I7 – 3920XM, 4 storage drives and 32 GB DDR3-1600 RAM to be the greatest notebook of all time. The latest Scorpius laptop looks all set to faithfully maintain Eurocom's high-end heritage with support for both CrossireX and SLI configurations to go with its 17.3-inch display, a tock-configured Scorpius costs $1,793, but that can easily skyrocket when you starting amping up on the visuals, for starters and a pair of 4GB GeForce GTX 680M graphics cards or dual 2GB Radeon HD 7970Ms will comfortably fit in to the Scorpius' spacious (albeit bland-looking) chassis, along with some huge storage space equal to three SSDs or hard drives plus an optional mSATA SSD. Splurging on a Core i7-3920XM processor nets you a 2.9GHz chip (up to 3.8GHz) with the option to go all out on the RAM at 32GB.

Eurocom Corporation is now launching the EUROCOM Scorpius Ultra High Performance Notebook with support for dual graphics technology from NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro and AMD Radeon, powerful Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition, up to 32 GB of DDR3 1600 memory and three storage drives plus one mSATA drive. "The EUROCOM Scorpius is an out of this world High Performance Notebook Computer. Like the mythical creature that stung and killed Orion, the EUROCOM Scorpius will take down any competition standing in its way, while allowing gamers to do the same!" exclaims Mark Bialic, Eurocom President. "We have been getting out of this world benchmark results with the EUROCOM Scorpius. Simply put, this is the most powerful system of its kind on the planet." Featuring dual graphics technology including dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M GPUs featuring 1688 CUDA cores, 8 GB of DDR5 video memory, with the graphics clock running at 720MHz, as well as dual AMD Radeon HD 7970M featuring 1560 Stream Processors, 4GB GDDR5 video memory, with an 850 MHz engine clock allowing gamers to play the most demanding games on maximum settings. On the professional graphics front, the EUROCOM Scorpius supports the newest NVIDIA Quadro K5000M, K4000M and K3000M graphics for the ultimate in portable power, based on the 28nm Kepler architecture, the Quadro K5000M GPU packs 1344 CUDA cores and 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory. With no Optimus support the EUROCOM Scorpius is all about extreme graphics performance with no compromise! Driving the system is an optional Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition running at up to 3.8 GHz with 8MB of L3 cache, which delivers exceptional high-definition multimedia, multi-tasking and multi-threaded performance. These high-performance 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 Processors allow users to simultaneously run multiple applications at the same time -- all with increased performance. The EUROCOM Scorpius supports Intel's Extreme tuning Utility to allow users to tweak the performance of their system to whatever they choose. Up to 32GB of superfast DDR3 1600 SODIMM memory is also supported via four sockets. With such massive amounts of RAM available, the Scorpius becomes a great tool for virtualization and high performance computing.

In the EUROCOM Scorpius, up to 3 storage drives (SSD, HDD, Hybrid HDD) are offered plus an mSATA drive. With these storage configurations, Intel Smart Response Technology is supported, it is designed to give users enhanced system performance and responsiveness. Smart Response Technology is an intelligent caching setup that monitors data reads and writes to your storage drive and caches the most used or frequently accessed data. The Scorpius supports RAID 0/1/5/10 for increased storage performance or redundancy. The EUROCOM Scorpius is the ultimate in Multimedia Entertainment system with support for Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2, subwoofer, 2 watt speakers and external 7.1CH audio output support. Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 software suite is a powerful audio platform equipped with state of the art audio technology and THX TruStudio Pro along with a host of other software to enhance the audio of games, movies and music. The Scorpius has many connectivity options to allow users to connect the system to external displays for gaming for video streaming including: HDMI 1.4a, S/PDIF, Display Port 1.2. The EUROCOM Scorpius comes with an illuminate backlit full size keyboard with numeric keypad. The backlit keyboard helps to increase usability in dim lighting conditions, to ensure operators can see the keyboard in nearly any environment.

EUROCOM Scorpius Specs:

• Display: 17.3-inch FHD 1920-by-1080 pixels; Matte or Glossy Surface;
• Processor: up to Intel Mobile i7 Core 3920XM Extreme; Intel HM77 Chipset

Graphics Technology:

• Two MXM 3.0b slots; single and dual-VGA operation
• CrossfireX and SLI support
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M (4GB DDR5); 675M
• NVIDIA Quadro K3000M; K4000M, K5000M
• AMD Radeon HD 7970M
• Memory: up to 32GB of DDR3-1333/1600/1866; 4 RAM sockets

Storage: 

• 4 storage device support; 2 HDD (SATA3) + Optical Drive + mSATA drive; RAID 0/1/5/10 support; built-in 9-in-1 Card Reader

• Sound System: Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2; 2x 2W ONKYO speakers + Subwoofer; External 7.1CH; S/PDIF output; built-in Mic
• Keyboard: Backlit keyboard; W/A/S/D Gaming keys

Ports:

• 1x USB 2.0
• 4x USB 3.0 (1x powered)
• 1x eSATA (USB 2.0 combo)
• 1x S/PDIF out
• 1x Line-in
• 1x Headphone
• 1x RJ45/LAN
• 1x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x HDMI 1.4a out

Battery and Power: 

• 300W AC Adapter 100-250V auto switching; 600W option (2x 300W) available for maximum O/C and XTU performance; 8-cells high capacity battery (89.21WH)
• • Weight & Dimensions: 3.5kg; 419x286x24-49.7mm
• • Keyboard: Full size backlit with separate numeric keypad