A look at gadget happenings, as Fujifilm unveils a modern camera that looks to be straight out of the past, Evernote teams up with Moleskine on a smart notebook, and Sony improves immersive viewing with its new HMZ-T2 headset.
Go retro with the Fujifilm XF1
Europe’s largest camera trade show Photokina begins in Cologne, Germany, tomorrow, so we can expect plenty of new developments from top camera manufacturers in the coming days. Some are even unveiling new products ahead of the event, such as Fuji.
The Fujifilm XF1 is a compact digital camera that harks back to the look of older film-based models. Due to reach markets in November, the XF1’s aluminium body is wrapped in synthetic tan, black or red leather for a truly retro look. The camera will feature a 3-inch LCD, 12MP EXR-CMOS sensor, and an f1.8 25-100mm Fujinon lens with 4x optical zoom that’s operated manually (yes, you actually have to twist the zoom ring to adjust the setting – how vintage!) It also offers high-speed autofocus, 10fps continuous shooting and advanced filters to adjust your shots in-camera.
Take notes the smart way
In my opinion, no gadget in the world can compete with the allure of a Moleskine notebook and, with many mobile devices now sporting a stylus, it’s clear that straight-up scribbled notes are not yet lost on humankind. Now, like everything these days, notebooks have gone smart.
The Evernote Smart Notebook, available next month, comes from a partnership between note-taking software Evernote and revered notebook brand Moleskine. The limited-edition leather-bound notebook is designed specifically to work with the latest Evernote app for iOS and lets users transform their written notes to digital ones with ease.
There are two versions of the Evernote Smart Notebook, one with squared paper and one with lined paper. The dotted pattern on these pages lets users with Evernote for iPhone and iPad use a new function, Page Camera, to take a picture of a notebook page and transfer these to Evernote. The app not only perfects the image for viewing on a mobile device, it also recognises where the lines on the page are and corrects the alignment, meaning Evernote’s handwriting recognition can then translate the written text to a searchable digitised note.
The Smart Notebook also comes with Smart Stickers that the app recognises. Though these come with pre-defined tags, users can customise them to communicate whatever they want to the app.
Heads up for immersive 3D viewing
Sony’s new HMZ-T2 Personal 3D Viewer headset is now 20pc lighter than previous models and more comfortable for users to wear and experience high-definition 2D and 3D movies and gaming. The visual experience has also been improved with twin OLED screens offering sharp contrast and no blurring.
The headset offers users an immersive 45-degree field of vision, as well as virtual 5.1 surround sound. Further privacy is possible with a set of detachable and adjustable light shields that clip on or off the device.
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