A 13.6 Megapixel Digicam by SONY...!!!

Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-W300 digital camera is expected to be among the industry's most pocketable, high resolution point-and-shoot digital cameras.The camera announced yesterday integrates a 13.6 megapixel CCD imager along with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens, a 2.7-inch LCD screen and an eye-level viewfinder in a compact size. With its ultra-hard titanium coating, the model offers a premium look and finish that is highly-resistant to scratches and messy fingerprints.The W300 camera newly features an “extra high-speed” burst mode that can shoot three-megapixel photos at five frames per second, ideal for fast-action shooting of sports, pets or children.In addition to the blur-reducing effects of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization, the camera also has a new "extra high sensitivity" mode (up to ISO 6400 in this mode only) to help minimize blurry photos when shooting in challenging lighting conditions, such as indoors or at twilight, even without a flash.Sony’s Smile Shutter technology prioritizes the faces of children or adults so that the camera takes the photo at the moment the intended subject smiles. Improved face detection technology can also prioritize child or adult faces as the basis for the camera to apply focus, exposure, white balance and flash color controls for up to eight faces in the camera’s frame.The model’s intelligent scene recognition technology automatically can detect five different types of scenes and optimize the camera settings for those conditions for a better photo. And advanced mode can take two shots almost immediately – one with standard automatic settings and the other with optimized settings.The DSC-W300 camera and optional accessories will be available in the US in May for about $350 USD.Source

A Plethora of New Phones showcased by LG

LG today showcased the VX 10000 Voyager and the VX8800 amongst others in a range of new phones yet to be launched at the Mobile Asia 2008, Delhi. The phones are top of the line products to launched soon.
The Vx10000 looks like the Nokia communicator, and neat keypad hidden underneath the main screen. The phone also comes with a large external finger-touch display plus live broadcast TV. The external screen is touchscreen.
The VX 8800, also called the Venus is a CDMA slider quite similar to the 8550. Features include a music player, memory card slot, stereo Bluetooth, EVDO data, and a QVGA display.
Along with these phones, the KF600 and the KF510 were also showcased for the first time in India, after we saw them at the GSMA 2008 in Barcelona.
Apart from this, some of the phones showcased were the KF20, KP220, KC320, KM710 and the KG195.
KM710 comes with Bluetooth version 2.0 supporting A2DP, 3.2 MP camera Autofocus, OLED display inside the dial.
The KG195 is a basic phone that's equipped with a 1.8-inch screen, FM radio , MP3 player, GPRS, Bluetooth v 1.2. The KF20 comes with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6, wifi, 2 MP camera, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile, TV out, FM radio, supports microSD card for external memory.
The KP220 sports a 1.3 MP camera, Bluetooth 1.2, MPEG-4/Mp3 player and FM radio, while the KC 320 has a Micro SD slot, 3MP camera, Bluetooth v 1.2 and FM Radio. The pricing and availability is not known yet.Source

Cyber-shot DSC-H50 Superzoom unveiled by Sony...!!!

Sony today announced the latest addition to its high-zoom camera line, the 9.1 megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-H50 digital camera.This new model utilizes a powerful Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lens with Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization to capture action at a distance. One of the main lens elements is manufactured from super low-dispersion glass, which helps it produce more exact point-to-point correspondence between an object and its image. The lens yields sharp, high-contrast images and reduces color fringing, even when shooting in telephoto ranges.The camera also features a large, 3-inch tilting LCD screen so you can shoot comfortably from nearly any position, at low and high angles. Its scratch-resistant, UV hard-coat finish adds a premium look and feel that mirrors the performance of the model.Its improved “advanced sports” shooting mode now employs a system to apply higher shutter speeds, up to 1/4000 of a second, more frequently than on previous models. This mode combines high shutter speeds with predictive continuous auto-focusing so you can quickly focus and capture fast-moving subjects with minimal shutter lag - basically the time it takes for the camera to focus and shoot.Noise reduction is now a user-selectable option, with high, low and standard settings, for greater control over the final look of images. For example, a high setting used for portraits or night scenes can help produce smoothly textured images with reduced noise.The unit features extensive manual controls, including an exposure bracketing mode that newly includes settings for white balance and color modes. This function records three images, each with a different white balance or color mode applied, to help capture the ambiance of the original scene.
The camera also incorporates intelligent features that help you take better pictures more easily. They include improved smile shutter and face detection technologies with child or adult priority recognition, as well as, intelligent scene recognition with standard and advanced modes to analyze shooting conditions and select the optimal setting automatically.The H50 model will soon sit at the top of the Cyber-shot high zoom line. It will ship in the US by May 2008 for about $400 with a full line of accessory options.Source

An Internet Safety Task Force!!!

With "MySpace" getting frequent mention as the favored destination of pedophiles and sex predators, the site, in association with leading Harvard scholars, has taken the lead in creating an "Internet Safety Technical Task Force", whose mission will be to protect children and teenagers from online predators and pornography.Created by MySpace, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will be headed by Harvard Law School's 'Berkman Center for Internet and Society'. Berkman Executive Director, John Palfrey, said the group will operate independently, while its recommendations will be non-binding on the members. Palfrey is aided by two Berkman scholars in this effort: namely, Danah Boyd, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student, who is among the lead researchers on social-networking Web sites; and Dena Sacco, a former federal prosecutor in child-exploitation cases. Significantly, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will see participation from the creme-da-la-creme of industry: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and MySpace; along with non-profit organizations -- especially those focused on Internet safety.In a statement, Palfrey said that the safety concerns posed by the Internet are part and parcel of the safety concerns that arise in human interactions in the physical world. These concerns are not unique to any one service or technology platform; they are shared by the companies that provide Internet services, and the individuals who use these services. MySpace said in its statement that they hope to identify the technologies and tools that will be made available industry-wide to provide a safer online experience for all Internet users. Among a whole lot of other things, the "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" will explore ways how children can avoid unwanted contact and unwanted content when using MySpace and other popular online hangouts.And while 'age verification procedures' continue to attract expert criticism, they will nevertheless form an important part of the task force's agenda. Time and again, age verification tests have come under fire for being flawed, and for giving guardians and parents a false sense of security as regards the online safety of their children. However, officials continue to use these as some form of benchmark to keep so-called adults and kids separated in the online world. The task force, it appears, is no exception to this norm. All said, MySpace, for all the notoriety it has by now acquired as hot-spot for all kinds of predators and sex pests, has actively been searching for solutions for its problems. The "Internet Safety Technical Task Force" is another such solution; incidentally, the outcome of several meetings the site had with various Attorneys General across the US -- with 50 of them adopting a 'Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety' at the beginning of this year.Commenting on the special task force, Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace, said that the Berkman Center's impressive research on the challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet makes them the ideal leader for this task force.Meanwhile, the task force plans to offer quarterly reports on its findings, and present a final version next year.Source