The latest rumor reads like it's August all over again, but it does have one particularly disappointing aspect. According to the source, the iPod touch camera will match the not-so-hot quality of the nano's.

Here's to hoping the engineers can somehow stuff the iPhone's camera into an iPod Touch. Sure, there's not much space to work with in the Touch. And Apple releases iPods in fall, not spring, but we can believe. [The Examiner via 9 to 5 Mac]

There's a rounding-error bug in the camera driver's autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it'll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.

The 17th is the start of a new "works correctly" cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.

But of course! I understand perfectly why a camera would be dependent on the date. Chances are good that this will have a legit fix before 24.5 days are up, but man, what a weird bug. [Engadget via GadgetLab]

AT&T's 3G Network Sees 2,000% Increase Since iPhone 3G Release

In the wake of a big $65 million upgrade to its network here in the San Francisco Bay Area, AT&T revealed that the improvement was due to 3G usage being up 2,000% after the release of the iPhone 3G last year. That sounds like a crazy number for which the iPhone deserves all kinds of high fives, but it's really not surprising—how many AT&T 3G phones were there before the iPhone 3G, even? And of course 3G use across the board is up in crazy numbers, since smartphones have really started taking off in the last year or so—so to be honest, the number doesn't really mean all that much. Hence its ending up here in the sad pit of Remainders. [All Things D]

Droid Camera Fixed, Without Explanation?

The Motorola Droid camera is a serious problem. I can't compete with Matt's angry poetry on the subject, so here it is, clipped from his review:

The camera is complete garbage. It takes 10 years to start up, 2 to focus, and another 4 to actually take the goddamn picture. And there's no distinct visual feedback to let you know a photo's been snapped. And the photos suck. That pumpkin shot, in decent lighting, is as good as it gets. Like I said in the Android 2.0 review, I don't know if it's the hardware or the software, but it's inexcusably bad.

Yow. But users have spontaneously been reporting that the camera, all of a sudden, has stopped sucking—what's the deal? Apparently there was some kind of bug wherein a particular state of the clock (meaning, time of day) screws with the Droid's autofocusing, which sounds insane to me, but what do I know? Apparently it should work okay now, and while it's temporary, the incoming Dec. 11th bug fix should take care of things. [Electronista]

Genius Bar App Won't Help if Your iPhone Is Broken

Rumor has it that Apple is planning to add a Genius Bar app to the App Store (appappappapp) that will let you make appointments, track your place in line, and curse the world when you realize you can't use the app because your iPhone is broken, which is the whole reason you need to make the appointment in the first place. Catch 22 apps are the very best kind of apps. [TUAW]

Samsung Beats out Vizio for Top LCD Seller

I bet you've been waiting by your computer, eager to see who managed to eke out the top spot in the LCD sales wars this fiscal quarter. Will it be Vizio, the low-priced upstart who took the LCD world by storm? Or Samsung, the crafty veteran with the quality sets and sleek design? Looks like this quarter, Samsung took the prize—and it's in Remainders because honestly who cares, at all. [CrunchGear]

Thrustmaster's $20 kit offers variable color filters, a macro lens, a telephoto lens and a wide angle lens. It's great for illustrating the fact that lenses change the way a camera works, since it's not quite something that clicks solidly in your brain until you see it firsthand. But it's only $20, so it's not too much to waste when your kid loses all the pieces. [Thrustmaster via Ubergizmo via Crunchgear]

Kinda Like the Old One

The GoPro Hero HD is squarely based off the old model. It has the same mounting system, case, physical shape and user interface. It is so similar, I suggest you read the original short review I did and then come back here for the low down on what makes this one better. Here's the link. Or you could just take these basic points as a foundation.
• Awesome mounts for everything.
• Meant to be semi cheap so you don't sweat it, yet capable.
• It has a 170 degree field of vision and the case makes it waterproof to 100 feet. Very rugged.
• Two buttons for controlling the basic UI. Shoot, toggle modes. The UI is so rudimentary you'll often forget how to use it, but all you need to do is turn it on and shoot.
• There's no native LCD for viewing replays.
• It's not tiny.

The Video is Now HD

Instead of the paltry 512x384, the $270 camera with surf mount has several modes, most HD. On the silky smooth 60 frame per second mode there are standard definition resolutions of 848x480 or HD at 720p/1280x720. Both are 16:9 ratio, which is recommended only for motorsports or other activites where you're not trying to catch yourself in frame standing up. The 60 frames per second modes are noticeably smoother in normal playback but they're meant to also look better if you slow down the frame rate playback for slow motion in your favorite video editor. The grain was noticeably worse when using 60FPS indoors, but not a deal breaker.

In 30 frame per seconds, there are modes for 720p again, but also a 1280x960 which is 4:3 high def. That's the default and I used that for surfing which is (usually, if you do it right) something you do while standing. The 1080p mode is 16:9, and 30 frames per second but limits the field of vision from 170 to 127 degrees. Again, the 16:9 modes are used less than you'd expect in sports shots. There's also a center weighted mode for exposing the road when shooting from inside a car, and leaving the dashboard underexposed properly.

The bottom line is that this new camera is in HD. That's the big improvement

Quality

This is a still of the movie at full res, not the actual 5MP stills.
First, watch the movies the guys at the company produced here. Then watch my shitty one filled with shitty surfing. Colors were a little washy/green but the ocean and the sky together, with the lens collecting droplets, well, that isn't an idea situation. Watch it for yourself and form your own conclusions, but note the reflections off the water which will inform you of pretty decent autoexposure and sharpness. It's a vast improvement over other sports cams and the standard def version. Oh a little thing held over from the last generation that isn't a ding or a plus: the 170-degree angle is great for reducing apparent vibration and for making sure what you want in shot is in the frame, but has the unfortunate side effect of making things like waves and jumps and other otherwise impressive looking things seem smaller.

Storage Capacity

Average recording times:
1080p: 12 min/GB
960p: 14 min/GB
720p: 16min/GB @30fps; 11 min/GB @ 60fps

GoPro recommended you use fast SDHC cards to save battery life. And that on a 32GB card you can get almost 6 hours of recordings, although you'd be constrained by battery life. Oh one annoyance — every time you clear the card, the files are named from 001, 002, again. So if you copy them over to the same location, they'll ask you if you want to overwrite. I wish the camera kept its file name numbers in series.

Battery Life

The other big change is that instead of being powered by a pair of AAAs, GoPro jammed a 1100Mah 3.7 volt battery in the case. I did not do a full run down test, but shooting 51 minutes of video didn't reduce the charge one notch; GoPro estimates you can get 2.5 hours of battery life from the camera in normal climates, regardless of the definition of video you're shooting. The old model died quickly in the cold if you weren't using rechargeables but this camera's housing retains a bit more heat making it better for the winter. You charge it by USB. Unfortunately you can't charge it while doing a USB transfer, yet. They hope to fix this by firmware later.

Sound

Stills

I didn't test this mode, but GoPro claims the 5MP shots are better due to better processing. There are several still modes, as before: Single shot, triple shot that takes three shots over 2 seconds and a time lapse mode that can be set to record a shot every 2, 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds. And a 10 second delay timer. For me, this is not why you get a sports camera.

The Surf Mount, in Particular

Oh it's 3M double sticky and it seems to hold up just fine. You clean your board of wax and then use a bit of rubbing alcohol to apply it. Let it settle overnight. To get it off (permanently) you use a hair dryer, which sounds a bit scary when it comes to something nice and fiberglass, but what do I know? (That's why I put this one on a pop out longboard.

The Future

Another big but so far not useful thing on the new camera is the expansion port. they plan on offering a bigger back door for the case, so you can fit in an external LCD screen for replays or an extra battery pack. I like the idea. I'm thinking they could probably go ahead and work on making the camera smaller even if it costs a bit more, in the next generation, though. I like GoPro enough to use it, even though gadgets on the mountain or in the surf piss me off by way of distraction. Now that they've got mounts, higher resolutions and battery endurance covered, I think making it even smaller is the next step to making it more enjoyable.

High def modes

Best mounting options in the business

Rugged, yet affordable case good for bumps and waterproof to 100 feet

Wide angle lens captures 170 degrees of motion so you fit in the shot and vibration is dampened.

Smooth 60 frames per second great for action shots

Relatively cheap for what you get

Case kind of biggish
[GoPro]

It's been upgraded to 8GB of memory, up from 4GB, which gives it about two hours of 720p video recording. The aluminum shell feels great: Much more solid and smaller in the hand than the previous plastic version. The screen is also significantly bigger, feeling much less puny at 2-inches. The Flip software has also seen an update, with some nice minor editing and trimming features, and features automatic uploading to Facebook, Myspace and Youtube.

I haven't gotten the chance to play around with it too much, but video quality seems okay—about the same as past MinoHDs, and not as good as the Kodak zi8. The new MinoHD will sell for $230, while the original MinoHD will remain at $199 for 4GB. [Flip]

Flip MinoHD, 2nd Generation Camcorder Features:

* SRP: $229.99
* Now Available at leading retailers and online retailers
* Colors: Brushed Metal or personalized at theflip.com
* Video Resolution: High Definition, 1280 x 720
* Records: 2 hours (8 GB built-in memory)
* Screen: 2 inch – transflective (anti-glare); 960 x 240 pixels
* Audio: Built-in wide-range, omni-directional microphone; built-in speaker with software volume control
* Battery: Built-in rechargeable (Lithium Ion); up to 2 hours use
* TV Output: Widescreen with HDMITM output
* Zoom: 2 x Digital

After converting the image into a half-tone, the puncturing mechanism moves dot by dot. When all dots are precisely aligned reproduce the image, the camera screen tells you it's ready. Insert the paper in the slot, punch firmly as instructed, and get this:

Not only that, but apparently you can show the photo to a webcam, and it will automatically take you to a gallery with more—normal—images associated with the paper one.

We will probably never see it in the market, but I would really really reeeeelee love to have one of the prototypes. [matty martin via Likecool]

There's a ton of stuff here, some of it quite similar, but it's pretty certain these'll be popped into smartphones and other mobile devices come next year. The most interesting to me is that "5 megapixel CMOS system on a chip camera, which can process 1080p at 30 fps," which could make for a pretty badass lens in a smartphone—I don't think we've ever seen video recording that sharp. But they've also got a slew of ARM processors and a few low-power 1GHz chipsets called OneDRAM, along with a lot of other internals that may not be flashy but will doubtless be powering our mobile gadgets. [Engadget]

The ah-ha moment comes once one compares the exposed internals of the just released iPod touch with the internals put on display back in mid-August. For all intents and purposes they are identical. Additionally, both of the internals differ, "convincingly," from the guts in the iPod touch second generation unit, notes MacRumors.

So we know the camera was there, then it wasn't. And we know there's plenty of room left in there for at least an iPod nano-level cam.

We also know sources said this week that a camera could pop back in there without warning.

Regardless, this is all a rather peculiar development, no matter how Apple tries to spin things. It leads me, at least, to believe the rumors that said something happened at the very last minute. I'd also wait on picking one up just yet if you're holding out hope for an iPod touch w/camera. [MacRumors]

Apparently, this adjustment could come before next year's hardware refresh—"without warning" as one source put it. The source also claimed that the upgrade would happen only with the 32 and 64GB versions of the touch and would not affect current pricing. Should this information affect your buying decision? No, it's just a rumor after all. But chances are Apple will end up caving on this sooner or later. Jobs claims that the decision was about keeping costs down, but all of the chatter seems to indicate that having a camera on the touch might be a dealbreaker. [ipodnn]

Yes. That definitely goes beyond the general area of stupidity straight into the I'm a Bloody Moron, Please Shoot Me Dimension. It had to be a dumb Spaniard, of course, for this Euro-African country—alongside Italy and France—produces the biggest driving—and regular—dumbasses in the planet (I know because I was born there).

The 18-year-old driver—identified as J.C.R—was caught by the Spanish police while racing through the streets of the Northwest city of Vigo. The police noticed the speeding car at 2:50am. According to them, the guy was fishtailing, and running red lights while taking photos of himself using a cellphone.

When the police tried to stop him, the moron accelerated and tried to escape, only to be intercepted in another street. Then he tried to escape running and, when he realized he couldn't make it, he returned to his car, and crashed against one of the police vehicles that was chasing him.

Adding to this list of idiotic things, when the police tested his alcohol levels, he was off of the scale. In Spanish law, that means that you will get your driver's license automatically revoked. But then again—as the police discovered later—this guy doesn't even have a driver's license, so it's not that he's going to care about that. Not that he will need one in jail, anyway. [Yahoo! Noticias (in Spanish)—Thanks Mariló]

Like the X6—featured in Giz Gallery 2008—the X4 is a carbon fiber-bodied UAV with four carbon fiber rotating blades. The 680-gram (with battery) copter is capable of using a still/video camera (in this case, a Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot), an infrared camera and a low-light camera, all of which can be controlled from the ground. The X4 also features three accelerometers, three gyroscopes, three magnetometers and a barometric pressure sensor, and the controller is based on an OLED touchscreen. The X4 only has four motors to the X6's six, but that comes at a big boon to the pricey 'copter: The X6 checked in at about $15,000, and the X4 should be more like $10,000.

So yeah, this thing is still super expensive. But it's also just about the best heli-cam we've ever seen, capable of flying both indoors and in inclement weather (up to 18mph of wind). Check out these videos at Draganfly's site to get a real sense of the true badassery of the copter. [Draganfly]

The device features six LEDs, a small CMOS camera that shoots photos in 640×480 resolution or video in 1280×1024. Then you can upload your media files via USB for easy archiving. If only keeping stool samples was this easy. [Thanko via Crunchgear]

The thieving pair, Anthony Cintorrino and Tara Laburt, were the beneficiary of what those in the biz call an "inside job."

Cintorrino, a contractor who recently installed and maintained a number of the cameras, had intimate knowledge of where they were and how they could be taken down quickly and quietly. All he and Laburt needed was a cherry picker and some time, and the valuable Nikon cameras housed within were theirs for the taking. Sadly for we gadget geeks, no Nikon model number was given—anyone out there know which Nikon camera body/lens is best for snagging license plates at 50 feet? Update: It's a Nikon D2x, apparently. Thanks, snarky commenter!

In the end, the couple was nabbed by New York police, but not before they had stolen and resold $88,000 worth of hot goods with their cherry picker truck. Unfortunately for any New York drivers out there, everything was recovered, and the camera rigs were put back into place a mere 48 hours after the crimes were committed. [New York Post via Autoblog - Thanks for the pic, Derek]

According to Wired's source, they will go on sale in "two to three months." If I were AT&T, I would be very nervous about the prospect of Apple eventually gaining carrier independence with a 100% VoIP solution. The plot, boys and girls, is thickening. [Wired]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

There's a reason why both Canon and Nikon are both made in Japan. And if you're asking how I know this is Japanese without seeing the faces? Trust me, I can tell. [Boobieblog (NSFW) via Fleshbot (NSFW)]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.It looks like a pretty simple mod, both in materials required and construction method: It only needs a couple pieces of particle board, the aforementioned peephole lens, the spare lens shield that came with his camera, and of course some duct tape. The only possible caveat: The replacement wide-angle lens is significantly smaller than the camera's lens, so there's a circle around all of the shots. On the other hand, it's sort of cool; it makes everything look like you shot it through a hotel door. Check it out, we're sure it can be modified for other makes and models of DSLR. [Instructables]

Head to Nikon Rumors for the full list, but the short of it is that the D3000 and the D300 with HD movie are coming in August, D700X in October, D4 and D400 in Q2 2010, and D4X in late 2010. Supposedly. [Nikon Rumors]

It's compatible with the iPhone 3G only, for some reason, but 3G owners should be pretty excited—the case features wide-angle, closeup, and fisheye lenses that screw on to the back, in case you want all your contacts to look like they're in a late '90s rap and/or skateboard video. But it doesn't come cheap, at $200 for the case and $15-55 for each additional lens, and the company even warns that reception may not be so hot, considering all that metal between the receiver and signal. [Factron via Engadget]

The Price: $300 for two cameras and four magnetic wall mounts

The Verdict: It works and it's easy. The three pieces are self-configuring, and all you need to set it up is to plug the main gateway into an Ethernet jack and the wireless cameras will all hook up seamlessly. Here's the video quality:

It's not bad, especially for a wireless video recording from such a small camera. It's on par with a mediocre webcam, and is definitely good enough for a "security" cam. It's nothing you want to use for actual webcamming, but it's great for seeing whether or not your kids are doing their homework.

There are a few other interesting features, like video sharing and video recording. Recording is obvious, but sharing works by inviting your friends to view either live streams or recorded clips. You and your friends interact with the system via the Vue website, which is accessible inside or outside your network. The batteries are supposed to last a year (they're not rechargeable), but you can buy replacement CR123 batteries. You turn on recording from the interface and there is scheduling.

So is this worth $300? Probably, depending on how much you need something like this. There are cheaper solutions like hooking up a webcam yourself to a computer and somehow routing that online so you can access it anywhere. This involves port forwarding and all kinds of more technical workarounds. So for ease of use, performance and convenience (it's wireless and reaches 300 feet), it's hard to beat the Vue. We only wish that, for $300, this would come with four wireless cameras instead of just two. Available later this summer. [VueZone]

This DSLR battery clip charges via a special USB source (like Energizer's own portable battery pack, which has a higher voltage than standard USB) and clamps on to "any" digital camera or camcorder battery. The compatibility list is probably high, but we're unsure if any actually means any, so check out the site before buying. The entire Energi To Go line will be available next month. [Gearlog via Oh Gizmo]

"This breakthrough camera is without an equivalent anywhere in the world," says Norbert Hubin, head of the Adaptive Optics for ESO space agency. "The camera will enable great leaps forward in many areas of the study of the universe."

Ok, so the images are only 240 x 240, but it does produces around 10x digital noise than current VLT cameras. A mixture of speed and sensitivity like that is no small achievement. Images from the ground could be as crisp as those taken from space. [TechRadar]

All we've really got here are a few leaked photos—no specs, no price, no possible date of delivery—but what we can see, we really like. There's no front photo yet, but all signs point to a modern reimagining of the Pen F, which we outright demanded get the Micro Four Thirds treatment a few months ago. It's outfitted with a 17mm f2.8 prime lens, and looks to be about the size of a mid-to-large-sized point-and-shoot. Oh, and remember Olympus's expected June 15th announcement of a retro Micro Four Thirds camera, due for release in July? I've got a little tiny hunch that this might have something to do with it.

Photography blogs are buzzing with speculation about all facets of this (presumably) upcoming camera, but it's the concept, not the specific execution, that's exciting: we know Micro Four Thirds sensors can nearly match their APS-C counterparts in quality, and the the ever-expanding catalog of compatible glass ensures DSLR-like versatility for the emerging standard. Now, the format may well be getting its first body that people might actually want to buy. [1001NoisyCameras, 43Rumors via PocketLint]

But, supposing it's real, it's interesting to note that it appears to be on Wi-Fi. It's possible that it's like Skype and SlingPlayer and only work over Wi-Fi. On the other hand, we can't make that conclusion yet, but since video chat is a "data" service, it makes sense that it goes over whatever "data" service you're currently on (Wi-Fi or 3G). And it may be a simple photoshop anyway—just load and image, then add the green light in Photoshop (as shown here). In any case, remember to check out our liveblog on Monday to see the real iPhone reveal. [Nowhereelse—thanks Brendan]

In their atom pinhole camera, the atoms act like photons in an optical pinhole camera, but instead of light traveling through a lens, it travels through a pinhole on a mask and creates a high-res inverted image on a silicon substrate. This camera is capable of resizing nanostructures down to 30 nm—10,000 times smaller than the original. So, a camera with say 10 million pinholes could produce large numbers of identical (or diverse) nanostructures simultaneously.

It all sounds very promising, but the real question is will I be getting instant food, clothing and gadgets in my lifetime? Maybe—but chances are the "gadgets" will be a Rascal and the "clothing" will be Depends. [Physorg via KurzweilAI]

The Sony Ericsson W995a comes with Google Maps built-in to show to you where you are—using 3G triangulation, not GPS—and automatically adds your location to your photos.

As a Walkman player it uses dedicated physical playback buttons, supporting all the standard audio formats and including a built-in FM radio with presets. It also has Clear Stereo and Clear Bass technology, which Sony says enhances the audio quality, avoiding "channel leakage" and "bass distortion".

The Sony Ericsson W995a also comes with Media Go software, the newly announced media software that will allow you to access show and movies, as well as transcode video and music files optimized for the W995a hardware features.

The 1520 x 2032 pixel image looks very videoish, just like the iPhone. I was hoping for a better camera, but I guess that everyone is cutting corners when it comes to smartphones—and there's not enough space to make things a whole lot better.

But since one photo alone is not good enough to judge the quality of the camera, here is a gallery taken by Rik Sagar—Multimedia Software Engineer at Palm—with a Pre.

I wish he had some taken in darker environments, to see the speed, but it doesn't look much different from the iPhones or Blackberries of this world. I hope someone releases one with a better camera built-in, at least as good as the ones found in some cameraphones. [Flickr—thanks Stephan—and yfrong via Twitter—Thanks Kat]

Using a wireless USB tether—specifically, a Cables Unlimited Wireless Adapter Kit—Peter Tsai, a professor in photography, created an easy and cheap tethering module that supposedly seamlessly worked with his Nikon DSLR. Apparently, it also could transfer photos over Wi-Fi from his camera to his computer even quicker than an official $800 WT-4a transmitter. Although it took slightly longer for the dongle to sync with his computer, once connected, it was reportedly able to transfer photos shot in RAW in eight seconds and JPEG photos in four. Tsai also said you could use Nikon's Camera Control 2 software on your computer to remotely control your camera.

However, Tsai pointed out that this particular hack only works with PCs, and that the particular wireless adapter kit needed a bulky AC power brick for it to work. Although he was able to solder a 4-AAA powerpack to the kit, he says he is still looking to fix the problem, and hopefully create an encasing for his homemade adapter to keep it contained and make it into a camera handgrip. [PeteTek via Wired]

The LumoPro Hot Shoe Universal Translator comes with a male hotshoe that connects to the camera, and a female that connects to the flash. In the middle, the little cube has a PC socket—to trigger it—and a 3.5mm mini-jack socket to connect to additional flashes to blind your object with light. [Product Page via Wired]

Possibly the most frustrating part of photography is the age-old trade off between light sensitivity and speed. Using a fast shutter speed means less light enters the camera, usually leading to underexposed, dingy images. However, by using new Serial Time-Encoded Amplified Microscopy (STEAM) technology, scientists have overcome these limitations.

The STEAM camera illuminates objects with an infrared laser that emits a different wavelength for each pixel captured. The camera's sensor then electronically amplifies the original, dim signal with a matching wavelength until it becomes visible.

Compared to the multi-million-pixel images produced by standard digital cameras, the current STEAM prototype only produces images composed of just 3,000 pixels. Yet there is a multi-megapixel camera in the works that the scientists hope will be competitive against consumer cameras. [Wired—Thanks Mark!]

As much as we love complicated, Arduino-based wonders of homemade coding, sometimes it's nice to see a simple, MacGuyvered mechanical creation. We're not sure anyone would want to make exactly this example, but check out the guide, it'll give you an idea how he made it. [Instructables via Lifehacker]