Sony PlayStation 4 Review And Giveaway

The PlayStation 4 is the most powerful games console on the planet. With more graphical power than the Xbox One, 32 times more system memory than the PS3 and a firm focus on pure gaming experiences rather than media mojo, it has established itself as the next-gen console to beat.

It's a games console built by gamers for gamers. It won the hearts and minds of many from the word go, with lots of prospective next-genners left feeling alienated by some of Microsoft's bizarre policies and choices for the Xbox One – many of which were reversed as a result of a backlash.

Coming in at £350, the PS4 is also £80 cheaper than the Xbox One, making it appear terrific value. It doesn't come with the PlayStation Camera (the One does come with Kinect) but this can be bought separately for £45 if you so wish.

The differences between the PS4 and Xbox One are actually evident before you even switch them on. Despite the two consoles both sporting similar half-matte half-gloss finishes and containing very similar internal components, they really couldn't be more different.

For a start, the PS4 is small and sleek in comparison to the enormous VCR-like square cuboid of the Xbox One. And this means that the PS4's box is half the size and weight of the Xbox One. The Sony console can be extracted from its packaging and plugged in and booted up in a couple of minutes.

The new DualShock4 pad is an improvement but it's not perfect

Xbox One on the other hand comes in a huge, hulking box. It's fiddly to open and unpack, and it's full of little compartments, carboard and plastic to get in the way and make a mess with. The environment was not a concern for Microsoft when it designed the Xbox packaging, clearly.

This is the kind of streamlining that typifies the PlayStation experience with PS4. It's a console designed for gamers to play games and in this respect it could be described as more of spiritual successor to the PlayStation 2 – still the best selling games console the universe has ever known.

Design

One look at the PS4 and you know you're seeing Sony hardware. It's slim, sleek and jet black, roughly the size of a second generation PS3 Slim. The full measurements are 275 x 53 x 305 mm. It's a lot more compact than an Xbox One, which is longer, taller and squarer.

In a feat of engineering worth tipping your hat to, and in spite of the PS4's slim stature, Sony has tucked the power supply inside the system, leaving no external power brick to trip over. The Xbox One on the other hand retains the power brick of the Xbox 360.

PS4 sports a sloped, asymmetrical design. That's its largest departure from PlayStations past. It lies flat on its belly by default, but can go up on its tiptoes with the help of a plastic stand, sold separately for £16.99.

On its face is a slit of a mouth, a slot loading Blu-ray disc drive. To its right are two powered USB 3.0 ports, which can charge your DualShock 4controllers when the system is turned off, a feature the PS3 sorely lacked.

Along the top, or the side if you've opted for the stand, is a light, which glows blue when you boot it up. It breathes some life into the otherwise cold industrial design of the system. Turn it on and it blinks a yawning hello.

PS4 specifications

Inside, the PS4 is all business. It has a custom single-chip processor that combines an eight core x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" CPU with a 1.84 teraflop GPU based on AMD's Radeon tech. That's backed by 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a 500GB mechanical hard drive.

Sony claims that the PS4's overall performance is ten times that of the PS3. You can also remove that 500GB drive and replace it with a larger drive, or an SSD for better performance. Sony says these do it yourself upgrades will not void the system's warranty.

Those two USB ports are the PS4's only front facing connections. In the rear you'll find HDMI, Ethernet, a digital optical audio out and a proprietary auxiliary connection for the PlayStation Camera.

For wireless connections, the PS4 uses 802.11 b/g/n for WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 for its wireless DualShock 4 controllers.

Features

The PlayStation 4 is a living room computer, more so than the PS3 ever was. Not just because of its specs and AMD-based architecture, but because of its robust feature set.

It's capable of bringing games and movies quickly into your home, as well as connecting you to your friends and other online gamers through the PlayStation Network as well as Twitter and Facebook to share brag-worthy gaming moments.

How do I win the Sony PlayStation 4?

You may enter by submitting your name and email address. You’ll receive one entry simply by doing so.

After that, you’ll also be offered various methods to earn additional entries. They range from sharing a link to this giveaway on social networks; to commenting or visiting a specific page. The more you participate, the higher your chances of winning! You will receive 5 additional entries into the giveaway for every successful referral via your shared links.

Enter the giveaway

Create & Host Unlimited Websites For Free With Webydo [Giveaway]

Webydo is a web design cloud platform that allows designers to create advanced HTML websites with built-in CMS, without writing code. Webydo works on the intuitive W-Y-S-I-W-Y-G (What You See Is What You Get) principle. It also works with tools similar to those used in other software such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign, but with the ability to design directly in browser. While designers drag and drop their design elements on canvas, Webydo's cloud software automatically generates the cross-browser and cross-platform compatible HTML code as well as a built-in CMS for the ongoing content updates by the website owner.

Overview

Webydo is a cloud-based software as a service, providing two integrated work environments that can be used directly in the browser:

1. A DMS (design management system) professional online software for creating and designing advanced HTML websites.
2. A CMS (content management system) for content updates by the website owner.

Webydo's DMS has an intuitive WYSIWYG design interface that allows designers to drag and drop into the online canvas design elements such as images, texts, videos, flash, galleries, menus, custom designed forms, widgets, or their own HTML code. A July 2013 partnership with the e-commerce widget provider Ecwid also added a built-in e-commerce functionality. Designers can start their clients' sites from scratch on a blank canvas, choose a layout or take inspiration from pre-made designs (in which each element can be modified).

When the designer decides to publish the website, Webydo’s code generator automatically creates the HTML code, which is updated to the latest industry standards (W3C valid), cross-browser and cross-platform compatible, optimized for search engines and comes with built-in content management system (CMS) and SEO management tools. The CMS permits further updating, deleting and creating new content in the website by the website owner. Designers can lock specific design elements, preventing unwanted changes made by their CMS clients and preserving full artistic control.

Webydo also hosts the published websites and provides automatic backups and data protection. The partnership between Webydo and Akamai gives access to the latter's content delivery network, permitting uploads to the closest server and subsequent duplication in all the other worldwide servers of the network.

Webydo is a B2B website builder intended primarily for professional designers who want to create advanced custom-made websites for their clients including a CMS, without writing code. Unlike do-it-yourself B2C website builders that target un-professional users and offer simple pre-designed templates, Webydo provides a professional platform. Webydo’s cloud system offers professional design tools that eliminate designers’ dependency on developers and enable their direct communication with their clients.

Webydo also provides a set of tools intended to help designers build an independent web design business, with a dashboard that permits handling multiple websites with features created specifically for designers, like:

• Build your brand - designers can re-brand Webydo as their own;
• Bill your client - designers can invoice clients for services directly from Webydo's dashboard;
• Share your site design - in order to ease the communication with their clients, designers can allow them to edit in the CMS (as a cloud-based software). They can also choose elements on their websites that are uneditable regions (the client will only be able to update the content while the designer has total access to the design).

Webydo business model is freemium, offering designers a free use of Webydo’s online software as well as free hosting of unlimited amount of websites on Webydo's sub-domain. A Premium plan allows designers to add web domains to their clients' websites, CMS and SEO management tools, more storage and an unlimited number of pages.

How do I win a Webydo Premium account?

You may enter by submitting your name and email address. You’ll receive one entry simply by doing so.

After that, you’ll also be offered various methods to earn additional entries. They range from sharing a link to this giveaway on social networks; to commenting or visiting a specific page. The more you participate, the higher your chances of winning! You will receive 5 additional entries into the giveaway for every successful referral via your shared links.

Enter the giveaway from here

Nexus 5 Review And Giveaway

The Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 KitKat carries on the recent tradition of top-tier specs and relatively budget prices from Google, and in this review, we're going to take a look at whether the device hangs with the best of them.

We've come to expect Nexus devices to be developer-only handsets that never reach the type of hype or adoption that the HTC One or Galaxy S4 would get. Google doesn't really advertise Nexus devices to the masses the way that Samsung or Apple does, and Nexus devices are generally not on par with other flagship handsets in terms of build quality and performance.

When the Nexus 4 launched in late 2012, the most enticing thing was its initial $300 price point. For an unlocked device with decent hardware, it seemed like a steal. But we soon learned that its shortcomings were often too much to bear.

Now we're at the Nexus 5, a solid smartphone with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 chipset and 2GB RAM. It has a 2,300mAh battery and a 5-inch 1080p display. It also features the latest version of Android - 4.4 KitKat.

You'd think it would come with a hefty price tag, but for 16GB and 32GB versions, you're only looking at $349 and $399, respectively, in the U.S. That's unlocked.

If you're thinking it seems too good to be true, we can't blame you. What, if any, corners did LG and Google have to cut in order to bring the price down to affordable levels?

Let's skip the boring Nexus history lesson and dive right into what matters - the Nexus 5 itself.

Design

First, let's talk hardware design. The Nexus 5 features a 5-inch 1080p IPS display - that's 1920 x 1080, giving us 445 PPI. If you can pick out the pixels on this display, please donate your eyes to science.

The display itself is crisp, although its colors are less saturated than what you'd find on the HTC One or iPhone 5s. The Nexus 5's display doesn't get as bright as those devices, either, but it's not a big deal.

If punchy colors and contrast is your thing, the Nexus 5 might only disappoint you if you consistently compare it to other devices. Otherwise, you won't notice it over time.

Being a 5-inch display device, the phone itself is pretty large, but not entirely unwieldy. It measures 5.43 x 2.72 x 0.34 inches. Because the bezel is so narrow, the device itself isn't pushed wider by its large display.

And because LG opted for plastic here, rather than a glass front and back like the Nexus 4, it's not too heavy.

Above the display, there is a round earpiece, and it gets surprisingly loud given its size. To the left of that is the front-facing camera, and down below the display is an LED notifier. You don't see anything down there unless you have notifications, and the glowing light seems to come from nowhere. Magic.

The base of the Nexus 5 has a microUSB port for charging and syncing, and two grills - one housing a speaker, and the other a microphone. The top of the device has a 3.5mm headset jack and a small hole for a microphone that may act as a noise cancellation feature.

Around the edges of the device, there are ceramic volume and power buttons. The left has a flat, almost sharp-edged volume button, and the power button is to the upper right side.

Some colleagues of ours say the ceramic buttons are a nice touch, although it feels weird given the sharp edges. It's nothing that bothers us, but something we noticed.

Flip the device over, exposing its backside, and you'll see the word "Nexus" emblazoned on the soft-touch cover. There is an 8MP camera in an unusually large module, and an LED flash just beneath it.

Because it's a Nexus device, you can't remove the cover to replace the battery, and there is most certainly no microSD card slot for those of you wondering. If you buy the 32GB version, which we would recommend over the 16GB version, you shouldn't have to worry too much about space.

In-hand feel and use

Now that you have a good idea for what the Nexus 5 looks like, let's talk about using the thing. Because it's still a 5-inch display smartphone, it will be large for many hands. We have some tall folks on our staff with bigger than average hands, and stretching up to the corners with our thumbs was still a little much.

One thing we noticed immediately when picking up the device was its weight. It's very light, thanks mostly to LG's use of plastics here. It certainly doesn't have the same premium feel that the HTC One or iPhone 5S has, but it's easy to forgive because of its price point.

The soft touch back can get pretty greasy even if you wash your hands frequently, but it's easily wiped away. We tend not to get so picky with these things anymore, but we know there are folks who like their devices looking pristine.

While we're going to dive deeper into the software, we will say this: it is fast. Given its lack of garbage apps and widgets from carriers, and perhaps buggy interfaces from manufacturers, the Nexus 5 flies.

We didn't have any real issues with software except for the occasional app crash, but that might have more to do with apps not being fully optimized for this new version of Android.

If you're buying the Nexus 5, chances are you already know what you're getting into. While we'd like to believe otherwise, most of the folks we know buying the Nexus 5 have known about its coming for some time.

Enter the giveaway

Sony DSC-QX100 Smartphone Attachable Lens Review and Giveaway

How badly do you want to take great photographs? Enough to tote around a dSLR with you wherever you go? While I do know one die-hard photographer who lugs her camera around wherever she goes, most of us lack the dedication. So we’re left with the camera that’s already in our pocket — our smartphone. Sadly, most smartphone photos are far from great, at least in terms of raw image quality.

So what’s a person to do? Sony thinks it has the answer, in the form of the DSC-QX100. This is $498 camera… without a viewfinder or a screen. It latches onto the screen you carry around anyway (your smartphone), and adds some truly stellar optics for results you could never get using just your smartphone.

They’re giving away a Sony DSC-QX100 after this review! So read through, then join the competition to win!

The Competition: Point-And-Shoots

The DSC-QX100 is basically a type of point-and-shoot camera. That’s quite literal at times, because it works even if you don’t connect it to your phone — so you can simply point it at something and shoot, without looking through a viewfinder to compose anything.

When it comes to raw specs, the DSC-QX100 packs a 20.2 megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens. The lens is 28-100 mm equivalent, with 3.6x optical zoom, and an F1.8-4.9 aperture and optical image stabilization. It has a MicroSD card slot which also accepts proprietary Sony media (Memory Stick Micro), and built-in Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities it uses to talk to your phone. It weighs 179 grams (0.39 lb.), has a diameter of 63 mm, and is 56 mm tall when closed.

But really, the best way to understand the DSC-QX100 is in the context of its two closest peers in Sony’s family of cameras:

• The DSC-RX100M II: This is Sony’s excellent point-and-shoot. Stellar image quality, and a price to match: $748.
• The DSC-QX10: This is the DSC-QX100′s little brother, retailing for $248. It is noticeably more compact than the DSC-QX100 and offers 10x optical zoom to the DSC-QX100′s 3.6x, but is inferior to it in many other ways.

So the DSC-QX100 is right there in the middle, and for a reason: It uses the exact same optics and sensor as the RX100M II. This is good news, being a proven combo that can reliably produce some truly beautiful images. You can look at it as a way of getting the RX100M II’s important bits at a saving of $250 — but it also means it can be clunkier to use.

What’s In The Box

The DSC-QX100 doesn’t come with many accessories. The nice, circular box contains:

• The camera
• A lanyard attachment (very handy, given its cylindrical, slippery shape)
• A battery
• A smartphone attachment

And that’s about it.

Toting The DSC-QX100 Around

Even just carrying the DSC-QX100 around, you can already feel it’s all about compromises: It’s too big to fit in your pocket, but just carrying it in your hand won’t do you much good either. You need to have it connected to your phone in order to see what you’re shooting — so you end up carrying both devices in one hand, with the camera latched onto your phone.

The latching mechanism is composed of two foldable arms with a strong internal spring. Stretch the arms open, stick your smartphone in-between, and they’ll firmly grip the camera in place. 

Enter the giveaway from here

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 Launched

Samsung has announced the successor to the Galaxy Grand, the Galaxy Grand 2. The South Korean handset maker has not revealed the price for Galaxy Grand 2 and has also not announced the availability details for the smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box. The Galaxy Grand 2 is a dual-SIM device with support for GSM+GSM. It features a 5.2-inch HD TFT display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels.

The Galaxy Grand 2 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor alongside 1.5GB of RAM. It sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by an LED flash. It also houses a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with 8GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 64GB via microSD card.

Connectivity options on the Galaxy Grand 2 include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ AGPS, micro-USB and 3G (HSPA+).

The smartphone measures 146.8x75.3x8.9mm and weighs about 163 grams. The Galaxy Grand 2 packs a 2600mAh battery that can deliver up to 17 hours of talktime, although no standby time detailed.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 will be available in Black, Pink and White colour variants in select regions.

Samsung has decided to pre-load the Galaxy Grand 2 with some some of the popular apps seen on flagship smartphones, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3, like Story Album, which can organise pictures by timelines; S Translator, company's proprietary translation service; S Travel, which offers guides and travel details; Samsung Hub, company's own content service that offers access to music, videos and games. The phone also comes with Group Play, a feature first seen on Galaxy S4, which lets users play music or games together, as well as share documents.

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 key specifications

• 5.2-inch HD TFT display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels
• 1.2GHz quad-core processor
• 1.5GB of RAM
• Dual-SIM (GSM+GSM)
• 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash
• 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera
• 8GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 64GB via microSD card
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ AGPS, micro-USB and 3G (HSPA+)
• 2600mAh
• 146.8x75.3x8.9mm
• 163 grams

5 Most Dangerous Computer Viruses of All Time

Computer viruses can be a horror dream. Today, we want to tell you about 5 most dangerous computer (PC) viruses of all time. The Morris Worm or Internet worm was the first ever computer virus written by a student at Cornell University, Robert Tappan Morris, infected around 6K major computers in 1988, causing unprecedented havoc. Computer is a part of our daily life but viruses are the biggest problem for every computer user and Tech world till date.

Internet security firm Norton has made informative graphic about the five biggest viruses of all time. The real fact that the internet has become the heart of new generation means that it has also become a main target for hackers and crackers around the world. Read about the most devastating computer viruses (Mydoom, Sobig.F, ILOVEYOU, Code Red, and Slammer) the world has ever seen and discover exactly what made them so damaging.

5 Most Dangerous Computer Viruses of All Time

My Doom (2004)

My Doom that spread through email. When the unsuspecting victim opened the email, the mischievous code downloaded itself and then pilfered the new victim’s Outlook address book.

• Damages - $38,000,000,000
• Computers Infected - 2,000,000

Sogbig.F (2003)

Once the user opened the email, it triggered the worm, which then went hunting for addresses.

• Damages - $37,100,000,000
• Computers Infected - 2,000,000

I Love You (2000)

A nice look email attachment titled “I Love You”. When opened, it unleashed a malicious program that overwrote the users’ image files. It was created to steal Internet access passwords.

• Damages - $15,000,000,000
• Computers Infected - 500,000

Code Red (2001)

A dangerous worm that exploited an operating system vulnerability in machines running Windows 2000 and Windows NT. This allowed it to deface and take down some websites.

• Damages - $2,600,000,000 
• Computers Infected - 1,000,000

Slammer (2003)

Slammer caused a denial of service on some Internet hosts and dramatically slowed down general Internet traffic. It worked by releasing a deluge of network packets, units of data transmitted over the Internet, bringing the net on many servers to a near screeching halt.

• Damages - $1,200,000,000
• Computers Infected - 200,000

How Fast They Spread

How to Take Better Pictures for Beginner Photographers

Photography can be a fun and exciting activity for all who have a passionate interest in learning some of the fundamentals of the use of their camera. I have done photography from the time I was perhaps five or six years old watching my father shoot then do his own black and white darkroom work in which I participated in, on a regular basis. I am a Photographer and Illustrator and have a keen interest in the medium from both a business and a teaching standpoint.

Photo captured by Scott Milner (Click Image to See More From Scott Milner)

Now lets get down to the business of this article: First I’d like to discuss the use of the camera and its various controls. I am going to focus on the single lens reflex style of digital camera. In the old days before many digital cameras were around, many film cameras had a dial or turn knob usually on the top right hand side of the camera when viewing from the back of the camera to set both the (ISO ) and the shutter speed.

(I.S.O.) is the abbreviation for the International standardization organization, a governing body based in Europe that provides the standards for a wide variety of subjects.also known as the film or digital cameras sensitivity speed, (The old name for ISO was ASA (The American Standard Association).

The ISO controls the sensitivity of the digital camera to light. A low ISO generally 100 can be used for shooting when there are good lighting conditions in a variety of lighting situations such as outdoors or indoors providing that there is enough light to get a good shutter speed and aperture (f-stop) combination. A low ISO generally will produce a clean image without digital noise ( digital noise is a dotty appearance in your image which can look like grainy colored dots that will reduce the appearance of detail or sharpness in your image, this can be even more apparent when you enlarge your images to larger sizes: 8.5×11.0, 11×14 and up. (In the film days this would have been called grain instead of digital noise.)

When you are shooting pictures in darker lighting conditions generally you must increase the ISO and make the camera have a greater sensitivity to light when shooting in situations such as a cloudy, dark overcast day or indoors under lower lighting situations. In this case you can increase the ISO perhaps to 400 or higher. Just remember that as you increase the ISO higher you may increase the digital noise giving your images a dotty or grainy colored look in color digital photography.

Generally on many digital cameras such as Canon cameras there will be a button labeled ISO either on the top or the back of the camera and a thumb wheel close to the shutter release on the camera. If you push the ISO button and hold it in then toggle the thumb wheel back and forth, you will see on the digital display either on the top of the camera or on the back LCD display the various ISO’s that you can make changes to! (See your owners manual for your particular camera)

“Impending Storm” captured by ian newton (click image to see more from ian newton)

Shutter Speed: is the duration of time that your cameras shutter remains open: This can be either a fast shutter speed or a long shutter speed. Shutter speeds go from very fast speeds such as 1/8000 all the way down to 30 seconds on many digital cameras of today. 30 seconds being of a longer duration. On a Canon Camera the dial for shutter speeds is designated as Tv ( Meaning time Value) After you set this to Tv you can toggle your shutter speeds up or down with the thumb wheel that is generally located behind your shutter release button on your camera. As you toggle the thumb wheel back and forth notice the different speeds: 1/8000,1/6400, 1/5000,1/4000, 1/3200,1/2500,1/2000,1/1600.1/1250,1/1000,1/800.1/640,1/500,1/400,1/320, 1/250,1/200,1/160,1/125,1/100,1/80,1/60,1/50,1/40,1/30,1/25,1/20,1/15,1/13,1/10,1/8,1/6,1/5,1/4, of a second and lower. (The large numbers such as 1/8000 to 1/2000 of a second are very fast shutter speeds used for stopping extremely fast action such as a race car speeding by, a spaceship taking off or something that happens quick.

Long shutter speeds are used to capture images in lower light when you don’t have to stop as much action: Some examples are: shutter speeds from 1/4th of a second up to 1/30th of a second. Often we start with these speeds when we are shooting an image in lower light situations because the cameras shutter is open for a longer period of time. When shooting at these shutter speeds you need to hold your camera steady and put your elbows against your chest, take a deep breath in and hold it then push the shutter release in or put the camera on a tripod to steady it. ( Don’t forget to breathe regular again). Here are some scenarios that may help you: 1/60th of a second is a good starting point to stop action in; a person walking in a relatively slow walk can be successfully photographed clearly at that speed. So lets say from 1/60th of a second and higher ( 1/60th, 1/80th, 1/100th and up in shutter speed )

Aperture: ( Also known as lens opening ) Imagine holes or openings that go from large ( bigger to smaller):

F 1.4, F 2, F 2.8, F 4, F 5.6, F 8, F 11, F16, F 22, F32, These openings control the amount of light that reaches the sensor in the digital camera much in the same way that shutter speeds do but the iris or lens opening stays at a constant depending on the speed you set it for during the shot. Along with the various lens openings we have another thing to think about, Depth of Field. Depth of field governs what parts of our image are sharp and what parts of the image are out of focus. If you select a lens opening (aperture) also known as an F-Stop anywhere from F32 which is a small opening or wider up to f11 you will have a lone depth of focus. Imagine your looking over a table near the long end and have set up several cereal boxes standing up from one end of the table to the other or dominos standing up like soldiers one in front of the other. With one of the lens opening as we just suggested, if you focus your camera lens at the first box or domino you will generally have sharp focus from the front to the back cereal box or domino in the image.

If you were to take a picture at a larger lens opening or aperture such as f 1.4, f2, f2.8, f4 you will most likely achieve a shallow depth of focus where if you focus on the front cereal box or domino then the cereal boxes or dominoes closer to you will be in focus and the cereal boxes or dominoes going further would appear out of focus. The larger aperture’s are used in photography to get softer images in photographs such as portraits and wedding pictures as well as in images of children. Have you ever noticed how when you watch a movie or TV show, how depth of field is masterfully controlled by the camera men or camera women by using a larger (bigger, wider lens opening) this allows the characters in the scene to have most of the attention drawn to them and blurring out the background which can distract you from whats going on.

“Natures Tears” captured by Gary C (Click Image to See More From Gary C)

On a Canon digital camera the way to set an aperture is to turn the upper dial usually to the Av mode, this will let you set the aperture first instead of the shutter speed.

About Measuring Light in a Scene: All cameras with a light meter to measure light are usually calibrated to see a tonal value of 18% middle gray! No matter what you aim the camera at it wants to get an exposure value of 18% middle gray. Tonal values are shades that go from very light to very dark imagine a gray scale and middle gray is a tone that is in the middle area which is not light and not dark but in between.

There are various ways to get a good exposure in photography, aside from putting the camera in the P or program mode where everything is set for you. This mode will work well in many situations but not all. Don’t get into using the built in flash, a flash flattens form in the image and generally is only effective up to about 10 feet or so. Learn how your camera measures light and in what areas. (read your cameras manual) Generally the center area in the middle when you look through the finder is where you want to aim the camera to take a meter reading. If you are shooting a portrait of a person, try to aim the camera up close to the subjects skin, press your shutter button in half way, then move to the position that you’d like to take the picture from. Some cameras have an exposure lock button that you can push to remember the camera settings.

When you look through the viewfinder usually at the bottom of the image area you will see a series of numbers usually going from a -3 to a plus +3. Directly in the middle between the -3 and + 3 is your normal exposure starting point. Push your shutter button half way while adjusting the thumb wheel, turn it back and forth until you see a indicator line up in between or in the middle. Take your picture view it in the play mode, determine if the shot looks too dark or too light. If its too light toggle the thumb wheel letting the indicator in the finder lean more toward the – area! If the image is too dark toggle the thumb wheel so that the indicator in the finder lines up more toward the + direction. Always study the results and ask yourself questions.

“Around the castle” captured by Zuzana (Click Image to See More From Zuzana)

Tv Mode: You set the shutter speed and the camera will set the aperture (f-stop) Use this when you want to control the action stopping ability of your camera. Remember someone walking slowly, use 1/60th of a second and up. If shooting a car going by fast use 1/200th of a second and up, if you were shooting in low light situations use a longer shutter speed such as 1/30th of a second and longer but be steady when you hand hold or use a tripod.

Av Mode: In this case you want to think about the range of focus, You set the lens opening (aperture) and the camera will set the shutter sped. Use a lens opening that is big like an f 1.4, f 2, f 2.8, f 4 to get a shallow depth of focus, good for portraits or when shooting those cereal boxes where objects in the front of the image are sharp but are out of focus as you go back further in the distance. Use a smaller lens opening when you want sharpness from front to back.

M: In the Manual mode you set both the shutter speed and the aperture (f stop lens opening yourself)

Role Of Light And illumination in photography

Light and illumination are the basics of photography. The very word “photography” comes from two Greek words, phos meaning light, and graphis meaning drawing. Hence, photography can be described as “drawing with light”. As we start the lesson, I want to wish you a pleasant and illuminating session!

Photo captured by Franz Veilhart (Click Image to See More From Franz Veilhart)

If you ask me to name the most important thing in photography, I would say light. Without light, there is no illumination. In a room without illumination, everything is pitch black. You can’t see a thing. Taking a shot – assuming your camera allows you to – produces a solid black photograph. You switch on a lamp, and you send light across the room, and everything is illuminated. Now you can take a photograph and show something in the picture. You realize that your eye and the camera both need light and illumination to work.

Photography is about capturing light and recording it, whether on paper, or more frequently now, in a digital format. As a photographer, you control the amount, intensity and duration of light required to create the picture. The apparatus used to draw with light is called the camera, which comes from camera obscura, a box with a hole for light to pass through and strike the backwall of it. The name “camera obscura” actually means dark chamber, and indeed, the word “camera” is still used in some languages such as Italian to mean “room” or “chamber”.

There is a saying that the camera never lies. Actually, the camera is rarely capable of telling the whole truth. Without even going to what the camera shows, it often cannot even get the brightness right. Have you ever taken a photograph, and the shot seems brighter or darker than what you remember the scene to be? With a digital camera, you can even see then and there how distant the difference between what you see in front of you and what the camera recorded. Why is that so?

The camera and our eyes work in pretty much the same way. The difference between the two is that our eyes are better able to handle wide differences in light intensity. For example, if you take a photograph from inside a room with an open window, you may get the room properly exposed but the window is too bright, or the window looks right but the room too dark. Yet our eyes don’t have such a problem: they can see everything inside the room and outside the window properly exposed. The reason is, our eyes can compensate for the wide difference in light whereas the camera cannot.

“Evening Reflection” captured by Ævar Guðmundsson (Click Image to See More From Ævar Guðmundsson)

Secondly, our eye is more sensitive to light than most of the amateur/prosumer cameras. In a dark environment, such as inside a movie theatre, our eyes can still adjust to the lack of light and allow us to see the rows of chairs and people. Most cameras would have difficulty focusing under such a demanding condition.

So are we saying that the eye shows reality but the camera doesn’t? Neither is capable of showing us reality all the time. What our eye and the camera do is that they provide their interpretation of reality. What we see with our eye and what we see with the camera are what they are capable of showing us. As an example:

Switch on a fan. You see the blades start to turn. Soon the blades become a blur. Now aim a camera at the fan, set it to the highest shutter speed and take a shot of the fan. The picture comes out showing the blades seemingly motionless. Why is it that our eyes show the blades blur while the camera shows them still?

On the other hand, have you seen photographs taken in crowded public places such as railway stations or airports, where the people seem to be blur? Your eyes never show you people as a motion blur, and yet that’s how they look like in the photo. How is that possible?

Our eyes are capable of showing a moving object as sharp, up to a certain speed. Beyond that, it becomes a blur. The camera, on the other hand, will record the object as sharp or blur, depending on the shutter speed that we set. Our eyes and the camera both provide an interpretation of reality, but they interpret reality in their own way. Moreover, our eyes see things in continuous motion while the camera captures a moment.

Have you seen a photo where people appear as motion blur? Have you seen a photo where the subject is sharp but the background of off-focus? Or a photo of a stream where the water become a milky blur? Or an ocean where the rolling waves are frozen? These are all possible with a camera, even though reality doesn’t look like that at all. And yet, often such pictures are regarding as being very well taken.

That takes us back to the art of photography. It is after all, an art form. Art doesn’t have to look like reality. Art can be very unreal as still look pleasing. As a photographer, your goal is to create photographs that are pleasing to the eye. The next time someone tells you, “Oh, your photo looks so real!” thank them, but be mindful that none of your photograph – not a single one – is 100% the real thing, but only an interpretation on it.

“Life is to Dance” captured by Katelyn Wall (Click Image to See More From Katelyn Wall)

What we’ve learned in this article:

• Our eye and the camera need light and illumination to work.
• Our eye and the camera do not record reality, but provide an interpretation of reality.
• Our eye and the camera interpret reality differently.
• Our goal as photographer is to create images that are pleasing to the eye.

Samsung makes quiet push for new mobile OS

Samsung Electronics wants to change that.

The South Korean electronics giant is in a quiet push to make its Tizen operating system a part of the technology lexicon as familiar as Google's Android or Apple's iOS. Its ambition doesn't stop there. Samsung sees the software in your car, fridge and television too.

The first developer conference in Asia for Tizen wrapped up Tuesday after a two-day run, bringing together app developers and Tizen backers from Samsung, Intel and mobile operators.

Samsung did not announce a Tizen phone, but it made a pitch for developers to create apps for the mobile operating system that is yet to be seen in the market. Samsung promised to give out $4 million cash to the creators of the best Tizen apps.

Samsung supplied about one third of the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter, nearly all of them running on Google's Android. Its early bet on Google's free-of-charge operating system served Samsung well and the company's rise to top smartphone seller also helped Android become the most used mobile platform in the world. According to Localytics, 63 percent of all Android mobile devices in use are made by Samsung.

But while Samsung was wildly successful with selling its Galaxy phones and tablets, it had little success in locking Galaxy device users into music, messaging and other Samsung services. Google, however, benefited from more people using its search service, Google Play app and other Google mobile applications on Galaxy smartphones. Owners of Galaxy devices remain for the most part a slave to Google's Android update schedule and its rules.

About nine in every 10 smartphone users are tied to either Google's Android or Apple's iPhone ecosystems, generating profit for Google and Apple every time they purchase a game or application on their smartphone.

That is partly why Samsung wants to expand its control beyond hardware to software, by building its own mobile operating system.

"With only hardware, its influence is limited," said Kang Yeen-kyu, an associate research fellow at state-run Korea Information Society Development Institute."Samsung's goal is to establish an ecosystem centered on Samsung."

The consolidation of global technology companies in the last few years reflects such trends. Apple has always made its own operating system for the iPhone. Google Inc. acquired Motorola Mobility in 2011 and Microsoft Corp. announced in September its plan to buy Nokia Corp., leaving Samsung the only major player in the smartphone market that does not make its own operating system.

Samsung executives told analysts last week that the company plans to beef up its software competitiveness through acquisitions and splashing cash on the development of mobile content and services.

But Tizen's start appears bumpy. Samsung said earlier this year the first Tizen phone would hit the market this fall but it has not materialized. Samsung declined to comment on release schedules.

Even though Choi Jong-deok, Samsung's executive vice president overseeing Tizen, said a launch of Tizen phone or televisions will happen "very shortly," analysts said Samsung is unlikely to reveal the first Tizen device until February of next year, when the company said it will announce winners of its Tizen app contest.

During the developer conference, Samsung gave more clues about how its first Tizen device would look and revealed that it has recently launched a Tizen-based camera in South Korea.

Tizen would work across a vast range of consumer electronics made by Samsung, encompassing mobile devices, televisions, fridges as well as wearable devices. The mobile operating system will also work with automobiles. Samsung and Intel said Toyota Motor Corp. and Jaguar Land Rover are working together to bring Tizen OS to vehicles.

"You can build an application once and relatively easily move from device to device,"Mark Skarpness, director of systems engineering at Intel Corp, told the conference.

Samsung and Intel are also aiming to capture a bigger share of business in emerging markets where demand for cheaper smartphones is growing. Skarpness said future versions of Tizen will support lower-end phones, the same direction that Google is taking with its latest version of Android, KitKat.

"I got an impression that Tizen was benchmarking Android," said Park Minhyung, a developer who attended the conference. "Speakers at the sessions said that they adopted strong features from Android. But with Android's place well established in the market, I wonder how Tizen would undermine the front runner."

Samsung Galaxy Round

The Galaxy Round created some buzz in tech circles when Samsung announced it earlier this month, but no one in the downtown Seoul cafe where I played with the curved screen smartphone asked me about it or even gave a curious glance.

That is likely because the curve is so subtle it is not apparent without a close look.

At first glance, the Galaxy Round appears similar to the Galaxy Note 3 phone, which also has a big display measuring 5.7 inches diagonally. I could see the Round's left and right edges were raised slightly only when viewed from the top or from the bottom.

After handling the device for about 20 minutes, it became clear why Samsung shied away from putting a more dramatic curve in the display.

Reading news articles and Twitter messages made me feel light-headed after just a few minutes, especially with the phone in an upright position. Sentences weren't level and looked skewed, hampering my reading experience.

It's less of a problem, but still one, with the phone placed horizontally.

Perhaps this is an optical distortion that I'd get used to after a while. But given that computer screens, laptops and smartphones are mostly flat, I wouldn't want to constantly switch my eyes back and forth between a curved display and flat screens everywhere else.

Aside from the price tag of more than $1,000, the mobile reading experience was the chief problem I found during my brief hands-on. When watching videos or browsing pictures on the Round, I noticed little difference compared with flat displays.

According to Samsung, curved displays are a step toward mobile devices that are foldable like a map, which explains why the Round generated excitement in tech circles.

It says inflexible curved displays have benefits for users. None of them, however, seem transformative.

Samsung's promotions for the Round say the curve makes it easier to grip the giant phone. But when answering calls, I could barely notice a difference from a flat screen.

Two new features make use of the display's curve only when the Round in screen-off mode is placed on a flat surface, allowing it to be rocked like a cradle. Tilting the device to one side displays its battery status, time, missed calls and unread emails. But to check emails, I had to unlock the Round and go to the home screen.

The second feature is music playback. You can skip to the next song or go back one by tapping the right or left corners of the display. This feature is useless when listening to music on the move.

All this points to the Galaxy Round being an experiment for Samsung and not a product meant to be sold widely.

Like the first generation of the Galaxy Gear, the wristwatch released last month that works in conjunction with some Samsung smartphones to display emails and other information, the Galaxy Round appears built to test its potential.

Samsung can afford to do this because the roaring success of its smartphones has endowed it with cash to burn.

Besides being the world's largest seller of smartphones, Samsung has a business designing and making display screens. It has its own manufacturing plants and engineering staff. It doesn't need to pay another company or hire experts to turn a concept into a product.

For a company that wants to be seen as an innovator rather than a copycat, as Apple Inc. has alleged in multiple lawsuits over phone designs, the Round also sends a message that Samsung is trying to rethink how phones look and feel.

For consumers, there is little reason to pay 1.09 million won ($1,027) for the Galaxy Round. It's available only in South Korea through SK Telecom. The company gives a discounted monthly service rate when the Round is bought along with a two-year contract but it is still the most expensive smartphone in the market.

In South Korea, the same money can buy a Galaxy Note 3, which has similar features and a stylus for note taking on the screen. The Note 3 is just a hair thicker and a tad heavier than the Round, but it also has more battery life.

Samsung said the Round's overseas release schedule is still up in the air.

But that should not matter as I would wait to see the next generation