Like me, i’m certain that you have  - on more than one occasion – bowed your head in fierce concentration, and focused on your handset’s display while you’re on-the-go. Whether you’re taking a stroll down the main street of your small, country hometown, or wading through the masses in your nearest capital city’s Central Business District; it’s all the same. Of course, it goes without saying that we all know the dangers of firing off a text message without paying any mind to our surroundings: the occasional (yet cliche) manhole, for instance, is an ever-present hazard. Fortunately, as is the nature of technology, someone has found a solution to this issue: and by ” someone”, I am referring to Android developer Sascha Affolter, and by “solution”, I am referring to Transparent Screen, a potential life-saving app offered by the little, green robot that could bring joy to the anti-social and the inattentive…

The concept behind this package is simple: utilising your handset’s camera, Transparent Screen – as its name implies – displays what is in front of your device in order to give the appearance that you can see directly through your tablet or mobile phone. This allows you to perform routine tasks, such as text messaging, while being completely aware of what is in front of you (well, perhaps not completely aware, but somewhat more aware than usual).
Transparent Screen is quite simple to activate, however I couldn’t help but notice that it certainly does take some time in order to find a “transparency sweet spot” –  especially if you are considering using this app while switching between multiple apps. In addition, using your device’s camera and display simultaneously typically empties your battery’s pockets rather quickly, so keep this in mind if you think you may use Transparent Screen for long periods of time.

As shown in the above gallery, Transparent Screen has a simple and clean interface: a large “Start & Stop” button begins or ends a session, while there are a small handful of other settings – most notably, the option to specify the “transparency level” you wish to use – that one may tinker with, and even more features are enabled upon purchasing the Pro version (at a cost of $0.99AU).

In closing, I can’t see myself using this app on a daily basis, but there is no doubt that it gives me a little more confidence when it comes to creating a Facebook Status Update while on-the-move.

Have you tried Transparent Screen, yet? If not, head to the Android Market and grab yourself a copy of the Lite edition –  it’s free, so all you have to lose is time. If you are an avid Transparent Screen user, or have recently tried and like this app (or have found an innovative use for it) swing me a comment. Enlighten me!

What an amazing fall from grace. Kodak, the company that dominated the photography industry for decades has just filed for bankruptcy. A chapter 11 filing doesn’t mean that Kodak will disappear, but it’s an admission things have gone horribly wrong for the company. The idea is to take some time off form the debt collectors while they dramatically restructure the business in a last ditch attempt to save the brand.

Maybe they survive and maybe they don’t but what is clear is that this will go down in history of what not to do when innovation strikes your industry. The revolution of digital photography meant that Kodak’s existing cash cow was about to go away. A technology that took the cost of processing from tens of dollars to zero overnight. It also took the production time for developing from a few days to instant.

Digital photography was better in pretty much every way, so what did the market leader do? They chose to bury their head in the sand and ignore it and have now paid the consequences. Trying to hold onto the massive premiums of the old business model, they ignored technology, a decision that would ultimately spell their downfall.

Interestingly the first digital camera I purchased was a Kodak DX4900, a 4 Megapixel, $900 camera in 2002. Since then I never looked back and have now taken 56,000 photos with more than 10 different cameras. The DSLR market today is dominated by Canon, Nikon and Sony, with Kodak nowhere to be seen. The lesson here is not to ignore innovation.

There’s a saying that if your industry hasn’t been hit by the technology revolution, it’s next.

More information @ ABC

Rockstar camera chick Lisa Bettany has teamed up with Leo Laporte and the TWiT network to bring you helpful tips and ticks about using digital cameras. One area that tends to be dramatically under-covered is how the transitioning from beginner to pro. While there’s a abundance of topics on entry-level content and specialty pro-focused content, the part in-between is the hardest to find information on.

Mostly Photo focuses on things that you can achieve at home, so if you’ve got a DSLR for a while, are comfortable taking photos with it, but want to get some practical tips on improving, then you should check out Mostly Photo.

Episode 1 focuses on Low Light photography and diffusing flash (when you have to use it). Watch it on YouTube or head over to http://twit.tv/photo to download the audio or video versions.

I tried out Lisa’s covering the flash tip on the Canon 500D, you can see what a difference it makes below. To achieve the result I simply taped a receipt (semi-transparent) over the flash, the end result it much more natural skin tones.

More info @ TWiT

Vidblaster is the free software-based live video streaming solution created by Mike Versteeg in the Netherlands. The product continues to improve in every release and has done a great job at listening to the community. The latest update to Vidblaster is version 1.22 and comes with plenty of goodies..

* A new camera module called Camera (II) has been added (see Help for features and limitations)
* An advanced deinterlacer is now available through Camera (II)
* Smooth resampling is now available in Camera (II)
* Added video frame rate 29.97 to Camera (I) module
* Added Advanced Settings for Video Effect module’s chroma keyer (Pro+ editions only)
* Added cropping feature to Video Effect module’s PiP, Fixed Aspect Ratio
* Added setting of (different) video resolution to Camera (I) (Broadcast edition only)
* Added UTF-8 unicode support to TCP Server
* Added support for secure IP cameras to Camera (I)
* Improved Video Effect module’s PiP effects
* Improved Video Effect module’s PiP cropping
* Improved Video Switcher: only delete key on numeric keypad is intercepted
* Fixed bug in Monitor module: changing display resolution does not effect secondary monitor
* Fixed bug in Video Output module: source properly displayed at startup
* Fixed bug in Player module: video frame properly updated after changing aspect ratio
* Fixed bug in Video Effect module: mouse cursor only changes shape in PiP modes
* Fixed bugs in Camera (I) module (downgraded to earlier version)
* Fixed bug: saving profile to non-existing folder defaults properly
* Fixed bug in loading profiles from different nationality
* Fixed bug in Video Overlay module’s text positioning
* Fixed bug in Translator: closing window hides it properly
* Fixed bug in Recorder’s Save function
* Fixed bug in removal of active scoreboard
* Fixed bug in module count of modules remove warnings
* Fixed several other (small) bugs.

If you’ve never used Vidblaster before, its important to note that you’ll need a very fast machine, due to the fact its software-based, it hammers the CPU really hard. Those upcoming Intel Sandy bridge chips look very inviting indeed and would mean you could stream up to 1080p, assuming your internet speed is up to it. Good thing we have that NBN..

More @ Vidblaster

Canon’s new entry-level DSLR is the 550D which is positioned between the 500D (which I just bought, thanks Canon), and the 50D. Differences between the 500D and the 550D are fairly slim, so I’m not too heartbroken with my purchase.

Canon 550D features

• 18 Megapixels (up from 15.1)
• Full HD video at 30/25/24 fps (up from 20fps)
• In-camera ‘Movie crop’ (“An SD quality movie can be cropped to the equivalent of approx. 7x magnification of regular shooting”)
• 3” high-res LCD – 1,040,000 dots (up from 920,000 dots)
• Support for new SDXC memory cards

Other than that, specs between the 500D and 550 are basically the same.

No pricing has been announced, with release scheduled for later this month.

Update
DP Review has their comparison up, go check it out – http://www.dpreview.com/previews/CanonEOS550D/

More info @ Canon

Samsung are giving away 100 of their new Dual-LCD screen ST500 cameras. The competition starts August 20th and runs until September 18th. To get in on the competition you should check out:

Facebook page – Tap and Take Australia

Twitter – @samsungcapture

I’ve not seen or used the camera, but having a screen that faces the people your taking photos of is an interesting idea. I’m glad someone’s innovating in the digital camera space other than simply adding more megapixels. How popular the camera is remains to be seen, but I am looking forward to getting a review unit in the future to try it out.