Category Archives: Android

Click! Google rebuilds Android camera base for better photos

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Rebuilt software plumbing in Android should give new power to camera apps — once Google makes the interface available to other programmers besides its own.

by Stephen Shankland. November 25th, 2013 (http://news.cnet.com)

Want a better camera on your Android device? Google does, too.

For that reason, the company has overhauled the mobile OS’s plumbing. Google has built deep into Android support for two higher-end photography features — raw image formats and burst mode — and could expose those features so that programmers could tap into them, the company said.

Evidence of raw and burst-mode photos in the Android source code surfaced earlier in November, but Google has now commented on the technology. Specifically, spokeswoman Gina Scigliano said the support is now present in Android’s hardware abstraction layer (HAL), the part of the operating system that handles communications with a mobile device’s actual hardware.

“Android’s latest camera HAL (hardware abstraction layer) and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography,” Scigliano said. “We will expose a developer API [application programming interface] in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality.”

Full article at source>

Best Compact Point-and-Shoot Cameras 2013

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By Tom’s Guide Staff,Daniel Grotta 

If you’re like many people, the convenient, always-available camera embedded in your iPhone, Galaxy S4 or favorite brand of smartphone is the only device you ever need to snap and share photos with friends and family. So why would you consider buying a stand-alone compact camera when your smartphone does it all?

Because, photographically speaking, smartphones don’t do it all. For instance, most phones don’t come equipped with optical-zoom lenses, so they’re useless if you’re shooting hungry lions or just your kids playing soccer or baseball. Also, good point-and-shoots will also easily beat most smartphones in low light, whether you’re shooting with or without a flash. These four point-and-shoot cameras take your photography a notch above smartphone cameras while still being easily pocketable.

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How to turn your smartphone into a spy camera or baby monitor

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By Joshua Sherman  —   

If you’re getting that paranoid itch to keep an eye on someone (or someplace), but only have a limited budget, fear not. We’re in the second decade of the 21st century. You don’t need to buy a bunch of expensive equipment to spy anymore. These days, all you need is an old smartphone. With a few bucks, an old Android device or iPhone, a charger, and some tape or a tripod for mounting, you can monitor whatever you want. Here’s how to do it.

Note: Before beginning, you must be using a wireless network that is secure and password protected. Setting this up on an unprotected network will allow anyone on that network to see through your cameras! This guide also comes with no warranty and is not intended to be a secure security system that guarantees safety – if you want something like that, get a professional security solution.

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The Memoto Lifelogging Camera

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A tiny, automatic camera and app that gives you a searchable and shareable photographic memory.

Memoto Lifelogging Camera

Memoto Lifelogging Camera

The world’s smallest wearable camera

(Sample photos are finally here!)

The Memoto camera is a tiny camera and GPS that you clip on and wear. It’s an entirely new kind of digital camera with no controls. Instead, it automatically takes photos as you go. The Memoto app then seamlessly and effortlessly organizes them for you.

Easy and effortless

The camera has no buttons. (That’s right, no buttons.) As long as you wear the camera, it is constantly taking pictures. It takes two geotagged photos a minute with recorded orientation so that the app can show them upright no matter how you are wearing the camera. And it’s weather protected, so you don’t have to worry about it in inclement weather.

The camera and the app work together to give you pictures of every single moment of your life, complete with information on when you took it and where you were. This means that you can revisit any moment of your past.

Long battery life

The camera’s batteries won’t need to be recharged until after approximately 2 days of use. To recharge the camera’s batteries, you connect the camera to your computer; at the same time the photos are automatically uploaded to Memoto’s servers. There are no buttons to press. You just wear the camera, then charge it and wear it again.

The Vision:

Link to Manufacturer’s Website>