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Ansel Adams Act seeks to restore photographers’ First Amendment rights

Jan07
by on January 7, 2015 at 10:08 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

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It’s a sad state of affairs, but increasingly common in the US, that photographers on every level —  from professional to DSLR hobbyist to iPhoneographer — are prevented from shooting whatever they want, wherever they want, in the public space. Texas Republican Steve Stockman is trying to end photographer restrictions with HR 5893, otherwise known as the Ansel Adams Act, introduced on January 2. The bill explicitly states that “still and motion photographs are speech” and that government attempts through threat and intimidation to prevent people from photographing or otherwise recording in the public space violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution.…

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Adding a leap second is more dangerous for the Internet than you might expect

Jan07
by on January 7, 2015 at 8:57 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) announced today that it’s going to be adding a second to the clock on June 30, 2015. While leap seconds sound entirely harmless, it’s far more dangerous for the Internet than you might expect. Why bother adding a second at all, then? There’s a number of reasons one can be added; everything from earthquakes changing the Earth’s rotation or simple adjustments to time to account for Earth’s naturally slowing rotation. The latter is why it’s being added this time around. The US actually wants to get rid of leap seconds because they cause disruption…

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Hands-on: B&O’s first wireless noise-cancelling headphones are gesture-controlled stunners

Jan07
by on January 7, 2015 at 8:45 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider


Thought it’s not like there is any shortage of Bluetooth headphones out there, Bang and Olufsen is now throwing itself into the fray. At its CES event yesterday, the audio company showed off the newest model in its headphones series, the H8. But more so than its other models, these small on-ears are aimed at practicality: it’s the first B&O earset with active noise cancelling (ANC) and wireless connectivity. Now, if you’re serious about your audio, you might know those two things typically spell sound-quality disaster. Bluetooth compression generally introduces artifacts, and interference from the ANC system degrades the signal playing from…

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The mainstreaming of 4K: How Netflix is making 4K accessible with HDR, new UIs and TV recommendations

Jan07
by on January 7, 2015 at 8:14 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider

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At a private meeting with a small group of journalists, Netflix showed off some new beta UIs it plans to release in the coming months. Coming first to the TV app, when users select a show or movie to learn more about it, the content will automatically start playing, with information about the show overlaid on the left hand side. If the user doesn’t press anything, the info screen will fade away and start playing fullscreen. Between these couple of seconds, the user can select to fast forward, go back to the main menu, or change episodes. Netflix says this experience…

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Flir’s new dongle makes almost any iPhone or Android phone a thermal camera

Jan07
by on January 7, 2015 at 8:08 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Mobile, Product Launches

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The Flir iPhone case for the iPhone 5s was pretty cool. Suddenly your iPhone was a thermal camera great for checking on heat leaks in your home or just taking really fun photos of friends. But, if you had an iPhone 5c, a new iPhone or Android phone you were pretty much left out of thermal imaging fun. Flir fixed that with its new Flir One dongle. The dongle connects via Lightning for iOS devices or micro-USB for Android devices. With the companion Flir app users can take thermal photos and use the device as a spot thermometer. If you’re sporting…

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