20 Non Scary Halloween Movies | Tamlee.com

Not everyone wants to deal with nightmares on Halloween. It would be so nice to curl up on the couch with some hot cider and watch a movie that
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43 Books You Won’t Be Able To Stop Talking About | Tamlee.com

I have found some of the great books in this list.
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The No1 Best Selling Bluetooth Selfie Stick on the market (now at $14.99)

Limited time sale up to 65% on our Selfezy Bluetooth Selfie Stick. Grab the bargain before its gone. Christmas is just round the corner. This will be a lovely gift for anyone. #Selfie #Selfiestick #GoPro
http://on.fb.me/1VbA4R0

Another Buyer Review of Selfezy Bluetooth Selfie Stick

I have a ton of selfie sticks, which I usually alternate because I’m just fascinated by being able to capture some of the sceneries when I travel. However, THIS selfie stick blows all of the rest out of the water! I don’t think I’ll be using much of the others anymore since receiving this one. With the others, the extending arms were never quite sturdy enough to hold the weight of my Galaxy Note 4 with a heavy duty armor case on it. What would happen was, I would extend the selfie stick, go to take a picture, and the rod would turn, turning my phone upside down – this led to a loss of a lot of great pictures. However, when extending the Selfezy selfie stick, it didn’t even budge – at all. That’s the biggest reason I LOVE it. Read more......
http://amzn.to/1JtXKUF

Selfezy SELFIE STICK - Sturdy Extendable Self-portrait Monopod Pole with Bluetooth Remote Shutter - For iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy, Note, GoPro, Android Phone [Black] - Free Bonus: Cell Phones & Accessories

Selfezy Bluetooth Selfie Stick is on sale now. Instead of its usual price of $39.99, this week you can get for $19.99. Grab the bargain.
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5 Star Review on Amazon - Selfezy Bluetooth Selfie Stick

Our Selfezy selfie stick comes with lifetime warranty and very few selfie sticks can match this.
http://on.fb.me/1VbA4R0

3 Easy Steps with Selfezy Selfie Stick - Pair, Click and Share you selfie. Limited time 50% discount on Amazon. More info http://amzn.to/1QUDrpK #… | Pinterest

3 Easy Steps with Selfezy Selfie Stick - Pair, Click and Share you selfie. Limited time 50% discount on Amazon. More info http://amzn.to/1QUDrpK #selfezy #selfiestick #selfie
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Ezy Group Introduces New Professional, Extendable Selfezy Selfie Stick

Ezy Group, maker of accessories for mobile devices, announced today that it is introducing the Selfezy, a sturdy, professional, extendable self-portrait monopod - a "Selfie Stick" - on Amazon.com. The aluminium Selfezy has a hand-grip and features wireless Bluetooth operation and a remote shutter. It is compatible with recent iPhone models, Samsung Galaxy, and GoPro Hero.
http://bit.ly/1NFvVjZ

Lightweight Sturdy Bluetooth Selfie Stick

Everyone around the world - be it high profile celebrities, adventure enthusiasts or fashion icons - is busy sharing their Selfies on the social media. However, everyone faces some or the other problems with the existing selfie rods, selfie poles, monopods or selfie sticks, which makes it an unpleasant experience. Either these are made up of inferior quality materials or are difficult to use. Selfezy SELFIE STICK - Sturdy Extendable Self-portrait Monopod Pole with Bluetooth Remote Shutter - For iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy, Note, GoPro, Android Phone [Black] - Free Bonus
http://amzn.to/1UskzUC

10 Basic Selfie Rules Everyone Should Know

Do you believe it? Disney has banned selfie sticks at their theme parks. As you can see from the photo, Walt is no longer holding his Selfezy selfie stick in his right hand. Too bad, too, because, with Mickey alongside him and the castle in the background, it would have made an excellent picture. On the other hand, who has not already seen this shot and almost every other photo worth taking at Disney Theme Parks around the world? Even if you have never been there, you have seen the pictures. It is the same old story as always. A handful of thoughtless people spoils it for the rest of us. So, if you go to a Disney Theme Park or other attraction that has banned selfie sticks, just take a snapshot or two and be done. Pack you gear into a locker and go have hands free fun. There are a thousand other places and ways to have fun and make memories with your selfie stick. Since some places have banned selfie sticks, maybe it is time for some common-sense rules. When preparing to take a selfie
http://bit.ly/1Ew20Ci

Taking Good Selfie Shouldn’t Be Difficult With Selfezy

Human Beings will always find a way to meet a need. If there is no way to meet that need, they will invent one. Once they have done that, they make it even better, and finally they have exactly what they need and it not only works, it looks good and is affordable. The Selfezy Selfie Stick is an excellent example of human ingenuity. When it comes to reaping the benefits of a selfie stick, we do have to wonder what took so long. A lot of you may not be old enough to remember how we used to take pictures. A family photo was never complete because one family member had to be the photographer. There would be two family photos taken. One would have George in it but not Bob and the other would have Bob but not George. Many determined Dads tried to rig a cord to the “push” button on the camera so the whole group could be photographed at the same time. Dad would pull the cord that would supposedly click the camera. Did that ever work? Likely the result was a broken camera that fell off the
http://bit.ly/1SZsiDj

Lytro Illum review: is this the camera of the future?

Ten minutes into using the Lytro Illum, I’m throwing out everything I’ve ever learned about photography. Taking great photos with this camera has a different set of rules, a different guiding principle. Forget the rule of thirds; shoot for depth. Frame from below, because it makes everything look more dramatic. And most of all, stop half-pressing the damn shutter and expecting something to happen. Focusing doesn’t matter anymore.

The Illum is Lytro’s second product, but its first real camera. This is what Lytro executives say they’ve been building for seven years. The last one was made to prove light-field photography is real science. This one is a statement that the next phase in photography is already here. The Illum has a remarkable lens, a big, hefty body, and lots of manual controls. It shoots photos that you can refocus later. That you can look at from a number of different perspectives, or view in 3D. Photos that start to answer Lytro’s fundamental question: what becomes possible when we don’t have to print pictures anymore?

The Illum is made to show a certain class of photographers (mostly pros with $1,499 burning a hole in their pockets) a glimpse of the future. Over a week of shooting with it, I did get that glimpse — but that future still feels far away.

The Illum’s design is a perfect microcosm of what this device is supposed to be: the marriage of present and future, emphasis on the future. It looks, in a reductive sense, like a DSLR: there’s a big, cylindrical lens on the left side of the camera, a round grip on the right, buttons and a screen on the back, and a hotshoe on the top. You’re meant to hold it in your right hand with your left underneath the lens, spinning the two dials to zoom and focus. (In fact, it’s so heavy that using both hands is pretty much a necessity.) There’s no mistaking the Illum for anything but a camera.

There’s also no mistaking it for any other camera. Partly because its slanted back (designed so you can see the screen while you hold the camera at chest-level) gives the Illum a vaguely aggressive look, like it’s coming for you and your loved ones. Partly because the matte gray body with blue accents looks like it maybe fell from a spaceship or was lifted from the set of Battlestar Galactica. The Illum is big, bulky, and almost intimidating. I love the way it looks.

On that slanted back, next to four customizable buttons and a scroll wheel (there’s another one on the front, too), there’s a sharp, articulating 4-inch LCD. This is where you navigate the Illum’s menus (such as they exist), where you pick among the few options available to you as you shoot. There’s no viewfinder, and few buttons — it’s on the screen that everything interesting about light-field photography takes place.

Photo: theverge.com

There are more complicated and nuanced ways to describe it, but at its core light-field photography is just a more powerful and detailed way of capturing light. Instead of capturing it on a single plane, freezing an image in time and space, a light-field camera also captures the direction in which light was moving. Its processor then essentially renders a 3D scene, complete with the knowledge of distance between objects. A light-field photo represents not only everything in the scene, but a spatial understanding of the things in it.

Armed with all that data, Lytro’s core innovation was to offer a way to refocus your photo after it’s been shot. Over time, Lytro also added the ability to subtly shift perspective on an image, as if you’re moving your head around slightly. It gives photos a certain depth, an immersiveness that is a lot of fun to play with. Lytro rolled out 3D processing, too, and has much more planned; everything comes as updates to the software you use to view the photos, so your photos just get better over time. You don’t just look at Lytro’s “living pictures” — you explore them.

All the light-field technology, particularly the “microlens array” that captures light and direction, sits inside the Illum’s massive lens. It extends from 30-250mm, and shoots everything at f/2 but later offers the ability to stop down as far as f/16. It’s one of the most versatile lenses I have ever used, equalled only by the Sony RX10 and a small handful of others. That much range is rare, especially with an aperture that fast, and it makes almost any shot possible with the Illum. Its shutter can fire as fast as 1/4000th of a second, which neatly solves the horrific slowness of the previous model. It can focus on things literally touching the lens. There’s not a burst mode so much as a keep-pressing-down-and-it-shoots-sort-of-quickly mode, but it works fine so long as you’re not shooting the last play of the Super Bowl.

Except it never really feels like everything’s working properly. If I captured too many shots too quickly, the camera would freeze or crash spectacularly. Once, I framed and fired a shot, and all the Illum recorded was black. The touchscreen picks odd moments to be slow or just unresponsive. Each image takes a few seconds to process, after which it either will or won’t refocus when you tap on the screen for no reason. The Illum’s autofocus is basically nonexistent, meaning you’re stuck manually focusing for every shot. There’s no image stabilization, so if you’re zoomed in you either need a tripod or the world’s steadiest hands. It feels like every time you push the Illum, try to explore its capabilities, it just breaks down. And if there’s one way to immediately alienate the customer who’s most likely to part with $1,500 for this camera, it’s to build a product that can’t hack it under pressure.

This is Lytro’s biggest problem, the most frustrating thing about the Illum. It’s made for and sold to professional photographers, those pushing at the creative edges of their profession. It can’t replace a DSLR (though I wish it could), and Lytro knows that. But buyers with $1,500 to spend on a second or third camera want certain things: fine manual control, quick access to settings, sharp images, adaptive performance to any conditions, easy processing, and much more. In way too many places, the Illum doesn’t deliver to the expectations of its target audience.

Shooting with the Illum requires a complete rewiring of the way you look at a scene. A great living picture has two subjects, one in the foreground and one in the background. I began trying to fill every photo with as many things as possible, to put a telling detail or funny image right behind the subject of my photo. The Illum has its own set of rules for how to get a great shot; it comes with a huge, fun, strange learning curve, and it’s unlike any camera I’ve ever shot with. You’re shooting with layers, shooting something that people will be able to interact with later.

SHOOTING WITH THE ILLUM IS A COMPLETELY NEW PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE

When it works, the Illum is capable of producing really remarkable pictures. (It still doesn’t shoot video, though Lytro says that’s not far away.) It still stumbles in low light — I avoided shooting above ISO 1000 — but as long as the conditions are right you get good, accurate colors, and impressive dynamic range. And that Lytro moment, when you shift focus from the person in the foreground to the city in the back or from the tip of their finger to their smiling face, never stops being amazing. But images are never quite tack-sharp as you move the focus around (Lytro says any given spot maxes out at four megapixels), making it look as if everything’s out of focus rather than in focus. That makes Lytro’s living pictures totally impractical for printing or exporting as simple JPGs, and even dulls the magic of refocusing.

Photo: theverge.com

There’s a button on the camera to help you maximize the effect, helpfully called the Lytro Button. (Using it is only recommended in moderation, since it turns the thousand-shot battery into something more like dozens.) It displays on top of whatever you’re shooting, showing the depth range of your photo with scattered dots. Blue represents the closest part of the shot that you’ll be able to get in focus; orange is the farthest away you’ll be able to make sharp.

For a few days, I used the Lytro button for every shot, but eventually, I trained my eyes to see what the Illum’s lens sees. The distance between subjects; the story I could tell racking from one to the other; the sense of space and size I could create with perspective. I started shooting faster and more confidently, and still got great shots.

Unfortunately, shooting is only half the battle. The other half is the Lytro Desktop software, which is currently somewhere between flawed and unusable. It’s designed to be sort of a lighter version of Lightroom, offering simple organization and editing tools. You can change white balance and sharpness and contrast and more within the app itself, and even export photos to Lightroom itself for heavier editing. It’s all fairly straightforward.

As with the shooting process, though, there’s more to think about with living pictures than just colors and light. Lytro offers “animations,” which let you walk through certain transformations — a focus shift here, a perspective move there, zoom in — and then export the finished process as a movie. It’s like the Ken Burns effect to infinity, manipulating the most manipulable photos ever.

It’s all well-conceived, but there are two problems with Lytro Desktop. One: you need huge power to run it with any kind of success. Each 53MB light-field picture takes about 30 seconds to import and 5 seconds to open, and stutters endlessly while it’s being edited — and that’s on the gaming powerhouse MSI laptop Lytro loaned me during my review. Which, by the way, froze and crashed repeatedly, and at one point completely lost its library and just booted up blank. That’s the second problem: in its current form, Lytro Desktop is kind of broken. Eventually, I’m told, there will be mobile apps (I’ve seen a preview build, which worked quite well) that will allow you to view and maybe one day edit compressed versions of the photos. Here’s hoping that’s a better option.

For every great shot I captured, processed, and uploaded, there were just too many false starts, too many crashes, too many frustrations. They make the future seem much further away.

Every once in a while, the Lytro Illum blew my mind. I’d take just the right picture at just the right moment, and I’d suddenly have it captured in a way that felt more real, more alive than anything else I could’ve done. For every one of those moments, though, there were three or four moments where I felt like I missed it: I didn’t get the shot right in time, or it didn’t have the right composition or light. I just wound up with a plain-old photo, and not a particularly good one. Too many times I wound up wishing I’d just grabbed my phone.

I’m more convinced than ever that light-field photography is the next step in how we take, share, and view pictures, and that it’s going to be a big one. Sure, most phones can blur spots in a photo and make it look like it’s shifting focus, but the light field’s ability to mix photography and computer graphics offers a much bigger and more powerful future than that. But the $1,499 Lytro Illum is not the product that will usher us into the brave new world. For the most enterprising photographers, its many headaches might be worth it for the results that it can sometimes deliver. But it’s too expensive for the average user, too frustrating for the time-crunched professional, and not quite high-quality enough for the pickiest of photographers. So who, then, is it for?

It’s for a museum somewhere, on display as the first real product in what might someday turn into something world-changing. Lytro is doing remarkable work and the Illum is another clear step forward in its vision. But it’s not a great camera. Not yet, anyway.

Source [VERGE]

Lytro Illum review: is this the camera of the future?

Noke Bluetooth Padlock Pairs With Your iPhone [Video]

Noke is a Bluetooth padlock that pairs with your iPhone and lets you easily share access to your possessions. The padlock by FŪZ Designs was just successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Once you’ve downloaded our iOS or Android app, Noke automatically finds and pairs to your Bluetooth 4.0 enabled smartphone. You can name your Noke and even give it a photo if you like. That’s it.

To unlock Noke, simply press the shank. Noke wakes up and searches for your phone or a shared phone. If the phone is within 10 feet, Noke will instantly unlock so you can be on your way. No need to launch an app or remove your phone from your pocket or purse.

Noke can also be outfitted with a custom chain and bike mount that lets you securely attach it to your seat post.

In case you forget your phone or your battery dies, Noke lets you create a custom access code that can be used to unlock the padlock. To enter the code you press down the shackle.

When it’s time to replace your Noke’s battery, you will receive a notification through the app. To replace the battery, you just unlock Noke and twist off the back cover. The battery can also be replaced while the Noke is locked by inserting a small pin.

The padlock has already surpassed its $100,000 goal in just a day. You can pledge $59 to get one of the first ones at the link below.

 

Source: Kickstarter.com
Via: iClarified.com

 

Noke Bluetooth Padlock Pairs With Your iPhone [Video]

Far Cry 3 (PC DVD)

Beyond the reach of civilization lies a lawless island ruled by violence. This is where you find yourself stranded, caught in a bloody conflict between the island’s psychotic warlords and indigenous rebels. Struggling to survive, your only hope of escape is through the muzzle of a gun. Discover the island’s dark secrets and take the fight to the enemy; improvise and use your environment to your advantage; and outwit its cast of ruthless, deranged inhabitants. Beware the beauty and mystery of this island of insanity… Where nothing is what is seems, you’ll need more than luck to escape alive. Key Features THE ULTIMATE OPEN WORLD Create your own FPS action and adventure. Customize your weapons, your skills and your approach to each mission, whether you favor intense run-and-gun action, stealthy close-up takedowns, or long range sniping. AN ISLAND OF DANGER AND DISCOVERY Explore a diverse island playground, from mountain ranges to swampy grasslands and white sandy beaches. Discove
http://bit.ly/1DAhBjp

Watch Dogs (PC DVD)

All it takes is the swipe of a finger. We connect with friends. We buy the latest gadgets and gear. We find out what’s happening in the world. But with that same simple swipe, we cast an increasingly expansive shadow. With each connection, we leave a digital trail that tracks our every move and milestone, our every like and dislike. And it’s not just people. Today, all major cities are networked. Urban infrastructures are monitored and controlled by complex operating systems. Welcome to Chicago In Watch_Dogs, this system is called the Central Operating System (CTOS) – and it controls almost every piece of the city’s technology and holds key information on all of the city’s residents. Aiden Pearce You play as Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker and former thug, whose criminal past led to a violent family tragedy. Now on the hunt for those who hurt your family, you ll be able to monitor and hack all who surround you by manipulating everything connected to the city’s network. Ac
http://bit.ly/1DAfCLW

Amazon"s Fire Phone: the shopping device that makes calls

The Fire Phone costs the same as an iPhone 5S or a Galaxy S5: $650, or $200 with a two-year contract. It has a 4.7-inch screen — larger than that of the 4-inch iPhone 5s but smaller than the 5.1-inch Galaxy S5. (Apple’s forthcoming iPhones, expected in September, will reportedly come in 4.7 and 5.5-inch versions.)

The battery life is just okay — you may need to stop and charge during a day of heavy use — and the camera isn’t radically different from what you’d find on competing devices (though Amazon does offer free photo storage). And the Fire Phone doesn’t look remarkable — it’s a slim, black rectangle and a little on the heavy side.

So how does Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) plan to convince satisfied iPhone and Galaxy S users to make the switch?

Three ways: Shopping tools, 3-D graphics and some snazzy custom software. Let’s take them one by one.

Shopping: The Fire Phone is as much a shopping tool as it is a smartphone.

The standout feature on Amazon’s phone is Firefly, which is basically a Shazam for objects. Firefly uses your phone’s camera to recognise things like books, food, video games and household products and then gives you the option to buy all that stuff on Amazon.

It’s cool, but also slightly sinister — Amazon might as well call this feature “showroomer.” The novelty factor is considerable, but it’s not clear that Firefly is solving a very compelling problem. Are there many people who think it’s too hard to buy things online?

In addition to products, Firefly works with music and TV shows, and developers can integrate it with their apps — for example, you can use Firefly to figure out who sings the song playing on the radio and then buy tickets to one of their upcoming concerts using StubHub.

Amazon is sweetening the deal for shoppers by bundling the Fire Phone with a free one-year subscription to Prime, a service that gives you free two-day shipping on a variety of Amazon products and usually costs $99. Also included with Prime is access to Amazon’s streaming music and video services, meaning you’ve got access to a big library of movies and music on your phone right away.

3-D graphics: Where the Fire gets your attention is with the display: The phone’s “dynamic perspective” feature renders graphics in 3-D using cameras and infrared sensors mounted on the front that track your head movements.

This is really cool, but is it useful? Not really, or at least, not yet. Dynamic perspective gives you more interesting visuals for your lock screen or for apps like Maps, but not more compelling functionality.

Photo: publishingtechnology.com

An exception to that is in gaming, where designers can build more immersive worlds that respond to players’ gestures and head movements. There are already a handful of titles, like To-Fu Fury and Saber’s Edge, that make use of dynamic perspective.

Software: Potential Fire Phone users will have to decide whether it’s worth learning a new operating system. The Fire home screen features an app grid like you’d see on iOS or Android, but within the apps themselves, you bring up additional options and features by flicking your wrist left or right.

If you get confused, you can make use of the “Mayday” feature, which lets you video chat for free with a customer service specialist who can help you navigate the phone. In my experience, however, the connection failed multiple times before I was able to get through on an extremely choppy line.

Are all these features valuable or gimmicks? That will ultimately depend on what developers can dream up for the Fire Phone. Amazon is working hard to attract app developers to its platform. But with only about 250,000 titles at present (and no Google (GOOGL, Tech30) apps, including Maps), it’s got a long way to go to compete with Apple’s (AAPL, Tech30) iOS and Google’s Android, both of which feature over 1 million apps.

Eventually, Amazon might have the makings of a really nice smartphone competitor in the Fire Phone. But in the meantime, it may have missed an opportunity by not making its first smartphone more affordable. If Amazon made its phone much cheaper than the competition, like it did with the Kindle Fire tablet, it might have convinced more people to switch.

If you want your phone optimised for commerce, this may be the device for you. But my guess is not too many of us feel that way.

Source: [CNN Money, Pocketnow]

Amazon"s Fire Phone: the shopping device that makes calls

15 Must See Movies for March 2015

Get cozy on your sofa and watch 15 must see movies for March 2015. They are available to watch instantly from Amazon, Netflix or from your local DVD store. Popcorn time …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Must See Movies for March 2015

10 Best Selling PS4 Games for March 2015

10 Best Selling PS4 Games for March 2015. Click the games for reviews and sale prices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Best Selling PS4 Games for March 2015

Explorer Interrupts Mating Tortoises, Slowest Chase Ever

In this video from a Pristine Seas expedition to the Seychelles, under way now, expedition leader Paul Rose stumbles upon mating giant tortoises on Assumption Island. The angry male pursues Rose and a cameraman … very slowly.

Explorer Interrupts Mating Tortoises, Slowest Chase Ever

TP-LINK TL-WR841N Wireless N300 Home Router Review

The TP-Link TL-WR841ND is an economical router suitable for basic networking needs for home or small office. It offers 802.11n wireless connectivity and comes at a very affordable price. The configuration options are basic, and the router is not suitable for long range. However, if you’re looking for a low cost device for connecting wirelessly to the Internet in an apartment or a small home, then this router meets your needs. You must also be willing to give up on ultra-fast Internet speed when connecting via this device.

It has a nice look and is a relatively lightweight router. The connectivity ports are on the rear of the device. The front top side has an array of LED status lights.

The average-sized router hosts four 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports. It also connects to a standalone modem via a WAN port. Two external 3dBi antennas are connected to the router for wireless connections. If you’re looking for additional coverage, you can replace the detachable antennas with longer range antenna units or antenna extenders.

The 802.11n standard router is capable of transmitting data at a rate of 300 Mbps. If you’re upgrading from 11g standard device, you will find significantly enhanced speed and range on this device. Disconnections at longer range will also be lesser compared to 11g products. At this speed, it is capable of running VoIP applications, online gaming and high definition videos without delay.

It is easy to configure the router via a simple Web interface. It offers a step-by-step procedure that walks you through the setup. There is also the option to manually access standard settings, such as port forwarding and DHCP. A basic firewall is also available that can be turned on or off. Other options include MAC, domain and IP filtering.

With its IP QoS, the TL-WR841N ensures optimum bandwidth consumption and control during heavy data usage. This feature allows users connected to a small network to receive an allocated bandwidth and prevents applications, such as torrent clients to steal excessive bandwidth.

It features WPA, WPA2 and WEP keys as well as TKIP and AES encryption. The router lacks the option to transition between the wireless standards, so users may feel stuck between 802.11g/b/n modes. There are up to 13 different wireless channels to switch from. Users can also choose between 20MHz, 40MHz and automatic mode. With the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) key, users simply have to press the WPS button to establish a WPA2 secure connection that offers enhanced security compared to WEP encryption.

Compared to other routers in this price range, the TL-WR841N delivers superior performance in terms of range as well as data transfer speed. It is capable of delivering an average throughput greater than 6.5 megabytes per second at close range and more than 6 megabytes per second at a range of 10 meters. At longer range though, the data transfer speed falls dramatically and may possibly reduce to half at a distance around 20 meters. If obstacles are placed between the router and the connected device, the speed may even be slower.

Overall, the WR-841N is a decent router suitable for home use. While excellent for usage in an apartment or small home, you may experience troubles upon increasing the range. The router is however, unsuitable for business use where you expect high speed connectivity without any interruption issues.

 

TP-LINK TL-WR841N Wireless N300 Home Router Review

MIOPS: Smartphone Controlled High Speed Camera Trigger

MIOPS is a new smartphone-controlled camera trigger created by the minds behind the Nero Trigger. Looking to get financed through Kickstarter, the team behind it hopes to combine all of the features users want in a high-speed camera trigger into one convenient device.

MIOPS delivers all of the features required for high-speed photography in a single unit and provides advanced features via a total integration with the smart-phone platform. It will make taking creative photos so easy that you will have the opportunity to reveal your skills with great shots. MIOPS will be your favorite photography equipment.

MIOPS is not the first trigger in the market, but it is going to be the best one. You can control MIOPS with your smart-phone over Bluetooth. You can adjust the settings using dedicated smart phone application and send them to MIOPS with a simple click on your phone.You can either use MIOPS for basic functions like high-speed and lightning photography, but you can also let him perform complex scenarios like combining different modes in the same setup. If you don’t want to use a smart-phone, you can always configure MIOPS using the on-board buttons and colorful LCD screen. MIOPS will have an upgradable firmware. It will be open to new features and upgrades will be free for life-time. You will be able to charge MIOPS with any USB charger. It will be light weight, compact sized and compatible with most of DSLR cameras.

MIOPS is a standalone, small factor device which can trigger your camera or flash unit. It has three different sensors; light, sound and laser. MIOPS uses these sensors to detect external events such as lightning, fireworks, popping balloon or a laser beam cut by an obstacle, just to name a few. When such an event is detected, it triggers your camera or flash unit. MIOPS has an input port where you can hook up external sensors as well. You can for example hook up a pressure sensor and use the pressure as a triggering event. It is possible to program MIOPS so that it will take a picture whenever someone steps on your door mat. You just need to place a pressure sensor under the mat and connect it to MIOPS. There are so many different sensors out there and this means you have unlimited options as well to demonstrate your creativity with MIOPS.

MIOPS is not bigger than a credit card and only less than an inch in thickness. It is also light weight and consumes very little space in your camera bag. This is especially important if you carry your other heavy equipment in your bag. MIOPS has a colourful LCD screen and easy to use interface. You can configure your device using the on-board buttons and the screen. It gets even easier if you do this over your smart-phone. MIOPS has Bluetooth capability and with its dedicated smart-phone application you can configure MIOPS without even touching it. All of the device settings are also available on the application. On top of the basic modes and settings, the smart-phone application offers other features like cable release modes and scenario processing mode where you can define event scenarios using the combination of the different sensors. You can for example create a custom scenario like this: I want the sound mode to be activated after the sunset. You configure this using the application and the scenario is sent to MIOPS over Bluetooth connection. Afterwards, you can take your phone and go away, MIOPS will take care of the rest. It does not need the smart-phone to be close by to operate. You can store the scenarios in the application and reuse them whenever you want. You can store up to three scenarios and each of them can check against up two five different conditions measured by all of the sensors. MIOPS is Bluetooth 4.0 compatible, so it is energy efficient, has great coverage and is compatible with iOS and Android smart-phones with Bluetooth 4.0.

A mini-USB port has been added to MIOPS and it serves two important purposes. First of all, you can charge your MIOPS over this USB connection. You can also use a compatible USB charger or you can even charge it in your car just as you charge your cell phone. The rechargeable battery of MIOPS will last for days, it has energy saving features so you don’t have to charge your battery very often. The second purpose it serves is the firmware upgrade. MIOPS will have an upgradeable firmware, so you can have new features with the release of new firmware. You will be able to download the new firmware and upgrade your MIOPS within a few minutes.

Photo: Alexander Heinrichs

High speed photography can be tricky sometimes. In some cases, you will need to trigger your flash unit, not your camera. In order to cover this, MIOPS has two dedicated outputs, one is for the camera and the other one is for the flash unit. You can use them separately or at the same time. They are electrically isolated from each other, so there is no risk of a short circuit. Also, each output isolates MIOPS from your camera or flash unit optically. This means in fact there is no electrical connection between your camera and MIOPS at all. One end of the connection cable goes to the remote shutter release port of your camera and the other ends goes to MIOPS. The cables are exchangeable, you can use your MIOPS with different cameras. You don’t need to buy an extra unit for your second camera. MIOPS is compatible with most of the major makes and models. You just need to get the proper cable for your other camera. The interface of the cable connection is a standard 2,5 mm jack. Extension cables are commonly available in the market if you have a different setup in your mind where the camera has to stay far away from MIOPS. The same is also valid for the flash unit connection. It uses the standard 3,5 mm connection. Some DSLR cameras do not have a remote shutter release port, instead of this they can be triggered with an IR remote controller. If you own such a camera, you are also covered. MIOPS can trigger your camera with IR connection as well.

Which Operation Modes Does MIOPS Have?

MIOPS is a high-speed camera trigger with multiple modes combined in a single box with all built-in sensors. In order to use the available modes of MIOPS, you don’t need to add anything else. Everything is already in the unit and ready to use. Switching between different modes is just a matter of a few clicks and it happens in seconds. It has basically six different modes, let’s see them all.

LIGHTNING

Even this mode is called lightning, there is actually so much more about it. Lightning is only one of the events that MIOPS can detect with its light sensor. When the lightning strikes, MIOPS detects in a few nanoseconds and triggers your camera.

Photo: Bryan Snider

LASER

MIOPS can detect laser beams as well and they make the detection of so many events possible. The idea is very simple. If the laser beam is broken, then there must be something happened. And most of the time something happens in milliseconds, but it is not a big deal for MIOPS. The laser beam is so thin, even a water drop can break it.

SOUND

When it is all about high-speed photography, sound mode is the mode where things get serious. This is the essential mode to take high-speed pictures in a controlled studio environment. Even MIOPS is fast enough to take pictures of bullets or arrows, your camera is not that fast. Average DSLR camera has a lag time of about 50 milliseconds. This is too long if your objects fly by in a few milliseconds. The sound mode of MIOPS does the trick.

TIMELAPSE

When it comes to MIOPS, it is not just sensors. In timelapse mode, MIOPS does not use any sensors but it benefits from the electronics and software to take sequential pictures within a time period with equal time difference between each of them. You can also specify the exposure of the pictures just per your wish. After you have adjusted your parameters, MIOPS will take care of the rest. You can do the adjustment on MIOPS itself or you can also use the smartphone application to configure MIOPS.

HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos look to good to be true because they are actually not. Digital processing of the same picture with different exposures is the main idea behind it. It is again done with picture processing software but it is the quality of the single pictures which makes a great HDR picture.

External Port

MIOPS offers unlimited creativity not just with the built-in sensors and software but also with the capability of connecting external sensors as well. If you have a high-speed photography project in your mind which uses another type of sensor, this is not a blocker for MIOPS. MIOPS can accept signals from external sensors with the dedicated port, so you are not limited to light and sound events only. There are many different sensors in the market. Temperature, pressure and humidity sensors are only a few of them. If they are electrically compatible (which means the output signal must be between 0 and 3V) you can connect them to MIOPS.

Smartphone Compatible & Bluetooth

The Smartphone app offers many advantages and features. First of all, you can take the total control of your MIOPS with the app. Any mode and any parameter can be adjusted with the app and then you can send the settings and commands to MIOPS with a single touch over Bluetooth connection. If MIOPS is mounted on your camera or tripod, you can leave your setup as it is and control MIOPS without even touching it. You will not need to adjust your setup again, nothing will move at all.

If the concept behind MIOPS sounds familiar, it’s because it’s not too far off from the original Trigger Trap. The key difference between the two is that MIOPS offers wireless Bluetooth control, while TriggerTrap connects your phone to your camera using a cable.

To pre-oder a unit for yourself, head on over to the Kickstarter campaign, where a pledge of $199+ will secure a device and push it toward manufacturing.

Via (Kickstarter.com)

MIOPS: Smartphone Controlled High Speed Camera Trigger