May 12 - 1:10pm EDT   Google on Thursday unveiled Vidnik, a new application designed to allow Mac users to create and upload YouTube videos using a built-in iSight, Firewire or USB camera. Vidnik is a free, open source application that can record, edit, and label videos, and then directly upload them to a YouTube account for public viewing. Use of the app is reportedly quite simple, offering all interface control in a single window, with large, familiar buttons and controls. [full story]

May 5 - 4:55pm EDT   While there has been no official word from Creative Labs itself, a product page on JR.com lists a Vado video camcorder from the company. In terms of specifications, the ultra-affordable video camera is nearly identical to the Pure Digital Technologies Flip range of video cameras. The Creative Labs VF0570-P Vado pocket camcorder will feature a 2GB storage capacity capable of holding approximately 2 hours of VGA (640x480) video, and up to 2 hours of life from its rechargeable AA batteries. [full story]

April 29 - 9:35pm EDT   Banana Bee has released Denoise 1.0, an easy-to-use, noise and grain suppression utility for Mac OS X. Designed from the ground up for OS X, Denoise removes noise and grain from photographs. Users can simply drag an image from the Finder or iPhoto and Denoise will dutifully do its magic, and save the result. Image noise, a random fluctuation of pixel values in an image, can originate in film grain or in electronic noise in the scanner or digital camera sensor and circuitry. In addition, the company notes, that in low light, or at high ISO speed settings, digital cameras tend to produce images with more apparent image noise and that noise removal can result in loss of ... [full story]

April 22 - 9:45am EDT   Ricoh on Tuesday announced its newest digital camera, the G600, which is water- and dust-resistant. The camera is meant for outdoor sports use and as such, is rugged enough to withstand a near five-foot drop. To earn a MIL Standard 810F rating, the 5x optical zoom lens is all internal so it never protrudes from the body, making it invulnerable to damage when dropped. The 10-megapixel G600 is otherwise optimized for harsh conditions, with big buttons that can be operated with gloved hands and a rating for use in temperatures ranging from 14F to 104F. The new camera is also able to shoot movies and take photos at under up to 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. [full story]

April 18 - 10:05am EDT   Sanyo on Friday unveiled the newest addition to its Xacti underwater digital camera line with the CA8. The camera is rated for underwater use at a maximum depth of nearly five feet and one hour safely and will shoot 60fps MPEG-4 video at 640x480-pixel resolution or 3264x2448-pixel photos via its 8-megapixel CMOS sensor. Sanyo's pixel-interpolation technology allows bumping up the photos to an equivalent 12 megapixels. Two dedicated buttons -- one for video record, the other for still image capture -- make it easier for the CA8 to capture images, although at a reduced 2MP size, while filming. [full story]

April 11 - 7:45pm EDT   Samsung has given indications that it will release a full-frame CMOS-based digital SLR camera, targeted towards professional users. The alleged camera is currently in the design stage, so a solid release schedule is not currently available. Amateur Photographer technical writer Barney Britton attended an industry event in Seoul where Kyong-Kook Shin, assistant manager for Samsung's digital camera marketing division said photographers could look forward to a full-frame DSLR with a Pentax lens mount in the future. [full story]

April 3 - 5:05pm EDT   Speck has released SeeThru Hard Shells for the MacBook Air and iMac 20" Widescreen. The SeeThru Hard Shell case for MacBook Air is a 2-piece snap-on hard plastic case. It allows unrestricted access to all ports, keyboard, screen and camera. It's made of optically-clear and shatter proof polycarbonate plastic and features an accent-less design. The case is available in clear, smoke, red, bronze, and pink for $50. The SeeThru Hard Shell cover for Apple's 20" Widescreen iMac is a one-piece hard plastic cover. The case is totally removable and does not cover the screen and camera. Available colors include red, aqua, black and pink. It's also priced at $50. [full story]

March 24 - 2:20pm EDT   CardRaider 2.0.2 ($20) utility for recovering photos and movies from digital camera memory cards. Recovered images can be sent directly to iPhoto. It can even find photos and movies on damaged or reformatted media cards that don't show up in the Finder. In addition to JPEG files, CardRaider will detect and recover professional "raw" formats, as well as MPEG, AVI, and QuickTime Movie files.The new version adds support for recovering additional pro formats including Hasselblad H3D (3FR), Epson Raw (ERF), Leica Raw, and Mimiya Raw (MEF). It also fixes an issue with recovering some Kodak Raw (KDC) formats. [Download - 2MB] NetFinder 3.1 ($25) website and general file management and ... [full story]

March 13 - 7:15pm EDT   Ecamm Network has announced the Huckleberry 3 MacBook mirror. Consisting of two acrylic mirrors and two durable mounting brackets, Huckleberry attaches to your screen to reflect the built-in camera's field of view. Instead of filming yourself, it will now film what's in front of you. The new Huckleberry 3 features an enhanced design, fits both MacBook and MacBook Pro and comes with Ecamm's iGlasses software to flip and rotate the video image. The Huckleberry costs $29 and ships worldwide. [full story]

March 5 - 8:35pm EST   AVerMedia Technologies today began shipping its new AVerVision CP300 Interactive Portable Document Camera. The CP300 offers new network sharing capability, where users can access live images and control a document camera in any classroom or location on a school campus. "The ability to connect all document cameras in one campus together through the existing Local Area Network now provides the ability for multiple classrooms, or even the entire school to view and share live document camera lessons and demonstrations," the company said. Users can control annotation, image capture, video recording, zoom, and more by each classroom accessing the demonstration on the network. ... [full story]

January 4 - 4:50pm EST   Xias today unveiled several new products that it will display at CES 2008, including two digital photo frames, two cameras, USB memory sticks, and an MP3 player with an accompanying digital download service. The PF-821WF and PF-1021WF are an eight- and 10-inch digital frame, respectively; both models feature a display resolution of 800 by 600. Up to 12 images can be displayed simultaneously, and images sit in a floating, swiveling base. Seven digital media formats are supported, which can be uploaded to the frames from either of the two bult-in memory card slots. Four different play modes are supported – full-screen browse, slideshow, thumbnail browse, and zoom in/out ... [full story]

January 2 - 2:00pm EST   Creaceed today unveiled Hydra, a new application that aims to ease the process of creating HDR photographs on Mac systems. Hydra is designed to give human eye perception to photography by creating high dynamic range (HDR) images from a series of regular photographs, either from DSLRs or traditional point-and-shoot cameras. Hydra is priced at $60, but will be available for an introductory price of $40 until the end of January after the application begins shipping during Macworld on January 14th. Hydra requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to run. [full story]

December 24 - 7:05pm EST   Ecamm Network today unveiled CardRaider 2.0, an update to its utility for recovering data from digital camera memory cards, adding the ability to restore movie data as well as photos. The application is designed to retrieve images and movies that were either accidentally deleted or lost, and features a one-click scan and recover mode. Once the data has been recovered, it can be directly sent to iPhoto. The update is available for free to existing users, while new copies of the software are available for $20, with a free demo located on Ecamm's website. [full story]

December 11 - 7:45pm EST   MotionDSP today unveiled H.264 support on FixMyMovie.com, its free online one-click video touchup service. Originally designed for military applications, FixMyMovie.com allows users to upload video footage from digital cameras, mobile phones, or webcams and remove pixelation errors, and the service also supports up-sampling – taking low resolution video and retrieving high definition content from it. MotionDSP opted to support H.264, as the format is quickly becoming the standard for broadcasting high quality HD footage. [full story]