Camera Lens for Phones

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to turn your iPhone into a high-tech camera? Many people have to carry around a phone and a camera if they want to get better images than what camera-phones allow. However, with these 4 camera lenses that attach to your smartphone, you will never have to carry around 2 separate objects again.

1. iPhone Lens Dial ($250): This lens promises high-quality coated-glass lenses. The shots look extremely professional and there are two tripod mounts for both portrait and landscape shooting.

2. Wide/Macro Phone Lens ($20): Really improves the look of close-up pictures.

3. Gizmon iCA iPhone Case and Lens ($65): This case looks like an old fashion camera. It not only protects your phone, but also comes with a set of two different lenses. You could choose to take fish-eye pictures, or macro pictures. There is also a detachable tripod mount.

4. GoPano 360-Degree Lens ($80): This lens records interactive 360-degree videos.

 

Tupac…Alive?

Many of my favorite blogs have been buzzing about Coachella for the past few days. They are talking about everything from what celebrities decided to show up this year, about how great the performances are, what fashions seem to be popular, and giving ideas for a packing list.

One performance really stood out to me. Rapper Tupac Shakur died 16 years ago. However, this weekend at Coachella, Tupac was right next to Snoop Dogg performing some of their most memorable songs. You are probably wondering how this happened.

Even though it appeared to be the real Tupac, it was actually a hologram of him that made it seem like he was right there on stage. It is scary how real it looks! Watch the video below:

One of my favor…

One of my favorite website designs is StumbleUpon. I like how simple the website is. It is very easy to get around and to pick out your favorite interests. Even though the website looks very simple, the concept that they have created is very complicated and a very good idea! 

Weather

The first thing I usually do when I wake up is check the weather to figure out what I need to wear for the day, and whether I need an umbrella or not. However, if you are like me and always check the iPhone weather, you might realize that it isn’t the most accurate. Here are 5 better ways to get weather:

1. Umbrella Today: umbrellatoday.com is a website where you simply have to enter your zip code or city and state in to register. Then, everyday you will get an e-mail or text from them about whether you need an umbrella or not! You can also set what time you want the text to come.

2. weather.com: On weather.com there are 10 different weather alerts that you could sign up to receive via text message. You could have things such as: daily forecast, severe weather alerts, pollen count, and more.

3. weather.com app: This Free App is like the iPhone weather, but seems way more accurate.

4. WeatherPro: A $4 app that tells you all the details of weather. It provides the temperature, what it feels like outside, wind direction and speed, air pressure, precipitation, amount and relative humidity, sunrise and sunset times, water temperatures, and more.

5. ExactSet Projection Clock: This clock that is $61.50 displays the time, the day’s weather forecast, and current indoor/outdoor temps.

Macs Infected with Virus

According to an article on Mashable, over 600,000 Macs– most being in the U.S. and Canada– are infected with a virus called “Flashback.”

This virus disguises itself as an Adobe Flash Player installer. After people download the file, the malware then goes through the computer and seeks out user names and passwords that are stored on the computer.

CNN Tech posted an article about how to find out if your Mac has this virus. In order to check if your computer has it, you need to download the 2 scripts that are given in the article. If a certain image appears, that means you’re in the clear. However, if the scripts do not show something other than, “does not exist,” that means your computer is infected.

If you find that your computer is infected, you need to follow the removal steps that Apple placed on their website here. Even if your computer isn’t infected, you should still download the latest security content for Apple’s to ensure your computer won’t be infected!

Project Glass

For those of you who haven’t heard about this yet, the video posted below is a must watch. 

Google recently unveiled their newest project: Project Glass. This project consists of display glasses that would essentially, “take your smartphone out of your hands and onto your face.” You would be able to check the weather, get directions, send texts, make phone calls, video-chat, and even more, simply by just looking into your glasses. The video below shows what the glasses will hopefully do: 

Google Maps

I use Google Maps constantly, so when I came across this article on Mashable, I immediately thought it would be interesting. This article talks about how there are actually 10 locations on Google Maps that are not allowed to be shown to the users. Each place has a different reason for not being shown, and here is what the places are: 

• The Royal Residence, The Netherlands– many places are blurred out because of the Dutch royal family
• Buffalo Niagara International Airport
• Tantauco National Park, Chile– a private natural reserve that is home to many endangered animals
• Keowee Dam, South Carolina– this dam is shaped like a Christmas tree and helps run a power utility for Duke Energy company
• A mysterious site in Russia that is in the Siberian tundra 
• Minami Torishima Airport, Japan– a one-runway airport that serves the island of Miniami Torishima, which is used by the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force
• The Michael Aaf Building, Utah– a region that is occupied by the U.S. Army, where the military tests biological and chemical weapon systems
• Cornell University Combined Heat and Power Plant, New York– high-tech eco-friendly facility that generates electricity from natural gas as a part of the university’s effort to lower its carbon footprint 
• Babylon, Iraq– just looks like endless farmland even though there is a city there
• Vlissingen, The Netherlands– oil tanks, as well as several army bases and air force bases 

Goodbye Encyclopedia Britannica

On Tuesday Encyclopedia Britannica announced that this is the end of their printed editions and that the Encyclopedia will only be found on digital versions from now on. The company currently has 4,000 sets of the Encyclopedia, and after these run out, there will be no more copies available for sale. For something that has been around since 1768, I’d say this is pretty big news. An online subscription costs $70 per year, and there are sets of apps that cost between $1.99 and $4.99 per month. This seems pretty cheap compared to the printed edition which costs $1,400, and is available every two years. 

To read more about the announcement, please read the article here. 

 

Best Book Apps

I love to read, and by having an iPad and an iPhone, I could now get a book without even leaving the house. I also could read whenever I have a spare moment waiting in between classes or in line somewhere without having to carry around a heavy book. Thanks to this article from Geek Sugar, here are some helpful phone apps that make reading even easier! 

1. Goodreads- this is like IMDB, but for books instead of movies!

 

2. Bookcrawler- this app allows you to catalog your favorite reads, as well as syncs up with other apps

3. Free Audiobooks- up to 4,728 classic books that you could listen to!

4. iBookcreator- make your own books! 

Pinterest

“I was obsessed with this idea that what you collect says something about who you are.”- CEO and co-founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann

Seeing that Pinterest is currently one of my favorite websites, and also a popular discussion in our class, after coming across this article I knew I had to talk about it. Later this week, Pinterest is planning to release a completely redesigned profile for its users. In this redesign, users will now be able to “stumble upon” other users that are similar to them. These profiles will also highlight the people that their connections are repinning images from. In addition to this, users are also going to be able to start tagging video’s in addition to just plain pictures. An iPad app is also in the works.

There is also a very interesting slideshow in the article that shows Pinterest’s rise to the top. I suggest checking it out, you could find the article here! http://mashable.com/2012/03/13/pinterest-redesign-api/#47483Dec-22-Top-Ten