Yesterday Trends of U.S.A. News Network: might

Showing posts with label might. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Android cameras might get facial detection, RAW image support

To make a snappier camera

A newly discovered code reveals Google could be working on a new slew of Android camera tools including face detection, burst fire and RAW image support.

Originally spotted by ArsTechnica, the new camera features are documented in a public Android source code, which appears to have been in the works since December 2012. The code would have been included with KitKat, but some time around October it appears the API was tagged as "not yet ready" and hidden away.

Current Android users almost had a camera with built-in facial detection capabilities, too.

Another missed feature is burst mode, which lets smartphone snappers take a quick succession of photographs, and is ideal for "action shots" or cameras without image stabilization.

Finally, the code reveals that users were close to getting RAW image support. RAW images are much larger compared to JPEGs that smartphone cameras usually take, but they also hold a lot more detail and are useful for recovering photos that were shot over or under exposed.

Other than a few standout smartphone cameras such as Ultrapixels on the HTC One and LG G2's optically stabilized lens, Android cameras have been sorely lacking compared to the iPhone 5S and Nokia Lumia 1020.

Looking at the list of new camera features, it's easy to spot a few that look like ways for Google to play catch-up. After all, Apple also just introduced its own burst mode with iOS 7.

RAW image support meanwhile is still something not found on most smartphones expect for a few photography-focused models. If Google hopes to make Android a serious smartphone camera platform, the ability to shoot unprocessed and uncompressed photos could be the golden ticket shutterbugs are looking for.

There's no word on when or if Google plans to release these camera improvements, but we'll keep an eye out.

Android cameras might get facial detection, RAW image support

To make a snappier camera

A newly discovered code reveals Google could be working on a new slew of Android camera tools including face detection, burst fire and RAW image support.

Current Android users almost had a camera with built-in facial detection capabilities, too.

Another missed feature is burst mode, which lets smartphone snappers take a quick succession of photographs, and is ideal for "action shots" or cameras without image stabilization.

Looking at the list of new camera features, it's easy to spot a few that look like ways for Google to play catch-up. After all, Apple also just introduced its own burst mode with iOS 7.

There's no word on when or if Google plans to release these camera improvements, but we'll keep an eye out.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Mercedes was set to sell version of Nissan Titan, now Infiniti might instead

Mercedes-Benz Titan. Mercedes-Benz Frontier. Mercedes-Benz pickup truck. None of these things roll off the tongue particularly well. We'd like to think that's the reason Daimler opted to kill the idea of rebadged Titan and Frontier pickups from corporate ally Nissan. In reality, the execution before the Frankfurt Motor Show was due to more complicated issues.

Yes, Mercedes, byword for German luxury, style and quality, would have slapped a three-pointed star on a pair of Japanese pickup trucks that have failed to resonate with consumers in the world's largest truck market. That slapping of badges isn't much of an exaggeration, at least on the outside. According to the report from Road & Track, the truck's front clip would have been tweaked, but beyond that, the sheetmetal would have been unchanged. The interior would have received a more thorough going-over by the team at Mercedes, while the suspension and noise, vibration and harshness tuning would have also received significant attention.

The trucks would have ended up being sold through the light-commercial branch of Mercedes-Benz - the same folks that will happily sell you a Sprinter van - had the deal gone through. Issues arose, though, first with the engines. Mercedes wanted a wider range of powertrains to allow it to tune models for specific markets, while Nissan said it couldn't engineer the wide variety of engines that MB wanted to drop under the hood. For the smaller truck, meanwhile, MB was interested in a hybrid or plug-in variant, according to R&T, although this was also shot down by Nissan.

Interestingly, the report claims the decision by Mercedes has essentially given the green light to Infiniti, Nissan's premium brand, to engineer a higher-end pickup. No word on if the Infiniti-badged Titan will arrive before or after the next-generation truck debuts, but we'd have to assume the latter.

Mercedes, meanwhile, may not have totally abandoned its truck plans. An unnamed source within Infiniti told the buff book, "We know about their pickup, but as long as they price it more enthusiastically than ours, we don't think it will impact our plans."

View the original article here