Kodak wins in patent dispute with Ricoh, and Nikon goes after Polaroid

<Nikon D5300 Black Friday Dealp>by Tim Barribeau

The world of legal battles between camera companies is a murky one. Between technology patents, similar looking and sounding cameras, and all sorts of licensing, it can be difficult to keep track of who owns what, and who owes what to whom. But recently, a number of companies have become involved in courtroom battles for an array of technologies.

According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Ricoh has agreed to pay Kodak $76 million in a patent battle. Kodak alleged that when Ricoh purchased Pentax in 2011, they owed back royalties since Pentax had never licensed the imaging technology from Kodak. Ricoh said there was no evidence of Pentax having violated Kodak copyright. However, it seems that now Ricoh has agreed to pay out $75.8 million over the issue. A Kodak spokesperson talked to Amateur Photographer, and said "'Kodak is gratified that both the judge and jury have validated our contract claim. These decisions certainly also demonstrate the value of the technology that Kodak created.'

While that lawsuit is ending, another is just getting under way. Remember the unexpected (and slightly bizarre) Polaroid mirrorless camera, the iM1836 manufactured by Sakar? Nikon is filing a lawsuit "for design patent and trade dress infringement". The company alleges that the Sakar/Polaroid camera for looking too similar to Nikon products. And looking at the comparison below (via Engadget), you have to admit it's a dead ringer for the Nikon J1. According to the press release, "Nikon seeks injunctive relief against Sakar in the lawsuit to prevent them from manufacturing and selling their Polaroid brand digital still camera, "Polaroid iM1836"." The iM1836 has popped up on Amazon recently, where it's being widely disparaged, despite not yet having shipped.

Source: Imaging-resource

Nikon Unveils D5300 D-SLR With Wi-Fi

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Nikon didn't wait very long to update its excellent D5200 digital SLR. That camera, announced internationally last November, didn't make its U.S. debut until CES in January, and less than a year later we have its successor.

On the exterior the new D5300 is pretty much the same as its predecessor-the only notable change is an LCD that's a bit larger (3.2 inches) and sharper (1,037k dots) than the 3-inch, 921k-dot vari-angle display found on the D5200.

Despite boasting the same 24-megapixel resolution as its predecessor, the D5300's image sensor is a different design. It's the same one that is found in the D7100. That means that it omits the optical low-pass filter (OLPF). Professional medium format digital cameras have long done away with the OLPF, which saps up a bit of detail in order to eliminate the possibility of color moire appearing in images. Over the past couple years, more and more smaller format cameras have dropped the OLPF, including Nikon's own D800E and the Pentax K-5 IIs. But the D5300 is the first camera we've seen that is squarely aimed at the consumer market to take this approach.

The EXPEED 4 image processor is also new to the D5300, replacing the EXPEED 3 chip that powered the D5200. This is the first Nikon camera with this image processor, but the company promises that it will deliver improved performance in low light and faster operation overall. The native ISO range is ISO 100 through 12800, with 25600 available as an expanded option. The metering and focus systems are the same as the D5200-that gives the camera a 2,016-pixel RGB sensor for scene recognition and 39 selectable autofocus. Like its predecessor, the D5300 is rated to shoot at 5 frames per second.

The other big internal upgrade is the addition of built-in Wi-Fi. Previously Nikon D-SLR owners had to purchase the WU-1a adapter to add wireless connectivity to their cameras. This feature is built into the D5300, so you can transfer photos wirelessly to an iOS or Android device without the need for an add-on. A GPS module is also built into the camera, so your location is added to photo metadata automatically. You'll be able to look at shots on a map when using software like iPhoto or Picasa, or sharing online via a hosting service that includes a map view, like Smugmug.

The D5300 will be available in black, red, or dark gray. It's priced at $799.95 as a body only, or $1,099.95 with an 18-140mm lens. It will be available to purchase in mid-November.

This announcement comes on the heels of news of the D610, a very minor update to the full-frame D600. It's essentially the same camera, but with an improved shutter that allows for a 6fps continuous shooting rate. Many D600 owners reported that the camera has a tendency to pick up dust on the sensor after extended use. It wasn't something we saw with our review unit, and sensor dust is a common issue with all interchangeable lens cameras, but the noise that D600 owners made indicated that it was something beyond what is normally expected.

Nikon issued a service advisory for the D600 relating to the dust issue. The company is not saying that the new shutter is there to reduce the instances of dust accumulation; rather, the official line is that it improves the burst shooting rate and also introduces a new 3fps quiet continuous mode.

The D610 comes in at a $100 less than its predecessor; it's priced at $1,999.95 as a body only, and can be purchased in a kit with the 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 lens for $2,599.95.

Rounding out the Nikon announcements is a new high-end prime lens. The AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G matches the focal length of the classic Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2, but its aperture isn't quite as ambitious. The new lens features the latest nanocrystal coatings, ED and aspherical elements, and an internal SWM focus motor. It's priced at $1,699.95 and will be available at the end of October.

Source: Pcmag

With Frank Gatson Jr. onboard, 'Jubilee!' gets a long-awaited makeover - HispanicBusiness.com

<cheap mens halloween costumesp>Oct. 17--As Frank Gatson Jr. watches a performance of "Jubilee!," he rests his chin in his hand. He squints, gazes around the spacious showroom and frequently blurts out questions.

Such as, "Why are they wearing those pants?"

Or, "Why isn't the audience standing up, cheering? They just performed the hell out of that number."

Or even, "Why are we losing track of Samson in this scene?"

They are all relevant questions about the Strip's longest-running, and last remaining, traditional showgirls-driven production, but Gatson is hardly an idle fan. "Jubilee!" is undergoing a significant modernization beginning this week. Gatson is the new show's creative director and choreographer and has been recruited to upgrade the show without compromising the vision of original producer Donn Arden.

"I want to be diplomatic and tell the cast I know exactly what it is like to be in their positions," Gatson says Tuesday night during a performance of "Jubilee!" at Bally's. "The show needs to be reinvigorated, and I have to find the balance between bringing it up to date without losing the vision that Donn Arden had in the first place."

The stated reason for the timing and need for the upgrades to a show that opened at the old MGM Grand in 1981 are multifold. The show's audience is not getting any younger, though officials say ticket counts are not the driving force behind the decision to modify the production (Asian tour groups in particular help boost audience numbers).

There is money now set aside for the type of revisions, and the type of person revising, required to update "Jubilee!" Caesars Entertainment is looking to make all of its performances more vibrant and energetic, nodding (hopefully) to the nightclub crowd that is largely ignoring such classic productions.

"This needs to be a party," Gatson says. "This show has to be the place where young people go to feel that Old Vegas vibe. It has to be a cool thing to do. That is why I am here."

To allow for the time required to make significant changes, to the performance and the show's audio and visual presentation, the show will go dark early next year. In the offing is an announcement that Veronic DiCaire will be extended through mid-January, and, after her run concludes, the theater will close for a few weeks (likely) while "Jubilee!" is revived.

To "modernize" the show while maintaining its classic vibe is a delicate dance, but Gatson is an expert at performing nimble footwork, onstage and offstage. He has been a choreographer, image-maker and confidant of Beyonce since her days in Destiny's Child and helped design the reunited group's smash appearance at this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Gatson also once danced on tour with Up With People (an ideal training ground when addressing the boundless scope of "Jubilee!") and in a 30-year career has helped choreograph and direct videos and appearances by Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, Diana Ross, Vanessa Williams, En Vogue, Usher, Mariah Carey and The Band Perry.

Gatson arrived in Las Vegas this week, flying in from Paris after working with Beyonce on her current world tour. But he's been stealthily watching "Jubilee!" performances over the past several weeks and has seen the show nine times as he's evaluated where and how to tweak the production.

"Every time I see it, I see something different," he says. "It's important for me to see it repeatedly, and with different people, to check my opinions."

"Jubilee!" has not undergone a makeover of any significance in about 20 years. In that span, the audio/visual/performance wizardry of Cirque du Soleil and such extensive and advanced productions as "Jersey Boys" at Paris Las Vegas have wowed audiences on the Strip. The charm of "Jubilee!," of course, is that it is of its time.

The show is unbending in its presentation, with topless beauties striding across the stage in astonishingly appointed costumes designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. The Titanic and Samson and Delilah scenes are so famously familiar that hardly anyone inside the production has questioned why, for example, there are mannequins in the lifeboat or why Samson might not wear a longer and more dramatic wig.

"When I see the show, I see so much production value. I mean, are you kidding? Look at that staircase," Gatson says. "You have light-blue chiffon costumes. Tuxes. These costumes are a producer's dream."

Gatson has been onboard for only about two months and had not met the cast until Wednesday night. Even during Tuesday's show, nobody onstage realized that the person seated in a booth near the lip of the stage would be so vital to the show's future. During the performance, Gatson stresses that all of his thoughts are preliminary and conveyed offhandedly.

"I am just thinking out loud," he says.

But know that Gatson has authority to make cast changes. He loves tall showgirls, and the show's requirement that all women onstage stand 5-feet-8-inches tall does not seem in jeopardy. But, repeatedly, he says of the guys, "We need bodies up there that are not the women to look nice. This needs to be a sexier show, and some of the guys need to get back into the gym. When you're young, there's no excuse to be onstage and not be fit. I want to see six-packs up there, and I'm not seeing them."

As enamored as Gatson is of the women's costumes, he finds the men's attire lacking in several scenes. The sparkled black T-shirts, matching slacks and white belts worn by the male dancers are not a favorite.

"This does not appeal to women in the audience," he says. "They do not look good."

The order of the scenes might well be juggled to add a more chronological sense of time. The Samson scene is near the middle, Titanic at the end, and there seems no connective thematic thread to the show. The specialty acts, or side acts, too, are under review.

As he watched the male body balancers and the cube act, he wondered, "Why is this act in the show right now? It is taking us out of 'Jubilee!,' and we're going to need to reintroduce the show after this act. ... I'd like to see how we can integrate these acts into the story more effectively. I don't understand why they are being used when Cirque has become so effective at using these types of acts. They're very common now."

Mostly, Gatson is seeking more power from the stage. Moments designed to achieve high drama have become unintentionally kitschy. The culmination of the Samson scene is of the lead male dancer destroying a temple as he is crushed under a big demon head with its eyes flaming red. The capsizing of the Titanic employs ample pyrotechnics and smoke effects, but each of those scenes are tepidly received, greeted only by a smattering of applause.

"We should be on our feet," Gatson says, grabbing the booth's table with both hands. "This should be shaking. We should be feeling the power from the stage, and we're not. They are giving us everything, and we're feeling an absence of power."

The revamping will start with a pep talk to the cast and a look at supercharging the sound system. Gatson talks of bringing in Vintage Vegas-style singers and using hologram figures and additional video to boost the dance scenes. Some of the costumes will inevitably be ditched or upgraded.

But Gatson is not turning "Jubilee!" into a different show. He is making the classic show more dynamic.

"I'm here to improve the presentation," he says. "But there is no other show like this. I'm old school, and I really believe that."

Bally's Las Vegas Step into the light at Bally's Las Vegas. The neon-lit entryway stands out as a symbol of Las Vegas surrounded by a series of neon columns. Bally's opened in 1973 as the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and has since become a mix of old and new Vegas. The 139,251-square foot property includes 1,050 slot machines, 58 gaming tables, 14 poker tables and 2,814 hotel rooms. The showgirls take center stage in "Jubilee," a cabaret show celebrating the classic showgirls. Other entertainment options include "Tony and Tina's Wedding" dinner show and the L.A. Comedy Club. Bally's Steakhouse serves classic steaks, chops and seafood in an elegant New England hunt club-style atmosphere. On Sundays, the Sterling Brunch offers bottomless premium Champagne, caviar and whole lobster. Bally's race and sports book deserves a mention for having about 200 seats and being surrounded by comfort foods like Sbarro's pizza, Nathan's Famous for hot dogs and Ichiban's for sushi.

3645 Las Vegas Blvd., S. Las Vegas, NV 89109

702-967-4111

>Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With The Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

___

(c)2013 the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.)

Visit the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.) at www.lasvegassun.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

Source: Hispanicbusiness

Phandroid readers make their cases for seeing Android 4.4 KitKat on October 28th [TEASES]

<5s iphone cases for girls quotesp>In case you haven't noticed, Kit Kat has been going a bit crazy on Google+. Yesterday, the company posted a photo of a dancing Android-shaped Kit Kat bar on the day that some (definitely not all) thought Google would announce Kit Kat and the Nexus 5. That didn't happen, and Kit Kat is still posting as many cryptic messages on Google+ as they can.

This time, it was a picture of Kit Kat bars arranged to spell out "This is it." And, quite literally, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. There was no #Android, no Android mascot, or anything else to help rabid fanatics everywhere figure out what this meant. That said, we were still curious to hear your thoughts, and posed the question to you on Google+. The responses? Nothing short of hilariously ridiculous.

One reader, Richard Colon, was the first to suggest Kit Kat was referring to Michael Jackson's "This is It," a 2009 documentary that launched on October 28th. This is where the October 28th train got rolling.

Reading further, the silliness really started when user Liam Muller jokingly suggested the following:

If you also look, it takes 16 wafers to make "THIS IS IT" and today is the 16th of October so today might be the day :)

So now we have the 16th and the 28th, but Ed Carter suggests we're all thinking about it wrong: Michael Jackson's "This is It" tour eventually got cancelled, which could mean Android 4.4 Kit Kat or the Nexus 5 got cancelled. I know. Just bear with me.

Richard chimed back in a bit later to remind us that yesterdays "Everybody Dance Now" teaser shares the name of the hit song by 28th Street Crew, which he believes lends more credence to seeing Kit Kat and/or Nexus 5 on the 28th.

Finally, Haaris Edhi decided to drop their 2 cents and let us know that there are "8 letters in "this is it" and 2 sentences, meaning October 28." We've all obviously gone off the deep end here, and perhaps that's what makes this entire thing genius by Kit Kat and Google.

They know how crazy we get over this stuff. They know that one image alone is enough to send the hype meter through the roof, and they know they have us right where they want us - salivating for Android 4.4 Kit Kat just as much as most chocolate lovers salivate for an actual Kit Kat bar.

Source: Phandroid

Life sentence upheld in sexual assault case

WILLMAR, Minn. -- The state Supreme Court has upheld the life prison sentence of a Willmar man convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Jose Santoya Juarez, 54, was convicted and sentenced in 2011 for sexually assaulting a woman in July 2010 in an alley near the Willmar Eagles Club.

The Supreme Court ruling, issued Tuesday, found that a life sentence for aggravated criminal sexual conduct is not cruel or unusual punishment and that the sentence does not violate the U.S. or state constitutions. The court said Juarez's action of removing his victim more than 200 feet to assault her did meet the "heinous element" required by state law in such 5s iphone cases life proof box. Finally, the court ruled that the District Court did not err in the case.

According to the state Department of Corrections website, Juarez is serving his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Rush City.

Source: Grandforksherald

Unofficial iPhone 5s tracker helps customers find gold

Summary: An inventory tracker was developed by an enterprising Apple developer looking for the fabled gold iPhone 5s iphone cases lifeproof discounts.

Remember the rumor that Apple was going to update its Apple Store app to include real-time iPhone inventory status? Well, it never came to pass, at least the way I imagined.

In 2008 a developer built an iPhone 3G tracker by scraping the Apple Store's JSON data feed (Apple quickly pulled the feed). Then in 2009 Apple posted an official iPhone 3GS tracker that was updated hourly and linked to its sales system.

Unfortunately, it's 2013 and the current implementation is incredibly obtuse and difficult to use. There's no simple chart that simply shows where to find an iPhone 5s in stock. It's a huge step backwards from 2009.

To find an iPhone 5s near you, you need to go to Apple's buy page, click on the configuration you want, then click on the tiny blue "check availability" link in the right navigation bar. From there, you can enter your zip code to see availability at five stores at a time, for that configuration. If you want to check another color or configuration, you need to start over.

Enter iPhone-Check by Mordy Tikotzky (@Tikotzky), an Apple Developer from NJ.

Frustrated with not being able to find a gold iPhone 5c for his wife he build a slick iPhone tracker that scrapes store.apple.com for the most up to date iPhone 5s inventory information.

According to Tikotzky iPhone-Check started as a little project running on his local computer and then he decided to share it with the world. Tikotzky wrote it in an hour (using expressjs.com on top of nodejs.org) with the support of his employer (@homeandstone) who let him do it on their time. He spent another two hours tweaking it in the evening.

iPhone-Check must be scratching an itch. The site broke 100k unique visitors Wednesday and has topped 1 million page views since it was launched less than a week ago. It's a shame that Apple couldn't offer a proper iPhone tracker, because clearly there's demand.

Now where all these gold iPhones I keep hearing about?

Source: Zdnet

HERE COMES ISM SERVICES...

<adamsp>Heads up! We are minutes away from the release of ISM's monthly report on the U.S. non-manufacturing sector, due out at 10 AM ET.

Economists expect the headline index to fall to 57.0 from August's 58.6 reading, indicating a slight slowdown in the pace of expansion in American services industries.

We will have the full release LIVE at 10 AM ET. Click here to refresh for the latest updates "
Source: Businessinsider

Samsung Galaxy S4 Swarovski bling cases

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No matter what type of smartphone you own there are a huge range of accessories that can be purchased for the device that can complement its features or protect it from life's bumps and scraps, and today we have some Samsung Galaxy S4 Swarovski bling cases for you.

A smartphone case can help protect the device while giving it a more unique look and feel and that can certainly be said about the Swarovski cases we have for the popular Samsung Galaxy S4. First up is the pink Gradation Bling Swarovski Crystal case that will certainly add some style to your handset.

The case is available from Amazon and is handcrafted with each of them having a unique pattern using only small crystals to get the best alignment. The case can be customized with names or special dates and comes in a special gift box, and is priced at a whopping $234.88.

Next up is the Premium Leather Swarovski product from Vaja cases that is made from Caterina Leather with a laser etched design that has shimmering Swarovski Crystals. The case has a flip style opening that provides full protection for the screen as well as protecting the four corners of the handset.

There is a new redesigned camera and speaker cut out along with a magnetic closure system, and is available in a number of different colours. Next we have the Swarovski Crystal OtterBox Defender Case Cover for Samsung Galaxy S4, which gives you that famous OtterBox protection along with some Swarovski sparkle.

This only costs $49.95 and has a built in screen protector and various covers for the handsets ports will stop debris getting in, and for more info click here. Last up we have a number of different designs at various price levels from Luxaddiction, and once you have chosen the design you want another page opens up so you can pick the case for the Galaxy S4.

Do you like any of these cases?

Source: Phonesreview