Monthly Archives: July 2009
FujiFilm REAL 3D W1 – A New ‘Third’ Dimension To Digital Imagery
Fed up with standard two dimensional photographs? A new camera set to take three dimensional photos is set for release very soon! The new 3D camera from FujiFilm is said to “revolutionise the world of photography” on it’s release in September 2009 in the UK.
The FujiFilm REAL 3D W1 is the first of its kind set for public release, retaining at around £570 in most high-end retail outlets. The revolutionary digital camera is about the same size and shape of most ‘portable’ digital camera but instead of the standard one lense camera, the REAL 3D W1 has two lenses, one to capture the foreground image and one to capture the background image, as well as two sensors. A clever processor inside the camera then merges the two images together to create the 3D photo, capturing three dimensions of your digital photography.
As with all technological advances there is an apparent downside; at the moment there are two ways in which a user can view their photos. The first method is via a 2.8 inch viewable screen on the back of the camera – which is good for showing your friends but not much else! Or the user can purchase a unique 8 inch digital photo frame allowing the user to view both photos and videos. Of couse the photo frame is quite expensive, expecting to retail at around £400!! Failing that a user has a final option of sending their photos to a special labratory in Japan which, on request, will print the photos on a special kind of printing paper called lenticulated paper allowing users to view their photos in a three dimension format.
Like all new gadgets their are upsides and downsides to the new device but we at Your Life cannot wait to see what this new camera has to offer. In time the prices will fall allowing more people to get hold of the latest in digital photography and the technology will evolve to who knows what! Watch this space.
Depp and Mann Fued Created Public Enemies Mess
As the title might suggest, thinks have got pretty bad for director Michael Mann and lead actor Johnny Depp over their clanger of a blockbuster Public Enemies. During production the two key figures on set were only communicating through a studio exec, as Depp seethed at Mann’s ‘chaotic’ film making style.
After viewing the final product, although I was not on set, I would have to take Depp’s side. The final product was quite frankly shocking. From a director who had put togther some entertaining and stylish flicks such as Last of Mohicans, Heat, Ali and Collatoral, this was a real mess. None of his films are masterpieces, but he has shown that he can work with big names and get the job done.
With Mohicans, Mann proved that he could put together a period piece with some complex battle scenes. I don’t know whether he got bored with standard cinematic deep focus period techniques or if he wanted to try something new, but he picked the wrong film to do it with. Mann is staring down the barrel as Public Enemies drags itself over the 70mill mark bearing the wieght of a 100mill price tag.
The problem is that it really didn’t look like a 100mill flick. The shadow happy lighting and shallow focus from the tight end gave us little hints we were in the 1930s. The film was effectively a biop of John Dillinger and if Mann was trying to represent the gritty realism by adopting a Cassavettes style, actor leading camera blend of performance enhancing depth of field with reaction shot focus pulls, it did not work.
The autopsy of this freakish alien of visual style has to begin with the script… it was terrible. They managed to make Depp boring. Mann took co-credit for this abomination with Ronan Bennett, who has mainly written for TV although penned Face in ’97 which was passable and the Stephen Fry adaptation Lucky Break. It was a series of cliches and paradoxes which left Depp slightly confused as to why he was on screen.
Depp under Burton would have been searching within these terrible lines for a reason. He would have deduced that with the entire country trying to capture Dillinger he would be paranoid in the extreme, he would be reliant on cliches to get him through conversations, he would have had an edge. The poor script would have been turned inside out to create something interesting.
Nissan Gives North East Economy a Jolt
With 2000 jobs at risk at Corus’s Redcar steel plant, the North East of England really needed some good news. And today they’ve got it, with Nissan’s announcement that they plan to manufacture electric car batteries at their Wearside factory – expected to generate some 350 new jobs.
The government and the people of the north east will be hoping this cements Britain’s long term position as a hybrid car manufacturing base. The Lithium-ion batteries will power a new generation of Nissan cars, and it is hoped that the news will clear the way for full-scale production of these new models in Sunderland. There has been stiff competition from other plants across Europe.
It is thought that many more jobs will be created in related industries. Lord Mandelson visited the plant with the Prime Minister, and said the north east would be established as a “low carbon economic area”.
The news comes soon after Toyota announced it was to build its new Auris Hybrid petrol-electric car at Burnaston in Derbyshire. These two news items are likely to give a little hope – considering manufacturing is often the first to go in a recession.
Nissan has ear marked 200 million pounds for the battery making plans, to be spread out over 5 years.
Lucky Number Windows 7: Evolution, Not Revolution
Microsoft’s professional developers conference in Los Angeles saw the unveiling of the eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system. With a lot of people displaying utter disdain for the previous OS – Vista – it is hoped that Windows 7 will address some of these issues. However, with Microsoft claiming that the system is an ‘evolution’ as opposed to a ‘revolution’, many people are likely to claim that the system will not fix these gripes.
Like Apple’s iphone, the new Windows contains a multi-touch facility, whereby people can use two fingers to zoom into an image. Bill Gates will be hoping that users don’t use their two fingers for more symbolic usage if the system crashes.
Lucky number 7 perhaps, for this new system. Unfortunately for the kings of operating systems, the only people who could possibly mount a challenge to them – Google – is indeed doing so next year. The Google Chrome OS promises to be a web-centred operating system, as people spend most of their digital lives on the net – according to Google.
Only time will tell who’ll win the OS War – perhaps we’ll be left with two comparably powerful systems that promote competition and drive usability forward as far as possible. Most people would agree that competition does indeed make things better – so let’s hope it does.
Loosening Microsoft’s stranglehold on the world of home computers has surely got to be a good thing – as long as we’re not left with yet another global corporation that controls everything – and let’s not forget, Google run the most powerful information portal known to man as well!
Gay Pride 09
If you like loads of gays and loud music, then London’s Gay Pride celebrations are where you should have been on the 4th of July.
If you’d just had a row with your missus and thought that the fine architecture and well stocked galleries of central London might provide some respite – you’d instead be confronted with Boy George, The Cheeky Girls and burlesque dancers exposing their nipple tassels to Leicester square.
I soon stopped berating myself for not checking the Time Out website though, as it turned out the whole queer atmosphere was actually pretty impressive.
It does seem that London, having experienced these events since the sixties, is extremely comfortable with having drag queens wearing huge union jack ball gowns sauntering around Trafalgar Square – and totally fine with all manner of obscene photo opportunities taking place around nearby Leicester Square.
The normally well guarded fountain pools overlooked by ‘Kiss Me Hardy’ Nelson, were jammed with inebriated lesbians, chock full of battered queers – and sprinkled with a few straights, perhaps trying to absorb some gay credo.
Exasperated security men attempted to remove them, but it took several more hours before the party goers dispersed. The whole pink throbbing gay mass was overlooked by a sensible-looking Big Ben at the other end of Whitehall, the late sun illuminating it’s imperial clock face.
Even St Martin-in-the-Field sported the gay flag, adding to the permissive atmosphere of this rampantly energetic event. Up the road and round the bend Piccadilly Circus told a similar story – with the roads closed there was a vibrant mixture of full-bodied American tourists, aimless drag queens and snap happy Japs.
With deserted cinema foyers and theatre goers wielding cut-price tickets – you got the impression that few folk wanted to be indoors on a day as gay as this.
