120 megapixel sensor by Canon

A new 120 megapixel 29.2 x 20.2mm APS-H CMOS sensor has been developed by Canon. The new 120 megapixel 29.2 x 20.2mm APS-H CMOS sensor is the same size used in its EOS 1D series of professional DSLRs. Canon says that the sensor is the highest resolution in the world for its size. The sensor covers 120 million pixels compared to similarly sized sensors that cover only 16.1 million pixels. The sensor, for which Canon has announced no production plans, has a pixel count nearly 7.5 times larger than the company's highest pixel count commercially available sensor. It offers full HD recording (using 1/60th of its surface area) and can deliver 9.5fps continuous shooting. This follows a 50 million pixel sensor of similar format the company developed in 2007. The new CMOS sensor is also capable of 9.5 frames per second for continuous shooting of very high-resolution images. The sensor also has full HD video output capability from any 1/60 sized area of its total surface. The new sensor measures about 29.2 x 20.2 mm. Canon is offering no details on when the new sensor might find its way into DSLR cameras that we can buy.

Read Press Release

hampton, my friends and me

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

It has been ages since I last hanged out with the boys. My friends that go way back my college years. Not that we lost communication, but it just so happened we have different priorities now, we still keep in touch but not as often as we did before. Since I am often out traveling and going to places, I decided that maybe I should treat a nice weekend in one of my favorite hotel, the Hampton. With good customer service, and excellent am

Luckily, Hampton is now holding an exciting giveaway at the website, the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. Having been to Hampton Hotel I know first hand how the experience for my friends will be, and imagine the look on their faces once they knew it was free! Party all night long, for two nights, fun in the sun all day long. Plus, a $5000 to spare along with the Grand Prize! Now that is what I call hanging out!

Joining the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. It is not even exclusive to Hilton Honor members or previous hotel clients. You just need to be a resident of the U.S., Canada with the exception of Quebec, U.K. and Mexico. I already joined the contest, my friends to. Winning a Grand Prize with any catch is something that I will never let me pass. Go ahead and do the same and Good Luck!

growth

I have been serving the company I work for, for more than 5 years now.  Not that I am complaining, but in our department, we have very little opportunity for growth and for more than 3 years now, I have been doing the same task repeatedly. Heck, I think I can even perform my tasks well even with my eyes closed. I needed change. I needed growth.

With the desire for growth and better opportunities, I came across a job opening that was pretty much inline with what I am currently doing now, but, with a much higher demand for excellence. The job requires the applicant to supervise a team.

So geared with enthusiasm, high hopes, some technical background that would fit the job, I went ahead and submitted my application online.

 And with some great help from above, I was screened for an interview which eventually happened yesterday.

How did it go? Not too smoothly, but not too drastic as well. I hit some major points that the interviewee was looking for. Pretty much explained to her my work experience and gave her a sense of security that I know what I am doing and that I can be competent enough to perform the tasks that was required by the job.

I am now scheduled for a panel interview, at least 2 hours from now. With God’s help, hopefully, I’ll do good.

Reboost the Boost the Boost Mobile Way

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Most of my friends are social network addicts. Everywhere they go they update their social networking status. I asked them how you keep up with the updates considering you’re not always on your laptop. Their answer was simple, using their mobile phones. I asked if it easily done, they said not really. It can get pretty complicated sometimes. Then I asked them how that adds up to their monthly bills. And then with a big sigh they said, “Pretty significant”. That is when I introduced them to Boost Mobile.  

Boost Mobile phones are social in nature. Facebook-ing and Twitter-ing is as simple as A-B-C.

Considering that updating their Social Networks from their mobile device is so important for them it shouldn’t be a problem for them anymore. Because it’s a feature that Boost Mobile is offering.

Boost Mobile is the no-contract wireless company offering services on dependable nationwide network with straightforward pricing and a full suite of high-quality phones. Boost-branded wireless phones are available nationwide at nearly 20,000 major retail and independent wireless dealer locations.

More importantly, Boost Mobile is offering Re-Boost, three efficient and effective ways to make your payments. You can pay on-line, in-person, or pay by phone. You can use your debit/credit card to make a payment or sign-up for worry-free automatic payments. And the most hassle free option for me. A friend or family member can also make a payment for a Boost Mobile customer which you rarely find on mobile network companies.

Most of my friends are already using Blackberry, but I think of their phones are outdated. So I introduced them the new Black Berry 8330 with easy flexible payment option plans. Of course what goes along with a Black Berry phone? The Black Berry plan unlimited. Unlimited Nationwide Calling, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Web, Unlimited Multi-Media Messaging (includes picture, audio & video), Unlimited Instant Messaging, Unlimited E-mail(Add up to 10 personal email accounts), Unlimited 411 Directory Assistance, Unlimited Call Waiting, Call Forwarding Included, Voicemail, Long Distance & Nationwide Network Included and International Long Distance. But in case you want something new, there is always the i1 phone and of course it comes with pretty competitive plan as well.

Activation is easy you won’t to go through the manuals back and forth either enter the SIM Card ID and IMEI or enter the ESN or MEID number.  My friends and I are getting the Boost today, you should do to. 

Leadership Training With a Twist

A couple of days ago I attended a Leadership Training that was hosted by the COE’s of the company I work for.  I was selected to be part of the training since I received an award for excellence in our department for the second quarter of the year. It was a pretty nice experience, and I guess for the rest of the attendees as well. The training or more likely workshop was well conducted.  It was not the usual workshop where the discussion was more on business related topics considering it was leadership training.  Rather, it was more of a discussion of a day to day activity with a leadership spice added to it.

The workshop was pretty educational. I started to understand that to become a good leaders there are certain characteristics that you need, not just to be a leader, but an effective one.  As a leader, you need to understand how to effectively communicate with your subordinates. That means dealing with different type of individuals and how to approach them in a much more efficient way.

Part of the workshop was to take part of group games that involves communication styles and team work. The games were educational in their own way. It demonstrates how different communication styles and challenges are involved in different situations which were also a good learning experience. 

Last but not the least, the workshop, being a 6 hour activity, included an American buffet dinner for the participants, which, I would say, was pretty fulfilling.

Busy life of a consultant made easy

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Lillilooloodotcom. All opinions are 100% mine.

My dad who is now enjoying his retirement benefits told me that he wanted to go back to doing what he used to do before, working as a management consultant. Not under some big named company, but rather as an independent consultant. Being used to all the resources available to him from his previous employer specially the consulting templates, he is now is challenged with the need to simultaneously meet clients, sell work, deliver sold projects, train new people to deliver the work, generate intellectual property, write reports, write proposals, find contractors, find toolkits, and almost everything else that needs him to perform his job efficiently. So I told him, we would together as a team and I would help him research and find a solution for that would suit his needs. Luckily, we did. Lillilooloo.com was the answer to all his problems.

Lillilooloo is a one stop portal that helps consultants with many of their problems. Lillilooloo is essentially a shared back-office that you can tap into for sample work, toolkits, methodologies, share ideas, access world class research; outsource proposals, letters, transcription of notes/concepts administration, and much more.

Lillilooloo offers cost-effective and high quality back-office research teams to complete reports, power point presentations, prepare studies, proposals and review documents.

Lillilooloo is a pretty maneuverable site. It is organized by category with easy to use menus. Categories range from Financial Services and Marketing to almost any business related categories. Finding the exact consulting templates that you need is not a problem at all considering that you can filter files based on Most Viewed, Downloaded, Liked, Favorite and Most Recent, a pretty helpful option to go away of browsing through irrelevant files.

Having said all that, I summed up the advantages Lillilooloo for him the important features Lillilooloo.com.

1. Document sharing--unlimited FREE file uploads & downloads, plus great quality!
2. A template store--consultant standard, detailed documents ready to use!
3. Premium document creation service— Lillilooloo research team can provide professional proposals,   reports, and presentations.
4. Plus, they have a new book (found in the template store) called "Succeeding as a Management Consultant” which will surely be a great guide to success as a Management Consultant.

 My dad was pretty amazed with Lillilooloo and is already looking forward to working with them. What worked for him before as a consultant might not work with the client requirements of the new generation today, but thanks to Lillilooloo’s new book (found in the template store) called "Succeeding as a Management Consultant” that wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Photoshop Express for iPad, iPone and Android

Photoshop Express, an application for Apple's iPad and iPhone is the latest cross-platform application to be introduced by Adobe. The free Photoshope Express application was recently updated by Adobe to include support for Android and the iPad. Although Photoshop Express is yet to be updated to render support for iPhone 4's higher resolution display. Photoshop Express was introduced by Adobe as an application for Apples iPad and iPhone.  The app, previously known as Photoshop.com Mobile has now been optimized for use with iPad. It enables users to view, edit and apply effects to images via gesture based functions. Photoshop Express is a simple image editing application that is designed to give users basic Photoshop features such as cropping, a touch – up tool, color effects which includes black and white effects and filters and more importantly, the application is available for free.

Photoshop Express allows users to store images online at Photoshop.Com, or you can choose to directly upload images to sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket.

Photoshop Express is available as a free download from Apple's App Store for new users and as an update including the new name for existing users. It is also available in the Android Marketplace.

Click here to download the app

Finally, TRUE HD for Video Calling!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of faceVsion Technology USA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Every once in a while my girlfriend travels across the country. That means being physically apart from each other. Often times, we would call each other using our mobile phones or send text messages. And sometimes, we would talk to each other using our webcam that goes with our laptops.

I like the feel of talking to my girlfriend using our webcam, often times we would use Skype along with it. But man, the quality is just so bad! I thought it was just the webcam since it just came with the laptop, I can’t expect that much from it. So I went and bought me the Microsoft Cinema, its said to be an HD webcam, tried video calling again, but just got disappointed, the quality is still poor, slightly better than my laptops webcam, but still no HD. They work just fine locally, but every time I try video calling, it’s just bad.

Still on the search for the best HD webcam and not losing hope, I found faceVsion. faceVsion is introducing their new product on the market, FV touchcam N1 and it seems very promising. 

So I went ahead and read the product info, trying my best to be a smart shopper and checking FV touchcam N1 will fill in what I have been looking for in an HD webcam. To my surprise, it does! The FV touchcam N1 is the world’s first Skype- certified webcam capable of delivering full screen 720p streaming video over the Internet. The TouchCam N1 features embedded hardware H.264 encoding, a chip that takes the 720p video and using high-quality encoding technology, squeezes the video into a stream small enough to be sent over a typical Internet connection. The N1 also features a best-in-class 78 degree super wide angle lens with fast auto-focus, so several people can comfortably get into the picture. The N1 attaches easily to most notebook computers or flat-panel displays and can also sit on a desktop. Easy plug- and-play installation via hi-speed USB 2.0.

The FV touchcam N1 is everything that I was looking for. FV touchcam N1 is the first Internet streaming true HD webcam for Skype video calls and with my girlfriend out of the country, thanks for faceVision, video calling is never going to be a problem anymore. I got my new faceVision Touch Cam N1 from the faceVision on line store. FV touchcam is also available through shop.facevsion.com and other value added partners.

And to top it all, www.shop.facevsion.com is now running a back to school promotion with $10 off any purchase, using the promo code of FVTBTS2 while checkout. The promotion ends 09/30/’10. I even got my mom an FV ExpressCombo. Something she is looking forward to use when she does her travels and then do video calls with my dad.

ACR 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidates by Adobe

‘Release Candidates’ of Camera RAW 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 has been released by Adobe, both known as raw processing software. Introducing support to 12 additional cameras ranging from Casio FH-100 to the Pentax 645D and Leica S2, the updates is available from the company’s Adobe Lab site. Samsung’s NX10 and Sony’s NEX models also make the list. Skipping from version 3.1, Lightroom brings its version numbering into sync with ACR, with 3.2 bringing a host of bug fixes along with the additional camres. ‘Release Candidate’ according to the company means the download is well tested but not yet the final version.

Get the latest ‘Release Candidate’ on the links below.

Adobe Camera RAW v6.2 

Adobe Lightroom v3.2 

Read the Press Release : 

Hands-free follow-focus system system for DSLRs by Intuitfocus HF-IF1

Intuitfocus, a German manufacturer has released what it calls the first hands-free follow-focus system for Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR). Built with a motorized belt-drive system that is attached around the lens, Intuifocus HF-IF1 is remotely controlled by scroll wheel. Aimed at videographers who shoot movies with High Definition (HD) enabled DSLRs, Intuifocus HF-IF1 is designed to offer smooth and shake-free focus of zooming. The Intuifocus HF-IF1 system can be used to control focus, zoomor aperture. According to HP Marketing, the the US distributor, the HF-IF1 will be available from September 2010 with camera/lens specific variation at a retail of $3900 for the complete kit.

Read the Press Release: 

my own burger thanks to facebook and ampm

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of ampm. All opinions are 100% mine.

Social networking sites these days doesn’t only provide means to get in touch with friends and families. They can almost do anything these days. Advertising is one of them. Not the usual approach in reaching out to your customers, but it definitely works. Facebook and ampm is one good example. ampm has a facebook page that shows you how interactive a burger experience can be and that’s where you get to see the secret menu tab. ampm is a convenience store that offer late night dining where you can be creative and create your own menu. Self-serve in a way, but totally useful for me since I like my burgers just the way my appetites tells me, which, I confess, changes every once in a while. Pretty convenient for those who crave for late night snacks like me. I spend my weekends watching my favorite tv shows, movies and even documentaries. More often than not, the moment I’m done watching, I go straight to the kitchen and look for something to eat. Now wouldn’t something like Chili Conquistador answer that craving? I’d definitely say yes. Who wouldn’t? A meaty burger, chili and spicy funyums, I say that’s perfect.

The secret menu tab on facebook is good way of letting ampm what you, as a customer wants, and what they, as a company would need to do to give their customers a more satisfying experience and eventually make them frequent customers. That’s great customer interaction right there. The secret menu tab is available on their facebook fan page so make sure to check it out. More to that, on 7/26, 8/2, 8/9, 8/16, 8/30, five more secret menus will be unveiled. And just recently, last Aug 2, fans can ampm can already create their own version of their favorite burger right on the facebook page.

I already created my own personal menu, so go ahead and try them!

Denoise 5 by Topaz Labs

The latest version of Denoise noise reduction plug-in for Adobe Photoshop has been release by Topaz Labs. Faster processing speeds and an increase of the maximum image size is what is being promised to the market with the new Denoise 5 plug-in. The Denoise 5 plug-in is available as a free upgrade for existing users or $79.99 for first-time buyers.

You can also avail of the free 30-day trial of Topaz Denoise 5. Click here for more information on how to download the free 30-day trial.

Here are some of the highlights of what Denoise 5 promises to offer:

Remove Noise, Recover Detail

The Topaz DeNoise 5 image noise reduction plug-in uses IntelliNoise™ technology to optimally remove noise and recover image detail.

Topaz DeNoise puts unrivaled noise reduction quality at your fingertips. Whether you're shooting in low light, fast speeds, or other noisy conditions, DeNoise gives you the peace of mind to know that you'll end up with a clean, clear, and noise-free result.

Other noise reduction methods utilize a range of subtle blurring techniques that often removes detail as well as noise. Topaz DeNoise 5 is the only software of its kind that is able to recover crisp detail while simultaneously removing up to four stops of noise with the utmost quality.

Read the official Press Release:

Passion Profiles Passionately Cooking!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Haagen Dazs. All opinions are 100% mine.

For the last 5 years living away from my parents, I started supporting myself, earning a living, feeding myself, and catering to my needs. One of which is cooking. Having no one else to do it for me, I started cooking basically frying something up. Later on, I started reading cook books and watched cooking shows. That’s when I realized, cooking is not that hard to do. With the right ingredients and a good recipe, a little patience here and there, and you should be set to go. After successfully cooking my own version of vegetable chop suey, that’s when I started to be more passionate about my cooking. I became more meticulous with my cooking, paying attention to every single detail down to the last ingredient just to come up with the perfect dish.

A quick dish I can easily prepare is something I call. “Pineapple Prawn and Curry”

Ingredients

Peanut oil

2 cups Pineapple chunks

2 cups Coconut milk

1 tsp Palm sugar (or brown sugar)

1 lb Shelled prawns

1/4 cup Onion chopped fine

3 tbsp Lemon grass chopped fine

3 tbsp Galangal chopped fine

1/2 tsp Shrimp paste

1-4 tsp Chili paste

Fish sauce to taste

Directions

Heat wok. Add peanut oil, onion, lemon grass, galangal, shrimp paste and chili paste.

Stir fry for 2 minutes until oil is aromatic.

Add coconut milk, fish sauce and palm sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce to half.

Add prawns and pineapple, simmer 3-4 minutes.

 Yield - 4 cups

Having been a fan on cooking shows, I can’t help but mention Haagen-Dazs’ new episodes of Passion Profiles, an original online series featuring some of Canada's most intriguing personalities. The nice thing about Passion Profiles is that it’s not just your ordinary talk show. Passion Profiles is a talk-show that takes a unique and rare glimpse at the authentic and demanding passions that define some of Canada's finest Chefs, Designers and Musicians. Hosted by ET Canada's Cheryl Hickey, Passion Profiles will take you into the lives Canada's most entertaining personalities. She will bring the best out in the guests with stories from their lives and insights to inspire viewers. With her own passion for entertainment, style and people, Cheryl's years of experience will enable her to get up close and personal with some of the hottest names around.

To find out more about Passion Profiles, visit www.passionfiles.ca and take a deeper look at the Passion Profiles series. And don’t forget to mark your calendar, because on August 11 designer and HGTV star Sarah Richardson will be on Passion Profiles.

32-Float HDR plug-in for Photoshop released by Unified Color

Unified Color Technologies, the company that specializes in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging software has released what it claims is the first 32-bit HDR plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. The 32 Float plug-in. The 32 Float plug-in is an HDR-specific plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that caters to 32-bit color controls and editing tools to Photoshop users.

Photographers can now control images in the full 32-bit color gamut with 32 Float. Unified Color Technologies CEO Alfred Zee claimed that regardless of what software is used to create the resulting merged file with the use of 32 Float. 32 Float can separate color data from brightness information, to make adjustments without introducing the color shift which you can see in other HDR image creation tools.

32 Float is developed alongside United Color Technologies' fully-featured HDR solution, HDR Expose, and with the rapidly growing HDR photography enthusiasts, 32 Float was created to cater specifically to the HDR community. One that relies so much on refined control of its full 32-bit image data to create the most realistic HDR images. Offering an interactive HDR histogram, 32 Float ensures the necessary adjustments’ made to highlight and shadow details are maintained even at lower resolutions. 32 Float also offers an HDR tool kit that addresses image issues common with HDR technique.

Heres the official Press Release:

Movies you say? InetVideo.Com's Got It For You!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of iNetVideo. All opinions are 100% mine.

After moving to a new place where everyone seems to be a stranger to me, I started to look for things that would make me preoccupied. I did some minor gardening on my front yard and did some household chores every once in a while. All this to get myself preoccupied while trying to start and make new friends in the neighborhood. It didn’t really take me the whole day to get things done, so I still have lots of idle time to myself. Now with all the free time I have, I tried doing other things, one of which is getting rid of old things that I have. That’s when I came across some of the DVD’s I have. So, saying to myself that I have all the free time and convincing myself that it’s not that bad to watch old movies, I started my movie marathon. I find it amazing that even though I already watched most of the DVDs I had, I still enjoy watching them again.

After watching the movies I thought was worth the time watching again, that’s when I realized that the DVD’s I had were all movies from two years ago and not that they are old, but I need to get the blu-ray movies format for a better viewing experience. Having the feeling of being left out on movie updates, that’s when I discovered iNetVideo.Com.

iNetVideo.Com offers a wide range of movies on DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games and Music CDs. And they offer it for less. Exactly what I need to keep me updated with the latest movies and music with all sort of formats available. I personally like iNetVideo.Com’s video games and their box sets. Now I don’t have to go through different websites, iNetVideo.Com has the best of both worlds.

And now that I’m starting to get to know my neighbors, I have to something nice to recommend to them. blu-ray movies of iNetVideo,Com, I’m sure it’s going to be a hit for them.

And what comes along with good blu-ray movies selections? A free blu-ray player! iNetVideo.Net is giving away one for free! You can check out their blog if you are interested. I already told my neighbors about so you should check it out too! Hopefully, I will win the Blu-ray player. I can surely use an upgraded blu-ray player.

Firmware Update for Canon EOS 7D

Good news for Canon EOS 7D owners. Canon has posted a firmware update for its EOS 7D digital SLR.  Canon EOS 7D Firmware v1.2.2. Canon EOS 7D Firmware v1.2.2 fixes AF point selection issue and the displaying of bugs occurring under specific shooting conditions. Canon EOS 7D Firmware v1.2.2 also addresses an error that was found while shooting in movie mode. This is also good news for Spanish and Thai owners of Canon EOS 7D. The Canon EOS 7D Firmware v1.2.2 also corrects misspellings in the Spanish and Thai language menus. 

A more detailed description of the Canon EOS 7D Firmware v1.2.2 is available in Canon’s website as well as Firmware precautions, Firmware FAQ’s, as well as step by step procedure on how to update the firmware for your Canon EOS 7D.

Visit Canon’s website to get the firmware update.