Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Among the many large lens photo capturing contraptions listed in TIPA’s (Technical Image Press Association) web page for “The Most Coveted Photo & Imaging Awards in Europe” for 2008, the Nokia N82 is a stand-out. I’ve never known what the criteria for judging is for this thing, but I’m sure they have a pretty strict list of guidelines for it. And so it seems, the Nokia N82 passed all the tests, and won the award for “Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe 2008.” I’m sure a lot of SE, Samsung, or LG users would favor their own devices, but it’s hard to question why the Nokia N82 won. Especially taking into consideration that it’s not toting an ordinary LED flash, but a full-blown Xenon one. Its 5-megapixel camera also features a high-speed, f/2.8 autofocus lens, Carl Zeiss Tessar optics, 20x digital zoom and integrated Geotagging. This is helped further by its Symbian Series 60 OS, giving users a slew of things to do with their photos or videos once they are finished capturing them. Congratulations, Nokia! I hope you deliver more phones like these. Fashionable, functional, and award-winning. Surely it isn’t that hard, is it?

Read [Nokia]

If you know any high school girls (preferably juniors or seniors) in the greater Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, or New York City metropolitan areas who have a talent for computers, spread the word to them that there’s this award they can apply for.  It’s the NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) Award for Aspirations in Computing, and it’s sponsored by Bank of America.  Important dates to remember are April 30, 2008 (deadline for online self-nominations) and May 2, 2008 (deadline for receipt of supporting documentation), with award notification in early May 2008.  Up to 5 winners will be chosen in each of the 6 metropolitan areas, and each winner gets $500 in cash and a laptop!  I don’t know the specifics of the laptop, but I would imagine it’s a nice souped-up one.
It would be great if NCWIT could also offer scholarships for lower-income girls who have limited computer access, but this is a good start.  I just hope this doesn’t wind up like Take Our Daughters to Work Day, which became Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day.  As if boys need any help breaking the glass ceiling.  No boys allowed, that’s what I say!

Read [NCWIT]

After all the hubbub over Sony bragging about their Emmy - the online bitching followed by Sony’s retraction - and the Academy’s eventual clarification of the award(s), Nintendo took its good ol’ time to brag about its Emmy. Sending out a press release just after CES on Jan. 12, 2007, the somewhat slower response allowed enough time for all the facts to come in for a brief, cool-headed and accurate PR response. Bureaucracy might have had something to do with it, but the delay paid off as Sony’s efforts pretty much backfired with online fans.

The Emmy for Nintendo was for its development of the D-pad. If you’ve ever seen the guts of an Atari 2600 joystick, it’s easy to see how that technology could be turned into a stickless, button-based controller. It took the Nintendo tech to work out better specs and put it into the flatter - and far more sturdy - NES/Famicom controllers which reached the US in 1985.

Not to leave the other game-related Emmy winners out of the picture, John Carmack and id Software respectively won for contributions to rendering technology as the lead programmer on Doom and technological leadership in rendering breakthroughs with Quake’s technology. Also, Microsoft won one for DirectX, and Sony grabbed a second Emmy for the Xross Media Bar GUI - originally used on the PSX (media center) and now part of the PSP and PS3.

Read [Nintendo] Site [National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences] Via [Kotaku]