iPhone gets Xenon flash from Snapture

I have tried on a few occasions to take pictures with my iPhone. It seems that no matter how brightly lit the room is, the camera simply can’t take a shot that’s not dark and grainy. Many other high-end camera phones offer a built-in flash, but so far, Apple has not added that feature.

Snapture offers editing software designed to run on the iPhone and it has now announced a new polycarbonate case that not only protects the iPhone from damage, but also adds a bright Xenon powered flash.

The case has a rechargeable battery that offers enough power for 1000 flashes or more. A low-light detection sensor automatically activates the flash when needed. I will say that the iPhone needs a flash, but the optics also need work before the iPhone is really a camera replacement.

The Vertu Signature Dragon

The Wynn is one of those super luxurious hotels along the Strip at Las Vegas, so of course they host a whole bunch of high-end items such as exotic cars, designer clothes and expensive phones. The Vertu shop there is currently displaying it’s latest luxury cell phone, the Vertu Signature Dragon. Just like the Vertu Signature Cobra, the Dragon is not yet featured on the company’s website.

It’s a pretty cool looking phone. I think the only thing they could have done was to make the dragon’s eyes glow red when there’s an incoming call. Sadly, it doesn’t breath fire either, but it will burn a hole in your pocket with it’s enormous cost.

Yes those are jewels in the dragon’s body.

OCZ opens the Throttle on flash drives

I have a gob of flash drives laying around my office, crammed in desk drawers, filling up my penholder and generally getting in my way. I don’t really use flash drives, it seems that companies issue members of the press these things as a sort of initiation. The main reason I don’t use them is that they are rather slow and don’t offer enough storage for a real backup.

OCZ introduced a new flash drive this month called the Throttle that does away with one of the common threads in the flash drive world — the USB connector. Rather than the comparatively pokey USB port, OCZ grafts a full-blown eSATA connector onto the Throttle.

The use of an eSATA connector allows the Throttle to offer blazing fast read and write speeds for a flash drive. OCZ claims a read speed of 90MB/sec and a write speed of 30MB/sec. The Throttle is also available with up to 32GB of storage space. With a much faster interface and high capacity, this flash drive might actually be useful to me.