Video: See the Google Pixel's electronic image stabilization

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The new Google Pixel and Pixel XL boast the best cameras on any smartphone and while they have a notable 12.3 megapixel camera, these phones omitted optical image stabilization in favour of a computational solution that uses the built-in gyroscope to at 200 times a second to determine exactly how the camera is moving, even accounting for the rolling shutter and even avoiding the jello effect and rolling shutter seen in other forms of stabilization.

I was very impressed at what the Pixel XL could do in terms of grabbing stable video. You can see I shot video from a moving car, which is usually a nightmare scenario for any type of camera and often means it isn't even worth shooting video. I also shot video while walking and moving around in various conditions and as you can see the video isn't just usable, it is clear and generally vibration free. During the October 4 launch of the Pixel and Pixel XL, Google's VP Product Management Brian Rakowski mentioned the company's imaging and photography engineers spent a whole year working on the camera stack and the result is impressive.

Sony rises up to Nintendo, also plans to release games on iOS and Android

Following Nintendo's foray into mobile gaming on smartphones, Sony has announced that it is releasing five new games on iOS and Android by the year ending 2018. This signifies a shift in Sony's mobile strategy, it's onw PS Vita handheld is five years old and while popular in hardcore gaming circles is seen as redundant to current smartphone gaming experiences. 

The games will come to Japan first,where mobile revenues account for over half of the country's games market. Sony is currently relying exclusively on PS4 games and accessories for revenue and recently jumped headfirst into the VR game with the Sony VR suite, but it needs other areas to compete in.

Source: AppleInsider

Bluetooth 5 is coming with 4X range, 2x speed and 800% broadcasting capacity

There's a breakthrough for Bluetooth around the corner which will make our mobile and connected devices grab data much quicker and from much, much farther away with less chance of interference. 

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced that its next release, coming late 2016 to early 2017, will be called Bluetooth 5 and will include significantly increased range, speed, and broadcast messaging capacity. Extending range will deliver robust, reliable Internet of Things (IoT) connections that make full-home and building and outdoor use cases a reality.

Higher speeds will send data faster and optimize responsiveness. Increasing broadcast capacity will propel the next generation of “connectionless” services like beacons and location-relevant information and navigation. These Bluetooth advancements open up more possibilities and enable SIG companies – now at an all-time high of 30,000 member companies – to build an accessible, interoperable IoT.

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Microsoft moving away from consumer phones, might linger in enterprise moving forward

The fate of Windows Phone or Windows 10 on Mobile has been up in the air for some time now since Microsoft has repeatedly proven that it is pulling back (but not out) of the mobile market altogether. With the recent sale of Nokia's feature phone business plus the general ambiguity regarding the direction of Microsoft as a mobile device maker, we now get confirmation that the company is looking to move past its desire to compete in the consumer smartphone market. With market share falling less than 1 per cent globally, there's really little else the company can do to make their platform more exciting for consumers at this point.

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