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Ansel From nVIDIA Is The Best Photo Mode For PC

nVIDIA Launches Ansel, A New Photo Capture Technology

Ansel has full 3D camera freedom and VR-viewable photos.

nVIDIA introduced Ansel, a new in-game photo technology. Video games are constantly upping the bar in feats of graphics and visual awesomeness. Many gamers, however, complain that while they are immersed in a beautiful and artful masterpiece, most screenshots end up looking several shades of “meh” less impressive.

In-game photo modes, such as Ansel, want to empower the user. They enable the freedom of capturing a scene according to the user’s vision, and not the game’s limitations set by gameplay or controls.

Well, after nVIDIA recently first announced Ansel along with the GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080m, the company has now made it available to the public. Along with Ansel, nVIDIA also released VR Funhouse, a virtual reality technical demo, meant to push past the limitations of user hardware.

Features of nVIDIA’s Ansel

Ansel is a lot more complex in terms of features and liberties than an average screenshot tool, however. In order for it to run optimally, the technology needs to be implemented into the game by the game’s developers rather than through driver support.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is Ansel’s first full support game. The first impression that the photo mode left players was absolutely stellar.

Ansel is fired up with the Alt-F2 keyboard shortcut. The entire action in the game will instantly and perfectly freeze. The freeze isolates the current frame and keeps all active data present in it on display. Bloom, motion blur, and particle effects are all vividly present in the isolated frame.

While the scene remains frozen, players can access options through the compact panel which pops up in the left of the screen. The panel has settings for filters, luminosity, as well as other settings which most photo modes currently come with.

Ansel also comes with a full array of 3D control over the scene. The camera is freed from any restrictions, such as first-person, allowing users to take photos from any angle and point they want. It is mainly this amazing degree of freedom which requires developer integration into game titles.

The photo mode also boasts with the option of taking full 360-degree stereoscopic photos. These photos can be seen with a VR PC headset such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, with Virtual Desktop, or with the nVIDIA VR Viewer Android app which works with Google Cardboard.

nVIDIA’s Ansel saves photos in the full resolution they were taken in, under the .png file format. Card support for Ansel currently ranges from the GeForce GTX 770M to the current 1080. Many already released titles, such as The Witcher III: Wild Hunt will soon be receiving patches to enable functionality for the new tech.

Image Courtesy of YouTube.

Meet Mink: The 3D Make-Up Printer

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The make-up industry is one of the largest in the world. Its expected worth by 2017 is $265 billion (according to research and analyses conducted by Lucintel), which makes it rather impossible to compete against its giants. And, yet, only recently, the world got introduced to a Harvard student, who seems bent on bringing down the cosmetic industry with the help of a 3D printer… Let’s go back in time and take a look at the bigger picture.

During the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 event, young Grace Choi, a Harvard Business School alumna, amazed the audience with her invention. Mink 3D is a make-up printer: a device that looks and works just like your regular printer back home. Yet this one can work wonders on any woman’s look. Here’s what the sources reporting from the event had to say about it:

The Mink 3D printer uses the same FDA-approved substrates and ingredients used by popular makeup brands. To print color-specific makeup, a user just needs to pick a color, be it from an image found online, a photo they’ve clicked, or a color they’ve selected in image editing software like Paint or Photoshop. All the software needs is the hex code of the chosen color (easily obtained with a color picker) and Mink is ready to print.

In the words of Grace Choi, this printer enables women to select virtually any color and shade in the world and turn in into lipstick, eye shadow, blush, and so on. At TechCrunch Disrupt, Choi made a demonstration of eye-shadow printing, but she intends to develop Mink to also print lip gloss and cream in the nearest future. While no official data has been released yet, it seems that Choi has already managed to find investors interested in her project. She hopes the Mink 3D make-up printer will deal a powerful blow to the global cosmetic industry, as it will reportedly be made available for under $200. This will, of course, make it affordable for females aged 13 to 21.

Some analysts are even speculating that, if Choi’s plans go according to schedule, the printer will be released by the end of this year. Obviously, this will enlarge the targeted demographics and help turn this new device into a fierce competitor for the cosmetic industry. Printing make-up in any color and shade you want, from the comfort of your own home, with the help of a computer, smartphone or tablet, is further proof that technology can trump historically established industries in the bat of a mascara-enhanced eyelash.

The Rumors Are Out: Amazon Smartphone Is On Its Way

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It looks like the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon, will dive into the crowded market of smartphones. Of course, this doesn’t really come as a big surprise to anyone since they’ve begun to expand their field of expertise from online retail store to electronic smart products. Last week Amazon launched the Fire TV, a box which streams TV shows, music and games right into the TV. Now they’ve announced that an Amazon smartphone is on its way, so Apple and Samsung, be warned because you might have a serious competitor here.

Amazon said that they will release it in the second half of this year, somewhere around the end of June and will be shipped to customers by the end of September, just in time for the holidays.

From what Amazon says, their smartphone will be like nothing else available on the market at the moment. What makes it special is that the screen will actually display 3D images which can be seen without any special glasses. The images displayed will be something like a hologram, from Amazon explained. The Amazon smartphone has been shown to developers in Seattle and San Francisco and we’re dying to see what it looks like. From what the rumors are saying it sounds like this could be one of the very first 3D smartphones to appear on the market.

It sounds like Apple and Samsung will have a serious competitor in the world of smart mobile devices, which they currently dominate.

The Amazon smartphone is part of their strategy to expand from retail to multimedia, something that started with the popular E-reader, the Kindle which proved to be a huge success among people who love to read.

Amazon started in 1994 and has become the largest online retail store in the world. It has given book lover one of the greatest inventions ever, the Kindle with all its variations.

Amazon smartphone – further details still remain unknown

For the time being further details about the Amazon smartphone have not been made public but as soon as there is an official press conference we’ll keep you updated with the latest news.

So what do you think about Amazon’s plans to release a smartphone? Do you think that the market is overpopulated or it could always need a new smart mobile device? Do you think it will be something original or a copy of a copy? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Amazon working on 3D smartphone and budget Android handset

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We have heard rumors of Amazon getting into the mobile business a few times this year, a few months ago we heard about a 3D smartphone with retina tracking and a few weeks ago a report started circulating about Amazon launching a free smartphone.

Both of these rumors have been denied by Amazon, with the company stating they will not be releasing a smartphone this year and there are no plans to release a smartphone in the near future, but we don’t buy the last statement.

New reports say Amazon is currently working on both devices, the high-end 3D smartphone is codenamed Smith and will have four cameras on each corner of the smartphone, tracking eye movements to give a 3D effect on the phone.

Amazon is also working on facial recognition software to make sure the phone only notices one user and tailors the 3D experience. This may open up ways to unlock and pay simply through facial recognition, which we believe Amazon will be looking into adding.

The question is can 3D be more than a gimmick and can it really work to a users advantage. 3D has been in movies, TV and some games but has not been well received and some manufacturers have stopped adding 3D functionality to their TVs.

Amazon’s other smartphone is a budget end device and nothing is known about it, apart from the fact the price will be incredible for customers used to two year contracts with $199 upfront payment.

The Kindle Fire tablets opened up a world of cheap tablet sales, with Google adding the Nexus 7 and Apple even hopping in with the not-so-cheap iPad Mini. The difference between the Kindle Fire and previous attempts at cheap tablets was Amazon’s tablet actually worked quite well and offered a wide selection of content tailored for the device.

If Amazon can do this with a smartphone, it would be golden, especially considering the price for the Kindle Fire HDX with the same internals as the LG G2 or Xperia Z1, currently selling for around $500/600 off contract.

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