Samsung Donates $50,000 to LA Habitat for Humanity at #DITCHtheDSLR Event in Hollywood

I finally said goodbye to my old Canon Rebel. Samsung made the pain of giving it away easier by allowing me to trade it in for a new NX30 mirrorless camera. The event in Hollywood also featured a Guinness World Record selfie chain, and showcased Samsung’s charitable side with a $50,000 donation to the LA chapter of Habitat for Humanity!

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Shop the Samsung NX Mini on Amazon.

Thoughts on the HTC Desire Eye and the Rise of the Selfie Phone…

HTC-Desire-EYE-Press-Images-2Yesterday HTC took the wraps off of the Desire Eye, a phone similar to the flagship One M8, but made out of plastic, and featuring a 13MP front facing camera with dual LED flash. We’ve seen other companies touting the true “Selfie Phone” from the Lumia 735 to Apple’s new Facetime camera on the iPhone 6. Now HTC is pushing more megapixels into the conversation with the Eye.

It’s not such a crazy idea. The way we create content, and the fact that we don’t often walk around photographers capturing our happy moments. If you own a “nice” camera, chances are pretty good you rarely show up in photos of fun events as you’re usually the one operating the camera.

HTC is banking on the popularity of the selfie, the growing market for video chat applications, and are experimenting with their phone design. It’s not a radical experiment though. Putting more megapixels on a camera doesn’t mean you get better stills or video. It’s an easy headline: “UNBELIEVABLE THIRTEEN MEGAPICKLE FFC WOWZ!” Continue reading “Thoughts on the HTC Desire Eye and the Rise of the Selfie Phone…”

Oxford Dictionary names “Selfie” its Word of the Year

800px-Dictionary_through_lensYou know what?

I’m actually fine with this. No really. Oxford writes up a fascinating look at the history of the word. They tracked down some of the earliest mentions of “selfie”. They explain the significance of the term. I’m a sucker for etymology, and selfie is one of those terms that does a really good job of summing up exactly what it is.

Compared to Webster Macmillan changing the definition of “literally” to mean “figuratively”, Oxford’s addition of selfie almost seems noble.

Other notable new additions to the Oxford dictionary this year include binge-watch, bitcoin, schmeat, and twerk.

(via Oxford Dictionary Blog)