Cheap Camera

Since the emergence of GoPro, the company's cameras have been been on a steady incline for the past several years. Adventure enthusiasts had difficulty recording their extreme activities without a huge price tag before the GoPro came along in 2002. Now, every surfer, skateboa ...more

If you take your camera equipment with you on a pretty frequent basis, having a camera bag can help protect it and makes it much easier to keep everything in one place. A good camera bag can be pretty expensive, but with this tutorial by photographer Allen Mowery, you can turn ...more

Soft focus photography can produce some beautiful images when used properly. It's used a lot in beauty and glamour shots, but can be applied to other types of photos as well. Some digital cameras have pre-programmed settings for soft focus shots, but if you're using a DSLR, yo ...more

When you're shooting in the rain (or other extreme weather conditions), there's a lot more to think about since cameras and water don't exactly mix well. An umbrella will protect your gear, but unless you have someone to hold it for you, it can be a pain to use. Here's a simp ...more

The new iPhone 5 was just revealed yesterday, and it's 18 percent thinner and just 1/5 the weight of its 4S predecessor. It's also taller with a larger screen, which gives you a fifth row for apps now. As far as speed is concerned, it has a speedy A6 chip and can tap into wire ...more

Smartwatches are an excellent way to keep track of our smartphone's notifications as well as our own fitness. However, these devices are not usually cheap. If you'd rather not pay a premium for a piece of wearable technology, check out all the Black Friday deals on smartwatche ...more

The recent pitfalls and media fallout hitting Facebook hasn't stopped the social media giant from looking to the future. On Friday, the company revealed the acquisition of visual search startup GrokStyle, whose tool allows users to point their smartphone camera at objects lik ...more

There are plenty of ways to create decent looking special effects on a budget. You can use basic, inexpensive materials to make ground explosions or realistic looking alien landscapes. But nothing says Hollywood quite like your own green screen. Turns out, it's actually prett ...more

When it comes to the quality of a photo, lighting can make or break it. Too much light, and your subject looks washed out. Too little, and you can't even tell what your subject is. A ring light can help solve these issues when you're shooting portraits or close-ups. It distri ...more

When you have a lot of equipment, dragging it everywhere with you can be a pain, especially when the weather's bad. Sure, you can put it in a camera bag, but a lot of them don't protect your stuff from water, and waterproof cases can get expensive. Rather than buying a case, ...more

You can do a lot with water guns. Have trouble waking up? Make a water gun alarm clock that (almost) no one could sleep through. Prefer real ammo? Turn your water gun into an airsoft BB gun. And if you don't have one, you can even make your own. One of the best things about w ...more

A spectrometer is a device that splits light into all of the different colors it's composed of that can't be seen with the naked eye. It does this by using a prism to refract or bend the light. Jeffrey Warren over at Public Labs created a tutorial showing how you can make your ...more

As deeply as smartphones are integrated into our daily lives, it's no surprise that people are finding ways to use them to stay healthy. From detecting cancer and radiation to diagnosing STDs, phones have come a long way, baby. The latest advancement comes from Aydogan Ozcan ...more

With an ordinary birthday card, we can introduce a physical device which contains malicious files into someone's home and deceive them into inserting the device into a computer. In my last series, we used a Post-it note to trick a neighbor into visiting a website that we cont ...more

Surveillance is always a useful tool in a hacker's arsenal, whether deployed offensively or defensively. Watching targets yourself isn't always practical, and traditional surveillance camera systems can be costly, lacking in capabilities, or both. Today, we will use motionEyeO ...more

After SquareTrade tested out the Samsung Galaxy S8 and found it to be the first phone to shatter on all sides after only one drop, it's nice to know we may have a solution for this $500 problem. If you drop your Samsung Galaxy S8 and you don't have a case, be prepared to pay ...more

The battle of the budget phone is well and truly underway, as both T-Mobile and ZTE have launched affordable new devices simultaneously. This week, ZTE's Max XL and T-Mobile's Coolpad Defiant were released for those of us with a limited budget. While not quite as budget-frien ...more

Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies of all time. The dialog is cheesy, the set design and special effects are wonky, and the main villain looks like he was conceived and built by an eighth grader in shop class—oh, and his name is Box. But there are plenty of things to li ...more

While it's been rumored for a few months, Apple finally unveiled its new 4-inch iPhone SE at the Apple Special Event on March 21st. Apple sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015, many of which by first-time Apple buyers. With Apple's flagships getting bigger and bigger, the co ...more

Believe it or not, there was a time when smartphones weren't the primary tool for taking photos. People actually walked around with bulky film-based cameras on their necks, and some even used cheap disposables. While photography wasn't introduced to the world when smartphones ...more

Earlier this week, we told you about the new DreamGlass augmented reality headset from Dreamworld, a company started by a former Meta executive. The device looks great, and the features sound good, but is it worth your hard-earned cash? I recently took it for a brief spin to f ...more

To quote MKBHD, cheap phones are getting good. Each year we are seeing manufacturers start to offer more for much less. This not only translates to cheaper flagship phones, but better budget phones. The latest example of this is the Alcatel 3V, which is redefining what you can ...more

The latest cosmetics brand to launch its own augmented reality try-on tool is Cover Girl, which introduced its browser-based experience this week. The premise should be familiar to anyone who has followed augmented reality over the past year, and likely old hat to those who t ...more

Since the very first moment I saw the iPhone X track a human face and display the results in real-time on an Animoji character, I've been waiting for the first great hack of this new iPhone feature. Not only do we now have that first great demonstration, it's so impressive it ...more

The would-be role of Snap Inc. as the first step toward mainstreaming wearable tech in the form of glasses has stalled, and now we have proof. In the company's third quarter financial results report, released on Tuesday, Snap Inc. revealed that it will lose nearly $40 million ...more

A Norwegian carrier's launch of a pilotless container ship next year could lead the way to a new era in sea transportation and shipping if successful. Norway-based Yara International ASA, a self-touted "Tesla of the seas," claims the eletric-powered vessel will be the world's ...more

Connecting your devices with a cable is the fastest and most reliable way to transfer files between them. Now that most Android devices have either USB Type-C or a Micro-USB port that supports USB OTG, phones are capable of importing media files directly from a camera using a ...more

When we talk about augmenting our reality, we often first think about vision instead of our other senses—but there's more to an immersive experience than what you see. One inventor figured out how to utilize sound and touch to create a simple, upgraded version of laser tag tha ...more

I love cheap, nutritious food: lentils, rice, toor dal, and other beans and grains. Even popcorn. The only problem is that they usually come in floppy plastic bags that make measuring ingredients more difficult. I usually open up one corner of the bag only to have everything c ...more

Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out, according to director Martin Scorsese, who asserted that when describing his life's work. Getting the perfect shot can turn an otherwise ordinary scene into something great, both on and off screen. One of the most reco ...more

It can be incredibly frustrating to take closeup shots with an iPhone camera—or any smartphone camera for that matter. Even if your phone's camera is top of the line, you'll still get a fuzzy picture if you get to close to your subject. To resolve this, you could always purch ...more

Did you know you can help protect yourself when traveling with a gun? No, not like that; and not in any way that's going to land you in prison. Simply by packing a gun, you can ensure that not only will your luggage be safer, but that the airline will make certain that it reac ...more

If you have a modern iPhone, you have an excellent video recorder at your disposal. Every iPhone since the 6S has the ability to shoot in 4K resolution, and each new iteration has brought new capabilities to the table. But even the best mobile shooter can use a little extra he ...more

When shooting video on your phone, you have two cameras at your disposal, the rear camera and the selfie camera, and you can switch freely between the two. As for microphones, you may have more than one but, unlike with the cameras, it's not easy to switch between them. Filmic ...more

Even with all the success HMD had with reviving the Nokia brand in 2017, it seems their second year is shaping up to be even better. Nokia has been steadily releasing sequels to last year's lineup, most with the new minimal bezel design language. The Nokia 7.1 is just their la ...more

During Mobile World Congress 2018, OEMs started to introduce the world to Android Oreo (Go edition). Android Go offers smooth performance on entry-level specs, allowing for genuinely good cheap phones. At first, the US only had one Android Go device, but it looks like a second ...more

Apple's iOS 11 release promises many improvements and fresh ideas. One of those new ideas is an image codec called HEIF (similar to HEVC for videos), designed to reduce the space photos take up on your iPhone. But it's so new that it's already causing issues with compatibility ...more

Starting with the Priv, BlackBerry's become an Android manufacturer. This move gives BlackBerry's phones access to Google's sizable app store, but it also presents several hurdles to keeping the security brand they've built intact. For example, Android encryption still lags b ...more

One of the best uses for an old Android device is to turn it into a security webcam that can be accessed over the internet. But most of the time, this is a rather difficult process, because existing apps usually require you to mess around with network settings and configure a ...more

We all know them, and many of us despize them. And some might support them, regardless many have different opinions. NSA: Who Are They? They are people who believe in them having access to everybody and all data that exists in the digital world. (In a nutshell) They work wi ...more

You've been there. Those precarious few seconds between dropping your expensive smartphone right on its face and reaching down to survey the damage. Or maybe you got thrown in a pool while your device was in your pocket, or you dropped that sucker right into the toilet bowl. H ...more

Mira Reality unveiled the Mira Prism yesterday and people immediately got excited about it. The Mira Prism uses no electronics besides your iPhone and it works pretty simply. You have a semi-transparent screen in front of your face. Once you open the Mira app on your phone, y ...more

Android device manufacturers may see the new Pixel "Phone By Google" devices as just another competitor, one that likely won't upset their entry-level margins. But that would be a mistake. Pixel is Google's call to action. With Google now offering as near to perfect an Android ...more

Are you thinking about upgrading your iPhone this year? Apple sure wants you to. Of course, that's no different than any other year, but Apple really wants you to upgrade this year. How do we know this? The rumors point to not three, not four, but five brand new iPhones in 202 ...more

The holidays are here. From the week of Thanksgiving until the end of the year, retailers will be offering massive discounts on your favorite items. So if you're looking for smartphone accessories, this is the time to buy. From Walmart to Best Buy, there are deals everywhere o ...more

After you've spent your Thanksgiving afternoon working through that turkey, mashed potatoes, and three different kinds of pie, you might find yourself heading to the mall to claim some unbeatable Black Friday discounts on iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. You don't have to go ...more

Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to ...more

Despite the launch of ARKit a year ago, and ARCore this year, a true killer app has not arrived for either platform, that's according to the head honcho for one of the leading development environments for 3D applications. In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday, Un ...more

With Nokia's relaunch, the iconic company attempted to reimagine the budget phone market. The series of phones they introduced last year challenged the idea that good phones can't be cheap. This year, Nokia introduced the Nokia 7 Plus, a phone which offers perhaps the best bal ...more

These days, there are Android apps for every budget—forgive me if that sounds like a car commercial, but that's just the way things are in the age of the smartphone and tablet. You've got apps that require monthly subscriptions, paid apps that will run you a $30 one-time insta ...more

Arcade games have always been more about chance than skill (at least when I play them). Whether you're at a children's party at a Chuck E. Cheese's or drinking it up with your pals at a barcade like Dave & Buster's, you'll find similar games that hold the golden ticket to fun ...more

One of the latest home-improvement gadgets out there today, smart lighting, has become more popular as prices come down. That being said, its still quite a penny to shell out. In this article, I'll go through a few of the top products out there today, including the Philips Hue ...more

If you struggle with deciding which wine you should buy for an intimate dinner, or the type of beer with the highest alcohol content that doesn't taste like tree bark, then check out some of these great alcohol-friendly apps to make better booze decisions. There are a lot of ...more

Samsung decided to jump into the foldable category early, announcing the Galaxy Fold in February 2019. After a major hiccup, Samsung released the phone four months later to praise. But Samsung's not finished with foldables, as the new Galaxy Z Flip is just on the horizon. Sam ...more

Similar to last year, LG is mixing up its releases. Instead of the G series in the first half of the year and the V series in the second half, LG is releasing both heavy hitters together. However, unlike last year, this is a true upgrade from its predecessor, the LG V50 ThinQ ...more

Being part of the wild frontier is amazing. It doesn't take much to blow minds of first time mixed reality users — merely placing a canned hologram in the room is enough. However, once that childlike wonder fades, we need to add more substance to create lasting impressions. O ...more

One major component of Level 4 and Level 5 driverless cars is in very short supply. Venture capitalists and engineers from around the world are racing to fill the LiDAR production, price, and performance void. Production of LiDAR sensors is seeing months-long production bottl ...more

Now that Google has announced its new Pixel smartphones, folks who rushed to buy an iPhone 7 might be experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse. The new Pixel and Pixel XL are packed to the brim with cutting-edge features and top-notch hardware, and Google seems to be taking direc ...more

Update (February 2019): The methods below will help on older Android versions, but we've recently revisited this topic. So if you have a newer Android phone and you want to get rid of Google, head here. It seems like every week there is a new exposé revealing all of the backr ...more

April Fool's Day, aka National Screw with Your Friends Day, is finally here. You can always pull a conventional prank, like strategically placing a whoopee cushion on your mom's chair, but that joke has been exhausted generations before smartphones were around. We live in a d ...more