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Alan Turing's groundbreaking synthesizer music restored
Alan Turing is known for a few small achievements, like helping end World War II, laying the groundwork for modern computers and developing the "Turing test" for machine intelligence. You may not be aware, however, that he paved the way for synthesizers and electronica by inventing the first computer-generated musical tones. A pair of researchers from the University of Cantebury have now restored the first-ever recording made from Turing's "synthesizer."
Six Tesla inventions that aren't electric cars
By Cat DiStasio Tesla is well known for its electric cars, but you might be surprised to learn about all the other stuff the company makes. At some point in time, each of the amazing things Tesla is doing now was simply another one of CEO Elon Musk's crazy ideas. Now the company is working on batteries that can power your home, the world's largest building and a global network of thousands of zero-cost electric car chargers. Read on to learn about six incredible Tesla projects -- aside from electric vehicles, that is.
Daily Roundup: LG G2 hands-on, Sony's RX100 Mark II, Oculus Rift's new CTO, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Canon shutters the EOS 5D Mark II, makes Mark III man of the house
Given the advent of the EOS 5D Mark III, it's hardly a surprise to see that the Mark II has been quietly moved to Canon's retired list. The full-frame DSLR was famous for its HD video prowess and was quickly adopted by Hollywood, where it was used to film an entire episode of House back in 2010. While the spirit of the 5D lives on in the latest revision, the old dog most definitely deserves a toast 'round the fire.
Tascam outs new DR-07 Mark II audio recorder, touts adjustable mics
If you're in the market for a quality audio recording device to capture demos somebody other than your mother would listen to, here's your chance to get those songs past her and out into the real world. Tascam, maker of professional music studio equipment, has just announced their newest addition to the recording family, the DR-07. Depending on what you'll be recording, the device allows the user to capture sound in XY or AB configuration using the adjustable dual microphones -- the XY adjustment for a tight stereo recording and AB for ambient, larger noise. The Mark II comes bundled with a 2GB microSD slot, features 17.5 hours of battery life and grabs MP3 audio at up to 320 kbps or WAV audio at up to 96 kHz. If you're interested in picking one of these up, hit up the more coverage link and drop the $150.
Canon will now add locking mode dial to your EOS 5D Mark II or 7D... for $100
Oh, sure -- Pentax may have thrown one in gratis on its K-7, and Nikon has done the same on its D3S, but none of that really matters if you're the proud owner of a Canon, now does it? For those fed up with accidentally moving their mode dial during a critical shoot, Canon is now offering a chargeable service for the EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D cameras. For the tidy sum of $100, the outfit will install a Mode Dial with a center-located lock button -- the goal here is to prevent the wheel from moving during "normal camera operation," while simultaneously milking an extra Benjamin out of the outfit's loyal customer base. 'Course, there's a glass half-full / half-empty way to look at this. You could bang on Canon for not including this from day one, or you could be grateful to have the option at all. Your move, cynic.
Canon AE-1 and EOS 5D Mark II reincarnated in papercraft form, DIYers welcome to replicate
If you know us, you'd know that we're huge fans of papercraft. It's one of the simplest forms of DIY design expression, but something about it just screams adorable. To that end, we're having somewhat of a panic attack after viewing these -- three famed Canon bodies, all reborn as paper models with an insane level of detail. The Canonflex, AE-1 and EOS 5D Mark II are all present, and they're being offered up to the tinkering public as part of the company's 50th anniversary in producing SLRs. Hit the links below if you're ready to get your fold on, but be mindful that these are PDFs we're directing you to.
Sony's VAIO P 'mark 2' hopefully learns from past mistakes
While we had high hopes for Sony's sleek and beautifully crafted VAIO P back in the day, it's become a major point of frustration and thus, ridicule, ever since we first powered it up. This $900ish ultra-portable is the very symbol of what tends to go wrong at Sony: beautiful hardware is crippled by software leaving consumers wondering why they paid a premium for such an undistinguished user experience. Now Techradar is reporting that Sony has a VAIO P "mark 2" ready to launch in October or November -- we suspect right after Windows 7 launches. The only real detail provided is that the "mark 2" will feature a "much-improved boot-up time." Whether that's the result of inherently fast-booting Windows 7 alone or via some third party Instant-on technology like Corel, well, Sony isn't saying.
Magic Lantern EOS 5D Mark II firmware tweaks video mode, adds more manual controls
It's hacky and requires some fiddling, but EOS 5D Mark II owners interested in maxing out their video abilities will want to check out the new Magic Lantern firmware developed by Trammell Hudson. The new code adds a tons of features, including on-screen audio meters, audio and video gain control with the option to disable the auto settings, zebra stripe masking of overexposed areas, and on-screen aspect ratio overlays -- and what's more, it's billed as an "open platform," so there should be many more plugins and tweaks forthcoming. Caveats apply with this early release, though: you need to reload the firmware if the camera so much as goes to sleep, and battery drain appears to be an unresolved issue. Still, we're certain these problems will be fixed over time, since we're guessing there's gonna be tons of interest in this -- if Canon would just throw us some autofocus in addition to those new manual exposure controls, we'd be all set.[Via Wired]
New Canon EOS 5D Mark II firmware to add manual exposure control for video recording
Hey, it's no autofocus, but Canon's sent word that a free firmware update is coming for the EOS 5D Mark II that'll enable manual exposure control while shooting video, including ISO and aperture settings and shutter speed. Excited? Yeah, us too. No word on what else the update might entail, but it looks like we won't have to wait long either, as the company's saying to expect the download sometime in early June. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Canon acknowledges, doesn't fix black dot and band problems on 5D Mark II
It's been released, unboxed, and adored by many. But, like other eagerly anticipated bodies from Canon, the 5D Mark II hasn't been entirely trouble-free for the early adopters. The company is at least stepping forward and confirming that the new model's two most commonly reported problems do indeed exist -- but isn't going so far as to fix them just yet. The first issue is called the "Black dot" phenomenon, where bright point light sources (like streetlights at a distance) result in a grouping of dark pixels immediately to their right, as seen above. The second issue is ugly vertical banding, apparently appearing only in sRAW1 mode. Canon has no advice on the first problem, but says you can avoid the other one simply by not shooting in sRAW1. Surely millions of photogs are wondering why they didn't think of that.[Via Digital Photography Review, image courtesy of Stephan Hörold]
21.1 megapixel Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Full-Frame, Full-HD video
After a brief tease, Canon just got official with its EOS 5D Mark II. The full-frame shooter updates the original 5D introduced back in 2005 with a 24 x 36mm 21.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 processor with 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion, and the ability to capture Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 video -- take that Nikon D90 and your paltry 720p. We're talking expanded 50-25,600 ISO range,15-point autofocus with 9 selectable AF points, 3-inch Live View LCD offering 4x the pixels of the original 5D, and a 3.9fps burst for unlimited JPEGs or up to 14 RAW images when using a UDMA CF card.With regard to video leaked predicted by RED CEO last week, the EOS 5D Mark II captures Full HD video at 30fps as well as VGA / 30fps for the first time on any Canon SLR. Of course, it works with any of Canon's 60 EF lenses (and whatever Carl Zeiss cooks up) for ultra-wide-angle, fish-eye, macro, and super-telephoto videography. Video can be recorded at up to 4GB per clip which is equivalent to about 12 minutes of Full HD video or 24 minutes in VGA. Video clips are recorded in .MOV format using MPEG-4 video compression and linear PCM audio. You can even record with external stereo mics attached to an input terminal.At the end of November, Canon will sell the body-only for $2,699 or bundled with Canon's 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens for $3,499. Welcome back to the show Canon, we were starting to worry.%Gallery-32080%[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Canon readying 22-megapixel mini 1DS Mark II?
You guessed it, this here is nothing more than somewhat believable rumor mill material, but it seems that Canon just might be readying a 22-megapixel beast of a digicam that would come in "around half the size of the firm's EOS-1DS Mark II." Unsurprisingly codenamed the 1DS Mark III, this DSLR is said to have been behind a few photo shoots seen in recent editions of Vanity Fair, and Canon is reportedly "hustling to make lenses that will work with what this body can resolve," not to mention the possibility of a "new mount for an entirely new lens design." While this certainly isn't the first big-name digicam to start in depths of shadows, we purportedly won't see it surface (or not) until this fall, as the elusive 1DS Mark III won't be shown to the public before the PhotoPlus Expo in October (if it's proven real at all).[Via Image-Acquire]
