Colder weather is on its way, so now is a good time to consider investing in a portable heater, that is motion activated, to help warm up those cooler spots in your home.
The MeacoHeat Motion Heater is the perfect product to keep your home warm and cosy throughout any cold spell. Where traditional heating systems use thermostats to maintain a room’s temperature regardless of how frequently the room is used, the MeacoHeat Motion Heater can be used much more economically. It can be used as a standalone unit for spaces that may be less-frequently used, but still require heating. A motion detection sensor means the unit will only be activated once a person walks into the room. When they leave the room, the heater will switch off, allowing the user to save money on heating bills and helping the environment. MeacoHeat Motion Heaters use safe PTC ceramic technology to offer fast start-up time. A thermal cut out and tilt safety switch ensure that, if they are accidentally knocked over, they switch off.
A fan option means they can be used all year, adding warmth in the summer months on a chill day, but becoming a fan to cool a room in hotter weather. The smaller model, 1.8kW has two outputs levels to save energy, a 1-7 hour off timer and a fan only mode for summer use. The larger 2.0Kw adds oscillation to the specification to distribute the heat evenly through a 70° arc. A three-level thermostat replaces the off timer to provide another level of control.
There are two models, available in either red, black or white and with their small and stylish design, they are sure to look great in any room in a house. MeacoHeat Motion Heaters are the perfect solution for filling in with some extra heat when needed.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Nik Collection, the famous photo plugin suite for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and DxO PhotoLab and the winner of the 2020-2021 EISA Award for Best Photo-Editing Software, released its latest 3.3 version. This version includes a pack of 25 brand-new Presets for Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro. These twenty-five exclusive Presets are divided into five series, each with five Presets: “Classic Portrait Color,” “Classic Portrait Black & White,” “Light & Bright,” “Wildlife,” and “Street”. This update is also compatible with macOS Big Sur and the 2021 versions of Adobe’s host applications.
Designed for Multiple Genres and Today’s Photography
The new Presets included in the Nik Collection 3 by DxO showcase five photography genres, specifically colour portraiture, black-and-white portraits, landscape photography, wildlife photography, and street photography. These are the five most popular genres among expert and amateur photographers alike. Color Efex Pro, which already includes a number of creative colour Presets and recipes, and Silver Efex Pro, which continues to set the standard for black-and-white conversion, are the two Nik Collection plugins photographers turn to the most.
With its ten “Classic Portrait Color” Presets for Color Efex Pro and “Classic Portrait Black & White” Presets for Silver Efex Pro, the Nik Collection 3 by DxO offers users a modern and holistic approach to the genre. “High Key Bright” brings out the whites and brightness in colour portraits, giving images a joyful and optimistic ambiance. With its lower exposure levels, “Hint of Color” creates a more dramatic look that nonetheless remains soft through the addition of a colour tint.
With respect to black-and-white photography, “Hollywood Glamour” produces images with high contrast yet controls the darker tones in the image to conceal any flaws. For those nostalgic for the analogue film era, “Rugged” offers a perfectly balanced, fine-grain look.
When it comes to landscape photography, the “Light & Bright” series designed for Color Efex Pro opts for a colourful take on the genre through a selection of monochromatic or chromatic-dominant Presets. “Cafe Mocha” adds a dark beige tint, while “Pink Lemonade” uses a pink tint. With their green and blue tones, “Fade Away” and “Heavenly Blue” give landscapes a timeless look. “Sunshine Morning” creates softer and more balanced tints.
The “Wildlife” series for Color Efex Pro includes Presets that showcase a variety of lighting effects and highlight detail. With its blue tint and slight blur, “Cool Evening” simulates a semi-nocturnal ambiance. “Sunny Day” mimics the effect of a bright, noon-day sun without flattening the image. Wish your photo was a bit sharper? “Fur Details” increases micro-contrast and enhances textures, resulting in an incredibly realistic effect.
Finally, the “Street” series for Silver Efex Pro opts for an approach poised between classicism and modernism by playing up contrasts, grain, and tints simultaneously. “High Contrast” recreates that classic street photography look by producing dense blacks and stark whites. “Street Gritty” adds a slight grain over the top, which is reminiscent of Leica. With “Street Dramatic”, the background of the photo is darkened, and the depth of field is shortened.
Twenty-five Years Dedicated to Innovation and Photography
Since Nils Kokemohr founded the company in 1995, Nik Multimedia, which later became Nik Software in 2006, has sought to develop photo-editing software that helps photographers who use Adobe Photoshop realise their vision through the use of simple tools based on exclusive algorithms and designed to improve their workflow. The software developer created Color Efex Pro to improve colour conversion, Sharpener Pro to boost sharpness, Dfine to reduce noise, Viveza to apply local colour adjustments, HDR Efex Pro to edit HDR images, Silver Efex Pro for white-and-black conversions, and Analog Efex to recreate the look of silver halide film. It also released a number of innovations, including the famous local adjustment technology U POINT™.
After Google purchased it in 2012, the Nik Collection was gradually side-lined. When DxO bought it in 2017, the suite was re-released, much to the delight of its extensive community of users. Its latest version, released in June 2020, added a number of new features, including the Selective Tool, which was redesigned to work with Adobe Photoshop, a non-destructive workflow for Adobe Lightroom users, and an eighth plugin, Perspective Efex.
Compatible with macOS Big Sur and the Latest Versions of Adobe software
To ensure the best possible user experience, the Nik Collection 3.3 by DxO was optimised to be fully compatible with macOS Big Sur as well as the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements.
Users who purchased Nik Collection 3 by DxO after June 2020 may upgrade their software for free. Photographers who already own Nik Collection 2 By DxO or a previous version can upgrade their software by signing into their customer accounts. A fully-functional, one-month trial version of Nik Collection 3.3 By DxO is available on the DxO website: https://nikcollection.dxo.com/download/.
OPPO announced today that the official release of the Full-path Color Management System will premiere as part of its 2021 new flagship smartphones, Find X3 series. OPPO’s Full-path Color Management System is the very first Android color management system to support the full DCI-P3 wide gamut and 10-bit color depth from capture, storage, and display. This delivers an outstanding viewing experience with its authentic and accurate color reproduction.
“Color inspires creativity and affects our perceptions of reality. That’s why we’ve enhanced every aspect of the color management system to add brilliant, high-quality visuals to more aspects of daily life.” said Bai, product manager at OPPO. “Based on the stellar color performance of the Find X2 Pro, the new Full-path Color Management System has been meticulously developed to support for 10bit image capturing and HEIF format. We aim to deliver to our users a seamless and systematic color experience, which unleashes content creators’ desire to explore, capture and express themselves fully.”
DCI-P3, 10-bit HEIF Images Supported from end-to-end — The Full-path Color Management System Expands the Boundary of Visual Representation
Considering the future trends lie in wide color gamut and high color depth, OPPO’s R&D engineering team did a decent job with color reproduction by improving the underlying system and hardware. The system is an end-to-end solution, covering all the steps from image acquisition, to computation, encoding, storage, decoding, and finally display, supporting a HEIF image with 10bit high color depth and the P3 wide color gamut.
As a management system, the full-path color management system adopted higher specification algorithm and hardware to record color when capturing. OPPO’s R&D engineering promoted algorithms in the areas such as distortion correction, multi-frame noise reduction and perceptual extreme super-resolution. Moreover, OPPO will support image sensors featuring Digital Overlap (DOL) HDR mode. In the DOL-HDR technology, it synthesizes different exposure conditions into an image. Therefore, brilliant colors are captured even when pictures are taken against bright light.
Once we have the right hardware, calibration becomes the next important factor. OPPO’s screen calibration procedure enables a professional, digital film-grade color accuracy at around 0.4 JNCD, thereby delivering a consistently accurate display on the screen. On the other hands, OPPO’s proprietary algorithm guarantee color gamut compatibility by adjusting the DCI-P3 with the D65 white point at the center of the color space.
Compared with the depth of 8-bits, the 10-bit color depth tones down the artificial visual features brought about by gaps in colors. The 10-bit color depth further improves color gradient to enhance the quality of visual content during creation and post-editing. Meanwhile, with a size only around 50% of a JPEG image, the new and powerful HEIF format fully supports a wide variety of multimedia, such as static images, Exif, depth information, and dynamic videos, thus giving users more creative freedom. It is also worth mentioning that the HEIF format can be further developed to ensure compatibility with respect to ultra-high color depth.
Personalized Color Settings on Your Smartphone — Color Correction Solution for the Future of Imaging
At the recent OPPO INNO DAY 2020, OPPO Founder and CEO Tony Chen said that, “we believe in ‘Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World’. OPPO uses technology to empower people to capture the beauty around them and to unleash their imagination of the future; thereby helping everyone get the best out of life.
This manifests in OPPO’s R&D process in color management. OPPO’s Full-path Color Management System is a fundamental function at the system level, and it is smart too. OPPO first sought to achieve a uniform standard with every screen showing colors in the same way to ensure the accuracy and fidelity; now, we go deeper to seek to meet user needs with customization.
Back to 2018, OPPO’s R&D engineering team became aware of the challenges facing smartphone users with color weakness. Considering about visual health, the team went on to initiate systematic research on color correction to address the needs of a wider user for better visual experience.
Next, OPPO will go one step further by introducing a comprehensive color correction solution. By conducting a large-scale quantitative and qualitative study on those with color weaknesses, we have upgraded the color correction solution to OPPO Color Correction Solution 2.0.
Right now, OPPO is joining forces with Zhejiang University with an aim to find the optimal solution to color correction by sampling potential users with accurate quantification of color vision test. Dr. Luo Ming, Professor of Color and Image Science at the university stated that, “Nowadays, we are considering more about individual difference for human well-being. In this case, the color correction system of the future will be highly user-centric. Users can create their own unique and personalized display by choosing colors from the smartphone’s palette as well as testing and calibrating the system.”
For OPPO, years of innovation have led to new heights of color expression for smartphone displays. The Full-path Color Management System will be first available in OPPO’s 2021 flagship Find X3 series.
Through our authentic, accurate, and individualized color management, OPPO aims to offer users an intuitive way to experience the world and capture life at its most colorful.
Inner City Helping Homeless, the non-profit registered charity supporting Ireland’s homeless, is today launching its first ever virtual Santabox Appeal. It is hoped that through this new online platform, the charity can recoup some of the €200,000 worth of fundraising it has already missed out on this year due to the pandemic, and also help ensure essential gifts are delivered to those who need them most this Christmas.
Normally one of the biggest donation-drives for the charity annually, this year’s Santabox Appeal was expected to only take in around 10% of normal donation levels due to current level five restrictions and social distancing requirements. However, Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) has partnered with Expleo, the technology partner for innovative companies, to develop a new digital platform to enable donors to buy a virtual Santabox that will be packed and presented to those in need by a team of socially-distanced elves.
These Santaboxes are filled with essentials such as clothes, toys and toiletries along with a Christmas gift voucher. The contents of the Santaboxes will be tailored specially to the recipient based on gender and age.
The latest Department of Housing homeless figures released in October found that there were 8,656 homeless people in Ireland, made up of 6,073 adults and 2,583 children who are currently living in emergency accommodation.
Brian McLoughlin, Head of Communications and Fundraising at Inner City Helping Homeless said: “We are delighted to launch our Virtual Santabox Appeal with our corporate charity partners Expleo. By bringing our appeal online it will allow people to continue to support our annual appeal from the safety of their own homes.
“The major reduction in footfall nationwide due to COVID-19 restrictions means the difficulties confronting the homeless have become more pronounced. We hope the public will get behind the online appeal which will enable us to provide Santa Boxes to families and individuals in emergency accommodation, on the streets, families in Direct Provision centres as well as those living alone.
“This has been a tough year for everyone; and we endeavour to put a smile on as many faces as possible this Christmas.”
Santa (David Nugent) with Phil Codd, Managing Director, Expleo Ireland and Brian McLoughlin, Head of Communication and Fundraising, Inner City Helping Homeless
Phil Codd, Managing Director of Expleo Ireland said: “We’re delighted to support such a worthy cause by digitally transforming the Santabox fundraising appeal and ensuring Inner City Helping Homeless can carry out their amazing work again this Christmas.
“Through our ‘Rebooting Ireland’ initiative, which was launched earlier this year to help companies to innovate and digitise to continue in business throughout COVID-19, we designed an online platform for ICHH that provides donors with ability to choose who will receive their Santabox, and offers an opportunity to send a personalised Christmas message to the recipient.
“When we first met with ICHH they were concerned that some people may end up going without a Christmas gift this year. We hope that our new platform will help them exceed all previous records for Santaboxes collected and, crucially, provide vital support to those who need it most at this time of year. ”
Donors can pay between €15 and €35 to purchase individual Christmas gifts. More details here.
JOBY, the smartphone accessory brand-of-choice for content creators everywhere, has announced their latest campaign – “What is a JOBY”. Designed to invite Generation Z and aspiring content creators to unleash their creativity whilst having fun, “What is a JOBY” wants to inspire a generation to produce meaningful, authentic content.
From day one JOBY has believed in creation as an act of creativity. Each product is designed to be functional yet playful, and easy to use with the aim of enhancing people’s lives. JOBY supports content creators that want to set free their creativity, put passion into their content, show boldness – all whilst having fun doing it. The world belongs to this type of creativity and together it can be made a better place one story, one post or one vlog at a time.
Following on from the hugely successful #TheSongOfUs campaign which saw JOBY receiving more than 90 million views on its social media channels and 8,000 video submissions thanks to the partnership with singer, songwriter actress and model Justine Skye, the new campaign will see JOBY join forces with Gen Z to define what content creation is. #TheSongOfUs not only gave content creators an exclusive song and created a new viral challenge, it also impacted on the whole customer journey and resulted in making JOBY the second tripod brand in the US market after Manfrotto.
Generation Z are doers, thinkers and creators. The world is at their fingertips. JOBY will challenge creators across Europe to define exactly what JOBY is using their creativity and intuition. Products will be shipped without any instruction to a selected number of European ambassadors, with the task to show the world how JOBY helps them to create using their originality. Content creation is what each individual makes it, and the campaign will inspire creators to give a creative spin to the products in their own style.
What is a JOBY will focus on four main countries – France, UK, Germany and Italy and will help JOBY drive the digital expansion in the EU market. With an expectation of 53 million views on social media, amplification from influencer outreach and a target of 380K clicks more traffic to eCommerce, the campaign will run from October to December.
Selected European ambassadors have already started to release their content for this new campaign. From the UK singing duo and identical twins Max&Harvey, Jack Massey Welsh from JacksEpicYouTubeChannelFullOfFunTimesandFunHiRickX and Alex Brooks from MarzBarVlogs have partnered with JOBY to create exciting videos for this campaign.
Described by Simon Cowell as ‘the next Ant and Dec’, singing duo Max&Harvey created their What is a JOBY challenge using some of their own props – check out what they got up to over on their channel.
JacksEpicYouTubeChannelFullOfFunTimesandHiRickX is the first channel with a 50-character long username to reach 100,000 subscribers. Created by Jack Massey Welsh (also of JackSucksAtLife), part of his What is a JOBY challenge included costumes for both of Jack’s dogs – see the end result in his final video!
Among the others, JOBY has also partnered also with BonnyTrash from Germany and Brunograffer from France to create their twist on the What is a JOBY campaign.
To see the exciting videos coming out in the next few weeks from all the European creators make sure to follow the JOBY official pages.
Products for Content Creators:
Designed with content creation in mind, the recently released GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit is aimed at those who want an all-in-one solution to creativity. Put together for today’s influencer, aspiring influencer or mobile content creator, the GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit provides everyone with the ability to create flawless videos with high quality sound.
Good audio is essential for videos or the latest social media trend and if we are being honest, our smartphone microphones just don’t cut it for the latest video or social media trend. That is where the JOBY Wavo Mobile microphone comes in. Super light, super simple and superior sound quality; it will make your video stand out from the rest. Want to stand out a bit further and add a bit more fun to your videos when filming?
The “What is a JOBY” campaign will also give a sneak peek in to the latest addition for the Wavo Mobile. Used first by the influencers in this campaign, the soon to be released special versions of the Wavo Windjammer will bring some colour to your kit. From November, the Windjammer will be available in Polar or Savage. Providing excellent wind protection when creating content like outdoor vlogging, live streaming or TikToking, the new Polar or Savage Windjammers mean you can show your personality behind the scenes.
Also included in the kit is the JOBY Beamo Mini LED light for giving your flawless skin, and the GorillaPod Mobile Rig for those times when you just need to be fully in front of the camera. With the JOBY GorillaPod Mobile Rig the only thing you need to add is your phone and imagination.
JOBY products including the GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit are available from:
Edifier® International, prominent designer and award-winning manufacturer of consumer audio electronics for both the lifestyle and multimedia markets announces it’s new powered subwoofer, the T5.
Featuring an 8-inch-long stroke speaker driver with DSP technology, the T5 ensures powerful distortion-free bass. The driver delivers 70w RMS of strong sound, safeguarding against warped and overblown deep lows. The Low Pass Filter produces a frequency response of 38Hz, meaning the T5 will only play sounds too low for your speaker set up to properly output without distortion.
A smart compact design, the T5 has been manufactured using the highest quality, medium density fibreboard materials. The 21mm MDF wooden casing offers reduced cabinet resonance for better audio quality. The unit also features a bass volume knob and a frequency range knob at the back of the panel, which allows you to raise or lower the frequency.
The T5 also has a handy auto standby feature designed to keep unnecessary power usage to a minimum, meaning the unit can be left plugged in when not being used. The unit is connected via an RCA line in/line out connection.
Developed to deliver a clean listening experience for everyone, the T5 is a brilliant addition to a home sound system set up.
Main Features:
8” speaker driver for distortion-free bass
Low pass filter with 38Hz frequency response
21mm MDF casing and auto standby mode
Adjustable bass and frequency bandwidth
Specifications:
Driver unit
8-inch bass
Power output
RMS 70W
Signal to noise ratio
≥85dB (A)
Frequency response
38Hz~200Hz
Noise level
≤25dB (A)
Input sensitivity
50±20mV
Price & Availability:
The T5 is currently available for £129.99 from Amazon
Edifier® International, prominent designer and award-winning manufacturer of consumer audio electronics for both the lifestyle and multimedia markets announces its latest offering to the gaming headset world – the G2 II headphones.
Featuring virtual 7.1 surround sound, the G2 II headset offers full 360° surround sound effects for a totally immersive gaming experience. With accurate sound positioning, Fortnite, Call of Duty and Destiny 2 – to name a few – all come alive, pinpointing exactly where the sound is coming from. This sound placement ensures you have the advantage in complex gaming situations thus enhancing your play.
The next generation 50mm composite diaphragm unit produces clear sound and powerful low-frequency sound performance. This driver, combined with the professional e-sports team tuning, optimises gaming styles.
The high-performance, noise cancelling microphone features a detachable 6mm, electret condenser microphone with omnidirectional reception, vital for making sure your teammates can always hear you despite your surroundings.
The vibrant RGB lights use backlight technology to pulse when the headset is in use to enhance your gaming set up and create a dynamic atmosphere.
Ergonomic and lightweight, the headband reduces pressure on your head to make certain a comfortable fit. Utilising soft leatherette to encase soft earmuffs, the design also ensures elongated wear. The G2 II is equipped with a USB connector for easy plug and play with PCs and laptops.
Slip the G2 II headphones on and submerge yourself in your gaming world.
Main Features:
7.1 surround sound offering 360° sound positioning, accelerating your advantage.
50mm driver unit produces clear sound and excellent low-frequency performance.
Noise-cancelling detachable microphone for uninterrupted game play.
Shopping safely from the comfort of your own home has now become a reality, augmented reality in fact. EZ Living Furniture is proud to announce the launch of its AR app (Augmented Reality), the first of its kind in Ireland. With the magic of technology, you can now bring sofas, bed frames, wardrobes, lighting and so much more directly and virtually into your own home.
“There’s nothing normal about operating a business in a pandemic therefore instead of finding fault, we decided to find a remedy”, informed EZ Living Furniture’s E-commerce Manager Robert Walsh.
Teaming up with AR specialists Intiaro, EZ Living Furniture developed the first real Irish furniture AR app for the retail sector.
What can you do with the app?
Simply pick an item from our collection available in the app. Once you have found your favourite, point your phone or tablet at a flat surface and watch as the item appears before your eyes. Next, place the item in the room and choose from all available colours and materials.
Using your mobile phone or tablet, bring EZ Living Furniture’s catalogue of virtual furniture into your home with their new augmented reality app.
Unleash the virtual interior designer in you and add multiple pieces of furniture to your scene at once. See how your favourite sofa, table and lamp will look in any room setting and zoom in or walk towards it for a more detailed view. Create virtual walls with the press of a button and hang virtual wall art from them (perfect for new builds).
Your personally designed space can be easily saved and returned to later for further changes. Or if you are happy with your creation, take screenshots and share these with your family and friends.
This is the future of retail and EZ Living are delighted to present this exciting app to you. It’s a more immersive and convenient experience than browsing through countless online websites. The AR app allows you to view life-sized pieces of furniture in your room and all products are available to purchase from their online store. Further information can be found by accessing the link below
IDA Ireland welcome today’s announcement that Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, will establish a Research and Development facility in Cork City. The multimillion-euro four-year investment is expected to create hundreds of highly skilled engineering roles. The project, which is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland significantly enhances the reputation of the Irish semiconductor industry, adding to Ireland’s strong reputation in microelectronics R&D.
Ajay Bawale, VP, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said: “We are excited about the new workplace in Penrose Dock. Not only are the offices state of the art, but they also have specially purposed and designed labs to enable continued ground-breaking security and validation work.”
Paul Kelleher, Sr. Director, Engineering for QT Technologies Ireland Limited and the site lead for the new facilities in Cork added: “This city centre location will help us to attract the world-class engineering talent needed to fuel our continued success.”
Qualcomm Technologies’ local affiliate moved into the new 4,600 m2 facility at Penrose Dock in Cork City Centre in October and is recruiting for roles in the ASIC areas of Digital, Analog, Machine Learning, Automotive, CAD, Automation, System Validation, Advanced Design for new Technologies and Software Engineering using leading-edge technologies to work on the next generation of ASIC Chips. For more information visit Qualcomm.Com/Careers
Commenting on the announcement, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said: This is really welcome news for Cork. Ireland is known for being one of the leading Research, Development and Innovation locations in the world and today’s announcement is further evidence of our strength in this area. This announcement from Qualcomm to invest €78m to establish a new Research and Development centre in Cork, is expected to create hundreds of highly-skilled roles over the next four years. Our skilled and talented workforce allows companies like Qualcomm to embed and grow their operations here. I wish them every success with their expansion plans.
CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan said: “Qualcomm’s new Research & Development Centre in Cork will operate on the cutting edge of technological innovation in Ireland. It is a terrific project for Cork and the South West region, and demonstrates IDA Ireland’s proven record of winning investments for regional locations. This investment also significantly enhances the reputation of the Irish semiconductor industry, adding to Ireland’s strong standing in microelectronics R&D. I wish Qualcomm every success with today’s announcement and assure them of our continued support.”
