61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For

rounding up thousands of your suggestions, considering our own favorites, and performing a little spreadsheet magic, we've cooked up our own cornucopia of excellent free software and webapps we're extremely thankful for. So whether you're an American celebrating the season or not, the selection of apps below is like gravy-drenched turkey and mashed potatoes for your computer. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

61 Free Desktop Applications, Webapps, and Tools We're Most Thankful For

1. Firefox (see also: Power User's Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features)
2. VLC (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support)
3. CCleaner (see also: Five Best Windows Maintenance Tools)
4. Dropbox (see also: Use Dropbox for More Than Just File Syncing, Sync Files and Folders Outside Your My Dropbox Folder)
5. 7-Zip (see also: Five Best File Compression Tools)
6. OpenOffice.org (see also: OpenOffice.org 3.1's Usability Tweaks, OpenOffice.org Screenshots Preview a Ribbon-Like Toolbar)
7. Google Chrome (see also: The Power User's Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition)
8. µTorrent (see also: Tweak uTorrent's Settings for Faster Downloads, Five Best BitTorrent Applications)
9. Notepad++ (see also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing)
10. Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
11. GIMP (see also: Gimp 2.7 Beta Improves Text Editing, Streamlines Saving)
12. Paint.NET (see also: Paint.NET Releases Big Update, Still a Killer Photoshop Alternative, Paint.NET Plugin Lets You Open Photoshop Files)
13. Microsoft Security Essentials (see also: Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus App Leaves Beta, Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough)
14. Revo Uninstaller (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
15. Evernote (see also: Evernote 3.5 Beta Brings Tons of Tiny Fixes to Windows, Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
16. Thunderbird (see also: Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate Available for Download)
17. Audacity (see also: Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3)
18. ImgBurn (see also: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster, Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
19. Picasa (see also: Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition)
20. Skype (see also: Our full Skype coverage)
21. Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, Five Best Instant Messengers)
22. Ubuntu (see also: First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony)
23. iTunes (see also: iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More)
24. foobar2000 (see also: Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000, Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
25. Foxit Reader (see also: Five Best PDF Readers, Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
26. FileZilla (see also: Five Best FTP Clients, Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla)
27. VirtualBox (see also: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox)
28. TrueCrypt (see also: Geek to Live: Encrypt your data, Five Best Portable Applications)
29. Avast! (see also: Five Best Antivirus Applications)
30. Defraggler (see also: Five Best Disk Defragmenters)
31. KeePass (see also: Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords, How to Use Dropbox as the Ultimate Password Syncer)
32. Opera (see also: Opera 10.10 with Unite Media Server Released)
33. AVG (see also: AVG 9 Free Now Available for Download)
34. Digsby (see also: Five Best Instant Messengers, Digsby Sees the Light, Removes (Some) Bundled Crapware)
35. Google Reader (see also: Our full Google Reader coverage)
36. Winamp (see also: Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp)
37. Google Earth (see also: Google Earth 5.1 Speeds Up Your World Browsing)
38. TeraCopy (see also: Five Best Alternative File Copiers)
39. Launchy (see also: Our full Launchy coverage)
40. Transmission (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads)
41. Eclipse IDE
42. SpyBot Search & Destroy (see also: Five Best Malware Removal Tools)
43. Adium (see also: Adium Updates with Security Fixes, Better Facebook Integration)
44. PuTTY (see also: Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager)
45. Songbird (see also: Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases, Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better)
46. Sumatra PDF (see also: Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader)
47. XBMC (see also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Customize XBMC with These Five Awesome Skins, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation)
48. Blender (see also: Learn Blender with free e-book)
49. CDBurnerXP (see also: Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
50. Everything (see also: Everything Finds Windows Files As You Type, Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities)
51. HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support)
52. Rainmeter (see also: Rainmeter 1.0 Brings the Enigma Desktop to Everyone)
53. AutoHotkey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, Hack Attack: Knock down repetitive email with AutoHotKey)
54. Google Calendar (see also: Our full Google Calendar coverage)
55. MediaMonkey (see also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching)
56. Quicksilver (see also: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver)
57. WinSCP
58. Google Voice (see also: Make Unlimited Free Calls on Your Cellphone with Google Voice, How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice)
59. Boxee (see also: Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center, Boxee to Launch Beta with Loads of New Features)
60. AdBlock Plus (see also: Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition)
61. Media Player Classic (see also: Five Best Video Players)

In case you're curious, here's a broad look at how your votes broke down among the 10 most popular:

The list above represents every application that garnered roughly ten votes or above. The highest vote-earner, Firefox, pulled in a couple hundred. If you're interested in how the full count went down, you can check out a Google Spreadsheet of the results here. Happy Thanksputering!

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Review: Sky Scramble

Review: Sky Scramble

If that’s a bicycle in interstellar space, I should pay more attention to the X-Games.

Bertogames’ Sky Scramble is a simple spatial-relations puzzler. Simple — except that solving the puzzles often isn’t simple, and while the presentation is spatial, the reasoning I found myself using was more abstract. Maybe not as simple as advertised, then.

It came as no surprise when I discovered that the game was designed by two mathematicians. Sky Scramble is the only puzzle game I’ve encountered which doesn’t much rely on spatial, linguistic, or arithmetic reasoning, which makes it interesting both for fans of puzzles and for those who generally avoid the genre because of the limited variety of abilities in use.

Spin Out

The setup is quite simple–for each puzzle, you have a constellation of stars of varying radii. You can exchange the places of any neighboring stars which touch in order to move the small red star to the goal. These puzzles are presented in easy-medium-hard triplets of gradually increasing overall difficulty, which gives the game an unusually even pace. Frequently, presenting all of the easy puzzles early on means that players’ progress slows dramatically late in the game. Given that Sky Scramble offers almost half of its puzzles for free, this would have given an inaccurate impression of the game’s difficulty for those who would be in a position to consider purchasing the remainder.
A digression: when I was a child, I bought a physical puzzle called Spin Out in a museum gift shop on a class trip (I was gifted enough to pay attention to products marketed at gifted children, but not gifted enough to recognize that even the gifted could be suckers). It was sort of a disappointment, at first because it felt like I could fiddle with it forever and not make any progress, and then later because there was just one trick to it. The right pattern was extremely easy to follow if you understood it, but constantly led you into falsely thinking you were essentially back where you started if you didn’t, because you wouldn’t recognize the importance of one small difference.

If you must insert gratuitous heavenly bodies in your game, I like this method.

That’s what Sky Scramble’s hard puzzles feel like to me. I’m constantly taking a few (or more than a few) steps, then feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything and backtracking. Only after playing around with it a good deal more and thinking hard about the structure of the puzzle do I realize I had actually been accomplishing something important, and pursue it. The difference between this and Spin Out is that the puzzles don’t feel like they’re a single trick repeated many times and they are distinct enough that, though there’s substantial skill transfer, each offers a unique challenge.
I wish I were a better mathematician so that I could describe Sky Scramble more precisely. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just a special case of some interesting work in Graph Theory or something, with a theme no more accurately modeled by it than you’d expect from a badly-written word problem (but which serves as their excuse to include cool space photos). Then again, perhaps it’s best that I can’t deny you the opportunity to stretch your brain to encompass these puzzles more thoroughly than I quite have.

SCORE

4 out of 5

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Nokia's Lumia 1020 is a smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system

Nokia's Lumia 1020 is a smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system.
No, wait. It's a 41-megapixel camera jam-packed with everything you might ever need from the best DSLR point-and-shoot devices.
Wait, wait, wait. It's a smartphone because it can use apps, make phones calls and send text messages. Hold on, it’s a digital camera that you can use with a "loss less" zoom, motion enhanced pictures, the ability to change apertures and exposure times and an array advanced photo techniques. 
It’s a smartphone. It’s a camera. A smartphone. A camera.
Let’s just call it a smameraphone.

Nokia Improves The Dimensions

When Nokia released its flagship Lumia 920 last year, the result was less than compelling. It was big and bulky and didn't have a defining feature that made you say, “Wow, I must have this phone!”
Size and weight were the real dealbreakers for the Lumia 920. One person said to me at one point, “I feel like I could beat somebody up with this thing.” At 185 grams (6.5 ounces), it was heavier than just about every other top-end smartphone on the market, and thick (10.7 millimeters) to boot. The main culprit was the wireless charging feature enclosed in the 920's (otherwise high quality) polycarbonate unibody shell.

Thankfully, Nokia has done away with the wireless charging inside the Lumia 1020 (a wireless charging case is available as an optional accessory). That makes the device thinner and lighter while sporting nearly the same dimensions (4.5-inch screen, 130 mm height and about 71 mm wide). The Lumia 1020 weighs in nearly an ounce lighter, at 158 grams (about 5.5 ounces); it would weigh considerably less if it didn’t also feature a significant bump on its back that is its 41-megapixel PureView camera.
(See also: Nokia Is Doing The Impossible: Making Windows Phone Cool)
About that bump. The camera on the Lumia 1020 protrudes significantly from back of the device. When laying flat, the bump props up the phone, like a kickstand or an off-center see-saw. The bump does not quite make the phone awkward, but it's distinctly noticeable. It's palatable because you know what that bump is: the best camera ever to be put into a flagship smartphone.

The Camera

2013 is the year of the smartphone camera. BlackBerry got the ball rolling in late January with new features in its BlackBerry 10 smartphones that allowed users to edit faces and movement within still pictures. HTC followed up a few weeks later with its "ultrapixel" smartphone, the HTC One (which also boasted motion features and unique sharing features). Samsung, as is its wont, went way overboard in March with the camera in its Galaxy S4, which sported different modes for capturing motion, panorama and other features with a 13-megapixel camera.
Nokia takes all of that and steps it up a notch with the Lumia 1020.
What Nokia has done was to essentially take the camera from its PureView 808 smartphone (which ran its dying Symbian OS), soup it up and shoehorn it into a Lumia-quality smartphone running Windows Phone 8. For all its faults, Windows Phone 8 is more robust than Symbian and allows Nokia to do more with the camera capabilities in the Lumia 1020.
The Lumia 1020 sports two camera modes: Nokia Pro Cam and Nokia Smart Cam.
Let’s break down the features.
Nokia Pro Cam:

• The Pro Cam gives you the features of a good dedicated digital camera (i.e., one that isn’t also a smartphone). You can set features such as aperture, exposure time and white balance, and either focus manually or let the app do so automatically. 
• It sports a Xenon flash, optical image stabilization, Carl Zeiss optics (which is really just a fancy brand name at this point) and six-lens optics (Nokia has actually built six lenses into the camera that float with the optical image stabilizer). 
• The PhotoBeamer function allows you to share photos to any screen—theoretically, anything from another smartphone or tablet to laptops, PCs and televisions—from the Lumia. It will scan a code and briefly store your photos on Nokia’s servers so you can share an album with a friend.
• Cinemagraph is a feature that allows for movie and still photography mixtures similar to the features that Samsung instituted with the camera capabilities in the Galaxy S4. 
• The camera's “oversampling” feature allows great shots in low light conditions and creates color-rich, high-definition photos. It is very similar to what HTC does with the "ultrapixel" camera in the HTC One. Basically, the oversampling will create a 5 megapixel image that is rich on detail but still able to be printed or shared easily without losing the high definition from camera that produces 38 megapixel or 34 megapixel pictures depending on the setting of the camera. If you really want to learn exactly what is going on with the Lumia 1020 camera and "oversampling," check out Nokia's whitepaper on the subject here [PDF]. The same feature also works with the camera's video mode, allowing for some good HD video recording on the Lumia 1020.

Nokia Smart Cam:
The Smart Cam is Nokia’s equivalent to the features that Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC have brought to market earlier this year. It allows for “Best Shot” in-photo editing, combining multiple shots into one picture, “strobe” effect that emphasize movement and the ability to remove movement from still photos or choose a “best face” from a series of photos.
Nokia also has some augmented reality capabilities within the camera app through Microsoft’s Bing “Vision” feature and its HERE Maps product. These features are interesting to play with, but not a primary selling point for the device.

Is The Camera Really That Good?

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was positively giddy on stage in New York City during the announcement of the Lumia 1020 earlier this month. Like a kid playing with a new toy. It's always hard to credit hype from a CEO trying to get the most buzz from a product that is about to launch. Will the features really work like they're supposed to? Like the commercials say they will?
In the case of some of the gesture and movement related features that Samsung touts with the Galaxy S4, the answer is no. But the camera on the Lumia 1020 is the real deal.
I take a lot of smartphone pictures, usually for events or on vacation or of other smartphones for various articles. Often, the camera is lacking and I have to find that perfect balance of angle and lighting and the ability to hold really, really still to get the right picture. If I'm any real distance from an object or it's too dark, I'll usually get something of middling quality (which is actually a great improvement over smartphone cameras from even a year ago).
The Lumia 1020’s camera eliminates most of those problems. The digital zoom works much better than most other smartphone’s digital varieties. Low light conditions are impressive and photos are rarely blurry.
Updated to clarify the difference between optical and digital zoom in the Lumia 1020. 
Zoom
Lumia 1020 outside, sunny, no zoom

Lumia 1020, outside, sunny, 3x zoom
Low light: Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. Lumia 1020
Samsung Galaxy S4 in low-light conditions, no special settings

Nokia Lumia 1020, low-light conditions, no special settings
Inside

Outside (cloudy)
Nokia Lumia 1020, outside, no zoom

Nokia Lumia 1020, outside, 3x zoom

There's A Phone In Here Somewhere

Yes, this camera has a smartphone in it. Excepting the camera, its hardware specs are good, but not great. The Lumia 1020 has a 4.5-inch display with a 1280x768 resolution (334 pixels per inch, similar to the iPhone 5 but well behind the HTC One and Galaxy S4). Its battery is 2000 mAh, which also lags the HTC One and S4. The Lumia 1020 has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage and comes with 7 GB of free cloud storage through Microsoft SkyDrive.
The screen sports all the good features that the Lumia 920 offered, including a highly sensitive touch screen (that supposedly works even if you're wearing mittens), a display you can read even in direct sunlight and sculpted glass.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5 GHz processor also lags the quad-core processors of the HTC One and Galaxy S4 and other top smartphones of 2013, at least from a pure hardware perspective.
Nokia may have been able to significantly upgrade the camera, but it appears that a lot of the hardware in the device lags that offered by top Android manufacturers.

Then there's Windows Phone 8. Some people like it, some people hate it. Nokia is trying its best to emulate the approach Samsung takes to Android and build its own features into Microsoft’s mobile operating system. With the Lumia 1020, Nokia released a software developer kit (SDK) of its camera capabilities so that apps could take advantage of the superior photography features in the smartphone.
As yet, only a handful of partner apps are using the SDK, like Path and Hippstamatic. What it comes down to is that Nokia needs to be on the forefront of developer adoption for Windows Phone apps or the platform will forever lag behind the behemoths Android and iOS. The camera SDK is a good start, but it won’t solve the problem of developers declining—or, in the case of Instagram, outright refusing—to build apps for Windows Phone.

The Value? Depends On Your Priorities

Nokia’s distribution strategy is a little perplexing with the Lumia 1020. It's releasing the phone exclusively to AT&T at $299 for a two-year contract. Elop can keep insisting that AT&T has been a “great partner” to Nokia, but U.S. sales don't really bear that out. For what it is, the Lumia 1020 is both a little pricey and locked to one carrier. It's not a great combination.
Whether or not you feel like embracing the Lumia 1020 may depend on how much you value the camera. Is it enough to trap yourself into using Windows Phone 8 on AT&T for the next two years? The camera is good and will stand the test of time over that period, but if smartphone photography is only of tangential interest to you, then it's probably not worth it.
The lack of some apps on Windows Phone 8 will also be a hindrance in the short term, at least. Nokia, of course, will keep trying to improve its developer relations while Microsoft continues to work on persuading top developers to port their apps to Windows Phone.
The bottom line is that the Nokia Lumia 1020 is a superlative camera and a middling smartphone, punctuated by a big question mark hovering over the future of Windows Phone and its app ecosystem.

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With Big Data, Companies Can Predict Your Success Before Your First Day On The Job

The need for high-performing employees, and for hiring the right candidate for the right job at the right time, has never been greater. Here's how the talent hunt is being transformed.

By: Rudy Karsan

---

We are not what we eat, as many people like to say--we are what we do.
Since the "big bang of culture" about 50,000 years ago when Homo sapiens survived and the Neanderthals didn't despite their larger brain cavities and more robust physiques, humans have evolved to a stage where we identify ourselves by what we do more than any one of the other three dimensions that define us, namely the food we eat, the company we keep, and the faith we follow.

We have found that the intersection of passion, pay, and purpose is what really engages a person to be the best they can be at their work.

We also discovered at the time the tremendous power of social interaction, where 1 + 1 adds up to greater than 3. Then, it helped our species survive; now it rules almost every waking moment. And today, the combination of work as identity and the power of social interaction is playing a huge role in shaping the workplace and workforce. Identifying ourselves by what we do is inextricably linked with seeking meaning in our work, as this gives us a sense of greatness and significance in the larger scheme of things and of fulfilling a higher purpose. And this desire on the part of humanity to find meaning at work has led to epochal changes in the way individuals make decisions about job selection and tenure and the way organizations go about recruiting and retaining people.
A great example can be found at Kenexa, where we defined our mission of serving humanity a number of years ago, and I found that we were attracting and retaining employees for whom this held a great deal of meaning and purpose. People tend to talk about passion for one's work leading to success and engagement; we have found that the intersection of passion, pay, and purpose is what really engages a person to be the best they can be at their work. A third facet that is influencing the way we work is the rise of big data analytics. Humans have been creating and storing data at an exponential rate for thousands of years. What’s different now is the paradigm shift both in the way data is stored and how it’s being viewed and utilized. We now have the awareness, the analytics, and the technology to use this big data for the benefit of humanity. And a significant aspect of this is the harnessing of big data to benefit the most valuable asset of an enterprise, its people.

A Hire Cause:
A Former Google Exec On How Startups Can Compete With Google To Score Top Talent

Big data is starting to penetrate nearly every aspect of business, from how organizations market their products and services to how each step of the manufacturing process impacts the bottom line to the people they hire. If you apply for a job today, you can be sure your prospective employer is going to be checking out your personal brand across all the social networks you are part of to see if you are a good candidate to hire. The advent of social networks and the tremendous amount of data being generated by multiple channels have also given individuals massive choices and the discernment to make choices about the products they wish to buy and, increasingly, the companies they choose to work for. There are four basic reasons we use data:

1. To make decisions.
2. To try and predict the future and act on it.
3. To benchmark ourselves against others.
4. To create language around which we can tell stories or communicate with one another (for example, how do I read my engagement data to show the impact of leadership in my organization?).

As enterprises are going through this journey with big data and social business tools, the larger companies have a significant edge in terms of access to data from their hiring systems and using predictive analytics, assessment, and behavioral tools to make selections. This has also enabled them to move into another arena where they are now using sentiment indices to predict the capability, culture, and capacity of individuals as they come into the workforce and the company.
What does this mean for individuals? Essentially, it gives them the ability to choose where and how they want to work, to obtain better insights on mapping a career path for themselves, and to draw on the collective knowledge and experiences of the organization in order to adopt best practices, solve problems innovatively, and be far more productive at work, confident that their talents are being maximized. This leads them to be fully engaged with what they are doing and with the organization, which is a winning situation for both. Engagement at the most basic level translates into your waking up every morning excited about going to work.
Personally, I define work as “doing something I don’t want to do”--and that actually applies only to exercise in my case. The rest is what I love doing. So typically, engagement leads to people being far better and healthier individuals, better partners/spouses, better children, and better community members. On an enterprise level, the combination of analytics and human behavioral insights gives companies better sourcing capabilities and better predictors of where their next level of talent is going to come from, with the ability to predict the success of potential candidates before they even walk through the door. To hire individuals who are the best fit for every job--not only in terms of their abilities and skills, but also based on culture fit. Data from performance management solutions and surveys can be used to increase efficiencies, to increase engagement, and to increase productivity, which will have an impact on the top and bottom line. For HR, the competitive advantage lies in analyzing and using the large amounts of employee-generated big data to drive productivity, service, innovation, execution, and employer/employee behavior.

A recent study by IBM revealed that 70% of CEOs claim human capital is the single biggest contributor to sustained economic value.

An interesting advantage of big data is its use to dissipate workplace myths. For example, a popular myth is that employees need a strong work-life balance to be engaged. Actually, we’ve discovered that engagement levels rise when employees are mission-driven, often by a big project or challenge, when they typically have increased work hours and reduced personal time. Another example is the conventional wisdom that says successful salespeople must have an outgoing personality, are naturally friendly, and are able to get along with everyone. What IBM Kenexa’s team of more than 100 behavioral scientists and researchers discovered, by studying more than 1,000 salespeople in several companies across diverse industry verticals, is that success at work is more likely to occur when salespeople have emotional courage and persistence. This is the ability to stay engaged at work and keep trying even when you’ve been told no time after time. Our data shows salespeople who exhibit these traits consistently are the cream of the crop in their profession.
A recent study by IBM revealed that 70%of CEOs claim human capital is the single biggest contributor to sustained economic value. At the same time, paradoxically, unemployment levels are high but 65% of global companies are having trouble finding candidates with the skills their workforces require. So the need for high-performing employees, and for hiring the right candidate for the right job at the right place, has never been greater.
Thanks to data analytics, organizations are in a better position to study potential candidates and pinpoint with amazing accuracy those who have the capability to do the job, the capacity to learn new skills that may be needed in the future, and who are a good match with the culture of the company. We call these the three essential Cs of business success, and believe that understanding and hiring for these are the unquestionable keys to giving any enterprise a distinct competitive edge, giving employees the meaning they crave in their work and, as a result, shaping a better society.

--Rudy Karsan is founder of Kenexa, an IBM company and provider of recruiting and talent management solutions to engage a smarter, more effective workforce across an organization's most critical business functions. The company was acquired by IBM in December 2012.

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Astrophotography

Nikon D5200 24.1MP DSLR w/ 18-55 VR Lens (Black) with FREE Nikon Coolpix

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH6 14.1MP Digital Camera (Pink)

by Panasonic

• 14.1 MP 1/2.33" CCD Sensor
• 720p HD Video: Motion JPEG Format
• 24mm Wide Angle LEICA DC VARIO Lens
• 5x Optical Zoom
• 2.7" Intelligent LCD Screen
• Panorama Shot, Beauty Retouch Modes
• Intelligent Auto With MEGA O.I.S.
• LUMIX Image Uploader

Before ₱ 7,999.00

Now ₱ 5,599.00

You save 30%

• In Stock
• Delivery within 5 business days in Metro Manila 5-10 business days for
  outside Metro Manila

Product Description of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH6 14.1MP Digital Camera (Pink)

What's in the box

• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FH6 Digital Camera (Pink)
• Lithium-Ion Battery
• Chargers & AC Adapters
• 1-Year Limited Warranty

Enjoy beautiful photos with this Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH6 digital camera. The ultra slim and compact 14.1 megapixel Lumix DMC-FH6 features high-quality 24mm wide-angle LEICA DC lenses with a 5x optical zoom. Beyond its capability to shoot high-quality still photos, the DMC-FH6 also records 720p High Definition (HD) video in Motion JPEG format.

f/2.5 LEICA DC Lens

The DMC-FH6 incorporates a 24-120mm LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMARIT lens with f/2.5 brightness. The f/2.5 lens is brighter by approx. 25% than the f/2.8 lens which is generally considered a bright lens. It allows the use of higher shutter speed but captures clear, sharp, blur-free images even in lower lighting situations.

The 24mm ultra wide-angle lens* – rare on a compact camera – gives you a wider range of composition possibilities with approx. 213% larger viewing space compared to that of 35mm camera. The super-high-quality LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMARIT lens minimizes distortion at the wide end.
* Converted to standard 35mm camera equivalent, at the wide-end.
* Simulated image.



Great lenses make great cameras 

LEICA DC lens


10x iA Zoom (Intelligent Zoom) The iA Zoom (Intelligent Zoom) is an extensive zoom function using digital zoom, however, you can even draw the subject 2x closer than the original optical zoom with minimum deterioration of image quality thanks to the Intelligent Resolution technology. This means the 5x optical can virtually extend to 10x equivalent.



MEGA O.I.S. – Shake Detection The MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) compensates for the blurring caused by hand-shake. Even slight hand-shake movement is accurately detected by a sampling frequency of 4,000 times per second, and compensated to produce sharp, clear images.



The MEGA O.I.S. is effective for scenes like these.

Night Portraits


Night Scenes



In Dimly Lit Rooms


Macro Shots / Zoom Shots



Optical Image Stabilizer

iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode

In the iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode, the camera does all the work, leaving you free to compose your shot and capture the moment. You just press, aim and shoot. The detection and correction functions go to work to give you beautiful photos and videos* with maximum ease.
* Available with DMC-FH8 only. The applicable iA Mode functions vary with photos and videos.



HD Video Recording The DMC-FH6 can record HD motion images (1,280 x 720 pixels) in Motion JPEG format.

Panorama Shot
Panorama makes it possible to shoot a horizontal / vertical panoramic image with consequent shots taken by overlaying the previous image.



Beauty Retouch Mode
The Beauty Retouch Mode makes it possible to virtually make-up the faces. The Aesthetic Retouch is like going to a beauty salon, and the Foundation and Make-up Retouch are like putting on make-up.



Auto RetouchThe Auto Retouch function adjusts contrast and brightness to give different impression to the photo with just a press of a button. Appropriate retouch is automatically applied depending on the image – if the image was shot too dark, it can be clear and bright to look it nicer with this function.



The FH6 also features:

Sonic Speed AF:
This gives the camera super high-speed response that helps to catch even the most fleeting photo opportunities.

2.7-inch LCD:
The large, 230,000-dot high-resolution LCD serves as a small photo and video viewer, allowing you and friends to enjoy viewing images.

Intelligent LCD: The Intelligent LCD automatically adjusts the brightness in 11 steps according to shooting conditions.

4 Aspect Ratios: In addition to 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9, you can shoot with a 1:1 aspect ratio.

LUMIX Image Uploader: You can upload photos to Facebook™ and videos to YouTube™ with simple operation

Battery Life: The energy-saving Venus Engine and the efficient, rechargeable lithium-ion battery lets you take approx. 280 shots on a single battery charge*.

Built-in Memory 70MB: The built-in memory provides extra memory when your memory card fills up.

PHOTOfunSTUDIO: The PHOTOfunSTUDIO smartly sorts your photos and movies into practical folders for quick, easy management.

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Asus Fonepad 7" Android 4.1 Wi-Fi/3G ME371MG-7 (Champagne Gold)

• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• 7" 1280 x 800 IPS
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 1C2T
• 1GB RAM, LPDDR2 1GB ROM
• 8GB storage (up to 32GB microSD support)
• 3MP back camera, 1.2MP front camera
• PowerVR SGX540 Graphic Processor
• Ambient Light Sensor, and G-Sensor, E-compass Feauture
• 4270mAh battery

Price ₱ 14,995.00

• In Stock
• Delivery within 5 business days in Metro Manila 5-10 business days for
  outside Metro Manila

Product Description of Asus Fonepad 7" Android 4.1 Wi-Fi/3G ME371MG-7 (Champagne Gold)

What's in the box

• Asus Fonepad 7"
• Charger
• USB Connector
• Earphones
• User Manual

Is it a phone or a tab? With phone functions , a 7" IPS screen, and a sleek metallic finish, one thing is for sure: The Asus Fonepad is fab--fabulous, that is.

Overview
The ASUS Fonepad features an Intel Atom Z2420 1.6Ghz CPU (the same processor found in most notebooks) and a built-in 3G-capable phone. The beautifully designed metallic finish and the 7” IPS display is gorgeously combined for your multimedia enjoyment.

Two-for-one
The stunning 7” metallic finish is designed to fit right on your palm. The Fonepad is a tablet that retains the flexibility of a smartphone--or it could be the other way around. Nonetheless, it is successful in eliminating the need to carry two different devices at the same time.

Connected. Always.
A lot of devices in the market promises connectivity on the go. But nothing quite matches the full connectivity that the ASUS Fonepad provides. Full 3G telephony support means the Fonepad can be a always connected for seamless web browsing, and smooth streaming of online content.

The Fonepad can also be used for voice calls. And with the built-in noise-cancelling dual-mic, the line is crisp and clear. With just one mobile data plan to pay for, the running cost to sustain the Fonepad is much lower compared to a separate combo of a smartphone and 3G tablet.

Fonepad: The Contemporary Playground
Enjoy music, videos, and games anywhere, anytime--in quality. The ASUS SonicMaster Audio Technology works in tandem with the award-winning Maxx audio software to deliver precise and crystal clear sound effects. It also has a 178-degree viewing angle to boot.

Have fun with the countless apps that you can download directly from Google Play. The Android OS is the world's most popular mobile platform that houses 700,000 social, productivity, and entertainment apps. The just-released Floating app, a multi-tasking app that allows you to run multiple apps on the screen at the same time, is also found in the ASUS Fonepad.

BuddyBuzz
Keep track of all your social networking accounts in one simple, neat, and fast layout with BuddyBuzz. Easily browse all of your social networking content in one place.

Store it in the Cloud
The promise of wireless and cordless functionality has gotten even better with the ASUS Cloud, a utility tool that can be used immediately with the ASUS Fonepad. View, create, edit and share your office files online, then everything will be saved to your WebStorage account. It has a 5GB Lifetime ASUS WebStorage space so you can sync and share your data anytime and anywhere with other devices.

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Acer B1-A71 7" Android 4.1 16GB Wifi (Black)

• 7" Capacitive Multi-Touchscreen
• Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
• 0.3MP Front Camera
• 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor
• Wifi/Bluetooth
• ROM 16GB/ 512MB RAM
• Up to 32GB MicroSD

Before ₱ 6,995.00

Now ₱ 5,900.00

You save 16%

• In Stock
• Delivery within 5 business days in Metro Manila 5-10 business days for
  outside Metro Manila

Cash On delivery
*Available

Pay as low as ₱ 372.70 per month
Up to 24 months financing available for orders above ₱ 3,000 using your BDO credit card.

Product Description of Acer B1-A71 7" Android 4.1 16GB Wifi (Black)

What's in the box

• Acer Tablet.
• Charger.
• User Manual

Ideal companion
Whether you're waiting for the train, sitting on the bus or relaxing in the coffee shop, the Iconia B Series makes each moment better. It's easy to hold in one hand and feels snug in your palm. About the same size as a paperback book, the 7" screen is ideal for reading.





In a snap
Gaming, web browsing and video are super-fast on your Iconia B Series thanks to the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. The Android Jelly Bean operating system further improves system-wide performance. Jelly Bean speeds searches and provides more precise answers. Plus, for queries done with Voice Search, answers are spoken back almost instantly.



Affordable fun
The Google Currents app has free online magazines from hundreds of top publishers and delivers beautiful ebook-style editions to your tablet. Around 700,000 games and apps are available from Play Store, and many of them are free, too. You can also pass your time on the go having fun video chats with friends and family via the webcam.



Easy sharing
Have files you want to take along? You can immediately expand this tablet's storage by up to 32 GB with the handy microSD™ card reader. With plenty of room for large multimedia files, you don't have to leave anything at home. Also, the microSD™ Card eases file transfers to and from devices like cameras or other people's tablets.

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Samsung NX1000 20.3 MP Compact System Camera w/ 20-55mm Lens Kit (White) with free Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0" 8GB Wifi

by Samsung

• 20.3 Megapixels 23.5mm x 15.7mm CMOS image sensor
• 3" TFT-LCD display
• High-definition video mode
• ISO 100-12,800
• Scene modes
• Up to 8 fps (frames per second)
• Auto, custom, and preset white balance controls
• Flash modes
• Picture wizard
• Contrast autofocus
• Wi-Fi

Before ₱ 30,990.00

Now ₱ 25,000.00

You save 19%

• In Stock
• Delivery within 5 business days in Metro Manila 5-10 business days for
  outside Metro Manila
•  

Product Description of Samsung NX1000 20.3 MP Compact System Camera w/ 20-55mm Lens Kit (White) with free Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0" 8GB Wifi

What's in the box

• Samsung NX1000 Compact System Camera
• Rechargeable battery (BP1030)
• Battery charger (BC1030)
• Owner's manual
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0" 8GB Wifi

Style and Perfection, All in One.
Introducing the 20.3 megapixels Samsung Smart Camera NX1000 with 1/4000 fast shutter and Built-in Wi-Fi.




20.3MP APS-C Sensor
Customized for the NX System, the brand-new, professional-grade, 20.3MP APS-C CMOS Sensor produces images that rival those of any premium DSLR. Each individual pixel has a large sensor area and receives more light, guaranteeing low noise levels, high dynamic range and accurate color differentiation. The higher sensitivity allows you to shoot during low-light situations without graininess or other noise. The new sensor also provides Full HD video output capabilities.



1/4000 Fast Shutter
Shutter speed can make the difference between capturing an iconic image and missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The NX1000’s 1/4000 shutter speed gives you the flexibility to shoot like the pros—at varying speeds and light exposures. The NX1000’s shutter even automatically adjusts itself as it senses environmental factors such as temperature and camera direction. And the electronically controlled focal-plane shutter reduces exposure errors.



High-speed Capture
The NX1000 features super-fast High Speed Capture capabilities provide an simple yet sophisticated way to capture images in total focus. The ultra-high speed Auto Focus (AF) that can rival almost any system camera and is core component of the system. The result is a fast and precise AF System that captures life’s fleeting moments. And with a sequential rate of 8fps, capturing fast-moving objects in perfect clarity are no longer a challenge.



Discover the True Beauty of HD Video
Built with 1080 30p Full HD movie recording capabilities, the NX1000 transforms shooting video with a still camera into an art form. Choose from a wide range of viewing angles and zoom with confidence. The mirrorless CMOS image sensor offers precise auto focus even while you shoot. For a truly cinematic experience, the NX System has been fitted with an 18-200mm lens exclusively for Full HD video.



Instant Sharing via Wi-Fi
The NX1000’s Wi-Fi connectivity lets you connect your digital camera to a wireless network. Save photos and videos directly to a computer or cloud service while you shoot, email them, print them wirelessly, or upload them straight to Facebook™ or YouTube. You’ll never have to worry about losing a great shot, running out of storage space, or remembering to bring the right cable along.



Premium Metal Design
The NX1000 packs the power of a professional-grade digital camera within a sleek and compact design. Its ergonomically crafted exterior fits perfectly within your hand, while the topside design feels solid and looks just as sturdy. The NX System gets its charming good looks through the perfect combination of modern metallic styling and classic clean lines. On the inside, the large CMOS Sensor replaces any mirrors for a smaller camera body. The lightweight body makes it more portable and easier to shoot in a variety of angles and positions, making it the ultimate professional-grade camera that you can carry in your pocket.



Smart Filter 2.0 and Selective Color
Smart Filter 2.0 options make it easy to create special moods. Choose the Tilt & Shift Lens Effect for a miniaturized look, the Vignetting Effect for striking contrasts, Half-Tone Dot for a comic-book look, and more. With the Selective Color feature, you can even choose the colors you want to emphasize.




Wide Range ISO for Perfect Exposure
The wrong exposure can ruin even the most carefully framed shot. The NX System’s imaging sensor offers a wide ISO sensitivity range of up to 12,800 at normal settings. Even indoors or at night, you can create images with minimal noise, rich tonal gradations and faithful colors—without a flash. You’ll also capture clearer, crisper images of fast-moving objects.



Panorama, 3D Panorama
Capture the sweeping beauty of a natural landscape or the grandeur of a vast skyline. The NX1000’s panoramic capabilities let you catch every detail on the horizon with the push of a button. You can even create 3D panoramic photos and wow your friends by displaying them on a 3D-ready HDTV.




Smart Panel
The intuitive Smart Panel user interface puts all the settings you need right at your fingertips. Every key feature is easy to access, thanks to on-screen icons and clearly explained menu items. That means faster adjustments so you won’t miss that perfect shot.



Take Full Control of Your Pictures
No more fumbling to find the right buttons while you try to capture a fleeting moment. With i-Function 2.0, you can adjust key settings using the focus ring right on the lens. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro, you can quickly choose the perfect settings for your shot.



HDMI
Get superior picture and sound from your HD source. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a digital connection that can transmit HD video and audio over a single cable.

 

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