Most of the time, we want a level of exposure in our photos that preserves color and detail. But who says that photography needs to be about color and detail? Which brings us to this week’s Shooting Challenge…

The Challenge

Allow too much light through your lens for too long to take artistic advantage of clipping, the phenomenon of blown-out highlights that look like nothing but white. While almost any RAW photo can be tweaked to overexposed levels, as usual, we’d like you to create your image in-camera as much as possible. But if you’d like to preserve some of the photo’s contrast, then we won’t consider this Photoshop tutorial to be complete cheating.

The Method

I actually haven’t come across an excellent tutorial on this one (drop any links in the comments if you have), though obviously, longer shutter speeds and open apertures will capture more light. And the more light, the more clipping. Most any automatic mode just will not do.

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the “challenge” part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to [email protected].
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560×1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)

Send your best entries by Sunday, February 21st at 6PM Eastern to [email protected] with “Blow Out” in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.

[Lead photo by ljmacphee on flickr via digitalphotographyschool]

The Wave UFO appears to be the first gesture-controlled…err…R/C vehicle. DVICE explains how you steer its flight:

Wave UFO Controlled By Gestures, Not Convenient, Well-Vetted Remotes

…start the motor and hold your hand underneath as it begins to hover. As you move your hand laterally to the ground, the UFO moves with you. Make an upward toss gesture, and up the UFO goes. The more violent the motion, the higher it flies. Make a diagonal toss gesture, and you can push it toward a buddy, who can “catch it” over his hand and toss it back (or not).

Sounds neat, but here’s what I’d call the real-world usage scenario:

…start the motor and hold your hand underneath as it begins to launch unpredictably into the air. Quickly dodge out of the way as the UFO spirals, possibly while flaming, at you or a loved one (protip: protect your eyes, they are remarkably sensitive to ballistic attack). If you’re lucky enough to get three or more feet away from the UFO, don’t move. It might not see you, and the slightest motion could trigger a second onrush. Continue to stay calm for up to 1-2 hours as the battery pack runs out. And always remember those who gave their lives that day so that you could live.

Look for the Wave UFO for $25 this spring. [DVICE]

This can’t be good for anyone but Apple—a patent app filed in 2004 has been granted for their capacitive multitouch display.

The patent is not necessarily all-encompassing, but it appears to be quite encompassing. The abstract explains the patent generally addresses:

“A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time…”

Apple’s touchscreen is still the best in the entire smartphone market, and while the implications of this patent are still unclear, it’s certainly hard to imagine it helping any other companies close that gap. [freepatentsonline via Engadget]

Just a bit of hardware erotica on the Flip MinoHD: the red circle is the lens, which is being pulled off the CMOS chip (directly below). The 720P chip leaves individual pixels just 2.2 microns to capture their snippets.

And here’s another neat shot—the Flip MinoHD’s lens (top) next to a iPod nano 5th Generation camera assembly. Since size matters in imaging, it’s no surprise that the nano isn’t our favorite pocket cam out there. [ifixit]

Right now, the best eBook readers are from the big guys—B&N and Amazon—in terms of both the hardware and the convenience of use. But what it someone else developed a killer feature, like multitouch? What then?

The Bookeen Orizon eBook reader, due this May for $250, features a 6-inch, 800×600 display, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1GB of storage, microSD and an accelerometer. It can read both ePub and PDF.

But its standout feature, the reason anyone is talking about it, is multitouch support on the display. Unfortunately, I can’t come up with a single reason that’d be useful. On LCDs with instantaneous refresh rates, multitouch expands functionality exponentially, from button presses to realtime gestures. On electronic paper, you’re faced with a noticeable, inherent delay every time you’d just like to flip a page.

Pinch to zoom becomes pinch…screen flashes black…screen flashes white…oops I zoomed too much, but maybe you could make a game out of it or something. [E-reader-info via Electronista]

There are things Man was meant to do and there are things Man wasn’t meant to do. Putting a spycam inside a Barbie, for instance? Such can only unbalance the subtle harmonies of nature in perverse ways.

Essentially a Flip cam shoved into an adiposeless torso cavity, the Barbie Video Girl Doll can record up to 30 minutes of footage through her concealed necklace before playing it back through an LCD embedded in her trapezius. Meanwhile, a mini USB hub, fit in Barbie’s lower back, creates what’s most likely the closest rendition to an anatomically correct Barbie we’ve seen yet.

Barbie Video Girl Doll will run $50 when she’s put on sale this July. Tragic hilarity will follow from later summer into fall. [ChipChicklets via OhGizmo!]

Note: The headline was compliments of intern David Chaid.

Over the last several months, Wired has been reimagined with depth and motion for tablets in a new digital product called Wired Reader. Here’s a demo of the experience, and it’s a definite feast for the eyes/fingertips.

Teaming with Adobe, Wired built this new rendition of their magazine (due this summer) through Air, which offers compatibility to both Android and Apple mobile platforms as well as Macs and PCs.

Well, sort of.

The catch, of course, is that while Wired Reader can be packaged into its own Air runtime app to load on the iPad, Apple doesn’t have to allow it (for reasons of security, stability or, well, whatever grumpy reasoning Apple comes up with). Also, the demo you see here is seamlessly smooth, and this fluidity is a huge flavor component to this visual candy. Whether or not the content will be so jitter-less on either the iPad or any stock Android tablet is still an unknown (especially as some iPad animations tended to stutter during our hands on, without any Air go-between).

Those caveats aside, I do think Wired Reader looks fairly exciting. So which magazine do you prefer, the paper version or the tablet version? [Wired via Business Insider]

Next month, nine Verizon smartphones with accompanying 3G plans will be able to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls, as well as call out to regular phones internationally at a reduced rate. UPDATE

UPDATE: However, it appears the service is pretty gimped as you can’t call Skype out to regular lines domestically in order to save minutes. Even on AT&T (of all carriers), the fring iPhone app allows Skype-out calling (even though the Skype app still technically does not). When Verizon allows domestic Skype-out, we’ll celebrate in full.

VERIZON WIRELESS AND SKYPE JOIN FORCES TO CREATE A GLOBAL MOBILE CALLING COMMUNITY
New Skype Mobile Product for Verizon Wireless Smartphones Brings More Value to U.S. Mobile Consumers

BARCELONA, Spain; BASKING RIDGE, N.J., United States; and LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg – At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Verizon Wireless and Skype today announced a strategic relationship that will bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones in March. The new Skype mobile™ product enhances Verizon Wireless’ smartphones for users who have data plans by offering a new way to call around the globe, while also giving hundreds of millions of Skype users around the world the opportunity to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues in the United States using Verizon Wireless.

The two companies have created an exclusive, easy-to-use Skype mobile offering for 3G smartphones. Verizon Wireless 3G smartphone users with data plans can use Skype mobile to:

· make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;

· call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;

· send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and

· remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

Initially, Skype mobile will be available on millions of best-selling Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said, “Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless changes the game. For Verizon Wireless’ more than 90 million customers, Skype mobile adds great value because we’re effectively giving customers with smartphones and data plans the option to extend their unlimited calling community to hundreds of millions of Skype users around the globe. And you’re not limited to using a single type of phone; we’ll have nine smartphones ready right at launch in March.”

Josh Silverman, chief executive officer of Skype, noted, “People want to take their Skype conversations with them wherever they go, whether it’s on a PC, TV or increasingly mobile phones. Verizon Wireless will give U.S. consumers the best Skype experience on mobile phones and will truly change the way people call their friends and family internationally.”

Customers interested in learning more about Skype mobile for Verizon Wireless smartphones can visit www.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile. Additional information about the service will be available next month.

Visit www.verizonwireless.com for more information about Verizon Wireless or follow the company at http://twitter.com/verizonwireless. Learn more and download Skype at www.skype.com or follow the company at http://twitter.com/skypemobile.

[Verizon Wireless]

While the piano is pretty straightforward as far as instruments go, it won’t teach you how to read music. The Noteput makes written music tangible, as you just place the note you want to play.

The Noteput powers on automatically when you place the treble clef on the table (sorry bass clef fans), and simple playback controls allow you to hear your creation once or loop it for a better understanding of the measure. Instead of touch-sensitive controls, the Noteput employs simple camera-based marker tracking, which identifies each wooden note as well as its position on the staff.

Yeah, it’s nothing that can’t be done more space efficiently with any PC midi software, but using a mouse is so much less fun than playing with toys. [Noteput via Likecool]

If viruses evolved as quickly as USB hard drive docks, mankind would be but a rotted pile of bones littered with the occasional bottle of green NyQuil.

The $80 Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Duo is a watershed in 2.5-inch/3.5-inch SATA to USB hard drive dock design as it transcends the accomplishments of yore with the incorporation of USB 3.0.

Some see USB 3.0 as merely a means to increase speed. The 2.5-inch/3.5-inch SATA to USB hard drive dock aficionado knows better. He knows that the construct of “speed” is but a means to quantify the flow of truth.

With USB 3.0, the 2.5-inch/3.5-inch SATA to USB hard drive dock has never been closer to enlightenment, nor have you. Remember this day; your grandchildren will thank you. [Sharkoon]

Bunnie Huang, one of the minds behind the famous Chumby, encountered a strange production problem when building Chumby Ones with Kingston microSD cards—namely, some microSDs appeared to be dysfunctional counterfeits. The catch? They were bought directly from Kingston.

Huang’s observations took him down a rabbit hole of microSD manufacturing, a fairly epic quest to discover the truth about Kingston’s manufacturing process that, while never conclusive, had some interesting findings:

• Shopping around for Kingston cards from street vendors in China, some were obviously real and others were obvious fakes. But there were definite “irregular” gray area models—like those that caused low yields in Chumby production—that have questionable build quality likely due to Kingston enlisting the work of crumby production partners.

• Kingston appears to buy all the actual flash storage chips inside their microSD cards from Sandisk/Toshiba, yet they often still manage to undercut the microSD prices of manufacturers like Sandisk and Samsung. Of course, Kingston needs to make up the money somewhere, and the controller chip is the only other place that’s possible. So Kingston may be stretching their thresholds of controller chip quality to make profitability possible—at minimum, the impetus is certainly there.

Of course, even if Kingston is padding supply chains with low-grade cards, I’m guessing such is more a worry for manufacturers (and purchasers of said manufacturers’ products) than the random guy at Best Buy picking up a new microSD card, as Kingston probably champions the transparency of America’s retail markets over the murky backwaters of Chinese industry. Probably. [Bunnie Studios via boingboing]

You think that your MacBook embodies the essence of simplicity because of it was painstakingly machined from a single slab of aluminum? Well, the Brick Lamp by HC Wang is pretty much just that slab of aluminum.

The Brick Lamp’s controls couldn’t be simpler. You want light? Place the lamp on one of its edges. You want dark? Place the lamp on its back.

Of course, while HC Wang may be on to something here, I’m pretty sure that I can take the design to the next level. How?

I’m going to remove the light. [HCWang via mocoloco via OhGizmo!]

Adding a USB hard drive to your PS3 or Xbox 360 isn’t as simple as plugging it in (and on the 360 especially, it’s pretty much a hack). But Datel’s new Space Docks make the process simple.

Their Space Dock, available in PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, accepts 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA HDDs (up to 1TB) just like cartridges before what we can only assume is an automatic formatting and file install process that allows stock drives to be instantly compatible.

Once installed, the drive mounts in your system to backup saved games (a feature that looks exclusive to PS3 version), play movies, etc, plus you can always plug the drive back into your PC to transfer more files since the formatting structure is really just FAT32.

$40, available soon and kind of neat. (Datel is free to use that catchy sales pitch, if they’d like.) [Datel via Maxconsole]

For this week’s Shooting Challenge, we asked you to abuse the principles of perspective to confound our sense of scale. The results are as charming as they are clever…or someone took out a second mortgage on that giant Aibo.

Second Runner Up

Taken with my Sony a350 Sony DT18-70 lens @ 20mm; f/9; 1/160sec; ISO100. Picture of Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood, California. Took the picture w/ my friend Rafael Ortega he held the cup as I pretended to dunk the donut. Rafael bought coffee from Randy’s ,but the cup was too blank so after a couple of takes he decided to draw “Coffee” on it.
– Luis Marroquin

First Runner Up

I was aware of this optical phenomenon, but never really thought of it in relation to photography. Without an assistant to call for, I had to trust my remote once more. So here’s me (duck) peeking out of a cup, and a towering 70-200mmL (f/4 non-IS) lens with another duck on top.
Gear used: Canon EOS 450D, Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM, Manfrotto 190XproB tripod RC-1 IR remote. f/22 (max), 1/10s, ISO 200.
– Staff Anthomen

Winner

Meet my dog Arti(ficial). He likes humans (bones), pissing on big trees and having sex with trucks. He reads Gizmodo all day and tried to escape from me two times to become Rosa´s new pet. Too bad his battery drains and needs his own nuclear plant…
Canon Eos 500D / Canon 18-55mm lens @ 28. 1/50 sec. / F 25 / Iso 1600 / Monochrome.
Lightroom for brightness adjustment / Photoshop for crop.
– Bobo the Teddy

Thanks for all of the entries. And as usual, here’s the full gallery of participants:

This unofficial Yamaha concept hopes to save room on the roads by fitting you inside a wheel. While the tail fin offers a touch of classic style, we have no clue how one sees the road ahead. [Tuvie via DVICE]