Nikon brings Wi-Fi and improvements to D5300 DSLR, plus pricey 58mm pro-level prime lens

There are several noteworthy improvements in Nikon's new Nikon D5300 Cheap APS-C (DX) DSLR from its predecessor, the D5200. One of Nikon's best-selling and most popular models, the midrange 24.1-megapixel D5300's smaller and lighter body has improved ergonomics - there's more surface area on the grip for a tighter hold and more clearance between your fingers and the lens. Despite the body being smaller, the vari-angle flip-out LCD got bigger (3.2 inches from 3 inches in the D5200). With the Expeed 4 image processor the ISO range has increased (100-12,800). But the big addition is that Wi-Fi is now built into the camera ­- a first for Nikon DSLRs.

Another big change, Nikon has removed the optical low pass (anti-aliasing) filter from the 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, to improve the image quality of stills and videos - a trend that's happening with many new cameras. The D5300 has the same 39-point autofocus system and 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting as the D5200. There's also Nikon's Scene Reconigtion System that uses the 2,016-pixel RGB metering system to automatically select exposure, AF, and white balance based on the scene conditions.

Wi-Fi has been available in Nikon cameras via an optional adapter, but the D5300 will be the first to have it built in. It's also the first Nikon DSLR to have onboard GPS, which lets you geotag your images before you upload or e-mail them from the camera via a connected smartphone or tablet. You can also use a connected smart device as an external monitor for remote shooting.

For video capture, Nikon has added Full HD 1080p at 60p. There are nine special effects you can use to edit in-camera, including a "HDR painting" feature that lets you alter the colors of an image to make it look as if it was shot as a high-dynamic range photo.

The D5300 is on sale now for $1,400, which comes with the AF-S Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit lens; if you're stepping up and you already have a set of Nikkor DX lenses, you can pick up just the body for $800. The camera comes in three colors: black, red, and a new gray option.

AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G lens

In addition to the D5300, Nikon has also announced a new pro-level prime lens, the AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G. Carrying the legacy of popular Noct Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 lens, this fixed 58mm focal length (35mm/FX equivalent; 87mm DX/cropped format) is ideal for shooting portraits, landscapes, and street photography, Nikon says, but it's all about achieving bokeh - that artistic background blurring - with the nine-blade diaphragm. Made for low-light capture, the lens has Nikon's Nano Crystal coating to avoid ghosting and flare. The Silent Wave Motor operates quietly when autofocusing, which is key for recording video.

This premium lens will go on sale later this month for $1,700.

Source: Digitaltrends

Meet the 63-year-old rapping grandmother who makes YouTube videos

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Marianne Brown has been making YouTube videos since April - all just to make her grandson laugh

Her latest video raps about growing old and having fun

She has made 45 videos in all

By Ryan Gorman

PUBLISHED: 09:25 EST, 21 October 2013 | UPDATED: 12:39 EST, 21 October 2013

A rapping granny is dispensing advice and creating laughs as she entertains her grandson.

Marianne Brown, 63, of Michigan, often takes to YouTube to entertain her grandson, but her latest video is turning more heads than usual.

Ms Brown curses, raps about elves and bowel movements - but told the Daily Dot her diatribes have a purpose.

'There's a method to my madness,' she explained. 'I want him to grow up and be a grandfather who also has fun with his grandchildren.'

Ms Brown's first foray into hip hop starts off with a bang.

'You think you all know it, but you need to find - being a grandma will blow your f*****g mind,' she rhymes.

The rapping retiree has been making the videos since April because she misses her grandson two hours away in Chicago.

'He likes me, and I like him,' said the kooky granny.

WATCH MORE OF MRS BROWN'S VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.

On menopause: She wears a beard and says it's worse than a period

Not afraid to share the perils of growing old, Ms Brown then hits upon her physical appearance.

'It explains itself, you just need to start to shrink and resemble an elf,' she raps, adding 'you fall on your ass, and if you're very lucky, you pass a lot of gas.'

She even throws in a line about bowel movements before tackling her teeth and hair.

'Did your hair turn gray, did your teeth fall out? My momma didn't tell me, but that's what it's all about.' Ms Brown says she competed in the 1969 Miss America pageant, a claim MailOnline was unable to verify.

A message left with the Miss America Organization for comment has not yet been returned.

'It tickles me when I see women with duck lips and big cleavage,' she told the Daily Dot.

'That's not going to last,' she added, 'I was in the Miss America pageant in 1969. I was a little hottie.'
'You can fight it, you can tight it 'till you taught, but that southerly direction cannot be caught,' she espouses in the video.

'Your only hope my sister, is maybe you are black, and every cracker knows that black don't crack,' she continues.

Young at heart, Ms Brown told the Daily Dot of the fun she has with her grandson.

'We're pretty much the same mindset,' Brown explained. 'His parents are in their 30s, and they're very serious; they're parents.'

'He and I totally trash his room,' she continued. 'We totally trash it. And then they come in and see us, and I look like a really bad kid sitting there, and then I walk away.'

They tell me not to give him more than one cookie, and when they leave, I give him like 10,' she said.

She told the site that she makes the video to prove that being old isn't the end of the world.

Some of her other YouTube moments include 'A Little Message from the Tooth Fairy,' 'Menopause,' Turning S**t Into a Divine Gift' and 'How to Apply Makeup on the Elderly 101.'

'You can actually have fun and make videos,' she said. 'You can jump out of airplanes. You can do whatever you want.'

And she's doing just that.

Source: Dailymail

Homemade for Halloween

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From left, Miranda Giambi, 11, of Chevy Chase, Mary Rose Bell, 12, of Alexandria, and Priya Phillips, 11, of Bowie
Inspiration: They decided to make the costumes because they all love Starbucks and could represent different sizes -- venti, grande and tall. They also represented all of their favorite drinks.
Supplies: Felt, iro-ons for logos.
Grown-up help: Mary Rose's dad helped measure, which was tricky because the cups get smaller toward the bottom.

Family photo

Source: Washingtonpost

Mukwonago area hosts Halloween fun

Whether you like your Halloween with a little spook, a lot of candy or some beautiful fall colors Mukwonago has a host of events coming up to ensure even the oldest ghosts and goblins have a great time.

Jack-o-Lantern Jaunt and Halloween Haunt

In it's 11th year the Jack-O-Lantern Jaunt has once again teamed up with the Mukwonago Rotary Club's Halloween Haunt to create and evening of spooktacular family fun halloween. Hundreds of pumpkins like the way in Mukwonago's Field Park as residents drive through from 6-6:45 or walk through from 7-10 p.m. on Oct. 18 and 19. Make your way through the spooky pavilion, play games and enjoy refreshments. At 8 p.m. the move "The Giant Spider" will also play in the park. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for kids 12 and under and all of the money goes to support community iniatives.

If your family or business is interested in placing a pumpkin in the park just drop off your carved pumpkin off at Field Park on Friday Oct. 18 from 1-5 p.m.

Eagle Business Association Pumpkin Party

The 6th Annual Eagle Community Pumpkin Party will be held on Oct. 26 from 12-4 p.m. in and around the Village of Eagle. Register at the Gazebo to get a $1 wristband and a bag of goodies. Events include cookie decorating, caramel apple decorating, a color contest, the big slide story time, a monster mall, story time, a pet costume contest, crafts, balloon clown, face painting, pumpkin painting, the Palmyra Eagle Community Band, and concessions. The Grand Finale Pumpkin Drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. The Eagle Fire Department will host a pancake breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon. Participants are also asked to help Can the Casket by bringing a canned good or non-perishable food item for the Eagle Food Pantry.

Elegant Farmer's Autumn Harvest Festival

When you're continuing a family tradition or starting a new on, The Elegant farmer offers a family fun apple and pumpkin picking experience each weekend until Oct. 26. The family-friendly 5-acre corn maze, hayrides, pony rides and a train ride will round out the day while observing the beautiful and quickly changing fall colors. For more information about the Autumn Harvest Festival visit elegantfarmer.com

Old World Wisconsin's Halloween Legends and Lore

Find your way through mazes, flee ghosts, solve strange riddles, create artifacts and encounter cackling witches, gloomy grave diggers and strange beasts. Enjoy tasty treats and drinks and wrap up the night with the bonfire finale. Oct 18-19 and 25-26 from 4:30-8:30 p.m.

Old World Wisconsin's Halloween Dinner Theatre Wake Not the Dead

Enjoy a themed harvest meal followed by a lam-lit stroll to a live drama that will thrill and chill you. One weekend left, Oct. 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 20 at 5 and 8 p.m.

Fore more information on either of these events visit oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org

East Troy's Tracks and Treats

The East Troy Electric Railroad will host Tracks & Treats during Halloween weekend. Children who arrive in Halloween costumes can ride the rails for free with an adult admission and all ghoulish boys and girls will receive trees from their haunted hosts. The event takes place Saturday Nov. 2 and Sunday Nov. 3. The normal fall schedule will be in-place offering hourly departures from the eerie East Troy depot beginning at 11 a.m. and with the last train leaving at 3 p.m. The railroad operates a 10-miles round trip from its historic depot and museum to the Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago.

Source: Livinglakecountry

Man sets himself on fire on the National Mall

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WASHINGTON — A man set himself afire on the National Mall in the nation's capital as passers-by rushed over to help douse the flames, officials and witnesses said Friday afternoon.

The reason for the self-immolation was not immediately clear and the man's identity was not disclosed. But it occurred in public view, on a central national gathering place, in a city still rattled by a mass shooting last month and a high-speed car chase outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday that ended with a woman being shot dead by police.

The man on the Mall suffered life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to a hospital, said District of Columbia fire department spokesman Tim Wilson.

He was standing by himself in the center portion of the Mall when he emptied the contents of a red gasoline can on himself and set himself on fire moments later, said Katy Scheflen, who witnessed it as she walked across the area. Police say they responded around 4:20 p.m. Friday.

Scheflen said passing joggers took off their shirts in an effort to help douse the flames, and the man was clearly alive as the fire spread. A police department spokesman said he was conscious and breathing at the scene. MedStar Washington Hospital Center tweeted that the man was taken there and he was in critical condition.

"There was not a lot people could do because it was a gasoline fire," Scheflen said.

She said he may have said something before he acted "but it was nothing intelligible." She said she did not see him holding any signs before he set himself ablaze. She said there was another man with a tripod set up near him, but it's unclear if the man was filming the incident.

Lt. Pamela Smith of the U.S. Park Police, which is investigating along with the D.C. police department, said: "I'm not aware of any signage or any articulation of any causes."

The D.C. police department has dispatched its violent crimes branch, which responds to cases in which a person suffers serious injury.

Source: Telegram

Apple's iPhone 5S sensors are massively screwed up (and so are the games that rely on them)

Apple appears to have a serious hardware problem on its hands as the internal sensors of its new flagship phone, the iPhone 5s iphone cases otterbox pink for ipad, are not reporting accurate numbers.

Numerous reports on Apple support communities indicate that people believe the sensors that report level, motion, and acceleration seem to be reporting incorrect information. And a detailed Gizmodo test indicates that indeed, they are "all screwed up."

"My iPhone 5S is off by 4 degrees when using the level on its back (screen up). I had an iPhone 4 and 4s that I upgraded to iOS 7 and both were perfect, but the 5S is off," an iPhone 5S owner reported in Apple's support forums. "Holding it vertically it is also off by 1 or 2 degrees."

I tested the iPhone 5S myself and found that the iHandy Level app indicates that a surface is level when the phone is clearly at an angle, and the Gyroscope app reports pitch and roll numbers that indicate the phone is on a slope when actually, it's on a flat and level table. My older iPhone 5, other the other hand, reports numbers that are much more accurate. Both phones are running Apple's latest version of iOS 7.

Here's just one example, in which the iPhone 5S reports 2.3 degrees differently than the iPhone 5:

This has real-world implications, as Gizmodo points out, and it's not just that your shelves or paintings will hang crooked (of course, I'd never use an iPhone sensor to hang a painting or install furniture). Games also rely on those sensors, and players who want to beat the game or beat their friends may run into trouble - like I did in Real Racing 3.

As you can see, when the phone is flat on the table, the car turns left and hits the bumper. Clearly, the sensor is telling the game that the gamer is trying to turn left:

Not all the sensors are reporting bad data - at least not on my phones. The same iHandy Level app that reports incorrect numbers for level on the iPhone 5S, reports almost identical numbers to the iPhone 5 version for plumb (straight up and down):

The internal gyroscope, however, that measures pitch and roll and yaw appears to be also affected by whatever gremlin is troubling the new iPhone 5S. As you can see in the image below, the white iPhone 5 on the right reports zero degrees of roll and -1 degree of pitch. The space gray iPhone 5S in the red case on the left reports one degree of roll and 3 degrees of pitch - 4 degrees off.

(The yaw numbers aren't relevant here, as they relate to the individual motions of the phones prior to being placed on the table, and not to their current orientation.)

While perhaps not quite as severe, there's still a slight and unexplainable difference. The question is what could be causing this. It's unlikely that software is the issue here, as I'm running iOS 7 on both phones and the same apps. There would appear to be a hardware issue at fault, which is a big problem for Apple.

Because, after all, how do you fix shipped hardware?

Essentially, you can't, unless you recall it or issue a software fix that sort of kind of somewhat corrects for the bad data - assuming Apple engineers can spot a pattern in reported sensor data that can be adjusted for. Which leaves equally unattractive options such as Apple just telling people to live it it (and hurting its premium image in the process) or issuing some kind of credit to affected customers.

I have asked Apple for a comment and will update this story when I hear more.

Source: VentureBeat

Apple's iPhone 5S sensors are massively screwed up (and so are the games that rely on them)

Apple appears to have a serious hardware problem on its hands as the internet sensors of its new flagship phone, the iPhone 5s iphone i phone cases otterbox iphone 4, are not reporting accurate numbers.

Numerous reports on Apple support communities indicate that people believe the sensors the report level, motion, and acceleration seem to be reporting incorrect information. And a detailed Gizmodo test indicates that indeed, they are "all screwed up." I tested the iPhone 5S myself and found that the iHandy Level app indicates plumb (straight up and down) when the phone is clearly at an angle, and the Gyroscope app reports pitch and roll numbers that indicate the phone is on a slope when actually, it's on a flat and level table.

My iPhone 5, other the other hand, reports numbers that are much more accurate.

Here's just one example:

This has real-world implications, as Gizmodo points out, and it's not just that your shelves or paintings will hand crooked (of course, I'd never use an iPhone sensor to hang a painting or install furniture). Games also rely on those sensors, and gamers who want to beat the game or beat their friends may run into trouble - like I did in Real Racing 3.

As you can see, when the phone is flat on the table, the car turns left and hits the bumper:

I have asked Apple for a comment, and will update this story when I hear more.

Source: VentureBeat