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Posts Tagged ‘Million’

Shutterfly reveals plans to buy Lifetouch for $825 million

01 Feb

Shutterfly—the massive online retailer of personalized photo-based products such as calendars and photo books—has announced plans to acquire Lifetouch, a professional photography company. The acquisition, which isn’t yet finalized, will cost Shutterfly $ 825 million according to Star Tribune, who broke the news.

Speaking about the business deal to Star Tribune, Lifetouch CEO Michael Meek revealed that the company’s growth hasn’t been sufficient enough to generate the cash needed for new tech investments, among other things. Shutterfly presents the solution, with its CEO Chris North explaining that the company will bring its products and cloud-based management system to Lifetouch.

“We’re focused on growing both these businesses,” North explained. “We’re just now bringing the two teams together.”

Of course, this isn’t a one-way deal—Lifetouch has a lot to offer Shutterfly, mainly the prospective business of its 10 million-or-so customers, many of whom may turn to Shutterfly post-acquisition for their photo product needs. “Lifetouch is [an] expert at photography and we provide online tools,” says North. “Each company will operate separately to serve their customers, but each company has things the other can use.”

Assuming everything goes according to plan, the companies anticipate the acquisition to close in the second quarter of this year.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Canon hit two milestones today: 90 million cameras and 130 million lenses

18 Oct

Canon has hit two couple major production milestones today. Specifically, Canon says it has now produced 130 million EF-series interchangeable lenses and 90 million EOS cameras. And in case you’re curious, the camera maker revealed that an EOS 5D Mark IV was its 90 millionth EOS camera to go through production, while the 130 millionth interchangeable lens distinction goes to an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM.

Both the EOS and EF series made their debut in March 1987, eventually picking up production speed in the early 2000s as DSLRs became more popular.

The company boasts a 14-year consecutive No. 1 share of the global interchangeable lens digital camera market, as well as the distinction of being first to bring certain features to the market with its EF lenses, including image stabilizer tech and an ultrasonic motor. Canon’s EOS Series also has some notable distinctions in its past, including being the first to offer an electronic lens mounting system and fully digitized communication between the lens and camera body.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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B&H Photo will pay $3.2 million to settle federal discrimination case

17 Aug

B&H Foto & Electronics Corp., the company behind retail site B&H Photo, has agreed to pay $ 3,220,000 to settle a federal discrimination case, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This follows a lawsuit filed by the Department of Labor against B&H Foto & Electronics Corp. in February 2016, in which the department alleged that B&H was engaging in discrimination against multiple groups, as well as harassment of workers.

According to the lawsuit filed by the DoL, B&H Foto ‘systematically discriminated’ against Asian, black, and female jobseekers, instead hiring only male Hispanic workers in its entry-level positions. The individuals it did hire were then paid much less than other employees in similar positions, according to the Department of Labor, and weren’t promoted into higher positions within the company.

The Labor Department’s lawsuit also claimed that B&H Foto subjected its hired workers to harassment on a routine basis, and that it gave them ‘unequal access to restroom facilities.’ Employees complained to the company about these problems, but the lawsuit states that B&H Foto failed to correct them. As a result, the company will pay $ 3.2 million as both monetary relief and back wages to more than 1,300 individuals.

In addition to paying the fee, B&H Foto has agreed to annually train its managers on workplace harassment prevention and equal opportunity principles, and to hire a consultant to fix the negative conduct and practices at its warehouses. Though the lawsuit concerns discriminatory practices at its Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse, the consultant will also work to ensure the problems don’t arise at B&H’s future Florence, New Jersey warehouse.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Behind the scenes: Shooting a $2.5 million car with a $50,000 camera

31 Jul

Photographer Richard Thompson recently had the chance to shoot one of the most advanced (and expensive) cars in the world with one of the most advanced (and expensive) camera systems in the world. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy salivating over both camera gear and gorgeous cars, there’s a behind the scenes video for us to enjoy.

The car in question is the Pagani Huayra BC, and the camera a Phase One XF 100MP medium format—an appropriately advanced camera system to capture such an advanced piece of automotive machinery.

The behind the scenes video was created by Phase One, which (of course) means that it feels a bit ad-like at several points. But Thompson throws in plenty of information about the photo shoot, why he captured the car the way he did, and showing off some of final images to make you salivate freely on your keyboard.

Check out the full BTS video above, and then click here to see the final composites on Thompson’s website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Zillow and VHT appeal $4 million copyright infringement ruling

21 Jul

Real estate listing firm Zillow Group and photography firm VHT have been locked in a huge copyright lawsuit over Zillow’s alleged infringement of thousands of VHT’s real estate images for years now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon.

VHT originally filed the suit against Zillow Group in 2015, alleging that tens of thousands of its images were used without permission on both the Zillow.com website and Zillow Digs. Though the claims regarding Zillow.com were dismissed last year, the legal matter has persisted over alleged infringement on Zillow Digs.

This past February, VHT was awarded $ 8.24 million in statutory damages and $ 79,875 in actual damages by a jury over copyrighted images that appeared without authorization on Zillow Digs. The matter took another turn last month, however, when a judge slashed that figure in half, citing lack of evidence to prove that most of the 28,000+ images were ever viewed by users.

Following that, both VHT and Zillow Group petitioned the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week in an effort to have the lower court’s ruling overturned. The case remains ongoing.

This isn’t the first legal row Zillow has been involved in over image copyright issues. The company was recently in the news over legal threats it issued against blogger Kate Wagner of ‘McMansion Hell’ over her use of photos reportedly sourced in part from Zillow’s website. It was soon revealed that Zillow did not own the copyrights to those images, but was instead attempting to enforce third-party contracts to which Wagner was not a party. The company publicly stated that it would not pursue legal actions against Wagner over what her attorneys called fair use of the images.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Researchers let AI loose on 100 million Instagram photos to study style

16 Jun

Cornell University researchers have found the mother lode of data to inform their studies about clothing trends around the world: Instagram. They’ve applied machine learning to a set of 100 million photos uploaded to the image sharing app, and while the results aren’t earth shattering (red hats are big at Christmas!) they’ve paved the way for the anthropologists of the future.

The photos come from 44 cities across the world. A machine learning algorithm was trained to identify faces and articles of clothing. After weeding out photos without faces or a visible torso, the algorithm went to work on 15 million images. While findings were a bit basic this time around, it represents a step toward mining a massive data set that may help anthropologists conduct broad studies of culture and fashion in a way that’s never been done before.

Read more about this research at MIT Technology Review.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Scan & Draw: Color-Mixing Pen Can Make 16 Million Hues & Shades

14 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

color scanning pen

A new pen aims to take art to the next level, letting users scan colors from their surroundings and deploy them, all via a single gadget. The Cronzy can be employed to scan plants, walls, cloth, and other surfaces; a connected app can then save, collect and use these colors on the go.

color draw pen

The scan-and-draw concept has been around for years, but getting this versatility and complexity into a single small and portable device has been a challenge. Some tools on the market can deploy present mixes and others can scan natural and built environments. This one taps your smartphone’s computing power to speed up and scanning and combines it with a cartridge-enabled drawing device.

The scanned colors, tints and shades are converted into CYMK (matching the swappable cartridges) or RGB formats so they can be deconstructed, remixed or adjusted according to an artist’s whim on a connected device. The gadgets comes with a portable case and charger and works with Android, IOS and Windows phones.

color draw app

Naturally, they can be shared with other users as well this way, allowing people to create and distribute custom palettes for further use. For now, the device is in crowdfunding, but its makers aim to have a consumer model on the market by early 2017. If the prototypes are any indicator, this could be the best one-stop digital-plus-physical drawing tool to date.

Chameleon Pen: Scan, Save & Draw Up to 16 Million Unique Hues

Five years ago it was an mind-boggling design concept, but today the idea color-changing pen has morphed into a working prototype that draws colors from objects and surfaces, natural or …

Virtual Heist: 2 Artists Secretly 3D-Scan an Ancient Artifact

An usually high-tech form of pseudo-theft, executed by a pair of artists, has resulted in a high-resolution scan of the famous Queen Nefertiti statue at the heart of a dispute between Germany …

Gravity: Augmented Reality Tablet Lets You Draw Ideas in 3D

Using a handheld stylus and tablet set combined with an existing augmented reality headset, this invention allows users to sketch in three dimensions and see the results of their work unfold in …

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Walk on Water: Christo Unfurls 1 Million Square Feet of Golden Cloth

20 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

christo island view

Known for his work on large-scale art projects, including the world’s biggest interior art installation, artist’s latest piece features over 1,000,000 square feet (100,000 square meters) of shimmering yellow fabric, wrapped around floating docks that span for miles up to and across Lake Iseo in Italy.

floating lake art

christo aerial view

Undulating with the waves, the Floating Piers project lets visitors walk between Sulzano, Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo; the floating platforms are visible from surrounding mountains as well.

christo golden path fabric

christo streets alleys

Christo conceived of the idea with his Jeanne-Claude as far back as the 1970s, exploring different potential venues for its installation. While Jeanne-Claude passed away in 2009, Christo has carried on the idea, and finally found a place for the temporary work in Northern Italy.

christo unveiling

christo day of

Many works by this long-standing pair of ambitious artists were self-funded, in part through the sales of concept drawings and models in advance.

christo floating path

christo close up

christo lake view

“like all of our projects,” says Christo, “The Floating Piers absolutely free and accessible 24 hours a day, weather permitting. There are no tickets, no openings, no reservations and no owners. The Floating Piers are an extension of the street and belong to everyone.” The project opened this weekend and will run for just 16 days. Images by Wolfgang Volz.

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture …
Walk on Water: 13 Interactive Aquatic Art Installations …
Floating Islands Add 100,000 Square Feet to Downtown Seoul …

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Ricoh puts up 5 million Yen in prizes for Theta developers competition

06 Apr

Ricoh has announced the opening of its latest competition aiming to attract app developers to create new applications for its Theta 360° camera. The company says it is looking for innovative and original apps and devices that are creative, have potential for the future and which have practical value to Theta users. The prize fund for the competition is five million Yen (about $ 45,000), with one million going to an overall winner who also gets a trip to Japan for the prize-giving ceremony. 

The winner of the 2015 competition was a team called ‘bitstars’, which developed the desktop application ‘holobuilder’ that allows 2D and 3D objects, animations and text to be added to Theta 360° virtual tours. The program also allows links to be added to the photospheres so viewers can travel from image to image as if from room to room in a building or navigate an area following directions added to the scene.  

For more information about the competition visit Ricoh’s Theta Developers Contest website. The closing date is 31st August 2016. 

Press release:

RICOH Announces the RICOH THETA Developers Contest

RICOH IMAGING EUROPE S.A.S is pleased to announce the second annual developers contest. The competition is looking for new apps and gadgets that utilise the RICOH THETA camera which takes 360-degree, fully spherical images or videos in one capture. Once registered applicants have until 31st August 2016 to submit their final app and gadget designs. 

Part of RICOH’s 80th anniversary celebrations this year, the contest challenges developers to create innovative apps and gadgets that work in conjunction with the RICOH THETA. Winners of the contest will receive a trip to Tokyo, Japan, for the awards ceremony and the first prize winner will be awarded a cash prize of one million Yen.

Applicants will also gain early access to an exciting new platform which has been optimised for cloud-based applications leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT). The new IoT platform makes it possible for developers to efficiently and cost-effectively build cloud-based apps, which typically require significant expertise in cloud services and servers and a longer development time. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Toshiba to sell sensor business to Sony for $165 million

26 Oct

Toshiba is finalizing plans to sell its image sensor business to Sony for an estimated $ 165 million (¥20 billion) in a bid to raise cash after a $ 1.3 billion accounting scandal. Toshiba has been unloading assets as part of its restructuring plan. Sony currently has 40% of the growing image sensor market, and is quadrupling spending to keep up with demand.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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