Damian Dinning on Nokia N8 video plus 35 camera samples

Nokia released a huge collection of Nokia N8 camera samples - 35 untouched images of various subjects and shot in various conditions. Also, the second part of Damian Dinning's talk about the camera has been released - this one covers the video capturing prowess of the Nokia N8.

Yesterday Damian Dinning detailed at length how he and his team have tuned the camera and offered a single sample. Today's drop however is massive - 35 photos taken straight out of the Nokia N8.

Here are a few photos, you can find the rest at the bottom of this page. Note that some have been shot in full 12MP resolution, while others were taken in 16:9 ratio (9MP)

As promised, Damian Dinning also talked about video capture on the Nokia N8 today. The 720p videos are recorded at up to 12mbps bitrate using the H.264 codec while the audio is captured at 48kHz in 128kbps AAC format.

The video uses a process of pixel binning (so one pixel in the video uses the combined information from several detectors from the image sensor), which "in reasonable lightning conditions" results in no noise at all. This allowed the R&D team to switch off the noise removing algorithms in daylight altogether and preserve as much detail in the video frames as possible.

But the still image resolution of the Nokia N8 image sensor is 4000x3000 pixels, while HD video is just 1280x720 pixels in resolution. This sizable difference leaves plenty of headroom for the pixel binning process and enables another cool feature - video zoom.

Sure, it's digital zoom rather than optical - however the pixel binning process allows for zooming without interpolation, preserving detail and sharpness almost intact between 1x and 2x zoom and all the way to 2.5x. This lead to the decision to limit digital zoom at 3x where the image quality already starts degrading. Damian Dinning says that the digital zoom on the Nokia N8 is as good as optical zoom - check out the crops below to see for yourselves.

Dining notes that the video source of these crops was captured with pre-production software and there have been even further improvements made to the camcorder software since then.

Unfortunately, there's no video sample, just the crops. We've seen a video sample from the Nokia N8 before though and we were quite impressed (and we imagine things have improved since then).

Finally, Dinning goes on to discuss the Active Hyper-focal Distance feature of the Nokia N8. The N8 team decided on a different approach than the traditional auto-focus methods used for video by today's camera phones.

It keeps objects located between 60cm and infinity sharply focused. This limits how close objects can be to the Nokia N8 when you shoot them, but this approach has the advantage of never letting all other subject get out of focus and trying (and possible failing) to regain focus.

Nokia's audio engineers also had a role to play in the camera tuning - make the audio captured along with the videos as good as possible. They use the two microphones (one on the front and one on the back) of the Nokia N8, to make it a suitable camcorder for all situations.

They've implemented new algorithms that can handle anything from quiet sounds to very loud ones. The front facing microphone (on the display side) is very good at capturing speech, which is vital for videos where you narrate as you shoot. Another set of algorithms works to reduce wind noise, further improving the audio quality.

Here are the rest of the camera samples from the Nokia N8. If we could only get some videos as well. Enjoy!

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Note: If you have any question about Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS or Apple iPhone 4 repair, unlock, jailbreak or broken screen replacement, feel free to get in touch with Abby Technology Limited.

We specialise in the mobile phone repair, Nokia Unlock, Nokia Repair, software upgrade, iOS, UK cell phone network unlocking and Apple iPhone repair in North Shore, Auckland; Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, New Zealand.

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This post is sponsored by:

Abby Technology Limited

Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand

Mobile: +64212640000, abbytechnology[a]gmail.com

Unlock iPhone 3.1.3 3G 3GS with blacksn0w (jailbreak, "David Lim", Auckland)

Sn0wbreeze 3.1.3 is now available for download which can jailbreak iPhone 2G, 3G and iPhone 3GS (old bootrom only) on iPhone OS 3.1.3. We have already published a detailed guide on how to jailbreak using Sn0wbreeze and unlock using ultrasn0w. Ultrasn0w unlock is for iPhones with baseband 04.26.08 baseband. If you are on 05.11.07 baseband, then you may use Geohot’s blacksn0w unlock which was released last year with blackra1n.
Follow the simple step by step guide below to unlock your iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (old bootrom only) on iPhone OS 3.1.3 using blacksn0w. iPhone 2G users should follow the guide posted here (Mac version of the guide here).
How to: Jailbreak iPhone on 3.1.3:
Step 1: Follow the guide posted here to jailbreak your iPhone 3G or 3GS using Sn0wbreeze 3.1.3 on iPhone firmware 3.1.3.
How to: Unlock iPhone 3G/3G (old bootrom) on 3.1.3:
Step 2: Once you are done with the jailbreak, you can now unlock your iPhone running jailbroken firmware 3.1.3 by using blacksn0w from Cydia. To do this:

• 
  Start “Cydia” on your iPhone.
  
• 
  Touch on “Manage” tab on the bottom.
  
• 
  Now touch on “Sources” as seen in the screenshot below:
  

• Touch on “Edit” and then on “Add”. You will be prompted to enter a url source as seen in the screenshot below. Type “http://blackra1n.com” and touch on “Add Source”.

Cydia will now automatically update your sources by following a series of automated steps.

• After installation is completed. Search for “blacksn0w” in Cydia and install this application. This app will automatically unlock your iPhone so that you can use it with any carrier.

Step 3: Now simply restart your iPhone. Voila! You are now running a fully unlocked and jailbroken iPhone on firmware 3.1.3 on your iPhone 3G or 3GS.

UPDATE 1: A working exploit for iPhone 3.1.3 05.12.01 Baseband has been found. Moreinfo here.  Text-ads on your Blog with BidVertiser.

Note: If you have any question about Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS or Apple iPhone 4 repair, unlock, jailbreak or broken screen replacement, feel free to get in touch with Abby Technology Limited.

We specialise in the mobile phone repair, UK cell phone network unlocking and Apple iPhone repair in North Shore, Auckland; Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, New Zealand.

__________________

This post is sponsored by:

Abby Technology Limited

Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand

Mobile: +64212640000, abbytechnology[a]gmail.com

The History Of Jailbreak And Unlock. Who Will Be The First To Unlock iPhone 4?

When the original iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, the cat-and-mouse game between hackers and Apple had begun. Before the highly-anticipated launch, Apple had already announced on June 11 that year, that the iPhone will support only web-based applications, coupled with the fact that it will remain tethered exclusively to the AT&T network. These announcements were received with much resentment by the excited user community, since that meant slaughtering the true potential of Apple’s wonder-child. And hence the game started.

Editor’s Note: If you are looking for jailbreaking and unlocking guides, scroll to the bottom of this page. We will keep updating this page when new tools and methods for unlocking and jailbreaking iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are released.

Just four days after the launch of the iPhone 2G, on July 3, 2007, DVD Jon bypassed the official activation procedure (through iTunes) and made the instructions publically available via the internet. Following suit, on July 10, the much-revered iPhone Dev-Team developed a partial unlock for the iPhone, allowing use of non-iPhone AT&T SIM cards with the device. Things began progressing.

On July 30, 2007, the first ever native, third party app was born; MobileTerminal, a terminal emulator application for the iPhone, had said hello to the world.

The month of August that year saw a rapid increase in hacking attempts, with British hackers especially keen on making the device work with non-AT&T SIMs, but the true breakthrough came on Aug. 24, when George Hotz (geohot) developed the first complete, hardware-based hack and unlock for his iPhone, and documented the procedure on his blog. This process got translated to many software-based unlocks, and we saw solutions like iPhoneSimFree, iUnlock, and AnySim (GUI based) surfacing rapidly, some free, some paid. Hackers eventually released a permanent jailbreaking tool for iPhone OS 1.0

With the release of firmware 1.1.1, Apple rendered many jailbroken devices useless. The iPod Touch 1st generation had also been released, and since it used the same firmware as the iPhone, it, too, was jailbroken using the same techniques.

On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G with firmware 2.0. July 20, 2008, the infamous Dev-Team released the great Pwnage tool (Mac only), offering the jailbreak in a GUI. The hacking game continued with iPod Touch 2G, and March 11, 2009 saw the release of redsn0w 0.1 (welcome Windows) from the Dev-Team, offering tethered jailbreak for iPod Touch 2G as well.

What had now begun was a chase for loopholes in Apple’s OS between the jailbreakers and Apple’s greatest minds. Hackers found and exploited loops, and Apple covered them up in their next OS release. In March 2009, Apple announced OS 3.0 for iPhones and iPod Touches, and three months later the Dev-Team released PwnageTool 3.0 and redsn0w 0.7.2, allowing jailbreak of both iPhone 2G and 3G, as well as iPod Touch running the new OS.

June through September 2009, Apple released not only the iPhone 3GS, but also the iPod Touch 3G and 2G MC models. The era also saw the OS going to version 3.1 (for which Dev-Team came up with Pwnage 3.1.3) and then to 3.1.2, for which the Dev-Team had no solution, and jailbreak community was left in the dark. All in all, it was ‘just another brick in the wall.’

On October 11, 2009, geohot again surfaced, ‘making it rain’ with his blackra1n tool, allowing jailbreak of all iPhones and iPod Touches upto 3GS and 3G, respectively, running firmware 3.1.2, although 3GS and iTouch 3G were tethered. Nov. 2, geohot updated blackra1n to RC3, adding the ability to tethered jailbreak iPod Touch 3G 8GB model, one that was using the latest bootrom. Hotz also released blacksn0w unlock for iPhone 3G and 3GS, capable of handling baseband 5.11.07.

At this point, it was expected that Apple would not release any new firmware update until the iPhone 4G, running OS 4.0, or maybe a new OS 3.2 would surface, at maximum. However, Feb. 2, 2010, out of the blue came firmware 3.1.3 upgrade, which not only closed the loophole used by blackra1n or redsn0w, but also upgraded the baseband to 05.12.01, which was unlockable by any means. Much speculation says that this release was intended only to force the jailbreak community to expose further known flaws in the OS, so that they can be patched before 4.0. However, if that was Apple’s intention, they failed miserably, since all the main players in jailbreak community refused to release any tool for this useless upgrade, and advised users to stick with 3.1.2.

Following is a chart from Wikipedia showing how hacks and new devices went head to head.

Good signs began showing just one week after this release, when @sherif_hashem found the first hole in the new baseband, which he handed over to the dev-team. Shortly after, @geohot and @musclenerd too, claimed to have found two working loopholes. However, no release was announced to make sure Apple doesn’t get what it aimed for with this 3.1.3 OS. Dev-Team tweaked the pwnage tool and redsn0w to make them capable of jailbreaking iPhone and iPod Touch on 3.1.3, but 3GS and 3G Touch were still left without solutions. A new player also entered the jailbreak game, iH8sn0w, with his sn0wbreeze tool, which allowed iPhone (all) and iPod Touch (1G and 2G only) to be jailbroken with 3.1.3, but with older bootroms only. 3GS was still tethered.

In the current scenario, situations have changed from what they were when the original iPhone was first launched. The world saw the first hack coming right after four days of launch, and it was at the time when the understanding of the OS was not very thorough. Today, not only does the hacking community better understand this Apple’s marvel of engineering, but also has three working loopholes already in their pocket. The number of players have also increased; Dev-Team, GeoHot, iH8sn0w are among the key players. Then there is the Chronic Dev Team, who are reportedly working on a new jailbreak tool, Greenpois0n, which is being held back only to see the release of iPhone 4G and the new OS 4.0, and utilize the flaw in Apple’s software for this major release.

Looming ahead is the anticipated launch of iPad, for which it has already been announced by Apple that it will not allow being tethered. Hence, jailbreaking the iPad has already become a priority for hackers.

The question now stands at this: what will Apple do? Will there be an OS 3.2 release? Will they directly go for iPhone and iPod Touch 4G, with OS 4.0? And when? How will the jailbreakers tackle this? Will they release a jailbreak/unlock if Apple goes for iPhone OS 3.2, or will they sit this one out as well? And more importantly, who will be the first to release the jailbreak/unlock for both iPhone 4G and iPad? Will it be the Dev-Team? GeoHot? iH8sn0w? Chronic Dev Team? Or some new player? Only time will tell.

Stay with us as we continue to explore new developments on this front. Our updates will continue to follow.

Update: The iPhone OS 4.0 beta has been jailbroken. We will keep you updated when it is released.

Update 2: Jailbreak for iPhone 3G OS 4.0 (beta 1) is out for developers. At this moment it is Mac only. Grab it here.

Update 3: The iDevices operating system will now be called iOS 4 and the devices will be named as iOS Devices. Follow the latest updates here.

Update 4: If you are looking to Unlock iPhone after upgrading to iOS 4, have patience. We will update this page as soon as it is out. Also note that iOS 4 only connects with iTunes 8.2.

Update 5: Jailbreak for iPhone 3G running iOS 4 GM is out, check the full step-by-step guide here.

Update 6: Unlock for both iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 is out. Check out the full-step-by-step guide here.

Update 7: Redsn0w 0.9.5 has been released for Windows. Read the step-by-step guide for jailbreaking here and here.

Update 8: The unlock for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 on all basebands, including 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, and 05.13.04 is out. Check out the guide here.

Update 9: Find out if your iPhone 3GS has a new bootrom or old bootrom with this simple tool iDetector.

Update 10: Looking to downgrade your iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS? Follow this guide.

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Two solutions to Unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs/3.1.3 from the most popular hackers (tech, news, help, tips, info, Auckland, "iPhone Repair")

WARNING: The following information is for research purpose only, do not attempt to hack your iPhone or unlock it. You are soley responsible for your owne account. The author of this blog will not be liable for any damages or permanent faults as a result of reading this post. You are welcome to email or text me at +64211172222, about mobile phone repair, iPhone unlock at commercial level--nothing is free in this world ;-)
Unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs/3.1.3 topic has always been discussed everyday online. The reason everyone wants to unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs/3.1.3 is that iPhone can be even useful if you can install any applications you want. Also, if you unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs/3.1.3 you will be able to upgrade your device each time, without losing the previous unlock or jailbreak.
The first one to unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs with firmware 3.1.3 was George Hotz, the same who had made the same operations on the iPhone in 2007, which preceded the now legendary Dev Team.

Bellow we will offer you to safe solutions to unlock iPhone 3G/3Gs/3.1.3, one from Geohot and one from Dev Team. All the necessary software’s can be found on our website.

Let go first step by step, with Geohot procedure proposed, which consists of only 7 stages:

Step 1: Download purplera1n for Windows, and make sure you have installed iTunes 8.2.

Step 2: Run the purplera1n if you’re on Vista, make sure you run it with “Windows XP Compatibility” turned on, from “Properties” tab.

Step 3: Make sure that iTunes 8.2 is running.

Step 4: Click “make ra1n”

Step 5: Let the application do its job, waiting for the automatic restart apparatus;

Step 6: You should now have “Freeze” in the list of applications. Run “Freeze”, Cydia and download the applications.

Step 7: Reboot your iPhone 3G. Voila! You should now be fully unlocked and correctly executed jailbreak’s iPhone 3G, to use applications not available in the App Store, bypassing the distribution mechanism of Apple.

The DevTeam is very brisk and this is the note that accompanies the new ultrasn0w for the release of iPhone 3.1.3 3G:

1. Ensure You Have upgraded to iPhone OS 3.1.3
2. Jailbreak your iPhone 3G using redsn0w or PwnageTool (Also this will install Cydia / Icy)
3. Run Cydia or Icy
4. Please add the repo to cydia or icy repo666.ultrasn0w.com
5. Search for ‘ultrasn0w’ in icy or cydia and install ultrasn0w
6. Reboot your iPhone 3G
7. T-Mobile USA 3G users should disable before using ultrasn0w
8. Enjoy

Summary everything in a nutshell, after applying the jailbreak with the new redsn0w ultrasn0w you can install from Cydia repo indicated. A quick reboot and a “3G iPhone External 3.1.3 will be able to work with any sim card.

I remember that all this procedure is intended for holders of “old” iPhone 3G and the latest 3G iPhone. Having just come out, I invite interested parties to ultrasn0w to wait another few days to read the feedback from early adopters. http://alturl.com/hhga

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