Items tagged with Webcam
If you have aspirations of making it big as a streamer, more power to you—it's certainly a fun way to make a living. Streaming can be expensive, though, presenting a challenge right off the bat. To help with that end of things, Razer on Thursday announced an expansion of its streaming hardware catalog to include a couple of entry-level additions, the Kiyo X webcam (top left) and Ripsaw X capture card (top right). In a note sent to us by Razer, the company said this effort is aimed at "lowering the barrier of entry for customers looking for premium feature sets." Neither device is the cheapest in its respective category (webcams and USB capture cards), but neither one will break the bank,...
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The humble webcam has seen a surge to prominence fueled by the rise of web conferencing and remote work, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a few short years ago, a webcam could be buried away below the display of a laptop and few users would complain or even notice. With those days behind us, consumers and professionals alike have been scrambling to improve their on-screen presence to the point of creating a shortage of the now critical device. That same demand has drawn more players into the discrete webcam space, including Dell. Dell's recently released 4K-capable UltraSharp Webcam aims to bring exceptional image quality and ease of use, but does it stand up to the hype? Let's take a look......
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If you are searching for a webcam upgrade to boost your Zoom or other video conferencing quality, you may already have it. Canon has released a free EOS Webcam Utility which allows many of its cameras to function as plug-and-play USB webcams on Windows computers. The idea of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as a webcam is certainly nothing new. Many streamers already leverage these cameras using an HDMI capture card. These capture cards can be pricey – into the hundreds of dollars – and are currently in short supply. Still, they do provide the highest-quality option for cameras that can provide a “Clean HDMI-out” signal. Some cameras can provide HDMI out, but the signal...
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It’s not just toilet paper, paper towels, and other household goods that are hard to come by these days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even certain tech items are becoming incredibly scare as people hunker down in their homes and begin conducting virtual meetings with coworkers. One particular PC accessory that has been hit hard with shortages is the webcam. For those of us who primarily use laptops, most have a webcam already built in, but it can pose a few challenges. Due to how thin the display lid is on most laptops, OEMs can’t install high quality webcam sensors, meaning that often lag behind in image quality compared to selfie cameras that that you’d find on even...
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A security researcher who discovered a over half a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in the Safari browser has lined his pockets with $75,000, courtesy of Apple's bug bounty program. Left unaddressed, a few of the vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to hijack the webcam on Mac systems, as well as iPhone and iPad devices. Ryan Pickren detailed the vulnerabilities in a pair of blog posts. He found seven in total (CVE-2020-3852, CVE-2020-3864, CVE-2020-3865, CVE-2020-3885, CVE-2020-3887, CVE-2020-9784, & CVE-2020-9787), three of which were directly related to potentially taking over the webcam or camera on macOS and iOS devices. "If a malicious website strung these issues together, it could...
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against D-Link alleging that the company's failure to properly secure its line of wireless routers and webcams left thousands of customers "vulnerable to a range" of cyber attacks, including those that turned customers' PCs into major parts of numerous botnets. It is a similar suit to the one that ASUS settled with the FTC nearly a year ago. "Defendants have failed to take reasonable steps to protect their routers and IP cameras from widely known and reasonably foreseeable risks of unauthorized access, including by failing to protect against flaws which the Open Web Application Security Project has ranked among the most critical and widespread...
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If you’re a diehard video streamer, Logitech has just announced a much-improved successor to its incredibly popular C920. The C920 webcam has been with us for nearly five years, and it has served with distinction during that time, but the new C922 Pro is here to carry the streaming torch. While it keeps the same form-factor that served the C920 so well, the C922 can capture 1080p video at 30 frames per second and 720p at 60 frames per second (the C920 was limited to 30 frames per second at 720p). The performance upgrade will definitely be welcome to Twitch and YouTube streamers as well as vloggers around the globe. But perhaps the most intriguing new feature of the C922 is the inclusion of dynamic...
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Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire whiz kid who created the most popular social networking site on the planet, puts tape on his system's webcams. While that might sound paranoid to some, it's a common privacy measure against hackers who might be trying to spy on you or your company. Zuckerberg is far from alone—James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), uses a piece of tape on his personal laptop's webcam and recommends that everyone else does as well. "There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them," Comey said during a recent conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. According to Comey, covering webcams is common practice...
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Logitech just made a splash in the home camera market with the introduction of its Logi Circle, a portable camera that's somewhat similar to Nest's Dropcam. Both cost the same at $200 MSRP, but unlike Dropcam, the Logi Circle is portable and rechargeable, allowing you to take it from room to room for up to three hours of streaming. It also lasts up to 12 hours in power save mode. Once it runs out of juice, you can place the camera on the included magnetic charging ring. This is a pretty big advantage over Dropcam, which needs to be plugged into a power source, though it lacks the integration with smart products (Dropcam can connect to Nest's Thermostat and Protect devices). This is Logitech's...
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You had to expect that Google had more in mind than trendy home thermostats when it acquired Nest Labs in February. Word is trickling in that Google’s Nest unit is now planning to acquire Dropcam, maker of Internet-connected webcams. There’s no official word yet on a possible sale. Dropcam's Wi-Fi connected webcam It’s easy to see why Nest likes Dropcam, but it’s a little less apparent how the scrappy security webcam startup would fit into Google’s advertising-oriented business. Dropcam is known for making $150 cameras that connect to your home’s wireless network and stream video to your phone and other devices. It’s not surprising that Nest would see...
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Logitech announced a new webcam designed for business, the Logitech Webcam C930e, and like its predecessors (including the C920-C), it’s laden with high-end features to make videoconferencing a more efficient, less distracting, and nicer-looking affair. The C930e boasts a 90-degree field of view, which Logitech says allows viewers to see an entire whiteboard during a meeting. Further, the Carl Zeiss-certified lens is built to eliminate fish-eye distortion, which is a nice touch. To allow the camera to more smoothly zoom in and out and move around to focus on various people or presentation materials, the C930e has a high definition digital pan-tilt-zoom feature with 4x magnification. The...
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That’s one more cut cord. Logitech announced its new Broadcaster Wi-Fi Webcam today, which it’s targeting at people who want to stream video live or need to place the Broadcaster in a location that a corded webcam can’t reach. The Broadcaster supports Ustream live streaming and can do some neat tricks with your MacBook and iMovie. The catch? Broadcaster is only compatible with Macs at the moment. The Broadcaster offers HD 720p video capture and has 3x digital zoom. It also supports digital pan & tilt. An external mic jack gives you the option to use your own if you don’t like the built-in mono mic. As for battery life, Logitech estimates that it’ll...
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Logitech and Skype announced the new Logitech TV Cam HD. This high-definition camera is designed to be connected to any HDTV using an HDMI connection. The camera offers built-in Skype functionality, making it easy for you to connect with friends and family directly from your living room. The TV Cam HD connects to the Internet using Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectivity. A remote control is included with the TV Cam HD. You can use the Logitech TV Cam HD to make Skype video calls or to call landline or mobile numbers using your Skype Credit or calling subscription. The camera features Logitech Fluid Crystal Technology, four microphones, and Carl Zeiss optics for clear audio and video calling. The Logitech...
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You may not realize it, but up until now, there hasn't existed a 120-degree wide angle 1080p high definition webcam, or so Genius claims when introducing its new WideCam F100. According to Genius, the WideCam F100 is the world's first Full HD webcam to boast such an ultra wide angle lens, but that isn't all it brings to the boardroom table. Other features include a 1.5-meter USB extension cable for flexible placement options, Full HD 1080p recording up to 30 frames per second, 12MP interpolation photos, built-in high sensitivity stereo microphone, glass lens with manual focus, and 360 degrees of rotation. It also ships with Arcsoft Webcam Companion 4 software, which allows you to edit and send...
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The video chatting and collaboration aspects of unified communications (UC) are a big deal in the enterprise as companies routinely work with far-flung companies and employ remote workers in droves; for that matter, large companies rely on it as employees working in separate buildings or on different floors need to collaborate. Logitech is looking to make the video experience better to use and also easier to deploy with new webcam technology, full HD 1080p video at 30fps (thanks to a collaboration with Skype). The new technology keeps the H.264 video encoding in the camera itself, thus avoiding straining the CPU. As a result, users can keep programs open (such as presentation software) while...
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As CES draws a day closer, Logitech has let fly with news about a couple of new peripherals it will be showing off in Vegas, one a webcam and the other a mouse. The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 has some impressive features, but its primary claim to fame is its capability to conduct video calls in 1080p. The 1080p HD only works with Skype--Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows, to be precise--but Windows Live Messenger users can enjoy 720p. Some of those other excellent features include the ability to upload HD video clips or 15MP photos directly to social networking sites, Carl Zeiss optics, a smooth 20-step autofocus, and stereo mics for better audio. The new mouse in the house is dubbed simply “Cube”,...
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Skyping on your couch. Who would have ever thought that would be "a thing." Crazy as it sounds, some people actually do prefer video chatting on the big screen, not on the handheld ones, and that's where companies like Warpia step in. They've just announced the new ConnectHD (SWP400VC), which brings a wide-angle camera (HD) and multidirectional microphone to your TV. The purchase? To enable video calls in the living room. Furthermore, there's a second major ability tucked in: it gives users an easy way to stream content wirelessly from any laptop computer to an HDTV without limitation. The ConnectHD can be used for additional entertainment such as playing PC Webcam games, watching movies and...
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The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is going on this week in LA, and while Steve Ballmer's keynote was the perfect event to kick things off, future days are seeing related releases from a whole slew of companies. Logitech just so happens to be one of those, with the company today announcing that their business-class webcams and headsets that are optimized for Microsoft Lync are ready to work with Microsoft Office 365 with Microsoft Lync Online, the unified communications (UC) platform for Microsoft. Logi promises that this collaboration will lead to optimized experiences -- things like seamless audio and video conferencing or peer to peer communications from the comfort of their shared...
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Artwork via spyware has caused the Secret Service, after apparently being contacted by Apple, to seize a man's two computers, an iPod and two flash drives. That's what happens when you install what essentially amounts to a spyware program on 100 computers at Apple retail stores. Kyle McDonald, 25, installed software that took pictures using Apple computer webcams, every minute. It then uploaded the images to his own servers, also every minute. It was intended to document the expressions of people as they stared at the computers' monitors. Eventually McDonald set up a Tumblr blog with some of the images, and also had an impromptu and unauthorized "exhibition" at Apple stores in Soho and West 14th...
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Is that a Logitech webcam in your pocket or are you... oh, it is a webcam. In that case, 'nice package,' which we can say after catching a glimpse of Logitech's new C615 HD webcam with a fold-and-go design for easy transport. Logitech's C615 offers single-click uploads to Facebook and HD 720p video calls via Skype, FaceTime for Mac, Logitech Vid HD, and Windows Live Messenger. It comes with a 3-foot USB cable with an extender and boasts a tripod-ready design so you're not limited to plopping it on top of your notebook. "We know how important it is for today’s travelers to stay connected, whether they’re on the road for business or leisure, so we are pleased to offer an HD webcam that...
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The world is still trying to figure out what it thinks about Skyping on their TV, but if you're willing to give it a try, Creative has a new device to do just that. The company has just announced the Live! Cam inPerson HD, an HD video/voice webcam that's specifically designed to handle Skype HD video calling. It's a rather large device, meant to perch atop a larger display (like a TV!) and enable HD-quality videochatting. It's equipped with an H.264 video encoding processor, a quad-mic array, noise-canceling technology and a pretty steep price tag. $149.99 is what it'll cost, so maybe those free Skype voice calls aren't so bad after all... Creative Introduces the Live!® Cam inPerson HD –...
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External webcams aren't nearly the rage they used to be. Perhaps that's because every notebook that ships today includes on, and a slew of new LCDs do as well. But if you're still stuck with an older monitor, or you just want something a bit more detailed than the 1.3MP embedded webcam, Logitech has a new option for you to consider. The TV Cam for Skype is a plug-and-play TV camera that'll let you make and receive high-definition video calls directly from select 2011 Panasonic VIERA Connect-enabled VIERA HDTVs that feature Skype. It's exactly what you think: a webcam for your television. Forget chatting over the PC; that's totally 2010. With this, you'll be able to have the whole family gather...
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