Top Nikon superzoom has an insane 83x zoom lens

The race to add more megapixels has slowed among point-and-shoots in recent years, but that hasn't stopped companies from taking zoom to new lengths — literally.

Nikon decided that even 50x zoom just wasn't enough, and pushed its new Coolpix P900 (MSRP $599.95) to a jaw-dropping 83x zoom (24-2000mm equivalent)–easily blowing away Canon SX60's longest ever 65x zoom. With a range like that, there isn't a shot that the P900 can't reach.

That kind of zoom can do wonders for people shooting anything from wildlife to the moon, but it does come with drawbacks. Steadying shots at 2000mm can be nearly impossible, even with Nikon's built-in image stabilization, and image quality suffers badly at full zoom. However, if you're looking for a camera that can reach out and snag a shot of just about any subject that you can lay your eyes on, the P900 has you covered.

Due to its massive lens, the P900 is bigger than most comparable superzooms. But even with its increased size, the P900 feels well-built and not too front-heavy. However, when you're zoomed to 2000mm, two hands are absolutely required if you want a steady shot. Still, it's light enough that you can hold it in one hand–something you couldn't do if it were a DSLR with a long telephoto attached.

The rear LCD can flip out and swivel, which is especially useful when shooting overhead or at other tough angles. That said, it's not the sharpest screen, nor is it touch sensitive.

Designing a camera with a 24-2000mm equivalent zoom is an exercise in compromise. The P900 takes quite a few hits to its performance for the ability to reach out and touch the stars.

Its small sensor limits both resolution and low-light performance. The P900 is capable of taking shots at an amazing range of focal lengths, but the further out you go, the worse the quality becomes.

Another issue that stems from the small sensor is high-ISO performance. In low-light conditions when you need to bump up the ISO to properly expose the scene, your shots will look grainy.

When shooting handheld shots at focal lengths of 1000mm or more, you're going to need a very fast shutter speed. That might mean bumping up your ISO to compensate for the lack of light, which results in a loss of even more detail. I wouldn't recommend venturing far above ISO 800 to keep noise in check.

Shooting with the P900 was surprisingly pleasant. The controls are very straight forward and have almost no learning curve for anyone that's used either a DSLR or compact point-and-shoot. I do wish the buttons had a little more feedback to them, though.

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) isn't amazing, but it isn't the worst thing I've looked through either. I did find myself using the LCD more than I usually do when shooting wide shots–only switching to the EVF for longer focal lengths.

On the subject of longer focal lengths, the camera zooms very slowly. On average it took 6.3 seconds to go from 18mm to 2000mm, which is plenty of time to lose that perfect moment. One useful feature is the "snap-zoom" feature. It works when you're zoomed in on a subject, automatically zooming out momentarily, allowing you to find your subject. It then snaps back so you're ready to fire away.

To be honest, I was surprised by how much I didn't mind shooting with the P900. However, the images—while okay-looking at small sizes—were never really as good as I wanted them to be on closer inspection.

In most cases, you're probably better off with a better camera with less zoom. Along those lines, take a look at Panasonic's FZ1000. Its combination of a wider aperture range and bigger sensor gives you far superior image quality, low-light performance, and 4K video–all for only around $100 more.

6 big changes coming android phones

MOUNTAIN VIEW. CALIF. — After A, I, V, and R (as in artificial intelligence and virtual reality), the next most important letter at Google’s just-concluded I/O conference here had to have been N.

That’s the letter assigned to the next version of its Android operating system, the subject of a major part of the keynote Wednesday. Google will almost certainly name it  after a dessert beginning with “n,” in keeping with its habit of thinking with its sweet tooth when christening new Android releases.


While we wait for a ruling from the Google officials on that, here’s what we do know is coming from Android N when it ships later this summer:

Split screen mode: Years after Samsung added an option to some of its Android devices to run two apps alongside each other — after which Apple did the same thing in iOS 9 — Google is catching up. You’ll be able to run two apps at once, either stacked one above the other or side by side.

Simpler multitasking: Switching from one app to another should also get simpler in N, where a tap of the recent-apps button will longer show a seemingly infinite list of every app you’ve opened in recent history.

Instead, Android N will automatically sweep away apps you haven’t used in a while — Google’s research showed that most people only flipped through seven apps in this list--and let you swipe the whole thing clean. To jump back to the last app you had open, just tap the recent-apps button twice.

More interactive notifications: Android N will take an existing option to respond to an app’s notification after it appears atop the screen by letting you carry on entire conversations within the notification view. Where a messaging app might now only show a preview of a message, in N it will add a “Reply” button.

Longer battery life: The current Android Marshmallow release has a great feature called Doze that suspends most app activity when the phone isn’t moving. N will expand this function to the times when the phone may be moving but its screen is off — as in, the large amount of time a phone is not being used because it’s in a pocket or purse.

More efficient apps: Reworked code should cut down on the time apps need to install and should also trim their storage needs. And a new Data Saver option will let you constrain an app’s appetite for wireless data.



Security tweaks: The Android components that play media get locked down further in N, with much more limited access to the rest of the system. It’s a response to the “Stagefright” vulnerability that last year could have been used to attack a phone just by sending it a malicious multimedia message.

Android security updates will also download and install in the background, much as they do in Google's Chrome OS--and when you restart the phone to compete that install, you won't have a lengthy wait while Android essentially reinstalls every app.

But for your Android phone in particular to get these features, its manufacturer and your wireless carrier (unless you bought it directly from the manufacturer) will both have to ship an Android N update to your phone. And the issue of how many existing devices will get such an update represents a much bigger mystery than Android N’s name.

Google’s Project Ara proves LG was right about modular phones

Project Ara, Google’s modular phone, will be available this Fall for developers. It’ won’t be the original modular phone moonshot we were sold on, though; in fact, it feels a little bit like a bait-and-switch.

Rather than a completely open framework, Project Ara hardware will have static RAM, SoC, storage and a 5.3-inch display. Google says add-ons like a kickstand (wow!), non-functional ‘style’ bricks (amazing!), e-ink display (for notifications, becausedual-screen phones are super popular), fingerprint reader, camera and speaker/microphone are coming.

And it all still sounds cool, but it’s time to be equitable about our critique and praise of modular phones. When the LG G5 was launched, many thought its modularity was pretty lame; instead of a skeleton where you can slip components in and out, the G5’s bottom slips off to allow for more stuff to be added on. It wasn’t the complete autonomy Ara promised we’d have with our smartphones, and by comparison was a bit laughable.

Google v LG

The only real discernible difference between the two devices at this point is form factor. Google is sticking to its skeleton, while the G5 lets you add components (called ‘Friends‘) to the bottom of your device. Ara still feels a lot cooler than LG’s design, but that’s subjective.

You can add manual camera controls to the G5, or swap the battery out. There’s even an EQ if you’re an audiophile. Like Google, LG says it’s working with hardware partners to get more modules built (I’ll be fair and note that some modules, like the B&O EQ, still aren’t available for the G5).

On launch, some derided the LG G5’s modularity as being half-assed. I agreed with that mindset at the time, but that was before Google flipped the script on us about Ara. Now, LG seems downright innovative and realistic. Project Ara almost feels like a bait-and-switch, and would have actually been so if Google had ever taken pre-orders.

We always knew Ara was a moonshot, and the road to true and complete modularity wasn’t going to be easy. It was a radically different way of thinking about phones, and that Google couldn’t — or wouldn’t — execute on its own concept is disheartening.

Ara will still be neat, and we’ll definitely be interested to see a final product, but we should be just as eager for a second version of LG’s modular phone concept. It was first, may be better, and is a tangible, real product you can own today.

We’re not expected to see Ara land until 2017, but who knows how real that timeframe is.

Allo, Duo, Google Messenger, Hangouts. Google has three 'messenger' apps too many

One killer messenger app. That's all you need. Not the four that Google seems to think you do. At Google I/O, the Internet giant's annual conference for developers, Google unwrapped two new, very distinct messenger apps that will work on iOS and Androidphones "this summer." There's Allo, for messages and emojis, and Duo for videoconferencing. This is already on top of Google Messenger and Hangouts, each of which handles both texts and video calls.

What gives, Google? Do we really need all these messaging apps?

Google says we do. Allo and Duo are both apps that Google built from scratch, not based on any existing code for Hangouts or Messenger. And both new communication apps draw deeply on machine learning as part of the artificial intelligence future that

Allo's goal is to learn your rhythms and responses and offer suggestions in the form of quick replies. So if someone asks, "How're you doing?" the app might suggest you type in "Awesome!" alongside an emoji of dog doodoo. You choose the suggestion you want, or respond with something else, and behind the scenes Allo records and remembers your answer, maybe for next time.

Duo's flashiest video-calling trick is Knock-Knock, which essentially rings your buddy with a preview of what you look like and what you're doing this very minute. That means there can be no delays between broadcasting your goings-on and the moment the person on the other end receives the knock and picks up the call (or not).

Allo and Do work as they do, Google says, because the programs stand on their own; they're light and finely tuned, not burdened by too many features that do other things.

"We didn't want to weigh down the [engineering] team with decisions from previous products," Erik Kay, Google's engineering director for communication software, told CNET. Because coders were given the freedom to create from the ground up, Google said, they were able to concentrate on fresh, innovative ways to make next-gen talking tools.

Focused engineering may be Google's reason for keeping the two separate, but there are other considerations as well. These apps work on phones and tether to your phone number, whereas Hangouts is purposely cross-platform, so it works on desktops as nimbly as it does on mobile.

Google also says that different consumers use apps for different purposes, so you might turn to Hangouts for a certain group of friends and Facebook Messenger for another. Meanwhile, you might Skype your in-laws on the weekend but call up Duo's Knock-Knock video to chat with your sweetheart.

The exceptionally stylish 2017 Mercedes C300 Coupe demands attention

Mercedes-Benz touts the 2017 C300 Coupe as a style car.

Admittedly, the German carmaker is right. With a bedazzled grille, sharp sidelines and a butt that would make a Kardashian envious, it's great to look at.

SEE ALSO: Three autonomous Mercedes-Benz trucks just platooned across Europe

What Mercedes is really admitting by calling it stylish, though, is that the C300 Coupe exists solely because of its design. Moreover, people will choose it not for what it does but for what it represents. It's a car that tells the world you've got an eye for design.

At first blush, for me, simply making a style statement wasn't at all worth the $43,000 base price. An unrelated weekend shopping trip changed my mind, though. I finally get the compact two-door Benz.

What it's not

Just minutes into my first time behind the wheel of the C300 Coupe, I slammed the throttle into the carpet and played audience to the tone of the car's 241-horsepower four-cylinder engine.

If you'd asked me to intuit what the C300's engine might sound like before actually having heard it, based upon its classy exterior, I would have wagered a note somewhere between Miles Davis and a panther. You know, urbane but also animalistic.

Instead, the thing was decidedly buzzy but with a sporty twinge, like a hive of very brawny bees. Admittedly, it's not exactly the enlivening or sophisticated tone I had hoped for.

Although the athletic apian engine can propel the car to 60 mph from a standstill in 5.9 seconds, the note immediately informed me this was not a car aimed at driving enthusiasts. Granted, the steering is quick and heavy and the suspension soft but taut. However, those seemed to reinforce the car's highly evolved nature, rather than push it into the realm of sport. You'll want the newly created C43 for that.

Striking driving-enthusiast mobile off the list, I turned to the tech.

At the top of the wood-encrusted center console is Mercedes' COMAND infotainment system, displayed from a tablet-like screen attached to the dash. It's a polarizing design, for sure. Whether you like the looks or not, you have to give the designers kudos for trying something different.

What you can't nod in approval over is the COMAND system itself. Users interface with it through either a touchpad or a scroll wheel mounted just beneath it. It's a quick system with lots of functionality, but none of it is intuitive or easy. It's the antithesis of user friendly.

What's more, the C300 Coupe doesn't offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (it might get those in 18 months or so, Mercedes informed me) nor does it have Wi-Fi. Both features are common not only in the segment but in inexpensive economy cars these days.

Granted, the C300 does offer tons of semi-autonomous safety tech called DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist. I first tested this system on the C300's bigger, faster brother, the C63 Sedan, last year. It's great as an adaptive cruise control system. However, it lacks the robust steering assist of Tesla's Autopilot.

Those things said, I decided the C300 Coupe wasn't a car pushing the boundaries of automotive technology either. So tech car, too, was removed from the record.

 Adding further confusion to my uncertainty of what exactly the C300 Coupe was trying to be, most of the cars we drove at the drive event in Maine were loaded up with all the bells and whistles. In fact, most were priced around the $60,000 mark. This, as you might understand, is a lot of money for a compact coupe that won't drive itself or tear holes in your clothes with its straight-line speed.

Even days after attending the Maine event, I was still at a loss at how to encapsulate the C300 Coupe.

"What's the point of this car?" I murmured to myself, as I hemmed and hawed through countless drafts of the my first drive with it.

Then, this weekend, it all fell into place. I finally got it.

Bill Gates and Neal Stephenson drive into the future in a Tesla in VR

Science fiction meets technology in the very best way in this short three-minute video posted by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates earlier this week.

SEE ALSO: This is a video of our future, and it's scary as hell

In the video, Gates takes off his tech icon hat and becomes a fan as he meets up with famed science fiction author Neal Stephenson to talk about the latter's latest novel Seveneves.

As we mentioned earlier this week, the book is on Gates' summer reading list this year. On his website, Gates gives a brief review of the book, writing, "Seveneves reminded me of all the things I love about science fiction. It is a great novel to get lost in, learn from, and think about. More than anything else, it has me thinking I should get back to reading sci-fi again."

But the coolest part of the meeting of Gates and Stephenson is the exceedingly tech-infused context in which it occurs. 

The two men, who both live in Seattle, hop in a Tesla (possibly the most futurist car you can buy right now) and the entire in-car conversation is captured using a 360-degree camera, which means you can view the conversation using a virtual reality headset.

It's not as long as or as in-depth as Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, but it's easily the best sci-fi-tech meeting of the minds we've seen in a long time. 

This should definitely become a regular VR show. Please get on that, Bill. 

A giant space shuttle fuel tank drove through LA so everyone took a selfie

What do you do when faced with a 15-storey space shuttle fuel tank winding its way slowly through your neighbourhood? Take a selfie.

Weighing more than 65,000 pounds and with a length of nearly 154 feet, the external fuel tank, ET-94, took a journey through the streets of Los Angeles Saturday from Marina del Rey to its new home, the California Science Center.

SEE ALSO: Chewbacca woman reaches new level of joy when her kids get masks, too

The last flight external tank of its kind, ET-94 will join the Endeavour space shuttle at the Center. It's an example of the fuel tanks that were used during liftoff in the era of the Columbia shuttle disaster. After being discarded, the tanks would burn up in the atmosphere.

Although it never went to space, ET-94 has been on a long journey. According to the California Science Center, the tank has taken a 4,400 nautical mile journey from New Orleans, through the Panama Canal, and now to California.

Its arrival set off a selfie storm. And no wonder. Look at this humongous orange thing.