The Shogo touch-screen digital picture frame from RealEase is the world’s first touch-screen WiFi-integrated digital picture frame. The integrated battery means no more wires and makes it easy to use your Shogo as a portable digital photo album. With its Shogo Friend capability, you can share your favorite shots from your Shogo, instantly and with one or multiple friends without a PC. “To date, the digital picture frame has been a decorative gift with limited functionality that is soon stored away in the family closet,” said Schneersohn. “We believe Shogo is well placed to do for digital picture frames what the iPod did for the pervasiveness of the mp3 world.” Shogo will be available in spring 2008 at $299 for a touch-screen, WiFi version.

Lexar has increased the capacity of its entire SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) family of memory cards to 8GB. The Professional 8GB cards are speed-rated at 133x, delivering a minimum sustained write speed of 20MB per second. The Lexar Platinum II cards are speed-rated at 60x and deliver a minimum sustained write speed of 9MB per second. Standard Lexar SDHC cards are designed for a wide range of popular uses, including storing images, video, and music. “The capacity and performance of these new products allow photographers and videographers to confidently shoot without needing to change their memory cards, and allow mobile consumers to maximize the features and functionality of their cell phones and PDAs,” said John Santoro, senior product marketing manager, Lexar.  The new cards from the Professional, Platinum II, and standard lines will be available later this month.

NTI Shadow 3, an award-winning backup software application, maintains real-time, continuous backup of all changed files. The new version of NTI Shadow adds support for optical media though NTI’s new Dragon Disc technology, which includes backup to any optical media including Blu-ray. NTI Shadow v3 now includes custom file filtering for specific file types (audio, picture, video, and document) as well as custom file type filtering. NTI Shadow 3 is available now for $29.99.

Olympus have released a new firmware update for the 12-60mm Supersonic Wave Drive lens. Version 1.1 improves the focusing precision on distant subjects when using the C-AF (continuous AF) mode.

Website: Download Olympus 12-60mm Firmware 1.1

Tim Graham has photographed the British Royal Family gathered together for the first time in 35 years. Graham was invited to photograph the Royal Family in celebration of the Diamond Wedding Anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The image, featuring twenty-five Royal Family members, will form part of Tim Graham’s Royal Archive that from the end of this month will be exclusively available at the Getty Images Hulton Archive.

Eye-Fi and Lexar are introducing a Lexar-branded wireless memory card based on Eye-Fi’s patent-pending technology. The Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card allows users to send photos directly from their digital camera to their computer or their favorite online photo sharing site. “Our customers are always looking for easier, faster and more reliable ways to store and share their memories, and we want to keep pace with their busy lifestyles,” said Brad Anderson, Director of Product Marketing at Lexar Media. “We believe our customers will enjoy the benefits of being able to tap into the benefits of Eye-Fi’s service—including direct uploads of photos to many different online destinations and users’ home computers.” The new Lexar wireless memory card will be demonstrated this week at the CES show in Las Vegas. Price and availability are to be confirmed.

New Kodak Professional Grade CD-Rs and DVD-Rs will safely store images, videos and data for up to 100 years. The discs combine superior recording quality with durability that will protect images, sound and data for 100 years. Only archival Kodak 24K Gold Preservation CDs last longer. “We are introducing these new, professional grade discs for those who can’t take a chance on short-lived silver CD-Rs.,” said Steve Mizelle, President of KMP Media. Also announced is a new Kodak Archival Jewel Case, specifically designed for storing important CDs and DVDs. Price and availability for the Kodak Professional Grade discs to be announced.

New Kodak AutoMagic Self-Burning CD-Rs make it easy even for computer novices to burn sound, images and data onto a CD-R. The unique, built-in software on each Kodak AutoMagic CD copies photos, backs up key documents and creates portable storage for music. “This is great news for all the people who want to store images, music or data on a CD but lack the computer skills,” said Jim Gordon, Sr., Vice President of Marketing for KMP Media. “Now they can avoid the hassle of downloading, installing and learning how to use a more complex software package.” The Kodak AutoMagic CD-R is available now and is expected to retail for about $4.99 for a 2-pack.

The new SimpleTech Signature Mini portable hard drive has been designed by and is available in 7 exciting colours. They are also the first portable drives in the world to offer both local backup software and online backup. “Our bold new direction for the Signature Mini Drive family, using fashion-forward colors and stimulating design, provides users a full palette of options to match their style and personality. Coupled with our advanced software and online services, Fabrik has differentiated itself from the traditional storage players and built the best solution for consumers who want to take their content with them.” said Matt McRae, vice president of marketing at Fabrik. Available in a range of capacities from 120GB to 320GB, the price ranges from $119.99 (120GB) to $229.99 (320GB).

The new DXG-565V is an all-in-one digital camcorder/camera/MP3 player/voice recorder/webcam, priced at just $99. The DXG-565V features a 5 megapixel sensor, 2.4” TFT LCD screen and 32MB of built-in storage. The DXG-565V is available in 5 colours, Metallic Pink (pictured), Ruby Red, Deep-Sea Blue, Gun Metal, and Midnight Black. It has a retail price of $99 and is available Q1 2008.

Nikon UK has announced its cashback promotion on D40X digital SLR camera kits has been extended until 29th February 2008. Customers purchasing a D40X body with any AF Nikkor lens will be entitled to claim up to £40 in the UK and €60 in the Republic of Ireland on purchases made between 7th Jan – 29th Feb 2008 inclusive. All claims must be received by 31st March 2008.

For more information about the cashback promotion and how to claim please visit: www.nikon.co.uk/cashback

VideoSpin from Pinnacle Systems is a new, free video editing application aimed at users who don’t want to spend much time creating movies. With VideoSpin, users can create entertaining movies in minutes simply by dragging and dropping their videos, pictures and music from their PC’s hard drive. “In developing VideoSpin, we focused on putting the fun in video editing for consumers with all levels of experience by making it faster and easier than any other product on the market,” said Tanguy Leborgne, Pinnacle Systems Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. The VideoSpin application will be available for free download by the end of January 2008.

ILFORD is sponsoring a photo exhibition by photographer Paula Barr at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. USA Route 90 Highway, Gulf Coast Echo is a photographic journal that tells the story of the devastating effects hurricanes can have on displaced persons and survivors. “I am very honored to be a part of this forum and to have the opportunity to showcase my work. As an artist, it is important to use high quality and archival material to ensure the best possible results. With the support of ILFORD and the use of ILFORD color products, I have been able to produce superior quality prints from my digital files and color negatives.” commented Paula Barr.

Kubota Image Tools has announced its 4th creative photography workshop for professional and advanced amateur photographers in Italy. This 7-day photography workshop (October 5-11, 2008) includes several exciting photo excursions, classroom instruction, photography critiquing and more. “My wife Clare and I are so thrilled to return for our fourth creative photography workshop in Italy – one of the most beautiful countries on Earth,” said Kevin Kubota, Idea Man of Kubota Image Tools. “There’s nothing like a trip to Italy to inspire you—and your photography. It really is a life changing experience.” The cost of the 7-day trip is $2,995 for class attendees and $2,550 for non-class participants.

The new LaCie 324 is a 24 inch LCD monitor which offers superb colors thanks to its wide 92 percent NTSC gamut. The LaCie 324 also embeds a 10-bit gamma correction mechanism that minimizes banding and has a 16:10 wide-screen format. It also supports high definition video up to, and including, 1080p sources. “The LaCie 324’s feature set broadly addresses the needs of creative pros dealing both with fixed-images, as in graphic design, photography and publishing as well as with motion pictures, as in post-production and game development”, said Daniel Mayer, LaCie’s Color Business Unit Manager. The LaCie 324 monitor will be available at the end of January for $1050.

The new SanDisk 12GB microSDHC card is the world’s largest capacity memory card for mobile phones. The 12GB microSDHC card can store a combination of 1,500 songs, 3,600 photos and 24.5 hours of video. “Mobile phones have become a key part of consumers’ lifestyles around the globe,” said Jeff Kost, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Consumer Solutions division at SanDisk. “What many people tend to overlook is the important role that removable storage cards play in enabling the key features of these fully featured mobile phones. In fact, many people are not even aware that their phone has a card slot which is why SanDisk recently launched its Wake Up Your Phone(TM) campaign.”

Panasonic has added support for YouTube and Picasa Web Albums to its VIERA PZ850 line of Plasma Internet-connected HDTV’s. “We are thrilled to introduce Panasonic VIERA PZ850 series Internet-Connected HDTV’s with virtual one-click access to YouTube and Picasa Web Albums from Google,” said Toshihiro Sakamoto, President of Panasonic AVC Networks Company.  “This is the first time mainstream consumers will be able to easily enjoy YouTube videos from the living room with the enhanced quality of a fully integrated widescreen TV experience.  YouTube is already a huge worldwide sensation, and Panasonic VIERA Internet-connected HDTV’s will greatly expand users’ entertainment options.” The first generation of Panasonic VIERA PZ850 series Internet-connected HDTV’s will be available in spring 2008.

ZINK Imaging and Polaroid have announced their collaboration on the development of a new family of printing products which use ZINK Imaging’s ink-free printing technology. The first Polaroid-branded ZINK-enabled product is a pocket-sized mobile printer that produces borderless full color 2”x3” peel-and-stick ZINK photos. The Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer will be available in the first half of 2008. Polaroid have also announced the award-winning Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer. “Polaroid, one of the most well-known names in consumer electronics and digital imaging, was a clear fit for ZINK Imaging as a partner,” said Wendy Caswell, president and CEO, ZINK Imaging. “Through this partnership, we are delivering on our promise to provide a revolutionary and magical digital printing experience to consumers.”

CEIVA has unveiled 4 new digital photo frames at the CES show in Las Vegas. The CEIVA Pro 190 (pictured) has a 19-inch high-res 1280x1024 display with modern streamlined looks. The CEIVA Pro 80 ($229.99) hosts a high-res 800x600 display and wireless home media server connectivity all in an 8” model. The CEIVA Life ($179.99) offers a high-res 8” display, built in memory card reader, intuitive on-screen menus and interchangeable faceplates. Finally, the CEIVA Share ($149.99) is the easiest and most economical way to stay connected with your family. At this year’s CES, we are announcing a new line of connected frames that provide consumers with an even more rewarding way to celebrate life every day with photos,” said Dean Schiller, CEO of CEIVA Logic.

The Hoodman flip-up hood for the Canon EOS 40D DSLR (code: H-40D) is on its way to the UK. The suggested retail price is the same as all other ‘Hoodman’ flip-ups, £27.99 including VAT. Also, a book called called ‘Digital Photography Made Easy - from Camera to Computer’ (pictured) is available soon for £16.95, published by Hove Foto Books. Both products can be ordered online from NewPro - http://www.newprouk.co.uk/ .