Western Digital has expanded its recently introduced My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions with My Cloud EX4, a four-bay network attached storage (NAS) solution for creative professionals. Featuring the category leading WD Red line of hard drives specifically designed for home and small office NAS systems, My Cloud EX4 provides several capacity options ranging from a drive-less enclosure that allows customers to customise their capacity and add additional drives as their library of digital content grows, or an 8TB, 12TB or 16TB model. MSRP is $379.99 for the drive-less My Cloud EX4, $799.99 for 8TB, $949.99 for 12TB and $1,149.99 for 16TB.

Lowepro has confirmed its support for two teenage wildlife photographers – Alex Berryman and Kyle Moore. Over the past 3 years, North East Hampshire based Alex Berryman, now aged 16, has focused particularly on the birds of Britain. His work has been published in numerous national magazines, including BBC Wildlife Magazine, RSPB Phoenix magazine, Bird Watching and the Telegraph newspaper. Kyle Moore (pictured) is a 15-year-old wildlife and nature photographer based in Suffolk. His favourite subjects to photograph include barn owls, foxes, deer and kingfishers. Loraine Morgan, Senior Marketing Manager said: "We are very proud to already support some of the UK’s top photographers - but equally excited to be supporting and guiding the next generation... Both Alex and Kyle’s skill and enthusiasm caught our eye and we are really pleased to have them on board."

Manfrotto has launched an exclusive mini site for shopping during the Christmas season. The Manfrotto Christmas Shop  offers a range of ideas for Christmas gifts, both big and small, for photography professionals and enthusiasts alike. The site also features a section of advice and tips for photographers hoping to capture this year’s Christmas festivities with their cameras.With the opening of this mini site, Manfrotto has also launched an exclusive Christmas promotion. All Manfrotto UK products will come with free shipping during the Christmas period – this offer ends 31st December.

SmugMug has released an Android edition of its Camera Awesome app. The program offers a huge number of creative editing features, including hundreds of special effects, presets, filters and frames. In addition, there are numerous Android-specific features such as high-speed burst, panorama, and HDR photography, video image stabilisation, face recognition, manual ISO adjustment, multiple resolutions and selective editing. You can download the Camera Awesome app from the Google Play Store free of charge.

Brian Griffith has released Iridient Digital, an update to his photo editing software for Mac OS X. This edition adds support for raw image files produced by the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the Nikon Df, the Olympus Stylus 1, the Pentax K-3, the Phase One IQ280, IQ260, IQ260 Achromatic, IQ160 and IQ140; and fixes bugs. Do note that this release is a paid upgrade for users who originally purchased a license prior to 1 April 2012.

Canon Japan has announced a white-grey edition of its EOS Kiss X7 (a.k.a. 100D and Rebel SL1) digital SLR camera. The first-ever white SLR from Canon is complemented by a 18-55mm STM and 40mm f/2.8 STM lens sporting the same colour scheme. Availability is slated for 28 November 2013. Pricing has yet to be communicated.

Source: Canon Japan

Nikon has updated its Capture NX and View NX applications. Nikon View NX 2.8.2 adds support for the Nikon Df (pictured) and D5300. Capture NX 2.4.5 also adds compatibility with these cameras and incorporates the following changes:

Blackmagic Design  have released Blackmagic Camera 1.5 software which adds new 12-bit Log CinemaDNG raw recording to their Pocket Cinema Camera. Wide-dynamic-range raw recording allows users to capture the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows simultaneously, capturing more of the scene than is possible with a regular video camera. In addition, high-quality lossless CinemaDNG files are fully compatible with DaVinci Resolve 10 for seamless colour grading and editing workflows. The Blackmagic Camera 1.5 update is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic website.

Apple's new iPad mini with Retina display is now available fot purchase in the UK. This new tablet offers a 7.9" backlit IPS panel with 2048x1536 pixels for a resolution of 326ppi. The built-in "iSight" camera module has a 5-megapixel sensor and a five-element lens with an aperture of f/2.4. In addition to capturing 5-megapixel stills, the iPad mini with Retina display can also record Full HD videos.iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi models will be available for a suggested retail price of £319 for the 16GB model, £399 for the 32GB model, £479 for the 64GB model and £559 for the 128GB model. Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available for a suggested retail price of £419 for the 16GB model, £499 for the 32GB model, £579 for the 64GB model and £659 for the 128GB model.

Apple has issued a new Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update to MacOS X Mavericks. Version 5.01 adds support for the following cameras to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11: Canon PowerShot G16, Canon PowerShot S120, Fujifilm X-A1, Nikon Coolpix P7800 (pictured), Nikon D610, Olympus Pen Lite E-PL6, Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GX7, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1, Sony Alpha A3000 ILCE-3000 and Sony Alpha NEX-5T.

Website: Apple Support

Capture the Magic: Train Your Eye, Improve Your Photographic Composition by Jack Dykinga is a new title from Rocky Nook. In this book, the author teaches the art of creating interesting, well-composed images. Examples of strong images are juxtaposed against flawed images, illustrating how to create a successful composition. Topics covered include light and shadow, lens choice, framing, negative space, and many more. Filled with 130 full-page colour photographs, the 188-page volume is available for $39.95.

Kenro, the UK and Ireland Distributor of Benro products has launched a new range of Cool Walker Messenger Bags. The bags open quickly allowing rapid access to photo gear and small pockets at the front of the bag are great for the easy retrieval of mobile phones, wallets and other small accessories. The front and back pockets are large enough to store books, papers or magazines and the centre storage compartment is removable, allowing the bag to be used as a regular shoulder bag if required. This series comes in two variations, the M100N with a price of £82.20 and the M200N costing £88.68.

Lytro announced today Lytro 3D, a collection of features that enable pictures which have been processed for Perspective Shift to be viewed in 3D. With the release today of Lytro Desktop 3.1 for Mac and Windows available for download at Lytro.com and Lytro Mobile 1.2 for iOS, Lytro images can be viewed in Presentation Mode as 3D images and, by connecting to a 3D-capable TV over HDMI or Apple AirPlay, the 3D experience "can be extended to the living room for everyone to enjoy," the company says. “The beauty and power of Light Field technology is that we are able to continue to expand on how living pictures are experienced, first with Perspective Shift and now 3D,” said Jason Rosenthal, CEO, Lytro. “Lytro remains committed to delivering new ways to make visual storytelling more immersive and engaging through innovative software and hardware.”