Motorola has partnered with Phonebloks to develop a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. "We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines," Motorola's Paul Eremenko wrote in a blog post. The envisioned modular smartphone would consist of an endoskeleton and several replaceable modules. This way, if you only wanted to upgrade your phone's camera or battery, you could do so without having to purchase a whole new handset. Motorola is currently recruiting 'scouts' from all over the world to join their Ara project, which coordinates the development efforts.

Want to see exactly what the new Olympus Stylus 1 premium compact camera looks like in the flesh?

Check out our extensive hands-on gallery of 47 photos of the Olympus Stylus 1 compact system camera, including a side-by-side comparison with the Olympus OM-D E-M1, on which it's clearly styled.

The Olympus Stylus 1 is an advanced superzoom compact with a 1/1.7-type 12-megapixel sensor, fully retractable 28-300mm (eq.) f/2.8 lens and a 1.44-million-dot EVF. The large-diameter lens features a powerful, built-in VCM image stabilisation mechanism and a constant maximum aperture throughout the zoom range. The customisable analogue / digital Hybrid Control Ring on the front lets you assign the parameters you adjust most frequently (e.g., aperture, shutter speed, exposure time and program shift) to the ring or subdial on the top of the camera. Fast AF and shoot-and-share WiFi round off the specifications list. The Olympus Stylus 1 will be available for £549.99, from late November 2013.

Websiteam has released Portrait Lens, a photo manipulation app for Android 2.3 and higher. The application uses a special algorithm to blur backgrounds and provide better subject isolation. If necessary, you can adjust settings such as sharpness, blurring and saturation separately for the background and your subject. You can save the output photo at a resolution of up to three megapixels. Portrait Lens is now available on Google Play.

Photographer and artist, Sylvia Grace Borda, has created the first explorative artworks in Google Street view in partnership with John M. Lynch. Entitled 'Farm Tableaux', the series captures farmers in Surrey, B.C. (Canada) enacting a routine activity, but unlike conventionally staged photographs, the observer can explore these framed compositions within an interactive Google Street View landscape. These choreographed scenes enable notions of expanded cinema to be encountered by the online viewer. Click through / scroll down for links to some of Borda's completed artworks.

Facing East - Photos from the Heart by photographer Roger Morgan is a new title from Xlibris. In this book, the author presents a collection of photo portraits of the people who live in the shadow of the Himalayas and their extension ranges. The portraits were shot in Sichuan, China during June 2009, in Sichuan and North West Yunnan during May/June 2011, in Ladakh, Northern India during September 2011, in Pakistan during May 2012 and Nepal during October/September of the same year. The 226-page volume is available for AU$55 (hardback version: AU$65). You can also purchase Facing East - Photos from the Heart as an ebook for AU$3.99.

Voigtländer has unveiled a new adapter, which allows M-mount lenses to be attached to Sony E-mount bodies and reduces the lenses' minimum focus distance courtesy of a 4mm helicoid extension. Weighing in at 125g, the new Voigtländer adapter has a diameter of 62.7mm and a 24x36mm frame coverage, making it fully compatible with the full-frame Sony Alpha A7 and A7R cameras..The company has also published a handy table showing the change in focusing range across a number of Voigtländer and Zeiss lenses. The adapter will go on sale in December.

The third annual Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) are open for entry to photographers and artists worldwide. The MPA is an international open call for photographs and images created on mobile devices (phones and tablets). The competition has twenty photo categories and an array of prizes valued at over $15,000. Entry fees remain the same as last year: $20 for 3 images, $30 for 5 images, $50 for 9 images and $100 for 20 images. The MPA/DIPTIC Photo Essay is a separate $25 entry with its own $500 prize and gallery exhibition. For more information and to enter, visit the website below.

Magix has released Photostory 2014 Deluxe with 4K Ultra HD support. Other features include a redesigned user interface, new templates, a HDR effect to optimise your footage, quick audio dubbing with over 400 songs and sounds, and more. Magix  Photostory 2014 Deluxe is available now for £69.99 from Amazon and magix.com.

Tony Cork has won $10,000 in a photography competition organised by Scoopshot – a service for buying and selling photos captured using the Scoopshot app for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. Cork’s photo of his son and granddaughter playing in the ocean beat more than 18,000 other entries to bag the $10,000 prize in the competition, which asked photographers to share photos summing up their summer. The photograph was taken using the Scoopshot app on a Samsung Note 2 smartphone while enjoying a quiet day on the beach by the Atlantic Ocean with his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

Epson has announced the newest addition to its portfolio of Signature Worthy media. The new Epson Exhibition Watercolor Paper Textured is designed to deliver a distinctive feel along with rich blacks, a wide colour gamut and smooth tonal gradations. In addition to the 22 Mil caliper and 310 gsm, Exhibition Watercolor Paper is 100 percent cotton fibre and acid, lignin and OBA-free. The paper will be available in November through Epson Authorised Resellers in roll widths of 17, 24 and 44-inches, and 8.5” x 11”, 13” x 19” and 17” x 22” cut sheets. Click through / scroll down for prices.

Daniel Blau gallery has just announced its two upcoming shows, happening simultaneously in Paris and London in November 2013. The gallery is collaborating with the estate of renowned LIFE photographer J.R. Eyerman to showcase images from his personal collection. These photographs of Hollywood stars from the 1940s, 50s and 60s are being shown to the public for the first time. The Paris show (6-23 November) will take place at Galerie Meyer Oceanic Art on the occasion of the Festival Photo Saint-Germain-des-Pres, in parallel to Paris Photo. The London show (9 November – 7 December) will be held at our London gallery on Hoxton Square. 

Wacom is sponsoring the Train to Create and Pratik Naik photo retouching series that consists of a seminar at and a one-day intensive workshop. Taking place from 15th-17th November in London, the world-renowned beauty retoucher will share his techniques including his use of Wacom tablets, as well as provide hands-on mentoring to attendees. The workshop is held over the weekend and attendees can choose which day to attend. Focus will be given to retouching beauty and fashion shots to make them look perfect, while not being digitally obvious. There are a limited number of tickets currently available for the workshop. For further information, visit the website below.

Zeiss has announced an Instant Savings Promotion for its Touit lenses.  The value of the instant saving for the Touit 2.8/12 lens (pictured) totals $251 and effectively reduces the list price on the lens to $999. On the Touit 1.8/32 lens, the instant saving totals $180, reducing the list price to $720. The Instant Savings Promotion is valid on all purchases from an authorised Zeiss dealer from 24th October 2013 through 31st January 2014. The third lens in the Touit family, the Touit 2.8/50 Macro, will begin shipping at the end of 2013.

PrimeCircle has designed a special Silver Series of its PrimeCircle XE cine-style lenses for Blackmagic Production Cinema Cameras. Incorporating world-class Zeiss optics, these lenses feature calibrated cine-style expanded focus scales for precise follow-focus work, electronic aperture control and standard cinema 95mm Front Mounts with an anti-reflective surface. Available focal lengths range from 15mm to 100mm.

Canon U.S.A. and two-time Academy Award winner Ron Howard  have officially launched the “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival. Following yesterday's premiere of ten short films at Lincoln Center in New York City, screenings will be held in Los Angeles, CA hosted by Bryce Dallas Howard, the first graduating director of Canon’s Project Imagin8ion as well as in Brooklyn, NY hosted by James Murphy, a celebrity director for Project Imaginat10n. Yahoo Screen will continue celebrating the Film Festival from today through the end of the year where consumers can view each of the 10 films including "...And She Was My Eve” by Jamie Foxx, Celebrity Director,  “Out of the Blue” by Eva Longoria, Celebrity Director, “A Dream of Flying” by Georgina Chapman, Celebrity Director, “Little Duck” by James Murphy, Celebrity Director, “Evermore” by Biz Stone, Celebrity Director, “Dominus” by Arrius Sorbonne, Winning Director, “Chucked” by Jared Nelson, Winning Director,  “Here and Now” by Julian Higgins, Winning Director, “A Day in the Country” by Kálmán Apple, Winning Director and “Filter” by Ronnie Allman, Winning Director.

The Nissin Di600 is a successor to the well-established Nissin Di622 Mark II flash gun. The new model has a similar feature set to its predecessor, but at a better price point. Powered by four AA batteries, the flash has a zooming tilt-swivel head, and the guide number is 44 in metres (at ISO100/21°) at the 105mm setting. A 16mm wide-angle diffuser is built in together with a fill-in reflector. The new gun is available now in Canon and Nikon fit, with Sony fit available in November. The suggested retail price is £145.50.

Brian Griffith has released Iridient Developer 2.3.1, an update to his photo editing software for Mac OS X. This upgrade adds raw file support for ten new cameras, improved handling of decimal number entry in text fields (commas, periods and native localised decimal separators are all now accepted for decimal separators regardless of your system locale or system preference settings) and a bug fix for a couple of the Fujifilm X20 auto dynamic range modes.  Iridient Developer 2.3.1 can now be downloaded from the website below.