The Lastolite Hotrod Octa Softbox is for use with battery operated flashguns. The simple assembly means that the flashgun simply slides into a shoe mount attached to the adapter plate. The Octas are available in two different sizes and feature an inner diffusion panel and adapter plate with rods which supports the weight of the softbox. Available in two sizes, 70cm and 90cm, the Hotrod Octa Softbox is available now at £150 and £168.

VueScan, the world’s most widely used scanning software, now supports Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. VueScan supports more than 1600 scanners, and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. VueScan is available in two editions, Standard Edition ($39.95 USD) and Professional Edition ($79.95). The Professional Edition adds unlimited free upgrades, advanced IT8 color calibration and support for raw scan files.

Canon USA has announced the continuation of its exclusive on-site educational experience, Canon Live Learning. Back this year by popular demand are the EOS Immersion Seminars and Workshops and the EOS Destination Workshops, each with updated and improved content. Appearing for the first time will be a new workshop series called “Deconstructing the Story: Light, Sound, Motion & EOS HD,” aimed at professional videographers and transitioning still photographers

Zaplife is a new photo blogging website and iPhone application. Zaplife aims to offer a new simple easy to use format that combines features from photo sharing services and social network applications, creating a unique and versatile photographic experience. It focuses on the “art of photography” that the photo enthusiast or the professional photographer can use on a daily basis to upload and share their photos. The Zaplife iPhone application features almost the same functionality as the web interface and more features are on the way, with an iPad version to be released next month. Zaplife is free of charge.

Win an all expenses paid trip to TRYX OUT: NYC 2011, or one of 12 TRYX cameras. Simply register for a free account with Casio’s new Imaging Square network service to enter the sweepstake. The official launch party for Casio’s much anticipated and groundbreaking TRYX digital camera, TRYX OUT: NYC 2011 takes place April 7th and will feature the Grammy award-winning Roots with a special guest performance by Nicki Minaj, one of hip-hop’s hottest female artists.

JTec have launched a cold shoe adapter for mounting an optical viewfinder, a camera plate, and an L-bracket for the Sony NEX-5 camera. The JTec cold shoe adapter allows you to use the NEX-5 with your favorite prime lens (with appropriate adapter) and an optical viewfinder. The camera plate and L-bracket allow the NEX-5 to be mounted to any Arca Swiss style tripod head, and makes convenient landscape panoramas possible. The cold show adapter costs $59.95, the camera plate $44.95 and the L-bracket $119.95.

Michael Freeman’s international bestseller The Photographer’s Eye is now available as an iPad app. This digital version of the bestselling book features a video introduction, interactive elements including diagrams, and numerous recordings of the author. The Photographer’s Eye app is available now for $24.99.

The BenQ’s C1460 is a new 14 megapixel compact camera with a 25mm wide-angle lens. The C1460 also offers a 5x zoom lens, 720p movies, 2.7inch LCD screen and a 5cm macro mode. Price and availability to be announced.

Picfx 1.2 is an app for adding textures/frames/styles to photos. With picfx you can take a regular photo and apply 27 textures and frames with 13 styles to create a fantastic, unique looking picture. Picfx is available now for $1.99.

According to media reports, Sony “halted and evacuated” half a dozen manufacturing plants in north-eastern Japan after the country was hit by a massive earthquake and a giant tidal wave. Bloomberg reports that Panasonic is busy sizing up the damage to its own factories, while Canon’s facilities apparently managed to escape major devastation. Meanwhile, Thom Hogan points out that Nikon’s professional camera body manufacturing plant is located in the immediate vicinity of the Sendai airport, known for being struck by the tsunami that ensued after the main quake - although he adds that the factory itself was “not significantly affected”.

Nokia UK has launched a search for photos taken with its Nokia N8 camera phone for a national billboard advertising campaign. The Nokia N8 billboard competition opened yesterday and runs for four weeks, closing on 7th April. UK residents can enter the competition by visiting Nokia’s Facebook page. The winner will get their image blown up to the size of a huge 96 sheet, billboard advert and displayed near their home.

Rebit 5 is a new easy-to-use backup program that provides automatic, transparent and continuous backup for multimedia content including photos, videos and music. The new version of the Rebit software features anew user interface that provides backup and recovery status at a glance, concurrent support for both DAS and NAS, on-demand recovery point creation and USB 3.0 support for fast data transfer.Rebit 5 software is available in single and three-PC licenses at SRP £24.99 and £49.99 from Amazon UK.

Sigma announced that 167 students have submitted images to the second annual Sigma Scholarship Contest. The contest has just entered the voting phase, with a crucial online, public vote now underway to narrow down the field of scholarship candidates to five finalists. Voting will last until 5pm ET, on 1 April 2011. From the five finalists, a judging panel of Sigma executives will then choose the scholarship winner, who will receive $5,000 in cash, and $1,000 toward Sigma products. Sigma will announce the winner on 18 April 2011. o view the students’ submissions and cast a vote, visit the website below.

Nearly one in four digital imaging enthusiasts in the US are likely to purchase a 3D digital camera within the next year, according to a new Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study. The top reasons consumers indicated they were likely to purchase a 3D digital camera included an interest in 3D technology (61 percent), an appreciation for additional photographic options (55 percent), a desire to be on the cutting-edge of technology (23 percent) and a belief that 3D will help them be more creative (22 percent).

Adobe has just posted the new Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 6.4 and Photoshop Lightroom 3.4 Release Candidates. Both updates fix a few bugs and includes support for many new cameras, including the Canon EOS 600D and EOS 1100D (pictured), the Hasselblad H4D-40, the Olympus E-PL1s, E-PL2 and XZ-1, plus the Samsung NX11. They also add support for 4 Canon EF, 3 Leica S and 6 Nikon F mount lenses.

Website: Adobe Camera Raw 6.4 RC
Website: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4 RC

Mohawk Fine Papers have announced the launch of Pinhole Pro, an affiliate programme for photo products site Pinhole Press. Allowing professional photographers to provide their clients with high-end photo products such as photo books, calendars and cards while collecting client-generated royalties, Pinholre Pro additionally provides member photographers’ clients with exclusive access to premium photo products that include leather-bound photo books, guest books, day planners and more. Each photo product is printed on Mohawk i-Tone papers, and the ordering platform on PinholePress.com is powered by Mohawk Digital Technologies Group.

The hotly anticipated Fujifilm X100 has just landed in the Photography Blog office! The X100 is already in such short supply worldwide that we’ve splashed out our own cash and actually bought one, just so that we can bring you our usual in-depth review in a timely fashion. We don’t usually photograph the contents of a camera’s box, but the X100 is supplied in such a luxurious one, complete with mock silk lining, that we felt a photo gallery of our Fujifilm X1000 unboxing was worth sharing.

We’ll be bringing you some X100 sample photos in the next few days, fickle UK weather permitting. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the X100, just shout out in the Comments and we’ll do our best to answer them…