Colour Confidence today announced the addition of the Cobra line to its booq range of bags. Each Cobra bag is crafted from black, water repellent ballistic nylon and is trimmed with genuine Nappa leather inside and out. All buckles and loopholes are reinforced with durable gunmetal hardware. King Cobra cases are highly functional solutions for the frequent traveler who needs the freedom to carry a laptop, iPad and documents, while the Cobra Courier XS is a sleek iPad bag boasting a blend of functionality and luxurious design. The entire booq bag, backpack and iPad skin range is available now direct from the Colour Confidence website.

Steve Davey and Better Travel Photography are launching two new travel photography tours for 2011. Impressions of Laos & Cambodia departs from Bangkok, Thailand, on 6 April 2011, and explores two of the most photogenic countries in South East Asia over 15 days. Top destinations include Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang and Angkor Wat. Impressions of Ladakh starts in Delhi, India, on 25 July, before flying up to Leh the high-altitude capital of Ladakh. Participants will visit an eclectic mix of fertile valleys, mountains and ancient monasteries, as well as the remote Tso Moriri Lake and the atmospheric town of Manali. The first tour costs £1645, the second £1595 per person, excluding flights to and from Bangkok and Delhi, respectively.

OmegaBrandess has announced the exclusive distribution in the United States of the b-grip line of camera belt grips. The b-grip is an SLR support whose base attaches to the photographer’s waist belt (or to the belt provided), while the quick-release plate attaches to the camera tripod socket. As a result, the b-grip’s broad base spreads the weight of the camera making it comfortable to wear. The b-grip can soon be found at photo specialty stores across the US. For a list of dealers, visit the website below.

JP Distribution, the exclusive UK distributor for Westcott has announced the 28“ Apollo Kit. Aimed at strobists who use hotshoe-mounted flash units, the Westcott 28” Apollo Kit is simple to use, and quick to put up and take down. The unique design allows for the flash to either be bounced towards the back of the Apollo for a soft, indirect light source, or directly through the front diffusion panel for more spectacular highlights. The Kit includes the 28“ Apollo, Shoe-mount Umbrella Bracket and Stand, and retails for £135.

Announced at the end of last month, the new TriGrip Difflector from Lastolite is now available in the United Kingdom. Marketed as the world’s first dual-purpose reflector panel, the Lastolite TriGrip Difflector can be used as a diffuser and a soft silver bounce reflector. The TriGrip Difflector also features the unique TriGrip moulded handle for accurate positioning of the reflector with just one hand. Available in three sizes, the TriGrip Difflector costs £48.00-78.64 including VAT.

Blurb is hosting a 12-day pop-up event in London from 3-14 November. Providing workshops and seminars from internationally acclaimed photographers, this 12-day event will kick-off on 3rd November with the Photography Book Now Gala, an exhibition of the winning portfolio books from this year’s competition. Workshop sessions include portrait photography and bookmaking, tips for taking better travel photos, and inspirational talks from Daisy Gilardini, Martin Hartley and Peter Marlow. To RSVP, visit the website below.

In 2011, Marrakech’s Riad El Fenn will host a series of short creative workshops, including a five-day travel photography course.. Former Travel Photographer of the Year, Karoki Lewis, whose photographs have appeared in Harpers & Queen, Conde Nast Traveller and The Independent, will take guests to the hidden corners of the city as well as the Atlas Mountains and a number of Berber villages to practice their skills. The workshop takes place from 31st January to 4th February. The cost is £1,065 per person including board and lodging. For further information contact Riad El Fenn in Morocco on 00212 524 44 1210.

Barely Exposed is a new book by photographer Latana, who has photographed and surveyed 60 ethnically diverse young adults around the world. “I asked them to be half-dressed because I did not want them to hide behind their clothing,” says Latana. “It was important for me to capture the vulnerability in their faces. Half-dressed, they were all the same…half child, half adult, and yet completely different individuals.” Signed copies of the book are available via the author’s website for $40.

ACD Systems International has launched the beta test version of ACDSee Pro 4. The company expects thousands of professional photographers to participate in the ACDSee Pro 4 beta period and provide feedback in the development process, similar to the 10,000 testers who helped shape the current version. Specifically, user feedback is needed on Metadata Working Group compliance, the workflow-accelerating tools,geotagging and map viewing features, vignette and chromatic aberration correction and so on. ACDSee Pro 4 beta testing is available at the website below.

Kata has launched a winter cashback offer. Starting tomorrow, the offer is available on all Kata bags and accessories including the very latest Kata Owl, Beetle and Bumblebee backpacks and the Grip range of holsters. Running until 31 January 2011, the promotion allows UK photographers to save up to £35 on individual products.

The Environmental Photographer of the Year 2010 exhibition will open on 25th October, just a month before the Cancún climate-change conference. The overall winner of the 2010 competition is an aerial photograph titled “Flight of the Rays” by Florian Schulz, which shows a congregation of Munkiana devil rays in Baja California Sur. Bulgarian Radoslav Radoslavov Valkov has gained the title of the Young Environmental Photographer of the Year with his macro photograph of a fly. Hungary’s Bence Máté has been announced winner of The Natural World category for his image, “Fly to Eye” (see above). The winning images will be exhibited at The Air Gallery, Dover Street, Mayfair, W1S 4NE on 25th - 30th October 2010. Admission is free. A Blurb photo book of the winning images from the 2010 competition is available for purchase.

Apple has unveiled an all-new MacBook Air. Measuring 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68-inches at its thickest, and weighing in at 2.3 pounds for the 11-inch model and 2.9 pounds for the 13-inch version, the new MacBook Air is Apple’s lightest notebook to date. Featuring solid state storage and offering up to seven hours of battery life, the new Apple MacBook Air sports a full-sized keyboard for typing comfort. Other highlights include a built-in FaceTime camera with a microphone and stereo speakers, Intel Core 2 Duo processors, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity as well as a Mini DisplayPort and two USB ports (plus an SD card reader in the 13” model). The 1.4 GHz 11-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage starts at an SRP of £849 with a 128GB model for £999. The 1.86 GHz 13-inch MacBook Air with 2GB of memory and 128GB of flash storage starts at £1,099 with a 256GB model for £1,349 including VAT.

Apple has introduced iLife ’11, a major upgrade that includes a whole new version of iPhoto. Apple iPhoto ’11 features new full screen modes as well as easier-than-ever photo sharing and slideshow creation. iMovie has also been updated to offer a set of new tools including selective audio level adjustment and sophisticated visual efffects. iLife ’11 - which includes both iPhoto and iMovie as well as GarageBand ‘11 - is available immediately for a suggested retail price of £45 including VAT.

Along with the release of DxO Optics Pro 6.5, DxO Labs will introduce an HDR plug-in that will enable photographers to blend several exposures effortlessly. This allows them to produce images that accurately reflect the luminosity range of a scene even if it exceeds the dynamic range of their sensor. Specially designed multi-shot HDR presets will let photographers render these new images effortlessly with a broad range of intents from the most natural looking image to extreme creative styles. Another use for this plug-in is that you can merge several raw files shot in a burst at the same exposure in order to get a clean (low-noise or noise free) image even when having to work at high ISO settings. DxO HDR plug-in for DxO Optics Pro 6.5 for Windows and Mac is scheduled for release late November 2010 from DxO Labs’ e-store. Final pricing is not available.

DxO Labs have announced that DxO Optics Pro 6.5 will be released in early November. This newest version of the program will include DxO Labs’ Single Shot HDR technology that promises to bring out the most from a single raw image file. Additionally, DxO Optics Pro 6.5 further reduces low frequency colour and luminance noise at any ISO setting. Support for raw files produced by the Canon EOS 60D, Powershot S95 and G12, Pentax K-x and Sony A290 has also been added. The Standard edition of DxO Optics Pro 6.5 will be available for €149 / $169 / £135, whereas the Elite edition will cost €299 / $299 / £269. All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro since 1st June 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 6.5.

The Digital Photography Workflow Handbook is a new book by Uwe Steinmüller and Jürgen Gulbins. Having a good digital workflow is key to avoiding disappointment caused by weak images and poorly managed image collections. The Digital Photography Workflow Handbook is an all-inclusive resource that will teach readers how to master the craft of photographic post-processing. Providing a step-by-step guide through the photographic workflow, the 552-page book is available for $49.95.

Twenty London-based Lomographers have created a stop-motion movie using several Lomo LC-A+ cameras (pictured) and a variety of 35m films. The nearly 3-minute movie is made up of almosty 2,000 separate images shot on redscale, X-Pro Chrome and Lomography colour negative films plus two reels of 8mm black-and-white film. You can view the Lomography stop-motion movie after the break.

Panther Software Publishing has launched MediaCMS – a media content management system which is targeted at large photo, video and/or audio libraries. Files can be tagged, categorised, thumb-nailed, watermarked, previewed as part of an automated workflow. MediaCMS also allows media libraries to offer a web presence for their photographers with profiles, blogs, news etc via a set of optional modules.

Website: MediaCMS