Network giant Cisco is buying Pure Digital Technologies, creator of the Flip Video brand. Pure Digital’s Flip Video has sold more than 2 million units and quickly demonstrated market appeal in the United States by making video simple, accessible and fun. “The acquisition of Pure Digital is key to Cisco’s strategy to expand our momentum in the media-enabled home and to capture the consumer market transition to visual networking,” said Ned Hooper, senior vice president of Cisco’s Corporate Development and Consumer Groups. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $590 million in stock in exchange for all shares of Pure Digital.

Ricoh have released a new firmware update for the R10 compact camera. Version 1.17 modifies the LCD color balance to reduce a reddish tint. Use this adjustment file only if you feel that there is a red tint in the LCD monitor of your Ricoh R10 (you can go back to the previous firmware version if required).

Website: Ricoh R10 Firmware Update 1.17

Google’s Street View project has arrived in the UK and the service is now available for 25 cities. Street View, which was first released in the USA two years ago, provides 360-degree street-level panoramic views of cities and towns, making it possible to take a virtual tour of places before you actually visit them. The photographs used to create these panoramas are captured using specialised cameras mounted on Google branded cars. When Google announced last year that Street View would come to the UK, there was an outcry that it would violate citizens’ right to privacy. Google responded to this by saying that it would blur out any car number plates and human faces - you can check whether they have kept their promise by visiting the website below.

Website: Google Maps

Epson GS Canvas Gloss is a new fine art paper for the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 printer. The GS Canvas Gloss is a stretchable, polyester/cotton blend canvas that provides a consistent and smooth glossy printing surface that allows for a wide color gamut and deep rich blacks, while still offering the traditional look and feel of artist canvas. Epson GS Canvas Gloss is available mow in a range of roll sizes from 24 inches by 75 feet, up to 60 inches by 75 feet, starting at $199.

The Mamiya DL33 is a new medium format camera that offers 33 megapixels. At 36 x 48mm, the DL33’s sensor is twice the size of full frame DSLR cameras, with a pixel size of 7.2 microns. The Mamiya DL33’s 3.5-inch touch screen, the largest in the industry, offers a bright, high-contrast display ideal for outdoor or indoor work. 16-bit capture, 12-stop dynamic range and an ISO range of 50-800 are the other headline features of the $19,999 Mamiya DL33, which will be available in April.

Picaboo now allows you to create photo books with “lay flat” pages, which lay flat no matter how many pages there are. These photo books are made with a special post binding system and hinged paper. Picaboo 2.5, a new version of its free downloadable software, provides five new book styles, custom cover stamping, and black and white or sepia photos. Picaboo is currently offering a promotion until March 31th, 2009 (CODE: PCBBGF)* where customers who purchase certain photo books can receive an additional copy for free. Photo book pricing starts at just $9.99 and shipping is additional.

Geo-tagging community website locr has released a plug-in for Aperture. The new plug-in simplifies uploading several photos or complete albums to locr. Photos can be placed into existing locr albums or put into a new album. Keywords and descriptions as well as previously added geo tags will be transferred directly to locr along with the photos. Locr for Aperture 1.0 is available for free download now.

Nikon have released a new firmware update for the Coolpix S60 camera. The following improvements have been made in version 1.1:

- The speed at which the displayed image changes with dragging in full-frame playback mode has been increased.
- The method used to enable playback zoom (enlarge image display) in full-frame playback mode has been modified.
- After using the HD Pictmotion function, sound did not begin immediately with playback of a movie. This issue has been resolved.

Website: Nikon Coolpix S60 Firmware Update 1.1 (Windows)
Website: Nikon Coolpix S60 Firmware Update 1.1 (Mac)

Hoya is to reduce its Japanese digital camera division from 800 to less than 400 employees. Hoya’s sales, production management and development departments will be affected, as the company who merged with Pentax last year tries to halt nine consecutive months of losses. Hoya also intends to cut its international digital camera workforce later this year.

Website: Reuters

The Nature Conservancy’s website, nature.org, has launched a new bi-monthly audio slideshow from their director of photography, Mark Godfrey. Mark walks you through some of The Nature Conservancy’s most captivating nature photography images and explains the story behind the shot. Join Mark and learn more about the craft and technique that go into great nature photography.

Website: Nature Conservancy

OnAsia has launched a new environmental photo exhibition illustrating key environmental issues such as air and water pollution, deforestation and global warming. The images are by OnAsia photographers working in different parts of Asia and constitute an eye-opening visual account of the environmental destruction being wrought throughout the region. The exhibition opens at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand in Bangkok on March 20th, and will run until April 10th.

Bulldog have just launched a new UK competition to find the best photograph of their male grooming products. These can be photographs of the products against a beautiful background, lifestyle shots or even pictures of your products on holiday with you! The final result is in your hands and will be based on the number of votes the picture receives. The winner will receive £100 worth of Bulldog products and the runner-up will receive £50 worth. The closing date for the competition is noon on 30th April 2009. Each entrant must submit one photograph in jpeg format with an explanation detailing when, where and why the photograph was taken in no more than 50 words.

Website: Bulldog Photography Competition

Albelli is a new UK photo book print service. Launched by Albumprinter, Europe’s leading photo book provider, Albelli enables UK residents to create high quality photo books, calendars and diaries, with delivery within eight working days. Albelli offers thick 200g inside paper, strong cover material and an attractive range of product features including the ability to create a personal photo cover, the option to add a title on the spine and, unique in the UK, printing pages in high gloss.

We’ve been burning the midnight oil to bring you the completely new and revamped Photography Blog website! Our in-depth Camera Reviews  are now bigger and better than ever before, the brand new Techniques section will help you get more out of your photography, and our comprehensive News coverage has been improved too. So have a look around, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment here.

Pixel Sunscreen 2.0 from Think Tank Photo is a collapsible sun shade for laptop computers that completely blocks peripheral light. This portable spring loaded sunscreen instantly pops open for quick access, with an overhead cover that extends beyond the top of the sunscreen. Pixel Sunscreen 2.0 folds down into a small, round portable package that is easy to transport and deploy quickly. The Think Tank Photo Pixel Sunscreen is available now for $69.

FotoInsight Designer 4.5 is a new photo book application that integrates with Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and geotagging site “locr”. Users can complement their photo albums with additional pictures from photo sharing sites, straight from within the FotoInsight Designer software. This latest release also features new photo book formats and new features like fading frames and festive templates. Compatible with Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and above, version 4.5 of the FotoInsight Designer software is now available to download.