News in brief: Christmas cashback pressies from Pentax

More cunning than a cunning fox, Pentax has just announced some cashback offers to tempt you into buying its wares when you might, possibly, maybe, be thinking about presents for Chrisnukah. There’s £90 back on a K-5 – body-only or with a lens – or £100 back on a Q with a single or twin lens kit. I’m not sure that a £100 reduction is enough to win me over to the Q from the recent reviews, but if your heart is set on this itty-bitty 12 megapixel snapper, it can’t be bad at all.

The offer’s valid from 1 November to 31 December 2011. All the information that you need, including a downloadable claim form can be found here for the K-5 or here for the Q.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Two months in nick - the cost of taking a photo in court

Here in the UK artists’ chalk sketches made in court are a familiar sight; photography in court rooms is banned. Unfortunately this snippet of information, along with the signs saying something along the lines of ‘No photography’ escaped the notice of one Paul Thompson when he turned up at Luton Crown Court on Friday to lend his support to a friend who was on trial for robbing an off-duty police officer.

One photograph from his Blackberry and an hour-and-a-bit later, he was sentenced to two months in prison for contempt of court by Judge Barbara Mensah. She reckoned that a strong message needed to be sent to people who commit such a serious offence.

Judge Mensah, I think that Paul Thompson and quite a few other people might just have got that message.

Yes, it was contempt of court. Yes, it was a remarkably stupid thing to do. Yes, it was also a remarkably ignorant thing to do; using your mobile phone in court is plain rude. But I can’t help but agree with various lawyers and penal reform charities who’ve said that two months is verging on over-kill. Haven’t we got other people, you know, like convicted murderers, who should be in our already-overcrowded prisons?

(If you want to know more, take a look here, here, or here.)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Facebook in German hot water?

Facebook’s facial recognition doo-hickey is coming under a bit of pressure in Germany as the authorities there reckon that it violates both German and EU privacy laws. Facebook, naturally enough reckons that it isn’t doing anything wrong, but then as far as I can tell, Facebook wouldn’t think that selling your granny to the highest bidder to finance one orgiastic night of hookers and blow was wrong, either.

From the German perspective, Facebook is sitting on a massive pile of its users’ biometric data that it has gathered from images uploaded to the site. There might be an opt-out function, but they have the information regardless of whether someone consents to it or not. Facebook’s response is that this makes life easier for its users. And safer, too, apparently. I’d love to hear the reasoning behind that one.

Dr Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s data protection officer, has requested that Facebook do something about it, pronto. If Facebook doesn’t, it could be fined up to €300,000. But let’s face it, that’s hardly a deterrent to multibillion dollar Facebook, is it?

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Fancy assisting Ben Watts?

We’ve just received word of a fabulous opportunity to work with photographer Ben Watts. He’s shot for Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Conde nast Traveller. Now he’s looking for someone to join him in LA on a photoshoot for Treats! magazine. It’s pretty simple – you just have to submit a photo on the theme of energy – but you do have to move fast. The deadline’s 13 June.

The lucky winner gets travel to LA and two nights’ accommodation, plus credit for her or his work, which should feature in the magazine’s third edition.

As submissions are open to a public vote as well as the panel’s decision, the top ten entries receive a year’s subscription to the magazine.

Interested? You can check out more details here!

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 10 photos per second at Instagram

You know that crazy number of users that Instagram has, something like 4 million, which it built up in just over seven months? Yeah? Well it turns out that between them, they’re snapping and sharing ten photos every second. Uh-hmm, you read that right. Ten photos per second. That, my lovelies, is a lot of pictures.

Kevin Systrom, Instragram’s co-founder, announced this to the TechCrunch guys at TechCrunch Disrupt. When he was asked to put his finger on Instagram’s success, Systrom said: ‘It turns out if you make something that people want it spreads really well.’ You know, I can see the logic in that.

(Headsup to TechCrunch, obviously.)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 250,000 images free for use from Yale

Scattered throughout its museums, libraries, and archives, Yale holds a collection of hundreds of thousands of objects that are in some way culturally valuable – manuscripts, inscriptions, paintings, that sorta thing; they’ve got millions of high-res images of these objects, too. In an unprecedented move (amongst the Ivy League institutions, anyway) Yale is opening up these images and making them freely accessible in a new collective catalogue.

If the image is in the public domain, it’ll be available for download and transmission without any kind of licence or restrictions on its use. They’ve only just started the process; 250,000 is what’s available right now.

From Yale’s perspective, it is about opening up scholarship and ‘responsible stewardship’ of its collection. It’s also about moving with the times. So, who’ll be next then?

(Headsup to BoingBoing)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Do people not have anything better to do with their money?

Why on earth would you pay $1,000 for a lens that you can’t use? Even if it is Leica and has been transformed into a work of art? Actually, especially if it had been made by Leica. Yeah some students at Leica, as part of their graduation project, made art out of a discontinued Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm lens and a 50mm f/1.4 Summilux lens by splitting them in two. Valued at $4,500 and $3,700 respectively when whole, the Tri-Elmar sold for $995 on eBay. There are some things in life that I just don’t understand…

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Flickr re-confirm user rights

After TwitPic’s recent brush with licence grabbing, a few other photo sites have gone under the loupe – and Flickr decided to post their response to the issue in their most recent blog post.

‘There has been some discussion on the web as of late about image ownership on photo sites so we wanted to take a moment to address this on Flickr,’ the blog post notes drily.

In their official statement, Flickr say that they ‘feel very strongly that sharing online shouldn’t mean giving up rights to your photos,’ and continue to confirm that their terms of service only includes a licence required by Flickr to operate its service – specifically, it ‘grants Flickr the right to (…) create the small, medium, and large sizes, display your photos on the site, etc. It doesn’t mean that we own them. When you upload your photos to Flickr, you retain the rights to your images.’

That’s the spirit, Flickr. Well done.

There’s more on the official Flickr blog.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The super-big medical CMOS sensor

Yesterday the world’s tiniest medical camera had its five minutes of editorial fame; today it’s the turn of the world’s largest CMOS sensor that’s basking in the lime-light. It’s been called DynAMITe (Dynamic range Adjustable for Medical Imaging Technology) and is 12.8cm square. It’s about 200 times bigger than your average computer chip.

It’s been developed by the brainy peeps at the University of Lincoln. The idea is that it should aid detection of cancer tumours and better chart their responses to radiation. More brainy peeps at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital are looking at how to make it even more effective. Not sure when it’ll reach hospitals quite yet.

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The itty-bitty medical camera

Having cameras shoved in various parts of your anatomy isn’t exactly a pleasant experience, so the smaller the things, the better. I’m thinking that a 0.99mm diameter camera, with a 0.66 x 0.66mm CMOS sensor and 45,000 pixels of resolution is a pretty good deal.

It’s been developed by the Israeli company Medigus for use in disposable instruments where they need tiny cameras. Things like cardiology or robotic surgery. Astonishing!

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.