The FLIR ONE Case Gives Your iPhone Thermal Vision

The FLIR ONE iPhone case significantly ups the imaging powers of your iPhone 5 or 5s, making it into a thermal imaging camera that lets you see heat signatures from either live people and animals from up to 100 meters away, or from environmental sources including heating ducts, wall gaps and more.

Most of FLIR’s products to date are aimed at hunters and professionals, but this iPhone case brings an affordable smartphone-based thermal camera to the masses for the first time, the company told me at CES. The FLIR is $350, which might seem steep for a case with a built-in camera, but it’s actually around $750 cheaper than their least expensive standalone model currently available, and it provides an easy-to-use interface that anyone could quickly learn.

The app for the FLIR ONE offers numerous modes that interpret thermal data differently, with some showing many degrees of temperature, and others more clearly showing more or less binary differences between extreme heat, average temperature and extreme cold. Amazingly, it also picks up residual heat, like that left by a foot on a carpet for quite a while after a person was there.

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CES 2014: FLIR Systems Debuts 'FLIR ONE' Thermal Camera Case for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5

FLIR Systems showed off its FLIR ONE thermal imaging camera case for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 at CES 2014, allowing users to display heat signatures from live humans, animals, and environmental sources up to 100 feet away. In addition to its infrared capabilities, the FLIR ONE houses a rechargeable battery that can power the case for up to two hours, and also increases the battery of an iPhone by up to 50 percent. 

FLIR ONE's unique ability to see and measure infrared energy gives consumers a versatile new tool that can be applied in a wide variety of applications. For example, homeowners and contractors with a FLIR ONE can easily identify heat or cooling leaks in buildings, find studs in walls, or locate water damage. An outdoor enthusiast can observe wildlife, day or night, navigate in the dark, determine if the day's catch is fully cooked, or make sure a campfire is out by using FLIR ONE. A family can detect intruders in total darkness, find a lost pet, or see through smoke in an emergency using a FLIR ONE.

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Samsung Electronics Co profit falls for first time in more than two years as smartphone momentum wanes

Samsung Electronics Co. posted its first profit decline in nine quarters as new Apple Inc. iPhones won over high-end handset buyers and models from cheaper Chinese producers lured budget customers.

Operating profit was 8.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion) in the three months ended December, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a statement today. That compares with profit of 9 trillion won a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 have slowed amid the releases of the iPhone 5s and 5c and Chinese makers selling handsets for as low as US$100. The world’s biggest maker of smartphones and televisions is introducing new designs, including curved screens and bendable displays, to spark sales after ramping up spending on employee bonuses and promotions for the Christmas shopping season.

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Nokia Lumia 525 comes to India carrying a Rs. 10,399 price tag

Nokia has announced the Lumia 525 in smartphone in India carrying a price tag of Rs. 10,399. The phone will be available starting Tuesday in Orange, White, Yellow and Black colours.

The highlight of the Nokia Lumia 525 is 1GB of RAM, addressing the one complaint that many people had with the likes of Nokia Lumia 520, Lumia 620, Lumia 625 and Lumia 720, which had 512MB RAM. Other specifications of the Lumia 525 are identical to the Lumia 520.

The company had unveiled the Lumia 525 globally in November this year, without availability and pricing details.

The Nokia Lumia 525 runs Windows Phone 8 with the Lumia Black update. It features a 4-inch WVGA (480x800) IPS LCD display, translating to a pixel density of 235ppi. The Lumia 525 is powered by a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor alongside 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded up to 64GB with microSD card.

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Nokia expands smartphone range with Lumia 1320, Lumia 525

NEW DELHI: Finnish handset maker Nokia today expanded the range of its smartphones with the launch of two new devices -- Lumia 1320 and Lumia 525. 

The 6-inch Lumia 1320 phablet is priced at Rs 23,999 and will be available from January 13, while the four-inch Lumia 525 would cost Rs 10,399 and is on sale from today. 

"By 2013-end, we had 14 devices in our Lumia portfolio, of which 10 were launch in the same year. These two new devices are an integral addition to our Windows Pho .. 

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HTC Corp. Fourth Quarter Earnings Misses Street Estimates

HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) reported lower-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013. The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer said its net income was NT$ 310 million or $10 million compares with NT$ 694 million average estimates of Wall Street analysts based on data compiled by Bloomberg. Its earnings per share was NT$0.38.

The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer posted NT$ 1.56 billion operating loss (unaudited), lower than the NT $1.72 billion average operating loss estimated by analysts. HTC Corp (TPE:2498) had been reporting disappointing sales over the past nine quarters, and the fourth consecutive quarter that its profit missed analyst estimates.

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BlackBerry hires ex-HTC America executive to head device group

WATERLOO, Ont. -- BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB) (Nasdaq:BBRY) has appointed Ron Louks, who has held senior positions at HTC America Inc. and Sony Ericsson, to help develop the company's long-term product roadmap.

Louks has been named to the new position of president for devices and emerging solutions, reporting to BlackBerry chief executive John Chen.

This is the latest in a number of changes Chen has made BlackBerry's executive ranks since he joined the smartphone company in November as chairman and interim CEO.

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