Today at an event in San Francisco, creator Ren Ng demonstrated his company's (Lytro) brand new camera architecture that allows a very bright F/2 lens with an 8x optical zoom to capture the entire viewable scene within a new file format. It is quick with instant capture...no shutter lag. Each picture is roughly 22 megabytes in size which would make it comparable to a RAW file captured in a high-end Digital SLR camera.

What is captured by the camera is quite different than traditional cameras today. Lytro's light-field technology creates a new, proprietary file called and LFP. Inside of this file is what Ng called "11 mega-rays" of data. Thus the camera's light-field sensor can capture more than 11,000 points of light in each picture. This data can then be processed currently on a Macintosh application to create 2D or 3D imagery, changes to the focus and outputted at an assortment of sizes.

Ng has won awards on this area of research and the Lytro company was formed with $50 million in funding to produce this camera. Ng says the camera will go on sale in early 2012 in a $399 (8 gigabyte - 350 pictures) and $499 (16 gigabyte - 750 pictures) formats.

There is a lot of unanswered questions but the demos today were impressive. There are supposedly a set of accessories like a tripod mount. There is no flash, no Windows support, no video capture, no evidence of GPS, no expandable memory and no wi-fi connectivity.

It is also unclear what the images look like at higher resolutions for print applications. Lytro keeps referring to high-def which basically refers to 1080p resolution. The demos today were outputted to TV's and Facebook at 1080x1080 resolution. The images can be shared online and even allow viewers to manipulate the pictures themselves.

While it has a long list of short-comings, the instant picture aspect is very enticing. You can preorder the camera here it you want to be the first on your block. I think I'll wait a bit.

You can't help but talk about Steve Jobs if you study or care about great products and commercial executions. So what about a Steve Jobs day? Well it looks like that is just what could happen on October 14, 2011.

How will you celebrate the day? Break out your black turtleneck? Tell your favorite Jobs stories on Facebook or Twitter? Be sure to use the hashtag #stevejobsday

RSVP at stevejobsday2011.com

Note the Star Wars Bluray disc set advertisement in the bottom right

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a new videogame for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It was a well made game with some awkward areas of gameplay...especially the uneven, choppy boss fights. But I enjoyed the story and felt the need to hack every locked doorway and safe in an effort to make sure I was prepared for the next challenge.

But one aspect of the game I was not a fan, was the long load times. And as you can see from the image with this article...it comes with advertising! So my conspiracy alarms go off and I'm almost tempted to suggest the incredibly long load times that crop up...a lot...are really there just to have advertising!

Obviously, that is not really the case but it did prove to be a good spot for an ad.

We expected an Android-powered Kindle eReader tablet from Amazon. What we didn't expect two additional model lines. To break down the 14 variations TheUnderstatement.com has posted a decision/flowchart to help you parse out the differences.




And here is a similar breakdown of the iPad 2 versions.




Recommendations
While we can recommend picking up one of the new Kindle versions. We'd strongly suggest holding off on an iPad purchase unless you can't wait until late Spring 2012. The rumored new display on the iPad 3 would make it worth the wait.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Disney is introduce this week a line of toy accessories for the iPad that transforms the tablet into an interactive playground. A $20 set of two toy cars will be available starting in October at Apple or Disney retail stores and free app will be available for download from iTunes at the same time.

Interactive elements of the iPad app include navigating around Radiator Springs, driving through obstacle courses, races and missions. As you can see below, there is a whole assortment of Cars-branded toys to collect and each unlocks new content in the app.

WARNING: Parents...do the math! That's $60!

Photo courtesy of Disney

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi interviews Disney Mobile chief Bart Decrem about AppMates below...

As I am sure many of you know, Apple is suing Samsung and vice versa over a dozen patents in dispute. There is a lot of discussion as to what is and isn't a copy-cat and what intellectual properties are protected. A member of Reddit has posted a series of side by side comparisons to review the supposed similarities between Samsung's tablet product and Apple's iPad...