A company called Leap Motion has launched 'the world's most accurate' 3D motion control device, which it says is 200 times more sensitive than Microsoft's Kinect peripheral.

The almost insanely cheap $69.99 (£44), 4-inch camera plugs into your computer via USB. It tracks motion in 3D space from your fingers, pencil or other objects you place in its line of sight.

The makers say they hope to "change the world" by opening-up motion control gaming, design, robotics and medical applications and, yes before you ask, Minority Report or Iron Man-style screen control.

The Leap, which will ship this winter, lays flat on your desk and "creates a three-dimensional interaction space of 4 cubic feet to control a computer more precisely and quickly than a mouse or touchscreen," the company says.

Versatile

Accurate to 1/100th of a millimeter, it also incorporates multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom and can recognise the movements of all ten fingers.

The video demonstration (below) shows-off a first person shooter and a flight sim, and also 3D drawing and mapping applications, all controlled through motion.

Leap says its technology is versatile enough to be used in smartphones, tablets, refrigerators and cars and will be tailored as such in the future.

"One day 3-D motion control will be in just about every device we interact with, and thanks to the Leap, that day is coming sooner than anyone expected," says CEO and co-founder Michael Buckwald.

Pentax has announced a new DSLR to sit in its line-up, featuring a weatherproofed body and shake-reduction technology.

The company says that the features found in the K-30 are more commonly found in higher specced cameras, but the body shape and size is more reflective of an entry-level model.

Featuring a 16.2 million pixel CMOS sensor and a PRIME M image processor, which enables the K-30 to shoot full HD video at 30fps. A wide sensitivity range of between ISO 100 and ISO 12,800 (expandable up to ISO 25,600) is also available.

Tough

Built to be weather-resistant, dustproof and coldproof, the K-30 is designed to be used outdoors, and also features a large group intended for a secure hold of the camera.

An optical viewfinder is included, which offers a nearly 100% field of view and approximately 0.92x magnification.

The K-30 features a Pentax designed Natural-Bright-Matte III focusing screen to assist with manual focusing. This can be replaced with a standard focusing screen, or a cross-lined and scale type screen, which has been designed to accommodate more specialised photography.

Pentax claims that the K-30's SAFOX IXi+ autofocusing module is "state-of-the-art" and that it is designed for high-precision autofocusing and responsiveness. Nine of the 11 AF points are cross type sensors, while the AF algorithm has been updated in all areas.

A high speed shooting function allows for shooting at upto 6fps (in JPEG format only). Other features include Live View at 60fps with a focus-assist function to improve precision when manual-focusing, Auto Picture and Scene modes and Pentax's own Shake Reduction mechanism.

Creative

A number of image processing tools, such as Bleach Bypass and Cross Process are also available and can be added after the shot has been taken.

Pentax has also announced a new 50mm f/1.8 K-mount lens. It features the company's Super Protect coating to fend off dust, water and grease.

The Pentax K-30 price is yet to be confirmed, but it will be available from the end of June.

Facebook's second day of public trading has seen the social networking giant's shares continue to plummet.

Facebook went public last Friday, and though the stock opened strong around $42 (£26) ($4 (£5) over the initial price of $38 (£24)), it ended on a weak note ($38.23, only 23 cents over the IPO) by the time the bell sounded on Wall Street.

Today marks day two of Facebook's trades, and the price has continued to fall. By early afternoon it had fallen to $33.81 (£21), more than 11 percent below the IPO.

At the closing bell, Facebook's stock was sitting at $34.03, 10.99 percent below the initial asking price.

A bad omen or simply settling?

Facebook's plunging stock shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, as the company is still settling into the market and its worth is guaranteed to fluctuate.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told TechRadar last Friday that the initial rise and fall of Facebook's stock "doesn't have anything to do with what the company's worth."

"It'll find an equilibrium price in the next week or two," he said. "I have a buy rating and a $44(£27) target, and I'm standing by it."

Problems on Wall Street

The Nasdaq admitted Sunday that there were some technically hiccups on Facebook's opening day of trades.

Large and small investors reported errors preventing their trades from going through, claiming those errors led to financial losses.

The Nasdaq is recreating those trades to determine who will require compensation.

It's hard to believe that Apple's FaceTime found on the iPhone 4, 4S and iPad, is almost two years old already.

And, what's more unbelievable is that the video-calling functionality still doesn't work over 3G data networks.

But judging from a new warning message recently discovered, that may not be the case for long.

Reports have surfaced that seem to indicate Apple is at least thinking about flipping the switch to allow FaceTime to work over carrier data networks.

The current Wi-Fi only feature is largely hampered by the need for a traditional broadband network, but we may see an end to this limitation soon.

iPhone's mystery message

The discovery was made quite by accident, when a user disabled the 3G data connection on their iPhone while in the middle of a FaceTime call.

"Disabling 3G may end FaceTime," a warning prompt announced. "Are you sure you want to disable 3G?"

Given that the FaceTime call was taking place over Wi-Fi, disabling 3G won't actually do anything, although attempting to re-enable 3G warns that the call will be disconnected as a result.

With anticipation running high that the next iPhone will feature 4G LTE, the time is ripe for Apple to allow FaceTime over 3G or 4G data connections - although the carriers may not quite be ready for the additional flood of data.

The US International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order banning certain Motorola Android devices from being imported to the U.S. after determining that the devices infringe on a patent held by Microsoft.

The patent involves the way the devices create and schedule meeting requests. Motorola can either remove the infringing feature, alter it so that it no longer violates Microsoft's patent, or reach a licensing agreement with Microsoft.

The infringing devices have yet to be named, and Motorola did not wish to comment beyond their official statement, which can be found below.

But Microsoft's initial dispute specifically called out these older devices:

• Motorola's Atrix
• Backflip
• Bravo
• Charm
• Cliq
• Cliq 2
• Cliq XT
• Defy
• Devour
• Droid 2
• Droid 2 Global
• Droid Pro
• Droid X
• Droid X2
• Flipout
• Flipside
• Spice
• Xoom

The ITC reached the decision on Friday, and as per other ITC rulings, Motorola now has 60 days to comply or find a work-around.

During that period Motorola will be required to pay $.33 on all infringing devices imported, and President Obama has the option to veto the ITC's decision.

Motorola will consider an appeal

"Microsoft started its ITC investigation asserting 9 patents against Motorola Mobility," Motorola said in a statement to TechRadar.

"Although we are disappointed by the Commission's ruling that certain Motorola Mobility products violated one patent, we look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning.

"Motorola Mobility will not experience any impact in the near term, as the Commission's ruling is subject to a $0.33/per unit bond during the 60 day Presidential review period. We will explore all options including appeal."

For their part, Microsoft has expressed a desire to reach a licensing agreement with Motorola.

"Microsoft sued Motorola in the ITC only after Motorola chose to refuse Microsoft's efforts to renew a patent license for well over a year," Microsoft's corporate VP and deputy general counsel David Howard said in a statement to TechRadar.

"We're pleased the full Commission agreed that Motorola has infringed Microsoft's intellectual property, and we hope that now Motorola will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers selling phones in the US by taking a license to our patents."

Patent disputes against Android escalating

The ITC's Friday ruling against Motorola came the same week that Taiwanese manufacturer HTC felt the repercussions of a similar decision regarding HTC's infringement of a patent held by Apple.

That decision, reached last December, barred HTC from importing the One X and EVO 4G LTE Android smartphones, and the devices were temporarily stopped at customs earlier last week.

The phones were eventually cleared, but if Android devices continue to come under pressure due to patent disputes with companies like Apple and Microsoft, the platform could be in serious trouble.

Motorola is in the process of being acquired by Google, but it's unknown exactly how the acquisition will affect these events.

BSkyB will not be subjected to competition regulation over the dominance of its Sky Movies platform, thanks largely to the emergence of Netflix and Lovefilm, reports have claimed.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the satellite provider will not be asked to loosen its grip on first-run Hollywood movies, when the Competition Commission issues a preliminary report next week.

Last August, the regulators began investigating whether Sky's large subscriber base gave it an unfair advantage over competitors in the same market.

However Netflix and Lovefilm are now offering ample alternatives to Sky Movies and Sky Box Office, according to the report.

Not quite as dominant

The newspaper says: "Following the entry of Amazon-owned Lovefilm and fellow U.S. operator Netflix into the market, both offering films online, the commission is likely to say Sky's position is no longer as dominant as previously thought."

The news comes less than one month after Ofcom urged the Competition Commission to continue examining the case as it had found no evidence that Lovefilm and Netflix were posing a threat.

Ofcom said: "We have not seen any clear evidence presented to demonstrate that the subscription video on demand services offered currently by LoveFilm and Netflix exert a sufficient competitive constraint on Sky Movies."

As well as the two chief on-demand rivals, Sky also faces increased competition from the number of Smart TV and connected set-top box providers.

The Commission will publish its full report in July.

Comcast announced it will remove its data usage cap in favor of a new pricing model based on usage.

Two pricing approaches are being considered by Comcast, though neither plan has been finalized.

The first plan offers tiered usage allotments, starting with 300GB per month for a basic package and larger monthly allotments offered for at least two higher tiers.

Users could then expand their monthly usage in blocks, with the example given of $10 for an additional 50GB of data for the month.

The second plan is simpler, offering a single tier for all users with 300GB of data per month.

That monthly allotment could also be expanded with additional monthly blocks of data just like the first plan.

Regardless of which plan Comcast decides on, the lowest available data plan will see an upgrade from the current 250GB per month cap to 300GB per month with the option to expand.

Changing policies for changing needs

Comcast instated its controversial 250GB bandwidth cap back in 2008.

The change is due to increasing questions over the company's data plans as new services are introduced, said Comcast Executive Vice President Cathy Avgiris in a blog post.

She continued to explain in the post:

"For the last six months we have been analyzing the market and our process and think that now is the time to begin to move to a new plan.

"This conclusion was only reinforced when, in recent weeks, some of the conversation around our new product introductions focused on our data usage threshold, rather than on the exciting opportunities we are offering our customers.

"So as the market and technology have evolved, we've decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service."

Though the company continues to claim that 250GB per month far exceeds the average internet user, increases in streaming content have made the number increasingly insufficient with the rise of tablets, smartphones, cloud storage, and a multitude of audio and video streaming services.

Comcast will begin trials for its new usage pricing plans in select markets over the coming months.

Markets that don't receive the trials will also see a decrease of enforcement for the 250GB data cap, though Avgiris says the company will still issue warnings for particularly excessive usage.

Additional details on Comcast's new plans, such as pricing, will be announced close to the trials' launch.

The new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone will arrive capable of hitting the fastest 3G speeds currently on offer in the UK.

The 4.8-inch, quad-core device is DC-HSPA (dual channel high speed packet access) enabled meaning that some O2 customers will be able to reach download speeds of up to 42Mbps.

O2 is currently rolling-out the upgrade to its 3G service, in the major UK cities, as Ofcom continues to drag its heels over the long-awaited 4G LTE auction.

Vodafone is currently the only other UK network offering DC-HSPA connectivity, but can only promise a maximum speed of 28Mbps.

Rivals Three and Everything Everywhere are also promising to upgrade their offerings later this year with both aiming for the maximum 42Mbps speeds.

Another string in its bow

The Samsung Galaxy S3 will arrive as one of an elite crew of gadgets currently packing the improved connectivity.

The Apple new iPad 3, which earned the company criticism for its '4G' claims, and the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone device are among the others.

The Galaxy S3 officially arrives in the UK on May 30th, although fans eager to get their hands on the device can do so one day earlier at the Samsung Store in the Westfield Shopping Centre, London.

YouTube celebrated its seventh birthday in the geekiest way possible this week – with a deluge of stats. Apparently there are now 72 hours of footage uploaded to the site every minute of every day which equates to a lot of Charlie Bit My Finger wannabes.

Seven years is a long time on the web – Zuckerberg was still working on Facebook in his dorm room when YouTube launched – and the YouTube of today is far different from the site that first began on the web back in 2005.

Where once amateur footage ruled the roost, the professionals are slowly but surely taking over.

This is where credit has to be given to Google. Its original owners Steve Chen and Chad Hurley were obviously visionaries but unlike Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, they decided to take the money and run, leaving a mess of a site for Google to shape into its own vision.

It was a perfect fit for Google which has tried its hardest to grow the site and mould what was a lawless wasteland of video that breached all sorts of copyrights into a wholly legitimate service, with the video police now replacing pirated content with sad faces and blank screens.

Given this was the backbone of the site, it's a surprise YouTube managed to keep its community happy through the changeover but when you have spent $1.65 billion money has to be made.

Now, in 2006, $1.65 billion was a massive amount of money for an acquisition (it was certainly Google's biggest then, but now only a tenth of what it paid for Motorola) and there were plenty of analysts ready to shout that Google paid too much for the service.

But with Instagram going for two thirds of the price of the whole of YouTube, the whole thing now seems rather tame in comparison.

Video star

I remember working for a filmmaking magazine at the time of the sale, the now defunct Digital Video, and my editor fought tooth and nail to put YouTube on the front cover. It eventually did go on the front cover and we saw an upsurge in sales – it was a small surge but a victory for us.

We were adamant, and had been since YouTube's launch, that this would be the site to reinvigorate the camcorder market. It turns out we were wrong, the amateur footage became a by-product as the site fought to be more professional until what it has become now – part old-school MTV, part movie streaming service, part You've Been Framed For Doing The Funniest Things.

Unfortunately for those making camcorders, the 'upload to YouTube' button came too late, as consumers were already doing this with their mobile phones.

It's difficult to know if Google knew what it was getting into when it bought YouTube back in 2006 – it seemed to buy into the popularity of the site, but with that came myriad lawsuits. Viacom queued up to have their piece of the pie and it looked like the site would go the way of Napster.

It's almost as though the lawyers were waiting for a company with money to come along and snap it up before it decided to mine the copyright goldmine. Crazy we know.

Seven years on, though, and YouTube is doing rather well – even if Google is still cagey on how much money the site actually makes, you can't dispute its popularity.

Subscriptions have increased 50% and its users are now watching over 3 billion hours a month.

But there's still a lot to do. Google is pushing the movies more and more on the site, but it also has its own video site on the Google Play market so this section is not getting the pride and place it deserves.

It's made it easier to upload content and even edit it on-site and Google's birthday blog is all about the community that exists. But it's still playing a precarious balancing act, trying to keep both its dedicated users and uploaders and the money makers (movie, TV and music companies) happy.

It will be interesting which way the site goes in the next seven years.

A revamped version of Nintendo's tablet-esque Wii U controller was leaked to the net recently by a QA tester from LEGO series developer Traveller's Tales.

The tweet revealing an image of the new Wii U controller design has since been removed, but not before the image itself circulated the web, offering ample room to analyze the changes.

The most obvious alteration is the controller's sticks, which actually are analog sticks now.

The original controller design shown at last year's E3 featured analog circle pads like those found on Nintendo's 3DS handheld.

The shift to analog sticks is presumably to facilitate clicking the sticks in as buttons, which would facilitate easy adaptation of Xbox 360 and PS3 controls to Nintendo's controller.

However, click-able sticks were never a feature on any past Nintendo controller.

The other big change comes from the start and select buttons, which have moved from under the controller's screen to a much easier to reach location under the controller's primary face buttons.

Two mystery buttons

Perhaps the most intriguing change are two white squares etched into the controller - one underneath the D-pad and another next to the power button.

The squares look like they could be buttons of some sort, though they sit flush with the controller's face and in awkward locations to reach, making them ill-suited to regular use.

One theory is that they toggle between a game that displays on the TV screen and the screen built into the controller.

When Wii U was first introduced one of the proposed uses was for a child to continue playing a game on the Wii U screen while their parents change the channel on the TV.

A button on the controller could be used to switch between those display options.

Another theory is that the squares could mark the location of the Wii U's NFC chips, a feature that would allow the system to read data from cards and figurines similar to last year's breakout hit Skylander's Spyro's Adventure.

What's in a name

The final major alteration is that the new controller design features Nintendo's official Wii U logo. A company putting the system's logo on its controller typically wouldn't be news, if not for the recent rumors that Nintendo was considering a name change.

It's unclear exactly where the name change rumors started, though each rumor pointed to the Wii brand name being weak with core gamers, as well as potential confusion whether Wii U was a new console or simply a new controller to use with the existing Wii.

Nintendo didn't seem to take much heed of the rumors though, with the Wii U name emblazoned on the latest controller design.

With E3 just around the corner, we're about to get a much closer look at the revised Wii U design.

The system is expected to launch in time for the holidays this year, so expect a more thorough breakdown of the final hardware and its launch lineup of games from E3 in June.