SAN DIEGO, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Sony’s α NEX-F3 digital camera delivers professional quality photos with a compact, pocket-sized body, allowing consumers to explore the creative world of high-quality, interchangeable lens photography in a refreshingly fun and entertaining way.

The new NEX-F3 camera features the same space-saving mirrorless design as other models in Sony’s E-mount family as well as an advanced, 16.1 effective megapixel Exmor™ APS HD CMOS sensor, identical in size to sensors found in traditional DSLR cameras.   The large sensor takes in more light during image capture, resulting in flawless, low-noise photographs and crisply detailed Full HD videos (60i/24p).  Photographers can also easily create images with beautiful defocus effects, where the subject is focused sharply against a smoothly blurred background.

ALO ALTO, Calif., May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Attensity, the leading provider of social analytics and engagement applications, today announced the results of its analysis of public reaction in social media to the new Facebook Timeline format for profile pages. Using Attensity Analyze, the company’s social analytics application, Attensity processed 138,572 public comments posted on Facebook, Twitter and blogs over a six-week period. The results, showing an overwhelming 93 percent of comments contain negative sentiment toward Timeline, are published on the Attensity blog at blog.attensity.com/?p=4545.

“We were rather shocked at the degree of frustration expressed by Facebook users toward the new Timeline format,” said Rebecca MacDonald, vice president of marketing at Attensity. “We knew from anecdotal evidence that many users —both individuals and businesses— were unhappy with it, but the results generated by Attensity Analyze show a degree of negative sentiment we hadn’t anticipated, given that Facebook is still in the process of rolling out Timeline to individual users.”

Attensity’s data reveals a strong customer “churn” potential away from Facebook. The most frequently-appearing phrases in the messages are: “Delete FB Account”; “Hate New Timeline”; “Timeline Forced Changes”; “Switch to Other Social Network”; and “Will Delete FB.”  During the research timeframe, which included the March 30 deadline for businesses to convert their profile pages to Timeline, many users indicated their intention to try competing social network Google+.

WOBURN, Mass., May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — iOptron announces its newest product – The Solar 60™ Computerized Telescope with Electronic Eyepiece- just in time for the Transit of Venus on June 5-6, 2012. This will be the last transit across the Sun for the next 105 years.

With iOptron’s Solar 60™ you’ll be able to see and capture this once in a lifetime experience. The computerized goto telescope with 60mm refractor includes iOptron’s signature SmartStar® technology that automatically locates and finds the Sun and tracks it as the earth rotates. The Solar 60™ includes everything you need: computerized mount, tripod, 4-line LCD screen hand controller, detachable white light glass solar filter, 60mm refractor, traditional eyepiece, and an electronic eyepiece (for viewing and recording directly on your laptop. Plus, it comes in a sturdy canvas backpack to carry everything to site—all for $399.

Observers in North America will see Venus move across the Sun on the evening of June 5, while observers in Eurasia, Africa, and the Pacific will see the later part of the transit on the morning of June 6.

The Solar 60™ can also function at night and includes over 5000 objects in its database. Database objects include:  planets, Sun, Moon, asteroids, comets, Messier objects, nebulae, galaxies, NGC star catalog, and more. So, even after the Transit of Venus—you’ll still be able to use and enjoy the Solar 60 for daytime or night viewing.

2012 marks the beginning of the next 11 years of significant solar activity. Your family, friends, or classmates can actually see and track the daily sun spots using the iOptron Solar 60™. The Solar 60™ is the ideal computerized telescope system for beginners to advanced users. The computerized mount can hold up to 11lbs with the universal Vixen-style dovetail saddle. So switching out the scope with other scopes or cameras is simple to do and increases the versatility and value of the Solar 60™.

Visit www.iOptron.com for more information on the Solar 60™ including dealer listings around the world and other products from iOptron.

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Well over half the world’s personal computer users — 57 percent — admit they acquire pirated software, the Business Software Alliance reported today in the ninth-annual BSA Global Software Piracy Study. Some users say they pirate all or most of the time, according to the study. Others say they do it occasionally or rarely. The net effect fueled a global software piracy rate of 42 percent last year.

The commercial value of all this pirated software climbed from $58.8 billion in 2010 to $63.4 billion in 2011, a new record, propelled by PC shipments to emerging economies where piracy rates are highest.

“If 57 percent of consumers admitted they shoplift, authorities would react by increasing police patrols and penalties. Software piracy demands a similarly forceful response — concerted public education and vigorous law enforcement,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

Overall, the study found that piracy rates in emerging markets tower over those in mature markets — 68 percent to 24 percent, on average — and emerging markets account for an overwhelming majority of the global increase in the commercial value of software theft. This is because emerging economies are rapidly extending their influence over the global PC market. (They took in 56 percent of last year’s shipments.) It is also because frequent pirates in emerging economies install nearly four times more software per new PC than their counterparts in the developed world.