The Cloak Bag is a camera bag that lets you take pictures whilst your camera is still inside. It also doesn’t look anything like a normal camera bag, making it doubly secure if you’re a vulnerable traveler on vacation.

Like all the best niche products, the shoot-through bag was born of specific need. After two near misses in Buenos Aires, co-inventor Robert Merrill was afraid to take his DSLR out for fear of theft, so when he got back to Florida, he went to work. The Cloak Bag is designed to keep the camera protected and out of site, yet you can quickly flip it open and shoot with the camera still inside. A strap replaces your actual camera strap, and then the case itself hooks onto it with Velcro and a screw in the tripod-mount. The bottom of the bag zips open and folds inside when you want to shoot. In this mode, it looks like any other shoulder bag.

To shoot, you flip open the top (held in place with magnets) and your fingers slot inside through a gap to reach the dials and shutter release. If you need to zoom of focus manually, there is another zipper to gain access to the lens from the side.

Even if not fearing pickpockets and scam-artists, I like that you can have the camera ready to go but still protected from bumps (just don’t forget the front is open and put the camera down on wet ground). And at $50, it’s not much more than other day bags. The Cloak Bag is for DSLRs-only, and will fit cameras as big as Canon’s 5D MkII and Nikon’s D700 – in short, anything smaller than a bulky pro camera.

Cloak Bag [Cloak Bags via Photography Bay]

See Also:

• Make It: Stealth Camera Bag
• Gadget Lab Reader Makes Stealth Camera and Netbook Bag
• Hands On With Lowepro's 'Stealth' Camera Bag

Read more here:
Cloak Bag: Shoot With the Camera Still Inside

Ok, you know the routine: the Apple store goes down prompting blog posts to deflect the onslaught of tips. Commenters then ponder why Apple has to go offline to add updates before a flamewar breaks out with somebody accusing somebody else of being a Nazi. Ah the internet, somebody should give it a prize. In between all the nonsense, feel free to wonder whether or not we’ll be seeing an overdue Mac Pro update to Gulftown in addition to the long awaited MacBook Pro update that should bring automatic NVIDIA Optimus graphics switching to Apple’s top-o-the-line laptops. We already know that iPad pre-orders are a lock. Check back at around 830 New York time to find out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Apple Store down globally: iPad pre-orders only or something more? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Let me see—the time is 6.30am EST, it’s Friday the 12th of March. Could it be Apple loading a pre-order page for the iPad, two hours earlier than expected? [Apple] More

I guess I’ve been doing a lot of Whitney Port posts over the last few days, that’s because she seems to be trying to outdo Amanda Bynes when it comes to showing off her legs. I had her making sexy faces in a little sun-skirt, then playing with her boobs in her sweet little bikini and now here she is on the runway of what seems to be her own line of clothing showing off those long ass legs of hers. If her clothing line encourages more women to wear short skirts that highlight their legs, I’m all for it, if not… Garbage. Enjoy.

]]> http://youtubevideo.net/whitney-port%e2%80%99s-long-legs-hit-the-catwalk.html/feed 0 http://youtubevideo.net/amidst-controversy-storm-kwedit-reveals-repayment-rate-already-at-26.html http://youtubevideo.net/amidst-controversy-storm-kwedit-reveals-repayment-rate-already-at-26.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:20:51 +0000 admin http://youtubevideo.net/amidst-controversy-storm-kwedit-reveals-repayment-rate-already-at-26.html Kwedit, the innovative and suddenly controversial payments platform for virtual goods, is releasing some early data. The service lets users promise to pay later in lieu of a direct credit card payment when they want virtual currency for social games like Farmville. It’s not a legally binding promise, but users have an incentive to pay amounts owed because that allows them to get more virtual currency through the service. Users can pay by, among other methods, mailing in cash or paying at a 7-11. When the product first launched they had no idea what percentage of promises would be repaid. Anything at all is incremental revenue to game publishers, and since the stuff they’re selling has no marginal cost (virtual currency), it’s all upside. But after nearly two months of being live, they say the repayment rate is 25.9% If you’re a credit company that would put you out of business. But for game publishers, that’s a staggeringly attractive monetization option. Hopefully the company (or its partners) will also disclose the monetization rate as well down the road. Because right now game publishers are only able to get cash out of 1-3% of users. If they can get another few percent to pay via Kwedit, and 25% of that money is actually paid, revenue from games can double or more. It’s controversial because Colbert made fun of it, and then the Huffington Post and CBS jumped on the bandwagon. CBS actually called it “toxic.” Founder Danny Shader posted a long response here. But the short version is this – the criticism is ridiculous. It’s coming in one case from a competitor (the Huffington Post article was written by the CEO of a company that promotes Visa cards to teens and adults, without any sort of disclosure on the conflict). And the author of the CBS article doesn’t appear to actually understand the product and seems more concerned with getting parents all worked up. The really scary stuff in social games was the Scamville nonsense where teens and pre-teens where being tricked into putting long term subscription charges on their parent’s cell phone and credit card bills. Kwedit isn’t even close to that kind of evil. It’s simply a very clever way of monetizing social games, and the most innovative new payments product I’ve seen in a very long while. CrunchBase Information Kwedit Information provided by CrunchBase Read more here: Amidst Controversy Storm, Kwedit Reveals Repayment Rate Already At 26% ]]> http://youtubevideo.net/amidst-controversy-storm-kwedit-reveals-repayment-rate-already-at-26.html/feed 0 http://youtubevideo.net/elle-macpherson%e2%80%99s-supermodel-leather-pants.html http://youtubevideo.net/elle-macpherson%e2%80%99s-supermodel-leather-pants.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:00:38 +0000 admin http://youtubevideo.net/elle-macpherson%e2%80%99s-supermodel-leather-pants.html Here’s former supermodel Elle Macpherson in Paris, I think, wearing a nice pair of leather pants showing us that she hasn’t missed a step when it comes to hotness. I for one am really glad to see that leather pants are making a comeback, I can finally dig my sweet pair out from under the stairs. I wonder if I still have the matching tie. What do you mean they’re only coming back for women? What kind of sexist garbage is that? I suppose it’s for the best, my ass looked a little too good in those things anyway, it could be dangerous. more pictures of Elle Macpherson here ]]> http://youtubevideo.net/elle-macpherson%e2%80%99s-supermodel-leather-pants.html/feed 0 http://youtubevideo.net/first-look-pixars-short-day-night-showing-this-summer.html http://youtubevideo.net/first-look-pixars-short-day-night-showing-this-summer.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:10:48 +0000 admin http://youtubevideo.net/first-look-pixars-short-day-night-showing-this-summer.html As is tradition at Pixar, the studio will be debuting a new short film in front of Toy Story 3 this summer from one of their own artists. This year’s short is called Day & Night and is the directorial debut of Teddy Newton, a storyboard artist on The Iron Giant and character designer for The Incredibles and Presto, too. ComingSoon has revealed our very first look at the short by way of this interesting advertising banner (seen below). This isn’t official confirmed, but both SlashFilm and I think that this may actually be a 2D animated film about these two characters, and it looks quite wonderful, as always. Check out the new first look below! Here’s the official Day & Night plot synopsis: “When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other’s unique qualities — and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world — the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.” I’m curious if Pixar titled this Night & Day originally and had to change it to Day & Night once Fox retitled their summer Tom Cruise action movie to Knight & Day. Don’t get confused – one of them has a “k”, the other doesn’t. I’m already looking forward to seeing this in front of Toy Story 3 this summer! You? Discover More: First Look, Hype, Photos Read more here: First Look: Pixar’s Short ‘Day & Night’ Showing This Summer ]]> http://youtubevideo.net/first-look-pixars-short-day-night-showing-this-summer.html/feed 0 http://youtubevideo.net/icalshare-relaunches.html http://youtubevideo.net/icalshare-relaunches.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000 admin http://youtubevideo.net/icalshare-relaunches.html Filed under: Software, Internet Tools After a long absence iCalShare.com has relaunched with new search tools and an improved user interface. iCalShare is a site dedicated to sharing calendars for use in applications like iCal, Google Calendar, or Outlook among dozens of other web and desktop apps. The site contains over 3,500 calendars across 40 different categories from Academics to Television. Calendars are free to download and can be used with any desktop or website application that can import iCalendar files. How it works: Just search the site for a calendar of your choosing, click “subscribe” and that calendar will automatically be added to your iCal. Since it’s a subscription-based calendar, it will automatically update whenever the author edits the calendar. You can also create and share your own calendars on iCalShare for free after registering with the site. Whether you’re a Harvard student, a DC Young Democrat, or a movie buff, there’s a calendar for you. iCalShare was first launched in 2002 and spotlighted by Steve Jobs during his 2003 keynote speech. The site was created by Patrick Crowley, a technologist and long-time Mac user. TUAWiCalShare relaunches originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read ]]> http://youtubevideo.net/icalshare-relaunches.html/feed 0 http://youtubevideo.net/avatar-rerelease-planned-for-this-summer-and-titanic-3d-targeted-for-spring-2012.html http://youtubevideo.net/avatar-rerelease-planned-for-this-summer-and-titanic-3d-targeted-for-spring-2012.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:43:09 +0000 admin http://youtubevideo.net/avatar-rerelease-planned-for-this-summer-and-titanic-3d-targeted-for-spring-2012.html James Cameron discusses plans for both monumental films. Read more here: Avatar Rerelease Planned for This Summer and Titanic 3D Targeted for Spring 2012? ]]> http://youtubevideo.net/avatar-rerelease-planned-for-this-summer-and-titanic-3d-targeted-for-spring-2012.html/feed 0