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Leica X1 photo gallery proves that big shots do come in little packages
For those who've never really understood the mystique and allure surrounding Leica's retro-styled cameras (and their stratospheric price tags), here's a gallery of shots that might just lend a little insight into the fixation. The outfit's X1 was announced back in September, though initial shipments aren't expected to begin across the pond until early 2010. That said, the shutterbugs over at dpreview managed to procure one ahead of time, and they've hosted up a cornucopia of sample images from the currently unpriced compact. Go on and give that read link a look if your interest in piqued -- we're guessing you'll come away wishing your SD200 could produce similar results.
Found Photos: Rarely seen Steve Jobs
As Dave Caolo told TUAW readers a few days ago, Fortune named Apple CEO Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade" for his phenomenal leadership at Apple and how he has remade four industries (music, movies, mobile telephones, and computing) in the past ten years. Part of the Fortune article was a collection of rarely seen photographs of Steve Jobs. From the early days with Steve Wozniak, to his recent battles with pancreatic cancer, the photos chronicle the life of the iconic CEO. Two of my personal favorites in the gallery are a photo taken in 1982 of Jobs and the Mac team having a working lunch as they hammer out the design of the first-generation Mac, and another of a barefoot Jobs meeting with Bill Gates at the Jobs home in Palo Alto to talk about the future of computing for Fortune. The entire set of posts, along with the photos and video, are a fascinating look into the many successes and few failures of the engimatic Mr. Jobs. If you have a chance, take a look at it this weekend.
5 smart albums to help you organize your iPhoto library
Like smart playlists in iTunes, smart albums in iPhoto provide a way for you to better organize your photos. Whether it's a list of your most recent photos or photos with a specified aperture range, there are countless smart albums you could create to fit your needs. Here are a few of my favorite. Recently added: I always like having my most recent photos with me, and this is the smart album that gives them to me. Match the following condition. Date is in the last "90 days" (or whatever date range you prefer). The smart family album: Say there are three family members in a family -- Tobias Fünke (dad), Lindsay Fünke (mom) and Maebe Fünke (daughter) -- and you want pictures of all of them in one place. Match any of the following conditions. Face is "Tobias." Face is "Lindsay." Face is "Maebe." The camera-specific smart album: We've recently added a new member to the camera family, the Canon EOS 40D. But, like many a household, ours is one with several different cameras, and sometimes it's nice to see where each photo originated from. Match the following condition. Camera Model is "Canon EOS40D" A smart album for videos: Some digital cameras these days can also function as "good enough" alternatives for camcorders. Here's a smart album that collects all of your videos imported from your digital cameras. Match the following condition. Photo is "Movie." The best of the best: Your highest rated photos in one place Match the following condition. My rating is greater than "*" (or however many stars you desire) Readers, tell us about some of the iPhoto smart albums that you've created.
GameX 2009: The expo in photos
Did we have a good time at this year's GameX in Philadelphia? Well, if you can't tell by all of our coverage, we certainly did. But there was certainly more to the expo than just interviewing people and checking out Warhammer Online and Global Agenda running on the show floor! There were, gasp, other games there! We got many neat photos of the various things on the show floor, from robots to steampunk to Egyptian statues, and we collected them all in one gallery for you guys to ogle. If you were interested in Bayonetta or Dante's Inferno, then also look no further, as we got some pictures of those booths in action as well. So enjoy the photos as tomorrow we wrap up our coverage of GameX 2009. Hope you enjoyed reading/watching it as much as we enjoyed writing/recording it! %Gallery-77053%
First Look: Best Camera App for iPhone
The first thing I normally do when someone names their application "The Best..." is roll my eyes and delete the PR email. However, when I saw a press release about the Best Camera app for iPhone, I decided to take a look and I'm glad I did.Best Camera [iTunes link] is a collaboration between professional photographer Chase Jarvis and iPhone dev firm Übermind. The app gets its name from Jarvis's book "The Best Camera is The One That's With You," a collection of photos taken all over the world by Jarvis with his iPhone. The US$2.99 app features 14 useful filters and effects that can be stacked; in other words, you can take a photo with the iPhone camera, then apply several filters and/or effects before sharing your handiwork. The filters and effects are on a side-scrolling "dock" at the bottom of the screen, and you apply them by simply tapping on the icons. Sharing includes saving the photo on your iPhone camera roll, sending it out via email, or blasting it to your Facebook or Twitter account. There's also one more place to share your photo. While filters and effects are nothing new, Jarvis has created a community at thebestcamera.com where photos that have been submitted are displayed on a constantly changing photo wall. These photos are also viewable in the app itself, and by tapping a photo in either location, you can view information about the photographer. On the website, the information also includes a list of the filers or effects that were used on the original photo so you can re-create photos that you find fascinating.Check out the gallery below for some screenshots of the Best Camera app in action. %Gallery-73749%
Delving into the iPhone's DCIM folder
Today, Dave Caolo discovered what happens when your iPhone camera rolls past picture number 99999 (or so). As he and other Apple users have found, a picture count that goes too high can lead to unforseen errors. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. Or a camera roll that doesn't acknowledge new photos. Snapped images are stored on your iPhone in your home folder. As user "mobile," that home folder is /var/mobile and the folder that stores your iTunes library, your voice memos, and your photos is /var/mobile/Media. Inside that media folder is a subfolder named DCIM. Read on for more details.
Fix iPhone's Camera Roll display bug
Last night I was grabbing screenshots with my iPhone that I'll use in a forthcoming post. After snapping 4 or 5, I launched the camera app to look at them. I saw the preview thumbnail but when I clicked Camera Roll for a larger view, it appeared empty. I restarted the iPhone to no avail. I connected it to my Mac, and iPhoto imported the screenshots without a problem. After a sync they were in my iPhone's photo album, but I still couldn't see subsequent photos taken with the built-in camera.After some searching I found this thread on Apple's Discussion Board that describes my issue. It seems that the iPhone fails to display photos taken beyond number 10,000.* That's right, I've taken 10,000 photos with my iPhone. Or have I?The iPhone in question is a 3GS that I purchased not too long ago. There's no way I've shot that many pictures in such a brief time. However, I did buy an original 4GB phone back on opening day. As I set up the 3GS, I did a restore from backup. Guess what came with it? The "counter" for all photos I snapped back then. The 3GS picked up where the original model left off. D'oh.I'm glad to say that I've restored the Camera Roll's functionality. Here's how. I connected my iPhone to my Mac and launched PhoneView. From there, I clicked Settings and selected Show Entire Disk. Be careful here, because this lets you fiddle with typically hidden folders and files.Inside the DCIM folder I found a number of folders with names like "100APPLE," which I deleted (AFTER syncing my iPhone with iPhoto and grabbing all stored pictures). Then I quit PhoneView, restarted the iPhone or good measure and presto! I was back in business.I'm not the only one with this problem and I hope Apple addresses it in a future update. Note that you can get this done with the free trial of PhoneView, but it's a great app and only $20, so buy it as a thank you.*Remember, this refers to number of photos shot with the iPhone, not number of photos stored.
PicPosterous for the iPhone is nearly perfect
I've spent the last few weeks with Posterous, a blogging platform from Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. The result is both a modest record of my travels and a powerful enthusiasm for the service. Posterous is going to be huge. Even Andy says so. Over the years, I've used every blogging platform I've found, including (but not limited to) WordPress, Typepad, MovableType, Squarespace, Vox, Livejournal, Blogger and Textpattern. The easiest among those are the hosted solutions, like Typepad, Livejournal, Blogger, Squarespace and Vox (note that Typepad, Livejournal and Vox are all products of Six Apart). WordPress and MovableType are (usually) self-hosted and require the blogger* to create and link to a database. After installation is complete, they all require some degree of fiddling. Customizing the layout, design, colors, graphics etc. takes time. Adding something like an image gallery is even more time consuming, and often requires a plug-in which you must find, upload, configure and test on your own. By contrast, here's how you create a complete blog with Posterous: Send an email message to post@posterous.com. That's it. Here's how you create a full-featured, thumbnailed photo gallery with built-in navigation on Posterous: Email your photos to post@posterous.com. Want to post a video? Same thing. It'll even encode it for you. Send nearly any codec you want. It's brilliant because there's nothing to learn. Everyone knows how to send an email message and customers can use the email client they already know; the client that's always available via a laptop, phone or iPod. Additionally, Posterous can notify your other accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, each time an update is posted. The only drawback I found was in updating a gallery throughout the day. Let's say I want to document a trip with multiple photos added to a single post as the day progressed. How can I do that? PicPosterous [App Store link] is the answer. I spent the last couple of weeks using a beta of PicPosterous and spoke with Sachin about it. Click below to read my reaction and conversation with Sachin. %Gallery-70824% *Some web hosting companies provide a one-click install for WordPress and MovableType. Wordpress.com also provides free and premium plans for WordPress users.
Your iPhone and iPhoto library are in sync with Simplify Photo
Like its music app on the iPhone, which allows you to use your iPhone to tap into your desktop's music collection, Simplify Media provides similar functionality with photos through its Simplify Photo [iTunes link] iPhone app. Many of us are forgetful in some form, and this trait is especially magnified when one proceeds to show others an "awesome photo" on your iPhone that, sadly, didn't get synced. Instead of telling your friends that you'll show or email them the photo later -- assuming you even remember to -- you can use Simplify Photo to view your entire iPhoto collection. While increased megapixels in digital photography brings with it the promise of better picture quality, in most cases it comes at a file size premium. And because storage space on your iPhone is a finite resource, you can choose to set aside dedicated space for those really important photos and use Simplify Photo for those that are not as important but would nonetheless like to have access to just in case. Simplify Photo is available for 99 cents on the iTunes App Store, while the required desktop client (available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) is available as a free download at the Simplify Media site. The desktop app allows you to not only specify which iPhoto albums and events to sync, but the people as well -- via integration with the app's "Faces" facial detection feature. And if you're not exactly sure which album or event a photo is stored, you can use the app's search feature, which searches your photos' tags, titles and comments. But the standout feature of Simplify Photo is its geolocation support. Like iPhoto '09's places feature, Simplify Photo displays a map with various dropped pins; and tapping on the pins will display the photos taken in the vicinity. If a picture can say a thousand words, then Simplify Photo's desktop syncing capabilities have the potential to make your iPhone speechlessly filled with photos.
Upper Deck awards TCG and minis North American Continental Champions
I spent my Saturday out at Gen Con in Indianapolis, and while I did hunt down some of the World of Warcraft action there, there was just too much going on to pay attention to the 2009 North American Continental Championships for the WoW minis and TCGs, which took place right there in the TCG hall. Fortunately, the official site covered it all, so if you're a fan of the trading card game and want to know who the best current players in North America are, there you go. On the TCG side, Corey Burkhart took the top spot by playing a Troll Shaman deck for the win. In the minis competition, Michael Allen picked up the big prize. The official site has lots more information, including rundowns of each match, standings for each round, and even a Facebook album full of photos.The winners picked up thousands of dollars in prizes (including a 17" MacBook Pro and a 30" Apple monitor for Corey), and all of these guys will all compete in the World Championships, to be held in Austin, Texas this October (that prize goes up to a whopping $100,000 overall, so the stakes can get big). Congratulations to all the winners -- sounds like it was a rousing event there in Indy, and Upper Deck is probably on their way as we speak off to meet with us later this week at BlizzCon.
Apple updates iPhoto to 8.1
Along with the many software updates released lately, Apple today released an update for iPhoto. The new version, 8.1, adds several new printing options for the iPhoto print service. According to the update notes, these include: Hardcover books can now be ordered in a new extra-large (13ʺx10ʺ) size Includes three new book themes with travel-oriented designs: Tropical, Asian, Old World A variety of new holiday greeting cards themes are now available This update is available to all users of iPhoto '09 and it weighs in at 161 MB. As always, this update is available for download through Software Update, or it can be downloaded on Apple's Support Downloads page.
Camera Genius for iPhone updates and improves
Camera Genius [iTunes link] has updated its photo app to include zoom, compatibility with OS 3 and introduces a new user interface. The app aims to be a kind of one-stop app and does give the user features not available in the built-in camera app. One of the nicest is a timer function. You can even set up the camera, and say 'cheese,' or anything else, to get a picture taken when you're not at the camera. Apple should have built this in but didn't.Another nice plus are camera guides -- superimposed grid lines to help you frame and level your image. Other niceties include a review button to take a look at what you photographed, and a 'big button' that allows you to tap the screen anywhere to take a picture, and not have to find the small icon.Camera Genius will also help you get a steady picture. If the feature is turned on, the app uses the motion sensor built into the iPhone to take the picture when the camera is steady. It's not a built-in stabilizer, but it will get you a better picture while it waits for your hand to stop shaking. Note: This feature is not of much use if your are trying to get a quick action shot.There are a couple of things I don't like. The 'zoom' feature really just crops your photo. You are not zooming in, you are just enlarging your image, noise and all. I also noticed that if you are listening to your music collection on the iPhone and bring up Camera Genius, the music just stops. The developer told me he didn't know about that bug, and says it will get cleaned up quickly. I also noticed that pictures you take through the app have no geotag data. That's going to be a big problem for a lot of users. Jeff McMorris at CodeGoo, which has produced the app, says geotag data should work in the next update.I'd also like the settings screen to indicate which features are on and off, perhaps with a little check-mark or color cue. If you just look at the screen, you have no idea how things are set.One of the things I really like in the app is the little camera manual that is built in. It's like a short, basic course on photography, with brief sections on things like lighting and composition. Serious photo hobbyists won't need it, but for people just getting started it is welcome information.The app is on sale for US$0.99 which is a nice price for such a versatile addition to the iPhone. If the geotag issue is fixed, I think many people would see Camera Genius as a viable replacement for the built in camera app. Here are some annotated pictures of Camera Genius in use: %Gallery-69998%
TUAW Sneak Preview: Doxie scanner from Apparent Corporation
Apparent Corporation, makers of the popular Intelliscanner barcode scanners, has announced that their new Doxie document scanner is in private beta-testing and on track for release to the public in November, 2009. Doxie is a USB-powered 600-dpi photo, document, and receipt scanner designed to integrate with a number of undisclosed Web and Mac apps. While I'm personally disappointed that Apparent didn't go with the pink and white Good & Plenty candy color scheme, the Doxie is heart-friendly and comes emblazoned with a number of pink hearts. The biggest heart is on the single scan button, which is just visible in the top right of the photo above. I was shocked to find a mistake in the press release, in which they said there were 9 hearts on the device. There are actually 10: one above the "i" in the logo, 8 after the logo, and one on the scan button.A cool thing about Doxie is that it will automatically know when you're trying to scan a photo, clean up the photo (straighten it and trim if necessary), and then politely offer to put the photo into your iPhoto Library, Flickr pool, or other web apps. As an Apparent spokesperson noted, the company isn't interested in coming out with yet another piece of software to store your receipts and documents. Instead, they want Doxie to work with as many existing Mac, Windows, and Web apps as possible. One comment from the developers that may point to some rather unique functionality is that they recommend using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Doxie will retail for $129, and you can sign up for updates and early release information at the new website, which went live today.
A peek inside the TUAW offices
Each day the TUAW crew awakes from our hyperbaric chambers, slides down the firepole in our historic 2-story firehouse and gathers around the Surface table to discuss what we're going to write about. Oh wait, that's in an alternate universe I just made up. In reality, the TUAW team is a diverse group of freelancers based all over the world, working from their home offices to find Apple stories for you. There's no office except our chat room, no break room except our Twitter feeds and no daily editorial bull session with the team. It doesn't work like that. Instead, we all wake up at different times, read different sources, write different stuff and share different opinions. Everyone has a "day job" of some nature outside of TUAW, be it cubicle farmer or freelance pixel pusher. I'm pretty thrilled we've been able to do this for over four years now and our independence and focus hasn't changed. While you can't take a tour of our real-world offices, some of our bloggers are sharing pics of their workspaces. Everyone has a very different setup, as you can see. Want to share your own setup? Tag a picture on Flickr with "tuaw" and we'll check it out. %Gallery-68997%
Share your Second Life summer look for a chance at L$10,000
Today seems to be a day of contests! First we have the DDO stress test contest that's going to be occuring tonight, and now we have another one for Second Life! A contest of summer style, no less! Who's up for some virtual modeling?It's the summer, and Linden Lab is interested in seeing everyone's summer attire -- like swimwear, bright colors, and the things you generally wear on the beach. So interested, in fact, that they're willing to lay L$10,000 on the whole deal via an Xstreet shopping spree.
ASUS Eee PC T91 review
We've had our eye on ASUS' first full touchscreen tablet netbook, the Eee PC T91, since way back in January, when the hardware was on display while the software had yet to appear. Since then, we've seen quite a lot of the T91, and now it's finally making its way onto the US retail market. We've spent the last few days giving it the once over, to see how this netbook -- which is a true departure for ASUS -- stacks up. Touchscreen tablets have been, in many ways, an oft-repeated mix of excitement and disappointment -- great ideas coupled with mediocre hardware, or nice-looking hardware coupled with bad implementation of the touchscreen. Has ASUS managed to sidestep these issues with its own tablet PC? Read on for our impressions.
Visua Mobile's old Apples collection
A couple of months ago I wound up in Paris and received a surprising direct message via Twitter from a young employee at Visua Mobile. Having nothing better to do in the City of Light, I wound up at their offices. I'm often suspect when a "mobile" development company rings me about their iPhone stable. Just like my tea, I prefer my developers steeped in Apple. Well, Visua Mobile is certainly made up of Apple fans. Just check out the gallery of their offices to see what I mean. Visua's raison d'etre would be iPhone apps. To my astonishment, none have been runaway hits. They are beautifully designed and generally work well (some 3.0 bugs crept up). Visua gained some noteriety around their app, Fracture, that would make the iPhone screen appear broken when pressed. But they make a host of already-approved apps, including Celebrity, which features a special magazine cover just for TUAW fans. %Gallery-67744%
First Look: Make cool slide shows with Pix Remix
It's summer, a lot of people are going on vacation, and here at TUAW we've been inundated with postcard apps. First there was my not-so-glowing review of Postcard Express, and then C-mac published her look at Postman 2.0. Today, I received word of something a bit different -- an app that turns your iPhone photos into animated collages and slideshows that can then be shared with friends or the world through email, Facebook, or Twitter.Pix Remix [App Store, US$2.99] was previewed for TUAW at WWDC '09, and you can watch Victor's video of the app in action.Creating these animated shows is simple and intuitive. You pick a show type (collage, slideshow, or pan & zoom), select some photos from a photo library or camera roll, and then drag, pinch, and tap to arrange the photos or determine the start and end points of the pan & zoom. Don't like how your photos are arranged? Just shake your iPhone to let the app do the job. You can add titles to every slide, and when you're ready to share your work, you just tap the send button.However you choose to send your show, the recipient gets a link that takes them to the Pix Remix website to view it. If another Pix Remix users sends you a show, you can view it from within the app. The developers at Jump Associates have done a wonderful job of making this app bug-free. It's one of the cleanest version 1.0 apps I've used in a long time, and considering all of the iPhone technologies and external links it takes advantage of, that's saying a lot. Why just send a postcard to your friends to make them jealous of your vacation when you can send them a Pix Remix show instead? Check out some screenshots below and check out a demo slideshow here. %Gallery-67706%
iPhones pass the fireworks test: best of the reader-submitted 4th photos
Shooting photographs of fireworks can be a real challenge. The good shots happen quickly, cameras don't always get the focus right, and there is a lot of movement that can make for blurry pictures. The iPhone is not the best camera in the world for demanding photo jobs -- that's true for all cell phone cams, with the possible exception of digital cameras that happen to include phones as a bonus feature.Nevertheless, we asked our readers around the U.S. to send us their fireworks images, and that they did. Actually, the iPhone acquitted itself pretty well, both with still images and in movies done with the new 3G (plus one movie done with a jailbroken 2G and Cycorder).Look below for a gallery of some of my favorite stills. Many were sent anonymously, so we can't always credit the photographer. Some were uploaded directly from their phones to MobileMe and YouTube. Thanks to all who participated and made our 4th of July sparking and colorful. Visit this link to see the full collection of entries, check out comments in our request for pictures article yesterday for more YouTube links, and view the gallery below for our selection of some great images from around the country.%Gallery-67412%
More cakes, plates, and tats in our galleries
Yes, that's Arthas admiring his own title on a license plate -- Kallis of Silver Hand sent us this shot, presumably before his head was chopped off by Frostmourne. Trust us, if you think celebrities are angry when the paparazzi come by, you don't want to see what the Lich King does.This picture and quite a few others are all new in our WoW-related license plate gallery, and we've gotten a few other new pictures of cakes and tattoos to share with you as well. Browse through all of the pictures from readers in the galleries below, and if you've gotten a new WoW-related license plate, someone's baked you a WoW-related cake, or you've picked up some new WoW-themed ink, feel free to send us a picture so we can share it here on the site.%Gallery-20183%%Gallery-31459%%Gallery-40471%
