This Week's Sponsor:

PowerPhotos

The Ultimate Toolbox for Photos on the Mac

Posts tagged with "camera"

Photo of Clipless Next-Gen iPod Nano with 1.3 MP Camera Surfaces

MacRumors points to a photo posted by Taiwanese website Apple.pro [Google Translation] of what they claim to be a seventh generation iPod nano featuring a 1.3 megapixel rear camera. The website, often a reliable source of Apple rumors and product leaks, posted a similar picture of the iPod nano’s case back in early April, but the photo detailed the internals of the device showing a hole for the alleged camera, failing to explain,however, how the camera would be placed externally considering the clip Apple places on the iPod nano’s back. Today’s photo seems to confirm previous speculation that, in order to make room for the camera, Apple would have to ditch the clip entirely, although it doesn’t make much sense considering Apple has been heavily touting the iPod nano as a sport accessory that can easily clip to your shirt or trousers – it’d be a curious choice for the company to revert to a clipless design to make room for a camera on such a small screen.

It’s unclear whether this new photo belongs to an iPod nano prototype Apple has been testing, or the final version of the next-generation model as Apple.pro claims. A 1.3MP lens would make for some decent photography on the nano’s screen, and indeed previous generation models featured a camera for shooting flicks and applying effects – although on a bigger screen and different case design. Since its introduction last year the 6th generation iPod nano has become an incredibly popular accessory thanks to the inclusion of a clip by default, and it’ll be interesting to see if Apple is really going to change the design for a rear camera. An announcement will likely be made in September at Apple’s usual music event, leaving plenty of room to speculation and rumors in the next months.

Instagram 1.6.5 Gets More Tiltshift And It’s Faster

A new update to Instagram for iPhone was released a few minutes ago in the App Store, and it looks like Burbn’s main goal with this app really is to make sharing photos as fast as possible. Just as with the recent 1.6 update, Instagram’s performances have been improved to make the overall navigation faster, more responsive and less buggy when switching between sections. The difference is notable and makes resuming the app from the multitasking tray or tapping quickly on the bottom bar’s tabs a pleasure. The developers say the new Instagram also has “image quality improvements when choosing from library.” I usually don’t pick photos to share on Instagram from the iOS camera roll, but that’s a welcome addition nevertheless.

Instagram 1.6.5 also get a new filter – or, an expansion to the existing tiltshift mode. Alongside regular tiltshift introduced a few months ago, the developers added a “radial” variation that should come in handy when applying the effect to large objects or multiple ones in focus. You can download the latest Instagram update from the App Store.

Camera+ Goes Social With User Pages, Comments, Mobile View

Camera+ for iPhone is one of our favorite photography apps here at MacStories: version 2.0 brought lots of new features and optimizations to an already great piece of software, and another update released last week introduced a brand new “Clarity” effect that’s a serious competitor to Apple’s own HDR processing. Camera+ is packed with features, has a beautiful user interface and powerful sharing options. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the app sold more than 2 million copies in a few months. Camera+, according to many, is the photography app for iPhone Apple should have bundled into iOS in the first place.

Today the tap tap tap developers are taking a leap forward by completely revamping the social aspect of Camera+ – the campl.us website that allows you to upload photos (even multiple pics at once) directly to app’s servers and then share a link on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks. The new Camera+ website now supports comments, has got user pages to quickly browse all the images posted by your friends, and – finally – has also a mobile view optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can see a photo of mine here, and my user page here. You can comment either as a Guest or by logging in with Twitter and Facebook (with optional comment sharing as well); photo pages sport the usual view count and image info; the mobile web view perfectly fits the iPhone’s screen and you can also swipe through photos at the bottom to quickly switch between them.

The developers write on the company’s blog:

For a long time we were hesitant about doing mobile optimized versions of our sharing pages because we still wanted to support the zooming into pictures that our desktop pages allowed. We’ve finally come up with a solution that makes everything easier to read and browse while still supporting high quality photos that can be pinched in to see more detail. We really wanted to make our mobile pages “feel” exactly like their desktop counterparts, all the information on them makes its way over, just organized and designed for a smaller screen. We also support the same commenting via mobile as on the full desktop website.

We really like the new social features of Camera+ on the web, and we look forward to more functionalities (such as albums, they would be great) hopefully coming soon. If you still haven’t downloaded Camera+, go get it here. Check out more screenshots below. Read more

Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales→

Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales

If we were to stay on the same weekly pace that we’re currently on (~160k sales per week), we’ll get to 3 million in only 1.5 months from now. But with the volatility of the App Store, our fortune could change in a heartbeat. The one thing you learn to count on as an iPhone app developer is not to count on future sales based on past performance.

John Casasanta has been on a roll lately with his latest set of iPhone tips & tricks, and now he’s released the sales figures for Camera+. By far Camera+ is one of the most successful photography apps on the App Store, and according to the charts it’s one of a few apps that customers are consistently using on their iOS devices. The sales figures for in app purchases are telling, and Casasanta notes that while customers are buying for and requesting new effects packs, that’s not where you want to make the bulk of your cash.

There are companies with free photography apps that are trying to have their business models revolve around selling effects via in-app purchases, but it’s very unlikely that this can be an effective business model.

Camera+ is a success because tap tap tap doesn’t need in-app purchases to unlock features or drive their business model. All of the functionality you need is provided in the app, and additional effects don’t fundamentally alter your experience - they only supplement the tools already available if you find yourself using the app a lot. You’re sold the entire experience upfront, and in-app purchases are like adding an extra flower to the already delicious icing on the cake.

Permalink

iPhone 5 To Feature 8-Megapixel Camera from Sony?

9to5mac reports Sony CEO Howard Stringer, in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City, said shipments of camera sensors to Apple will be delayed due to Sony’s facility in Sendai that was affected by last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Stringer’s statements come as a surprise considering Sony has never been a supplier for Apple’s camera-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, iPad 2, iPod touch 4th gen) as the company chose to implement Omnivision’s image sensors in the past years. Omnivision’s lens modules are used in the iPhone 4 (5 megapixel sensor), iPod touch and iPad 2.

Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.

MacRumors also points to a transcript of the interview by the Wall Street Journal itself, which seems to confirm Stringer’s hints at image sensors set to be shipped to Apple in the near future:

Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”

It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.

Following Stringer’s interview, speculation is running wild on the Internet about whether he was referring to a brand new Apple product still in early production stages, or a new version of the iPhone or iPad. A report from April of last year, however, provides more insight into Stringer’s mention of image sensor for Apple: analyst Ashok Kumar claimed that Apple had signed on with Sony for an 8-megapixel camera lens to be used in the “2011 iPhone” – which would be the iPhone 5 set to be announced sometime between summer and fall. The report from Kumar also correctly indicated that Omnivision would be the supplier of a 5-megapixel sensor for the iPhone that Jobs would announce at WWDC 2010 – indeed, the iPhone 4 with a 5 MP camera module from Omnivision. In the past months, several bloggers also speculated Apple could implement Omnivision’s new 16:9 CMOS image sensor in the iPhone 5, although the reports didn’t provide any additional details. The iPhone 5 is also rumored to feature a bigger screen, the same Apple A5 processor seen in the iPad 2, NFC capabilities and a new aluminum design with internal antenna.

Apple Investigates Possibility Of Dual Camera System For 3D Photos

Patent applications from Apple made public this week show that they have considered adding an additional camera to a device such as the iPhone to enable users to shoot 3D photographs. AppleInsider discovered the patent, called “Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors” which details how they would implement the dual-camera system for the capture of 3D images.

In particular it differentiates itself from current offerings, claiming that it is a “paradigm shift from the known software-based approaches” that “guess” at how to combine the two images into a single 3D photograph. Apple says that their approach would avoid creating images with artefacts by implementing a hardware-based approach for more accurate processing. Such a system would involve multiple sensors that determine the luma, chroma and depth of the two images to unify them into one.

Furthermore the patent describes how the system could also record video in 3D and only require a simple, one-time, calibration by the user. The Nintendo 3DS which has just recently been released resembles the aims of this patent with its feature of dual rear cameras to let users to take 3D photographs and play augmented reality games that render in 3D on the fly.

[Via AppleInsider]

Camera+ 2.2 Released: Adds “Clarity” Photo Enhancement Feature

MacStories-favorite alternative image processing / photo taking app Camera+ by tap tap tap was updated a few minutes ago to version 2.2 – and this update, among a series of fixes that improve the stability and performance of the app, introduces a big new photo enhancement feature called “Clarity”.

Clarity is a big step forward from the HDR technique implemented by Apple in the default Camera application for iOS: it’s a 1-tap image enhancement that will make your photos look better in most scenarios (direct sunlight, low-light) and it doesn’t have the issues that usually come with multi-exposure HDR such alignement problems. Once you take your photos in Camera+ and jump to the lightbox (which, by the way, feels faster and more responsive in 2.2), all you need to do is edit, tap “scenes” then Clarity to improve your photo’s quality. Clarity will make more details come out, balance light and dark spots when necessary and, overall, give your photo a more “realistic” feel by re-adding the details and colors that might go missing with a standard digital shot. If you’re a Camera+ owner, just try it and you’ll see.

Version 2.2 also gives a whole new meaning the “+” in the apps’ icon as, finally, there’s a new way to activate focus and exposure controls in the camera view: the two-finger gesture is still there, but you can now tap on the “+” button to split between focus and exposure controls. It’s really handy and I like it.

Camera+ 2.2 is a great update, and the app is still available at $0.99 in the App Store. Camera+ is a powerful, yet intuitive, alternative to Camera.app, and it looks like tap tap tap are really serious about adding features that outperform Apple’s own implementation in reliability and speed. Recommended.

Some examples of Clarity compared to Apple’s HDR below. Read more

FaceTime App May “Freeze” On Your iPad 2

AppleInsider points to an issue with the FaceTime app on the iPad 2 that happened to me last night: after a video call with a friend, I came back to the app and found that the image on screen was completely frozen. FaceTime was displaying a static image of the front-facing camera when I hung up the call, and starting a new one wasn’t fixing the problem. I tried to quit and re-open the FaceTime app, but the frozen image was still there. So I restarted my device, and FaceTime correctly captured video from the front-facing camera again.

It happens quite frequently,” user “leov36” wrote of the issue. “Restarting the ipad fixes the problem, BUT, it happens again with in the next two to three times i go to use it.

When I opened up FaceTime the first time, the camera was working fine, but now whenever I open it up, it just shows a still image from when I left,” user “CRK The Man” wrote. “How can I fix it?

It appears that this issue is very common among early iPad 2 adopters, and a user on Apple Discussions also claims a Verizon Store manager told him several demo units displayed the freezing FaceTime image inside the store. It seems that for now the only solution is rebooting the iPad 2, but I don’t think (unlike several users have reported on Apple Discussions) that restoring the device is necessary.

The issue will likely be fixed in the upcoming iOS 4.3.1 upgrade, but if you’re experiencing it right now all you can do is shut down the iPad and restart it.

iPad 2 and iMovie Enable “Citizen Journalism” For Breaking News

Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens was driving to work yesterday when he witnessed a large gas explosion a couple of blocks away. To see if someone had called 911 yet, he drove with his car near to the explosion site and started recording a video with his iPhone 4. A couple of minutes later, the video was edited and uploaded to the Internet to become the first semi-professional footage used by media organizations to break the news of the Minneapolis explosion.

How did the video end up on TV if it was simply shot with an iPhone? People shoot videos with their smartphones every day, but they’re not chosen to be broadcasted. It turns out, Stephens quickly transferred the video file over to his iPad 2 through the Apple Camera Connection Kit, and started editing it. He added a map, subtitles, and cleaner voice over. All of this using iMovie for iPad in a parking lot while he could still feel the heat of the explosion on his face. Once done editing, he sent the video to Youtube and CNN iReport over 3G and was one of the first eye-witnesses to tweet about the explosion and post footage. He also tweeted permission to use the video, which ended up on MSNBC and CNN coverage in a matter of minutes.

The story here is a great example of “citizen journalism”, with an Apple twist. Everyday devices like an iPhone and an iPad become indispensable tools when it comes to quickly capturing a particular scene, and uploading the results on to the Internet so everyone can see it. Furthermore, semi-professional videos edited in software like iMovie can be used by major news organizations without looking like “yet another amateur Youtube video”.

Something is also very clear: Apple needs a better way to transfer files between iOS devices without the need of hardware. Perhaps AirDrop for iOS. Check out the video below. [TwinCities via TUAW] Read more