Greetings from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where we are for a few more days on a working vacation. If your perceptions of Brew City are based solely on old reruns of “Laverne & Shirley” and “That 70′s Show”, you are missing out on a truly great (and photogenic) city.
It’s going to be a big week in iPhoneLand. The new iPhone OS, iOS 4, hits today. The iPhone 4 streets later this week. In lieu of a full-blown post this morning, here are a few random musings….
There are a wide range of iPhone photo apps in the App Store. They have an even wider range of names. Most are — pardon the pun — aptly named with a word or phrase that is clever and fairly descriptive of the app’s function. Occasionally, there are some apps, regardless of the quality of the app, with names that make one wonder just what its developer was thinking.
As the number of photo apps grows, it’s reasonable to assume that the number of available, cool photo app names is going to dwindle. I’m still amazed, however, at some of the cool names developers still create for a basic camera replacement app. On the other hand, I’m sometimes bewildered when a developer puts so little thought into the names of their apps, especially after the hours and hours of time they spent creating it. The ideal goal is to create an app with a descriptive, clever name that a user won’t be ashamed of having on their home screen.
Here’s my list of the Worst iPhone Photo App Names. These aren’t names where the name of the company is an important part of the app name, which makes sense. These are app names that made me ask why? Some of these apps are awesome ones stuck with a bad moniker. Others live up to the expectations set by their title.
New iPhone camera (?), showing LED flash. Image credit: Gizmodo
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I rarely like to report on rumors and speculation, but this genie is already out of the bottle.
It looks like those leaked photos and details over at Gizmodo of a possible next-generation iPhone prototype (the iPhone HD perhaps?) are probably genuine. When Apple goes after leaked info or devices, it’s usually a good indication that the item in question is the real deal and yesterday, they asked Gizmodo for their property to be returned.
If it’s real — and I think it is genuine — it’s a beautiful device. It’s almost enough to draw me away from T-Mobile and their relatively inexpensive all-you-can-eat plans and drink the much pricier AT&T Kool-Aid.
The goods on the rumored new camera is below. Read on….
It is Day 3 of the Apple iPad revolution. So far, I can still purchase “dead tree” magazines at the supermarket and I still have photographic prints hanging on my walls, so I imagine the world hasn’t changed in a fundamental way just yet….
I nearly succumbed to the lure of the future this weekend. Here in Dallas/Fort Worth, there were still plenty of iPads available until well after 3:00 PM on U.S. iPad day Saturday. But, like many of you, I’m holding out for a few weeks until the 3G version is released here. With the way I travel and work, a 3G iPad and the need for internet just about anywhere simply makes more sense for me.
In about 20 hours from the time of this writing, the world changes. You are here to see it.
Tomorrow morning, Apple’s iPad will be unleashed to the world. I truly believe that the iPad will change in a very big way how we receive content and information. I believe the iPad will create new industries, rescue old ones that are embracing the new slates, and be a nail or two in the coffin of others that can’t or won’t adapt.
Recently I posted a rant about my frustration with the glut of low-res apps that are hitting the Photography section of the App Store. There were many excellent comments on the post, including several from developers. In case you missed some of the newer ones (or just gave up because of LoFi’s wonky .css for comments that doesn’t allow the margin tag), below I’ve reposted some highlights from comments that were written by app developers. I used the nicks they provided in the comments.
One of my regular reads is the Smoking Strobes blog written by photographer Michael Zelbel. The other day, he posted this to his Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s a great quote and I thought I’d share it here.
“Dear photographer, the moment you take a really great photo almost never seems like it holds this great photo, at the first glance.”
This is all you get. Full-size output from one of the recent super-low res camera apps (300x400 pixels)
Another day, another super-low-res monochrome camera is released in the App Store.
With the number of monochrome camera apps that save at the iPhone’s full resolution — Vint B&W, Spica SuperMonochrome, and others — and the number of apps that do an excellent job of converting images to monochrome — CameraBag, MonoPhix, CameraKit — I don’t understand why it’s suddenly become so difficult to produce apps that save to at least 1200×1600 resolution.
One of my biggest peeves in the App Store is the recent glut of super-low-res photo apps. These are the apps that save images at 320×480 pixels (or less) — the iPhone’s screen resolution. Seriously, that’s 0.154 megapixels. The original VGA resolution from the late 1980′s was 640×480 pixels.
By now, all 24+ timezones are into a new year and a new decade. I hope 2010 is a good one for all of you and I wish you success in all of your pursuits, whether they are personal or professional.
With the bevy of new apps to hit the App Store in 2009, I think 2010 promises to be a great year for iPhoneography. There are a lot of new tools to help us explore our creativity and realize our vision as we capture the moments around us.
I saw a lot of great iPhoneography in 2009. You are creating a lot of great images that a gallery-worthy. I’m excited about all the new exhibits this year, both online and brick-and-mortar, that will be featuring iPhoneography and I hope to see some of your work displayed.
I hope all your light is good and all your apps are stable. I wish you all a very good new year.
This year, we got the first white Christmas DFW has had since Texas was a state. Okay, not that long — more like 80 years or so, but we spin ‘em pretty big here in the Lone Star State. It may not be that big a deal to many of you who are used to real winters, but here in DFW, we were wearing shorts and flip-flops just a couple of days ago. That isn’t spin.
However you are spending your day today, whether it’s in snow, on a beach, in a city or out in the country, I wish you the merriest of Christmases this year and I hope your day and your season is filled with family and friends, happiness and love.
