Adobe has launched Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS devices.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Adobe Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS
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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 on display at Macworld 2011
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Tags: Fujitsu, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100, MacWorld 2011, ScanSnap, ScanSnap S1100
What is a ScanSnap? We have reported on it before. It is an ultra-portable scanner that weighs about 12 ounces, and it is powered by a single USB cable. It can scan anything like contracts, long receipts, business cards, and even plastic IDs at a high speed.
It also converts scanned documents into PDFs, and then convert them to Word and Excel files with support for Evernote and Google Docs for easy sharing.
I don’t have any word on price or availability as yet, but they’ll be more word at Macworld.
Tags: Fujitsu, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100, MacWorld 2011, ScanSnap, ScanSnap S1100
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Instagr.am ? iPhone Photo Sharing Application [Review]
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My first Upload
Lately I’ve been using the Instagr.am App on my iPhone and it has been a lot of fun.
In this post I’m going to briefly share some reasons why I’m enjoying using it and talk a little about my Instagr.am workflow.
But before I get into that:
- Firstly – if you’re already an Instagram user check out my account at darrenrowse – I’d love to connect
- Secondly – this post won’t be for everyone. For starters not everyone has an iPhone – sorry, but at this point it’s an iPhone only app.
OK – with that said….
I first got onto Instagram just a couple of weeks ago. I think I’d originally seen it starting to appear in some of the facebook and Twitter streams of friends who were using it to share photos.
At first I didn’t think much of it and threw it in the ‘just another social media photo sharing app’ basket – but after seeing more than a few people I respected using it I decided to check it out for myself. The fact that it’s a free iPhone app made checking it out just that little bit more attractive!
So at it’s core Instagram is very simple. In fact it’s been critiqued by some as being too simple and there are some features I’d love to see them add (although it only launched in October so I guess their still really in the early stages of refining it).
Here’s how the team at Instagram describe what they’ve developed:
Instagram is a fun & quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your iPhone, then choose a filter to transform the look and feel of the shot into a memory to keep around forever. We?re building the platform to allow you to experience moments in your friends? lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through images of what happens around them ? whether through friends or people across the world.
At present the interface lets you either take pictures from within it or pull images in from your iPhone camera roll. The only way you can add photos is via your phone (to bring them in from another camera means importing them into your iPhone and then uploading them – which some people do).
Adding Filters is Easy
The filters Instagram offers currently number 11. They’re mainly fair ‘retro’ kinds of filters that add borders, textures and change colors. There is no real way to control how much a filter is added to your image – it’s all or nothing. However you can always do post production work in other apps and then save them to your camera roll to upload them (I’ll touch on this later).
Once you’ve got an image ready to share you can simply add it to your feed or have the opportunity to also share it in other social media tools. Currently you can share it to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Foursquare.
There’s also the ability for others to view your images from within the app on their iPhone. You can invite and find friends and anyone who accepts your friendship will see your images in their feed. Images can be ‘liked’ and commented upon by others giving you feedback on how your images are being received.
Popular images are also featured in a ‘popular’ tab in the app so you can see what everyone else is liking.
A Limitation I hope they Fix
One aspect that I don’t like about Instagram (and this has been a common complaint that I see others making) is that there’s no real web interface for it.
When you share a link you are sharing a link to an actual page on Instagram (here’s an example of one of my recent images) – however when others visit that page they can’t do anything there. There’s no ability for anyone to ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on an image from the web page. You also can’t use their website to view all of the other images of the photographer or add them to your network. To do all of that you need to have the iPhone app which doesn’t make it very interactive for non iPhone users).
Being able to point people at your own Instagram account where all your photos are kept would not only help you share your photography better but would also help Instagram to grow as people would be linking to it like crazy from their blogs and social networking profiles.
Why I like Instagram
Imported from my Computer/dSLR
While there are some definite limitations with this app that I hope will be developed moving forward (either by Instagram or by others as they release their API) I’ve actually found it to be an application I’ve used numerous times per day. There are a number of reasons I find myself drawn to it:
- Creative Inspiration – Like many amateur photographers I at times go through dry spells when it comes to my own photography. The last few months have been particularly busy for me (both with work and at home) and my photography has suffered as I keep other balls in the air. I’m still taking shots regularly on my dSLR, but some of the creative spark has been missing and there have been more times than normal where I’ve been out without my camera. Since using Instagram however I’ve noticed myself taking more images with my iphone and even taking more on my dSLR with sharing them in mind. I’m not sure exactly why this is – but there’s something about sharing images in a public space that inspires and makes you a little more accountable (at least that’s the case for me).
- Community – one of the things I’m loving about Instagram is connecting with other photographers that I’d not been in contact with before. Both seeing the work of others and also getting their feedback on my own images has been both fun but also quite useful and inspiring. I often find myself in a quiet moment scrolling through the images of other users and feeling my energy lifted.
- Focus upon Composition – I’ve also found myself thinking a little more carefully than normal about composition of shots. The reason for this is that Instagram’s format is square. This forces you to crop your shots which, once you get in the swing of it, means you need to think a little differently as you’re faming your shots. I’ve actually found that this is drawn me back to being a little more intentional about framing my images and composing shots.
- Friends and Family – I had a call last night from a family member that I don’t see too much to thank me for sharing more photos than normal online. I didn’t even realise that they’d been following my stream but by sharing more pics from life (including my kids) they felt a lot more connected. I guess I could have been doing this on a site like Flickr but they’d found it useful to get a stream of images on their iPhone.
Popular Area - Be Inspired by Others
My Workflow
3 Images in 1 - Created in the iPhone with the Diptic App
One of the other things that I’ve been enjoying about Instagram is exploring some of the other iPhone photography apps that I’d not really been into before. As Instagram only really gives you 11 options for post production filters I have started to explore what other applications offer.
As mentioned above the workflow for doing this is to:
- take images using your normal iphone camera (or another app) and save the image to your camera roll
- open the image in whatever app you want to do some post production work to
- re-save the image to your camera roll
- upload it to Instagram to share
Apps that I’ve been finding myself using to do this include:
- Diptic – which allows you to pull in multiple images to make a collage of shots
- Camera+ – this app has a lot of different ways you can adjust an image including cropping, rotating, adding a variety of effects, having different scene modes, adding borders etc. It also gives you a lot of control over how much you want to apply different effects
- CameraBag – I like a few of the filters that this app has
I’m sure there are plenty of other iPhone apps that people will also recommend (feel free to add them in comments below).
Another workflow that others use is to import images that have already had their post production work or images taken with other cameras from a computer into an iphone. It might seem a little bizarre that people would go to this effort (and I haven’t) but looking at some of the images that make it into the ‘popular’ tab it is clear that not all images being shared are taken on an iPhone.
An App with Promise
Instagram has had a lot of press in the last months from around the Social Media blogosphere and deservedly so. It’s simplicity is great, it’s social/community feel is very positive and it does help people with the most common type of camera going around (that in the most popular type of phone going around) express themselves and share their images in a fun way.
The fact that a month ago they already had over a million users says something in itself!
It’s something I’m going to continue to play with and I look forward to connecting with you on Instagram if you do too – don’t forget to add me as a friend at ‘darrenrowse’.
Post from: Digital Photography School
She's Too Tough To Care
Have you heard of the award winning film, Varicose Veins? I would imagine not, but documentary film maker Sy Wexler, born Simon Wexler in Manhattan in 1916, worked as a producer, director, screenwriter, and cameraman in over 800 16mm black-and-white educational films in science, health, sex education, government and medicine, with catchy titles like Teeth are For Life, High Blood Pressure or Squeak the Squirrel.Parents and school administrations have forever grappled for ways to control the rebellious nature of youth. Since the 1940s there have been a number of films which, through highly graphic imagery, attempted to shock, awe and otherwise persuade the youth of America into proper behavior and to shun the evils of driving, sex and cigarette smoking. In the 1950s-70s, there was a very disturbing series of controversial driver's education scare films films produced by the Highway Safety Foundation that featured gruesome footage taken live at the scene of fatal automobile accidents in the Mansfield, Ohio area. Titles like Wheels of Tragedy, Highways of Agony and one that I personally had to sit through in a High School public assembly, Mechanized Death. The positive effect of these is debatable. In my school, I saw fellow students screaming and leaving the assembly hall, girls vomiting while some boys feigned being unaffected and laughing. Although these films have cult status now and many are available in their entirety or in montages, I don't think America is missing much without them.Sy Wexler's film, He's Too Tough Too Care, did not share this macabre, grisly approach, but instead was instilled with humor. In it, individuals were seen in various scenarios where they met with fatal outcomes due to smoking, like a worker smoking on a scaffold while his cigarette unknowingly burns a support rope. Another memorable scene involves a lab scientist working for a tobacco company expressing dismay to an executive. When asked how the tests are going, he responds not good, producing a stiff, dead rat from his lab coat pocket. All of these scenes were done with a blend of humor. Throughout the short film, the catchy jingle was sung - He's Too Tough to Care. Cigarette smoking today transcends the defiance of yesteryear. There is virtually no cachet - even among the young, the habit appears foolish and over priced. Smokers are virtual pariahs, restricted and banned everywhere. The women in the photo are archetypes for today's smokers, relegated to the sidewalks of New York City. These women demonstrated the ultimate in defiance, smoking while standing outdoors in a frigid 10 degrees. Our coworker Brittany Bartley, however, puts a positive spin on going against social norms. She bikes daily from Manhattan to Brooklyn, over the Manhattan Bridge, in a trip that takes about 35 minutes. Undaunted by yesterday's cold snap, Brittany still made the journey by bike, even on a morning with temperatures in the single digits. With no complaints. When I discussed my photos of the women smokers with our company graphic artist, she commented that she was infinitely more impressed with Brittany's braving the extreme cold on a bicycle. I agreed.Sy Wexler passed away in 2005, but I see room for a sequel in the spirit of his original He's Too Tough to Care. Perhaps this is a project for our friend Ferris Butler. For casting, we have two women who smoke in down jackets on the streets of New York City in January and Brittany on her bike to Brooklyn in single digits. I can see the theater marquis now - "She's Too Tough To Care" :)
Adobe Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS
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Adobe has launched Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS devices. The free program debuts a fast new camera workflow that enables continuous, rapid photo-taking directly in the app, adds multi-tasking and full Retina display support, and offers a better photo uploading experience. Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS is available immediately on the App store. Note that the new version requires iOS 4.2.
Adobe Press Release
Adobe Introduces Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS with New Camera Workflow and Full Retina Display Support
Adobe today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Express 1.5 software for iOS devices. Designed for iOS 4.2, Photoshop Express 1.5 introduces significant improvements to the photo capture and editing experience, including:
New camera workflow: Photoshop Express 1.5 debuts a fast new camera workflow that enables continuous, rapid photo-taking directly in the app. Customers can quickly capture and review multiple shots—even those hard-to-get action shots—and hand them off seamlessly to the Photoshop Express editor for cropping, adjustments and effects (designed for iPhone and iPod Touch models with built-in cameras).
Full Retina display support on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch models: Photos look smooth and sharp, and the app screen looks crisp and clear, thanks to full support for Retina display in Photoshop Express 1.5.
Multi-tasking support: With new support for multi-tasking in iOS 4.2, Photoshop Express 1.5 remembers where customers leave off when they switch to another app and then switch back to Photoshop Express. That means customers can pay attention to email, news, games and other activities on their iOS device and then jump right back into viewing or editing a photo without having to start over.
Improved photo uploading: One of the benefits of multi-tasking support is a better photo uploading experience. Now customers can queue and continue uploading photos to Photoshop.com or Facebook in the background while switching between Photoshop Express 1.5 and other apps.
“Photoshop Express 1.5 is an incredibly useful release for anyone doing photo capture and editing on iOS devices,” says Matt Domenici, director of product management for mobile imaging at Adobe. “Our millions of iOS-based users will be delighted by their new ability to capture the right shots more easily, view beautifully smooth versions on-screen, and edit them even while switching back and forth with other apps, picking up right where they left off.”
Availability
Photoshop Express 1.5 for iOS is available immediately on the iTunes Apps store. The new version requires iOS 4.2. For more information or to download the app, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-photoshop-express/id331975235?mt=8
Hanvon Graphics Tablets Debut in the UK
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Colour Confidence has premi?red a new range of graphics tablets by Hanvon.
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