Your average digicam already takes care of almost every step of the photographic process for you. From selecting an ISO, to autofocus, to opening the aperture, to adjusting the shutter sped, today’s digicam is truly an idiot-proof affair… providing said idiot is trying to take pictures of it, as opposed to, say, eating it.

Unfortunately, while the hardware is streamlined enough that any swollen-tongued moron can use it, photographic composition itself is still very much thwartable by the dumb and untrained.

Enter the prototypical Nadia digicam, which eschews an LCD live view display for a simple read-out gauging a photograph’s composition against its own programmed aesthetic beliefs in percentage form.

Inside, there’s a Nokia N73 cellphone, communicating with a Mac via Bluetooth, which is in turn running an “aesthetic inference engine” linked to Acquine. Unfortunately, Acquine’s aesthetic taste seems pretty questionable: Goatse.cx (Wikipedia link, work safe) scored an astonishing 67.5%, for example, while a photo of the Nadia itself scores a paltry 32.5%.

Still, the theory’s sound. After all, digicams already do everything short of telling you if your shot is good, and they already boast every other software feature under the sun in the ongoing quest for brand differentiation. Why stop there?

[via Gadget Lab]

Again jabbing their paint coated thumbs right into poor Jonny Ive’s vitreous jelly comes rig pantone outfit Colorware, who are now prepared to slather your gorgeously designed aluminum unibody Mac mini in whatever garish, classless color scheme of your heart’s choosing.

The service costs $250, which is pretty cheap given how much they charge for a custom-colored iPad, but still a lot more expensive than a can of spray paint and some masking tape. For $1000, you don’t even have to mail them your own hardware: they’ll just send you a Mac mini in the colors of your choosing.

Me, I prefer the Mac mini’s gorgeous design as it is naturally, before it was dipped in a vat of Manic Panic. Pig in lipstick is the wrong analogy: it’s more like a supermodel drowned in a vat of the stuff. Your mileage may well vary.

If you’re living in one of the many international countries yet to experience the iPhone 4’s transcendent Retina Display, futuristic FaceTime capability or the infamous Death Grip, good news: Apple has just announced that they will be shipping iPhone 4s to 17 more countries this Friday.

The second-tier first-worlders who can expect to get the iPhone 4 are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Launch day? July 30th. We can’t wait to see the iPhone 4 waiting line photos from far more exotic climes.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDj_Q2HuhPw&feature=player_embedded

Although there are already quite a few iOS 4 jailbreaks out there, they don’t work on some devices like the third generation iPod Touch (MC), and — of course — the veritable iPhone 4.

The good news, of course, is that the indefatigable Dev Team is already hard at work on a new jailbreak that will support all iDevices under iOS 4.0.1, including the iPhone 4.

The new jailbreak will be very much like the 3.1.3 ‘Spirit’ jailbreak. Unfortunately, though, it’s not quite ready for prime time.

According to the Twitter feed of one of the most vocal members of the Dev Team, their iOS 4.0.1 jailbreak has been delayed because of issues with FaceTime on jailbroken devices, noting there’s no point in releasing a half-assed jailbreak if some of the best new features don’t work entirely right.

Rest assured, though: a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 is coming. It’s just a matter of patience.

As we reported on Friday, Apple seems to be unsure of itself when it came to promising swift delivery of free iPhone 4 bumpers.

In Leander’s case, his free iPhone 4 bumper won’t ship until August 27th, and delivery was slated for September 1st.

Luckily, it looks like Apple was erring on the side of caution when it comes to delivery dates: a few readers have emailed us, saying that while their original estimated delivery date was closer to Leander’s, they have already received word that their free bumpers have shipped, well over a month before originally promised.

Personally, I was pretty understanding about Apple having shipping delays: this iPhone 4 antenna issue clearly took them by surprise, and organizing and shipping out millions of free cases on such short notice is a difficult logistic problem. Good on Cupertino for getting things done more quickly.

Anyone else gotten an email saying their bumper’s on the way?

If you woke up this morning ready to pull the trigger on that long-lusted for Mac Pro, here’s some counter-intuitive good news for you: it’s currently “unavailable” for purchase at both the Apple Store and many retail stores around the United States.

This is good news, trust us. Apple pulling an item from inventory usually signifies an imminent hardware refresh, and rumors have been swirling for the last few days about what the next MacPro might have going for it.

What does the scuttlebutt have to say for itself Try a USB 3.0 capable Mac Pro with FireWire 1600 (or even 3200) ports, and — in all likelihood — a couple of Intel Core i7 processors.

We’ll keep readers informed if and when new Mac Pros go on sale. We’re certainly hopeful that any new Mac Pro update will hearken a company-wide adoption of the faster USB and — in Pro-level computers — FireWire processors.

[via Mac Rumors]

MacRumors have picked up on some claims this morning by Mac4Ever that give details on Apple’s next update to the iLife suite.

It’s rumored that the update will happen on August 7th, 2010, and will introduce a whole host of new features including a new “mystery” application:

– iLife ’11 will be sold for $79
– Release Date of 08/07/2010
– All applications will be 64-bit
– Improvements in iPhoto faces & places
– Improving the integration of social networks
– iWeb will be totally renewed
– New application (mystery!)
– Disappearance of iDVD
– MobileMe gallery in beta (with faces & places)

Several rumors have circulated recently regarding an update to iLife, some of which claim the new update will be labelled iLife ’10. However, as MacRumors points out, the iLife ’11 name would be more consistent with Apple’s previous behavior; iLife ’08 was introduced in August, 2007.

The iPhone 4 brought changes in shape, function, features, and so on, but to the joy of many cell phone photographers, the device now includes a rear facing 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and a forward facing VGA-quality camera. Apple enhanced the cameras via software improvements like FaceTime, zoom, etc. linked to the hardware changes above. These changes will probably calm the complaints about the camera that I heard about on the previous iPhone models. However, regardless of the issues users have developed exciting ways to use the camera and there are innovative third-party applications to help along the way.

One such app is Camera+, which is a joint effort between Taptaptap and Canadian photographer Lisa Bettany. I figured it was worth taking a look at it since it was on sale Sunday for $1.99 (regular price is $4.99).

Turns out everyone’s favorite Sith Lord is an iPhone 4 user, and even the Force can’t help Lord Vader avoid the Death Grip.  Russell Arch has posted an entertaining animated clip over on YouTube about the experience.  Also, the Empire keeps an old iMac around to run Classic Apps!

Thanks to RetroMacCast for the tip.

Newton Peripherals carved out a niche in the gadget-universe, guided by the simple principle that the best gadget is the one you take with you — because that’s the one you’ll use. They created the MoGo Mouse, a mouse-remote hybrid that tucks away into a laptop’s pc-card slot, then followed it with the MoGo Talk: an ultra-slim Bluetooth headset that resides in — and actually forms part of — a case which attaches to the back of the iPhone 3G/s.

But while the design concept is brilliant, engineering-wise, the Talk wasn’t quite ready for prime-time when originally released; complaints surfaced that the headset was difficult to eject from the case, and more alarmingly, that the case’s pop-up charging port was fragile and often broke, removing the only method available for charging the headset.

ID8-Mobile has since snapped up Newton Peripherals, addressed the Talk’s problems, made a few other minor improvements to the case (while leaving the headset unchanged) and re-released it as the MoGo Talk XD. So did they get it right?

I just got an email notification from Apple about my free Bumper case, which I just ordered using the iPhone 4 app.

“That was quick,” I thought. But then I saw the estimated ship date: Aug 27. And the estimated arrival? September 1st.

Did anyone get an earlier ship date?

Email and texting is so yesterday; we’re all down with Twitter and Facebook and whatnot these days, so it only makes sense that the new 2.0 update for Nuance‘s speech-recognition app for the iPhone, Dragon Dictation, now adds the ability to send messages as status updates and tweets instead of just as emails or texts.

Another, smaller improvement, is the ability to instantly paste the transcript into the body of a text message.

Finally, in addition to standard Yankee English, the app now also supports “Engish (United Kingdom),” which presumably means it’ll insert the letter “u” randomly into words throughout the message. More languages arriving soon, including German in a few weeks and Italian, French and Spanish by the year’s end.

[via Macworld]

We wrap up another week of deals with three bargains for the Mac, iPod and iPad user. First up is the continuation of Apple’s back-to-School hardware sale. Buy a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac and get an 8Gb iPod touch for free. Next, if you have an iPad, keep it’s screen safe with this mirror-screen protector for just $4. Finally, if you are looking for a bargain on a new MacBook, check out this bundle from the folks at Expercom. Along with the 17-inch MacBook with a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor, you also get three years of AppleCare for just $2, 058.

Along the way, we also check out Apple’s newly introduced iPhone 4 care program, the SquareTrade iPhone warranty, an iBook for just $300 and many more items. As usual, details on these and much more is available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Nothing like dropping a little ninja into a spoiling dish to spice things up. In this case, the dish is a game like Tap-Tap Revenge, and the ninja is…well, it’s a ninja. Sorta.

Rhythm Spirit ($2) lets you control a little rendered cartoon-ninja named Toshi as he battles through ten levels of Japanese-ish folklore after being “empowered by a spirit.” The art and soundtrack look and sound tasty, but it’s the way you control Toshi — through tapping out fight (or flight) commands to the rhythm of the soundtrack— that makes this game stand out from the crowd.

Try the free version if you’re still not sold after watching the vid.

Tanoshii’n da!

After a string of early morning burglaries at Apple stores, police are looking for links between the crimes.

The idea is simple: thieves smash Apple’s signature glass windows, then grab whatever gadget goodness they can.

The latest smash-and-grab looting hit the Apple store in Suburban Square, Pennsylvania on July 14.

At 5:18 am, crooks smashed the glass front window and harvested $22,000 of merchandise, including 11 laptops and three iPods plus iPhones, including the iPhone 4. An alarm sounded, but by the time police arrived there was no trace of the thieves.

Okay, demand for the iPad in Hong Kong may not match New York City, but for Apple, it could be an important precursor to how the device will be accepted in the all-important Chinese market. Friday was the first day the tablet device officially went on sale in Hong Kong. How’s it going? Ask a local salesperson.

“Crazy — the iPad is crazy,” Kurt Lo tells the Wall Street Journal. Lo’s usual orders from Chinese and Vietnamese customers have nearly doubled – 300 to 400 orders instead of the usual 200 to 300 per week. His Chinese customers are also expected to order between 10 to 50 iPads for the gray market.

While the iPhone and iPad are incredibly useful devices for the road warrior or mobile worker aiming to live a digital lifestyle unburdened of dead tree flesh, their inability to interface directly with the likes of scanners can make getting a digital copy of a commonly-used document onto your device a little convoluted.

Doxie’s button-cute, 10.9-ounce scanner gets around this quite nicely by interacting with iTunes. Slot in a document, push a button and Doxie will scan the page at 600 dots-per-inch, convert it into a PDF an plug it right into iTunes, ready to be read on any iOS device with the latest version of iBooks.

It’s a neat little road scanner, small enough to fit into any gear bag. You can buy the Doxie now for just $129 directly from the official website.

Apple has a tiger by the tail with its iPad and suppliers are now complaining they can’t push them out the door fast enough to meet demand. The head of LG Display, a division of LG Electronics, told Reuters “Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand.”

LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo added that although it is considering upping production lines, “overall supply is likely to remain tight until early next year.”

To make applying for a free Bumper or case for the iPhone 4 process easier, Apple launched the Case Program app, offered gratis on iTunes in nine languages.

Once you download and install it, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID and select a Bumper case or iPhone prophylactic of choice.

While the Case Program states that it can take from three to five weeks for the cases to arrive, a few people have said Apple has promised that they might arrive sooner (three to five days).

Let us know in the comments what Apple told you about great bumper expectation times when you applied for the case.

Via The Apple Blog

Eating sashimi at his local sushi bar, this strange but adorable Japanese man wondered if his iPad would be as excellent a plate as a tablet computer, and promptly proceeded to smear raw fish, tofu, rice and curry across his device’s pristine IPS display.

His astute conclusion? “It’s better to eat with normal dishes… iDish is flat surface, Curry can’t be scooped. My iPad got fishy smell. You need to be careful.” Words to live by.

If you use Safari as your main web browser, you might want to open your preferences, switch to Autofill and untick the option to autofill web forms using info from your Address Book card: a serious vulnerability in Safari allows websites to steal information from your Address Book without any user input at all.

The exploit was discovered by Jeremiah Grossman. Here’s how it works:

All a malicious website would have to do to surreptitiously extract Address Book card data from Safari is dynamically create form text fields with the aforementioned names, probably invisibly, and then simulate A-Z keystroke events using JavaScript. When data is populated, that is AutoFill’ed, it can be accessed and sent to the attacker…

As shown in the proof-of-concept code… the entire process takes mere seconds and represents a major breach in online privacy. This attack could be further leveraged in multistage attacks including email spam, (spear) phishing, stalking, and even blackmail if a user is de-anonymized while visiting objectionable online material.

Grossman submitted the exploit to the attention of Apple over a month ago, but decided to publicize it after failing to receive a non-automated response about the matter.

For now, no need to panic, just shut off autofill until Apple works out a fix.

[via Cult of Mac]

If you’re tempted to pick up a new iMac sometime soon, you might just want to wait: according to Apple Insider, new iMacs may well be imminent.

According to their sources, Apple is informing distributors not to expect any further stock of the entry level, 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, while advising other retailers to sell off their existing iMac models.

Such moves generally tip a hardware refresh. In this case, we’ll probably just see a speedbump, except for the entry-level iMacs, which boast last-generation Intel Core 2 Duo chips instead of Intel’s quad-core i5 and i7 CPUs. The most obvious assumption, then, is that the low-range iMacs will get Intel’s low-end quad-core processor, the Core i3.

If true, this rumor’s worth getting excited about if you’re looking for a new iMac. Let’s just hope that the update brings something beefier than just an updated processor to the table. USB 3.0 support would be very nice indeed, Apple.

Microsoft’s had some good look with garnering interest in Office for Mac by giving away free MacBook Pros in the past, and now they’re at it again.

This time, Microsoft doesn’t want you to merely shill their warez or spread word of mouth: instead, they want you to share an interesting personal anecdote about PowerPoint with them on their official blog. Deliver one of the most interesting anecdotes and you might just win one-of-two ugly MacBook Pros repainted in the garish official colors of the Office for Mac logo.

Full rule details are here. Like most of you, I’m definitely going to enter, but also like most of you, the real challenge is trying to figure out which of the dozens (if not hundreds!) of witty, urbane and engaging personal anecdotes about my experience using PowerPoint for Mac to relay.

Continued manufacturing problems with the white iPhone 4 prompted Apple this morning to announce another delay in the model’s availability. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. company said the white model won’t be available until “later this year.”

“White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected,” Apple added. The company emphasized the delay will not affect the availability of the black iPhone 4, however.

If you believe the moral crusaders in Apple’s App Review Team, the face you see to the right is an avatar of carnality and smut. Her name is Lyudmila Bouzinova, ad she’s a contestant on America’s Top Model.

According to Techradar, the guys at DLP Mobile were contacted by Apple after submitting an update to Mirror App, accompanied by in-app screenshots of Bouzinova.

Okay, maybe you could make an argument that she looks a little bit trampy, but Apple’s response seems overblown. They claimed that the images could be considered “obscene, pornographic or defamatory,” and while the app wasn’t pulled, DLP was asked to resubmit their application with updated images.

It’s not a big deal, but seriously: did Apple have to invent a time-machine to recruit App Review Team employees prudish enough to get the vapors at the mere site of an exposed clavicle? Do they have to wear burqas to work? Or is the guideline just that something is deemed risque if there’s merely a chance someone out there is going to get aroused looking at it? Because Rule 34, my friends.