Flickr user Danial Forsythe has taken matters into his own hands and found a way to manually refocus the iPhone’s camera. Long derided as a deficient feature of Apple’s popular handset, the iPhone camera’s default focal length is set to infinity, which makes for less-than-stellar close up shots. Forsythe has posted instructions detailing a way to open up the case, get the screen out of the way, flip the camera up, break the glue, adjust the lens, and plug the screen back in to check the focus.
If that sounds like more getting “under the hood” than you might be comfortable with, third party lenses and filters do exist to help you try and get more out of your iPhone’s camera.
Photographer Pat St. Clair shot a super-cool QuickTime panoramic photo from last night’s historic session of the Democratic Party’s convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO.
Working on assignment for LightSpeed Media, St. Clair shot the DNC image using a new Canon XSi with a Sigma 8mm f3.5 circular fisheye lens. It was four shots around on a custom rig, with the camera set to ISO 1600 and aperture priority metering.
He shot RAW files, used Photoshop Camera Raw to render them to tiffs, stitched the panorama in PTGui Pro 7.8. and authored the final pan in Cubic Converter, all on a MacBook Pro.
Nasty glitch today on the newswires. It seems Bloomberg updated its readymade obituary for Steve Jobs, which sent the article to all of the organization’s subscribers. Most prominent figures have their obits written up in advance, but they usually don’t get sent around unless they, you know, actually need to be used. As a former copy editor, I remember well the day that Pope John Paul II died, which sent every newsroom in the world into a tizzy.
Anyway, a totally false alarm, even if it comes during a renewed period of concern about Steve’s health. It’s interesting reading, but I won’t post it here.
Sitting for my 12th straight hour in a hospital waiting for the wife to download the latest tricycle motor, my mind started to wander and the solution to Psystar’s counter suit just occurred to me: Give Away Mac OS X.
This isn’t an argument for any open-source / open-license nonsense, just that Apple ought to effectively “shelve” Mac OS X as a product folks paid for, and make Mac OS X upgrades akin to firmware updates, completely proprietary to the machine.
By offering customers free upgrades to Mac OS X (presumably your initial copy came free with your purchase of an Apple computer), Apple would completely eliminate the “consumer harm” predicate of the anti-trust suit as one can’t be a “consumer” of a product you didn’t buy.
The revenue hit would be trivial as Mac OS X isn’t a profit center for the company, and the increase in customer loyalty and positive experience would likely offset any losses. Also as an additional carrot for Windows switchers it might prove to be an irresistible temptation. I can see the ads now:
Get the world’s best operating system with free upgrades for life with the purchase of an Apple computer.
Third party iPhone application developers have taken to paying each other $1 in order to get around communication restrictions in the iPhone developrs’ NDA, according to a story in the LA Times.
By making themselves “subcontractors” to one another, they can discuss issues related to programming for the iPhone, communications Apple has sought to restrict through the Software Development Kit’s Non-Disclosure Agreement. Developers have bristled at the company’s refusal to let the NDA expire now that the iPhone is available on the commercial market, with many feeling Apple’s continued restrictions are stifling innovation.
UPDATE: You can fix the hole by remapping the “Home” button. In the iPhone’s Settings/General/Home Button, assign double clicking the Home button to “Home” — not “Phone Favorites.”
iPhone’s 2.0.2 firmware allows almost full access to your iPhone even when it’s under password protection, according to a report in MacRumors. Access can be gained through the “Emergency Call” keypad that appears on the passcode entry screen, allowing unrestricted use of Safari’s browser as well as access to Mail, SMS, Contacts, Maps and more.
Here’s how it works:
1. On the passcode screen hit “Emergency Call” button at bottom left.
2. In the Emergency Call screen, hit the “Home” button twice. You’ll be taken to the Favorites screen.
3. From there, hit the blue arrow next to a contact’s name.
4. You can now access all the iPhone’s functions by selecting their email address, homepage URL or address.
5. For example — hit the contact’s “Homepage” URL — and you are straight into Safari.
6. Hit the email address, and you enter Mail. Cancel the message, and you have full access to the iPhone’s email.
Apple wants to know what you’re thinking about your new iPhone 3G and has been sending out email surveys asking questions such as where you’ve gone for iPhone help, whether you’ve returned your handset to your carrier for repair or replacement, whether you primarily use Windows or Mac, whether you primarily use your iPhone for work or play, whether it’s your first Apple product, and general demographic info.
The company promises not to use your responses to sell you products or services.
Though everything Apple gets covered with fanatical precision, life inside One Infinite Loop these days is something of a black box for non-Appleites. Steve Jobs has made secrecy job one. Which just makes Jon Phillips’s article for MacLife about dining in the Apple corporate food court that much more fun. This is a must-read:
“Oh. My. GOD. My first impression was that I had somehow found my way into the Prepared Foods Department of Whole Foods. Station upon station upon station offered a mind-boggling variety of international cuisine. There were kiosks for burritos, pizza, pasta, sushi, hot entrées, burgers, sandwiches, salads, smoothies, frozen yogurt. They even had a gelato bar.
Then there were the kiosks for Spanish tapas and paellas. For British bangers and mushy peas. For Ethiopian wat and injera bread. And for traditional Inuit preparations of caribou, walrus and seal. Amazing.
OK, truth be told, I didn’t see any kiosks for food from Spain, England, Ethiopia or the Canadian Arctic. But because the Caffe Mac food selection was so incredibly plentiful and varied, I couldn’t help but imagine such exotic cuisines. And, in fact, because this new world order of lunch possibilities was so overwhelming, I found myself paralyzed with indecision. Pizza or pasta? A sandwich or sushi? Or maybe a bold trifecta of blended and/or frozen delights?”
Pre-release testing of the Blackberry Bold 3G smartphone appears to show the new handset may suffer from connection problems similar to those that have plagued the iPhone 3G. Citigroup investment research analyst Jim Suva reported occasional 3G signal dropping troubles at some locations, “especially on high-rise building streets on our 34th floor… which may be why AT&T has yet to launch the product,” according to AppleInsider.
Because the Blackberry uses a component of its Marvell processor as its 3G modem, where iPhone 3G uses a different Infineon chipset, previous speculation about problems with Apple’s hardware appears less likely to be the cause of iPhone 3G connection instability.
3G network performance varies greatly among different 3G carriers throughout the world, according to survey released this week on the Wired blog. Users in Europe, which has some of the most mature 3G networks, reported the fastest overall results, while US-based iPhone owners suffer the largest number of failed data speed tests, particularly in dense urban areas, according to the Wired survey.
Citibank’s Suva speculates that the Bold won’t be released in the United States until AT&T rectifies its 3G network issues.
In what can only be considered a turn of logic from an alternative “evil twin” universe, Hackintosh maker Psystar answered Apple’s cease and desist lawsuit of July 3th with their own alleging restraint of trade and antitrust violations.
It’s been long anticipated that Psystar would play the “Antitrust Card” in defense of its illegal activities. The only thing is, it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. The key predicate to an antitrust suit is that the consumer must in some way be harmed by the monopolistic behavior of the defendant. Rudy Pedraza, Psystar’s president summed up their consumer harm argument by saying: “It’s not that people don’t want to use Mac OS X, but they’re not open spending an exorbitant amount of money for something that’s essentially generic hardware.”
So that’s it, ‘the Apple’s hardware is too expensive’ argument we’ve heard time and time again, and have time and time again refuted. On a direct feature for feature comparison with Sony, HP or IBM, Apple hardware is no more expensive than the competition.
Our industry is FULL of monopolies that no one seems to disagree with, examples follow:
Tivo has a monopoly on the Tivo OS, in that it too can only be employed on Tivo or licensed 3rd party hardware.
Sony has a monopoly on the PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP operating systems and regulates very closely the hardware they’re allowed to run on
IBM has a monopoly on mainframes and the mainframe Z-OS
even Microsoft has a monopoly on XBox OS and limits the hardware it can run on
While I can understand that free spirited hackers take unbrage at being locked out, there is nothing inherently wrong or illegal with Apple’s strategy of controlling the whole widget. Monopoly “sounds” bad on it’s own, but in Apple’s case they’re not abusing their power.
Some iPhone owners continue to report an alarming bug in the device that causes 3rd party applications to crash or fail to load and makes media stored on the phone inaccessible. Calling it a “tragedy of monumental proportions” given that the phone just launched in 22 additional countries over the weekend, writer Jonny Evans reports in MacWorld UK the “well-known bug means none of my third-party apps work, and I can’t access any media held on my iPhone.”
“Frequent requests to Apple PR have yielded no response at all – and people inside the company dance around the matter, or so it seems,” according to Evans.
Snapper Rana Sobhany spotted Jobs’ Mercedes SL55 AMG parked in a handicapped spot at the Apple campus over the weekend.
“Mercedes? Check. No license plate? Check. Handicap spot? Yep, this is Steve Jobs’ car!!!” she writes.
Jobs, of course, has a long history of parking in handicapped parking spaces at Apple. The reports go back years, and have recently been documented on Flickr.
Since 2006, Jobs’ car has been snapped in handicapped parking spaces at Apple at least five times. See the pictures after the jump.
It’s been evident to anyone paying attention (even those of us who have been jonesing for new MacBook Pros since early June) that Apple would hold off on any product launches throughout the summer to put maximum focus on the iPhone 3G. Apple just wasn’t going to do anything to distract from that, nor were they going to launch major product in the doldrums of late August.
So it was obvious Apple would wait until after Labor Day to take care of much-needed updates to the iPod and MacBook Pro product lines. According to rumormongers, it might be just a week after Labor Day that such welcome udpates arrive — eight days to be exact, with an as-yet-unannounced Sept. 9 launch event. Kevin Rose is leading this charge, claiming new, non-stubby widescreen iPod nanos, but I think most people care more about cheaper iPod touches and MacBook Pros with Montevina than anything else.
I think an actual Town Hall event would be a bad move. These are going to be evolutionary updates, and they don’t deserve the fanfare of the iPhone 3G or AppStore launch. My prognostication is that Apple will unveil new product on just about every Tuesday in September. First new iPods, then new MacBook Pros, then new MacBooks, than new Mac minis and AppleTVs. Just keep it coming and pour it on…
Apple is on track to sell just shy of 3 million Macs and close to 11 million iPods in the September quarter, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. If Apple manages to hit the high end of Munster’s estimate of betweeen 2.7 million and 2.9 million Macs sold from July through September, it will be the first time Apple will have sold 10 million Macs in any fiscal year in its history.
Munster based his estimates on July sales data from NPD Group, which also suggested the possibility of sales of 4.1 million iPhones and a gross margin of 32 percent. Munster estimates Apple’s earnings per share at $1.19 on revenue of $8.5 billion. Wall Street consensus estimates put the numbers at $1.11 on $8.08 billion, while Apple’s previous guidance calls for $1.00 on $7.8 billion.
Munster affirmed his Buy rating on Apple, Inc. (AAPL) shares, with a price target of $250. The stock closed today at $172.55 in New York trading.
When I was researching material for a long article about third party development programs for the iPhone back in March, one of the most common complaints I heard from users and skeptics alike was leveled at the lack of cut and paste functionality on Apple’s groundbreaking mobile device. In July, Apple spokesman Greg Jowsiak basically said cut and paste was a low priority as far as the company was concerned.
No surprise then, that third party workarounds for the missing tool began to emerge, with one fashioned by student developer Zac White among the more promising. Unfortunately, Apple has placed new roadblocks in the path toward letting you cut and paste text on your iPhone, according to White.
No word yet from Apple on whether cut and paste has been re-prioritized in-house.
Using testing equipment similar to that used by the FCC and mobile phone manufacturers to make sure phones are able to properly send and receive signals without interfering with other devices, engineers in Sweden pronounced the iPhone 3G’s capabilities “completely normal,” according to a report at Engadget.
Much speculation and not a little complaint registered in the wake of Apple’s 2.0.2 firmware upgrade last week, calling the iPhone’s 3G capabilities into question. One woman in Alabama filed suit in federal court seeking a class action to hold Apple liable for selling a “defective” product. But engineers at Bluetest in Gothenburg, Sweden, tested the iPhone 3G against a Nokia N73 and a Sony Ericsson P1 and found the difference between these two popular 3G phones and the iPhone 3G was negligible.
The picture above is burning up Digg right now. It supposedly shows the redesign of the MacBook Pro, which is expected to be refreshed any day now.
The new machine looks gorgeous. With smooth, rounded contours, it resemble the MacBook Air, and there appears to be the magnetic hinge borrowed from entry-level MacBook, which would be a big improvement on the Pro’s current latch/hook design.
Cyan games has announced that it has a three-person team working to port Myst to iPhone, a no-brainer decision that should finally provide something like a killer app game for the device. Way back in the early 1990s, Myst was briefly Mac exclusive, and it typified everything great about that era’s multimedia focus. It was HyperCard-based, it used CD-ROM, and the graphics were gorgeous. And now it’s making a comeback. Can’t wait.
The above video, “iHologram,” by animator David O’Reilly, is a fake. The awesome idea of using the accelerometers in the iPhone to manipulate a real-time animation is a great idea, and might even be possible in the right hands. But the video was made by pre-rendering the clip and then moving the iPod touch in time to show the right orientation.
The iHologram app was not real. It was an illustration of an idea I had which I believe could work with the technology (combining anamorphosis and motion sensing). Unfortunately I’m just an ideas person, and I can show how things should look, but I’m no hardcore programmer.
I’d be happy to collaborate with a developer or studio who want’s to make it happen, I’m bursting with ideas for the interactive world, but right now all my attention is on filmmaking.
My aim with this was to tackle the problem of 3d viewing in an original way using current technology, not fool anyone”¦ so for those who doubted but still supported it, respect. I hope it inspires some talented programmers out there.
Quick Look. Two words that brilliantly sum up one of the most important and yet least celebrated additions to the Mac experience. When stripped down to basics, Quick Look is merely a document preview. But what a preview! Using it, you can preview the majority of documents on your Mac by selecting them and hitting space, without opening the documents’ parent applications. Quick Look showcases the best of Apple and the Mac, highlighting how it’s sometimes the most obvious things that can be used as the basis for innovation and making the computing experience better.
Craig Grannell:
People use a whole lot of files, and Quick Look has the potential to save Mac users a lot of time every single day, by providing a full and simple preview to a selected file that doesn’t take ages to render, doesn’t require parent apps to open, and is often actually preferable to using apps at all. (I certainly rarely use Office now, preferring to read Word and Excel documents in Quick Look.) It shows how much Quick Look has become ingrained in me that I spent a good ten seconds dumbly hammering space on my iBook yesterday before realizing that, no, it doesn’t actually have Leopard installed.
For me, Quick Look shows what the best thing is about the Mac experience: it’s not about bells and whistles, and it’s not about flashy, showy gimmicks–it’s about doing something in the simplest, most efficient and intuitive fashion, in order to improve the experience for the user. And even though each use of Quick Look may save only a few seconds, it’s often the little things in the Mac user experience that leave the biggest impressions.
Leigh McMullen:
It’s hard to image that a simple OS feature could be considered one of the top Mac moments of the past 25 years. Nevertheless, Quicklook is truely a game changing feature, all the more so for its incredible subtlety. The implementation is so Apple. Take a feature (document preview) and make its implementation so seemless that it disappears. It’s like two-finger scrolling on Macbook Pro trackpads, you don’t even notice you’re doing it.
If you work with a lot of documents and doubt this feature’s importance, take the Tiger challenge: try using 10.4 for a day.You’ll be banging on that space-bar with so much frustration your colleagues will think you’re playing Quake.
Sources familiar with inventory management practices at large retailers such as Target in the US and Argos in the UK say all signs point to a refresh of Apple’s iPod line on the near horizon.
Handheld PDA scanners used by employees at Target show all current iPod models have changed inventory status from “Active” to “Discontinued,” and Argos outlets in the UK have recently taken receipt of new point-of-sale displays promoting “price cuts,” according to a report atAppleInsider.
Steve Wozniak spoke to Intel developers in San Francisco yesterday, telling them maintaining a vision without compromise, is “the right way of going through life.”
In a wide-ranging on-stage interview at the annual Intel Developer Forum, Wozniak also said being poor helps inspire creativity. As a computer designer, “I would do any trick I could think of to try to save money,” he said. “Not having any money helps.”
In the end, the man who began work on the first Apple computer as an engineer working at Hewlett-Packard (and offered his invention to that company five times before accepting rejection and taking it on himself with Steve Jobs), waxed philosophical about technology’s impact on our lives.
“Technology is always supposed to improve our lives,” he said. “I don’t know. Are we happier than we were 100 years ago? Are we happier than we were 1,000 years ago? Do we smile more?”
