McLaren 1995 F1 GTR video clips by Kanal von rr2user on YouTube.

Video list for all cars and tracks – contributed by multiple users.

Best and average times, and other statistics, by car, track and driver. The related discussion thread is at Firemint Real Racing 2 forums.

On the overall decline of the client PC market in Q4 2011 in comparison with Apple's phenomenal earnings and product growth for the December quarter of 2011, Mikey Campbell writes the following in Apple passes HP as top PC maker when counting iPad sales:

Last year was said to be "The Year of the Tablet," and Apple CEO Tim Cook quipped during the company's earnings conference call that he thinks "most people would agree, it was the year of the iPad for the second year in a row."

Here's a related YouTube clip with extracts of Steve Jobs on 2010: Year of iPad, 2011: Year of the copycats? and 2011: Year of iPad 2 during the Apple Special Event, March 2011.

A screen capture of a MacBook Air on Mark Zuckerberg's table, and iMacs on the rest.

Via Facebook’s testing a new photo layout that’s remarkably similar to Google+.

"Studies have shown that accurate numbers aren't any more useful than the ones you make up."

Gizmodo did a pretty good job translating Amazon's results for the fourth quarter ending 31 December, 2011 into plain English, but it is still not revealed how many units of the Kindle Fire were actually sold.

In an AppleInsider forum post, "jragosta" makes an attempt at an estimate of Kindle Fire sales:

Start with what we know. Amazon said that they were selling 1 M Kindles OF ALL TYPES per week during the weeks before Christmas. That means that in the 6 weeks after the Kindle Fire launch, they sold about 6 M Kindles.

How many were Fires? There's no direct evidence, but we can speculate based on their Kindle growth rate. They claimed that total Kindle sales were up 177% last quarter (that is, 2011 sales were 277% of 2010 sales). Let's take the two extremes;

1. Assume that the older Kindle sales were unchanged. That is, ALL of the increased sales were from the Fire. That would mean that 64% of the total Kindle sales were Fire (177/277) and 36% were DX, etc. That would put Kindle Fire sales at 3.8 M (64% of 6 M).

2. We know that iPad sales were up 111% from the previous year last quarter. If Amazon's existing product sales were up by the sam 111%, then Kindle Fire sales were 66% of last year's figures. At this extreme, Fire was 24% of the total (66/277) or 1.4 M units.

So we can put the Kindle Fire unit sales somewhere between 1.4 and 3.8 M units.

I predicted last week that the number would be between 2 and 3 M – and that's pretty reasonable given the few facts that we know.

Call it 2.5 M at $200, so total revenues for the Fire were about $500 M.

At the extremes, total Fire revenues were between $280 M and $760 M.

And that's not counting returns if they were significant after Christmas.

Now, let's talk about losses.

Estimates for losses have ranged from $5 to $10 per unit all the way up to $50 per unit on materials only.

If materials losses were $50, total loss per device (including labor, overhead, quality cost, etc) would have been at least $75.

Using the above estimate of 2.5 M units sold, that's $12.5 M losses at the low end up to $175 M on the high end.

Compare that to their net income of $177 M. Without losses from the Fire, their net income would have been between 5% and 100% higher than it was.

I really don't see any way to narrow it down further than that with the available evidence.

Macbook Air & Me: Four Years Later:

The new Air is now my only computer.  I have owned every single Macbook Air that has come out and despite its limitations of power (just like my own), I have loved it. I have adapted to it and it has adapted to me.

This is a fantastic demo of AirPlay mirroring (the best I've seen so far) of a jailbroken iPhone 4S and an iPad streaming to an Apple TV 2 that's connected to a HP monitor.

I especially like the comprehensive demonstration of Real Racing 2 (my most-played iOS game, ever) – the cars on the race track look absolutely amazing on the big screen.

In terms of smoothness, it looks like the jailbroken iPhone performs the same as a normal unit.

I'm tempted to jailbreak my iPhone 4 just to take advantage of the added functionality and widgets. They do look very cool and useful.

The Steve Jobs way.

Austin Carr, writing for Fast Company:

Anecdotally, I've spoken with many merchants throughout New York that accept Google Wallet, but who have never had a customer take advantage of the system. When asked why they would feature the system, one merchant said, "Because Google gave it to me."

Taking MasterCard as one example, it looks like Apple is needed to bring NFC payments into the mainstream.

From The New York Times article "How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work":

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. "I won’t sell a product that gets scratched," he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. "I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks."

On episode #76 of The Talk Show podcast, John Gruber mentioned that the iPhone demo prototypes used during the January 2007 announcement had a plastic screen. Very much like what the iPods had. High-quality plastic that looked like glass but were not scratch-resistant.

It was in a June 2007 press release that Apple formally announced that the iPhone would have an all-glass screen when it officially goes on sale:

Now Features Durable Glass Top Surface

…

Apple also announced that the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity.

Two easy-to-use, web-based tools:

1. Flicksourcer
2. flickholdr

A fantastic, compact compilation by Xavi Esteve.

Maciej Ceglowski briefly touches on five common options for hosting a web business, ranked in decreasing order "cloudiness".

Daniel Eran Dilger, writing for AppleInsider:

While Apple appears to have become wildly successful in winning over corporate users through the backdoor of attractive consumer-focused devices, the reality is that Apple has also devoted significant efforts to make its consumer products more attractive to corporate users. Mac OS X has progressively added support for features such as 802.11X wireless authentication, Exchange Server messaging, Active Directory and related networking sharing protocols. Apple's iOS has similarly made enterprise security and device management a key product focus.

…

Unlike Apple however, Google has not focused on delivering robust support for a set of features that are important to corporate users. Android still lacks the ability to connect to IPSec VPNs and has spotty support for Exchange Server. More importantly however, Android lacks strong support for management tools that corporate users can employ to monitor, manage and police the enforcement of their desired policies.

…

Rather than offering a cohesive platform suitable as a potential alternative to iOS, Android offers a complex array of individual support options that, together, lack the critical mass Google's platform is supposed to offer. This makes Android-branded devices as problematic for corporate users as the incompatible variations of JavaME-based smartphones they replaced. The non-integrated "open" development of Android does not appear focused on solving this issue.

Two opinions on using iPads to keep students engaged in class.

"Doctor David":

Engaged doesn't mean the same thing as paying attention or not misbehaving.

Too often schools are treated like and viewed as joyless places where facts are pounded into a kids head. If you can get a child to be interested in and maybe enjoy learning they get much more out of it.

A child can be paying attention, not misbehaving and still not be engaged.

Education shouldn't be viewed the same as "getting the trains to run on time".

"addabox":

It's not enough any more to insist that kids "should" act or think a certain way in the classroom. They're growing up in a ubiquitously connected, digital world. Expecting them to learn in exactly the way kids in the early part of the 20th century learned makes no sense.

The pedagogical model as it is practiced in most US public schools literally derives from industrial processes, and originally was intended to provide trained workers for America's industrial economy. It's really not surprising that rote, top-down training isn't grabbing this generation's attention, …

"Just remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget".

The embedded Soundcloud widget in Janko Roettgers's article "Here's why Soundcloud ditched Flash for HTML5" on GigaOM works pretty well on iOS devices.

I tried it out on my iPhone 4 and was able to play the audio clip, tap to jump to any point in the track and add comments.

It's difficult to tap Like, Download (opens up the audio clip in a new browser window with the standard media controls) and Share in portrait orientation, but works OK in landscape mode.

Hopefully, Soundcloud will enhance the widget to allow touch-and-slide to any point in the clip.

Side-by-side photo of the 2011 iPod Touch vs 2001 iPod.

A rather comprehensive report by LongTail Video on how extensively HTML5 video is supported across browsers and devices.

Internet Explorer 6/7/8 have no support for HTML5, and collectively command 28% browser share, so Adobe Flash is still required to address that audience.

Gabe Weatherhead of Macdrifter:

What Ed is apparently mad about is that Apple has created a tool that he wants to use because it's better but it doesn't output the format he wants so he can sell it somewhere else. I would love my Epson printer to output grilled cheese sandwiches. It does not. I don't think Epson is evil.

MG Siegler, writing for TechCrunch:

A new iPhone plus holiday shopping season is apparently like gasoline on a fire. Now we know.

But it would be foolish to think that Apple’s big numbers were only about the iPhone. Remember, Apple set new records in Mac and iPad sales as well. The iPad in particular is interesting because while it’s Apple’s newest business, it’s already the second-largest in terms of revenue. This past quarter, 20 percent of revenue came from iPad sales.

The third-biggest source of revenue is Mac sales – they accounted for 14 percent of Apple’s revenue last quater. In other words, 87 percent of Apple’s revenue last quarter was from products that all saw record sales.

"anantksundaram", in an AppleInsider forum post:

What we know from Apple's SEC Form 10-Q made public yesterday is that it had an iPhone segment revenue of $24,417 million and sold 37.044 million iPhones.

The average revenue per iPhone is therefore $659.

That is the number that the market is so impressively reacting to!

"Crowley", in an AppleInsider forum post:

There was a time when Apple's products were just more expensive because they wouldn't fight a price war. Now they don't need to because they're winning the cost war.

"jragosta" lists and compares the price on various Apple products with the competition and concludes that the "Apple Tax" is nothing more than a myth.

Young, old, but especially long-time fans, it's time to party.

To truly understand how huge Apple's numbers are (record revenue of $46.3 Billion, record quarterly profit of $13.06 billion, 37.04 million iPhones sold, 15.43 million iPads sold, 5.2 million Macs sold, 15.4 million iPods sold), you could do worse than read MG Siegler's piece "Apple's Massive Numbers And Some Context", in which he compiles related tweets.

What's not highlighted in this article at The Orange County Register is how dominant the iPad and other iOS devices are in the pro audio and music industry.

"jlandd" writes the following in an AppleInsider forum post:

Here's a great example of why the iPads are doing very well: at the recent NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in Los Angeles, THE trade show for dealers of anything to do with pro audio and music hardware and software, iPads were everywhere. Not as notepads for the attendees, as parts of products on display. Mackie, MOTU, Akai, Moog, etc., in fact it seemed practically NOBODY didn't have an iPad centric product. These aren't like the silly iPod docks you see in Target. These are part of serious tools. Most weren't trying to compete with any laptops but were front ends for other hardware processors. You couldn't use a desktop for most of these uses and these are better than using a laptop for their purposes. Just Google it and read up on all of them. People who use iPads in recording studios and for live audio purposes are over the moon in love with how they fit in. This has nothing to do with how something else isn't selling or is saturated. It has to do with what's good about an iPad.

They work. No one is going to build a system around hardware they don't have faith in, and if this year's NAMM is any indication there is no lack of faith in iPads as something all audio people will be wanting to spend $500 on even if they never use it for anything else, never enter into Apple's ecosystem for apps or media, download a show or even boot up iTunes.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering what the percentage of other tablets on display for the same uses and products? Other tablets were close to invisible, I was told. Anything running Android was some little little page turning app or DJ something or other. If any were doing any better my friend couldn't find them. But you couldn't turn around without an iPad running a $30,000 tour mixer or fine tuning Broadway caliber monitor packages.

It's over. Apple will make millions just based on this market and there are no other players.

Here's an example of a music device that integrates with iPad, the Alesis AmpDock for iPad, a multi-effects guitar processor, being demoed at NAMM 2012:

Nice analysis by Matt Richman, who writes:

On Apple's earnings call, Tim Cook told analysts that Apple sold over 62 million iOS devices during the fourth quarter, which is about 4 percent more than all of the Android devices sold during the same time period.

So, 62 millions iOS devices sold compared with an estimated 59,653,187 Android activations in Q4 2011.

The following information is extracted from an ad placed by Maxis Malaysia in The Edge (a Malaysia-based Business & Investment weekly).

Value Plus Internet 80
Monthly Internet access quota / cap: 500 MB
Monthly free local calls to all operators: 300 minutes
Monthly free local SMS / text messages to all operators: 300 SMS
Monthly fee: RM80

Value Plus Internet 50
Monthly Internet access quota / cap: 250 MB
Monthly free local calls to all operators: 100 minutes
Monthly free local SMS / text messages to all operators: 100 SMS
Monthly fee: RM50

Value Plus Internet Supplementary 30
Monthly Internet access quota / cap: 250 MB
Monthly free local calls to all operators: 50 minutes
Monthly free local SMS / text messages to all operators: 50 SMS
Monthly fee: RM30

The plans come with Internet usage alerts which will notify you via SMS once you reach your monthly Internet allocation. Subsequent Internet usage will be charged at 30sen/MB or dial *100# from your Maxis-subscribed device for other upgrade options.

Visit maxis.com.my/internet for details.

If you don't want to, or can't watch the video of Apple's January 19, 2012 education event (HD version), MG Siegler's "Some Key Subtle Details From Apple’s Textbook Event" offers a great and useful textual summary.

"nvidia2008", writing in the AppleInsider forum:

What you must understand is that the Education stuff is the trojan horse. What this really is, is HyperCard for iPad

This is massive. This is basically Authorware, Director and Flash for iPad. In its very infancy. Once they make it more interactive over the next few years, you will see Apps as a way to do certain things (ie. more functional-oriented), and iBooks as a way to do Apps in massively easier way for more content-oriented things.

This is the start of the next iGold rush. This is huge. Mark my words. Some of y'all know this already. There's something stirring in you knowing that this is the start of the next phase of iPad. Content creation for iPad is no longer limited to Apps and Xcode.

Education is just the classic Apple "hook", part of Steve and Apple's extremely brilliant marketing plan, "killing you softly" as always. It's the "bling" on an actually very attractive person.

Also, HTML widgets with Javascript = Xcode bypass. Prepare for extremely large influx of web developers dying to get onto iPad, like me.

Eric Reagan on the current cutting-edge HDSLR cameras, the Nikon D4 and the Canon 1D X:

Yes, the cameras both shoot HD video. And, based on my initial hands-on look at each one, they both do a better job than the previous generation in terms of overall quality and functionality. However, the Nikon D4 adds a couple of "duh" features (headphone output & clean HDMI-out) that may make it the current king of the HDSLR hill. And since Canon built that hill over the past three years or so, I reckon that it is readying some sort of response, which we're all expecting to see at or around the NAB Show in April.

The 1D X looks like a great camera and I was impressed with the improvements Canon made to the video capture features. However, I specifically asked Chuck Westfall from Canon about the lack of a headphone port for audio monitoring and the lack of clean HDMI-out when I talked to him at PhotoPlus. As to the headphone port, he cited the need for a LAN port was more pressing and there simply wasn't room on the 1D X body. And the lack of HDMI-out on the 1D X is due to the lack of processing power. You can see the full context of this discussion in my original recap here.

Nikon just managed to put both of these features in a camera that is lighter and costs $800 less than the 1D X. On the HDSLR side of things, the Nikon D4 makes Canon look like a bit of a chump.

Baldur Bjarnason does a fantastic job dissecting the innards of Apple's new iBooks 2.0 Textbook format.

He writes the following comment on Asymco:

Most of the output of iBooks Author is non-standard CSS and non-standard interactive widgets. I've written about the CSS… And I'm planning on writing about the widgets later today, but the short version is this:

The interactive widgets are a combination of custom object tags and data- attributes that are then rendered using proprietary code in iBooks 2.0. Any browser or ePub reading system that wanted to implement support for those widgets would have to reverse engineer them first.

So, iBooks Author is not an HTML5 authoring tool, its output is decidedly non-standard, and it's far from being cross-platform. It's a proprietary tool for creating proprietary files.

Xian Zhu Xuande writes:

My wife works in the eMINTS program and is directly responsible for overseeing technology in the classroom and teaching teachers to use technology in their classrooms in our local school district. Here we have schools which used various devices, like iPod Touches, in the classroom routinely.

The children are surprisingly respectful to the Apple devices they get to use and cases where one is damaged are surprisingly rare.

It costs significantly less to maintain a group of iPod Touches or iPads than it does equivalent computers. MUCH less.

While some devices might have battery problems after two or three years that is not the norm. LIke everything else in a school district, products are placed on a lifecycle and upgraded or moved to a new purpose after that period of time has passed.

This tweet from Tapbots announced their new desktop wallpaper for Tweetbot fans.

I'd like for these books of mine to find a new home.

Browse my "For Sale – Books" Flickr set for the titles and publish date (where applicable).

All books are priced at a flat rate of RM10 each.

Cash on delivery at or around Taman Connaught, Kuala Lumpur only.

You can contact me here.

Unsold books will be given away.

To find out what version of Python is running on your Mac, follow these simple steps:

1. Launch Terminal.
2. Type python --version and hit Enter.

Here's what's running on my Mac OS X Lion Version 10.7.2 as of Dec 03, 2011:

That's it.

From this: "Flex: where we are headed"

To this: "Your Questions About Flex"

Shocking how, in the span of 3 months, Adobe led so many down the wrong path, and then dropped all of them like nothing happened.

"solipsism" writes:

Now the previous iPhones have Voice Control for calling contacts and playing artists and playlists from the Music/iPod app. Siri make the former better when the contact isn't in your address book and requires a google search to locate. You can simply ask Siri to "Call Walgreens Pharmacy" and it will bring up a list of the closest pharmacies to you. You then click the one you want and it initiates the call. That's a huge savings over having to use Maps to find your location, find the right pins, zoom in, and then click the pin to see more info and then click the phone number. You can even do this from a locked iPhone if you wish.

"Postulant", in a comment to the article "Adobe manager puts partial blame on Apple for mobile Flash failure":

I'm surprised Android's "500,000" activations per day couldn't sustain Flash.

"nagromme" loves the MBA 11":

The Air form factor is just awesome—especially the 11" size. After all these years computing, for me to love a new computer this much day in/day out, requires it to really impact my life and habits. A little machine that is SO FAST, yet I can grab it with one hand like its nothing and run out the door, is just terrific. I used to have a 13" Air and it's just not the same. (Then again, my old Air didn't have an SSD, which is a HUGE speed boost that cheap PCs seldom offer.) I even game on my 11" Air, hooked to a projector. I can't max the detail levels, but games look great anyway! Now wait until I add a Thunderbolt GPU to that projector…

Compared to similar offerings from Dell:

Go to Dell's site and try to make an ultraportable with SSD. Something as close as you can get to the Air's weight, size and capability. You'll come out with an Alienware "ultraportable" that has a few specs higher (like a better-but-not-great gaming GPU) and a few specs lower. It will match the Air in terms of lighted keys, no optical drive, and similar screen. But it will have a slower processor, no software bundle to match iLife, will be MUCH thicker, MUCH heavier, with worse battery life… and costing $600 more.

Answer from Derek Halpern's "What's the Best Font For Your Blog?":

Once you know what font you want to use, you want to make sure your typography settings are perfect.

In Thesis (aff), the theme framework I use, the typography is amazing. There's perfect spacing between lines, paragraphs, h3 tags, and more.

If you're not using Thesis, Chris Pearson created a tool that tells you the BEST way to set your typography by using the golden ratio. Check that tool out here.

Marco's advice:

It looks like people who want to run Windows on something a lot like a MacBook Air are better served by just running Windows on a MacBook Air.

Spoiler: Don't get the Asus Zenbook Ultrabook.

"Here's To The Crazy Ones" gone horribly wrong, as written by "Suddenly Newton":

"Here's to the Lazy Ones. The followers. The me-toos. The play-it-safers. The square pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things as they exist today. They're afraid of change, and they obey the status-quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, ban them, or call them trolls. About the only thing that'll work is to ignore them. Because they will never change things. They halt progress and hold back the human race.

And while some may see them as haters of the insanely great, we see laziness. Because the people who are lazy enough to accept the world as it is – are the ones who won't change it."

Mr. Spock in Star Trek – The Squire of Gothos:

I object to intellect without discipline.

I object to power without constructive purpose.

stephenb writes:

We have friends who are surgeons, one a neuro-surgeon the other a cardio vascular. The iPhone made it possible for them to view MRIs and XRays whenever they wanted and immediately. Prior to this they had to be at their computer in the office where they never seemed to have the uninterrupted time to do this. Both, were now able to go somewhere and look at things with no interruptions. The interface was also a huge part in ease of use. The software they used, sucked it was a pain to zoom in and move.

The neuro-surgeon was eating lunch with some colleagues and got a text from his office that some MRIs were ready. He excused himself and pulled them up of the phone to look at them. Everything was fine, he texted his office and finished his lunch. Everyone at the table was amazed. And every one of them had an iPhone the next day. SOP in that case, normally would have been cram food down your throat, rush back to the office, look at the MRIs, determine that they were fine and get back to work because your lunch was damn near over. Because being a doctor isn't stressful enough.

The CV surgeon had a similar story, one of his patients was admitted with issues. It was his day off, but the doctor on duty was in surgery. The hospital sent him the MRIs and he spotted the problem. He had them prep the patient so he could operate soon after getting there. He's had many instances where he's had to leave his family to go to the hospital to read MRIs.

My physician uses her iPhone so she can reference the PDR before writing a prescription. She can do it right in the exam room, so she doesn't have to worry about getting back to a patient.

No, Steve didn't cure cancer, but the medical industry is taking advantage of the technology. Sure they might have come about without Apple, but they are here and it's pretty amazing.

Oct 06, 2011, Google's home page' linked to Apple.com with "Steve Jobs" as the anchor text.

Nice touch.

A portrait of Steve Jobs graced Apple.com.

Clicking on the image takes you to Apple – Remembering Steve Jobs.

Although both Google Voice Actions for Android and Siri on iPhone 4S are technologies that attempt to do the same thing – turn your voice commands into actions on the phone – there are significant differences between them.

"addabox" sums it up best:

Siri is vastly more sophisticated than Google Voice Actions. Google's system is a limited set of verbs (send, listen, go to, call, etc.) coupled with a limited set of nouns (email, music, web site, contact, etc.) in that order, plus speech to text for text content and search strings.

Siri is an AI system that parses natural English to determine context and intent, so I'm not limited to a library of terms or a certain construction (verb noun). I can say "What's the quickest way get to Jim's house from here" or "Remind me to buy milk when I go to the store" or "Move my appointment with Susan a half hour forward." Any of those would leave Voice Actions scratching its head.

For the full list of currently-supported voice commands in Siri, read TUAW's "iPhone 4S: What can you say to Siri?".

Joshua Topolsky shared his experience using Siri:

Siri works on the idea of logic and context, so when you say you want it to wake you up, you're starting a conversation with the phone which it is actively following. If you want to sleep in a bit, you can say something like "change my alarm time", and it knows what you're talking about — it will prompt you for a new time.

Even more impressive is its ability to work out your calendar events. I asked the phone to schedule a meeting at 3:30 PM, only to be told that I already had a meeting at 4. And would I like to change my other meeting time? Yes Siri, I would.

Taken one by one, this might not sound like much, but in use I found it kind of staggering. I wasn't speaking slowly (as Scott did during the event) or even trying very hard to sound clear. There was background noise. But it really worked, and worked well. Some of my requests were more specific ("Show me theaters that are playing Moneyball") and didn't return the results I wanted. Siri knew I said Moneyball and seemed to know it was a movie (it capitalized the title), but couldn't tell me where it was playing.

The software is still in beta, even at launch, so I expect connections like that will be made sooner or later.

Dustin Curtis compares the video introduction for both technologies, one simply good enough, and one, better, and remarked:

Notice how the Apple video introducing Siri has no narration, and how the Android video ends with, "I know that's a lot to remember…"

The comparison table above is taken from The Verge a.k.a. This Is My Next, and shows the dismal talk time battery life you can expect from the Samsung Galaxy II:

• Samsung Galaxy S II – 3 hours (on AT&T)
• iPhone 4 – 7 hours of 3G talk time
• iPhone 4S – 8 hours of 3G talk time

I had to try many, many times before I managed to solve this level.

Laser towers are your friends for this round, the more the better. I didn't need to do a lot of upgrades – most of my laser towers were only at Level 1 or 2.

Once you've passed Level 8, you can purchase some Missile Towers with any excess cash.

Read Lloyd Chambers' brief report on the Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM telephoto lens. Lloyd writes:

Initial results look very impressive in terms of sharpness, flare control, bokeh, etc. The original 200mm f/1.8L had a great reputation, but this new 200/2L looks to be outstanding as well, and perhaps even better. Although Canon offers an aging 200mm f/2.8L II design, the 200/2L IS is easily superior.

He also cautions to "… never allow such a lens to hang off your camera’s lens mount unsupported".

The inclusion of two web-sized photos, a flower and street lights at dusk, give a glimpse of the lens' capabilities.

Visit Imaging Resource for full-resolution photos (those labeled 50.0 mm focal length) taken with the E-PL1 and Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 50mm F2.0 Macro combination. Clicking on the Full EXIF Display button below each thumbnail gives more information about the picture and lens used.

The image quality (noise at higher ISO, sharpness and detail) is pretty impressive. Read a related forum reaction on DPReview.

Download access to the original E-PL1 RAW / .ORF files appear as blue links under some of the thumbnails at Imaging Resource's gallery.

Windows PC users can download the OLYMPUS Master 2 software at Olympus America.

See the photo here. Hartmut writes:

Tyrol in Austria, Summer 2009
Pentax K200D and the DA 18-55 AL II

The newly-announced Fujifilm HS10, while sporting an impressive zoom range, has a much smaller sensor than its predecessors, the S100fs and S200EXR.

View Kevin Coppalotti's comparison chart of sensor sizes on DPReview to get an idea.

Some very nice Mac apps included in the time-limited MacHeist bundle, all for free.

I've already activated WriteRoom, which normally has a $24.95 price tag.

The 6 free software are:

1. ShoveBox (normal price: $24.95)
2. WriteRoom (normal price: $24.95)
3. Twitterrific (normal price: $14.95)
4. TinyGrab (normal price: £10)
5. Hordes of Orcs (normal price: $24.95)
6. Mariner Write (normal price: $49.95)

From the Fotolia Newsletter, November 2009:

30 years in the biz, Jack Hollingsworth has a few tips on shooting stock portraiture.

Tip 1: Content Trumps Craft Photographers love talking about the "craft" of how images are created, but most customers are looking for content and concepts.

Tip 2: Avoid Traditional Portraiture Set-ups Traditional portraiture is stiff and predictable. Today's buyers are looking for imagery that is completely authentic, emotive, credible and unrehearsed.

Read more on Jack Hollingsworth and microstock photography.

Kevin Nguyen gives his reasons for selling off the Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX ED VR Nikkor Wide Angle Telephoto Zoom lens and keeping the Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 SP XR ZL Di LD Aspherical (IF) lens:

I have both of those lens. End up selling the Nikon 16-85 VR and kept the Tamron 28-75 f2.8.

Then again, I do have the Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 as my primary I guess. I find living without the wide-open aperture of f2.8 was a pain. I would rather have that over VR. The ability Tamron could do macro at the same time was a huge bonus. The bokeh was great.

I've had D200 for 5+ years, the Tamron was my primary lens for 50% of the time. Love it.

This flyer from Malaysia Airlines arrived in the email, with a list of 10 interesting places to visit and things to do in Perth, Australia.

(click to see a larger version)

1. DNA Tower in Kings Park offers majestic panoramic views of the city skyline, Swan River, the mountain range & the Indian Ocean.

2. Head to the beach! Swim, surf, sail, kayak or just relax & soak in the sun at Scarborough Beach, Cottesloe Beach or Mettams Pool.

3. Bring the kids to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) for a first-hand experience of the region’s sea life!

4. Take a day out to explore the port town of Fremantle where cafes and outdoor markets are abound.

5. Swim with the dolphins at the seaside town of Rockingham. Fishing & crabbing are also available. Or head to Penguin Island for an up close with the Fairy penguins.

6. Indulge in some retail therapy at the city malls, King Street or at the factory outlet centre Harbour Town.

7. Sample local fares especially fish and chips in cafes by the river. Or opt for succulent, freshly-caught blue manna crab & seafood feast at Peel Inlet.

8. Spend a day or two at the Yanchep National Park, a favorite nature & wildlife attraction for both tourists & locals alike.

9. Feel as though you’ve stepped back in time as you wander the historic country towns in Avon Valley. Go rafting on Avon River!

10. Catch a ballet or an opera performance at His Majesty’s Theatre, the only Edwardian theatre in Australia that has been operating since 1904!

I had a bunch of Chinese songs in MP3 format whose Song Name / Title and Artist tags didn't match the filename, and I needed a way to edit the MP3 tags in bulk.

After searching around, TriTag from Feedface.com works best for me.

Below is a screenshot of the program. I used the pattern "%n %s %a" to populate the tags, and everything ran without a hitch. In fact, the batch process completed in less than a second for 171 songs.

(click to see a larger version)

MP3Machine.com has user comments on this software.

Here's Digital Camera Info's conclusion on their comparison of the Canon SX1 IS and Sony Cyber-shot HX1:

The choice between the Sony DSC-HX1 and the Canon SX1 is a tough one; both scored well in our tests and provide an excellent selection of features. The Canon had the edge in a few of our tests (color and noise in still images), but the Sony came out tops in others (such as resolution, image stabilization and most of our video tests). In the end, the choice will probably come down to the appeal of some of the extra features that are on offer (such as the Sony's excellent panorama and low light shooting features) or price: the Sony is $100 cheaper than the Canon SX1.

Here's Digital Camera Info's conclusion on their comparison of the Nikon Coolpix P90 and Sony Cyber-shot HX1:

The Nikon has a slight edge if you look at the specs: it shoots higher resolution images (12 megapixels against the 9 of the Sony), has a longer lens (24X against the 20x of the Sony) and is cheaper. But the Sony has superior performance in pretty much every category of our tests: it has better color, resolution and much better stabilization. The only area where the Nikon was superior was noise; although the Sony has the wider ISO range, the Nikon had lower noise in images at the ISO levels it achieved. The Sony was also a vastly superior performer at shooting video. While the Nikon could only shoot grainy standard definition video, the Sony could shoot very attractive high definition video.

Here's Digital Camera Info's conclusion on their comparison of the Olympus SP-590UZ and Sony Cyber-shot HX1:

The Olympus SP-590UZ has the longer zoom range of the two cameras (26x against the 20x of the Sony) and is also $50 cheaper. But the Sony was a better performer: it produced sharper images with more detail, had superior image stabilization and shoots better looking movies. However, the Olympus had very slightly better colors. Although both cameras are very close in many ways, we think that the Sony would generally be the better option as a general use camera, although some users may want to opt for the extra zoom range of the Olympus.

Patco wrote:

It think it would have to be a fixed focal length lens, as an HQ full frame zoom would have to be much too large for a compact camera.

… to which Thom Hogan replied:

As I've written many times, that's not true. It is tricky to get the design of a zoom compact enough, but as I wrote quite some time ago, it is not only possible, but there are at least three ways I know of to get there. The one that should be obvious to everyone right now is to use the Kodak/Leica offset microlens bit, as this allows you to use designs that are aggressive in the rear portion of the optics. But there's complexity in all three ways I know to do it

Tom Hoots outlined a couple of reasons why he'd choose the Canon Powershot S90 IS over the SD980 IS / IXUS 200 IS, here are two of them:

I hope to God that the S90 will be much, much better than even the best SD series camera. For one thing, the SD980 will have almost twice the pixel density of the S90 — 43 MP/cm² pixel density vs. the S90's 23 MP/cm². That is an utterly huge difference, and the S90 even clocks in a click below the LX3 at 24 MP/cm².

But it's the SD series lenses that I think are the weakest points. If you can fill the image with a close subject, in good light, you can get some decent results. Anything not filling the image will be soft, anything using any zoom at all will be soft — and so on. I think they are among the least useful lenses on any consumer camera on the market.

Oct 02, 2009 update: The 64-bit version of Adobe Unit Types.osax is now available, and should be the better solution to the /dev/null solution I originally wrote about below. Thanks to Ron Miller who wrote the following email to alert me about the new file:

Rather than put a link to /dev/null, you can fix the Adobe osascript
problem by updating "Adobe Unit Types.osax" to a 64-bit version. See this
link on Adobe's website.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/516/cpsid_51615.html

After upgrading to Snow Leopard, I get the following error added to the top of my Textmate document when I perform a post to my WordPress blog using Brad Choate's Blogging Bundle:

2009-09-13 15:38:10.711 osascript[5261:903] Error loading /Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax/Contents/MacOS/Adobe
Unit Types: dlopen(/Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Unit Types, 262): no suitable image
found. Did find: /Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Unit Types: no matching architecture
in universal wrapper osascript: OpenScripting.framework – scripting addition "/Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax" declares no loadable handlers.

It turned out that deleting or moving the Adobe Unit Types.osax file that's found in the /Library/ScriptingAdditions/ folder and re-booting my Mac solved the problem.

I got the idea for removing the file from this Apple Mailing List discussion. However, I'm also keeping a copy of this file someplace safe just in case uninstalling and Adobe application requires the file to be put back into that folder.

Additionally, I noticed that the file was re-created after I ran Photoshop and Lightroom, so I had to resort to creating a link with the name Adobe Unit Types.osax and have it point to /dev/null. This is how I did it:

1. In Finder, make a copy of the Adobe Unit Types.osax file, then delete the original file. You might be prompted to enter your Administrator password.

2. Launch Terminal.

2. cd /Library/ScriptingAdditions

3. sudo ln -s /dev/null "Adobe Unit Types.osax"

Keeping my fingers crossed this doesn't break my Adobe apps.

Here's why GeraldW switched from the Panasonic FZ28 to the Canon S5 IS:

Here's a couple of things to consider with the ZS3.

First, the color is not as good, particularly in skies where Panasonic cameras often show that as a sort of aqua color.

Second, the ZS3 has no internal adjustments for sharpening, contrast, or saturation – only a very few Panasonic models do have internal settings anymore. Canon models still retain this capability.

Third, the Canon IS (Image Stabilization) seems to be consistently better than Panasonic's OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer) – that was certainly the case with the FZ28 Vs the S5IS.

Personally, I much prefer the Canon menus and controls.

Seems to work well enough. Click the screen capture to view a larger version.

If you don't see the Genius Mixes item in your sidebar, try clicking on Store > Update Genius in the menu.

Adam says:

The SX10 is the Family megazoom here, even Ma is using it instead of Pentax DSLRs, my brother uses it too on occasion (Sis in law has my old TZ5, I have a TX1) and IMO its the best Megazoom out there, beating the FZ28 on image quality though the FZ38 may be better again (but missing the build, swivelly screen and ergonomics of course).

Ben is seriously disappointed with the image quality on the SX20IS – see Canon SX20 IS Reviews for the link to, and summary of his opinions.

The following is a comment by TheForestFloor to the CNET article 64-bit Snow Leopard defaults to 32-bit kernel:

If you boot into a 64bit kernel, none of your 32bit device drivers will work, so people who are upgrading will struggle. Drivers built for snow leopard will have both 32 & 64 bit code, but until that happens, booting into 64bit by default isn't the right way to go.

That said, 'booting into 64bit' only refers to the kernel. All of the other libraries that apps depend on, AppKit, FoundationKit, libc, etc are all 64 bit, and will load if a 64 bit processor is accessible. Also, any program that was compiled with 64bit code will run in 64bits period, giving you that (2x) improvement.

The biggest problem for users will be that their software (Photoshop, Logic, etc) will be 64 bit, but their plugins might not be. If any program has plugins or extensions that are not 64 bit, it will have to be relaunched into 32bit mode to use them. Contrary to contentcreator's comments, OSX does not 'grind a bit' when loading 64 bit code, nor does it load BOTH 32 and 64 bit. It loads 64bit code if it's dependent libraries and the processor support it. If not, it degrades gracefully (and speedily) to 32bit code.

That said, nearly all programs 32/64/ppc continue to run well on SL, and all of them get to take advantage of GCD when they run, so they run a bit faster as well.

In the pre-release versions of SL, all of the Macbook Pros, Mac Pros and XServes could be set to boot in 64bit by default (without 32bit device drivers), and the others (with the exception of the MBA and Mini) could be booted with the '64' keys held down. I guess they removed it to keep users from getting confused if their devices stopped working. My guess it will be the default for all machines once the driver community has moved all of their code over.

A Macworld Snow Leopard feature article:

Finally, a new Contact Sheet view lets you see all of your pages in thumbnail view at the same time, a nice convenience. To get this view, however, you need to set your General preferences to Open All Files In One Window or Open Groups Of Files In The Same Window.

Jason Snell says:

Mentioning Microsoft in this case is notable because, as anyone who has ever tried to buy and install a Windows upgrade package knows, it's a complete disaster.

You have to have the previous version of the OS available — and heaven help you if it's not the exact right SKU — in order to install the upgrade.

If anything isn't quite right, it all blows up in your face.

And of course you need to make sure you've got not just a serial number, but the right kind of serial number for the exact SKUs you're upgrading over and with.

In contrast: Apple. No serial numbers, full installer, no need to go back to previous versions of the OS in order to install an upgrade.

Jason Snell reveals:

Fans of the yellow button, fear not: by default, Snow Leopard still minimizes windows the same stupid way Mac OS X has for the last ten years. For us complainers, though, there’s a new alternative: A Minimize Windows Into Application Icon checkbox in System Preferences’ Dock pane. With that box checked, when you click on that yellow button, your window will still fly away into the Dock. But instead of disappearing into the mess on the right, it will minimize into the icon of the application it belongs to. That makes it easy to bring the window back. (Minimized windows are indicated in most programs by a diamond in an app’s Window menu; you can see that same list by Control-clicking on the app’s icon in the Dock.) Even better, this feature works with Exposé: When you invoke Exposé, all minimized windows line up together at the very bottom of the screen.

A-Frame reports on his experience with using Windows PC computers and Macs:

I use both Windows OS and Mac OS at work. For design and photography type work the Mac experience is a little better IMO. Adobe PS performance under Windows is mainly affected by utiilites such as antivirus programs that hog resources.

My personal computer is a Mac Pro. Apple warranty and service is very good when their product fails. My (2008) Mac Pro Dual 2.8GHz failed within the first year of ownership. After several tries to fix the problem Apple decided to replace it with a (2009) Mac Pro Dual 2.93GHz. No doubt that my next pc will also be a Mac.

Here's Alex Booton's suggestion:

I use a D40 with an SB400 on a flash bracket quite often. I use Stroboframe's cheapest bracket, which is called a Quickflip 350 with an SC28 cord. It works great and it's simple, but keep in mind that unlike the bigger flashes, the SB400 does not line up directly over the camera. Very close, but not quite, so you might on occasion still get a very faint, but pesky shadow down the right side of your subject.

Nikon has officially released a gallery of full-sized Nikon D300S sample images, and the following photo was taken with the Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E Nikkor Ultra-Wide Angle lens attached to the camera (click the picture to view the full-resolution image).

Nikon D300S Tilt-Shft Cityscape / Landscape:

Paul is the author of "iPhone 3GS Portable Genius: Also covers iPhone 3G", and has 10 iPhone Apps to recommend to you.

Here's a screen capture (LR on the left, NX2 on the right) that illustrates the differences in the way Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Nikon Capture NX 2 render a Nikon D5000 RAW / NEF file on my Mac, as far as colors, tonality and contrast is concerned.

(click to view larger)

One reason for the differences is Capture NX 2 makes use of camera settings such as Picture Controls (this specifies sharpness, brightness, saturation, hue and contrast levels) and Active D-Lighting intensity that's embedded in the image to render the initial JPEG.

If I need the highest quality RAW conversion, I edit the image in NX 2.

Otherwise, I live in Lightroom 99% of the time for my image cataloging, management, editing and printing requirements.

These large, strong swimmers are everywhere on the island.

They're not dangerous to humans, unlike the venomous Komodo dragons.

References: Malayan Water Monitor Lizard (Varanus salvator), Wikipedia.

Read up Photocrati's T1i/ 500D review, where you'll find a couple of web-resized photos (one macro, one candid, miscellaneous pics) shot with the EF-S 18-55 IS lens.

The 430EX Speedlite flash was used for some of the images.

Jack has the following remarks on the 18-55 lens:

I was happily surprised by the lens’s performance. I don’t think Canon souped-up sharpness and contrast in the T1i to make up for possible deficiencies in the lens optically, since I also tested it with one of my regular Canon zooms. So I’d have to say, in terms of sharpness, contrast, and color rendition, this lens appeared to hold its own. Another pleasant surprise was the close-focusing limit, at just under 10 inches.

Simply superb dive images by Jan Messersmith – there's Lionfish, Clark’s Anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii) and Bulb Anemone. He's also posted his opinions about the image quality of the camera.

Jan used the WP-DC28 waterproof case to get the G10 underwater, and added:

I’m really happy with my new rig. People pay thousands of dollars for underwater cameras that don’t produce images any better than these. The difference is that the extra money buys you mostly more light on the subject. If you are willing to stay within the confines of available light and limit yourself to close shots when using flash, you can take professional quality underwater photos for way under a thousand US$. The G10 costs about US$400 and the housing was, I think, less than $200.

If you're planning your next trip to photograph your award-winning star trails image, be sure you know the levels of light pollution in the surrounding areas first.

Visit The night sky in the World for this data – see two examples of their maps – The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness and North America (notice how polluted the night sky on the eastern side of the US is).

Armed with this knowledge, you can then decide on your exposure (how long to keep the shutter open, what ISO) and stacking / blending (normally done with Photoshop) strategy.

Dropbox already offers you 2 GB of space for free upon signing up, but you can get up to 8 GB of additional storage if you take part in their referral program.

Each person who signs up via your referral link earns you 250 MB, so if you get 12 people to use your referral link, you'll get that extra 3GB.

However, there is a faster way. You can have an extra 250MB, right now, if you use my referral link (you can also use this alternative link) and sign up for an account.

This way, both you and I will get the additional 250MB – a perfect win-win situation.

Aug 28, 2009 update – eight days after putting up this post and a tweet, I got my first referral! The Dropbox team kindly dropped me an automated email (titled 'Dropbox referral status') to announce the fact.

Sep 03, 2009 update – My second Dropbox referral is in – I'm up another 250MB!

Nov 24, 2010 Update: Vlatte has written a post on how to get an additional 768 MB of free space by using your Twitter and Facebook account to promote Dropbox.

Randall C. Kennedy:

… I'm typing this on a netbook running one of the RTM escrow builds of Windows 7. I certainly could have installed Windows XP on this machine instead of its newer sibling. However, the hassle of patching, tuning, and hunting down drivers just to get XP to boot on this newfangled hardware would have made the effort difficult to justify. By contrast, Windows 7 simply worked from the get-go. With few exceptions, its default configuration was entirely functional.

I have a feeling this same scene is playing out across the IT landscape. Shops weary of patching and tweaking XP to get it working reliably on modern hardware are looking at Windows 7 and thinking it might just be the version that finally lures them away from their legacy environment. After all, there's something to be said for convenience. And when it comes to seamlessly embracing new hardware technologies, Windows 7 is far better positioned than creaky old XP.

Bill Dudney, author of the "Writing Your First iPhone Application" screencast series, announced the availability of a free, 20-minute preview which goes into some detail on using Xcode and IB (Interface Builder) to build your first iPhone program.

The photo books that you order from Apple via the iPhoto interface might not be up to the quality you expect, especially if you're an owner of a high-end DSLR or digital camera.

In a comment to a blog post, monte says:

The iPhoto books are aimed at the general audience who uses mainly point and shoot type cameras.

There is a fixed, limited amount of digital information that the book download from your computer to Apple will take.

New DSLRs with 15-24 megapixels' images edit great as RAW or JPGs on Photoshop and similar higher end photo apps.

The resulting files are large. You can set up a book in iPhoto with these large file images and they will look great when you see them on your computer.

The shortfall is when you order the books and send your image information to Apple, it is compressed (so they get softened quite a bit).

Again, iPhoto is geared for lower expectations of image quality and hasn't the capacity nor the ability to capture large files.

For the vast majority of buyers the image quality is very acceptable. The books (at this time) don't do justice to more advanced photographic images and are far from museum quality.

If you're still agonizing over which mid-range DSLR to purchase, perhaps ePHOTOzine's 2009 DSLR Group Review Report might help.

The article compares 5 DSLR bodies: Canon EOS 50D vs Nikon D300 vs Olympus E-30 vs Pentax K-7 vs Sony A700.

The A700 emerged as the overall winner, with the following verdict:

The Sony Alpha A700 wins because of the specification being so similar to the other models, it gives good noise performance, has great color rendition and a good dynamic range that seems to work even when dynamic range compensation is switched off.

A useful summary of pros and cons of each camera is given at the end of the review.

In this gdgt.com discussion, the ASUS Eee PC netbook / ultra-portable laptop computers seem to garner the most favorable user reviews, who rave about the speed and network performance of the machines when running Windows 7.

JohnLeBaron says:

First, I would say to skip both those computers (the Dell inspiron Mini 10 and HP Mini 1000) and get the Asus eee 1005HA or the 1000HE (an older model). They are both incredible machines and if the Dell 10 is anything like the Latitude 2100 then it will be a dog compared with the 2 Asus ones.

I have had both Asus's and loved the HE (but I killed it on a freeway so I got the 1005HA as a replacement and it is incredible). The extra speed of these processors may not seem like they will make a difference but they actually do.

And for the $ you cant beat them. Asus also offers a 2 year extended warranty (you have to go on line for it) that covers some types of damage.

They also run OSX nicely (http://discuss.gdgt.com/asus/eee/pc/1005ha/tips/osx-on-1005ha/#20427).

backbeatcat added:

I loaded Windows 7 ultimate (RTM) on my new 1005HA about a week ago and it is working very well. Performance seems about the same as with XP and the machine runs the aero interface very well. The installation was fairly easy as described in a few good articles on the web. I used a 4GB USB drive formatted using the HP format tool to be an active partition. Drivers for XP worked fine. Just run the installations using the XP compatibility mode.

Network performance on this thing is OFF THE FRICKIN' CHAIN. The 802.11n network adapter really screams on my network. Netflix movies load in about 7 seconds from the the "play" click.

Since I got this, three people in my office have seen it and ordered one. The thing sells itself. Just be sure to keep a 4GB-8GB USB drive around to load software from.

John Gruber:

Carefully select a handful of areas where you can beat the iPhone, and then promote the hell out of these features. Over-the-air calendar, contact, and email syncing through Google services should beat MobileMe hands down, if only because MobileMe costs $100 a year and Google’s services are free.

There is no better advice than this:

If your goal is to sell more smartphones than Apple, you’re going to fail. If your hope is to gain a strong foothold in the market with a sub-par device, you are mistaken. So aim high, and set your goals such that you can smugly claim victory with just a fraction of Apple’s unit sales. If Apple is BMW, you can be Porsche.

In an addenda, John admonishes:

Display, processor, RAM, storage capacity, build quality. Match — or come really close to matching — the iPhone on these criteria and then add just one thing that beats it, at least for some segment of the market. This is where there’s room for several Android handset makers to flourish. Say, one with an amazing camera. One with twice the battery life. (Or even better, combine those two, and when you make room for the bigger battery with a thicker case, use the extra room to add a larger camera sensor.) But add at least one thing that might make some iPhone owners envious — something to hang your hat on.

Removing / unistalling programs and unwanted software on my Macs is now so much easier with Forklift.

(click to view a larger version)

In Forklift, just select an app in the Applications folder (Syncplicity, in this example – Dropbbox serves my needs better), and click on the Delete App toolbar icon. You're presented with a list of related items for deletion.

Remove the tick in the checkbox next to an item to keep it.

Click Move to Trash, and the app is completely removed.

Sebastian Vaida writes a fantastic article on Santorini for the photographer – places to see, locations to photograph, what equipment to bring, how to get there and around, interacting with the locals, and other tips.

Alex Payne:

The woeful performance and usability of Android is precisely the reason that Apple can treat developers (and consumers) however they like; it’s not even playing the same game, much less on the field with the iPhone. That Android is a mobile Linux platform is sadly apparent. Android suffers from the same issues that have plagued Linux on the desktop for years: the lack of integration between software and hardware, buggy and under-featured applications, a lack of attention paid to user experience issues. The encouraging openness and bits of innovation in Android are overshadowed by mediocrity.

The Ruby Study Notes / Tutorials on rubylearning.com is a good place to start learning Ruby.

I'd already written my first "Hello" Ruby program in Textmate.

First, I created an empty p001hello.rb file and opened that in Textmate.

Next, I pasted and tidied up the sample code, and executed the program by pressing ⌘R, which opens an HTML preview window showing the results.

That was all there was to it. I'm pretty amazed how smoothly it all went.

Remember this Terminal command:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

Andy Ihnatko explains why:

It’s a safety thing. Way, way too frequently I’ve picked up my laptop bag and it felt…warm. I unzipped it and heard a screaming fan. At some unguessable point in the recent past, the MacBook got jostled just enough to twitch the screen sensor and it woke up.

Inside a sealed bag whose thick padding acted as thermal insulation. Result: a white-hot $1500 computer. That can’t be good. If there are any weak points in the hardware, that sort of abuse will cook ‘em right into a hardware failure.

John Gruber comments on Adam Lisagor's experience on snapping photos with the 3GS, and notes:

… a few times where I thought I’d missed the shot based on my experience with the original iPhone and 3G, I’ve gotten the shot with the 3GS. But after reading Adam’s piece and testing it out side-by-side with my old 3G, there’s no maybe about it. As Adam says, something smart is happening here.

If you get a wrong dateTime error when fetching posts from your WordPress blog using the Blogging Bundle in Textmate, this could be due to the existence of a recent draft post.

If you create a Draft post in WordPress using the browser-based WordPress editor, a record is created with all zeros in the post_date_gmt field of the draft post record. I used phpMyAdmin for this screen capture of the posts table.

(click to view larger)

You can do one of two things to address this problem.

Firstly, you could just go ahead and create a new post in Textmate and publish it to your WordPress blog – it will successfully publish.

Or, you could force a proper date to be updated in the post_date_gmt field by calling up the draft post in the WordPress editor and changing the publish date of the post from "Publish immediately" to a specific date in the future, and re-saving the draft post.

This issue only crops up when creating draft posts in WordPress itself. Draft posts made using Marsedit or Textmate have the post_date_gmt field filled in with the date and time of the post creation. However, you would need to remember to manually change the date and time later, at the point of publishing the post.

Nice post (and comments) on kids and the iPhone / iPod Touch.

The kids definitely seem to prefer Apple's devices over the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

I'm also making note of graham's recommendation for an educational app for the kids:

An iPhone kids application you should check out is iStoryTime. It’s a library of narrated and illustrated kids books for the iPhone. There are 6 books available in the Apple AppStore today: http://www.istorytimeapp.com/appstore With new ones coming out every week.

Great for driving in the car, on the airplane, or at a restaurant waiting for the bill when the kids are going crazy.

Books are $1.99/ea from iTunes and can also be purchased on your phone from anywhere. Great for entertaining the kids in a guilt free way. All the wholesomeness of a book with the convenience of your phone.

Enjoy!

Website: http://www.istorytimeapp.com
On the AppStore: http://www.istorytimeapp.com/appstore

(click to view full-size)

A superb article at Jettison Canopy explores alternatives to Adobe InDesign for desktop publishing software on the Mac platform.

Great comparison!

(image is copyright Lukas Mathis)

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 Preview at CNET Asia shows the TX1 to have equal, if not superior, high-ISO noise performance to the Fujifilm Finepix F200 EXR.

The on-going Sony TX1 analysis has been updated with this piece of information.

Thanks to a tip in this post by DamienG, I've managed to install the gorgeous Panic Sans font that comes with the Coda application, and used it in Textmate.

Here's a screen shot showing a comparison of both fonts.

Monaco (click to view larger):

Panic Sans (click to view larger):

I'm still sticking with Textmate's Pastels on Dark theme though, as it is easy on the eyes (Twilight is a tad more contrasty).

I've also decided that the combination of Textmate and Forklift is best suited for my needs in adding and modifying content (Textmate) on Digital Photography Notes locally on my Mac, and syncing the new and modified files (Forklift) with my remote hosting server.

Forklift also acts as a splendid File Manager / Finder alternative, with its two-pane, multi-tab approach to presenting folders, servers and mounted storage.

Analyze the full-sized D3000 images – brief analysis is at Nikon D3000.

Navigating the site for the Sony WX1 test photos is a bit convoluted, so follow the links and explanations at Sony WX1 sample photos.

Paul Graber posted excerpts from the K-7 review (which was written by Angela Nicholson):

… she likes the camera quite a lot, finding it "extremely comfortable to hold and use". She likes IQ and detail resolution, and unique-to-Pentax features such as built-in level adjustment. Live View now fully rounded and of genuine use. During review process, she adds latest firmware and notes improvements. But she finds a few niggling problems:-
* AF improved, but still behind Nikon and Canon
* Viewfinder not that comfortable to use and a bit gloomy
* Menu system less flexible than competitors

Also, the Canon 50D and Nikon D300 / D300S might be preferred by sports photographers for the Autofocus speed, but "… landscape, still-life and macro photographers could well prefer K-7."

Digital Photography Links summarizes the points raised in the four YouTube video clips by Lilkiwiguy87 on possible solutions to prevent the Nikon SB-900 from overheating.

These tips are great for Textmate newcomers like me.

Here's a nice little Site Launcher that I've just started using on my Mac.

Anytime, anywhere while in a Firefox session, just hit ctrl + alt / option to call up an overlay where you can then hit a single key to access your favorite websites.

Hitting command + shift + s while you're on a web site calls up a window where you can quickly assign a shortcut key and enter a descriptive title.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Nice sample photos by Kesha, who used the Pentax K10D and Pentax smc DA 55-300mm lens.

You can get lots of ideas from this blog on Mac Automator Applications and Tips, written by Claire J Rottenberg.

I stumbled on to this site while searching for ways to create contact sheets from a selection of images on the Mac.

How the iPhone is used for business operations, and usage examples.

Great WX1 portraits and miscellaneous shots.

Read more on the Sony WX1.

Great TX1 portraits and miscellaneous shots.

Read more on the Sony TX1.

Batch file renaming – what a really useful feature to find in an FTP program.

Actually, the more I use Forklift, the more I like it. It's less of an FTP program, and more of a File Management (or Finder replacement) application.

The files I renamed were images used for Panasonic GF1: The Leaked Photos Collection.

Duncan Geere has the following remark on the Coolpix S1000pj's projector:

Then there's the projector, and it's a good one, too. Despite seeming a little weedy on paper at just 10 lumens, we found that images were viewable at reasonably close range with full lighting on, and when blown up to 40-inches – the maximum the company says the camera supports – only a little dimming is needed for good clarity.

Video playback in particular was smooth and well-defined. It's always going to depend on what surface you're projecting onto, but assuming it's not Auntie Mavis' floral curtains you'll likely be fine. There's a bunch of slideshow options, too, for photo display.

Read more on the Nikon S1000pj.

Size comparison from leaked photos.

I just received this in the email from Sun Microsystems, Inc. StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Product Team.

A key strength of OpenOffice.org is its ability to handle large word processing documents. Now you can learn how to create and better manage large documents — theses, research reports, manuscripts and more — in this recently released Sun guide.

Topics include:

1. Developing tables of contents, indexes, appendices
2. Working with templates, cross-references
3. Handling graphics, tables, charts
4. Using OOo powerful style guides to manage page styles, paragraph styles, and character styles
5. And a lot more helpful tips and tricks

You'll also get information on where to get more resources along with detailed guidelines on writing a public documentation license.

You'll need to enter some basic details about yourself before downloading the guide.

An excellent source on English Grammar and Usage.

[via John Gruber]

See a larger version of the new office photos.

Andy Westlake, in his DA* 55/1.4 review conclusion:

… that 55mm focal length is offering the angle of view of a classic 85mm lens from the days of film, giving you a slightly longer working distance and more flattering perspective compared to a 50mm prime on APS-C. All in all, the lens is a clear improvement over the smc FA 50mm F1.4, with much superior wide open performance than the older, film-era design (although the gap narrows considerably at smaller apertures).

However …

The SDM focus motor is near-silent, and won't disturb your subjects in the slightest; however it is slower than the screw-drive system of the older 50mm, and while this isn't a big deal if you tend to pre-focus then shoot, you might need to bear it in mind if you use autofocus to track continually and erratically moving subjects – children, for example.

Read more on the DA* 55 f1.4.

Wesley feels that the Di866 is "… indeed a worthy (and cheaper) alternative to the original flash."

The two sample images in that forum post are not visible unless you're logged in, so see those pictures here.

Daniel Eran Dilger:

Smartphones are essentially a general purpose computer (usually an ARM-based CPU) connected to a cellular radio (controlled by the baseband processor) via an interface that uses basic AT-style commands to place calls and transmit data, much like an old Hayes modem if you are old enough to remember that sort of thing. Vendors are free to do pretty much anything on the computer side of the device, just as anyone can release a Linux PC. On the baseband side however, the phone can’t be “open,” by law.

Guardian.co.uk:

The Leaf is the first of Nissan's new range of fully electric powered cars, which produce no carbon emissions, unlike hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, which uses a petrol-powered engine as well as an electric battery. Nissan's range of electric cars will include small, medium-sized and large saloon cars.

patriotusa, in a comment to Macword's article: Canon PowerShot SX200 IS:

I initially bought a Panasonic ZS3 (the SX200's closest competitor) based on reviews on internet camera sites, but I returned it after a few days of testing and purchased a Canon SX200 instead. I could not be happier. The ZS3 had a very weak flash, and took poor low-light photos. In addition, the ZS3 had poor color quality compared to Canon's I owned. The SX200 has great color quality, excellent flash capability, and good low-light performance. I took some evening photos on a trip to Galveston recently and was extremely pleased. In addition, the manual controls on the camera are great and I tend to use them about 80% of the time. As you adjust the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, the preview changes to show you how your settings will affect the final shot. No need to adjust, shoot, review, and adjust again.

I do wish it could zoom during video, but this is a minor complaint for an excellent point and shoot, particularly at this price.

Vnc2swf is a cross-platform screen recording tool for ShockWave Flash (swf) or Flash Video (flv) format.

After installing Sandvox 1.6.3 (a Mac visual site builder / HTML editor), you'll need to ensure that you close any running Firefox 3.5 web browser sessions, otherwise, the application will not start up.

If you had forgotten to close Firefox first before launching Sandvox, and the Sandvox icon just bounces up and down in the Dock and doesn't do anything else, don't worry, just go ahead and quit Firefox, and Sandvox will then start up just fine.

After registering your copy of Sandvox, quit Sandvox and then start it up again. Again, you'll need to make sure Firefox is not running when you start up Sandvox the first time after registering.

The above process steps need to be observed only when launching Sandvox for the first time after installation, or when launching the first time after registration.

Subsequent launching of Sandvox will take place smoothly even if Firefox is running.

Nikon has officially released a gallery of full-sized Nikon D300S sample images, and the following nature photo was taken with the AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens attached to the camera (click the picture to view the full-resolution image).

ISO 640 was used.

Nikon D300S Mountain Goat:

Nikon has officially released a gallery of full-sized Nikon D300S sample images, and the following Black-and-White photo was taken with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens attached to the camera (click the picture to view the full-resolution image).

Nikon D300S Street Portrait:

Nikon has officially released a gallery of full-sized Nikon D300S sample images, and the following photo was photographed with the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G lens attached to the camera (click the picture to view the full-resolution image).

Nikon D300S Icy / Snowy Landscape:

Nikon has officially released a gallery of full-sized Nikon D300S sample images, and the following images were photographed with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens attached to the camera (click the picture to view the full-resolution image).

Nikon D300S Low-Light Portrait:

Nikon D300S Architecture:

Nikon D300S Sports Example: Snowboard and Parachute / Paraboarding:

The image is also a good example of the 10-24mm's resistance to flare when shooting into the sun at f/8.

Pre-order the Nikon D300S body, or sign-up to be notified once the D300S plus Nikkor 18-200mm VR kit becomes available.

Simon Joinson has the following conclusion on the JPG photo output quality from both cameras:

The 500D's JPEG output is a lot closer to the EP-1's, but even here the little Olympus has the edge when it comes to pixel-level sharpness – despite the Canon's higher nominal resolution. There's really not a lot in it though, and in a print you'd be unlikely to see any difference in detail at all. The 500D's color and contrast is a little more muted, and again it's handling the roll-off of highlights a little more gently (and again, the difference would be less at ISO 200), but as both cameras offer extensive control over image parameters this is really only relevant to those who never change a single camera setting.

Lenses used were the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Telephoto Macro ED on the E-P1, and Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard / Medium Telephoto on the T1i / 500D / Kiss X3.

Simon Joinson has the following conclusion on the JPG photo output quality from both cameras:

It's clear to see that Olympus – as usual – is doing a great job with its out of camera JPEGs, and at a pixel level the E-P1 produces, sharper, crisper output than the Nikon, and the punchier default contrast, sharpening and saturation mean that the results are more immediately appealing. You're not going to see a huge difference at normal magnifications (and turning up the Nikon's rather conservative sharpening evens things out a little), but there's no denying that the little Olympus is giving the D5000 a good run for its money (though again the rather harsh highlight roll-off produces slightly clipped tones at ISO 100).

Lenses used were the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Telephoto Macro ED on the E-P1, and Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S Nikkor on the D5000.

Simon Joinson has the following conclusion on the JPG photo output quality from both cameras:

Not surprisingly given the family ties (and the fact it's the same lens), the output is very, very similar, with color, contrast and saturation almost identical. Look a bit closer and you can see – even in a JPEG – that there are some differences. The most obvious is the EP-1's visibly better pixel-level sharpness (thanks to a lighter anti-alias / low pass filter), though we also noticed that the highlight roll-off is a little harsher than the E-620 (something confirmed in our dynamic range testing) – it's better at ISO 200, but still not as good as the E-620. Overall though, it's great to see that Olympus hasn't just delivered on its promise to match SLR quality – it's actually surpassed it.

The lens used on both cameras was the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Telephoto Macro ED.

Marius from Marathon Training Schedule shares a tip on how to encourage potential visitors to click on your search listing:

One additional thing I have done recently though, with this site + the others is to implement a "call to action word" in the beginning of the meta description to improve clickthrough rates from the google search.The meta description does not seem to have much importance in the SERP (search engine results page) ranking itself, so I use it to convince the visitors to take action and click on my site vs the other options that come up.

For example words like "discover, claim, pick, consider" such as  "Discover the best training for the marathon…etc". "Pick your shoes wisely. These are the top 5 tips….etc". as the beginning of the meta description.

Peter Wayner shares four effective iPhone application programming tools:

You don't need to master Cocoa and Objective C to create killer iPhone apps. Rhomobile, PhoneGap, Appcelerator, and Ansca tools leverage standard Web technologies and still tap native features

[...]

Rhodes, PhoneGap, Titanium, and Corona are all good tools. Although there are differences in capabilities, your choice will probably rest with the one that supports your favorite language. That's the entire point of working with these frameworks. If you know JavaScript, Lua, or Ruby, you can create something on the iPhone very quickly.

You cannot access data over the cellular connection while on a voice call with the Palm Pre, says Daniel Eran Dilger.

Andrew Alexander has the following short comparison conclusion on both lenses:

The Sigma still holds up well against the new Nikon: both lenses are very sharp. Where the Nikon is just slightly sharper at wider apertures, stopped down, the Sigma achieves just slightly sharper performance. In this case, "slightly" is measured in the tenths-of-blur units. CA performance is much better in the Nikon (especially at 10mm), corner shading is about the same, and distortion is perhaps a bit more forgiving in the Sigma. Both take 77mm filters, but the Sigma costs half as much. The Sigma 10-20mm is also newly available in a constant ƒ/3.5 configuration.

Andrew Alexander has the following short comparison conclusion on both lenses:

Tamron's had a 10-24mm lens for a few years now, but it doesn't quite reach the optical performance of the Nikon. Wide open, the Nikon is sharper, especially in the corners, though stopped down to at least ƒ/5.6 the two are very similar. CA performance is better with the Nikon, as it is for corner shading; distortion is a constant barrel distortion with the Tamron. Takes 77mm filters.

Andrew Alexander has the following short comparison conclusion on both lenses:

Sigma's version of this lens is also available in the Sony mount, and is generally the poorer cousin: less capable macro (0.22x instead of 0.29x), slower aperture (ƒ/4.5 instead of ƒ/4) and no ED glass. Also uses a mechanical focusing system.

Andrew Alexander has the following verdict on the Sony 55-200mm f/4-5.6 DT SAM SAL-552002:

The 55-200mm ƒ/4-5.6 fared well in our tests: sharpness is very good, even when used wide open, with light corner shading. CA is noticeable but light: corner shading is minor, and as is typical for this class of lens, distortion is fairly objectionable when used at the lens' longer focal lengths.

[...]

Still, for the money, it's a light lens which offers very good performance, and makes a good camera system when paired with the 18-55mm.

These full-resolution Sony 55-200mm f/4-5.6 DT SAM SAL-552002 test photos were photographed with a Sony Alpha A700.

(via Sony 55-200mm Review at SLRgear.com)

Ian Burley's posted up many web-sized Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 / DMC-ZX1 sample photos, and says:

Please note that Panasonic requested we only published these samples resized to 640×480 as image quality from the pre-production sample cameras we had was not final.

Ian Burley takes us on a product tour of the Panasonic ZR1 / ZX1.

Click the first thumbnail in this gallery, and you'll be able to read the notes that accompany each image.

For instance, here is Ian's take on the overall dimensions of the ZR1 / ZX1:

Despite packing a genuine superzoom range 8x zoom, from the impressively wide angle of 25mm (equivalent) to 200mm, the ZX1 remains compact and slim.

Josh Catone says:

But there are a number of other conferences held each year around the world that also bring together visionaries, intellectuals, and luminaries from a wide variety of disciplines to discuss innovative ideas.

With that in mind, below is a list of the top 7 places to watch great minds in action. What makes these conferences special is both the people they’re able to assemble together in one place and that they put videos of the experiences online for everyone to enjoy.

Ian Burley takes us on a product tour of the Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38.

Click the first thumbnail in this gallery, and you'll be able to read the notes that accompany each image.

For instance, here is Ian's take on the new stereo mic:

Here is a close up view of the stereo microphones built into the pop-up flash. This is very reminiscent of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera that Panasonic introduced earlier in the year.The difference is that you could buy several FZ38s for the price of one GH1.

Ian Burley's posted up many web-sized Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 / DMC-FZ38 sample photos, and says:

Please note that Panasonic requested we only published these samples resized to 640×480 as image quality from the pre-production sample cameras we had was not final.

Funemployed, and Funemployment … two words associated with the happily jobless:

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. [The] happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.

[...]

As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it’s both a reflection of the country’s cultural narcissism — and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness — and a backlash against corporate America and its “Dilbert”-like work environment.

Get your daily dose of modern words and phrases at Schott's Vocab Blog.

Bradley L. Jones likes the following Windows 7 functions – Snap, Shake, Show Desktop, and the new Task Bar.

Safaridon's post on Fujifilm Finepix F70EXR / F75EXR vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 / DMC-ZX1:

Given the "miniature is best" mania in the world today, I would expect this ZR1 to be very very popular.

For those wanting the highest image IQ (image quality) in a compact, the new Fuji F70EXR / F75EXR may be hard to beat, but this ZR1 / ZX1 has HD video, goes to 25mm WA (wide-angle), and has a much better OIS (optical image stabilization) and a much faster AF.

I ran this photo through Adobe Lightroom 2.4's Creative – Direct Positive and Creative – Punch presets to get this look.

(View the image at full size, and EXIF / META data)

The picture was then exported using these settings:

1. Format: JPEG, Quality: 100.
2. Sharpen For: Screen, Amount: Standard.

To compare specifications and features from both Fujifilm Finepix cameras, visit DPReview's side-by-side guide.

Notable differences are in resolution, sensor size, pixel density, and zoom range.

Malcolm Gladwell, on being cocksure:

This is what social scientists mean when they say that human overconfidence can be an adaptive trait. “In conflicts involving mutual assessment, an exaggerated assessment of the probability of winning increases the probability of winning,” Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist at Harvard, writes. “Selection therefore favors this form of overconfidence.” Winners know how to bluff. And who bluffs the best? The person who, instead of pretending to be stronger than he is, actually believes himself to be stronger than he is. According to Wrangham, self-deception reduces the chances of “behavioral leakage”; that is, of “inadvertently revealing the truth through an inappropriate behavior.” This much is in keeping with what some psychologists have been telling us for years—that it can be useful to be especially optimistic about how attractive our spouse is, or how marketable our new idea is. In the words of the social psychologist Roy Baumeister, humans have an “optimal margin of illusion.”

Visit World Wide Words, an interesting site where Michael Quinion writes on international English from a British viewpoint.

In his long-term review of the Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor, Scott mentions that the optic works spectacularly on the Nikon D3 as a portrait (head shot) and landscape (detail and for panorama work) lens.

He concludes:

The 105 micro is clearly a superb all-around lens, capable of producing great images in a wide variety of situations. If I am not out shooting birds, then you can pretty much assume I’ll have this lens on one of my cameras when you see me out and about. In fact, if I could only have one lens, this would be the one. While it’s not exactly cheap at $930, you get what you pay for. In this case, it’s worth every penny.

Very highly recommended!

Vanity Fair:

If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result.

Several good tips and techniques were offered in reply to twentysixtynine's question on getting better skin tones in portraits.

SLOtographer:

I normally use the "smooth" film setting with noise reduction and sharpness at -2. I can tweak the saturation to taste in cam or post. For B&W I normally use standard (for kids), sometimes dynamic (grizzly looking friends).

David Carr:

1) Shoot RAW.

2) Buy an 18% grey card (although you may be able to do this with just a sheet of white paper). Photograph this (as a JPEG) in good, evenly lit daylight with your camera set to AWB. Open the JPEG in Photoshop. Use the eye dropper to measure the colour of the grey card. If your AWB is correct, you will see equal levels of red, green and blue. You probably won't but you will be able to get an idea of how off the balance is. Now go into the camera's menu > white balance > auto white balance and use the right-hand arrow to open up the tool for fine-tuning the white balance. Here you can correct any imbalance betweeen red, green and blue that you measured in Photoshop. Take another picture as before with your corrected auto white balance, open in Photoshop, measure as before and continue the process until you have even levels of red, green and blue. You will now have adjusted your camera's white balance setting.

3) Shoot raw and then convert to Adobe DNG with the free Adobe DNG converter. Use a Macbeth Colour Checker chart to create a custom profile for your raw converter.

4) Give up using auto white balance. Always do a custom white balance or, failing that, at least set your camera to a white balance setting appropriate for your light. This will make colour-correcting easier in post-production.

5) There are no easy solutions. It's a question of effort.

Brad Morris:

Make sure that you update to the latest firmware.

Shooting RAW does give good skin tones, the magenta cast only seems to be with AWB (automatic white balance) in daylight using the JPEG engine as far as I can tell. I generally shoot RAW and JPG.

You can make adjustment to fine tune AWB in the menus.

Experiment, you can add more green and yellow.

Flash WB gives reasonable daylight skin tones too for jpeg also.

From ePHOTOzine's first look at the FZ35 / FZ38:

A new Venus engine HD has been added to help improve picture quality further and to accommodate the AVCHD Lite video capability. This HD video system is Viera compatible which means that you can either take the memory card straight out of the camera and slot it into the port on the TV or you can link up using the HDMI port on the camera. With AVCHD Lite, the video is compressed further than usual MPEG files which means you can record more. Panasonic says this is done without the loss of quality to the video.

The FZ38 / FZ35 review article has three pages of image samples:

1. Test Shots – ISO Performance.
2. Test Shots – Detail and Lens Performance (a full-resolution photo is available here).
3. Test Shots – Exposure Evaluation (two full-sized pictures are available here, one taken at wide-angle / 27mm, and the other at full telephoto / 486mm).

I believe this is the first time I've seen Cliff Smith award a camera an overall rating score of 10/10, but that's exactly what he did in his Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38 review.

Cliff concludes:

I was concerned that the increase in sensor resolution would have a negative impact on image quality, but this has not proved to be the case; in fact image quality is noticeably improved. There are inevitably some black shadows and burned-out highlights, but only at the extremes of contrast. The FZ38 has an additional low-speed setting of 80 ISO, at which the image quality is as good as any 12MP compact on the market, and the performance of the noise reduction system at higher ISO settings is also better, with virtually noise-free images at 400 ISO. Like the FZ28 the FZ38 has a maximum of 1600 ISO, and even at this setting the results are far from useless.

My verdict on the FZ38 is pretty much the same as for its predecessor. If you've already got an FZ28 it's probably not enough of an improvement to justify an upgrade. However for anyone else looking for a new super-zoom camera they really don't come much better than this. Build quality, handling, features, performance, image quality and versatility are superior to any of its immediate rivals, and the excellent video quality is icing on the cake. To get anything better than this you'll have to move up to a DSLR.

Here's an idea for a travel lens to take to Yosemite:

I have just returned from my vacation at Yosemite. My son and I joined my friend and his family camping there for a week. My lenses were: Tamron 18-270 and Canon 10-22 for my XSi.

I find the Tamron was the most used lens. I experimented with some camera settings and am getting more proficient in using it. I shot all in RAW format with a 16gb SDHC card.

I saw hundreds of people using Canon gears with a few using Nikon.

I actually bought the Tamron specifically for the tirp and am very happy.

Also since I forgot to bring my binoculars it was very handy in locating climbers at the face of El Capitan.

I also brought a Canon HF100 video cam and it really came in handy since it also takes stills and has a flash option.

There's a pretty comprehensive set of sample Lumix DMC-FZ38 / DMCFZ35 files for download and evaluation in this review, with subjects ranging from portraits, candids, architecture, landscapes, high-ISO / low-light shots to macros / close-ups.

The 14.2Mb sample movie was recorded "… at the highest quality setting of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second."

Two small images, taken at the focal lengths of 27mm and 486mm, show very clearly the power of the zoom lens on the Lumix DMC-FZ35 / DMC-FZ38.

In the review of the Sony A330, Philip Ryan issued the following statement on the A330's image quality:

Typical of DSLRs these days, the A330 got an Excellent rating in our color accuracy test. With an average Delta E of 7.11, it handily beat our cutoff of 8 or below for top honors. As have previous entry-level Sonys, the A330 also scored quite well in noise control. Using the manufacturer’s RAW converter (Image Data Converter SR), and with the default level of noise reduction applied, it never rose above a Moderately Low noise rating. That’s two steps above the bottom rung on our scale.

[...]

Given the resolution, the A330 scores a Very High rating for overall image quality from ISO 100 through 400, pulled up a bit by its Excellent color accuracy and Very Low or better noise in that range. From ISO 800 through ISO 3200, overall image quality was High.

Mark Goldstein wrote the following conclusion in the review of the Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 builds on the proven design of its predecessor, the FZ28, making few handling changes but adding a number of significant new features that comprise a better overall package. We're a little disappointed that Panasonic haven't extended the reach of the 18x zoom lens to match its main rivals, but the 27-486mm focal length is still a very versatile one, especially given the addition of the slightly more effective Power OIS anti-shake system that reduces the overall number of blurry shots.

There are three pages of sample photos:

1. Indoor Day Crops / Image Noise Test At All ISO Values vs Pentax K20D.
2. Outdoor Night Crops – To Test Image Noise Performance At All ISO Values (the DA* 55mm F1.4 lens was used).
3. Full-resolution pictures and a video clip (view in HD on YouTube). The sample photos are beautifully-taken, I must say.

In their full review of the Pentax K7, the following conclusion was reached:

The Pentax K-7 is a DSLR with an incredible feature-set, no other camera does everything this one does. Its wealth of features, many of them unique or uncommon, helps users take better pictures. The combination of automatic horizon correction, 100% viewfinder and built-in stabilization gives relief to the photographer, letting him compose and frame with greater ease.

Image quality is very good with generally low noise and high details. Color accuracy and white-balance are impressive and extremely flexible, as are image parameters for detailed control over the way images are captured. The K-7 is also a fast and responsive camera.

These are full-resolution Ricoh GRD III photos.

Picture types: Landscapes, Night Shot, Portrait, Food and Flower Close-Up / Macro.

This is the official list of Frequently-Asked Questions put up by Ricoh Global for the GRD III digital camera.

PJ Jacobowitz issues the following image quality verdict in the review of the Canon SD970 IS / IXUS 990 IS:

In the center of the frame—typically the highest-quality section of an image—the SD970 captured an impressive 2397 lines per picture height. As you move to the image's outer edges, that number drops by an average of 33 percent, which is considerable, but still acceptable. By comparison, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 averaged 2274 lines in the center of images, but dropped by just 18 percent at the outer edges.

The SD970 does an excellent job at suppressing noise at high ISO sensitivities (which is great for shots taken in poorly lit conditions). The SD970 kept noise below noticeable levels from ISO 80 to 400, with excellent results even up at ISO 800 and 1600.

This list of cameras that let you operate the lens' optical zoom while recording footage is far from complete:

1. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90

PJ Jacobowitz issues the following conclusion in the review of the Kodak M1093 IS:

Despite some speed and connectivity issues, the very affordable Kodak EasyShare M1093 IS will more than satisfy those looking to capture beautiful images without breaking the bank. And its large screen and HD video capture help to make it an even better value.

In the review of the Kodak M1093IS, PJ Jacobowitz made references comparing both cameras, and concluded that the Kodak is the better camera for those on a budget but want a quality compact digital camera:

Despite a comparative lack of speed, solid image quality coupled with a wealth of features and a palatable sub-$200 price help the M1093 unseat our current reigning champ, the Canon PowerShot A1000 IS ($149.99 list), to become our latest Editors' Choice budget point and shoot camera.

[..]

If its more speed you seek, check out the Canon PowerShot A1000 IS, another great value, but one that lacks the HD video capture and large display found on the M1093.

PJ Jacobowitz's review of the Olympus PEN E-P1 has the following verdict on its image quality:

Images produced by the E-P1's 12.3 megapixel sensor are spectacular. In PCMag Labs, I use a testing suite called Imatest, which offers objective tests that gauge image quality. The results showed that the images produced by the E-P1 are extraordinarily sharp, competitive with or even better than most SLR's in its price range. Noise was undetectable at ISO 100-1600, which is also better than more expensive cameras.

Tim Barribeau's comprehensive review of the Samsung HZ15W has the following conclusion:

The major selling point of this camera is its 10x zoom, starting at an impressively wide-angle 24mm setting. The 12-megapixel resolution and 720p video capture are also impressive.

In our testing, the HZ15W generally performed very well. It had excellent image sharpness, good color accuracy, fast burst modes, and an image stabilization system that really seemed to help. The one area it did struggle with (and this is a significant issue) was with image noise levels. Above ISO 400, pictures rapidly devolved into a speckled mess. However, shots at ISO 400 and below were perfectly decent for image noise.

Several full-resolution image samples have been put up for your analysis.

Picture types: Landscape, Macro / Close-Up, Image Noise Performance At All ISO Values, Low-Light and Still Life.

IR has two extensive galleries of full-sized sample photos taken with the D3X for your evaluation: Thumbnails and Test Shots.

In the EXIF, you'll find that two lenses were used, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D and the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro.

(via Nikon D3X Review)

Tim Barribeau compares both cameras and concludes:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580 is a fair bit more expensive than the Samsung, mostly due to it having a touch screen. In a sensible maneuver, Panasonic has wisely retained a button-based interface system, and augmented it with a touch screen, rather than replacing it. The touch screen can be tapped to focus on a point, sliders can be dragged to change aperture and shutter settings, or for for browsing the quick menu. It still has a traditional four-way pad and menu system, so you're not reliant on the screen. While it only has a 5x zoom to the Samsung's 10x, it has a faster lens (maximum aperture of f/2.8), and an approximately equal wide-angle.

Another feature we really like about the FX580 is its manual controls, even more extensive than the Samsung's. In addition to the manual mode, it has aperture and shutter priority shooting modes. Also, the aperture can be set across the entire available range, not just the minimum and maximum.

Where the Lumix really faltered was in its performance. In our lab testing, it scored lower in almost every test we run. The one area where it was appreciably ahead was noise, which is important. However, it lost out on color accuracy, resolution, stabilization, shot to shot speed, and video sharpness.

Where we would recommend the Panasonic is if you want extensive manual controls in a smaller frame than the Samsung, but don't mind missing out on the 10x zoom, or taking an image quality hit. On the other hand, if you want that extra zoom, and don't want to pay more for a touch screen, the Samsung is definitely appealing.

Tim Barribeau compares both cameras and concludes:

While neither the Canon SD970 nor the Samsung HZ15W is the smallest cameras on the block, the Samsung is a significantly larger gadget. That's due to the rather large 10x zoom lens (compared to the Canon's 5x), with a significantly greater wide-angle. Both cameras have the same resolution (12-megapixels), and the same ISO range (80-1600 at full res, 3200 at reduced).

In terms of performance, it's a pretty even split between the two cameras. Their color accuracy was similar, both for still and video; the Canon has an edge in noise, stabilization and video sharpness testing; the Samsung comes out ahead for resolution and shot to shot speed.

The Canon has a slightly better interface, assisted by the use of a scroll wheel for whizzing through menus, and a higher resolution screen, as well as some nifty tricks on scrolling through images based on how the camera is held. However, it lacks the large set of manual controls that the Samsung offers, including manual shooting modes, custom color overlays, and auto exposure bracketing.

While we like the SD970 IS a lot, we have to give this round to the Samsung, due to its strength of manual controls, large zoom, and overall solid performance. That said, it did have some noise issues, and Canon knows their way around user interface design a bit better than Samsung does.

Tim Barribeau compares both cameras and concludes:

The Nikon S630 provides an interesting contrast to the HZ15W. It's around $50 cheaper, lacks the manual controls of the HZ15W, and has a 6x zoom lens. That said, even though it has less zoom, it has a higher telephoto range, albeit at the cost of wide-angle coverage. Also in the Nikon's favor is its generally better still image performance. It has more accurate color, significantly lower noise and less lens distortion. The Nikon also has a much nicer aesthetic, thanks to its curved design.

Of course, not everything is fantastic on the S630. It had lower image sharpness, its image stabilization didn't function as well, it couldn't get off photos as fast, and its video mode was a major letdown. The Nikon only shot video in standard definition, and lost almost all controls while in video mode, which accounts for its very low score in those sections. It also lacks the ability to manually set shutter speed and aperture when shooting stills, capabilities we find important.

If you don't need the manual controls, wide-angle lens, or HD video, the Nikon will probably serve you perfectly well, and save your wallet a bit. On the other hand, if you do want those features, go for the Samsung.

Four Fuji Z30 sample photos are available for your evaluation.

Picture types: Landscape, Flower Macro / Close-up, and Architecture.

Brenda Paro's review of the Fuji Z30 has the following verdict:

In all other aspects, this camera was either satisfactory or just plain good. Battery life with the included lithium ion was good, the buttons are laid out in a way that makes sense, and handy notes included in the shooting menu let you know what each adjustment does without you having to whip out your manual each time. It's an easy camera to get to know, and would be fantastic for someone looking to expand their shooting repertoire beyond Auto mode—good results aren't difficult to achieve.

If your main concern is image quality, you should be pretty happy with the F30. I was more or less impressed with its performance in all modes, and it offers just the right amount of options for a variety of shooters, from casual to pro. In an effort to create a unique design, Fuji may have gone a little far, because I just plain wish the body was more comfortable—if it was, this camera would have rocketed into my top three of recent months. But I can't quite put it there. It may not bother you as much as it did me, so give it a chance and try it out for comfort before you buy. It's a mixed bag.

Use your browser to search for the string 'NEF' in IR's D3X thumbnail gallery.

The final version of IR's Nikon D3X by Michael R. Tomkins, Dave Etchells and Siegfried Weidelich has a clear verdict:

Early on in our evaluation of it, one fact became unequivocally clear: The Nikon D3X produces the highest image quality of any camera we've tested to date. As we proceeded with our evaluation and completed the analysis of our test images, nothing appeared to challenge that conclusion: Its combination of resolution, color fidelity, and noise performance puts it at the very top of its class. Not only does the Nikon D3X sport an amazing 24.5 megapixels of resolution, it manages to wring more detail out of those pixels (particularly in its NEF-format RAW files) than anything else out there. The D3X also offers surprising speed, capable of 5 frames/second at full resolution, and up to 7.5 frames/second in its 10.5 megapixel DX crop mode. And then there's build quality: The D3X is built like the proverbial tank; well-suited to most anything a busy pro might care to dish out to it. The high-end SLR market often seems like a perpetual game of leapfrog, but for now, the Nikon D3X sits at the top of the heap, as the ultimate digital SLR. To say that it's a five-star Dave's Pick seems hardly enough.

These full-resolution Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX test photos were photographed with a Nikon D200.

(via Nikon 10-24mm Review at SLRgear.com)

Andrew Alexander has the following verdict on the Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor:

Nikon has done well with its new ultra-wide angle zoom lens: it's a sharp lens, with corners that don't get significantly soft. CA performance is good, probably excellent on a D3, D300 or other Nikon body that employs CA reduction. Corner shading is a marginal factor, and distortion is typical of this class of lens. It may have taken Nikon a few years to get to the 10mm zoom party, but now that it's here, it's done very well.

dharma108 used the Olympus E-510, SWD 50-200 & EC 1.4 teleconverter to snap these images.

Images of Red Breasted Grossbeak, Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole by atomicfish with the Olympus E-30, 50-200 SWD and EC-14.

cannuker used the Nikon D300, Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G lens and a 1.4X Teleconverter for this series of photos.

Private Custard on the photo opportunity:

I was lucky, she came back and made a few passes, although at a fair distance. These are all shot at 500mm, 1/640, handheld and then cropped significantly. I just feel lucky to have seen this during the day.

There's also a photo of a Collared Dove in the post.

Richard Pavek on equipment used, camera settings and EXIF data:

Olympus E-3, ZD (Zuiko Digital) 300 mm at f/3.2, 1/1250, ISO 100 hand-held, focus AF-c (Continuous Autofocus), motor drive on; all with the same time stamp.

NYC landmark skyscrapers photos with the Canon 17mm TS-E and 1Ds Mark III – jimcreative shares images of The Flatiron Building and Chrysler Building.

Pentax K10D vs Nikon D300 vs Nikon D90: High ISO Image Noise Performance – Jeff Kott:

I have a Pentax K10D and six limited lenses. I also have a D300 and recently bought a D90 to get similar image quality as the D300 in a more compact package.

I find in going back and forth between the K10D and the D300/D90, that I really appreciate the extra DR and lower noise of the Nikons especially at ISO 640 and 800 which I use a lot.

I make a lot of 16"x 24" prints and find that I can shoot with impunity at ISO 640 or 800 with the Nikons and get acceptable images with a little bit of noise reduction at ISO 1600.

When I print large with the K10D, I need to use noise reduction software even at ISO 400.

First Olympus PEN E-P1 30 Minute Exposure Test at Imaging Insider – The full-resolution JPEG and RAW files are available for download.

Exposure Information (EXIF Info after the Jump)
Olympus E-P1
14-42mm lens
Olympus RM-UC1 Remote Cable
100 ISO / f5.6 / Exposure 30 minutes + 30 minutes Dark Subtraction = 60 minutes total (30 minutes is the longest exposure allowed in Bulb setting.)
Manual Settings / Manual Focus
Tripod Mounted
Approximately 11:30 pm / July 22, 2009
Existing available light spilling from sodium vapor lights, moonlight, and some incandescent spillage from neighboring houses.

[...]

Also, there was interest in how much image noise and heat would be generated would be present/generated in an extremely long exposure. Now, this is an ongoing Insider process where more long exposures will be taken in the coming weeks.

Olympus Pen E-P1 Review at TrustedReviews – Cliff Smith concludes:

The Olympus E-P1 is an interesting and innovative camera, and as a first model in what will probably be a series it has some very nice features. Build quality and finish are of an exceptionally high standard, and image quality and performance are safely superior to the vast majority of compact cameras. However the enormous cost compared to a good DSLR, and the lack of either a viewfinder or built-in flash will put many people off.

Cliff gave the E-P1 an overall rating score of 7/10.

The review also comes with several 14-42mm sample images, some can be clicked on to see the full-resolution version Test Shots – ISO Performance, Test Photos – Details and Lens Performance and Exposure Evaluation Pictures.

Olympus Pen E-P1 vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1: High ISO Image Noise Performance – Cliff Smith:

I was expecting the E-P1 to show similar high-ISO noise results as the Panasonic G1, but unfortunately this is not the case. While the G1 doesn’t start showing any noise until 800 ISO, the E-P1 has visible colour mottling and noise in the darker tones at its default auto setting of 200 ISO, getting progressively worse, although overall colour reproduction remains reasonably good right up to 3200 ISO. JPEG images also show some over-sharpening, but at least the compression rate is nice and low, with fine JPEG mode producing files of around 5.5MB and Raw files of around 12MB.

Olympus 14-42 comment by Cliff Smith of TrustedReviews – Cliff:

I haven’t had a chance to try the 17mm f/2.8 lens yet, but the Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens is excellent, producing pin-sharp detail from corner to corner at all focal lengths with barely any optical distortion and no trace of chromatic aberration thanks to the use of ED glass. There are two optional adaptors available that allow the E-P1 to use both existing E-system lenses and even OM-system 35mm lenses. As far as I know it should also accept Panasonic G-system lenses.

Pentax K-7 Review: Image Quality – Duplo:

I am through the editing of the acceptable part of 1000 frames, I will need to see the prints before being making my final judgment, but based on what have gone through editing, IQ is excellent for what I need it to do, save for a few things that I will get to.

Base ISO is generally excellent, ISO 200-400 decent and ISO 800 is there if I absolutely need it as a last resort, but definitely not good. Anything above is a no go for the work I do, luckily it bought it for use at low ISO and as a travel camera and thus I can live with the limitations.

DR (Dynamic Range) is lacking in general, not overly so, but high contrast is unfortunately not something I can avoid shooting, which is why I see the limitation, a little noisy at base ISO too in certain situations, but overall the lack of DR is the one issue I can find across the board and it gets worse fast as you raise the ISO.

Colour accuracy and tonality is generally in the good to acceptable range at low ISO, at higher ISO or in shadow areas it is a little lacking, but for its class it is very good.

I still think that it will deliver excellent prints at base ISO and all the way up to ISO 200-400, but as we leave base ISO I will need to work a little more to get what I want from it.

UNIWB / Uni White Balance Tutorial – Excellent guide written by Guillermo Luijk.

Sensor-Based Shake Reduction vs Optical (Lens-Based) Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction – Duplo:

That I prefer the optical system for telephoto work has nothing to do with how effective it is, but that the optical systems stabilizes the viewfinder and thus the AF module as well and that is a slight advantage for telephoto work.