RickFu
Pixel-pushing passion
Snapture: Excellent New iPhone Camera Software
If you have a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch, fire up installer.app for some new camera goodness.
Snapture is a new piece of third-party iPhone software that offers many (and improves on some) of the features of for-pay CameraPRO that has been released for a few months now. Both programs have a grayscale mode, ~3x zoom, burst mode, timer, and three different image sizes.
My favorite feature of Snapture is the easy snap. Unlike the standard Camera app and CameraPRO where you have to hit a small rectangle to take a shot, you can just touch the screen. The bigger target is a big plus. Of course that means that you can do the nifty pinch-to-zoom that you can do with CameraPRO, but I think it’s a fair trade-off.
The interfaces are nearly identical and easy to use. Both have a leveler that can be toggled via the preferences panel. The leveler on CameraPRO is a bit more advanced but both are useful.
Of course, the big deal is that Snapture is such a deal: Free! (Donations accepted) With CameraPRO if you want to use Burst mode, silent shutter, or the self-timer more than 5 times, it’ll cost you US$19.77 (at the time of this writing). That “early bird” price was supposed to end with March, but it’s still being offered.
CameraPRO’s splash screen touts features coming in a future release like manual exposure and shutter speed, but until they do Snapture offers a nearly identical feature set at a much better price.
Snapture has replaced the standard Camera application’s spot on my iPhone. You should give it a try. Find it in the Multimedia section of Installer.app
29.Jan.2008 [ free ]This American Life
This American Life is a weekly source of happy for me.
I love the podcast, but I’ve never seen the TV show due to it being on Showtime. Today, Borders bookstores (exclusively) started selling This American Life Season 1 on DVD. It’s only $16!
If you haven’t listened to This American Life (weekly on NPR), subscribe to it in iTunes and give it a listen. Sit back for an hour, grab a refreshing adult beverage and listen to some of the best storytelling you’ve ever experienced. And once you’re hooked (I’m sure you will be) there are 13 years of old episodes available, too.
Also, This American Life may be doing a live event broadcast to movie theaters if there’s enough interest.
And finally in This American Life news, Ira Glass will be appearing tonight in Chicago and on Thursday Jan 31st at Borders Columbus Circle!.
07.Jan.2008 [ search ]Wikia Launch: The Internet is Displeased
Wikia Search launched into public alpha today after much pimping and the comments I’ve seen so far from around the Web ranges from “meh” to “this is crap.”
Wikia Search is the new venture by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Here are a few bits from around the web:
From Mashable:
Wikia Search looks like something that was cooked by two guys in one month in a basement…
From @jdevalk:
…pfff wikia sucks…
Mr. Arrington at TechCrunch says:
Wikia search would be a disappointment even without the massive hype we’ve had to endure. And taking that hype into account, this product is an inexcusable waste of time.
There is a good discussion (joined by Mr. Wales himself) there at TechCrunch.
First impression: Bugs, poor results, generally unfinished, even for an alpha.
I still like Wikia’s principles, though:
- Transparency: This is a big one. With Google making big changes to their ranking algorithm and increasingly pissing people off, this will be a breath of fresh air.
- Community: Ah, what made Wikipedia and other great wikis what they are today. If the community gathers here, you can expect higher quality.
- Quality: See Community
- Privacy: Excellent! Something that is increasingly rare these days.
But aside from all of that, it’s important to remember that Wikia Search is still in alpha and, like any wiki, will get better as it grows. Feel free to check it out, but it will likely be more useful if you check it out later.
What do you think? Post a comment, let me know on Twitter, and follow what people are saying on Twitter thanks to Terraminds Twitter Search.
Tagged: Google open search wikia
02.Jan.2008 [ apple ]#Rumors - New Apple Notebook Shots
The guys over at CrunchGear have what appears to be a picture of the new Apple notebook that is rumored to appear at MacWorld.
In the comments of the post, people are discussing the possibility of it being a good ‘Shopjob. That’s standard issue for rumors online. If it is just a Photoshop job, the artist has done a good job. The new trackpad fits a patent that Apple had filed in 2004 to detect when a palm is placed on the trackpad and a more recent patent filing.
28.Dec.2007 [ apple ]iPhone 1.1.3 new features
Andru Edwards at GearLive has gotten his hands on the new iPhone firmware. and has given a little peak into the new features coming soon.
Apple will be making a couple features available that are currently only available via third-party applications. Once the update comes out (probably around MacWorld in January), you will finally be able to send SMS to more than one recipient at a time (making iSMS less useful) and the Maps application will be able to triangulate your approximate location (negating the need for the $25 Navizon app).
There are more features (and a gallery) so check out the post.