“We’re not perfect…Phones aren’t perfect…We want to make all our users happy…”

Steve Jobs: “We’re Not Perfect.”

After starting out with a light-hearted YouTube video about “Antennagate” at the Apple press conference going on right now to address the issue (read our livenotes), CEO Steve Jobs came onstage with a mea culpa: “You know . . . we’re not perfect.”

In fact, Apple knew about the issue shortly after the first phones were shipped, and the company has been working on the problem for 22 days. “It doesnt seem like a good thing if you can touch your phone in a certain way and it loses signal,” acknowledges Jobs. Even so, he is quick to point out that 3 million iPhone 4s have been sold in just a few weeks. And, repeating a pervious Apple talking point, he says it is not an issue that is unique to the iPhone 4…READ MORE

By Peter Cohen JUNE 30, 2010, 10:49 AM PT

Last winter we presented 30 Must Have Games for the iPhone and iPod touch. That garnered your attention and plenty of comments, so we’re happy to present its natural sequel, 15 Must HaveGames for the iPad.

As with the first feature, let us underscore that we do not consider this to be a list of the best games for the iPad, or superlative games in any specific category. Instead, this is a collection of games vetted by The Loop as being fun to play and standouts for one reason or another. So please don’t take umbrage if you don’t see your favorite game listed. But by all means use the comment section below to share with other readers your thoughts on this list and any other iPad games you think are excellent…..READ MORE

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned……READ MORE

CUPERTINO, California—June 28, 2010—Apple® today announced that it has sold over 1.7 million of its iPhone® 4 through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24. The new iPhone 4 features FaceTime®, which makes video calling as easy as one tap, and Apple’s new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in stunning text, images and video.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”……READ MORE

Live Update: WWDC Keynote

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the premier technical conference for developers innovating with Apple technologies.

Over 1,000 Apple engineers will be at Moscone West to present advanced coding and development techniques that will show you how to enhance the capabilities of your applications with the revolutionary technologies in iPhone OS and Mac OS X. More on WWDC

Live Update: WWDC KEYNOTE http://www.macworld.com/article/151730/2010/06/liveupdate.html

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2010—Apple® today announced that iPad™ sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend. iPad will be available in nine more countries in July and additional countries later this year.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

iPad allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*

Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Read More

In April, Apple launched its “magical and revolutionary” new device, the iPad. Just 28 days later, it seemed the real magic was how Apple sold more than a million devices in that time period. As I write this at the end of May, iPads are in short supply in most Apple stores. Here in the New York City area, I couldn’t find a single iPad 3G, and there were only a few lower-end Wi-Fi models to be found.

Apple’s sales record here is even more impressive if you factor in that iPad is a new class of device, somewhere between the phones and computers that most consumers understand. It’s also a category of device that’s vexed every vendor who’s tried to enter this space over the last decade.

So how did Apple do it? Why did Apple succeed where no one else has and how did they do it so quickly?

The answer is, it took a decade of education and teaching. The key to Apple’s success is that the company often takes the time to explain things to the consumer that no other vendor bothers to do. By keeping a laser focus on key features and introducing them one at a time over a period of years, Apple taught and evangelized everything the consumer needed to know to understand the iPad from day one. Without that foundation, it’s not likely the product would have been nearly the success it has been. READ MORE

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Here are some more cool downloads to increase the usability of Iphoto. Best thing is they are free! Now I know that these are mainly for the “geeks” in us who want our Iphoto to do the most it can do. The rest of us aren’t concerned with these type of things. Just in case you get the urge to be experimental here they are:

Iphoto to SQL

• Creates an SQL dump file of all the metadata files
• Creates scale of images and vignette
• Retrieve pictures and associated metadata in database

Iphoto to SQL creates: title, comments, keywords, stars, date, album file name and picture name.

Compatibility

• Mac OS X 10.4 or later, iPhoto 7.0 (iLife ‘08) or later. Click here to free download iPhoto To SQL

Ultimate Productivity Automator Action Pack 3.11

This allows you find Iphoto item paths. However this does a lot more with programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Quark Express, etc.  The pack comes with many automated workflows  to increase productivity.

Download it here

Iphoto Override 4.02

This is a drag and drop utility to create libraries .

Download it here

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Having your photos housed on Iphoto for personal use is one thing. But what if you have multiple users who want access to the same library? Let’s say you’re a small design firm and you have 20 people on your staff who need access. What do you do?  Just drag your pictures  on a shared folder right?…Easier said than done especially if you have thousands of photos.  Iphoto itself is designed for single use, but there are ways for multiple users to have access. After searching around for this solution, I’ve found a few that might be easy, relatively speaking,  and some that you might have to know some networking basics for.

Share Iphoto on Linux Server

This article is a little dated, but Doug provides some insight into sharing Iphoto on his Linux File Server.

Final Cut Server 1.5 Unlimited Client

This is a robust program that does way more than just share photos. If you’re familiar at all with Final Cut Pro, you’ll know that videos and audio files are involved too. Basically, Final Cut Server allows you to manage thousands of assets (video, audio, image, even spreadsheets and other files) and easily share them with your colleagues. It’s not cheap though, but chances are this will more than enough pay for itself with the time it saves you on your work.

DOT-PHOTOS 1.0b10 for Mac

Server what? You can share photos via any web browser. This one costs $29.00

So there you have it! If I find any more useful pieces of software or information, I’ll be sure to update this post! Stay tuned.

One of the great things about Iphoto is that it has very easy color correcting tools. So you don’t have to be a Photoshop Guru to make your pictures look beautiful, colorful and vibrant. For purposes of this demonstration, I’m using Iphoto ‘08.  From what I can see in Iphoto ‘09, everything looks the same. As I said, I  plan on upgrading soon! Bad me.

Basics

Open up a picture

Basic Color Correcting

What I like about Iphoto is that if I’m in a hurry I don’t have to open Photoshop up and play with curves and levels. All I have to do is click on ADJUST and it’ll open up a palette where I can start making color corrections right away. Sometimes I even like how my picture looks corrected in Iphoto better than I do in Photoshop! But then again, maybe I just didn’t calibrate my monitor right.

When you click on ADJUST  a palette will pop up and you’ll be able to manually adjust the exposure, contrast, temperature ,etc.

You can lighten or darken the picture playing with the exposure, levels and contrast. Levels gives you the histogram for easy guidance. The top peak in the middle is probably a good level of light and dark areas of the picture. As you drag the middle button to the right, you will see the peak move to the right as well as see your picture lighten up significantly. This is an indicator of where you might have too low of an exposure or if you drag the middle button to the left, you’ll see too high of an exposure.

Highlights and Shadows: You can play around with these features to pinpoint areas of the picture to enhance. For instance, if you want to enhance some of the lighter areas of the pictures you would adjust its highlights.

If you drag the bar to the right, really light areas of the picture will darken and the opposite is true for shadows.

I suggest you play around with all of the lightening tools until you find the desired effect. You can always reset the picture if you want to start over.

Saturation, Temperature and Tint: When color correcting in Iphoto, these are the three areas you’ll want to focus on. Saturation will allow you to enhance all the colors—saturating them!  If you want black and white, simply move your slider to the left and it will remove all the colors!

So your yellows will be more yellow, greens more green, red more red. Temperature–I like this one alot. You can make your picture look warm, more yellow in appearance.  This is great for beach photos where you have a nice sunset. Playing with the temperature gives a nice warm feel to the picture. Tint—it will enhance the greens or reds in your picture, so use this one sparingly unless you want a washed up looking photo.

All of these effects are created by moving the sliders back and forth — super easy! If you don’t like it, press RESET and start over again. Don’t press DONE until you are sure you are finished, otherwise you will need to re-import the picture unless you have a duplicate.

If you want to see how this is done live–check Apple’s video on Iphoto ‘09 Improving Pictures. Click on Improve your photos. Now if you have many “birds” you’d like to kill with one stone, try Iphoto Batch Enhance 3.

Color Correcting Multiple Pictures – Iphoto Batch Enhance 3

Feroxsoft has an application that can color correct pictures in batches. It’s called Iphoto Batch Enhancer 3. It’s compatible with Iphoto ‘04 and up. It only takes 3 steps

1. Select the Photos to be processed

2. Click one or more options in the Iphoto Batch Enhancer and apply

3. Watch each picture get enhanced—recommended not to use any other programs while this process completes.

Download Iphoto Batch Enhancer 3

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