Pinboard (guardiantech)

Google owns a satellite now >> The Atlantic

guardiantech — 2014-06-15T20:43:07+00:00

Robinson Meyer:

Skybox’s success doesn’t depend on it developing a perfect image-evaluation algorithm. It merely depends on another developer using its cloud to develop an algorithm. Now it joins Google. The advertising giant might use the small satellites in its quest for more and faster data for its Maps and Earth services. The company, however, gets its truly high-resolution imagery from DigitalGlobe, and it negotiated its last “multiyear agreement” with the satellite behemoth in February. Owning satellites of its own might help Google when it negotiates its next contract with DigitalGlobe, but that’s now a few years off. (Whatever happens in the world of small satellites, by the way, the military will still pay for access to DigitalGlobe’s enormous WorldView craft. That doesn’t mean its stock hasn’t responded to the news.) No, it seems possible Google bought Skybox for two reasons.

Recent iOS updates simplify Burst Mode camera feature in iPhone 5s, helps users save storage space >> 9to5Mac

guardiantech — 2013-10-28T16:39:35+00:00

Because photos from the 8 megapixel camera take up so much space, retaining the entire group of photos could have caused a negative effect on what users could store on their iPhones. With iOS 7.0.3, Apple has rectified this potential issue by making it simple to choose favorite images from the Burst Mode session and delete the other photos. Considering there's no micro SD expansion on the iPhone, space can certainly be at a premium sometimes.

How does the iPhone 5 camera compare to previous iPhone cameras? >> Camera+

guardiantech — 2013-05-15T21:23:21+00:00

Taken with every iPhone camera, starting with the very first, to the most recent. The difference from the 3G to the 3GS is colossal. (It's an iPhone/iPad app, which is why it doesn't have reference shots from other handsets.)

Dear Apple, let’s talk about photos >> Peter Nixey

guardiantech — 2013-05-09T21:49:00+00:00

So Apple, I think you’ve got a bit confused. Don’t worry about sharing, we don’t need you for that. Your job is to take photos, organise them and make sure they don’t get lost. So let’s talk about how you can do that.

Makes the very good point that it's hard to work out where the 'canonical' version of a photo lives, and which ones you can safely delete without losing that version. His suggestion: stick it in the cloud. Sensible points, well made. (Thanks @Ornstein for the link.)

What if other planets replaced Earth's moon? >> My Modern Metropolis

guardiantech — 2013-04-03T20:18:52+00:00

Space enthusiast, artist, and writer Ron Miller questions what the night sky would look like if the moon was replaced by one of our solar system's planets. His collection of manipulated images station planets, from the relatively minute Mercury to the enormous Jupiter, in place of Earth's moon. The simulated photos take into account the distance of the moon from Earth (approximately 240,000 miles) and re-imagine the natural satellite as its own celestial body.

Great, and scary. (Yes, yes, gravity, etc.)

No Filter: Inside Hipstamatic’s lost year searching for the next killer social app >> Fast Company

guardiantech — 2012-10-11T13:02:33+00:00

Hipstamatic's journey over the past year has been tumultuous, to say the least. As Fast Company has learned from speaking to more than a dozen players involved, Hipstamatic has wrestled with ever-growing social competition, internal tensions, and a lack of product vision--not to mention juggling acquisition interest and worsening term sheets in a post-Facebook IPO world.
But what the startup has most struggled with is remaining relevant in an unforgiving app market dominated by one of the hottest spaces in tech: photos.

They thought Instagram wasn't interesting because it was built around "social", launched a terrible limited-pictures product, and turned down overtures from Twitter. Apart from that though..

Two years later: the first Instagram photo >> Instagram Blog

guardiantech — 2012-07-18T21:49:22+00:00

Two years ago today, we tested the first photo upload to an app we called Codename. Three months later, in October 2010, Instagram launched to the public.

We've got more on Instagram coming later today...

Anonymous hacker caught by FBI after girlfriend's tit-pic blunder >> T3

guardiantech — 2012-04-15T21:06:38+00:00

The information was leaked through a website which, at the bottom, contained the image in question. By analysing the photo they were able to discover that it was taken on an iPhone and then using that, were able to find the GPS tag which is included with most images taken on smartphones today.
Learning the location of the image was Austrailia they were then able to make the connection between the image and the fact that Ochoa had made several references to an Australian girlfriend.
From there it was a simple matter of tracing his Facebook page through her own and then placing surveillance on him until they were satisfied to make the arrest.

Simple. Ish.

Apple loophole gives developers access to photos >> NYTimes.com

guardiantech — 2012-02-28T22:56:48+00:00

Developers of applications for Apple’s mobile devices, and Apple itself, came under scrutiny this month after reports that some apps were taking people’s address book information without their knowledge. As it turns out, address books are not the only things up for grabs. Photos are also vulnerable. After a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to have access to location information, the app can copy the user’s entire photo library, without any further notification or warning, according to app developers.

Are we tired of this yet?

Steve Jobs: visionary, inventor, and very challenging photo subject >> PDNPulse

guardiantech — 2011-10-16T20:01:53+00:00

He won't be mourned by those who had to photograph him. "'In all those years, Steve only screamed at me at the top of his lungs once,' Menuez recalls. It was in 1988, when Fortune hired Menuez to shoot a portrait of Jobs for the cover of the magazine. Menuez wanted to photograph him in the NeXT offices, on a staircase that Jobs had commissioned architect I.M Pei to design. Jobs arrived for the shoot, looked at what Menuez had in mind, 'then [he] leaned in and says, ‘This is the stupidest fucking idea that I’ve ever seen.’ Right in my face, like 5 or 6 inches away,” Menuez says. “I felt like I was 10 years old. He went off on a tirade. He said, ‘You just want to sell magazines. ‘And I said, ‘And you want to sell computers.’ And at that he said, ‘OK,’ and sat down. "Menuez concludes, 'I’ve been in war zones, but I like to say that I became a man learning how to stand my ground with Steve.'"

Most popular cameras used on Flickr >> Flickr

guardiantech — 2011-10-03T20:51:52+00:00

What's remarkable is how two companies dominate these statistics so thoroughly.

stephentrainor.com: tools

guardiantech — 2011-09-08T21:21:30+00:00

Sure to be someone who'll like this: "Landscape photographers typically wish to plan their shoots around the times of sunrise/sunset or twilight, or alternatively when the moon is in a particular place in a particular phase.
"While times of sunrise etc. are readily available on various sites on the internet (direction of sunrise etc. less so, but still readily found), there are fewer programs available which combine such information with a topographical map allowing the photographer to match the astronomical to the location.
"A typical use might be to determine when the sun will set along the axis of a mountain valley, or when a full moon rise will rise across a lake.
"The application uses Google Maps providing users the ability to select a location and determine the time and azimuth of sunrise or sunset for a given date or dates."

Lytro: how did you say it focuses after you take the picture again? >> jwz

guardiantech — 2011-06-23T18:07:30+00:00

Of the claims for a startup that says it focusses the picture *after* it has been taken: "I still don't understand how you de-focus light that has already passed through a lens (and there is a lens in front of this array of tiny lenses) or how having one lens per pixel gets you the direction of the ray. Because throwing away that information is what lenses are for."

It's either brilliant - Google brilliant - or it's Nimslo all over again.