Jun
24
2009

RIA Irony

RIA - Rich Internet Application are designed to show off what is possible to do both online and offline with the latest Internet enabled programs and interface design tools. Many designers and graphic artists are often on board to add design flare to the apps. But sometimes the functionality gets missed despite the good design - here are two examples.

ADOBE KULER - MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Look at one of the gorgeous tools that are available at the Kuler online website for color swatch creation. They are fabulous - just what Dr. Calora Huze ordered for creating hues dripping with drama. However, the Kuler tools they are a bit frisky today, not always working [just a few too many "aw Snaps", go to the site to see what I am talking about] but when they are up and about the results are fabulous.

So I decided to download the Kuler AIR application with the idea that it would take advanatge of AIR’s ability to run online and locally at the sametime - able to use the online connection if available but also capable of storing swatches and pcolor palettes while doing creative swatch designs locally - with better response time and reliablity than the online Kuler. This would be great …. well not exactly.

First, the local version of Kuler has none of the great creative tools [as seen above] available in the online version. Second, and to my surprise since this is an AIR application, Kuler on the PC is almost completely dependent on an online connection. Almost all of the functionality on the AIR desktop refers users back to the online Kuler website. But the whole idea of AIR is to break the online tether gracefully - offer the Kuler user some local functionality when users are unable to connect to the Net. Instead, all users get are some swatches viewing as seen in the screenshot below:

Kuler running locally

The result is that Adobe has missed a golden opportunity to show off the remote + local capability of AIR.

TECHSMITH JING - GREAT BUT ….

Jing is also a great AIR-like application. It runs on the desktop but takes advantage of online connections if they are available - especially for transmitting screen captures through email or FTP. I am surpised at the power of Jing because it appears to be one of the better competitors to Snagit, Techsmiths own Windows-based image capture program [but Snagit has improved notably in version 9, distancing itself from the rest of the screen capture field].

Another advantage of Jing is that it runs in MacOS as well as Windows - thus providing a bridge over to Apple that has restricted Snagit’s reach. I thought this must be an Adobe AIR application - and a superb design showing what AIR can do. But when I went to the Jing program files directory I discovered this was clearly not an Adobe AIR application.

Ahah - so this may be a Microsoft Silverlight application, showing how far Silverlight has come in delivering platform independent online or local runtime programs. Well not exactly Silverlight either. Instead, when I enquired I discovered to my surprise this is really two apps: one written in C++ for Windows and the other in Objective C for Apple. What????

This is exactly the dual coding that AIR, Silverlight, Trolltech’s QT, Java and other language delivery systems are designed to eliminate. What was Trolltech doing? They must have some converter from Objective C to C++ or vice versa. But that still leaves a problem when Google’s Linux-based Android and Intel’s Moblin start to hit the Netbook and Smartphone world and surely become big hits. Suddenly Techsmith has to develop in a 3rd and possibly 4th language if they want to extend their great screen capture tools to new platforms.

The Irony

So here is the irony. Adobe with Kuler should be demonstrating the advantage of AIR’s capabilities to run locally with some key functionality while able to take advantage of online facilities for full functionality. Kuler really misses this mandate.

Techsmith with Jing delivers exactly what Kuler misses - great integration of online and local functionality but uses platform specific code to develop Windows and Apple Mac versions - so when the situation arises where a new OS platform needs support [which in Gartner speak, has 0.90 probability of happening], Techmith has a lot of additional work to do.

This is why people have to stop thinking in terms of RIA-Rich Internet Applications and more of RAIA-Rich Anywhere Interface Applications which not only run on any OS platform but also can run online, offline or both. This is the new Rules of Anywhere Interface Application design - because thats where users, designers and developers really want to be.

By admin | Posted in design, software | Comments (0)
Jun
23
2009

Open Sourcer: Scribus DTP

There are a huge number of really interesting and free Open Source programs in the graphics field. Many run in Linux and MacOS; but a goodly number are also ported to Windows. They run the gamut from albums through DTP to photo or video editors of varying interest. This series of Open Source reviews will highlight some of the ones I have found helpful and why.

First out of the gate is Scribus - a DTP program that integrates well with Adobe PDF format. If you are still doing long documents [20 or more pages] in Word with all its image and text placement hassles - this a a good program to check out. The screenshot tells the story:

Scribus descibes their technical capabilities very well: “Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. “ I like it because it brings approachable and controllable documentation to the fore. Most desirable wish-fors - Flash and Web page output.

By admin | Posted in software | Comments (0)
Jun
22
2009

RIP: Kodachrome Film

I can’t quite believe that Kodachrome film has come to its end. See the story here. This is the film of my grandfather, father and myself. I really expected, despite the dominance of digital cameras and media, that Kodachome, especially Kodachrome 25, would withstand the digital deluge. Superior grain, true colors and nearly archival slide life (grandfathers pictures have stood the test of 50++ years of time) would spare Kodachrome. I still have a Nikon FM1 which has been loaded with Kodachrome over the years. Where to go now?

Kodak the parent company has not weathered the digital revolution much better. Always trying to defy, delay and deluxe price the digital wave - it has been swamped and now hangs on by a printing and compact camera thread to former glory days. The French have a great phrase - c’est dommage.

And now archival questions loom again. The whole problem with digital media such as disk drives, CDs, and DVDs is they have two half-lives associated with them. First the digital media they are stored on originally had a life of 2-5 years before the disks started to self-destruct and fail. The second half-life is the rapid movement of technology itself - I have pictures of unknown quality stored on floppy disks, Iomega drives, old 20MB disk drives, and 100MB tapedrives for which drivers are impossible to find. I have had to migrate my libraries at least a half a dozen times to keep up with the latest in media and storage technology. Meanwhile my Kodachrome slide are as good as new over that same period of time. I have become convinced I will have to print what I want to save onto archival papers to hope to preserve the images.

We have had a lot of RIP stories of late - all about technology’s rapid change. And so it is a fond farewell to Kodachrome - a film that served so well.

By admin | Posted in comment, stillcamera, trends | Comments (0)
Jun
16
2009

Apples Triple Hitter

Apple showed Monday at its developers conference that it has become conscious of its weakest link in the New Economy - a flock of new competitors. The enemy is not just Microsoft but Google with the Android Netbook and Mobile Phones, Amazon with the Kindle and Cloud Computing; Palm with the Pre and WebOS; and perhaps most tellingly with Taiwnese electronic firms like Asus and Acer starting to do their own design innovations which are garnering both domestic and world attention….and big chunks of PC and mobile phone market share. So at its Webworld conference, Apple delivered a triple hitter - some powerful punches aimed at its competitors.

First: Knockout Blow to Sprint/Palm Pre?

The new iPhone 3gs at $199 provides double the memory (16GB vs 8Gb for the Pre), unique video taking capabilities as good as the Flip, plus improved speed of operations plus a whole set of features embedded in a major Snow Leopard OS update. And iPhone already comes loaded with an App Store with more than fifty thousand apps available for free or $10-35 in price.

To defend itself, PCWorld’s competitive matrix shows Palm leading in 2 categories: a real keyboard versus Apple’s screen consuming one and true multi-tasking versus very limited multi-tasking even with the new Snow leopard version of the iPhone. In addition the Apple 3GS now boasts  improved 3MPixel image taking(so the trend to video+SLR starting in SLRs is now spread to smartphones).

Some would argue that the Palm Pre with its combo of gestures and multi-tasking makes it a smother interface. But having only seen but not worked hands on with the Palm Pre, I cannot vouch for it capabilities versus the smooth working Apple iPhone which I can say is easy to learn and use. Also  I can say that iPhone 3gs’ speed of operation, larger screen, goodies like voice control, Compass, iLostrecovery feature and many more apps means that the iPhone has a distinct competitive advantage. In sum, the new iPhone features and price are (especially the $99 price for the previous iPhone are a staggering blow. However, it will not snuff out the Pre because Sprint/Nextel users will have in Palm Pre a compelling (but not cheaper)reason to stay with their network.

Second: Solid OS Phone 3 and Snow Leopard Jabs

OS Phone 3, available June 17th 2009 at no charge, will not deliver multi-tasking but will add a wide array of features that will be attractive to smartphone users:
1)MMS-Multimedia Messaging Service includes audio, video, images, etc;
2)Tape recorder - works as voice memos;
3)Spotlight search - extends to all apps/data of iPhone and attached iPod;
4)Internet Tethering and Syncing - connect vis USB or Bluetooth to Mac and PCs;
5)Cut, Copy Paste - for notes, improved calendar,
6)Improved Safari and JavaScript speed +features;
7)Improved iPhone app capabilities;
8)A slew of connectivity improvements: Bluetooth stereo, YouTube signin, WiFi login, etc.
These improvements will help iPhone to blunt incursions from Blackberry, Palm Pre webOS, and Google Android. As smartphones become crucial link/relay devices in the connected world, the smartphone’s OS and its easy expandibility become critical in an expansion to wider (and more profitable) business markets.

But perhaps the biggest importance of the new OS is the speed improvements it engenders for the overall operation and specifically for Apps. This will make two opposites more acceptable: gaming and business apps. See this NYTimes article on gaming opportunities on new iPhone 3gs and 3.0 devices while Computerworld sees a number of business features that will make iPhone much more attractive in the Enterprise - not the least of which are hardware encryption, Exchange support, and tethering to various servers and devices.

Likewise Snow Leopard which will be available on September 19th 2009 for $29US upgrade price, also packs a punch with its many improvements and new features. Since Google with Android Netbooks appearing in September and Microsoft’s Windows 7 on October 22nd get the advantage of last entry into the OS arena - Snow Leopard will have to be impressive. There are a host of improvements detailed by Apple here with dramatic speed improvements throughout the OS, 64bit operations, Safari’s vastly improved speed and standards support, a completely revamped QuickTime X, and a passle of integration solutions. 64bit operations, videos processor optimizations, Grand Central optimization and the Safari updates appear to be geared as much to developers as end users. Apple Snow leopard will be nicely positioned as OS battles breakout in full force this Fall among Apple, Google, and Microsoft for smartphone and PC supremacy.

Third: Strikeout on PC Prices?

For the first time in a longtime Apple has announced substantial cuts in MacBook pricess at the same time as increasing the machines capabilities and specs. The 13inch Macbook is typical:


Here is a comparison of the new Macbook 13 versus a Dell on a variety of key factors:

Measure Dell Vostro 1320 Macbook Pro 13
Processor Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz, 800FSB Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz, 1066FSB
RAM Memory 4GB, 800Hz 4GB, 1066Hz
Hard Disk Size 250GB, 7200RPM 250GB, 5400RPM
Screen Size 13.3″ 13.3″
Video Card NVidia GForce9300 NVidia GForce9400M
WebCam Yes Yes
Battery 9cell 4+hours 7hours, 5year
Cost in $CAD $1549CAD $1749CAD

The Apple MacBook Pro is now down to $200CAD more than a Dell Vostro(earlier this spring I did a similar pricing exercise and the difference was nearly $750 more for the comparably equipped Apple Macbook Pro). The Apple has faster Front Side Bus Speed, and better Nvidia graphics card while the Vostro comes with a faster 7200RPM versus 5400RPM hard disk drive. There is no special application software loaded in either system.

So Apple has brought its laptop prices down closer to Dell and HP. At the same time it finally provided SD card support and a pseudo right-click on the trackpad; but there is a still a ways to go. Even more telling, Netbooks at the Computex 2009 show in Taiwan were at the $200-450 level with ARM processors 2GB of memory, 160GB drives and Linux OS. So this will be the new floor. The conclusion is that for a class of users (not the graphics, developer and designer crowd that Apple currently serves), Apple’s cost for computing power is still way too high.

Summary

This announcement was interesting for three reasons. First and foremost, it was done with Steve Jobs no longer completely at the helm. No appearance of Steve at the Developer Conference as per usual and an unknown amount of his leadership during development for the past 5 months. Assume half-time and the people at Apple can be graded pretty highly for the goodies delivered. Second, Apple responded to a number of competitive thrusts in the mobile, OS, and laptop marketplaces with decreasing effectiveness. Top marks for the mobile effort, good but mixed marks in the OS efforts(mobile OS Phone still does not match Palm’s WebOS). A sense of disappointment in the laptop arena as Apple pricess start to approach domestic US laptop makers but are not even “horseshoes close” on the Netbooks problem. But maybe the rumored 2010 touchscreen tablet will rectify this. Third, there was no knock your sox off innovation - that may be coming with the Apple Server product with ZFS and 64bit OS and a bunch of enterprise caliber capabilities along with the 2010 touchscreen tablet. So for domestic competition, Apple is responding price and feature effectively; but for China+Taiwan competition - still missing some game.

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
May
28
2009

HD Projectors

One has to periodically check the markets for a good full HD projection system. Now full HD means 1920 x 1080p projecting onto a 6foot++ wide screen with a contrast ratio of 6000:1 or better. In short I want to be able to project to audience of 50 to 300 people with some ambient light. So a little research would help determine the price of admission for such specs:
sony bravia
Well a little googling determined that with a machine like the Sony Bravia pictured above I could get slightly better than all the above specs plus a lamp life of 3000 hours but weighing in at a hefty 22 pounds. Price of admission is about $3500US. At a rental cost $100 for the equivalent - that is 35 sessions before break even. Getting close, but still no cigar.

By admin | Posted in hardware | Comments (0)
May
25
2009

Video Comes to Digital SLRs

Video comes to SLR

Yes indeed, that is a Canon digital SLR with replaceable lenses - and it is a pretty good video camera. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is probably the epitome of what has become a gold rush of digital SLR cameras  that are currently supporting video capabilities. Nikon has the D5000 (AVI bloat and panning problems) and Canon has the Canon EOS500D(auto-focus limitations and limited size of video clip)  as recent very competent but still incomplete intros. And these are just two examples of the flood of DSLRs that are offering some video capability (think Pentax K-7 and Nikon D90) - but also have the start-up problems that most camcorders have dealt with many years ago.

This blog was one of the earliest in predicting that video would come to DSLRs and that it would be popular. Proof that it is sometimes dangerous to see the incarnations of what you wished for. Not that video in DSLRs are a bust … but rather there are some … uhhhh teething problems.

Here is a quick laundry list of limits and problems that are effecting the current crop of Digital SLR with video capabilities:
1)Cannot match the very low-light shooting capabilities of camcorders
2)Sound recording equipment is monaural and tends to pickup in-camera noises
3)Auto-focus and subject tracking are slow or non-existent
4)Camera shake control and prowess is not nearly equal to camcorders
5)Capacity for clips is often a fraction of camcorder capabilities
6)Zoom, panning, and fades can be problematic
In defense of the digital SLR video-recordings, there are three salient advantages:
1)The price for interchangeable lens of very high quality is much less costly than camcorder offerings
2)the top-end SLR full frame camera sensors are equal to or batter than top-end camcorders
3)the ability to control aperture and color balance is a notch or 2 better than camcorders
What remains to be seen is how on camera lighting and camera mounting will be adapted to both DSLR and camcorders as they start to merge in functionality. Also it will be interesting to see which side picks up the others best traits - most digital SLRs now have great live-LCD shooting screen that can swivel. Some camcorders are using ever more sophisticated camera processors “inspired” by digital SLRs. Also watch for remote control mechanisms/sensors (motion and luminisoty change/trigger events) and the ability to store larger and faster recorded clips (shutter speed in the 100 frames per second or greater range) to appear in the market. The Casio EX/F1 already shoots at 300 to 1000 fps but at a loss of image size.

In sum, camcorders and DSLRs are meeting - will the union be progressive or will a whole new image recording experience start to emerge as drastic as the move from analog to digital camaera ? Only the Shadow knows ….

By admin | Posted in hardware, stillcamera, video | Comments (2)
May
12
2009

Another GenoPal Color Gem

GenoPal has another color gem, Pic2Color, that works with its Color tablet tool - the simple idea is to copy a color from a picture and see what color options it generates. Here is the widget:

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)
May
09
2009

GenoPal Color Wheel…Tablet

It is Spring!

So color is on mind. And so exploring what is available in color wheels and creative aids followed in interest along with a web blog development project. And in the process I came across a … uhhh color tablet from GenoPal:

 


Now this online version has most of the commands greyed out; but if you double click on any of the color chips on screen, click the color sample in the lower left, or slide the contrast and luminosity sliders you will see the attraction of GenoPal - its as if you are getting the analogs, complementaries, split complementaries laid out before in tablet form. Very nice including the hex read out on any color chosen. This is a nifty color tablet.

By admin | Posted in color corrections, design, software | Comments (0)
Apr
01
2009

RIP: Corel Paint Shop Pro

Corel Paint Shop Pro has been one of my favorite Paint editor tools for the past 10 years. Jasc, the original developers, understood that users wanted a lighttable-like interface to their images-> a browsing windows of thumbnail images from which users could decide which  to edit and how. The Browse function in PaintShop pro was fast and allowed a lot of immediate shortcut operations (rotation, rename, delete, etc) that made managing your images a breeze. But also Jasc steadily improved the editing features in Paint Shop Pro so they matched and sometimes exceeded those in even Photoshop. They never matched the highend color, printing and layer sophistication of Adobe Photoshop. But Paint Shop Pro to this day has a better interface for previewing and saving edit sets for color correction, filter, and image effects than Photoshop. And at about $100 versus the $750, many image editors got real value for their money.

Unfortunately, After Corel took over Paint Shop Pro - they appear to have applied their vaunted Corel Reverse Midas Touch (think PhotoPaint, Picture Publisher and Word Perfect franchises).  Right now, Paint Shop Pro is  in a contest with Microsoft Vista for most bloated, slowest and unreliable software. Microsoft Vista wins the fatty title hands down, its nip tuck on slowest, but Corel cops the fragility title hands and program down again easily.

I downloaded the latest version of Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for a trial run this week in the hopes that I would see some improvements in speed and reliability from the version I looked at  well over a year ago. I took it for a spin on its introduction and found Paint Shop Pro to be way too slow for practical usability even with a 1GB dual core PC. Well I am happy to say that Paint Shop Pro on a 3GB dual core Windows XP SP3 machine is a little faster; but that exposed the second problem - seize ups. During  test sessions on quick image editing, Paint Shop Pro seized up five times bringing the whole system down once. All the other photo edit programs including Corel’s own Painter and Photo Impact, performed flawlessly on the same set of images and in the same OS+hardware setup.

Now I can forgive the painful minute plus start up time, and the sporadically random long waits for some Paint Shop Pro commands to work, but having program crashes that obliterate a lot of your work and some times your total session - well that is a Back-to-the-Future rerun down late 1980’s PC Birthing Lane that I can do with out. So the writing is on the wall…Paint Shop Pro has had minimal improvements since it was launched and Corel has three other Paint/Image Editing programs in house … so Rest in Peace Corel Paint Shop Pro.

This is no April Fool’s joke - if you disagree, add a comment below. The best will get their choice of my last Corel Paint Shop Pro disks or a PhotoFinishes T-shirt.

By admin | Posted in software | Comments (2)
Mar
30
2009

Image Information at your Fingertips

First there were PDAs, then cellphones and then the merger of cellphones+PDAs variously known as Smart Mobile devices or Smart Phones. All are related to what was promised a long time ago - Preferred Information At your Fingertips or PIAF devices. Now after several innovative and ersatz tries by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm and others, MIT has come up with its solution, Sixth Sense … and like the OLPC-One Laptop Per Child, the ideas around the Sixth Sense device will surely shake and shape the market for mobiles and PIAF devices.

The device is still prenatal or Google Alpha - but the ideas like projection of the touch interface onto any surface are vibrant. They have definitely been seen in other research quarters but here see amazing resilience and intuitive appeal. Watch for Sixth Sense either to emerge itself or to spur the sincerest form of flattery, imitation by competitors within the next 18 months or less.

But of even more consequence for the image and design arenas is the effect this device+software will have in design, layout and delivery. I can see images, templates, and design co-ordinates being offered as part of the grid surface that users will work on. Also I can see 3D transcription of surfaces so that users can not just take a 2D photo but a 3D surface filtered for the salient points and features that a designer wants to emulate and/or refine. I am wondering if the powerhouses of graphics - Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, etc will even be able to cope with these ideas - or is there a huge entrepreneurial opportunity here?

By admin | Posted in 3D, design, hardware | Comments (0)