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Gadgetell Quick Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

What is it?

Lightroom 2 is a program for Windows and Mac OS X designed to help organize, streamline, and develop your photos.  It costs $99 for the upgrade from Lightroom 1 or $299 for first time buyers.

Pros:

Easy to use thanks to clean and organized interface.
Imports all of your files using your preexisting directory structure.
Works with a wide variety of file formats.

Cons:

Does not allow pixel editing.  Requires another program for that task.
Initial use can be frustrating and can cause loss of work.

Does it hit the mark?

Yes.  Lightroom 2 definitely lived up to all of my expectations.  It’s easy to see that this program would be extremely popular with anyone working in the art or ad industry, or someone who does batch work with photos.  The program allows for very controlled editing and is remarkably easy to use.

For the full review, click “More.”

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Photographers have been messing around with 3D photography for years.  It just hasn’t been a nice and easy, already developed for them, consumer-friendly, point and shoot 3D camera they were using to take the photos.  Some photographers were rigging up their own cameras to get the effect, some doing it in post-processing.  Some, used much less user-friendly four lens cameras that did exist out there, just not with the best picture quality.

Fujifilm is hoping to remedy all of that with their development of their 3D camera.  The way it accomplishes the 3D effect is to use two lenses and two sensors.  The lenses are about 6 to 7-cm apart, which is the width between the average person’s eyes.  These lenses and sensors take different pictures from different angles simultaneously.  Then, it combines the different pictures to create one image that is displayed on the camera’s 2.8-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD screen. 

Read more about 3D cameras after the break.

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When it comes to cameras, there is a great big variety to choose from, from camera phones to point and shoot to those fancy SLRs.  It seems like every company is trying to sell you on the fact that you need their model.  So, how do you know which one is right for you?

It’s about you

What it boils down to is what you are actually going to be doing with your camera.  Are you just going to be taking a few pictures to email to your friends of you guys hanging out in the dorm partying?  Do you want one that you can use to take shots of little Johnny playing soccer?  Are you into wildlife photography?  Do you want one where it does all the work for you, or do you want to have full control over the settings?

There’s plenty more after the break.  Gadgetell’s resident photography expert, Jodie Andrefski, lays it all out for you.  Plus, get some tips on how to make any of your photos better.

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Sony’s latest model in their Reader family, the PRS-700 gives consumers the opportunity to choose how they would like to experience reading electronically.  It is much closer to an actual “book” experience, but with all the cool e-reader add-ons.

The PRS-700 features an interactive touch display, that allows readers to actually flip pages simply with the slide of a finger.  You can also look for terms in a book or a document, take notes on the virtual keyboard, or even use the stylus pen to highlight text you find especially important or interesting.  This PRS-700 has plenty more features, check them out after the break.

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You probably remember sitting in a movie theater, wearing those crazy blue and red glasses, the big monster seeming to come off the screen right at you.  Well, 3D has come even further, and is even more amazingly lifelike.  And one of the latest steps forward is actually a step into the past to Ancient Egypt.

Dolby Laboratories just announced yesterday that their 3D Digital Cinema was chosen to present the Giant Screen Films’ “Egypt 3D: Secrets of the Mummies.” This is a companion movie to “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age,” the National Geographic exhibition that tours all over. 

Read more to find out about what tech Dolby is using with 3D movies.

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Often us photographers think we did a pretty good job with optimizing our different picture files, but then when a text editor is used we are able to see that they still contain a ton of data that can actually be removed.  Yep, there are different programs out there that can be used to extract this information from the different GIFs, PNGs, or JPEGs, and still allow the photo look great, but many of these programs require a pretty specific knowledge to use them.  Unless the user knows what they are doing when it comes to command-line tools, they are pretty much out of luck. Until now.

Two members from the Yahoo exceptional performance team, Stoyan Stefanov and Nicole Sullivan, took what they knew of these tools and built a single application called Smush.it that does all the optimizations for you in just one place.  Completely cloud-based, it allows you to upload images, give the image a URL, or use it as a Firefox extension.  The program shows you how many bytes you’ll save, and then gives you the images as .zip file for you to replace them on your site.

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“Every breath you take… Every move you make… Every bond you break… Every step you take..  I’ll be watching you.” Is it the end of privacy as we know it?  People knowing where we are, and when we are there, seeing whatever it is we are doing.  Or, just a cool and fun new way to geotag?  Geotagging is nothing new and most of us are familiar with the term by now.  Take a photo, and “tag” your location to tell all your friends or family where you were at when you shot it.  But now, tagged single shots are going to seem like dinosaurs.

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iRex has announced new ebook readers that could potentially steal the spotlight from the now-old Amazon Kindle.  iRex has announced three such readers, each of them with a 10.2” e-ink display.  The differences between the models are the two Digital Reader 1000S and Digital Reader 1000SW ones have touch screens with styli, and the 1000SW one has 3G, bluetooth and Wi-FI.  The bottom of the line Digital Reader 1000 has the same features, without the touch input, bluetooth, 3G, or Wi-Fi.

All of the Digital Readers can support both PDFs and Office Documents, neither of which the Kindle can support.  The 1000S and 1000SW can even edit PDFs and Office documents through the use of their touch screen.  iRex is trying to advertise the Digital Readers to companies, on their website claiming that thousands of documents are printed for offices, only to be thrown away sometimes within a day.  According to iRex the Digital Reader will save paper allowing you to put the documents on the Digital Reader and edit them with the touch screen on the 1000S and 1000 SW.

It’s doubtful the iRex Digital Readers will overtake the Amazon Kindle any time soon, especially with prices starting at $650 for the 1000.  It is nice to see something new in the space.  Maybe they can force Amazon to innovate on the Kindle.  Removing that ugly keyboard for a touch screen would push me over the edge for a Kindle especially at the current price.  Granted, the iRex Digital Readers are designed with offices in mind, but I could imagine some consumers wanted that functionality without having to pay $650.

Read [Electronista]

Because there isn’t quite enough hoopla today surrounding the news of the Android G1...Amazon comes out and adds their version of the cherry on the cupcake. They confirmed today that a music store for Android-based cellphones does indeed exist, and it comes pre-loaded on the G1. (yes, Virginia..there is a Santa Claus).  With it, users have 6 million DRM-free songs to pick from, coming from all four of the top record labels.

You are able to browse and preview no problem anytime you’re connected to the T-Mobile network; but when it comes time to buy and download, you’ll have to have a Wi-Fi connection.  No, the songs aren’t free, (although wouldn’t that be a bonus?!), but they also don’t rack you with any extra “convenience” charges. It will still cost the same 89 cents per individual song download, unless otherwise indicated.

In their official press release, Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music and Video says

“Amazon wants to make it easy for customers to discover, buy, and play their music wherever they happen to be–whether sitting at their computer or on the go. We look forward to the release of the T-Mobile G1, which will put Amazon MP3’s vast selection of low-priced DRM-free music at the fingertips of even more customers in more places.”

Music that is downloaded from the site onto the T-Mobile G1 can also be played on PCs, Macs or any other MP3 music player.

via [techmeme]

“The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.” So says the warning on all movies released since early 2004. Well, granted many get a bit of a chuckle every time they pop a movie into their player and see that flash across their screen knowing they’ve just downloaded it from somewhere on the ‘Net, but still...it’s the thought that counts. And apparently, the thought of RealNetworks is that they want to make it a little easier for their customers to burn those dvds; since they are coming out with a new product called RealDVD which allows users to burn a digital copy of the movie of your choice...ummmm..legally?  Guess that remains to be seen.  Because there hasn’t been enough chatter about the whole piracy/fair use thing lately. 

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