ClickrChart Launches

ClickrChart is a new Web-based application aimed at identifying the most interesting photographers and their photos in the Flickr world. “ClickrChart extracts the top 100 most popular photos, using the secretinterestingness recipe created by Flickr,” says ClickrChart owner Gianluca Merlo. “The website provides free daily, weekly and monthly charts as well as interviews with the most popular photographers in order to promote a photographic culture and encourage rookies to improve themselves.”

Website: ClickrChart

Read more »

Photo Stats for iPhone

The first application for making infographics on iPhone has just been released on iTunes App Store. Photo Stats app analyses all photos from your camera roll and creates infographics based on the extracted metadata, visualizing how, when and where you take photos with iPhone.

From today iPhone users can create infographics about their photos thanks to the new app Photo Stats, which has just been released on iTunes App Store by the Swedish mobile development company Dear Future Astronaut.

After users start the application on their iPhone, it analyzes location and time where the photos from the camera roll were taken as well as other photo properties such as size, exposure, ISO, photo application used etc. Statistical data are then transformed into a cool infographic which can be viewed on the device as well as shared with friends on social networks or via email.

For the first week the app will be available at the promotional price of only $0.99 at iTunes AppStore at the address http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id452201241?ls=1&mt=8

About the company
Dear Future Astronaut AB (http://www.dfany.com) is a Swedish creative mobile development company with a mission to develop applications at the intersection of code and creativity, add value to products and simplify for businesses and organizations to reach to their customers by using state-of-the-art mobile technology.

Read more »

Vimeo adds professional video hosting plan

"For the last five years, Vimeo has been for personal video sharing and we have had a non-commercial policy - we did not allow videos that are intended to sell or promote a product or service," says Blake Whitman, Vimeo's Vice President of Creative Development in an interview ahead of this week's launch. "For years, people have been asking us when we would open our services to businesses, for commercial services. Finally, we've listened and Vimeo Pro is the answer."

Vimeo Pro is priced £123 ($199) per year and offers 50 GB of storage and 250,000 plays. Photographers and videographers that will need to more storage will be able to purchase capacity in 50GB increments for £123 ($199). Additional plays can also be purchased for the same price in increments of 100,000. "Vimeo Pro is an evolution," says Whitman. "Over the last several years, we've realised that video hosting for major businesses is not easy to understand. The way we always approach things is: ‘how can we create a simple, easy and affordable solution for anyone and in this case, now, for businesses?'"

Whitman says that Vimeo Pro is "one of the most affordable offers available for businesses - the businesses that do not have a ton of video needs, but need it in some capacity. There are huge disparities between the free services, which are not really customisable, and the huge enterprise solutions, which are very expensive."

"We're really targeting sole proprietors and small businesses that need video. Right now, we allow small businesses and professional photographers to use Vimeo to promote their work, but not to sell their work," says Whitman. "Anytime that these photographers need video to promote their businesses and their services, they will need to use Vimeo Pro, which has some specific features they will benefit from."

Vimeo Pro will offers no upload limits per week - with Vimeo Plus, users can only upload up to 5GB a week. "We also offer portfolios, which are thematic websites that you can build to show off your video content," says Whitman. "They are completely unbranded pages that you can link to a custom domain name. And soon, there will be a way for developers to create and sell their own templates if they want - similarly to what Tumblr does."

Vimeo Pro also allows users to add their logos to the video player, as well as create basic, unbranded review pages to send to their clients. "These pages are unlisted and they don't appear on Vimeo," says Whitman.

Vimeo currently has 7.5m members.

Read more »

Crowdbooks Launches

Book Publishing Network Crowdbooks Marries The Power Of Crowdfunding With A Passionate Community Of Artists And Investors To Create A Revolutionary New Platform For Photo/Art Books.

(May, 2011) When Crowdbooks launches in May, the world will be introduced to a completely new and unique model of publishing. This model will merge talented photographic artists and passionate investors or supporters of the arts with a quality-focused independent publisher. The innovative concept behind Crowdbooks makes it stand out as the first-of-its-kind crowdfunding option that sees an idea through from its inception to publication. 

This new venture gives rise to exciting opportunities for all involved. Crowdbooks will create a passionate community wherein the artists and investors work hand-in-hand to bring a new photo book to life. Crowdfunding, also known as “participative financing,” involves a project which receives financing through a myriad of investors collectively pooling their money to fully fund projects. For would-be investors, the Crowdbooks platform offers them an compelling opportunity to both support the arts and have a hand in the success of a photographic artist and the resulting book. The investors literally become a part of the book.

While the concept of crowdfunding is not unique and has grown in recent years, Crowdbooks offers a completely new element to this established model. Other venues step out once funds are secured, yet Crowdbooks steps in and sees the projects through the final stages of design and distribution. Each project is created with an intense focus on craftsmanship, quality and an eye for detail. Handmade production methods are often employed, insuring each book is itself a work of art. Additionally, Crowdbooks offers the know-how of large publishing firms juxtaposed with the dedication of individual artists and talented teams focused on the success of each project.

Renowned fine art photographer and New York City teacher Amy Stein had this to say about the future of photobooks: “If we want the photobook to evolve I believe we need to bring back collaboration and, more importantly, evolve the definition of a book. Instead of a mass mentality, where the book is reduced to a means to distribute your photographs, we must return to a place where photographers work with other artists and professionals to conceive and produce unique, standalone objects. “ This collaboration and evolved definition of a book is exactly Crowdbooks’ goal as it builds this exciting new platform and community. The artists that seek funding and publication through the platform will receive the comprehensive support of passionate investors and superior publishing practices.

ABOUT CROWDBOOKS:

Crowdbooks is the first art/ photo book publishing network to use online crowdsourcing to fund its projects. Through social networks and the online community, Crowdbooks funds and produces unique, limited edition photo-based books that challenge the conventional methods of publishing, as well as the artistic limitations associated with the offline model. Crowdbooks acts as a traditional publishing company, overseeing a project from its design to its distribution. To be part of a book, be part of a crowd!

Nathalie Belayche works as an indepedent curator, photo editor, writer.She is the founder of the photography platform Food For Your Eyes. She has a passion for the photography book medium, convinced this is the best means of expression for photographers/ Prior to joining Crowdbooks as an Editor, Nathalie, collaborated closely with photographers to develop photography book projects and to get their book published. She is also an active member of the online photography book community with contributions to crowdsourced projects such as “The Future of Photobook” or to “the Photobook Club” website. 

ABOUT CROWDBOOKS FOUNDER, STEFANO BIANCHI:

Stefano Bianchi, the passionate mastermind behind Crowdbooks, is an established graphic designer and communications consultant. He has worked with companies such as Magnumphotos Agency, Louis Vuitton, Relais & Châteaux, Dior, Fabrica (the Benetton group communications research center) and Diesel Jeans. From his current home base in Paris, France, Stefano acts as CEO of N2o Studio, a creative consulting agency. His passion for photography, quality design and craftsmanship, and an appreciation for the arts, led to the creation of this exciting new platform.

Read more »

Fotobounce 3.5

Fotobounce 3.5 allows users to!manage, store and share digital photos securely within a private network of friends and family, referred to as “Bouncers”. One of Fotobounce’s key features is its face recognition technology that automatically detects faces when photos are found or imported. As faces are detected by Fotobounce and tagged by the user, this “trains” Fotobounce to learn who people are and helps automate the tagging process. Version 3.5 brings improved face detection accuracy and speed enhancements, as well as support for Twitter and Eye-Fi memory cards. A new product called Fotobounce Viewer has also been released. Fotobounce Viewer allows users to browse Fotobounce libraries remotely and securely from Android, Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

Website: Fotobounce

Read more »

Camera Pro for iPad 2

KenigArt announces the release of Camera Pro for iPad 2 v1.0. Now, with our app, photos taken on iPad2, will look better than pictures taken on professional SLR cameras. Camera Pro contains 10 tools and instruments to help you make your photos as professional looking as if they were taken with a professional SLR camera by a professional photographer. Our application will teach you how to make highly professional photographs in one click.

KenigArt announces the release of Camera Pro for iPad 2 v1.0. Now, with our app, photos taken on iPad2, will look better than pictures taken on professional SLR cameras. The program contains 10 tools and instruments to help you make your photos a professional looking as if they were taken to a professional SLR camera, a professional photographer.

Featured by iTunes - Top 20 Paid Photography iPad App in US and 150 other countries

Now you will not need to buy an expensive book on photography, reading hundreds of books or attend expensive classes of professional photographers. Our application will teach you how to make highly professional photographs in 1 click.

Application Features:
* Simple and easy HD interface is fully optimized for iPad 2
* 10 tools to improve your photos from your iPad 2 camera
* Even if you’ve never photographed before, now you can learn how to do it at the professional level using our application!

Device Requirements:
* iPad and iPad 2
* Requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later
* 2.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Camera Pro for iPad 2 v.1.0 is only $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photography category.

Camera Pro for iPad 2 v1.0: http://kenigart.com/camerapro4ipad2.php
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id443687178
Press Kit: http://kenigart.com/camerapro4ipad2-press.php

Kenigart is a web design and development company that you can rely on for all your digital needs. Our developers and engineers are highly competent professionals and have extensive experience in their respective fields. Every new project is based on close collaboration of the entire team with the best skills and experiences applied into all aspects of the task. Before we start every single project, first we work closely with the customer to understand their specific needs and goals. We make sure the result will meet their expectations and requirements. Our team understands that the final product should be easy to understand and maintain. In Our Studio we care about people and try to retain the best engineers, designers, and developers. We have the best talents - you get the best results at the affordable price. Copyright (C) 2011 Kenigart. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Read more »

Color Range for iOS

Virginia-based SSA Mobile LLC claims that their brand-new iPhone/iPod/iPad app for photo and image editing, Color Range 1.0, goes far beyond simply brushing parts of the original image to grayscale. The app’s ability to read the color range of a photo, automatically selecting and highlighting colors, while the rest of image is converted to grayscale, makes it an unique and handy tool for making photos look exquisite and stylish.

Leesburg, Virginia - SSA Mobile LLC has announced the release of its new iPhone photo and image editor, Color Range 1.0, allowing users to modify the color range of an image and achieve extremely stylish and eye-catching effects with any photo. The app uses an alternative approach to highlight colors, by reading the photo’s color range. Spotlighting a particular color or range of colors is done automatically, following user selection, meaning that there’s no need for manual “brushing” of the necessary areas. The rest of the image is converted to grayscale. Or, conversely, a selected color or range of colors can be converted to grayscale.

“The disadvantage of manual painting has always been the inability to single out small objects and details. Even with the biggest zoom and highest resolution, the procedure took far too long or was simply impossible,” says Serge Aliseenko, CEO of SSA Mobile LLC. “Automatic color range definition allows for high precision, speed and unique abilities, adding up to killer pics.”

The color range effect is applied to the entire picture, making it possible to create colorized vintage photos of the past, with just a few simple finger taps. However, there is also manual grayscale / color brush for custom edits of image areas when needed.

Color Range provides real-time preview, features pinch zooming and an unlimited number of undoes / redoes for more flexible and smooth work. It also allows loading and editing of pictures of any resolution, saving and, of course, sharing via E-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

In addition, Color Range offers 21 more built-in photo effects for free, including the HUE effect that enables you to change the color (or colors) originally selected to any other you like. Applying it after the main color range effect offers users a variety of new looks to highlighted details on their photos.

Color Range Features Summary:
* Unique Color Range effects with real-time preview for more convenient work
* Load pictures in any resolution or use the built-in camera
* Zoom in and out for more convenient color choice
* Use Gray / Color brush for custom edits of image areas when needed
* Unlimited number of undo and redo options
* 21 additional free built-in effects to add awesomeness to your final pictures
* Easy and super user-friendly interface and help
* Save to Photo roll or share your unique pictures via email, Facebook & Twitter
* Universal app designed for both iPhone and iPad

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* 2.7 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Color Range 1.0 is $1.99 USD and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photography category. Review copies are available upon request.

Color Range 1.0: http://ssamobile.com/apps.php?app=colorrange
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id443150747

SSA Mobile LLC is a mobile development company founded in 2011. In partnership with our experienced European and US development teams, we focus on top quality utilities, photography and entertainment apps for iOS platforms. Copyright (C) 2011 SSA Mobile LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod, and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Read more »

Nokia N9

The Nokia N9: a unique all-screen smartphone

Singapore - Nokia today announced the Nokia N9, built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology.  To learn more about the design of the Nokia N9 visit:http://swipe.nokia.com

One swipe and you’re home
The Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever you’re in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities.

The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precision-machined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

“With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel,” said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of Design. “And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique - the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers - will evolve in future Nokia products.”

Innovative all-screen design
With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This means better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

Camera, maps and multimedia
The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in lowlighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced.

The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, you can get in your car and start navigating to your destination right away.

You can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world’s first smartphone with Dolby® Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, you get a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Touch just got better
Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows you to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together.  Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

Colors and Memory
The Nokia N9 will be available in three colors - black, cyan, and magenta with storage options to accommodate plenty of content: 16GB and 64GB. The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with availability and local pricing to be announced closer to the sales start.

More information about the Nokia N9 can be found at: http://swipe.nokia.com.

About Nokia
Nokia is committed to connecting people to what matters to them by combining advanced mobile technology with personalized services. More than 1.3 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia, from our most affordable voice-optimized mobile phones to advanced Internet-connected smartphones sold in virtually every market in the world. Through Ovi (http://www.ovi.com), people also enjoy access to maps and navigation on mobile, a rapidly expanding applications store, a growing catalog of digital music, free email and more. Nokia’s NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, and Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the leading providers of telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software and professional services globally.

Read more »