Michael Shane's geekery, photography, and shenanigans » apple

The Last Photo Taken with my iPhone 3GS

Michael — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:40:07 +0000

‘nough said? I think so.

A few different treatments of a few different photos of one very special lady

Michael — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:21:43 +0000

I’m experimenting with some different treatments of one earlier photo and one new photo using some custom presets in Aperture 3. I agree with Scott Bourne that Aperture 3 is definitely slower than its predecessor in some ways. That said, it’s also true that Aperture 3 could marginalize or eliminate Photoshop from many photographers’ workflows. I have shot little to no HDR recently, so I haven’t launched Photoshop in months. And now that Aperture 3 has a curves brick, I may never need Photoshop again.

I’m on a bit of a 16:9 kick tonight. Can you tell? If you’ve got a preference for any of the photos below, please feel free to share it in the comments.

John Gruber takes the words right out of my mouth

Michael — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:54:01 +0000

Now that Apple has finally announced details of the launch and implementation of the iPhone SDK, the internet is buzzing with debate regarding its apparent lack of support for background applications, and some developers are not happy. Their qualms are certainly understandable, but I think the proverbial big picture is what’s important here – especially at square one of native application development.

The bottom line is that Apple is between a rock and hard place (and $18 billion). Apple must balance the need to maintain the flawless user experience (read: speed and battery life) that’s inherent in the design of its products and applications with the effectiveness and features of forthcoming applications on a brand new platform. There’s an excited community of developers out there with some brilliant ideas, but I think that we all need to keep the average user in mind, and pace ourselves.

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball provides consistent coverage and excellent analysis. I think he and I agree about Apple’s current position on the issue:

Imagine a scenario where background apps are allowed on the iPhone this summer. Some typical user buys and installs 10 apps from the App Store. Three of them are background-capable apps, and two of those three are so resource hungry that they have a noticeable drag on battery life. How are typical users — not Ian Betteridge, not me, and probably not you, but typical users — supposed to know which apps are causing the problem? How are they even going to know which apps do continue to run in the background? They won’t. A likely reaction would simply be to regret ever having junked up their iPhone with any third-party apps at all.

Not every iPhone owner is a power user. One of the benefits of using Apple hardware and software is that it comes from a single, certified, bona fide source. When something goes wrong, you know exactly where to go to get it fixed or to rip someone a new one. Apple has a responsibility to maintain the quality of the user experience by keeping their devices as accessible and as easy to maintain as possible. It’s part of what sets Apple apart.

As John Gruber put it:

If you truly demand the right to be able to shoot yourself in the foot with the software you install on your phone — which is a perfectly reasonable desire, and is how things work on the Mac — then the non-jailbroken iPhone isn’t for you.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Ars reviews Aperture 2

Michael — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:00:19 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of Apple’s updated pro photography software Aperture 2.

Okay, that’s kind of a lie (The first part I mean – I am a big fan … not that it matters since I doubt a soul is reading this). But the bottom line is that Aperture’s reincarnation is better. Faster. Stronger. You get the picture.

Anyway, David Girard over at Ars has written a detailed review, and I thought I’d share it, because he gets paid to do things like that, and I don’t.

(Via)