News in brief: Super-secret iPhone panorama function

So if you’ve an iPhone, and if you’re running iOS 5, and if it’s jailbroken, (which is quite a few ifs, admittedly) there is, apparently, a panoramic camera feature secreted away in the deep, dark depths of its files. According to Conrad Kramer – the guy who stumbled upon it – if you want to take advantage, you need to find the ‘EnableFirebreak’ setting in the iOS preferences file, and flip it to ‘Yes’. And lo! You will have the ability to construct grand and sweeping panoramas with your iPhone, which is of course every iPhone owners every desire.

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Two months in nick - the cost of taking a photo in court

Here in the UK artists’ chalk sketches made in court are a familiar sight; photography in court rooms is banned. Unfortunately this snippet of information, along with the signs saying something along the lines of ‘No photography’ escaped the notice of one Paul Thompson when he turned up at Luton Crown Court on Friday to lend his support to a friend who was on trial for robbing an off-duty police officer.

One photograph from his Blackberry and an hour-and-a-bit later, he was sentenced to two months in prison for contempt of court by Judge Barbara Mensah. She reckoned that a strong message needed to be sent to people who commit such a serious offence.

Judge Mensah, I think that Paul Thompson and quite a few other people might just have got that message.

Yes, it was contempt of court. Yes, it was a remarkably stupid thing to do. Yes, it was also a remarkably ignorant thing to do; using your mobile phone in court is plain rude. But I can’t help but agree with various lawyers and penal reform charities who’ve said that two months is verging on over-kill. Haven’t we got other people, you know, like convicted murderers, who should be in our already-overcrowded prisons?

(If you want to know more, take a look here, here, or here.)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 150 million Instagrams

Yep, in just seven months 150 million photos have been uploaded to Instagram. (That’s about one every 15 seconds.) And all of those would have come from an iPhone because there’s no Instagram Android app and you can’t upload from your computer, either. Apparently, Instagram haven’t ruled out an Android app, but they are being super tight-lipped as to when one might appear. I can scarcely begin to imagine what will happen when Instagram hits the non-iOS collective. Is the world going to become one giant Instagram?

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The Fujifilm guide to restoring water-damaged images

I’ve heard lots of people say that if there were a fire in their home, something that they’d try to rescue would be their photos. (I’d be quite interested in getting out alive, although I can see how old albums can be important.) But what about the opposite of fire? What about water damage? It might feel a bit hopeless if you find troves of images that are encrusted with mud or sand, stuck together, or just horribly water damaged, but you might be able to salvage them. And Fujifilm has the perfect guide to explain what you need to do.

Depending on the type of prints that you’re trying to salvage (silver halide, dye sublimation, dye-type inkjet, or pigment-type inkjet) and how they’ve been damaged, you’ll need to use different techniques. Whatever the print, though, you’ll need a very decent dose of patience and remember to dry them in the shade and don’t use anything like a hairdryer.

Everything that you need to know is over at Fujifilm.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Sony World Photography Awards - now in 3D

Oh hell’s bells. I’ve only read the press release and already my head is aching. Sony and the World Photo Organisation have just announced that they’re adding three new categories to the 2012 World Photography Awards. And the reason for my headache? No, it’s not because the list of categories is already breathtakingly long; it’s because the three new ones are all in, heaven help us, 3D.

There are two 3D photography categories: panoramic and still – the themes of which can be anything that catches the photographer’s imagination. Then there’s a 3D video category. Again, whatever floats your boat can be the subject. Whichever category you enter, though, your submission must’ve been shot in 2011 and on a camera or video camera that uses ‘true 3D technology’.

The deadline for entries is 4 January 2012, and as with the rest of the awards, winners will be announced at a swanky ceremony in London next April.

Lots more detail on the website.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Cute Slideshow - now with video!

It’s awesome when developers listen to your suggestions! A while back I had look at Cute Slideshow, a simple-to-use iPhone app that allowed me to turn my pictures into a slideshow, insert text, and even set it to music. I loved the idea, but it had one major flaw: the slideshows were stuck there in my phone (unless I had a cable to watch them on a monitor, which I probably did… somewhere… ). What it really needed was an export function.

Lo-and-behold, the latest update to Cute Slideshow includes an export function compatible with the iPhone 4 and fourth generation iPod Touches. All for £1.79 (US$2.99) from the App Store. Super stuff!

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The most incredible night-time sky

The Photopic Sky Survey is a 5,000 megapixel photograph of the entire night sky stitched together from 37,440 exposures. Large in size and scope, it portrays a world far beyond the one beneath our feet and reveals our familiar Milky Way with unfamiliar clarity. When we look upon this image, we are in fact peering back in time, as much of the light—having traveled such vast distances—predates civilization itself.

Seen at a depth thousands of times more faint than the dimmest visible star, tens of millions of other suns appear, still perhaps only a hundredth of one percent thought to exist in our galaxy alone.

Incredibly!

Our Milky Way galaxy is the dominant feature, its dusty arms sweeping through the frame, punctuated by red clouds of glowing hydrogen. To the lower right are our nearest neighbors, each small galaxies themselves with their own hundreds of millions of stars.

Check out Sky Survey for the full story!

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Researchers Show Improved Algorithm For Smoothing Upscaled Pixel Art

A paper from researchers at Microsoft Research and Hebrew University details a new, spline-based algorithm for transforming pixel art, such as that from early sprite-based games, into scalable vector images.

Johannes Kopf and Dani Lischinski’s paper titled “Depixelizing Pixel Art” describes an up-scaling technique that differs from other popular methods in ways that are particularly suited for the low-resolution sprites of classic games.

From blocky to smooth'n'sexy.

As a geek, I love the sound of this – but it’s also interesting to see whether the new research could have implications in photography world as well.

Read the full skinny at Gamasutra

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 10 photos per second at Instagram

You know that crazy number of users that Instagram has, something like 4 million, which it built up in just over seven months? Yeah? Well it turns out that between them, they’re snapping and sharing ten photos every second. Uh-hmm, you read that right. Ten photos per second. That, my lovelies, is a lot of pictures.

Kevin Systrom, Instragram’s co-founder, announced this to the TechCrunch guys at TechCrunch Disrupt. When he was asked to put his finger on Instagram’s success, Systrom said: ‘It turns out if you make something that people want it spreads really well.’ You know, I can see the logic in that.

(Headsup to TechCrunch, obviously.)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Google challenges JPG

The web isn’t quite fast enough, says Google, and they’ve decided that they can do better than JPG, PNG and GIF, with the introduction of a new image format, WebP.

It seems as if Google have found a new way of compressing images, whilst keeping them sharper and less prone to compression artifacts than the current file systems in use.

For now, WebP is only supported in Chrome and Opera, but we’ll see whether Firefox and (god forbid) Microsoft throw themselves into the mix as well.

Exciting times to be a photographer!

More about the format on the Google Code site – and the announcement was made in the Chromium blog
.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 250,000 images free for use from Yale

Scattered throughout its museums, libraries, and archives, Yale holds a collection of hundreds of thousands of objects that are in some way culturally valuable – manuscripts, inscriptions, paintings, that sorta thing; they’ve got millions of high-res images of these objects, too. In an unprecedented move (amongst the Ivy League institutions, anyway) Yale is opening up these images and making them freely accessible in a new collective catalogue.

If the image is in the public domain, it’ll be available for download and transmission without any kind of licence or restrictions on its use. They’ve only just started the process; 250,000 is what’s available right now.

From Yale’s perspective, it is about opening up scholarship and ‘responsible stewardship’ of its collection. It’s also about moving with the times. So, who’ll be next then?

(Headsup to BoingBoing)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Street photography and approval

Just stumbled across a great article by Kirk, about approval, tacit approval, implied approval and how it all applies to street photography.

The article discusses basic law in the US, what you’re able to do (and not to do!), along with a great discussion about the what, hows, and wherefores.

One part that particularly rang true with me was the following:

Sometimes I’ll see something I like and I will try to make eye contact with the person if I am too far away to speak to them. Doesn’t happen often because I’m most likely to be using lenses shorter than 85mm and that puts me close enough to be sociable. The deal I make with myself and the rest of society is this: If I’m part of society I need to understand that there are some unspoken rules that we all (to some extent) share. One of those is to respect a person’s sense of security and safety. Another is to respect a person’s circle of comfort and finally a respect for a person’s ability to control their own public image. I may have the right to do something or take a photograph of someone but that doesn’t give me the ethical or moral strength to create unpleasant situations for the subjects.

The rest of the article is well worth a read as well – Read the full story on the Visual Science Lab.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Ever lost your camera or had it stolen?

You may not be aware, but your camera probably embeds its serial number in every one of your photos – so if someone is taking photos with your stolen camera, you can track them down.

Now if only there was a way of doing that… Enter Stolen Camera Finder, a brand new website designed to help you get re-united with your camera.

How very nifty.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.