After hearing a lot of good things about Apple’s Aperture photo editing software I finally installed it yesterday (thanks TG for the serial) and I gotta say that this beats Adobe’s Lightroom by loads in my opinion.  I’ve had Lightroom installed on my windows desktop for about 3 months now, and can’t find a single good thing to say about it.

Some things I like about Aperture:
- Number one thing I like about the Aperture is its ease of use. Within minutes of installing the program I was able to get satisfatory results, unlike Lightroom or photoshop where it takes a while before you can start getting good results. Lightroom may technically be more powerful (more features) and may be faster, but I believe that good programs are those that allow users to quickly and easily get to the end results that the user have in it. The less time spent fiddling around with settings and menus, the more time users will have to enjoy and share their results!
- Changes made to images are stored as “versions”, storing just the thumbnail image, adjustements and embedded information, but it does not create a image file until you export it. This saves space on your hard drive.
- Easy to “lift” adjustments made to one picture and apply it to other pictures.
- I have a e-520 camera, and Aperture’s update to support the e-520 RAW format was released before Adobe (they still haven’t).
- $100 cheaper then Lightroom (Aperture 2.0 is $199, while Lightroom is $299).

To close this entry, here is a before and after screenshot of the first image I edited with Aperture. Its a picture I took outside a cathedral in San Francisco earlier this year. Even though the file was not saved in RAW, I was still able to recover the details that were lost in the underexposed parts of the statue.

Original image.

After editing.

You may have heard that Microsoft unveiled their successor to Windows Vista last week during the PDC. The new operating system will be called Windows 7, as it’s Microsoft’s seventh operating system to date. While it’s still in pre-beta form, they handled out copies of the upcoming operating system to developers and walked through some of the new features. Looking through the list I couldn’t help but feel like they were simply playing catchup with Apple’s OS X Leopard operating system as some of the features feel like crappy rip offs of features already present in OS X. Posted some screen shots below for a short comparison.

Desktop:
With Windows Vista and previous MS operating systems, if you have a lot of applications/documents open on your screen and you wanted to look at the desktop you could either minimize all the windows one by one, or click on a button on the taskbar that would minimize all windows at once. With Windows 7, placing your cursor on the corner of the screen, “hides” (as seen in next two screenshot) the windows and allows you to see the screen.

Windows 7: Loads of open windows.

Windows 7: Windows “hidden” to expose the desktop.

Hmm sorta useful I guess….but OS X already has that feature and it works better and looks sexier! As you can see in the screenshots below, first you have a screen full of open applications. Now one downward swipe of your fingers on the multitouch trackpad and it displays a miniature version of all the open applications, allowing you to easily find any window that was previously hidden. Want to see the desktop? Well one upward swipe with your fingers on the multitouch trackpad and ZOOM, open windows fly off the screen displaying your desktop!

OS X: Lots of open windows.

OS X: Swipe fingers down on touchpad to see all open apps.

OS X: Swipe fingers upwards on touchpad to see desktop.

Windows 7 Widgets/Gadgets:
Apple calls them widgets, Microsoft copied them and calls them “gadgets” in Microsoft Vista. In Vista, these gadgets were in a sidebar on one side of the screen. In Windows 7, the sidebar is gone, but as you can see in the screenshot below, the gadgets can now TA-DA be placed anywhere on the screen.

Hmm…that seem’s pretty familar..OH wait…OS X has the same feature! (screenshot below).

So yeah looks like microsoft is just ripping off features thats have been available on OS X for a while now. There are some upcoming features that sound cool, but with the way Vista went, I won’t believe a word of what they’re saying Windows 7 will be like until I can actually see it with my own eyes.

(Note: On macs without multitouch trackpads, the features above can be activated using keyboard shortcuts and also by moving the cursor to one of the corners of the screen…as MS copied)

The new generation of Ipod nanos were announced at todays “Let’s Rock” event in SF around 10:30ish a.m (but you already knew about that because all of us geeks were following live blogs of the event from 10am this morning right?).

Changes:

- Cosmetics. Has a oval cross section. Went back to the “thin tall” factor of the 1G and 2G nano (3g nano was fat and short). Looks pretty sweet. Check out image below.
- built in accelerometer (same as iphone). This will allow games designed with the iphone in mind to play on the nano. Sweetness! It will also allow the nano to switch to cover flow mode (the mode in which instead of listening song titles/album titles it displays album covers instead that you can flick through through the use of the click wheel) ..and it also allows for the next bullet point
- Shuffle songs by shaking the nano! Now thats cool!
- Genius mode (this is also being added to the ipod touch and to itunes). Here’s Apple’s description of this feature:

“Say you’re listening to a song you really like and want to hear other tracks that go great with it. The Genius feature finds the songs in your music library that go great together and makes a Genius Playlist for you. It’s like having your own highly intelligent, personal DJ.”

- improved battery life (up to 24 hours)
- headphones with built in mics and built in remote control.
- voice recording capability
- Use of more environmentally friendly materials

Changes to the ipod touch were also announced, but I’ll skip that for now due to time constraints. It looks like the iphone now and includes the genius feature. Also has external volume control and speakers like the iphone. Aside from that there’s also a new version of itunes (version coming out and NBC will be returning to the video store (they left itunes a year or so ago because they wanted to charge around $5 per episode for their tv shows including heroes, but Steve Jobs did not want to charge customers any more then $1.99 at the time).  Also out by the end of this week will be iphone software version 2.1 that is supposed to reduce number of dropped calls, improve battery life, crash less and provde faster backups. Mine hasn’t crashed much and my backups are also fast, but I know some readers of this blog have those issues so hopefully 2.1 will fix those problems.

Oh and heres more info on the new nano and touch. Cool thing about apple is most of the time their products are available to buy at the same time as the announcement.  Oh and there was supposed to be some Microsoft announcement today as well..but who cares? (new zunes…blah).

Just ordered a 16gb ipod nano to use in the gym. It’ll be replacing my older 30gb ipod whose screen is starting to give up (I sat on it) and i a lil bulky for the gym..don’t want to use my iphone in the gym because then it’ll be covered in sweat at the end of each session. Ordered the black nano…second on the left in the pic below. Can’t wait till it arrives! I should have just gone to the apple store in a day or two and picked it up personally instead or ordering it online but I doubt I’ll have a chance to go to the apple stores anytime soon.

8:46 pm
07/11/08

Wooohooo! After almost 4 hours of waiting…the moment has arrived! Picked up a 16gb Black 3g iPhone. Didn’t take too long to complete the purchase. All they had to do was change my data plan from the 1st gen plan to the 3G plan, and then they hooked it up to itunes to unbrick the phone. Entire process took about 6 mins..much less then the 20-30 mins being reported in the morning (guess traffic on the itunes servers died down towards the end of the day since a lot of stores sold out of the iphone). After that it was up and running within seconds. First call I made on it was to my sis to tell her about the purchase. She beat me to the iPhone by 3 hours…managed to cut in line thanks to some friends, and left the store with her purchase while I was still in the line outside the mall lol.

Overall it was a pretty cool experience. People in line were super friendly so even though I wasn’t there with any of my friends, it sure didn’t feel that way. Apple store employees were around to answer questions and to provide bottled water to the people in line.

With the way this thing was selling I can’t wait to see the sales numbers. All bay area AT&T stores sold out of the phone earlier today. Not sure about if the other Apple stores nearby still had units left in stock.

Oh and I overhead from an Apple store employee that Steve Wozniak was at this location earlier and bought some iphones.

Here’s some pics before I head off to get some food. Starving!

Black and white iphones side by side at the apple store

My iPhone being unpacked. This was taken after I paid for it and before it was activated. The white bag on the left of the pic is what each purchase was placed in.

Wooohoo! It’s up and running!

8:02 pm. Finally inside the store. About 15-20 people in line in front of me. ALMOST THERE!

Sent from my iPhone

7:11pm: can almost see the entrance to the store!!! World peace, the knowledge of countless generations, immortality, the power to make all dreams come true awaits.
Oh wait is it just a cellphone? No way!

Sent from my iPhone

5:59pm. Just made it to the line inside the store. Damn close to 150 or more ppl inside. Looks like 2.5 hours left from here. Apple employees were nice enough to hand out bottled water to the people in line.

Sent from my iPhone

Ok it’s almost 5pm and I’m in line at the apple valley fair store. Holy shit there’s over a 100 ppl lined inside the mall and about half that number or more outside the mall! They said it could take 4 hours before we’ll get up to the counter.
Ok this is it..not leaving this time. Store closes at midnight n I plan on staying that long…I think =0)

Sent from my iPhone

Ok so the last store (on stevens creek) didn’t have any in stock. Now I’m at the el camino/kiely AT&T location. Over 60 ppl in line. Looks like ppl are still leaving with bags so they might still have it in stock!
As I was typing this out, a guy came out and said that the 16gb models are completely sold out and that the 8gb is very low in stock and that there’s no guarantee that anyone would be able to get one no matter what they’re position in line is (which is stupid..come on if you have X units then only the next X ppl in line will be able to buy the phone since they were only supposed to sell one per customer…don’t need to use calculus to figure this out!) and that most people would have to place an order and receive it in 5-6 days.
Talked to my sister..gilroy store is also out of stock. Apple Valley Fair store has units in stock, but lines are really long.
Heading back to work. Hope I’m able to find one after work!

Ok I couldn’t help myself. Currently standing in line outside an AT&T store (on stevens creek). Figured if I got here 2 hours after it opened then there won’t be a line.
Crap just found out it’s sold out at this location n that everyone in line is waiting to place an order and that they’ll get it in 6-7 days.
Screw that I’m gonna look for another store

Sent from my iPhone

Turns out that the group lining up outside the NYC Apple store is doing so to bring attention to their concerns of “sustainability, affordable housing, energy security, locally-grown food and eating right”….ALONG with buying iphones for themselves, Obama and Mcain.

“….“We’re here to restore the edible landscape,” says Daniel Bowman Simon, 28, the group’s organizer and spokesperson and a young man given to making grand pronouncements. “We want to bring seeds of change back to the White House.”

Daniel and his supporters — there are 10 in town this week, but only five braved the rain that soaked the city overnight Friday –  want to set a new Guinness World Record for “longest time waiting in line to buy something.”

But that’s just a vehicle to get attention for their broader concerns — sustainability, affordable housing, energy security, locally-grown food (New York State apples are a big theme this week), and “eating right,” says Simon, “especially our leaders.”

…..”

Full article here

I see a lot of hate directed towards the NYC group and the guy who began waiting outside a New Zealand store sometime yesterday (iphone comes out there at 12:01am NZ time - 8:01am EST making him the first in the world to purchase an iphone) on other blogs. What’s with that? If someone wants to use a week of their lives waiting outside an Apple store, let them! Its a great way to bring publicity to any cause (as in the NY case) or to satisfy fan-boy urges (as in the NZ case) lol!

What do you readers think? Comments please =0)

Wow….people lining up a week prior to the 3G iPhone’s launch day? Pictures below were taken earlier today outside the NY store.
Click here for the story

Not sure if I’ll be camping for the phone on the 11th. Since each phone needs to be activated in-store (unlike last time where we could activate it from home using itunes) I expect extremely long waits once the store opens…at least 10-15 mins per customer. So I’ll probably wait until the 12th or 13th to upgrade my baby.

What am I going to do with my current iphone? Was considering letting a family member use it, but it can’t be used on At&t without a unlimited data plan and they really have no use for that..so I’ll probably end up using it as a wi-fi enabled widescreen ipod.

So iTunes recently hit the 5 billion mark - yup you read correctly 5 Billion in downloads! Making it the largest music retailer in the U.S beating Walmart. You would think that the music industry would be happy about this..after all haven’t they been complaining about the decline in music sales over the years? (Blaming the decline in illegal downloads).

NOPE…not a chance…music industry now feels that iTunes is getting too big and powerful for its own good..and as a result most record labels (besides EMI) have not released their music DRM-free on iTunes. The same labels let amazon and other crappy-who-gives-a-shit sites sell their tracks DRM-free.

So I propose that we all say a big F*** Y** to these other record labels by only purchasing DRM-free tracks off of itunes..as for the songs yet to be released DRM-free on iTunes..obtain those from bit torrent and other music sharing means!!

I know that a bunch of my friends will just call be a Apple lover, Steve Job worshiper after reading this post, but I don’t care. Steve Jobs and iTunes is on YOUR side (Yeah their goal is to make money, but what they’re trying to do is good for both Apple and for YOU the consumer). From the beginning they wanted music to cost NO MORE then 99 cents a track, they publicity released a statement saying ALL music should be DRM-free, that labels should not make tracks “album only” (meaning you should be able to purchase individual tracks and not forced to purchase the entire album). All these moves are good for consumers, but the record industry saw this as a threat and is now trying to weaken iTunes dominance by giving other retailers an unfair advantage.

When NBC wanted to charge $4.99 an episode for Heros episodes it was iTunes that fought to keep the price at $1.99, but NBC didn’t agree to this and instead took all their shows off of iTunes. Now an year after they took the shows off, they’ve decided to let microsoft’s Zune store sell those same shows for $1.99..the price that itunes was originally fighting for!

So go out and stick it to record labels by only purchasing DRM-free tracks through iTunes.

Edit: (For the non-geeks)
DRM (digital rights management) in brief refers to protection that limits digital media files (video or audio) from playing on more then a specified number of computers/devices.

Took an extended break from this blog…but now I’m back =0)..and what better way to start things up then an announcement that Coldplay will be back in the Bay Area on the 18th of July…and I’ll be there in the 8th row screaming my lungs out rocking to the greatest band on the planet =0)

A lil disappointed that I wasn’t able to get decent seats during the pre-sale or the general sale..and had to resort to EVIL EVIL ticketmaster’s auction to get decent seats. Don’t ask me how much these decent seats cost =0(…but I know it will be worth every minute of the concert!

Good week for coldplay fans..Viva la vida or Death and all his friends (VLVODAAHF) is on top of the album charts in both the US and the UK…selling over 730,000 units in the US…and the single Viva la vida is also number one in both the US and the UK. In 2005 those wacky brits denied coldplay a #1 hit by making that crazy frog song number one (and they say that american’s have bad taste in music? HAH!) but they hit #1 this time around. What’s pretty cool is that the single has only been available as a download this time around (its not even a official single yet…violet hill was the first single from this album)..it was supposed to be a teaser for the album…and being so was not eligible for the charts..but once the album came out, so many ppl bought that track individually that it sent it soaring to #1.

Besides listening to VLVODAAHF I also checked out the new Janet Jackson album…23 tracks and only 2 good ones! The new Alanis Morissette album is pretty good…and its hard to say that openly as a guy as you supposedly have to be a disgruntled female teen to appreciate her music (hey she DID lighten up with her last album…think its coz she got married or something).

3G iPhone comes out on july 11th…a google news search will bring up tens of a) articles on why the iPhone sucks or b) how much of a profit apple will make off the device.

Addressing (b) first -> The $170 Bill of materials floating around does not include the R&D cost and since the iphone is one if not the most innovative phone out there on the market expect this R&D cost to be a huge! Secondly no one sells products for the hell of it..or to make the world a better place…its to make $$$ and I hope Apple makes a lot of money off the iPhone so that they say around for decades and continue to innovate.
Addressing (a) -> Get over it. Your blackberry is yesterday’s news. Is the iPhone perfect? No, but its a hell lot better then any blackberry or palm smartphone for non business use. Alot of holes in the iPhone will be filled up now that third-party developers can make apps for it. One of best feature of the iPhone is that ANYONE can pick it up and become a power user in a day if not in minutes. Try that with your blackberry.

Catch me in line to get a 3G iphone on the 11th of next month!