Sony has announced a new 13 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensor, which could one day allow for thinner iPhones that take even higher quality photos and HDR (High Dynamic Range) video.

This image sensor layers the pixel section containing formations of back-illuminated structure pixels onto chips containing the circuit section for signal processing, which is in place of supporting substrates for conventional back-illuminated CMOS image sensors. This structure achieves further enhancement in image quality, superior functionalities and a more compact size that will lead to enhanced camera evolution.

The setup separates the CMOS sensor from the imaging circuits which, along with a bit of optics-magic, results in higher quality images. It also thinner, which means iPhones and iPads, if Apple implements it, could be thinner.

Source: Sony

Snappy5 for iOS 5 is a new jailbreak mod in Cydia that brings instant access to the iPhone camera no matter what you’re doing.

Never miss a photo opportunity again!

It is a camera application that launches quickly, without having to exit your currently running application. This is a free upgrade, but it is not compatible with 3.x and 4.x iOS versions.

Although Apple does include camera access from the iPhone lock screen in iOS 5, the app still technically needs to be launched before you’ll be able to snap a photo. As such, it still takes a measurable amount of time to launch the camera.

Snappy5 rids this issue by implementing a mobile substrate extension tie-in, which gives near-instant access to the camera no matter where you are. Another great feature is snap on launch, which takes a photo the moment Snappy5 is called up. If you’re in an app, at your home screen, or have your iPhone locked – you won’t have to worry about missing that special moment with Snappy5.

If you run into any trouble you can always jump into our Jailbreak and Unlock forums or post it in the comments!

• $.99 — Cydia Store Link

Mail More Photos is a new jailbreak mod in Cydia that aims to get rid of the five photo per email limitation on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Mail More Photos allows you to attach as many photos as you want to email. The default limit of 5 photos is removed from the Albums and Places views. The title bar is also updated to show the total size of all selected files.

The added value of showing how many photos you’ve selected, along with the total size of the photos you’ll be emailing is really great. Mail More Photos requires iOS 4 or higher, and is the perfect extension to an already useful feature.

• $.99 — Cydia Link

Although Apple is planning to include control over individual photos within Photo Stream in iOS 5.1, jailbreak developer Evan Coleman was able to whip up a useful tweak that keeps iOS screenshots from being added to your iCloud Photo Stream.

Keeps screenshots out of your Photo Stream. This tweak prevents screenshots from being uploaded to your iCloud Photo Stream.

This is personally great for me, as I frequently capture screens from my iPhone for Tips and How-To posts for TiPb but often find my Photo Stream clogged up with a bunch of screenshots I don’t need after I’m done. Even though the mod doesn’t allow full control over individual photos in Photo Stream, this is a good stopgap until iOS 5.1 is released to the public.

Check it out!

[Free - Cydia Link]

Source: Evan Coleman

On the current version of Facebook for iPhone and iPad, whenever I tap on a picture someone uploaded, it either brings up a totally different picture, or when I flip over to comments, they don’t match the comments that go with that specific picture. It’s incredibly annoying if you want to comment on a picture and can’t even get the correct one to pull up.

If you use Facebook for iPhone or iPad you’re probably aware that it doesn’t come without a bug or two. This one we’ve had several readers report and it’s something I’ve experienced myself since the newer revamped version of Facebook was released.

The only workaround I’ve found is to actually go in and open the album the picture is in and click on the picture in the grid of photos. That typically tends to load the correct image and bypass the issue.

Problem

• Facebook shows the wrong picture
• Facebook shows the wrong comments for a picture

Workaround

• Go to the photo album and select the picture that way.

Hopefully Facebook fixes this asap. Any of you experiencing this bug as well? Any other Facebook bugs?

Running iOS 5 and wondering how to automatically enhance your images directly with the built-in Photos app? This is a really simple, one-touch feature that will help give bland photos a lift, and flat pictures that extra oomph.

1. Open Photos app
2. Tap on the photo you wish to enhance
3. Tap edit in the top right corner (if the menu has disappeared, tap the photo once to bring it back)
4. Tap the enhance button. It looks like a magic, sparkly wand.
5. If you like what you see, tap Save.

It’s important to note, that some photos receive more drastic changes than others. If your photo has a lot of colors, they will likely become brighter, if your photo is a little dark, it will likely be lightened, and if your photo is nearly perfect, the changes may not be even noticeable.

Additionally, the enhancement may not always have a positive impact on your photos. The biggest thing to keep an eye out for is over-saturation. For example, there may times when reds become too red, which is not something you want on a portrait.

If you decided after you’ve saved your photo that you liked it better before it was enhanced, repeat the steps above to turn off the enhancement. Your previous save did not cause any permanent destruction to the file.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below!

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

JOBY GorillaMobile

• iDUSCRAFT

Complements of JOBY! To see the other entries and to share some of your great photos, head on over to our forums.

Jawbone JAMBOX

• Munchkinsdad

Skyfire Web Browser

• giriz
• Himoe04
• Matthew G.
• Kharib126
• Ncasazza2002

Steve Jobs biography

• The God of Thunder
• Mitch
• crateish
• Link2012
• kathy

More chances to win

• Want a FREE Jawbone ERA headset from TiPb?
• LifeProof case for the iPhone 4S review [giveaway]
• App Giveaway: iDownloader Pro
• App Giveaway: ReaddleDocs for iPad
• App Giveaway: TouchBase Calendar for iPhone
• App Giveaway: The Early Edition 2 for iPad
• App Giveaway: DM1 – The Drum Machine
• New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Monday, October 17 [giveaway]
• App Giveaway: iQuick Tweet

Trying to figure out how to take a high quality self-portrait with the iPhone, and the low-quality front-facing VGA camera just isn’t cutting it? One of the new features of iOS 5 is the ability to trigger the iPhone’s rear facing camera with the Volume Up button, and that means it’s easier than ever to get the perfect self-portrait. Here’s how:

1. Launch Camera app
2. If the front facing camera is activated, tap the rotating camera icon in the top right corner
3. For best results, put the iPhone in your right hand and turn it around
4. Hold the phone out from your body while positioning your thumb over the Volume Up button. The iPhone’s camera has a wide enough angle that it is not necessary to stretch out your arm completely. You may want to bend your arm a little so that the inside part of your elbow on your outstretched arm and does not appear in the photo.
5. Look directly into the lens and smile (or not)
6. Press the volume up button

If there’s a mirror near by, you can even see what the camera is seeing on the screen and adjust accordingly.

Bonus Tip: If you’re wearing headphones with volume control, you can hit the volume up button on them instead.

There you go! Now you’re all set to take the perfect self-portrait! You can say goodbye to the grainy, front-facing VGA camera and only use the rear facing camera.

Now go snap some pics and update your Facebook and Twitter profile pics!

One of the new features of the iPhone 4S is an 8 megapixel camera equipped with a fast f/2.4 lens. Without question, this was the feature I was most excited about, and I almost immediately started snapping pics.

For sample photos and a summary of my thoughts, follow along after the break! (All photos are original; none have been edited in any way beyond being resized to fit the page.)

Landscapes

The iPhone 4S does a phenomenal job with landscapes. These have the potential of being tricky for cameras because of the broad range of lights and darks, but even with HDR turned off, the iPhone 4S produces great results. The two photos above were taken without use of HDR.

HDR

That leads us to HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and refers to the range between the darkest part of the photo and the brightest part of the photo. Camera sensors can only record so much of this range, so if a photo’s dynamic range is too big, darks will be too dark and brights will be too bright. With HDR enabled, however, the iPhone 4S will take two photos, one exposed for the darks, and one exposed for the brights, and merge them together as one photo.

The photos above, although not the most interesting of subjects, does a great job of demonstrating the capabilities of the iPhone 4S HDR. The first photo was exposing for the shade, and thus blew out the sky. With HDR turned on, both the shade and sky look good.

Movement

Since the iPhone 4S is equipped with an f/2.4 lens, it has the ability to let in more light and speed up the shutter speed. Theoretically, this would mean that the iPhone 4S should do a better job of freezing motion. Without having full control of the settings, however, this can be hard to achieve.

In the end, I’m impressed with how the iPhone 4S handles motion. The above pic does have a little motion blur, especially on my face, but it’s not too bad. Below is a picture of my daughter that I took while she was bouncing up and down. On the iPhone 4, it would have never come out that clear.

Face Detection

The iPhone 4S now has the ability detect faces and use them as the focus and exposure point. It works great! I was impressed with how it recognized my daughter’s face even when she was moving around or when I was taking a profile shot with only one eye visible.

Macro

The Macro capabilities of the iPhone 4S camera are very impressive – when it can lock a focus, that is. Unfortunately, I was continually disappointed with the iPhone 4S’s inability to focus. I understand for objects that are very tiny and blend in with the background, but the camera even struggled with focusing on larger items that stood out from the background, like in the following image.

Digital Zoom

First of all, it’s important to emphasize that the iPhone 4S is equipped with a 5x digital zoom, not optical zoom. The difference is that the lens is not capable of zooming, but the software is. So using the digital zoom on the iPhone 4S is equivalent to taking the photo without the zoom and cropping it. This greatly reduces the quality of the photo and there are very few situations where you would want to use the digital zoom.

However, since the iPhone 4S has been upgraded to an 8 megapixel camera, there is an improvement to the digital zoom over the iPhone 4. The first photo above was taken with 0x zoom and the second one was taken with 5x zoom. You can see obvious damage done to the quality of the image, but it is, admittedly, better than I was expecting. I also believe that this is an example of a situation where you might want to use the digital zoom if you wanted to, say, show your kids a picture of the duck you saw earlier in the day.

Low Light

The iPhone 4 has a great camera, but it was always lacking in low light situations. I was very excited to test out the iPhone 4S in low light since it’s equipped with an f/2.4 lens and better sensor. I am definitely impressed with the improvement. My living room has the worst lighting on the planet and I could never get a decent photo of my daughter with the iPhone 4 while indoors at night. But with the iPhone 4S, I was able to capture the above shot! It doesn’t take much movement to make your shots blurry, however, but that should be expected.

Here’s an example of a macro shot in low, bad light.

Flash

The last thing I tested was the flash and it worked well! Just as with the iPhone 4, it is very slow and your photos are guaranteed to show any small amount of motion blur. I tend to hate camera flashes, but if you’re trying to capture a memory in a dark environment, it’s often times your only choice. For those times, the flash on the iPhone 4S will get the job done.

Conclusion

The iPhone 4S is equipped with a very nice camera that takes beautiful photos. The macro lens has the potential to be incredible, but struggles with focus more than I was expecting. At 8 megapixels, the iPhone 4S has the ability to produce nice 8″x10″ prints that can be displayed in your home.

The camera was the feature of the iPhone 4S I was looking forward to the most, and it has delivered – it turned out to be my favorite feature of the iPhone 4S. Yes, I like it even more than Siri.

Have you been taking some amazing shots with your iPhone 4S? Head on over to our forums to show them off!

Curious about how to remove the photos that iCloud stores in your Photo Stream? Maybe you have a few controversial pictures you need to clear out of the stream before letting a friend use your iPhone or iPad?

With iOS 5 and iCloud, Apple introduced Photo Stream to keep your photos synced between devices. By default, photos are automatically deleted after 30 days or after you cross the 1,000 photo threshold, but what if you need to manually remove them? We’ll show you how after the jump!

Getting Started

To get started, you’ll need to navigate to iCloud.com from the desktop in order to access advanced iCloud preferences. Once you’re there, just follow these quick steps to reset Photo Stream and clear out your pictures.

1. Once you’re at iCloud.com on the desktop, click on your name in the upper-right hand corner.
2. From the Account Settings pane, click on ‘Advanced’.
3. Now, click ‘Reset Photo Stream’ to begin the process.
4. Finally, you’ll be asked to confirm before iCloud erases all contents in your Photo Stream.

And that’s it!

I’d run a quick check on your iPad or Mac to make sure all the photos have been fully removed from the Photo Stream before handing over your iDevice to a friend, but this process should do the trick if you’re looking to clear out or reset your Photo Stream contents.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

You’re out of town and your special someone is back home so you decide to secretly snap some racy pictures of yourself and sext them on over. Meanwhile they’re just finishing showing off the new iPad or Apple TV to mom and dad, the screen saver or slide show kicks in, and your private pics just start Photo Streaming by…

And they can’t be deleted. Not until they’re automatically removed from your iOS devices after 30 days or 1000 photos, so you’re logging out of everything for a month or taking 1000 pictures of the floor or something to flush the stream… because otherwise you’re stuck.

While iOS 5, iCloud, and Photo Stream are awesome if you want to take a picture of your family at a party or your little ones during the game or some flowers or clothes you like or want to remember, that same “automagically everywhere” Camera Roll sync can easily — easily — turn around and bite you in the apps.

So if you’re going to take photos — or save them from Safari, Messages, Mail, etc — that are NSFW, you should probably consider them not safe for Photo Stream either.

Jump into Settings > iCloud and turn off Photo Stream while you have your fun, then delete them from your Camera Roll, then — when you’re ready to go back to family pics and landscapes — turn Camera Roll back on.

And if you work in Hollywood, this goes quadrupal for you!

UPDATE: As mentioned in the comments below, you can purge your Photo Stream via iCloud.com, but that’s still not the same as being able to delete an individual picture.

Apple has released their new Cards app which allows you to create physical cards personalized with your photos and text and mail them right from your phone.

I just tried it out, and within minutes, I created a card with my daughter’s photo, added my own text, and ordered it to be shipped to my mom. I would like to see more card templates in the future, including some that are “just because”. However, you can change the text to any of the templates and make it your own.

When I first learned about cards, I was indifferent about it because I didn’t expect to use it much because I’m not the type of person who sends other people cards. However, now that sending a cards is so easy, and so personal, and so affordable. I think I’m going to start sending out more cards.

The new Cards app from Apple lets you create and mail beautifully crafted cards personalized with your own text and photos — right from your iPhone or iPod touch. Take a quick snapshot and with a few taps and swipes, an elegant thank you note or “wish-you-were-here” card is on its way to any address in the world.

Custom letterpress cards

• Cards combine a centuries-old letterpress technique with your digital text and photos
• Each card is crafted from 100 percent cotton paper and imprinted with an elegant debossed design
• Choose from 21 designs for six occasions: Thank You, Holiday, New Baby, Birthday, Love, and Travel
• Customize the placeholder text for any occasion, such as an anniversary or graduation
• Add a photo to your card or send one with just text

Location integration

• If you select one of the Travel designs, your card automatically displays the name of your current location
• Choose a photo with GPS data, and the card shows the name of the place where the photo was taken

Prepaid postage included

• U.S. customers can send a card within the U.S. for $2.99 including postage
• Send a card anywhere else in the world for $4.99 including postage
• Select an address from your Contacts and easily personalize it — from Mr. Johnny Appleseed to The Appleseed Family, for example
• To place your order, simply enter your Apple ID password
• In the U.S., your card will include our own Apple-designed postage


Delivery notification

• Cards mailed to U.S. addresses make use of the United States Postal Service Intelligent Mail® barcode
• On the day your card is to be delivered, you’ll receive a notification on your iPhone or iPod touch

Card history

• All your cards are automatically saved and can be viewed in a history list
• You can resend any card to another recipient — perfect for when you have a lot of friends to thank or you want to spread the word about the newest member of your family

Cards is available on the iPhone for free. Individual cards cost $2.99 in the US and $4.99 everywhere else, including postage.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Facebook Photo Importer is an app that lets you import your photos from Picasa (Google+), Instagram, Flickr, and Photobucket to Facebook. It’s fast, easy, and doesn’t use up your data because you’re not uploading the photos from your device.

Facebook Photo Importer lets you import 100 photos in less than a minute, straight to your Facebook profile from Picasa (Google+), Instagram, Flickr and Photobucket.

• Access your Picasa, Flickr, Instagram and Photobucket photo albums.
• Copy 100 photos in less than a minute.
• Imports your photo’s Metadata – Titles, Descriptions.
• Built on Cloud to Cloud technology: Easily import dozens of photos in seconds.
• Does not affect bandwidth or data usage “Cloud based transfers”.
• Select multiple or all photos in your albums – transfer with a single tap.
• Save a lot of time and hassle.

Facebook Photo Importer is available on the iPhone for $1.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Wondering how to use iOS 5‘s new built-in editing ability to crop your images right in the Photos app? It’s easy to do, and includes handy features like aspect ration constraints and even a grid to help you with the “rule of thirds.” Here’s how.

1. Open Photos app
2. Tap on the photo you wish to crop.
3. Tap Edit in the top right corner (if the header has disappeared, tap the photo once to bring it back)
4. Tap the crop symbol in the bottom right corner
5. To choose a specific aspect ratio, tap Constrain and select from the list of nine options
6. Now move, scale, and rotate the photo to how you wish the final crop to look. Some may find this counterintuitive as they want to manipulate the box in order to adjust the crop, but this is not how it works. You must manipulate the photo to fit in the box. To do so, use the standard pitch to zoom gestures as well as rotating.
7. If you don’t care about aspect ratio, then you can skip step 6 and stretch the corners of the box to select your crop.
8. When you are done, tap Crop.
9. This brings you back to your editing screen. Once you’re done with all other edits, tap Save.

Notice that in this example, I chose to place the sun at the intersection of two grid lines, utilizing the rule of thirds in both directions. I also chose to crop to the left because cropping to the right would have centered the tree; since it’s also a strong element of the photo, I did not want it centered. Had I been a smarter photographer, I would’ve composed the photo better from the beginning, because this tight crop has significantly lowered the quality of the photo.

One thing to keep in mind when cropping a photo is the “rule of thirds”. The crop screen will show a grid with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. Each lines is exactly one or two thirds down or across the photos. It is argued that in most cases, a photograph is more aesthetically pleasing when important compositional elements (like the subject itself, or horizons) fall on one of these lines. This is the so-called “rule of thirds”.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the tighter you make your crop, the more damage you are doing to the quality of the photo. This is where the iPhone 4S has a greater advantage to previous iPhone models because it is equipped with an 8MP camera.

Bonus tip: If after saving your crop, you realize it was a bad decision, you can re-enter the crop menu and redo or clear your crop. This could be great for, say, profile pictures: crop a group photo to just include just you, upload it to Facebook or Twitter, then go back and clear the crop without any permanent destruction done to the photo.

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Last night on iPhone Live we were talking about how many photos we had in our iPhone Camera Roll and I admitted to being a bit of snapshot addict. I have over 1800 pics in my Camera Roll, everything from friends and family to clouds and sunsets to clothes and fashions to nails and hair I like and want to remember.

I know some people prefer Instagram or Camera+ or another App Store app, and while the filters are really cool and interesting, and I think I’m going to give them a try soon, right now I just like the simplicity of capturing a quick pic into my Camera Roll. I take pictures anywhere and everywhere with my iPhone… and I sometimes remember to sync them over to my Mac. I’ve actually run out of space on my 16GB iPhone 4 several times!

I hope iCloud and Photo Stream will help with that, but I’m not sure 5GB will be enough!

How many photos do you have in your iPhone Camera Roll? Do you use the built-in Camera app or something else? Do you sync them? Help me figure out a better way to do photos on the iPhone TiPb Nation, you’re my only hope!

Google Plus Photo Importer is a new iPhone app that allows you to import photos from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Photobucket directly into your Google+ profile.

I tried this out real quick with my Instagram photos and it worked like a charm! Importing 60 photos took approximately 30 seconds.

Google Plus Photo Importer lets you Import 100 photos in less than a minute, straight to your Google+ profile from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Photobucket.

• Access your Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and Photobucket photo albums.
• Copy 100 photos in less than a minute.
• Built on Cloud to Cloud technology: Easily import dozens of photos in seconds.
• Does not affect bandwidth or data usage “Cloud based transfers”.
• Select multiple or all photos in your albums – transfer with a single tap.
• Imports your photo’s Metadata – Titles, Descriptions.
• Save a lot of time and hassle.

Google Plus Photo Importer is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything — so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb’s new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, Starr asks:

I need an app that will work with the Envy Hp printer I use with my iPad 2 that I can make a photo a certain size and it will stay that size when printed…like having 3 4×6 photos on sheet. Every photo program I’ve try makes the picture the full size of the paper, which I don’t want! Can you help finding an app to keep the size when printing?

To see what we found for Starr, follow along after the break!

PhotoPrint LT – Made for Printing [Free - App Store link] is an iPhone app that lets you print multiple photos from your iPhone onto a specific paper size.

For Starr, she would choose to have four 4″x6″ photos printed onto a sheet sized US Letter. But since she only wants to print three photos, she’d make sure the background is set to white and leave one of the photo slots empty.

The paper sizes include:

• 3.5″ x 5″
• 4″ x 6″
• 5″ x 7″
• US Letter
• US Half-Letter
• DIN A5
• DIN A4
• EU passport photograph (3.5 x 4.5 cm)
• US passport photograph (2″ x 2″)
• Bank card (5.4 x 8.4 cm)
• Wallet (2.5″ x 3.25″ in)

The free version of PhotoPrint LT only allows you to print a single photo onto a sheet of paper, but all features are available as an in-app purchase for $1.99.

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Starr? Let her — and all of us — know.

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Head on over to our App and Game Feature Forum and let us know what you’re looking for. The TiPb community will do our best to find you just the right App for That!

With iOS 5, Apple has moved the powerful CoreImage framework from OS X over to their mobile operating system, allowing the Photos app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to do some basic image editing work. Now, by tapping on the edit button at the top right, you get access to several iPhoto-like tools:

• Rotate, to turn your image in 90 degree increments
• Auto-enhance, which waves a magic wand and tries to balance your image
• Red-eye removal, so you can just say goodbye to flash-induced evil possession
• Crop, which lets you cut away the parts of an image you don’t want, and includes all the standard presets

As is the case with most built-in functions, it provides the basic set of tools but is by no means a feature complete photo editing app. Still, it’s free, its bundled, and very many it will be good enough.

Screenshots after the break. Think any dedicated photo editing apps are in trouble?

Passcoded your iPad but still worried someone could access your personal pictures via the Photo Slideshow button on the lock screen? Luckily, if you don’t want to use the slideshow button, there is a very simple way to remove it. We’ll show you how… after the break!

Steps

Before you begin, you need to make sure you have a passcode set on your iPad, otherwise you can’t change the selection that turns it off.

1. Launch Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Passcode Lock.
4. Turn the Passcode On.
5. Once you have a passcode set, the “Photo Frame” option should become active.
6. Change the option to ‘Off’.
7. The button will not appear on your lockscreen anymore.

That’s it! Your private photos are now safer and more secure. Have any other photo tips for us?

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

It’s often said iPhone is the best camera because it’s the one you have with you, so that makes me curious — TiPb nation, how exactly do you take pictures with your iPhone?

• Do you use the built in Camera app or do you use something like Camera+ or Instagram that offer more or different features?

• Do you spend a lot of time composing that perfect picture or do you snap away hoping to capture that special moment?

• Do you prefer the look of a “normal” photo or do you like the cool filters that give it that something extra?

• Do you crop or enhance your photos before sharing or using them, or do you just shoot and send?

• Do you use apps that add cartoon bubbles or funny props?

And if you don’t use the built in Camara app, will the iOS 5 Camera app, with its volume key shutter, crop tools, auto enhance, and other features make you consider switching back to it?

Let me know what apps, effects, additions, you use to take pictures with your iPhone!

It looks like Facebook is working on a massive photo sharing application for the iPhone. TechCrunch got their hands on documents, photos, and screenshots outlining the features: location elements, likes, comments, multi-picture mode, filters, multi-user albums, face-tagging, and more. They say it’s almost like a mashup of Instagram, Color, Path, and Path’s upcoming With. And though it might seem to be a reaction to iOS 5‘s new Twitter integration, they say it’s been in development for a while now.

Since Facebook has nearly 1 billion photos stored to their service, it is reasonable for them to create an app with a focus on photos. It’s unclear whether this new app will be separate from the current Facebook app, a complete overhaul of the current app, or some combination of the two. What we do know is that Facebook is working on a photo sharing app – and it’s huge.

Check out all the pictures via the link below. All I ask is that this new app be a lot less buggy than what Facebook currently has available. What about you? Excited?

[TechCrunch]

Apple has announced the iCloud app Photo Stream – it brings the cloud to photos. When a photo is taken with one of your devices, it will be sent to the cloud and then to all other devices, including the Apple TV – automatically.

Photo Stream may be an individual iCloud app, but it is tied into the already existing Photos app on iOS devices. There will now be a new album called “Photo Stream”. On a Mac, you will find it in iPhoto, and on a PC, it will be the Pictures folder.

Apple will store the most recent 1000 images in the cloud for 30 days. Move them into a different album on your Mac or PC to save them permanently.

We’re excited about Photo Stream. How about you?

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything — so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb’s new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, Bradley asks:

I have a bunch of photos stored on my Mac and I’d like to be able to use my iPad as a wifi photo frame (when I’m not using it of course). I have air video set up which I really love and I suppose this is a photo version of that. The camera sync could be part of the solution but I don’t want to use up storage on my iPad when I just want to display the photo and then move on to the next one.

To see our solution for Bradley, follow along after the break!

DropPics for Dropbox [$1.99 - iTunes link] gives easy access to your photos stored on Dropbox and allows you to view them as a slideshow. This happens over the air, so none of your iPad’s precious hard drive space will be used.

A Dropbox account is required to use DropPics and a free account gives you 2GB of storage. This will hold quite a bit of photos, especially if you resize your photos before copying them over. (The iPad displays photos at 1024×768). This will also help with loading time.

Once you sign up, just copy the desired photos into the Dropbox folder on your computer, browse to the folder in DropPics on your iPad, and start the slideshow!

DropPics also allows you to upload photos into your Dropbox account. Although you may not be taking many photos with your iPad, DropPics is a universal application for iPhone and iPad, so you can add the photos you take with your iPhone and view them on your iPad. Unfortunately, DropPics only allows you to upload one photo at a time.

All in all, this a great solution. Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Bradley? Let him — and all of us — know in the comments.

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Send us an email to news@tipb.com and let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll do our best to find you just the right App for That!

Wondering how to take better pictures with your iPhone camera? Ever found yourself taking a picture with your iPhone only to discover the photo came out less than perfect? Sometimes you only have one opportunity to capture a moment, so you want to ensure everything is right and your photo doesn’t come out looking like it was taken with a cheap and flimsy digital camera. The iPhone camera has come a long way since the original iPhone in 2007, currently sporting a 5 megapixel sensor with flash in the iPhone 4, but there are still a few things you can do to make sure you’re getting the best shot possible.

In this tip we’ll go over a few pointers to help you in taking better pictures with your iPhone — find out how after the break!

Ready, steady, go!

I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to quickly whip out my iPhone in order to snap a photo on the go, but sometimes I wasn’t keeping my hand steady enough (hello Mr. Blurrycam). One thing you can do is use a tripod, but not everyone keeps one handy when out and about. Camera+ ($1.99 — iTunes link) helps by including an image stabilizer, monitoring how steady your hand is and taking the photo when you’re making the least amount of movement. However, if you’re using the default Camera app then you’re on your own. As such, keeping your iPhone as steady as you can is a good way to make sure you’re getting the sharpest image possible, especially in low light conditions. Speaking of lighting…

Light is your new best friend

Lighting is a big factor in taking great pictures, and it’s important to understand the basics when using your iPhone camera under certain lighting conditions. Taking photos where there isn’t enough light can heavily impact the overall picture quality, so make sure there’s as much light as possible. Although the camera baked into the iPhone 4 is (in my humble opinion) the best in its class, you’ll still notice some noise in low light conditions.

If you’re in a dark environment, make sure you’re taking advantage of the iPhone 4′s built-in camera flash. For older iPhone models without flash, getting a usable photo in low light may take a little extra work but you’ll be glad you made the effort… Take a look at Darkroom (free — iTunes link) to help you out with this problem. Just like Camera+, it features a ‘Steady Mode’ to help avoid blurry photos in low light conditions.

In addition, you’ll want to make sure your subject is properly lit. For example, the light source should be directed at your subject (not at you) to help draw focus on whatever you’re shooting.

Get up close and personal

The iPhone camera features tap-to-focus in addition to decent macro ability with the iPhone 4, so don’t be afraid to get up close and personal with your subject. This is especially true when shooting portraits or close-ups, where letting your subject consume the majority of the photo really goes a long way.

To zoom, or not to zoom

Most point-and-shoot cameras feature an optical zoom of around 3x-5x, which is great for shooting at a distance. However this unfortunately isn’t so with the iPhone (and all smartphone cameras, for that matter). When Apple released iOS 4 they threw in a digital zoom feature for the Camera app, but I’ve never found myself actually using it due how the pictures usually turn out. When you use the digital zoom feature you’ll be losing a significant amount of quality, so unless it’s absolutely necessary, try to stay away from using digital zoom as much as you can.

Edit, edit, and edit some more!

The iPhone has a number of awesome photo apps in the App Store, some of which we mentioned above, but which ones should you use for editing and refining your photos after you’ve taken them? Using the iPhone touchscreen to manipulate photos can be a rather delightful experience, so here are a few photo editing apps we recommend checking out:

• ColorSplash – ($0.99 — iTunes link) ColorSplash lets you take any regular photo and turn it into a colorful work of art. You start off by selecting your desired photo or taking a picture from within the app, to which ColorSplash strips away the color and turns it into a black and white. You then touch whatever area of the picture you want to fill in with color, creating unique images that really stand out from the crowd.
• PefectPhoto – ($0.99 — iTunes link) This app really shines when it comes to the number of options and effects you can work with. My personal favorite is the Spot Healing feature which lets you fix any blemishes or artifacts in your photo. Have a great shot of you and your best friend but want to get rid of that horrible zit that’s taking all the attention? PerfectPhoto is the editing app for you! You can also crop, align, edit exposure and gamma along with a number of other great editing options. There’s even a few noteworthy effects like Bloom and Vintage, taking your photos to a new and fully personalized level.
• Adobe Photoshop Express – (free — iTunes link) Photoshop Express for iPhone is a gem of a photo editing app, and to top it off it’s completely free! A good example of its editing power is reducing noise and smoothing out your pictures so they’re easier on the eyes. This is another great solution for taking pictures in low light conditions, letting you smooth out those darker photos in your collection and making them much more attractive.

Know of any other iPhone picture-taking pointers or suggestions we might have missed? Also let us know what your favorite photo editing apps are, or apps that can help get around some of the issues we mentioned above in the comments!

Bonus Tip: Clean your lens! Having a dirty camera lens can dramatically lower the quality of your pictures, so take a microfiber cloth and some screen cleaner to your iPhone to help your photos look less washed out. We recommend the iKlenz Cleaner Solution Kit to get the job done. You’ll immediately notice a difference, so give it a try!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Do you wish there was a faster method to getting photos from your camera to your iPad than via iTunes? There is! The Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit is a nifty little accessory that allows you to plug an SD card into your iPad or directly connect your camera to your iPad via USB. This is excellent for quickly transferring photos from your camera without needing to use your computer as an intermediate step.

To find out how to transfer photos from the Camera Connection Kit to your iPad, follow along after the break!

1. Purchase the Camera Connection Kit from Apple
2. Choose the appropriate connector
3. Plug in SD Card or camera via USB cable
4. Connect Camera Connection Kit to your iPad
5. Photos app will automatically launch and load the pictures from your camera (USB) or SD card
6. Tap “import all” or individually select which photos you want and tap “import selected”
7. Once the import completes, you will be prompted to either keep or delete the imported photos on your SD card or camera. Make your selection.
8. Unplug Camera Connection Kit.

There you have it! Now you can quickly transfer photos from your camera or SD card to your iPad.

If you have any other tips regarding the Camera Connection Kit or have any questions, let us know in the comments below!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Both the iPhone and iPad do phenomenal a job of displaying the photos you take with them, but how do you get your existing photos, the ones on your computer, onto your iPhone and iPad? iTunes is the answer, and we’ll show you how, after the break!

Syncing with iPhoto on Mac

Using iPhoto is my favorite choice for transferring photos from Mac to iPad because it offers the most options. You have the ability to sync all albums, events (dates), and faces (people based on facial recognition), or individually choose which combination of albums, events, and faces that you want to sync.

1. Organize your photos in iPhoto
2. Plug in your iPad or iPhone into your Mac via the USB to dock cable.
3. Open iTunes (if it doesn’t open automatically)
4. Click on the Photos tab
5. Check the box to “Sync Photos From”
6. Choose iPhoto from the drop down menu
7. Select which options you prefer
8. Click sync

Syncing with folders on Mac or Windows

If using you’re using Windows, or if you’re using a Mac but you prefer not to use iPhoto, you can sync iTunes with a folder on your computer. If you want multiple albums on your iPad, I recommend placing the individual folders into a larger folder. In this folder, you can have more subfolders than you desire to sync with your iPhone and iPad because you can individually select which subfolders you want in iTunes.

1. Organize your photos in iPhoto or folders
2. Plug in your iPad and open iTunes
3. Click the Photos tab
4. Check the box to “Sync Photos From”
5. Select “Choose folder…” from the drop down menu
6. Browse to the desired folder
7. Select which options you prefer
8. Click sync

Depending on how many photos you’re syncing, both methods have the potential to take some time.

There you have it! Now you can carry around those thousands of photos you have stored on your computer and show them off on your iPhone or iPad’s beautiful display.

If you have any other tips for transferring photos to your iPhone or iPad or have any questions, let us know in the comments below!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

The iPad 2 is equipped with two cameras, a front-facing VGA camera and a rear facing 720p HD camera. Check out the video above for example footage with both cameras.

Recording video on the iPad 2 is a little awkward given it’s large size, but it gets the job done. Another thing that takes some getting used to is that when using the front-facing camera to record yourself in landscape mode, the camera is positioned to the far left (or right). It feels strange looking so far from the center of the screen because I have grown accustomed to looking at the top of a device or just the screen while recording video. It’s clear that you are not looking at the camera if you stare at the screen while recording.

The quality of video taken with the VGA and HD cameras are as expected. In well-lit situations, the HD camera produces excellent results and the VGA camera gives acceptable quality. Both cameras do an ok job in bad lighting situations, but admittedly do better than I was expecting. In fact, while taking footage in my daughter’s poorly lit bedroom, the video looked pretty bad; but after uploading it to YouTube and watching on a computer, it didn’t look too shabby.

Taking still photographs with the iPad 2 is not nearly as rewarding as video. The photographs come out mediocre even in excellent light conditions. With that said, I was actually rather impressed with the close-up photograph I took of a bush. Digital zoom with the rear-facing camera, however, is awful. It’s not even worth your time to test it out.

Considering the fact that the iPad 2 is not, and should not be, regarded as a primary camera, I am content with the quality of the video and photographs obtained with the iPad 2. Of course, I would love to see better cameras, but they do a good enough job for my needs.

To check out the photos taken with the iPad 2, follow along after the break!

Side note: the video above was edited with iMovie on the iPad 2.

Remember that annoying bug that causes a blue tint in the center of photos? It looks like it may have been fixed in the new version of iOS that is running on the Verizon iPhone 4.

For many people running iOS 4.2.1, there is a blue tint in the center of images – most notably of subjects that are white. There have been mixed reports of the lighting situations that cause it. For some, it’s only in the presence of fluorescent lighting. For others, it’s only when using the flash, and for the incredibly unlucky, it’s for all lighting scenarios.

I tried every lighting situation I could imagine with the Verizon iPhone 4 and never had an image tainted with a blue spot. Hopefully this is a sign that the bug will be fixed in iOS 4.3.

Any of our Verizon iPhone wielding readers getting the horrid blue spot in their photos? Let us know in the comments below!

Have you ever been browsing the web with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and wondered how to save a photo or image to your device? There are many reasons you may desire to do so — perhaps the photo will make a great backdrop, is a photo of you or a friend, or just something you find interesting enough to keep and share with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

To find out how, follow on after the break!

Saving an image from Safari into your camera roll is a simple task.

1. Find the photo you wish to save
2. Tap and hold down on the photo
3. A menu will slide up – tap “Save Image”
4. The photo will be saved to your Camera Roll

To find the picture later, just launch the Photo app.

Bonus Tip: If the above method doesn’t work (some websites don’t allow images to be saved), then pinch to zoom into the image at the desired crop and take a screenshot.

There you have it! Now when you see a photo that you would like to save, you can!

If you have any questions or other cool Safari tips to share, leave them in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Let us

360 Panorama for iPhone just issued a large update to their popular panorama app that uses the built-in gyroscope feature. This essentially allows you to capture more accurate panoramic photos much easier. It can take a bit longer than a standard stitching app but the overall quality seems to be better. As iPhone photography becomes even more prominent and mainstream, good photography apps tend to do well. 360 Panorama is definitely an app to check out if you enjoy editing and taking photos on your iPhone.

iTunes Link

When you first load the app you’ll be presented with a 360 view grid with an image in it. You’ll simply select capture and the app will capture what you’re viewing as a panorama in real time. The app has built-in light sensing too as well. This will automatically help the app adjust for low light settings. In good light settings, you should have no problem panning continuously to get a pretty good shot. In low light, I tended to go a bit slower to prevent seeing seams in the image.

Occipital has also mentioned that holding your phone at an angle also allows you to maximize capture area. This is a great feature if you have good light quality. In a low light setting, this feature wasn’t too great and I’d still recommend holding it in portrait.

After you’ve finished creating your panoramic shot, you can view it live in the app as a 360 view image. Simply rotate your phone and the gyroscope feature will automatically pan the live shot for you (refer to video for example). You also have the option to save the image to your camera roll as a regular image, e-mail it, or upload. Some uploads allow the full 360 view as well. Nice little add on for those who want an interactive photo.

Overall, I’d say this is one of the better pano apps I’ve used on my iPhone. The only issue that really bugged me was that when you attempted to move the phone up and down a bit in order to maximize a capture area, the image didn’t line up very well and you’d be left with overlapping elements. But for a simple 360 shot, this app will be a great addition to anyone’s photography app portfolio.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• You have options when it comes to sharing your photos in-app
• Rendering time is faster than other similar panoramic applications
• Overall quality is much better (in most situations) than stitching applications

Cons

• When creating a pano, if you move your phone up and down, sometimes the seams don’t match up properly
• In low light settings, seams can be noticeable if you pan around too quickly

iTunes 10 is here, we’ve been using it for a while, and now we’ve got a complete walkthrough for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users. If you’re new to iTunes 10, especially if you’re new to iOS devices, we’ll help you get up and running quickly. If you’re already an expert, well here’s a guide you can send your new user friends and family. Let’s get started, after the break.

If you haven’t downloaded iTunes 10, you can do so from Apple.com. Once it’s installed, plug in your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to get started.

Summary/Info

The Summary section is helpful for checking on updates for your iOS device and restoring it if you run into problems. You can also configure some preferences such as syncing automatically when you plug-in your device. If you use a service like Apple’s MobileMe, you won’t have to do much on the Info section, but if you don’t sync over the air, you can choose/manage what to sync over here such as Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks.

New Color Bars

When you plug in your iOS device you will notice a colored bar at the very bottom labeled “Capacity”. This bar is not a new feature to iTunes 10, but it is a tweaked one. It is divided into colors showing you what you have stored on your device by Audio, Video, Photos, Apps, Books, Other and Free space. If you click in the colored space it will cycle you through few options. Click it once and it will list you how many items you have in each respective category. Next it will break down the data into volume such as days and hours. Last, the display will show you the storage taken up by each category. Depending where you begin clicking this sequence may be in a different order, but it is still quite useful.

Managing Apps

iTunes 10 brings a couple of welcome changes to how iOS devices manage apps- especially if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch and an iPad. On the Apps section of iTunes on your device you have a filter that is probably default sorted by Kind. This places the iPhone and iPod Touch apps at the top and iPad apps at the bottom. You have more filters such as Name and Category, but the really useful choice is “iPad Only”. This selection only displays iPad apps for your iPad. Regretfully, iTunes does not save this filtered selection and the next time you plug in your iOS device, it gets reset to Kind.

You also have a check box at the bottom of the screen that allows you to automatically install new apps. This option works great for me, but not my wife. With this checkbox checked, she gets every app I have downloaded installed on her device. An easy way around this is to go to the preview screen to the right in iTunes and select the last screen. This is typically where new apps will go (unless you have a lot of gapping spaces on your home screen). You can delete the app by hovering over it and clicking the X in the top left corner of the app. You can also remove any other app while you are at it. Be careful though, most apps don’t store their info in the cloud yet, so if you delete it, the data might go with it too.

If you have an .ipa file (Apple’s app format) you can drag and drop those files to the Apps section in iTunes located in the upper left.

File Sharing

Do you have an app such as Apple iWork Pages that you would like to get some documents installed? Piece of cake. Scroll to the bottom of the Apps section in iTunes for your app device and you will see the Apps and Document area. Click on the app you want and you will see an available list of documents currently synced to that app. If you want to add more documents, click the Add… button, browse to the document(s) and click Choose. If you want to save a document from the selected application, select it and click Save to… to place it on a folder on your computer. Here is an easy tip; of you want to save multiple files from an app or all of them, click the first document then hold the Shift key and click the last document. This selects all of them. Now you can save all of the documents to your computer. You can also Ctrl (PC) and the Apple Key (Mac) to select just the apps you want when clicking on them.

Music

Getting music on your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad has never been easier. You can choose to sync your entire music library (it won’t fit on my device… my library is too big). Or pick your favorite Artists, Genres, Playlists an Albums.

Do you have a lot of music videos? I do, but I don’t want to sync all of my videos; that can take up precious space. To still get music videos on your  iOS device but not all of them, create a playlist in iTunes and drag the music videos you want onto it. Make sure the Include Music Videos checkbox is checked and you are ready to Rock and Roll, so to speak.

Movies/TV Shows/Podcasts/iTunes U

These sections all work relatively the same way. Select played or unplayed content to sync or a playlist. You can even choose more robust choices like the most recent episode that has been downloaded but not played. Yikes, but it is useful so you don’t get redundant content on your device.

Books

Photos

If you use iPhoto or Aperture you can sync those events and projects to your iOS device. On the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch with Retina Displays pictures looks very good. They are also fun to view on the iPad with its huge display. If you really like someone, you can even use the Faces feature and sync over just specific people; that is just too cool. If you own a PC you can sync directly from a folder.

Ping

Ah, the only really “new” feature in iTunes 10 for iOS devices (except for iPad running 3.2, gotta wait till 4.2 folks) is Ping, Apple’s new social network for music. You can access Ping directly from iTunes via the Ping button from the desktop and iPhone/iPod Touch.

I really enjoy Ping. You can follow other artists, like and post songs and albums. Strangely you can only do this with music, not Audiobooks or Podcasts. I am betting in the future you will be able to.

Conclusion

iOS 4.1 adds HDR photo capability to the iPhone — and now iPod touch — Camera app. HDR stands for high dynamic range and usually involves a photo with one or more identical photos that are over and under exposed and then combined together so that far more light and shadow information is available than a single exposure would allow. These high dynamic range images can then be tone mapped to provide a far greater amount of detail, far more like what the human eye can see. (That’s my lay person, non-photo geek understanding of it anyway — feel free to tear me apart in the comments, but only if you can explain it better).

So basically, you can see detail in the sky and in the shadow under the tree, rather than having one blown out or the other lost to black.

To enable HDR you simply tap the HDR button, much like the LED Flash button under iOS 4. Then, when you take the picture, iOS takes not only the regular shot but one overexposed and one underexposed. Shooting the picture seems to take roughly the same amount of time, but saving it takes noticeably longer.

So far, based on the results we’ve seen online, iOS HDR does a good job pulling color and detail back into what were previously blown out skies, but an only okay job revealing detail in shadowy areas.

For non photo geeks, however, all they’ll notice is better pictures with bluer skies and brighter people, which is probably why Apple added the feature in the first place.

Clearcam for iPhone is an app that compliments the already existing camera app. Instead of tapping camera, you take your pictures through Clearcam. I found myself using this app when I wanted clearer pictures or when I was in an area that pictures came out either blurry or dark. The concept is quite simple, it’ll take several shots of the same thing and either overlays the shots or chooses the best one (depending on what setting you choose).  The app claims to up quality of the camera from 5MP images to around 11MP images.

When first loading Clearcam, it looks somewhat similar to the iPhone camera app.  It adds a few options that are the basic foundation of what the app really does.  You’ll see the shutter button and then two options.  One labeled “quick” and one labeled “enhanced”.

The quick setting is just that.  It will take 3 shots in rapid succession.  It will save the best one to your camera roll.  It works like it says it does and typically always gets a good shot.

The enhanced mode will take 6 shots quickly and it will take the best parts of each one, essentially stitching them together to create a better all around image.  In my experience, it was somewhat touch and go.  I also would take the same picture with my stock camera app.  In some scenarios, it seemed like the stock camera app took better pictures than what Clearcam stitched together.  It was rare, but it did happen occasionally.  I’m not sure if maybe the app has trouble stitching certain pictures together or rendering them, but there’s definitely a bug there.

The app performs better in low light settings than the default camera in all instances (at least in my experience).  I’d probably attribute this to the fact that it’s picking either the best picture or rendering 6 pictures together to create the best possible image.  If the exposure was a little dark in some places, it will pull the better pieces from another picture.  Having this app in low light settings is enough to justify purchasing it in my opinion.

(*Side note about pictures, most of them are better quality than shown here, we have a limit on image uploads so I had to downsize some of them which will reduce the quality a bit)

[iTunes Link]

Pros

• Increases the quality by a landslide, especially in low light situations

• App is responsive and doesn’t take forever to save to the camera roll like other photo apps

• Increases quality in darker pictures

• Very simple to use

Cons

• Some photos come out blurrier than the default camera app (assuming this is some kind of bug)

• No settings other than Quick and Enhanced and tap to focus, would like to see some native contrast and saturation settings to make up for the lack of settings in the default camera app

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• With all of this antenna talk going around we are going to revisit the iPhone 4 Reception Issue thread. Has this issue been blown out of proportion or is it really a major concern?

• Need a place to show off some of those high quality photos you have taken with your iPhone 4? This is the place to do it: Show off your iPhone 4 pictures here.

• How many of you know someone or you yourself actually have returned their iPhone 4?

• We all know not to expect iOS 4 for iPad until sometime this fall but will it bring any special unique features to iPad?

• For those of you who are interested in jailbreaking your iPhone, what do you think the future of the jailbreak holds? Is it coming to an end or will it continue on stronger than ever?

See you in the forums!

How does a photographer use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s JustinHammondPhoto’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!

I’m a professional photographer from Massachusetts. I have the wonderful job of photographing some of the most beautiful women in the world in the coolest locations all over the country. Models, celebrities, NFL Cheerleaders, it goes on and on. My work has been in magazines, advertisements, Maxim, websites… the works! I love my job!

I honestly realized for the first time when reading this contest how much I actually use my iPhone on a day to day basis for what I do. It’s a lot! Especially now that I have my iPhone 4, it’s been even more. Here’s when:

• I own a studio, but I’m very often on location shooting, which means no wifi (on the beaches, bars, outdoors, etc). So having a 3G connection is great. I often pull up Safari in the middle of a photoshoot to come up with a pose idea, or sometimes girls want to show me a picture of a shot they really love so it’s easy to Google image search some ideas! It helps out a lot during a shoot!

• Also, because I do travel to photoshoot, I’m always using Maps! Maps is so crucial to getting around because I barely know areas well. It’s definitely got me out of so many jams or has even helped find shooting locations! I remember this one time I was doing outdoor shooting and I pulled up my map and noticed a large pond nearby so we walked toward where it was and got some really beautiful shots by the water at a place I would have had no idea about if it didnt show up on the gps.

• It works great in times of urgency! Even last night, the “model light” on my strobe died (lights the model so you can auto-focus on her when there’s low light/lights off). Well, I pulled out my iPhone, opened the new trusty video camera, turned on the new amazing light from the iPhone, and my assistant held it to the model! It was perfect! I was so happy about having the new iPhone 4 last night.

• Also with the new video feature, being HD, I have decided to do some “behind the scenes” videos that I will be posting in the near future of my photo shoots. This is really great for my website and facebook page as a lot of models/fans follow my work, and it’s real fun at photoshoots. I am beyond excited about that. I may even start video blogging and doing tips/pointer videos for photography.

• I also use it for networking with models and clients or even friends with my photography. I save all of my edited photos to my iPhone so when I am out and about, when someone asks what I do, I just open up Photos and show them my work right from my phone – they look amazing on the new retina display! It really allows me to have a portfolio with me at all times. Such a perk in the industry! It’s like carrying my book with me in my pocket!

Then obviously the basics! Calendar for booking shoots/remembering what I have to do that day, and Email for keeping up with everything going on in my life in and outside of photography.

iPhone tip: Always keep it charged/charge every night! I use my iPhone so much, so my battery tends to go fast. I do have multiple chargers to make sure I am never without it. The iPhone really is my personal assistant. If it could only bring me coffee and water and move around lights, I wouldn’t need to hire my real assistant anymore!

Favorite apps: Safari, Calendar, Mail, Photos, Maps. These are my most important and all Apple created! Thank you Apple!

You can see some of Justin’s work at Justin Hammond Photography. Are you a photographer? If so, what apps do you use to help you with your job?

Another iPhone 4 has been found roaming around; this time in the Czech Republic. We are already familiar with the external design of the iPhone 4, but this source provides us with photos taken with the rear camera and a video recorded in HD. The person using this iPhone also reports that after playing games, surfing the web, watching YouTube, and using Google maps for an hour, there was only a 10% hit to the battery.

Check out the photo links and sample video after the break and let us know what you think!

[MacRumors via Jablíčkář.cz]

• Photo 1
• Photo 2
• Photo 3
• Photo 4
• Photo 5

The iPhone has a built in camera and with its always-on internet connectivity, it’s a great way to share your pictures with friends, families, colleagues, and the world.

• Send via mail. The classic iPhone way to send photos is through email. Just choose a picture, multi-select up to five and tap Share, or copy and paste a dozen or so right into the body of your message and send away. (Pro tip: the share button compresses your photos into smaller files for easier transport, pasting them in keeps them in full size for higher quality). This is also great if you’re sharing with someone who has a computer, since Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix — almost everything! — has an email client to receive them.
• Send via MMS. Yes, the iPhone finally has MMS so the same way you send photo via mail you can now send them via the Messages SMS/MMS app as well. This is the best option if you’re sending to another phone, especially a feature phone that doesn’t have email.
• Upload them to galleries. The iPhone will let you upload to Apple’s own (subscription required) MobileMe gallery. You can also upload to the popular Flickr site, and there are (of course) apps for that.
• Post them to a social network. If one-to-one is too few, and one-to-many sounds more like it, you can share your photos with your friends, your followers, or the whole wide world through your favorite social networks. Facebook is obviously huge here, with the app letting you upload and comment (when it works!) on photos. Thanks to integration with TwitPics and other, similar services, many popular Twitter clients like Twitterrific, Tweetie, TwitBit, etc. let you post pictures to your Twitter timeline for your followers to enjoy (and tweet back about).
• Hand them your iPhone. And for your non-computer friends, you can just launch the Photo app and pass them your iPhone. The modern equivalent of sneaker-net, after a few moments even your least tech-savvy family member will be swiping, pinching, and otherwise enjoying your camera work right into the palm of their hand.

How do you share photos on your iPhone? Have any special tips or tricks you can share? Let us know in the comments!

It was just over a year ago that the iPhone became the undisputed champion of cell phone cameras on Flickr. Without a doubt, the modern day cell phone camera has become a serious photographic tool and thanks to the release of iPhone 3GS, the iPhone has stepped into 1st place in upload popularity of all cameras just ahead of Cannon’s Digital Rebel XTi.

Now we all are aware that the three megapixel camera on the iPhone 3GS is not the best out there but it does it’s job fairly well. The main reason for it’s popularity on Flickr is convenience. Not only do you carry your iPhone everywhere you go, unlike a regular camera, you also have the ability to upload directly from the device. Convenience reigns supreme.

It was only a matter of time before iPhone was crowned the undisputed overall champion of the Flickr world.

[Via Electronista]

The weekend is finally here, so you might as well spend some time relaxing in TiPb forums. In order to reply to any of the following threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now.

So you say you are currently running the iPhone 3.0 software and you decided to jailbreak. Well TiPb needs your help on this one, we need to know what you’re current favorite iPhone 3.0 compatible jailbreak applications are. Thanks for the help in advance!

This thread was started by Jason McConnell, and Jason wants to know how just how warm does your iPhone get? Seems as if his is getting so hot that he can not even hold the phone up to his ear to make a call. Our advice to anyone who has had this issue, perform a restore and if the problem persists make an appointment at your local Apple store to get your phone exchanged for a new one. Anyone else having overheating issues?

It’s no secret that most of you visiting TiPb have purchased Apple’s latest and greatest, iPhone 3GS. Well one of the nicest updates to the iPhone is the update to the camera. Stop by the thread, iPhone 3GS Photos, and you guessed it – post some of your best photos you’ve taken!

Last up for today we have a great battery tips thread. So many people out there have questions regarding battery life, charging, care, etc… the list goes on. This is your one stop thread to get all the information you possibly can regarding your iPhones battery.

See you on the forums!

More a cameo than a starring role, never the less the iPhone and MobileMe feature in Apple’s latest marketing campaign “Get the most from your Mac: Our picks for getting your best pics”:

Let friends download full-resolution images. Enjoy your own online gallery where you can share photos and videos. Let friends download your photos and upload their best shots. You can even publish and view photos directly from your iPhone. Visit a live sample gallery now.

While thin on iPhone overall, it does showcase the incredible ecosystem Apple has plugged the iPhone into, including Mac’s for photo editing and organization, printing services for books, calendars, etc. sharing online and to devices from Apple TV in the living room to MobileMe online and iPhone and iPod on the go, and back up solutions like Time Capsule.

That 360 degrees of integration is one of Apple’s — and the iPhone’s — greatest strengths and one smartphone-only manufacturers have no short-term way of matching.

There have been a lot of rumors lately about the next generation of iPhone hardware having a 3.2 megapixel camera, but right now we have to deal with what has been given to us: a decent 2 megapixel camera with zero features.

That brings us to a great post that we noticed today on PCMAG.com, 22 Ways to Make Your iPhone a Better Camera. One of the most useful apps they list has to be Photogene. [iTunes Link] This app allows you to:

• Enhance photos with multiple color adjustment options and a sharpen filter.
• Crop and straighten.
• Add fun effects like text balloons, frames or special filters

Be sure to check out PCMAG.com’s article for a boatload of tips and apps to make the best with your iPhone’s camera!

Design

Griffin’s Clarifi case is very similar in design to my previous case review, the Case-Mate Dockster in the sense that it is a dockable, two-piece case solution. However the Clarifi goes a step further to ensure you take great photos; more on the photo part later. For now, what is the rest of the design like?

The case is plastic with a smooth “middle section” and the top quarter and bottom quarters have some sort of grippy plastic, kind of like grippy paint on the Treo 750, but it is more plastic than paint. Either way, it adds the needed grip when holding your iPhone 3G. You have all of the expected ports open for access; bottom, top and side for all of your buttons. The bottom quarter slides right off exposing the Apple 30-pin connector to place in your cradle if need be. I really like the designs that implement this, it is very handy of you own a cradle.  Of course if you just plug in with a cable, you don’t need to remove the bottom. The part that sets this case aside from other cases is the sliding lens that goes over the camera, it allows for crisper images up-close that is really noticeable with text (see screens at the bottom of the page for a couple of examples).

Daily Use

The slim case allows the iPhone 3G to slip right in your pocket and the grippy plastic is not too grippy where you can’t pull it back out of your pant pocket. I have used cases like this in the past and it can be very frustrating. I have found all of the ports easily accessible and did not encounter any real issues. Docking is a breeze, you simply pull off the bottom of the case and place in your cradle; done, it is really that easy. So the case sounds great so far, but it has something a little extra for ya…

The lens.

Yes, this case has a tiny lens that slides over the iPhone 3G camera lens. But Chad, why would I need such a thing? Well, have you ever tried to take a picture of something up-close with the iPhone? Perhaps a business card or text in a magazine, newspaper or book you might want to reference later? If you have then you know exactly what I am talking about. The iPhone camera lacks any sort of close-up auto focus functionality. So, when trying to take pictures of objects up-close, they become blurry. What the Clarifi cases does is rectify this issue by simply placing a slide lens over the camera, it works like a pair of glasses. Before the Clarifi lens, up-close pictures were blurry, now they are “clear” or clarified if you will (sorry, I couldn’t help myself there).

Conclusion

I think this is one of my favorite cases to date! It is basically the Case-Mate Dockster but no leather, and added clarifying lens! For some people, the lens may not be a big deal, but I use Evernote a lot and this tool is very handy to have when taking pictures on the go to be reviewed later; such as a business card, etc. If you need a slim case that’s durable and has the added benefits that I describe here, then the Griffin Clarifi is for you! One of my favorite cases!

Pros:

• Awesome camera magnifier
• It is dockable!
• Grippy plastic on the top and bottom
• Sturdy plastic supportive frame
• Thin
• All ports are very easily accessible

Cons:

• I really can’t find any pertinent negatives with this case
• Lacks variety of colors, currently black-only

TiPb’s Rating:

Big Canvas PhotoShare offers easy uploading and sharing of photos, with comments and all the usual social networking trappings, for your iPhone. How does this fair compared to built in, but social-less services like MobileMe, or 3rd party support for giants like Facebook and Flickr?

If you try it, let us know!

Leah gives us the press blub, after the break!

A picture is worth a thousand words…In a world overrun with technology, it can be difficult to identify truly useful and innovative tools. Seattle-based Big Canvas is cutting through the clutter with its life-logging tool, PhotoShare. Big Canvas’ technology encourages visual conversations and real-time interaction. To date, Big Canvas has introduced two applications, PhotoShare and SmallCanvas.

PhotoShare:

With PhotoShare, users instantaneously upload images from their iPhone. Viewers can comment on photos and be visually involved with family birthdays, holidays and landmark celebrations.

With PhotoShare’s “life-logging” technology, family members won’t miss a minute of holiday memories. Grandparents in Oregon can watch their grandkids in New York unwrap presents under the Christmas tree or light a menorah for Chanukah. PhotoShare is super family-centric for those moments that one or another parent or family member cannot share.

SmallCanvas:

Big Canvas’ second application, SmallCanvas, gives users the power to edit and duplicate images. A social networking drawing application, SmallCanvas users share their drawings and pictures with other iPhone users using PhotoShare technology. The relationship means drawings will be displayed on PhotoShare and can be viewed by thousands of PhotoShare community members. SmallCanvas encourages creative life-logging.

Any of you looking to add some life to your iPhone’s camera with some new options? It is no secret that the camera lacks any type of features besides point and click. So once again, where Apple let us down, a 3rd party developer comes to our rescue.

Now let me introduce you to Pano. Pano was created by Debacle Software, and enables you to take panoramic photos using the iPhone’s camera app. Here’s how it works:

For Pano, stitching photos together is a three-step process. First, it uses pattern-matching techniques to find out exactly how each pair of adjacent photos overlaps, and then it finds the best way to align them. Second, Pano applies a colour-correction gradient across each pair of photos to correct for the iPhone camera’s autoexposure and white balancing. Finally, all the photos are blended together and the image cropped to a neat rectangle. Voila! All in a matter of seconds.

Pano is now available in the App Store with a price tag of $2.99. It really is a worthy application for what it does. If you use your iPhone for taking photos I definitely recommend checking this one out.

(Via TUAW)