Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Apple : Man who 'found' prototype iPhone 4 charged

Apple : Man who 'found' prototype iPhone 4 charged

Man who 'found' prototype iPhone 4 charged

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 12:48 PM PDT

A man who claims to have found an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar, before selling it to a technology blog has been charged by police.

Brian Hogan, who sold the prototype for $5,000 after an Apple employee misplaced the device, has been charged with a handling stolen goods and misappropriation of lost property.

A second man, Sage Robert Wallower, who allegedly shopped the handset around to the various tech blogs has also been charged with misdemeanor offenses by the DA in San Mateo County, California.

However, no charges will be brought against Gimodo or editor Jason Chen who bought the device, revealed it in photos and videos on the internet before tearing it down to check out the innards.

"After a consideration of all of the evidence, it was determined that no charges would be filed against employees of Gizmodo," said a statement from the District Attorney's office.

Within the law

The discovery of the iPhone 4, which turned out to be one launched by Steve Jobs in June last year, proved one of the biggest tech stories of the year and defied Apple's notorious code of secrecy.

Gizmodo earned the scoop of the year and Chen gained a lot of plaudits for having the courage to run with the story when its rivals turned down the prototype.

However, Chen himself was soon the victim of a police raid at his home, and the influential blog has since been blacklisted by Apple as a result of the iPhone 4 revelation.

Gawker Media, owner of Gizmodo added: "While we have always believed that we were acting fully within the law, it has inevitably been stressful for the editor concerned, Jason Chen, and we are glad that we can finally put this matter behind us."

Serving hard time

If found guilty of the charges, Hogan and Wallower face up to a year in country jail and a fine of up to $1,000 dollars.

Court proceedings will begin in Redwood City on August 25th, which is where poor Apple computer engineer Robert Gray Powell is said to have left the iPhone prototype on the bar after a beer or two.

There's a pattern emerging this week? Everyone accused of stealing from Apple is suddenly falling foul of the law.

Link: PC Mag

In Depth: 80 handy iPhoto tips and tricks

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:30 AM PDT

Probably the best tip we can give you for a happy iPhoto life, is to try and take good pictures in the first place.

So we'll kick off with 20 top tips for better photos. And the great news is you don't need anything fancy. Even an everyday compact camera can take great shots when you know how to get the most from it. And if your photos still aren't quite right, iPhoto has the tools to fix them.

It might not be as advanced as Photoshop, but what it does, it does quickly and simply, and underneath that simple-looking surface is an impressive image-editor.

Before long, of course, your photo library will be growing to epic proportions, but luckily this is what iPhoto was designed for – managing and displaying thousands of digital photos in a way that lets you find and organise your pictures as easily as possible. Even here, though, there are tips and secrets that can make your life easier.

Finally, photos are meant to be shared, not hoarded away on your hard disk. And iPhoto's slideshows, web albums, prints and books are the perfect way to do it. We finish off, then, with 20 top tips for things to do with your photos. Some you have to pay for, but there's plenty of great things you can do without having to fork out a penny, too.

iPhoto isn't just a photo browser. It's central to getting more out of photography with your Mac, from enhancing them to organising them and sharing them with other people. Let's get to work!

Take better photos

1. Brace yourself!

Most blur is caused by camera shake. In bad light, the camera uses a slow shutter speed, and unless the speed is displayed on the LCD, you might not realise it. Brace your camera hand against a wall or rest your camera on a steady surface to take the shot.

2. Check the ISO

Cameras have an auto ISO setting that increases the sensitivity in low light, but this also reduces the picture quality. You'll need this if you're shooting handheld, but if the camera's braced you won't. Instead, manually set the ISO to its minimum value.

3. Manual white balance

White balance

The camera's auto white balance setting will do a good job in most conditions, but not all. When you're shooting in artificial light, choose the nearest manual white balance preset ('tungsten' or 'fluorescent') for better colours.

4. Check the histogram

You can't always rely on the camera's automatic exposure system to get it right. Many cameras display a histogram, though, so use this with the EV compensation control to make sure the shadows and the highlights in your photo aren't being clipped.

5. Use the focus lock

Even now, you will find cameras that still suffer badly from shutter lag. This is caused by the amount of time it takes for the camera to focus when you press the shutter button. However, the trick is to half-press the shutter button to make the camera focus; you should then wait for exactly the right moment to press it the rest of the way and take the picture.

6. Don't rely on your zoom

Zoom lenses can make you lazy, so don't just stand in one spot and zoom in and out to frame your picture. Walk up to your subject, past it and around it to see a wider range of viewpoints, angles and perspectives. The direction and the quality of the light will change, and have a big effect on the picture.

7. Experiment with viewpoints

If you're photographing kids or pets, get down to their level. Lying on the ground can lend everyday subjects monumental proportions, and finding high viewpoints and shooting downwards will produce unusual perspectives and compositions. It's easy to get into the habit of shooting every picture at eye level, missing out on lots of interesting pictures.

8. Use natural frames

Natural frames

Doorways, windows, overhanging branches and even buildings can make effective 'natural frames', and often you only have to move a few paces to find them. This will focus attention on your subject more effectively, and give a sense of place to your picture.

9. Use a tripod

Tripods are a cumbersome nuisance, right? But they do three very important things. First, they let you shoot in light that's too dim for regular handheld photography. Second, they let you frame set-up shots like still-lifes and macros very precisely. Third, they leave your hands free to adjust props, move people around for group shots and get stuff out of your bag such as filters and memory cards.

10. Check the background

We've all seen those shots where the subject has a telegraph pole sticking out of their head, but backgrounds can clash in subtler ways than that. Inappropriate signs, leering passers-by, graffiti and overflowing wheelie bins can all spoil your shots; a few moments' thought and a shift in position may be all you need to fix it.

11. Turn off the flash

No flash

In full auto mode, the camera will fire its flash automatically in dim lighting. Sometimes it's useful, but it can kill the natural lighting and atmosphere.

In theatres or museums, make sure you switch it off, even if it means bracing the camera or using high ISOs. And leave it off for night scenes or indoor stadiums, too. Flash power drops off with distance – there's no way it could illuminate objects more than a few metres away anyway.

When the flash is enabled, the camera won't make any attempt to extend the exposure to capture any natural lighting.

12. Choose your moment

Timing is everything: getting the right expression, waiting for passers-by to get out of the way, even seizing the moment when the sun breaks through the clouds. So grab a shot straight away by all means, but then wait a few moments if you can, to see if an even better one is going to come along.

13. Fill the frame/move in close

Try to fill the frame with your subject by zooming in or moving closer. Many pictures lose impact because the subject isn't prominent enough and there's too much clutter or empty space around it.

14. Fill-flash for portraits

Portrait shots taken in bright sunlight often look harsh or, if you're shooting into the light, can be lost in shadow completely. This is where the camera's built-in flash is useful. If you set it to 'fill flash' or 'slow flash' mode, it will light up your subject's face but the effect will be balanced against the natural lighting.

15. Rule of Thirds

It's tempting to place your subject right in the centre of the frame, but this can produce some rather static-looking shots. Instead, place it a third in from the edge, or a third of the way in from the top or the bottom of the frame. You don't have to stick to this 'Rule of Thirds' for every shot, but it's worth keeping in mind.

16. Converging verticals

Converging verticals

When you shoot tall buildings, the tops tend to converge, which gives the picture an amateurish look. It happens because you're tilting the camera upwards. The solution is (where possible) to move further back so you don't have to tilt the camera. Also, try and find an interesting subject in the foreground to fill the bottom part of the frame.

17. Jog-free shutter release

How do you avoid jogging the camera when you press the shutter release for long-exposure night shots, or when you're shooting close-ups with the camera on a tripod? You could invest in an expensive wireless remote, but it's much simpler just to use the self-timer on your camera. Most have an adjustable delay, too – typically two seconds or 10 seconds.

18. Shoot panoramas

Panorama

Many cameras these days come with wideangle zooms – however this may still not be enough to capture the full width of the scene. Instead, find out if your camera has a panoramic mode. Some shoot panoramas in a single 'sweep', others shoot single frames for stitching together later. Don't go mad, though. Two or three overlapping frames can be enough to produce a great extra-wide shot.

19. Check your settings

Digital cameras allow you to change the ISO, white balance, picture style and more besides, but it's all too easy to forget you've done it and carry on shooting with the 'wrong' settings next time you use the camera. It's best to get into the habit of resetting the camera to its default settings either when you've finished using it or before you start shooting.

20. Don't use the digital zoom

However much the camera makers try to dress it up, 'digital zoom' is just cropping and interpolation carried out inside the camera. If you can't get close enough to your subject, use the maximum optical zoom instead and then crop the picture in Photoshop or Elements – this means you'll be able to choose the area you crop in on.

Tweak your images in iPhoto

21. Use the Enhance button

If you've got a problem photo, try iPhoto's Enhance button. The automatic enhancements are effective, optimising the Levels, adding saturation and tweaking the white balance to produce slightly 'warmer' colours. You can then open the Adjust panel to see what it's done, and tweak or remove the adjustments if they're not working.

22. Edit highlights with RAW files

An advantage of shooting RAW files is that you can extract extra highlight detail from your pictures. When you edit a RAW file in iPhoto, you'll see that a couple of the controls behave slightly differently. With JPEG images, the Highlights slider simply darkens the existing highlights in the picture; with RAW files, it recovers extra, 'hidden' highlight detail.

23. White balance and RAW files

When you edit JPEG images, the Temperature and Tint sliders are 'relative', so you can make the colours look warmer or cooler. But when you edit a RAW file, the Temperature and Tint values are 'absolute' – you have access to the full colour data recorded by the sensor and before any white balance has been applied.

24. Third-party RAW conversions

iPhoto can open and edit RAW files from many cameras, but while its RAW conversions are good, you might want to use a different program. If you send files to an external editor, the converted file won't be added back to your iPhoto library, so it's best to convert photos before you actually import them.

25. Retouching tips

Retouching

iPhoto's Retouch tool is basic but effective. First, choose a brush size a little larger than the blemish you want to remove. Second, 'dab' rather than 'brush' – a brushing action tends to smear the pixels. Third, if the repair doesn't work first time, hit undo, change the brush size or position slightly and try again.

26. Shadows and Highlights

These sliders can be extremely handy for any 'problem' photos where ordinary Levels adjustments don't help. They work by separating out the darker and lighter parts of the picture for adjustment. The Highlights slider darkens over-bright areas, and the Shadows slider lightens dense shadows. Don't push them too far, though, or you'll start to see a 'glow' effect around objects where the adjustment is being blended in.

27. Edit duplicates

iPhoto's adjustments are non-destructive, so that you can revert to the original version of the picture at any time. However, you can't easily see which pictures have been adjusted and which haven't, or what the original looks like. But, if you like, you can duplicate the original before you start (Command+D). The duplicate will have 'Version 2' added to the title, and the original will still be there alongside it.

28. Prints and aspect ratios

When it comes to printing out your photos you'll often find that the picture's aspect ratio doesn't quite match the aspect ratio of the paper you're printing on. For example, most compact cameras shoot at a ratio of 4:3, but that's not the same as the 3:2 ratio of 6" x 4" prints. To control just how the picture is cropped to match the paper, check the Crop tool's 'Constrain' box and choose the correct aspect ratio from the list that comes up.

29. Levels adjustments

Levels

The Levels adjustments in iPhoto work slightly differently to most other photo-editing apps. Here, when you move the black point (left) and white point (right) sliders, the middle slider stays exactly where it is (in other programs, you'll find it will move proportionally). However, it's really easy to grasp and means the brightness doesn't change. To adjust the brightness, move the middle slider left (lighter) or right (darker).

30. Straighten before you crop

Some pictures need straightening, and some need cropping too. Make sure you straighten before you crop, though, because the straightening process removes thin wedges at the edges of the picture as you rotate it – if you crop first, you'll lose even more of the picture when you straighten it.

31. WB eyedropper tips

You can adjust the white balance in your pictures by using the eyedropper to click on a neutral tone in the picture. This is not always successful, though, because there's often nothing in your pictures that will provide a truly neutral tone. You may have to click on several different areas to find one that gives good results.

32. Edits apply everywhere!

Remember that when you adjust a photo, you're adjusting its appearance everywhere it appears. Let's say you want to create an album of antique-effect pictures – if those pictures appear in any other album, they're going to have that antique effect there, too. The way round this is to duplicate (Command+D) the photos before you start, and then apply the effect to the duplicates.

33. Using an external editor

If you'd rather use an image-editor such as Photoshop or Elements for your more ambitious projects, you can set this up in the Advanced tab of the iPhoto preferences. When you click the Edit button, iPhoto creates a duplicate and sends it to your external editor. When you save the file, it's returned to iPhoto, replacing the duplicate – but you have to stick to the same file format (JPEG).

34. 100% zoom

You can use the Zoom slider to check detail in your photos, but the magnifications aren't marked, which makes it difficult to judge the sharpness. If you want to see the image at 100% magnification, just hit the 1 key. The 0 key will fit the image to the screen again.

35. Black and white toning

You can convert a colour photo to black and white in iPhoto by reducing the saturation to zero in the Adjust panel, but you can do the same thing using the B&W Effect, and introduce some nice toning effects too. Add the Boost effect to create a rich sepia tone (much better than the standard Sepia effect) or the Fade effect to create a cool-toned cyanotype.

36. Exposure adjustments

Be careful when using the Exposure slider because it brightens all the tones in the image, shifting the whole histogram to the right (you can see it moving as you drag the slider), and this can clip detail in the highlights. To brighten an image without harming the highlights, drag the middle Levels slider to the left.

37. Before and after comparisons

There are two ways to compare your edited photo with the original as you work on it. One is to press and hold Shift, which displays the original image until you release it again. The other is to create a duplicate of the original, and then display both in the Edit mode so that you can see the difference as you work.

38. Copy and paste adjustments

You might find a set of adjustments and effects you like for one picture and decide you'd like to apply the same to another one. You can do this using the Edit > Copy Adjustments and Edit > Paste Adjustments commands, but you have to be in the Edit mode and you can only paste adjustments to one photo at a time.

39. Full-screen navigation

Full screen

iPhoto 11's fullscreen mode is great for editing, but the navigation system is different. You use navigation buttons at the top-left to get back to a 'home' screen, where buttons let you choose whether to browse Events, Faces, Places or Projects.

40. Don't underestimate effects

Effects

iPhoto's Effects are more than they seem. They're not like effects in Photoshop, say, which are applied on top of each other. Instead, they work in parallel; you can apply more than one effect, and you can use Effects and the Adjust tools in tandem.

Some of them come in different strengths, too, and you keep clicking to increase the effect. You can add or remove Effects at any time without affecting your other adjustments, and if you get in a mess you can click the None button in the Effects panel to remove them all and start again.

Organise your images in iPhoto

41. Use Descriptions

Keywords are good for categorising photos and descriptive titles can help you identify pictures quickly, but you might want to add more info about the subject or the ways in which the picture has been modified. Do this using the Description field in the Info panel.

42. Keyword shortcuts

There's a quick way to add keywords you use often. First, open the Keywords window (Command+k), then drag the keyword(s) you want from the bottom to the top area – iPhoto will assign a single-letter shortcut. To apply this keyword, select an image thumbnail and type the shortcut letter (the Keywords window must be open for this to work).

43. Keyword searches

Keywords

You can search for keywords just by typing them straight into the Search field, but this is pretty indiscriminate and only lets you search for one keyword at a time. But if you choose Keywords from the Search field's pop-up menu, it displays a full list, and each extra keyword you click on narrows the search down further still.

44. Adding Places

The Places feature is really useful even if you don't have a GPS-enabled camera. It means you don't need to use Keywords for place information, and it lets you browse photo locations on the Places map. To speed things up, you can select multiple photos or even entire Events and assign a Place to many photos at once.

45. Set key photos for Events

Key photos

You can 'skim' through all the pictures in an Event by moving the pointer across the Event's thumbnail from left to right, and once you've found the one that sums up the Event the best, right-click and choose 'Make Key Photo'. This now becomes the thumbnail image for the Event.

46. Faces or photos

If you use your mouse to double-click a face on the corkboard to view that person's photos, you'll notice at the top-right is a switch to display Photos or Faces. By default, it just shows faces, cropping off the rest of the picture, but selecting Photos will display the whole picture, and this can be useful when you're trying to identify people in group shots.

47. Merging Events

You can merge Events simply by dragging one Event thumbnail onto another. Or, if you simply want to move photos from one Event to another, select both Events and then double-click either. Both Events are opened and their pictures displayed, and you can now drag photos between these Events.

48. Autosplit Events

When you import photos from your camera they'll be stored as a single Event. Manually splitting them would be tiresome and slow, so select the Event and use the Events > Autosplit Selected Events command instead. The photos will be split up automatically, with one Event for each day you took pictures.

49. Sorting photos into Events

Photos can exist in various albums at the same time, but they can only ever be in one Event. Use this when organising your photos. For example, you can separate personal and work photos in different Events or, if you take pictures for a living, separate photos by client.

50. Hide poor photos

Not every photograph you take will be a masterpiece, yet at the same time you don't necessarily want to throw away pictures with some historical or sentimental value. The solution is to use the Hide Photo command (Command+L). Your substandard photos are now hidden from view unless you use the View > Hidden Photos command.

51. Use ratings and smart albums

The bigger your library gets, the harder it is to sort the wheat from the chaff, which is where ratings come in handy. You can sort photos by rating so that the best ones are at the top, and you can create smart albums that display only your best photos.

52. Multiple iPhoto libraries

You don't have to restrict yourself to one iPhoto library. If you hold down Option as you start iPhoto, you're prompted to choose which library you want to open or where to save a new one.

53. Referencing versus importing

By default, iPhoto imports copies of your photos into its own internal library, but this duplication means you've now got two lots of pictures taking up twice the disk space. But you can set iPhoto up to behave like professional image-cataloguing programs, which 'reference' photos in their existing locations – open the iPhoto preferences, select the Advanced tab and deselect the 'Copy Items to the iPhoto Library' box.

54. Show photos in the Finder

The iPhoto library is displayed as a single file but you can right-click the library icon in the Finder and choose Show Package Contents to see how the files are organised.

55. Use folders for organising

Albums are easy to create and useful for keeping photos together, but you can quickly end up with a lot of them. Organise them into folders (File > New > Folder). These work like the folders in the Finder, and you can also 'nest' folders within folders.

56. Filenames and titles

When you import pictures, the filenames are displayed below the thumbnails. However, what you're seeing is just a photo 'Title'. iPhoto uses the filename initially, but you can type in any titles you like and they don't have to be unique. The photos retain their original filenames in the Finder, though.

57. Batch change titles

Batch edit

Typing in titles and descriptions for every photo in your collection could become a real bore, but there's a much quicker solution. First, select the photos you want to modify, then use the Photos > Batch Change command. You can set the titles to any text you like, even adding an index number to make them unique. And you can also set the description for all the selected photos, replacing the existing Descriptions or adding (appending) new text to the existing ones.

58. Quickly compare photos

Compare

Digital photos cost nothing to take, so it's tempting to shoot half a dozen variants of the same picture to be sure of getting a good one. As good as it is to have this option, it can give you a headache later because you need to work out which to keep and which to delete. But you can compare them directly by selecting them and clicking the Edit button – you can zoom in to check the fine detail, too.

59. Resetting dates and times

iPhoto retrieves its date and time information from the EXIF data embedded in each image by the camera. However, if you haven't set the camera's clock correctly, the pictures will be wrongly dated. You can fix this easily by selected the problem photos and using the Photos > Adjust Date and Time command. And if you wish, you also have the option to apply the changes to the master files themselves.

60. Smart albums really are smart!

Smart albums

Do you want to see all the photos taken with a particular camera, or at a particular ISO, shutter speed or lens aperture? You can do this by creating a smart album and then choosing shooting settings from the drop-down menu. You can add 'conditions', so you could look for all shots taken at ISO 1600 on a Canon EOS 5D, for example.

Other 'conditions' include album names, faces, dates, keywords, descriptions, edited/unedited files and more. Smart Albums really are an incredibly powerful tool for finding, organising and displaying your photos.

Share your photos in iPhoto

61. Email your photos

If you don't want to set up an online album you can always email a photo gallery. iPhoto '11 has some terrific email templates that are simple to use, and display in any HTML-compatible email program. It only takes a few moments, and because the email capability is built in, you don't need to use Apple Mail.

62. iCloud galleries

MobileMe galleries

There are many free ways to get your photos online, so why pay for Apple's MobileMe service? Well, it's going free with iCloud, and there's plenty of image features there.

63. Picasa Web Albums

iPhoto doesn't support Picasa Web Albums directly, but you can download a Google plug-in, which adds a Picasa Web Albums tab to iPhoto's File > Export dialog. You can create a web album from an existing iPhoto album or create a new one.

64. Export to iWeb

If you have your own web host, you can send photos to iWeb to produce a Photo Page using one of iWeb's built-in design themes. The latest version of iWeb also supports FTP uploads to any web host, so you can then publish your web album directly.

65. Facebook albums

Simply put, iPhoto's Facebook integration is brilliant. Upload photos as albums via the Share menu, and the Description you add in iPhoto will become the captions displayed in Facebook. iPhoto will even display your friend's comments.

66. Set slideshows to music

Places slideshow

iPhoto slideshows look great, but they can sound great too when you add a soundtrack from your iTunes library. However, what you really want is for the slideshow to last for the same time as the track – click the Settings button and check 'Fit slideshow to music'.

67. Animated Places slideshows

iPhoto '11 has new animated slideshows, including a Places theme that uses the Places information you add to your photos to present an animated map, with push-pins identifying the places you've visited. It comes with its own soundtrack, but you can add one of your own from your iTunes library.

68. QuickTime movies

There's an even quicker way to turn your photos into a slideshow. Select the ones you want, then use the File > Export command and select the QuickTime tab. Choose the movie dimensions, select a background colour and you're done. Your photos will be exported as a QuickTime movie, with a subtle fade between each picture.

69. iPhone slideshows

Once you've created a slideshow, use the File > Export command and select Slideshow. Choose a size, and check 'Automatically send slideshow to iTunes'. When you sync in iTunes, make sure 'Include videos' is checked in the Photos tab. Press the Videos button on your iPhone to see your slideshows.

70. Take your photos with you

Wouldn't you like to carry round your photo library with you on your iPhone or iPad? it couldn't be easier – plug it in, then select the Photos tab. You can now choose to synchronise all your photos or selected albums only. Worried about the amount of space that will take up? Don't be, because your photos will be optimised for the smaller display and won't take up anywhere near the space they do on your Mac.

71. Print your own books?

iBooks

iPhoto books don't match standard printer paper sizes, so there's no easy way to print photo books yourself, unless you pick smaller sizes and trim the sheets manually (though you can still print pages for proofing purposes). But you could produce a PDF version – most printers let you set up custom paper sizes, and you can then use the PDF option in the Print dialog.

72. Custom calendars

iPhoto's Calendars have to be ordered from Apple, and they're pretty pricey (£14.39 when we checked), but there's more to them than you might imagine. They're populated automatically using the photos you choose, but they can also include public holidays for different territories, events in your iCal calendars and birthdays in your Address Book. Once you get one, you'll never look back.

73. Frame your photos

Print photos directly from iPhoto using a variety of preset layouts and templates, including 'digital mats', which can look quite convincing when combined with a real-life photo frame. 'Mats' are the cardboard inner frames with bevelled edges that professional framers use, but the iPhoto versions look convincing enough to pass casual inspection, especially when framed under glass.

74. Printed contact sheets

If you ever need to print off the contents of an album or Event to look at on one sheet, select all the photos, hit Command+p and choose the Contact Sheet print theme. You can change the number of columns to get more pictures on a sheet, change the background colour (white will use less ink!) and even the font used for the titles.

75. Print multiple photos

It looks like iPhoto can only print one picture on a sheet, but that's not the case. If you pick the Simple Border theme and hit the Customize button, you can open the Layout menu and choose 1, 2, 3 or 4 pictures. You also get a choice of how the pictures are arranged on the sheet and whether or not you want a caption.

76. Media browser

Use your photos in your iWork documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Pages, Numbers and Keynote have a Media button on the toolbar that displays a panel containing the contents of your iPhoto library, complete with all your Events and albums and a search box. To use a picture, drag it across.

77. Beautiful books

Beautiful books

Why print photos when you can print books, using the superb book-creation tools in iPhoto '11? You can even print full-bleed spreads – perfect for panoramic photos. Keep an eye on the page count though as you will get charged extra for going over.

78. Desktops and screensavers

Select a photo as a screensaver in the Share menu then select Set Desktop. Or create your own – go to File > Export to save copies of your photos to a new folder. Then open the Mac's Desktop & Screensaver panel, click the '+' button and add your folder of images.

79. Make your photos a movie

The Photo Browser in iMovie lists the contents of iPhoto albums so you can drag photos into your movie projects, either mixing video and stills or making a movie out of stills alone.

80. Saving slideshows

Saving slideshows

There are two ways to create slideshows in iPhoto, with two slightly different outcomes. If you select an album and click the Slideshow button at the bottom, you'll be able to choose a theme and settings, but they won't be saved.

You can opt to have your settings saved as the defaults for future slideshows, but that's not the same thing. To create a slideshow, use the File > New > Slideshow command. The new slideshow will be added to the Slideshow section at the bottom of the panel, and each slideshow created in this way retains its own unique settings.

Updated: iOS 5: all the latest details

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 02:53 AM PDT

We're expecting big things from Apple this year: the iPhone 5 will be with us at some point in 2011, and some rumours suggest we'll see the iPad 3 as early as this autumn.

But in the meantime there's a new version of iOS, iOS 5 here and it's been revealed during tonight's WWDC 2011 keynote.

Read on for our list of all the new iOS 5 features but for a video rundown of what's new, check out our pal T3's video below:

iOS 5 release date

The iOS release date is Autumn 2011 - probably to coincide with the new iPhone.

iOS 5 compatibility

iOS 5 will work with iPhone 4 and 3GS (the latter is a surprise), iPad and iPad 2, and the iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen. We're also a little surprised to see it's going to be rolled out to the original iPad, but as it has the same hardware as the iPhone 4 we guess Apple doesn't have to cut it loose this time.

iOS 5 goes PC-free

Apple says it is "cutting the cable" with iOS 5 - just as well, as it claimed the iPad 2 was the first post-PC device earlier in the year. OS updates can be delivered over the air - you'll just received what's changed rather than the usual 600MB download - and devices can be activated without plugging them into iTunes. Ace.

You can also now create and delete iOS calendars and mailboxes too, so you really can devolve your device from your PC or Mac.

"You can activate on the device and you're ready to go," explained Apple's Scott Forstall.

"Software updates are now over the air. So you no longer need to plug in to update your software. And they're now Delta updates. Instead of downloading the whole OS, you only download what's changed," he continued.

"We said, why do people go back to a computer? Calendars, people create or delete them. You can do that now. Photo editing, you can do it on the devices. Even mail - you can create folders.

"So if you want to cut the cord, you can."

With iOS 5 and iCloud, you just enter your Apple ID and password, and iCloud will seamlessly integrate with your apps to automatically and wirelessly keep all of your mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music and more, up-to-date across all your devices without ever having to connect to a computer.

iOS 5 iMessage

There's now a new messaging service - like text messaging or BlackBerry BBM - but between all iOS users. It's designed for those with iPads and iPod touches primarily, but is cross-device and integrates with the iPhone, too.

The new application supports a multitude of features, including the ability to send pictures, videos or contacts, and also start a group message too. Real-time notifications mean you won't have to wait to see if someone is going to reply.

This is a massive hit to RIM, which prides itself on BBM for BlackBerry. According to Apple, iMessage works both over Wi-Fi and 3G, and if you want to send a message all you have to do is tap the camera icon, pick a pic and you're away.

iMessage

iOS 5 Notification Center

The new OS has a new system for Notifications. More than 100 billion Notifications have been pushed so far, says Apple, but the company acknowledges that they're annoying. So now there will be a Notification Center to aggregate all the Notifications - you can access it by swiping down from the top of the screen. It is not persistent, but looks a lot like Android. It's on the lock screen, as well.

Notifications

iOS 5 Newsstand

Further to Apple's subscriptions model, you'll now be able to browse newspapers and magazines to download just as you can books and music. New issues you subscribe to are automatically downloaded.

Newsstand

iOS 5 Twitter support

Much rumoured beforehand, Apple has introduced Twitter natively into iOS 5, with a 'one click' option for applications to let you use Twitter functionality.

All you'll need to do is sign in through the Settings menu and any app can request integration with your Twitter account, meaning no more constant signing in to every new application you download. It's also fully integrated with the Camera and Photo apps, for example.

You can also tweet articles from Safari and locations from Maps.

iOS 5 Safari

A new reading mode has been introduced in Safari, which removes distraction and provides you with a single, scrolling story. Bye bye, ads! You can now also email the contents of the story as well as the link. There's also a Reading List option so you can save stuff to look at later. We bet Read It Later and Instapaper are well chuffed about that. There's also tabbed browsing and lightning-fast window switching.

iOS 5 Reminders

A reminders feature enables you to store Lists, assign reminders to any dates or even location-specific info. These sync across devices and with iCal.

iOS 5 Camera

There's now a camera button on the lock screen, while you can also use the volume button to take pictures - a great addition. Apple says its camera is one of the most commonly used pieces of hardware on photo-sharing sites like Flickr, and has updated the functionality accordingly.

Photo editing software for easy cropping and enhancement has been added in to iOS 5, and pinching to zoom will zoom in on images when you're trying to take a pic.

iOS 5 Mail

The app now has new elements like draggable addresses so you can pop them across from To to Cc or Bcc.

Flagging and full-searchable messages have been added in too, plus rich text formatting for easier interaction with your e-mails.

A built in dictionary makes it easier to keep your spelling under control, and for the iPad: a split keyboard.

Simply grabbing it with your thumbs and sliding upwards will split it in two, making it easier to tap out emails more speedily.

iOS 5 Game Center

Game Center now lets you browse and download games directly, as well as introducing Achievementpoints, There's also Friend Discovery. Gamer profiles have been updated to include photos as well, plus turn-based gaming is baked right into the application for more responsive gaming.

Want to look back at our predictions? Read our previous iOS 5 rumours below:

iOS 5.0 release date isn't until September...

iOS has been around long enough for a pattern to emerge: a springtime reveal and then a summertime launch with the latest iPhone. Not this time, Techcrunch says: while iOS 5 is likely to be shown off at the WWDC event in June, the iOS 5.0 release date will probably be in September.

...or maybe April

According to "trusted sources", a German blog claimed that iOS 5.0 would be released at an Apple event in April. Apple had better get a move on, then.

iOS 5 now looks as though it's being tested in the wild. On 1 May 2011, 9to5 Mac said that it had received word from developers who found that their apps are being tested with iOS 5. And earlier, on 27 April 2011, a tweet from app developer Future Tap said "Just received the first iOS 5.0 crash report. MKUserLocationBreadCrumb sounds interesting."

...and iOS 5.0 might not be on the iPhone 5

There are two possibilities here: either Apple is ripping up its existing annual schedule and keeping the iPhone 5 back until the Autumn too, in which case the iPhone 5 will be an iOS 5.0 device, or Apple is sticking to its annual release and we'll see an iPhone 5.0 in the summer without iOS 5.0. Our money's on the former: the superbly well-connected Jim Dalrymple says this year's WWDC is a software show, not a hardware event.

iOS 5.0 has automatic app downloads

Automatic app updates appear to be coming to iOS devices in the iOS 5 update.

The rumour was kickstarted by a screengrab from iTunes which says, "If your device has Automatic Download enabled for apps, your updates will download to your device without having to sync."

iOS 5.0 specifications include better notifications

iOS's notification system for SMSes, missed calls and app messages is rubbish, but Cult of Mac reports that good news is coming in iOS 5.0: Apple is "working on a new notification system for iOS and will be buying a small company to build its technology into the operating system" - likely candidates include App Remix, whose Boxcar does what iOS doesn't.

Boxcar

NEW NOTIFICATIONS: Rumours suggest Apple's buying App Remix to boost iOS's notification system

iOS 5.0 features include cloud music and photo sharing

Amazon's already launched its cloud-based music service, but Apple's offering is more ambitious than a few gigs of server space: 9to5 Mac says there's a photo-based social service called Photo Stream in the Photos app and the much-rumoured, cloud-based iTunes service is likely to turn up alongside a revamped MobileMe.

Could iOS 5.0 also include Spaces

A patent filed by Apple suggests that iOS 5 will see 'Spaces' come to the iPad. The patent application shows a touchscreen device with Spaces controlled by multi-touch gestures, which hints at the gesture control that is only available to devs in iOS 4.3 becoming standard.

iOS 5.0 features include beefed-up speech recognition

iOS's voice recognition lags far behind Android's, but that might change with the release of iOS 5.0: according to analysts at Soleil Securities, " Apple's IOS 5.0 for the next-generation iPhone will likely feature deep voice control into the operating system and likely be demonstrated in June. We believe that Apple's partner for the underlying voice recognition technology is Nuance".

Nuance

SPEAK AND SPELL: Apple and Nuance are reportedly beefing up iOS's speech recognition features

On 9 August 2011, screenshots surfaced showing the iOS 5 speech-to text feature. The feature requires users only to tap the microphone icon next to the on-screen spacebar, and speak aloud.

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Amazon launches Kindle Cloud Reader to side-step App Store

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 02:42 AM PDT

Amazon has launched the Kindle Cloud Reader, a web-based ebook application that is "optimised for iPad".

It's a very sneaky way of working around Apple's new App Store rules that bans iOS apps from linking out to external stores – which meant that Amazon couldn't sell any Kindle ebooks to its iPhone and iPad app owners from their devices.

But the web app doesn't need to jump through the App Store's hoops. It still allows you to read your new and already-purchased Kindle books in an app-style interface on an iPad or download them for reading offline, but also means you can buy new books direct from the Kindle store.

Sadly, iPhone users won't be able to take advantage of the web app just yet; but the fact that Amazon name checks the iPhone on the Cloud Reader homepage gives us hope that there's an iPhone-compatible version in the works.

Quash later

If Apple's annoyed about the Kindle Cloud Reader web app, it'll have to file it under 'quash later' as it deals with another ebook niggle; the company has been named in a US lawsuit over ebook price fixing.

Filed in San Francisco, the suit accuses Apple of working with major publishers to control pricing, naming Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, which collectively control around 85 per cent of popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

Apple and the named publishers have been working an agency pricing model, whereby publishers become the book sellers and Apple takes a slice of the sales (30 per cent).

This means that the publisher-as-bookseller sets the price of a book at whatever it fancies and all other retailers of that ebook have to fall in line; because Apple takes such a huge chunk of the profit, the pricing is alleged to be higher than it otherwise would be.

The lawsuit claims that publishers "would simply deny Amazon access to the title" if it tried to sell an ebook at below the publisher-set price."

It seems that the plaintiffs are very pro-Amazon, with the lawsuit complaint also alleging "that Apple believed that it needed to neutralise the Kindle when it entered the ebook market with its own e-reader, the iPad, and feared that one day the Kindle might challenge the iPad by digitally distributing other media like music and movies."

The anti-competitive nature of the agency price model is already under some serious scrutiny in the UK as well, with the Office of Fair Trading investigating the way that ebooks are priced.

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