iPhoto 09

I got a copy of iLife and although I used the iWeb and iMovie, I am amazed by the iPhoto, the flagship application. There are three main features, that can amaze you as they did me.

• Faces
• Places
• Facebook

Faces: This was one of the wow things on the past (and last, unfortunately) Macworld Keynote presentation. It utilizes the best face recognition software to locate the features of the face, and immediately puts a square around it. Once done it will ask you to name the face and thereafter it will do it itself. Although a first attempt this works pretty well, it is still not perfect. It will pick many random people among your pictures as suggestions. However, I see certain pattern repeated. I see for instance that suggests as my my mother and my father, that I look like anyway. It can be an alternative for a DNA test... I have to say, however, that Although over the years I lost 20 lbs it could still recognize me.

Places: This is the very long awaiting feature. Many sites like flickr already implemented it in their features. I was using a combination of programs to do it in my library for a bout a year now. I was doing with Geottager a Applescript software and Google earth. You center the location on Google Eaths and then you drag and drop the image on the geotagger app and includes in the exif data the latitude and longitude. Exif data is an small text file that is saved along side the image file and stores information as, the camera model, the lens, the aperture size and speed, etc. Now it can store GPS information. However, when I started the new iPhoto it did not import this information. I looked around and I did find many users reporting this as major issue. A work around is to re-import the pictures, which will force iPhoto to read this information. It is not practical though. So I just used the build in geotagging tool that is ok. Not the greatest, but pretty good. And then one more bummer... The iPhoto does not save the location as exif data but only in its internal database... Meaning? You cannot have the pictures exported with the GPS data included.
Facebook: Being a big facebook fan, I loved this feature until I realized that it is not very functional. So I tag people here, then I upload the pictures, but the names are not actual tags. You cannot click on them to see the friends profile. So you have to retag the pictures, which is a bummer and on top of that, when the iPhoto syncs the info, will re-import the new names on top of the previous... It just becomes a mess.

So the new iPhoto has some great features, that need some work to become even greater. The face recognition is great, and honestly I could not ask for more. The Places has two major bummers; does not read the GPS info of the pictures in the library and if you geotag pictures in does not translate the information to GPS exif data.

Happy Birthday Macintosh

It is been 25 years since the first mac was born. 25 years ago a much healthier Steve Jobs was standing in front of a stud audience that was waiting the anouncement of the first mac. Back then, the mac computer was the first computer with multiple fonts, 3D graphics, excellent graphics, music reproduction (not teet teet teet... real music) and speech capabilitys.

Since then the comptuer with the smartest name (mac) when through the darkest of hours and the best of its days. In he 80s a fallout between Steve Jobs and the Apple CEO brought him out of the company he had created. That was a turning point for Apple. Things went downhill since then. Many wrong moves and a unnecessary large number of machines, brought apple to the edge of destruction. In 1997 the first right move in many years from the apple leadership, brought Steve Jobs back to the steering of apple. For me this was a move that not only changed the history of apple but the history of digital industry for ever.

Just watch the fist few minutes of the clip.

As you can see our own "father" Steve Jobs was almost brought to tears, upon the very warm welcome from apple faithful fans that have had hope that Apple can become strong again. Steve faced out all the computers and focused one four main computers: a high- and a low-end laptop and a high- and low-end desktop. The low end desktop was the first iMac and sold more than 20 millions in one year. The fast-selling computer to this day. A colored translucent cover that contains the computer and the screen.

That was the beginning of the reborn. Following the iMac was the iBook, the Power book and Power Mac. Although those computers were great, the major boost to apple came in 2001 with the introduction of the iPod. The little device that can play 5000 songs. The simplicity of the iPod made many people switch to the apple computers looking for the same simplicity.

The lineup of the same computers have not changed untill recently were again the iBoo kjust became MacBook and the PowerBook MacBook Pro.

The pride of a mac user is beond everything. It is not random that mac users have great communtities very cohesive. Their stand in ground strong for the quality of their product and the quality of their OS. The apple platform is summarized in one phrase. The computer is bicycle for the mind.

Apple fans everywhere. Be proud and be happy. We are the few, but we are the great.

Apple In Ear Headphones with Mic

I got today (really early in the morning) the, so long waited for, headphones with remote and mic. To make it clear I did not buy them for their superb audio quality that supposedly have ,but for the fact that the in-ear headphones stay on my ears, rather than falling of as is evident by their name.

In 2005 when the whole new iPod (G5) was introduced, Steve Jobs said that they will be giving all newly redesigned headphones. They allegedly tested thousands of ears and ear canals to deliver a headphone design with an even better fitting. So far all good. Those headphones are those that you can now find in all iPods and iPhones. Sames designed that is the product of study of many different ears. Well they did not study my ears... I could never get those headphones stay in my ears for more than 2 minutes. If the cable rubs against anything, that tiny force is enough to drop them of my ears! It is freaking annoying. For the iPod I go the Apple in-ear headphones and they worked well. I went through two pairs, mostly due to my misuse/abuse.

When I got the iPhone, I was able to use them as well, but I had to actually disconnect them to talk on the phone since they lack of microphone. So for the iPhone I had to stick with the regular iPhone headphones which as I said keep falling off. So I was more than ecstatic when they announced these headphones back in September. I was waiting and waiting and what was expected to be available in late October took all the way to December. And even then they were shipping in 10-12 days... To make a long story short I got them today.

Finally the headphones were actually staying in my ear. I could move without them just falling off. Success. Success. Success... With a small weird and strange problem. All morning today I was listening to a ticking sound. Sharp ticking sound. I thought it was from the music, but then I start getting it on the phone calls as well. What was it?

Well, simply it was just static. Strange and bizarre static. It is a cold day and I am waring a scarf that is made 100% from wool. While my head moves around it rubs against the scarf and charges me. Those headphones have a feature that, has been praised a lot. A metal mesh and metal ring to make them more durable and more resistant to wear. You can get a close look on the bottom picture.

This metal part is just discharging my head and leads to this loud ticking sound. Here is Florida, it is never that cold... well... maybe, not always that cold, is more appropriate expression, so it is ok to use them. Especially with the humidity that is high almost year around this should not be a problem but, it is especially annoying for people in the Northern states such is NY etc. If you leave there you need to thing it again. Especially if you think that all the charge will end to your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Overall however I have to agree with the critics. I am not the most knowledgeable critic ever, but I like them. They fit snugly in your ear, they sound great, they insulate you from the surrounding, they microphone is amazing and the control over your iPhone is great. Of course the volum controls are not working, but it is not that important. You cannot cry over something you never had!

Well done Apple...

Any image to icon - img2icns

Many time you feel like jazzing up your desktop. How? Change the desktop image, change the size of the dock, and change the various MacOS X icons. There are some great sites with collections, forums where users share icons, and many other other resources that can help you on that. However, many times you cannot find what you are looking for. A google image search will find the image you are looking for. A simple way to make it an icon is to save the image, open it in Preview, sellect the image (⌘-A), and copy/paste it on the folder or object you want. In Leopard, however this does not behave properly. Although the image is there you cannot select the item bu clicking the image.

Looking around for a work-around I found what is probably the most precious Mac OS X application. It is called img2icns and it is almost free! Almost meaning has a nice free version and a $12.90 Pro version. mg2icns is an application to create icons from images or images from icons, keeping them organized for future use. Creating an icon is as simple as dropping one or more images into Img2icns and choosing an export format. Creating icons on Mac OS X was never so easy or so much fun, so start customizing your desktop just now!


As you can see it is very simple and intuitive software. You drag and drop the image you want on the dashed are in the main window. The you can select to save it as Folder (available in the free version), icns format (available in the free version), iPhone (available in the pro version) and Favicon (available in the pro version). Folder is the most used. Once you do it, you are prompt were to save it. Then simple you past in on the Application/Folder/Hard Drive. The pro version allows you to view the icons you have already saved converted and you can recreat them with a snap.

I love this little application. They are right those who say, precious things come in little packages.

iPod Touch Original Wallpapers

The first version of the iPod Touch contained some great wall papers. They were inspired by the dancing silhouettes that back then was the theme of the iPod commercials. Those wallpapers were very pretty and I wanted them for my iPhone. Unfortunately I could not found them anywhere on the. So I decided to find them myself. I looked around in various Forums and after a lot of trouble I managed to find them. I will share in this post the the details of the quest.

1. So I started by looking the various forums until I bumped on this post a the modmyi.com.There the suggested way was to recover them from the original iPod Touch firmware update. That was simple.
2. Download the .ipsw for the iPod Touch. You should get the 1.1.4 update. A link that is working is here.
3. Once done, the .ipsw will look like a folder and there there will be three disk images with one about 126 MB, named "022-3893-4.dmg". That s the one that contains all the required software. In there there should be the wallpapers. The problem was that the image files was password protected.
4. So how do we go around the password protection? Pwnage Tool. The tool to make the hacked firmware update. You can get the appropriate version for the 1.1 firmware here.
5. Open the Pwnage Tool. Click the Browse .ipsw. Safari will automatically decompress the zip file of the firmware and put the archive in the trash. Recover the archive. This is the file that you will give to the pwnage tool.
6. Select the zip file and click ok. Wait a few minutes while the pwnage tool read the firmware image. Once done click the .ipsw Builder button and that to build the custom firmware. It will ask you where to save it (select a folder eg Desktop). It will also prompt from your password. No worries give your password.
7. Once done the Pwnage Tool will create the custom firmware at the folder of your chioce and will name it "iPod1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Custom_Restore". Tired... Well we are not even done yet... Patience...
8. The problem is that the new version is cannot be opened. Well zip it : Selecting it, right click and select compress iPod1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Custom_Restore"
9. Now trash the original file and unzip the archive. The unzipped version now now is a folder. We are almost there. In there again you will see the "022-3893-4.dmg" file that now is not password prottected.
10. Mound it.
11. Navigate to the /Library/Wallpapers/. Yes.... those are the file.
12. Copy the folder to your computer and tarsh all the used files.
    
13. By this point oyu are dissapointed. You double clicked the images and there is nothing there. A big question mark looking at you. After all this work nothing.
14. What happened is that although the images are .png they are formated with the iPhone/iPod's own propietary image format. So you cannot view them on your computer but if you mail them to yourself then you can recover them in iPhone and then you can view them.
    
15. By looking around though I found some tools in this link that can convert the images.
16. Download the modified vesion of the file (here) and transfer the folder named "iPhonePNG copy" on your desktop.
17. Transfer in there the folder Wallpapers you retreived from the firmware of the ipod.
18. Now open Terminal. Type the series of the following commands:
    cd Desktop/iPhonePNG\ copy/
    ./iPhonePNG Wallpaper/
19. This will create a second folder named "Wallpaper-Decoded" And in there are the so needed iPod Touch original wallpapers. By reading the comments I found the site http://zope.release78.org/beta2/iconvert/ that actually does the conversion on line.

I spent my whole morning trying to figure this out. I hope you appreciate my effort. You can view them here (Picasa Gallery). I hope you enjoy.