The iPhone is not a great camera and I am not a great photographer. But I like taking pictures. During the 14 months I’ve had my iPhone, I’ve taken a couple of hundred photos with it, posting some on flickr and some to a Mobile Me gallery.
I’ve been culling and tagging photos this week and realized that I’ve been using the iPhone for pix and leaving my Casio in the bag. And the Casio takes MUCH better photos.
The new plan is to keep the Casio in my pocket and use the iPhone only when I need to get a photo (or video) online quickly.
So that’s one more (small) device to carry around. But I don’t want to wind up with a 1,000 photos of marginal quality.
I’m also gonna keep the iPhone pix segregated (on flickr) from the Casio photos.
If you run into me, ask me if I have the Casio in my pocket.
UPDATE: In the screencast above I mentioned that I screwed up one of the labels. The nice folks at AppMakr gave me a coupon code that allowed me to go in and fix the mistake. And if you did not get it from the little demo above, this was REALLY easy to do. If you decide to take the plunge, use coupon code SMAYS FANS (through Feb 28) and save $50 on a new build.
UPDATE: Ryan from AppMakr sends along this clarification:
“You can make changes up until the time you pay for your App. At that point, we consider the build to be published and are required to do some internal quality control before sending it off to Apple. Allowing users to make changes at that point would hinder our ability to ensure quality prior to submission. Once submitted, you can make an actual change for $49, not the $199 fee again.”
Most people my age have a shoebox full of old photographs. If one is of a sufficient age, they’ll be all shapes and sizes, with yellowing borders and such. The result of different printing processes, paper, etc.
I’ll miss those little squares of paper with images printed on them, imperfect as they were. I suppose it’s one of those high touch vs. high tech things.
And there’s an app for that. Hipstamatic is “an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a digital boy and wouldn’t want to go back to the days of waiting for my photos and picking them up at the drug store. But it’s fun to remember.
The Missouri House and Senate opened the 2010 session at noon today and I watched from way up in the nose-bleed seats. I think I heard a list of names of the reporters who were given permission to take pictures from the floor but must have missed my name. Since I was not ON the floor, I figured it might be okay to turn on the iPhone and stream a little video via ustream.
I just leaned the little bugger up against the railing. I forgot to disable the sleep mode or something and the video cut out a couple of times. But the audio really very good.
There’s absolutely nothing visual about floor debate unless a fist fight were to break out. And I saw why they don’t want cameras in there. A couple of senators (who are not allowed to have laptops) were burning up the old BlackBerry’s and iPhones.
I’m eager to try out the wireless webcam at one of the committee hearings (Budget?). This seems like a no-brainer for any group or association whose members would be interested in committee testimony/discussion.
I’m pleased to see –once again– the iPhone and apps work so well.
During my “on air” days (the ‘70s and early ‘80s), the AP teletype was our station’s connection to the world. During the late 80’s and early 90’s, I spent a good bit of time trying to create a low-cost alternative (mostly for radio stations) to the AP’s wire service. This morning I downloaded AP Mobile to my iPhone.
I have a feeling it will become my default app for news. Text, photos, video… it’s all there. I can flag topics of interest and AP Mobile will “push” those to me. And if I see a story and want to “report” it to AP, the app makes it easy.
Associated Press used to be pretty protective of it’s stories. Perhaps they still are, I would have no way of knowing. The old radio guy in me can’t help thinking of this is a tiny version of the old teletype. And my next thought is, “How could the AP police all of the broadcasters and keep them from using AP stories without paying for it?”
The answer is, I’m afraid, they don’t care. Would I rather have the full-featured, on-demand experience offered by AP Mobile… or hear my local “announcer” read it to me?
George and Tom told me about this a week or two but I just got around to trying it. Amazing. My new favorite iPhone app. And it’s free. This takes care of any problem I might have had using the iPhone keypad.
Etan Horowitz, posting on E-Media Tidbits, attempts (and succeeds, in my opinion) to answer the question: Which is better tool for journalists, BlackBerry or iPhone? I’ll just share his conclusions here and you can read the full post:
“In the days when producing content mainly happened from a laptop or the office, the BlackBerry made a lot of sense. It is a perfect tool for communicating quickly by e-mail or text and looking up information online. But now that many journalists are expected to post stories, blog posts, photos and videos from the field, the iPhone is a better option.
As a profession, journalism is still struggling to find its footing in the digital age. Since most of the innovative mobile applications are being developed for the iPhone, using an iPhone will help journalists stay current with technology and get them excited about its potential for news.
Don’t believe me? Just give an iPhone to one of the old-school types in your newsroom and see how they react after a few days of use. They’re likely to tell you the device changed their life. You won’t get the same response by giving someone a BlackBerry.
But that doesn’t mean the iPhone is best for all journalists. Editors, Web producers and others who don’t report from the field but frequently communicate with a team will probably be better served by a BlackBerry. And the fact that BlackBerrys cost less, run on multiple carriers and have removable batteries and memory cards are also valid considerations.” [Thanks, Aaron for the link]
