iPhone 5 Camera Untouched Samples [PHOTOS]

The iPhone 5 packs plenty of new and interesting features, and among them is a significantly improved camera. To some less tech-savvy consumers,

iPhone – The World’s Favorite Camera

The Geekaphone crowd have spent a month looking at the Apple iPhone in the context of it being a serious alternative to expensive standalone cameras. Written over 5 parts, the report

Prevent People From Deleting Photos From Your iPhone’s Camera Roll With PhotoProtect

One of the most sensitive sections of a smartphone has to be the media gallery, or in the case of an iPhone, the Camera Roll, where all photos get saved to when the camera hardware is used to capture videos or still images. Having my iPhone fall into the hands of one of my mischievous and them deleting some of my important images is always something that concerns me, but thankfully the jailbreak development community has us covered, once again.

The PhotoProtect tweak has been around on Cydia for quite some time, but often gets overlooked by users who are looking for a tweak that offers the functionality of preventing photos from being deleted. Developed by Aaron Ash, probably more well known for his Barrel and Multifl0w tweaks, PhotoProtect makes use of the standard UIAlertView to inform the end-user that the photo that they have tried to delete could not be removed.

After installation, PhotoProtect does not offer any additional home screen icons but does come with its own configurable options which can be found in the native iPhone Settings app. The PhotoProtect preferences contain the all important on or off toggle switch, which in my humble opinion all mobile substrate tweaks should come with as standard, as well as options to customize the title and message body of the pop-up alert that is presented on-screen when a photo is tried to be deleted.

From the device content security point of view, the tweak isn’t fool proof and can easily be turned off through the Settings bundle, leaving users free to delete photos at will after that. However, as a novelty tweak, it is a quick deterrent to those who would give up after a failed first attempt, the PhotoProtect tweak actually proves to be a very useful package.

PhotoProtect was obviously built and launched well before Apple allowed us to create our own albums of images from Camera Roll photographs and for that reason it doesn’t intercept the delete request for images that are also stored in an album, meaning if you attempt to delete an album image; it will be removed regardless of the tweak being active or not.

PhotoProtect is available as a free of charge download from the BigBoss repository. If the tweak doesn’t seem to work right away, I personally found that a device reboot solves the issue.

 

Source: RedmondPie(DOT)com

Galaxy S III Up For Pre-Order On Amazon, Features A 12-Megapixel Camera And 4.7-Inch Super AMOLED Display

As the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S III draws ever-closer, Amazon Germany has already begun accepting pre-orders of the handset, and whilst there aren’t any accompanying images, the price and features revealed are – given Amazon’s rep as an online retailer – as good as confirmation.

It was only yesterday that a Vietnamese tech site released a video purporting to be the device, but its list of the smartphone’s specs don’t quite correlate with Amazon’s. Yesterday’s leak suggested an 8 mega-pixel snapper would take the role as main camera, however Amazon Germany notes it will include a 12-megapixel camera – in line with dozens upon dozens of rumors up until yesterday.

The display will be a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED one, so there will be – as predicted – plenty of screen real-estate for Android users to play around with.

As far as price goes, the unlocked, SIM-free version will retail for €599, which, at the current exchange rate, is just shy of 800 US dollars. With that being said, consumer electronics vendors don’t usually use Google to convert currencies, so the chances are, it will be slightly cheaper for those lucky souls residing in the US of A.

While we still believe the Vietnamese leak yesterday to be a legitimate prototype, the labeling of the device suggests it was made in December of last year, since which Samsung will have made quite a few improvements and amendments.

While megapixels are certainly not the holy grail in features that make up a good camera, we still fully expect it to excel in terms of performance. Samsung’s forte is in the AMOLED, so it will want to make sure the display gets a fair representation with a beastly new camera.

There’s likely to be 16GB of internal storage (expandable via the microSD card slot), while the camera will be further enhanced by an LED flash. In terms of the operating system, we’ll certainly be seeing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and although Amazon cannot shed any light on the design, it’s likely to offer a ceramic finish.

Whatever the case, we’ll find out on May 3rd for sure what the Korean LCD specialist has up its sleeve, and if it’s anything like the rumors, it could easily be the most successful Android-based smartphone launch to date.

If you want to pre-order yours however, then head over to this link.

645 PRO Turns Your iPhone Into A Mini-DSLR Camera, Offers Lossless JPEG Compression And More

While the iPhone 4/4S camera have both managed to displace some of the more popular standalone cameras on sites such as Flickr, many of those with professional photographic nous still don’t view the Apple smartphone’s camera as a serious choice.

With good reason, too. Many of the apps make it easy to create and manipulate an image, and as such, the benchmark for what one would consider “good photography” has become somewhat hazy. 645 PRO, an iPhone 4S-specific camera app, tries – and often succeeds – to offer a more feature-rich, professional image-snapping experience.

From the ground up, you can instantly tell that it’s not your generic photo app. There are literally hundreds of camera apps claiming to improve the results from the 8 mega-pixel camera, but none have – as yet – been quite as interesting as 645 PRO.

It claims to be the first iPhone camera app to offer the “developed RAW” .tiff files used by the professional photographers, while the JPEGs pumped out by the app are also of a standard unprecedented in any competing app.

While the iPhone 4S camera has drawn some comparisons to the Nikons and the Canons of the world, 645 PRO actually gives it some respectability, and with options such as the ability to save “lossless” JPEGs, pitching the minuscule lens against the brickier, pricier professional cameras doesn’t appear quite as ridiculous.

645 PRO’s offers several Film Modes, which draw inspiration from the classic film stocks used by 1960s snappers as well as those of the more contemporary photographers.

It’s not completely rebellious of other photo apps, though, and much like the popular Hipstamatic app for iPhone, the camera can be altered to look a certain way, adding further authenticity to the app’s retro-inspired motif.

All in all, 645 PRO is a beautifully crafted, bespoke example of what can happen when the mold is broken, and that extra mile is explored in order to offer a new, exciting and feature-rich experience.

It costs $2.99 over at at Apple’s App Store, and if you’re looking for a camera app which leans toward a professional pallet of tools, then 645 PRO is certainly the best there is.

It works with the iPhone 4, but since the 4S is the better camera, you’re naturally going to garner better results with the newer of the two.

Download 645 PRO for iPhone [iTunes link]

TurboScan For iPhone Turns Your Device Into A Full-Blown Image Scanner, Saves Documents In A Variety Of Formats

There’s not exactly a shortage of productivity-centered apps throughout Apple’s App Store. In fact, games aside, it’s probably the category with the broadest range of choice.

There are plenty of to-do list apps, and likewise, there are hundreds of note-taking apps, both of which can help you become more productive and keep yourself in the loop as it were.

TurboScan by Pixoft – while by no means unique – offers services to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users which we probably don’t see often enough. Most places of work use .pdf files at some stage, due to their widespread recognition and versatility. TurboScan allows iOS folk to use their device in order to scan, print and share .pdf documents – a process usually requiring a larger, standalone device.

Of course, it doesn’t scan them in the traditional sense, but it allows you to quickly take a snapshot and convert it to that renowned .pdf format. Once you’ve scanned your document, you can send them to yourself, e-mail as a .pdf (or a JPEG if you prefer), save to your Camera Roll, and even print (providing you hook the app up with an AirPrint printer).

Obviously, the better your device’s camera, the cleaner and crisper your scan will be. Presuming most will scan basic, text-only documents, this shouldn’t be an issue for any of the cameras in the iDevice range, although the developer does state the app isn’t designed for the iPod touch camera or that of the second-gen iPad. Then again, if you wish to make copies of more complex documents with vivid lines and sharp colors – or just want the best quality possible – you’ll probably want to stick with the iPhone 4S’s 8 mega-pixel snapper.

Far from being a simple camera app with the ability to convert to .pdf, it boasts many of the professional features you’d expect from a “proper,” fully-comp desktop tool. For example, TurboScan utilizes fast algorithms in order to automatically detect the edges of the document. From there, it can straighten out the document to the correct perspective, remove those pesky shadows and decide the most accurate contrast.

It costs $1.99 from the App Store, which, having tested it out, is very reasonable, and if you’re in need of a quick, convenient document maker, then check out the download link of TurboScan below.

Download TurboScan for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch[iTunes link]

 

Source: RedmondPie(DOT)com

SnapNPlay For Android Plays Back Snapped Music Sheets Using The Device’s Camera

Some interesting ideas and apps have been created using smartphone cameras – some more creative and intriguing than others. Ranking up there with those utilities which allow words and sentences captured via the camera lens to be translated on-the-fly, SnapNPlay for Android allows you to take pictures of sheet music, and then plays that piece back to you.

Based on an optical music recognition algorithm written by the developer, it does a much better job than one would perhaps expect from such an app. It has been created to detect the language of musical notes written on paper, although can also pick up music from a computer screen.

As you can guess, the brighter the environment and surroundings, the better the app will perform, thus the likelier you are to get a perfect transfer from paper to your Android device. Similarly, you’re at an advantage if your device’s camera happens to be one of the sharper snappers on the market.

It’s by no means the finished article. At the moment, it doesn’t attempt to parse rests, grace notes, nor triplets, and it can often erroneously flag a non-note glyph as an actual note. Nonetheless, it works well for what is a version 1.0, and the developer has promised to work hard on improving SnapNPlay in order to make it more complete in future versions.

It can deal with slanted shots, and those taken in dim lighting with the flash (that is, of course, if your camera has a flash), but it is always recommended you try to capture the image as clearly and correctly as possible, affording you the best and most accurate possible outcome.

The full version is $3.99, although there is also a demo version you can test drive before making the purchase. If you enjoy playing instruments, or just simply take pleasure in listening to the ambient sounds that can be created by them, then SnapNPlay could well be the app for you. If you’ve no idea of how to read music, but like the idea of learning, then this app could also be your ticket to a fluent understanding.

Download SnapNPlay for Android [Google Play link]