Adobe Releases Photoshop CS6 Beta

Adobe has tonight released the beta of Photoshop CS6, giving users a “sneak preview” of the new tools and performance enhancements that Adobe has been working on for CS6. The standout new features include an even better Content-Aware Patch tool that allows you to literally move objects around an image like they were always there, a ‘modern’ UI with much improved performance and re-engineered tools.

The Verge has a detailed look at the beta and amongst the new features, they highlight a few features such as background save, easy iris blur and tilt shift tools and even a simple video editing tool that lets you use many Photoshop tools and shortcuts. Meanwhile, Marc Edwards of bjango runs through a list of improvements and changes that matter most to him as an interface designer - highlighting some of the more minute details, such as layer searching and group clipping masks, that have a big impact on how things can be accomplished.

You can download the beta of Photoshop CS6 for free. A final release will be made available sometime in the first half of this year for $699 new or $199 if you’re upgrading (those prices are $999 and $399 if you want CS6 Extended). Jump the break for a video from Adobe that highlights some of the notable improvements and new features in CS6.

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Instagram’s New Experiment: Open Up The API for Third-Party Uploads

Hipstamatic, a photo sharing app for the iPhone that allows users to apply vintage/analog effects and filters to their photos, has become the first app to directly integrate with Instagram. The popular iPhone-only sharing service, now boasting over 27 million users and on the verge of releasing an Android app, has so far allowed third-party developers to integrate their apps with the Instagram API to only visualize a user’s photos or feed. The API hasn’t allowed for the creation of real Instagram clients for other devices, in that uploading could be done exclusively using Instagram’s own app.

Today, however, an update to Hipstamatic and a collaboration between the two services first reported by Fast Company might signal an important change in Instagram’s direction and nature as a photo sharing service. The new Hipstamatic, available now on the App Store, comes with a redesigned “HipstaShare” system to send photos to various social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Among the supported services, a new Instagram option now enables you to log into your Instagram account, and upload photos directly within Hipstamatic, without leaving the app. There is no “forwarding” of files to the Instagram app, nor does Hipstamatic asks you to download the Instagram app from the App Store – this is true uploading to Instagram done by a third-party, via the API.

Unlike most photo sharing apps these days, Hipstamatic puts great focus on recreating the analog experience of shooting photos and carefully selecting the equipment you’d like to shoot with. With a somewhat accurate representation of vintage films, lenses, camera cases, and flash units, Hipstamatic wants to appeal to that kind of userbase that is not simply interested in capturing a fleeing moment and share it in seconds; rather, as famous appearances on publications like The New York Times confirm, the Hipstamatic crowd is more of a passionate gathering of 4 million users looking to spend minutes, if not hours, trying to achieve the perfect setup for each occasion, spending one dollar at a time on in-app purchases that unlock different filters and “parts” of the cameras supported in Hipstamatic. Unlike Instagram or, say, Camera+, Hipstamatic isn’t built to shoot & share; the ultimate goal is undoubtedly sharing, but it’d be more appropriate to describe Hipstamatic’s workflow as “set up, shoot, then share”.

Hipstamatic seems to have realized, however, that sharing can’t be relegated to a simple accessory  that has a second place behind the app’s custom effects and unlockable items. Whilst in-app purchases and fancy graphics may have played an important role in driving Hipstamatic’s success so far, apps can’t go without a strong sharing and social foundation nowadays, and since its launch two years ago, Instagram has seen tremendous growth for being only an iPhone app. With this update, Instagram and Hipstamatic are doing a favor to each other: Instagram gets to test the waters with an API that now allows for uploading through other clients that support similar feature sets; Hipstamatic maintains its existing functionalities, but it adds a new social layer that plugs natively into the world’s hottest photo sharing startup.

Looking at the terms of the “deal” (I don’t think any revenue sharing is taking place between the two parties), it appears both sides got the perks they wanted. This native integration comes with an Instagram icon in Hipstamatic’s new sharing menu, which, when tapped, will let you log into your account. Once active, each “Hipstaprint” (another fancy name for photos) can be shared on a variety of networks, with Facebook even supporting friend tagging. You can upload multiple photos at once if you want, too. In the sharing panel, you can optionally decide to activate “equipment tagging” – this option will, alongside the client’s information, include #hashtags for the lens, film and other equipment that you use in your Hipstamatic camera.

On the Instagram’s side, things get a little more interesting. Hipstamatic photos get uploaded respecting Instagram’s photo sizes, and they get a border around the image to, I guess, indicate their “print” nature. Together with the title, Instagram will display the aforementioned tags for equipment, and a “Taken with Hipstamatic” link that, when tapped, will ask you to launch Hipstamatic. If you don’t have Hipstamatic installed on your iPhone, this link will take you to the App Store page for the app.

Overall, what really intrigues me about this collaboration isn’t the Hipstamatic update per se – version “250” of the app is solid and well-built, but I don’t use Hipstamatic myself on a regular basis, as I prefer more direct tools like Instagram, Camera+, or even the Facebook app for iOS. What I really think could be huge, both for the companies involved and the users, is the API that Hipstamatic is leveraging here. Hipstamatic is doing the right thing: sharing has become a fundamental part of the mobile photo taking process, and it would be foolish to ignore Instagram’s popularity and come up with a whole new network.

Instagram, on the other hand, is taking an interesting path (no pun intended) that, sometime down the road, might turn what was once an iPhone app into a de-facto option for all future social sharing implementations. A few months from now, would it be crazy to think Camera+ could integrate with Instagram to offer antive uploads? Or to imagine built-in support for Instagram photo uploads in, say, iOS, Twitter clients, and other photo apps? I don’t think so. Just as “taken with Hipstamatic” stands out in today’s Instagram feeds, “Upload to Instagram” doesn’t sound too absurd at this point.

Ahead Of Angry Birds Space Launch Tomorrow, Rovio Releases Final Trailer

Rovio has released the final trailer for Angry Birds Space, the fourth game in the Angry Birds series (following the original, Seasons and Rio). The trailer introduces the space theme with an introduction scene showing the birds being flung into space. The rest of the trailer mixes quotes, shots of each of the birds (such as the one seen above) and some gameplay footage of the new levels.

Naturally the new game features some twists such as zero gravity and a “light speed destruction” feature. Angry Birds Space launches tomorrow, March 22nd on iOS, Android, Mac and PC. Jump the break for the full trailer, or watch it on YouTube.

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So the iPad Gets a Little Warm→

So the iPad Gets a Little Warm

Consumer Reports, just one of many news outlets, reporting on the iPad’s newest apparent feature: hand warming.

During our tests, I held the new iPad in my hands. When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period.

I’ll grit my teeth and bear the sensationalist headlines. I’m okay with tech blogs comparing temperatures between various iPad models for the sake of “science.” But I’m not okay with the above testimony. It’s a complete white whine.

The iPad 2 could get slightly warm after gaming or watching videos for a period of time, and the iPad (3) gets noticeably warmer (but not hot) at the back left corner where most of the processing components are located inside. While there are sometimes exceptions in the various Apple-gates that the media tends to manufacture with every new product launch — the iPhone 4’s antenna being an actual problem for lots of customers — the fact is that computer chips generate heat and the combination of technologies in the latest iPad (A5X processor and the Broadcom chips) contribute to this non-issue. The problem with a lot of these articles is that they’re completely misleading concerning how hot the new iPad is to the touch.

It’s something else for the press to complain about and get page views for despite the technological accomplishment of not only fitting a 2048 x 1536 resolution display in the space of 9.7 inches, but then being able to smoothly render games like Infinity Blade II and Air Supremacy on top of that. If getting a little warm is the trade-off for having a high performance iPad, then I’m completely okay with that. Unless the iPad is actually scalding your hand or is boiling hot to the touch (it’s nowhere close), the heat dissipated through the aluminum frame shouldn’t be a concern. Apparently, scalding hot laptops aren’t a problem, but a lukewarm iPad is.

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Basil Review

In there’s one thing (among others) that I have noticed while using the iPad extensively over the past five months, is that it makes for an excellent “kitchen screen” while cooking. Whether it’s for browsing recipes or keeping an eye on what the final results should look like, the iPad’s form factor and wide array of apps, coupled with the excellent Safari and Facebook apps, allow for a fantastic experience when browsing recipes, checking out friends’ recommendations, and saving instructions and photos for future usage.

It was with particular interest that I tested Kyle Baxter’s new iPad app, Basil. Available today on the App Store, Basil is a fresh take on “smart recipe books” that lets you to keep your recipes neatly organized in a clean interface that gets out of the way, but it’s also smart enough to facilitate the process of cooking better.

A recipe app should have a clean interface with text on a white background, large buttons you can easily tap, search features, and timers. Basil does this by leveraging the inner strengths of iOS, and it adds its own implementation of bookmarklet/parser to make the process of saving recipes from the web effortless and intuitive. Read more

Apple Confirms: Three Million iPads Sold In 4 Days

Apple just confirmed with a press release they have sold over 3 million iPads since the device’s debut on March 16.

The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.

To put these numbers in perspective, let’s take a trip down Apple’s iPad memory lane again and remember how iPad sales evolved over time.

And then, of course, the company kept pushing the iPad quarter after quarter with new software, new apps, and a new version in March 2011, achieving these results:

It is worth noting, however, that the original iPad and iPad 2 went on sale exclusively in the United States on Day One, whilst today’s iPad numbers include sales and pre-orders for the United States and 9 more launch countries from March 16, 2012. This Friday (March 23), the device will go on sale in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

For comparison, the new iPad has sold 3 million units in 4 days, while the iPhone 4S sold 4 million units in 3 days last October (the 4S went on sale in 7 countries on October 14, 2011). The iPhone 4S has been the Apple’s biggest success with the iPhone line so far, reporting over 37 million units sold in the last quarter. If these initial are of any indication, it seems like Apple’s strategy with multiple, international rollouts a week from each other may lead to the biggest iPad launch to date.

Earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company saw “record” sales for the new iPad in its opening weekend. The new iPad launched to very positive reviews from the press (which mentioned the device’s Retina display, LTE, and battery life as great selling points) and long lines around the world.