Digital photography

Let's get this out of the way first: if you're looking for updates to Photoshop, move along, there's nothing to see here. Ditto for Illustrator and Fireworks. While there's a lot going on in Adobe's bump to Creative Suite 5.5, those products will retain the CS5 moniker. As for the rest of the crew, the updates to the applications fall into four categories: single source, multiple target workflow enhancements; improved interapplication integration; performance boosts and interface tweaks; and broader support for a variety of formats. I'm not going to list all the various … Read more

Update at 12:30 p.m. PT: Google claims CNN's story to be speculative. A company representative said "we are in fact not working on developing an app with these capabilities."

Update at 4:30 p.m. PT: CNN is now countering Google's claims, saying it stands by the original piece. An updated version of our story follows.

Google says it's not working on an application that would allow users to identify others by snapping a picture of their face with a cell phone camera, despite a high-profile report that one is on the way.

A report posted by CNN earlier today claimed the company is at work on such an application, but faces privacy hurdles in readying it for market. The story contained an interview with Google's engineering director for image recognition development, Harmut Neven.

In a statement earlier this afternoon a representative for Google said, "we are in fact not working on developing an app with these capabilities," and referred to the piece as speculative. Now CNN is fighting Google on the issue, claiming that the company's claims "do not fit the facts of the situation."

"This interview was prearranged--on the record--and staffed by a Google PR rep, who raised no objections at the time and did not deny what the engineer said," a CNN representative told CNET. "Additionally, we have an audio recording of the interview, as does Google. We stand firmly behind Mark's reporting."

A Google representative declined to comment on CNN's statement.

Privacy remains a touchy subject for Google. Earlier this week Google entered a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission over last year's launch of its Buzz service, which has led to the company agreeing to establish a "comprehensive privacy program." In terms of imaging, Google had also gotten in hot water with privacy groups when it rolled out its Street View technology, which provided raw photos with faces and license plates, two details that were later removed.… Read more

A stylish camera and fun photo editor, PictureShow, now updated to version 3.0, offers users a vast array of effects, adjustments, and camera styles to choose from when snapping and editing their photos.

PictureShow has been my go-to photo editor to get that popular low-fi look that seems to be spreading around the Web. New additions to the camera function in version 3.0 are 5 new lenses including a cool multiexposure look, a rule-of-thirds grid, and a 10-second timer function.

PictureShow has also added 11 new styles to their already impressive array of filters. Calm, Vintage Red, Light … Read more

Google is showing some signs it understands how photography is changing on the Net.

In the olden days, people posted batches of digital photos on the Web in photo albums their friends would look at occasionally. Often half the point of uploading the shots was getting them to a place like Snapfish or Shutterfly that could create prints.

Picasa Web Albums, Google's photo-sharing site, was born in this era. Now, though, photos are becoming an in-the-moment part of people's online social lives, notably with Net-connected smartphones and Facebook sharing with friends. Picasa Web Albums--never a product that advanced … Read more

Among the news items this week from the world of Apple, the folks over at AppleInsider uncovered a rumor that Apple may be having a launch event next week for a new line of MacBook Pros. According to the story, this would put the launch event a week ahead of schedule.

As usual, Apple remains tight-lipped about what features will be unveiled in the new laptops, but the one sure thing is that it will include Intel's latest generation Sandy Bridge processor.

Whatever is introduced next week (if the rumor turns out to be true), you can bet we'll have all the details here. Make sure to check back on launch day for photos, specs, and everything else about Apple's latest devices.

This week's apps include an image enhancement tool that produces cool-looking shots and an RTS game that closely resembles one of the most popular strategy games of all time.… Read more

PicPlz, a photo-sharing start-up, has released a programming interface that lets applications tap into its tools for uploading and applying artistic filters to images.

"We think that allowing developers access to our upload and filter pipeline brings something different to the table than "just another photo-sharing API,'" the company said in a blog post yesterday. "We're pleased to announce that in the past 2 weeks we've had well over 100 developers apply to be part of our API (far exceeding our expectations)."

Opening an API lets programmers tap into the abilities of a … Read more

Flickr accidentally deleted a member's account--comments, favorites, and thousands of photos--but now has given the photographer a 25-year Pro-level subscription and all his photos back.

And more importantly for others who fear the same might happen to them, Flickr is working to update its system to prevent such a mistake from happening again and to make such draconian moves easier to reverse.

Mirco Wilhelm described his dismay yesterday to find that 5 years of activity and about 4,000 photos were wiped out when his account vanished. Perplexed, he realized it might be connected to an abuse report he … Read more

Google Street View is going indoors.

Starting today, folks can explore 17 museums around the world using Google's Street View technology, the search giant announced in a blog post. Dubbed Art Project, the initiative lets users view artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the National Gallery in London, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, among others.

When users choose a museum, they can opt to walk through its many halls, or learn more about a particular piece of art with an information pane to the right of the program'… Read more

It's been well over a year since Adobe first rolled out Photoshop Express, an iPhone app with basic image-editing and online storage features.

Yesterday, the company took the wraps off Photoshop Express 1.5, bringing a couple of much-needed features to the app and a couple of minor improvements.

For starters, Photoshop Express now lets you capture photos right within the app. And it supports rapid-fire shooting, saving snaps almost as quickly as you can tap the shutter button. As with the stock Camera app, you spot-focus by tapping on the screen.

Another long-overdue amenity: multitasking. When you hop … Read more