ADOBE SEES THE LIGHT
Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard of image manipulation. But trying anything beyond the basics sets off a blind panic among many amateur photographers and even many pros.
Adobe has just released a public beta test of Lightroom 3. The downloadable software is free from Adobe, at
bit.ly/28oABi, for the duration of the test. Afterward, the software will probably cost US$299, the price of the current version.
The difference between Lightroom and Photoshop is that Lightroom is aimed at helping photographers — not graphic designers — import, manage, enhance and share images. Another distinction is that Lightroom is much more intuitive to use. Yet it’s packed with robust features.
The software includes new capabilities to publish and dynamically change photos on Flickr. Users can access their online accounts from within Lightroom and can drag and drop images directly into their Flickr photostream.
It also adds new watermarking capabilities that enable photographers to embed text or graphic information directly on an image and then adjust the size, position and opacity.
One glaring omission from Lightroom 3 is video-editing capabilities. Adobe says this version will handle photos only.
THE THIRD DIMENSION ARRIVES ON LAPTOPS
Theaters now regularly show 3D movies, with meatballs and ghosts popping off the screen, and companies in Japan and South Korea are starting to sell 3D TVs for the living room. And now a third screen is going 3D: the laptop’s.
Acer, the Taiwanese PC maker, has introduced a full-size laptop, the Acer 5738DG, that shows off 3D content like movies or games. Just put on a pair of those strange wraparound glasses like the ones you get in theaters. A pair is packed with the computer.
It may be a novelty, but differentiation is the name of the PC game, and Acer, which recently became the world’s second largest PC seller after Hewlett-Packard, is seeking new gains. The US$780 Acer laptop with its TriDef 3D package includes a specially coated 15-inch screen and software to create the illusion of depth. The TriDef application also converts old-fashioned 2D into 3D in games and other applications supporting Microsoft’s DirectX 9 (and above) software. It is being sold with 4 gigabytes of system memory and a 320-gigabyte hard drive.
And yes, it comes with Windows 7.
A PREMIUM VERSION OF A POPULAR MINI CAMCORDER
The maker of the popular Flip pocket camcorders has added a premium US$230 MinoHD (second edition) that’s packaged in a brushed-metal case with rounded corners and offers twice the recording time and a slightly wider LCD screen than its predecessor.
That’s not a radical departure from the previous MinoHD, now priced at US$200, but if you’re planning to buy a Flip, the 8 gigabytes of on-board memory (versus 4 gigabytes on the standard MinoHD) is probably worth the additional US$30.
And while the pocketable MinoHD is enormously fun and ridiculously simple to use, it would have been more tempting had its resolution been raised from 720p (1280 x 720) to the higher-definition 1080p (1920 x 1280), which is available on Kodak’s US$180 Zi8.
The new MinoHD can store two hours of 720p footage at 30 frames a second. The case is notably slicker than its predecessor. The new model also has a larger 2-inch anti-glare LCD with an improved resolution of 960 by 240 pixels. It adds a mini-HDMI connector that will enable you to connect the device to your high-definition TV.
RSS