Photofocus Reviews the iPhone 4S Camera

Scott Bourne on the iPhone 4S camera:

I just finally got an Apple iPhone 4s. The camera included with this phone simply blows me away. I now see why under $200 point and shoot sales are dropping like a rock. The pictures you can make with this phone meet or exceed the quality that you can get out of many of the sub $200 point and shoot cameras. In fact, with proper lighting and technique, this camera can perform up to the level of some of the $400 and $500 point and shoots.

[…]

The iPhone 4s is one of the most user-friendly cameras in the world. Since you can access this camera for as little as $199 (including the rest of the iPhone) I think it’s a great value. The best camera is the one you have with you and I never go anywhere without my phone, so I always have a camera. And now – I always have a camera that is competent enough to take photos that could print as large as 8×10″ if properly exposed in good light.

I have long followed Scott Bourne as a photographer and highly respect his evaluations. The cameras I own are a Canon EOS 40D, Canon PowerShot G9, and my iPhone 4. The G9 is rarely touched, and the 40D only when I am setting out on a photographic mission. My iPhone 4 is always with me, is quick to use, and takes pretty darn good pictures. And the iPhone 4S camera is better. The G9 does have its rare uses, but I can’t foresee buying another point and shoot to replace it.

More than anything, with each iPhone release, I look forward to what the camera will be like. Like I said, I love my 4, but whatever the next iPhone is, I can’t wait to take pictures with it.

Safari Omnibar

I am a die-hard Safari user, but I do have Google Chrome installed on my Mac for the occasional need of Adobe Flash, since Chrome has a player embedded within, and I prefer to keep Flash off my machine otherwise.

One of the things I do love about Chrome is its Omnibar — the unified bar that handles addresses and search. Safari still keeps a separate search bar next to the address bar. Thanks to a post by Stephen Hackett, I have found a Safari extension that adds most of the Omnibar functionality to the address bar.

Now, Stephen talks mainly of a SIMBL plugin, which is a little hacky for my liking. In the update, he talks of an extension, which is Apple’s approved method. I’m using the extension.

The extension is available via the Safari extension page. It’s filed under Search Tools and is simply named Omnibar. The developer’s github page has some info on search shortcuts.

The one advantage of the SIMBL plugin over the extension is that the plugin can hide the standard Safari search field, much like Chrome’s look. But I’m still going to stick with the extension, as it sure seems much easier to deal with.

Hopefully Apple will someday hop on the Omnibar bandwagon.

'Open' to Infection

Sara Yin at PC Magazine:

Symantec has discovered a new Android botnet that is still thriving in the Android Market and has already been downloaded several million times this year.

The Trojan ‘Android.Counterclank’ was packaged in at least 13 free games published by three different publishers, making it harder to trace. Symantec notified Google on Thursday and at press time, 9 of the apps were still available in Google’s official app store.

My parents currently have Android phones because that is what they were given as a freebie when their carrier was gobbled up by AT&T. They run an antivirus app on them. It’s pretty ridiculous, if you ask me.

Android’s openness is totally awesome.

[via Sebastiaan de With]

Demobilizer

Demobilizer is a great little Safari extension by Junecloud, the makers of the wonderful Delivery Status.

What demobilizer does is take links mobile sites and redirects them to the full site. This is really helpful, as I click a lot of m.example.com links from Twitter. I also see this a lot with links I have saved to Instapaper.

It’s a handy extension that stays out of your way, but enables your way forward.

[via Fruit Bytes]

The Restart Page

This brings back so many memories…

Note: You’ll need to be on a desktop OS.

How to Perfectly Reheat Pizza

I used this tip on how to reheat pizza today for my lunch. I dare say my pizza tasted better using this method than when it was freshly delivered last night. Sure, it takes a lot longer than zapping the pizza in the microwave, but it is definitely worth it.

[via TBR, a long time ago]

NORAD Santa Tracker

One of my fondest childhood memories of Christmas was calling the NORAD Santa tracking hotline to check and see where St. Nick was at. I also greatly enjoyed using the [website] in the late 90's even though I was well beyond the childhood tales of Santa.

Here is how the story behind NORAD tracking Santa goes:

The program began on December 24, 1955 when a Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper which told children that they could telephone Santa Claus and included a number for them to call. However, the telephone number printed was incorrect and calls instead came through to Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. Colonel Shoup, who was on duty that night, told his staff to give all children that called in a "current location" for Santa Claus. A tradition began which continued when the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958.

Now you can share the fun of tracking Santa with your kids on your iPhone or Android phone. Get it on the App Store or Android Market.

Speaking of Android Software Updates

Vlad Savov:

Samsung has just distributed the worst news of this Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade cycle: the popular Galaxy S smartphone that sold 10 million units last year and the 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet won't be upgraded to Android 4.0. The company's argument is that they lack sufficient RAM and ROM to run the new OS alongside TouchWiz and other "experience-enhancing" software. This will come as a massive blow to the great many users of the Galaxy S, who would have rightly expected the 1GHz Hummingbird processor and accompanying memory to be able to handle ICS — it's the same hardware as you'll find inside the Nexus S, and that phone is receiving Android 4.0 over the air right now.

The difference is the Nexus S runs pure Android, and the Galaxy S runs Samsung's own TouchWiz skin. Samsung (and other manufacturers who skin Android) always claim these skins enhance the experience. Those must be some wicked enhancements to forego the next generation of the OS.

A Good Smartphone Comes But Once a Year

Chris Ziegler writes an amazing editorial at The Verge about the effect of dozens of Android phones released each year compared to one great iPhone.

One of the greatest detriments is not being able to update those seemingly countless devices in a timely fashion (if ever).

This one’s just simple math: more SKUs means more firmwares, and more versions of those firmwares. Each of those versions needs the care and feeding of an engineering team, and there are only so many engineers to go around. If a particular model is unpopular — which is more likely when you’re releasing a countless array of them — long-term support becomes an even greater risk.

Compare that to the iPhone 3GS, 4, & 4S, which are all capable of running iOS 5. The 3GS was released two and a half years ago. Can any Android phone make that same claim?

Best Buy Cancels Christmas

Downright shameful.