Bringing global photography to public spaces

Shweta Sharma, Oct 01, 2015, DHNS

Reclaiming spaces

Amid the regular hustle and bustle at the Select Citywalk mall in Saket, Tina stood glued to a television screen which displayed varied works — from fashion photography to mobile photography. "I have never seen this screen placed here before, neither have I seen these works. This is a wonderful way to bring photography close to the common man, who otherwise may not get such opportunities."And it is with the same intention that photographers Manik Katyal, Poulomi Basu, and CJ Clarke conceptualised 'Just Another Photo Festival' (JAPF), that brought powerful, inspiring photography to a mass audience.

The idea for the festival germinated after the trio realised that the present state of photography in India was synonymous with lack of exposure and limited opportunities for people outside of the photography scene to see great work from around the world.

"This encouraged us to explore this space and bring over 150 photographers from 35 countries to Delhi. The mai n idea is to democratise photography in India; to take it to the people rather than inviting them to fancy museums/gallery shows. We want people to enjoy photography, celebrate the medium and most importantly, make it for people from all classes and backgrounds," Katyal, founder and editor-in-chief of Emaho Magazine/Foundation, tells Metrolife.

Bringing global photography to the masses, the festival's first edition held free-to-access events between September 25-30 at prominent public locations across the capital to reach out and build a grassroots platform for photography. The venues included a mall, a slum in Vasant Kunj, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Old Delhi and also Lajpat Nagar.Sharing details of her work, Adriana Zehbrauskas, a Brazilian documentary photographer says she loves to tell stories about anonymous people, their lives, dreams, hopes and fears.

"The work I'm showing was shot entirely on my iPhone in 2015 either as a commission, or complementing an assignment.  Most of these images were uploaded to my Instagram feed. I think it's important to tell stories about people and places that are always misrepresented. No stories are too small to be told," Zehbrauskas says.

Another photographer, Nafise Motlaq from Iran says that while her project reflects her relationship with her father, who came back to life after slipping in to coma for a few days, it also showcases Iranian culture.

"The project started with simple portraits of my family and friends but later I decided to look at it within a bigger perspective to show the variety of social classes in Iran through a father-daughter relationship. In this collection, people will see how diverse Iranians are in terms of cultural, economic, social and religious background," she tells Metrolife.

But how strong is the concept of public art in India?"Photography should be shown more in public places because it kills the elitism of the medium which is often pres ented at certain selective venues only. We really believe in the concept of public art and are planning to take JAPF to different cities. I wish that there was more support from the local photography community, instead we are being targeted. But we are here to celebrate photography and make JAPF a huge success, not for us but for the cause of public art," Katyal says.

Agrees UK-based Philip Toledano, whose work ranges from socio political to being deeply personal. He says, "I firmly believe in the idea of democratic art. It shouldn'tbe locked away in the exclusive biosphere in which it tends to exist."

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Source: Bringing global photography to public spaces

Winkflash Launches Mobile-First Photo Book App

Huntington Beach, CA (PRWEB) September 29, 2015

Winkflash, the photo-printing, canvas and gifting site, released an innovative free iOS app for quickly creating mobile photo books. Swipebooks for Winkflash is the first mobile photo book app to embrace finger swiping as a way to not only select photos, but to adjust photo-book layouts.

"Swipebooks was created to allow the mobile photographer to create photo books from their photos on their Apple devices," says Fred H. Lerner, founder and CEO, Winkflash. "Printing your iPhone photos is the only way to be sure your photos will live on in case of a lost phone or crash. The intuitive Swipebooks interface makes it easy to select the best photos, and then create a photo book from them in seconds."

Books can be ordered an iPhone for shipping to the consumer's home or any address they choose. A 20-page book will cost $19.99, plus shipping.

ABOUT WINKFLASH.COMWinkflash.com is the pre-eminent site for printing photos instantly at thousands of retailers from your phone app or PC and also offers convenient mail-to-home. Winkflash preserves photo memories as photo books, canvas, prints, cards, enlargements and other photo gift products. The service is seamlessly integrated to print your photos and the photos you are tagged in from Facebook and Instagram photos…and photos from any phone, device or computer. Winkflash offices are located in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Fred H. Lerner is the founder and CEO of Winkflash. He previously founded Ritz Interactive, which included RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com and others. Fred also founded two imaging companies which were acquired by Kodak and became the CEO of Kodak Processing Labs. He is a United Nations' Hall of Fame recipient from the International Photographic Council and Past President of the Photo Marketing Association International. 

Peter Tahmin, co-founder and COO of Winkflash, was the former vice president at Ritz Camera & Image and co-founder, senior vice president and COO of the Ritz Interactive e-commerce network, which included RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com, BoatersWorld.com and others. He brings 20 years of e-commerce experience and a lifetime of imaging industry experience to Winkflash.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/Swipebooks/prweb12954420.htm

Source: Winkflash Launches Mobile-First Photo Book App

New Industry Studies Reveal Substantial Growth Opportunity For Consumer And Commercial Mobile Check Deposit

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SAN DIEGO, Sept. 28, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitek (NASDAQ:MITK) ( www.miteksystems.com), the leading innovator of mobile capture and identity solutions, today announced that a new American Bankers Association study reveals that an increasing number of Americans are using Mobile Remote Deposit Capture (mRDC) technology. The study found that one in seven Americans has deposited a check using a mobile device within the past year, highlighting not only the increased usage of mobile check deposit, but also the substantial growth opportunity ahead as more consumer banking customers adopt this easy to use technology. The study also revealed that those who use a mobile check deposit solution do so regularly, with fifty-four percent reporting they use it at least once per month. "This study validates the continued growth in adoption and usage of mobile check deposit solutions as consumer banking customers become more accustomed to using their mobile devices in a more self-service manner," s aid James B. DeBello, president & CEO, Mitek . "More importantly, the report highlights the substantial future growth opportunity that remains for Mitek within the consumer segment to drive usage beyond just 1 in 7 Americans with our easy-to-use Mobile DepositÒ solution. Mitek is the market share leader in the consumer mobile check deposit market with over 4,100 banks, and over 50 million users using our Mobile Deposit solution. "In addition, we believe the market opportunity for commercial mobile check deposit is even larger, and we are focused on expanding our leadership in consumer mobile check deposit into the large and growing commercial market for business deposits." In an April 2015 report, Seizing the Small Business RDC Opportunity , industry analyst Celent stated that 100 percent of U.S. banks surveyed had plans to, or are considering adopting commercial mobile deposit. They attributed this finding to the fact that in addition to being a customer acquisition and retention tool for financial institutions, a commercial mobile deposit solution directs business customers toward the lower cost, self-service mobile channel. To illustrate the benefits of Mitek's commercial mobile check deposit solution, through partnership with DadeSystems, Mitek has enabled Regal Wines', distributors of Kendall Jackson wines, delivery drivers to deposit payments from their customers using a camera enabled mobile device. M itek's Mobile Deposit solution has allowed the field service team to become more efficient, virtually eliminate lost payments and paperwork, and experience accelerated cash posting, increased cash flow and even stronger customer service, while at the same time lowering the financial institutions cost of servicing this commercial customer. About Mitek Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Mitek (NASDAQ:MITK) is the leading innovator of mobile capture and identity solutions for customer acquisition. Mitek's mobile photo technology enables consumers to use the Camera as a Keyboard™ to reduce friction for mobile check deposit, account opening, insurance quoting, payments, and ID document authentication. This innovative mobile technology is licensed by more than 4,100 organizations and used by tens of millions of consumers. In June of 2015, Mitek acquired IDchecker, a global provider of cloud based identity document verification and facial recognition solutions. The acquisition broadens Mite k's global presence, expands document coverage to more than 3,500 document types and adds international customers in payments, financial services and information services. www.miteksystems.com MITK-F Follow Mitek on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/mitek-systems-inc. Follow Mitek on Twitter: @miteksystems Connect with Mitek on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MitekSystems See Mitek on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/miteksystems Read Mitek's latest blog post: http://www.miteksystems.com/blog CONTACT: Mitek Contact: Ann Reichert Senior Director of Marketing pr@miteksystems.com Investor Contacts: Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers MKR Group, Inc. mitk@mkr-group.com
Source: New Industry Studies Reveal Substantial Growth Opportunity For Consumer And Commercial Mobile Check Deposit

Mobile data services blocked in Godhra

By: Express News Service | Vadodara | Published:September 28, 2015 2:50 am

Mobile Internet services were suspended in Godhra for 24 hours after a "derogatory" message against a community was circulated on WhatsApp.

Police said in view of immersion of Ganesh idols in several parts of Gujarat, mobile data services were suspended as a precautionary measure.

Late Saturday night, Godhra B Division police lodged an FIR against unidentified persons for "hurting religious sentiments".

Police said the "original senders" of the message hail from Chhattisgarh and Kolkata. However, around 2,000 Muslims gathered at the police station, forcing officials to lodge a complaint.

Earlier, on September 23, an FIR was registered after photographs of Ganesh immersion, claimed to be derogatory, were uploaded on a local website. Police said investigations into the September 23 case were on.

Sub-divisional police officer V K Nai said, "The mobile Internet services will be restored on Monday… The FIR registered for circulating a derogatory message on the mobile social application at Godhra B Division prompted us to ensure that no issue is escalated."

Nai said police were probing the senders, who hail from Chhattisgarh and Kolkata. Nai said, "Even in the September 23 case related to a photograph of Ganesh immersions, our investigation indicated that it is a natural photo and does not appear to be morphed. The FSL, however, is helping with the investigation."

Source: Mobile data services blocked in Godhra

iPad Mini 4 review: A long wait makes for a potent upgrade

Fans of Apple's smaller iPad Mini caught a tough break last fall when the company unveiled its new tablets for the year. Although Tim Cook & co. lavished plenty of attention on the faster, slimmed-down iPad Air 2, the upgraded iPad Mini 3 was regarded as a mere afterthought. The list of changes was so short, in fact, that some of us wondered why Apple would introduce a performance gap between the Air and Mini lines. Still more people wondered when they'd get a Mini with enough power to match its larger sibling. Turns out, the answer was "a year later." I've been testing the new iPad Mini 4 for over a week now and can say with confidence this is the Mini we should've gotten last year.

Gallery | 20 Photos

iPad mini 4 review

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Apple iPad Mini 4

Pros

Vibrant screen

iOS 9 is great for multitasking

Solid performance

Respectable battery life

Cons

Rotation lock switch is gone

Still less powerful than the iPad Air 2

Base model only has 16GB of storage

Summary

After a yearlong wait, we finally have a properly upgraded iPad Mini. While it adopted the iPad Air 2's super-slim aesthetic and got a similarly great screen, the iPad Mini 4 makes do with Apple's dual-core A8 chipset. Performance is remarkably solid, though, and the smaller battery inside doesn't do the tablet a disservice. Still, with only a $100 difference between the most basic Mini 4 and the Air 2, you'll have to think on what size tablet you can really fit into your life.

Hardware

Apple's design team did most of the heavy lifting with the iPad Air 2 and now we're finally seeing that sleek aesthetic trickle down to the Mini. The 4's fit and finish is still first-rate and, more importantly, the whole package is about a tenth of a pound lighter than last year's model. That might not sound like a dramatic difference, but when you're building a device with a bigger-than-phone-sized screen, every ounce and gram matter. The iPad Air 2 felt almost unnaturally light for its size, so you can imagine how light the even smaller Mini 4 feels -- holding it aloft and watching YouTube videos for hours was none too painful.

The Minis were never exactly tanks, of course, but this year's thinner and lighter model (0.65 pound and 6.1mm, the same thickness as the Air 2) makes prolonged, one-handed use a pleasure. The Air-ification of the Mini line also means that handy rotation-lock switch -- part of the iPad's hardware formula for years -- has been excised. Keeping your screen from spinning around now requires you to swipe up the Control Center and tap an icon down there. This is one of those little changes that most people won't notice until they start feeling around for that familiar nubbin. Despite not using it that frequently, I still miss having it there.

It's easy to imagine Apple just took a shrink ray to an iPad Air 2 and called it a day, but there's more going on here than meets the eye. You see, rather than carry over the modified A8X from the Air 2, Apple kitted out the new Mini with the same A8 processor that's currently powering the iPhone 6, albeit except it's paired with 2GB of RAM instead of one. I've never had much reason to complain about the iPhone 6's performance, and the combination of that chipset and the extra RAM means the Mini 4 is, unsurprisingly, a snappy performer (more on that later). My review unit was a 128GB model, although Apple also offers 16GB and 64GB options with prices starting at $399 for a WiFi-only configuration. Toss in an updated 8-megapixel rear camera, not to mention faster 802.11ac WiFi and 20 LTE bands, and we've got a much-improved device on our hands.

Display and sound

The iPad Air 2 might give you more screen real estate, but the Mini 4 wins on pixel density, hands down. Like the Mini 3 before it, the newest generation squeezes 326 pixels into each linear inch of the device's 7.9-inch screen, making for crisp text and eye-popping visuals. Even better, Apple finally got rid of that tiny gap between the Mini's display panel and the slate of arsenic-free glass covering it; it's all been combined into a single, laminated panel.

What sounds like an exercise in LCD screen minutiae makes for some dramatic changes: It means less glare, better viewing angles and a touch more crispness. When we tested the Air 2 and the Mini 3, the difference in color clarity and saturation was pretty pronounced, but that's thankfully now a non-issue. Oh, and a brief aside: Older Minis also made a bit of a hollow thunk sound when you tapped them a certain way, an issue that's been addressed on the new model.

If you're hell-bent on using the Mini as a media machine, you've probably got a decent pair of headphones to go with it. Thankfully, you needn't fret if you accidentally leave them at home: The speakers housed on the Mini's bottom edge are impressively loud for their size. You won't be able to fill a room with the mid-heavy sound they churn out, but I discovered I could leave a video playing in the kitchen and still hear it while folding laundry downstairs.

Software

iOS 9 is such an important step forward that we just published a few thousand words all about it. Assuming you don't have the time to sift through our full review, here's a quick rundown on what iOS 9 means for the new Mini. In short, Apple's latest software update is focused more on stability and thoughtfulness, using Siri's new proactive smarts to surface information and apps when you might want them. Throw in plenty of neat design changes -- like a revamped app switcher and a fantastic "Back" button that lets you follow the breadcrumb trail of apps you were just using -- and we've got a more smartly put-together update than we initially gave Apple credit for.

Gallery | 34 Photos

iOS 9 on the iPad

iPads got plenty of attention in this update, and fans of mobile multitasking should be especially pleased. Consider Slide Over, which lets you swipe open a drawer full of first-party apps that can be opened in a smaller, separate window that takes up about a quarter of the screen. By jumping into any of those apps, you're effectively putting the other, primary application you were just using on pause until you're done texting or checking Apple News. You can go a step further and drag the line that divides those apps; that resizes both of them until they each take up 50 percent of the screen. Why hello, Split View. Honestly, as neat as this trick is, it feels sort of silly on a screen this small. Running two apps side by side makes sense on a larger display -- say, on a full-sized Air 2 or an enormous iPad Pro. Shoehorning two apps onto an 8-inch screen can feel a little claustrophobic after a while.

Then there's picture-in-picture mode, which, yes, is exactly what it sounds like. Any time you play a video in Apple's stock media player, you can tap an icon to shrink it down and stick it in a corner so you won't miss a moment of JK Simmons being an epic jerk in Whiplash. Give that small window a quick pinch-zoom and it'll roughly double in size; the default view on the Mini 4 is pretty tiny, so you'll probably spend most of your time in this mode.

Moving on, the Notes app also now supports richer text formatting (heck yeah, subheadings) and packs a reasonably thorough sketching tool for adding drawings and diagrams to your text. The smaller screens on iPhones make random doodling tricky, but that's not a problem with the Mini's nearly 8-inch screen. All told, iOS 9 is a must-have download, and the Mini 4 gives it plenty of space -- and power -- to shine.

Camera

I'll be the first to admit I sometimes glare at people shooting tab-photos in public, but the appeal is pretty obvious. For one, it might be the only camera folks have on them, and we all know the adage there. A bigger screen also makes it easier to frame shots, and really, who among us couldn't stand to be better at that? What I'm saying is this seemingly silly habit isn't going anywhere, and the iPad Mini 4's rear-facing 8-megapixel camera does a fine job of capturing the world around you.

Tablet photos are hardly ever outstanding, but the Mini 4, like the Air 2 before it, is capable of capturing crisp colors and reasonable detail when the light is right. White balance is generally more accurate now too, which is especially apparent since the Mini didn't get left in the display quality dust this time. Things obviously get muddier in dimmer conditions, but really, if you're using a tablet to take photos in the middle of the night, you might want to rethink your strategy. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is stuck at 1.2 megapixels, but it now has an f/2.2 aperture lens to help suck in the light bouncing off of your face. Still, I haven't noticed much of a difference between this camera and the one in last year's Mini.

Other changes include the ability to shoot in burst mode thanks to the A8 chipset thrumming away inside, and improved support for HDR photos and video. The iPad Mini 4 isn't going to be anyone's first choice for mobile photography, but it's a solid, if unremarkable, performer.

Performance and battery life

I sort of alluded to this earlier, but let's be clear: The Mini 4 is not just a shrunken-down Air 2. The difference in the chipsets powering these things is apparent in our benchmark tests below, but the Mini 4 is still no slouch compared to its more premium cousin. It's buttery smooth as you leap in and out of apps and swipe through web pages. The only time I noticed the Mini's A8 chipset struggling was while running two apps in Split View, and even then, it was only when I was trying to fiddle with both simultaneously. While I'm comparing the Mini 4 to other iPads, it's noticeably quicker to react than last year's Mini. In fact, Apple says the A8's CPU is 30 percent faster than the Mini 3's A7, and that graphical performance is up 60 percent from last year. That helps explain why Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5: Blackout ran like a dream, but I'll let the numbers do the rest of the talking.

iPad Mini 4 iPad Air 2 iPad Mini 3 NVIDIA Shield Tablet Geekbench 3.0 3,236 4,510 2,470 3,423 Basemark X 17,212 29,518 14,839 TBD 3DMark IS Unlimited 16,291 21,659 14,595 30,970 SunSpider 1.0 (ms) 349 303 439 463 SunSpider: Lower scores are better.

So, pretty much exactly what I expected: The Mini 4 strikes an appropriate balance between the Mini 3 and the Air 2 (which has the edge thanks to an extra CPU core). Usually it performs just a hair better than last year's iPhones too. Of course, horsepower means nothing without battery power, and the new Mini has that in spades. The usual Apple refrain is that the Mini is rated for about 10 hours of continued use, but that might have been understating things a bit. In our usual video rundown test (video looping with the screen brightness set to 50 percent), the Mini 4 lasted 13 hours and 4 minutes before needing an emergency trip to the power outlet. That's just short of the 13 hours and 45 minutes on last year's model, which isn't bad at all considering the new Mini 4 actually has a smaller, 5,124mAh battery.

The Mini fared similarly well in the battery test called "living with me." After pulling it off of the charger at around 7 AM, schlepping to the office and using it for emails/reading articles/the occasional game, I'd usually wind up with 10 percent remaining when I returned home at 9 PM.

Tablet Battery life iPad Mini 4 13:04 iPad Air 2 11:15 iPad Mini 3 13:45 iPad Air 13:45 (LTE) Apple iPad Mini 12:43 (WiFi) Samsung Galaxy Tab S (10-inch) 12:30 Microsoft Surface 3 9:11 Galaxy Tab S2 7:30 The competition

If you're in the market for a sleek tablet, consider Samsung's Galaxy Tab S2 (starting at $400 for the 8-inch model). While it lacks the kooky style of its immediate predecessor, the 10-inch screen is one to behold -- it is Samsung after all -- and it's only 5.6mm thick. The downgraded battery might sting, though: It only managed 7.5 hours in our tests, down from 12.5 hours for the previous-gen model. Itching for something more portable? ASUS just launched its 8-inch ZenPad S, a $200 Android slate with a waistline similar to the Mini 4's and a 2,048 x 1,536 display, to boot. Then there's the iPad Air 2 itself, which is still the most powerful tablet in Apple's roster. It's incredibly sleek and can be held one-handed for longer than you might expect, but its size means it's just not going to fit into some lifestyles. The thing is, it's almost worth trying to see if the size can work for you; prices for the Air 2 start at $499, and sales or buying refurbished can bring that base pri ce down even lower.

Wrap-up

Some might gripe about the Mini 4's year-old internals, but after my week of testing, I feel confident saying that it doesn't matter much. The tablet's entire package, from the still-snappy A8 chipset to the beautiful and almost-pocketable screen, to the incredibly sleek chassis, makes it worthy of your consideration. If you're on the lookout for a super-portable tablet with strong fundamentals and great app support, you probably won't find a contender better than this one. That said, if you can fit a bigger tablet into your life, you could easily upgrade into an iPad Air 2 for not much more money and get even more processing power.

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Apple iPad mini 4

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Form factor Tablet

Operating system iOS

Screen size 7.9 inches

Storage type Internal storage (16 GB, Flash)

Camera (integrated) 8&#160;megapixels

Dimensions 8 x 5.3 x 0.24 in

Weight 0.65 lb

Released 2015-09-09

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Source: iPad Mini 4 review: A long wait makes for a potent upgrade

Interchangeable lens cameras are on course to reach 70% of the overall digital camera market, says firm

Interchangeable lens cameras are on course to reach 70% of the overall digital camera market, says firm

Press release, September 24; Alex Wolfgram, DIGITIMES [Thursday 24 September 2015]

The overall worldwide digital camera market reached 49.3 million units in 2014. Interchangeable Lens (IL) cameras grew as a share of the overall camera market in 2014, accounting for almost one-third of volumes and more significantly, 62% of value. IL cameras are set to continue rising as a share of the total and reach 70% value share over the next few years, according to Futuresource Consulting.

Within the IL camera segment, Compact System Cameras (CSC) grew 2% to reach almost four million units in 2014. This segment is on course for a slight dip in volumes in 2015, but moving forwards it is expected to remain relatively stable and represent a growing share of IL camera volumes, reaching 40% by 2019. This will be fuelled by a number of factors, including wider product availability, greater support from retailers, and greater acceptance among premium users, including previous DSLR users.

"The huge convenience and portability associated with mobile photography along with improvements to image capture features, wider availability of 4G mobile connectivity and photography-based apps is contributing to the digital camera population reducing in size and concentrating around hobbyists," said Arun Gill, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. "This shift towards high end cameras resulted in average camera prices rising 10% to US$257 in 2014 and prices are set to continue to rise throughout the forecast period."

Wi-Fi connectivity was only present in approximately 40% of all digital cameras shipped in 2014 and despite the relatively low Wi-Fi component cost and prevalent consumer desire for seamless transferring of content between CE devices and the cloud, this feature has been unable to help reverse the negative trend in the camera market.

Within the Fixed Lens camera segment, consumers pursued cameras with the largest zooms and this contributed to the "30x and above" zoom witnessing absolute volume growth in Europe during 2014. Futuresource said it expects the Fixed Lens camera segment to consolidate around super-zoom bridge and compact form factors, while below 10x zoom will be dominated by premium (large sensor compact) and waterproof/shockproof cameras.

"Futuresource expects the opportunity for new and replacement uptake in the less developed regions (particularly Middle East & Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe) to remain limited due to the rapid uptake of mobile devices (which have become the primary image capture device). For this reason, the regional volume share splits are set to remain relatively stable through to 2019," added Gill.

Source: Interchangeable lens cameras are on course to reach 70% of the overall digital camera market, says firm

Sprint, T-Mobile escalate war for new iPhone customers

Eli Blumenthal, USA TODAY 5:46 p.m. EDT September 24, 2015

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus(Photo: Jefferson Graham, Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY)

An iPhone 6S for a single dollar? That's at the heart of an aggressive promotion from Sprint, which comes on the heels of a similar $5 monthly plan from rival T-Mobile.

It's all part of the smaller national carriers' plan to woo new customers from their larger competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

The details: On Thursday Sprint announced it would be offering an "iPhone Forever" plan for as little as $1 a month for the 16 gigabyte iPhone 6S, or $5 a month for 16GB iPhone 6S Plus. There's no upfront fee but you'll have to trade in an iPhone 6.

Larger capacity 64GB versions of the new iPhones will fetch $5.77 per month for the 6S and $9.77 for the 6S Plus, both with trade-ins of an iPhone 6.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure speaks at a the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference Monday, July 13, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo. (Photo: Charlie Riedel, AP)

A day earlier, T-Mobile said it would offer the 16 GB iPhone 6S for $5 a month with no upfront cost to customers, or the 16GB 6S Plus starting at $9 a month, also with no upfront cost. To qualify, buyers would have to trade in an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus or Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 or S6 Edge+.

Those looking for higher storage options at T-Mobile can swap one of the above devices and get a 64 GB iPhone 6S or 6S Plus for $99 upfront, plus $4.00 in monthly payments for the 6S and $9 for the 6S Plus.

The payments are spread out over 18 months as part of T-Mobile's "Jump on Demand" leasing program, after which the company says you can purchase a 6S for an additional $254. Apple's current price for the phone is $649. Of course, T-Mobile hopes you'll to trade the phone in again when the next new model comes out.

You can trade in an older iPhone 5S or Galaxy S5 as well under T-Mobile's plan but you'll be paying more per month. Without a trade-in, monthly pricing starts at $20 per month for the 16GB iPhone 6S with no upfront fee.

Like T-Mobile's pricing, Sprint users can trade in older devices and receive a discount as well. Through the end of the year the carrier will be offering new and existing customers who are upgrade-eligible the ability to trade in any other smartphone and get a promotional rate of $15 per month in leasing the 16GB iPhone 6S, a discount off the regular $22 per month price without a trade-in.

Under both Sprint and T-Mobile's plans, you don't own the actual device, but instead are just leasing it from the carrier. You also will still need to pay for service.

"There's no need to 'own' an iPhone" any longer, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure told USA TODAY. "We're making it simple… taking away the pain" of getting a new iPhone via a traditional contract.

Claure says the company is in the "final stages" of launching a similar program for Android phones dubbed "Android Forever."

Both carriers are hoping to capitalize on the traditional frenzy surrounding new iPhone launches, when millions of people buy the new devices. Last year Apple sold 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units worldwide during its initial launch weekend, with long lines in the U.S. seen at Apple Stores across the country.

"It stands to reason that (T-Mobile and Sprint) would come out with extremely aggressive pricing plans for customers," says Avi Greengart, Research Director at Current Analysis. "While these technically aren't contracts, what they are doing is inviting you to be put on plans where you get automatic upgrades. This effectively locks you to that carrier for a longer period of time, which is the only way these deals make any fiscal sense for T-Mobile and Sprint."

The new offers come as the U.S. market sees a shift in buying habits for cell phones, away from the traditional two-year contracts in favor of monthly payment plans. Apple will be offering its own monthly installment plans for the new phones, which include an unlocked device and extended Apple Care warranty, though it starts at $32 for the iPhone 6S.

USA TODAY

How Apple's new iPhone installment plan works

Contributing: John Shinal

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Fj8rhR

Source: Sprint, T-Mobile escalate war for new iPhone customers

Instagram crosses 400 million monthly users mark

NEW DELHI: Facebook's mobile photo-sharing service Instagram today said it has more than 400 million monthly active users, ahead of microblogging website Twitter.

The company, which had 300 million users about nine months ago, said more than 75 per cent of its community lives outside the US.

In a blogpost, Instagram said more than half of the last 100 million to join live in Europe and Asia.

The countries that added the highest number of users are from Brazil, Japan and Indonesia, it said.

Among social networking apps, Facebook has 1.44 billion monthly active users, while Twitter has 316 million monthly active users.

Launched nearly five years ago, Instagram said its users now share more than 80 million photos per day.

In 2012, Facebook had announced the acquisition of Instagram for USD one billion.

The most followed accounts include David Beckham from the UK, Caitlyn Jenner from the US, Indonesia's Raffi and Nagita, German soccer player Toni Kro os and South Korea's T.O.P, it said.

"When Instagram launched nearly five years ago, 400 million seemed like a distant dream. Now, we continue to strive to improve Instagram -- helping you experience the world through images and connect with others through shared passions," it said.

Instagram had recently opened its platform for advertisers from India and 30 other countries to advertise on the app.

Source: Instagram crosses 400 million monthly users mark

'Mobile Photo Easthampton' gallery show makes the call for cellphone photo submissions

Live in Easthampton? Whether Instagram is your medium or you casually snap photos on your cellphone, Easthampton City Arts+ wants to include your pictures in an upcoming gallery show.

Submissions for "Mobile Photo Easthampton" can include up to three photos, which must be taken with a cell phone.

"Anybody can participate, they just need to be a resident or work here so they have a view from an Easthampton perspective," said Burns Maxey, arts coordinator of Easthampton City Arts+. "Everyone has a cellphone, and they can be included in this exhibit. It shows where we are in our history right now."

Maxey said some images will be printed and others will be presented digitally, but the goal is to include everyone's photos.

Submissions are due by midnight on Sunday, October 4, and the exhibit will open during the history-themed Artwalk on Saturday, October 10. For more information, visit easthamptoncityarts.com.

Source: 'Mobile Photo Easthampton' gallery show makes the call for cellphone photo submissions

Why LG’s G4 is the perfect Swiss Army Knife for a digital nomad

"This is the first phone I've ever had that has made me feel like I don't need to carry a separate camera anymore."

Guest contributor Tynan runs a popular blog where he writes about adventures like living in an RV, gambling professionally, and buying an island without a trust fund. He also happens to be one of the most discerning minimalists we know, so we gave him an LG G4 to get an adventurer's take.

Because of my reputation as a geek who doesn't stay in the same place for very long, Digital Trends recently sent me an LG G4 to put through the wringer. The timing couldn't have been better — I was about to leave on a rather unusual two-week trip that would drag me across the country while I lived out of a backpack, and my G3 was beginning to feel a little dated.

Earlier in the year, Amtrak chose me as one of 24 writers to take a journey in a sleeper car anywhere in the country as part of its Residency program, using the trip as a backdrop to get some inspired writing done. I decided to ride the rails from San Francisco toward Halifax, Canada, where I had a mission.

Two years ago, nine friends and I pooled our money and bought a small island off the coast of Halifax. It was completely undeveloped, but we had chipped away at the dense population of balsam firs to build some trails and to clear a 30-foot wide circle near the shore. Finally, after a year of construction and shipping, our yurt was being delivered to a storage facility in Halifax. I had to get up there to set up the yurt before winter came.

Related: LG's G4 is the kind of Android phones

So my first trip with my new phone was a strange one: three days from San Francisco to Boston by rail, a ten-hour road trip to Halifax, a week on a very primitive island, the return road trip, and then another long train ride home.

Big picture, big sound

Despite being a minimalist, I love big screens. Before the LG G3, I had a Sony Xperia Z Ultra. I bought it because it was waterproof, but was initially embarrassed to whip out a phone with a 6.4-inch screen. I got used to it, though, and came to really love such a large screen. The G3 and G4, with their 5.5-inch screens are the absolute minimum size I consider usable.

This may be the first time a phone speaker's sound quality has ever impressed me.

The G3 screen always looked washed out, but I find that I adapt to things like that quickly. It looked bad when compared to another phone, but in isolation it worked perfectly fine. The G4 very clearly has a much better screen, especially in comparison.

I've been a high-resolution fanatic since way before anyone else cared. I had a 1080p laptop screen back in 2007 when only one or two laptops featured it. However, I'm not convinced the LG's resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 is any better than 1080p. I love the crispness, especially in photos, but other than the short clip that comes preloaded on the G4, I never watch video at that resolution. If it afforded me even an extra hour of battery life per day, I'd trade for 1080p.

As I boarded my first train, I was eager to begin writing as soon as possible. Sometimes it's easy to get in a flow state, other times it's challenging, so I didn't want to waste any time. I organized my stuff in the small compartment, pulled out the laptop, and began to write. The boarding process was noisy, though, and I could hear muffled announcements coming from the hallway speakers.

To help me focus, I played Bach Cello Suites through the tiny speaker of the G4, and was immediately stunned at the quality. It, of course, is no match for any real speaker system, but I was impressed with the fidelity and volume from a device this size. Even the notes at the lower end of the cello's range were accurately reproduced. This may be the first time a phone speaker's sound quality has ever impressed me.

Related: Sony's Xperia Z5 Premium packs a 4K screen

Without Wi-Fi on the train, the phone's hotspot capability also served as my lifeline to the outside. Android's built-in hotspot has never given me problems, and the G4 was no exception. I did feel like it used far less battery than I'm used to, but I'm not sure whether to credit the G4, Lollipop, or just the placebo effect of a new phone.

A camera to make you abandon cameras

For years, the Sony RX100 series has been my compromise camera. I use my travel photos as headers for blog posts, which makes puts my quality requirements somewhere in the middle range. Large mirrorless cameras and DSLRs are overkill, but my previous attempts to use my phone camera had been met with complaints from readers. The Xperia Z Ultra was nowhere near good enough, the Note 3 wasn't quite there either, and I was discouraged by the time I got the G3.

As I traveled by train, though, I found myself constantly reaching for the G4 instead of the Sony RX100 M3 that was also in my bag. Part of it was the novelty of trying out a new phone, but I felt on a practical level that the images were no worse than the Sony. That's not to say that they were of equal optic quality, only that both were above the bar of being able to take good photos. Add in the convenience of having the photos accessible on a phone where I could show other people and share online, and the G4 saw more action than the Sony.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

The two real standouts of the camera are the manual controls and the optical image stabilization. Being able to take handheld shots down to 1/8 or 1/4 means that you can execute motion blur effects usually reserved for faster lenses. It also means that you can take very passable night shots with it.

There are a million different ways you can evaluate a camera, but I'll say this: This is the first phone I've ever had that has made me feel like I don't need to carry a separate camera anymore.

Canadian castaway

We made it to Boston a day late due to flooded tracks in Nebraska. Some passengers grumbled about this, but I was rather happy to have an extra day on the train. I met my aunt in Boston, and after a quick eight hours of sleep, we began our ten-hour drive to Halifax.

As we got closer and our arrival time became more concrete, I used the Global Tide app to anticipate boating conditions. Getting to the island at high tide is very easy, but it can be a challenge at low tide. We got there somewhere in the middle, which meant that we had to push our 600-pound boat over 30 feet of rocks or so to get it into the water.

In the process of getting the boat in the water, and then later pulling it back out, you're bound to get a little bit wet. Previous trips have seemed to frequently coincide with hurricanes, which have gotten us very wet. That was part of the reason I had previously chosen the Xperia Z Ultra. Despite my best efforts, the G4 did take a few saltwater splashes here and there, and they didn't seem to affect it. I do wish that it was waterproof, though. That's probably my biggest feature wish on any modern phone.

When we bought the island, we were absolutely delighted to find that it had excellent cell service on it. T-Mobile allows free roaming in foreign countries, so I'm used to being able to use my phone the entire time. This trip was no exception, but I noticed that it had much better reception than on previous trips. I'm not sure if the G4 has better antennae or radios, or if a new tower has gone up nearby.

We have headlamps on the island, but it seems as though phones are always closer at hand. The best thing about the new dual-flash is that it makes for a very bright flashlight. I used to always pack a nice compact LED flashlight in my bag, but with a light this bright, I don't have to anymore.

Our yurt was delivered a day late, so our already-cramped three-day schedule was compressed into two. We worked from dawn to dusk building the yurt, often not stopping for food. Usually I would document our work on the island with my RX100 M3, but my pockets were too full of screws and nails to hold it, and I rarely had the spare time to go grab it. As a result, most of my photos were taken with the G4.

When I got home, I imported my photos from the G4 and the RX100 for both the train ride and the island trip. Once they were in the same album, I couldn't tell which were taken with which camera, even upon close inspection. The only obvious ones were those in which I had used the Sony's zoom.

A phone at home on the road

The G4 has remained my daily driver since the trip, and I continue to be happy with it, especially now that it's rooted and can run Xposed Launcher for customization. I have a few wishes, like a waterproof rating, but overall it's great. It's on par with other flagships in every regard, except that its camera is exceptional. It may not be the best at every aspect of mobile photography, but unlike other comparable phones, it has no weaknesses. Being able to travel around without a separate camera makes it a winner in my book.

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Source: Why LG's G4 is the perfect Swiss Army Knife for a digital nomad

50 apps to improve your smartphone

French connection: the average person now uses 27 apps a month. Photograph: Alamy

A recent study by market research firm Nielsen claimed that the average person uses 27 apps a month, which sounds like very few considering that Apple and Google's app stores both have more than 1m apps available. The key, of course, is that the 27 apps can be almost entirely different, depending who you ask.

Some apps do have mass audiences: Facebook and Twitter in the social networking category; WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat for messaging; Google Maps for getting around; Spotify for music; YouTube for video; Kindle for reading ebooks; Instagram for photo-sharing; and so on.

Beyond these 900lb gorillas of the apps world, though, there is a wide selection of software that can improve your smartphone's capabilities: often replacing the default apps that come preloaded on it, from email and calendar apps to mapping and music.

One of the important trends in this area is apps working better together, whether through partnerships between them – pretty much every fitness-tracking app works with a range of complementary services – or by features in the smartphone software from Apple and Google making it easier to move tasks and content between different apps on your device.

A trend that's in its earlier stages is the growth of companion apps for smartwatches, usually designed to take two or three key tasks from the main app to your wrist, to avoid you getting your smartphone out of your pocket. Look for Apple Watch offshoots for iPhone apps on the App Store, and separate Android Wear versions for Android apps on Google Play.

App developers also have a growing awareness of issues around privacy, from messaging apps such as Telegram that make encryption one of their key features, to controversies like recent criticism of an update to Spotify's privacy policy, which was (wrongly, as it turned out) seen as opening the door for its app to root through users' photos and listen to their conversations.

App makers have to be sensitive to these concerns as apps continue to be big business. In 2014, Apple paid out $10bn (£6.5bn) to developers of iOS apps, while Google paid out $7bn (£4.5bn) to developers of Android apps.

That money includes upfront payments and in-app purchases, but not advertising – a big money-spinner for companies like Facebook, which made $7.5bn (£4.9bn) from mobile ads in 2014 alone.

For anyone relatively inexperienced in smartphones and apps, this roundup offers a good starting point to improve your handset: even if you don't find 27 of them useful, several will have a meaningful effect on your daily life. Meanwhile, even smartphone veterans may find some apps in here that demand a slot on their homescreens.

The Rightmove app takes the stress out of house-hunting. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Lifestyle/health

MoodnotesiOS (£2.99)Moodnotes is a digital diary for tracking your moods, from low to high. It prompts you to explain your feelings to help spot triggers for low moments, and provides tips on how to avoid the "thinking traps" that may cause them.

Clue – Period TrackeriOS / AndroidPart of the trend for quantifying yourself, Clue focuses on the fertility cycle. Use it to track throughout the month, whether your goal is conception or simply understanding your cycle's pattern better.

MyFitnessPaliOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free + IAP)This is one of the simplest ways to quickly log your calories, setting a daily target to suit whatever your current fitness plan is. It works well with other health apps too, from Fitbit to Runkeeper.

RightmoveiOS / Android / Windows PhoneHouse-hunting can be dispiriting, but at least the apps for browsing homes are good. Since you'll be checking Rightmove morning, noon and night, it's good that it's so quick and easy to use.

Sleep Better with RuntasticiOS / AndroidMore quantification, this time of night habits. Installed on your smartphone at your bedside, it measures your sleeping patterns, while its alarm aims to wake you at the best time within your cycle – avoiding morning grumps.

BumbleiOSThis aims for a more female-friendly spin on dating. Browse and swipe right like Tinder, but if the woman doesn't chat for 24 hours, the connection disappears. For same-sex couples, either has to act to stay connected.

Peak – Brain TrainingiOS / Android (Free + IAP)Remember when Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training was a craze? Peak is doing a similar thing on smartphones and tablets, with dozens of mini-games designed to test thinking skills and track your improvement over time.

Zombies, Run!iOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free + IAP)Zombies, Run! has the most creative method of getting you jogging: a horde of (virtual) undead chasing you. A proper story from Naomi Alderman keeps your interest high.

UK Bus Checker is a fast way to check arrivals and plan journeys. Photograph: Getty Images Travel

CitymapperiOS / AndroidFrom tubes and trains to taxis and buses, Citymapper suggests several routes, each with a projected time, with alerts on weather, strikes and other issues. In the UK, it works in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

UK Bus CheckeriOS / Android / Windows PhoneThere are dozens of bus-checking apps, but this is the pick of the bunch. Covering more than 300,000 bus stops in the UK, it's a fast way to check arrivals, or plan your journeys.

Hotel TonightiOS / Android / Windows PhoneA growing number of people are choosing not to book accommodation but to pitch up and use this app on the day. Its speed and simplicity play into that: a few taps and you're all booked up.

Yahoo WeatheriOS / AndroidThe weather might be grim but at least the forecast looks pretty in this app. Yahoo's weather tool isn't just nice-looking though: there's plenty of detail to dig into as you browse ahead for daily and hourly forecasts.

Duolingo: Learn LanguagesiOS / Android / Windows PhoneOf the many language-learning apps, this is one of the simplest, but also most effective. Its bite-sized lessons are a fun way to get up to speed in Spanish, French, German and other languages.

ViewRanger GPSiOS / Android (Free + IAP)If your holiday involves walking or cycling, this is an excellent companion. It taps Ordnance Survey maps and trail guides for detailed routes to pedal or wander along, and is particularly good for holidays within the UK.

Hopper – Airfare PredictionsiOS / AndroidThe fluctuating prices of airlines are beyond the ken of most passengers, which is exactly their point. Hopper gives bargain-hunters an advantage again: analysing prices and trying to predict when they will be cheapest.

WifiMapperiOS / AndroidFrequent travellers know all about the search for a Wi-Fi hotspot when abroad – with a free one being the dream. WifiMapper has a database of more than 500m hotspots around the world, and will guide you to them.

HERE MapsiOS / Android / Windows PhoneGoogle and Apple have their respective Maps apps, but Nokia's HERE has plenty of fans. Its key features include storing maps offline, and its inclusion of public transport and restaurant/shop data.

Microsoft TranslatoriOS / Android / Windows PhoneThis handy companion will translate words and phrases while you're abroad, with support for 50 languages and the option to have things read out or displayed on screen for you to try the pronunciation. It also works on smartwatches for even faster access.

Identify constellations, planets and satellites with Star Walk 2. Photograph: Alamy Entertainment

MixRadioiOS / Android / Windows PhoneMuch of the chatter about streaming playlists focuses on Spotify and Apple Music. MixRadio might be the curveball alternative though: its themed playlists are a match for its high-profile rivals.

Songkick ConcertsiOS / AndroidSongkick picks up your tastes by scanning your music collection or Spotify profile, then pings you when tickets go on sale for gigs by your favourite artists. Dangerous for your wallet, but wonderful for your ears.

TuneIn RadioiOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free + IAP)TuneIn has a database of more than 100,000 stations streaming online, including all the key UK channels. A premium subscription adds audiobooks and ad-free stations, too.

GoodreadsiOS / AndroidGoodreads is a well-established community of bookworms recommending books. You can write your own reviews, check those of friends and – most useful – scan barcodes in shops to check reviews before buying.

PocketiOS / Android (Free + IAP)Pocket is the best in the "read it later" category of apps, which help you collect articles from a range of sources throughout the day, and save them for a time that suits you. Sensible social features help you share with friends too.

Star Walk 2iOS / Android (£2.29)The best entertainment is often distinctly un-digital: staring at the night sky, for example. But Star Walk 2 is a discreet companion for your stargazing, helping you identify constellations, planets and satellites.

Magic PianoiOS / Android (Free + IAP)A welcome app for anyone who ever dreamed of tinkling a piano, but lacks the skills. Magic Piano helps you play along with a range of songs, play with other people over the net, and learn a few tricks to help with the real thing.

VesseliOS / Android (Free + IAP)YouTube is a spawning ground for a new generation of video stars, but Vessel is pitching itself as the app for their superfans. Get early access to videos from popular YouTubers, and discover shows that you'll love.

Meet Flipboard – video. Social/Media

FlipboardiOS / Android / Windows PhoneApple's soon-to-launch News app has been hailed as a "Flipboard killer", but Flipboard's features make it hard to kill. It turns your favourite topics and sites into a flippable digital magazine, bringing in social feeds too.

PeriscopeiOS / AndroidTwitter's live-streaming video app seemed a bit of a novelty when it launched but it's starting to find its place, from celebrities broadcasting directly to fans to journalists reporting live from the scenes of breaking news stories.

Telegram MessengeriOS / Android / Windows PhoneA big theme of messaging apps in 2015 is security, with more adopting encryption technology to keep your chats safe. Telegram's appeal goes beyond its self-destructing "secret chats": it's well-designed and compares well with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Pocket CastsiOS / Android / Windows PhoneReal-life whodunnit podcast Serial sparked renewed interest in the spoken-word genre, and Pocket Casts is one of the best ways to browse, download and listen to podcasts on your smartphone. A wide catalogue and sleek interface impress.

VSCO CamiOS / Android (Free + IAP)Built-in camera apps have improved in leaps and bounds, but VSCO Cam remains a connoisseur's choice for mobile photography. Excellent shooting and editing tools, plus plenty of filters to try out.

FireChatiOS / AndroidFireChat seems like magic until you have the technology explained to you: it's a messaging app that works without 3G or Wi-Fi, using a network created by the devices around you. Great for a group travelling, as well as public demonstrations and sports/music events.

Google PhotosiOS / AndroidEven iOS users see the appeal in Google's photography cloud service, which uploads your snaps to its servers and makes them searchable and shareable with friends and family. Useful if you start running out of phone space.

FeedlyiOS / AndroidRSS feeds haven't always been the most user-friendly way to keep tabs on digital news – at least, not for mainstream internet users. Feedly walks the line well between an accessible interface and features for more experienced users to drill into their feeds.

EyeEm – Photo Filter CameraiOS / Android / Windows PhoneOn one level, EyeEm is yet another app for taking photos then applying stylish filters. But you can also add your best shots to its market – and maybe end up selling them to media and brands.

PinterestiOS / AndroidFacebook and Twitter hog the social media attention, but Pinterest, where people "pin" products, places and ideas, has stealthily become a visual way to research holidays and purchases, building your own collections as you go.

David and Gareth from The Office could have used some productivity apps… Photograph: BBC Productivity

SlackiOS / Android / Windows PhoneSlack is a messaging service for your work spanning desktop and mobile. It's a quick way to ping colleagues. When used well, its biggest benefit is reducing your email inbox clutter.

TrelloiOS / AndroidIf Slack is for messaging, Trello is more about project management – the two work well together – using "boards" and "cards" to break down projects and divide tasks between co-workers. The apps provide a quick way to make edits or additions.

Sunrise CalendariOS / AndroidMicrosoft liked this calendar app so much they bought the company, rebranding it as "an Outlook app" in the process. It works with Google Calendar and Apple's iCloud too: pulling your diary dates into a clean and clear design.

WunderlistiOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free + IAP)Microsoft bought Wunderlist too this year. This to-do list app takes some beating: from individual tasks to complicated projects, it's easy to divide, conquer and neatly tick everything off.

PushbulletiOS / AndroidPushbullet can be hard to explain, but once you've installed it, you'll see what the fuss is about: it pings files and links between your own devices, or to friends. It's also a good hub for replying to social messages and texts.

IF by IFTTTiOS / AndroidIFTTT is a wonderful way to connect all your other apps and automate the tasks that go between them. From uploading your social photos to Dropbox to saving stories from news sites, it's useful in hundreds of small ways.

SwiftKey KeyboardiOS / Android (Free + IAP)One of the best apps for replacing your smartphone's default keyboard, due to its ability to learn your writing style for more accurate auto-corrections. Emoji, a range of themes and translation on the fly are also impressive.

iA WriteriOS / Android (£7.99)As word processors go, it looks minimalist, but that's the point: its interface gets out of the way to let you focus on writing. Designers dribble over the typography, but it's the efficiency as a writing tool that shines.

MailboxiOS / AndroidCurrently the best tool for reaching (or at least approaching) Inbox Zero. You swipe emails out of your inbox, including making some return later at a time of your choice. For now, it works with Gmail and iCloud email.

Scanner Pro 6 by ReaddleiOS (£2.29 + IAP)This does the job of a physical scanner well: whether you're having to print and sign PDF documents before returning them digitally, or simply keeping digital copies of documents and receipts, it's the best option.

DropboxiOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free + IAP)Your Google, Apple or Microsoft phone will have a cloud-storage service attached. But Dropbox makes for an excellent alternative, whether you're storing photos, documents or music.

1PasswordiOS / Android (Free + IAP)We all (hopefully) know not to stick notes with passwords over our computers. But if remembering passwords is proving challenging, try 1Password. It stores all your details, encrypted, so you can login safely and quickly.

NumerousiOS / AndroidThis neat, figures-focused app can be used for work or personal life – or both. It keeps track of any important numbers, from your social followers or exchange rates to your steps or a countdown to a significant date.

StreaksiOS (£0.79)Part productivity and part health app, this aims to help you "form good habits" by choosing up to six tasks you want to perform every day, then marking them off to help your motivation. It'll even remind you about them.

Source: 50 apps to improve your smartphone

Organizer review: Incorrect photo metadata meets its match

Organizer makes it easy to adjust date, time, or location data on one or more photos from the iPhone.

iCloud Photo Library answered my mobile photo prayers—until I realized there was no way to adjust date, time, or geolocation data from iOS. This meant my Canon T3i photos shot alongside the iPhone would be out of order in the Moments view if I forgot to adjust the time after the switch to Daylight Savings, triggering my obsessive-compulsive tendencies in the worst possible way.

Get organized

At first glance, an app with a generic name like Organizer might not sound like the remedy to such first-world problems, but it wound up being the cure for what ailed me. Much to my surprise, developer Genady Okrain gives away this excellent software free of charge. (And does so with grace: There are no ads, but an unobtrusive, in-app "tip jar" is available for those compelled to support such fine work.)

Organizer offers a clean, Apple-style user interface for tweaking metadata on all photos or just those in certain albums.

Although rival apps can adjust metadata, they do so only on a copy of the image, leaving unwanted duplicates. This outdated method is no longer acceptable in an era where users can finally edit photos on one device and have changes sync seamlessly across everywhere else within seconds. Organizer works directly on files, and is the only app I've come across to fully embrace iCloud Photo Library adjustments this way.

At launch, Organizer presents a list of everything in your photo library, including available photo albums. The app ignores iCloud Photo Sharing content, but the tradeoff is a less cluttered user interface. Scrolling through my 17,000-plus image library was on par with Photos, and aside from the magenta text, this feels very much like an Apple product.

Making adjustments

Organizer also offers a peek at all of the metadata which lurks hidden in your photos or videos.

To make changes, select one or more photos or videos—that's right, you can adjust the time, date, or location on multiple images at once, and even copy metadata conveniently from one to another. There's also a view option, which displays extensive details about an image that Photos could only dream of.

Date, time, and timezone data for one or more photos can be adjusted independently from a unified screen—similar to how it works with Photos on OS X Yosemite—but Organizer goes a step further by allowing individual files to be reset back to the original date and time. The app can also search for and adjust location data, an option arriving with OS X El Capitan this fall, but this is still your best bet for iOS 8 and later.

Organizer may not be something you'll use everyday, but it's a godsend for those who import scanned photos into iCloud Photo Library or occasionally shoot iPhone photos in tandem with a DSLR and want to keep everything in the proper order. It's a bummer the app isn't a universal build with native iPad support (and making Organizer available as an extension from Photos also ranks high on my wish list), but otherwise this is an indispensable tool for taming your cloud-based digital photo library.

Bottom line

Organizer fills a gaping hole in Apple's iCloud Photo Library strategy without having to spend a dime while helping keep image metadata—and OCD—in check.

Source: Organizer review: Incorrect photo metadata meets its match

Mobile gallery on Front Street tomorrow

Published Sep 10, 2015 at 8:00 am (Updated Sep 10, 2015 at 1:35 am)

The We Are Now mobile gallery at The Commissioner's House in Dockyard (Photograph by Nicola Muirhead)

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A mobile gallery has been touring the Island and is due to make its return to the capital tomorrow.

The We Are Now gallery is a miniature cinema inside a repurposed shipping container.

The film being screened is an animated mosaic featuring more than 500 Bermudians, residents and visitors who were photographed around the Island in a mobile photo studio.

Artists Nicola Muirhead and Stratton Hatfield created the community-based art project over a two-year period.

The container has popped up in Hamilton, Dockyard and St George's since its launch in April.

As of tomorrow, the free exhibition will be located at the horse and carriage station on Front Street.

For more information about the project visit www.fb.com/wearenow.bda

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Source: Mobile gallery on Front Street tomorrow

Huawei and FotoNation Strengthen Partnership with Collaboration on Latest Smartphones

FotoNation (News - Alert) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRA) and the leading provider of computational imaging solutions for mobile phones and digital still cameras, and Huawei (News - Alert), a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced that Huawei will use FotoNation's FotoSavvy™ beautification algorithms in the cameras of its latest premium smartphones, the P8 and Honor 7, as well as additional upcoming models.

"The capability and quality of a smartphone's camera is increasingly becoming a key criteria for users evaluating these devices," said Gang He, President of Huawei mobile phone product line. "We consistently strive to provide our users with the best photography experience. FotoNation is a leader in the digital imaging space with a deep understanding of our devices. Implementing FotoNation technology in the P8, Honor 7, and other handsets is a critical step toward a simpler and more intuitive mobile camera experience."

FotoNation's beautification algorithms identify and interpret scene-influencing factors like light, color, gender and age when shooting still images or videos, and seamlessly adjusts settings to achieve the best possible picture. The increasing use of front-facing cameras to take 'selfies,' along with the shortcomings of existing technologies in the marketplace, drove the development of Perfect Selfie in the P8, as well as the beautification solutions in the Honor 7.

"Huawei is a world leader in the smartphone industry with a relentless drive to improve and innovate, and we are thrilled to extend our partnership with them as they set the course for the future of this market," said Sumat Mehra, SVP of marketing and business development at FotoNation. "We have demonstrated our ability to customize our technology to fully take advantage of the Huawei handsets' mobile imaging capabilities. This allows us to jointly deliver the best possible photography experience to the end user."

FotoNation's face-and-eye detection and tracking technologies, already found in 60% of tier-one smartphones, represent the foundation of our beautification suite of products. As part of the FotoSavvy™ product family, our beautification technology aims to change the way users experience mobile photography.

Safe Harbor Statement

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those projected, particularly with respect to the characteristics, benefits, and features of FotoNation technologies and the use of such technologies and the timing of implementation of such technologies in Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. smartphones. Material factors that may cause results to differ from the statements made include the plans or operations relating to the businesses of Tessera Technologies, Inc. (the "Company"); market or industry conditions; changes in patent laws, regulation or enforcement, or other factors that might affect the Company's ability to protect or realize the value of its intellectual property;the expiration of license agreements and the cessation of related royalty income; t he failure, inability or refusal of licensees to pay royalties; initiation, delays, setbacks or losses relating to the Company's intellectual property or intellectual property litigations, or invalidation or limitation of key patents; fluctuations in operating results due to the timing of new license agreements and royalties, or due to legal costs; the risk of a decline in demand for semiconductors and products utilizing FotoNation technologies; failure by the industry to use technologies covered by the Company's patents; the expiration of the Company's patents; the Company's ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions of businesses; the risk of loss of, or decreases in production orders from, customers of acquired businesses; financial and regulatory risks associated with the international nature of the Company's businesses; failure of the Company's products to achieve technological feasibility or profitability; failure to successfully commercialize the Company's pr oducts; changes in demand for the products of the Company's customers; limited opportunities to license technologies due to high concentration in the markets for semiconductors and related products and smartphone imaging; and the impact of competing technologies on the demand for the Company's technologies. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, include more information about factors that could affect the Company's financial results. The Company assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release. Although this release may remain available on the Company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or c onfirming any of the information contained herein.

About FotoNation

FotoNation is giving life to computational imaging by merging technology with emotion. With technology in more than 60 percent of global tier-1 smartphones, FotoNation develops technologies that serve the computational imaging space for handsets and cameras, as well as the automotive, surveillance, security, and augmented reality markets. We create, innovate and deliver the next generation of computational imaging algorithms. We engineer new ways to reach the highest possible performance while keeping system requirements to a minimum. We have a long history of innovating and advancing the state of the art in image processing. More than a decade ago, we were the first to integrate a computational imaging solution in an embedded mobile device. Today, FotoNation remains the leader in computational photography and computer vision. Nearly two billion digital cameras and smart devices are powered by the imaging technologies designed by the sharp minds and passionate hearts of FotoNation engineers. For more information visit www.fotonation.com.

About Huawei Consumer Business Group

By 2014, Huawei's products and services have covered more than 170 countries, and a third of the world's population. Huawei's shipments of smartphones ranked third in the world in 2014. Huawei has 16 R&D centers have been set up in the US, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India, and China. Huawei Consumer Business Group is one of three businesses within Huawei, covering smartphones, mobile broadband devices, home devices and cloud services. Based on more than 20 years of Huawei's expertise in the telecom industry, built on Huawei's global network, worldwide operations and business partners, Huawei Consumer Business Group is dedicated to providing the latest technology to the consumers and bringing the joy of technological advances to people all around the world. Huawei acts on its word and fulfills dreams. For more information please visit: www.consumer.huawei.com

About Tessera Technologies (News - Alert), Inc.

Tessera Technologies, Inc., including its Invensas and FotoNation subsidiaries, generates revenue from licensing our technologies and intellectual property to customers and others who implement it for use in areas such as mobile computing and communications, memory and data storage, and 3DIC technologies, among others. Our technologies include semiconductor packaging and interconnect solutions, and products and solutions for mobile and computational imaging, including our FaceToolsTM, FacePowerTM, FotoSavvyTM, DigitalApertureTM, LifeFocusTM, face beautification, red-eye removal, High Dynamic Range, autofocus, panorama, and image stabilization intellectual property. For more information call 1.408.321.6000 or visit www.tessera.com.

Tessera, the Tessera logo, FotoNation, the FotoNation logo, FaceSavvy, FaceTools, FacePower, DigitalAperture, and LifeFocus are trademarks or registered trademarks of affiliated companies of Tessera Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

TSRA-F

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150916005749/en/

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Source: Huawei and FotoNation Strengthen Partnership with Collaboration on Latest Smartphones

Taopix Unveils New Calendar User Journey for Smartphone

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Press release from the issuing company

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom - UK photo gift software developer, Taopix, plans to unveil its new personalized calendar user journey for smartphones and tablets at the PMA 'Innovation Now' and Suite 48 Analytics' Mobile Photo Connect events.

Taopix has committed to Silver Sponsorship for the Mobile Photo Connect conference to be held at the Hilton Parc 55 in San Francisco on 29 September. Taopix CEO, James Gray, will also be presenting its photo book and single prints user journeys.

Similarly, the PMA event will give delegates the opportunity to see the Taopix mobile user journeys live at the Monday breakfast session and throughout the event on 27 and 28 September.

Says James Gray: "We're very excited at the prospect of sharing the new calendar user journey at such relevant events. Our industry looks to the PMA and Suite 48 Analytics to innovate and educate and bring amazing technologies like ours to the fore. We're looking forward to meeting many of those involved in the personalized photo market to explore how Taopix technology can help to open new doors and increase revenues."

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Source: Taopix Unveils New Calendar User Journey for Smartphone

Apple accidentally reveals how much memory is in iPhone 6S, iPad Pro

Apple never intentionally releases info about its processor internals — but everyone makes mistakes.

London-based developer Hamza Sood capitalized on one such mistake, revealing the iPhone 6S and iPad Pro memory specs. Tapping into Xcode 7 GM asset catalogs, Sood confirmed previous suspicions that the iPhone 6S comes with 2GB of RAM and the iPad Pro with 4GB of RAM. Adobe also helped out by leaking the information a few days ago in its Creative Cloud for iOS press release.

The 2GB of RAM inside the iPhone 6S is an upgrade on the 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 6. This should improve the amount of apps that can be left running and keep mobile games running smooth. It is still behind the new Android smartphones which carry 3GB and sometimes 4GB of RAM.

Related: The 10 best cases and covers for your brand-new iPhone 6S

The iPad Pro will run on 4GB of RAM, enough to hopefully run Creative Cloud, CAD from AutoDesk, and other desktop grade applications without issues. Apple is marketing the iPad Pro at professionals and enterprises, so it will need to be able to match graphics tablets and notebooks.

Launching the Smart keyboard and Apple Pencil should interest productivity and creative users, even if the prices for both accessories are high compared to the competition. We might see third party providers come in with some cheaper options in the future to support the iPad Pro.

Apple upgraded the speed of flash storage on the A9X chip, but the amount of cores, the core speed, and performance appear to be the same. There is a smaller battery inside the iPhone 6S, but this will not negatively impact the amount of battery life, according to Apple.

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus received a slight material buff with Series 7000 aluminium, which should prevent another BendGate incident. The iSight camera was finally upgraded from 8-megapixels to 12-megapixels, an upgrade that should keep Apple on top in the mobile photography game.

Related: Is Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program the best way to buy the iPhone 6S?

Apple will start shipping the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus on September 25, but already 2-3 week delays have been added to the store. The iPad Pro will start shipping much later in November and Apple might struggle to meet even that date, with reports of supply issues.

Source: Apple accidentally reveals how much memory is in iPhone 6S, iPad Pro

Mobile gallery on Front Street tomorrow

Published Sep 10, 2015 at 8:00 am (Updated Sep 10, 2015 at 1:35 am)

The We Are Now mobile gallery at The Commissioner's House in Dockyard (Photograph by Nicola Muirhead)

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A mobile gallery has been touring the Island and is due to make its return to the capital tomorrow.

The We Are Now gallery is a miniature cinema inside a repurposed shipping container.

The film being screened is an animated mosaic featuring more than 500 Bermudians, residents and visitors who were photographed around the Island in a mobile photo studio.

Artists Nicola Muirhead and Stratton Hatfield created the community-based art project over a two-year period.

The container has popped up in Hamilton, Dockyard and St George's since its launch in April.

As of tomorrow, the free exhibition will be located at the horse and carriage station on Front Street.

For more information about the project visit www.fb.com/wearenow.bda

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Source: Mobile gallery on Front Street tomorrow

What do pro photographers think of the iPhone 6s?

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iphone-6s

The original iPhone camera may have been something of a dud, but Apple has worked really hard over the years to transform the iPhone into a best in class camera phone. So with the iPhone 6s, Apple upped the ante yet again, both on the hardware and software side of the equation.

MORE COVERAGE:iPhone 6s: The 9 best new featuresThe 5 worst things about the iPhone 6s6 ways the new iPhone 6s is better than the iPhone 6

In addition to delivering 4K video recording, better low light performance, and a 12 megapixel sensor, the new iPhones also have an interesting new feature Apple is calling Live Photos. As the name subtly implies, Live Photos enable users to tap on a photo and see a short video sequence (3 seconds in duration) that was taken a few seconds before and after the actual photo was snapped. All in all it's a great way to have seemingly static photos come to life.

While it's a safe bet that consumers will have a lot of fun with the new feature, what do professional photographers make of it? Is it more of a gimmicky feature or something that might actually be useful in the field?

To help answer that question, TIME asked a number of professional photographers to weigh in on the question.

Photographer Austin Mann, whose own work has been featured iPhone 6 ads, believes Live Photos carry a lot of potential.

"Telling stories is about creating deeper connection between subject and audience," Austin Mann said. "The more information our camera (or device) captures, the deeper, more intimate those connections can be. Live Photos is a great example of how the iPhone pioneers a new way to capture even more information, enabling us as storytellers to really take our viewers into the experience."

Olly Lang, a mobile photography consultant, told TIME that the Live Photos feature may actually be useful as "a sort of mobile proof" amidst charges that photos may have been staged or doctored. An interesting point, to be sure.

As a final point, it's worth mentioning once more that Live Photos will take up twice the amount of space as regular photos. Which is to say, 16GB iPhone 6s owners might want to turn the feature off as it comes turned on by default.

Related storiesVisualized: The iPhone 6s is the biggest 'S' upgrade in Apple history10 features the iPhone 6s and iPad Pro 'stole' from Android, Microsoft and others10 awesome paid iPhone apps on sale for free today

More from BGR: The drama continues: Former Ashley Madison CTO now suing security researcher for libel

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Source: What do pro photographers think of the iPhone 6s?

Nostalgia and the Collapse of Imagination

"Regardless of what it signifies, any photographic image also connotes memory and nostalgia, nostalgia for modernity and the twentieth century, the era of the pre-digital, pre-post-modern." —Lev Manovich

There will always be a need to connect to the past. Contemporary culture actively and unconsciously cycles through past follies and reflects upon progress. It is no surprise then, that we see popular culture re-presenting past generations. Perhaps more so than any other period in our recent past, today's pop-cultural climate is mimicking that of the 1970s.Mobile photography also finds its social roots in the 1970s via the Polaroid camera and postmodern art. A considerable driving force of today's '70s throwback is the hyper-growth of social media brought about by the smartphone—specifically the ubiquitous use of retro filter-based apps that harken back to the photographic styles of the decade.

Photography emphasizes nostalgia to visualize and understand a future that we cannot—or try not—to imagine. The ever-increasing use of retro nostalgia within the space of photo sharing may collapse ability to imagine a coherent future by altering the region of the brain that forms autobiographical memories.

Red Room – Joshua Sariñana

#NoStalgia

Nostalgia is the yearning to return to the past. Research examining the psychological impact of nostalgia indicates that it may have evolved as a resource against negative emotional reactions, like sadness. Imagine moving to a new city without social support and feeling lonely. You might go to Facebook or Instagram to look at photos of yourself with friends and family. Sifting through images will evoke strong emotions, some of which may be positive, and remind you of how you overcame isolation. When nostalgia is used to integrate the past with the present, one can develop strategies to tackle an uncertain future.

While nostalgia can help with coping, however, it can also cause one to withdrawal from present issues. Imagine a tumultuous break up. Looking at photos of your ex can block the growth necessary to get on with your life, if the photographs depict only happy times. Because photography is a primary mode of communication on social media, the photograph has the potential to either support or block growth. In longing for the past and ignoring the present or imagining a hopeful future, images can shape our perception of time. What happens then to the potential benefits of nostalgia when we are constantly cued to the past?

Nostalgia-based photographic filters could change our perception of time by altering how we perceive ourselves in relation to our past and future. The part of the brain that is responsible for integrating past and future is the same region that is responsible for memory formation. Image overload may result in abnormal brain function.

Before we get to the brain, let's first look back to the 1970s.

Retromania and The Analog-Digital Transition

Welcome – Joshua Sariñana, Vintage filters from Mextures app

 The 1970s marked the transition from modernism to postmodernism, from analogue to digital, and gave rise to social media as we know it. Photography in the '70s was creating a visual culture unknown by any previous generation because of its new position in the museum. The solo exhibitions of Stephen Shore and William Eggleston at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976 cemented photography's place as a fine art. Both Shore and Eggleston formed a poetic nostalgia of 1970s Americana through their color photographs and snapshot aesthetic, which occurred at the same time that the amateur-friendly Polaroid SX-70 camera became popular.

By the end of the 1970s Polaroid became the best selling camera in history. The SX-70, the first Polaroid format to have the iconic white border, was the product of decades of research. It integrated chemical and mechanical engineering with optics and electronics, similar to the integration of multiple technologies in the smartphone. The easy to use functionality of these cameras eliminated the need for technical expertise that had been required to successfully operate a camera, allowing the everyday person to make photographs and photographic art. The retro-nostalgia-imaging of today's mobile photography pays homage to the aesthetics of postmodern photography as exemplified by Shore, Eggleston, and the Polaroid.

Pining Past – Joshua Sariñana, Original image caught on 35mm film using a Canon SLR, post-processed in iPhone, transfered to Impossible Polaroid Film

The smartphone is a technological wonder of 21st century photography. Yet it is often used to create an analogue representation of 1970s film. Click the iPhone shutter, select Instagram's 1977 filter, and upload for the world to see. You can also use Hipstamatic to add the desired toy camera affect. If you have several seconds then you can use the ShakeItPhoto app to add a Polaroid border to any mobile image. Newer apps like Mextures has dozens of vintage filters that allow one to create images with warm saturated colors and faux-textures. We have entered into an era of hyper-analogue where we can digitize any image into something seemingly old and authentic.

Imagination Is Past and Future

Nostalgia is inseparable from the past, and the past is represented as memory. Autobiographical memories are established in the hippocampus and form through the creation of new connections between brain cells, or neurons. New connections change the activity of the hippocampus, and the new activity represents a novel memory that occurred in the past.

The hippocampus is not only important for making new memories, but it is also necessary for imagining possible events. If someone with hippocampal damage looks at a picture and is asked to describe that picture, they can do this without any problems. However, if asked what could exist outside the frame, that person is unable to provide any imagined scenarios. Similarly, hippocampal damage also affects the ability to imagine future possibilities. Imagination is the basis of memory and future planning.

Our perception of the past is filtered as much as our perception of the future. The mobile screen is the most popular media interface, and photographs serve as social currency. Because mobile photography is everywhere and enmeshed with rapid technological progress, it is precisely this progress that allows photography to alter our sense of space-time more so than any other artistic medium. Thus, the retro-filter serves as the most influential mediator of social media and has the greatest affect on how we perceive of past, present, and future.

Inundation of visual imagery causes information overload that can impair hippocampal function. Environmental cues activate memories, which update current information into the pattern of the brain's activity. Too much information can degrade our attention to such a degree that a collapse of our ability to form new memories and imagine the future may occur. It is a very real possibility that our ability to remember (i.e., imagine) our past and to incorporate new information into future possibilities will become severely limited.

Is this real? – Joshua Sariñana

With technological growth, digital filters have come, in part, to represent nostalgia. The ubiquitous use of digital nostalgic imagery represents our need to control our perception of time. The compulsion to filter the presentation of time is a short-term solution for a long-term problem. Every photo implies the past, but it is necessary to use the past as a way to guide us towards the future and not as a place to find refuge from the unknown. If we are to transcend the distraction of pseudo-nostalgia, it will be necessary to imagine photography outside the realm of the past.

About the author: Joshua Sariñana received his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is also working to bridge the seemingly disparate fields of photography, neuroscience, and critical theory. You can follow him on Instagram. This article was originally published in Don't Take Pictures.

Source: Nostalgia and the Collapse of Imagination