Book Review: iPhone Photography & Video For Dummies

If you haven't touched a Dummies book in ten years, a lot has changed. Gone are the phonebook-like black and white pages, and the silly humor. In are full color screenshots, and useful web resource links. With Angelo Micheletti's iPhone Photography and Video For Dummies not only will you pick up a few photo tips, but more importantly, you'll get excited about iPhone video and photos again. 

I know for me, the promise of video on the iPhone 3GS was a huge selling point. After a few test shots though, the feature has gone widely unused here. This book was just enough to remind me how powerful the photo and video capabilities of the iPhone are, and that's especially true of the iPhone 4. The book walks through what might be a refresher for many: "Oh, that's right, I forgot you could do a slideshow on the phone itself!" or "I can see the camera settings for iPhone pic in iPhoto '09?"

The information covered is slightly redundant if you read the book from cover to cover, but it is helpful if you are reading smaller portions or particular chapters.

Speaking of chapters, a personal favorite highlighted available accessories and apps to do more with your iPhone, including Gorillacam, which gives you the ability to take time lapse photos, and adds a self-shot timer. This info is hard to put into a book in a timely manner as apps are always coming and going, but it would've been nice to see a few more highlighted accessories and apps. 

The book covers a lot of ground that you probably already know, or knew and have forgotten, but it does it in a style that gets you excited about taking photos and video with the iPhone again.

Live Concert Downloads Announced for iTunes

For quite some time, the iTunes store has offered limited tracks from artists who performed at various Apple stores around the country (but mainly NYC and CA), however today a bigger announcement means far more live recordings are on the way.

Apple has partnered with Live Nation to bring content from 80 "wired" venues around the country. It's definitely an interesting, and tentative step into a whole new world for iTunes. Would Live Nation ever allow those events to be seen/streamed live, as in as they happen live? That would really be a game changer. You can check out the new live music section of iTunes here.

Retro Tech Tuesday: The Pippin

We couldn't have John Sculley as last week's RTT without running into an old friend: The Pippin! Yes, the gaming system that could've been, the second great platform for PowerPC chips! Only things didn't quite work out that way.

Of note from this video: It's really something to see an Apple promotional video that lacks the slick graphics and video we see today when Jon Ive figures out how to make the iMac thinner. Quite the opposite. It seems the people in this video aren't quite sure why they're there, or what they're supposed to say.

Sadly, at the end, there's really no cohesive concept of just what the Pippin was supposed to be. Maybe that's telling given its ultimate demise:

Retro Tech Tuesday: John Sculley

It's always a little jarring to see/hear an Apple CEO who isn't named Steve Jobs. Today we take you back to the strange, dark days of the John Sculley era with this clip from The Computer Chronicles. Sculley talks in very non-Jobsian terms about the future of the Apple II , ten years after its release. Think about that for a second: Imagine Apple designing and selling the same iMac ten years from now. I told you it was a strange era:

Retro Tech Tuesday: LEGOs and 8-Bit Music Combined!

We'll admit it: we're cheating this week. Rather than talk longingly about some technology from a far off year, today we're looking at a new video featuring two of our favorite things: LEGOs and the glorious world of 8-bit music in this music video from Daniel Larrson. (Kudos to BuzzFeed for the find!)