Jeff Carlson
Jeff Carlson is an author, photographer, and freelance writer. Among many other projects, he publishes the Smarter Image newsletter, which explores how computational photography, AI, and machine learning are fundamentally changing the art and science of photography. He’s covered the personal technology field from Macs and PalmPilots to iPhones and mirrorless cameras, publishing in paper magazines, printed books, ebooks, and websites. He’s also the co-host of the podcasts PhotoActive and Photocombobulate, and has spoken at several conferences and events. He lives in Seattle, where, yes, it is just as gray and wet and coffee-infused as you think it is.
Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield is retiring from Apple after 13 years.
Fixes a problem where upgrading libraries could cause Aperture to hang or quit.
In response to a customer's query about the underwhelming Mac Pro update released this week (see "Mac Pro Gains Only Minor Speed Bump, Not Thunderbolt or USB 3.0," 11 June 2012), Apple CEO Tim Cook replied by email that Apple is indeed working on a more substantial update to the professional tower Mac. Cook writes, "Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year." Macworld confirmed with Apple that the message was indeed from Cook.
The much-rumored Retina display debuts in a super-slim MacBook Pro model that’s quite like a MacBook Air in using only flash-based storage. The 15-inch screen packs in 2880 by 1800 pixels, or over 5 million pixels total.
If you have a LinkedIn account, your login information was likely stolen along with that of 6.5 million other accounts. Time to change your password.
First public release of the menubar-based replacement for Address Book. (Free via the Mac App Store, 1.5 MB)
If you’re looking to protect a third-generation iPad or iPad 2, Hammerhead’s Capo Case is a sturdy, relatively slim full-body case. In the process of using it, Jeff Carlson discovers the price of protection.
We frequently harp on not only keeping data backups, but also on ensuring that your backups are good. (That’s why Adam Engst has designated every Friday the 13th as International Verify Your Backups Day.) It’s inconvenient to lose some recent files or email messages, but a good backup policy is even more essential for larger projects — like an entire movie. Two people involved explain how Pixar nearly lost a year’s worth of work on the movie “Toy Story 2” after someone accidentally entered rm * (the Unix command to delete all files) and the company discovered their backup had been compromised. The film’s salvation came from an unexpected source.
Apple has released iOS 5.1.1, bringing bug fixes to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Apple reported another fantastic financial quarter, with a profit of $11.6 billion on revenues of $39.2 billion. iPhone and iPad sales pushed the numbers, but that’s not the whole story. Apple’s execution and presence in China significantly contributed to the company’s success.
Interested in learning how an iPad can fit into your photography? Jeff Carlson engaged in a Twitterview (a Twitter interview) on 25 April 2012 to talk about his book “The iPad for Photographers.” He discussed importing photos, using the iPad as a laptop replacement while on vacation, rating and keyword-tagging images, and editing photos directly on the iPad. A transcript of the interview is available if you want a crash course in working with photos on the iPad, parceled out in 140-character nuggets.
Adobe has announced its new suite of creative applications, but this time there’s something new that affects them all: Creative Cloud, a subscription service that makes it possible to use the Creative Suite for as little as $50 per month.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and book publishers Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Pearson, Penguin, and Macmillan. The suit claims that the publishers — with significant assistance from Apple — colluded to raise prices and force the industry to adopt the “agency model” that allows publishers to set their own prices and gives Apple a 30 percent cut of each sale. (Three publishers — Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins — have already settled, while Macmillan and Penguin have opted to fight the suit. Apple commented to Macworld that the DOJ's accusation is “simply not true.”) The Verge’s Nilay Patel, who has a background in law, looks at many specific aspects of the government’s case, pointing out why the DOJ believes the actions undertaken by the publishing companies constitute open collusion (including actual back room deals and conspiracies).
Dropbox is an easy way to transfer files between friends and family members. That’s a feature Jeff Carlson took advantage of to check the Macs of his mother and mother-in-law for the recent Flashback malware.
Apple is at the top of its game now, but that level of success isn’t entirely attributable to its products. Multi-hyphenate Stephen Fry has been carrying multiple cellular phones — and smartphones — since long before 2007, and he writes about how the failures of Apple’s competition since the introduction of the iPhone have helped Apple reshape the market.