Apple has released another version of iPhoto with several bug fixes and improvement. Email feature has also been further improved, enabling you to share it with your friends via Email more easily (not sure about its social network side).

Other features of iPhoto 9.1.1 includes:

This update adds new email options to iPhoto ’11. It also improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. Specific fixes include:

• Adds a preference allowing photos to be emailed using an external email application
• Adds “Classic” and “Journal” themes to email.
• Photos attached to an email can now be sized to Small, Medium or Large
• Improves reliability when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto
• iPhoto now correctly preserves the sort order of Events after upgrading a library
• Event titles displayed in headers can now be edited in Photos view
• Addresses a problem that could cause duplicate photos to be added to a MobileMe album
• Scrolling overlay now correctly displays ratings when photos are sorted by rating
• Photos are now sorted correctly when a rating is changed and photos are sorted by rating
• Fixes a problem that could cause text formatting controls to become inaccessible when editing a calendar

The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ’11.

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Panasonic has announced that the Panasonic GF2 will be released earlier for it’s home country, Japan.  According to Panasonic, the Lumix GF2 will be available in Japan as early as December 3, 2010.  Aside from that, not only will the Lumix be available in Black but also in red or white.

North American and Europe consumers will have to wait for late January, 2011 to get their hands on the GF2.  Pricing estimates of the GF2 starts at ¥60,000 (about $720) by itself, ¥80,000 with the F2.5 14mm pancake kit lens, or ¥90,000 if paired with the 14-42mm glass.  The prices are in yen since the straight conversion usually aren’t accurate.  Prices still vary for different countries.

The Lumix GF2 is Panasonic’s mirrorless Micro DSLR camera and is very popular and has actually created a following.  The GF2 is very attractive because of its photo quality considering the very compact size at the same time it’s lens is interchangeable.

Android Notifier is a brilliant app for Android users, as it allows you to receive and send SMS, MMS, Calls and acknowledge other notifications directly from your machine, may it be PC, MAC or a linux driven computer. All you need is to install Android Notifier on your phone and computer, and you have yourself a perfect sync of your mobile and ocmputer.

The way this Android phone notifier works is pretty cool. Anyone can easily set up a connection between their android phone and computer using either WiFi (preferable) or bluetooth. WiFi with more range and bandwidth is obviously a better option for Android Notifier.

Features of Android Notifier

Here are some salient features of this Android Notifier:

1. Receive notifications via Wifi or Bluetooth.

2. Show notifications using system default balloons

3. Show notifications using Growl or any other program compatible with the GNTP protocol

4. Device pairing

5. Windows “run at login” support

6. Copy notification descriptions to clipboard

7. Execute custom commands when notifications arrive

Download Android Notifier

You can download Android notifier for your computers and mobile phones from these links:

Download Android Notifier.

Download Android Notifier Desktop Application.

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We have got a chart comparison of all the hot upcoming and existing tablet devices, that also includes Apple iPad. Other devices are recently announced Blackberry Playbook Tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab and HP Slate.

The spec in which one or more devices have edge over another have been highlighted in light blue. Check out the graph below:

Just a word of advice: Don’t be intimidated by all the blue bars the Blackberry Playbook tablet has got. It might seem good, but don’t forget that it would run on their own Blackberry OS (un-announced yet) which won’t be as good as Apple iOS or Android, not in the beginning atleast. What matters on a tablet is software, and available options, and tablets like iPad and other Android devices are perfect for such kind of job. Any other OS has yet a long way to go.

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As we all know the new iPhone 4 has been plagued with problems with quality control since it’s release. Keeping that in mind, I have compiled a list of checks to perform with your new iPhone 4, that will not only ensure that you have a perfect piece of Apple engineering with you, or a dud that is likely to fail earlier than you plan.

Apple has been scrambling to catch up with iPhone 4 demand since the launch date, with the current order taking 15 to 20 days for shipment. This means that they have had to increase production, sometimes at the cost of quality. This article has some simple techniques which will help you determine if your new iPhone 4 is good enough to last you the length of the contract, or is it likely to fail, in which case you can return it for a new one as early as possible, so as to enjoy a seamless iPhone 4 experience down the line, and use all the advertised features of Apple’s newest smartphone.Follow the break for the first part of the guide.

Things to check before first iTunes sync of iPhone 4:

Outer Casing: Inspect for cracks in the glass, visible gaps, and loose joints. The phone should be solid, with no “give” anywhere — a properly constructed iPhone 4 is pretty much a solid glass/steel slab. In particular, the front and rear glass should be flush against the stainless steel antenna band.

Home/Sleep Buttons: Yet another item you can test before syncing the iPhone, these buttons should perform their intended functions right away and should neither be excessively loose nor too sticky. A miniscule wiggle or a little “clickiness” in either button is nothing to worry about, but if your Sleep button is rattling around in the casing or needs Herculean pressure to get it to work, there’s a problem.

Vibrate switch/motor: Flick  lock switch to put the iPhone in vibrate. The button should slide smoothly, and you should immediately feel the phone’s vibrate motor kick in, indicating successful activation.

Get more on the latest updates, announcements and news from Microsoft, Google and Apple by following updates on our new twitter or facebook page.

Fring has announced a major update for their iPhone app and now it does two most awesome things. First is the ability to Multi-task on iOS 4 powered iPhones, which means that you can sign in to multiple chat accounts while browsing websites on Safari. Besides this, they have also added the support for video calling for iPhone 4 using its front camera, not only over the Wi-Fi network but also the 3G cellular data network.

First, there were some rumors that Apple might now allow third party apps to support FaceTime like video chat over the 3G network because it would affect their own product, but allowing Fring to do so means that Apple has no issues with it. That also means that more apps offering the similar feature might also hit the app store.

This has brought the whole new world of possibilities now for iPhone  4 users. Now you can do video chat to almost all of your friends with iPhone 4 who have this free app installed. Perhaps Fring might also add some support for more cellphones with front facing camera and you might be able to do a video call with your buddies who are using some other phone, maybe an Android one. Who knows.

One of the lagging factor of this app is that it lacks the support for Retina display, which means that the graphics of this iOS 4 app would not be as appealing as other apps for this paltform.

Download Fring iPhone app for iPhone 4

You can download the fring app for iPhone 4 by following this link. Download it in the iTunes and then sync your device later to transfer it to your iPhone 4.

Fring iPhone 4 Video Call Demo

The Android 2.2 (Froyo) is so far the best version of Android OS currently available for Android devices. Though, its officially available for Nexus One so far only but the platform itself is quite powerful and is expected to be available for other devices very soon.

At its launch at the Google I/O 2010 conference, Google announced that Froyo browser is currently the fastest mobile browser available in the market. Their claim was challenged by Engadget and head-to-head comparison was performed between Nexus One running on Froyo and iPhone 4 in terms of browsing speed.

During the comparison, the web browser performance of iPhone 4 couldn’t match the speed offered by Nexus One on Froyo and the new iPhone 4 was put to shame as they failed the test.

Here are the results from the comparison:

Here are the videos of Web Browser Speed test conducted on Nexus One Froyo and iPhone 4:

iPhone 4 vs Nexus One (Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1)

iPhone 4 vs Nexus One (Android 2.2 without Flash 10.1)

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This is part 3 of a multi part review of the iOS 3. read the others here. folders. multitasking.

This is quite possibly the feature with the most impact out of anything Apple announced in recent history. What’s the obvious next step when you’ve got the majority of the smartphone and tablet browsing populace using your closed OS? Show them ads.

On the iPhone it’s easier to read content in a well designed app than it is to use Mobile Safari to browse a web page. Once you’re in an app however you lose all web advertisements, but your attention is still held captive by whatever is going on in the app. This is where iAds come in.

Apple now has its own advertising network and it’s a big one at that. There are nearly 100 million devices that run iOS in the world today and no other non-independent (read: Google, HTC or Microsoft owned) network is allowed to run ads inside iOS apps. All the developer has to do is allow ads and the rest is handled by Apple. Apple will sell the ads and share some percentage of the revenue with the developer.

iAd

The idea here is that iAds could allow developers to keep the prices of their apps low while still making enough money to continue to operate. Assuming the revenue is high enough, iAds could eventually be a significant source of advertising revenue for content providers as well.

If it wanted to Apple could even sell ads in books. It’s not too far fetched to see a contextually relevant iAd popping up while you’re reading something in the iBook reader. And Apple controls the entire platform so there’s no hope for an iAd blocker.

Given Apple’s focus on maintaining user experience I wouldn’t expect the company to sell tacky ads or make iAds too distracting. In fact, out of all of the ad networks out there, I’d trust Apple to have the end user’s experience/interests at heart more than anyone else.

If iAd revenue gets high enough, Apple could eventually drop the price on iPhones in order to get more advertising eyeballs.

This is the second part of a multipart review of the iOS 4, find the other parts here.

Apple calls its form of multitasking the “right way” to do it. I’m not totally sold on that but let’s see how it holds up to our review. To switch between apps on the iOS3 you hit the home button, which takes you home, and then select your next app. Your previous app, assuming it isn’t one of a very limited list of apps that have services that can run in the background (e.g. iPod, checking email), quits completely. Switching back to the previous app relaunches it.

In iOS 4 Apple promises app level multitasking without sacrificing performance or battery life. A single push of the home button still takes you home, but a double tap will bring up a list of recently used apps along the bottom of the screen. Scroll to find the one you want to switch to, select it and you’ve just “multitasked” in iOS 4.

iOS 4 appswitching

It works not by keeping all the apps actively running in memory, but rather allowing certain features to run in the background. Developers are given access to seven services:

- Background audio
- VoIP
- Background location
- Push notifications
- Local notifications
- Task finishing
- Fast app switching

The names are mostly self explanatory. Background audio let’s an app continue to play audio in the background, while the UI and the rest of the app itself remains suspended.

The VoIP services let you receive/conduct calls outside of the associated VoIP app (so your VoIP calls can now work like regular calls over AT&T’s network).

Background location gives apps that use it access to the iPhone’s built in GPS receiver. This would allow you to continue to hear turn by turn directions from your navigation app while you’re reading email for example.

Push notifications aren’t a new addition, they enabled push notifications to your phone from 3rd party apps (e.g. Facebook telling you someone has posted on your wall while you’re not in the FB app).

Local notifications are new. If an app needs to remind you to do something it can now do so, without having to communicate with Apple’s push notification servers.

Task finishing is the most traditional multitasking service that iOS 4 offers. You can mark a process using task finishing and that task will continue to run even after you exit an app for a finite period of time. This would allow for a chat app to continue to receive, update and log messages even when you’re not looking at what’s being said.

iOS 4 app background app closing

The final service, fast app switching, allows an application to stop/resume exactly where it left off. This is actually bigger than it sounds. Apps written for iOS 4 no longer quit when they are switched away from. Their state is saved and the app remains in memory until it is either forced closed (press and hold on an icon in the task switcher then tap the – to close the app) or the OS runs out of memory (in which case it will force an app closed). A program that properly supports fast app switching must be prepared for either case so you don’t have to worry about data loss simply because your OS ran out of memory. This also helps explain why Apple seems to have given the iPhone 4 512MB of memory and not 256MB like the rest of the iPhone/iPad lineup.

Remember that DRAM must be constantly refreshed to keep data active in it. This means that multitasking will still reduce battery life, but Apple is hoping by limiting the additional power draw to memory and not unnecessary CPU cycles it will be a minimal impact.

Simply running Pandora in the background, which doesn’t seem like much, will give you about 75% of the battery life you’re used to while you’re doing other things. Toss in another app or two that also does something in the background and you’re looking at even more tangible reductions in battery life.

We still need faster SoCs and more power efficient platforms to make multitasking work on smartphones. I say faster SoCs because one of the best ways to improve power efficiency is to complete tasks quicker so that the CPU can return to an idle state.

Because current smartphone SoCs don’t have the level of performance needed to quickly execute a ton of extra instructions and get back to sleep, smartphone OSes have to keep background tasks to a minimum. For the most part you don’t have to worry about what applications you have open on your notebook, your CPU is efficient enough and you have enough battery power to churn through any instructions idle apps may be throwing at it. We’re not quite there yet in smartphones.

Performance is an issue and Apple is doing the right thing by making the iPhone 3GS the minimum requirement for multitasking support. Earlier ARM11 based iPhones (2G and 3G) won’t let you switch between apps; they just don’t have the horsepower to smoothly deal with some of the scenarios that could crop up.

Apple’s approach is like a set of pause buttons per app. Switching away from an app will either pause everything about that app or all but those select features that implement one of the seven services I listed above.

I’m not totally sold on it because while I agree with the underlying approach to multitasking, I was hoping for more of a significant UI change. Under the hood Apple gave developers the pause buttons to enable multitasking, but on the surface we got a cramped Alt/Cmd + Tab. I was hoping for something more…webOS-like from Apple. I do believe that Palm’s card system makes the most sense out of the smartphone OSes that are available today. I was disappointed to see that Apple couldn’t come up with something similar or innovate beyond what Palm did two years ago.

Don’t expect multitasking to work perfectly right away. The majority of existing apps are not iOS 4 optimized and thus won’t implement any of these services. Thus the benefit of multitasking won’t really be seen until we get updated apps from developers. Those that have updated their apps give you a glimpse at what the entire iPhone experience will look like in a few months.

Stability is unfortunately a problem with the new iOS 4. I wouldn’t characterize it as terrible, but thus far I’ve had more app crashes with iOS 4 than I have had with any prior iOS release. With more applications contending for limited system resources and more running in the background this iOS release is going to put even more pressure on the hardware. That means more opportunities for problems to creep up and more strain on the scheduler, particularly because the iOS is still only running on a single threaded CPU.

While the crashes are not a norm, expect some slowdowns, akin to sitting on an old single core when the task scheduler is full. Expect this problem to go away once the first dual-core iPhones are introduced.

The launch of the new iPhone 4 featured a new version of the iOS 4(formerly iPhone OS). Steve Jobs claimed the new iOS to be the “most significant update since the release of the original iPhone OS”. Well, we here at the Geek engineer review the latest OS to find out if the Steve is true or is this just another instance of the Reality distortion field in full force.

The biggest features from an end user standpoint are the introduction of folders as a way of grouping apps together and simplifying the iOS interface and of course, multitasking.

As the full review of the iOS 4 is a long and intensive task, we have broken down the features into easily consumable posts. This here is the first part of the review.

Folders

On my iPhone I have five screens of apps. That’s ridiculous. And as odd as it sounds, I can never find the right app when I need it.

iOS 4 folder

Folders are Apple’s solution to the problem, and it seems to work. This is how you can make a folder on iOS 4:

• Press and hold your finger over an app icon on your home screen,
• Wait for the icons to start jiggling,
• And then move one icon over another one.
• The two will form a group called a Folder and the Folder will be automatically named based on the type of apps in it.
• You can also rename the Folder.

naming a folder in iOS 4

Like many features in iOS 4, Folders are both an improvement and a burden. The burden comes from the fact that you now have to tap, wait for a folder expansion animation and then tap again to launch an app in a folder. Folders also remain “open” until they’re closed.  I mean, if you launch an app in a folder, when you return to the home screen you’ll actually end up in the last folder you launched the app from and not the Home screen. Hit the home button a second time to actually get to the home screen. I suspect this is a bug that Apple will fix however.

It’s also very easy to forget what you put in each Folder (you can store a maximum of 12 apps in a Folder). The Folders all look the same and although they give you a little preview of what’s inside it’s often difficult to tell. I’ve found that the best solution for me is to keep frequently used apps directly on the home screen but put everything else in Folders. Keeping everything on a single home screen also really helps keep things tidy and efficient. If you do have a ton of apps and can’t remember what folders you put them in, the Spotlight search is probably going to be even more important to you now than it has ever been. Or you can try to group similar apps in one folder, like entertainment folder for instance.

iOS 4 organized by folders

I suspect when we get true multitasking and once these mobile devices turn into active productivity devices rather than passive consumption devices then we’ll need much more than Folders. Remember the first time you saw the Start menu? You’ll probably get a similar feeling in the next few years on a smartphone OS.