Calorie counting is sensible in theory, but precisely measuring every morsel is a hassle at best and at worst, impractical and ridiculous. I’m not claiming to be a nutritional or behavioral expert, but honestly, how many people do you know who faithfully record the contents of every meal? However, a new app seeks to solve this problem of inconvenience with an amusing solution to innate human laziness. Called Meal Snap, its concept is simple: take a picture of your food, and the app will report exactly what you’ve been eating.
Meal Snap lets you take pictures of the meals you eat, and then magically tells you what food was in your meal. Oh yeah, we give you a rough estimate of the calories you ate too. Food tracking has never been easier.
Makes you feel like the app is actually…intelligent. Of course, the “auto-magical” food detection isn’t perfect, so perhaps our iPhones can’t yet become self-aware and take over the world. However, Meal Snap is still very impressive in that it focuses on a key barrier to food-tracking—inconvenience—and eliminates it almost entirely. You’ll probably have your phone on you whenever you eat, and snapping a quick photo is much more efficient than manually scribbling down a detailed list of your meal. (Plus, even if the “auto-magical” detection fails, you still know what you’ve eaten thanks to the photo!)
You can do more with Meal Snap than just get instant information. The app allows users to share photos using Twitter and Facebook, and you can browse through previous days’ meals, viewing total calories per day and reviewing old pictures.
Meal Snap is certainly a very cool idea, and, if the app’s estimates are accurate, a potentially very useful app as well. We love seeing apps that make innovative use of the ubiquity and capabilities of iOS devices, and Meal Snap definitely fits that category!
If you’d like to give Meal Snap a spin, it’s available now in the App Store for $2.99.
Seam together double-photos with this new Camera app, offering standard photo effects and Twitter & Facebook sharing. This is a great idea, but a poor UI holds this one back a bit.
Camera+, the popular (currently in the top 5 in the US App Store) and well-received camera app, rated 5 stars here on 148Apps, is not resting on its laurels when it comes to updates. TapTapTap has introduced a new filter called Clarity to the recently-released 2.2 Camera+ update. This filter, designed as a response to the HDR feature introduced by Apple in iOS 4, is designed to draw out colors and details from photos that may have otherwise been lost, through multiple behind the scenes adjustments. TapTapTap’s site goes into how it works and provides some examples it can improve photos, but how does it work in the real world?
I decided to test out the new Clarity filter on some pictures I’ve taken with my iPod touch 4th Generation, including ones taken before the app was updated with the Clarity filter, so you can definitely use the filter on any picture you’ve taken or any you’ve imported into the app. These photos below are of Louie, the greatest dog in the world, and in these photos, he is wearing a dog Snuggie. On the left, you see the untouched photo – it is a poor lighting situation, and a lot of the details are lost. On the right is the photo after running the Clarity filter. As you can tell, a lot of the details that were lost in the original photo were lost – the colors that were too dark to stand out in the lighting are more visible now. A lot of the grain of the iPod touch camera is now more visible, but this is largely due to the mediocre camera, than the filter itself.
So while this won’t magically turn your mediocre photos into wonderful pictures, it can dramatically increase their quality to a point where they’re actually decent photos now. While it’s not a replacement for taking a great photo with proper lighting, sometimes the photos we take aren’t in perfect situations – and this filter can definitely help out a bit with correcting those imperfections. As well, the 2.2 update has a variety of other bug fixes and improvements, listed on their blog post for the 2.2 update. These updates as well as the Clarity filter are now available as a free update to Camera+, currently on sale for $0.99.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted February 3rd, 2011 by Carter Dotson Our Rating: :: CAMERA EXCELSIOR!
Camera+ is a camera replacement app that offers a variety of effects and features that the default camera and Photos app do not offer for editing users' pictures.
A few months back, tap tap tap’s wonderful Camera+ app was pulled from the App Store for sneaking in a feature that was disallowed from the app in a previous build. The feature, which was wonderful, gave users the option of turning the volume buttons on the iPhone into the camera shutter so you could completely free up the screen for the viewfinder. Apple, in their own technical lingo, replied with:
Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of iPhone external hardware buttons is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement section 3.3.7.
Unfortunately for us, the feature was then snuck back into the app in an Easter egg that was widely reported on various tech blogs which forced Apple to kill the app for good. Camera+ then slinked off into iOS app limbo and was forgotten by many. Sad times indeed.
Four months and a few staff member additions later though, Camera+ has been re-released with version 2.0 and has a whopping 50 new features (minus whole volume button camera shutter). Fans of Camera+ can expect more of the same great interface that made the original app so great, as well as many speed and interface improvements that may make cause some people to abandon the old Apple standby.
The app is currently 99 cents, but pick it up fast because tap tap tap may bump the price up when they decide that their relaunch celebration is over. If anything, get it now before it gets pulled again!
Also, be sure to check back after the break for the complete list of the apps improvements.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted August 23rd, 2010 by Jason Fanguy Our Rating: :: RENDERING...RENDERING...
Cinema FX for Video allows its users to edit their iPhone video(s) by applying a number of different style/color effects to them, allowing users to drastically alter the look of their videos.
tap tap tap’s Camera+ was allegedly pulled from the App Store by Apple this morning for sneaking in a hidden feature that Apple had previously denied.
The feature in question was tap tap tap’s manipulation of the volume control buttons, letting them control the camera shutter rather than a button on the screen. In their own words, by using the volume controls instead of an on-screen button, “photos can be sharper because you can now hold your iPhone steadier with two hands instead of fumbling around for the shutter button on screen.”
It makes sense, as it puts the volume buttons right where the shutter button would normally be on a camera, but Apple didn’t like it. Apple, in their statement to tap tap tap regarding their reasoning for rejecting the feature, wrote that,
Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion. Changing the behavior of iPhone external hardware buttons is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement section 3.3.7.
Instead of letting the feature die though, tap tap tap threw in a hidden trick in their latest version. They released in a tweet that “by visiting the URL camplus://enablevolumesnap in Mobile Safari, one could make the volume buttons on the side of the iPhone instead act as a camera shutter button”.
The tweet was pulled soon after, but tap tap tap had to have known that the feature would be widely publicized and eventually found by Apple. They said themselves in their blog post regarding the initial feature rejection that, “When Apple finds out about these incidents, they tend to crack down pretty hard on them, sometimes going so far as completely banning the developers from the App Store. So this is definitely not the smart way to go.”
Now what are the chances that tap tap tap, in order to spur sales for an app that was admittedly slumping in sales, planted the Twitter post, knew that big sites would pick up on the story, and then pulled the app themselves?
Regardless, the app is not in the App Store anymore, and it is unclear if Apple will do/ has done anything about the situation. There have also oddly been no comments from tap tap tap on their blog or elsewhere about the app being pulled, which, considering the apps popularity, would be expected if they were going to try to force Apple’s hand through public support. Media stunt or not, it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted July 29th, 2010 by Elizabeth Fish Our Rating: :: SUPER FUN
StopMotion Recorder had bought stop motion filming to the iPhone, and has done it almost perfectly. Easy to do and hours of fun, if only the camera quality was better.
tap tap tap (Convert, Voices) has done quite well in the App Store despite not being a game developer. Continuing this trend, the company has announced today in a lengthy blog post that their newest app, Camera+, has made $250k in its first month. Surprisingly enough, the app did so with no advertising (the company doesn’t advertise for its apps anymore due to costs) and quickly declining sales in the US market.
So how did they do it? Here’s the abridged version.
Since tap tap tap does no advertising anymore, John Casasanta, head of the company and writer of the blog post, says that the key is to start with a HUGE launch. Huge as in contest for $10,000+ worth of camera equipment… but the key is how to get the word out. Fortunately for tap tap tap, John Casasanta is also the head of MacHeist, so the company got a large head start, but now tap tap tap has its own opt-in list with 70,000 subscribers. Says Casasanta, “Granted, not every developer has access to such resources, but there’s no reason that anyone can’t build-up resources of this sort over time… it’s taken us years so patience and persistence is key.”
I guess in any business, you’re only as successful as the people you know, or in this case, the amount of people you know.
The rest of the success lies in the app itself. Since the US App Store is completely dominated by games, it’s imperative to have a flawless, detail oriented app with some fun touches and well done social network integration. The post talks, in detail, about making things feel right, with not too many options, but enough to work correctly. Also, developers need to be completely open to feedback, and update when the app needs to be updated, but only when the updates are necessary.
As a non-game, it’s very important to keep hope even after sales wane in the US. The app market overseas is very different from our game and entertainment app dominated store, with countries like Finland having 14 of the top 25 being non game and entertainment apps. Check out the sales chart on the right to see how foreign app store are supporting Camera+.
The post ends with a warning. “You can spend a year on an app and hardly make a dime on it. It’s not just the nature of the App Store… it’s the nature of practically any business.” Only make an app if it’s something that you love, and be sure to slave over every last detail.
So good luck to all the devs that are out to make your own $250k. If every app turns out to look as well made as any of the tap tap tap apps, the world would be a much better place.
[Source: taptaptap]
Even since the introduction of a 5-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4, Apple’s phone isn’t blessed with the ability to take large photos. As those familiar with photography know and Apple is keen to point out, it’s not the megapixel count that determines the quality of your snaps, merely the size.
Our title doesn’t lie, however. You can achieve images equivalent to 20-megapixels from your iPhone if you make use of AutoStitch Panorama and apply a little concentration. Now updated to version 3.0, AutoStitch allows iPhone users to take multiple photos on their iPhone and stitch them together to create a poster-sized image. Ideal for when the subject you want to capture is too big for the iPhone’s screen (and lens) or you simply want to take bigger pictures.
This latest update adds enhanced compositing techniques, new algorithms to compensate for blending and exposure and automatic brightness matching between images. Users can also now share their shots to Facebook or via email right from their device.
Compatible with the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 as well as the iPad and iPod touch, AutoStitch 3.0 is available now for $2.99.
Aaaand…we’re back! Phew. Is it Friday already? Well, here are our weekly five app selections, culled from recent App Store releases. We’ve got plenty of new stuff this week, from feed readers to music games, so let’s get started!
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero was demo’d at the WWDC keynote earlier this week, and made its official App Store debut shortly afterwards. Talk about big-name apps. The game costs $2.99 and comes with six songs, allowing you to unlock others via in-app purchase. (The included songs include hits like “We Are the Champions” by Queen and “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer.) It looks a lot like the Tap Tap Revenge and Rock Band games on the surface, but Guitar Hero introduces some new “swipe” and “strum” mechanics that add some new spice to the somewhat-stale tapping games. To put it succinctly, the game looks awesome—we’ll have a full review up later, of course.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-07 :: Category: Games
Camera+
Camera+ comes from TapTapTap, makers of excellent, succinctly named apps like Convert and Voices. It includes tons of tools, ranging from digital zoom to an image stabilizer to a grid that helps you avoid crooked pictures. There are also plenty of scene modes (Beach, Night, Sunset, Backlit, etc) and filters (from a dirty Grunge effect to the more humorous So Emo). Toss in a digital flash effect, borders, and the ability to share photos across a variety of social networks, and Camera+ has just about every feature covered. The app itself is elegantly designed, and on the whole, Camera+ seems to be another worthy addition to the ranks of photo apps in the App Store.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-06 :: Category: Photography
HECTOR: Badge of Carnage
This is not your typical adventure game, folks. HECTOR proudly declares itself to be “half-decent,” but don’t let that fool you. This point-and-click adventure game stars Detective Inspector Hector and is cheekily irreverent. The dialogue is crude (not for the young’ins) and witty, and the game features genre mainstays like interactive locations and an expansive inventory. HECTOR certainly takes a different tack than most App Store games. Point-and-click fans should check it out.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-02 :: Category: Games
Sudoku 2 Pro
Sudoku 2 Pro is (you guessed it!) the pro version of the popular Sudoku port. This version strips out the ads, tracks your “runs” (uninterrupted win streaks), auto-deletes solved notes, and allows you to hide the timer if you so wish…among other things, of course. Naturally, the features that make Sudoku 2 loved by so many App Store customers are still intact: ease-of-use, graphics, etc. If you’re looking for a good Sudoku game and don’t want your screen cluttered with ads, check out Sudoku 2 Pro.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-03 :: Category: Games
Pulse News Reader
And finally, one for your iPad owners. Pulse News Reader was also demoed by Steve Jobs at the WWDC. Pulse is a clean and visual news reader for iPad. It imports up to 20 news sources and then creates an elegant mosaic of your news stories. Tapping on a block brings up the article in full. Just take a look at the picture…the app looks gorgeous, and even supports both landscape and portrait. Yum!
We enjoyed Moe’s Notes for iPhone which offers some unique features for taking rich multimedia notes that include audio, video, images and GPS coordinates and it’s now available for iPad.
Moe’s Notepad makes the most of the iPad’s larger screen by using splitter bars to show different sections of the app that used to be spread across multiple screens. The updated UI allows users to customize the app’s display as they wish while retaining the same functionality.
Without a camera in the iPad (although the team behind Moe’s Notes believe one is coming) images are taken from the iPad’s Photo’s App with a number of editing options available within the app itself. Audio editing is also impressive with recording and trimming of audio as well as volume and speed settings available.
All media can be combined into an email and sent as attachments with more streamlined options coming in a future update that could include popular formats such as Evernote or GoogleDocs among others.
Users of Moe’s Notes for iPhone should certainly invest in this iPad reworking and those that need a decent note taking tool will be hard pressed to find a more feature-packed alternative.
Having an iPhone on you is always handy when you want to snapshot something you need to remember, whether it’s a for sale sign, promotional poster or an advertisement. One of the drawbacks of this process is that once you’ve taken the photo you’ll need to fish it out of your Camera Roll where it’s taking up valuable space among your actual photos and there’s also a good chance that you’ll forget about it altogether.
QuickShot! aims to put an end to these issues by combining your iPhone’s Camera and Mail apps into one slick process. Once the app is setup you can simply launch it, take your photo and push a button to send yourself an email. The process is simple enough that it can take as little as three taps to complete.By default the image isn’t saved to your Camera Roll either so you won’t have to worry about clutter anymore. When sending the email, you can customize it as you wish and also scale the picture before you send. This strikes us as one of those apps you think you wont need until, of course, you actually do and is certainly worth a look. QuickShot! is available on the App Store for $0.99.
Something is going horribly wrong with Apple’s legendary veil of secrecy. Following the highly documented iPhone prototype leaks already this year, it now appears that a prototype iPod touch has escaped into the wild as well. The same Vietnamese website that, to the best of our knowledge, still has an iPhone 4G prototype is now posting images of a prototype iPod touch with a built-in 2 megapixel camera. As before, Tinhte.vn has also posted a video of the device in action that appears to be running some kind of diagnostic tool with some very un-Apple graphics, but it does show the camera working. Last time we posted about Tinhte.vn we mentioned the dramas Jason Chen of Gizmodo encountered when showing off video of an Apple prototype and urged a little caution. The guys in Vietnam obviously missed that post or simply don’t care, this time they even include footage of them walking into their office!
While this is clearly a prototype model, it may not be that new. Apple is alleged to have scrapped an iPod touch with a camera shortly before its iPod event in September 2009 where it instead launched the iPod nano with video. Images circulating on the web around that time also looked very similar to these. Mac Rumors claims that the codename N18 on the sticker one of the images makes this model a third-generation iPod touch prototype, manufactured in June 2009. Whether or not Apple is planning to return to the iPod touch with camera remains to be seen but these pictures at least prove that they have tried it.
And meanwhile, across the South China Sea, more iPhone prototype information is being spilled. Taiwanese website Apple.pro has posted what appear to be shots of the next generation iPhone’s front fascia. This isn’t exciting in itself, given that we’ve seen what we expect to be the finished product already, but what is interesting is one of these front panels is white. Apple already sells the iPhone with a black or a white back panel and, if these images are true, now plans to sell a completely white version as well. We’re not sure we like the idea of an all-white iPhone, especially if the aluminum seen on the black prototype is included on this white version. We may well think differently when we see the final product, however, with Apple being a company synonymous with beautiful products. Then again, Apple used to be a company synonymous with pre-launch security…
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted May 9th, 2010 by Jason Fanguy Our Rating: :: REMARKABLE RECORDING
Camera Plus Pro is an all-in-one camera/photography app for your iPhone that virtuously caters to all your photography and video recording needs. Packed with features and options, it works as advertised and is well worth its asking price.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted April 30th, 2010 by Jason Fanguy Our Rating: :: PICTURE PERFECT
Camera Genius takes the iPhone's native camera and it's meager native functions and integrates them into one application that caters to all your photo needs. It provides users with a perfect set of features/options and performs remarkably, well worth its $1.99 asking price.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted April 27th, 2010 by Jason Fanguy Our Rating: :: FIRST-CLASS PHOTOGRAPHY
G700 - 1st Soft Camera is a quality, remarkable application which combines those features found in standard digital cameras and incorporates the iPhone's GPS capabilities, adding location-based features, turning your iPhone into an advanced digital camera possessing many advanced features standard digital cameras are not capable of providing.
Even though an iSight camera (or its accompanying UI) wasn’t shown off last Wednesday’s iPad media event, speculation has now fallen to if the iPad will ship with one. These rumors started when Steve showed the device to the media. For a split second (around the 9:24 mark on the video podcast), you’ll see the studio lights catch what appears to be a concealed hole in the top center of the iPad’s new bezel. Sure, we’ve been here before. This could be a number of things, an ambient light or proximity sensor for one.
Granted, this “evidence” is pretty sketchy, and probably likely to be debunked, but it gets better. Mission Repair today started to receive replacement Apple iPad parts of which it posted some shots of on their blog. Among the parts was the iPad’s outer frame .. and guess what? It has a molded slot which fits the iSight camera part, perfectly. The photo shows the iPad’s outer frame (top), an Apple Macbook iSight unit (middle), and the Macbooks inner frame (bottom).
Wired reports the iPad simulator seeded as part of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK still features a “Take a Photo” OS action, when adding a contact’s photo to Contacts.app, for example. There’s even speculation that the reason Apple didn’t show the camera at the event was due to its then unfinished supporting UI. This image posted by Shaun supports the rumor, suggesting that Apple didn’t just leave in the same UI from iPhone OS, but that it has been modified to look and feel dedicated to the iPad, although as you can tell, it’s far from final.
Maybe we’ll see another event at the end of March, just before they launch the Wi-Fi iPad model. “One More Thing?” .. Or could this be a design choice for a future iPad model? I’m sure we’ll find out soon!
I’ve personally never really believed it when someone would tell me that the iPhone’s camera isn’t bad for a phone. After all, I would take picture after picture and the majority would come out, usually with a string of words which I won’t repeat, blurry and unrecognizable. As I hustled around CES last week taking pictures and spilling coffee all over myself, it was actually Chris Hall who so graciously pointed out, in between laughs of course, that it was probably my pitifully shaky hands that was the problem and not the camera itself. As it turns out, he was right, for once, and for the past few days I’ve been using the Blur Tripod and have formed a new opinion regarding my camera phone.
Priced at $14.95, the Blur Tripod is exactly what you think it is, a tripod for an iPhone. A mini tripod to be precise, which stands about 5.5 inches off the ground or up to 8 inches if you extend the legs all the way. The unit itself comes in two separate parts, the legs and the adapter mount. The legs are made of ultra light weight aluminum wich keeps them portable while still remaining fairly durable. The mount is a simple plastic clip which uses a standard 1/4″ 20 thread camera screw size which makes it usable on most any tripod on the market. An extremely nice feature of this tripod is it’s adjustably, it can truly be manipulated to be able to take photos from nearly any angle you would ever need, however it does become a little unstable when shifted too far to one side. A helpful tip I found though is that while unstable for taking photos shifting the mount all of the way to one side can help in another way by doubling as a steady hand grip for shooting video.
AutoStitch allows you to take a group of overlapping images and the program will stitch them together to form a large panorama image. One of the coolest features is that it does this automatically. You just tell it which photos to use and it will automatically figure out where to place them in the panorama.
This latest update increases the rendering speed and can create amazing 20 megapixel panoramas on the 3GS. Unfortunately due to the limited memory on older iPhones, they are limited to 5 megapixel panoramas.
I gave the new version a quick test and it worked fantastically. While other apps like Pano also make great panoramas, AutoStitch now takes the lead with the largest possible output. Fantastic little app — and it’s only $1.99. Only on the iPhone would it be this cheap.
For some great example of images created with AutoStitch, check out their Flickr group,
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted June 9th, 2009 by Christine Morris Our Rating: :: CRACKIN' IDEA
This is a great idea and is really worth a look at! You can see where you are walking, what is right in front of you, as you email. It's not perfect yet but the potential for this creative idea is immense!!
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted April 29th, 2009 by Billy Miller Our Rating: :: NEEDS POLISH
The attempt at previews in realtime is truly impressive and the filters within Chimera are diverse. The interface could use some work and giving the user a choice on resolution would give casual shooters an option to sacrifice quality for speed. Some of the current limitations stem from the hardware it must employ. Still, this is definitely an application to watch as it reaches maturity.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Posted April 17th, 2009 by Billy Miller Our Rating: :: AVERAGE
In a couple of the cases I was genuinely surprised how well the software worked. Text that I could barely make out was interpreted perfectly. Conversely, perfectly legible text in standard fonts was not transferred at all.
Evernote now comes with reminders to ensure that you never forget an important note. You can pin a note to the top of the list and add a due date to receive in-app and email notifications. It will also mark a note as done when you complete your task. Now we shall never forget to [...]
Calorie counting is sensible in theory, but precisely measuring every morsel is a hassle at best and at worst, impractical and ridiculous. I’m not claiming to be a nutritional or behavioral expert, but honestly, how many people do you know who faithfully record the contents of every meal? However, a new app seeks to solve this problem of inconvenience with an amusing solution to innate human laziness. Called Meal Snap, its concept is simple: take a picture of your food, and the app will report exactly what you’ve been eating.
:: GOOD IDEA
A few months back, tap tap tap’s wonderful Camera+ app was pulled from the App Store for sneaking in a feature that was disallowed from the app in a previous build. The feature, which was wonderful, gave users the option of turning the volume buttons on the iPhone into the camera shutter so you could completely free up the screen for the viewfinder. Apple, in their own technical lingo, replied with:
tap tap tap’s Camera+ was allegedly pulled from the App Store by Apple this morning for sneaking in a hidden feature that Apple had previously denied.
tap tap tap (Convert, Voices) has done quite well in the App Store despite not being a game developer. Continuing this trend, the company has announced today in a lengthy blog post that their newest app, Camera+, has made $250k in its first month. Surprisingly enough, the app did so with no advertising (the company doesn’t advertise for its apps anymore due to costs) and quickly declining sales in the US market.
As a non-game, it’s very important to keep hope even after sales wane in the US. The app market overseas is very different from our game and entertainment app dominated store, with countries like Finland having 14 of the top 25 being non game and entertainment apps. Check out the sales chart on the right to see how foreign app store are supporting Camera+.
Even since the introduction of a 5-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4, Apple’s phone isn’t blessed with the ability to take large photos. As those familiar with photography know and Apple is keen to point out, it’s not the megapixel count that determines the quality of your snaps, merely the size. 
Guitar Hero
Camera+
HECTOR: Badge of Carnage
Sudoku 2 Pro
Pulse News Reader
Having an iPhone on you is always handy when you want to snapshot something you need to remember, whether it’s a for sale sign, promotional poster or an advertisement. One of the drawbacks of this process is that once you’ve taken the photo you’ll need to fish it out of your Camera Roll where it’s taking up valuable space among your actual photos and there’s also a good chance that you’ll forget about it altogether. 
Something is going horribly wrong with Apple’s legendary veil of secrecy. Following the highly documented iPhone prototype leaks already this year, it now appears that a prototype iPod touch has escaped into the wild as well. The same Vietnamese website that, to the best of our knowledge, still has an iPhone 4G prototype is now posting images of a prototype iPod touch with a built-in 2 megapixel camera. As before, Tinhte.vn has also posted a video of the device in action that appears to be running some kind of diagnostic tool with some very un-Apple graphics, but it does show the camera working. Last time we posted about Tinhte.vn we mentioned the dramas Jason Chen of Gizmodo encountered when showing off video of an Apple prototype and urged a little caution. The guys in Vietnam obviously missed that post or simply don’t care, this time they even include footage of them walking into their office! 
And meanwhile, across the South China Sea, more iPhone prototype information is being spilled. Taiwanese website Apple.pro has posted what appear to be shots of the next generation iPhone’s front fascia. This isn’t exciting in itself, given that we’ve seen what we expect to be the finished product already, but what is interesting is one of these front panels is white. Apple already sells the iPhone with a black or a white back panel and, if these images are true, now plans to sell a completely white version as well. We’re not sure we like the idea of an all-white iPhone, especially if the aluminum seen on the black prototype is included on this white version. We may well think differently when we see the final product, however, with Apple being a company synonymous with beautiful products. Then again, Apple used to be a company synonymous with pre-launch security…
I’ve personally never really believed it when someone would tell me that the iPhone’s camera isn’t bad for a phone. After all, I would take picture after picture and the majority would come out, usually with a string of words which I won’t repeat, blurry and unrecognizable. As I hustled around CES last week taking pictures and spilling coffee all over myself, it was actually Chris Hall who so graciously pointed out, in between laughs of course, that it was probably my pitifully shaky hands that was the problem and not the camera itself. As it turns out, he was right, for once, and for the past few days I’ve been using the 
]
