Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

One of the reasons Adobe Photoshop has become so popular is because of all the advanced photo affects that can be applied to images. Over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of free alternatives emerge onto the scene saving users hundreds of dollars, but many of them don’t have the effects and control that I’m looking for.

The tool that we found for you today is called PhotoFiltre, and it is completely free just like most of the software we write about. It’s far from becoming a Photoshop replacement, but I’ve found that it is extremely handy at applying effects and touching up the digital photos that you have lying around. Lets look at some of the things that it can do…

 
(Click to Enlarge)

–Features–

• There are over 100 filters available including ones for standard adjustments (brightness, saturation, etc…) and even artistic ones (watercolor, puzzle effect, etc…). We’ll get into these more in the next section of the article.
• You can select portions of an image with an automatic shape (rectangle, ellipse, triangle, rhombus, rounded rectangle) or with the lasso, magic wand, and polygon tools.
• Well-organized toolbars make it easy to switch between the most used tools.
• PhotoMasque lets you create advanced effects of contour and transparency on your images by using preset masks. These masks are grayscale images, where white is the transparancy color, while opacity increases as the shades of gray become darker. Black means complete opacity. There are several basic masks included.
• The Automatisation module lets you apply basic functions/corrections (conversion, image size, framing) to a group of images.
• Advanced text effects are available including rotation, shading, and bevel.
• Assemble and blend multiple images.
• Automatic photo corrections that enhance your images so that they look the best.
• Free plug-ins add even more functionality including red eye removal, animated GIF importing, page curl effect, gradients, screen capture, and much more.

–Effects–

One of my favorite things with the PhotoFiltre application is the wide array of special filters that’s available. I wanted demonstrate what some of the filters can do, so here are some examples using the image pictured in the screenshot above as the starting ground:

• I cropped the image so that the mountains were removed, and then I applied the Lake reflection filter (in the Deform menu). It really does look like a reflection in a lake, doesn’t it?
  
• This is the Puzzle effect (in the Stylize menu)… you could really create your own puzzle if you had a steady hand with the scissors.
  
• This is the Trapezoid/Perspective filter (in the Deform menu) which can be used to angle your photos:
  
• Here I used the Lasso tool to select just the grass area, and then I applied the Fog filter (in the Visual effect menu) to the selected area.
  
• In a single click I was able to turn this wonderful afternoon photo into what appears to be a night shot. This was done using the Night effect filter (in the Color menu):
  

Those are just a handful of the filters available. Here’s a quick list of some of my other favorites that you might find useful:

• Blurring (several different types of blurs)
• Antialias
• Dust reduction
• Revive colors
• Sunset effect
• Colored pencil
• Comic strip
• Ripple
• Glass
• Mosiac
• Frames
• and dozens more…

–Overview–

PhotoFiltre has become a beloved application of mine over the last month simply because I do a lot of photo corrections and enhancements on a regular basis. If you want to edit your images this is a great solution, and once you throw a couple of the plug-ins into the app it will become a really powerful photo editor.

PhotoFiltre Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on June 24, 2009 by CyberNet.

It was a tough decision, but I decided to upgrade my iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. I wasn’t sure if the new features would be enough to justify the purchase, but I figured I should be able to sell my iPhone 3G on eBay and recoup a good chunk of the cost. So I pre-ordered the phone, and got it delivered to me last Friday morning.

I’m not going to do a full-fledged review because I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of those already. Gizmodo has a really good in-depth review, and so does Engadget if that’s what you’re looking for. Instead I really wanted to focus on the camera, and then briefly throw in my thoughts on some of the other features.

–The Camera–

They bumped up the resolution of the camera to 3.2MP, but the thing I love the most would have to be the auto/manual focus capabilities. I’ve never seen a camera that would let you choose which spot you want to focus on simply by touching it on the screen, but I’m sure that will be the next big thing on point-and-shoot cameras. Combining this with some camera-specific apps I found (more details in a later post) will make this a valuable device to be carrying in my pocket.

I have quite a few friends who ended up grabbing the iPhone 3GS, and one of the first things there’s always comments on is the quality of the images. Some are surprised at how good they turn out, while others say it could be a lot better. I think for a phone the camera is pretty darn good… except in low-light situations where a flash is a must-have.

I took some time to walk around Millennium Park in Chicago since it’s right down the street from where I work, and along the way I took some pictures. I didn’t just take them with the iPhone 3GS though, I also took the exact same photos with my Canon XSi Digital SLR for comparison sake. The iPhone doesn’t really let you adjust any settings when taking photos, and so I decided to set my DSLR to fully automatic mode in the spirit of keeping things fair. I did my best to split each of the photos so that you can really see the differences when they are side-by-side.

The “Bean”

Click the image to view a larger version

Garden/City View

Click the image to view a larger version

Concert Hall

Click the image to view a larger version

Flowers

Click the image to view a larger version

As you can tell from the example photos the iPhone 3GS isn’t the best camera, but it’s pretty good for those times you don’t have a dedicated camera on you. One thing I did when taking the photos above is I let the iPhone focus on the center without manually adjusting it. I noticed, however, that if you’d tap the screen to focus on a different part of the photo that the brightness would also adjust accordingly. So after you get used to working with the iPhone’s camera you might be able to take some pretty nice photos.

–The Other Features–

Here’s my quick thoughts on the other new features:

• Speed – I didn’t think the speed increase would make that much of a difference, but it does. Hearing a stat like “2 times faster” doesn’t really put things into perspective until you sit down to use it. Everything is snappier… switching between apps, loading websites, playing games, and so on. Plus there’s double the amount of memory, and because of that I noticed Safari has never unloaded from memory. That means the websites I was viewing when I closed the browser will be there (without refreshing) the next time I open Safari.
• Video – There is no doubt in my mind that this will become my primary method for capturing videos. Previously I had used a point-and-shoot camera for taking videos since I don’t like hassling with a bulky camcorder, and I love having a video stored as a single downloadable file. Given the amount of free space I have on my iPhone I’ll be able to save hours of video.
• Voice Control – I think I’ll be surprised at how much I’ll use this. I tested it out on a few contacts, and also for controlling my music, and overall it worked pretty well. What makes this useful for me is that I can activate this even when my phone is locked by holding down the Home button, or by holding the button on my headphones. So I really don’t have to take the phone out of my pocket to call someone if I’m already listening to music. Now if only it would read the name/number to you when receiving a call with your headphones on.
• Maps – Having the map rotate in the direction you’re facing was also a big selling point for me. Working in downtown Chicago it can be tough to figure out which way the GPS wants you to go when you’re walking since the little dot doesn’t move very fast. This makes finding your way when walking a lot easier, but I noticed that a lot of things seem to cause interference with the compass causing it to be inaccurate at times.
• Support for Apple In-Ear Headphones – I bought Apple’s in-ear headphones a few months ago because they had some really good reviews, and I have to say they are the most comfortable pair of headphones I’ve ever owned. The main reason I got these headphones was because they supported hands-free calling with the iPhone, but the volume up/down buttons never worked since this was a hardware limitation. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the buttons on the headphones are now fully supported on the iPhone 3GS.

I was running the iPhone 3.0 software on my iPhone 3G about a week before I got my new phone. Apple definitely tuned the overall performance of the software with this release, and combining that with the new hardware makes it that much faster.

There are also a lot of little things around the operating system that I’ve noticed, and I really like. Such as being able to display the remaining battery level as a percentage (on the iPhone 3GS only, apparently because previous iPhones didn’t have an accurate enough battery meter). Or the fact that when an SMS/MMS fails to send it just places an exclamation point next to the message, but it will still let you keep entering more if you want. Before if a message failed to send you’d have to wait to send that one before you could try sending another.

Overall I’m really happy that I upgraded because I use my iPhone for hours everyday when commuting on the train. For some people the upgrade may not be worthwhile, but I spend more time on this than I do my personal computer. So it’s a device that I like to keep up-to-date.

Feel free to jump into the comments and shoot us your thoughts/questions on the iPhone 3GS.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on July 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’m sure that you’ve seen ASCII art similar to the image pictured above. It’s where someone takes a photo and arranges characters in a precise way to accurately represent the original image. Take our logo for example, in the above image a bunch of characters and spaces were placed next to each other until they created something that looked right.

Doing this can be a painstaking process, and frankly it is something that I would never want to do myself. The logo that I created above was done using a service called Photo2Text, where all you have to do is input an image and it will spit out a text file for you to download. You just open that file up in Notepad (with wordwrap turned off) and you’ll see a masterpiece.

I was actually having some fun with this after downloading the Firefox extension, which lets you right-click on any image on the Internet and have it converted to ASCII art. I found a few images to convert and here are the results:

Note: I reduced the font size to 4 so that the images could easily be seen. The larger the font size you pick in Notepad the further away you’ll need to be to recognize the image.

Eiffel Tower:

2009 Camaro:

Michael Jordan:

See how easy it was for me to become an ASCII art pro? Go ahead and grab some photos to do this with and head on over to the Photo2Text site. You’ll be impressing your friends in no time, and if you find yourself using it more than you thought it might be beneficial to install the Firefox extension.

Source: Firefox Facts

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on March 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Word 2007 Tips: Part 3

So far in our mini series covering Microsoft Word 2007, we’ve offered tips and tricks to help you get the most from one of the most widely used programs. Last week we covered mail merges which can save you loads of time, and are easy to do. This week we’re going to take a look at some of the options that Word has built in for formating your photos and making them more lively in just a few clicks using Picture Styles.

Microsoft Word 2007 has made it easy for you to format your photos and make them look like you spent a lot of time adding effects.  To make use of these features, you’ll want to start by inserting either a picture or clip art.  You’ll do this by clicking on the “insert” tab, and then clicking either picture, or clip art, depending on what you want to work with. 

Next, you’ll want to make sure that your picture is selected.  If it’s selected, you’ll notice a “picture tools” tab at the top, and then you’ll click on format.

One thing that you will notice under the format tab is a “picture styles” section.  You’ll want to click the arrow (circled above) to expand the list so that you can see all of the different options that you have for styling your pictures (pictured below).

By hovering your mouse over each of the different styles, you will see a live preview of how it will look on your picture before you actually click to apply it. When you find the style that you want, click on it, and it will apply it to your picture. 

That’s all there is to it! On most computers, selecting a picture style will probably cause your computer to run slow. It’s definitely a work-out for your computer, so you may need to give it a few seconds. But be patient, it’ll be worth it.

The examples above only took less than a minute for each one.  It’s the easiest way I’ve found yet for adding something extra to your photos before you post them on the Internet, or send them off to family and friends.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on November 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Despite the fact that the list of online image editing services continues to get longer and longer, there is still one that has been sitting at the top of my list for quite a while – Picnik. We first wrote about Picnik back in April, and since then, it has managed to get better and better. If you’re a fan of Picnik and you’re a Firefox user, you’re going to love an extension that I recently came across which makes importing images into Picnik even easier.

To start, you’ll want to install the Picnik Firefox extension (download found here), and of course restart your browser. Once you’ve done this, right click on any image and notice the option that’s been added which says “Edit Image in Picnik.” There’s also an option to “Send Page to Picnik.” The “Send Page” option is great because you can essentially take a screenshot of any website and send it to Picnik for editing- either the visible page, or the full page. That means all it takes is two clicks before you’re editing a photo or web page from anywhere on the web. This extension is extremely handy and makes editing photos on your browser easy.

Now remember, Picnik offers all kinds of options for photo-editing like the capability to crop, rotate, resize, sharpen, or even remove red-eyes, so I think you’ll find it useful. And because it’s an online service, there’s nothing that has to be downloaded. To boot, it can be used on a Mac, a PC with Windows, or even Linux. Picnik has always been awesome, but this Firefox extension makes it even better!

Download Firefox Extension for Picnik here

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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