Camera Genius [iTunes link] has updated its photo app to include zoom, compatibility with OS 3 and introduces a new user interface.

The app aims to be a kind of one-stop app and does give the user features not available in the built-in camera app. One of the nicest is a timer function. You can even set up the camera, and say 'cheese,' or anything else, to get a picture taken when you're not at the camera. Apple should have built this in but didn't.

Another nice plus are camera guides -- superimposed grid lines to help you frame and level your image. Other niceties include a review button to take a look at what you photographed, and a 'big button' that allows you to tap the screen anywhere to take a picture, and not have to find the small icon.

Camera Genius will also help you get a steady picture. If the feature is turned on, the app uses the motion sensor built into the iPhone to take the picture when the camera is steady. It's not a built-in stabilizer, but it will get you a better picture while it waits for your hand to stop shaking. Note: This feature is not of much use if your are trying to get a quick action shot.

There are a couple of things I don't like. The 'zoom' feature really just crops your photo. You are not zooming in, you are just enlarging your image, noise and all. I also noticed that if you are listening to your music collection on the iPhone and bring up Camera Genius, the music just stops. The developer told me he didn't know about that bug, and says it will get cleaned up quickly.

I also noticed that pictures you take through the app have no geotag data. That's going to be a big problem for a lot of users. Jeff McMorris at CodeGoo, which has produced the app, says geotag data should work in the next update.

I'd also like the settings screen to indicate which features are on and off, perhaps with a little check-mark or color cue. If you just look at the screen, you have no idea how things are set.

One of the things I really like in the app is the little camera manual that is built in. It's like a short, basic course on photography, with brief sections on things like lighting and composition. Serious photo hobbyists won't need it, but for people just getting started it is welcome information.

The app is on sale for US$0.99 which is a nice price for such a versatile addition to the iPhone. If the geotag issue is fixed, I think many people would see Camera Genius as a viable replacement for the built in camera app.

Here are some annotated pictures of Camera Genius in use:

The most recent update of iPhoto to version 8.0.2 included a couple of new features around the Faces functionality for identifying people in photos. Apple, however, was kind enough to throw in another feature; one which I was hoping would show up from the day iPhoto '09 was announced.

It is now possible to copy geodata from one photo and paste it into another photo. While this feature might sound useless at first glance, the reality is that it can be very applicable. Consider this: you have a tried-and-true digital camera that you've had for years. Along comes iPhoto '09 and it's fancy-schmancy geotagging chops make you feel old and outdated. Well, fear not dear friends, your trusty iPhone 3G has GPS built right in.

The process goes like this: wherever you are out taking pictures, snap an additional photo using your iPhone 3G then copy the geodata from the iPhone picture to all of your other pictures taken at the same locale. This process will work with any photo that has location information, not just an iPhone 3G's photos.

To do this, select the photo with the geotag information that you took with your iPhone 3G. Right-click (or command-click) the photo and choose "Copy." Next, select the photo(s) that are missing said geotag information and right-/command-click the photos then choose "Paste Location."

Now, you too can take part in all of the GPS-y goodness of those new-fangled cameras without having to buy any new gear.

Maperture is a nifty little plugin for Aperture that lets you geotag photos in your library. We've covered quite a few different geotagging apps for the Mac, but this is the first one that works so well with Aperture as a plugin.

Basically, Maperture integrates an interface to Google Maps which allows you to easily place your pictures on a map, saving the location information as metadata in the photos. Since it's a front end for Google Maps, you get its built-in features like the satellite and hybrid views, etc. In addition, Maperture will automatically place images already containing location information on the map for you. Now the only problem is remembering exactly where you were when you took the picture!

Maperture is a free download from Übermind and requires Aperture 2.

[via Macworld]

Two of my preferred Mac-friendly cloud services have now made the jump to actually accepting money from subscribers, which is a good thing (really, it is!). TUAW favorite Evernote has moved from private to public beta, and Techsmith video hosting site Screencast.com is now at 1.0 release status. Both services are now offering trial/free plans alongside their premium plans for paid subscribers.

The Screencast.com site is already integrated with the free Jing Project capture tool for Mac and the pro-level (and, at least for the moment, Windows-only) Camtasia Studio app; you can also upload screencasts that you create with almost any tool you like (including ADA multi-winner Screenflow) in a variety of formats for hosting on the service. Selecting which of your screencasts to share and which to password-protect is very easy, and the service automatically sets up RSS and iTunes feeds for the folders you choose to make public.The 60-day trial account includes 200 MB of storage and a 1GB transfer limit; paid plans start at $6.95 a month.

Evernote's private beta grew to include over 125,000 users (ahem), and the new public beta includes an option for a $5/month premium user plan that increases your monthly transfer quota/new note cap from 40 MB to 500 megabytes and gives you SSL for all data, priority access to the text-recognition queues and tier 1 customer support. Plus you get a snazzy t-shirt while supplies last (pink elephants on parade!). The web interface to Evernote has also gotten a facelift, with full drag-and-drop support and an improved clipper feature. Can't say yet if they've fixed the session timeout issue that ate a long note my wife was writing last night, but I surely hope so.

In a conversation a couple of weeks back, Evernote CEO Phil Libin shared some future directions for the product with us as well as a couple of tips from his personal use of Evernote.

First, what many are waiting for will be coming very soon: a native iPhone client for Evernote (shipping shortly after the App Store opens), including one-button publishing to Evernote and location tagging for every item you create from your phone, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading you back to that favorite restaurant or bargain spot. (Phil's tip: whenever he parks his car at the airport, he takes a picture of the parking spot and sends it to Evernote to help jog his jetlagged brain.)

Second, the upcoming platform-wide features for Evernote will soon include more granular controls on publishing and sharing, a revamped Windows client, Evernote for Blackberry, and audio notes. (Phil's tip: he uses Evernote notebooks to share collections of photos or screenshots, like this accidental poetry from CNN rundown.) Later this summer we should expect to see the first public release of the Evernote API, which will permit third-party devs to add features to the service (personally I'd love to have a business card postprocessor tool, which Libin sees as a good 3rd party opportunity).

Other future features are yet to be publicly disclosed, but Libin hinted that the image-processing power of Evernote's servers may be bent to teasing out specific features of photographs. Faces? Product barcodes? Geotagged landscapes? Can't wait to find out. Meanwhile, the free Mac version of Evernote (read Brett's original review here) is downloadable at evernote.com.

We've previously covered quite a few different applications to geocode your photos. Geocoding or geotagging is the process of adding location information (latitude and longitude) to the EXIF metadata of your photos, so you can see where they were taken. RapidoMap is one of the newest of these tools and looks to have a couple of particularly nice features. The application integrates a browser for Yahoo Maps which is how you actually locate your photos on the globe. It has an iLife media browser that makes it easy to get your photos in, and a built-in Flickr uploader.

Best of all, RapidoMap is a free download from app4mac (points off to them, however, for using an installer package).

[via Macworld]

We have posted about several differing geocoding solutions for the Mac. All of these programs allow you to embed location information in the EXIF data of your photographs, thus specifying where the photo was taken as well as the time, date, etc. The newest entry into the Mac geocoding sweepstakes is HoudaGeo, which has just been released as a public beta. Like some of the others, it allows you to tag your photos either by importing tracking data from a GPS device (syncing using the time stamps) or by using an interface with Google Maps. Once the photos have been tagged you can export them to Google Earth with a single click:



HoudaGeo is a free download while it's in beta but will eventually be shareware.

We've previously mentioned a couple of ways to do Mac-based geocoding-that is, applying location information to the EXIF meta data of your photos. Now comes the latest entry in the geocoding sweepstakes: Geophoto from Ovolab. Geophoto presents you with a Google Earth like interface that you can zoom in/out and drop your photos on the appropriate spot from the Finder, iPhoto, Aperture, etc.. In addition, you can subscribe to iPhoto Photocasts or Flickr geocoded photosets. Unfortunately, although you can search for particular locations by name, political boundaries (countries, cities, etc.) do not appear on the map, nor does the zoom go down to the street level, so putting a photo in exactly the right spot is difficult. (Ovolab says they are working on adding street-level detail in the future.)

This is a very slick application, but that slickness comes at a rather steep price: $49.95. A demo (limited to 50 photos) is available for download. I think there is a lot of promise here, but this is a version 1.0 application and it shows.

[Via MacMinute]