CAIR and Seam Carving GUI

I discovered this app "Seam Carving GUI" - what a name! This is an open source, all platforms software to manipulate your photos based on the CAIR library (CAIR stands for Content Aware Image Resizing). This is simply amazing stuff! You can resize images (stretched,...) and remove elements of your photo (you know, the guy in the background of your beautiful photo).

From this:
To this (remove small fish and stretched):


This is the kind of app that can really change a photo from good to best.

Iphone ...after 2 months

After 2 months, I believe it is time to share my "2 cents" on my days with Mr iPhone. I can say that the iPhone change the way I use the Internet...not the way I use a phone! So when Steve Jobs mentioned that their netbook is actually the iphone, I kind of agree with him (although the keyboard is still a huge difference).

What I don't like.

1. On the phone side, the Caller ID system is not working. I usually input all phone numbers with a + sign and the country code before because I do not like to edit a number when I am overseas. But my iPhone is not capable to identify local numbers against their complete number (including +country-code)...this is so annoying, I cannot believe they haven't fix this yet, come on Apple!
2. On the music side, the sound quality. If you are using only your iphone/ipod to listen your music, this is ok but as soon as you start to test or use another mp3 player such as the chinese Meizu, there you will find the difference and it is going to be very difficult to go back to your iphone.
3. Of course the battery life is too short, but everybody knows this, and I realise that I do not use only a phone but an mp3/mp4 player, a GPS and a computer, therefore my usage increase a lot compare to my previous phones.
4. Sometimes -I noticed this specially when I lost the signal- the iphone can hang for at least one minute before I can do anything.
5. I hate Apple restriction to publish or reject applications...Long life to Cydia & Co.

On the bright side:

1. I was also very surprise by the pretty good quality of the small 2Mb camera.
2. Apps, apps, apps. Amazing apps available from the Store.
3. Apps that I enjoyed currently (this kind of list tend to change over time):

• YouNote
• BlogPress
• Byline
• Google Earth
• Facebook
• Twitterific
• LinkedIn
• Fring
• Measures
• Shazam
• NYTimes
• Runkeeper, Fitnio and Trailguru (I am not sure which one is the best for me yet on this section)
  

1. BlogPress

An iphone app to write/manage your blogs (I actually use it to write this post). Very powerful and simple to use, it can integrated with a lot of different popular blog systems. I found that it is easier for me to blog with this app rather than on my computer. Not that it is easier to use the very small iPhone keyboard but you can blog when you have time, without a computer, and for this BlogPress is worth the money (yes, it is not free. I paid 2.99$ during their discount period but I believe the normal price is 9.99$).



2. Byline
Probably the application I use the most. This is a RSS Reader for your Google Reader account, it synchronizes perfectly, allows offline reading and even have your "starred" post. It is 3.99$ but definitively worth the money for me. I used before NetNewsWire from Newsgator, a free app, and it was good too but I really prefer to have an app integrated with Google Reader.



3. Google Earth - yes it is free!
Just arrived a few days ago and simply well done, as everybody said "the earth in your hand". When you do a search, it also conveniently list your matched contact from your iPhone address book, nice Mr Google ;-)
No need to mention GPS integration and gestures to zoom, move around,etc... too obvious!

4. Measures
A new comer for me. It is a beautiful app for converting anything into something else! It even includes a currency converter with Macau Patacas (not common indeed)!


-- Post From My iPhone (and finalize online...)

Free virtual trip to China

Some guys got strange ideas sometimes... They have developed a Firefox add-0n to allow you to surf the web like if you were behind the "Great Firewall of China". Yes, you read it well! You can now experience the amazing feeling to see how is the Internet from a chinese point-of-view ;-)
Enjoy the experience being block for any kind of pretty common websites! Welcome to China Channel Firefox Addon.

Seriously, this can show you how bad the censorship is in China, and for webmaster a good way to test if their websites are censored by our best friend.
Talking about this, I presume my blog is going to be banned as well...

Enjoy your FREEDOM.

My iPhone very own record!

The iPhone is well known to have a pretty short battery life. This is BAD! But, don't forget that usually you use an iPhone almost like an EeePC rather than like a standard mobile phone.
I could run my iPhone for more than 3 days without recharging, not bad at all as I was using the 3G for web browsing, rss feeds. Wifi and Location off.

What about you?



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