Ever since the release of Aperture, Apple only half-heartedly supported metadata in exported photo’s. I don’t know why but Apple decided not to export extremely useful metadata information like lens model and many others as well. Unfortunately, this is still the case with Aperture 3 :( Lens type is still not included in any exported JPEGs or when directly uploading a photo to flickr. When I tried to upload a photo to flickr using the new flickr button in Aperture 3, even location data from “Places” wasn’t included. Commenter Connor had the solution: I needed to check that checkbox in Aperture’s preferences web tab (see screenshot below). Read more »

Yesterday, Apple released a new version of it’s photo management and raw conversion software Aperture. The issues addressed include:

• Nikon images imported using a direct camera-to-computer connection now display thumbnails correctly in the Import window.
• Fixed an issue that could cause duplicate image versions to be created after rebuilding a library.
• Fixed a library issue that prevented operation of the Relocate or Consolidate commands in some circumstances.

The fixed import-thumbnails issue is great news for Nikon D700 users. Finally, we’re able to see what photos we’re about to import from our camera. I also checked if they fixed an annoying EXIF metadata export issue when exporting a photo – and to my big surprise, they did!

EXIF data

As you can see in the screenshot above, EXIF Viewer displays the latitude/longitude metadata information in an exported Aperture photo when using Aperture 2.1.3. The master image was a raw camera file which I exported as a JPEG. Unfortunately, lens information is still missing in the exported photos :(

Today, my Holux M-241 GPS Logger was giving me a hard time. I wanted to connect it to my Macintosh over Bluetooth and the BT747 Java application for the first time. There’s some fragmented information on the Internet about how it can be done but I was unable to find a useful guide. Read more »

Recently, I got my Apple TV back from repair. After setting up the wireless network connection and trying to connect it to the shared iTunes library on my Mac I was expecting it to show up in iTunes so I could enter the key to pair both devices. Apple TV usually shows up within seconds in iTunes. Not this time! Read more »

My iPhone now runs the new version 1.1.4. IPSF still works! Here’s what I did:

• Downloaded ZiPhone 2.5.
  • If you’re runningVista, make sure you run the executable with administrator permissions
• Downloaded iTunes 7.6.1 and the 1.1.4 update.
• Made a backup of all my iPhone settings using iTunes. Read more »

The 1.1.3 soft-upgrade is called a soft-upgrade because it won’t update your baseband firmware to the 1.1.3 software level (04.03.13_G). This was necessary because as of today there’s no anySIM hack for the new baseband.

Added 2008-2-23: You don’t need Singal.app if you run anySIM 1.1.3 on your IPSF iPhone. I just tested it today and it works!

Added 2008-2-29: Looking for 1.1.4? See here!  

If you own an iPhoneSimFree’ed (IPSF) 1.1.2 iPhone (or 1.1.1) with the 3.9 bootloader you’re able to fully upgrade to 1.1.3 including baseband! Why would you want the new baseband if you could run 1.1.3 with the older baseband firmware? I don’t really have an answer to that. I just wanted to make sure the software and the baseband firmware in my iPhone are on the same level as intended by Apple’s software engineers.

Read more »

Test your aluminum iMac if it has a good or bad display

Added 2008-4-1: Apple being sued over iMac display quality!
“Dazzling displays: Your photos, movies, and games will come to life in rich, vivid color thanks to the new glossy widescreen display on every iMac. …delivering greater performance for everything from enhancing photos to playing games and more.”

This is how Apple describes the displays in the new aluminum iMac. But there seems to be a vast difference between the marketing promises and reality. Users affected by bad iMac displays report their experiences as follows (these are just a few excerpts out of dozens of statements in Apple’s own discussion forum):

“I’m a PC-to-Mac switcher and purchased a 24” imac about a month ago and returned it for a full-refund due to the obvious gradient.”

Read more »