Though digital cameras become better and are equipped with higher resolution sensors every other day, from time to time we reach the point where our digital image file is just not big enough for our purpose. We urgently need this file printed in, let’s say 70×100cm, but the original resolution would then be less than we’d want it to be. As I came across this challenge some weeks ago, I decided to look for alternatives to the well-known yet suboptimal bicubic-resize-option we find in Photoshop. I only found 2 applications available for Apple’s Mac OSX that looked suitable to me. One is called “Genuine Fractals” from OnOne Software, the other “Photozoom” by BenVista. Both are compatible with MS Windows as well. Whereas Photozoom is a stand-alone application, Genuine Fractals works as a plug-in, so you need to have Photoshop installed.
For those who always read the last page first: It’s really hard to tell the difference between the two, but both produce better results than Photoshop does!

As the german newssite Tagesschau.de reports, there is a possible security problem with the browser plug-in of the Adobe Reader 7.x. Looks like certain PDF documents can transport invisible yet malicious Javascript. There is a description on “Heise online” as well (read it in german or english).
Luckily the Mac-version seems not to be affected. So if you are using a Windows-machine in combination with MS Internet Exporer or Firefox and the Adobe Reader in version 7.x it´s good advice to update to the latest Adobe Reader 8.

EDIT: It seems like the problem with older versions of pdf-viewer-applications is worse than I expected. As several sites like golem.de are reporting, the security problem does not only exist with the adobe-pdf-browser-plug-in but with the regular reader as well. They strongly recomment updating to the latest version 8. The worst of all is, even the Mac version is not secure. Neither the Adobe Reader nor Apple’s “Preview” can stand those manipulated pdf documents. You’ll find a related article on this issue by clicking here.

EDIT2: Adobe has released a security update for the pre-version-8 reader that should solve the problem. You can get it here.

Just a couple of days ago I read an article on SPIEGEL online. It was about HDR or “High Dynamic Range” imaging, which reminded me of this great technique I now want to introduce you to…
Ages ago - when there was celluloid-film-material used for storing images - photographers started thinking about how to expand the dynamic range of their films. This because the typical lightning of a scene with shadows and highlights has always been too high in contrast for converting it into a picture without losing details. As a matter of fact you always have to decide wether to get the lights or the shadows correct or just don´t care about and concentrate on the main object in the view-finder. You know the result of this: Either the lights are totally white or the shadows are totally black, but you won´t find any details or structure in there.

Adobe today released a public beta version of their Photoshop CS3 software. It is available from the Adobe Labs Homepage both for Windows and Mac. You’ll have to register in order to download the 650MB file to your harddisk. The Beta will run after entering a valid CS2 serial number into the startup-screen. Otherwise you have the option to run it in trial-mode which is said to last 30 days. In fact, sources report the trial-version will expire after 2 days so you’ll probably have to modify your system clock in order to expand this trial to the promised 30 days

2006 war kein gutes Jahr für Sony. Erst kam die weltweite Rückruf-Aktion für Laptop-Akkus (u.a. verwendet in Toshiba-, Dell- und Apple-Geräten), die unter ungünstigen Umständen in Brand gerieten. Dies produzierte allein im Zeitraum von Juli bis September Kosten in Höhe von 51 Milliarden Yen und dürfte die Konzerngewinne für dieses Jahr ziemlich schmälern:

Akku-Rückrufe belasten Gewinnprognose: Der japanische Elektronikkonzern Sony hat nach den zahlreichen Rückrufen von Laptop-Akkus die Ertragsprognose für das laufende Geschäftsjahr kräftig nach unten revidiert. Auch die geplante Preissenkung für die neue Playstation 3 belastet das Geschäft. (SPIEGEL online)

Dann kamen diverse Probleme mit Sony’s kompakten Digitalkameras hinzu. Defekte CCDs und Ausfälle bei den Kameradisplays sorgen weiterhin für Unmut. Die Liste der betroffenen Geräte wird täglich länger, nachzulesen auf Sonys Supportseite zu diesem Thema.
Bleibt zu hoffen, dass Sony nach der Übernahme von Konika-Minolta mit der neu vorgestellten, digitalen Alpha 100 Spiegelreflexkamera mehr Erfolg hat und die langjährigen Kunden der beiden vorgenannten Firmen halten kann.