Microsoft has been playing around with experimental software lately and releasing them to the public, much like Google’s strategy for years. I just noticed a site called Photosynth that multiple images into a single composite “image” that is in 3D and allows you to “move” within the space and “see” places from different angles. Very cool!

For the longest time I’ve stopped using Google Maps. This is because Microsoft’s Live Search Maps has much better coverage of the GTA and is more accurate.

For instance, their Bird’s Eye view i find is much more useful than Google’s Street View and Street View is not available in Canada.

As well, the maps in Live are more up to date. At the corner of Bay and Yorkville, the old Mr. Sub building is still standing in Google Maps, while Live Maps shows the new Four Season’s Hotel/Condo Showroom. Live’s maps are in much higher resolution, as shown below:

Update: Twice this week I’ve looked up addresses on Google Maps only to find out that the location was WRONG. I find this really bad and worse is that there’s no easy way to tell them to make a correction on their site.

This Starbucks is at Yonge/Bloor, but Google Maps puts it way up in Rosedale, almost a full km away from it’s actual location.

When I went to Audi Mississauga, it placed the marker way in the middle of a neighborhood instead of on the side of Mavis where it is really located:

Over the past few years, digital photography has literally exploded in popularity. It’s by far supassed where film photography was in the previous decade which has ben languishing for years. However, a quick trip through Flickr, Facebook, and the blogsphere reveals many stylistic difference between online photos and print photos from film.

What I’ve noticed is that many pictures are adjusted so that contrast and saturation is set very high, almost to “unrealistic” levels. I’ve wondered why this is so prevelant as in film photography, the developers at your local photo lab always strived to give you the most “natural” colors. However, with so many do-it-yourself photography via digital imaging, images online skew towards very saturated and high contrast photos.

Equipment may play a large part in this. Most people are editting photos on laptop computers which are almost always equipped with 6-bit or low-contrast LCD screens. To make the pictures “look right” on those screens, they have skewed many of the adjustments so that they look less natural on a full, bright CRT or 8-bit desktop LCD monitor. Professionals adjust their monitors and calibrate their photo software so that what they see onscreen is replicated correctly in print media, but the DIY person probably doesn’t do that.

This is so prevelant now that I think that the online photo “style” is now widely seen online and almost expected. Even the photos I showcase on the nav bar of my blog are skewed to match the style of photography mostly found these days, even though I have a calibrated, 8-bit LCD.

After 100 years of getting “natural” colors through advanced development in the labs of Kodak and Fuji, the digital world has turned this upside down and sided more with unnatural tones and contrasty highlights in online media. Photography is art, there is no “right” way to do it. It’s good to see so many people enjoying the hobby of photography.

I like thin laptops. It seems that once the MacBook Air came out, all the major companies rushed out to make one with a very thin profile but still offer many of the features as a full size notebook. Dell launched their Latitude e4200 today which is only 0.79″ thick (MacBook Air is 0.76″, Lenovo X300 is 0.74″ HP VooDoo Envy 133 is 0.70″).

The Inspiron Mini 9 is finally up on the Dell Canada site. It’s priced at $399 CAD for 1GB RAM, 8GB SSD and Windows XP. Upgrades include:

Webcam ($20 for 0.3MP, $40 for 1.3MP)
16 GB SSD ($50)
Bluetooth ($20)

The humble Wii remote has been “hacked” into normal PC’s for some pretty innovative uses. The demos in this video aren’t that unique, but it is pretty fantastic that a $40 game controller can replicate many features from much more expensive equipment.

Dell has jumped on the netbook bandwagon and offers the new Insipron Mini.

The new browser is available directly from Google.

A list of features is in my previous post about this browser.

Hard to believe that Google is out to make their own browser, however it was announced today. Google Chrome features some evolutionary features, but nothing revolutionary:

• Will include Google Gears
• Javascript VM called V8
• Tabbed browsing
• Super address bar
• Porn mode

I’m not sure what it’s purpose is, Firefox still hasn’t penetrated the market over 20% and Safari dominates the Mac (and iPhone) market. My only thinking is that chrome is probably the browser being made for Android and being reused for PC’s.

Perhaps this is a strategy by Google to get more usage out of Google Gears. It’s not really that popular and I don’t see any major websites using any of it’s features. They’ll probably launch the browser and “Gear” up their own apps (Google, GMail, Google Apps) and get people “hooked” on Chrome and Gears.

Looks like the $30/6 GB plan has been extended until the end of September instead of the end of August. The plan requires a 3 year data plan commitment and a breakage fee if you end it early.

However, the Globe and Mail has said that after the plan ends, there will be new data plans available:

$25 for 500 MB
$30 for 1 GB
$50 for 2 GB
$60 for 3 GB
$80 for 8 GB
$100 for unlimited data

The plans will include 3 months of unlimited data so they know how much data is used. Moreover people can upgrade or downgrade their plan without penalty and data charges are capped at $100 a month, meaning no more $13,000 phone bills (thanks Bell Canada).

I’m not sure if these plans require 3 year contracts like the current plan, but with Rogers always bet on the worst-case scenario for consumers.