Eight years after buying Flickr, Yahoo hopes to entice people to take a fresh look at the photo service it let languish with a fresh coat of paint and a free terabyte of space. Too bad today’s photo-sharer has found a home elsewhere and is already accustomed to free.

Monday at a press event in New York, Yahoo announced major changes to Flickr to make the product “awesome again.” The biggest change was the addition of a free terabyte of storage, a shift that transforms Flickr from a very restrictive subscription service to something that a majority of people can use for free. The service also now sports a highly image-centric design and comes with a redesigned Android application.

Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer was on hand to make sure the media grasped the greatness of the Flickr news. She promised an ostentatious marketing campaign, starting with 11 massive billboards in Times Square, to convey the same message to everyone else. Members of the press were far more preoccupied with the Tumblr purchase. The public will be equally unenthused.

The problem is that Yahoo is using words that won’t resonate with the average photo-sharer. A terabyte is a lot of space, but it doesn’t mean anything to most people. Today’s Internet user has come to expect limitless space for their photos thanks to Facebook, where they’re already uploading a majority of their pictures — 350 million per day, to be exact.

Photos uploaded to Flickr maintain their full resolution and you can download them in full resolution too. Great news for the photographer or album-maker, but hardly a message that will click with teens or young adults who just want a quick way to get their smartphone photos off their phone and in front of their friends.

Yes, the new Flickr gives the 89 million of us who have kept our accounts a reason to see what’s new. I was delighted to find that the photos I’ve uploaded to the site over the years are still there. Flickr was holding most of them hostage because I decided to stop paying for the now retired Pro service. So there’s that. And though I’m not loving the design (I’m not alone), Flickr’s new look is far more current and plenty of people are turning to Twitter to say exactly that.

Yahoo’s real pitch seems to be one of practicality. Upload to Flickr. Store forever. And you can still share to Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr in the process, even when you’re on iPhone or Android. But who actually thinks like that? Certainly not Instagram users who have gravitated to the app because of its speed and simplicity. And where’s the fun here? At least Google+ launched a photo experience with funky photo extras.

Flickr’s approach is more mature. It’s for the grownups out there. It’s not sexy enough to motivate most people, youngsters in particular, to change their behaviors — or their preferred photo-sharing network.

Yahoo’s Flickr isn’t a lost cause just yet. The changes, at the very least, show the company’s commitment to making over the image of the once hot property. Plus, now that it has Tumblr, Yahoo might be able to find a way to tie the two properties together and infuse the photo site with some of the with-it-and-hip qualities of the blogging platform.

Photos first. Photo: Flickr

Photo: Flickr

Photo: Flickr

Photo: Flickr

Working on an iOS plan.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

(Credit: Craig Swatton/iStockphoto)

In just a few short years, smartphone photography has reached critical mass. It used to be the case that a camera module on a phone was a curious anomaly rather than the rule, but now you would be hard pressed to find a mobile device without a lens on it somewhere.

To demonstrate just how much mobile photography has permeated contemporary society, take a trip through any tourist venue and count the number of people taking photos. No doubt there will be a mixture of compact cameras, SLRs and mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs). But just as many people will be using a mobile device to snap a photo. You might even let out a chuckle as you see someone lift a tablet to the sky, poised and ready to grab that happy snap.

Today, smartphone camera technology has reached a point where most devices are good enough to produce images for newspaper front pages, be used in a professional capacity at a wedding or to document major sporting events.

The line between mobile devices and traditional cameras has blurred so much that we no longer question why someone uses their phone to take a photo. The stigma, at least surrounding mobile phone photography, has all but disappeared, except for the most fervent traditionalists.

If anything, traditional cameras have had to play catch-up to stay competitive with their mobile companions. Features like Wi-Fi and near-field communication (NFC) are now commonplace on even some of the most basic point-and-shoots, because photographers expect their devices to be connected. Tools like the Eye-Fi card, which turns a regular snapper into a Wi-Fi-enabled device, have proven to be wildly successful, while hybrid cameras that merge the benefits of cellular connectivity and “regular” camera elements such as the Samsung Galaxy Camera are bridging any remaining gaps between the two worlds.

When mobile photography really started to take off in 2009, many associated it with the iPhone, dubbing the phenomenon iPhoneography. Today, “Mo Pho”, as it has affectionately become known, is a legitimate art form. Photographers are finding different ways to express themselves thanks to the limitations and strengths of the platform.

Apps like Instagram have certainly popularised the experience of mobile photography, making it more accessible and social than before. But for professional photographers, phones have opened up a whole other world of possibilities.

(Credit: AleksandarNaki/iStockphoto)

Che McPherson has seen this transformation occur in his time as design content lead at iStockphoto, as well as his role as professional photographer for a range of international clients. As part of his role at the stock photo site, McPherson is a senior inspector, who oversees quality control checks for submitted images every day.

In all, he said that there are more day-to-day stock photographers submitting mobile photos than casual mobile photographers looking to make some spare cash from stock images. It’s the distinct challenge of working with a small device that lets photographers see in different ways, according to McPherson.

“Once you are a professional photographer, you really always want to look for more ways to be creative and push boundaries,” he said. “Obviously, with a professional, you are always carrying around a truckload of gear, and it becomes really laborious. Then it’s almost really refreshing that you can have something in your pocket and easy to whip out.”

Technical limitations, like noise and chromatic aberrations, no longer pose as big a problem as they once did in the early days of mobile photography. Thanks to higher-resolution sensors and the ability to clean up photos easily in post-processing, McPherson and his team are able to accept more photos than ever before, with iStockphoto receiving approximately 15,000 images per day for review.

“[These days] … with an image, it’s not all about how technically good it is; it’s about how beautiful it is and how usable it is,” he said.

A picture tells a thousand memories

McPherson strongly believes that mobile devices allow us to capture moments in time that would normally be out of the question if we had to rely on professional gear. “You’re getting real, authentic moments using a smartphone, because they are so unobtrusive and accessible,” he said.

It’s not just everyday scenarios that lend themselves to being captured by a smartphone for posterity. In the competitive field of stock photography, plenty of international brands are seeking images that look and feel authentic. “Nowadays, people are engaging with emotion — a raw, authentic moment,” McPherson said. Apple is just one example of a company that has made the explicit connection between memories, emotion and mobile photography, thanks to a recent advertisement that highlights the popularity of the iPhone 5‘s camera.

(Credit: SchulteProductions/iStockphoto)

But, as we know, these “moments” that McPherson mentioned can be manipulated. The popularity of Instagram filters or presets like VSCo make us react to photos in different ways, whether that’s evoking a sense of nostalgia or intensifying emotion and a sense of urgency through black-and-white processing.

McPherson is seeing a trend of stock photographers submitting filtered images that have been processed in such a way as to deliberately elicit an emotional reaction in the viewer.

“Once again, it’s a trend or a style – the bigger the style, the harder it’s going to fall,” he said. “My prediction for the future is that it’s really going to phase out. As far as images right now, and being an iStock inspector, we just love to see that stuff. Obviously, it’s got a really artistic look. Once again, it’s supplying images that simply aren’t out there. It’s got its own grandeur of style.”

The role of tablet photography

Mobile photography isn’t restricted to the confines of a phone screen. Tablets and larger phones are also becoming increasingly popular as imaging devices, too — this generation’s “large format”, if you will.

In many cases, the camera and lens specifications may not be as sophisticated as those found on the smaller-factor smartphones, but many professionals are finding innovative ways to see beyond the hardware limitations.

Rachel Devine supplements her existing collection — including models like the Nikon D3, Hasselblad and Polaroid SX-70 — with a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which she uses for impromptu shooting and travel photography. Taking photos on a larger mobile device can elicit some peculiar looks; Devine even admitted to giggling when seeing iPads used at concerts.

“People are not used to seeing something so large compared to the iPhone/iPod screens, and anything different tends to cause some people to initially be uncomfortable,” she said. “Also, the cameras that are in tablets have generally been not as good as the ones in phones, so there is that assumption that another device would be better.”

While it might earn the chagrin of passersby seeing a tablet or large smartphone taking a photo, Devine noted that using an Android rather than an Apple device has earned her more curiosity than criticism. “That usually leads to them wanting to see the S Pen in action and discussing favourite photo editing apps,” she said.

The convenience of having such a large screen for photo editing and composition is another advantage for tablet photographers. Executive chef Perry Perkins currently uses an iPad for food photography, and while he had a point-and-shoot beforehand, the tablet has opened up many more possibilities for his images.

“Being able to see what I’m shooting on such a large screen means I can angle and crop my shots as I’m taking them,” he said. “With food photography, what I’m seeing on the screen is often a life-size image or larger. Being able to email my photos to my computer, and/or post directly to one of my social media pages, is nice.”

Tablets have also made it easier for professionals to show clients images during a photo shoot, thanks to wireless tethering. The extra real estate of a tablet screen makes it much easier to review photos, and to engage with them, too. “Since my work is mostly commercial, having the client there to see the images as they are captured opens up a really fantastic line of communication during shoots,” Devine said. “Working mostly with kids, I find that my small models are engaged with the shoots more when they can see the resulting images.”

Some photographers have faced resistance from those practitioners in traditional circles who don’t see how a mobile device could possibly be considered a legitimate photographic tool. Though this schism shares many similarities with the transition between film and digital back in the early 2000s, the difference with mobile photography is that it’s not replacing one format with another; it’s merely offering a different way for an artist to express themselves. Renowned mobile photographer Misho Baranovic said you can’t convince everyone that a smartphone or tablet serves just as much purpose as a traditional camera.

“I’ve found that people who truly love photography don’t care what you shoot with; they just want to be moved and challenged by the photographs,” he said. “The ones that dismiss what you do often have a vested interest in the definition of photography — usually in relation to equipment or technique.

“The only thing you can do is strive to take, find and showcase the best of mobile photography. Also, you need to keep asking why people want to shoot on these devices, and how this changes the way we capture, share and consume pictures.”

Baranovic is well positioned to discuss the changes in the mobile photography scene, being one of the first to popularise and communicate the benefits of this form of expression thanks to his award-winning images. Apart from the obvious advantages presented by near-instantaneous sharing, he mentioned the benefits of having an integrated shooting system for time-sensitive delivery. “In particular, news organisations and brands are seeing the importance of delivering high-quality imagery through live blogging formats,” he said. “For example, Sydney Fashion Week partnered with Oliver Lang to Instagram live blog a number of fashion shows over the week. This is similar to what TIME Magazine did when they sent a number of professional photographers to provide rolling Instagram coverage of Hurricane Sandy as it made landfall late last year.”

The popularity of mobile apps such as Instagram and EyeEm allows pretty much anyone to edit and share images with a broader audience. But apart from applying effects like different filters, many photographers are also using these apps to share photos taken on traditional cameras, not just those from their mobile devices.

Does it bother the mobile photographer to see these tools used to share non-mobile photos? “I don’t mind if people are using traditional cameras,” said Baranovic. “But I often wonder why they bother, as it’s so much easier to just capture, edit and share directly on the phone. I also find that photos taken on big cameras often lack ‘instant’ nature of those taken on a mobile device — often jarring with the purpose of mobile sharing platforms.”

For many mobile photographers, even those who may not necessarily identify themselves as such, smartphones and tablets have helped redefine the way they approach their art. In today’s interconnected world, where every device has the potential to be a new image capture tool, mobile photography is not just about the medium — it’s about the message, too.

Posted by Will Stabley on May 18, 2013 in News, Tech |

HTC One (HTC)

Troy’s
RATING

6.5

(Out of 10)

What: HTC One smartphone
Likes: Solid feeling aluminum case. Narrow, rounded design allows one-handed use. Sharp screen. Loud, rich-sounding stereo speakers. Camera app allows users to create action shots, remove unwanted objects without having to preselect a particular shooting mode.
Dislikes: New tile-based interface is a distracting jumble. Pictures are washed out and noisy when enlarged. Doesn’t include latest version of Android. Battery not replaceable.
Specs: 1.7 GHz quad-core processor; 1920 x 1080, 468 ppi display; 2 megapixel front and 4 megapixel rear cameras.
Price: For 32GB model, $ 200 with two-year contract with AT&T; $ 100 with two-year contract at Sprint for new customers; $ 100 with two-year payment plan with T-Mobile. For 64GB model, $ 300 with two-year contract on AT&T.
Web: www.htc.com

(Credit: CNET)

It’s a natural instinct to resist if someone tries to steal something out of your hand.

In Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon, that instinct might have cost a 15-year-old boy his life.

As the Las Vegas Sun reports, Marcos Vincente Arenas was walking down the street, holding an iPad.

Police say an SUV pulled up alongside him. A man allegedly got out of the passenger seat and tried to wrest the iPad from Arenas.

The teen wouldn’t let go of the device, so, investigators say, he was dragged along by the alleged thief toward the vehicle.

He was still near the passenger door when the car took off. Arenas was run over and died in hospital of his injuries.

Police have issued descriptions of both the driver and the passenger of the SUV, said to be a white Ford Explorer or Expedition.

This is the latest and most gruesome example of the phenomenon known as “Apple-picking.”

Though not exclusively confined to Apple devices, there is a nationwide increase in the public theft of gadgets.

Cities such as New York and San Francisco have been particularly vulnerable to such thefts, with some criticizing cell phone manufacturers for not doing enough to prevent them. Indeed, some believe that gadget companies see a stolen phone or tablet as a sales opportunity.

In New York, 14 percent of all crimes last year were iPhone and iPad thefts. In San Francisco, nearly half of all robberies in 2012 involved a cell phone.

Police in San Francisco are even using controversial new methods — posing as thieves themselves — in an attempt to stop stolen iPhone trade at its source.

In regard to the iPad, Las Vegas Metro Police spokesman Bill Cassell told the Las Vegas Sun after the latest incident: “They’re lightweight, portable — you can run and hide with them. It’s about the next best thing to stealing money.”

Police urge those who might be victims not to resist, but to hand over the gadget.

ORLANDO, Fla. — When Frank Boulben joined BlackBerry a year ago as its chief marketing officer, he found a company whose reputation with the public was in shambles.

To make matters worse, its marketing strategy was in complete disarray. Each country or region had their own version of a BlackBerry campaign, complete with different agencies and creative processes. Even within the same region, campaigns would change from quarter to quarter with little lasting effect.

“There were a lot of broken pieces,” Boulben recalled during his keynote presentation at the company’s BlackBerry Live conference on Tuesday.

Getting BlackBerry’s house in order on the marketing and promotional end was a critical aspect to any turnaround bid. The company was introducing a new platform and wholly new products, and needed to get consumers — millions of whom abandoned BlackBerry — to take another look. The BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 fizzling would put a damper on BlackBerry 10 and the company’s ultimate comeback.

For anyone doubting the power of marketing, just look at the juggernaut that Samsung Electronics has created with its Galaxy S brand. The company outmuscled everyone — including Apple — when it came to marketing spending. Samsung has since reaped the benefits with multiple hit products, including the newly released Galaxy S4 and the larger Galaxy Note line of “phablets.”

Last year, Samsung spent more than $ 400 million on marketing in the U.S., compared with $ 333.4 million by Apple, according to market research firm Kantar Media. In comparison, BlackBerry barely registered as a blip, spending $ 41.3 million a year.

With actual new products available, BlackBerry has said it would significantly increase its marketing budget. But even if it doubled or tripled its budget this year, Apple and Samsung would still eclipse its presence.

“Sadly, however, you can still make all the right calls, and lack of brand strength will not get you very far,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Back to basics
With Apple and Samsung’s shadow looming large, it has been up to Boulben to ensure that BlackBerry makes the most of its limited resources.

In a follow-up interview with CNET, Boulben blamed the the company’s previous “broken” model on the previous leadership’s blind focus on growth, which resulted in fragmentation.

“When you grow that fast, you put all of your attention into sustaining growth, and the fastest way to do it is distributing resources and decentralizing your marketing,” he said. While that model may be effective at chasing customers for a little while, it eventually catches up to the company.

In addition, Boulben criticized the company’s house of brands, which he said diluted its image. The company’s official name, Research in Motion, didn’t have much to do with BlackBerry. Each device, meanwhile, had their own specific names, including the Bold, Curve, Torch, Tour, and the infamous Storm (whose name still elicits a grimace from long-time executives).

Boulben moved quickly and restructured the marketing division under a single, centralized unit after only three months on the job (he said a change that dramatic usually takes more than a year). In January, the company dropped the RIM name in favor of BlackBerry. Boulben told CNET that he also wouldn’t be recycling the Bold or Curve product names — despite their continued appeal — in favor of a simpler naming system (Z10 and Q10) that emphasizes the BlackBerry name.

Boulben compared it to the naming strategy of high-end automakers (BMW, for instance, has the Z3 roadster).

The move to get behind a single BlackBerry brand represents the company’s strongest and most focused marketing push in years. With larger rivals Apple and Samsung Electronics dominating the airwaves and billboards, Boulben opted to put a more concerted effort into its own name.

While BlackBerry remains popular in some regions, those tend to be markets where they are successful with low-end products. In the markets where it intends to sell its higher end BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones — including the U.S., it still needs to rehabilitate its image.

Bringing the buzz back
This week’s BlackBerry Live conference was an ideal opportunity to begin changing the perceptions of the company.

BlackBerry had a flurry of announcements, including the lower cost BlackBerry Q5, an update to the BlackBerry Z10, more app announcements, and the surprise move to open up its BlackBerry Messenger service to other mobile platforms. The message to the BlackBerry faithful: “We’re back.”

BlackBerry Live is in many ways a surreal bubble cut off from the real world. It's here where regular tech executives transform into rock stars, with the BlackBerry faithful mugging for photos. Outside an after-conference party hosted by AT&T in Downtown Disney's House of Blues, BlackBerry fans lined up to pose with Vivek Bhardwaj, who has had an increasingly visible role as the head of software.

Read more: Can BlackBerry move past ‘solid ground’ to recapture past glory?

Some of the fan reaction, the company hopes, is from a sense of renewed excitement in the company.

Michael Nowlin, a developer and enthusiast known as “BlackBerry Hank,” conceded he was let down by last year’s conference, when BlackBerry again delayed the launch of its BlackBerry 10 products and failed to unveil an actual phone at the show. But he said things were different this time around.

“It’s night and day,” said Nowlin, whose day job is with a cable set-top box manufacturing company.

Nowlin is one of the “BlackBerry Elite,” a program that involved recruiting a small army of enthusiasts and developers tasked with drumming up buzz for the company through social media, message boards, and other mediums. In exchange, they get perks like airfare, hotel rooms, and access to conferences like BlackBerry Live, as well as an inside track on the company’s roadmap.

Nowlin and a handful of the other elites lounged around one of the many temporary bars set up around the main stage at Universal Studios, which BlackBerry paid to close off to only its conference attendees on Wednesday night. Performing on stage was Alicia Keys and several up-and-coming musical acts, including rock band “Alabama Shakes.”

Keys has played a surprisingly large role at BlackBerry since she was named “Global Creative Director” in January. Despite an early hiccup, when she tweeted from her iPhone (she claimed she was hacked), she has proven to be more than the usual pitchwoman. During her concerts, she has one segment where she holds up a BlackBerry Z10 to “call” a love interest before bursting into song. She even participated in BlackBerry Live, speaking during the keynote and moderating a panel on women in technology.

The company also has a collection of videos on its Keep Moving Web site — part of a collaboration with director Robert Rodriguez — that have garnered 22 million views, Boulben said, adding that they have been able measure the increase in interest and consideration in the brand.

“There has been a 108% improvement on brand preference for people who see the Keep Moving films,” he said.

Mainstream awareness still elusive
BlackBerry may have the confidence of its die-hard fans, but it still has a long way to go when it comes to the general consumer.

"There's just so much blanket coverage by Apple and Samsung that it's very hard," said Soumen Ganguly, a consultant with Altman Vilandrie & Co. "So far, I haven't really seen BlackBerry cutting through all that background noise."

Ganguly has seen interest in BlackBerry first hand. He was recently in an AT&T store in Boston looking at phones when he noticed two people walk in to ask specifically about the BlackBerry Q10. He said the clerk told him that had been happening on a regular basis since the announcement.

Still, Ganguly said he doesn’t believe BlackBerry has done a decent job of marketing to the non-techie crowd.

“They need to generate a lot more noise,” he said.

The company’s current position is far from the highs it experienced just a few years ago, when it sold the smartphone to own. When BlackBerry was on top, its products, such as the flagship Bold, sleek Curve, and the more consumer-focused Pearl, were highly coveted status symbols. The term “Crackberry” emerged to describe the addictive nature of its messaging devices.

But the older BlackBerry OS increasingly showed its age as Apple’s iPhone and Android smartphones began to turn heads.

BlackBerry further tarnished its brand with half-baked products such as the touchscreen Storm, and then the ill-fated PlayBook tablet. Even subsequent updates of its marquee smartphones increasingly illustrated the gap between its products the newer generation of smartphones.

So when Boulben took the job a year ago, he quipped that people said that this was either the toughest job in technology, or the easiest. Given what’s gone on with BlackBerry, it’s easy to assume that it has nowhere to go but up. Indeed, many believe he still has his work cut out for him.

“As far as re-energizing the brand I think it will take longer,” Milanesi said.

Awaiting carrier support
One way to get mainstream awareness is through the carriers, which have far richer resources when it comes to advertising.

In the U.S., however, carrier support has been mixed. While there are a handful of commercials on the air, on the radio, and on billboards and magazines, the big sellers continue to be the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4.

“There’s just so much blanket coverage by Apple and Samsung that it’s very hard. So far, I haven’t really seen BlackBerry cutting through all that background noise.”
–Soumen Ganguly, a consultant with Altman Vilandrie & Co.

While BlackBerry executives maintain that they are happy with the support of the carriers, there hasn’t been much of a visible push by any of the big players.

That should change in the next month. Boulben told CNET that one of the national carriers would launch a TV campaign around BlackBerry next month.

In addition, Boulben said that the carriers were marketing to the base of existing BlackBerry customers, sending direct e-mails to encourage upgrades.

“You don’t see it, but it’s as effective as running a TV campaign,” he said.

The carriers have been mum about sales of the BlackBerry Z10, but the keyboard-equipped Q10 may have more luck exciting the remaining BlackBerry faithful.

BlackBerry may suspect that it has a better shot going after the diehards with the Q10 and is preparing a big campaign for it, Ganguly said.

Whether it’s the Z10, Q10 or even Q5, the company doesn’t want any confusion about what the campaign is about.

“I want people to say, ‘I am using a BlackBerry’ or ‘I’m using the new BlackBerry,’” Boulben said. “(The BlackBerry name is) a fantastic asset, and I wanted that asset to be front and center.”