If you’re someone who enjoys taking pictures on the go with your iPhone or iPod Touch, but would like to have a camera application with more features, perhaps you should try using Camera+, by Taptaptap.

Camera+ is an application that is similar to the iPhone’s native camera, but has many more features, including touch exposure and focus, a photo flashlight, a variety of different shooting modes, a grid so that you can line up your shots, 6x digital zoom, as well as many other features.

When you first launch the application, you will see a viewfinder, which is similar to the iPhone’s native camera application. Also on the screen, there is a zoom slider, as well as buttons to see the photos that are in your lightbox, a settings as well as a menu button.

If you tap on the button that looks like a gear, which is located next to the shutter button, you will be able to choose between four different settings for taking pictures, such as a “Normal” mode, an image stabilizer, a  five-second timer, as well as burst mode.

The menu button, which is located at the bottom right of the screen, has options, such as turning the application’s sounds on and off, as well as enabling and disabling the zoom and grid options. There are also options to restore purchases that you may have made, as well as to choose the image quality from either “Full” quality, which saves the photos in their full resolution or “Optimized” quality, which saves the images with a maximum size of 1,200 x 1,200 pixels. There are also sharing options that you can configure, as well as the option to view information about the application.

Once you’ve taken a picture using Camera+, it will get saved to the application’s lightbox, where you can view the photos that you have taken, as well as export them to your iPhone or iPod Touch’s camera roll. Also, you can edit, save, copy, as well as share the pictures that you have taken.

If you would like to try using Camera+, you can download the application for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a very happy holiday and I would like to welcome you back to TechnicalCafe.com!

As you may already know, TechnicalCafe.com has recently been moved from WordPress.com’s hosting service to GoDaddy’s hosting service. The reason for this is because a self-hosted WordPress blog provides more options than are available on the free WordPress.com hosting service.

While WordPress.com provided a great hosting service with many fantastic features, users are not able to upload or use their own custom themes, plug-ins, or widgets. Now that TechnicalCafe.com is being hosted on it’s own webspace, we can choose what we would like to add or remove. Also, we are now able to place and run scripts and such on the website, which may come in handy, should we want to use a web statistics or analytics service.

Due to switching hosting providers, you may have noticed that some features may be missing or different, so please feel free to leave a comment below or use the Contact page let me know what you think and if you would like to see something new or different!

Also, if you would like to view the WordPress.com hosted version of TechnicalCafe.com, you can do so by going to technicalcafe1.wordpress.com. However, new posts and updates that are posted here may not be added as frequently to this version of the website.

I have prepaid for GoDaddy’s WordPress Economy hosting plan for one year, which includes 10 GB of disk space and unlimited bandwidth, so we should have plenty of time and space to test this service out and continue to improve TechnicalCafe.

As for posting recently, I apologize for not having a new post up for the last week or two, but I would like to have at least a couple of new posts out a week and perhaps a video every now and then.

I would like to thank everyone for visiting TechnicalCafe.com and for helping to make it a resource for a variety of different technology topics. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or perhaps a technical support question, please feel free to use the Contact page to send me an e-mail!

Also, you can follow TechnicalCafe on Twitter (@TechnicalCafe) for links to the latest posts, as well as for website updates and information and, if you’d like, you can follow me on Twitter (@Jamiemcg) for the latest updates on what I am up to, as well.

Thank you,

Jamie McGibbon

A while back, I posted a blog post about a fun puzzle game called Cut the Rope by Chillingo, Inc. where the goal of the game is to get a piece of candy that is suspended by one or more ropes to a little green monster, so that he can eat it.

Recently, a holiday version of the game was released, with the same purpose, but with some festive new updates.

Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift is very similar to the original version of the game, as you still have to get a piece of candy to a hungry green monster, who loves to eat candy. While doing so, users are supposed to try to collect as many of the three stars that are in a level as they can, in order to earn more points. There are also certain obstacles, such as spikes and spiders, that users should try to avoid, as they can make the candy break or by eaten.

In order to collect the stars, you can choose to utilize a variety of different items and such, which are available in the game, such as cutting certain ropes, using bubbles to make the candy float upwards, blowing the candy in a certain direction, as well as others.

However, some additions in the holiday version of the game include festive backgrounds, like a Christmas tree and accessories, like reindeer antlers that the little green creature wears.

For gameplay, there are new stockings, which, when a piece of candy enters one, will shoot out of another stocking of the same color, at the same speed that it went in. These stockings can be good for “teleporting” the candy from one spot to another, allowing users to collect stars or get the candy to the candy loving creature.

If you would like to try playing Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, you can download the game for free from the iTunes App Store.

If you know someone who is interested in technology, but aren’t quite sure what gifts you should get them during this holiday season, perhaps these ideas will help you to find them the perfect gift! I saw some other people posting gift suggestions, so I figured I’d give it a try, as well.

However, I’d just like to include a little disclaimer that I have not tried using a majority of the products that are included in this list.

Amazon Kindle – $139.00

The Amazon Kindle has been out for a while, but is a great way for people to read without having to carry their books around with them. The Kindle includes an e-ink screen, which works well in sunlight and also has smoother and more natural looking fonts that an LCD screen. You can purchase the Kindle with Wi-Fi or both Wi-Fi and free 3G service, so that users can download books while on the go.

Roku Player – $59.99

The Roku Player is a device that allows users to stream content and media to their TVs, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD, Pandora, as well as other services, such as Revision3 and TWiT, with a constantly expanding media library. Also, users do not need to have a computer in order to use the Roku Player, as it’s a set top box that you can just plug in, connect to the Internet, and begin using. The device is less than 5 inches wide and is only 1 inch tall.

Boxee Box – $199.00

Boxee is a device that allows users to stream content and media, such as TV shows and movies, to their TVs. There are also a variety of different applications that users can download to their Boxee, including applications for video, music and photos, such as Pandora, FaceBook, Flickr, Vimeo, MLB, NHL, as well as others.

Boxee also has a “watch later” feature, which enables users to send web videos, including TV shows, to their Boxee Box from any web browser, in order to watch them later on.

If you happen to have an extra computer laying around, you can actually build a free Boxee Box, by connecting the computer to your TV and downloading and installing the Boxee software.

MacBook Air – $999.00

Apple’s latest version of the MacBook Air may be the perfect gift for a technology lover. The MacBook Air comes in two sizes, an 11 inch model, as well as a 13 inch model. (The 13 inch model price starts at $1,299.00.) The MacBook Air features a multi-touch trackpad, as well as a long lasting battery, which should give users around 5 to 7 hours of use.

Also, the MacBook Air has a high resolution display, which can be used to chat with friends using Apple’s FaceTime service. As for connectivity, the MacBook has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities and 2 USB ports. In addition, the MacBook Air uses flash storage, which offers uses a stand-by time of up to 30 days.

XBox 360 Kinect – $149.99

The relatively new Kinect device for the XBox 360 is a pretty neat device that allows users to control and play games, using only their motions and voices. For example, a player could control a game by simply waving their arms or jumping, if the game supports it. Players can also control their XBox 360 using voice commands, for things, such as watching a movie so that they don’t even have to use a remote control.

Nikon CoolPix S4000 Camera – $169.95

The Nikon CoolPix S4000 camera is a point-and-shoot camera that offers great image quality at a decent price. The S4000 can shoot photos at 12 megapixels and can also record 720p HD video. Users can view their images and videos on a 3 inch touchscreen and can also use the included stylus, if they prefer, rather than their fingers to navigate through their photos and videos.

In addition, users can choose from a variety of different scenes, depending on the environment where they’re taking their pictures or users can simply set the camera to an auto-scene mode, which will automatically adjust the camera’s settings so that they can just focus on taking pictures.

The Nikon CoolPix S4000 also features a variety of other settings, including a mode that automatically takes a picture when a smile is detected. For those who would like to manually adjust the camera’s settings, there are adjustable ISO and other settings. The camera features a removable, rechargeable battery, as well as about 45 MB of internal memory, with the ability to use an SD card for more storage.

I actually received this camera as a birthday present in September and think it is a great camera and has a decent price. I like that this camera offers a 3 inch touchscreen and the ability to record 720p HD video. Also, the rechargeable battery is a nice feature, so that you don’t have to worry about purchasing new batteries for it. Overall, I would recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for a great camera that can also record HD videos, but doesn’t want to spend a lot of money.

FlipCam Ultra HD – $149.99 (4GB)

While FlipCams have been around for a while, they still remain great devices for capturing video on the go and aren’t that expensive, either. The FlipCam Ultra HD is one of the three current models of Flip Cameras and comes in two different versions, one with 4GB of storage (about 1 hour of video) and one with 8GB of storage (about 2 hours of vide0).

The Flip Ultra HD camera can record 780p HD video at 30 frames per second with H.264 compression. Once you’re ready to upload your videos to your computer, you simply flip out the built in USB connector and connect the camera to your computer, where you can use Flip’s editing software, upload them to video sharing websites, such as YouTube or export your videos to your computer.

The FlipCam Ultra HD also offers a child safe mode, so that your videos can not be accidentally deleted. In addition, the FlipCam has a silent mode, which can be useful for recording in sensitive places, such as during an presentation.

While I have not owned a FlipCam Ultra HD, I do own a FlipCam Ultra and I think it’s a great camera for recording things on the go. It’s also easy to upload your videos to your computer and share them on websites, such as YouTube. I’d recommend this camera to people who are looking for a video camera without all of the “bells and whistles”, but can still record HD quality videos.

If you were looking for gift ideas for a techie, I hope my geek gift guide has provided you with some of those ideas! Please feel free to comment below with any personal experiences or reviews on the above products! Also, please feel free to suggest your geek gift ideas!

Earlier today, Google announced the launch of their new Nexus S phone, the predacessor to Google’s Nexus One phone, which was released in January of this year. Also announced was the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Gingerbread, or Android 3.2.

The Nexus S phone was co-developed with Samsung and is the first phone to run Gingerbread. The phone features a 4 inch (480 x 800) WVGA, AMOLED contour display, with a curved glass screen. The screen also has an anti-fingerprint coating and a capacitive touch censor. The phone also gives haptic feedback vibrations.

As for size, the Nexus S measures 63mm wide, 123.9mm long, and x 10.88mm thick and weighs 129 grams, or 4.6 ounces.

The Nexus S also features a 5 mega-pixel back facing camera, with a flash. The camera is also capable of recording video at a resolution of 720 x 480, using either H.263 or H.264 compression. There is also a front-facing VGA camera, which has a resolution of 640 x 480.

In addition, the phone contains a three-axis gyroscope, an accelerometer, a digital compass, a proximity sensor, as well as a light sensor. Also included on the Nexus S phone is a 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack with software noise cancellation.

The Nexus S also has a 1500 mAH Lithium Ion battery, which is capable of providing users with 6.7 hours of talk time on a 3G network and up to 14 hours of talk time on a 2G network. The battery provides up to 17.8 days of stand-by time on a 3G network and up to 29.7 hours of stand-by time on a 2G network.

The phone also comes with a variety of different Google or Android applications, including YouTube, GMail, Google Voice, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Maps, as well as others.

If you’d like to learn more about Google’s new Nexus S phone, you can do so from the Nexus S website.

If you’re someone who enjoys being outdoors, perhaps hiking, climbing, boating, or any other outdoor activity, but don’t like to spend too much money on the gear you need, perhaps you should check out Equipster.com.

Equipster.com is a relatively new website, which allows you to search for the gear you need for your outdoor activities and displays results, which are aggregated from a variety of of different online shops and retailers.  By doing this, users are able to find the items they want to purchase without having to spend an excessive amount of money.

Users can also choose to filter the type of equipment that they’re interested in purchasing and can choose from a variety of different filters, including size, gender, the type of item that they are looking for, as well as others.

Also, users can create an account on Equipster in order to save their searches, filters, and wishlist. In addition, users can choose to receive an e-mail when items in their wishlist drop below a certain percentage. Equipster also offers the option for users to receive a GearReport e-mail, at a frequency of either daily, weekly, or twice a week. However, if users would rather not receive any price notifications or GearReport e-mails, they can set the e-mail frequency to “never”.

When I found out about Equipster from a Tweet by Kevin Rose, I thought the service was a great idea and sent the founders, Will and Chris, an e-mail, asking if they’d be interested in doing an interview about Equipster, and they were!

Before we get to the questions and answers, I’d like to thank both Chris and Will for taking the time to respond to my e-mails, as well as for agreeing to actually do an interview. The six question interview can be found below.

Q: When and how did you come up with the idea for Equipster?

A:  We came up with the idea for equipster our senior year of college. Basically, we both needed a bunch of new gear but couldn’t afford to go to the store and pay retail. Searching across the web for deals got old fast, so we decided there needed to be a better way to buy outdoor gear online.  Also, finding deals on products which had sold out in our size was irksome, and we wanted to be able to filter products for EXACTLY the one we wanted.

Q: According to the Equipster website, neither of you had any web development background before creating Equipster and because of this, both of you had to learn how to create a website. How long did it take to learn the required skills and did you receive any help with creating the website?

A:  It’s been a non-stop learning process. Using free material online, Chris learned how to code and Will taught himself web design. With some programming advice from our engineer friends, it only took a couple of months to get something decent online, and since then we’ve been continuously making things better and improving our skills.

If you use social networks, such as Twitter, chances are that you have seen a link to a photo that was taken using a relatively new iPhone application called Instagram.

Instagram is a relatively new application, which allows you to take and share photos with your iPhone, as well as apply a variety of different filters to your pictures, in order to change the way they look.

When you first download and launch the Instagram application, you will see a welcome prompt, which tells you what the application is used for and asks if you would like to sign up, in order to share your own photos. Behind the prompt are a variety of pictures which are popular on Instagram.

You can even tap on a particular photo to enlarge it, as well as read comments on it. In order to refresh the images, you can click on the refresh button, located at the top right of the application.

At the bottom of the screen are the options to sign up for the service and log in if you have an existing account. If you’d like to sign up for a free Instagram account, you will be asked to provide your e-mail address, a username and a password. You can also include your phone number and a picture, if you would like to.

After you have logged in, you will see a prompt, which asks if you would like to enable push notifications for Instagr.am.

Once you’ve chosen whether or not you’d like to allow push notifications, you will be able to see your feed, which includes the photos and comments of the people you have followed.

Should you want to see the most popular photos on Instagram, you can do so by clicking on the “Popular” button, which looks like a heart. Just like on the main screen, you can tap on the photos for a larger view, as well as to view comments and such.

If you would like to share a picture, you can do so by tapping on the “Share” button, which is located in the center of the buttons and which looks like a picture of a camera. From there, you can either take a new photo or select a photo from your iPhone’s library to upload to Instgram.

Once you’ve taken or selected a photo, you can apply one of twelve filters, which will change the look of your photo. Some of the available filters include “Normal”, “X-Pro II”, “Lomo-fi”, “Earlybird”, as well as others. After applying a filter, you can provide a description of the photo and optionally, the location where you took the photo. Also, you can configure your sharing options, which include the option to share the photo on websites, such as Twitter, Flickr, FaceBook, Tumblr, and Foursquare.

After that, you can tap on the “Done” button, and your photo should appear in your followers’ feeds. If you chose to share your photo, people will be able to click on a link to your photo, in order to view it online. Here is a link to a photo that I took and uploaded to Instagram on October 26, 2010.

From the Instagram application, you can also view news from your followers and such, as well view your profile and edit your settings.

You can also view and configure your Instagram settings, including your name, password, e-mail address, phone number, gender, and birthday. However, in order to use most of the application’s features, such as viewing your feed, comments, as well as other things, require that you use an iPhone.

If you would like to try using Instagram, you can download the application for free from the iTunes App Store.

If you visited the Apple website in the past day or so, you probably noticed that there was an announcement, which said “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget. Check back here for an exciting announcement from iTunes.”

Under the announcement were four clocks, each with a different time displayed, including California (7:00 AM), New York (10:00 AM), London, (3:00 PM), and Tokyo (12:00 Midnight).

There was different speculation as to what Apple’s announcement was going to be, but many people thought that the announcement was going to be that The Beatles music was coming to iTunes, such as this blog post from TechCrunch.

Well, those people were correct, as this morning, at 10:00 AM (Eastern), Apple replaced that announcement with a photograph of The Beatles, with text above the photo saying “The Beatles. Now on iTunes.” Also, if you click on that picture, you will be taken to a page which displays another picture of the four members of the band and the words “In 1964 the band that changed everything came to America. Now they’re on iTunes.”

If you scroll down, there are three videos that you can watch, including a video entitled “The Beatles Through the Years”, Apple’s advertisements for The Beatles on iTunes, as well as a video of The Beatles performing live at the Washington Coliseum in 1964.

If you would like to purchase The Beatles’ music, you can do so for a price of $12.99 per album, $1.29 per song, or $149 for a box set of the albums.

For more information about The Beatles coming to iTunes, you should check out the Apple website, as well as this blog post from TechCrunch, which has more detailed information regarding this event.