Bibble Labs releases Bibble 5 Pro Preview 3 with lots of improvements

From their forum:

We at the Labs are thrilled to announce the availability of Preview Version 3. This release fixes hundreds of issues found both by PV2.2 users, by folks here at the Labs, and our private Beta Testers community. 

Two major projects are released in this version. Memory management has been drastically improved, lowering total memory requirements and dramatically improving stability. This will be most obviously seen by Windows users who saw frequent 'out of memory' errors, but also provides advantages for folks on Linux and Mac's who did not encounter this trouble. The other major project is an improved image processing engine which not only fixes many persistent issues present in earlier previews (like straightening causing artifacts in output images or Lens Correction and Noise Ninja not working well together) but also adds flexibility and opens new possibilities for features in future versions of Bibble 5. The new processing engine also enables Noise Ninja to work selectively in Layers & Regions. 

Metadata importing, reading, viewing, and editing has also undergone a major overhaul. This release allows you to view and edit Metadata from IPTC, EXIF, GPS, and select Maker Notes. Choose what metadata is shown on the EXIF popup (hotkey 'E') and also choose what metadata is shown in the Metadata Editing tool. Metadata added to your images in Bibble 5 can also be saved to Presets - making it simple to add your copyright or contact information to all you images at output time with the 'Additional Settings' option in the Output Batches. 

This improved Metadata import capability and handing does mean that Catalogs created in earlier versions of Bibble 5 will not have all the new metadata improvements. (Alternately, write out Bibble XMP files for all images in your Catalogs, and create new Catalogs in PV3). 

We nearly doubled the number of cameras supported in this release, adding Panasonic, Leica, Minolta, and Kodak for the first time, and adding addi tional camera models from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony - including the Canon 7D, G11 and S90, Nikon D3s and D300s , and Sony a850. 

Printing support has been added, including background printing to any locally attached printer or printing to a PDF file. The background printing feature allows you to pre-define a print layout, including paper size, paper type, images per page, as well as many other options. Once the layout is created, just drag-and-drop thumbnails on the Print Batch to send those images directly to the printer. 

Watched Folders is also a new addition: select one or more folder in the Preferences panel, and pair each with an Print or Output Batch. This, paired with the background printing framework, can enable a fully-automated event printing solution. 

This Preview Version is not feature complete (most notably, Perfectly Clear, Heal & Clone, and Web Gallery outputs are not yet implemented), but represents a huge step forward not only in features but also in stability. 

Thanks to all of you that have tried out the previous Preview Versions. Get your PV3 below and as always, please let us know what you find - good or bad. 

http://bibblelabs.com/pub/PV3/Bibble5 

Should e-book readers really become multi-purpose devices? @leolaporte

in the latest episode of This Week in Tech (link) Leo Laporte and co-hosts talked about e-book readers like the Kindle and the Barnes & Noble device. For most of the hosts the devices were not powerful and full featured enough, and for instance email and web browsing was lacking. The discussion went on towards the desire for multi purpose devices or single task devices. I guess indeed it is depending on your situation where you are, when you are there. I can see myself carrying an iPhone for most of the stuff I do but using an e-book reader for reading since the iPhone screen is just too small and the backlight is very annoying for actual long duration reading.

Let's focus on e-book readers for a moment. People are looking for an ebook reader that can do more than just be used as an electronic book library. They would also like it to play mp3s (audiobooks, music) or maybe even videos (movies, streaming video episodes of TV series, etc). I can see the appeal for that. But apart from mp3 and video storage, should an e-book reader be able to check email and browse the web? I am not so sure, and here's why:

Reading a book is probably the best single example of a single-tasking, focussed action a person can do. You read a book, you get into the story, you lose track of time and nothing else matters. We all hate it when you are right in the middle of an exciting book and the phone or doorbell rings.. What the hell, who disturbs my moment of alternate reality!?

Imagine an e-book reader that checks for email and goes PING if there is an email. Or even worse, shows a notification right across the screen. Yes, you can probably disable this, but the nagging "maybe there is new email" may stay with you throughout the book, ruining the experience, pulling you away from that wonderful virtual world only a book can create. And we know how distracting Twitter can be. Say your e-book reader supports browsing. I bet you want to check on your friends' tweets once in a while. Stop reading, check the web or twitter. Another disturbance.

So, maybe e-book readers should remain just that. For reading electronic books. Undisturbed by other features. Okay, apart from an empty battery once in a while...

iPhone: the only non-disposable phone so far?

The iPhone is not unique in its featureset. Lots of phones have about the same, some even better specs.
Where the iPhone still stands out is the user experience and second that it is the only non-disposable phone.
Just like Macs, iPhones seem to be designed for longevity. Even the first gen iPhone can enjoy most of the OS3.x features. Look at HTC and other brands, they keep pumping out new models every 4-6 months or so. Making the previous models redundant, even the support is minimal.
Unlike Apple, those brands regard mobile devices as disposable items, so they do not even try to get users tied into their system.
Some say this is freedom for the user, but I think it is missing the point.
With respect to user experience, I don't think an open system will work. Look at Linux, very open, lots of choices, but none of them is any good from a user experience point of view.
Instead of thinking "what feature can this thing do", companies should rather have the "what feature does the user want to use" viewpoint.

Apple got it. After 1.5 yrs with my iPhone I still don't have the urge to buy a new phone. With all my Nokias and Sony Ericssons I wanted a new one after a month.

Yup, I'm locked into the Apple world. But I like it :-)