We love to take pictures of the people we love. It’s one of the primary reasons we buy cameras, and it’s one of the primary reasons we use our iPhone camera. Our friends, our families, our children, whether it’s for something special like a card or graduation, an event like a trip, a party or, or family get-together, or just a chance encounter, we always have our iPhone with us so we can always grab that perfect portrait of that important person.

But how do you take a great looking portrait with your iPhone? Lighting, camera level, pose, and the “rule of thirds” we went over last time all play a role.

Lighting

If you’re using an iPhone to take portraits, you likely do not have (nor want) access to a professional lighting studio, but you can still control some aspects that will have a major impact on your photos.

Avoid the sun

I’ve heard a countless number of people exclaim about a beautiful sunny day being such a great day to go out and take photos. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Direct sunlight is a photographer’s worst nightmare — it provides harsh, unforgiving lighting and makes your subject squint. In fact, the best type of day for taking portraits is an overcast one. This isn’t something you can control, though, so if you find yourself taking portraits on a sunny day, head to a shaded area.

Natural light is the best kind of light

Most indoor lighting is horrible for photography because cameras struggle with accurately interpreting the colors — or in photography terms, choosing the correct white balance. A big reason for this is because when indoors, you usually have more than one light source (including natural light) and each source may be emitting a different color of light. If you’ve noticed that your indoor images have a yellow tint to them, this is why.

So what is this magical “natural light”? It’s simply light that’s produced by sun, but not direct sunlight. To improve your indoor portraits, turn off your indoor lights and head to a window or sliding glass door to use as your light source. Experiment with placement, as well. Placing your subject at a 45 degree angle to the source is a good place to start.

Catchlight

Ever notice that in some portraits, the subjects eyes stand out more than in other portraits? Sometimes there is some post-processing involved, but most of the time it was just clever placement of lighting — and it’s so simple. To make your subject’s eyes stand out, you need catchlights.

A catchlight is simply a reflection of the light source in your subject’s eye. Given this definition, it should be easy to understand that you want the light source to be somewhere in front of your subject, preferably above eye level, to get the desired results. This is happens naturally when seeking out a light source, like a window, but takes a little thinking on your part when outdoors.

The best way to get catchlights with outdoor portraits is to make sure they are posed in a way that allows the light to hit their eyes. Since the light is coming from the sky, make sure your subject is not looking down or wearing a hat that shades the eyes. If you’re photographing a girl with thick bangs, you may consider taking her photo from above and have her look up at you. If it’s an overcast day, make note of the sun’s location and position yourself so it’s behind you and in front of the person you are taking photos of. This is good for both catchlights and lighting in general.

Get eye level with your subject

Sometimes, all it takes is a simple repositioning of the photographer to transform an image from being a simple snapshot, to being a nice portrait. The trick is to get to your subject’s level. For babies, this means getting down on the floor, possibly laying on your tummy. For small children, crouch down or get on your knees. And the one I have to constantly remind myself about — get to higher ground for people who are taller than you. This is actually pretty easy with an iPhone since the viewfinder is your screen. All you need to do is hold the iPhone above your head, at your subject’s eye level, when taking the photo. The screen is big enough for it to still be easy to frame and trigger the shutter.

Remember, though, that rules are meant be broken. If done right, portraits shot from above or below the subject can come out rather stunning.

Posing

Posing your subject is definitely one of the hardest things about portrait photography and we could focus an entire article on just this topic alone. For today, we’ll just hit a couple main points.

Keep your subject’s attire in mind when choosing a background. For example, if your subject is wearing a Hawaiian shirt, you’ll probably want to avoid posing your subject in front of a bunch of palm trees. You want the background to compliment your subject, not distract away from them.

Try not to put your subject into specific poses as this often makes them feel awkward which translates into an awkward photo. Stick with poses that are natural and not forced. Aim to give instructions that naturally result in a nice pose. For example, tell your subject to lean against a wall and play with his phone while you respond to an important email. This will result in a completely natural pose because your subject doesn’t even realize they are being posed.

For smiles, the last thing you want to do is say “smile!”. For most people, this results in a very awkward, forced smile. Again, the goal is for your subject to look natural and comfortable, so try to evoke a natural smile by making them laugh or think of something that makes them happy.

Rule of thirds and empty space

Don’t forget about the rule of thirds! This can be applied to every area of photography, including portraits. But with portraits, we’re going to expand on the idea just a little bit more.

If your subject isn’t directly facing you, frame your shots so that the front of their body is facing the empty space — or, the two-thirds of the photo that does not have your subject. Our eyes naturally look in the direction that the subject is facing and it feels awkward to the viewer if the empty space is behind the subject.

Now go out and shoot!

Your assignment for this week is to go out and take some killer portraits. Practice makes perfect, so solicit your friends, significant others, and if you’re feeling brave, strangers, to hone your skill. Then head over to the Photography Forums, ask questions, share your results, and offer feedback to your fellow iPhoneographers!

For a while now most people outside the walls of Apple have generally assumed the iPad 3 would come with a 2048×1536 Retina display. The 2010 iPhone 4 introduced the idea of pixels so small they were almost invisible to the naked eye, and while rumors suggested the 2011 iPad 2 might make a similar leap forward, Retina displays that big just weren’t in the cards. That was then. This is now.

MacRumors got their hands on a 9.7-inch panel which sounds a lot like what Apple is rumored to be using in the iPad 3, and broke out their science kits to confirm it is, indeed, 2048×1536. It absolutely had to be — there’s no way Apple could release anything but a 1x (1024×768) or 2x (2048×1536) display without shredding their app ecosystem, but it’s still nice to see the panel get measured in the wild.

Since we only had a raw iPad 3 display with no method to power it, taking high quality photos of the pixels was difficult. Still, even with the relatively poor lighting, you can easily make out the pixels on each display (made up of red, green and blue elements). We highlighted a cluster of 4 pixels (2×2) from the iPad 2 to compare it to the same area on the iPad 3. On the iPad 3, the same cluster was occupied by 16 pixels (4×4) — exactly twice the resolution in each direction.

No doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more leaks and stories leading up to the expected iPad 3 announcement on March 7, and iPad 3 release in mid-March. Along with the Retina display, a quad-core Apple A6 chipset, and 4G LTE radio are also rumored to be in the cards.

Source: MacRumors

As the Apple ecosystem continues to grow, helping to get new iPhone and iPad developer up to speed as quickly and productively as possible is increasingly important to Apple. To help make this point ever so clear, Apple has just revamped their Getting Started guide for iOS developers.

While Apple has always made a concerted effort to make getting started on iOS development easy, the unveiling of their new development document called "Start Developing iOS Apps Today" lays things out in a even more simplified, more elegant manner then in the past, and it looks pretty impressive.

The document is made available to all, so there is no need for a developer account to view the information. More importantly, the guide appears to be most suited for someone who is just starting out on iOS development as it triages some of the more complex or difficult concepts and sticks to the basics. It offers a concise general overview of what to expect, should you proceed to the next level.

Previous documentation posted by Apple always seemed rather daunting and, quite frankly, was overloaded with information that could potentially scare off developers by offering too much. This new document however, seems quite a change from that as it offers the basics and feels quite welcoming in the fact that it is beautifully laid out. If you’re looking to get into iOS development, it should be your first stop in the process.

Source: Apple, via TNW

“P90X, the popular hardcore home fitness program, has made a bold leap onto the iPhone with outstanding content, if not polished experience.”

P90X — short for Power 90 Extreme — aims to get you into better shape in 90 days through a combination of traditional exercises and nutritional advice, all highly packaged, polished, and available for purchase right on your iPhone. If that sounds slightly cynical, it is. The amount of money made from people buying and never using commercial home fitness programs probably tends towards the infinite at this point. From Jane Fonda to Richard Simmons to Tony Little to Billy Blanks to Jillian Michaels to Tony Horton, the amount of video tapes (Wikipedia it!) and DVDs collecting dust on our collective shelves could fill gyms around the country. But the age of physical media is over. We have iPhones and iPads now, devices that can not only show us the latest, freshest workout trend, but unshackle us from the living room TV and let us watch them anywhere, at any time. Moreover, since our mobile devices are tied into the rest of our lives, they can remind us when to work out (calendars and task lists), and the data they collect can help us track our progress more easily than ever before (location, time, movement).

P90X has been available in DVD form for a while and so P90X for iPhone can be used in 2 ways — as a companion to help you schedule and track your P90X DVD progress (or just your progress in general if you’re already familiar with all the exercises), or in its own right if you buy the in-app purchases and watch the workout videos right on your iPhone.

The P90X app itself is $4.99 and the in-app pricing for the workouts are as follows:

• $59.99 for the all bundles
• $29.99 for bundles of workouts (chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs and back, etc.)
• $6.99 for individual workouts (plyometrics, Yoga x, Kenpo x, core synergistics, etc.)

There are both traditional fitness workouts, the bread and butter body-parts stuff, and some variety like the Yoga and Kenpo workouts. (Which shouldn’t be confused with traditional holistic or martial arts, but include different enough movements to keep things fresh.)

As you might have picked up from the intro, I have a bias against these types of commercial packages. P90X, for example, litters the registered trademark (R) symbol around almost more than they do the exercises, and the app actually has you agree to terms and conditions for their content when you launch it for the first time (even movie apps don’t typically do that). It makes you think the lawyers and accounts were as involved in the planning and design and the exercise and nutrition experts. That’s okay. Products are supposed to make money. It’s just a little to overt and, frankly, tacky in this case and makes me take them a little less seriously.

Back to the app. It’s not the best user interface or user experience. It requires taps sometimes when swipes would feel better, it has tips that are helpful but not perfectly implemented, and it’s heavy — lots of video and resources — so older devices may struggle with the load.

The content here is king, however, and there’s enough really good stuff that any quibbles about tackiness and UI polish quickly fade. When you’re sweating up a storm, you just need to know what to do next and how to do it. In those areas, P90X is excellent.

First time users can easily get started with a 90 day program and are immediately assigned some easing-into tasks, like taking a profile photo, inputting measurements, and taking a fitness test to establish a starting point. This data is fed into the P90X profile tab so you can make the experience feel a little more personalized, as well as view your achievements (+1 for game-ification), check your progress, and re-take the fitness test.

Once you’re ready to get going, you can schedule your workouts, choosing between P90X classic, lean, or doubles, and it will push the appropriate times into the built-in calendar (but not into the main iOS calendar, at least as far as I could tell). If you exercise on your own — spin class, hot yoga, Pilates, obstacle courses, grappling, whatever, you can add those in as well. If you use their online “Team BeachBody SuperGym”, you can sync between your iPhone and the site.

All of your progress gets charted so you can hold yourself accountable to your goals. There’s an option to keep a nutrition log in the app as well, but it’s not very robust and while convenient to keep everything in one place, if you’re serious about it you my want to try a dedicated diet app like Weight Watchers Mobile

It wouldn’t be an iOS app without a social component either, would it? Not only do you have the usual Twitter and Facebook options, but P90X even includes support for Apple’s Game Center so you can share with the world and get a little peer-pressure working for you as well.

The exercises available via in-app purchase are well presented. Much to their credit, P90X doesn’t use a fitness model in a thong and a hero pose for the actual exercises, but instead a realistic trainer doing realistic training. The camera moves in and out, and around, so you can get a good idea of the movements involved. They also mention tips on proper positioning and form, though the primary goal here is fitness, not functionality, so you don’t get Muscle Balance and Function focus or precision.

There are popup warnings if you try to do something like two resistance workouts in a day (“Tony would want you to back off a bit”), which is great for beginners who might try to start off too quickly only to get injured, get discouraged, and ultimately fall off course.

Better integration with the iPhone would be welcome. Having the schedule show up in the built-in Calendar app or Reminders app would be great. Tying into the GPS and clock to track activities automatically, where and when possible, would be welcome. Pretty much anything and everything that got the management out of the way so you could focus on the fitness activities should be the goal.

You can run P90X for iPhone on the iPad, but there’s no universal app or specific iPad app version yet, so you’re stuck in double fuzzy chunky 2x mode. If you are at home, however, thanks to AirPlay mirroring on the iPhone 4S, you can beam the content to your Apple TV and watch any in-app purchased workout videos on your big screen.

The good

• Well packaged, well planned, well presented content
• Thoughtful progression for new users
• Videos available on-device (via in-app purchase)
• Good variety of exercises

The bad

• User experience needs more polish
• Commercial nature of the program is too overt and distracts from content
• Bootcamp-style might be tough for first-timers

The conclusion

P90X is a popular fitness program that’s made a bold leap onto the iPhone with outstanding content, if not polished experience. If you’re already all in on P90X, the iPhone app is a great companion and will make it easier to track and keep up with your goals. If you’re new to mobile health, and you’re looking for something a little more hardcore than your typical TV fitness show, P90X is a great way to get started. (It may be a bit much for an absolute first timer, however, so start slowly and work your way up to P90X if it’s something your want to try.)

And if you’re joining us for Mobile Nations Fitness Month, and P90X is your plan of choice, jump into our Health & Fitness Forum and work out with us!

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Okay iMore nation, we’ll keep this one short and sweet — when will Apple release the iPad 3? As in, not when will Tim Cook or Phil Schiller show it off on the keynote stage (we think that will be March 7), not when can we pre-order, but what will be the actual release date that we can line up, buy it, and get our geeky little hands on it?

Apple traditionally put the iPad up for sale on Fridays, at least they have the first two years with the original iPad and iPad 2. But which Friday?

Will it be the same week as the event, only two days later on March 9? Will they need a week to coordinate, and aim for March 16? Will they want time for pre-orders and wider distribution and go on March 23? Or will they make us wait until the end of the month and hit March 30?

And will it, once again, be U.S. only at first, or will they be more aggressive, like the iPhone 4S launch, and hit more countries, faster?

Vote in the poll up top and share your predictions in the comments below!

Rovio has announced a new game to their Angry Birds series — Angry Birds Space. They’ve revealed nothing more than a March 22 release date and the following quote:

One small fling for a bird. One quantum leap for birdkind.

They’ve also posted the following video as a major tease. There’s not even so much as a screenshot. Even still, I admit I’m excited. Who’s with me?

Source: Rovio – thanks @daveizzle for the tip!

It looks like Best Buy is trying to offload some iPad 2 inventory on their internal employee auction website ahead of the iPad 3 launch. Offering internal employees reduced prices isn’t an uncommon practice among retailers in the lead up to product refreshes from Apple, as some retailers offered the first-gen iPad at lower prices both internally and at retail stores before Apple officially announced the iPad 2 last year.

The iPad 3, which is expected to be announced on March 7th and to ship sometime soon thereafter. Expected features include high-resolution Retina display, quad-core Apple A6 processor, and possible 4G LTE support. (We’d also dearly love better cameras.)

Along with case leaks, constrained supplies, and tons of rumors, consider this just one of the many signposts that we see along the way, alerting us to the iPad 3 event, and release, coming up ahead.

The App Store has been around for nearly 4 years, and it is approaching 25 billion downloads. (That’s 25,000,000,000!) To celebrate, Apple is doing a countdown and giving away a US$10,000 (or equivalent) iTunes gift card to the person who downloads the 25 billionth app.

As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.* Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet.

You can enter by downloading an app from the App Store or alternatively filling out a form on Apple’s website. US and Canada residents can also enter by calling 1-866-296-5926.

The promotion will end once the 25 billionth app has been downloaded and will be announced on Apple’s website.

Just like with Apple’s giveaway on previous milestones, we want to ask, what would you do with US$10,000 to spend on iTunes?

Good luck, it could be you.

Source: Apple countdown, online entry form

If you’ve wondered why Apple would devote an entire event to iPad and textbooks in education but give the new version of Mac software, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion little more than a press release and a web page, here’s a a blurb Tim Cook let slip in his talk this week at the Goldman Tech Conference:

“This 55 is something no one would have guessed. Including us. To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it's on a trajectory that's off the charts.”

The fine folks at Asymco unpacked that a little further and looked at how many Macs Apple has sold over the last 28 years or so. 122 million Macs have been sold to date, while the iOS platform has reached a staggering 316 million units since launch. iOS outpaced OS X after the first four years, but if that’s not enough, iOS could have done it in the last year alone with 156 million supporting products sold in 2011. This graph puts those sales into stark visual comparison.

Even with the iPhone alone, the growth is insane, but you can see how the iPad is showing a similar rate of adoption.  Every day, it feels like we are finding new and exciting ways to illustrate precisely how much ass Apple is kicking. If the Mountain Lion preview didn’t make it obvious, this graph should show just how easy it will be for iOS to become Apple’s primary operating system for tablets, phones, and computers in the long haul.

Source: Asymco

iHeadCase is KickStarter project for an iPhone case that includes a compartment in the back for you to store your wired headset. There are two versions in the pipeline — a hardcase and a leather case — and if tangled, mangled, or lost headsets are a source of frustration for you, they’re something you’ll want to check out. I had the chance to see the prototypes at Macworld 2012 and they looked good. The storage compartment makes them big, no way around that, but the curved design — almost Palm Pre like in it’s river-stone shape — minimizes any of the typical issues that size would cause.

It stays true to the aesthetic design ethos of Apple’s iPhone 4 yet adds a curve at the back, embodying the smoother lines of the popular 3GS and providing a more natural grip for the phone. It’s made of polycarbonate which is very light yet strong and durable. The headphones are stored at the back of the case but uniquely concealed from view. There are no protruding earbuds or visible hanging wires to catch in your pocket. We believe that people who buy an iPhone appreciate its beauty and form as well as its function, and an iPhone ‘coutured’ with an iHeadCase would easily complement a naked iPhone. Our innovative Headphone Storage System protects fragile earbuds and keeps the cable neatly stored away tangle-free whilst allowing for a fast wind and unwind. Most of the Kickstarter reward levels come complete with standard Apple-style headphones but these are interchangeable if you want to use your favorite brand of headphone instead (most standard headphones are compatible). And a final feature: the back cover when opened doubles as a stand for landscape handsfree viewing.

iHeadCase has two hours left on KickStarter, so hit the link below, check out the pictures and video, and see if it’s the case you — and your headset — have been waiting for.

Source: KickStarter

The iPad’s share of the tablet market shrank from 87% in 2010 to 62% in 2011, but after tallying up shipment data from late last year, iSuppli found that, though Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the top tablet behind the iPad, it’s not what’s taking the biggest chunk out of the iOS tablet’s market share. Apparently, the iPhone 4S is to blame.

iSuppli’s senior manager for tablet research said of their research results:

“Shipments of the iPad line fell short of IHS estimates in the fourth quarter as many loyal Apple customers devoted their dollars to shiny new alternatives. However, the primary alternative wasn't the Kindle Fire — which debuted to solid sales in the fourth quarter — but Apple's own iPhone 4S smartphone. The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers' disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets.”

I certainly understand that people only have so much money to spend on gadgets, and they’re more likely to upgrade their phone (which is more of a necessity than a toy), and considering the shared software lineage, it’s no surprise that people worry about redundant purchases. There are obvious use cases where a tablet is a better pick than a smartphone and vice versa, but unless you have the disposable income for such a fine differentiation, maybe you’d rather a devices that straddle the line, like the Samsung Galaxy Note or the Dell Streak.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that Apple doesn’t believe price is a primary consideration for customers, and that people buying cheaper products don’t end up with enjoyable experiences. However, if the Kindle Fire has proven anything, it’s that for some customers, budget is a big deal.

If you can get a tablet that does the majority of what you want for half the price of an iPad, why wouldn’t you consider it? That said, would you be interested in a lower-end, more affordable iPad? Maybe first-gen iPad specs with a smaller screen in the 7-inch range, and a pricetag around $250? Sure, it’s not Apple’s style, but it would help get folks hooked on two Apple products rather than just one.

Source: iSuppli

Google is facing an inquest after having allegedly been caught bypassing Apple's Safari web browser privacy settings on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Google gets the big headline, of course, but Vibrant Media Inc., WPP PLC’s Media Innovation Group LLC and Gannett Co.’s PointRoll advertising companies were all named in the report for tracking the web browsing habits of Safari and Safari Mobile users even when users have opted out of such tracking via Safari’s cookie settings. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google and the other advertising companies used a special code that tricked Apple's Safari browser into providing information even though it should have blocked it.

The Google code was spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and independently confirmed by a technical adviser to the Journal, Ashkan Soltani, who found that ads on 22 of the top 100 websites installed the Google tracking code on a test computer, and ads on 23 sites installed it on an iPhone browser.  The technique reaches far beyond those websites, however, because once the coding was activated, it could enable Google tracking across the vast majority of websites

Google issued a statement to the WSJ claiming that it had mischaracterized what had happened and claimed Google had used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled.

Google has since disabled the rogue code after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal. WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Safari (as well as Google’s Chrome browser) already has a fix in place to prevent the work around, and Apple should be rolling that out to iOS users in a future update.

An Apple official said: “We are working to put a stop” to the circumvention of Safari privacy settings.

This bypass seems specific to Safari because, according to one of the advertisers, no other major web browser blocks their tracking by default. (Which should make any Chrome, Firefox, etc. users race to their settings post haste.)

This should also serve as yet another reminder not to believe companies by the words, but by their deeds. “Don’t be evil” or “we care about every customer” is easy to say, and as technology enthusiasts we’re predisposed to believe and even vigorously defend the companies we love. But they’re big, they’re out to make money, and as advertising revenue increases, we become their products, not their customers.

Were you surprised by this news? Is Google getting more of the attention than they deserve because they have the biggest name? How do you feel about companies bypassing Apple’s tracking protection?

Source: WSJ

iMore recently heard Apple’s iPad 3 event would be happening on March 7, and now BGR is hearing that iOS 5.1 will follow on or around March 9. BGR also confirmed the new slide-up-to-access-camera lock-screen gesture spotted yesterday by Blog do iPhone.

iOS 5.1 has been in beta for quite a while and has been assumed to be coming with the iPad 3, so that timeline makes sense. However, new camera access and Japanese support for Siri aren’t a ton of new features for iPhone users to look forward to.

Previous iOS x.1 releases have varied in their new feature sets, gaining everything from the iTunes Store app in 1.1 to Genius Playlists in [iPhone OS 2.1] to Genius for Apps in iPhone OS 3.1 to HDR photography, Ping social music network, TV show rentals, and Game Center in iOS 4.1.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, surprises Apple has in store for iPad users with iOS 5.1, however, specifically designed to highlight iPad 3.

In celebration of President’s Day you can shop all weekend and save 15% on all your iPhone & iPad accessories Phone & iPad Accessories this weekend in the iMore Store.

To get your 15% discount, be sure to use the coupon code pres12 during checkout.

This offer is not valid with any other coupon and expires at Midnight PST Monday 2/20/2012. Don’t forget about our Fast Free Shipping on US orders of $50.00 and higher!

Enjoy the Presidential Savings! Start your Shopping Now!

The quest to get thinner, stronger, faster, and healthier with iMore and Mobile Nations continues!

We’ve survived two whole weeks! And while some of us have faltered — due to illness, travel, or simply the list for burgers and fries — we’ve also rebounded and renewed our commitment! We’re feeling better. We’re looking better. And our community is doing better than ever!

It’s the age of eHealth and eFitness — or iHealth and iFitness — where the iPhones and iPads we love have gone beyond being communications and computing tools and have started playing more and more crucial roles in all aspects of our lives. We don’t just listen to music or chat on the phone while jogging anymore. We use the data our devices collect to measure our progress, motivate our activities, and manage our mobile lives.

Ally took a look at what she considers the best [diet planning app for the iPhone (and iPad), Weight Watchers), and we'll be looking at a lot more cool stuff this week and next.

We recorded a special edition of Superfunctional chock-full of tips to stay motivated and stay moving.

But on to week 3! Once again, we're setting reasonable, attainable goals, and we're going to take advantage of our awesome community to make sure we attain them. As always we're running everything through our Health and Fitness Forum to keep us focused, keep us accountable, and keep us keeping on!

Oh, and we're still giving away an iPad 3, an Xbox 360 Kinect, and more!

• Weekly drawings for an iPod nano. We're giving away 4 total, one each week!
• Grand prize drawing for an iPad 3 IOU! (You'll get it when Apple launches it!)
• Bonus prize drawing for an Xbox 360 Kinect (Check out [ZEN and TECH](http://www.zenandtech.tv/xbox) for details).

So hurry up and jump into our new Health and Fitness Forum now and pick your goal for week 3.

Oh, and while Kevin produced the single greatest (or most terrifying) fitness video in the history of YouTube, his Sexy and you know it workout, Georgia and I might have given him a run for his money with our homage to Richard Simmons (Wikipedia him!) and… some weird Snookie/Jane Fonda hybrid in our iMore Xbox Kinect Dance Central showdown!

The current method for fast camera access in iOS 5 might soon be changing into a faster camera access in iOS 5.1, according to Blog do iPhone. The existing method involves double-clicking the Home button and tapping the Camera icon to quickly switch to the Camera app. That’s 3 actions and a wait for a separate app to launch or come to the foreground. The new method is a gesture — a slide up to reveal an embedded camera. That’s 1 action and no wait for a separate app. You just slide and shoot.

They’re only showing pictures of the supposedly new user interface, so it’s hard to tell how it feels in implementation. If accurate, Apple would have to give it enough traction and timeout so you can’t accidentally reveal the camera in your purse or pocket, and leave it on to drain the battery.

Likewise, since fast camera access bypasses the passcode lock, hopefully Apple will add a Settings toggle to disable it when and if you want to, like for when your prankster friend is visiting and tries to photo bomb you.

iOS 5.1 has been in developer beta for a long while now, with current guestimates pegging its release sometime in March to coincide with the iPad 3 release.

Source: Blog Do iPhone

More: iPhone photography starters guide, iPhone photography projects, iPhone photography forums

Just get engaged and already overwhelmed with things like guest lists, budgets, colors, and vendors? Wedding Planner for iPad is here to organize everything related to your big day.

On the main screen, Wedding Planner gives you a quick look at your to-do and guest lists, budget planner, and vendors. You can also access your notes, color scheme and thank you list.

Each element of Wedding Planner is pretty strait-forward and intuitive to use and gorgeous to look at. The Colour Scheme section of the app is packed with popular colors so you can see how they all look together. If the exact color you need isn’t available, you can add it yourself from a color wheel.

The notes section of Wedding Planner is a page dedicated to adding sticky notes of ideas and thoughts for your wedding. I’m a fan of the sticky notes style because it’s reflects brainstorming and is a cute way to organize your thoughts.

Everything about Wedding Planner is gorgeous and helpful and I would have loved to have it when I got married. However, I wish the Guest List allowed you to add people from Contacts, specifically the ability to just tap which contacts you want to add to your Guest List. I had over 200 people on my guest list and manually adding each person would be cumbersome.

Despite this, I have found Wedding Planner to be both beautiful and efficient. Brides, this may be the answer to your wedding mayhem — grooms, your bride will love you even more if you surprise her with Wedding Planner on her iPad.

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Double Fine, one of the zaniest indie game developers out there, recently decided that they would fund their next game through Kickstarter in order to get around the usual publisher restrictions. After blowing their funding target out of the water on the first day, they’re now able to bring their game to platforms outside of Mac, Windows, and Linux; Double Fine’s upcoming point-and-click adventure title will be coming to select iOS and Android devices too! Those who have pitched in will not only get a copy of the game, but they’ll also have access to a video developer diary, and an exclusive forum where they can provide feedback on early concept art. If you are totally insane and pledge $20,000 or more, you get to go bowling with the dev team.

There are a few reasons this is awesome. For one, it shows that Kickstarter can be a great platform for funding apps, so long as those launching the campaign can drum up enough excitement. Double Fine hit their $400,000 funding target in eight hours. Currently they have $1.86 million with another 26 days of fundraising to go. That extra cash is what made the spread from desktop to mobile possible, as well as additional localizations.

The second reason this is awesome, and coincidentally, is the main reason Double Fine could create this much hype, is because Tim Schafer is widely known in the gaming world as the grand-daddy of irreverent, mind-bending, hilarious, and, of course, fun-as-balls video games. Psychonauts is usually touted as his crowning achievement. . But my personal favourite from Schafer is Grim Fandango. It was a point-and-click adventure game set in a 20s detective style following travel agent Manny Calavera as he worked his way through the land of the dead. Other classics include the Monkey Island franchise, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and more recently, Brutal Legend and Trenched Iron Brigade.

Unfortunately, Schafer didn’t mention in his last update video which iOS or Android devices would be supproted, but if they’re porting the game from PC, I’m going to guess that it will be optimized for tablets first and phones second.

You can actually grab some nice iOS ports for some of the games if you’re feeling nostalgic. Be sure to toss in some cash at the Kickstarter project. Wondering what you’re getting into? Check out these videos for an idea.

• Psychonauts – Download now

• Monkey Island – Download now

Source: Kickstarter