Tuesday, April 8, 2003
Oh, It's JAIV!
Posted by Brad Adrian in "THOUGHT" @ 01:00 AM
I got a new digital camera the other day, the very pocketable Nikon Coolpix 3100, and was surprised to see that during the PC software installation process, it included the option of installing a photo viewer application on my Pocket PC, too. I was soon eagerly tapping on the new icon labeled "PhotoBase," but was disappointed once I realized that it's a JAIV -- Just Another Image Viewer.
I was hoping for so much more, because even though I like to view and share my pics on my Pocket PC, I'm frustrated by the time it takes to edit their format and layout. I know I can just throw my digital snaps onto my Pocket PC "raw," but even the best of them needs at least some cropping in order to fit the 240X320 screen dimensions.
If I were designing an application for preparing and sharing digital photos on the Pocket PC, here are the new features I'd build into it...
• A cropping view with a mask or rectangle matching the 240X320 aspect ratio. I should be able to drag the mask to the most important part of the picture, enlarging or reducing the mask as needed. Then, hitting <ENTER> should resize the image to fit the Pocket PC screen perfectly.
• Color shift presets for quickly adjusting images taken under different lighting conditions. For example, an "Incandescent Adjust" feature would add subtle blue hues, compensating for the overly-warm color of incandescent lighting.
• Quick color balance setting. Microsoft's Picture It! software has this, and I love it. Using an eye-dropper selector, you simply click on any part of the image that is supposed to be pure white. The rest of the image is correspondingly corrected.
• Easy slide show creation, using a playlist-like model. That way, you could create several different slide shows using many of the same images. It should also allow easy re-ordering of slides.
• Infrared sharing of slide shows between Pocket PCs. 'Nuff said.
That's my top-of-mind list. What features would YOU add?
I was hoping for so much more, because even though I like to view and share my pics on my Pocket PC, I'm frustrated by the time it takes to edit their format and layout. I know I can just throw my digital snaps onto my Pocket PC "raw," but even the best of them needs at least some cropping in order to fit the 240X320 screen dimensions.
If I were designing an application for preparing and sharing digital photos on the Pocket PC, here are the new features I'd build into it...
• A cropping view with a mask or rectangle matching the 240X320 aspect ratio. I should be able to drag the mask to the most important part of the picture, enlarging or reducing the mask as needed. Then, hitting <ENTER> should resize the image to fit the Pocket PC screen perfectly.
• Color shift presets for quickly adjusting images taken under different lighting conditions. For example, an "Incandescent Adjust" feature would add subtle blue hues, compensating for the overly-warm color of incandescent lighting.
• Quick color balance setting. Microsoft's Picture It! software has this, and I love it. Using an eye-dropper selector, you simply click on any part of the image that is supposed to be pure white. The rest of the image is correspondingly corrected.
• Easy slide show creation, using a playlist-like model. That way, you could create several different slide shows using many of the same images. It should also allow easy re-ordering of slides.
• Infrared sharing of slide shows between Pocket PCs. 'Nuff said.
That's my top-of-mind list. What features would YOU add?
