Stipple, a platform for image-based advertising, e-commerce, and photo attribution, has just announced two new products, Stipple Mobile and Stipple Search. The Stipple app for iOS (and soon, Android) lets people easily add content and context to their photos, and instantly post them to Facebook and Twitter. Upon touching the photos, followers can explore relevant interactive content directly from the photos themselves. Stipple Search is a reverse image search engine that helps people learn more about images they find online. It also addresses the problem of “orphan works,” which occurs when the rights owner of a creative work cannot be identified or located. For more information on Stipple Mobile and Stipple Search visit the website below.

Apple has announced that OS X Mavericks is available for free from the Mac App Store. From a photographer's/videographer's point of view, the most important feature of OS X Mavericks is the enhanced multi-display support, which makes using multiple displays easier, with no configuration required. Mavericks also delivers significant performance enhancements for systems with integrated graphics through optimised OpenCL support and dynamic video memory allocation. According to the company, any Mac capable of running OS X Mountain Lion can also run Mavericks.

Unified Color Technologies is demonstrating the beta release of the new Pano Prep Batch Processing feature, which is being added to HDR Expose 3, at this year’s PhotoPlus Expo, held at the Javits Center in New York. In the past, constructing an HDR panorama required each bracketed set of exposures to be merged individually, which could result in varying tone mapping results across the scene. The new Pano Prep Batch Processing feature analyses all the exposure brackets of the individual frames to be stitched and applies uniform tone mapping parameters across each frame to produce smooth tonal transitions for natural HDR panorama results. Also included in this new feature is a 360 degree blend capability which ensures smooth, seamless blending of 360-degree panoramas where the left and right sides of the panoramic image meet.

DxO Labs have released version 2.1 of DxO ViewPoint, a program dedicated to fixing problems with keystoning and volume anamorphosis. This update automatically corrects lens distortion when used as a plugin for Apple Aperture, and now extends its compatibility to include Adobe Photoshop Elements 12. The software also now supports the Canon EOS 70D and the Sony DSC-RX1R. This upgrade is free to all owners of DxO ViewPoint who purchased a license on or after 1 August 2013.

DxO Labs have launched DxO Optics Pro 9, a major update to its image-processing software. DxO Optics Pro 9 introduces PRIME (Probabilistic Raw IMage Enhancement) denoising technology, which analyses the structure of raw images in depth in order to differentiate between noise and fine details, offering a claimed gain in image quality of up to one full stop over the best noise reduction algorithms currently on the market. In addition, the exclusive DxO Smart Lighting feature - which optimises the overall contrast of an image - now offers even more powerful highlight management: details that once were thought lost are revealed, even when the information is missing in the original raw data, the company says. The Standard and Elite editions of DxO Optics Pro 9 for Mac and Windows are now available in the DxO Labs online store.

AKVIS has updated three of its programs: Enhancer 14.0, Noise Buster v.9.0, Refocus v.4.0. New features and enhancements include the ability to quickly post pictures from the programs to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and Google+; improved raw image file processing; full compatibility with Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Corel PaintShop Pro X6; separate set-up files for 32-bit and for 64-bit versions of Windows; and a few bug fixes.

Nikon has updated View NX 2, its free raw converter and image editor, to version 2.8.1. Modifications enabled in this edition include support for the Nikon D610 digital SLR and the Nikon 1 AW1 compact system camera (pictured), and additional frame rate settings for the Create movie dialogue box in Nikon Movie Editor. You can download the update from the website below.

Website: Nikon Support

Flickr have updated their iOS app to include new auto upload and auto straightening features. Auto upload enables users to automatically send photos from their iOS device to their Flickr accounts  Flickr says: "Up until now, you’ve had to upload photos from your iPhone manually. That can be a really painful and time-consuming process. We’re introducing Auto Upload for iOS 7 users to automatically save your photos to Flickr, securely and privately, until you’re ready to to edit and share them." The auto straightening feature is pretty much what it says on the tin, with Flickr claiming that it's a "tool that works like magic when your photo is just a little bit off."

Source: Flickr Blog

Portland-based plasq has unveiled Comic Life 3, the latest major release of its award-winning photo comic creation software. Comic Life 3 introduces a script editor letting you create stories right in the app and easily take your words to the comic page thanks to new SmartScript technology. New graphics options for strokes, fills and opacity make it easy to create good-looking designs. Comic Life 3 also features a re-engineered editing engine allowing two-up display of your comic, element grouping, find and replace and master page. Comic Life 3 is available today on the Mac App Store and plasq's website for $29.99.

Alien Skin Software has announced Snap Art 4, the new version of its artistic natural media application for photographers. Snap Art 4 features a redesigned user interface and improved speed of operation. In addition, the new visual preset browser shows how each preset will look when applied to an image.Snap Art 4 integrates with many popular photography programs including Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Aperture, and can now also be launched as a standalone app. The software will be available in November 2013. Owners of earlier versions of Snap Art may upgrade for $69. Free upgrades will be automatically sent to everyone who purchased Snap Art 3 directly from Alien Skin Software in August 2013 or later.

Tiffen today announced newly available updates to its award-winning apps for iOS devices. Tiffen Photo fx version 5.03 and Tiffen Photo fx Ultra version 5.02 are now compatible with and fully optimised for Apple iOS 7. The updated apps also benefit from a number of improved Help menu functions, including new icon images. Tiffen Photo fx costs $2.99, whilst Tiffen Photo fx Ultra sells for $4.99.

Brian Griffith has released Iridient Developer 2.3, an update to his photo editing software for Mac OS X. This release includes support for the Sony NEX-5T and ILCE-3000, the Samsung Galaxy NX, the Olympus OM-D E-M1, the Nikon Coolpix P7800, the Fujifilm: X-A1, the Canon PowerShot G16 and the PowerShot S120. The automatic chromatic aberration correction algorithm has also been greatly improved to give better, more consistent results under difficult image conditions. This release is a paid upgrade for users who originally purchased a license prior to 1 April 2012.

Scarab Labs have released version 2.0 of Scarab Darkroom, a fast and easy-to-use raw converter for Windows. Unlike the previous edition, this is a paid app that retails for $49, but it comes with expanded functionality courtesy of a number of new features such as noise filtering, chromatic aberration correction, split toning, Adobe RGB colour space support and more. The free variant, now renamed Scarab Darkroom Lite, remains available alongside the paid version.

ArcSoft has announced that its digital photo makeover app, Perfect365, has reached 10 million downloads. Perfect365 is free to download, and lets people easily apply a natural touchup or a trendy makeover on digital self-portrait photos with a single tap. The app is available for Android, iOS and Windows platforms. A premium version is also available for Mac and Windows users.

Lightricks has released a dedicated iPad edition of its Facetune app. “Facetune for iPad is a game changer,” says Zeev Farbman, Lightricks’ CEO. “Facetune’s revolution was offering every user the ability to achieve magazine-level portraits on the go. Facetune for iPad provides a whole new experience, by stretching the limits of technology with a product that’s both powerful and approachable.” Facetune for iPad is available now, priced at $3.99. Lightricks simultaneously released a new iPhone version that costs $2.99.

Corel today announced an exclusive cashback promotion on CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 Small Business Edition and Corel Photo & Video Suite X6. Customers who purchase a full version of the software are entitled to claim up to £90 cashback. The promotion is available from Saturday 5 October until Tuesday 31 December 2013.

In what Adobe calls "sopisticated attacks" on their network, hackers have "removed" certain data pertaining to 2.9 million customers, including names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. "At this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems," says Brad Arkin, the company's Chief Security Officer. As a precaution, Adobe has reset relevant customer passwords to help prevent unauthorised access to their accounts. The company is also investigating the illegal access to the source code of numerous Adobe products including Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder.

Kolor has announces version 2.0 of its virtual tour software, Panotour & Panotour Pro. Currently in public Beta, Panotour Pro 2.0 enables users to add a photo gallery, video content  from YouTube, Dailymotion or Vimeo, a PDF document and links to their virtual tour. For more information visit the website below.

Cypress Innovations has launched a major update to piRAWnha, the first app to enable raw processing on the Apple iPad. Version 5.2 adds iOS 7 support and numerous new features, including Live Unsharp Masking, Levels and Curves adjustments for intensity, red, green, or blue channels, and access to all of your raw images in Dropbox. piRAWnha 5.2 is available on iTunes for $9.99.

DxO Labs have just released DxO Optics Pro 8.3.2 for Mac and Windows. This upgrade allows DxO Optics Pro 8 to provide support for the Canon EOS 70D (pictured), as well as for the Sony DSC-RX1R full-frame compact camera. DxO Optics Pro 8.3.2 also benefits from the addition of new DxO Optics Modules. 445 new camera/lens combinations round out the library, which today counts more than 14,000 available DxO Optics Modules. This update is free to all owners of DxO Optics Pro 8, as well as to all photographers who bought a DxO Optics Pro 7 license on or after 1 September 2012.