Launched today, the free iPhone ProPhoto app opens up a world of options to teach you how to become a self employed professional photographer. Kit Sadgrove, Director of the Institute of Professional Photography which has developed the app, said: “A keen app browser myself, I realised that there was a huge potential to promote new skills through the iPhone. And there was absolutely nothing out there to help photographers hone the professional skills vital to establishing and maintaining a successful business. The Institute is so confident they can set their students on the road to a new and successful career, they guarantee that if after some initial marketing those who enrol don’t earn at least the cost of the course within 90 days of completing it, they’ll refund the course fees. The ProPhoto app is available to download from the iPhone and iTunes app stores and the website below.

Website: ProPhoto

DxO Labs have just released DxO Optics Pro v5.3.7 for Mac that adds raw support in both in its Standard and Elite editions for the Canon PowerShot S90 (pictured). This release also brings better support for Snow Leopard (installation, activation, stability, plug-in for Photoshop), along with some stability improvements for previous Mac OS versions. DxO Optics Pro v5.3.7 for Macintosh costs $169 / €149 / £99 for the Standard edition, and $299 / €299 / £199 for the Elite edition, including sales tax and VAT where applicable. The minimum system requirements include 2GB of RAM, 400MB available disk space and Mac OS X.4 or X.5 or X.6. Canon S90 owners working on a Windows platform should go for DxO Optics Pro v6.1.1 for Windows instead.

Website: DxO Labs

Flashfixers have announced the release of ImageRecall 4 - Don’t Panic Photo Edition (DPPE) recovery software. DPPE is the fourth major revision in the ImageRecall recovery software series. Updated to support the latest Windows and Mac operating systems, the new interface still offers users an easy step-by-step recovery process, but saves time by offering 30 percent faster recovery speeds and an improved thumbnail viewer. It also supports the newest larger capacity memory cards and most popular image formats, including many raw file types. The software’s features allow users to rebuild corrupt files, scan cards for damage, view recovered images, change the destination directory, securely erase cards, make backups and burn recovered files to CD or DVD. Don’t Panic Photo Edition for the PC requires Microsoft Windows Operating System (2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7) or Mac OS 10.4 and above for the Mac version, (Intel Core Duo or Power PC G3, G4 or G5 Processor), a minimum of 256mb of RAM and 15mb of hard drive space for installation, plus additional drive space for recovered images. The software can be ordered as a full version for $39.95. A free trial is downloadable from the website below.

Website: FlashFixers

Digital Anarchy today announced a free update to their popular ToonIt! Photo plugin. Toonit! Photo for Photoshop creates cartoon-like images from photographs automatically, while still allowing artists to customise the cartoon with different paint styles, shading and outlines. Version 2.5 expands ToonIt!’s cartoon outline effect with three new styles: Woodcut Outlines, Conte Outlines and Scratchboard Outlines. There is also a new colour blur option, and improved interface and new cartoon presets available in the update. ToonIt! Photo for Photoshop is regularly priced at $159 USD. Version 2.5 will be on sale for $99 until February 7, 2010. ToonIt! runs in Photoshop 7.0–CS4 and Elements 5.0–8.0. The plugin is also available for Aperture 2.0 and higher. The plugin runs on Macintosh 10.3.9–10.6, Windows XP–7.0 and Vista systems. Current owners of ToonIt! 2.0 should contact Digital Anarchy for update instructions.

Website: Digital Anarchy

NTI has announced the newest member in its Backup Now family for Windows PCs - Backup Now EZ. It installs ready-to-run with two predefined jobs to let you start protecting your PC immediately. Use the sleek, easy-to-use interface to create a drive image backup for a full and complete backup of your working PC or a file/folder backup to create a quick and efficient backup of your most important data files. The incremental backup for both drive image backup and file/folder backup will only back up new and changed files saving you both time and storage space. And with the graphical status indicator of your backup jobs, you can keep an eye on the vital stats of your backup jobs in a quick glance, the company says. NTI Backup Now EZ is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP, and retails for $49.99, with a free trial available.

Website: NTI Backup Now EZ 2010

Ricoh today announced a desktop slideshow application for displaying pictures that are stored in its visual online service “quanp.” The company had commenced private beta testing of “quanp” in the summer of 2009. Users have been testing quanp’s innovative 3D visual search as an intuitive way to collect, store and share personal photos, videos and other files. They can now store pictures permanently online with the quanp service and can access them anywhere on the Internet. The new desktop slideshow application is installed locally and is especially good for displaying a regular stream of photos like vacations or family gatherings. The unobtrusive 200 pixel by 200 pixel display is built on the Adobe AIR platform, allows for extensive real-time commenting on photos, and has a highly customisable look and feel. The quanp slideshow application requires Windows XP SP2 or higher, Windows Vista or Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher and 10.5.1 or higher.  It also requires Adobe AIR 1.5 or higher. To download the quanp slideshow application, pay a visit to the website below.

Website: quanp

A new title has been added to BenVista’s digital image enlargement software series PhotoZoom, as BenVista recently released PhotoZoom Classic 3. With the new product, BenVista strives for widening the PhotoZoom user base. While the Pro version of the software is designed mainly for professionals, PhotoZoom Classic 3 targets home users. BenVista’s CEO, D. Schoolwerth, explains: “PhotoZoom Classic 3 offers a number of S-Spline based presets that were specially designed for different types of images. With these presets a lot of preliminary work has already been done, and the user won’t have to bother with technical settings. Results can be compared with one another in a large preview window. This way the user is able to determine in a fast and convenient way which preset is most suitable for enlarging the given image.” PhotoZoom Classic 3 runs as a stand-alone application, and is available for both Mac OS X and Windows. Free demo versions can be downloaded directly from the BenVista website.

Website: BenVista

Savoy Software has developed a highly polished, content-aware image resizing application for the iPhone called Liquid Scale. The program resizes pictures without deforming or cropping the content. Pictures can be transformed to a new aspect ratio in a fast and intuitive way. The elegant iPhone application enables all the possibilities of content aware image resizing. It works on all kinds of images—intelligently removing or adding pixels to preserve important parts of the picture. Liquid Scale will become available later this month.

Website: Liquid Scale

AKVIS Software has released AKVIS Magnifier v.3.0 for Windows and Macintosh, an efficient tool to resize digital images. AKVIS Magnifier enlarges digital pictures to super-high resolution producing stunning enlargements and poster-size prints, the developer says. The algorithm keeps edges smooth, sharp and clearly defined, while improving image appearance by removing unwanted noise and compression artifacts. The program is available as a plugin to a photo editor, as well as a standalone edition. Version 3.0 offers a new interface and improved compatibility. Support for 64 bit has been added to the plug-in version (now compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS4 64 bit); and the software is now compatible with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, Mac OS Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Upgrade for registered users is free. For new users, AKVIS Magnifier Home License (plug-in or standalone) sells for $129 or €99, downloadable from akvis.com.

muvee, a pioneer and leader in home movie-making software and services, has announced a Netbook version of muvee Reveal will be previewed at CES, starting tomorrow.  muvee Reveal Netbook edition was created specifically to enhance Netbooks from being primarily a secondary machine for mobile computing, entertainment and communication, to a portable personal media creation and sharing device, the company says. The muvee Reveal Netbook edition software enables users to take videos and photos from their cameras via the SD card reader, their Flips or even from online sources like Facebook and shwup. Then, in three steps, muvee Reveal automatically creates a professional-looking home movie synced to the beat of the music that can be shared on social networks like Youtube and Facebook or uploaded to a private group album at shwup.com. “An NVIDIA ION processor transforms a netbook into a fully-capable, small notebook,” said Michael Steele, General Manager, NVIDIA Visual Consumer Solutions. “By using the graphics processor to handle the video, muvee Reveal Netbook Edition provides a great multimedia and entertainment experience on ION-based netbooks.” muvee Reveal Netbook edition is expected to be released 1 March 2010.

Bibble Labs have officially released the all-new Bibble 5 Pro Photographic Workflow application for Windows, Mac and Linux. Bibble 5 Pro includes a totally new, completely multi-threaded image processing engine, allowing it to process images faster than anything else, Bibble Labs claim. Efficient enough to be perfectly usable on netbooks and older computers, yet powerful enough to take full advantage of 4, 8, 16 or even more CPU’s, Bibble 5 Pro is allegedly designed to fully utilise all the computing power available to it. “With dual core processors now being replaced with four-core processors, and with 6- an 8- and higher core count processors on the horizon,” says Eric Hyman, founder and owner of Bibble Labs, “it’s clear that utilizing the full power of those additional CPU’s is the key to true workflow performance.” Also, Bibble 5 Pro’s Selective Editing framework allows its image editing tools to operate on the complete image or a limited portion of an image, fully integrated into a totally non-destructive workflow. Bibble 5 Pro is available immediately for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers for $199.95 from Bibble Labs. Customers who purchased Bibble 4 since September, 2006 are eligible for a free upgrade to Bibble 5 Pro. Earlier Bibble 4 Pro customers may upgrade to Bibble 5 Pro for $99.

Website: Bibble Labs

Teorex has just released Inpaint, a smart tool which allows users to seamlessly remove objects from a background. This applies to scratches, noise and all kinds of objects that do not belong to the photo or spoil the composition. Just select the object to remove, define the area to be used for generating the texture and click the Inpaint — Run command. Besides photo restoration, Inpaint can also be used for texture synthesizing for different objects. For details, visit the website below.

Website: Impaint Video Tutorials

Tonchidot Corporation has announced the global availability of the iPhone application “Sekai Camera,” a social, Augmented Reality service for browsing and sharing user-generated text, photo, voice, and other location-linked information. Launched September 2009 in Japan, Sekai Camera was recently named the Best App in 2009 by Apple Japan. Sekai Camera is now available for free outside Japan at iPhone’s AppStore worldwide. While most mobile Augmented Reality applications today are allegedly navigation oriented, Sekai Camera is social by design, giving users the ability to communicate and have fun through interaction with digital tags that float in the real world. Sekai Camera has created a completely new interface for connecting the real world to the Web, Tonchidot Corporation says.

Website: Sekai Camera

Mamiya has announced an iPhone app that transforms an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote image viewer for users of the new Mamiya DM system. Now, while the photographer is shooting in a tethered mode, other people on set – the creative director, client, stylist, etc. – can watch via a standard Wi-Fi network, without hindering the movement of the photographer or crowding around one monitor. The images are hi-res and the software allows viewers to pan and zoom using their compatible Apple device. Note that this app is essentally the same Leaf Capfure Remote application that has recently been released by Leaf Imaging for users of Leaf digital backs and camera systems.

Likno Software has released a new Adobe Air version of its software, Photo Frame Show. Photo Frame Show is an intuitive program that allows people who wish to enhance their digital photos to do so by adding original and impressive frames to them in a fast an easy manner. The new version offers more advanced features, faster rendering, support for a wider range of operating systems, and a more user-friendly functionality, the company claims. The AIR application can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Photo Frame Show

Almost exactly a month after the release of Lightroom 2.6 and Adobe Camera Raw 5.6 Release Candidates, Adobe posted the final versions. ACR 5.6 adds support for a range of new cameras, and replaces the original one that was installed with Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, and Adobe Premiere Elements 8 software. Adobe Lightroom 2.6 also provides support for new cameras such as the Canon EOS 7D and the Nikon D3s, and includes corrections for issues introduced by previous Lightroom 2 releases.

Website: Adobe - Latest Product Updates

Imikimi has launched a new iPhone app that lets you frame your photos using over a million user-created frames, and then e-mail them or post them on Facebook or Twitter. You can frame photos from the Apple iPhone camera, your Photo Library or your Facebook account. Imikimi for iPhone offers excellent Facebook integration including friend tagging, the developer says. The app is available at the iPhone App Store.

Website: Imikimi for iPhone

Apple has released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7, adding system-level support for a number of new digital cameras. Newly supported models include the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, EOS 7D and PowerShot G11, and the Nikon D3s, D300s (pictured) and D3000. The update is available for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and affects Apple Aperture 2 as well as iPhoto ‘08 and ‘09. The update is available via Software Update in the Apple menu of Leopard / Snow Leopard.

Via Rob Galbraith

Nikon has released version 2.2.4 of its Capture NX software. The new version adds compatibility with 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, and fixes a number of bugs. For an exhaustive list of fixes and to download the update, visit the website below. Note that this update is Windows only!

Website: Nikon Capture NX 2.2.4

Zoner Software has released the new version of its Zoner Photo Studio photo management, editing and sharing application for Windows. The latest version introduces new and more efficient ways to manage, edit and especially share photos. The module for RAW files has seen a complete overhaul.  Settings for processing each file in queue can be fine-tuned until the moment the queue is processed. For easier work with large photo archives, the new version introduces a Catalog view — virtual folders that automatically organize pictures by timeline, no matter where they are on disk. Zoner Photo Studio 12 Home is handy for point-and-shoot photographers looking for one-click editing features, and flexibility for creatively sharing photos, as well as creating calendars, panoramas and other presentation formats. Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional offers advanced photographers and avid hobbyists a wide selection of features designed with their workflows in mind, covering everything from organising and editing, to publishing.

Website: Zoner