Blurb has partnered with Samsung to power world-wide book and magazine print production utilising the Story Album feature of the new Samsung Galaxy S4. The pre-installed Story Album offers auto-generated layouts that instantly convert into “print-worthy publications,” meaning that users of the Samsung Galaxy S4 can automatically create professional quality print photo books and magazines seamlessly from their camera phone images. “People love the convenience and immediacy of camera phone imagery, but they also prize the beauty and permanence of print media,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb’s CEO and Founder. “By combining the remarkable image quality that the Galaxy S4 offers with the easy production of books and magazines that Blurb brings, everyone gets the best of digital and analogue.” For more information visit the website below.

Caal Studio has released a new iOS app which is claimed to “essentially turn a user’s device into a light field camera” enabling them to take “refocusable” photos. “A single photo does not tell the complete story,” commented Chan Paey-Lun of Caal Studio. “And now with tap2focus, users can re-focus their photos, and tell a different story with each tap. It’s a whole new way to experience photography and photo editing.” tap2focus is available on iTunes for $0.99.

ACD Systems have ACDSee Photo Editor 6, a creative photo editing software solution for amateur photographers. New features include Lighting and Contrast Enhancement (LCE) technology, new lighting fixes, raw file support, a suite of creative effects and filters and advanced rich colour tools. ACDSee Photo Editor 6 is available online at a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Nikon UK has announced that Sutton Images, the world’s largest independent motorsport picture agency, is using Nikon D4s for the Australian Grand Prix taking place this weekend in Melbourne. Mr Tanaka, President of Nikon UK, says: “We are committed to maintaining Nikon’s position as number one imaging brand and this involves working with the very best in sporting photography. We look forward to working with Sutton Images, whose historic association with F1 spans over 30 years”.

Samsung has confirmed pricing and availability for the Samsung WB2100 in the Euro zone. Announced back in January the Samsung WB2100 is a 16.3-megapixel bridge camera with 35x optical zoom. Featuring an optically stabilised 25-875mm equivalent superzoom lens with a maximum aperture of f/3.0 at the wide end and f/6.0 at full telephoto, the Samsung WB2100 is capable of recording moving pictures in full 1920 x 1080 / 60i resolution, in addition to capturing sixteen-megapixel stills. Other highlights include a sweep panorama mode, a 3-inch tilting screen and automatic scene recognition. The camera is available in red and black for a recommended retail price of €329.

The Photographic Museum of Humanity , the first Internet museum dedicated to high-quality photography, has officially inaugurated its second exhibition. Based around the theme “Where the Instinct Roams,” this exhibition is accessible online until the end of this month.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a new Android 4.2.2 powered smartphone with a 13-megapixel image sensor (and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera). Key photo-related features include a Dual Camera shooting mode enabling users to simulatneously capture images and footage with both camera units; Eraser Shot, which takes multiple images of the same scene in rapid succession and automatically deletes any objects that have moved between frames; a panoramic image mode and Drama Shot, a multi-exposure shooting mode in which the built-in camera takes a large number of photos within an extremely short period of time and combines them into a single photograph that shows the individual phases of the same movement (somewhat like photos taken with stroboscopic flash). Also of interest is the 5” Full HD AMOLED screen, which boasts a resolution of 441ppi,

Website: Samsung Galaxy S4

Thames & Hudson is set to publish a new book entitled “famous,” a photographic expedition through the world of celebrity. Expected to be released in May, the book spans 40 years of legendary figures as they invite or avoid the inevitable attention of the camera. Photojournalists Bruno Mouron and Pascal Rostain, who first collaborated in the 1970s for Paris Match and later founded the photo agency Sphinx, captured the tension between performance and vulnerability, distance and tangibility, fiction and reality, transforming each photo into an inquiry into the function celebrity serves in our culture. The 195-page paperback will retail for $34.95.

Pomfort, a global provider of professional solutions for data and color management on the film set, has announced an upcoming upgrade to its flagship software product, Silverstack. Version 3 supports arbitrary file types including raw sequences, photos, sound files and other production documents as wekk as tools for quality check., playback and metadata controls for ARRI Alexa, and RED cameras, Canon DSLRs, Nikon DSLRs and GoPro models. Silverstack 3 will be available end of March for $599. Existing customers can upgrade to the new version for $129.

Places I Remember: My Time with the Beatles by Henry Grossman is a new title from Curvebender Publishing. For over four decades, the vast majority of Grossman’s Beatles archive has been tucked away, awaiting rediscovery. Now, for the first time ever, over 1,000 of these images – most of which have never been published or even seen – are finally being made available in Places I Remember: My Time With the Beatles, published in a limited quantity of 1,200 numbered copies, the first 250 signed by the photographer. “This new book is the best of my many Beatles photographs,” says Grossman. “I’m happy to share some of my favourite work and thoughts on those scenes. These are souvenirs of places I remember and some very memorable friends.” Retailing for $495, Places I Remember can be purchased directly through the publisher’s website. The copies signed by the photographer are priced at $795 each.

CyberLink today announced the “Goodbye Plain Shots” Photo Challenge. Intended to be a fun contest that will “bring out the creative side of photography enthusiasts worldwide,” the “Goodbye Plain Shots” photo challenge invites photo enthusiasts to submit a photo for others to edit, edit a photo submitted by another contestant, or simply “Like” their favourite edited photos. The company is providing a free trial download of its award-winning PhotoDirector 4 software for contest participants to use as a part of the contest. Do note that photos edited using other software will be excluded from the contest. Up for grabs are the latest professional grade dSLR and compact system cameras and the full version of CyberLink’s PhotoDirector 4 software. The “Goodbye Plain Shots” Photo Challenge will run from March 7, 2013 to May 17, 2013.

Ed Hamrick has just released version 9.2.10 of Vuescan. This update adds native support for 339 Brother scanners to the desktop edition. “We have had numerous requests from Brother customers asking us for help, and we are pleased that we have added support for such a large number of desktop scanners,” Hamrick says. Of the 339 models 204 are network capable which means they will also work with Vuescan Mobile. Vuescan Desktop will work on Brother scanners directly for Mac OS X and Linux, which means that no Brother drivers are required. In addition, Vuescan no longer needs a WIA driver on Windows or an ICA driver on Mac OS X. Vuescan Desktop is available in two editions, Standard Edition ($39.95 USD) and Professional Edition ($79.95). The Professional Edition adds unlimited free upgrades, advanced IT8 color calibration and support for “raw” scans.

Canon U.S.A. today announced the 2013 Canon Live Learning (CLL) workshops and programs schedule. CLL programmes are available throughout the United States and, as in previous years, the 2013 EOS Immersion series of seminars and workshops will be presented in a weekend format. Canon representatives will be on-hand to provide technical assistance at all CLL events to help ensure that any questions and concerns can be answered accurately and immediately. For more information on CLL, including the schedule of classes and pricing information, visit the website below.

Almost exactly half a year after purchasing Nik Software, Google announced that they will “no longer sell or provide updates for” the desktop (Mac and Windows) versions of Snapseed. “Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact us for support,” the company said in a statement. “We’ll continue to offer the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android for free.”

The Vanguard Abeo Pro 283CGH has won a Red Dot Design Award. Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, CEO of the Red Dot Design association, has pointed out that strong design competence and economic success nowadays go hand in hand: “The winners of the ‘red dot award: product design 2013’ are the protagonists of a highly developed design culture and design industry. These days it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between well-designed products. It is often only in the details that the special qualities become apparent. However, those product creations that pass the test before the critical eyes of the international red dot jury will not disappear into the crowd and will be able to fend off global competition.”The Abeo PRO 283 CGH tripod kit is the 5th award in a row Vanguard received from the association. The awards ceremony takes place on 1 July 2013 as part of the traditional Red Dot Gala.

The Association of Photographers (AOP) has just announced this year’s Awards programme. “The Photographers Awards will be a more focused format, with a range of categories in single and series but with no distinction between commissioned and non-commissioned,” Awards Manager Charlie Thomas said. “One exciting addition for this year is a special 30th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award, voted for by the AOP membership.” The submission period will open at 10am, Monday 2 April and closes on 6pm, Friday 10 May (Photographers’ Awards) and 6pm, Friday 31 May (Open Awards). During the first two weeks, there will be an Early Bird discount on entry prices.  After 6pm Friday 12 April, the regular prices will apply for non-members, however there will be a continual discount for AOP members.

Nero has released a new version of its Nero 12 and Nero 12 Platinum multimedia suites. The most significant enhancements in the new version concern the Nero Recode video converting application, which now includes pre-configured device profiles for the latest generation of tablets and smartphones, including the iPad Mini, all iPad models, iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5G, iPod Nano 7G, Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro tablets, Windows 8 Phone and Kindle Fire HD. Nero Recode also now automatically detects a computer’s GPGPU (general-purpose graphics processing unit), and uses it by default to finish video converting jobs four to eight times faster. The overall performance of Nero Video was also improved to make editing and exporting faster. It now uses memory more efficiently to allow for longer and more involved projects. It also boosts the viewing and editing experience for HD formats such as AVCHD 2.0. Nero 12.5 is available now as a free online update for anyone who has purchased Nero 12 or Nero 12 Platinum.