I’m a bit of a sucker for touchscreen technology - the possibilities are enormous and can take us away from the decades-old paradigm of keyboards and numeric pads. Of course, we’re still at the start of this transition but it’s exciting to see what pioneers are doing. Over at Tech E Blog they’ve got a video of BumpTop, which is a bit like Microsoft’s much-talked about Surface:

I like the ability to put lots of things in one pile but the really nice stuff is the 3D desktop - you’re inside a giant room, effectively and you can spin the room round and play with the “walls” as well as the “floor”. It’s all in software (so no need for new hardware), which is a bonus. The best thing is that you don’t need a touchscreen to get started with it - you can use a mouse or two mice to explore if you don’t. But it’s obviously a lot cooler with the touchscreen, so it’s a good transitional step between the two.

More about this can be found over at OhGizmo!

Every time a digital innovation comes out, the analogue lobby always defend the original with a “well, it will never be able to replace a key aspect, such as this…”. And then digital works out a way of fulfilling that need. For example, with digital downloads, many said people would still buy physical records for the cover artwork. So then the digital geeks incorporated the cover artwork into the download and hey presto, we now have cover flow navigation in our software.

I was reminded of this today, as over at Red Ferret I saw this magentic fridge-mounted digital photo frame. So now one of the qualities of analogue printed photographs (i.e. pinning them up on the fridge) can be done with digital as well - a great idea for all the proud parents (and grandparents). And it doesn’t have to be just photos - technically it should be able to display any digital image - so if junior’s been mucking around in MS Paint their work can be proudly displayed as well.

I came across these amazing photos today:

After a little digging I found these are from a book called Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester. These are members of the Surma and Mursi tribes who live in the Omo Valley on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Fifteen tribes, including the Hamer and Kurma tribes, live in this area but I’m unsure if they all partake in this ornamentation. The decorations seem to serve no ritualistic purpose and are purely for enjoyment.

It’s wonderful to see such spontaneous, natural (in all senses - apparently the designs are painted freeform, with no sign of pre-planning) and elegent designs. It’s kind of unifying to know that these tribes people have the same concerns about accessories as I do! Although I don’t think I could wear theirs - my hayfever redden eyes would probably spoil the look somewhat.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not the only person whose eye Mr Silvester’s images caught as the book has also been mentioned by the Mail and the Telegraph last week, worth a look as they have more of the pictures too.

The photo site Flickr is great for a number of reasons - one of them being you can see what other’s photos have been taken with the LG Viewty, showing off its abilities.

This, for example, is a classy winter shot of ice on a tree branch:

21. Dezember 2007 by ernscht

The camera fares well indoors as well, as shown by this macro shot:

Xbox 360 Controller by Skyfall

And the indoor shots are proven with this dinky shot of a scale model:

New Rotterdam Central by jacco.org

I found all these photos and more at Flickr’s photos tagged with “Viewty”. There’s also a clutch of Viewty phone owners’ groups there - LG Viewty, Viewty KU 990 and Viewtyful. If you have a Viewty, join up and we’ll keep an eye out for your photos.

Gizmodo have reported on a neat little Bluetooth USB dongle from Kodak and Belkin for transferring photos from your phone to your PC.

Nothing that spectacular so far but Belkin claims to have made transferring photos onto your computer even easier than it was before – which is no mean feat given how easy it is already.

So, how have they achieved this?

1. Whenever you’re in range of the dongle it will automatically transfer your photos onto your PC.
2. It will then upload them straight onto Facebook or Myspace.

So perhaps not hugely innovative in itself, but the thought of waking up from a night out and all your pictures have already been uploaded onto Facebook without you touching a button? Sounds good to me.

Dial-a-phone have done a testing session with the 5MP camera phones currently on the market – of which the Viewty is one. They’ve done three separate photographic tests of the camera’s capabilities and presented them for an easy comparison.

I’m pleased to report the Viewty comes out really well in the comparison and from this evidence looks to be consistently in the top 2 along with the Samsung G800. We have a lot of faith in the Viewty’s camera and its good to see this demonstrated in a direct comparison test.

We’re also very happy with the poll dial-a-phone have on their post. As of today the Viewty has received 72 % of the vote in the ‘which camera phone is the best’ category, which is excellent news given the strength of the competition.

You can see the results of our own comparison between the Viewty and a standard 5MP digital camera here.

We’d certainly be keen to hear of any other tests involving the Viewty to see how well the camera performs.

Another revolutionary aspect of the Viewty is the possible ISO light sensitivity setting of 800. Whilst normal digital cameras regularly have an ISO 800 setting (and above) it is unusual for a camera phone to have such a high setting. Such a (relatively) high rating will allow you take better pictures in darkened conditions and addresses a common complaint with camera phones generally – that they don’t work well in low light. The Viewty also includes Smart Light technology ensuring better and brighter images indoors and at night.

The fun video shows the relative difference in light sensitivity between ISO settings by recreating Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night with 30,000 post-it notes. Keep your eye on the bottom right hand corner to see the ISO setting increase along with the light.

Comparisons with a standard digital camera have been excellent, Dial-a-Phone is certainly impressed with the Viewty’s capabilities, and you can see the results of our own low light test here.

Fancy getting a LG Viewty for free and having your bill paid? Shiny Media and LG have launched a Europe wide mobile blog project called City Clickers, which is of course open to UK residents.

The aim is to get mobile bloggers to capture the style and character of their city though its residents. They are looking for ten creative people who are willing to go out and photograph the people around them in the spirit of the army of street style bloggers such as The Sartorialist and Face Hunter. Those taking part will be issued with a Viewty to carry out the project, have their phone bill paid for two months and get some training so they can get the most out of the 5 MP camera.

More details including how to apply can be found here

As I’ve said once or twice before, we’re really proud of the camera features on the new Viewty - but we thought it would be best to let the camera speak for itself. So here’s a nice outdoor shot demonstrating the Viewty’s capability, against a competitor’s dedicated 5MP camera:

Competitor camera

Viewty

As you can see, the blue in the sky comes out a lot clearer, and the midtones in the tree are a lot more distinct with the better contrast. The Viewty is also great in low-light conditions:

Competitor camera

Viewty

The colour is brighter, despite he gloomy conditions, and the lines more distinct.

On all four photos you can click through to view the originals to see more so you can see the whole photos for yourself, in case you’re thinking we’re being selective.

Over at Crave there is this fantastic pictorial history of the digital camera - from cameras that recorded onto analogue tape (like videos), to the first true digital handheld cameras, and then the advances in miniaturisation and storage which means we have cameraphones today. We’ve come a long way since this prototype from Kodak way back in 1975:

A really interesting story - but it misses once crucial detail. What was the first digital photograph of? It’s amazing that we have the world’s first ever photo still to hand from over 180 years ago, but not the first digital one from a mere 32…