How it’s Made from the Discovery Channel is one of my favorite show. On this episode, they show us how camera lenses are made. Well, at least the JML Optical Industries, Inc. in Rochester, NY are made.

For some reason, I don’t think Nikon makes its lenses quite the same way… Still very interesting and informative!

You don’t need to be a genius to see that most of us are now taking pictures with our mobile phones rather than our digital cameras.

“Marketing experts predict that by 2009, nearly 90% of all cell phones will contain a camera, as manufacturers race to create cheaper, easier‚Äìto‚Äìuse models with more sophisticated cameras, more pixels, flash units, and even multiple lenses.

Already revolutionizing audiovisual communication, it’s a trend that will only grow more explosively.”

That’s why National Geographic have released a book entitled - The Camera Phone Book.

In five easy-to-read chapters, the book explains how to choose good equipment; take better pictures; and store, print, and send the best images.

I am not sure you really need National Geographic to teach you how to take photos, but for less than $9 it can hurt either!

Microsoft just launched a website dedicated to professional photography. The site features profiles and galleries of photographers along with articles relating to professional photography practice.

I am not sure what Microsoft is trying to do here but it seems they are working hard to get into the photography market. The site also talks about color management, workflow and output topics, downloads page with links to applications that are relevant to photographers, etc.

Also, you’ll find a Support page with access to a Knowledge Base, allwing photographers to tell Microsoft about features they would like to see added to Windows to improve digital photography.

Someone should tell Bill that photographers use Macs, not PCs

Remember how I was tipping you on how to get your photos in Google Earth? Well, since the acquisition this June of Panoramio by Google, you now can find the photos you’ve uploaded not just in Google Earth, but also in Google Maps!

This new feature comes with a batch of new functionalities that Google released today, amongst which ones you can create your own personalized, annotated maps and share them and even save them.

You can also add content, using new tools like real-estate, gas prices, hotel search or even calculate distance in both metric and Imperial units.

Rob Galbraith has posted a very good review on the new MacBook Pro 15 inch LED-Backlit display - which is the first laptop of its size to incorporate an LED-backlit display.

I first mentioned the rumor of a MacBook Pro with LED-backlit display last February and this was quite an exciting rumor for many different reasons…

But the most important one being the improvement in the color calibration quality for viewing and editing pictures.

“We came at it armed with four monitor calibrators and as many calibration software packages, but we needn’t have.

Calibration performed with any of the hardware/software combos we have on hand resulted in a more colour-accurate view of photos than is possible with past MacBook Pro screens of any size, and the combination of the Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer and Eye-One Match 3.6.1’s laptop calibration mode generated such a good profiled result that we’re comfortable saying this screen is the best we’ve ever seen in a laptop, not only because the colour accuracy is decent, but also because of a noticeable improvement in centre-to-corner display evenness.”

For those who don’t feel like reading the whole article, the new MacBook Pro 15 inch’s LED-backlit display is very, very good.

“It’s the best laptop display we’ve seen and one we’d use in the field without reservation. But its minor colour quirks, tight head position requirements and relatively small colour gamut when compared to a desktop display means there’s still lots of room for improvement in future laptop offerings.

But for now, the MacBook Pro 15 inch with LED backlight is definitely a step up from any laptop display we’ve looked at before.”

Now I really want a 12″ MacBook Pro with LED-backlit display!!!

The Brazilian edition of Playboy Magazine experiences a photochoppe mishaps… One of the model “lost” her belly button as the Playboy editors were retouching her body curves.

The mistake went unnoticed, and the magazine sold 605,000 copies that month… Many readers got pissed off when they realized they were wasting money on a magazine publishing fake pictures.

But seriously, who still thinks that Playmates are “natural”?!?!

This being said, I still wonder why Playboy put so much effort on photoshopping their girls, when most of them need no retouching at all!

In 1995, twelve years before Steve could dream of Apple making a phone, Michael Kovatch bought the domain name iphone.com. Funny enough, Michael wanted to protest against VoIP phones!

“Help Us fight the use of the Internet to replace telephone service as we know it”

But later on, he really was hoping to build a company on this domain, until Apple launched the iPhone last January that is…

The exact conditions of the sale were not disclosed, rumors say the purchase is one of the largest of its kind, reaching the million dollars.

iPhone.com now redirects toward the Apple iPhone page, which makes more sense in a way.

In the meantime, you’ll be able to find all the news, tips & tricks, accessories, softwares, etc. regarding the iPhone right here on iPhone Crazyness!!