Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Finally, Canon comes out with a Snow Leopard patch so their Power Shot Image Browser software will work again, but it has a huge flaw.

Around March 10, 2010, Canon came out with a "patch" so that Canon Powershot owners who like the Canon Image Browser software could FINALLY use it with Apple's Snow Leopard platform.

I was FINALLY able to upload almost SIX MONTHS worth of previously non loaded pictures. However, four months ago, I informed Canon executives that there was another important issue that needed to be addressed.

When text is superimposed over an image using the Canon Power Shot Image Browser software, the image darkens. This NEVER HAPPENED prior to snow leopard. I personally don't care who is causing the problem, IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

As far as I have been able to gather, I was the first person on the planet to notice the glitch. What I find even more disturbing than that is nobody else will call out Canon and Apple and publicly denounce this defect, except for me.

Maybe Canon and Apple are working on fixing the darkening that occurs every time text is added to the image, but does it really take this long to fix this one problem?

Why is the ability to add text to an image without the brightness values of the picture changing a big deal? The second part of the question is obvious, of course one should be able to add text on top of an image without changing the color, brightness, saturation or hue of the picture. But the first part of the question, is just as important. There is no other way to both share a picture on the internet while also taking credit for your own work then by actually superimposing a small text message, also known as a watermark, over the image itself.

Apple put themselves in a serious situation by protecting the copyright ownership of vendors that sell music via I-Tunes while spitting in the face of their massive consumer base that lost the ability to superimpose their own copyright protection information over their own photos.

It is the height of hypocrisy to sell the idea of creativity and computing but then not allow those same customers even the basest of methods for protecting their photographic work online. And I'm saying this as a big Apple Fan.

It just seems to me that Apple has gotten so big that NOBODY will challenge Apple, even when Apple clearly dropped the ball by not assisting Canon in coming up with a solution on a much faster timeline. And, as it stands now, the fix that Canon has come up with is still a work in progress.

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