On this week’s rapid-fire podcast, Ben and I answer questions from you guys, the listeners, regarding App.net, website memberships and Ben’s paywall, Twitterrific 5, what podcasts we listen to, and more.

Bryan Jones, retinal neuroscientist and photographer (via James Duncan Davidson):

In short, we are rapidly approaching a point where Apple has many of the required tools in their workflow to redefine how photography works for professionals as well as consumers. There are some professional photographers that have embraced smart phones in their workflow and some like my friend Trent are even teaching classes in college on photography with smart phones. That said, while it is true that while the iPhone is being used professionally by some in limited capacities, right now the smart phone is nowhere near a replacement for SLR camera systems […]

The iPhone technology convergence is showing the world the way forward in terms of how to integrate technology into photography. It remains to be seen whether Apple will capitalize on this or how soon camera companies will begin to adopt strategies pioneered by the smart phone industry.

Bryan’s article is great. He hits on two themes: (a) just how empowering software can be to photography (both in terms of removing friction from someone’s workflow, and also to improving the quality of the image); and (b) how far and how fast will Apple push the quality of the iPhone camera’s hardware?

This is something I plan to write about more in my eventual review of the E-PL5, but one of the first things I thought after I had edited my first batch of images was, now what?

I posted them to my Flickr account of course, but that seems like not enough. I chose not to post them to Instagram because that’s cheating, but my Flickr account is a like ghost town when compared to the activity on Instagram (both in terms of the quantity of images posted by people I follow and the amount of feedback I get on the images I post).

Not only do I want to have a personal archive and album of my images (so far I’ve been putting all my favorites into iPhoto), but I also want to share images with friends and family. The iPhone makes archiving automatic and sharing extremely easy. I haven’t yet figured out just what I want to do with the images I’m taking with the Olympus, nor what my ideal workflow looks like.

Samsung has attempted to marry the quality of a dedicated camera with the apps and sharability of a smartphone in their Galaxy Camera, but based on The Verge’s review it’s overpriced for the quality and a bit frustrating to use due to the software.

Great interview with Brichter, talking about the custom UI code he wrote for Letterpress and how Loren’s app may be nothing more than a game for over a million people, for him it’s a test bed and “the tip of the iceberg”.

Drew Breunig:

But when Ford launched Model T, […] one manufacturer dominated an industry where 75 had previously thrived.

(Via Michael Mulvey.)

Agreed. Once you’ve spent any time at all typing with one of the custom keyboards found in apps like Writing Kit, iA Writer, and Byword the default keyboard begins to feel a bit antiquated. Heck, I’d love it if we just had left and right arrow buttons.

Speaking of which, in Writing Kit the left and right margins of the app are tap targets to move the cursor to the left or right, respectively. This is a feature that first appeared in the app, Writings. And it’s akin to Pull to Refresh, in that it instantly feels natural and once you’ve used it you notice that it’s missing in every other app.

Nicholas Coldicutt recounts his trip to Irukaya, Hiroshi Kiyota’s coffee café in Tokyo, where you are allowed in only with a reservation, no groups larger than 2 are permitted, and anyone who uses a cell phone, smokes a cigarette, or talks to Kiyota while he’s making coffee is asked to leave.

(Thanks, Jorge.)

So long as we’re on the topic of wonderful and old tools, here’s a piece from the shawnblanc.net archives.

C.W. Gusewelle, writing for The Kansas City Star from his typewriter:

I scarcely can express what pure joy it is to return — if only temporarily — to the instrument upon which I depended for the first 30 years of my working life.

Let’s face it, we’re heading into the worst time of year for getting work done. Everyone is getting ready for [insert holiday of choice here].

It seems like Janice is always out of the office. Bob’s coming in late every day. And if Kelly sings [insert holiday song of choice here] one more time, you’re going to go insane. But you can’t work from home — your shared drive is locked down and your VPN is just. so. slow.

This holiday season, ask your boss for a cloud-based collaboration platform. You’ll be able to securely work from home and your coworkers will love the built-in social tools. They can share updates about what they’re working on, and you can ignore the cat videos. Your boss will love your increased productivity.

‘Tis the season for an intranet you’ll actually like. Try Igloo.

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My thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

In a chat with Om Malik, David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, had this to say about the iPad mini:

I am over laptops and the posture that comes with them. I am coding a lot less, so I use my computers a lot less. I still want to simplify even further and carry just one device. So, I want to try the iPad Mini with cellular antenna as my only device and as a phone replacement, and use Skype and/or Google Voice instead.

It’s cool how simplifying can actually be liberating. I’d be interested to check back in 6 to 12 months and see if David is still rocking this setup, and if not, why.