Crave

"Paint" adorable cats onto any iPhone photo with CatPaint.

How many times have you looked at a snapshot in your Camera Roll and thought, "You know what would make this better? Cats!" (I know: too many to count.)

Enter CatPaint, a 99-cent app that lets you "paint" cats onto your photos, thereby adding that much-needed feline touch to your vacation shots of the Vatican, your kid on the soccer field, or whatever.

It's also an ideal tool for generating your own Lolcats images. (I can has iPhone appz?)

All you do is choose a photo from your Camera Roll or other library, select one of the app's eight different cat "brushes," then tap to place it on the picture. Not happy with the placement? Shake to undo.

When you're done with your "cats-terpiece" (I made that up!), you can save it and/or e-mail it to friends. (I, for one, plan to send lots of cat-ified photos to my buds. They'll love 'em!)

CatPaint is one of those apps that's so entertaining, it's just silly. I wouldn't mind more brush choices (eight may be enough for Dick Van Patten, but not for me), but I guess the developers have gotta save something for CatPaint 2.

Apple's newest retail store is on Broadway and 67th Street in Manhattan.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Apple's latest Manhattan store doesn't officially open until this Saturday, but it had the press in today for a sneak peek. Of course, because the store's made mostly of glass, the general public can get a pretty good idea of what everything looks like inside--except for what's below ground.

Click on any of the images to launch the slideshow.

New Manhattan Apple store on the Upper West Side--photos

Comments?

Boost your photography skills with Nikon's free iPhone app.

I've owned a dSLR camera for years, but it spends most of its time on Auto mode. That's because I can't wrap my brain around things like aperture priority, ISO, and f-stops.

Unsurprisingly, most of my shots bite. I've tried reading enlightening books like How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera (nepotism alert: I know the author), but that doesn't help me when, say, I'm standing on the soccer-field sidelines trying to capture my daughter as she scores a goal.

What I need is a simple, informative how-to guide that fits in my pocket. Enter Nikon Learn & Explore, a new iPhone app that teaches photography fundamentals and offers shooting techniques for common situations.

Actually, that's just part of what you get from L&E. The app also offers a library of professional images you can browse, each with an accompanying Nikon World article that details shot composition, equipment, lighting, and all that.

The Learn section offers articles on image editing, shooting techniques, and fundamentals--many of which include both sample photos and how-to videos.

The Nikon World section provides features from the eponymous magazine, while the Glossary explains photography terms from A to Z. You can even mark individual articles and photos as Favorites for quick future access.

In short, this is a must-have app for novice shutterbugs and pro photographers alike (but more for the former). Best news of all: it's free.

(Credit: Joshua Goldman/CNET)

Sony will be bringing its S-Frame DPP-F700 printer to the U.S. in January, the company announced Thursday. It's basically a dye-sub snapshot printer, but with a 7-inch LCD. The screen can be tilted up when the printer is in use and then folded flat against the printer so that when you remove the paper tray, you can stand the unit up horizontally or vertically.

I had a chance to play around with one and, well, it's a photo printer with a larger-than-usual LCD on top. The extra screen real estate is nice, though, especially when using the F700's editing options such as cropping and adjusting brightness, contrast, hue, and sharpness. And, of course, it's better than looking at just a photo printer.

Check out the slideshow below for more details or just because you're bored and/or love looking at pictures of tech products.

Also, quick poll, how long till point-and-shoot cameras are primarily set to shoot in wide-screen resolutions? Has anyone stopped shooting 4:3 in favor of 16:9?

Sony S-frame DPP-F700 digital frame photos

(Credit: Epson)

Are you an owner of the Epson P-6000 or P-7000 Multimedia Photo Viewer? If so, the new firmware available at the end of this month will interest you.

Previously, users had to take out the flash media from their cameras and plug it into the gadget to start the file transfer. But with the upgrade, shutterbugs can connect selected Canon or Nikon dSLRs to the photo viewer via USB and images captured will be sent to both the memory card and Epson device simultaneously.

Other than tethering, the upcoming firmware update also adds remote shutter function and this lets users control their dSLRs from the photo viewer, too, via USB.

(Source: Crave Asia via Engadget)

In honor of our special guest, Micky Hoogendijk, we cover gadgets with an international flare. You might think that a show as classy as this one might not include any questionable content. You would be wrong.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Giorgio Armani extends designer touch to new mobile

Samsung Blue Earth sees light in Sweden

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/lgs-pop-touchsc.php

Dolce Gusto single-cup coffee maker is a beautiful thing

Dyson Fan

Speakers as thin as your TV

(Credit: Epson)

Just in time for the holiday gift-buying rush, Epson on Tuesday announced a brand new PictureMate personal photo printer. We've reviewed plenty of Epson's 4x6 photo printers in the past, but its latest PictureMate Charm promises maximum versatility and print durability for just $150.

The PictureMate Charm gives home photo enthusiasts a new way to produce lab-quality photos on the go at parties, special events, family vacations, and so on, thanks to the inclusion of a carrying handle and a dual-purpose lid that also happens to double as a paper input tray.

Creative types will be pleased to see a variety of color effects and layout options that turn photos into wallet-size proof sheets, stickers, and more. Featuring 5760x1440 dpi, the PictureMate Charm boasts the highest print resolution in its class with built-in auto photo correction and red-eye removal in tow. The Charm will also come with ink and 100 sheets of either glossy or matte-finish 4x6-inch photo paper.

Look for a full review of the Epson PictureMate Charm coming soon. One more photo of the Epson PictureMate Charm after the jump.

Hey, Apple: If a Zune can sync over Wi-Fi, why can't an iPhone? I mean, it's the 21st century. Why do I still have to fish out my sync cable every time I want to copy photos to my PC?

That's a question for another day. In the meantime, there's WiFiPhoto, which, true to its name, wirelessly transfers snapshots from your iPhone to your computer. Any computer: Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., so long as it's connected to a Wi-Fi network.

To my knowledge, the only other app that comes close is Eye-Fi--but that limits you to 25 uploads per month (unless you have an Eye-Fi card) and requires a (rather annoying) desktop utility.

With WiFiPhoto, you just select the photos you want to copy (from your Camera Roll or photo library), then fire up the browser on your PC. Enter the IP address shown in the app and presto: You get a Zip file containing the selected images.

Obviously it would be nice if the app could copy photos straight to a particular folder, but that's the price of a utility-free solution. Here there's nothing to install on your system, just fast and easy photo transfers.

You can see WiFiPhoto in action in the above video. If you like what you see, the app will run you just 99 cents. Definitely worth the money, in my opinion, at least until Apple paves the way for Wi-Fi syncing. Which the Zune has had for a couple years now. Just saying.

Chase Jarvis is a professional photographer. Chase Jarvis has an iPhone. Chase Jarvis got tired of using five apps to shoot, edit, and share photos taken with his iPhone so he created the Best Camera app.

If you haven't already started watching the demo video above, you can open the app, shoot a picture or open one from your photo roll, apply filters and effects, and then upload it to Facebook, Twitter, or Jarvis's iPhone photography community Web site.

The app is only $2.99 and appears to be heavily branded to help sell copies of Jarvis's book of iPhone photography, "The Best Camera is the One That's With You." Personally, it looks like it's still missing some features that'll keep me using other apps, but hopefully Jarvis and his software-engineering partners, Ubermind, Inc., will continue to evolve the app and not charge extra for updates.

Jessica Dolcourt, associate editor over at CNET Download, has two other quite good photo app recommendations: Photogene and Snapture.