If you are a serious nature and landscape photographer, accurate information about the path of the sun is paramount. Typically, you go to online sun position calculators (Geocities, NOAA or many other sites), get the relevant sun position information for the places you plan to visit, print them and take them with you. Now, you can take them with you on your iPhone.
Helios released an update to its Helios Sun Position Calculator, an iPhone app that allows you to predict the position of the sun at a specific time and how that may influence what you plan to shoot. It works everywhere on the planet (the app comes with a database of over 40,000 locations and you can use the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to determine the sun’s path for your current postion.)
3 modes are supported:
HelioMeter is a graphical representation of the position of the sun (azimuth) on a compass dial for any time of day, indicting the sun’s elevation and the length of shadow it would cast.
Skyview (see our image above) is a graphical at-a-glance representation of the sun’s path across the sky on a given day.
Raw Data view provides numerical information where figures are preferable.
This looks like an interesting companion app, with one short-coming: its price. Given that I typically plan ahead enough so I know where the sun is going to be at the locations I plan to visit, I don’t really see a need for planning on-the-go. In addition, when planning ahead, I can get this information for free and even take it with me (either as a PDF or by uploading PDFs into Stanza). Thus, the price is just too high, at least for me. But if it is not for you, this is one photographic tool you should have on your iPhone.
Price: $29.99
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It is amazing to see the many applications coming out on the iPhone. Predictive Sun location now, how about other planetarium placement or perhaps the international space station location. For someone who wakes up at 3:00 a.m. to view Jupiter, this will be a nice addition to my iPhone. Funny that BlackBerry fell asleep at the wheel and came to market late with their apps.
Here at TechnoKOZ we have yet to develop an accurate way of assisting users with their iPhone 3G & Exchange Activesync setup. For now people have to visit our blog or contact us on the phone for Microsoft Exchange assistance. http://www.computerrepairservice.net/blog
Agree on Blackberry – they never figured the importance of the ecosystem (but then, their main target audience is business). With regards to Helios, we plan a Spotlight series that features companion apps such as Helios. Check back with us!
Let me share an iPhone app with you. It’s called dirtymouthapp.com. Have you ever wanted to say a phrase in another language but did not know how? Or how about even better, say a Dirty Phrase? DirtyMouth is a collection of dirty and nice phrases in five different languages.
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