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Create a Photo Network for Friends With Cinq

September 3rd, 2010

Meet Trish. Trish is going out for a night on the town. She and her friends always have a great time, and take lots of photos. However, Trish’s Facebook page is a little too public for those photos to be posted ‘in the moment,’ so she needs to be able to share her photos with her friends, but not with the world…at least not quite yet!

Trish has a copy of Cinq on her iPhone that she has been using at her day job with a construction firm, so she downloads the Cinq server application on her home computer, and creates a new clubbin’ login ID. She gives the ID to each of her girlfriends, and now everyone in her group can take pictures through the Cinq app, and see what’s happening all night long.

Trish goes up to take a picture of the band, while Alexis stays near the bar and takes a picture of the crowd. Gina is dancing…sort of, and Alexis captures the moment in time. All of these photos are stored safely on Trish’s home computer, but the girls can see all of the pictures on each iPhone they are carrying. Even Gina’s iPod Touch can access the photos using the WiFi in the club! The girls have a great time, and round out the night at a 24-hour restaurant.

Sitting in the restaurant, Trish goes through the night’s haul of pics with her friends and they all decide on a few great pictures to post for the night. Trish sends the images directly to her Facebook account, and Alexis posts their adventure to Twitter, all through the Cinq application.

Have you ever gone out after a night of partying, only to spend time doing the obligatory ‘send outs’ of the great (embarrassing or otherwise) photos from the night before? Imagine being able to see your friends ‘in the moment’ and have your entire group of friends share their night as it happens. With Cinq, you can create an instant photo album, one that is shared between your group of friends, but not available online until you’re ready to post them.

Cinq keeps your data safe, and should Alexis or Trish have lost their phones over the course of the night, their images would be safely at home on the computer that Trish had set up.

Cinq let’s you focus on the images and what’s important to you, and leaves the storage and maintenance out of the picture. Enjoy the party, and know that when you get home, your images will be there for you, no matter what is in them!

iPad Users Rejoice! Tunaverse Now Offers Popular Cinq App for iPad

July 30th, 2010

The innovators at Tunaverse have taken the basic concept of their Cinq app – secure, virtual access of remote photo libraries – to the next level with the release of Cinq for iPad. Cinq for iPad delivers breathtaking enlargements that are clear, bright, and specifically rendered to make best use of the iPad’s 1024 x 768 high-quality display. With Cinq for iPad, there is no need to copy photos to your iPad. View thumbnails of the pictures stored on your home or work computers while at the coffee shop, airport, work, or anywhere you have access to a WiFi network (or 3G on that model iPad). Open a picture, zoom in to it, move around using pinch and scroll, scale, crop, double tap to view the full-resolution image – all over your wireless connection. You can even email the picture, send it to Facebook, post it to Twitter via TwitPic, and save it to your iPad if you choose. And now you can access Facebook images in one of the most beautiful formats ever. Cinq creates a Facebook icon on your iPad from which you can view images posted by all of your friends. Public photos are accessible just like your own images. You can move from photo to photo, email images, post to them Facebook or Twitter, or save them to your iPad.

Set up is streamlined and simple in just three steps:

1. Download the Cinq for iPad app to your iPad (from iTunes)

2. Download the appropriate Cinq Server app – Mac or PC – to your stationary computer (download the Cinq Server app from www.cinq.tunaverse.com).

3. Set up a secure digital handshake between your stationary computer and mobile device (iPad) via your secure Cinq account

Configure your custom settings and you are ready to go. Also try Cinq on your iPhone – auto-save full-resolution photos to your home or work computers, wirelessly! Snap a picture on your iPhone, it will magically be stored, in full resolution form on your work or home hard drive and, with no effort on your part, you can instantly view/send it from your iPad – all without having to copy or duplicate image files, upload them to an account in the clouds, or attach any cables. One solution. All your photos. Anytime. Anywhere. That simple! Photography in a connected world is suddenly effortless…as it should be!

Why Architects, Builders and Developers Love Cinq

July 26th, 2010

Work groups have a new tool to manage project photos from the field. Using Cinq on an iPhone allows users to automatically, wirelessly save pictures taken with the iPhone camera to a stationary computer back at the office.

New to just-released Cinq 4.0 is the ability to configure multiple home/office computers, both Mac and PC, as Cinq servers. For the building project workgroup, this means that the contractor out at the worksite can snap daily or even hourly photos that are automatically and instantly saved to stationary office computers.

Architects can keep tabs on the project remotely, and can make corrections without delay. Builders can correct safety hazards, adjust labor, monitor the job site, and keep a photographic record of the project as it unfolds. Developers can be assured that work is progressing on schedule and can gain better insight into the complexity and timing of the project. All of this can be achieved automatically, instantly, and wirelessly.

Another benefit Cinq provides to construction project leaders is the ability to view an entire photo library in the field on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad without having to duplicate the pictures and save them to the mobile device.

View the photo history of the project to see what’s behind a closed wall or locate where pipes are buried with just a few clicks – on the job site, immediately and automatically.

Cinq is easy to download and configure. From iTunes, download the mobile app – Cinq (for iPhone and iPod Touch) or Cinq-for-iPad. Then go to the Cinq website to download the server app – Cinq for Mac or Cinq for PC. Finally, synchronize the two apps by configuring to the same Cinq account.

One app. All your photos. Anytime. Anywhere. That simple.

Apple’s New iPhone 4

July 19th, 2010

Apple New iPhone 4 Sports a New and Cutting Edge Camera

Apple has been all the hype within the technology sector for quite some time now, due in recent part to its announcement and release of the new iPhone 4. Not only does the new iPhone 4 have a new, sleeker design than its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS, it is also equipped with an improved digital camera over the iPhone 3GS. The camera on the iPhone 4 is perhaps one of its most impressive features. Apple always takes the long view on product development, and the camera improvements indicate that they now see the iPhone camera as far more than just a spec sheet comparison feature. Apple is targeting their iPhone vision towards much more than the occasional snapshot. It’s simple, you never leave your phone at home, and now you always have a pretty decent camera as well! If you are wondering what makes this new camera subsystem so different, let’s look at some of the features that separate the iPhone 4 camera from the competition.

5 Megapixels

After many complaints about the 3GS camera system, the camera on the iPhone 4 now uses a new 5 megapixel sensor. While that’s still significantly less resolution than most standalone, dedicated point and shoot digital cameras, Apple has clearly joined the it’s not just pixels, it’s better pixels team. Increased resolution is beneficial to iPhone 4 users because it significantly increases the quality of both still pictures and video clips as well. This increased resolution is important when users crop and enlarge pictures taken with the iPhone 4. Pictures taken on the old 3GS were noisy (grainy) and pixilated when viewed on larger displays, or God forbid, actually printed to paper!

Improved Sensor Technology and a Flash

Big Performance in a Small Package!

One of the biggest consumer complaints about the iPhone 3GS camera system was the lack of a flash. Research shows that more than half of pictures taken with a SmartPhone occur in low-light situations. As the old line goes, nothing helps an existing light picture more than…a little light! Understanding this, Apple equipped the new iPhone 4 with not only an LED flash, but has also opted for significantly improved sensor technology (like using faster film.) For those of you not familiar with camera technology, the sensor is the element of the camera that actually “captures” and converts the light that comes through the lens into electrical signals. Most sensors require that light from the lens pass through a lot of non imaging circuitry before finally being “captured” as image. The new iPhone4 sensor avoids these problems by capturing light through the back of the chip, resulting in more light, higher electrical signals and as a result, much less noise, even in very challenging lighting situations. In addition, even though they crammed 66% more pixels on the sensor, they resisted squeezing them smaller, and kept them the same size as the 3GS. Bigger pixels capture more light. More light means less noise. Bottom line…iPhone4 has “better” pixels, 66% more of them and an integral LED flash to boot! All of these new features result in surprising quality for a phone, or even a dedicated camera.

Auto Focus

While auto focus was featured on the previous iPhone, it has been significantly improved since its debut. The iPhone has always had a focus enhancing feature, but, in addition, you can actually tap the screen to further focus the camera.

A Really Nice Package

With all of its advanced photographic features, it seems that Apple left nothing untouched from the camera on its 3GS predecessor. They have made smart and very significant progress with iPhone4 and I’ll take its 5 million quality pixels over other phones offering significantly better numerical specs. The imaging professionals at Apple are definitely on the right track. Can’t wait to see what comes next! Bottom line on the iPhone4 camera system…overall, it is probably the very best point and shoot cell phone camera on the market. It’s results will make it a popular choice among camera phone consumers. The camera you have with you is the best camera you have…and this one is quite good!

Have a Cinq Scavenger Hunt

July 17th, 2010

Have you ever played scavenger hunt with a group of friends, associates or even at work as a staff team building experience? Imagine the possibilities of playing this old classic with the networking abilities of Cinq. Simply create a Cinq account, and have all teams sign in to Cinq using the same account. Then, by having each group go out with an iPhone (I know at least one in three of my friends have one, so that’s a pretty good number for a scavenger hunt) each group just snaps pictures of themselves with the scavenger hunt items as they find them with Cinq. Of course, all participants images are automatically uploaded to the Cinq account on one computer and the ‘judge’ along with everyone else can always see where other teams are in the game. No more wondering if someone has already won and of course, no more piles of random items when the game is done.

I was actually part of a ‘photo scavenger hunt’ at work several years ago and it was great fun. Of course, the biggest issue was the processing of the images. Some had to get film developed while others downloaded pictures from cards, and we had to get them all on a central computer individually, it really was a lot of work for the planners. With Cinq, you get to just enjoy the game and see the great pictures everyone else is taking too! It’s so much better to focus on the fun than the management of images. Give it a try, and post a comment about your Cinq Scavenger Hunt!

Let’s make photos ours again!

July 5th, 2010

How many photo sharing sites, online printers and social media sites do you have a membership with, just to access and share your images with the people you want to? I know that off the top of my head, I can think of no less than ten that I have signed up for in previous years. Some of them are cloud storage systems, some are connections to social networking sites, but the key issue for me is that the more we put our data out on the net, the less it is ours. Having data on scores of sites only increases the chances of it being replicated, lost, or worse yet tracked. I would prefer to keep my data in central location (like my computer) but still retain access to it when I need it. I can share my photos with the people I want to, without giving that data over to a third party that may or may not know what they are going to do with it in the future. That’s the beauty of a system like Cinq, where data can be taken with you and is stored on your computer, at a secure location. Your data is never at risk, and you have access to the photos you want, the best of both worlds!

One of the most impressive features I have found with Cinq is the ability to take a picture (now HD pictures on the iPhone 4) and sync it with your home library automatically and immediately…What a great feature for someone like me who drops, bumps and otherwise ‘plays hard’ with his hardware. Now I always know that my last shot is safe, even if my next one might not be safe to take! If that weren’t enough, I can finally cut the cord with my computer to access photos I take on the road. I remember the days of having to plug the iPhone into my computer, download the images, then show them in a slideshow in iPhoto. With Cinq, I can take a photo on my iPhone, and the legwork is done for me already.

All of my devices that have Cinq installed have the photo at hand, so I can take a picture in the yard with my kids, and mom can show their grandparents the images instantly in the living room on our iPad, MacBook or in the office on our PC. It’s an amazing shift in the way I view and use photos, and will be for you too. It’s really about connecting with images the way we’ve always wanted to, instantly, everywhere, and with everyone we want to. Keep shooting and sharing! -Cinqblogger

Cinq and the Speed of Change in Photography

June 28th, 2010

Doesn’t the world of photography move at lightning speed these days? There was a time not too many years ago when you would buy a camera that would last you a good portion of your career. Now with new technology released seemingly daily, how does a photographer keep up? I know for me, it’s about organization, and that key word ‘workflow.’ All of the successful photographers I know have workflow down to a simple science, from meeting clients & presenting their work, closing a booking, to location planning, the photo shoot and image storage/processing. It really is amazing the amount of images that can be moved from one place to another. However, I find myself moving far fewer images now that I have found Cinq for iPad. Here’s how I have integrated Cinq into my workflow: I start by bringing my iPad with me to client meetings. It is great to be able to organize my folders the way that I want for clients whether they visit the studio, or I meet them in a coffee shop. Whatever I do in my folders on my PC or MacBook, with Cinq, it is all the same on my iPhone or iPad as well. I keep a folder of watermarked sample shots as well, so I can interpret the client’s preferences, and then send out some personally chosen samples after our meeting. During our meeting, it is a full-out show. I can access all of my work, all of it, and then through the discussions with the client show them folders with different styles, locations and ranges. For location planning, I can take my iPhone out into the field and snap pictures of locations I may want to use in the Cinq app, which are then uploaded immediately to my home computers and synced with my iPad. This creates a bank of location shots that I can access on the go. If I am with a client and thinking about a location I have been, I can pull up the test shots right away. After the shoot, I upload my pictures to the computer, and they immediately become part of my Cinq network. I can process the images from the folder one by one, and they are updated on all of my devices. Finally, I can again meet with clients post-shoot to discuss the shots they preferred, all from the convenience of my iPad, or even my iPhone. Cinq has changed the way I do business in photography, I bet it will for you too. Keep shooting and sharing! -Cinqblogger

Calling all photographers! Access ALL your photos! Anytime, Anywhere!

June 10th, 2010

Tunaverse has finally made all of your photos accessible worldwide, no cloud storage required! With Cinq (for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC and Mac) the cat and mouse game of choosing which photos to take to a client, or transferring images from a server to a laptop are over. With Cinq, you install a small client app on your desktop computer (the one connected to your image server, or hard drive) and point your account to the folder containing the images; For Mac users, this is as simple as choosing to use your iPhoto Library. Once you have set up your computer, you can access every photo in that folder (thousands if you wish) from an app on the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
If you keep different photo libraries on different computers, you can enter your account details into more than one computer, and that computer will become a location accessible on other devices as well. It’s a powerful way to finally link all of your photos together no matter where you are. The best part is, you have full access to your images. You can download, email, Facebook or Twitter any image at any point, so there are no compromises! If a client wants an image, you can send it to them, from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, right there.
Need to scout new locations, and shoot some mockup shots? Use your iPhone to take the pictures in Cinq, and the images are instantly available to others on the account. You could literally be in the field with your clients back at the office with an associate, and they can give you feedback on mockups before you set up for the key shots. You only have to take the photos that you know they will love.
The unbelievable part of this system is that all of this functionality is available for a very minimal cost. That initial purchase literally frees your photos, giving you worldwide access to every image you have taken, if you want. Yet the images remain secure on your computers, and under your control. For that peace of mind and functionality, Cinq is a great choice for the professional photographer on the move.

Keep shooting and sharing!
-Cinqblogger