New diode promises to uncork optical computing bottleneck

The new diode is made from two silicon rings that measure just 10 microns in diameter and could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers (Image: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)

When it comes to speed, photons leave electrons for dead, which means optical computers will be much faster than their current electron-based cousins. While diodes for use in optical information processing systems already exist, these require external assistance to transmit signals so cannot be readily integrated into computer chips. Now researchers at Purdue University have developed a "passive optical diode" that not only doesn't require any outside help to transmit signals, but is also so small that

"Shadow state" discovery could dramatically boost solar power efficiency

Extra electrons harvested from a photon's quantum 'shadow state' could boost the efficiency of solar power (Photo: Shutterstock)

Researchers at the University of Texas say it is possible to hike the energy yield of solar cells by exploiting what they call a photon's "shadow state", doubling the number of electrons that may be harvested in the process. They claim the discovery could up the theoretical maximum efficiency of silicon solar cells from 31 to 44 percent.
Prior research led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu demonstrated that a theoretical increase in efficiency to as high as 66 percent would be possible if solar cells could be made

Researchers create invisibility cloak for sound

Dr. Nicolas Stenger's microstructured polymer plate

Many of the current experimental "invisibility cloaks" are based around the same idea - light coming from behind an object is curved around it and then continues on forward to a viewer. That person is in turn only able to see what's behind the object, and not the object itself. Scientists from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have applied that same principle to sound waves, and created

New handheld devices designed to detect brain injuries on-the-spot

The Infrascanner hand-held hematoma detector and its PDA interface

It's sadly ironic that the very properties which make our skulls such excellent brain protectors, strength and rigidity, often work against us after head injuries. Not only does the hard bone conceal damage from concussions and bleeding, say, but it also confines the swelling, causing intra-cranial pressure to surge, a situation that can lead to further brain damage. While CT scans and magnetic resonance imaging systems are crucial to an accurate assessment, they are rarely available to emergency medical personnel at

O1M One Moment natural, biodegradable shoes are like condoms for your feet

O1M shoes are a light, biodegradable and inexpensive choice for barefoot enthusiasts

The concept for these bright plastic shoes comes from native Amazonians, that did essentially graft soles to their feet. As explained by the manufacturer, the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest painted their soles with latex derived from Hevea trees. These served as protection during the rainy season, eventually wearing off and degrading back into the earth. The soles were a local,

Latest HondaJet test aircraft lifts-off

Honda's latest FAA-conforming test aircraft known as F2 has now begun flight testing

Honda's first ever commercial aircraft, appropriately named the HondaJet, follows in the footsteps of the company's ground-breaking CB750 motorcycle and S600 sports car by aiming to provide superior performance and value - this time in the light business jet market. Continuing an intensive flight test regime to meet U.S. Federal Aviation Authority approval that began one year ago, the latest FAA-conforming test aircraft known as F2 has now begun flight testing out of the company's headquarters at Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International Airport.
F2 made its maiden flight on November 18, 2011, performing a variety of checks during takeoff, climb and cruising phases. These included landing gear operation, flap operations, aircraft handling and

Deonet announces world's smallest USB memory stick

Dutch manufacturer Deonet is to launch the world's smallest USB storage stick in January

Just when you think that USB Flash storage can't possibly get any smaller, a company pops up with something so tiny that you're going to need the corded fob to make sure you don't lose it. Dutch promotional product manufacturer Deonet - maker of the diamond-studded Golden USB memory stick and the FSC-certified, maple-enclosed Eco Wood drive - has announced just such a portable storage solution, and is the

Alternative tech could lead to cheaper fuel cells

Finnish researchers have developed a method of fuel cell production, that uses 60 percent less of the costly catalyst material

While fuel cells show a lot of promise for cleanly powering things such as electric cars, there's something keeping them from being more widely used than they currently are - they can be expensive. More specifically, the catalysts used to accelerate the chemical processes within them tend to be pricey. Work being done at Finland's Aalto University, however, should help bring down the

Self-healing electronics may result in less expensive, longer-lasting devices

Scientists are creating self-healing electronics, that use liquid metal to instantly restore conductivity to cracked circuits

A hard material is impregnated with microcapsules that burst when the material cracks, releasing a stored liquid that hardens on contact with the air, thus repairing the crack ... it's a system that we've recently seen used in a number of applications, including self-healing concrete and polymers. Now, a research team from the University of Illinois is applying it to electronics. They have already created a

spnKiX motorized shoes edge closer to production

spnKiX are remotely controlled battery-powered motorized shoes up for pre-order via Kickstarter

Peter Treadway's battery-powered motorized shoes - which we first spied as a concept in mid-2010 - are edging closer to production. Called spnKiX, these electric roller-skates have gone through more than thirty prototypes over a five year period to reach the final design and if all goes to plan they will hit the

Researchers develop cheap and easy to mass-produce "solar-paint"

Mixtures using cadmium sulfide produced yellow paint, cadmium selenide produced dark brown, while a mixture of the two - which offered the best conversion efficiency - was light brown (Photo: ACS Nano)

A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana is reporting the creation of a "solar paint" that could mark an important milestone on the road to widespread implementation of renewable energy technology. Although the new material is still a long way off the conversion efficiencies of commercial silicon solar cells, the researchers say it is cheap to make and can be produced in large quantities.
In an effort to find an alternative to silicon-based solar cells, the Notre Dame researchers turned to

Sony demos paper-fueled battery

Sony's battery breaks down paper to create power (Photo: PhysOrg)

We've heard of gadgets being powered by some pretty crazy stuff, but how about paper? Sony recently showed off a new bio-cell battery that breaks down paper in order to create power. A paper battery sounds a little bit far-fetched, but the technology works, and could potentially change how we power devices in the

First Earth-size planets discovered beyond our solar system

Artist's rendering of Kepler-20e (Image: NASA)

NASA has discovered the first Earth-size planets outside of our solar system. The discovery was made as part of NASA's Kepler mission and involves the discovery of two planets currently named after the

LightPad adds a keyboard and 11-inch rear- or 60-inch front-projection display to a smartphone

The LightPad adds a full-size keyboard and 11-inch rear projection display to a smartphone

In terms of display size, smartphone manufacturers are faced with striking a balance between a size that is big enough to be comfortable to view and type on and one that is still small enough to fit inside a jacket packet. Advances in imaging technology have enabled miniature projectors that provide extra screen size in a compact form factor. This has led to a flood of such devices appearing at CES in recent years, such as the

Japanese researchers develop six-legged "Asterisk" robot that can pick up objects

The six limbs, symmetrically spaced at 60-degree intervals around its body, give the Asterisk robot its name

Fans of the sci-fi film Minority Report will no doubt recall the autonomous insect-like searcher robots deployed to find Tom Cruise's character mid-way through the flick. While not as elegant (or sinister) as its film counterparts, the Asterisk robot being developed by the Arai Robotics Lab at Osaka University in Japan does an excellent job of resembling a big, mechanical bug with some interesting skills. After over six years of development, this unusual "limb-mechanism" robot now boasts an

Film-makers doing a sci-fi space flick - without using any computer-generated effects

Film-makers Derek Van Gorder (pictured) and Otto Stockmeier are in the process of making a science fiction film about space travel, without using any computer generated imagery

When you think about the best-loved movies depicting space travel, what names come to mind? Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek - The Motion Picture, Silent Running, Battlestar Galactica? Interestingly enough, all of those enduring films were made decades ago, and utilized hand-built model spaceships for their space-flight sequences. Today, even low-budget productions usually use CGI (computer-generated imagery) for the same purpose - it's logistically much easier to create and "film" a virtual spaceship on a computer, than it is to build, light and shoot an actual model. Nonetheless, that second approach is exactly what New York film-makers Derek Van Gorder and Otto Stockmeier are taking with

Just-launched theKube2 claims title of "World's Smallest Touch MP3 Player"

The makers of the just-launched theKube2 claim that it is the world's smallest touchscreen MP3 player

Although owners of the iPod Shuffle might have something to say about it, Singapore's Bluetree Electronics has announced the launch of what it claims is "the smallest touch MP3 player in the world," theKube2. The diminutive device has an aluminum body, runs for six hours on a one-hour charge of its lithium-polymer battery, and can store approximately 1,000 songs on its included 4GB microSD card. You can also

How nuclear icebreakers work - and the reversible ships that will replace them

MT Tempera, one of the new class of double acting reversible ships, going backwards to act as an icebreaker

The Arctic North end of Russia is believed to hold as much as a quarter of all the world's oil deposits - an utterly monstrous economic prize, hidden in one of the toughest and least hospitable environments on the planet. Getting to this prize, and then transporting it back to refineries, is a monolithic task that requires one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of machinery man has ever built - the nuclear icebreaker. Purpose-built to the point of being almost unseaworthy on the open waves, these goliaths smash their way through 3-meter (10-foot) thick ice crusts to create viable pathways for other vessels - but

KiteGen looks to get wind-power off the ground

The large kites in the KiteGen system are able to take advantage of high-altitude winds (Image: KiteGen)

Wind-power has rapidly evolved over the last decade to become a key part of the alternative energy mix with towering rows of turbines now dotting horizons all over the globe. One of the drawbacks to the conventional windmill approach is that they are still low to the ground, so why not go to where the winds are stronger and more consistent - up. Like the Magenn Air Rotor System, KiteGen technology is aiming to do just that. The system generates energy by guiding tethered kites over a predefined flight path in order to rotate a ground based turbine and, while only in the testing and planning phases, it looks to be a promising solution. The large wings (or kites) in the KiteGen system are

YouTube for Schools provides distraction-free access to educational content

YouTube for Schools enables teachers to use YouTube in the classroom without exposing them to inappropriate content

Educational videos available online have huge potential to enrich the classroom experience. There is great content available on practically every subject merely at the click of a button. That said, the same click of a button is all that separates school children from funny cats, silly Internet memes and scantily-clad pop stars. The problem can be easily solved by banning video sharing sites altogether, but that of

Siri is the operator on this rotary phone

Siri work as an operator of sorts, catering to your every question and placing phone calls by dialing 1 on the phone

Sure you've seen Siri work her voice recognition magic on an iPhone 4S, but how about on an older rotary telephone? Davis Remmel took a Bluetooth headset and retro-fitted a rotary telephone to have Siri work as an operator of sorts, catering to your questions and placing phone calls by dialing 1 on the phone.
Back in the day of rotary telephone, dialing 0 on a phone would connect you with an

iStencyl lets you create and sell iOS games without knowing any code

iStencyl is a program which allows you to create your web and iOS games - like Dungeon Rush - without having any coding experience

Who says you need to now how to write code in order to create and sell your own iOS game? iStencyl is a program designed to allow you to create your web and iOS games without having any coding experience. The system lets you develop entire games using its block builder rather than code, however, it

Warpia's ConnectHD Brings Skype To The Living Room's Big Screen

Skyping on your couch. Who would have ever thought that would be "a thing." Crazy as it sounds, some people actually do prefer video chatting on the big screen, not on the handheld ones, and that's where companies like Warpia step in. They've just announced the new ConnectHD (SWP400VC), which brings a wide-angle camera (HD) and multidirectional microphone to your TV. The purchase? To enable video calls in the living room. Furthermore, there's a second major ability tucked in: it gives users an easy way to stream content wirelessly from any laptop computer to an HDTV without limitation. The ConnectHD can be used for additional entertainment such as playing PC Webcam games, watching movies and

Review of Cowon C2 digital media player

Cowon C2 MP3 player hands-on review

Ever since Sony introduced me to portable music with its iconic Walkman series, my enormous collection of tunes has never been far from reach. I've been through tape cassette players, mini-Disc and CD players, and MP3/OGG/FLAC digital players but have stopped short of carrying my music around on my smartphone - preferring uninterrupted listening rather than risk being bothered by incoming calls and messages. My current digital music player has been giving me serious battery life issues of late, though, which shouldn't be an issue with Cowon's C2 MP3 player with its whopping 55 hours of claimed audio playback. Announced back in April, and made available in my neck of the woods a couple of months later, I've been spending some quality time with the 16GB model. Is there still room for the dedicated digital

Image3D lets you create your own View-Master-esque photo reels

Image3D allows customers to create custom View-Master-like photo reels, using their own photographs

Along with GI Joes, Slinkies and Sea Monkeys, View-Masters are probably one of the most-remembered childhood products of the past few generations. Even if you yourself never got the chance to flip through disks of still images using one of the manually-operated stereoscopic viewers, chances are

Alpha Clock Five features a hackable LED display

The Alpha Clock Five in 12-hour mode

When is a clock not a clock? When it's a big fat, programmable, five-character, 18-segment display, a bit like the Alpha Clock Five from Evil Mad Science. Its 2.3 inch 18-segment alphanumeric characters are each illuminated by 54 LEDs, providing a bold, bright answer to that most

Quad-lock iPhone case lets you mount your iPhone anywhere

The Quad Lock iPhone case can be mounted anywhere, including the outside of a plane

The iPhone has a fantastic GPS system, can pump out your favorite tunes, and can call a friends when you're late meeting him or her for lunch. All that functionality is great, but can be hard to use when you're doing something like

VIA Adding Android Support To Embedded x86 Systems

Android and VIA, sitting in a tree.... Just kidding. But, the truth of the matter is this: VIA has just announced Android support for their embedded x86 boards. They're starting off with support for the VIA EITX-3002 Em-ITX board. Running Android on an x86 platform offers increased flexibility, great multimedia support and cost saving advantages for embedded applications such as in-vehicle entertainment and interactive kiosks. Key advantages for Android on x86 include leverage of Android development resources and existing apps, rich I/O flexibility, greater CPU performance as well as higher display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080. In addition VIA has released SMART ETK, an Embedded Tool Kit which allows monitoring and control of peripheral devices through the Android OS, allowing for greater environmental control of kiosk and other installed environments. Looking for a demo? It's below.

Researchers claim new data transfer rate world record

An international team of researchers has set a world record two-way data rate over long distances of 186 Gbps (Image via Shutterstock)

An international team is claiming a data transfer record that puts any home broadband connection to shame. At last month's SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in

Scientists create "the world's smallest steam engine"

Principle of the microscopic engine (Diagram: University of Stuttgart)

It sounds implausible, yet scientists have managed to create a functioning engine, analogous to a Stirling engine, just three micrometers wide and made of a single particle. The minuscule engine was created by Clemens Bechinger and Valentin Blickle at the University of Stuttgart,

NASA working on a comet harpoon

A rendering of the harpoon embedded in a comet, with its collection cartridge visible inside (Image: NASA/Chris Meaney/Walt Feimer)

Call it Ishmael. Actually, no, call it the Comet Nucleus Sample Return mission spacecraft. Regardless of its name, the NASA vehicle will be wielding a harpoon, not unlike the narrator of Moby Dick.

"Computerized penetrometer" measures the crispness of apples

Scientists are looking into using a computerized penetrometer to assess the crispness of apples

Here's a job title that you probably didn't know existed: Apple Biter. Oh sure, the official term is probably something like "Fruit Evaluation Specialist," but if you spend your days chomping into apples to assess their taste and crispness, you're really an Apple Biter.

Snapily3D turns your iPhone or iPad into a 3D camera

Pictures and video can be instantly shared from within the app on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube

The iPhone has a ton of built-in features, but one feature it doesn't have is a 3D camera - until now. Snapily3D is an iPhone app that allows you to capture 3D pictures and video with the camera on your iPhone.

                

The app is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPod touch 3rd generation and above, and walks you through the 3D picture-taking process through on-screen directions and prompts.

The app has face detection to make sure everyone is in the frame before capturing a photo, and takes photos that can be viewed later using stereoscopic glasses (the kind with the multicolored lenses).
For those without glasses on hand, Snapily3D also offers a "cross-eyed mode" for taking and viewing 3D photos and videos glasses-free.
Pictures and video can be instantly shared from within the app on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.
Snapily3D is available now in the App Store for US$1.99.
If you'd rather have your 3D capabilities built-in, the LG Optimus 3D also captures 3D videos and pictures. It has a glasses-free 3D screen, however, which allows you to view those photos and videos on the phone in 3D without having to tote around a pair of stereoscopic glasses.

SensoGlove digital golf glove gets an upgrade

The SensoGlove, which monitors a golfer's grip on their club, has been upgraded

Working with a golf pro can definitely help to improve your performance on the greens, although pros can sometimes find it difficult to determine if you're gripping your club too tightly, just by watching. Germany's Sensosolutions addressed that problem with its SensoGlove, a computer- and sensor-equipped glove that allows users to set their desired level of grip, and then receive feedback on whether or not they're gripping within that range. Yesterday, the company announced that the glove has now been improved.
Like the original model, the new SensoGlove is made from cabretta leather, and incorporates a sweat-proof 1.2-inch LED monitor. Sensors located throughout the glove feed into a microprocessor, which measures the gripping pressure of each finger throughout a swing. The user dials in a target pressure, then receives an auditory warning if they exceed that pressure while taking a swing. The screen will even display which finger(s) were the offenders, and by how much.

Also like the original, the new glove monitors the user's grip 80 times a second. It reportedly has a higher sensitivity, however, resulting in more accurate readings. It also features longer battery life. No figures are provided, although the previous version was said to last for 80-100 hours on a set of standard watch batteries, so this one ... well, presumably somewhere over 100 hours.
The more-sensitive, longer-lasting SensoGlove's price remains the same at US$89, with replacement gloves (without the electronics) available for $22.48. It can be ordered on the company website.

The smartphone controlled Aquabotix Hydroview underwater vehicle

Aquabotix has rolled out a new underwater viewing system in the form of the iOS- and Android-controlled Hydroview remotely operated underwater vehicle.

Smartphones can already be used to remotely control a variety of vehicles, including flying toy helicopters and airplanes, or even starting your car. Now remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) can be added to the list with New England-based company Aquabotix rolling out its Hydroview vehicle. Equipped with LED lights and a HD video camera, the vehicle transmits a live video feed to an iOS- or Android-based smartphone, tablet, or a laptop and can be remotely operated by tilting the phone or tablet or via the laptop's touchpad.

There are plenty of potential applications for an ROV, including getting an up close and personal look at the marine life, searching the murky depths for sunken treasure, or - for boat owners - underwater boat inspection. Given its claimed maximum operating depth of 75 - 150 feet (22 - 45 m) depending on the model, the Aquabotix Hydroview should cope with all these tasks even better than the likes of Neptune SB-1, which doesn't go deeper than 16 ft (5m), or the DIY ROVs suitable for dives of 10 - 33 feet (3 - 10 m).
The Aquabotix Hydroview connects via a cable to an above surface base station, which in turn connects with the control device via Wi-Fi. Controlling the vehicle is possible by using the video feed-based onscreen interface, as well as by using an accelerometer-equipped smartphone or tablet like a steering wheel. As well as capturing HD video, you can also snap still images and automatically upload them to social media sites and the unit is quite lightweight weighing in at 8 lbs (3.6 kg), with additional 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg) per each 50 feet of cable.

There are two versions of HydroView currently displayed on the Aquabotix website: the HydroView Sport and HydroView Pro. The former can reach speeds of up to 3 kts and travel to depths of 75 ft with a battery providing up to two hours of running time, while the Pro ups the maximum speed to 5 kts, increases the maximum diving depth to 150 ft (45m) and offers three hours of battery life. Also, the Pro version is equipped with 150 feet of cable, while the Sport comes with only 50 feet - though longer sets (up to 300 ft - 91 m) are optional. The charging time is eight hours for the Pro and 16 hours for the Sport model.
The Aquabotix Hydroview Sport is currently listed online priced at US$2,995, with free delivery for U.S. customers. We've been informed by Aquabotix that the Hydroview Sport will be back in stock somewhere by the end of December. There are no details regarding availability of the Pro version just yet.

Windows Phone 7 Caught in Mobile App Catch-22

Designers and start-up tech firms seem to agree on two things when it comes to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. First, it’s gorgeous and uniquely designed. Second, they won’t be building an app for it in the near future.

Why? Resources.

It’s a typical and understandable rule for most bootstrapped start-ups: build for the platform that your customers are on. Yet for Microsoft, this poses a Catch-22.

Start-ups can’t devote resources to building apps for Windows Phone 7 until more customers buy phones that run on the platform. But, customers will not flock to Windows Phone 7 until their favorite apps exist.

Leah Busque, founder and chief product officer at TaskRabbit, a San Francisco-based start-up that performs errands, said in an interview that building apps for Windows Phone 7 is not tied to how good Microsoft’s mobile operating system is, but rather a struggle of where to focus TaskRabbit’s scarce engineering resources.

“Over half of our users are on an iPhone, so we had to focus on that platform first, then Android is second,” she said. “I’m not ruling out a Windows 7 app, but we have to follow our user base and provide solutions that makes sense for them.”

According to a report issued last month by Nielsen, the market research firm, Google and Apple are both succeeding in the mobile smartphone race, and Windows Phone 7, although growing slowly in popularity, is still trailing far behind. Of Americans who own a smartphone, 71 percent own either an Android device or an iPhone. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 only accounts for 1.3 percent of the market.

Alex Rainert, head of product at Foursquare, seemed to offer the same sentiment as Ms. Busque. “It’s always going to be a question of resources and what people can spend their time on. As much as we might like the platform, we have to go where we have the users,” he said. ”For most start-ups, whatever you choose to work on, you are inevitably choosing not to work on something else.”

Mr. Rainert, who also blogs about user interface design, noted that Microsoft has built a beautifully designed and vastly different mobile platform. While the design is refreshing, that unique interface makes it difficult for developers.

“When we’re building for Android, the transfer cost from iPhone is lower because we can use about 60 percent of the design elements on both platforms,” Mr. Rainert said. Building for Windows Phone 7 is more labor intensive because designers have to conform to the Windows 7, he said. Foursquare does have a Windows app, but the company’s resources are primarily devoted to updating other platforms.

So what can Microsoft do to bridge this gap?

“Microsoft should continue meeting with developers, host MeetUps and publicly talk about how they are pushing the envelope in terms of what a user interface should be on a mobile phone,” explained Dave Morin, founder of Path, a mobile social network. “One of the things that Microsoft has is it is really flush with resources and capital. Comparatively, most start-ups are not.”

Mr. Morin said that he hopes to build a version of Path for Windows Phone 7 next year. “I think that Windows Phone 7 design is some of the most innovative user interface work that is being done right now,” Mr. Morin said. “We’re very interested in it as long as the user numbers continue to increase.”

Reviewed: Snapheal "magic" eraser app

Before and after: a close-up of Snapheal's goose erasure (Photo: Gizmag)

Snapheal, to be released on Wednesday, is a photo editing app for Mac which "can do magic," at least according to MacPhun, the app's developer. In addition to the usual tweaks and minor edits allowed by vanilla entry-level photo editing software, Snapheal allows you to erase whole objects - including large ones - from your photographs. Gizmag took an advance copy of Snapheal 1.0 for a spin. Could it be magic? Judge for yourself.

Before we get onto the erase features of the app, it's worth mentioning that Snapheal includes the basic suite of photo editing tools. With it you can crop and rotate photos, as well as adjust contrast, saturation, sharpness, exposure, and apply blur. Unlike, say, iPhoto, these latter adjustments can be selectively applied to particular elements by painting the effect freehand over the desired object. There are sliders to vary the extent of the edit, and these can be adjusted after the mask is painted.
Only one effect (selected in advance) can be applied to the active mask, and the moment another effect is chosen your previous edits are locked in, with only the undo button for recourse. Caution must be exercised when applying multiple retouches to a given area, as defects and artifacts can develop.
For everyday tweaks, Mac-wielding amateur photographers may do better with iPhoto which offers more flexibility in applying and removing after-effects, though the selective retouches of Snapheal might prove useful in certain cases to users who don't have more heavy-duty editing tools to hand.
No matter. Snapheal lives or dies by the success of its erase features which, Alexander Tsepko of MacPhun told Gizmag, took over six months to develop and patent. As with retouches, erasures must be painted onto the selected object. From there, one of three Eraser Modes can be applied: Wormhole, Shapeshift or Twister. Each has a different image processing algorithm at its core, and each is designed for different situations.
Wormhole, its icon suggests, copies surrounding pixels from all directions and is designed for erasing skin blemishes or small objects. Shapeshift is designed for the removal of larger objects and seems to borrow a large amount of visual data from one particular direction. Twister is the most mysterious of the three algorithms and is designed for sky, clouds or multiple small objects.
Do the erase algorithms work? We put Snapheal through a series of increasingly taxing tasks to find out.

Task 1: Cloud removal

Removing objects overlapping the sky is a feature shown in some of MacPhun's promotional and guide videos, and so we dug out a photo from the archives with a nice blue sky with some meandering cumulus clouds. Here, I wanted to remove the foreground clouds while retaining those in the distance. I tried all the deletion algorithms just to compare, and sure enough, as recommended, twister produced the best results, largely respecting and maintaining the gradated blues of the sky.
A guide video suggests that the best results can be achieved by applying the effect multiple times, but with a bit of experimenting I found the most pleasing effect was to erase the foreground clouds all at once by painting liberally over them, and then applying a few blur retouches with a nice broad brush to clean up the odd, slight imperfection here and there.
What becomes immediately obvious is that larger erasures take time. Being CPU-intensive, the removal of several clouds at once took several minutes, and was a much slower process than the promotional videos suggest, at least on an i5 MacBook Air. In recognition of this, MacPhun has thoughtfully included a series of "amazing facts" that appear on the progress bar as the app does its work. Judging by the length of time individual facts remain on screen, it appears promotional videos have sped up the image processing sections: understandable to keep the video snappy, but probably worth mentioning. Still, the results in this test were basically flawless.
Result: success

Task 2: Fly swatting

In this flower close-up I wanted to remove a small fly. That might sound straightforward enough, but this fly is a proportionately significant object and, given the lined detail of the flower petal behind it, I was worried I might be asking too much too soon of Snapheal. The promotional video features a series of deletions on fairly plain backgrounds, but the patterning on the flower petal is actually quite complex. This case presents one of the dilemmas a Snapheal user will face: should I zoom right in on the fly and paint over it in exacting detail, without going over the lines; or would I be better to just paint a big fat blob over its general location? In this case I found the latter approach worked best, but not until I'd tried the former.
Snapheal is often a case of trial and error, but if you respect your own time, it's often worth trying the simple solution first. Reasoning that in this case Wormhole (for small objects) would work best I tried it first, but both it and Shapeshift left darkened blurs on the petal and broke up the continuity of the lines. Perhaps it was the background complexity that leant itself to Twister, but the results, again, were nearly perfect.
Result: success

Task 3: Rocks and water

Here, the visual complexity of the ripples of the watery background were of potential concern, but on this test, Snapheal quickly erased a series of small rocks (we did them one at at time) quickly and painlessly. Although I expected Twister to be the pick of the bunch, a mixture of Wormhole and Shapeshift performed best to my eyes. Because the erasures were small and quick, taking seconds rather than minutes, it was painless to use the undo feature to compare algorithms then settle on a favorite.
Result: success

Task 4: Problem people

This photograph of people on the beach poses a number of challenges, not least of which are the reflections in wet sand and the multiple background layers behind the three figures paddling in the sea. Simple Shapeshift deletions here left linear defects in the images, but as MacPhun's promotional videos point out, results can often be enhanced with a touch-up using the Clone & Stamp tool, which lets you "paint" a selected part of the image over another. Think of it as a way of effectively wallpapering over the cracks. It works, albeit unpredictably, and in this case corrects any obvious defects that appeared following the deletion of the four figures. I touched up this image in just a few minutes and the results are good, if not perfect. With more time or skill, you might do better.
Result: success, but time might be an issue for non-expert perfectionists

Task 5: One goose too many

Originally I intended to erase one or two unsightly pieces of litter, but temptation got the better of me and one of the geese had to go. It's probably fair to say that Snapheal isn't designed to erase the entire foreground subject of a photograph, but the results were surprising. Again, Shapeshift did the business, though this time I was careful to paint precisely over the goose (there's something I never thought I'd say). On first attempt, a large defect was visible where the goose's head and neck had been, as some water had been borrowed from the lower half of the photo. In this case, rather than laboriously Clone & Stamp foliage over the defect, it proved simpler and more effective to perform another Shapeshift erasure over the affected area.
Full-screen, I fancy that a plump goose-like outline can be made out, but you'd need to be looking for it and looking hard. I daresay the outline could be smoothed away with a bit of work, but it's instructive to see just how effective bold deletions from busy backgrounds can be without additional touch-up.
Result: success, though Snapheal took over ten minutes to process the first deletion

Task 6: Asking the improbable

Here, a photo of a waterfall in a garden posed an opportunity to really give Snapheal a workout. The foreground flowers overlap a waterfall, and a visually complex, sharp detail of flowers and their bladed leaves in the background. In this case, I took time to carefully mask the foreground flowers before removing with Shapeshift. The results over the waterfall itself are, again, very good, though as expected there are issues where the foreground flowers overlapped those in the background. There are flowers suspended stemlessly in front of the tree and a linear array of repeated flower heads that can only be the work of a machine. Touching up this area was beyond my skill, my efforts only making matters worse. Even so, the results are possibly good enough for casual use, particularly on smaller screens (for Instagram, say).
I have a hunch better results could have been obtained by treating the waterfall portion of the image separately from the top, and by trying different algorithms on smaller areas, but you wonder how much time you might end up investing and for what gain. It's impossible to say that Snapheal cannot do better, but here we found the limits of someone with my patience and skill.
Result: still impressive, but pushing it

Summing up

Snapheal's erasing algorithms worked surprisingly well and the majority of edits proved quick and easy. Heavier deletions require time, both for the user inputs required and the processing time involved and for reasonable everyday use, the software does hit upon limitations. I can see Snapheal fitting nicely into a budding amateur photographer's app collection. Long-term, it has the potential to become a basic one-stop editing suite with a magic power or two up its sleeve.
As it is, Snapheal strikes me as a one trick pony, but it really is a neat trick, and one that compulsive photo editors may find worth the asking price of US$19.99. It's more an app for those with an artistic bent rather than documentary photographers, but for those prepared to invest a few clock cycles in more ambitious edits, it's worth the money.
Snapheal is currently available from the iTunes App Store for the launch price of US$9.99. MacPhun says an iOS version is also planned for the not-too-distant future.