Después de luchar con Movistar (ver artículo anterior IPhone4 with “no data” issue) por los repetidos problemas de la red de datos “No cellular data network found” y otros como “Safari is not connected to internet” (“No se encontró una red de datos celular” o “Safari no está conectado a internet”) finalmente encontré una solución, y vino de la mano de Apple. Claro que no la hubiera encontrado si no hubiera usado previamente otra opción extra-oficial que hacía lo mismo, pero aparentemente Apple vió el problema ocurriendo incluso usando el operador “oficial”.

En Argentina, la configuración para Movistar (Movistar-ar) provista en el iPhone de fábrica, lo que le llaman el “bundle” (Movistar-ar.bundle) trae la configuración correcta, pero por razones extrañas el IPhone no la toma si no se ponen a mano, como si el “bundle” o el operador no existieran.

La solución, no es tan fácil para alguien que sólo quiere soluciones. Hay que instalar un programa en Mac o Windows, crear una nueva configuración, poner los datos de APN provistos por Movistar (me dieron datos distintos en distintas ocasiones), enviar el archivo por email a una cuenta activa en el iPhone4 en cuestión, abrir el attachment… (more…)

I unlocked my iPhone 4 with jailbreakme.com, and it was the fastest unlocking ever. Less than 5 minutes.
After buying a smartphone plan at Movistar, Argentina and fighting the whole week to get it to work, I found out the “carrier update” was good to install, and did something I forgot to do with this phone before, that AT&T and Apple recommends for a similar issue: turning on/off the phone, waiting a few minutes, airplane mode, 3G and cellular data on/off each, resetting network settings…
That got rid of the “no data plan…” message, and the processing wheel started to spin, no internet connection though.

Argentinian customer service reps never saw an iPhone at that service center. The guy who sold me the plan seemed to register the unit with a “Blackberry” code, not iPhone, but they concluded it should work fine anyway, even clearer when they put the SIM in one of their phones (I don’t know what brand) and it got data and the expected SMS configuration messages

After doing all I found in internet by Sept 02 2010 for a whole week, I was about to return the plan to Movistar (Argentina).

I put the SIM in an iPhone 3G, which Movistar sells down here in Argentina (I had to re-build the SIM with extra card material) to test whether my data plan or my iPhone4 were wrong as a last resource.

When I put the SIM back into my iPhone4 to call Movistar to tell them they can put the data plan in their… it suddenly started to work.

Either the SIM told the carrier “yes, here’s a known device” when put in the iPhone3G or the scotch tape I used to cover the CHIP edges (the trimmed down SIM’s chip is bigger and may get in contact with the tray’s frame) fixed the issue.

I hope that helps.

This is the evolution of my previous Photoshop Action for skin retouching. It’s a Photoshop Filter now. Actually, it’s a Filter Forge filter, and you need that app to make it run. It’s being developed as a PS Filter as I write this post, but I couldn’t resist to (more…)

UPDATE:

There’s a photoshop filter to do this in one control panel.

I’ll write about this later. For now, the samples speak for themselves. Below the Action file to download and run.

From first to last, the following samples were made using the action-only to action-plus-manual-retouching.

Later:

Wouldn’t you like to get Photoshop understand orders like “smoot the freckles out, and then re-apply the pores” or “smooth out the dimples but keep the fine wrinkles only” and then getting a Professional Photo Retoucher to guide you through all necessary steps to clean-up  your photo without clicking thousands of times with the stamp tool? – Some wouldn’t, though. I’ve seen tutorials from some photographers showing a cloning-stamp-a-ton video in high speed as an heroic resistance challenge, just to accomplish what you do with this action.

This action, uses a technique similar to the one used by “sharpen mask” filter, to detect detail under a certain ratio, and keeps it in a separate layer, while you smooth out the rest. It’s based in my “perfect skin” action, but adds the needed steps and instructions for you to get it done faster.

Once you finish the automated part, you can go ahead and practice a little with the Dodge and Burn tools, to lighten dark sides and darken light ones of bumps.

Let me know if it doesn’t adhere to your workflow for skin-care and I’ll do my best to help it better.

Click the images to see them in full size. (more…)

What if I told you that this image is the “after” of a skin retouching work? (Let’s leave blemishes for another article)

One of the most difficult effects for amateur retouchers is certainly keeping the pores in dramatic skin retouching works, and the skills on Photoshop needed to figure it out say how pro you are. Well, Today you’ll become a PRO, once you master the process, because I’m bringing you a free tool to do it in seconds, as an Action, ready to download and run.
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Web 2.0 style is taking over the new standards for web development, and complex buttons are difficult to create. When the button has reflections, refraction, shadows, glow, lighting… composing new shapes and rollover states is very time comsuming.

How to streamline the process

The big “how” here is “downloading the native files linked below”.

Fortunately Adobe Illustartor can handle multiple fills and outlines with their mutiple effects for each on them, all for the same path. So you’ve just got to move one node, one path, to change all the fills, all the effects, at the same time.

That, combined with multiple path effects (exclusion, subtraction, etc.) that allow new effects applied on top and so on… makes possible the Siamese button.

Here’s a video that shows you how easy is to change the button’s shape, with one single stroke (I used nudges at first, so you can see it with antialiased rendering. Ai doesn’t refresh the preview while dragging a curve, until it’s released)

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Left: Original image enlarged 300% to show pixels.
Right: Compressed image with the lowest quality, enlarged 300% too.

Many of you who use Photoshop may know more or less how JPG works, and some of you might have a deep knowledge about the algorithm that makes our photos look bad or allows them to be quickly loaded in browsers. This post is for those who know bigger is better, but don’t know why an image gets heavier or lighter.
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