The big question for photographers is this device usable for day to day work? The potential is there. One thing that it has that makes it very photographer friendly is something called the iPad camera connection kit. It provides a way to transfer you photos via a sd card reader or a direct USB connection to your camera. By inference you should also be able to attach a USB CF card reader because it supports the sd card reader. It may also support a mass storage device like an external HD that would also help out to expand the 16gb to 64gb internal solid state storage.

Since the iPad will support all current iPhone apps, like Photo Gene, you already have basic image editors that will work. The real question is if and when will the major software developers will create iPad-specific software for photographers that will be full-featured like the ones for the PC and the Mac. I think in the next couple of months developers will be re-written their code from the iPhone and scaling it up for the iPad. Hopefully Adobe will create a Lightroom type app for it or maybe there will be a Photo Mechanic version of it.

One of the biggest hurdles will be the lack of multi-tasking on the iPad. That means that you won't be able to caption, edit and transmit your photos with different apps running. But if there is an app created that combines all three tasks within it, like Lightroom or Photo Mechanic, you are all set.

The key to the iPad becoming a valuable piece of equipment for photographers is the iPad new chip. The new 1ghz Apple A4 processor can decode HD video, which on paper should be adequate for image editing. My Asus netbook can't decode HD flash video and I can run Photoshop and Photo Mechanic. If Apple's new chip can handle photo apps, it will be a hit with photographers.

The iPad's LED back-lit display should be much better than any netbook currently for sale. The purported 10 hour battery life will help out on location shoots where there is no power and those overseas flights. Photographers will benefit from the iPad's new iWork keynote software for client presentations. You can even attach it to a projector.

The built in 3G capability is also a great feature if you plan to use it to send photos. No contract unlimited $30/month is great. If you travel internationally, you will be able to purchase local micro SIM cards for data connectivity. Something that most laptops don't have.

Here are some potential killer photo apps that could be written for the iPad:

First would be a live-view app that could tether to your camera where photos can be shown to a client as you shoot them. That app could support other remote functions like checking focus, changing exposures and doing time-lapse photographer. Connectivity could be either via wi-fi or USB cable.

If Eye-Fi could re-write their app so that it could create an ad-hoc network with the iPad, then you could have live wi-fi transfer of photos from camera to the tablet.

How about iPhoto for the iPod? If facial recognition can work, then in theory it could auto caption photos from a know database of faces.

The iPad has GPS only in the 3g models. Geo-tagging software will be taking advantage of that.

It's ironic that the iPad has a camera connection kit but no actual camera. Version 2.0 gets it. Or how about a mini-scanner? Something that you can convert analog reciepts and other images to digital. It needs some kind of input device for images like the iPhone.

Will the iPad save photography in general. Time will tell, but photographers will have a better display device that will show off their work in e-publications like the new New York Times, e-magazines and books.

Ashton Kutcher brought his over 4 million Twitter followers along for the ride via his cell phone. If you are not one of us minions, you can be reminded that you can join his Twitter bandwagon as his phone has a rather large @aplusk logo on it. Kutcher streamed live video of Jessica Alba, as Alba tweeted.

Chevy Chase brought out some $20 bills. When asked why he was flashing the cash, he said he wanted to get his picture in the magazines. George Lopez went one better by giving out a Benjamin to a lucky photographer.

Demi Lovato and Lea Michelle entered a contest to see who could blow kisses to the photographers better.

The cast of "Make it or Break it" tried to top Lovato and Michelle. Twilight's Kellan Lutz looked as he was catching all the kisses.

Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift vied for title the Queen of Country Music.

George Lopez decided that Sandra Bullock was his Queen.

The cast of "The Big Bang Theory" couldn't decide to either kiss their award or point at it.

Here are some of my favorites that I use whenever I take photos with my iPhone 3GS's 3 mega-pixel camera.

Photogene- This is the Photoshop of iPhone apps. Adobe has a free app called PS Mobile, but it very limited. Photogene has a wide assortment of tools like exposure compensation, color correction, cropping, sharpening and blurring filters, levels, 16 different picture frames, rotation, image flipping, undos and redos, re-sizing and photo sharing to Twitter and Facebook. If you are going to pay for just one photo app, this is the one. Currently $2.99, but well worth it.

AutoStitch- The app if your are interested in making panoramic photos. Just take a bunch of photos making sure you overlap them and you can combine them in AutoStitch. The app is fast and after you are done it has a crop tool to straighten the jaggy edges. If you don't do a good job of overlapping the photos, the stitching could have some ghosting and errors. Currently $1.99.

Pano- My other choice for panoramas is Pano. The difference between it and AutoStitch is that it has a virtual guide that helps you line up your panoramic. It superimposes part of the last photo you took and you use it to line up your next one. Because it is more precise, your panoramics have a higher success rate. If you are a hard-core pano fan, you will be buy both. Pano is on sale now for $1.99.

CameraBag- For easy and fast retro looking photos use CameraBag. The Helga filter replicates using a Holga or Diana toy camera by vignetting, cropping your photo into a square and boosting contrast and saturation. Other arty photo effects include cross-processing, using a Lomo camera, a Polaroid picture, a few black and white looks, infrared, old color and fish-eye. I like this app better than Chase Jarvis' Best Camera app because it is dead simple to use. $1.99.

TiltShift - The big problem with cameras with tiny sensors is that every photo has everything in focus from front to back. Pro cameras with big sensors look "film-like" because of the selective focus and shallow depth of field you can achieve with the right lens. What TiltShift does is one thing, makes part of your image blurry with a selective filter. The resulting photo has a look that can emphasize your subject by blurring out either the background or foreground. The app is called TiltShift because of it can used like a speciality Tilt-Shift lens that changes your plane of focus on your photo by moving the front and back elements. Other real world examples are usually made from a Lens Baby or a view camera. A popular trick is to shoot a landscape from a high angle looking down and making the scenary look like toy-like. Currently $.99.

iTimeLapse Pro- This could be construed as a video app. iTimelapse Pro takes still images at a rate and length you determine and combines them into a time-lapse video. If you have a tripod for your iPhone and love time lapse, this could be for you. You can make single frame animations using this technique too. It is $2.99.

If you have several apps, you can save you photo in one app and open it up in another to make further changes. The combinations of two different apps can make for even more granular control of your photos.

Martin Kampmann, left, celebrates, Cole Miller comforts Dan Lauzon after defeating him.Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva battle during the main event.Rashad Evans, left, and Dustin Hazelett pray before their bouts.Sam Stout, right, rocks Joe Lauzon in the Fight of the Night.Junior dos Santos, left, trades punches with Gilbert Yvel.Cole Miller, right, catches Dan Lauzon in an up kick.Jim Miller, left, submits Duane Ludwig.Jim Miller celebrates his submission over Duane Ludwig.

Jon Jones after choking out Jake O'Brien

UFC 100 was a huge milestone for mixed-martial arts and it is now covered like a mainstream sporting event. Over 200 media credentials were given out. There was a two day fan expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. UFC 100 was one of the toughest tickets to get as it sold out on pre-sale.

There were some ups and downs for the UFC. The revenues from the event from pay per view and the arena gate were huge but there were some controversey regarding the main event as the winner Brock Lesnar acted more in line with his former employer, the WWE, than what the organization was trying to promote. Not a good idea for Lesnar to flip the bird to the fans and trash the lead sponsor of the event, Bud Light. In another bout, Dan Henderson knocked out his opponent, Michael Bisping, but adding another punch to the unconcious fighter on the mat may have been overboard especially when he told fans afterwards that it "was to shut him up".

Los Angeles Time columnist TJ Simers had a scathing column on UFC 100. His main point was how he thought MMA fans were blood thirsty and loved violence. One of his comparsions was with the basketball. I wondered why he didn't compare it with football, where a few athletes die or get paralyzed every year, or boxing, which has a long history of maimed participants. How about when a pitcher in baseball throws at a hitter? MMA so far has a good record for stopping fights before serious injury has resulted.

I shot some bloody photos. Cuts from the head tend to bleed much more than other parts of the body. The actual damage to the fighter is minimal. Although it does further the stereotype of MMA as human cockfighting.

Mac Danzig suffers a nasty cut from an elbow from Jim MillerBrock Lesnar dominates Frank MirDan Henderson knocks out Michael BispingDan Henderson adds an extra blow to Michael Bisping

Dan Henderson celebrates by climbing the Ocatagon after defeating Michael Bisping

Armed with only an LED video light and a Canon 5D with a 16-35mm lens, I embarked on an impromptu portrait session at the UFC 100 Fan Expo.

A lot of photographers are looking into netbooks as an affordable laptop that is small and light that hopefully can do the job of editing, capitioning and sending their photos.

My main laptop is a 15 inch MacBook Pro with an Intel chip running at 2.4 ghz with 4 GB of ram. I needed a small laptop for a trip overseas that would serve as a back-up, have long battery life and could run a java based application called Shootlive that allows for remote editing.

Initally I was going to buy a MSI Wind because it could be hacked to run Mac OSX. I didn't have time to order one online, so it was off to the local Best Buy. They didn't have the MSI Wind in stock and an Asus EEE PC 1000-HEB was in stock. The unit advertised extra-long battery life so I purchased it and hoped this would be a good choice to play movies on the long plane trip to France.

For $349 USD, plus local tax, I got a laptop running Windows XP SP 3 with a 10 inch screen, 1GB of ram, an almost full-size keyboard and an array of inputs including 3 USBs, mic and headphone jacks, SD card reader, ethernet jack, video out and a Kensington type lock hole. Also included are a video web cam and microphone perfect for Skpe. This model has a 160 GB hard drive, which is a important if you are doing any kind of photo-editing and need storage for an iTunes library of videos and podcasts to take on your long journey.

I loaded up the computer with some Windows software which I had laying around that I purchased for my 7-year old Dell Laptop. I couldn't find my copy of Photoshop so I installed Lightroom 2.3, an updated version of PhotoMechanic along with the usual Firefox web-browser and internet apps. A lot of photo-related applications are not designed to run on the Asus' 1024x600 screen resolution, but they give you a hack by letting you set the screen to 1024x768 which provides you with a virtual scroll, sans scroll bars.

On the flight to Boston, I lauched iTunes and start watching a movie. Everything was fine until suddenly the computer crashed. I tried re-booting it, but the BIOS couldn't find the boot drive. I thought the 3-day old drive was dead,but later I figured out that it couldn't operate at altitude. By contrast my MacBook Pro worked fine on the airplane. This problem with the hard drive is a good reason to get a solid-state drive when they get down to reasonable prices.

I finally made it to France to cover the Cannes Film Festival and set up my little netbook for the sole purpose to run ShootLive and transmit the photos over the local Orange 3G network. Everything worked to perfection. I would use the netbook to download memory cards with photos and an editor would look at the selection and have the netbook transfer the cropped and toned images back to New York for distribution only minutes after I shot them.

Later I would use my Apple MBP for a second edit to send the rest of my photos. During the second week of covering the film festival, my MBP's video died on me. I had to rely on my netbook for all my editing. This proved to be a true test of whether a netbook could handle editing of many photos on deadline. The biggest problem was the screen, it was way too small for Lightroom and even with all the panels closed, my editing still suffered in efficiency. I sent half as many photos as normal and it took twice as long. The other slow down was the actually processor speed. What would take just a second to do on my MBP would take 10 seconds on the Asus.

Back home I decided to see if I could make the netbook more photo-friendly. The first thing I did was order more ram. A 2GB stick from Amazon.com is only about $30 bucks with shipping and handling. It literally takes a mintue to put in. Just unscrew two small screws to the access panel and you can get to the ram and hard drive. I watched the youtube video beforehand, but I don't think it's necessary. It may be the easiest laptop in the world to change ram. One small thing they don't tell you is that after you install the ram, you have to re-start into the computer's BIOS to make sure it recognizes the 2GB. Otherwise you left scratching your head when your OS says you have only 1GB of ram.

The second thing I did was download Windows 7. The release candidate is free from Microsoft, and after hearing how it ran well on netbooks, I decided to give it a try. Netbooks don't have any optical drives, so an external DVD drive makes things easier for software installs. The other option is using a USB thumb drive.

Windows 7 installed easily and has some great features that are perfect for a netbook. It has a very Mac OSX like dock/system tray that could be put on the side of the screen, freeing up space on the bottom. I have the dock auto hide to give me even more screen real estate for applications. You do have to re-install the ASUS specific drivers after you install Windows 7 if you want to continue using some ASUS-specific hardware stuff. Installing Windows 7 made the screen resolution back to 1024x600 without the virtual mode. You can get back some screen real estate by setting the fonts smaller, I have very small windows bar now, and by putting the taskbar on the side.

I found my copy of Photoshop CS2 for Windows buried deep in my garage and even though they recommend 1024x768 screen, it installed fine and I could read any window. The same could be said about PhotoMechanic. The biggest window in PM, the IPTC stationary pad, barely fits on the screen and I can access all the fields and buttons.

The big question is with all the upgraded ram and the nifty operating system, how does the netbook perform with demanding applications like Photoshop? I think the biggest problem maybe the video card. I noticed some jitterness and dropped frames when trying to watch a movie via iTunes and even a flash movie via the new Hulu desktop applications. In PhotoMechanic, it took a long time to generate thumbnails of the images. The Atom 1.6 ghz processor is on the slow side compared to my MBP. I could open up 8 images from my Canon IdMK2N in Photoshop and it did a decent job with some actions. It just takes a lot longer trying to look at the previews in PM.

Another bottleneck in speed is the slow USB 2.0 ports in comparison to the faster Firewire 800/400 ports of the MBP. That makes downloading a big memory card a lot slower. On the positive side, Asus gives you 3 USB ports, where my MBP's has 2 and a Mac Book Air has only 1.

The netbooks' trackpad has some problems. The click buttons take a lot of effort and after a short time editing photos, my fingers hurt. This is one spot where they really skimp on netbooks. Think about adding a mouse to your computer bag. However, the power brick for the ASUS is very small, much smaller then any Apple brick.

Windows 7 does have a nice feature that Mac OSX doesn't have, the ability for the laptop to keep running and not go to sleep with the lid closed. It is an option in the control panel. So you can run applications like transmitting photos and close the lid and it keeps on working, it just turns off the screen. Which is great if you are working and shooting with the laptop beside you.

The top feature on the Asus netbook is battery life. My MBP battery life with a brand new battery is about 2 hours, 2.5 hours max. The Asus says you can have like 8 hour battery life, but in the real world with everything turned on to the max, it falls to about 4 hours, which is great when you can't plug-in but you still have to transmit photos from a long event. With the original ASUS hybrid engine control panel set to conserve energy, you could probably get 6+ hours of life.

I found out after I purchased the ASUS that Best Buy sells, the model 1000HEB, which is different than the 1000HE sold through Amazon.com. The HEB model doesn't have bluetooth, has the older Atom N270 instead of the newer Atom N280 chip, and has the B/G wifi and not the newer N. I was wondering why their price was cheaper. Everything else is the same. I think the only real difference is the battery life, they claim 9 hours on the newer book, probably because the N280 runs more efficently. The difference in processor speed is negligable, 1.6 mghz to 1.66 mghz.

If you are a photographer whose priority in a laptop is ultra-portablitiy and long battery life, the ASUS and similar netbooks could be a perfect fit. It's small screen size and slower processor is going to slow you down, but it's great for smaller editing jobs, web-browsing, email and some word processing chores.