AppCraver » Photography

iAm: Explore the Great I Am Through Quotes and Photos

Barbara Holbrook — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:15:02 +0000

iAm is an inspirational app designed to provide users with a guide for spiritual meditation and contemplation. The app uses stunning photography and more than 200 quotes from recognized authorities around the globe.

Artist Dan Baumbach shares his collection of nature photography and it is the primary reason to buy this app. The photos emote a stillness that can quiet a restless soul and nudge users toward serenity. The images really are lovely, so much so that I was surprised to find that they all came from the same artist. It’s amazing that so much beauty can come from one person.

The quotes are meant to go hand-in-hand with the photos as prompts for thoughtful meditation. From great minds and books such as Lao Tzu, Jesus, Buddha, Kahil Gilbran, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Saint Teresa of Avila, Voltaire, The Upanishads, and Aritstotle — nearly 60 authors in total.

A pop-up bar has icons for finding out more information about the authors. What I liked about this feature is that iAm goes beyond wikipedia to present “the best” resource available for each author. Some links go to wikipedia, but others link to specialized sources that present a richer learning experience.

It’s very interesting to learn more about the various schools of thought represented in iAm.

The pop-up bar is also used to scroll through quotes. Unfortunately, this part of iAm is a bit clunky. There is no clear indication of where or how to tap to bring up the toolbar, so I found it often took 3-4 tries to display the tools. It would be much easier to just swipe to the next quote or even shake to display the next page. (Though I think “shaking” is on the verge of becoming an overused parlor trick.)

The other problem I have with iAm is that while the photos are gorgeous, the rest of the design and layout is just ho-hum. There’s no correlation between the images and the rest of the app. A better font choice (something with a serif) and color-coordinated background colors would add some much-needed polish. Also, I’d like to see more of the images. The ability to zoom in on the photos, or at least make them full screen, would go a long way towards helping me find inner peace.

If, while browsing, you find a photo that brings you a step closer to peace and happiness, iAm makes it easy to spread the love. Any photo/quote combination can be emailed to a friend. It would be nice if there was a way to save a record of emailed pages or mark some as favorites.

Between layout and feature set, iAm definitely has “first-generation” feel. However, if you like photography, this app is worth a download just for the pictures. And, if it gets enough downloads, maybe the developer will polish up the rough edges in a future update.

rating: 6/10
app_name: iAm

PhotoShoot: Maim Your Photos in Marvelous Ways

Barbara Holbrook — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:47:44 +0000

PhotoShoot — Back in the day I used to watch Murphy Brown and was fascinated by her dart board of ever-changing political references. If you’ve ever wanted one of your own, well as the saying goes, there’s an app for that.

PhotoShoot, the new app from 3 Frog Studios, is a customizable dart board that lets you choose a photo (aka: target) and dart-style to suit your needs. Whether you need a release for pent-up frustration or you’re just looking for a quick jug-head chuckle, PhotoShoot is a pretty cheap way to fill the need — and it won’t result in a ticket for vandalism.

Darts is the default, but users can actually choose 11 different projectiles including eggs, tomatoes and spitwads for foes or snowballs, pies and kisses for friends. Did we mention that PhotoShoot can be used for friendly fire? Just load up a picture of your special friend and throw a barrage of kisses and cupids.

Once you’ve covered the target with any combination of shootable objects, there is only one thing left to do. Make sure they see your creation. PhotoShoot can email a photo of your “dart board” or save a copy to your photo library so you can treasure it always or make it your new iPhone wallpaper.

Yes, PhotoShoot is another in a long line of apps that lets users do damage to otherwise perfectly normal photos. Whether you’re adding photo frames or some other cartoon effects, these types of apps remain a popular staple of the App Store. And PhotoShoot is a fine addition to the genre. The only thing we’d like to see is an option to upload automatically to Facebook or Twitter. Now that would be a great way to use social media.

app_name: PhotoShoot
rating: 8/10

iCaption Mobile Harnesses the Power (and Pain) of Community

Barbara Holbrook — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:50:17 +0000

iCaption Mobile (Witty Captions and Ratings) is an iphone application for all you Dane Cook fans out there — meaning I don’t think it is remotely funny or even tolerable but I guarantee some of you out there will.

With that tender opening aside lets get to the meat of this slap stick application. The concept behind this wunderkind (it is still in its early stages after all) is that a community of assholes can be entertaining — if only to each other. iCaption Mobile executes this thesis by allowing registered users to upload photos of funny/disturbing situations and then allow the community to add comments and rate the photo with a quick and easy thumbs up or down.

From a technical standpoint iCaption Mobile is smooth, aesthetically pleasing and relatively complex. You can create your own profile, sort through stupid pictures by category and shift through random photos of people being kicked in the groin — not bad considering it’s a free app.

iCaption Mobile does something unusual that merits a mention. The doesn’t “force” you to join the community. If you prefer not to hand over your name and email you can still browse the photos profile free, albeit without the ability to add captions or ratings. It’s a small thing, but it’s an option I wish more apps offered — the ability to test the waters before taking the time to set up yet another profile.

Unfortunately, like many of its peers this type of app is predicated on its ability to galvanize a real community around it. And, with so many social apps tugging for attention, it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.

iCaption Mobile comes with a NC-17 rating — pretty standard for an unmonitored community where users are free to take turns trying to outgross the previous commentator. Even seemingly innocent pictures were inevitably captioned with lewd remarks. It’s not “The Aristocrats,” but don’t enter if you’re shocked by blue humor.

A broader user base might just take iCaption Mobile up a few notches. I Can Has Cheeseburger is another community-oriented photo app (and website) that doesn’t suffer nearly has much from the jerk factor. Instead of focusing on a closed community, the developers should look at ways to make iCaption a feature app rather than a stand alone community app — there may be better ways to utilize other social graphs (i.e. Facebook and its 300 million users).

Until then, I welcome iCaption to ranks of the Appcraver 6 — the parental equivalent of telling your kid that you are disappointed but you know that they have so much potential.

app_name: iCaption Mobile
rating: 6/10

Hulala iPix is a Girly Way to Dress up Your Pics

Barbara Holbrook — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:11 +0000

Hulala iPix — pronounced like a tropical version of oo-la-la — is another image decorating app that invites users to “bling up” their photos and share them with friends via Facebook or email.

The hook here is that within the generally expected images of stars, swirls and fanciful frames, there is also a large selection tropical add-ons. There are monkeys and tiki gods, hula skirts and plumeria flowers, palm tree frames and butterflies. Shake up your everyday photos and let the hukilau begin.

Hulala iPix works pretty much like other iPhone apps in this category. Use a photo from your library or take a new one, then get to work dragging and dropping the cute icons — be sure to stop just short of cute overload. You can rotate and resize the icons using slide controls.

Hulala has a few interactive features to try and stand out from the pack. Every frame has a different sound associated with it. As you work your way through the frame previews, the sounds range from howling monkeys and cows to disco tech and raindrops! Tweens will love this. Twenty-somethings trying to decorate a photo on the down-low, not so much. Unfortunately, the only way to turn the sounds off is to adjust the volume on your device.

The text features for Hulala are easy to use and allow for customizing font and color. There’s no way to curve or warp the text though, so I prefer the pre-designed phrases such as Rock Star, Cool and BFF. There are 15 phrases in all.

Once you’ve completed your masterpiece tap the pink shell in the lower right corner. From the next screen you can save an image to your photo library, share it on Facebook or email it to a friend. The email can access your address book — just start typing and suggested contacts will appear — but there is no way to customize the subject line or text for your email.

Overall Hulala iPix is the type of photo fun that will be enjoyed by girlie-girls and BFFs. The app could still be improved with things like customizing the email or adding a send to twitter option, but the target market for Hulala won’t miss these features. If you have a young girl or a fondness (like me) for all things tropical, then Hulala iPix deserves a space on your iPhone. You may not use it often, but you’ll enjoy it every time you do.

app_name: Hulala iPix
rating: 7/10

Here Say Desperately Needs Some Early Adopters

James Johnson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:44:06 +0000

Here Say is a self-proclaimed “augmented reality” app whose goal is to build a community around the act of posting pictures. The developer freely admits the app is still in Beta, but read his description in the App Store and it’s obvious Design-PT has big goals.

The basic premise behind Here Say is this – you are at a place, say a concert, and you take a picture of the stage through the Here Say iPhone app. You post the picture to the community and attach a comment to it.

In theory, other people will pull out their iPhone (with Here Say installed) and use the built in geo-location feature to find nearby posts and add comments to them. Conceptually it is a noble idea and in terms of the actual application, it is clean, well designed and works.

Unfortunately at this point, Here Say suffers from the same feasibility problems as any other fresh-from-the-oven social media app. The fact of the matter is that any geo-location app built around the act of posting pictures is 100% reliant on its ability to create a vibrant community and Here Say, in its current iteration, does not have the gusto.

That being said, if I were the developer, I would immediately integrate Facebook Connect and the ability to tag people in posts (viral marketing steroids). Next, I would work on a better “augmented reality” interface – the current one is simply a picture with the comment on top.

Then I would start to market the hell out of this badboy to yuppies in urban areas, pray to the gods that Facebook does not add geo-location anytime soon and in no time this Appcraver 6 could be a 9.

app_name: Here Say
rating: 6/10

4Bugs is a Gorgeous Photo Hunt for Experienced Players

Barbara Holbrook — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:00:22 +0000

Photo hunts are one of those “no instructions necessary” kind of games that can be played alone or with friends. As such, they’re hugely popular both online and off. If you’re familiar with any of the variety of PC games or touchscreen bar games, then you’ll know what just what to do when you pick up 4 Bugs from Root9 Medialab.

Although it’s wrapped in a cutesy bug theme, 4 Bugs is mostly a photo hunt game like any other. The player (that’s you) is presented with a pair of photos and must find the differences between the two — a different shadow, an extra petal on a flower. Find all four anomalies and with a tap of the finger, you win.

If only real life was so simple. 4 Bugs is the hardest photo hunt game I’ve played. Out of the 20 or so pictures I tried, I found all the differences in less than half the photos. Now, to be fair 4 Bugs includes 500 images, so it’s possible there are a few easier ones hiding among the pack.

Seasoned photo hunt players will probably enjoy the challenge, however it would be nice if the app included a difficulty setting for the rest of us. Prior to playing you can discard a photo if it looks too hard, but you are limited to 3 discards and it’s difficult to tell whether how hard an image will actually be to solve until you are faced with the pair side by side.

4 Bugs includes a two-player mode so you can compete against a friend by passing your device back and forth. The app lets you input your names and features some cute animated characters that express excitement and defeat between rounds. You don’t have the option to skip an image when using two-player mode, what you see is what you get. The game will calculate your score based on how quickly you solve the puzzle.

Players with the skills to complete the game will appreciate this deluxe photo hunt. And, if you’re so good that even 4 Bugs becomes easy? Well, you can show off and play against the clock by decreasing the timer.

app_name: 4 Bugs
rating: 7/10

iFlashReady Helps Correct Pictures in Low Lighting

Jennifer Beam — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:00:41 +0000

As far as photography apps go, iFlashReady is pretty basic. It is designed to help enhance pictures taken without the aid of a flash, such as those taken with the iPhone camera. At first, I thought iFlashReady worked in conjunction with the iPhone camera simultaneously, but after checking it out learned it is mostly a photo editing app that changes an existing image by lightening it up.

When you launch iFlashReady you have instant access to photos saved on your iPhone or touch. You simply select a photo and then choose a flash setting to apply and save the enhanced image back to your device.

I was skeptical at first, but discovered I was able to use iFlashReady to significantly lighten and brighten a picture I took outdoors at dusk. I suspect it may work better with outdoor pictures, but I also observed some improvements to indoor photos as well. The overall effect was to brighten the photo without losing contrast or washing out the image. In some cases, it made an altogether bad picture decent enough to keep.

iFlashReady seems to adequately adjust a photo’s lighting to reduce shadows and enhance focused parts with lighter reflection. I can’t say I observed anything spectacular when using it, but at the least iFlashReady improved the overall quality of some pictures I took with my iPhone in less than adequate lighting.

One thing I did find bothersome with iFlashReady was the frequency at which it became disabled when saving flash enhanced pictures. It crashed on me about 30 percent of the time. Hard reset is supposed to correct this problem, but I still experience it. The bigger problem is that when this happens, you have to start all over with selecting a photo, selecting a flash level, and then try saving again. The process doesn’t take a terribly long time, but is still frustrating.

Providing you can get the picture to save, iFlashReady definitely helps improve images taken with the iPhone camera in low lighting. It’s not a song and dance I would bother with or rely on if I were planning on taking good pictures, but to quickly enhance the photos I take on the fly with my iPhone I can see where iFlashReady has its uses.

app_name: iFlashReady
rating: 7/10

Nabbed Makes Fun Photo Captions

Amelia Sauter — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:24 +0000

Using hundreds of letters cut from magazines, Nabbed from More Blu Sky is a creative way to add captions to your photos.

I am not sure how Nabbed chose its app name, but perhaps it is because the letters look like a ransom note when they are used to make words to add to your photos. With Nabbed, you can use a picture currently in your iPhone library, or take a new one. You can rearrange the words once you have typed them so you can choose their placement aesthetically.

Nabbed is cool to use as is, but it needs some tweaking. Nabbed cannot view photos in landscape (horizontal) position. When you save an altered photo with Nabbed, the image is saved in portrait (vertical) format, which leaves awkward white borders on all pictures that were originally landscape-style.

I would also appreciate it if Nabbed included the ability to re-size letters and angle words. You can shake the phone to get different styles of letters, but you cannot individually change the letter sizes. To make a word appear to be at an angle, you have to type the individual letters with spaces between them as if each letter was a word, and then line up the letters on an angle.

Another critical missing feature from Nabbed is punctuation marks and numbers. If More Blu Sky took the time to cut out 260 letters from magazines, why stop there? Grab those scissors! Without question marks, exclamation points and numbers, it feels like Nabbed was released prematurely.

Used creatively, Nabbed can be an art form unto itself. The concept behind Nabbed is good. With an update that includes the suggestions above, Nabbed will be great.

rating: 7/10
app_name: Nabbed

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane With ShakeItPhoto

Jennifer Beam — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:30:33 +0000

ShakeItPhoto by Nick Campbell is a pretty simple app that works just like the iPhone camera app, but simulates a Polaroid camera.

Perhaps you’re old enough to remember whipping out the clunky Polaroid camera for snapping instant photos and then delicately holding the film by the corner and shaking the crap out of it so it would develop faster. If not, you really missed out on a priceless point in photography history. But fear not. ShakeItPhoto lets you relive the Polaroid experience – kind of.

ShakeItPhoto launches in similar fashion to the iPhone camera app. When the shutter opens and you focus on your picture, simply tap the camera icon. You will be prompted to use the picture or retake it. Once you have selected a photo to use, ShakeItPhoto launches into an instant film simulator complete with gradual developing before your eyes. You can “shake” your photo by shaking your iPhone and it “develops” the image a bit faster.

There is nothing about ShakeItPhoto that your regular iPhone camera can’t do, except for simulate the Polaroid experience. It does provide sound effects that are a good rendition of that “whirring” sound common to instant cameras and the final photo is framed in that familiar white edge. The only thing that could have made ShakeItPhoto better would be the option to label the pictures with a felt tip marker across the bottom just like you did in the good old days.

ShakeItPhoto automatically saves “developed” photos to your photo library with no need to tap any additional buttons. It’s just there. Granted, you don’t get any special photo features within the app, such as adjusting the picture in frame or sending and sharing, but it does make taking pictures with your iPhone kind of fun in a bizarrely nostalgic sort of way.

ShakeItPhoto, not to be confused with the similar iPhone app ShakeIt, is available in the app store for $0.99.

app_name: ShakeItPhoto
rating: 7/10

Baby Maker! Creates Comical Kids

Amelia Sauter — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:30:17 +0000

I do not have any children, but I have wondered on occasion what my kids would look like if I had some. Baby Maker! is designed to give me a comical glimpse into a child-filled future.

Don’t take Baby Maker! too seriously. Because Baby Maker! is a joke app, you will not find results that reflect you and your photo partner’s stunningly good looks. Rather, Baby Maker! creates pictures of kids that can be described with one word: creepy.

You start by choosing two pictures. Baby Maker! takes the eyes from one person and the mouth from another and drops them onto a photo of a child with the gender and ethnicity of your choice. The final product is a zombie-like creature with bizarre features. You can also allow Baby Maker! to choose gender and ethnicity randomly, but the subsequent results can be rather tasteless.

Baby Maker! does not have facial recognition capability so your original pictures have to be centered and close up. You have the opportunity to shift the pictures, but Baby Maker! has a major quirk: you can only shift pictures up and to the left, not down or to the right. I spent a lot more time trying to take centered pictures than I expected to. Baby Maker! also both crashed and froze on me a few times.

With Baby Maker!, you can use photos you already have or take new photos. You can merge friends, mates, movie stars or your pets. Yes, like any curious app reviewer I did try to merge my photo with a picture of my dog, and the resulting child was a mutant monstrosity. After that, I decided I would skip my urge to use Baby Maker! to see what my offspring would look like with Keanu Reeves.

If your sense of humor appreciates LOLer Apps‘ rather unsavory Baby Maker! motto, “Don’t SHAKE babies, MAKE babies!”, then the brief, crass entertainment that Baby Maker! provides may be right up your alley. For now, I am done making babies.

app_name: Baby Maker!
rating: 6/10