Author: Jason Lykins

Jason is a Photographer and all around tech guy. Jason is also the owner of Jason Lykins Photography. Follow him on Twitter @JasonLPhoto or on Facebook.
News

iOS 7 and my top 10 Favorite Features!

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After spending more than 24 hours with the new iOS 7 I have to tell you that this is the best iOS yet! It’s fast, nimble, and even more intuitive than previous versions (if that’s possible). The interface adds a sleek new minimalistic look all while including a ton of new features that really sets the iPhone apart from the competitors again!

Top 10 Features of iOS 7

 

Here are the Top 10 things that really make iOS 7 awesome (in no particular order).

 

The Design:

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I think this is the first thing that hit me about iOS 7. Apple has gotten away from the aging icons of previous versions and gone with a minimalistic look. The App icons are translucent to allow for a “there but not there” feel. This also aids in viewing the background a little better than before. Along with the translucency, the way apps open and close has a smoothness to it. It’s something that you obviously can’t see on a picture but the way Apps open and close, the way the phone locks and dims, the way you shift from page to page… All of it just has a smoothness to it.

 

 

Control Center:

 

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It seems to me that with every new version of iOS, Apple takes away a few more reasons to jailbreak your iPhone. iOS 7 is no different. With the launch of Control Center, I see no need for SB Settings (a popular jailbreak App). With a quick swipe from bottom to top you gain access to Airplane mode, wifi toggle, bluetooth toggle, do not disturb, screen lock, brightness, audio control, airdrop, airplay, and a few quick Apps that are used a lot. Being able to control my bluetooth without having to dive 3 menus deep into the settings App is a welcome addition. Also added within this section is the new Flashlight App that’s built in from Apple. This negates the use of a third party flashlight app that is more than likely (and annoyingly) supported by Ads.  Control center is a really useful tool for any iPhone user but especially power users like the readers of this site.

 

Camera:

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Camera… There are so many camera Apps out there that it takes a LOT to impress me when it comes to the camera. What Apple has done with the built in camera app is not only impressive, but it’s amazing. It is HANDS DOWN the fastest iOS camera App available. There use to be a lag when taking a photo. The screen would flash and the live view would come back. Now there is no lag, or time between pressing the shutter button, to when the camera is ready to take another photo. It’s instantaneous. Also added in iOS 7 to the camera is the ability to view your images in “square” mode. People who use Instagram often, will love this feature.

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Along with the added features, the interface change to the Camera App makes it a lot easier and faster to access all of the controls. Switch from standard photo to square mode, to filters, to pano quickly and easily with the new layout.

 

App Folder Redesign:

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12. That was the number of Apps that used to fit in an iOS folder. NOW, Apple has redesigned the folders so that you can have as many Apps as you would like. 9 at a time display for each page and you swipe side to side to access the rest. Again, Apple has reduced another reason to Jailbreak. To have this ability before, you would have to jailbreak your phone and install Infinifolders. No more. Apple has it baked right into the OS!

 

Air Drop:

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Taking a cue from OSX Mountain Lion, iOS 7 adds AirDrop natively. If you’re on the same network as someone else that is running iOS 7 you are able to send and receive photos, videos, files, and more, very quickly by selecting the item to share and tapping the person to share it with! Within the Control Panel, you’re able to select who can see and send you files. The options are Everyone, Contacts only, and Off. Right now with the Beta 1, there is a bug that is preventing people from seeing their contacts so unless you have “Everyone” selected, you might not be able to see the other person. I expect that this will be fixed before the public release. Even with that bug, this feature is amazing!

 

Photo Sorting:

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I’m sure this will come as no surprise to the readers of the Best App Site, but the iPhone has become the most popular camera in the world. Take that in for a second. Not Nikon, not Canon, Not Leica, or Fuji… With all of the years that those brands have been in existence, they can’t compete with the ease and portability of the iPhone. Because of the convenience of the iPhone many of us have accumulated thousands upon thousands of photos in our camera rolls (Kylie Wilkerson I’m looking at you) and we need a way to quickly and efficiently sort through our photos. Apple has provided a tool for us to do just that. In iOS 7 Apple has included sorting by logical events and years. But what does that actually mean? Well at the root level is Years. From here you can select the year in which to start your search through images. Drill down one level and you will find collections. Collections can be anything from dates, to event titles, to locations. For example within 2011 I have “Orange County Convention Center” from April 1-April 4th. This houses all of my 2011 Orlando Photoshop World images. This makes it super easy to quickly get to a set of photos or a time frame to search for a particular photo.

 

Multitasking:

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Multitasking is nothing new to iOS. We’ve had it since iOS 4, BUT with iOS 7 Multitasking has received a beautiful makeover. No longer do you just see the icon of what is running when you double tap the home button. Now you see a preview of what’s actually running. This gives you a quick view of what’s going on inside of the Apps that allows you decide if you really want to kill the App. This is very similar to the way that multitasking shows your windows on a Mac.

 

 

Today Mode:

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One thing that has changed with iOS 7 is the ability to see the notification center from the lock screen. With a quick top to bottom swipe you get to see your notifications but with a new twist. Now instead of seeing all of your notifications, you have the choice of selecting missed, all, or my new favorite, Today. Today shows you just what’s going on today From the day, date, appointments, weather for the day (mine isn’t showing here because my weather App is broken, more on that later), and a quick view of tomorrow’s day. This is a really nice, quick way to see what’s going on during that day.

 

Automatic App Updates:

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With iOS 6 Apple changed things around a little bit for App updates. No longer did you have to type your password just to update Apps that you already had on your phone. With iOS 7 Apple has taken it one step further and completely automated the App update process. No longer do you even have to go to your App store to download updates, your iPhone does it automatically. To see which Apps have been updated, you simply launch the App store and select updates. You will see a list of the Apps that have been updated and the word open next to them. This feature is of course selectable. If you don’t want your iPhone to automate this process for you, you are able to turn it off in the settings.

 

Block Calls:

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Do you have certain numbers that make you cringe when they appear? Marketers that somehow avoid the “do not call” list? In-laws perhaps? Apple has added a “Block this Caller” option to the contacts section. This is pretty strait forward. Open or create a contact for the number or person that you don’t want to receive communication from, and tap “Block this Caller” at the bottom. Easy as that. No more annoying calls or texts from that person. Oh just in case you are wondering that’s the local Apple store so I won’t be blocking that one ;)

 

Better Every Time

Is this the perfect OS? Nope. No OS or product for that matter is. It’s getting pretty freaking close though! Keep in mind that this is Beta 1. The actual release of iOS 7 to the public isn’t until the fall. There are certain things that don’t work quite right just yet (remember the weather App) for some people. There are also certain features that need tweaking. For example currently iTunes Radio is a great concept, BUT NONE of the Apple stations play explicit content. The stations that you create yourself sporadically will play uncensored songs, but they are few and far between. There needs to be an option to select inclusion or exclusion of this content. I for one will not be listening to iTunes Radio much until this is fixed. There are tons of other little things that aren’t right just yet but again this is Beta 1 so by the time the public gets their hands on it, iOS 7 should be bug free (or close to it) and ready to perform! As it stands it’s very, very close to public ready so be excited for what’s coming! As always we’ll keep you updated as the new features roll out within iOS 7 as well as when the bugs are fixed. Keep checking back to the Best App Site for all of the updates!

 

 

 

 

 

Games / Reviews
8 Ball Pool™

Fill Your Pool Need Right from Your iPhone

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I’ve always had a love for pool. I’ve never been particularly good at it, but that hasn’t stopped me from spending countless hours racking, breaking, and putting a little “English” on the cue ball. Recently a friend of mine told me that he has been absolutely addicted to this pool game that he put on his iPhone. I’ll try any App once so I downloaded it and man was he right! I haven’t been able to put this game down! Any free time that I have I’ve found myself grabbing my phone for the next challenge. With multiple “billiards”, people from around the world to play with, and the ability to challenge your friends 8 Ball Pool will keep you playing and coming back for the foreseeable future.

 

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How It Works

8 Ball Pool uses an in depth yet easy to understand system to make game play lifelike. You start at a level 1 player meaning brand new to the game with no experience. The game gives you a set amount of coins, which are the virtual currency used to buy your way into rounds and thus becoming half of the prize winnings. As your play increases, and as you win more games you advance your ranking. On top of advancing your play and coins you also gain new “billiards” to play at (requiring a higher buy in) allowing you to play against more advanced competitors. The points, and wins add up quickly as you make your way through the billiards from London, to Moscow, and beyond.

The competitors come from all over the world. When you select to play a random person you are given the luck of the draw of competitors. You may be a level 5 player playing a level 15 player or higher. The game syncs real time with it’s servers so you have to have an internet connection of some kind.  Additionally you can challenge friends however this really works best when the friend is with you because the game has a time limit (we’ll get to that later) and you both have to be active.

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Game Play

Who breaks is randomly decided unless you rematch an opponent in which case you take turns. After the break whoever puts in the first ball decides who will get what set of balls to shoot for. The game is played by moving the virtual pool stick around the screen to get the proper shot of the ball you want. Once the proper angle has been obtained force for the shot is controlled by “pulling” down the pool stick on the left side of the screen. The further down you pull it, the harder it will get hit. “English” is applied by tapping the white cue ball in the upper right corner of the game and then placing the red dot on the cue ball appropriate to where you want your English applied. Be careful to monitor the green ring that is slowly disappearing around your name when it’s your turn. This is your timer. If you don’t shoot the ball before the green ring runs out, your forfeit your turn and your opponent has “ball in hand” which means that they can place the cue ball anywhere on the playing surface that they would like for their next shot. All of the normal rules of pool apply to this game. You have to hit your own ball first when taking a shot (stripes or solids), the 8 ball is shot last, and you don’t want to “scratch” or put the cue ball in a pocket. Because of the timer game play moves fairly quickly and the quick tempo keeps the game fun. I sometimes wish that they would have given a little more time on the timer but I think that’s to be expected.

 

The Bottom Line

This is a very, very addicting game, especially if you enjoy pool at all. I think I have spent quite a few hours playing this game already and I’ve only had it a week or so. The challenge of winning the games, advancing your player ranking, and unlocking new billiards makes for an exciting and rewarding game that will keep you coming back day after day.

 

You can get 8 Ball Pool for your iOS device from the iTunes store for $.99 here: iTunes

 

Entertainment / Reviews
Epic Rap Battles

Epic Rap Battles Of History!

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Today’s post is going to be a little more light-hearted. Today’s App is one that isn’t necessarily one that I NEED but I sure do love having it! For some time now I’ve subscribed to the Youtube channel ERB which is produced by Nice Peter, EpicLLoyd, Dave McCary, and Maker Studios. These guys are some of the funniest I’ve ever seen on Youtube so I watch them whenever I need a good laugh. Up until a few weeks ago I was logging into Youtube on my phone to get my ERB fix but recently they released an iOS App that makes it a whole heck of a lot easier to keep (almost) all of my favorite videos in one spot. (NOTE: Some of the videos, actually ALL of the videos are NSFW due to language)

 

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What it’s all about

So the basic premiss behind ERB is that they “match up” two of history’s most unlikely adversaries in a “rap battle”. For anyone that doesn’t know what this is, it’s where two rappers get the same beat to “freestyle rap” or come up with a rap in their head on the fly dissing the other rapper. So they make fun of their looks, their height, their intelligence, etc. It may not sound funny, or interesting but trust me, it’s the best 2-3 minutes that you’ll have today using your phone! As you can see in the screen shot above they have some hilarious videos. Babe Ruth vs Lance Armstrong, Tesla vs Edison, Ghandi vs MLK jr. but I think the one that has to be my favorite in this group is Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates! Hilarious work! What I really like about these videos is that they aren’t just on the fly and poorly done. They spend a lot of time, and a lot of money to make these videos very, very good.

So far I’ve only found one downside to this App and that is it only contains season 2 episodes of ERB. There were some very, very funny videos in the first season and after you watch season 2 found in the App, you should search them out on Youtube and check out season 1. It’s worth the watch!

The Bottom Line

If you love funny, short videos, then you’ll love Epic Rap Battles of History! These guys do an awesome job with the matchups, the video production, and the App. Since it’s free from the iTunes store, it’s definitely worth downloading!

 

You can get ERB from the iTunes store for the iPhone and iPad free here: iTunes

Photography / Reviews
Marksta

Watermark Your Photos Right from Your iPhone

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It seems like just about everyone has an iPhone these days. Everywhere you turn you see someone texting, chatting, facetiming, and yes, taking pictures with their beloved iDevice. With the awesome camera on these things, along with all of the amazing Apps it seems that everyone is (or thinks) that they’re a photographer. “First kiss” photos from weddings are uploaded, tweeted, Facebooked, and Instagramed before the couple walks back down the isle now. With this increase in the number of photos taken come with an increase in the number of people that want to watermark their images. Whether it’s because they’re afraid that people are going to steal their images and use them without permission, or just because they want to attach their photography information to the image, people enjoy watermarking. The traditional way of watermarking an image is taking it into the computer, loading it into an image editing software like Photoshop or Lightroom, and adding the overlay there. This process takes time and also prevents people from uploading and sharing at the time that the image was taken. Marksta fixes ALL of that. With Marksta you can watermark an image with text OR a graphical overlay right inside of your iPhone or iPad and upload the image immediately!

 

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How Marksta Does What it Does

Marksta is a very unique and well laid out App. Upon launching the App you can provide images to be watermaked in two ways. You can either us the camera function (built into the App) or you can import images from your camera roll/folders. Once the image is imported you simply tap the screen where it says “Tap Here” to display the text.

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This brings up a box that allows you to input your information. From here you will either type whatever it is that you want to say on the screen (I used “Jason Lykins Photography”) or you can add a graphic watermark if you already have one saved in your pictures by tapping the small picture icon to the right of the text box. once you have added your text/picture you simply tap the screen to hide the keyboard. From here you can position the watermark wherever you would like on the screen. (A quick tip: if you want to resize your text, while the keyboard is still showing use a pinching motion to increase or decrease the size).

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Next we can tap the small painter’s pallet at the bottom of the screen (second from the left) to bring up the opacity sliders for the watermark. Most people don’t like to do in your face full on opacity watermarks, rather they’d like to have about a 35%-50% opacity setting so that you can see it still but it doesn’t take away from your image. Here is where you would go to do that. From this tab you can also change the watermark hue and shade.

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The next tab we come are the heavy controls. By this I mean from here you can add a drop shadow to your watermark, you can make the watermark (if text) act as a boarder and go all of the way around your image, you can left, right, and center justify it, as well as a few other specialty options. This is where you would go to really tweak your watermark and how it interacts with your image.

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The next important tab is (to me) the coolest thing about this App. The third tab from the right indicated by three small lines is the layers tab. This tab will let you undo or remove certain parts of your watermark. For example, if I added text, then an image, and decided that it looked too cluttered (because it would) I could go and delete just the text and leave the image overlay completely alone. This is cool! It’s non destructive watermarking for your iPhone!

The Bottom Line

If you like to post images to the internet from your iPhone or iPad, and you want to watermark them, there is no better way to do that than with Marksta. About the only thing that I would like to see added is the ability to batch watermark images from my camera roll, but that’s just nitpicking.

 

 

You can get Marksta for both the iPad and iPhone for $1.99 from the iTunes store here:     iTunes

Healthcare & Fitness / Reviews
UP by Jawbone

Jawbone Up Helps You Get Healthy!

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Every now and then a new product comes along that really changes things. in 2001 it was the iPod, in 2007 it was the iPhone. While the Jawbone UP isn’t as revolutionary as either of those two devices, it is an amazing tool to help promote health and wellness. The UP measures your sleep patterns, steps taken, calories ingested, and much, much more. The best part about the UP is that it does all of this through an extremely well designed, well executed App for the iPhone. After all, this is The Best App Site; If there wasn’t an extremely useful App involved, we wouldn’t be talking about it here! One of my goals for this year is to be healthier. Not necessarily to lose weight (although that would be nice too) but to be healthier. When I decided to make health a goal for the new year I knew that it would take something like the UP to keep me on track and get me to my goal. After doing some research into the different health devices on the market I decided to go with the UP because it has the best overall ratings from both the people that own them as well as the popular review sites. If your goal is to be healthy and you want a quality product to help you get there, the UP is for you!

 

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Tons of Features in One App

The first time you attach your UP band to your iPhone and launch the App you’re going to be met with a number of questions that have to be filled out before you can make use of the App or the band. Make sure that you input true information in here. Don’t lie about your weight or age. The App uses this information to figure out your goals so the information needs to be accurate. After you have finished this initial setup the App gives you your goals for sleep and steps. For me my goal is 10,000 steps a day and 8 hours of sleep. These are the optimal numbers for what I should get to be healthy.

The home screen of the Up App provides a lot of information, but does it in a way that is uncluttered and organized. The first thing you will see (in purple) is your sleep percentage. This is a bar that increases as you get closer to your goal. Inside of the bar it shows your percentage as well as the actual time you slept. Tapping on this bar gives more in depth information but we’ll get into that later. Next to the sleep bar is the daily steps goal. This bar shows how many steps you’ve taken, and the percentage of your goal achieved so far that day.  To the right of the goal bars there is a bar that shows your meals for the day. Again tapping on the bar will show you more in depth information.  Below the bars is more pertinent information. The day that you’re currently viewing, your mood for the day, and helpful tips. Below that is the UP feed. This shows your activities, as well as the activities of the people on your “teams” more on that later.

 

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Tapping on the plus sign on the right side of the App shows options for the band. At the top you see your goals. From here you can adjust the sleep and step goals by simply tapping on the corresponding icon. Below that is the Sync Now button. This is the button that you would use to manually sync your band (although this is rarely used because the App syncs the band automatically when attached). Below the Sync Now is my favorite feature of this band/App. Because the UP band monitors your sleep pattern it can provide a “Smart Sleep Alarm”. You set the time that you want to wake up in the morning (for me it’s 7am). Up to 40 minutes prior to when you set the alarm the band looks for you to be in a light sleep phase and wakes you up. Because you’re closest to being awake when you’re in a light sleep phase you will feel more refreshed by letting the band wake you up. I was skeptical of this feature but after trying it out for a couple of weeks I couldn’t imagine waking up any other way.  The next feature below the Smart Sleep Alarm is the Idle Alert. This is a particularly useful feature for me because I work at my desk for hours on end and forget to get up and move around. The Idle Alert allows you to set an alarm (small vibration from the band) to go off if a predetermined amount of time passes without adequate movement from you. This reminds me to get up and walk around at least once an hour which is recommended by doctors to promote health. Stopwatch is the next function down. This is exactly what you think it is; It measures an activity. Below that is the power nap function. According to Jawbone, UP uses your recent sleep data to calculate the optimal nap length and wakes you with a gentle band vibration. The last two options allow you to log both sleep and workouts that you may have performed when you didn’t have your UP band on.

 

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On the opposite side are functions relating the App and your account. The Home button does exactly what you would think; It takes you to the original home screen. Tapping on your name shows your profile and your latest stats. This is where you change your profile photo and make other adjustments to your account. Lifeline shows your activity from the time you got your UP to this point. Trends is more specific and a more in depth look than Lifeline. Trends goes into depth on the trends of your steps and sleep pattern. This is a great way to see any patterns developing over a period of time.

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Teams is a particularly useful feature in my opinion because it allows you to make getting healthy a social event. UP will search for your friends on Facebook and from your contacts list that are also using UP. You can then add them to your “team” allowing them to see your activity. They can see your steps, sleep, food entered and more. You may be less likely to eat that second double cheeseburger if you think that all of your friends will see it.  The last three buttons Notifications, Settings, and Help, do exactly what you would think they do.

 

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Steps Counted

The primary draw of the UP is the pedometer. The UP band counts your steps and adds them to the App inputting the information into the bar graph showing your trends. In this graph you can see what time of day you’re walking the most. This will help you identify when you need to be more active.

 

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Sleep Data

To me this is the most interesting part of the UP system. I’ve always been interested in my sleep patterns and what happens when I close my eyes at night. Through the use of accelerometers and actigraphy the UP measures your sleep states and tracks your sleep patterns. Above you see the graph that is the product of the data collected. The dark blue areas represent deep sleep, the light blue areas represent light sleep, and the orange areas represent an awake state. There is also some handy data numbers below the graph telling you how much light sleep, deep sleep, and awake time you had in hours/minutes. Also shown is how long it took for you to fall asleep, as well how long you were in bed, and how many times you woke up. This data can be used for many things from determining how certain foods, drinks, or activities effect your sleep. It’s also used for the smart alarm feature.

 

The Bottom Line

Jawbone recommends syncing the App twice a day or more to keep the data fresh on the App thus providing you with the most accurate information. I sync mine first thing in the morning (so I can see my sleep info), mid day, and at night before bed. The more the better. If you’re interested in living a healthier lifestyle, and you want help doing it the Jawbone UP is a great device to help you! All of the features of the App, the simplicity of the band’s design, and the benefits that this combo can instil on your life, you can’t afford to not have this band and App.

 

You can get the Jawbone UP band for $117 here.

You can get the Jawbone UP App for the iPhone from the iTunes store for free here: iTunes

 

 

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