Photography / Reviews
100camerasin1

100 Cameras in 1 Plus some for your iOS devices

A few weeks ago I reviewed Instagram, my new favorite camera/social media App for the iPhone. While Instagram gives you quite a few options in the way of filters to use on your photos, I'm always looking for more! 100 Cameras in 1 gives me tons of more options! Now, 100 Cameras in 1 isn't a new App, but with the integration into Instagram it has taken it up to the top of my favorites list of Photography Apps on my iPhone and iPad.

 

An Awesome App All By Itself!

To be fair 100 Cameras in 1 is a really nice App even without the Instagram integration. I first downloaded this App when my buddy Brad Moore (who happens to be one of the best concert photographers that I know) wrote about it on Scott Kelby's Pimpy Thursday blog post months ago. I was instantly surprised with the quality of the filters. There was a lot of time and effort put into development. I have seen so many "filter Apps" that produce cheesy, "not useful on virtually any image" filters just to raise the number of available filters. This App is not like that. Each filter is well thought out and designed, and while you're not going to be able to use every filter on every image to achieve a cool effect, the majority of the time most of the filters will produce something different and cool on any image.

Loading an image is simple. Launch the App and you are given a choice of taking a photo or create from library(note if you're on the iPad 1 you only get create from library since there is no camera). Once you have your image loaded you are presented with 10 pages, each containing 10 filters per page. There are small thumbnails next to each title to show you a preview. I say title not description because they really don't provide any sort of clue as to what the effect will do. Each filter adds a different effect to your image. Some are more bold than others, but each is unique. But wait there's more! The App isn't limited to the first set of 100 filters that you get initially. By tapping the more button on the upper right side of the screen you have a choice of 10 different sets of filters. That's 1000 filters total! Next to each group, the App tells you what subjects that particular set of filters is best for. Be it people, landscapes or the beyond they have something for everyone!

Of course just like any good mobile photography App, there is Social media integration. Offering uploading to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Smugmug, and Dropbox right from within the App and of course transferring to Instagram( I'm getting to that). This App has you covered in the Social Media department!

Instagram

Now to the reason that I have recently started using 100 Cameras in 1 a lot more as of late, Instagram integration. Here's the workflow. Take your image with the default camera App or through the 100 Cameras built in camera function. Add your filter to your image within the App. Click the share button on the bottom right of the screen and choose "Send to Instagram" from the options. The image is opened in the Instagram App giving you all of the editing options you would normally have within that App with the 100 Cameras in 1 filter already applied. This gives you the freedom to add your Instagram filters, and upload it to the Instagram community, Facebook, and Twitter just like you normally would! This integration has added literally thousands of possibilities to your image editing for Instagram.

You Should Get It!

Even if you're not a Instagram person (RC I'm looking squarely at you buddy) 100 Cameras in one is an awesome photography App to have on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. If you ARE a fan of Instagram, you can't go wrong by adding thousands of possibilities for your filters. I would recommend this App to anyone that likes to take pictures on their iOS device.

 

You can get 100 Cameras in 1 for your iPhone or iPod Touch for $.99 Cents from the iTunes store here: iTunes
You can get 100 Cameras in 1 for your iPad from the iTunes store for $3.99 Here: iTunes

News
magellan

Magellan RoadMate Steps Up Its Game

For the past couple of years the top two Navigation Apps on iOS have been from Navigon and TomTom. Sure you may have your favorite and it may not be either of those two, but the reality is those two have been the most full featured Apps in this category, offering built-in Maps, updates on a regular basis and several options for the serious turn-by-turn navigator. In this latest update Magellan has come back strong with the kinds of features that I LOVE. First off Version 2.0 provides LIFETIME Map Updates. That's right, you pay for the App ONCE and never have to pay for a Map update again, no subscription fees, no other costs of any kind. If that's not enough, you also get LIFETIME Traffic Updates (something that the competition either offers as separate in-app purchase or not at all). 

Going beyond the basics

Let's skip past the basics that they all have. With any decent App in this category you can enter an address and have voice turn-by-turn GPS based directions to that address. Also if the App has built-in Maps like Magellan, TomTom and Navigon then you are NOT required to have an internet connection and use up a data plan just to navigate from point A to B. Any decent App is going to have a good selection of POIs (Points of Interests). All of the Apps I use have these things and I wouldn't use an App that didn't. So how do you distinguish yourself from the competition? USER INTERFACE and MORE OPTIONS! That's exactly what Magellan concentrated on in 2.0. I like to use known POIs whenever possible. The reason is that it simply saves time in the drudgery of manually entering an address. However, I don't want to have to download a weekly or monthly update of the App just to get NEW or updated POIs. Therefore Magellan integrated both Google and Yelp searching. Of course in order to use these two services you do need a data connection at that time. However, once you find the address you want it's just a tap away to start navigating to it and then you won't need the data connection anymore. As a matter of fact you could do all of your searching/route planing even before you leave the house/office while you're on WiFi. While having these two rock, I also noticed that they seemed to have nailed general POI searching via their built-in Map. I tapped Airport and it used my current location and simply found all of the Airports around me. Same goes for Coffee shops, etc. Where possible it uses the branded logo of the business and of course the name, address and distance away. You can not only do nearby, but also at your destination or along your route. Lastly the App is FAST! Very responsive on my iPhone 4.

 

The Bottom Line

While no Navigation App is perfect and there is always room for improvement, Magellan has proven with RoadMate 2.0 that they are serious about this category and will continue to apply pressure to competitors. I would now happily recommend this App as a choice when it comes to turn-by-turn navigation on iPhone or iPod touch. I already use their Car Kit exclusively as it is the best designed one out there.  Lastly, Magellan can we now get some iPad love? ;-) As much as I never batted an eye when I 1st saw native iPad navigation Apps, I realized the benefits of using one while in Europe as I could use my iPad for navigation without sucking down the battery of my iPhone since I didn't have a charger with me in the rental car. Having the big screen was also a joy.

Well done Magallan!

 

You can get Magellan RoadMate USA for $34.99 here from the iTunes

You can get Magellan RoadMate North America for $39.99 (BEST DEAL as it included Canada) here from the iTunes

You can get Magellan RoadMate Canada & Alaska for $34.99 here from the iTunes

Reviews / Social Networking
fbTV

See your Facebook Photos on your Apple TV

Last week one of my friends asked me if there was a way to stream her friend's Facebook photos to her TV. The first thing that came to mind was Apple TV. However, I quickly realized that Apple TV is limited to Flickr and MobileMe. When I thought about it, it was actually quite shocking to think that Apple TV doesn't natively support Facebook. If you think about it, Facebook is the number one way people (non-photographers) now share their photos with others online. My first search was to find a way to get Facebook photos over to Flickr automatically. There were no seamless options for this. Then I stumbled upon the fbTV App.

Stream your Facebook photos or your friend's Facebook photos to your Apple TV

fbTV is a Universal iOS App that allows you to take advantage of AirPlay in the Apple TV (2nd generation) and stream your Facebook photos to it (your TV) via your wireless network. All you have to do is download the (currently FREE) App, use it to sign in to Facebook and you will see all of your Albums as well as all of your Friend's albums (privacy settings withstanding). Pick any album you want and start streaming the photos to your Apple TV. You can either manually swipe to go from pic to pic or you can even choose to run a slideshow with music from your iOS device. When I first tried the slideshow with music I was disappointed to hear the music start playing through the iPad. Then I thought, "I wonder if…" as soon as I looked down I saw the AirPlay icon and I was able to stream the music to my stereo (a Zeppelin Air AirPlay Speaker). So Cool!

Room for improvement

While the App did work OK and as advertised there are a couple of things keeping me from rating it higher. The first thing is that there is no search feature for your Friends list. If you only have a few Facebook friends, this is not a big deal. But if you have hundreds or thousands of friends you'll be doing a lot of scrolling to get to the friends you want to see. On that same note it would be nice to have the App maintain either a "Favorites" list of Friends/Albums or even a "Recent" history list. While I'm looking at a friend's photo it would be nice to be able to download that photo to my Camera Roll or even assign it to a contact. Granted that's not the purpose of the App, but since I'm there looking at the photo, why not make it easy for me to download it instead of having to go to the website or another App to do so? The App did drop the connection to my Apple TV once, but I'm not sure if that was the fault of the App or my network. Also the App seems to crash when returning to it via fast App switching.

This App is Fun and provides you with a way to enjoy your photos or your friend's photos on the big screen! Looking forward to more updates and I'm happy that this App exists.

You can get fbTV (for Free – Limited Time) here from the iTunes

Reviews / Utilities
iChromy

iChromy a Speedy Browser for the iPad

When the iPad was first released it was described as a media consumption machine perfect for surfing the internet and mobile content. I remember my first thought was "I hope that the mobile browser is really good". unfortunately I was left wanting more out of the iPad than Safari. The biggest thing that was missing for me was tabbed browsing. Being a Firefox user for years I had grown accustomed to multiple tabs and the convenience they provide. Enter iChromy. iChromy is the mobile browser that Safari should have been. With a streamlined user interface, tabbed browsing, and speed, this browser really makes web surfing on the iPad fun and easy. Not developed by Google, iChromy still looks (and performs) very similar to the Chrome web browser.

 

Tabbed Browsing

Lets start with the reason that I went looking for a new mobile browser, tabs. Opening iChromy places you in the initial tab just like your favorite browser for your desktop. Pressing the familiar "+" sign opens a second tab placing the original tab and its content in the background.  One of my favorite features of the tabs in iChromy verses other tabbed browsers available for the iPad is the auto hiding address bar. As you scroll down your page, the address bar disappears providing you with extra screen space. To make the bar reappear all you have to do is scroll to the top of the page.

Omnibox

Omnibox is iChromy's name for it's address/search field and  is essentially the address bar and a search bar combined into one. In this bar you can type a traditional URL OR any search term. This isn't the first browser to incorporate search to the address bar, but it's definitely a must have for any quality web browser.

 

Offline Reading

Ever wish you could read your favorite web page while you're on that subway or flight that doesn't have wifi? With iChromy, you can. By simply tapping the eyeglass symbol next to the Omnibox you save the webpage and all of its content for later viewing. This is great for those of us that don't have 3g models and aren't always near Wifi.

 

Speed

While I don't have any hard numbers to share with you, like it's namesake iChromy just feels snappier. Pages load quickly, it seems to navigate around really fast and not bog down the iPad. Again I don't have any scientific proof of this, but it feels faster.

Some Changes

Just like any App there is room for improvement. The first thing that I would like to see is password saving. I really enjoy that feature on Firefox. I'd the option to be able to save my passwords for the next time that I visit a webpage. Not a problem for me, but there is no private browsing option. Some people like to browse without saving their history. Lastly unlike most Apps, tapping the top middle of the screen doesn't take you to the top of the page. This is important since the address bar disappears as you scroll down the page.

The Browser for you?

iChromy is a really good tabbed App for anyone used to the Google Chrome interface. With the smooth interface, quality tabbed system, and speed I can't recommend this App enough to everyone. I really enjoy this App and can't wait to see what they have in store for future updates.

 

You can get iChromy for the iPad from the iTunes store for free here:  iTunes

Photography / Reviews
Sylights

Sylights App Lets Photographers Create Lighting Diagrams

Over the past couple of years I've been doing a lot more portrait photography and even getting my work in print. I've also been teaching some lighting and workflow workshops here and there. Now whenever I do a shoot I try to remember to document the setup because inevitably if the shot is popular someone will ask "how did you light that?" Sylights is a website and an iOS App that allows you to create lighting diagrams using common symbols. You can drag in the symbols you need to document your setup from the built-in library of symbols. Once the symbol is on the layout you can move it, rotate it and resize it. You can also lock these attributes so that you aren't accidentally changing them once you have them where you want. The App makes good use of multi-touch gestures. 

It's great, but I want more

The Sylights App performs as advertised and it's definitely hard to beat the price (FREE). However, now that I've used it I want some more features and perhaps it's time for a "plus" version that is paid. In the Paid version I'd like to have the ability to not only save my diagrams to the device, but also to the cloud so that I can create, edit or view diagrams either on my device or the website. I'd also like to be able to add my own custom vector symbols. These apps usually lack a tri-flector symbol and I use one all the time. While this is great to have on the iPhone, I'd use it even more if it were a native iPad app. Lastly I'd like to be able to incorporate a picture of the setup. Why not allow you to use your iOS device's camera to snap a photo of the actual setup? Sylights as is performs as advertised, but this free version only makes me want more features that I'd be willing to pay for in a paid version.

Update: I was informed by the developer that you actually can attach up to 5 photos to your diagram, both via the website or in the App. Thanks! Off to go play with that feature now.

You can get Sylights for FREE here from the iTunes

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