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Photography / Reviews
eye-fi

Eye-Fi: Wireless Transfers from your Digital Camera

When I started experimenting with the Eye-Fi Card and transferring images to my iPad as I shot them with my DSLR, I was very excited with the possibilities this technology would introduce to my photography workflow. Recently I reviewed a paid app called Shuttersnitch. The app worked well and seemed to be geared at pros. However, at the time there was an extra piece of gear needed to make it work. You needed to have a WiFi hotspot in order for the Eye-Fi card to see your iPad (iPhone or iPod touch). It didn't care what the hotspot was, but it needed one. I was using my MiFi, but many people seemed to be disappointed that there wasn't a more direct way to do this short of jailbreaking your device (more on that from Jason tomorrow). It wasn't long after that review that Eye-Fi announced a NEW lower priced card (Mobile X2) and a firmware update that would enable Direct Mode. Also if you're not a pro then chances are Shuttersnitch might not be in your budget (although the price is not bad for what it does). Eye-Fi announced a Free App for both iOS and Android devices. 

 

The Eye-Fi App works in Direct Mode

The combination of the firmware update for the Eye-Fi X2 Card series and the FREE Eye-Fi App means that you can now shoot wirelessly from your digital camera to an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch without having to have both devices connected to a WiFi hotspot. This is AWESOME NEWS! Even if you're out in the middle of nowhere, you would still be able to shoot and transfer the images to your mobile device. 

The Eye-Fi App is bare bones – I was a little spoiled by the features in Shuttersnitch. As a matter of fact the Eye-Fi App almost seems anemic by comparison. However, what you get for FREE will be enough for most users. There a few steps in setting this all up. First you must get your X2 card updated with the latest firmware. Then you enable Direct Mode with the card connected to your computer. You'll see the X2 card's network name (SSID) as well as the built-in WPA password. You'll need those to log into the Eye-Fi's network from your mobile device. Once you get the connection setup you'll need to login to your Eye-Fi account in the App and pair the card. It's pretty straight forward, but more than a couple of steps. Once you have both the card and the App setup, you can put the card in your camera and start shooting. The images will transfer wirelessly and directly to your Mobile Device. You can choose to transfer photos or movies or both from the camera. See step-by-step setup instructions here.

It works with your other images too – If you've transfered images to your Mobile Device from the built-in camera or perhaps the camera connection kit or even email, the Eye-Fi will see al of the images on your Camera Roll. This is good for people that wish to transfer or backup their images to the Eye-Fi Servers.

User Tip: Turn on Full Screen Mode – I thought that I was going to be disappointed by having to manually advance the shots as I took them. However, there is a secret "Full Screen" mode in the Eye-Fi App Preferences. Once you turn this on, your images will come in and not only display full screen, but automatically advance to the next shot as you take them.

If you don't care about seeing the movies you shot on your mobile device, definitely turn those off in the Card settings. Otherwise things will be moving along nicely and then you see a long pause as it transfers over a large movie.

 

Sharing is limited

The bad news is that the App only allows you to share your images to your desktop/laptop computer or up to the Eye-Fi service (which i don't use). However, the good news is that the shots automatically go to your device's Camera Roll. Since they are in the native camera roll you can use them anyway you like and in any app you like on your device. It would be nice to have a built-in email, Facebook and Twitter option, but I can certainly switch over to my favorite Apps and upload from there.

 

How fast is it?

In my testing I used my Nikon D7000 (a 16.2 MP Camera) and I used the first card slot to shoot RAW to my regular 16GB SD card and I put the Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card in the second slot. I set the camera to shoot BASIC JPG to the second slot. This means that it's transferring a 16.2 MP Basic JPG image to the iPad.

See the speed for yourself here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mbnC1AGsI

 

The Bottom Line

Since I'm here to review the App more than the card (see my take on the X2 card here) then I would have to say that this is definitely one of those situations where you get what you pay for. The App is very basic in terms of features and is really designed just to get the images in, show them to you large and let you then transfer them up to the Eye-Fi server or to your computer. That's about it. There is no organizing, rating, tagging, EXIF data display, etc. If you want those kind of features then you should look at or stick with Shuttersnitch. Yes Shuttersnitch DOES work with the NEW Direct Mode too. See their setup instructions here.

Overall I'm pleased with this App. It could use a few more bells and whistles, but for the intended market it will be great and it's free.

You can get the FREE Eye-Fi iOS App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch here: Eye-Fi - Eye-Fi

 

You can get the NEW 8GB Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card here for $79

You can get the 8GB Pro X2 Card (which handles RAW) NEW LOWER PRICE here for $99

You can get the Nikon D7000 here :-)

You can get the FREE Eye-Fi Android App here

Finance / Reviews
MarketDash

MarketDash for iPad

One of the Apps that's missing from the iPad that Apple never ported over from the iPhone is the Stocks App. On the iPhone it's built-in, but on the iPad it's not. While you could argue that many people on the iPhone don't use the Stocks App, it just seems odd not to build it for the iPad. Since I am a Stocks App user I went in search of the "Best" Stocks App for the iPad. I've used a few Apps and they all seem to suffer from the same problem. Too complex! The native iPhone Stocks App is EASY, SIMPLE and CLEAN. I wanted that same experience on my iPad. My search ultimately led me to the Yahoo! MarketDash App. It has a big beautiful display. It's Easy to use. You can either use the App in a stand alone-fashion where you manually enter the stock symbols you want to track or you can log into your existing Yahoo account. 

The only thing that I would like to see added to this App is a Push Notification feature for when a stock hits a certain price. Otherwise, there's nothing else to say! If you want a stock App to keep up on your favorite stocks that's simple to use and best of all FREE, this is it!

You can get MarketDash for Free here from the iTunes

Reviews / Utilities
scan

Scan: Fast QR Code Scanner for iOS

You might have started noticing that when you look through many of today's popular magazines, you'll not only see the usual ads, but you'll also sometimes see a barcode.

qrcode

These QR (Quick Response) codes are designed to be scanned by YOU! With an App on your device you can use the device's camera to scan the code and usually it will take you to the website embedded in the code so that you can find out more information about the product you're looking at. Perhaps its an article and they have a video on their website that's impossible to show you in print. There are lots of use cases for these codes and it sure beats writing down URLs. 

Scan is Fast and Free

One of the first Apps that turned up in my search for a QR Barcode scanner for my iPhone was "Scan". Scan is a free app dedicated to doing one thing. It lets you use the camera on your iOS device (yes including the iPad 2) and quickly scan the code in front of you and fire up the link in the built-in browser. That's pretty much it! It works. You also have the option of sending the page over to Mobile Safari if you want more Safari options than the built-in browser gives you. Scanning of the code is FAST. Usually by the time the camera hits the code I hear a beep and it's firing up the page in the browser. It was so fast in some cases that it was hard to even capture a screen shot of it working. 

While the App does exactly what it claims and it's hard to argue with Free, there is one thing I'd like to see added. If I see a code while flipping through a magazine I would think that in most cases I'm interested in the information but may not have the time in that moment to dig deeper. I'd really like to see integration with the "read it later" services like Instapaper and "Read It Later". On the plus side the App DOES have a Scan History. The only problem with it is that it shows the URL which is often a short URL like a bit.ly instead of the name of the site/ad. This could be improved. Otherwise there is no reason not to get this App. It works great!

You can get Scan for FREE here from the iTunes

 

Generate your own codes here.

Reviews / Social Networking
boxcar

Boxcar gives me control over my Push Notifications

 

Most social networking Apps can already do push notifications and even the built-in Apps can do it too. The problem with all the Push Notification features built-in to most Apps is that they are either on or off. In other words you can't control when you're notified. I first discovered Boxcar as a solution for getting Push Notifications of Google Voice SMS messages and Voicemails. Although the Google Voice Apps all do Push Notifications now, i don't use the built-in ones. I still continue to use Boxcar because of one major feature – Quiet Time! You can set a time range for when you DON'T want to be disturbed each night. I really don't need to know that someone retweeted one of my tweets in the middle of the night. Sure I could just turn my phone off, but often when I traveling I leave it on for potential emergency phone calls from home. 

Boxcar does more

Boxcar also usually does more than the built-in push notifications of these apps. For example, with Google Voice I don't want to actual SMS message displayed on screen. You can turn this off in the native Message App in iOS, but not in any of the Google Voice Apps that I've seen. No problem for Boxcar, just switch it to "Private Message" and Box car will just display a generic message on screen until you go into the App that you got the message in. Also with Twitter for example I use the "bird" sound to know right off the bat that the notification is Twitter related. 

Setup is really easy and once it's setup you can turn off the push notifications of the individual apps and just use Boxcar for your source of all notifications. I could easily give this App 5 stars, but I'd like to see a couple of things. First of all I'd like to see the list of Google Voice support apps updated faster. For example, right now I'm using GV Mobile + and the latest version isn't supported yet in Boxcar. Also I guess their servers get busy sometimes and notifications aren't instant during those times. I always get them, but not immediately in all cases. If that's a concern for your most important apps then you might want to stick with the native App's Push Notifications. Otherwise, I LOVE Boxcar!

You can get Boxcar for Free here from the iTunes

There is a $4.99 in-App purchase if you wish to disable the ads.

Photography / Reviews
Pocket_Light_Meter

Pocket Light Meter

One of my Twitter followers asked me had I tried this App? While my first thought was "this thing will never be accurate enough", I decided to give it a shot in a real world scenario. Last week I had the pleasure of teaching a lighting class down in Texas. The lighting I was using in my class was the NEW Westcott Spiderlite TD6's. Since Spiderlites are a continuous light source it was the perfect opportunity to try out this App. Before I even remembered that I had the App on my iPhone someone in my class asked me if I ever used a light meter? Of course the answer was yes. I have a very nice Sekonic light meter, but I rarely use it in my studio. One reason is that I shoot tethered and I can see where to make adjustments after the first shot. Secondly I usually know where to start with my settings in my own environment. However, this time I was in a new setting. I had already taken some shots and got the results I wanted, but I decided to fire up the Pocket Light Meter app and see if it woud give me the same readings/settings.

It was really close

The shot above taken before metering was at 1/80, f/5, ISO 400. Had I not locked in the shutter speed in the App it would have been right on the money.

I was impressed with how well this worked. It was more accurate than I thought it would be. It takes a few moments for it to lock in, but in a pinch it should get you in the ballpark. If the App is consistently off in your environment there is an exposure compensation slider that lets you better calibrate the App for your setting. Just tap the i to ge to the controls.

 

The Bottom Line

This App doesn't replace a dedicated light meter! What it does do is give me a light meter that I will always have with me since I always have my iPhone with me. It has no way of working with or triggering a flash. If you're doing flash photography this won't be of much help. For the price (Free with Ads), you have no reason not to try it. I wish it would lock on a little faster, but part of that is limited by the camera on the device as well. While there is a Hold button on screen so that you can raise your device up to grab the reading and then hold it so that you can lock it in and see it as you bring your hand back down I'd like to see that button be larger or better let it be the whole screen. In other words hold down anywhere on the screen to capture the reading. I'd also like to hear a beep once the reading has been captured so that I know I can bring my hand down. 

You can get a larger display and remove the ads with a $0.99 In App Purchase.

You can get Pocket Light Meter for Free here from the iTunes

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