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Entertainment / Reviews
Padd

Turn your iPad into a Star Trek PADD

 

If you're a Star Trek fan and you have an iPad you'll get this App no matter what I say :) You can stop reading now and just click the link below. Now for everyone else, the Star Trek PADD App is actually one of the first Star Trek Apps that I've seen that actually has some useful features (most are just sound effects and pretty pictures). I remember years ago buying the Interactive Star Trek Encyclopedia for my computer and I thought it was cool to be able to launch an Application and search for all those little Star Trek bits of knowledge that I wanted to read about. If you're a Star Trek fan then you're familiar with the PADD (Personal Access Display Device) used throughout the later series and the movies. PADDs were literally as common as pads of paper on the show. People used them, but also had no problem handing them to others to use and I would assume keep. Pretty much like you would write something on a piece of paper and hand it to someone today. On the show the PADD seems to be much like the multipurpose iPad today. It was used for communicating, reading, and access to the main ship's computer (LCARS). 

 

PADD for your iPad

This App is much like the Star Trek encyclopedia on my computer that I remember from years past. Of course the App takes advantage of the iPad's touch screen and you get all the familiar Star Trek sound effects. You can either browse the information from the database or do searches. Many of the search results have picture associated with them, but surprisingly some don't. It literally says "no image available". The search is useful for those times when you hear a term on Star Trek and you want to quickly look it up. You can also browse info from the Star Trek  Facebook and Twitter feeds.

 

What's missing?

The one thing that I'm most shocked by is that there is no voice control. After all, we are talking Star Trek here. I would expect to be able to at least use voice control for my searches. It just seems odd to see the big iPad keyboard come up and cover most of the Star Trek interface while you hand key in your search terms. It may be a little thing to some, but I just can't seem to get past this omission. However, for the sake of the review, I'll move on. The App only works in landscape view, which again is actually the opposite of the way I remember seeing (smaller) PADDs used on the show. On the show the smaller versions seemed to be in portrait orientation while the larger ones were landscape. I guess if you consider the iPad to be the larger one then a landscape orientation makes sense. The content is also organized by category. This way if you're interested in say the ships you can just tap the Ships button and see all the ships every used on Star Trek. Once you're in a category you'll have to either scroll or tap a letter to jump to the first entry matching that letter.

 

The Bottom Line

While I do think this is the best Star Trek iOS App I've seen to date, I think that even the most diehard Star Trek fans will become bored with it when the novelty wears off. Let's hope that they continue to add more features to it and integrate some more 23rd Century technology or ideas to it as we go. How about some video chat? Voice Control would be nice. Perhaps the ability to record log (blog) entries with a voice recorder (yes there are other Apps that do this, but it would be nice if this one did it too). There's lot's of room to add more "functionality" to this App besides just a database. Let's make this App as useful as a PADD!

You can get the Star Trek PADD App for $4.99 here from the iTunes

Photography / Reviews
DIDirect-SkinSoft

DI Direct iPad Apps Not Only Teaches You Photoshop, but Actually Performs the Steps Wirelessly Too

 

You can never learn all the possible combinations of what can be done with Adobe Photoshop. While you can certainly learn the tools and the menu commands, the combinations of how these tools work together offer an infinite number of possibilities. This is why even though I've been using Photoshop since version 2.0 in the 90's, I still learn something new every time I watch someone else use Photoshop. There are tons of books, online tutorials, online classes, YouTube videos, etc. offering to teach you Photoshop. However, Photoshop CS 5 now offers a remote connection capability that includes the iPad. This opens Photoshop up for Apps to drive it. The folks over at Dark Glass Media have taken advantage of these new hooks in Photoshop and have begun offering digital magazine/tutorials that not only walk you step-by-step through various tasks, but also at the tap of an onscreen button the app can drive Photoshop and perform the task for you!

Learn Skin Softening, Pro Sharpening, Tint & Tone and More

I bought a couple of these Apps to try out and I was really impressed with how well they are put together. Once you enable Photoshop CS 5 (5.1 or 5.04) to allow remote connections, you can then launch one of the DI Direct Apps and connect to you copy of Photoshop via your WiFi connection. Then you can proceed with the lessons and whenever you want to have the App perform the task in your copy of Photoshop just tap the button. The App can even transmit and open up the same sample image that you see in the App to your copy of Photoshop so that you have the exact image that you see in the tutorial. Of course you can use your own photos too. 

This opens up a whole new door for learning software and this is a great example of how a developer can exploit the new Photoshop CS 5 Remote Connection hooks. The Apps work as advertised and when you rotate to landscape view you can see a gallery of different effects to try. Awesome App! My only ask would be a mode that allows me to try an effect, but do it step-by-step instead of running through all the steps instantly. Let's say an effect takes 5 steps, I'd like the option to tap a manual mode and apply each step one-by-one so that I can see the effects build up. Currently when you try one of their gallery effects it just does it all in one swoop. Otherwise, I have no complaints. The App is well designed, works as advertised and is cost effective! Each App focuses on a single area of Photoshop, so if you're looking for an end to end class, this probably isn't what you want. If you're looking to learn a technique here and there, then you'll love these.

 

You can get DID SkinSoft for $2.99 here from the iTunes

You can get DID ProSharp for $2.99 here from the iTunes

You can get DID Tint & Tone for $2.99 here from the iTunes

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App Lists / Photography
Xtrafolio

Xtrafolio Photo Portfolio Professional for iPad

A portfolio App for the iPad. Sounds like a no brainer right? However, It must be harder than it looks because I was stunned to see that there weren't really very many good options out there. Where most of the iPad portfolio apps fail is that they make it painfully difficult to get the images into the App to begin with. As a photographer, your portfolio is always evolving (or at least it should be). This means that you'll always have a new image to put in and an old one to remove. Yet most of the Apps in this category concentrate the bulk of their efforts on the presentation of the images and not so much on the ease of updating. Don't get me wrong, presentation of the images is the reason we're here talking about portfolio apps, but if I can't get my images in it to begin with then there isn't much to present :) I looked at earlier versions of Xtrafolio and passed on doing a review. The goal of this site is to only review the "BEST" Apps and therefore we don't waste time with Apps that aren't the BEST or at least really good. At the request of the developer I decided to give Xtrafolio a second look and I'm happy to report that 99% of my initial gripes have been resolved.

 

Ease of getting the images in

Like I said, If I can't easily get images in/out of the App not much else matters. Xtrafolio now does a good job by offering several options for importing images. You can import via Dropbox (my preferred method and I'll tell you why in a minute). You can import via iTunes or from the images already on the iPad including those in the Camera Roll that you brought in from your camera via a card reader/connection kit. While I'm happy to see the Dropbox support I did encounter a bug with their implementation of it. My images are in a folder on my Dropbox and then in sub folders within that folder. However, for some reason every time I'd tap on that main folder it would show the contents of the folder directly above it. I finally just gave up because no amount of tapping would allow me to see the actual folder below. It's odd because it did highlight the correct folder, but it would always show the contents for the one above.

The reason that Dropbox support is key for me is that I use it in my Lightroom workflow. I use the Lightroom Hard Drive Publish Service feature to publish each of my portfolios to a folder on Dropbox. That way my portfolios are always up to date. For the purpose of the review I just decided to continue by using a gallery of images that were already on the iPad. Those images imported just fine. When you import images they sit within the App, but they are not accessible until you add them to a folder (Portfolio). I actually like this metaphor. 

 

Arranging the images

Once you get your images in, you can arrange them into Categories and/or Folders. The folders are what really matters, but let's say you had a category of Travel, then you could have different folders for the places you went. Each Category/Folder can have its own settings. Also same image can be in more than one folder if you like. The settings include things like a Category/Folder Image to be displayed when at the main menu. You can choose whether or not the folder can play as a slideshow, transitions, and a song for the folder. You don't have to have a slideshow. As a matter of fact it's off by default. If you don't go with a slideshow then you'll simply swipe from image to image. Speaking of images you can create custom captions for each image. Yes, images can be resorted within the folders as well. This is probably one of the better implementations of this that i've seen.

 

More Options & Customization

You can choose to have a folder be visible or not visible. This could be used to keep some galleries from being seen by a different client. You can also passcode protect the App. At first I found the tap-both-sides-of-the-lower-right-corner-to-get-to-the-settings to be annoying, but now I really like it. When you launch the App you're taken to your Portfolios (folders) without anything else jumping out or standing in the way. This way you could hand someone your iPad and they could look at all of your visible portfolios without accidentally getting into the settings and screwing things up. Images can be shown in their full resolution if you choose that option for the Portfolio. This new version also supports showing PDFs.

Xfolio offers several options to customize the look and feel of the App to be more like the rest of your brand. You can even create your own startup screen for when you launch the App. 

 

Room for Improvement

None of these portfolio apps are "perfect" but Xtrafolio has come a long way and could easily be the one I use with a few tweaks. With that said, there are a couple of things that need to be addressed. First and foremost is the Dropbox bug. Secondly the App did crash on me when I went to choose a song for a folder. However, once I got back in it was fine and I was able to use the song. So stability could be improved. Lastly and the thing that I haven't seen any of them do yet is give me the option to "SYNC" with folders on Dropbox. This way as long as my Dropbox folders are up to date, my Portfolio on my iPad would be up to date too! That would be the killer feature that would make me switch without a second thought.

The only other thing I'd like to see is that when I have a Portfolio (Folder) set to be a slideshow then it should just start playing when I tap that Portfolio. The way it works now, I still have to tap the Portfolio, then the first image, then the play button to start the show. Too many taps if I've setup the folder to be a slideshow with music. That's what I want it to do with one tap!

While the App does offer some nice options to customize the startup screen, it would be nice to see a preview of what its going to look like without having to leave the settings area and relaunch the app to see what you've done.

Lastly, how about some AirPlay love? It'd be cool to have the Portfolio play wirelessly via Apple TV 2.

 

The Bottom Line

Xtrafolio gets a lot of things right that the others don't. There are several customization features to make it look and feel more like a custom Portfolio App designed just for YOU. I would have no problem recommending this App to others. 

You can get Xtrafolio for iPad for $16.99 here from the iTunes

Photography / Reviews
Flickr_Studio

Flickr Studio – The Ultimate Flickr App for iPad

 

Every now and then an App comes across my desk that not only makes me take a step back, but it also forces me to switch from what I was using to it. This is one of those times. I get literally dozens of "please review my App" requests a day. We try to get to all the ones that we can and at least look at them to see if they are potentially a "Best" App. In many cases there is a natural bias when an App shows up that competes with one that we're already using. However, I usually look just to make sure that I'm not missing out on something really cool. Flickr Studio is just such an App. 

 

Complete Access to your Flickr Account in a BEAUTIFUL Interface

I'm a sucker for a pretty interFace. The first thing I noticed when I fired up Flickr Studio (and after logging in) was the that interface was gorgeous. It's very easy for an App developer to put too many things on the screen at once and with a Flickr App you could easily end up with every possible option on the first screen. Instead Flickr Studio starts off with a self running slideshow of images from Flickr, your contacts, etc. From there you can see the tabbed interface and access any part of Flickr that you want. The "You" option of course just like Flickr takes you to all of YOUR images, sets, etc. You can quickly and easily see any of your photos as well as share them as needed. You get full access to the image's metadata, EXIF data, geo-location, comments, views, favorites, etc. 

Beyond access to your content you can go to your Contacts and see their photos as well. If you're participating in any Groups you have access to those photos too. You've got it all. Beyond your existing photos you can search the map for photos taken nearby or anywhere in the world. 

It's an easy interface, but I was lost for a bit at first. While I could immediately see how to do just about everything I wanted to do at first there was a couple of features that I knew the App had that I couldn't find at first. There is an onscreen help button that you can tap at any time you want to see what a particular button does.

Even with this I couldn't immediately find how to upload new photos or geotag existing photos. I knew the App could do it, but I didn't see those options right off the bat. Nothing jumped out and said "upload". The options I was looking for are in the "Studio" tab. From the Studio tab you can upload a single photo or an entire batch. Photos that you're uploading can be geotagged with your current location, which is great for those photos that you import via the Camera Connection Kit from your regular camera. You can also batch geotag images that you've already uploaded. Just find the location that the photo was taken on the map first and then simply tap all the photos that were taken at that location.

Did I mention slideshows with transitions? 

You can view any of your photos via an instant slideshow (Ken Burns Effect and all) just by tapping the Play button whenever you want. Sharing options include email, Twitter, Facebook and Addthis.

This App is Freakin' Sweet and has become my NEW default Flickr App for iPad.

If you're a Flickr user and looking for the BEST Flickr App for your iPad, this is it!

You can get Flickr Studio for $4.99 here from the iTunes

Photography / Reviews
Snapseed

Nik’s New Snapseed Offers a New Take on iPad Photo Editing

  

Sometimes I feel like saying "another month, another new photo editor for the iPad." Yes, it's time to take a look at yet another photo editing App for iPad. However, this time things are a little different. At this point if you're a photographer and you have an iPad you've probably dabbled with putting your own photos on your iPad to either display to clients/friends or to review. You can get images onto your iPad directly from your camera using the Apple Camera Connection Kit,  the MIC CF Card Reader or even wirelessly using an Eye-Fi card. Once those images are there, you'll probably want to start doing some initial image manipulations. There's certainly no shortage of good capable editors on the App Store. So what possibly could Nik Software bring to the table that we haven't seen before? At this point we expect to be able to Crop, Rotate, do Tonal Adjustments, Apply Frames, Save and Share our edited images. Of course Nik's Snapseed does all of these things and more. What's different is the User Interface (UI). The Snapseed UI shows that companies can still innovate beyond the obvious. It's this fresh take on a NEW image editing UI that makes this App down right addictive. 

 

How is it different?

First off let's start with the fact that it's clean and gets out of your way. There's no tool panel. After you open the image you want to edit you tap on a category of adjustments that you wish to make. At that point you then just tap on the image to bring up a selection of different adjustments you can make. You drag up and down to make your choice and then drag left or right to make the actual adjustment. While this is cool, what Nik brings to the iPad is what they brought to the desktop with their Award Winning Plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. They allow you to affect areas of the image WITHOUT having to make selections. Using their Control Points you just tap to add a Control Point on an area of an image and then use a pinch to adjust the size/radius of the area to be adjusted. Your image is automatically masked behind the scenes. Then you just drag left or right to make the adjustment you want or to apply the filter you want. There is an instant Before/After button that you tap and hold to see the before version and release to see the after version. Of course there are also Undos and Redos and if you leave the App it will remember where you left off. I should point out that Snapseed also has the ever important White Balance adjustment that so many other Apps miss.

 

Sharing and Room For Improvement

There isn't really much if anything missing from this App and that's why I'm giving it one of my highest ratings. However, when it comes to sharing your choices are Email, Print, Flickr and Facebook. The one that's missing is Twitter. It's not the end of the world because I can save the image and then open it up in my Twitter App of choice and Tweet it. However, it would be nice to have it built-in. The other more major omission is online sharing through Dropbox.com. At this point I really don't want to see any more new Apps that don't integrate with Dropbox.com. Since iOS lacks a built-in user accessible file structure I've come to rely on Dropbox to get files back and forth between Apps and my own devices as well as easily sharing them with friends and colleagues without having to resort to email. Other than the limited sharing features Snapseed is a solid app at a very attractive price. It makes the other Pro level apps in this category seem expensive.

You can get Snapseed for $4.99 here from the iTunes

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