Category Archives: iphone

app of the week, ipad, iphone

Artify – iPad App of the Week

Leave a comment

Artify – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Artify.

Inspired by the great Impressionist painters Monet, Renoir, and Degas, Artify instantly transforms your favorite photos into masterpieces. Create gorgeous impressionistic interpretations of photos of friends, family, landscapes, or anything at all. Reveal and highlight any detail you want with just the touch of a finger.

Simple, elegant and instant:

• Take or import photos and transform them with a single touch of the “Artify!” button into impressionistic artwork
• Choose from three different styles to “Artify” with – each creates a unique look
• Reveal faces or other detail with a stroke of your finger, for a gorgeous mix of soft and sharp that will delight your friends and family
• Zoom in, Pan, Undo and Redo to get the exact effects you want, with fine detail control
• Customize and create your own unique version of a favorite pic by turning your fingertip into a small, medium or large brush
• Hit “Clear” to start again from a clean copy of the original photo
• Nothing to “learn” – Artify is instant and intuitive. One touch and your favorite photo is a masterpiece
• Share your artified pics in email, or post to Facebook or Twitter right from the app
• New photos and artified works are autosaved to camera roll for you to keep
• Create unlimited Artified versions of your pics. Each time you “Artify!” you create a unique interpretation of the image
• Artify now supports extra-large resolution images!

£1.19

Okay I like apps like this, I liked ToonPAINT for example that turns images into comics. This app turns photographs into artworks…

Well not quite…

It does certainly apply a filter to images on your iPad (or your iPhone) and make them look different.

Does it turn it into artwork?

I think not.

However the effect is quite pleasing and it’s something that might work as a presentation background.

You can partially remove the “effect” to emphasise a key part of the photo if you want to.

The real advantage of this app is that it is simple, and the one thing it does, it does quickly and easily.

Get Artify in the iTunes App Store.

app of the week, iphone

ToonPAINT – iPhone App of the Week

2 Comments

picture created with ToonPAINT

ToonPAINT – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is ToonPAINT – Toon-FX.

ToonPAINT allows you to easily create awesome looking cartoon-paintings with your own photos.

Even if you have never drawn or painted before, ToonPAINT sets you up for quick success by providing a “MagiSketch” that you can simply color-in. It’s as easy as “paint-by-numbers”, but using your own personal images. Unlike other photography apps, ToonPAINT is not just an image filter — it’s a smart-painting application that enables you to express your creativity and obtain compelling results without requiring you to take Art classes.

Simply import a photo, create an “automagic” sketch of the photo, color-in at your leisure, and you’re done!

£1.19

I have said a few times in the past that I sometimes think the best Apps for the iPhone are the simple ones, the ones that do one thing well.

I was reminded of ToonPAINT recently by a photograph on Instagram, it had been “converted” in ToonPAINT before been uploaded to Instagram. I was impressed with the end result I checked out ToonPAINT, only to find I already had it! If I remember rightly I had bought it in the past, thought it was okay, but not what I wanted and forgot about it. As it is now on version 2.1, they have certainly improved it and it does exactly what you think it does, convert photographs (from the camera or the library) and convert it into a comic format. The key is that it does it very well and the end results do look like hand drawn comics.

So if you are using an application like Comic Life (on the Mac, Windows or the iPad now) you can create a series of comic images from photographs using ToonPAINT and then use them in the Comic Life application. Now it should be said that Comic Life does indeed have filters that do a similar trick, but I much prefer the results from ToonPAINT then the included ones in Comic Life.

The process in ToonPAINT is very simple, take a photograph, either with the camera or from your image library, the app converts it into a comic format, you then save it!

Simple!

If needed you can go in and edit the comicfying settings, changing the levels, thickness of lines, etc… This can help especially if the default settings don’t work just right, which from my experience was rare.

You can also colourise the resulting comic using a built in palette to create coloured comics. There are two extra in-app purchase tools, ToonColor and Photo Brush both are 59p each. I think ToonColor is worth buying, didn’t find Photo Brush as useful.

There are plenty of export options and this makes it easy to show off your pics.

Would like to have seen a Dropbox option so that I could then use the images on my Mac more quickly.

Overall I like ToonPAINT, it does what it does well and as a one trick pony, it does what I want it to do.

Get ToonPAINT in the App Store.

app of the week, iphone

Phone – iPhone App of the Week

4 Comments

Phone – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Phone.

To make a call on iPhone, tap a name or number. That’s it. You can tap to call from just about anywhere: a name in your contacts list, a number on a website or text message, even a phone number on a map listing.

Free

Sometimes you find an app that is both innovative and has a real impact. Though most people will get their apps from the App Store the iPhone comes with apps already installed. Some of these are useful such as the Calculator and YouTube and some which are less useful, Stocks and Weather.

One app that does come with the iPhone is quite revolutionary and enables something extraordinary to happen. That app is the Phone App.

Imagine if you can an app that allows you have a synchronous real time live conversation with another person, even when that person is not in the same room, even the same building, or even in the same country. Unlike other communication apps, this app doesn’t require the other person to have an iPhone, another mobile phone or even a computer. The app works even if you don’t have wifi or aren’t in a 3G area.

The process is that you, using a numeric keypad enter a number, this number usually identified to a person (but not always) allows you, using the Phone App, to create a unique secure connection that enables you to have a real time live conversation. These conversations can be as long as you like, as long as you have enough battery. The cost of these conversations is dependent on a plan you purchase from a service provider.

Not only that, but your iPhone has a unique number of its own, so that other people can create a connection, akin to calling across a room, to you, this calling though is not restricted by geography. It is possible to be “called” from anywhere in the world.

It’s not all good news though, I have found that the app can stop working and as a result you lose your conversation. It isn’t always possible to reconnect and continue your conversation. Interestingly the way in which you hold your iPhone can have an impact on how this app works!

As you may realise, the ability to have real time voice conversations has a lot of potential for learning, however you may think that any conversation would be restricted to just two people, but not so. It is possible to have more people in what is called a conference call, and this is provided within the App and as a result you have the ability to talk with up to five different people. The potential of discussions and seminars via the iPhone become a real possibility. Other learning ideas including talking to learners about progress on their course, attendance and other issues.

Yes, you can buy thousands of Apps in the iTunes Store, but this included free app is the only one that has the functionality to enable real time secure conversations without the constraints of geography, check it out.

app of the week, iphone

Socialcam – iPhone App of the Week

Leave a comment

Socialcam – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Originally this feature focused on iPhone and iPad apps, however I have now expanded to include Mac, Windows and Android apps.

Socialcam is the easiest way to share videos with friends. It makes sharing video from your phone as simple as uploading photos to Facebook. With a few clicks, you’re able to record, tag, and share videos as well as browse, like, and comment on your friends’ videos.

Features

– Unlimited video length and storage
– Upload video while you are recording for fastest possible upload
– Record video offline and it uploads later when you have Internet
– Tag your friends in videos
– Instant notification when you are tagged in a video
– Browse, like, and comment on your friends’ videos
– Share videos with Facebook, Twitter, Email and SMS

This week’s App is Socialcam.

Free

So what is Socialcam? Well if you remember the Seesmic video micro-blogging service, well it’s a bit like that. Though today Seesmic is much more known these days for its Twitter apps. However Socialcam is not quite like the old Seesmic video service, it’s much more akin to Instagram but for video.

You capture your video on your iPhone and then it uploads it to a server. Your video is then available to your “followers” in their video stream. Like Instagram you can be followed and follow others, so there is a social aspect to the stream. However the social is very much linked into Facebook. You can only use the service through a Facebook connection, so you do need a Facebook account. This for me is a bit of a downside, I know it means that I don’t need to create a new account, but not everyone has a Facebook account, likes having a Facebook account and you don’t really want to have to create a Facebook account just to use this app. It would appear that this may change in the future, but at this moment in time you need a Facebook account.

Once you have recorded and uploaded your video you can “share” the link with various other social services such as Twitter or even on Facebook.

The people behind Socialcam are Justin.tv the video streaming service. So as a result they probably do have the bandwidth and the server capability to meet the needs of the users of Socialcam.

One of the downsides of the service for me is that I can’t use video I have already recorded on the iPhone. I do use other apps to record video, the 8mm Vintage Camera app is a perfect example of an app I would like to use to record video and then upload that video to Socialcam.

Now what if you don’t have an iPhone? Well the app is also available for Android devices, excellent.

app of the week, iphone, video

8mm Vintage Camera – iPhone App of the Week

1 Comment

8mm Vintage Camera – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is 8mm Vintage Camera.

Shoot old-fashioned 8mm movies in real time.

8mm Vintage Camera brings your iPhone and iPod Touch back in time to capture the beauty and magic of old school vintage movies. By mixing and matching films and lenses, you can recreate the atmosphere of those bygone eras with 25 timeless retro looks. Dust & scratches, retro colors, flickering, light leaks, frame jitters – all can be instantly added with a single tap or swipe.

£1.19

This is a lovely little application that allows you to use the usually excellent iPhone camera and rather than shoot clear 720p HD video, you can shoot film as though the iPhone was using 8mm film stock.

This short montage, shot from a mount in my car, of the M5 shows the different styles that you can get by using the app.

Now video purists would argue that what you should do is shoot in 720p and then use a video application on your computer to add the effect so if required you can always go back to the original footage. Now there is some merit in that argument, but personally if I was doing that I probably wouldn’t shoot the video with an iPhone and would use a “proper” HD camcorder. This app is about creating an aged film look to a video quickly, immediately and without worrying about finding a computer.

After starting the app you can change the lense, change the film type to various different types, add frame jitter and then press the red button to record.

It’s nice that the above help screen is included in the app. The video is saved to the app, you can then either save the video to your camera roll (to import into your computer later), e-mail the video (for example to Posterous) or upload to YouTube.

I was quite pleased with the effect and it is a quick and easy app to use.

This app has a lot of potential for practitioners who may want to “pretend” that they are in the 1970s or the 1920s to enhance a lesson, video or presentation.

Get 8mm Vintage Camera in the App Store.

app of the week, ipad, iphone

Cat Physics – iPhone App of the Week

2 Comments

Cat Physics – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Cat Physics – Donut Games.

What are cats up to at dawn, when nobody’s around?

Sneaking around the back alleys? Probably!
Going through garbage cans? Not likely!
Playing Donut Games? Most certainly!

Join the cats in their favorite midnight ball game: CAT PHYSICS!

The objective is simple — Pass the ball from one cat to another!

Sounds too simple?
Oh, wait… did we mention flip boards, glass windows, trap doors and other obstacles?

£0.59

I don’t normally mention games in this series, though of course games certainly have their place in learning and to give learners new skills.

However the reason I am bringing Cat Physics to your attention is not that it is the holiday season and therefore an ideal time to play games, but for two reasons.

Firstly it was recommended to me by a senior manager in my college. A year or so ago this manager would be quite open about her lack of learning technology knowledge, but was eager to see the potential. I did lend her one of my MoLeNET iPod touch devices and this year she did go out and buy an iPad. Cat Physics was one of the games she bought, enjoyed and brought to my attention. Bizarre I thought that a senior manager who wasn’t really that much into learning technologies, is now advising the learning technologies manager on what applications he should buy for his iPad!

I do find it really interesting how consumer electronics can have such an impact on society and social change and the resulting impact that these devices have on learning and learners. I am sure that devices such as the iPhone, the iPad, Android phones, the Nintendo DS and Wii, the PSP and other consumer devices have probably had more of an impact on changing the culture of education towards learning technologies than anything learning technologists have done in terms of training or staff development. I have seen many staff totally change their attitudes to the use of technology in the hands of learners as soon as they buy (or have been bought) a device such as the iPod touch or the Nintendo DS.

So what of the second reason?

Well when the iPad first came out, anything designed for the iPhone to be honest looked awful on the iPad, the x2 button though worked, didn’t result in a clear look to the application. The results were often fuzzy or pixellated. However Cat Physics was the first time I didn’t notice any issues. My first thought was that it was in fact an universal app for both iPhone and iPad. However upon close inspection it was certainly an iPhone sized game with the x2 button. The reason it looked so sharp and clear was that the game had been designed for the new “retina” display for the iPhone 4 and as a result the game which was designed for the 960×640 resolution of the iPhone 4 looks fine and dandy on the 1024×768 resolution of the larger iPad. So even if you don’t have an iPhone 4, the new versions of iPhone only applications, designed to work with the “retina” display of the iPhone 4 now look really quite good on the iPad.

So what of Cat Physics itself?

Well I actually really enjoyed the game. It works well as an iPad or iPhone game in that each level can be completed in the few minutes that you find you have for these kinds of casual games. The five minutes before your TV programme starts. Whilst the adverts are on before the film at the cinema. The few minutes waiting for that train or tube. Part of the success of the iPhone has to be down to the casual gaming potential of the device, Angry Birds is a prime example of how people are using their phones.

There are (at the time of writing) eighty levels of varying complexity in Cat Physics, each requires a modicum of skill in working out both the puzzle behind each level, but also the physics of how the ball will travel on the screen.

It’s an enjoyable game and at 59p is certainly worth buying, check it out.

app of the week, ipad, iphone

Adobe Photoshop Express – iPhone App of the Week

4 Comments

Adobe Photoshop Express – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Adobe Photoshop Express.

Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Enjoy having your photo and video library right in your hand — without wasting your device’s valuable storage space.

Photoshop Express is a companion to Photoshop.com, your online photo sharing, editing, and hosting resource. Create a free Photoshop.com account to upload and store 2GB of photos and videos online.

HAVE FUN ON THE RUN

With Photoshop Express, it’s easy to improve your photos. Choose from a variety of one-touch effects, or simply drag your finger across the screen to crop, rotate, or adjust color. Add artistic filters like Soft Focus or Sketch. And never fear: You can undo and redo changes until you get just the look you want—a copy of your original file is always saved.

Top editing features:
• Basics: Crop, Straighten, Rotate, and Flip
• Color: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White, and Contrast
• Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus, and Sharpen
• Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, and Soft Black and White
• Borders: Rectangle, Rounded, Oval, Soft Edge, Vignette, Rough Edge, Halftone, and Film Emulsion

SHOW ON THE GO

Photoshop Express lets you access your entire online photo and video library directly from your Photoshop.com account. Relive memories with your friends and family anytime, anywhere. Show off all your favorite photos and videos with instant slideshows. It’s like having thousands of photos and videos right in your pocket!

Free

I do quite like taking photographs and as a result I have bought a fair few photo apps for the iPhone and the iPad. The Adobe Photoshop Express app though having many features of other apps is free. So it is worth the money?

The app is designed for both the iPhone and the iPad.

As you have a camera on the iPhone it is (despite the small screen) a useful app for the iPhone, whilst the larger screen of the iPad makes it a a great app for that device.

Once you have got the photo into the application, either via camera or from your onboard photo collection there are various tools and filters you can use. You can crop, flip, rotate and straighten your image. Adjust the image colours, tones and exposure.

Add a variety of effects and borders, including sketch, vignette blur and white glow! Adding borders for example is quite simple, click and choose.

For some of the effects you can adjust the intensity, however for the built in effects like white glow, you have just the one built in effect, with no ability to go in and adjust. For this reason this may not be the app for you, if you like to apply and adjust effects on your photographs.

Once you have edited your image you can save it back to your iPhone or iPad. You can also upload direct to Facebook or if you have one your photoshop.com account.

Personally though the app has a lot of features, some of the effects are quite limited and not all can be “edited” to add a subtle effect. However this is a free app and for that reason if you are looking for a photo editing app for your iPad or iPhone then Adobe Photoshop Express certainly has the key features that you will need, is quite easy to use and will meet most people’s needs.

app of the week, iphone

Instagram – iPhone App of the Week

9 Comments

Instagram – iPhone App of the Week


This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Though called iPhone App of the Week, most of these apps will work on the iPod touch or the iPad, some will be iPad only apps.

This week’s App is Instagram.

Instagram is an amazingly fun & simple life-sharing app for your iPhone. Snap photos wherever you go to show the world what’s going on in your life. Follow your friends’ photo updates as they move through the world. Select from photo filters that transform regular ol’ photos into works of art you’ll want to keep around forever.

Free

If you are a regular reader of this column then you know that I do quite like photo Apps for the iPhone. So where do I put all these photographs that I take, well most of them end up on my Flickr account, I use FlickStackr to upload them to Flickr.

However I was introduced to Instagram a week or so back from someone I follow on Twitter. This interesting App (and service) allows you to take photographs with your iPhone (or use a photo in your library), apply a filter and then upload them to a website.

The website hosts your photographs and each image has a unique URL.

You can then automatically post a link to Twitter or Facebook.

It also saves the photo to your phone’s photo gallery. Interestingly all the photographs are square.

Unlike other photo apps though, Instagram is also a kind of photo social network too. Within the app you can follow other people and see their photos, you can be followed. You can view a feed of photographs, you can comment and “like” photographs. There is a feed of popular photographs and some of these are really good.

The thing is you don’t need to do the social thing to use the app and the filters are quite good and interesting. I always think that these kind of filters are ideal for creating images that can be used in presentations, handouts or other learning materials.

As a free app it is certainly a really useful photo app. As a social network, well it is certainly no Flickr and not a Twitter either. The social network can only be accessed from the phone and that limits it in my opinion.

As a photo app it’s great, as a social networking tool, less so.

Get Instagram in the App Store.

app of the week, ipad, iphone, ipod touch

Merck PSE HD – iPhone App of the Week

1 Comment

Merck PSE HD – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Though called iPhone App of the Week, most of these apps will work on the iPod touch or the iPad, some will be iPad only apps.

This week’s App is Merck PSE HD

The “Merck PSE HD” iPad/iPhone application provides detailed information, state-of-the-art functions and an appealing presentation. It offers high-school and university students as well as teachers or professors the opportunity to learn more about the chemical elements – from classification to element features to their history of discovery. The powerful multi-lingual app renders complex contents intuitively comprehensible: the well-structured and concise arrangement of groups and periods, details for every element, intelligent controls, and numerous selection options provide quick access to needed information.

The periodic table of the elements is one of the most important references in chemistry. Here you will find data such as relative atomic mass, melting point and boiling point, density, appearance and additional properties for each individual element.

FREE

If you have the money and the bandwidth then The Elements App is certainly a wonderful example of the potential of the iPad. However it is for the iPad, it costs £9.99 and weighs in at a hefty 1.71GB.

If you are studying chemistry and want quick and easy access to the perodic table then there are other apps in the iTunes Store that fit the bill.

Merck PSE HD is one such App that is only 6.4MB in size, is free and is universal so will work on the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad.

It is what you would expect from such an app. It has the full perodic table, information on each of the elements and images of the elements.

These kinds of simple apps in my opinion is what makes the iPod touch work with learners, quickly and easily access information without needing to boot up the computer, open the laptop or find that specific site using a browser.

app of the week, ipad, iphone, news

BBC News – iPhone App of the Week

Leave a comment

BBC News – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Though called iPhone App of the Week, most of these apps will work on the iPod touch or the iPad, some will be iPad only apps.

This week’s App is BBC News

Get the latest, breaking news from the BBC and our global network of journalists.

By downloading the BBC News app you can view:

  • News stories by geographical region
  • News by category including business, technology, entertainment and sport
  • News in other languages including Spanish, Russian and Arabic
  • Video including one minute news summaries to keep you informed on the go
  • You can also personalise the app to suit your interests and download content for offline browsing

Free

The BBC News website is a wonderful resource and place for news on the web. The mobile version is okay too. Both versions do work on the iPhone and the iPad.

However the BBC News website does rely on Flash for video. The obvious solution would be, as other news providers have, build an App.

So the BBC did build a BBC News App for the iPhone and the iPad…

However…

UK media companies complained, so the BBC Trust said that the BBC News App would not be available in the UK, but they could make it available overseas!

Eventually after much deliberation and consultation the BBC Trust said that yes the App could be made available in the UK. Yay!

So what about the App itself?

Basically it is similar to the website, the news is divided into sections.

The advantage over the website is that any video is in h.264 format so it plays! Not all the news and video though on the main BBC website is easy to find on the App though.

The user interface is much more iPhone like than the website so making it much quicker and easier to use.

This is a really good App, just a pity that it wasn’t available in the UK for so long…