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Making Perfect Pictures On The iPhone→

You’ve captured your image, tuned and processed it, added some additional flare using some specialized apps like BigLens and Piction, and finally shared it on Instagram. But, unfortunately, you’re left with an absolute mess of a camera roll. This is a place where Android shines, since most iOS photos apps aren’t built to talk directly to each other: the apps are forced to export and then reimport the full-resolution image every time you travel between apps, which leaves a mess of semi-processed images in their wake. Some chase inbox zero. I believe in camera-roll zero.

A good roundup of iPhone camera and photo editing apps by Jordan Oplinger at The Verge. It’s funny that he mentions “camera-roll zero” – that’s exactly what I do as well. Every day after I’ve taken a bunch of pictures, I open CameraSync and upload them to Dropbox; my Mac mini then takes care of automatically sorting them in a folder structure, and desktop uploaders for Loom and Picturelife (I’m trying both at the moment) monitor the source folder to upload photos to their respective services. When my photos are uploaded by CameraSync on the iPhone, I delete them and leave an empty camera roll. I can later view photos using Photo Stream (for the latest ones), Unbound (for the full Dropbox folder), or iOS apps by Loom and Picturelife (I prefer Picturelife’s app for now).

After The Sweet Setup’s recommendation for the best photo editing app for iPhone, I’m also trying VSCO Cam. While I don’t share many edited photos and I don’t like the custom UI of the app, VSCO does have some great filters and editing tools.

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Dan Frakes On The New Mac Pro→

Dan Frakes:

While older Mac Pro models were appealing to a broad range of demanding users, the 2013 Mac Pro focuses almost entirely on the things true professional users need: multi-core performance, workstation-class GPUs and GPU computing, fast I/O, and the like. Say what you will about the new Mac Pro’s lack of options for internal expansion, but Apple doesn’t appear to have spared much expense when it comes to the components it did include. The result is that the new Mac Pro is the first Mac in a long time that’s clearly—and almost exclusively—for actual professional users.

See also: Dan’s review at Macworld and FCP.co’s first 24 hours with the new Mac Pro and Final Cut Pro 10.1. For video professionals, the tests performed by FCP.co are impressive.

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Ohai→

Our thanks to Ohai for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Ohai is a journal app for keeping track of memories. Save thoughts, photos, and locations into a beautiful digital book, and flip back in time day by day. Check in to places, either privately, or to Foursquare, Twitter, and App.net. Your journal entries and photos are stored securely on App.net, even free accounts, so your data is always portable and recoverable. It’s the perfect way to capture memories for the holidays.

With the recently released 1.1 update, Ohai added a new design for iOS 7, Foursquare check-ins, and the ability to edit and delete journal posts. You can now create posts for events in the past, and you can also add new thoughts and photos without locations.

Ohai is currently on sale at $2.99 on the App Store (regular price $4.99).

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deGeo: A Simple, Useful Geotag Remover for iOS

deGeo

deGeo

If you take pictures on your iPhone (or iPad) and you’ve allowed Apple’s Camera app to use your location, your photos will contain hidden, uneditable geotag data that are embedded in the files and that you can’t remove using system apps. Last week, I covered Photos+ by Second Gear, an alternative Photos app that allows you to view locations attached to photos through inline map views. deGeo, a $0.99 app for the iPhone and iPad, takes the opposite approach: it’s a geotag remover that lets you pick photos from your Camera Roll, clean them up to remove metadata, and share them or export them again with no location data attached.

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Ken Segall On Apple’s Christmas Ad→

Ken Segall:

Most of these people mistake their personal opinion, instinct, values and/or taste for actual marketing talent. There are tens of millions of people who will stop in their tracks at this commercial and wipe a tear from their eye. As a result, they will feel slightly more attached to Apple, which is the marketing purpose of this spot.

Far from depressing, this ad is wonderfully optimistic. In the most human terms, it says that the right technology can bring people closer together. It’s a perfect thought for the holidays.

There will always be people who like to compare speeds and feeds and enjoy a commercial focused on tech specs, but Apple is going in a different direction with this ad.

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Leigh Alexander’s Top 5 Video Games of 2013→

Great picks (I have to buy 868-HACK now). I particularly liked Leigh’s take on Ridiculous Fishing:

Pixelly-looking indie game with distinctive physics-oriented mechanic and chippy music goes gangbusters. Not news, anymore. But it’s hard to feel blase about Vlambeer’s success when they keep trying so hard to pay it forward. Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail is a genuine pillar of his community, sharing thoughts on competition and pitching in writing, making the Presskit() tool to help fellow devs reach the media, and showing care for colleagues in public spaces. The success of Ridiculous Fishing, at a fixed $3 price point that had no intention of experimenting with popular free-to-play models, became an important example of how the industry mustn’t leap to assume that micropayments always lead to a more valuable experience for players.

Aside from being a story with a happy ending, Ridiculous Fishing is just a good iOS game. If I had to compile a list of my must-have iOS games for 2013, Ridiculous Fishing would be my top pick.

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App Santa: Tweetbot, 1Password, Vesper, and 12 Other Great iOS Apps On Sale For Christmas

Back in 2006 and 2007, there was an initiative called MacSanta that, through a holiday sale, allowed users to buy great Mac apps at discounted prices. Today, App Santa has launched, and while the project isn’t affiliated to the old MacSanta, the core idea is the same: great, award-winning apps on sale for Christmas.

The apps included in App Santa are all for iOS devices and have been discounted up to 60% off the original price; the project is the collaboration of indie developers Tapbots, Q Branch, Contrast, Readdle, TLA Systems, Junecloud, Edovia, Realmac, and Bloom Built. These are all great apps that we’ve reviewed or mentioned in the past on MacStories, so check out the links below for the full discounts available on the App Store.

Note: If you don’t see the discounted price on the App Store yet, keep refreshing – price changes are propagating in iTunes.

  • Tweetbot 3: $4.99 > $1.99
  • 1Password 4: $17.99 > $9.99
  • Day One: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Vesper: $4.99 > $2.99
  • PCalc: $9.99 > $6.99
  • Delivery Status: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Printer Pro: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Mileage Log+: $9.99 > $4.99
  • Perfect Weather: $2.99 > $1.99
  • Launch Center Pro: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Clear+: $4.99 > $1.99
  • Screens VNC: $19.99 > $14.99
  • PDF Converter: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Calendars 5: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Scanner Pro: $6.99 > $2.99

Amount for iPad→

I first reviewed Amount back in September when the app was iPhone-only and iOS 7 wasn’t out yet. Amount was a simple unit converter that was already compatible with the new OS and that had a nice approach to unit conversions.

Since then, developer Marco Torretta has made the app Universal and added a URL scheme to launch unit conversions from other apps. On the iPad, Amount uses a split-screen layout to organize categories and units. The number pad is a floating widget in the middle of the screen that makes it easy to enter numbers, and, because of the larger screen, you don’t have to tap and swipe as much as on the iPhone. I like it.

Amount strikes a good balance between simplicity and features, and it’s only $0.99 on the App Store.

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