Posts tagged with "camera"

QuickShot: A Custom Camera App That Automatically Uploads to Dropbox

A few days ago I reviewed DropPhox, an iPhone app that can upload photos and videos to Dropbox, also allowing you to set a specific size for uploads so you don’t have to worry about large files being transferred over 3G. DropPhox has some great features and, overall, works pretty well but in my review I mentioned the app could use some additional UI love and the possibility to upload media without tapping on a confirmation button.

QuickShot, a similar app I stumbled upon over the weekend, lets you upload photos to Dropbox but it does this with a polished interface and by completely working in the background. The developers achieved these results using a custom camera view that lists uploads right below the statusbar, without requiring you to confirm photos going off to Dropbox. You can, however, change this option in the settings. QuickShot also enables you to choose a Dropbox path, save pictures to the Camera Roll and set photo quality to low, medium and high. Medium works best for me.

Perhaps the best thing about QuickShot is its minimal and elegant UI that puts three buttons in the standard camera view, with one of them allowing you to pick photos from the iOS camera roll and send them to Dropbox. The app I reviewed, DropPhox, doesn’t have such a feature, or delicious interface.

QuickShot doesn’t do videos, but it’s a great solution for photos. Get it here at $0.99.

DropPhox: The Easiest Way From Your iPhone’s Camera to Dropbox

DropPhox, a $1.99 app by DaVinciWare, provides an easy solution to take pictures and videos on your iPhone, and instantly upload them to the popular service Dropbox, used these days by a plethora of applications and external services. The app’s tagline, in fact, is “Snap and send to Dropbox”.

Once authenticated with your Dropbox credentials in the settings, the app will create a folder in your Dropbox to save photos and videos shot on the iPhone. By default, the path is /DropPhox. In the in-app settings you can also choose to keep GeoTags while uploading, whilst you’ll have to head over the Settings app to modify other preferences. The selection here is pretty rich: you can edit the date format (International, US, Japan), choose the photo size (keep original, or automatically scale to 600x800, 960x1280, 1200x1600) and select the badges you’d like to see on the homescreen and tab bar. I particularly appreciate the possibility to choose photo size as most of my iPhone 4 pictures will end up being resized at 600x800 anyway.

With DropPhox set up to upload to Dropbox correctly, there really isn’t much else to say: open the app and start shooting. As you take pictures and videos, the queue will upload them to Dropbox in the background. It’s very nice. After taking a photo or video, you’ll only have to tap on an additional “Use” button to send stuff to Dropbox.

DropPhox could use some additional UI refinements, but it works well as a way to get photos and videos on to Dropbox in seconds. Sure, everything will depend on the speed of your Internet connection, and that’s why the size settings are very welcome (especially when using an iPhone 4 on 3G). Go download it here.

iPhone App with Face Tracking Technology Lets You Try Virtual Glasses

The Total Immersion developers released a free iPhone app in the App Store a few days ago that uses augmented reality face-tracking technologies to let you try virtual glasses and see how they fit. The app – Atol les opticiens – was commissioned by French optician and eyeglasses retailer Atol and, apparently, it’s the first of its kind to land in the App Store that relies on this kind of face recognition to allow you to try various models of glasses. Unfortunately, the app is in French so if you want to try it prepare to see a lot of “telecharger” and “Oui”.

The developers write:

This is the most fully realized mobile commerce application ever to use augmented reality, and the first  AR app in the m-commerce space featuring face- tracking technology, newly available on mobile,” said Bruno Uzzan, co-founder and CEO, Total Immersion.  “Face tracking is ideally suited to purchases like eyeglass frames, where it’s essential to try before you buy.  In this environment, the m-commerce experience is both more convenient and more satisfying for consumers and merchants alike.  Product selection is virtually unlimited – and those with corrective lenses can keep them on through the AR fitting.

I tried the app and, after a few calibrations, it works pretty well. Check out the video below, and go download here. Read more

Image Editing and Photo Booth for iOS Surface in Apple Patent

A few days after Apple released the first beta of iOS 4.3, several developers and bloggers did a little bit of digging into the SDK and new firmware file to find out whether Apple had  managed to hide references to new hardware and features into iOS 4.3. iPad camera files aside, icons for FaceTime and Photo Booth surfaced, as well as strings in the code that pointed to new camera effects finding their way to iOS. These effects looked very similar to the ones used by Apple in the iPod nano fifth generation: X-Ray, thermal, light tunnel, kaleidoscope, and so forth.

A new patent design uncovered by Patently Apple today confirms that engineers and designers at Cupertino have been studying the implementation of Photo Booth with image effects for iPhones and iPads, but the most interesting part is perhaps the adoption of image editing features system-wide, configurable in the settings, that users will also be able to manipulate with sound, motion, GPS and touch. Read more

Duplifinder Eradicates iPhoto Doubles, Saves HDD Space

If you’re as fumbly with the camera as I am, you might download several of the same images to iPhoto over and over again before finally deleting them off your camera. Thankfully you don’t have to delete whole albums to remove those well hidden duplicates: you can simply run Duplifinder from Haystack Software. Duplifinder runs as its own app, closing and launching iPhoto when it’s necessary to accomplish one of its two tasks. Firstly, Duplifinder will scan your iPhoto library before presenting you with the option to dump duplicates into their own folder, or deleting them via iPhoto’s trash. You’re shown both the original and duplicate images before you commit to any rash decisions (extras of those ex-girlfriend photos are handy to have on hand), and you can bet you’ll use the software often if you’re taking photos all day long.

The app is only $7, and works with iPhoto ‘08, ‘09, and ‘11.

Camera+ 2.1 Now Available: Faster, UI Refinements, Improved Effects

MacStories staff favorite Camera+ by taptaptap was updated a few minutes ago to include several interface refinements and optimizations to make the app faster, more stable and responsive overall. Since the release of the much anticipated version 2.0 (which marked the comeback of Camera+ in the iOS App Store), the developers have focused on improving the animations of the app when switching between the camera and the Lightbox, as well as providing a more intuitive UI design that now makes it easier to always jump back to the camera no matter where you are. Put simply, there are many camera shortcuts now. What I really appreciate though, performance improvements aside, is the possibility to automatically save pictures to the Camera Roll as they’re taken.

You can now get info on photos in the Lightbox without zooming (it was quite annoying before), set more sharing options. Taptaptap also improved the look of many effects, like Pinhole and Vintage Borders. After a first test (performed on the iOS 4.3 beta), this looks like a really solid update that builds upon the features introduced in Camera+ 2.0.

Camera+ is available at $0.99 in the App Store. Full 2.1 changelog below. Read more

Hipstamatic Update: Faster Photo Organization, Camera Bag

It is no secret that Instagram, the popular image sharing service, has been collecting an incredible user base lately. With more than 2 million active users and commercial brands jumping on board to promote their products through photos, Instagram has become many people’s choice when it comes to applying quick and neat effects to photos snapped with an iPhone, ready to be shared online.

But Hipstamatic, another popular iPhone app that’s been around for years and was featured on publications such as The New York Times, is not standing still. Hipstamatic allows you to apply effects to photos and share them on your favorite social networks, but it’s more geared towards “pro” users with a quite complex interface that’s based on the concept of changing films, lenses and flashes. Unlike Instagram, Hipstamatic really wants to put a vintage camera in your hands, with all the options that come with a real camera. The latest update to the app, which went live in the App Store last night, aims at fixing many of the issues with “complicated UI” by providing faster photo snapping and organization, a camera bag menu to easily sort your virtual camera accessories.

Hipstamatic 2 (the iTunes page says version “200”) adds a Camera Bag system that lets you organize the films, flashes and lenses you want to take with you all the time. It’s a simple list that helps along with getting exactly the items you want in your Hipstamatic. This may come in handy if you’ve always hated the fact that the app presents a long list of accessories that can’t be disabled / rearranged. Now it feels much better and it’s easy to use.

Simplicity was also the main reason why the developers added a “Quicksta Snap film queue system” that processes images in the background as you shoot, allowing you to take 9 images in a row without waiting for each one to finish. iOS 4 is required for this feature. Last, major improvements went into the Hipstamatic market – HipstaMart – which is the store embedded into the app that you can use to acquire new lenses, films and flashes as in-app purchases. New packs are offered, the interface is much cleaner now.

Overall, we’re very satisfied with this Hipstamatic update. The app is faster, easier to use and has more options than ever – yet it doesn’t overwhelm you like before. Check it out here.

This iPhone App Takes Pictures With The Microphone

Back in December we saw Apple approved an app called Quick Snap that allowed users to take pictures with the iPhone using the volume buttons instead of the regular camera icon on screen. As you know, Apple doesn’t really like applications that re-purpose hardware elements of the iPhone to perform specific tasks inside an app – just like, again, volume buttons used to snap pictures.

But it looks like they did it again, although we’re not sure whether or not Camera Mic violates Apple’s iOS guidelines. Basically, this app can take photos using the iPhone’s internal microphone; the app’s camera shutter can be triggered by a spike in volume caused by a quick tap on the mic or (this is the option I like the most) a quick whistle or a word like “click” or “go”. The app doesn’t offer much besides this functionality which, after a few tests, I have to say really works as advertised. You say something or tap on the mic, and the app snaps a photo. Of course, the downside is that if people are talking around you the results might not be so effective. But, and here’s another neat feature, it also supports the iPhone’s headphone cord, which can become a remote trigger cable so you don’t have to touch the iPhone’s screen when, say, the device is on a tripod.

There’s the possibility Apple will pull this app soon. So go download it here if you’re into this kind of things, while it’s still available at $0.99.

Update: As noted by our friend Jonatan Castro, Camera Genius offers a similar functionality inside the Settings. I have tested the feature in Camera Genius and it works similarly to Camera Mic, although I got better results with “tap on microphone” with Gamblus’ app. A few readers suggested using the mic’s audio to trigger the camera isn’t breaking any rules, as I wrote above. Still, this is an interesting (and curious) way to take pictures with an iPhone.

Hacker Brings FaceTime to iPad

In spite of the iPad lacking a camera (that should change very soon with the iPad 2), hackers have managed to port the FaceTime application for the iPod touch 4th gen to the tablet and make it work even without access to any kind of camera. The hack, called Intell, requires a pretty laborious installation process you can check out here, and involves changing permissions and values to a series of files inside the iPad’s filesystem.

The FaceTime app has been resized to scale nicely on the iPad’s larger screen, although it’s very clear that is an iPhone / iPod touch app running on a screen that’s not meant for it. The hack works from iPad to any other FaceTime device and, of course, iPhone users calling iPad owners will only receive audio. The app works over WiFi as required by FaceTime.

With the next-generation iPad coming in a few months with FaceTime capabilities it shouldn’t be so hard to wait for video calling on the tablet, but if you really want to try it now, follow the instructions and check out the demo video below. [via 9to5mac] Read more