Photo apps... commence!

Since I've had an iPhone, I've altogether stopped carrying around my digital camera. In fact, that poor thing has been neglected for the past two years, sitting in my desk drawer.

And I'm sure many of you are the same way: neglectful camera-parents since the adoption of an iPhone.

I'm going to assume that you already know about Hipstamatic and Instagram, so I won't bother with those.

Instead, let's talk about my two favorite "toy" cameras!

I grew up using toy cameras (like those made by Lomography), all made of plastic, including the lenses. I've always loved the light leaks and colors the toy cameras produced. Since the world has gone digital, however, it has become increasingly more difficult to find places that can actually develop film other than your standard 35mm, and when you do find a place, don't expect it to be cheap.


First things first, Pudding Cam! At least think it's called Pudding Cam. The app is in Korean (I'm pretty sure it's Korean, anyway). But I found it by doing a search for "pudding cam," and I'm pretty sure "KTH" works, too.

Either way, with this camera, you have the ability to change lenses and films, all reminiscent of vintage and toy cameras. It's not in English, but I was able to figure it out based on the icons and sample images. You can use either the front-facing camera, or the rear camera, you change the output settings (highest is 1280 px), and you can even adjust the exposure. Very clean, very minimalistic. If you don't mind using your wits to get around the app, I definitely recommend. Here are a few images:






It's a fun little app if you like toy cameras. I think if it did a higher resolution export (and maybe had an option for English?) I'd give it 5 forks, but until then, 4.

Second toy camera I tend to use is called Andigraf - multishot toy camera.


This one is similar in that you can change lenses and films, but Andigraf "specializes," I'd say, in multi-shot lenses. So if you want 4-up, 8-up, or 9-up shots. It also does 9 different types of film. If you've used Hipstamatic, I think you'll find that the interface is fairly similar - you swipe across the screen to change lenses, etc. Check out these images and screen shots:








Andigraf is a fun little camera app and the interface definitely reminds me of my old toy cameras. 4 forks.

That's all I have for today, please stay tuned because I have several more camera apps to discuss!

Thanks for reading, and bon appetit!

Coming soon!

I plan on doing a whole week's worth of photo apps, coming soon! There's a lot of them out there, so be prepared...


Bon appetit!

Scanning with Genius Scan

I have to scan a lot of documents for my job. This wouldn't be such a huge deal if my office actually had a scanner...

I do, however, have an iPhone 4!

I seriously would not be able to do my job without this nifty app: Genius Scan by The Grizzly Labs.


Genius Scan allows me to use my phone's camera to capture any documents or receipts, correct the perspective, and make the image appear as if it had been scanned by increasing the contrast and turning it black and white (though you can choose color enhancement, as well).

You can then email the jpeg or PDF, or add other images to it and create a multi-page PDF document. This PDF document can be emailed in multiple sizes, added to iBooks, or opened in other apps that allow importing PDFs. You can also share over Wi-fi to your computer.

I know I mentioned it earlier, but my favorite part is the perspective correction. It allows me to take a photo without worry that my camera is not square with the document I'm photographing, because I can adjust the borders and correct it. Take a look at these two photos to see what I mean:

Original, crooked photo:



Fixed perspective photo, cropped with Genius Scan:



And here's a couple screen shots to show what it looks like:




You can see how nicely the app straightens and corrects the receipt.

Genius Scan has a free version, with ads, and works on iPhone/iPod touch/iPad running iOS 4 and later, but be aware that it doesn't have an HD version for iPad and the camera function won't work for the original iPad, for obvious reasons (no camera).

There's also a paid version with no ads, plus the ability to upload to Dropbox, Evernote, or Google Docs for $2.99.

I think the user interface could be improved a bit, but it definitely gets the job done. And because of that, I'll let the UI slide. Like I said, I can't do my job without it! 5 forks!

Bon appetit!

As promised...

My obligatory post regarding styluses! I know, they're not apps, and I told myself I wouldn't get into accessories... but seeing as how I use a stylus on a daily basis in conjunction with apps, I decided it's okay.

I've personally owned and tried 4 different brands, so those are what I'll review here.

The first stylus I ever bought was the Pogo Sketch by Ten One Design. It has a foam-type nib that works with high capacitive touch screens, a metal pocket clip and comes in 4 metallic colors: pink, orange, green, and silver.



If you want something that you can take with you, this one will do the job. Other than that, this is not the one I would give my highest recommendation. I had it for a few months, and the nib wore down, which made me feel like the metal base was going to scratch my glass screen. It's also quite narrow - much skinnier than a normal No. 2 pencil - and made my hand cramp when I needed to take notes for a long period of time. Does it write? Yes. But not my favorite stylus. This one will set you back $14.95.

I give it a 2 on the tasty meter.





The second stylus I bought was the AluPen by Just Mobile. After having my hand cramp so much from the Pogo, I was anxious to get my hands on this chunky stylus.



The AluPen is reminiscent of those big crayons or pencils we had as children while learning to write. It is made of lightweight aluminum, has a rubber nib, and comes in six colors: red, gold, blue, green, black, and silver.

I found that the rubber nib works much better than foam, but this pen was quite skittish for me. It didn't always track with me while I wrote, leaving my lower-case a's looking like u's. It also doesn't have any kind of clip or lanyard, so I had to carry it around in my pocket or purse. A little annoying if I didn't have pockets or a purse. It worked much better, and felt better in my hands, so I used this one until my rubber nib cracked.

The AluPen will cost you $24.95, though I've seen some knock-offs for much cheaper. (I don't know if they work the same, however.)

If I could give it 3.5 forks, I would, but 4 will have to do...





My favorite stylus for writing is the third one I purchased, Stylus made by Griffin.



To me, it has the best of all worlds; the rubber nib, the pocket clip, and comes in great colors (or just plain black, if you prefer). It performs beautifully without being skittish, and is about the same width as a pencil so my hand doesn't cramp when I write. Plus, come on, the colors are so pretty! This stylus costs $19.99.

5 forks!





And finally, my 4th stylus, which was not made for writing, but for painting. It is the Nomad Brush.



The handle is made of walnut and carbon, and the bristles a mixture of natural and synthetic fibers. It reacts beautifully and feels so natural in my hand. I can't even think about using a writing stylus to do my digital paintings with, and in fact, the paintings I made in the previous post were all done with the Nomad Brush. I have to admit, I wasn't a believer when I saw the videos before this brush was released, but after buying and using it, I'm in love. If you're a digital artist (or want to be) and you're using an iPad, this stylus is a must. It'll cost you $24.00 and is well worth the price. Do yourself a favor and watch the videos on their website.

I think this rating is obvious:





Whelp, that's all I have! I hope I've helped you on your search for the perfect stylus.




Bon appetit!

Let's paint!

I've been resisting long enough. It's about time I told you my favorite painting apps for the iPad. Being an artist, painting is the main reason I love and use my iPad - especially since there are no harsh chemicals involved or messy clean up afterwards.

The first digital painting app I use is called Procreate.

I like Procreate because the controls are simple to navigate and understand. Everything is straight forward. It handles beautifully and gives little, if any, lag. If you use something like Photoshop to do your digital painting, I think you'll find that the results here are incredibly similar. It doesn't emulate real paint; it's very obviously a digital painting program. You have several brush choices, blurring tools, and erasers, and you also have the ability to create layers, as well. I've tried pretty much every painting app available, and this one is by far my favorite. (Others seem to lag or are just too confusing for me to use, and I consider myself pretty tech-savvy...)




Below is an example of a painting I did using Procreate and a stylus (I'll share my stylus preferences in the next blog). I did this one in about 1.5 hours. If you check out the screenshots in the app store, you'll see samples of gorgeous artwork I couldn't dream of creating, all made using this app.






Procreate is only $4.99 in the app store, and works on iPad running iOS 4.2 or later. Easily 5 forks, I have nothing but good to say about this app.








Now if you like something that emulates real art tools, the app I use the most is called ArtRage.




This app is RAM heavy, so I really recommend closing down any running apps you may have, and possibly even restarting your iPad before use. Not always necessary, unless you use your iPad A LOT without doing those things regularly.

Now ArtRage is fun because it lets you choose your canvas type - whether paper or canvas or even stucco and tin foil. It also allows you to choose your medium, including crayon, oil paint, watercolor, palette knife, marker... And they all act quite similarly to the real thing. It lags a little (that whole RAM thing I was mentioning earlier), but the results are so beautiful that I don't care. It hasn't left me frustrated yet.

Here are some screenshots and little things I've created using ArtRage.





















ArtRage is $6.99 in the app store and to me, well worth the price.
I give it 5 on the deliciousness meter just because of the beautiful results.





Like I said before, I've tried pretty much every art app there is, and these two are the easiest to use with the most beautiful results. I don't like bad-talking other apps because I'm sure the developers worked hard on them, so I won't name names, but the others are either too laggy and slow, or the UI is so unintuitive that I'm left frustrated trying to do something that I normally love.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these apps as much as I do!

Bon appetit!

Music is my love language...

Ok, well, music isn't one of the love languages, but if it were, I'm pretty sure it would be mine.

And when I'm sitting at my desk at work and can't be playing on my iPad (which would be my second love language, by the way), I can guarantee that I'm at least listening to music with it.

The two apps I love the most for music playback are VinylLove (tm) and Planetary.


VinylLove, if it isn't already obvious, mimics a vinyl record player and uses your iPad's music library. It even adds in a bit of the warm scratchy/dust noise that your authentic record player makes. Your albums are stored in virtual milk crates that you can thumb through, and you can pause or fast-forward through a record by lifting or moving the needle. I already know the next question you're about to ask: can you scratch? The answer is yes; you can. And without fear of damaging your precious vinyl, too!

The one downside I've encountered is that it does not multi-task, but that doesn't pose too much of a problem while I'm at work ...and should be working... In which case, it sits prettily on my desk while every passerby fails to resist to "scratch" as they pass. (No, it's not annoying at all...)

Works on iPad and will cost you $4.99 in the App Store.





VinylLove, you get 4 tasty forks.






Let's talk Planetary.


Planetary is another iPod based music player that I enjoy using for its sheer beauty. With this app, your music is a galaxy or universe - which for some of us, is already true. It looks like a realistic solar system where artists are stars, albums are planets, and each individual track is a moon. I didn't think I'd appreciate this app as much as I do, based solely on the screenshots and description in the App Store, but once I actually interacted with it, I was mesmerized. I'm not even a huge sci-fi or astronomy geek! It's a beautiful new twist on music-listening and again looks great on my desk. And this one multi-tasks! You may as well try it out; it's free.









It's delicious enough for 5 forks.






Until next time,
Bon Appetit!

iPad : UPAD

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