Archive for Google Android
Droidography – Camera Illusion
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Not all photo apps need to be serious. Some can be for just plain fun. Therefore, we have Camera Illusion and its companion app Photo Illusion. This week I will cover Camera Illusion and the following week I will cover Photo Illusion as both would be to lengthy for one column.
Camera Illusion has a ton of filters, effects, and masks you can use to change photos as you take them. There are so many to choose from, I wont be able to cover them all here in this column. Fortunately for you Camera Illusion is a free download on the Android Market, so you can experiment to your hearts content. If you really like the app you can also purchase the pro version from the marketplace.
When you first launch the application, you will be brought to a view finder screen similar to your camera window screen. You will see a flash button, a dice button, and a star button located on the left side of the screen. The flash button of course turns your flash on and off, the dice button applies a random effect to the photo and the star button allows you to manually change the various filters, effects, and masks. On the right side of the screen you will see a PRO button and a Camera button. Pushing the PRO button allows you to purchase the app, which removes the ads and gives you some additional filters. Of course, pushing the camera button takes a photo. Lets see some examples of what you can expect from this app.
Psychedelic bicycles
Droidography – PicSay (Pro Version)
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If you have looked on the Android Market you have probably noticed that there are many photo apps out there. Some are free, some are available for a small fee. I lucked out on PicSay and was able to obtain the Pro Version via the Amazon Android Marketplace as a free app of the day a couple weeks back. I have not used it very much but have used the non-pro (read free) version to some extent. The app has a number of cool features, some useful and some just plain fun. Lets talk about a few of them.
PicSay works off of the photo albums already in your phone. It does not take pictures, but allows you to edit and manipulate them in cool and interesting ways. Luckily, we have four cats (thats right!) that are happy to be the subject of many pictures. I can usually catch them doing weird or interesting things just because none of them are alike. They agreed to help me with this article in exchange for catnip and treats…boy are they easy to please.
Droidography – PicPlz
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Welcome readers! If you are an Android user and need a fun, easy to use app to do photography with, I have the app for you. It is called picplz and not only is it a photo app that allows you to change your photos on the fly, its a complete community on the web. Let’s talk about it and its features.
Once you download the application from the Android Market you will notice it is not too dense. If space is a concern I would move it to the SD card, which will make the app just under 2 Megabytes in size. Of course with just about any app the data it stores might push it up to something like 3.88 Megabytes in size, which is currently how large it is on my phone.
Once you have installed the app and opened it, you will have to create a user account. Once you have created your user id and password, you will now have full access to the app and its linked website. More on the picplz website later.
When you open the picplz app on your phone it has a pretty basic setup. There are six icons in the main window and an additional camera icon in the top right corner. If you want to snap a photo, simply press the camera button and snap your photo. You of course have full access to all the cameras normal functions such as macro, zoom, flash, etc. Once you have taken your picture and are happy with it select it and let the fun begin. A number of filters pop up and allows you to apply these to your photos. All of the filters can be used with or without borders. I am not a fan of borders so I choose to use the filters without borders. I will share some example pictures I took with the application last week at Caddo Lake State Park in Northeast Texas while hiking the trail with my wife.
The first photo that we took was of Prairie Phlox. I choose to use the Enhanced Definition Filter to sharpen the image a bit. Read More→
Droidography – Introduction to Craig L. Johnson
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Craig L. Johnson is a degreed Forester and has worked as a Park Naturalist/Interpreter and in Park Law Enforcement for most of his career. His interest in photography began over 20 years ago as a Boy Scout working towards his Photography Merit Badge. His time with the state parks has afforded him many opportunities to polish his skills and has presented many unique and beautiful areas to photograph. His interest in nature and photography has taken him to more than half of the lower 48, with his goal being to photograph all 50 states.
Craig lives in Texas with his wife, Melynie, 14 yr old son Cailean and 4 cats. He and his family stay busy by spending time Outdoors, Boy Scouting, and family activities.
Another of Craig’s passions is technology and gadgets. He will be covering photo applications for the Android Phone Operating system here on CurrentPhotographer.com. Fortunately there are many photo apps out there. Craig hopes his new column will help you to consider the best apps for your particular needs. Read More→
Aug 12, 2010 – PRESS SUMMARY - Trailblazer Media announces the launch of the “Photography Trainer” app for iPhone and Android. The significant increase in D-SLR sales over the last several years has led to consumers looking for innovative ways to learn photography and how to use their cameras. Photography Trainer is designed to teach photographers how to operate their D-SLRs when they’re out with their cameras and taking pictures. The app is an interactive step-by-step guide on how to set the camera to capture photos with impact – users tell it the type of subject being photographed and the lighting they’re in, and the app guides them on how to set items like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, etc. It helps users get out of “Auto Mode” to allow for more creative photography.
Unlike any other photography app, Photography Trainer explains in detail “why” to use a given camera setting, for example, using a fast shutter speed to freeze fast-moving action or a wide aperture to blur the background and make the subject “pop”. Over time, users learn the principles and become better photographers. The app is written and designed by full-time professional photographer, Paul Timpa, as a way to enable anyone to capture better images. It doesn’t require an internet connection so it can be used anywhere in the world while traveling. Read More→
MediaStory SlideShow App for iPhone, Android and Facebook
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June 16, 2010 – PRESS SUMMARY - CyberLink Corp. announced launch of MediaStory, a unique slideshow creator application for iPhones, Android Phones and Facebook.
CyberLink MediaStory allows consumers to create slideshows from their smart phone photos in three easy steps. The application comes with pre-designed slideshow templates with various themes that can be applied to turn photos into animated slideshows on-the-fly. The slideshows can be played on the smart phone or uploaded to their Facebook walls to share with friends. Read More→
Photobucket Mobile App Now Available to BlackBerry Users
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June 16, 2010 – PRESS SUMMARY - Photobucket Corporation announced that its “Photobucket Mobile” application is available now in RIM’s BlackBerry App World. The service puts users’ images at their fingertips, allowing them to interact with their Photobucket albums no matter where they are right from their phone. Users can upload and download photos to and from the site, browse Photobucket’s popular “Find Stuff” content categories, and search through over seven billion images and photos. Read More→
WordPress for Android – Version 1.0 Released
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Feb 2, 2010 – Just announced on WordPress.org, WordPress for Android 1.0 is now available in the Android Market. If you have a WordPress.com or self hosted WordPress website and use an Android phone like the Nexus One, you can now manage your sites on-the-go. If you’ve been using the wpToGo app to manage you’re site you’ll feel right at home, as its source code was used as the foundation to create this new app. Here’s a link to download WordPress for Android 1.0 and the below video shows the app in action.
Features Include:
- Configure and manage multiple blogs
- Comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments
- Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos
- Create and Edit Pages
- Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar
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The Nexus One Wireless Phone From Google and HTC
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Jan 9, 2010 – Google just announced their new wireless phone called the Nexus One. Now this isn’t a photography product per say, but seeing how the iPhone has been so popular for on-the-go digital photography, we shouldn’t overlook this latest addition to the smartphone market.
The Nexus One features a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset making it as powerful as your laptop of three to four years ago. The display is an AMOLED WVGA that measures 3.7” with a resolution of 480×800. It has a 5MP auto focus camera with an LED flash and geo tagging capabilities. 512MB of RAM is included with 512MB of onboard Flash memory for file storage and is expandable to 32GB using a removable SD card. The 3.5mm headphone jack has four contacts for inline voice and remote control. Unlike the iPhone, the 1400mAh battery is removable.
The Nexus One runs on Android 2.1 which offers advanced applications and features including:
- Google Maps Navigation with turn-by-turn driving directions and voice output.
- Multiple Gmail accounts and Exchange server support.
- The phone book allows you to aggregate contacts from multiple sources including Facebook®.
- Easily switch between communication and social applications.
- Voice commands including a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields.
- Voice activated Google search.
- Record Hi-Res MPEG4 video and upload to YouTube with one click
- Voicemail transcription
You can purchase the Nexus One from the Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile. In the near future Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe plan to offer the phone with additional operators in the coming months.
Picwing’s “Print & Mail Photos” App for Android Phones
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Sep 20, 2009 - Picwing released their app named “Print & Mail Photos”, which is the first mobile app that allows photos to be printed directly from any phone using the Android operating system.
Once the app is downloaded and linked to the users Picwing account, the user just takes a photo using the phone’s built in camera and the image is automatically sent to Picwing for printing. Picwing will then make 4”x6” prints and mail them out to the people on the user’s distribution list. If you have a GPS enabled device, the address where the photo was taken would be printed on the back. The app is a free download from the Android Market and Picwing plans start at $4.95 per month or $0.19 per print. Read More→
