I finally got my 3GS this week, so the two apps I’m covering are both photography based. I left it to Patrick to round out the selection, since he loves rounding out selections (don’t read into that, it doesn’t actually mean anything). Here’s what we were rocking in the free world for this week:
Sportacular
Concept: A sports scores, news and updates app.
Strengths: Very nice UI (better than Sports Tap and ESPN IMO), covers a good range of sports, has tons of features – e.g. uses Facebook Connect to let you share comments on games etc, and lets you track your fantasy players.
Non-Strengths: Could add some more sports to its range of coverage, especially non-US ones.
Overall: A good option for iPhone sports fans.
Pixelpipe
Concept: The mother of all media sharing, micro-blogging apps for the iPhone. Share photos, videos (from the new 3GS), or micro-blog text to a slew of popular social networking sites.
Strengths: Easy to setup and use – just plug in whichever services you want to share to – it covers over 95 services, from Flcikr and all the major photo-sharing sites, to over a dozen blogging and micro-blogging sites, to over 10 video-sharing sites – as well as leading social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and so on. You choose content to upload and it goes simultaneously to all your connected services.
Non-Strengths: Can be quite slow when uploading video – but it does keep the original, full-resolution video (which many other video sharing methods don’t) – so there’s a trade-off.
Overall: Super useful tool for those who like sharing stuff from the iPhone.
iSouthAustin
Concept: Features a few cool places in the coolest section of my hometown.
Strengths: Lists a few great little places with a real South Austin flavor and gives you a quick audio rundown on what they’re all about – delivered in a suitably ‘Keep Austin Weird’ kind of spirit.
Non-Strengths: If you don’t live in Austin or visit frequently, or you’re not a fan of South Austin, not of much use. Also it’s a bit of an alpha test app for now, very thin on content. The developer hopes to beef that up in future updates.
Overall: If you love South Austin, you’ll appreciate this app, and end up wanting more from it.
CropForFree
Concept: Fills in the functionality gap in iPhone’s Photos by adding the ability to crop, rotate, then re-save pics.
Strengths: Easy as pie, ladies and gentlemen — and if you happen to take a picture of pie, it’s easy to rotate and crop to get the juiciest, crumbliest pie picture ever. Corners can be pinched to narrow down your selection, and the app has only five buttons along the bottom so nothing is confusing. Ad at the top isn’t too intrusive.
Non-Strengths: None to speak of.
Overall: The app does exactly what it says it does, and the rotate feature isn’t actually a cool bonus given how some blog programs (Blogpress) can’t rotate pictures. Great for iPhone bloggers!
Vintage Shift
Concept: Take cooler tilted photos, simulate depth of field by adding a soft-focus filter to images.
Strengths: In terms of the photos, I think the app does a good job of things as long as your target is clear. Load the app up, take a picture, send it through the filter. Make sure your focus is front and center so that the app knows what to not to blur out. No ads
Non-Strengths: Otherwise everything just gets blurred a little bit and the image still looks like a regular picture. You can only take pictures with the app and then filter them — you can’t just use one from your library. Developing the pictures takes about 8-10 seconds on a 3GS — could be faster.
Overall: I think I’ll keep this app around for a while to play with as I take more iPhone pics. Some App Store reviewers have said that other apps filter faster, but I haven’t tried them and I’m not sure they’re free.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: Free Reign
