Synthetic Corp

posted by Jacob Penderworth on Friday, January 27, 2012 at 11:30 am.   We’re back with another weekly installment of iFans Weekly Deals, which highlights the best app, product and accessory deals that you can get your hands on for a limited time only! As always, we’ll update this post throughout the weekend if there are any new additions, so check back frequently. This week, there are several awesome iPad apps that are being offered for half-price, plus a Griffin Explorer case for iPhone 4S for more than 65% off. You can’t miss this week’s edition… Read More

By Chris Kirby on December 17th, 2011 This week at 148Apps, Flurry showed a chart, GiggleApps made us smart, and the Hipstamatic series got a new start. There's still some shopping days left till Christmas, so give the gift of apps and read on... This week at 148Apps.com we delved into the latest from the developers of Hipstamatic, the “disposable” Hipstamatic D-Series app. 148Apps founder Jeff Scott says, “I got a chance to try out the new app and can report that Hipstamatic D-Series does indeed bring back the nostalgic memories of sharing a disposable camera and swapping double prints into the digital age. It’s a great idea and well executed. There’s even the anxious need to burn the last shot by taking a picture of your foot, just to get the roll developed quicker. It’s indeed very fun. FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2011-12-15 :: Category: Photography $1.99 Released: 2009-12-10 :: Category: Photography At GiggleApps.com, reviewer Amy Solomon took a close look at the first interactive book from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, There’s No Place Like Space. Solomon says, “There’s No Place Like Space, although a creative, fun and educational book, is not written by Seuss himself, although it is written in a Seuss-like style. I enjoy this book, as does my son, but my husband and I did comment to ourselves that the text is not as well-written as the classic books by Seuss.” $5.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad Released: 2011-11-16 :: Category: Education Finally, 148Apps.biz site editor Rob LeFebvre reported on a new report from mobile analytics company Flurry. LeFebvre writes, “Flurry shows the fact that developers are making more money on iOS than on Android, even as the numbers of Android OS enabled smartphones continues to increase, commanding as much as 53% of the market, according to an NPD Group study released yesterday as well.” Intrigued? Read more on 148Apps.biz. As your advent calendar continues to count towards December 25th, don’t forget to vote for our 2011 Best App Ever, and keep track of the latest news, reviews and contests via our Facebook and Twitter streams. Read More

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011. Today's category for TUAW Best of 2011 nominations is iPhone photo and video apps. The new 8-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4S has raised the bar for iPhoneography, and the hundreds of iPhone photo and video apps make it easy to produce amazing pictures and edit professional-quality video. To get an idea of the apps you can nominate, just visit the iPhone Photo and Video Apps in the App Store and take a look around. Is it Camera+ (US$0.99) that lights your fire, or is the fun of Hipstamatic ($1.99) that keeps you shooting photos? When you're editing those movies on your iPhone, do you use iMovie ($4.99) to get the work done in the field? Perhaps you like to make your own vintage-look 8mm movies with the $1.99 8mm Vintage Camera. TUAW wants to hear from you -- what's your favorite iPhone app for photo or video work? Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting will start soon! Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 18, 2011. Read More

Apple has released the 2011 edition of its annual iTunes Rewind feature in the iTunes Store. The piece offers a look at what the company has judged to be the best music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts of 2011. Some of the notable winners: Apps: - iPhone App of the Year: Instagram - iPhone Game of the Year: Tiny Tower - iPad App of the Year: Snapseed - iPad Game of the Year: Dead Space for iPad Music: - Song of the Year: Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People - Artist of the Year: Adele - Album of the Year: Wasting Light by Foo Fighters Books: - Best Novel: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obeht - Best Nonfiction: Boomerang by Michael Lewis It's important to note that these awards are all for the United States iTunes Store. In some cases, Apple gave awards to different items in different countries. For example, Djay was awarded iPad App of the Year honors in the UK, while Tiny Wings won iPhone Game of the Year in the UK and Australia. Instagram isn't the first photography app to win App of the Year award. In 2010, Hipstamatic took home App of the Year honors. Plants vs. Zombies won the Game of the Year award that year. covered iTunes Rewind in 2010 and 2009, as well. Read More

Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nate Bolt runs the UX firm Bolt | Peters, teaches design research at SVA iXD, and made that one SF to Paris time lapse. I get asked a lot why Instagram is so popular. It might be because we just threw the first iPhone photography conference, 1197, or because I allegedly run a company that studies and designs interfaces. It could also be the world of photography is changing so fast that lots of us nerds are talking about how a tool like Instagram can pass 10 million users in 355 days. The interface implications are fascinating, the company and technology dynamics of serving content to 10 million users with less than ten employees are fascinating, the artistic content is fascinating, and the reasons why people like me are so addicted to the damn thing are fascinating. Here’s a crack at why, since I think some other attempts haven’t quite captured it. Quality The quality of camera phone images and filters, whether you love or hate them, is now relatively high. Instagram came along and offered the same quality and visual appeal as Hipstamatic and other phone apps, but added a simple and well-designed interface to let you choose filters after the photo was taken. The quality of the end image, along with the physical iPhone camera, just hit a certain threshold of quality where the images became visually appealing. Even if you compare Instagram photos to professional Adobe Lightroom plug-ins, Photoshop Actions, and all the tricks and desktop software that photographers use, Instagram photos have a decent quality. The Instagram images are certainly not comparable, in terms of quality or resolution, duh, but the images are at least interesting. Of course there are all sorts of drawbacks, most notably in resolution, but the quality is simply high enough to make iPhone users feel there is some artistic merit to their images. And sometimes there is. I’m not going to say how Instagram compares to film because I know film photographers who will slit my throat while I sleep. But the image above, for example, is from one of my favorite Instagram users, Cole Rise, who is the creator of the Rise filter. It shows how an iPhone photo can approach the same technical quality as a DSLR. Even the original Instagram interface had close attention to quality – it was simple but well-designed. I heard Tony Fadell (creator of Nest and former iPod SVP) at Brooklyn Beta this year talk about the need for artistic passion in creating great technology experiences. Instagram delivers one Read More

By Lisa Caplan on November 9th, 2011 We look at four classic favorite apps for creating or editing photos with stunning special effects. Last week we looked at the best camera replacement apps for the iPhone native app. So, this week we wanted to continue the theme, this time looking at apps that focus on adding those ever-popular effects and filters. Many of the choices feature a camera replacement component, but all do unique things to produce end results that are anything but the average cell camera shot, no matter how high the resolution. All of these apps will make even casual photographers look like virtual experts. Instagram Instagram is all about effects and sharing and it’s completely free. This long-time user favorite allows shutter bugs to shoot right from the app or use existing images in the photo album and easily add custom filters. Most photo apps have social media integration but Instgram can actually be classified as a social networking app. Users can share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, but also less common options ike Posterous and Foursquare and even has a huge community that interacts with likes and comments. FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-10-06 :: Category: Photography 360 Panorama For panoramic images 360 Panorama is our choice. This universal app allows users to take ad then patch together photos seamlessly to create breath-taking immersive images. The app uses the gyroscope to give users a full 360 view and stitches the images with amazing speed. $0.99 Released: 2010-07-30 :: Category: Photography Pro HDR For truly detailed images, high dynamic range photography (HDR) is the way to go. Pro HDR takes a lot of the hassle out of getting the images to look sharp and brilliant in all conditions. This app takes multiple pictures of the same thing with different settings to highlight or fix specific areas and them merges them together. The results are near 8 mega-pixel image quality. This is the only HDR camera app that automates the process, but for those with advanced photography skills there is also a manual option for setting exposure of the images that will make up the final composition. $1.99 Released: 2009-12-21 :: Category: Photography Hipstmatic For vintage effects like we got in the 1970′s with plastic encased toy-like cameras which gave very analog results, Hipstamatic is the go-to app for iPhone photographers. Read More

By Rob LeFebvre on October 28th, 2011 We've got more time than you do to scour price drop lists. Here are three more top app deals for the day. Look, it’s not your fault. You have a busy life. Go ahead and slow down, let us take care of running through all the crazy long price drop lists for you and find you the top three sweet deals for the day. You know you want to. Here’s what we have for you today: Inspire Pro – Was $7.99, now $0.99From our review: “Inspire Pro is a spectacular painting app for the iPad, and its price makes it even more enticing. Even those with more ability to appreciate art than create it, like me, will see the enduring value of an app like Inspire.” The Creeps! HD – Was $1.99, now FREEOur reviewer said, “I’ve played tower defense games for years. I experienced my first taste of them on Warcraft 3, with the huge variety of fan-made TDs created with Warcraft 3′s map editor. I’ve seen a ridiculous amount of features in a ridiculous amount of defense games, The Creeps! is one of the few that’s got it right.” Incredibooth – Was $0.99, now FREEOur review said, “IncrediBooth does an amazing job of bringing those retro style photo booths straight to your phone. Using the iPhone 4′s front facing camera you can quickly take a strip of photos using one of the lenses offered.” Read More

By Leanna Lofte, Friday, Oct 21, 2011 | Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you! IncrediBooth: A Photo Booth in your Pocket – Awesome Photo Strips Anywhere! [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link] Convert Any Unit: Convert between units quickly, and easily without first choosing a category. Just start typing your unit and the app will pop up probable choices as you type! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link] BOGOF Price Comparison: So, which is the better buy? Six-packs of 500ml beverages (costing £7.50 each) in a “Get 3 for the Price of 2″ offer OR a crate of twenty 12fl oz beverages that normally costs £15, but has a 10% deduction off the marked price. With BOGOF you’ll have the answer, and be saving money, in seconds. [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link] Lotto Alert: For people that play Mega Millions, Powerball and all other lotteries available in the United States. It is a feature packed lottery application that notifies the users of a win. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link] MONSTER HUNTER Dynamic Hunting: New weapons and monsters! On sale for a limited time! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link] Any other big app or game releases or updates today? Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look. Read More

Loved by some, hated by others, the art of applying a special filter to a picture taken with your iPhone has exploded in popularity over the past year or so.  In fact, it has become so popular, there’s talk of a similar feature becoming standard in iOS 5.  In the meantime, those wanting to add filters to their pictures should take a look at any one of the following apps, all of which have a catalog of filters to give even the dreariest of snaps a new lease of life. A great cross-platform photo-sharing social network.  Take a photo from within the app, or select one from your Camera Roll, then add a filter of your choice.  There are nine to choose from, each with the option of adding a border, and the chance to share your uploaded pic through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and many others.  Free. One of the very best camera and photography applications you’ll find, which should be purchased whether you want the filters or not – it’s really that good!  A wide variety of filters are included in the standard app, plus another selection is available through an in-app purchase.  $0.99/£0.69. Like PicPlz, Instagram is a photo-sharing social network with plenty of filters included for you to try out.  The difference is, it’s for the iPhone only.  In addition to the filters, a tilt-shift blur feature has recently been added, and like PicPlz, your pictures can be shared on other social networks too.  Free. With an emphasis on the ‘little plastic toy camera’ look, here you can ‘change’ lenses, flashes and film to give your pictures a unique look.  Along with social network sharing, Hipstamatic holds monthly competitions and offers the chance to print out real photos too.  The app also has various in-app purchases for other effects.  $1.99/£1.49. Recently updated, this newly refreshed app provides the chance to combine filters together to create even more eye-catching designs.  The app is free to download, but if you want to add more filters you’ll have to pay an in-app purchase.  Free. Like Camera+, Photogene is more than just a few filters in an app, it has color adjustments, cropping, frames, effects and a very effective resize option – perfect for sending photos from your phone.  $1.99/£1.49. A universal app for the iPhone and iPad 2, this official Photoshop app works in conjunction with Photoshop.com, and offers filters, cropping, Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011 | Apple’s iOS 5 built-in a lot of new, basic functionality previously filled by 3rd party App Store apps, which effectively “Sherlocked” those apps, rendering them redundant in a post-iOS 5 world. Or did it? There’s a world of difference between basic functionality that serves the needs of only the most casual user, and advanced functionality with enough control and features to satisfy a hardcore pro. What Apple did with iOS 5, as with previous generations of iOS, is take away the entry-level business of several prominent 3rd party apps, but still left them with the premium, higher order market. While it’s always dangerous creating an enterprise based on glaring functionality holes Apple will almost certainly fill at some point in the future, there’s just as much opportunity building a great product that Apple’s entry into the space can benefit. Here are a 5 apps (and a couple things more) I think could make that case. Marco Arment’s excellent read-it-later client, Instapaper, which strips away everything but body content from web articles and lets you store it on his web service and access it via a paid iOS app, at first glance, looks threatened by Apple’s new Reader and Reading List features in iOS 5 for iPad and iPhone, and OS X Lion Safari. However, as any long term Instapaper user knows (and Arment himself will tell you), Instapaper goes far beyond the bare-bones, Readabiliy-derived, bookmark-synced implementation Apple is providing. Arment uses the example of how Apple baking RSS into Safari and Mail hasn’t hurt dedicated RSS readers like Google Reader, Reeder, NetNewsWire, etc., and it’s not a terrible. While Google’s entry into navigation (with the free Google Maps Navigation) was met by a similar response from traditional turn-by-turn navigation vendors, Instapaper isn’t a recurring monthly charge or a massive up-front expenditure. It is well regarded and has a devoted install base, and more importantly it has a passionate and creative developer who’s probably as happy to occupy the high end against Reader/Reading List the way MacBook’s occupy it against cheap netbooks. Arment was smart, however, to drop the free version before Apple launched Reader/Reading List. Just like Apple put a hurt on HDR (high dynamic range) app makers with iOS 4, the addition of Twitter integration, gridlines, and basic photo editing tools will be challenging for App Store apps that previously filled those Read More