Imagine dining at a sumptuous, football-field-sized smorgasbord where all your friends and acquaintances have made and brought tantalizing morsels for you. And it’s all yours to sample, as you glide past table after stacked table. On ice skates.
Now replace the food with photos, and you’ll understand the draw of Cooliris (assuming you like looking at photos; and since the toaster is probably the last remaining electric gadget not equipped with either a camera or a way to display images, it’s a safe assumption).
And the iOS app is even cooler now that it’s just been seamlessly integrated with Dropbox.
I’ve never had much luck with Google Goggles; it’s a fancy feature tacked on to the Google Search iOS app that’s supposed to return search results related to any item or text photographed from within the app. But it’s sent me shopping for dresses after I’ve snapped a picture of speakers, and told tried to conduct searches using text it thinks its found — when their wasn’t any.
Brand-spanking-new CamFind attempts more-or-less the same trick — only it’s better at it.
Autodesk has a stunning — and I’m not using the word lightly here — catalog of free design-focused iOS apps that do everything from applying filters to photos, to drawing on your iPad — or even turning the subject of an iPhone photo into a 3D model. Now, they’re taking their deep knowledge of modeling, physics and mechanics and using it to make iPad apps that’ll teach your kids cool stuff. For free.
Hubbl’s Passbook page (left), and Cult of Mac’s channel in the Hubbl app. You’ve added our feed, right?
If you’ve been catching our Daily Freebie posts, you’ve no doubt snagged some of the fantastic free apps out there — or been alert enough to snag an amazing deal when this or that killer app goes free for a short time. But there are other tools that help make sure you don’t miss out on all those great free apps. Hubbl is one of those tools and we’ve mentioned it in the past — but now it’s got a cool new trick that we’ve never seen before.
Yeah yeah, Vine is all the rage right now. But remember Socialcam, the share-heavy iOS video app from effects-wizard Autodesk? If you don’t, here’s a reminder that the app is a sharp tool for shooting and sharing quick vids on Facebook — and it’s just been spiced up with HDR, new filters and the ability to shoot in 720p.
Some have the mad iPhone movie-making skillz of an Anderson or a Scorsese. Others, not so much. If you fall in the latter category, don’t worry — just jam some fancy graphics in there with the free Jollyfy app and you’re good to go.
It’s a pretty simple process. Fire up the app, pick a theme (the app’s App Store page says there are hundreds to choose from) and start shooting.
There’s nothing quite like hunting for something misplaced to drive one crazy. If you’ve ever lost a set of keys or Bluetooth headset under a couch pillow, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And if just the thought of a scenario like that triggers a burst of panic, you’ll want to pay close attention here — because Item TrackR just might keep you from losing more stuff, along with your remaining marbles.
A year ago I was working on a pretty large project with a buddy. We were hundreds of miles apart, but since we both had iPads, we figured, hey, no problem — collaboration will be easy.
But it wasn’t. Despite the wealth of iPad apps, none of them were quite the collaboration tool we wanted; too expensive, or lacking a particular feature, or not easy enough to use. I wish Moxtra had been around a year ago.
For all those unilingual schmos who’ve thought they were telling some lucky foreigner “hey, I like the cut of your jib” in another tongue, but instead said something like “you chicken dance the burning planets,” I sympathize. And also laugh. To make up for the laughing, here’s a tip — a trick app to pull out next time: Sendboo. It’s a free app that automatically translates your “hey, baby” to “olá, bebê” — or into 29 other languages besides Portuguese. Fantástico.
There are weather apps, and then there are weather apps; Nooly is, apparently, the latter. Nooly is so accurate, its press release claims, the app “is capable of predicting the exact minute it will rain or snow and can do so effectively, wherever you are, for every 0.4 square miles.” That’s pretty precise.
