App review-Photogene

Hello all and before I start I would just like to say a big thank you to those that support this blog. This week the site had it's 2000th visitor which is way more than I ever expected to get! I was looking at the stats the other day and I have had visits from all over the world. I forget that this is the "World Wide Web"!

It has been a busy week for Apple as they announced the roll out of the iPad 2 and, more importantly for us, the newest version of the iPhone 4 operating system. IOS version 4.3 will be available on March 11th so make sure you have all updated iTunes to 10.2 ready for the big day! I will, of course, bring you a comprehensive review of what is new with IOS 4.3.

Anyway back on topic. In my last review I promised that I would do a more thorough review of a couple of apps. Being a man of my word today I bring you one of those reviews. Today's review is on,

Photogene. 4.1mb and £1.19 from the Apple App store.

When I first got my iPhone 4 I spent a lot of time and a fair bit of money looking for a decent photo editing app. There are many such apps on the Apple App store and a majority of them were either way too complicated for me! or filled with features I would never use. However having spent a fair few hours using Photogene, I can honestly say it is the best app in its class that is currently available.

Photogene has every setting you can ever wish for when touching up pictures you have taken with your iPhone. It is very straight forward and brilliantly laid out making the job of editing pictures fun. If you couple that with the fact that the end results are more than acceptable what you have is the perfect bit of software.

I will run through each setting giving a brief description of what they do but remember that half the fun is trying different effects!

Login screen

As seen in the image above, the login screen gives you three options. I generally don't edit my pictures at the time they are taken. I prefer to do it in comfort with a cuppa! 

Once you have selected to load an image or take a picture, the said image will be loaded to a default screen with a list of icons on the left hand side.

default screen

If you hover your finger over the icons there is a text pop up which will tell you what each icon signifies. You can move the image anywhere on the screen and zoom or shrink using the 2 finger pinch gesture.

The first icon on the left is the crop feature.

Crop.

crop screen

When you crop an image you are basically removing areas of a picture you no longer wish to be included in the final result.

In the crop setting you can either elect to choose a preset or, more commonly chosen, choose to crop the image manually.

I always choose to manually crop my images and it is made so easy with Photogene. You will notice from the image above that there is a box which contains a lighter version of the image along with blue spots on each corner. Simply touch and drag the spots to choose the area you wish to work with. Cropping is made easier by the grid that pops up within the image. This grid is there to help you construct a well balanced picture.

Within the grid there is also a number which indicates what size resolution you are currently working with.

Once you are happy with your cropped image click on the crop button. Remember that no decision is final with Photogene. You can press the undo arrow, the reset button or the cancel button at anytime should you be unhappy with the result.

The next section is the rotate section.

Rotate.

rotate screen

In the rotate screen you can move the image around its vertical and horizontal axis as well as rotate the image by 90 degrees at a time either to the left or the right.

In addition you can also choose to straighten the picture, again there is a pop up grid to help you.

Now we are moving on to the fun part of the app. The next icon on the list is the filters icon.

Filters.

filter screen

It is at this point that you can really let the "creative juices" flow! Even I enjoy the following screens and I have zero artistic abilities!!

Your picture will default to the sharpen setting along with a slider bar. Sharpen does exactly what it says, it gives the picture more definition. Here is a handy tip, always zoom in to the area you wish to sharpen. In this case it will be the boat as this is the main object of this image, unless of course you want to concentrate on the canal bank!

Once I have zoomed in I will move the slider by very small increments until I am happy with the image. Remember there are no hard and fast rules when editing a picture. What I may find acceptable will look completely wrong to someone else.

Once you are happy you can then select more filter effects by touching the sharpen box. This will bring up 7 more choices including pencil, blur and black and white.

more filter choices

Again you can play around with these settings to get the image of your choice. Again please remember that nothing is final. You can change your mind and roll back at any time so don't be afraid to experiment.

The next icon is for the colour adjust setting.

Colour adjust.

colour adjust screen

This screen looks a little more complicated but it isn't. Within colour adjust there are many settings to make improvements to contrast, colour saturation, colour temperature etc.

If you wish you can click the auto button where available or, if like me, you can have a "play" with each of the level settings. It is surprising by how much you can improve the original image using the colour adjust and some really good results are possible, particularly if you are using a black and white image.

The next icon in the list is for the symbols setting.

Symbols.

symbols screen

The symbols screen allows you to insert any one of a variety of speech bubbles. Now this is not really necessary as an image improvement but it can make for some funny pictures none the less.

All of the text bubbles are configurable on screen, you can alter the colour and border as well as the text from here.

symbol screen

symbol screen

As I have already mentioned, using your imagination and the available choices can produce some really funny results. This is a setting I have really started to use when editing family and friends images!!

The next icon in the list is for the frames settings.

frames screen

This setting allows you to apply a choice of frame should you so wish. As with the other settings, Photogene provides a really good selection of frames and frame effects. Sometimes adding a frame can really set the image off well.

In addition to frames you can also select different back ground colours, which again can make a real difference to the finished image.

background setting

background setting

That is the last of the image editing features. The last icon gives you a variety of choices as to what you want to do with the finished image.

last screen

From here you can choose to save the image to the iPhones photo albums. You also have a choice of image size and resolution. You can also upload the image to your FaceBook, Twitter or Flicker account or email it.

Conclusions.

I really do like Photogene. It is a cracking piece of software that is well supported by its makers. There have already been a number of excellent updates which are free and indications are that it will stay that way.

For the money I have yet to see better on the Apple App store but I have definitely seen and used worse.

The interface for this app is clean and easily understood and the final results are very good, even to my untrained eye!

I give Photogene 5/5 it really is that good.

Hopefully some of you will give it a go, you never know I may even see the results one day on the interweb!!

Andy

Hot Apps

Hi there and I hope you are all well and rested after the half term break last week. My wife and I went to stay at The Lifeboat Inn in Thornham, Norfolk last week. Despite the weather we had a great time and the break was just what we both needed.

Today I will introduce you to five apps that I think you will like. With so many to choose from, over 250,000 on the Apple App store, it can be difficult to find the good ones and I often read reviews like this before making the choices myself.
Included in the description is the size of the app so you are aware of how much disk space theses apps will use.
All the apps I review on this site I use personally and whilst I will generally introduce the good ones I will, from time to time, warn you against apps I think are a waste of money.
Anyway back on topic and to let you know that all the following are available from the Apple App store. The first app I will start with is,

The FreeAppADay.com (5.3mb) free download

FAAD icon

FAAD is an app that looks for free apps on the Apple App store. It is updated daily and in general it offers 5 or 6 apps at a time. It also looks for apps that are available at a reduced price but I tend to wait until they are free!
A majority of the apps are available from both the US and UK app stores and are only available for 24 hours a time.
I check with FAAD daily and have come across some real bargains since I have been using it.

today's free apps

FAAD is simple to use and once on the selection screen you side scroll through the daily choices. There is a preview screen which gives a more detailed description and it links directly to the official Apple App store for downloading.
Don't expect to find apps you want on a daily basis but you can usually find a few during the week that are worth looking at.

The next app on my list is called,

TechUpdate (3.9mb) 59p

TechUpdate icon

TechUpdate gives you access to over 27 tech based blog sites from one app. Before I used this app I had at least 6 separate apps on my device but since using this they have all been deleted.
TechUpdate gives you access to all the popular sites such as Engadget, MacRumours, Mashable and Apple Insider etc and all are updated regularly so the news is literally "hot off the press"!

default main screen

more choices

There is an added bonus with this app in so much that, even when it is closed, it will update in the background and the content is viewable without access to the Internet.

The main screen is fully editable so you can easily set it up with your favourite blog sites on one page.

configuration page

This is an app I consider to be essential if you like to stay abreast of what is new. I like the layout and the ease of use, even an old git like me can use it! Well worth the 59p and a has a permanent place on my device.

The next app is called,

System Manager (2.9mb) free

System Manager icon

System Manager is an app that allows you to manage all the active processes on your iPhone.

It is beautifully laid out with visual references for items such as disk space, battery condition, active processes etc.

I use this a lot and have found it to be invaluable when I want to monitor how much free disc space I have left. It also gives you full information about the device such as its ID and network connections etc.

disc space page

This also has a little gem that really does improve your devices performance.

There will be many times when you find that your iPhone feels laggy in performance, even when you have closed down all inactive apps. Well with System Manager you can go one stage further by manually refreshing the amount of free RAM that is available.

If you refresh prior to playing games or using one of the more memory intensive apps you will find that your iPhone runs a lot smoother.

RAM page

There is a host of useful and interesting information stored on this app as well as tips on improving battery life and performance.

This is another app I use daily and whilst some may be scared off by its apparent "geekiness", let me say that by just using the RAM refresh your iPhone experience will be vastly improved.

We are now down to the final two apps for today. I intend to do a full review of both of these in the next few days because they are, in my opinion, two of the most essential apps currently available.

The first of these is,

WhatsApp Messenger (6.1mb) 59p

WhatsApp Messenger icon



This is a cross platform, smartphone messenger. By using this brilliant app you can text anyone who has a smart phone whether its an iPhone, Android, Nokia or Blackberry and this is done without having to have to log in or have an easily forgotten user name and password.

chat screen

WhatsApp Messenger has a multitude of uses. You can group chat, send audio messages and send video or picture images for free. In other words wave goodbye to paying for SMS messages when you use this app! 

choices, choices!

This app is a pleasure to use. It is nicely laid out and easily configurable to your choice. I use it daily and can even chat with my friends who were stupid enough not to buy the iPhone!

The final bonus to this app is that you will incur no charges even if you are using it with someone who is abroad!

OK we are down to the final app in this article.

There are so many photo editing apps available that I found it very difficult to settle on one alone. I have tried them all, literally and have come to the conclusion that the following is the best. The app in question is,

Photogene (4.1mb) £1.19

Photogene icon

If you enjoy taking photos and tinkering about with the images on your iPhone then Photogene is the app for you.

Unlike many of the leading competitors, this app is intuitively laid out, easy to pick up and learn and the end results are excellent.

Photogene allows you to perform all the necessary changes to images such as crop, rotate, straighten, sharpen etc. You can post your finished picture on Facebook and Twitter amongst just some of the choices.

The interface is clean and very user friendly with a little practise you will make improvements to your pictures you thought were not possible.

Below are images of just some of the various settings available to the user.







As I have already mentioned, I will be doing a more in depth review of this app later this week but suffice to say that if you purchase Photogene you will not be disappointed.

I hope this post has given you some good ideas of just some of the excellent apps available. I have collected hundreds so if you have a question about an app not covered in this post, feel free to leave your question in the comments box.

Andy

Type Top Bluetooth Mini Keyboard Case for the iPhone 4

Hello again and I cannot believe that another week has literally flown by! I don't know about you lot but doesn't Xmas seem an age ago?

Today I am going to do another product review for an item that seems to becoming ever more popular. The item in question is the,

Type Top Bluetooth Mini Keyboard Case for the iPhone 4.

The Type Top Case

The Type Top Case (abbreviated lol!) is a leather case that comes with a removable mini, bluetooth keyboard and is available from this blogs sponsor, MobileFun and is competatively priced at £29.95. It is only available in black. It fills the gap in the market for those of us who still like the feel of a traditional keyboard, particularly when composing long emails or notes etc.

What's in the box?

The product consists of the case, the keyboard, a USB to mini USB lead for charging the keyboard, a screen protector and a set of simple instructions.
The Type Top is a flip style, leather case which is very well made and will certainly protect your phone from minor impacts and scratches. It is purpose designed for the iPhone 4.
The case is fitted with a built in stand and a magnetic fastener, the stand is really handy for the times when you are sat at a desk. When not in use it simply folds away and is secured at the rear of the case magnetically.

The case showing the stand and camera cut out

The case has a good size cut out for the camera and flash and is also well designed, allowing easy access to the iPhones controls.

Easy access to the volume and silence controls

The iPhone is fitted to the case by gently pushing it into a snap fitting. As always I recommend you fit the device button side first and, when fitting your device into the case, take care as it is an extremely snug fit. There is definately no danger of the iPhone falling out of this case!
One note of caution when removing your iPhone, do so by gently prizing one side of the snap fitting away from the device. It took me a little while to find the easiest way of removing the iPhone due to the snug fitting!

The bluetooth keyboard is only 11.4cm in length and weighs in at a tiny 45g. It is easily fitted into the case by sliding it into its frame.
The keyboard has a built in rechargeable battery so draws no power from your iPhone. The battery lasts 100 hours between charges which is more than ample.

How does it perform?

The bluetooth keyboard is a little gem. The buttons are rubberised and have a lovely, tactile feel to them. They may look a little small but even my "manly" sized fingers can cope easily!



Keyboard

It is full QWERTY with additional, multimedia buttons so music playback and watching videos is a breeze. The keyboard is charged using the USB to mini USB lead that is provided. It has a small on/off switch and also an auto off function which is very handy. It takes about 3 hours to fully charge from fully discharged.
The case is a little bulky, as one would expect, but all in all the user experience is surprisingly good with the keyboard performing flawlessly.
For those of you who would prefer a different style, the Type Top is also available in QWERTZ  (German) or AZERTY (French).
The integral stand is a great idea when sat at the desk typing or watching a video, it just shows how much thought has been put into this case.


Stand in use

Overall

The Type Top Bluetooth Mini Keyboard Case does exactly what it says on the tin and does it well. For the price, it should make a welcome addition to anyone's case collection.

I give this case a blistering 9/10!

Andy

App of the week-Where to?

Hello again. I hope you are all well and having a good week whatever you are doing.

In the past I have done App reviews, hopefully you find them useful. The Apple App store has in excess of 250k Apps available for download so choosing a decent one can be a real headache. I will only preview ones that I like personally and here is an App that has caught my eye.

Today I want to introduce you to Where to? , an App produced by Future Tap and available for download for £1.79. 



Where To?

What is Where To?

Where To? is a travel and information app although it is stored under navigation in the App store.

What does it do?

Where to? will help you find any sort of service from hotels to fishmongers! It provides the name, address, telephone number, map and route to it from your location. It currently has in excess of 2k of stored services and also includes a search feature should you want to find something really obscure! Now this app sounds like it could be really confusing but that is not the case. It functions and looks brilliant.

Key feature.

Search.

Where To? searches from this excellent wheel type icon.

search page

Highlight the "categories" tab and it will bring up this screen, each of the 11 icons is a sub menu. For example I am looking for dog kennels so I click on the "services" spanner which brings up a list of different types of service, all listed alphabetically. You can also do a direct search by highlighting the magnifying glass icon top left and typing in "Kennels" in the search box if you prefer.

I scroll down to "kennels",

"services" sub menu

and click on "Kennels".

Kennels listing

This brings up the Kennels listing and starts with those closest to your location.
I have decided to look at the first in the list so click on Debdale Grange,

details page

This page tells me that Debdale Grange is 2.4 miles, "as the crow flies",  from my current location and provides all the relevant details. At this point you can choose to add the Kennels to your iPhone phonebook, share on Facebook, Twitter or send the details by text or email. You can also look at a map, or ask for directions. You can also use the phone number from this page by clicking on it.

I have decided I want to see where it is on the map so I click on the "Open in Maps" tab which brings up a Google Earth map and shows where the Kennels are,

map screen

I now select "directions" which brings up a route map.

route map

The "route map" tells me it will take 10 minutes to reach the destination by car, I'm not fit enough to walk there lol!

If I click on start it will take me to the navigation screen,

navigation screen

I can now follow the directions which are very detailed. You can also scroll through the entire journey using the arrow icons at the top of the screen and it will bring up screens like this,

route screen

route screen

Because "Where To?" uses Google Earth you can even view your final destination!

final destination!

As you can see, "Where To?" provides all the details you could possibly wish for, I even defy my Mother In Law to get lost whilst using this brilliant app!

"Where To?" also has a Virtual Reality setting, ideal for finding stores in a busy shopping centre. This is purchasable "in app" for only 59 pence.

Overall

"Where To" is a well designed, well thought out app that is really interesting to use. It gives you invaluable information, lets face it, it costs less than half a pint of lager! Two phone calls to directory enquiries and you have covered your costs.

I have used it a few times now, without fault.

This is a brilliant travel companion and for the price, can you really afford not to have it?

I give "Where To?" a thoroughly deserved 9/10.

Andy

Item review - Flexishield Wave case for the iPhone 4

Hello again on what is a really nice, almost spring like afternoon! It wont be long until we have the light nights and warm days and I for one cannot wait!

Today's post is a review of another case. The amount of new cases coming onto the market is amazing and I am really grateful to Natalie and the guys at MobileFun.co.uk for providing me with some to review. Hopefully these reviews will help as a guide to the better ones out there, but I also appreciate that cases are very much a matter of personal taste.

Today's case on review is the,

Flexishield Wave case for the iPhone 4.



Flexishield Wave case


This case is a cracker and is available from MobileFun.co.uk for the amazing price of £9.99.

What's in the box?

Unlike many manufacturers who provide a goody bag, this case comes on it's own. For the price I cannot complain and read on because this is probably one of the best, value for money, cases currently available.

Description.

The Flexishield Wave is very stylish in design and is made of two materials. The clear part is made of a very sturdy polycarbonate whilst the rest is made of a gel like silicon rubber. This silicon is extremely grippy and has a very nice feel to it. I cannot foresee anyone dropping their iPhone through losing their grip. Flexishield have even provided a pitted grip area to both sides which makes dropping the device even less likely!

The Flexishield Wave has well designed cut outs for the iPhones buttons and ports and is slim enough that using a third party set of earphones will not cause any problems. The camera and flash cutout will cause no problems when taking pictures.

Base of the iPhone showing 30 pin dock connector plug

Volume controls and silent switch

Camera and flash cutout

Using the Flexishield Wave case.

If, like me, you use a screen protector then you need to take your time when installing your iPhone as I found that the case did cause a little bubbling around the edges of the protector. This wasn't a big issue for me but I did install my device with care.
I always fit my iPhone "button side" first as I find this the easiest way. Once fitted I spent a minute making sure that the edges of the case were all fitting correctly.
The iPhone is certainly very snug once in the case, there is no fear of the device falling out!

You may have noticed that I use a 30 pin connector plug which is available, for very little cost, from that famous, online retailer! These plugs prevent dust and such like from getting into the iPhone, I also use a 3.5mm audio jack plug for the same reason.

From the pictures you will see that the case really does show the iPhone off well. The clear section has a really nice design to it and people often ask what case it is when I use it.

The Flexishield Wave case provides a certain amount of "lay on the table" design which is always a welcome feature. For those who don't know what "lay on the table" means, it means that the case has a slight "lip" to the front which raises the screen from the table and prevents it from getting scratched.

"lay on the table" design

As I have mentioned, the case has a really nice, grippy feel to it. It certainly feels nice in the hand. The materials used will provide a reasonable amount of protection to the iPhone, the case also feels very durable.

Overall.

I really like the Flexishield Wave case. It is certainly very attractive and sets the iPhone off really well. Not only is it stylish, it is also a protective case. Whilst not in the league of some of the "ballistic" style cases, with normal use your iPhone will be well protected.
For £9.99 I was not expecting much and I was pleasantly surprised. Hats off to Flexishield for this one!

I give the case 4.5/5.

Just a reminder guys. If you want to see a seriously good collection of iPhone 4 cases then click on the highlighted link.

Andy

Item review-Cellular Line Retractable Car Charger

Good morning one and all. I hope I find you all fit and well and looking forward to whatever challenges await this year!
In this post I intend to ease myself back into writing by reviewing a simple yet great item which possibly has the longest name! The item in question is the,

Cellular Line Retractable Car Charger

Cellular Line Retractable Car Charger



In car chargers are, in my opinion, an essential item these days particularly for anyone who is a heavy iPhone user. There is nothing worse than getting halfway through the day only to find your device is nearly out of charge. The Cellular Line Retractable Car Charger is available from MobileFun.co.uk and is priced at £10.18.

What's in the box?

Straight out of the box

The Cellular Line Retractable car charger comes nicely packaged and other than the charger, it comes with a set of user instructions. However the device is so simple to use these instructions should not be required!

What makes this charger so different from all the others?

Now most of us that have used in car chargers will know that they can be a real nuisance when not in use. The cable invariably tangles with the contents of the vehicles glove box, or wherever else it is stored. This is where this charger stands out as the charging lead is retractable at the touch of a button thus making it a lot easier to store between uses. 

In addition to the retractable lead, this charger can be used in either 12v or 24v sockets so this covers most, if not all vehicles. It is also has auto shut down thus turning itself off once your device is fully charged.

The lead partially extended

The charger in use.

To use, one simply plugs it into the vehicles electrical socket. Then pull the lead to the required length, plug into your iPhone or iPod. Once connected the LED shines bright blue.
Once your device is fully charged, simply unplug and then press the charger button located next to the LED light. The lead will retract very quickly so my advice is to hold it as you press the button thus allowing the lead to retract slowly and preventing any damage to the charger or your fingers!

Overall impressions.

The Cellular Line Retractable Car Charger is made of a sturdy plastic. It is stylish and very well constructed and with normal use, should last for years.
It stands out from other chargers due to the retractable charging lead, which is a brilliant feature.
Overall I would give this item 5/5.

For those of you who use, have access to the HTC Wildfire, why not check out this link for a great range of chargers for your device.

HTC Wildfire Chargers

Andy

I'm back!

Hello all and a very happy, if somewhat belated New Year!

I have been absent for about 6 weeks and there is a story behind it so read on lol!

Last December I was due to go into Hospital for surgery on my neck. For a few weeks prior to this I had felt really grotty and a week before my hospital stay I went down with the flu. No not "man flu" but the pucker version! My GP sent me home and for a week I was in a different world and it was not a pleasant place to be!

Fortunately I was well enough to go from my "death bed" at home to a hospital bed at the Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary, well if you call that fortunate lol! This was for surgery to remove a disc from my neck and various bits of bone that were pinching my spinal chord! This is in relation to an accident I had in 1998 and was the second time I have had this particular op. I have shrunk by about 3 inches due to losing most of the discs in my neck!

I went in on 23rd December, yes how lucky was I!, and was released on 24th in time for Xmas. However my Xmas was spent sleeping off the anaesthetic and feeling rather grim.
The recovery for this operation takes time and it is only really today that I have felt well enough to sit at my PC. Six weeks worth of emails to sort out has had me swearing a fair bit!

Anyway enough about me. I hope you all had a great Xmas and were lucky in the "gifts received" department.

I shall be back posting regularly again, if any of you have items you would like me to consider etc then please let me know.