 Tags: atypical-games, before-the-game, france, game, image, online, played-the-game, playing-the-mac, richard-devine, storm-raiders, week
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Hottest Mobile Phone News & Reviews | PhoneInferno
Beyond having an odd sounding name, Oggl is the latest creation by the long serving team at Hipstamatic. The app just went live in the App Store, but at the moment it requires an invitation code to use — though you can apply for one in the app. But, what exactly is it? The official tagline reads as: “A community of creative people capturing & curating their Lives through photography.” So that’ll be a social photo sharing service then, will it?
Anyone who knows Hipstamatic knows that the fundamental principle stands around applying filters to your photos. Pretty common these days, but Hipstamatic has been doing it for a number of years now. When it comes to the social aspect, there’s only one clear market leader; Instagram. So, is Oggl just an Instagram clone, or does it offer something more?
The main ‘timeline’ view is a definite improvement on the way Instagram attacks it. It’s much cleaner, much simpler, with no usernames or comments on display it’s all about the photos. You can customize what it is you want to see, be that from people you follow, editors choices, global or at the moment there’s a special featured selection to see photos from San Francisco. When you see something you like, tapping on the image brings up the user information, and the lens and film combination they used to shoot it.
That then gives you the option to take that combination, and automatically select it to shoot your own images with. I quite like this touch. Quite often I’ll see an effect in a photo that I really like the look of, and having the chance to use it myself in a couple of taps is really handy. Of course, it won’t make me a better photographer, though.
So, onwards to the shooting side of Oggl, Hipstamatic’s bread and butter. The camera app itself is pretty nice, with the different effects being applied during shooting. Below the viewfinder are the selections for film type and lens type, along with some preset effects made up of a specific combination of film and lens. You aren’t bound to applying the effects before taking the shot either. If you don’t like it, you can change it up using the same effects afterwards.
The camera button remains at the top or bottom of each view throughout the app, so wherever you are it’s only a single tap to access shooting mode. To the left of the shutter button is one-tap access to your Oggl gallery, and to the right of it is your exit point back to the global feed. So far then, so good.
It’s when we get to the sharing that things become a little, peculiar. With Instagram, you hit the camera button, take your shot, edit it, tag it and upload it to whichever of the available services you desire. With Oggl, you take the photos, and then you have to go get them and decide what to do with them. It isn’t difficult, but I have to admit that it took me a few minutes to figure it all out. With a sharing service, you would expect to take a photo, then share it pretty much straight away, not leave it sitting in a gallery.
Perhaps oddly too, Instagram is one of the available sharing services for Oggl. The other usual candidates are there: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare and Tumblr, but being able to share to Instagram also seems like a strange move. The main Hipstamatic app can also share to Instagram, I just can’t quite get my head around why you would use something like Oggl, only to then send the photos to Instagram.
This becomes an even stranger thought when you take into account the yearly subscription that Hipstamatic is charging for full access to Oggl. Priced at .99 quarterly or .99 yearly, paying up serves two purposes. The first is keeping Oggl free of all forms of advertising and keeping the app as a free download. The App Store listing puts it better than I could:
Oggl is an experience designed for capturing and curating beautiful photos, not for showcasing advertising. To support this vision for the community, Oggl will offer two subscription options: Quarterly for .99 & Yearly for .99. While Oggl itself will always remain free, each subscription comes with access to Hipstamatic’s entire catalog of current lens and film gear, and guarantees new gear each month.
Oh yeah, and that’s the other benefit to paying up. While Oggl is free to use for everyone, none-paid members are classed as ‘contributors’ and only get access to a limited number of the photo effects. Paid members get access to Hipstamatic’s full catalog of filter packs.
The Good
- Well designed and good looking UI
- Sharing options a plenty
- Huge selection of effects for paid members
- Easy navigation, lots of one-tap access to various areas of the app
The Bad
- Slightly confusing method to sharing
- Limited effects available to free users
- Invite only at the moment
The Bottom Line
I want to love Oggl, really and truly I do. Instagram has always just felt like an extension of the other social networks to me, and like people tweet about anything and everything, there’s a tendency to Instagram anything and everything. And every meal. Oggl feels different though. They’re penning it as a way to curate and enjoy beautiful photography, and you do get that impression. The photos are always front and center, with the person who did it, where and how they did it and all that other business tucked out of the way.
Whether it will take off or not is another question. Whichever way you look at it, Instagram is free, and the best experience in Oggl is not. The average eye may see little difference between the two, only the mention of subscription fees, and then decide to stick with Instagram. And I still don’t know why you can share your Oggl photos to Instagram. If you want to do that, the main Hipstamatic app will do that for you. I’m going to give it a chance though. I’ve signed up for a three month subscription. I like what I see so far, lets see what I think three months down the line.
So, is Oggl more than an Instagram clone? In some ways, yes. It takes the same idea and makes it a better experience. But it’s going to need people using it to make it worthwhile.
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Tags: business, facebook, flickr, hipstamatic, image, instagram, moment, person, photo, photos, sharing, social, user
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Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week’s selections include a music library app, a photo editing app, a turn-based tactic game, a British magazine about Apple, and a simple dots game.
Ever heard of Wolfgang’s Vault? I’ve never heard of it until a couple of years ago despite the site existing since 2003. The site houses a massive library of music and live concert videos and was at one time referred to as “the most important collection of rock memorabilia and recordings ever assembled in one business”. Once offered to all for free, Wolfgang’s Vault is now a paid offering and even has a slick iOS app to go along with it.
The app itself is free to download and with free 7-day trial you can check out all the content available and decide if it’s worth the .99/month or .99/per year. Aside from just offering up a whole slew of audio content from rock, blues, jazz, folk and country legends it also offers access to the catalog of video as well. All of which is compatible with AirPlay and can be played back onto your TV. In short, if you’re a fan of any of the above genres of music, this app is worth the time to check out. It really is a gold mine for content and you really do need more than the 7-day free trial it offers to make your way through it.
I’m a sucker for photo editing apps and have two whole folders of them on my iPhone. One of my favorites is Afterlight mainly because it’s simple to use. I can apply lots of filters on top of each other or use it just to make basic enhancements. After you purchase the app, you’ll have access to all features except for scene clips. If you’d like those it’s an additional .99 in-app purchase.
If you simply want Afterlight as a simple way to edit photos on the go, you probably won’t have any interest in scene clips but if you do, you’ve got the option all in one app.
Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol is a turn-based tactics game set in World War 1. You command fighter aces in the skies above Europe, directing their movements and positioning them to take down the enemy while avoiding damage their own planes. Ace Patrol features both single- and multi-player modes. Move your fighters around by double-tapping the arrows that appear on the ground, which also allow your pilots to change altitude. While the game is initially free, giving you a chance to play through part of the British campaign, you will eventually need to pay .99 to go further. Additionally, there are other campaigns that you can purchase if you wish, one each for the Germans, Americans, and the French for .99 each, though you can pay .99 for all three of them. Finally, you can purchase and unlock several “Aces”, each with their own special traits. Ace Patrol is available for both iPhone and iPad as a universal download.
British based Apple magazine, MacFormat, is in the middle of celebrating a milestone for the publication. For 20 years now they have been publishing anything and everything Apple related, which is no small feat. To celebrate, they have re-published their very first issue which is available to download to Newsstand free of charge. Beyond simply re-issing a digital copy of the magazine, it includes interactive content such as video and audio clips from current members of the editorial team, and comment items throughout relating to the 20-year old content. For those of us not old enough to be using Apple products 20 years ago — I myself was just 8 years old when this went to print — it offers a fantastic look back, and highlights just how far we’ve come.
While browsing the App Store this week, I was drawn towards the colorful dots on the icon for Dots: A Game About Connecting. This is seriously one of the most basic and simple games I have ever played, but I just can’t stop playing. You simply draw a line with your fingers to connect the dots of the same color to make them disappear. You have 60-seconds to clear out as many dots as possible. You can also use Time Stops, Shrinkers, and Expanders by spending dots. I can’t tell you why this game is so addicting, but it is. It’s so clean, so basic, and such a great way to kill 60 seconds… or much more.
Your choice?
Now that we’ve chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!
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Tags: apple, british, concert, concert-vault, europe, french, iphone, movements, patrol, richard-devine, time, week
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KitCam is a full-featured camera app for the iPhone that gives you full control over settings like exposure, focus, and white balance. It also comes equipped with many different lenses and filters and includes different shooting modes like multi-shot, time-laps, multiple exposure, and more.
I’m just going to come right out and say it — KitCam is awesome and it would take me thousands of words to really dive into everything it can do. Instead, I’ll just touch on the highlights.
My absolute favorite feature of KitCam is that you can manually adjust the exposure and white balance before you even take the photo. These two sliders alone can drastically improve your photos, as is demonstrated in the screenshots above.
KitCam also comes with a slew of lenses that apply various effects to your image and provides a live preview of the final results. These lenses include vignette, tilt shift, pinhole, olga, and more. You can also choose form different film types that act as filters. These are also shown in the live preview. KitCam comes loaded with quite a few lenses and film and also offers more as in-app purchases.
In addition to normal, single-shot mode, KitCam offers many other shooting options. These include HD video recording, timer, stabilizer, night stamp, multi-exposure, multi-shot, and time-lapse.
When taking a photo, you can separate focus from exposure by tapping the screen with two fingers. You’ll get a circle for exposure and a square for focus and tapping them will lock them down.
If after taking a photo you realize you would’ve preferred to use a different lens or roll of film, you can easily switch them out with the editor. The editor also allows you to adjust straightening, attachments, exposure, white balance, brightness, contrast, saturation, color mixer, levels, and sharpening.
The good
- Live Preview FX
- Exposure and white balance compensation controls
- Live exposure info on histogram
- 4×3, 1×1, 3×2, and 16×9 crop ratios
- Auto and manual focus modes
- Low light boost
- Face detection
- Built-in composition aides
- Stabilizer
- Multiple exposures
- Multi-shot
- Time-lapse
- Shot editor including straightening, attachments, exposure, white balance, brightness, contrast, saturation, color mixer, levels, and sharpening
- Non-destructive editing
- Auto archiving
- Change lenses and film even after taking the photo
- Share to Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox, Instagram, and Tumbler
The bad
- Most interface elements do not rotate when shooting in landscape orientation
The bottom line
Even with the availability of some great camera apps, I’ve always defaulted back to the built-in Camera app. Not any more! KitCam is just too good not to use. Having full control over exposure and white-balance is the must-have feature for me — everything else is just bonus.
KitCam is currently 50% off, so grab it now!
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Tags: availability, editor, facebook, flickr, highlights, image, iphone, live, photo, photos, screenshots, take-the-photo, white-balance
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App.net has released Passport, an iPhone app that aims to make it easy to manage your App.net experience. Current users can sign in to manage their profile, find people to follow, and browse ADN apps. You can download apps without leaving Passport by tapping the “App Store” button next to the application’s name on the list, causing its App Store page to pop up and allowing you to purchase and download the app before dismissing it and returning to the app list.
One other notable feature is that Passport allows people to create a free ADN account without an invite. Up until now, anyone looking to create a free account would need to be invited by a paying member. Now that limitation is gone, App.net will be watching to see the impact this has on the service, and they have said that they reserve the right to disable open sign ups at any time.
Something that Passport very intentionally does not let users do is post or send messages. ADN has grown through the use of apps like Netbot and Felix, and users are encouraged to find a way to experience the service that they enjoy, rather than being moved towards an official solution. For anyone that’s looking to give ADN a try, or just wants a good way to manage their account, Passport is available for free on the App Store right now.
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Tags: account, application, make-it-easy, other-notable, passport, post-or-send, profile, store, the-application, through-the-use
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Cellphone theft is on the rise. According to information first published in a recent story on The New York Times, in places such as Washington and San Francisco in the U.S., over 40% of all robberies last year involved a cellphone. And in New York, 14% of all crimes equated to the theft of iPhones and iPads. To make a long story short, cellphone theft has now become a much bigger problem than ever before. Is it time for the carriers as well as the cellphone makers themselves to impose more stringent anti-theft measures through technology?
San Francisco district attorney George Gascón seems to thinks so. A little over a month ago, Gascón held a conference call with some of the largest carriers and their lobbyists in the U.S in order to discuss the need for better technological solutions to the issue of cellphone theft. He also reportedly met with an Apple executive named Michael Foulkes to talk about how Apple could improve its anti-theft technology. He’s pushing hard but so far, his efforts have been unsuccessful.
In a recent story on Time online, Gascón lamented that carriers “refused to even entertain the idea of a technological solution” to the problem. He then went on to accuse the carriers of being “motivated by profit and not social responsibility.” Whether that is true or not, he does have a point: it’s time to do something about the growing problem of cellphone theft. But is it really up to the carriers and cellphone makers? What can they really do about it?
A quick look at current solutions
Believe it or not, anti-theft solutions for cellphones do exist, and some of them have been around for quite a long time now. They exist in the form of apps, web services, and soon-to-be-implemented software features that work up to a certain point, but just haven’t been able to thwart cellphone theft completely.
F-Secure’s Anti-Theft mobile app offers a quick and easy way to protect not only your mobile devices but also your data, and the best thing about it is that it’s available for free.
It’s the same thing with the Comodo Anti-theft Free app for Android, which we already told you about a while back. There’s really no shortage of working — and free — anti-theft apps for mobile devices. But still, the government, and San Francisco D.A. George Gascón in particular, wants to see carriers and cellphone makers work together for a full-blown kill switch to be implemented. Is it really possible?
A hard lesson in not buying a cellphone
Some years ago, I inadvertently found out the answer to that question. Times were simpler back then, and when you said “top-of-the-line smartphone” everyone automatically assumed you were talking about a Nokia. The Nokia Nseries phones were new, and everybody wanted one. I knew I did, and so I jumped at the first chance of getting one that I got.
Here’s what happened. I saw an online marketplace listing for a “broken” Nokia N70 that couldn’t connect to any mobile networks at all and instead showed an error message on the screen. It was the exact same error message that appeared if you used an “expired” or a non-working SIM card though, so I figured that maybe the seller just didn’t know about that.
I offered to get the Nokia N70 from the seller in exchange for a mint condition iPod nano (2nd gen), thinking that I would be able to make the N70 work. The seller agreed to my offer, and so I got a phone-less high-end smartphone in exchange for a used music player. I thought it was a steal. I had no idea…
In the end, I failed in making the N70 work as a phone again, and not only that, but when I brought it in to get checked at a local carrier’s satellite office, it was confiscated from me. Apparently, it had been reported as stolen, so they had to take it from me and there was nothing I could do about it.
I may or may not have cried.
The kill switch at work
I’m not really sure what happened back there. One possibility is that the person who sold the N70 to me knew perfectly well that it was never going to work because it was a stolen unit. Perhaps its unique identifying IMEI number was blacklisted by the local authorities and that’s why it couldn’t connect to any of the available mobile networks anymore. Maybe it got returned to its rightful owner after it was confiscated from me. Maybe not.
In any case, the incident proves that, at least in the case of carrier-tied handsets, it’s possible to implement a “kill switch” type solution to render a phone unusable (as a phone) after it has been reported as stolen. That sounds like a really good idea until you realize that somehow, it could also be used against you.
Imagine buying a cellphone or a tablet from someone and then finding out a week later that it can’t connect to your mobile network anymore. And then when you take it to your carrier’s nearest satellite office in order to get it checked, you are told that it has been reported as stolen. Imagine a store manager telling you that they have to take the device from you and that you have to leave immediately or else they are going to call the police. This is one of the many possible scenarios that you may find yourself in once the plan to implement this so-called kill switch for mobile devices gets fully deployed.
Search for alternatives
The fact of the matter is, there are many ways through which the power to use a kill switch may be abused. Besides which, there’s really no way to easily implement the use of such. Stolen phones change hands too quickly. And making it illegal to modify IMEI numbers in an effort to prevent theft would be just as effective as making it illegal for people to murder with guns.
A better solution may yet be found if legislators would perhaps look beyond the cellphone makers and the carriers, and try to fix what’s causing cellphone thefts to occur in the first place. Many bright minds are already working on some possible solutions, but an ultimate kill switch may not be one of them.
Android Authority
View NASA’s on demand video, images, news, and more right from your BlackBerry smartphone
For the kid in all of us who love gazing up at the stars and marveling at the wonders that grace the night’s sky there is Space TV. Not too long ago we told you about this application for the BlackBerry PlayBook and how you could access podcasts, video, and news feeds directly from NASA right from your tablet. I’m happy to say that this wonderful application is now available for BlackBerry 10 with even more functionality thanks to the Cascades framework for better performance.
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Tags: berry-play, black, blackberry, cascades, demand-video, grace-the-night, night, space, table-border, tablet, wonderful, wonders
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Hottest Mobile Phone News & Reviews | PhoneInferno
Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week’s selections include an app for Londoners, a couple games, a wiki, a great photography app, and app for those who wish they were astronauts.
Two things in particular came together in finding this application. Firstly, I spend a reasonable amount of time in London throughout the year. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I drink too much coffee. And now, with this app, the two can go together hand-in-hand.
There’s nothing complicated about it, as it’s basically a directory of non-chain coffee shops throughout London. The app ties into Apple Maps, and wherever you see a dot near you, you can tap on it and get all the details of that particular coffee shop and a quick review. Opening times, the closest tube station, walking distance from your location, even whether or not it has WiFi. Best of all, it’s been really nicely designed, and is an app that you will actually want to put to use. So, if you’re headed to London anytime soon, give it a try.
Star Command is a great new game for the iPhone and iPad that sees you take command of a customizable starship as you fly across the galaxy doing battle with all manner of hostile alien races. You start with the ability to pick one ship hull, with other being unlocked as you play the game. Your ship has a number of configurable rooms that allow you to build different stations. After selecting and naming your ship and creating your captain, you can hire crew members to occupy rooms, which is required for the rooms to function. Red crew members operate weapons, blue manage scientific and medical equipment, and yellow engineers repair damage to your ship. You can also reassign your crew, so someone in a tactical room can be moved to an engineering room, for example. This way, crew can fill rolls as needed.
Combat is a big part of the game as well, and with a variety of weapons and defensive abilities at your disposal, which charge after each use. Selecting a weapon to fire brings up a mini game in order to determine the number of hits you score against the enemy ship. Since each weapon on your ship takes up a room, you must have at least one crew member staffing it in order for the weapon to charge. This can be difficult when enemy troops start boarding your ship, as only tactical and bridge crew can repel them, possibly leaving weapons unmanned. A fun game that challenges the player to manage their ship well, Star Command is a worth a look, and is available as a universal app for .99.
Trauma’s what you might call experimental. The game takes a similar format as Myst in that you’re navigating a collection of overlapping images in order to solve puzzles, in this case using a smattering of gestures at your disposal. The real kicker here is the premise. Players explore the dreamscape of a woman that’s survived a car crash, and her narrative throughout your journey puts together pieces of her story. Though initially it seems like the images assembled are extremely simple, it doesn’t take long for things to get a little on the weird side. Trauma is a surreal, ponderous game, and an altogether new kind of experience. If you’ve got an open mind, give it a shot.
There is a ton of Wiki’s out there. If you’re interested in something, chances are there is a Wiki for it. Video games, TV shows, movies, food, fashion and more. When you start looking for that much information, it can become a bit daunting. Having all that content in one spot and categorized would be awesome. Wikia Inc., which currently runs over 200,000 wikis, thought so as well and as such, they’ve created a great app called My Wikia and it offers up the best Wiki browsing experience I’ve used. Offering such features as the ability to search for and browse all your favorites right from within the app, drill down on only the content you want to see and filter out the rest, keep track of the most recent updates, follow trends and see what others think is popular. Did I mention it’s free and beautifully designed? If you spend your time reading through Wiki’s, then I suggest giving My Wikia a try.
If you’ve seen those awesome Instagrams by Safe Solvent then you’ve seen KitCam in action. It’s a fantastic iOS app that not only gives you more advanced control over the camera than the built-in app, but also lets you add lens and film effects, and adjust things like contrast, brightness, color balance, and levels.
There are some spectacular camera apps on iOS, and some equally spectacular photo editing apps, but KitCam includes enough of just exactly the right stuff to make it an excellent, one-stop shop for photographers of all skill levels. And that’s true whether you’re running and gunning or taking your time and trying to maximize your artistic vision.
The base price includes a good collection of tools, and additional bundles are available via in-app purchase. There’s a lot more to say, but I lack Leanna’s camera savvy, so I’ll save the rest for her inevitable review.
If you like it, grab it now while it’s 50% off.
I love science. And space. A childhood dream of mine was to be an astronaut, and I still kick myself in the butt sometimes for not pursuing that dream. Alas, I must live vicariously through apps like NASA, instead. The NASA app for iPhone and iPad lets you explore photos, videos, missions, and more. If you like space, science, and NASA, definitely check it out.
Your choice?
Now that we’ve chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!
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Tags: artistic, coffee, disposal, game, iphone, location, nicely-designed, ship
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It has been a while since the last update to BlackBerry Travel for BlackBerry 10 rolled out but it seems BlackBerry has been showing the app some love behind the scenes. A new update is currently filtering through BlackBerry World that, aside from bringing in some bug fixes, also adds additional language support and battery optimizations as well as enhancements to trip scanning. As a fan of the app, I can say the changes are indeed welcome. Here’s the full change log as per BlackBerry World:
- Supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Turkish, Indonesian Bahasa and Portugese (Brazillian)
- Improvements to email trip scanning
- Battery consumption improvements
- Itinerary items will be added to the default calendar
- Bug fixes
If you’re not seeing the update as of yet, you can check for updates to help it along or preview the app in BlackBerry World and the upgrade might show as available. New to BlackBerry Travel and need the download link? You’ll find it below.
Download BlackBerry Travel for BlackBerry 10
Tags: berry-travel, black, download, find-it-below, french, german, improvements, italian, preview-the-app, showing-the-app, since-the-last, world
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 Credit: Joi/Flickr
Two years after Google announced it would acquire Motorola, questions about the value of the deal still linger. A source told The Verge that the misstep might have contributed to the ousting of Andy Rubin from the Android team.
In a piece analyzing the strategic and tactical advantages that Google obtained, but mostly failed to obtain, by acquiring Motorola Mobility, The Verge’s Nilay Patel revealed some potential clues about the true reasons behind Andy Rubin’s leaving from the Android team.
As a backgrounder, Google announced that Andy Rubin would no longer lead the Android team in early March. In a blog post, CEO Larry Page said that Rubin “decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google”, making it sound like the founder of Android was leaving voluntary. But rumors quickly emerged painting a less rosy picture of Rubin’s leaving.
Now a supposedly well connected source confirmed to the The Verge that Andy Rubin was ousted from the Android team, following missteps including the Motorola acquisition:
Andy stood behind the deal and thought it was important to Google. As [new Motorola CEO] Dennis Woodside started to look into the details, he couldn’t see what Andy supposedly saw, which added more fuel to the fire to oust him.
This information suggests that, Google was already dissatisfied with Rubin at the time when the Motorola purchase was announced, and, when the positive outcomes of the merger failed to materialize, Rubin shouldered the blame.
At this point, it is unclear what role has Andy Rubin adopted inside Google. We’ve heard rumors about a new moonshot program due to be introduced soon, but it’s all speculation at this point. What we do know is that Android wouldn’t exist today without Andy Rubin, so regardless of what he’s currently doing at Google, we hope he’ll stay with the company.
Android Authority
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