Category Archives: Images

Photos taken and shared with the iPhone

Google Improves iPhone Photo Management

Google offers the storage of iPhone photos to the Google Cloud solution as a quick way of freeing up memory on the iPhone. The iPhone has this solution built in with Apple’s iCloud, but if Google Photo or Google Drive is being used for other purposes, these app updates makes it easier to keep everything in one place (Google vs iCloud).

  • Photo syncing to/from the Google Cloud improved 4x faster
  • A new view to the Assistant Tab cards

Within the Google Photo app, choosing the Assistant option along the bottom of any screen, results in a scrollable list of alerts from Google and quick creation buttons.

The quick create options are available from the Photos area as well, along with album viewing options.

The Google Drive app also provides access to the photos on the iPhone and on the Google Cloud/Drive account to reduce the need to jump between apps.

 

 

Moving from Printstagram to Print Studio to print a wider variety of shape photos

There is no shortage of apps that provide a service to print your Instagram photos. Then, the other extreme, solutions that will print photos on paper, mugs, tshirts, mouse pads and more. The developers of Printstagram, a Instagram only solution, has released a solution for printing a wider variety of photo shapes and sizes.
Printing your photos to paper and mailing for you is all that the iPhone app Print Studio does. Several sized squares, rectangles, cards and wall art. An item that stood out to me was the claim that submitted orders would be processed right away. In the world of instant gratification, I’m surprised by many of the available solutions take over a week before they print/mail orders. I’ll let you know how my first order arrives.

01 Print Studio iPhone

02 Print Studio iPhone
03 Print Studio iPhone
04 Print Studio iPhonePricing seems competitive, watch out for little extras that can count up. The Print Studio service looks much more like the old days of a roll of film being printed and mail the whole roll of shots back or to a friend. Where some other solutions are more bias towards printing just a couple photos to be mailed, a nice ‘thinking of you’ solution.
05 Print Studio iPhone
Photos are picked from the iPhone’s different photo libraries, or right off of a Instagram account. Then, each can be cropped and quantities can be adjusted. There are no filters or ‘enhancement’ options, Print Studio is for printing your already prepped photos, quickly. Of course, you have to tell Print Studio where to mail the photos and finally pay.
06 Print Studio iPhone
07 Print Studio iPhone

World Wide Garage Sale Shopping On The iPhone – No Travel Required With Stuffle

Driving down the road you see the cardboard hand written sign announcing someone’s garage has stuff in it that they want to sell. You stop to find picnic and fold up tables in a driveway, covered with a mix of household items. There will be a bar or rope strung across an opening with hanging cloths as well as a small pile of a child’s toys with a child looking on. There is no logical reasoning to the order things are on the tables but depending on what a person is looking for, a ‘must have’ item is hidden amongst a lot of worn out other previously loved items.

This is how Stuffle sees the world of people’s stuff for sale. There is no grouping or tags to narrow a search, it’s just a long table of a mixed group of items other users have for sale. Photos taken with an iPhone, then shared to the world’s garage sale table.

01 Stuffle iPhone

Getting started is quick and easy. Snap a photo, put a description and price on it and wait for someone looking for what you have to stumble on it. No need to worry about little sticky price tags falling off or rain to dampen the forecasted sunny weekend. Stuffle sells 24/7 with little action on your part. Of course, you will have to ship the item you sold, which is a little harder than carrying it out to the end of the driveway to someone’s car for them. The only negative so far using Stuffle for me is the lack of items for sale in the United States. Every item I have looked at so far has been in another language. I will have to see how someone reacts to my buying their discarded lamp in Germany. Fun to look at the scrolling table of things though without the pressure of the homeowner’s anxious selling eyes.

02 Stuffle iPhone

The Fun Of Creating And Sharing Printed 6 Inch Photo Booklets With The iPhone

The list of companies offering to print photos taken with the iPhone continues to grow. Many have different offerings to set them apart from the others. Cards, iPhone cases, TShirts, mugs, photo books, magnets and postcards. The latest, from Kindred, is a print and mail service for a booklet of a dozen photos. The images are full bleed to the edge and each can have a bit of text added over the top of them.
Kindred’s free app lets you choose photos from any of your iPhone’s photo libraries, your social sites… or you can have the app auto choose photos that you have taken over the last week. After photos are chosen, a larger view is presented to assign a cover, sort, delete and add more.
01a KindRed iPhone
Kindred offers the page inside the front cover for extended text. From this thumbnails view, just drag/drop to adjust the order the images will appear in the booklet. No actual photo editing is available.
01b KindRed iPhone
There is also a view options to see individual photos and how the photos will flow next to each other when printed. Deleting and adding text per photo is offered in this view.
03 KindRed iPhone
When the photos are arranged as you like, enter an address to send the booklet to. Kindred would like you to subscribe to a monthly (free month if you sign up for the subscription service) photo booklet. If you don’t think you will have a couple minutes to put the booklet together each month, don’t forget the ‘auto’ create feature. The monthly booklet is $5, plus the monthly $4.95 subscription.
04 KindRed iPhone
If you would rather not jump right in with a Kindred subscription, single booklets can be created, printed and mailed for $11.95 each. When you checkout, the app offers to let you take a picture of your credit card to remove the need to enter the info. If you do it, you still have to enter the expiration date and card’s code, so it is only saving the time to type in the card number.
05 KindRed iPhone

iPhone Photographers Print Without The Need Of A Computer

After a photograph is captured with the iPhone, there are many ways to share the image with others via social share or cloud storage. While, it’s a very digital world now for photos, there is still a need to be able to print the photos too. Most people will sync their iPhone photo library to a computers which can then print, but that can be a limited line of thinking when the iPhone allows so much mobility.

I have covered a couple printers in the past that I have and use regularly. Along with physical mobile printing options, there are also online printing services available to use with the need of a computer. Everyone knows to think through both price and portability of the printing solution. First on my list though is the resulting image print. What the prints will be used for will impact the final choice.

Jumping right to the point, here is a snapshot of a few of the printing outputs available for the iPhone –

iPhone prints

A: The wireless CP900 from Canon. The prints are the size of a postcard, with the option to print full bleed or with a boarder. The paper is either Canon Branded back or with a mailing postcard marking (text area, address area and stamp box). Printing involves the paper automatically passing through the printer 4 times to layer the colors and protective surface on.

B and B: Two examples of printing through the LG PD233. It is the most portable printer being barely larger than the iPhone, using bluetooth, and the ZINK active paper. Kids love being able to have a little print right away from something that fits in a pocket (takes about a minute). QR barcode can automatically be added if the image is also uploaded to a social share service.

C: Just for reference, a real Polaroid print from a OneTouch Land Camera.

D: Printic service printed. The service charges less than a dollar per print uploaded from the iPhone, the service prints and mails in a nice envelope. Text can be added to the photo via the app too. The quality is very nice, but it isn’t instant gratification.

E: StickyGram is an online printing service. This is an example of their Instagram magnets (9 different per sheet). It can be accessed via the iPhone browser. The magnets are only one of the many printings that are offered using a person’s Instagram photos.

F: Another ‘for example’, this is an print from the current Polaroid camera, like the Canon uses Zink paper.

G: Not shown, Prinstagram has an iPhone app (called Print Studio) to select the print size and format (small/large cards and small/large photo books) and photos. They offer as many print sizes and formats as there is examples above. Again, not for instant gratification but provides a nice quality product.

Rando is updated with ratings, app is back on the iPhone

Remember Rando? It’s that free snapshot photography app that is about anonymous two way sharing.

You snap a shot with the app and send it. The Rando app delivers the photo to someone without anything more about you than a location (city level map) and in return gives you back an anonymous photo someone else took and shared (not the same person that received your snap). There is no importing, filters, enhancements, it’s all about the quick snap shot.

The Rando interface is simple. On the opening screen is images taken by others which can be scrolled through up/down. Swipe from right to left to see the images you took and shared. The shutter button is at the bottom (red circle) which takes the photo then gives the option to send or delete.

01 Rando update

Tap an image to flip it over for a location – received images show where the photo was taken while tapping shots you took will show you where the photo was delivered to.

02 Rando update

Double tap a Rando image you have received to Delete it, Flag it inappropriate or Download it to your iPhone’s photo library. The download option is an option I don’t like in the app, someone being able to save my snap shot shares puts a different angle on the shooting thoughts.

03 Rando update

New in this update to Rando is a small circle with a line in it next to each photo. Tapping that will result in the image becoming a rating solution so people can now say they enjoyed or didn’t enjoy a photo back to the creator. On either side of the rating face is the close without saving edits ‘x’ and save check buttons.

04 Rando update

After you have rated a photo shared with you or someone has rated one of your photos, the small circle next to the image changes to what the rating is. Anything from a big happy smile to a very sad frown. Some folks may just hit the rating circle then the green check mark thinking they just gave a positive till they learn they have to adjust the face. It’s tricky to do an UX that is more than a Like or nothing solution. Now, I will know if someone likes my grapes shot or not. No idea who the person is, hope they are not allergic to grapes!

05 Rando update

Put your iPhone photos on a T-shirt… tell everyone… make money

There are many options to have products made with your iPhone photos, a few of those options have iPhone apps to do the creative work on. A new service and free app joining the mix is Snaptee.

As the name implies, the iPhone app is a tool you can use to create T-shirts with. The T-shirts can then be purchased as well offered for sale via the Snaptee Web site. T-shirts are priced at $19.99 + shipping. If a T-shirt is sold with your design on it, Snaptee pays you 10% of the sale (to your PayPal account when the amount owed to you reaches $100). You can also create/buy T-shirts that are private so others can not see or buy. If you set a T-shirt creation to ‘private’, the service does not offer the ability to change your mind later and offer for sale. The solution is to ‘remix’ your design onto another T-shirt. Speaking of ‘remixing’, this is an option that has to be allowed near the last step of creating your T-shirt. But doing this means anyone can take your design/photo and remix onto a T-shirt they offer to sell. So, your photo and T-shirt design is protected to you by Snaptee… unless you let others remix, in which case your photo is up for grabs.

snaptee

The Snaptee T-shirt design app lets you choose from a series of templates or free form your own design. You can add text, which can be colored via a picker. I noticed quite a few T-shirts on the site that where just lettering and no photos at all so there is no limitations on your creative there. Speaking of the site, if you want to make any money selling your T-shirts, you will need to do all of the promoting yourself. The Snaptee site is a single long list of T-shirts which means it is by chance that someone would happen upon your creation. Your best off creating, then promoting. Is this better than Zazzle or CafePress? Snaptee is a new addition to this group of long term professionals so while their list of offerings may be limited right now, they may be highly motivated to make this a winning solution.

Photojournalists Turn To Instagram To Get Their Photos To The World

My parents grew up with photographers taking pictures at a ‘news worthy’ event, turning the photos into newspapers and then leaving it up to the decision makers what made it to the public to see. Twitter changed that a bit, allowing anyone to post a bit of text explaining what they are seeing. Either people saw the tweets and went there to take photos to submit to the regular news channels or attach the photos to more tweets. The limitation for the Twitter path is the service is about text, photos are an extra click, so text must be enticing enough to encourage a click. Adding Vine to Twitter, in the area of distributing News, will give more context than photos but still require a ‘click to view’.

Instagram is a stream of photos that people sweep through, seldom looking at words unless they stop on a photo. Perfect for getting a visual to the public about an event, no matter where it is happening in the world. People can comment and share with others. Thus, getting information out to the masses through images, with no one person making a decision what is news worthy.

Instagram has recently run two blog posts outlining a few Photojournalists that post to Instagram. Of course, everyone can be a photojournalist via a system that allows anyone to take a photo with their smartphone and post for all to see.

A list of the few mentioned in the two Instagram posts:

  • Michael Christopher Brown, documents life in Congolese refugee camps — @michaelchristopherbrown
  • Ben Lowy, a conflict and feature photographer based in New York City — @benlowy
  • Phil Moore, a British photojournalist based in East Africa — @philmoorephoto
  • Kevin Frayer, the chief photographer for the Associated Press in South Asia — @kevinfrayer
  • Ivan Kashinsky, a freelance photographer based in Quito, Ecuador — @ivankphoto
  • Michael Yamashita, a documentary photographer for National Geographic specializing in Asia — @yamashitaphoto
  • Tim Fitzsimons, Beirut-based journalist — @tfitzsimons
  • Ed Ou, journalist based in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia — @edouphoto
  • Teru Kuwayama, Afghanistan and Pakistan-based journalist — @terukuwayama
  • Wissam Nassar, a photographer based in the Middle East — @wissamgaza
  • Damir Sagolj, Reuters photojournalist based in Bangkok — @damirsagolj
  • Daniel Berehulak, Australian photojournalist based in New Delhi — @danielberehulak

The blog posts:
Photojournalists Sharing the World through Instagram
Photojournalists Sharing the World through Instagram, Part 2

thumbnail instagram Photojournalist

Pulling together pictures that tell you about a place before you get there

Photo sharing sites have become a place for people to post photos showing what they had for lunch, the people they are hanging out with, a funny situation and a place they are visiting. While browsing around places like Instagram or Twitter, it is possible to see photos from places I have never been to. Many places are locations that I will never be able to see in person. There are other photos of places I am about to visit. The difficulty is pulling together places I’m heading to beyond doing a simple search.

A solution has shown up as a free app to use on the iPhone, called ‘Now.‘ <- there is a period in the name. The app will give you the option of viewing around you, a key city or search for another place of interest.

01 Now iPhone

The Now. location images shown appear to do not be by hashtag, rather Geotags. So, looking for a location on the map will give you photos that others have taken in that area. Unlike searching directly on Instagram where your dependent on people getting their hashtag assigned and spelled correctly.

02a Now iPhone

One instance of using Now. beyond sight seeing is an event like Macworld. Going to where the event will be or searching for the particular event by name will present all of the images posted in the area.

02b Now iPhone

The images can be scrolled through as thumbnails as well viewed larger end-to-end. The group and individual photos can be favored or shared.

03 Now iPhone

The Now. app lets you tell others about a photo (like in the case of Macworld, group photos your friends might be interested in) or to tell the system that the photo is Inappropriate.

04 Now iPhone

Choosing a picture will let you pull up the full size version. This is nice to view people, what other people have seen at the location, and in the case of a restaurant, a view of a dish you may want to order when there.

05 Now iPhone