Photos

Photo Editor - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Monday, Oct 24, 2011 at 2:13 am

There are a handful of photo editor apps for your Windows Phone. They range from the basic to the artistic to the full editing packages. We turn our sites on Photo Editor to see how it measures up against the other options available in the Marketplace.

Photo Editor has a nice selection of editing tools ranging from cropping to filters to adding clip art to your images. The interface is nice and Photo Editor does have Facebook integration to allow you to share your photos.

To see how well Photo Editor hits the mark, slide on past the break.

Live Tile Now - Mango App Spotlight

Apps

By George Ponder, Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 1:38 am

Here's a Mango App that will let you pin your favorite photos on the Windows Phone Start Screen. As with other Mango Live Tile apps, such as Sticky Tiles and NFL Live Tile, the interface is short and simple.

You have one page to select the image from (one for either side of the tile) and one page to enter optional text. From there you pin the app to your Start Screen and the tile is generated. There's also a tile count area where you can enter a reminder such as a date or number of days until an event.

The only downside to the app is that your only limited to one tile. Still, it's a nice way to pin a photo of your pets, kids, girlfriend or wife (but not both) on your Start Screen. If you're running Mango, Live Tile Now is a free, ad-supported app and you can download it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Pictures Lab moves up to version 2.0

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Aug 26, 2011 at 9:50 pm

Described as the Swiss Army Knife of photo apps for your Windows Phone, Pictures Lab has recently been updated to version 2.0. Along with the customary performance tweaks, here are the new features that the update adds to the mix.

Added 11 borders, which can be applied on top of an effect and work with any aspect ratio
Added an integrated Facebook photo upload functionality
Added the new HDR effect
Added 3 new vintage effects: Koda, 1991 and Kolor
Reduced the vignette of most vintage effects, since the phopt was too dark most of the times
Reordered the effects preview list
Added Twitter's own, new image service. It's NOT the default Twitter image service since Twitter has some bugs at the moment. The used image service can be changed in the Settings.

Another nice feature of version 2.0 is that it is compatible with both NoDo and Mango devices.

In just tinkering with Pictures Lab for a short period, it comes across as a very simple yet effective photo enhancement app. Filters and effects are previewed in thumbnails, making it easy to choose what direction you want to take your photo. Adding the Facebook and Twitter integration makes it easier to share your photos when your through adjusting them.

There is a free trial version available for Pictures Lab with the full version running $1.99. You can download both here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Thanks Rene for sharing this with us!

TheChive comes to Windows Phone

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Jul 27, 2011 at 9:58 am

We're not sure if this an officially endorsed TheChive app or not, but it's nice enough to pass along. TheChive is a pretty popular photo-entertainment/humor site (link) that has also pulled off some funny pranks/memes in the past.

Basically, it's a great time waster and the app by Full Revolution, Inc. is pretty minimalist but slick. As a result, the app is too the point and zippy for what it does: deliver the latest, greatest photos to your phone. It has all the major categories and even allows you to save the pics. There's no direct sharing option though nor search but ads are barely there (they show up only if you click a photo).

So if you like TheChive and/or like looking at interesting pics, here you go. Pick it up for free in the Marketplace here.

Fotobank - App Spotlight

Apps

By George Ponder, Sunday, Jul 24, 2011 at 10:13 pm

Your Windows Phone is a great way to share photos. Fotobank is a Windows Phone app that has been around for some time that allows you to search the internet for photos by keyword or category.

Categories include landscapes, flowers, buildings, sports, science and art. Fotobank also has a history of your searches for easy reference. Once you find a picture you like or need, you can save the image to your phone.

Fotobank is a free, ad-support application and you can download it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Watermark helps you make your mark

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Jun 22, 2011 at 11:51 pm

The one danger of posting your photographs online, be it Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere, is the risk you run of having your pics hijacked. Watermarks are one way to help deter unauthorized use of your photos. The Windows Phone app, "Watermark" brings watermarking to photos captured and stored in your Pictures Hub and may just keep the pirates at bay.

The user interface is simple and straight forward. Choose your image, type your text and it's inserted on the photo. You can choose fonts, text colors, text size, and opacity. Positioning of your watermark is probably the weakest aspect of the app. You can tap on your photo to move the watermark around but this feature isn't the most responsive.

Watermark can be a useful tool to help tag your photos or even add captions. Watermark is a free app that you can find here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

via: mobilitydigest

PhotoSafe - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 8:39 pm

Need a secure area on your Windows Phone to store photos? PhotoSafe is a Windows Phone app that will allow you to store photos and is password secure. PhotoSafe won't password protect the galleries in your Photo Hub but it will provide a safe harbor for sensitive images.

PhotoSafe features include:

Import photos from your existing Photo Hub
Take pictures with your Windows Phone camera directly from PhotoShare
Integration with Photo Hub Extras
Slideshow creator

Move on past the break to read more on PhotoSafe.

HTC HD7 originally called HD3, FCC teardown pics released

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:08 pm

Just as we get word that AT&T is getting an updated version of the venerable HD7, the FCC finally publicly releases the internal teardown photos of the device.

Turns out, there's no hidden treasure, but we do see the 16GB microSD card and even see that it was originally called the 'HD3' which to be honest, we actually like better (HTC's obsession with the '7' branding is confusing as heck). Other than that, it has your usual Qualcomm chipsets, Samsung SDRAM and a Broadcom WiFi transceiver. So if you're bored, check out the whole gallery at WirelessGoodness.

Source: FCC; via WirelessGoodness

Turn a photo into live tiles [How To]

How To

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:35 pm

There has been an awesome tutorial posted that allows one to add a photo as a set of live tiles, so if you are someone who would like to have the top eight (or in any order) tiles of your home screen show a sliced image then this is perfect for you to achieve that effect.

Get the complete how-to after the jump.

Official Flickr gets updated, Picture Hub integration added

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:17 am

The Windows Phone Flickr app received a nice little bump this morning to version 1.1 with a few significant updates. Not bad for only two weeks of release.

First up is Pictures Hub integration, allowing near seamless mixing of Flickr and the default, but powerful Windows Phone picture management system--basically now you can direct upload from your photo selection without launching the app. Second is the always welcomed "better performance" update. We always tend to see this after the big "1.0" push, so nice to get it here (it really needed it). Finally the less exciting but crucial to Flickr "tags" are now supported for photo uploads.

You can grab the update here in the Marketplace; Thanks, @depper2k, for the heads up

Bubblegum brings Instagram functionality to Windows Phone and it's a joy

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Feb 3, 2011 at 10:08 am

Bubblegum is a new app from two Microsoft employees, Sriram Krishnan (Program Manager for Microsoft’s Windows Azure; also of Browser Plus fame) and Aarthi Ramamurthy (Program Manager for Microsoft’s XNA) which, though we hate to make comparisons, is an Instagram clone. Instagram, for those who don't know, is a very popular photo sharing app/site for the iPhone that allows you share pics with your friends, add effects to the photo and even see it on a map.

While we don't have Instagram on WP7, Bubblegum seeks to fill that gap by offering basically those same features. But with the launch of Flickr for Windows Phone literally on the same day as Bubblegum's, we have to ask, is it necessary? At first blush (and on paper), the answer is no.

But then something happened: we downloaded and tried it. And truth be told, it's an exceptional experience. Smooth transitions, excellent graphics and superb integration with Twitter, Foursqaure and Facebook make it quite compelling and tough to ignore. How it works is you sign up for an account (on the phone, it's very quick) which then logs you in to the network. From there you can add friends (manually search for their name or tap into your Twitter/Facebook contacts). It's that latter part that's really neat: you type in your login info for Facebook or Twitter and it finds just those contacts who are also on Bubblegum (for me it was Manan and Microsoft's Charlie Kindel)--you can then follow them to see their photo uploads in your stream. As for effects, you have Black&White, Woodstock, Frosty, Grunge, Tilt Shift, Cyano, Aurora, History (sepia), Betty (it's better than butter).

The whole thing is like Twitter but without the drama. It's focused on the visual instead of the text.

Oh and there's a Yoda quote in there, which totally wins nerd points. The two developers responsible are a husband and wife team who have a geeky sense of humor and it just gives this app feeling of fun. Sure, in our social-networked lives with 900 services, it's not clear we need another, but Bubblegum at least makes the argument for one more. The app is free in the Marketplace here and we urge you to just take it for a spin--it could be our own homespun next-big-thing on Windows Phone.

ps I'm listed as "malatesta" on there.

via: @ckindel; additional info: MobileCrunch

Tip: Get high res photos for contacts on your WP7 device

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Dec 6, 2010 at 5:20 pm

Have you experienced this problem? You get your new Windows Phone, you sync up your contacts and then you add a few to the Start screen, using those nifty dynamic squares. And then you notice it: the terrible, crappy resolution and blurriness. You think to yourself: "That's not how it looks on the commercial!"

Well, we think we figured it out. It's not Microsoft's fault and it's not a bug. We're going to bet you sync with our frienemy Google, right?

That's the culprit. Google. Don't believe me or think we're alone? See here and here for starters.

What happens is when you take a photo on your phone, add it to contacts and then it syncs back to Google's servers they then downsize the photo and resync it back to you. Awesome, eh?

What is the solution? There are two and we'll detail both after the break...

Photo Magic - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010 at 2:49 pm

Like to apply special effects to your photos? Want an easy way to go about doing so on your Windows Phone?

Appa Mundi Ltd is offering Photo Magic over at the Marketplace that will let you transform photos on your Windows Phone at the swipe of a finger.

The Windows Phone 7 app can apply six effects to images stored in your media gallery or freshly captured images. The seven effects are:

Pencil - pencil sketch of your photo
Sepia - the brown tonal effect
Twenties -antique feel to the picture
Cartoon - turns your photo into a cartoon drawing
Movie - high contrast
Paint - water color effect

To apply the effects, you simply choose a photo from your media galleries or create a new photo (launches your camera app). Once loaded into the application all five effects are applied and reviewable in the Photo Magic hub. Simply swipe through the pages to preview the altered image.

Once you find a style you like, you can save it to your media gallery as well as share it on Facebook or Twitter. Some of the effects took a little time to be applied and you can choose the image file size (small, medium, large) to either speed things up or create better detail. I found that each effect has a varying degree of success depending on the photo. Sometimes the Cartoon Effect really turns the photo into a cartoon but with some photos it's hard to tell teh Cartoon Effect from the Paint Effect. While some of the effects can be hit or miss, overall I was pleased with Photo Magic.

If you use your Windows Phone to capture or share images, Photo Magic is a simple and easy way to apply special effects to your photos. The full version of Photo Magic will run $1.99 and there is a free trial version available at the Marketplace.

Ease on past the break to see an example of each style.

Review: Windows Phone 7 Pictures Hub

By George Ponder, Monday, Nov 8, 2010 at 1:41 am

Windows Phone 7 makes it easier to capture and share photographs taken with your Windows Phone. While the hardware on the various Windows Phones may vary, the software driving the camera and managing your pictures will be the same from one Windows Phone to another.

I like the consistency Windows Phone 7 and the Pictures hub presents. You can go from the Samsung Focus to the HTC Surround without having to learn proprietary software. The Pictures Hub lays everything out in a straightforward manner and gives you the ability to share images with ease.

While we've already taken a look at Windows Phone 7, now we turn our sights on the Pictures Hub of the OS. Follow the break to see how in focus the hub is.

Review: HTC Surround's Camera

By George Ponder, Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 at 8:41 pm

We briefly mentioned the HTC Surround's camera in the full review of the phone. More times than not, we cover the Windows Phone camera in a seperate review detailing the software and performance.

I am so accustomed to cameras on Windows Phones being driven by manufacturer software that I overlooked the fact that Windows Phone 7 drives the camera regardless of the manufacturer. Each model may have unique hardware or capabilities (e.g. 5mp vs. 8mp camera, high definition video recording, etc.) but the software is the same.

Having said that, we are covering the particulars of the camera software in our review of the Pictures Hub. After the break, we'll review the Surround's camera with respect to image quality and overall performance. We've also thrown in some sample images and videos to help illustrate the camera's performance.

HTC Photo Enhancer gets demoed on video

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Oct 25, 2010 at 2:48 pm

For those going with HTC as their WP7 choice, you'll be of course getting their allotment of special software, including Weather, Stocks and the focus here, Photo Enhancer.

The app itself looks really nice in this video hands on by 1800PocketPC, with a wide-assortment of filters to choose form, smooth UI and just an overall great experience. While not a complete photo-editing package e.g. cropping, sharpening, etc. don't seem to be there, it looks like a great addon.

And for those not going with HTC, you can always check out Picture Lab which looks even more impressive. See the full video hands on after the break!

Source: 1800PocketPC

Photo Contest from Bing and Windows Live

Windows Phone News

By George Ponder, Thursday, Oct 7, 2010 at 6:07 pm

Ever wished Bing would use one of your photos for their wallpaper image? Windows Live and Bing are holding a photo contest to give you that chance.

Designed to promote BING and Windows Live's Photo Gallery, the contest will run through October 22, 2010. Submissions should be sent to WLcontest@hotmail.com and include your image, image title, short description, and your contact information. There is a limit of five entries per person and the following requirements:

No recognizable people.
No 3rd party trademarks or logos (such as distinctive packaging or building exteriors / interiors) owned by others.
No objectionable content, such as alcohol, smoking, guns, violence, or nudity
No content that is defamatory to any group or individual and/or violates any law.
JPEG format only with minimum photo dimensions 970px width by 528px height.
Preferably the image should be submitted in its original size and aspect ratio, which will allow us the most flexibility when sizing and cropping to meet the needs of the homepage.
Horizontal orientation and at least 1MB in size.
No watermark, signature or photographer name can be included in the image file. The photographer credit for the winner will be added to the page separately.

Ten winners will be selected to have their photo featured in a Windows 7 theme pack and the grand prize winner will have their photo featured on the Bing's homepage (mobile and desktop) on November 8, 2010. You can find the complete contest rules and guidelines here.

via: windowsteamblog