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artCircles App for iPad from Art.com and Hot Studio Named App of the Week

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — artCircles, the first iPad app released by Art.com, the world’s largest online retailer of posters, prints, and framed art, was recently named the iTunes App Store’s “App of the Week.” Conceived, designed, built, and branded in collaboration with Hot Studio, an award-winning experience design company, artCircles represents a new and highly engaging way for people to discover and interact with images hand curated from Art.com’s massive collection.

Experience lies at the heart of the free artCircles app. Designed exclusively with the iPad in mind, artCircles leverages the iPad’s high-resolution display and touchscreen capabilities to provide a unique and innately engrossing art-viewing experience. Anchored by a clever user interface (literally comprised of interrelated circles), the app enables easy discovery, discussion, and sharing. Deep social integration lets users share their favorite works of art with friends, while a Curators circle features hand selected collections from creative leaders like John Maeda and Yves Behar.
Setting goals that included thinking big and bold, the team from Hot Studio leveraged its collective experience on past award-winning apps, like Zinio’s iPad magazine reader, to help create a highly interactive, visually stunning application. Hot Studio’s visual designers, user experience architects, and technical engineers worked in lockstep throughout the process to design and build an app that fundamentally changed how people could experience Art.com’s image collection. Hot collaborated with Art.com on the app’s concept and strategy, user experience and interface design, engineering and integration, as well as the naming and visual identity.

“Congratulations to everyone at Art.com,” says Rajan Dev, Hot Studio’s President. “artCircles leverages Art.com’s great catalogue of images in a new way and we’re so happy that the app has been so well received.

Be sure to check out the app yourself, and download it from iTunes.

About Art.com, Inc.
With more than 12 million customers in 120 countries worldwide, Art.com Inc. is the world’s largest online specialty retailer of high-quality wall art. The company was founded in 1998 with one goal — to help people find the art they love so they can love their spaces more. Art.com Inc. runs three sites in the USA — Art.com, AllPosters.com and ArtistRising.com — and has a strong international presence with 25 local sites in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and South America. The company offers custom framing and specialty printing, interactive visualization tools to help people find the perfect piece of art for their space and an app for iPad called artCircles, that lets users explore art from a hand-picked selection of curated collections. Art.com, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Emeryville, CA, with other facilities in Ohio, North Carolina and the Netherlands. “Art.com” and “artCircles” are trademarks of Art.com, Inc. For more information, visit www.art.com.

About Hot Studio
Envisioning, designing, and deploying innovative experiences since 1997, Hot Studio is an award-winning experience design company with offices in San Francisco and New York City. Dedicated to creating elegant solutions for complex design challenges, we collaborate with business leaders, community organizations, and emerging companies to create breakthrough products and services that have global reach and local impact. For more information visit www.hotstudio.com.

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Appmaker e.K. Releases “My Own Diary HD 2.3“ for the iPad

My Own Diary HD – now with individual outfits

(PRWEB) May 14, 2012

With new themes and better performance, Appmaker e.K. has made the iPad-App for Diary enthusiasts – and those who want to become one – even more attractive.

Since there is nothing more individual than your own diary, there are now special design themes to give “My Own Diary HD” the desired individual look. While the looks “Classic” and “Black & White” are included, the theme looks “Baby” and “Travel” are now ready for download for only $ 0.99 each.

Other features of the new version are the excellent retina graphics, which make pixels disappear to the naked eye, and two new typefaces, both of which support Cyrillic characters.

Additionally, the performance has been enhanced. “We have made My Own Diary HD more individual and have bettered the performance, because ever more users are using My Own Diary HD more intensively and internationally,” explains Bernhard Harrer, chief developer at Appmaker e.K., regarding the improvements. “The different themes are a lot of fun and assure that everyone has a theme fitting their individual needs.” Moreover, many requests and suggestions from users were incorporated.

“Whether My Own Diary HD is kept as a travel book, family album or project report – now everyone can style their diary the way they wish,” raves Christoph Masak, leading designer of Appmaker e.K.

“My Own Diary HD 2.3” is exclusive for the iPad and already available for $ 3.99 in the App Store (http://www.appmaker.de/myowndiary/2.3/buy/).
Further information, screenshots and a video presentation to “My Own Diary HD 2.3” can be found underhttp://www.appmaker.de/myowndiaryhd.

Appmaker e.K is specialized in creating intuitive software for mobile end devices. The young developer team started in 2010 and combines attractive design with versatile usage. “My Own Diary HD” was their first product, has a quick-growing fan base and continues to be improved regularly. If you want to know more about “My Own Diary HD” or Appmaker e.K., we look forward to hearing from you.

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A Treatment For Aging iPhones and iPads

I currently use an iPad 1 and my daughter has my old iPhone 3Gs. Both suffer from SHBS – Sticky Home Button Syndrome. SHBS happens to older iThings and manifests as a slowness in responding to a press of the home button. Thankfully the fix is easy.

I’m indebted to Roberto Garza over on SnapGuide for the solution and here’s the link straight to his article.

For those who want the quick summary:

1. run one of the core apps, like Calendar, Weather, etc

2. press and hold the power button till the shutdown slider appears

3. immediately press and hold the home button until the app quits and you are back to the home screen

That’s it. I’ve tried it. It works. Back to a happy responsive iThingaMeJiggy.

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TouchType Case for All iPads

The TouchType case is currently up on Kickstarter.

It is a leather or polyurethane case for the iPad that also has a pocket to hold an Apple Wireless Keyboard. This is a great solution because the Apple keyboard is a decent size and really nice to type on. I already use one with my iPad, so this is a no brainer.

The TouchType looks great and can hold the iPad in either landscape or portrait orientations, which is a real plus. Since the Kickstarter project has already gone way past the sought amount it will go ahead. Their website is http://www.touchtypecase.com/

Unless you’ve experienced it you may find it hard to believe, but the iPad with an Apple Wireless Keyboard is a very productive combination for writing and other tasks. This case makes that even easier by bundling the two together into a really attractive and clever case.

 

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This Week in Photography 29th April 2012

Here’s what caught my attention on photography on the Internet this week:

A Broken Polaroid Camera Spits Out Amazing Abstract Art | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669619/a-broken-polaroid-camera-spits-out-amazing-abstract-art

10 Unmissable Apps for Ipad and Iphone Photographers

http://www.lightstalking.com/10-unmissable-apps-for-ipad-and-iphone-photographers

Acorn, a great Mac image editor, built for humans.

http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/

Exposure is a VERY Personal Thing! | BH Insights

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/insights/blogs/bh-insights/exposure-very-personal-thing.html

 

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Calibrating an iPad

David Saffir has written a great little article about calibrating an iPad using the Dalacolor Spyder 3 and some software for both the computer and the iPad.

David says it better than I can, so read it here.

 

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This Week In Photography 18th March 2012

Here’s what caught my eye on the net this past week:

iPad 3: Retina Display review for photographers

http://www.richardpeters.co.uk/blog/2012/03/16/ipad-3-retina-display-review-for-photographers/

Photographs Captured Over Years with an Open Camera Shutter

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/03/16/photographs-captured-over-years-with-an-open-camera-shutter/

10 of Art History’s Most Controversial Photographers [NSFW]

http://flavorwire.com/268992/controversial-photographers?all=1

Answers about the new iPad and Color

http://cdtobie.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/answers-about-the-new-ipad-and-color/

Segment 9, Photo Review Series: Line, Light, and Color with David Saffir and Sally Wiener Grotta

http://davidsaffir.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/segment-9-photo-review-series-line-light-and-color-with-david-saffir-and-sally-wiener-grotta/

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ioShutter Lets You Trigger a Camera From your iPhone

ioShutter, made by Enlight Photo, is a combination free App for iPhone and a special cable that connects the iPhone to the shutter control port on a camera.

The free app gives you the following features:

  • 20 and 60 second timers
  • Bulb offers 60, 90 and 120 second exposures
  • Timelapse offers three options for timelapse shooting
  • You can use shake or sound to activate any of the above functions

The US$9.99 PRO version of the app offers full programability for exposure times, timelapse settings, sound trigger noise level and duration and more.

The cables come in different models to suit different cameras.

Camera Compatibility – model E3

Canon G10, G11, G12, 60D, 1000D, 1100D, 600D, 100D, 550D, 500D, 450D, 400D, 350D, 300D, EOS Digital Rebel series, Kiss F, X5, X4, X3, X50, XS, Elan II/ IIE, Elan 7/7E, Rebel Ti, T1i, T2i, Pentax K5, K7, Super, K100D, D110D, *ist Ds2, +ist D, +ist Ds, *ist, *ist DL, Samsung GX-20, GX-10, GX-1L, GX-1S, Hasselblad H1, H2, H3, H4, Contax 645 (dependent on your back)

Camera Compatibility – model N3

Canon 5D Mark II, 5D, 7D, EOS 1D X, EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS-1Ds Mark III, EOS-1Ds MARK II, EOS-1Ds, EOS-1D Mark III, EOS-1D MARK II, EOS-1D MARK IIn, EOS-1D, EOS 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, EOS D30, D60, EOS 3 and EOS 1V.

A Nikon cable is coming soon.

Enlight Photo was founded by New Zealand photographer James Madelin.

We hope to review the whole system when the cable and PRO apps are available.

www.ioshutter.com/

 

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Blurb Brings Photobooks to iPad

Blurb has today announced that they will be providing a publishing option to iPad.

In the first iteration photographers who have used Blurb’s Bookify and BookSmart software will be able to publish in a way that maintains the formatting of the print version.

Emails go out next month with the details and support for photographers who upload a PDF rather than using the Blurb software will come later. It is unclear at the moment about whether this creates something sold through the iBookstore or whether Blurb will have their own app reader. Since they do say that such books will also be for sale through Blurb’s own store, I suspect they are going to be ePubs sold through the iBookstore.

More great news for photographers from the digital revolution in publishing.