nov0caine’s posterous

Cool iPhone Photography Apps

If you speak to any avid photographer, very few of them are huge advocates of smartphone photography, and there are certainly are a lot of reasons behind their lack of endorsement for smartphone cameras: they blur easy, images are grainy and sometimes clouded, and sometimes the colours are a little bit off. But what people fail to consider, is how far smartphone cameras have come in recent years, let alone the promising technological advancements that the future has in store for them.

Enter the iPhone and it's relatively simple 3 megapixel camera... Fair enough, it's no Karl Zeiss, and it doesn't have flash (even though there's an app for this, but whether or not it does it's job well is questionable) but it has a tonne of fun photography apps for you to use and abuse at your discretion, and a large memory capacity to support your smartphone photography hobby.

Let's run through some of the photography apps I've bought with my iPhone, and what's cool about them:

QuadCamera App - There's something fun about shutter photography that you just can't grasp, but this app says it all perfectly. Take up to 8 succesive frames in one snap, then sit back and weatch the motion fulled chaos unfold! I bought this for a couple of dollars, but it was well worth the value and has been frequently used. It also allows me to turn some of my images into some animated gifs (if I feel like it). Check out some cool QuadCam art here.

Pano App - Short for panorama of course, and as the name suggests, turn your world into one loooooooooong panorama. take photos around corners, and then watch the magic stitch together! I really like this because it gives the effect of a wide lense, which is pretty post-mod I like to think. Take a look at some previews and let me know what you think!

ColourSplash App - Ahhh, of course there has to be a couple of photo editing tools thrown in here, seeing as they make life oh so more colourful (that wasn't sarcasm, they really are amazing). ColourSplash has been rated as one of the best photo editing apps on the iPhone, not so much for it's technicality or diverse amount of function, but for it's simplicity and innovative use of the touch screen technology. This app allows you to selectively colour photo's in a really cool finger paint style. It's kind of hard to explain, but this thing is a huge boredom killer and the end results are amazing. It's also incredibly good value. Take a look for yourself.

PhotoGene - So you wanted more functionality...? Well here's your mini-photoshop for the iPhone right here. 'Nuff said, in fact, it even made the official Apple staff app "picks" for the iPhone  :-)

 

SO. Are you still a critic of iPhone photography now... Huh!? It may not be as appeasing to your creative senses as is the likes of traditional photography and good old fashion filters, but the iPhone does make it fun, right? Well, if you're yet to experience the fun of the iPhone, maybe it's about time you looked at getting one? Ha!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

 

 

Centralizing your business model around Twitter...?

When you trawl through the myriad number of blogs on the internet, take note of the topic of the post, and how frequently similar topics are being reciprocated by the author over and over again in different formats... Then ask yourself, why are these guys so persistent in blogging about twitter?

I'm going to come right out and say it, yes Twitter can be a highly profitable medium for businesses online and individual blogger alike, but it is severely over-hyped by web 2.0 geeks. Definitely. And the result? People are turned off of Twitter because they're sick to death of hearing about it. Look at the stats... A survey conducted by the participatory marketing network shows that only 22% of generation Y are embracing the social networking site as opposed to a staggering 99% who admit to being regulars on either myspace and facebook... But what about the celebrity hype? Twitter received an exponential growth when it was discovered that A-list celebrities began to use the site as a direct way to engage with fans, and then it all started to backfire as the real-time celebrity twitter streams became the prey of the press. Columns started popping up in newspapers, gossip columns started running hot with twitter news, and they even introduced a 'trending topic' segment into the 2009 VMA's. The result of all of this...? Celebrities are beginning to boycott the website, saying that it's just too invasive - need examples? Look no further than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Miley Cyrus.

So if the most imperative generation is refusing to embrace Twitter, and celebrities are considering mass exodus, is it fair game that Twitter may be reaching the plateau of its seemingly perpetual growth? And if so, does this indicate a potential incline and eventual downfall...? We're witnessing it with MySpace right now as we speak, with the once upon a time largest social media player reported a loss of 5 million users in the past month.

Here lies the question, if you're monetizing a blog or centralizing your business model around Twitter, did you forecast the life span of the social networking site before devoting your livelihood to it? It seems that a lot of internet marketing companies and bloggers alike have their financial umbilical cords fastened to the nutrient twitter trend wave... What's going to happen when the cutting of that lifeline is highly imminent? Your twitter branded empire, complete with your hordes of followers, vanishes in a flash... The traffic trends to your blog move inversely, and all of a sudden you're out on your tail with no revenue stream and no catalyst for your content.

I'd like to here of your post-Twitter contingency, if you have one, and your thoughts on the demise of Twitter (who can tell when the trends will change).

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Yeah, not so relevant to Twitter, but if you do happen to be reading this and are an avid corporate traveller, might I recommend BCD Travel - they're a very good friend of mine, and they're an excellent corporate travel agent should you happen to need one!

 

 

Apple App Store Downloads Top 2 Billion!?

I caught up today on the latest news from the Apple press release centre, and according to the latest App store data, Apple downloads have exceeded 2 billion in 2009 with a staggering 85,000 apps readily available to download to an enormous collective of iPhone users (apperently more than 50 million worldwide). The figures are quite remarkable really, it's like the world is becoming one giant Apple conglomerate... It's like I can't read anything online that doesn't have at least one reference to the Apple brand name (not that it's a bad thing, I really do love their products), but is it getting to the point where it is also dominating the real world as well?

Think about it... It seems like absolutely EVERYBODY owns an ipod...and the accessibility is alarming. Now, prior to what i'm about to say here, I was not previously aware of how easy it is to purchase Apple products in the US, until a colleague briefed me on all the details of her trip to the New York city...Get this... They have Apple products in VENDING MACHINES! Insane, right...!? So how much further can it all go until we have total Apple world domination?

Well, I'd welcome it... Simply because i love the aesthetics of their products and their simple appeal. I've seen eighty year olds use iPhones, iPods and even mac computers. Apple is doing a good thing by making technology accessible to everybody. What are your thoughts?

 

 

MJ Sales Exponentially Increase After Tragedy

And so it seems to be the way of the world, that when a huge talent dies, people only begin to pay attention to how great they really were. According to the latest figures around the world, since Michael Jackson's death last week there has been an exponential growth in the sales of music and memorabilia. In Australia alone, Sony music has reportedly sold in excess of 100,000 albums from MJ's back catalogue since his tragic death last Friday. According to an article on the Times Online, whenever there has been a tragic death of a music icon sales saw an instant spike immediately after they passed on - continuing to grow unstoppably as the years progress forward from the event. It's all relevant to the 'dead rockstar' effect, where the circumstances surronding the death of a star has a vacuous effect on fans. Look at Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Hendrix, Lennon... All of which have movies, documentaries and re-mastered editions of their musical back-catalogue. It's all part of the sick, sad capitalisation on the vulnerability of emotionally driven people. The record companies don't care about the music, because they're looking to make an absolute mint backing on to the tragic death of an icon. The commercial force of Jackson-inspired grief and nostalgia has already started to show, and expect it to do nothing but increase as we move further away from his death. Expect films, digital remasteries and t-shirts... It's all a part of the dead celebrity circus and most of us have already started buying our tickets to the show.

The Times article presents some fascinating figures, and you can read it here.

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Arrow Voice and Data are a Business Phone Company specializing in business phone networking, mobile and internet. They have some great deals going on PSDN, IDSL and VOIP so you should do yourself a favour and check them out! They also have a blog to talk you through different types of phone systems and how to achieve optimum use.