Hasta La Gadget!

Taking a smartphone out of the box for the first time can elicit a wide spectrum of emotions, starting with unadulterated excitement that can quickly devolve into panic, chaos, and confusion: what do you do now? How do you make it awesome? How do you emanate an air of “cool” on the subway by using apps specifically designed to make you look like a badass? Well, fear not, newly-minted Android smartphone owner: as always, we’ve got your back. Read on for all the apps, accessories, and tips you should be investigating right this very second.

Continue reading Just got an Android phone? The best apps, accessories, and tips

Just got an Android phone? The best apps, accessories, and tips originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple can’t stick to its own rules with the gigantic iOS App Store.

The company recently approved an iPhone camera app that carries a special feature: the ability to snap a photo by pressing the physical Volume button rather than tapping the touchscreen. Oddly enough, about four months ago Apple banned a top-selling iPhone app for including the same “volume-snap” functionality.

In August, Apple rejected the photo app Camera+ when it included a volume-snap feature, because changing the behavior of the iPhone’s external hardware buttons was strictly prohibited.

“Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion,” Apple told Camera+ developer Tap Tap Tap in its August rejection letter. “Changing the behavior of iPhone external hardware buttons is a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.”

Following the rejection, Tap Tap Tap hid the volume-snap feature as an Easter egg inside the app and hinted that it could be enabled by visiting a URL in the Safari web browser. That led to Apple slamming the ban hammer. After four months in the penalty box, Camera+ returned last week with the volume-snap feature removed.

So it’s inconsistent that the app Quick Snap got the green light in the App Store, explicitly promoting the volume-snap feature that Apple strictly forbade (see screengrab above).

“Why choose the soft or full screen shutter when you can use VOLUME BUTTON as the hard shutter button on your iPhone?” Quick Snap’s iTunes description reads.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hosting more than 300,000 apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple’s App Store has drawn criticism for some of its rules regulating the content and functionality allowed inside third-party apps. Apple only three months ago published guidelines listing reasons why apps get rejected from the App Store.

But with the case of Camera+, it’s evident that disclosing guidelines hasn’t solved one of the App Store’s major problems: App Store reviewers are not consistent with enforcing the rules, and therefore censorship still seems arbitrary.

I’ve argued in the past that arbitrary censorship in the App Store is detrimental to creative freedom — an issue poised to grow as Apple continues to expand as a major media publisher.

See Also:

• Apple’s App Store Director Sells His Own Fart Apps
• Tweet of the Day: Apple’s Contradictory App Store Guidelines …
• Apple Eases App Development Rules, Adobe Surges
• Steve Jobs Debates Developers Over Apple’s New App Policy

Your X-Mas wish came true! Santa wisely consulted one of our best-of-the-best lists and left you a shiny new smartphone under the tree. So, uh, now what? Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting that bad boy up and running. More »

Our favorite iPhone camera app just got a boatload of new features after its four-month exile from the App Store.

Previously pulled by Apple because it included an inoffensive hidden feature, Camera+ returned to the App Store on Tuesday night with new controls, more image-editing effects, improved performance and several other additions.

Most notably, there’s a new slider bar that allows you to adjust the intensity of each effect applied to a photo, giving you more control over the end result.

There are also some neat new filters like a Nostalgia filter for a more old-school look and a depth-of-field effect to give your photo an artsy touch. (See the photos above for examples.)

I’ve had some time to test the update, and the biggest improvement is speed. Camera+ now loads much faster than it used to, which is useful for capturing those serendipitous moments, and the time to process photos has decreased significantly.

The app’s maker Tap Tap Tap has a full post on all 53 new features.

It’s a free upgrade for those who already own the app. For new buyers, Camera+ is $1 in the App Store.

Download Link [iTunes]

See Also:

• Camera+ Sneaks Volume-Activated Shutter Past Apple’s Censors …
• Camera+ for iPhone 4 Adds Flash, Exposure Control

Magic Shutter is an iPhone camera app that mimics the effects of shooting at slow shutter speeds, and of using flash to freeze a subject. Here it is in action:

The app actually does use some programming magic to achieve its effects. For instance, if you choose the “flash” modes, you can choose front and rear curtain-sync effects. Front curtain sync takes a sharp image and then records subsequent frames in a kind of still video, allowing those frames to build into a blur. The original, sharp image is laid over the top. Rear-sync does the same, but snaps the sharp photo at the end, making the light streaks appear behind a moving car, say, and giving a more expected effect.

Light-painting mode lets you snap a light-source and then wiggle the camera to draw shapes, as if the light were burning an image into a film while the shutter was left open.

Magic shutter looks like a lot of fun, and certainly makes the iPhone do some impressive new tricks. Output resolution is limited, though, to under a megapixel due to limitations that Apple sets on accessing the camera at full resolution for video.

An update early in the new year will boost the output resolution, but as the source video is no bigger, this won’t add much.

The app is ready for your blurry experimentation now in the app store, at a price of $3.

Magic Shutter app [iTunes via iPhoneography]

See Also:

• Hipstamatic Gentrifies iPhone Camera
• Best Camera: 'Like Photoshop for The iPhone'
• Pro-Camera Adds Image Stabilization to iPhone