I’m not super huge on Social Networking (unlike my social networkingaholic husband) but I really like this application. It is so intuitive and there are enough settings to allow me to customize the application how I would like it. It is extremely easy to find my friends who have the application… it searches Contacts, facebook and twitter in a very user friendly interface. It is also easy to stay informed on who is commenting and “liking” your photos through either push notifications or a nice little, non-intrusive pop-up when you open the application. And because it is an photo networking application… it keeps me interested.

The only thing I would like to see is more people using it!

App Store Description:

Instagram is an amazingly fun & simple life-sharing app for your iPhone. Snap photos wherever you go to show the world what’s going on in your life. Follow your friends’ photo updates as they move through the world. Select from photo filters that transform regular ol’ photos into works of art you’ll want to keep around forever.

Features include:
- Apply over a dozen fun & beautiful filters to your photos
- Post as many photos as you want, for free
- Find and follow friends who are using the app
- Attach (optional) location information to any of your posts
- Share your posts to Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, & Facebook
- Check in to Foursquare when you post a photo with a location
- Let your friends know what you think by liking & commenting on their photos
- View the most popular photos around the world from Instagram users
- Supports first generation, 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 phones
- Full iPhone 4 front & back camera support

Available In: App Store

Price: Free

Screenshots:

Available In: Cydia

Price: $0.99

Video

ScreenShots:

Available In: Cydia

Price: $0.99

App Store Description:

Moxier Collage helps you create and share compelling electronic cards, collages, storyboards, picture boards, wallpaper, ideas, notes, and much more. Select from a variety of backgrounds, add pictures, text, frames, sticky notes, speech bubbles, headings, clipart, and then share with friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Moxier Collage’s highly intuitive software simplifies the creative process and enhances the sharing of ideas and memories. Simply start with a background template, or add your own, then add photos, clipart, and text. Moxier Collage lets you quickly resize, rotate, delete, and move objects. Once a design has been created, simply tap an icon and you can instantly share your creations, photos, and ideas with friends.

MOXIER COLLAGE KEY FEATURES
- Create fun collages, e-cards, storyboards, picture boards, wallpaper, memories, and much more.
- Quickly and easily resize, move, and rotate objects.
- Select from a list of backgrounds or add your own.
- Add pictures, frames, clipart, text, speech bubbles, sticky notes, and headings.
- Adjust photo color, brightness, and contrast.
- Supports both landscape and portrait modes.
- Share with friends using Facebook, Twitter, and Email.
- Fast, fun, and oh so easy!

ScreenShots:

Available In: App Store

Price: Free (down from $7.99)

Bluetooth Image is an application that allows you to share images from your Photo Albums over Wifi. In order for this application to work, both devices (iPhone or iPod touch) need to have the app installed and open.

Once you have the Bluetooth Image open, it will search for other devices in range. When it finds them, it will add it to a list where you can choose which one you would like to connect to. After that person has accepted… it will connect to their device. You can then go into your Photo Library and choose an image to send to them over Bluetooth.

Here is the skinny on the app. I never actually got it to work. Twice the connect failed before it finished sending the image, once it finished sending the image (though it said it sent it to Chris’s device and I really sent it to Doug’s… freaked me out a little) but the image didn’t display and once it crashed. Also, the images transfer extremely slowly!

Personally, I’m not sure I would download the app yet… it seems pretty buggy. If it gets an update, it might be worth a download. You can get Bluetooth Image via the BigBoss source.

ScreenShots

Photogene is a very sweet photo editing application. I have actually been using BarginBin to keep an eye out for when this app would go on sale and today it did… I was totally pumped! Photogene, normally $2.99, is on sale for the week-end only for $0.99. Honestly, the app is worth the $2.99 price tag but how much cooler is it to get it for $0.99! Photogene has basically every editing tool you could ask for all within an amazing user interface. Seriously a must-have! Check out the full list of features below and some screenshots.

ScreenShots:

App Store Description:

Photogene is about improving your digital photos and having fun while at it.
This intuitive, easy to use application offers a comprehensive set of professional editing tools.

New :
** Supports photos up to 2048*1536 (3Gs’ camera resolution)
** Direct photo emailing via Photogene (OS 3.0 only)
** Copy to clipboard for later use in other applications such as MMS (OS 3.0 only).

- Crop. Fixed aspect ratios are optional.
- Sharpen
- Levels histogram. Manually or automatically correct color distribution, improving brightness and contrast at the same time.
- Gama correction (midtones)
- Separate exposure and contrast buttons.
- RGB balance
- Saturation. Increase or decrease hues intensity in your picture. B/W effect can be reached.
- Color temperature. Correct unnatural colors by adding warmth or coolness to the image.
- Straighten for a tilted image
- Rotate and mirror
- Special effects, such as pencil, sepia or heat-map
- Frame effects: Reflection and Vignette
- Preset and customized frames in various shapes, widths and colors. Selection of shadows – outer and inner glows, gloss, drops shadow.
- Text bubbles of different styles, colors and fonts (just drag and place them wherever you like).
- Multiple Undo-Redo and reset buttons. You can use these features to compare between origin and result.
- Take photos from with in the application

Photogene was featured in one of Apple’s “there’s an app for that” TV commercials, and was picked as one of Apple’s favorites in the AppStore’s 1 year anniversary.
Photogene also received PC Magazine editor choice award and was recently included in O’Reilly’s guide “Best iPhone apps” as best app for editing photos.

Edit your photo, go artistic or be playful. Photogene enables it all in one program.

It’s not just a one time app. Photogene fulfills a wide range of your editing needs and we keep updating it.
See our website for some ideas of what you can do with this app. Also check the tutorial and frequently asked questions section.

Changes are fast and immediate and the features are continuously available on screen. You can navigate easily among the different tools.

The app allows you to zoom in and out and move the picture around, without damaging the editing work. Landscape editing is supported.

When satisfied, save to your photo library for later use (such as sending MMS, uploading to your favorite sites or emailing).

I’m not a huge business card user. In fact, I carry a few of them mostly so I can throw them into a fishbowl in order to win a free lunch at a restaurant. However, I can imagine how useful it would be to have an application that would take business cards and effortlessly import their information into your contacts list. CardSnap attempts to address this by using a proprietary method similar to OCR but not really (or so says the app’s description).

Upon opening (and waiting for) CardSnap, you are given the option to use the camera to snap a picture of the business card. You can also load photos from your camera roll or from your photo library. However, since the main selling point is to use this application in real time, I wanted to focus on the camera option. After taking a picture, you can move and scale your picture before deciding to upload to the servers at CardSnap. Once you’re satisfied with your business card’s readability (this may take some time with the iPhone’s pitiful camera), you submit the card, and wait for a response. Other options in the application include a menu to review your submitted cards, an info screen that offers a user’s guide, and a settings screen that allows you to use groups with your contacts.

I submitted a few business cards several times and was impressed on occasion with the response from CardSnap. We all know that the camera on the iPhone is not very good, and the picture quality is marginal at best. To the application’s defense, the user guide strongly recommends the use of Griffin’s Clarifi case. I was unable to test with this, so I had to rely on the standard camera app as I imagine most iPhone users would as well. With my work business card, the app said that there were some illegible fields, and I should probably review these before accepting it as a contact. Indeed, there was an error in my name, and a wrong digit in my work phone number. Other than that, though, I was impressed with how many of the details were picked up by the service and assigned to the correct field. On my wife’s business card, CardSnap got everything right, though interestingly, it did choose to skip a few items like a web address and part of her title.

Thankfully, there have been a few updates since CardSnap’s original release. When I first downloaded this app, stability was a major issue as the initial load time was long, and I had to reopen the application quite regularly. If you were to use this application on a regular basis, you might want to invest in the Clarifi case, though there’s no guarantee that the application will still get all of the fields correct. One positive test included a submission that I made using my Nikon D60 camera. CardSnap read this photo within hours and it did a perfect job of interpreting all of the fields correctly. Unfortunately, this is not a practical solution, and you might as well spend the time inputting your business cards by hand.

In the end, I would think the goal for CardSnap is to be an application that can scan business cards efficiently, effortlessly, and accurately. So far, the application succeeds in only some of these areas. It has a very simple interface, so it is possible to scan multiple business cards in a short amount of time. The program integrates well with your built-in contacts list, and it has shown high levels of accuracy when photo quality is high. I would love to see push notifications for business cards that have been reviewed as I had to open the application to check on the status. I understand the high price tag ($9.99) since CardSnap is more of an advanced application that recognizes fields rather than just translating images to text. However, for this price, one needs to demand better recognition for blurry images or wait until the camera on the iPhone improves. Perhaps, the 3GS will have better results. If you would like to try CardSnap before plunking down $10, there is a lite version, but it will still cost you $0.99. The limitation is that the app will only read 6 fields as opposed to 17. My recommendation is that CardSnap will be worth it if you receive and need to store a lot of business cards on a regular basis and you are willing to invest in either the iPhone 3GS and/or the Griffin Clarifi case.

Note: This application is currently only compatible with English keyboards.

ScreenShots

Chimera is a photo application that allows you to add filters to either previously existing photos in your Camera Roll or take a fresh photo and apply these filters right away. In all there are about 11 different filters (12 if you count the “NONE” filter as an option). These filters include; Quantize, Airbrush, Edges, Inverse, Saturate, Cartoon, Trace, Grayscale, Sepia, Night Vision, and Predator. One nice thing about this app is that once you save an image you can change the filter and save another version of the same image.

There are a bunch of various settings in Chimera… there are 3 different modes; delay settings, image stabilization, and facial recognition. The modes change how Chimera takes the pictures… it will either show you a preview, save the image instantly, or do a continuous burst mode where it will just take picture after picture until you tell it to stop. The other settings are pretty self explanatory. I’m not sure exactly what benefit the facial recognition feature does… it might be some type of auto focus function but really the depth of field on the iPhone camera is pretty great as it is. There are also a few automatic color functions such as auto white balance and a high contrast setting.

Overall, Chimera is a pretty cool app and I could see a practicality for several of the filters however, I don’t see the purpose of the night vision or the predator filters. One thing I don’t really like is the filter preview which is turn on and off by the magnifying glass next to the settings button in the bottom right. This function shows you what the image will look like with the selected filter but it makes it hard to see the full image that you are taking so I prefer to leave it off.

ScreenShots

iAnonymize is an app that allows you to hide or blur parts of photos that you don’t want other people to see. So if you took a picture of your car and don’t want to broadcast your license plate number or you or one of your friends are soon to be featured on America’s Most Wanted and you would like to conceal their identity…this would be your app.

There are two different types of boxes you can use. The first one is where it pixelizes the area you select and the other is where it just puts a blank box (ranging in shades of grey) over the selected area. You can adjust the level of each via the slider at the top of the screen. You choose the area by touching the screen on the photo and then moving and sizing the box much like zooming and moving in Safari and you toggle between the two box settings with the icon to the left of center at the bottom. You can also zoom and move around the photo by toughing the icon at the bottom in the center. When you save the photo it saves a new file to your camera roll and preserves you original file.

A couple things I don’t like about the app is that when you want to edit the photo on either the very top or the very bottom you have to do it with the slider and tool bar in the way and I’ve had it crash a few times too but that maybe a result of something else on my iPhone. It would also be sweet if you could rotate the box to better fit the photo and draw on the photo much like a brush in Photoshop. Other than that though its a pretty sweet app!

ScreenShots

My wife and I like to play a game called “I liked it better when…” Whenever we see a movie, commercial, or something that seems to be duplicating a prior idea, we’ll say “I liked it better when…” and insert the name of the idea that’s being copied. In the case of Readdle’s Take a Note, I liked it better when it was called Evernote.

Overview
Almost eerily identical to Evernote, the opening user menu of Take a Note gives you options to add a text note, an audio note, a drawing note, and a photo note. All notes that are created on the iPhone are editable, sortable, and searchable. WiFi access gives you the option to transfer notes to and from your computer or other wireless enabled sources. Notes can be emailed directly from the program and the app uses your contacts list to add recipients.

Start on a good note.
Although I am admittedly biased towards Evernote, I will acknowledge several areas where Take a Note excels and may even be a stronger option than Evernote. Many have commented on the nice and clean look of Take a Note, and I will agree. The notebook appearance is eye catching and seems apropos for the function of the program. Aesthetics aside, Take a Note also allows for transfer of notes to and from your computer via a WiFi connection. Having recently setup a network place for Readdledocs and Air Sharing, I was well versed in this capability, and had no problem accessing notes on my computer. Take a Note also allows for editing of notes directly on the iPhone. Evernote does the same, but many have complained that you cannot edit notes that have any graphics in them (even the parts that are not graphics). Lastly, Take a Note does bypass the need for a web-based application. Thus, the speed of the program is superior to Evernote, and I like the sort option as it fits in with the appearance of the iPhone’s contacts application.

Do note this, though.
Although I was able to connect with my home computer, I did have some trouble opening the notes on my computer despite the fact that they were stored as simple .TXT files. Since there is no web application like Evernote, there is no capability for cutting and pasting into Take a Note. With Evernote, I clip and store emails (graphics and web links included) into my account on my home computer or any web browser and these notes then sync immediately with the iPhone app. Thus, Evernote’s weakness as a web based application is also a strength since I can clip items wherever I have an Internet connection whereas with Take a Note, you must have a WiFi connection in order to transfer notes to and from your iPhone.

Conclusion
I will admit that coming into this review, I thought that I was going to be more negative about Take a Note. Compared to Evernote, a free app, I felt that Take a Note would fall short on features despite having a significant cost of $4.99. As I explored a bit more and as I was writing this review, I managed to see the strengths of the app, and I feel that there is a potential market for this program. If you don’t want to be tied down to a web app, and you’d like a simple, yet polished native app that’s significantly more useful than the built-in notes app, Take a Note may be right for you. However, if you are interested in exploring a bit with a larger set of features, I’d suggest giving Evernote a try before shelling out your $4.99 for this app.