Big Lens iOS app
October 20, 2011 | 
Author Quick review of an app I think should be part of any iPhoneographers toolkit!
Big Lens gives you the ability to quickly, easily and very impressively mimic the depth of field that you can only really achieve on a DSLR camera.
Above are a before and after example of what can be created within 2 minutes using this app. Load up or take a new photo, select the focus area using a selection of tools then pick the aperture you wish to use.
If that wasn’t enough for you, you can then select a filter to apply to your finished product. I used the Lomo filter above and think it enhanced the photo nicely.
Excellent app for 69p! Worth a download.
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Mac App Store Is Slow? Try This “Fix”
- Quit the Mac App Store with Command + Option + Q
- Open Keychain Access from Applications > Utilities
- Go to Keychain Access > Preferences > Certificates
- Set ‘Certificate Revocation List CRL’ to ‘Off
’- Quit Keychain Access
- Relaunch the Mac App Store and you should be set
iPhone Facebook app update
Facebook have released version 3.5 of their iPhone/iPod app (still no iPad app) with some nice feature updates.
The status update now has access for tagging friends, locations, inserting media and controlling sharing options. All very welcome additions to make the process of using Facebook on the move a more pleasant experience!
Tags: VirtualBox
VirtualBox. is a great piece of open source virtualisation software. I’m currently running Windows 7 & Ubuntu 64 bit on my Macbook, both seamlessly operating in full screen with 1.5Gb and 512Mb assigned respectively. If you have the need to run more than one O/S concurrently or you just want to try out a new one, then you can’t go far wrong with VirtualBox.
iOS HDR apps
Being a lover of photography and iOS devices, I can’t seem to stop downloading photography apps for my iPhone. Any iPhone user that likes to take a snap or two should definitely have a HDR (High Dynamic Range) app on their device.
For a long time, HDR photography was only available to those with the specialist software and knowledge on how to create an image that gives a more accurate representation of what the human eye sees.
I use CS5 for merging several images taken from my DSLR, but this means waiting till I get home and if there’s one thing I hate doing it’s waiting!
I have used ProHDR for over a year now and have been happy with the results. They’re so much better than Apples attempts from the built in camera app. But I decided I should give another app a try.
My first contender is TrueHDR. At 69p it was worth a punt, the spec looked good and reviews seemed positive. So here are my findings and comparisons:
TrueHDR has two imaging modes, natural & enhanced.
Natural
The colours on this are good but the range of exposures isn’t as good as I’d hoped.
Enhanced
Dynamic range is better but the colours aren’t accurate and it’s struggled with the exposure around the clouds. This setting also took considerably longer to merge the images.
ProHDR
Colours aren’t as accurate as the Natural setting on TrueHDR but the exposure and range are better.
TrueHDR has a couple of built in filters you can apply to your HDR images but I have several other dedicated apps that do that with much better results.
I think I’ll stick to ProHDR for now but will keep testing with the Natural TrueHDR images as the colours do impress me. Let me know if you find anything better!
The perfect way for a geek to start the day
Flipboard on the iPad has to be the best way to catch up on all your favourite blog, social media & news sites.
Excellently presented, Flipboard offers fast access through a customisable home screen. It’s a must for all iPad owners, and it’s free!
Bamboozle! – The Classic Teletext Quiz Game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on the iTunes App Store
Bamboozle! – The Classic Teletext Quiz Game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
For any of you out there old enough to remember Teletext then you’ll love this app.
This was part of the daily routine at college, and it’s free 
HP iPrint for iOS
As we seem to have so many iOS devices in our house I thought it would make sense to invest in an HP wireless printer that supported AirPrint.
After some research I went for the HP CN245B Photosmart all-in-one. Seemed reasonably priced and ticked all the boxes.
So far I’m really pleased with how the printer has performed from both iOS device & my Mac. To make it even more useful HP have developed an iPrint app for
iOS that lets you scan directly to your iPhone/iPad/iPod.
Definitely worth downloading if you too have a networked all in one HP device.