Perhaps more than any other CE gadget currently on the market, the iPhone has been a game changer. Certainly within the imaging world, the nifty little Apple device is quickly becoming a force as its users are capturing and sharing images with it in record numbers.
Organizers of The 6Sight Imaging Conference recently cited an interesting statistic from the social networking site Flickr, which regularly graphs which cameras captured the photos uploaded to its sharing service. Their latest report shows the iPhone, with its 2-megapixel sensor, is now the most popular capture device, as it had surpassed the Canon Rebel XTi SLR.
The 6Sight team then pointed out the wide variety of imaging-specific applications that are showing up in the Apple iTunes App Store for use on the increasingly popular smartphone. We’ve added a few to the list as well.
• Tiffen has added to its Dfx Digital Filter Creative Effects software for the iPhone and iPod Touch: the $3 Photo Fx 2.0 has 61 filters with 615 presets. The edits are nondestructive, made on a copy without overwriting the original image.
• Lucidiom Inc.’s Pocket Pics, which we featured in last month’s issue, synchronizes online photos with an iPhone. It’s free to account holders with Photo Finale, the Lucidiom photo-sharing and ordering site.
• Shoot It! LLC is offering a postcard messaging application for the iPhone. With Postcard Messaging, users can take a picture, create a personal message, and have it mailed as a real postcard to anyone in the world. Mailed card costs range from $.99 to $1.50.
• Athentech Imaging Inc. has ported its Perfectly Clear image correction to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The $3 application can optimize images for exposure, color accuracy, sharpness and depth with a single touch, the company says. It also provides tools to fine tune the look of photos by adjusting sliders and presets.
• FotoMuse — iPhone enthusiasts have clearly discovered that the device takes a decent picture, but few would term the resulting image "fine art." Thanks to a new app created by FotoMuse ($2.99 in the Apple App Store), consumers can now transform their iPhone snapshots into artistic renderings in just a few simple steps.
The FotoMuse app enables users to import any photo from their iPhone album and transform it into a work of art in under 20 seconds. Users can crop, resize and mix images with artifacts from old photos, vintage-edged film and other media. After adding contrast, selecting a border and choosing a layer, it’s easy to save the image without actually changing the original photo.
• MiTek Systems Inc. recently announced its Mobile Receipt application that converts the photo of a receipt taken with the iPhone camera into a high-quality image and, with a single tap, converts the data into a professional-looking expense report. Mobile Receipt saves time, enhances productivity and can help speed reimbursements.
To capture a receipt, the user simply snaps a photo of it and assigns an expense category. In seconds, Mobile Receipt’s patent-pending IMagePROVE; technology automatically crops, rotates and scales the image so it is easy to read and print.
• CodeGoo’s iPhone app Camera Genius is a nifty little helper that solves a few of the camera deficiencies inherent in the iPhone’s low-light shooting, the difficulty snapping the shutter when taking self-portraits, and its lack of a timer. This app also has a sound-sensitive shutter release, so you can program the camera to snap a photo when you and a group of friends shout "cheese" at the iPhone. The app also adds touch zoom capability.
