Featured App: iFontMaker (via Brit + Co)

I recently came across the Brit + Co and fell in love! If you haven't visited, here's a snippet from their "About" page regarding what to expect:

Started by Brit Morin, Brit + Co. is a lifestyle brand that provides the digital generation with savvy shortcuts for their online and offline lives.
The Brit + Co blog was an immediate add to my Feedly reader.  The screengrab below captures the fun over on her blog...everything from apps to gift wrap in one place. 



In today's post, I wanted to share an app with you that was just featured over at Brit + Co, just in case you aren't a reader over there yet. 

The font is called iFontMaker, and it allows you to turn your own handwriting into a font in a matter of minutes.  I've had a love-hate relationship with typography for years...recognizing the power it holds but not always being able to harness it well! In the past year, I've given myself permission to experiment with typography a bit more, and have even created a logo for my inspiration blog using my handwriting. 

Hop over to Brit's post to learn more about iFontMaker.  I'm sure you'll be a new subscriber to Brit + Co (also on Facebook here).

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.

 

Featured App: Postcard on the Run

Do you find yourself snapping photos with your iPhone? I often take my phone with me on my morning walk to snap photos of my roses and the pond. 

I’m sharing an app review with you today for “Postcard on the Run.”  Tune into the short and sweet video below for the details, as well as the usual app rundown below.  If you’re new to my app reviews, here is a link to others I’ve blogged about. 

Video (written review below as well)

(Video link here for those reading by email)

Name of app: 

Postcard on the Run

About the app: 

Postcard on the Run allows you to send a personalized postcard to a friend using a photo from your phone’s photo library (or even a Facebook photo) for $1.49.  The cost covers printing and mailing the postcard - and you never even went to your mailbox (smile).

What I love most: 

I love the convenience of the app.  In my ideal world, I’d print off iphone photos and create beautiful handmade cards to mail.  The reality? I’m as busy as you are, and sometimes I have to choose between laundry, dinner and fun.  That’s not to say I haven’t handpainted cards as well, but not nearly as often as I would like to!

Cost of app: 

Free to download, $1.49 to customize and get in the mail. 

Any cons?
The con may be a pro as well, if that’s possible.  I wonder what the world has come to - that we are too busy to create and mail our own postcards?! At the same time, I appreciate that there is an easier, more realistic way!

More Information...
Visit the Postcard on the Run website here.

This review was not sponsored...just a part of my featured app series. :)

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Featured App and Tutorial: Flickr

Screenshot of one of my Flickr albums
from the N Chas Arts Festival

Are you a blogger who takes photos with your iPhone?  Have you been emailing the photos to yourself (one at a time) to save on your computer for posting on your blog? I’m embarrassed to admit that is what I was doing just a few months ago.  It can be downright exhausting (smile).  I knew there was a better way!

So, I turned to Flickr to see if there was a mobile app.  Of course, there was. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner? Before I share the details on how to use this super-easy (and free) app, I want to mention there is another mover and shaker app that allows you to save photos from your iPhone to your computer.  I’m sure I will give that a go next, and review it for you here.  Until then, I’m sharing Flickr info.  After all, plenty of bloggers like to drive traffic to their Flickr accounts, so it is still a winning app for me.

This is an app review and tutorial in one. I've reviewed a few other apps as well - view them here.

Name of app: 

Flickr

About the app: 

Flickr allows you to upload sets of photos from your iPhone to your Flickr account (7 at a time) and have easy access to them later, when you want to share them on your blog.

What I love most: 

It's a huge time-saver for me - no longer having to email photos to myself from my iphone library, download them from my email, and save to my computer for use in my blogging later.

Cost of app: 

Free (at the time of this post)

Any cons?
I've always felt like the process to save photos to your computer from Flickr involves more steps than necessary.  Instead of a simple right-click/save, you have to view the photo individually, then right click and select your download size, wait for that to load, and then right-click save again.  It does get faster once you get the hang of it.  The reasoning? Flickr allows you to grab various sizes/resolutions, which comes in handy if you're sharing photos with the media for possible print use.  That said, the embed option (explained later) may be faster for some bloggers. 

Now, onto the tutorial!

How to upload photos to Flickr from your iPhone
(Flickr is also available on Android phones - the uploading process is very similar)

1. First, search for “Flickr” in the app store and download the free app.

2. Next, you’ll need to login with your Flickr credentials.  If you have a yahoo account, your email and password will work. Otherwise, you can create an account in just a few simple steps.

3. Now it’s time to upload your photos!  On the iPhone, you click on the uploader icon on the top right after you’ve logged into your Flickr account.

4. Next, you select “take photo or video” or “select from library”. I love that you can upload multiple photos!

5. Now it’s time to add the photos to an existing set or create a new one.  You can also just keep them in your regular photostream.  I have found it comes in handy later to be organized with sets from the beginning.

6. Select “public” or “private” as your privacy level, then, click “upload”.

You’re all set! When you need the photos for blogging (or otherwise), visit your Flickr account from your computer and select the photo(s) from your photostream.  Right click on each photo when enlarged and follow simple download instructions.  OR, simply embed the photo into your blog post by grabbing the html embed code under "share" and selecting your embed size. 

Added bonus:
Flickr has a photo editing tool that allows you to crop and adjust photos.  It's available from your regular computer - select "edit photo in Aviary" under "actions" when viewing a photo individually.  Crop, adjust and save.

When you return to your computer to compose your next blog post, simply login to Flickr.com and grab whatever photos you’d like to embed.  Or, download the photo(s) by right-clicking and selecting the desired photo side. 
Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS.

Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Mobli App: A “Do” or a “Don’t”?

In doing research for new apps to feature on this blog, I came across an app called “Mobli” that seemed a little like instagram on steroids.  From what I gathered, it’s a photo sharing app that allows you to share photos across multiple social platforms.  In fact, I “found” Mobli when I noticed a friend was sharing photos on Twitter via the app.  There’s also an explore/discover kind of feel to Mobli.  You can follow photo streams based on keywords or scan photos from people in your own area. 

Here’s the thing – I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the app.  I'm sharing my experience with you below.

Since I wanted to discover and personally use new apps (in addition to my favorites) with you on this blog, I downloaded the Mobli app.  I wanted to get comfortable with it before I shared my experience with you.

So, I downloaded Mobli and began looking around.  The first thing I did was look for my  friends (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) on Mobli. Was it easy to find them? Turns out, not many of my friends are using Mobli.  So, I started to look around for folks in the Charleston area on Mobli. 

Seriously, folks

Most of the photos from Charleston users were not anything like what you’d see on Instagram.  No fun photos of nature, art, dining out, etc.  Instead, I found most of the Charleston area photos to be pretty bizarre, honestly. Not Mobli's fault! Several photos of what appeared to be a spider bite.  Other injury-related photos – like showing off a bad bruise.  Then there were far too many “Am I cute?” photos that the 18-25 year old crowd loves to take and share (no offense intended). 

The upside? The neat part about Mobli is a feature where you can save word searches, for something like “photography” or “nature”, and then follow the photo stream attached to that tag - from all around the world. 

My Mobli hangup? Turns out Mobli shares a thumbnail preview of every photo you view on the app with your Facebook friends.  So, my friends were alerted to me browsing those spider bite and bruise photos. A tattooed pregnant belly. And an album called “bored”.  Not to mention tough guy “Lucciano”.  The best Charleston has to offer, folks! (Smile). Of course, nothing inappropriate, but this bothered me. 

For this reason, I decided to remove Mobli from my phone and Facebook (note, you have to remove in both places).  Could I have edited my Mobli Facebook settings to not share my photo viewing stream? Sure.  I have a problem with an app that posts to my Facebook wall without me specifically selecting “share to Facebook” with each photo viewed or shared -  it just seems a little underhanded.  My personal opinion, yours may differ. 

It’s a bit strange to share an app with you without a glowing review, but I wanted to be honest about my experience.  I may give it another spin, only following a few select keywords. 

Until next time…

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.
 

Featured App: What the Font

It’s time for another fun “featured app” review.  I kicked the series off with a review of Diptic (herein case you missed it).  Today’s app has a clever name that is easy to remember: “What the Font”.  A little sassy, sure. 

Name of app:

What the Font

How I heard about it:

Mandi and Sarah Katherine of the Columbia CVB – some of the nicest and most knowledgeable gals you’ll ever meet.

About the app:

What the Font helps you identify the fonts used on just about anything.  All you have to do is snap a picture of the unknown font and upload it via your iPhone.  The app then searches its database (powered by myfonts.com) and returns a variety of matches. 

What I love most:

All the time I’m saving! And being able to snap photos of “old” printed pieces (even records) with a good chance their handy system will find a close match!

Cost of app:

Free (at the time of this post).  Look for it in the App store. 

Not an iPhone user?

Not to worry.  You can also upload your photo to their website and get a free analysis here.  

Tweet them:
Tell them how much you love it by tweeting @myfonts. While you’re there, be sure to follow me, @lauracatherineo.

Got a font you love? Comment below, tweet me, Facebook me.  I would love to give it a spin and review it here.

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Introducing Featured Apps: Diptic App

I’m excited to tell you I’m adding area of focus to my usual blog writing – favorite apps.  This is just one of the new features I'll be adding to the blog, so expect more posts and some new twists this year! Useful apps, sometimes with ties to design/marketing, sometimes those that make life more beautiful or are just plain fun! One of my favorite things to ask my tech friends when we get together is “what are your favorite apps?”  I’ve found many apps this way – sort of like an old “word of mouth” referral for a relatively new tool. 

Some of the apps I’ll be sharing are free, others are just a few dollars.  I may not cover the apps that we’ve been using and hearing about for months – unless I can think of a new twist or way to use them that we may not have thought about yet!

It’s always a bit scary when introducing a new (to this blog) concept. For some reason I feel a bit of pressure and am not sure how to launch it just right! I’m going to jump right in by sharing one of my favorite apps!

Name of app:

Diptic.  

How I heard about it:

The lovely Kim Jamiesonintroduced me to this fun app over dinner!  

About the app:

Diptic allows you to create a collage of 1, 2, 3 (or more) photos and save it to your phone as a single photo.  At the time I’m writing this, there are 52 layouts to choose from! There are also lots of sharing possibilities with just one-click (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.). 

If you’re an Instagram addict (or just love taking photos with your phone), you already know there are lots of great ways to make otherwise ordinary phone photos look a bit more magical. 

Think about this:

Since you can save the Diptic collage to your phone photo gallery, you can then take that collage and “instragram-it” to add photo effects. 

Cost of app:

Just 99 cents! Look for it in the App store. 

Tweet them:
Tell them how much you love it by tweeting @dipticapp.
Here are a few photos I created with Diptic recently using photos I’d already taken on my phone.  Totally transforms the look of things! (I usually tweet and instagram my Diptic photos - follow me @lauracatherineo).

 
Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.