The cameras on our phones can never match up to the commendable quality of digital SLR cameras. They just cannot. However, every now and again we capture a superb image on our phones that’s worth saving. It could be a picture of friends, a landscape, or your favourite band on stage.

Color, quality adjustment, effects, and a little bit of cropping can work wonders too and why not have the ability to do it right there and then on your phone, ready to tweet or share on Facebook? Photoshop Express from Adobe is an application for just that.

 

Functionality

Upon firing up Photoshop Express for the first time you are ready to go every last photograph you have taken on your phone will load on the homescreen waiting to be edited and improved.

Once you have selected your masterpiece which you have decided could use a little tweak, a multitude of options await you in the editing screen. There are of course the basics, such as cropping, flipping and straightening, but even they are done well.

 

Cropping is extremely easy as you are able to move all four corners of the rectangle and then subsequently move the entire rectangle around. Once you are done just press Okay and thats that all in about five seconds.

 

Its in the more complex tasks that this application really flourishes where other applications fail miserably by ruining photos with poor quality and power. For instance, converting a color photo to greyscale: while it may seem like an easy enough task, many apps and even computer programs can mess it up beyond belief. Photoshop Express does an excellent job of analysing all the colors and shading in a photo, and converts it into a black and white picture that looks like it was taken that way in the first place.

 

 

This level of quality goes for all the colour editing features such as tint, contrast, brightness, exposure and saturation. Most of these are easily controlled, not by your average slider, but by simply moving your finger side to side on the screen until the level you want has been reached. This allows the picture to occupy most of the screen instead of being made smaller to accommodate toolbars, sliders and buttons.

 

 

The effects menu is what really made this app for me. The developers understand you are on your phone and trying to shove an entire Photoshop program on there would have been unreasonable. Instead, they have given us a list of predetermined "effects" which we can add to photos. You can see the screenshot above with examples such as "Pop", "Soft Black and White" and a personal favourite of mine, "Vignette Blur". That one senses objects in the photo which are close (such as someone face) and gives them a sharp focus, while simultaneously blurring the background.

 

 

Adobe have also included some borders. I like the basic ones but as you continue to scroll through them they get a little cheesy. Still, variety is the spice of life. No changes are permanent and the original files are not overwritten when you save either, which I liked. You can also undo and redo your work by pressing the appropriate arrows while editing.

Not Just Photoshop

Photoshop Express is not all about editing photos however they have included one or two other features that make the experience just that little bit more enjoyable.

 

I personally find it a much better way to view photos than using the normal method of going through your pictures menu. The homescreen of Photoshop Express displays more photos in tile format which makes for quicker browsing and you are brought closer to the editing process if you’re a regular snapper. The ability to view your pictures as a continuous slideshow is a nice touch.

The app can also be synced with an online Adobe Photoshop account where you can upload your photos to by pressing the "Upload" button on the homescreen. You can also select the "Online" tab as opposed to the "Phone" tab to display your online photos and edit them.

The application is also in touch with our social needs with the ability to upload edited photos to TwitPic and Facebook. This feature is not instantly obvious when using the app for the first time, which disappointed me until I came across the ability to enter and activate my social media accounts in the application’s "Settings" menu.

Design

I quite like the design of Photoshop Express its sleek and professional as you would expect from a seasoned veteran such as Adobe. The grey and blue color scheme work well together and all your photos are presented neatly.

 

 

The editing screen could have been their downfall here given the number and complexity of some of the options. Thankfully, they have pulled it off. Leaving the number of menus across the top of the screen reduces clutter and the subsequent drop-down menus look great.

Unlike in other applications and computer programs, selecting a function quickly opens a new screen where just that option’s slider’s and options are displayed. This screen allows you to make changes, save them or just hit Back to return to the main editing screen.

 

Across the bottom of the screen we have the exit button to go back to the homescreen, the undo and redo buttons, and the save button. You can also turn the phone on its side for a landscape view of your photo and the editing options as you can see in the picture above.

 

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Scan To Download

 

Google has just updated their Mobile App for iOS devices. What was initially meant to be your one-click portal to all of Google services has now been downgraded to a mere Search app. By reducing its focus the Google dev team has managed to make the iOS Search app much nicer to use.

The improvements include a new toolbar that lets you filter your results. To toggle it on you can use one of the newly implemented swipe gestures (left or right) either before you search or once you have got your results. You can then select the required filter, like Images, Videos, Shopping etc. Next you get the setting menu, which is also opened by a swipe gesture, only this time you need to swipe down. Its also what you should do to see the search bar.

Google also made it easier to pick up searching where you left it off. If you leave the app and come back later, you will be able either to start a new search right away (just tap in the search box to type, hit the microphone button to do a voice search or tap on the camera icon to use Google Goggles) or get back to exactly where you were by tapping on the lower part of the page.

 

 

 

 

The secret art of URL guessing sometimes it pays off. Someone decided to add /apps after amazon.com and the upcoming Android app store was revealed. It was stocked with about 50 apps, some exclusive and some cheaper than in Google Market. The page has been taken down since but apparently was not fully working even when it was up. Still, there were 48 apps and games were listed in the Amazon App Store. Angry Birds Rio was not on the list so, there will be more content added before the store launches.

 

Here is a sample of what was available in the Amazon App Store. You can check out the full list over at AndroidNews.de along with the price comparison between the two app stores.

 

 

Among the exclusive titles was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Force Recon, while some apps like Scan2PDF Mobile 2.0 was a cool $2.50 cheaper in the Amazon App Store.

 

The secure online storage service Wuala is going for the iPhone users who demand secure mobile applications. Unlike some other file sharing apps, Wuala encrypts and decrypts files directly on the iPhone or iPod Touch, using client-side encryption. As a result, files you send to your Wuala account are so secure that even Wuala staff cannot access them, because the password never leaves the device. In that sense, I can see it being used by organizations such as Wikileaks and their sources for sharing confidential documents.

Users can browse, share and view files on their iOS-powered device as well as open them with selected applications. Moreover, there is the option to save select file types offline for later access when there is no network connection around.

 

 

In the storm of iPad 2 info today, we also got word that some games got updates so they can make use of the the iPad 2 more powerful GPU and CPU. Real racing 2 HD, N.O.V.A 2, Infinity Blade, Zen Bound 2 and Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner all got plenty of cool new effects that thanks to the improved processing power should not hurt performance.

Of course you should expect plenty more such updates to come. The iPad 2 not only brings more processing power, but also adds a gyroscope and a couple of cameras, which all enhance its gaming potential.