The long awaited Noby Noby Boy from Keita Takahashi is now available in the AppStore. We wrote about it few times in the past, most recently only few days ago with the release of wonderful videos but now we can finally immerse ourselves in the wonderful world Keita has created. What first started as a PS3 downloadable, described as a virtual playground than a game (fingergaming), Noby Noby Boy puts players in control of a stretchable, snake-like creature that can devour objects in the world around him. Keita first revealed his intentions to create an iPhone version of the at this year’s Game Developers Conference, since then we have been eagerly awaiting the iPhone release. I, unfortunately (still waiting for my PS3) never played the PS3 version but from what I have seen and read there was something that instantly drew me in. I don’t think these were the graphics or gameplay but rather the combination of both creating a world you are both unfamiliar and familiar with. A visual playground navigated by a creature as absurd as objects surrounding it. Is this absurdity that I enjoyed or was it the peculiar, unfamiliar and the exciting ‘never seen before’. I think it is my déformation professionnelle being an architect that always makes me question things but this may be why I enjoy things that sometimes are not clear nor easy to comprehend. At the same time some things do not need be understood to be enjoyed but rather it is our emotional response that may draw you in. If iPhone as an object of commodity fetishism, it is perfect for such absurdity. Whether this be only a self-expression, Noby Noby Boy takes over your device. If Apple would allow background processes, I could see Noby Noby Boy taking all the foreground. Your calendar would suddenly have a creature crawling all over it and while you scan for address book contacts there would be a fairy stealing all your numbers. Noby Noby Girl would grow so long, that you would have only a single chance to scroll to “z” and before you knew it the ‘A’ would spring back. You may ask why, and with that I say “why not”. The only limitations to Noby Noby Boy are iPhone hardware limitations or to be more correct is what Apple would approve. Noby Noby Boy makes use of GPS, Camera, Email, Music, Time, Photo Library, Safari Browser and so much more. I do not think there is an app in the appstore that makes use of iPhone services as much as Noby Noby Boy does. I could go on and explain what each one of them does but I prefer to leave that to you, to discover via each and every wonderful little pop up. If you already have the app, you know of all the things I mention here. If you ‘aven’t got it yet, well, time to stop reading this post, find the iTunes button below and buy now. This is the one for all. Noby Noby Boy, please save the world from this boredom!

p.s. It’s a GTD app too! =]

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $1.99
Developer: NAMCO BANDAI Games

1:2-tone [=Halftone] converts your iPhone photos into halftone patterns. The process is simple; Browse your Photos album and pick an image, Zoom in or out and fit to the screen size, Choose dot size and then either make a wallpaper by saving the image to your library for later use or send the image by email.

iPhone 3GS users only: in case you’d take a 2048×1536 photo, 1:2-tone may refuse to open it. The fix is on its way to App Store in the next update.

1:2-tone was created by ANTIsoftware, a Polish iPhone development studio.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $1.99
Developer: Mateusz Bajer

(via app.itize.us)

Ever since the release of Toy Camera together with Old Camera I have been slightly reluctant to review many “effector” apps now available in the AppStore. On a number of occasions I have also been suggested by friends to check out Camera Bag, Night Camera and a bunch of others that would somewhat deserve a mention considering the features they provide. I have and continue seeing new additions that way too much resemble ideas that Takayuki Fukatsu (could be said) initiated. Takayuki’s apps had style and sense of clarity in what they were about. Many followed, some with additional functionality that clouded the clear vision of what point+shoot apps should be about. Most popular being one about applying effects to photos you have already taken, and more recently full blown “photoshop” type apps that are way to complex for mobile device and providing not enough features to come even close to desktop software.

Then yesterday I came across Hipstamatic:

Digital photography never looked so analog. The Hipstamatic brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past! The Hipstamatic keeps the the quirks of shooting old school but gives you the ability to swap lenses, film, and flash settings all with the swipe of a finger.

My first reaction was “here we go another effector app, as we don’t have plenty already”. This is not the first time thing like this happens. Twenty thousand apps in the AppStore and there ought to be some duplicates and boy there are. Apple’s AppStore policies have supported app cloning, duplicates and it seems like a trend to find semi-succesful apps in the appstore, make a copy but with better skin and shiny UI and there is a big chance you will hit top 100 apps. It is safe to say that Hipstamatic could be one of those apps, but there is something quite special about this app I hope to uncover here.

When Takayuki set-out to create Toy Camera he was looking for a simple effecter app that would with one click generate attractive photos reminiscent of old skool Toy Cameras. He wasn’t particularly interested in what camera that might have been, the lens or the film. It was about simple point+shoot+applyeffect. If this wasn’t enough Takayuki also incorporated feature that would randomly choose the effect so you never knew what you would get. Simple, fun and unexpected was his moto. Then came a wave of new apps making this process more and more prescriptive, ie applying effects to you own photos and some even incorporating previews of what your photo would look like once the effect has been applied. Sure this is useful but for mobile?? When do we ever have the time to sit down and begin editing our photos. This is something we may do on the desktop and there are plenty of tools that will let us do this and achieve way better quality than on the iPhone. We seem to be loosing the quality of surprise what Toy Cameras were all about = cheap and cheerful photography.

Hipstamatic app was inspired by the camera invented by Bruce and Winston Dorbowski. The idea was simple at the time, to bring people a camera that cost less than the film. Bruce had a Russian plastic camera that our father gave him as a Christmas gift in 1972. The camera had since broke and was no longer being made or sold, at least anywhere he could find it. So Bruce and Winston came up with a plan to recreate something similar. Winston had fallen in love with his Kodak Instamatic and that was the start of the Hipstamatic (read more here).

Then recently the guys from Synthetic approached Richard Dorbowski (brother) to recreate the experience of using the original Hipstamatic 100 as a digital application for iPhone. I now wonder whether I should go on and describe the experience or maybe you should discover that for yourself as I did trying different combinations of lenses, never knowing the results you will get. The only thing you should actually know before you make any purchase is that the app comes with single lens, flash and 2 films by default. Once you have tried these you will want more and additional films (the look of final prints) and effects can be purchased (3 exactly) costing $0.99 each.

Here is a little about: Pictures taken with the Hipstamatic have their very own look and unique character. Artistic and painted with light and quirk, Hipstamatic images are sometimes surprising and offer a delicate beauty turning any iPhone into an instant art making machine. Images can be uploaded directly to your Facebook album or emailed to your friends and family.

FEATURES
———————————————–
• HipstaSwap™ lens technology
• HipstaSwap™ film technology
• Square format prints
• Built in Facebook sharing
• Sweet sound effects
• ‘Classic’ parallax-offset viewfinder (with option to turn off)
• Jet black molded plastic unibody
• KwikProcess™ technology
• Swank Camera flip action
• HipstaAlbum™ viewer w/sharing
• HipstaMart shopping for additional film & lenses

Considering that there were only 157 Hipstamatic 100s ever produced — 154 of them were sold, and the family has only 3 in their storage unit, the app has made it’s way to the hands of thousands if not millions soon. If you are interested to find out more about camera’s history you should check out hipstamatic blog ran by Richard Dorbowski. For information on the app with full manual to download, see hipstamaticapp.com. For $1.99 + additional 3 lenses and flashes all in total costing $5 you get to own a piece of history. Do I need to say more?

Platform: iPhone
Version: 110
Cost: $1.99 (+in app purchases)
Developer: Synthetic Corp

Continue reading.... TiltShift Generator [Air]

Continue reading.... Passing By [Flash]

If you are unfamiliar with FriendFeed, it is a webapp that helps you discover and discuss interesting stuff that your friends on the web. See the web pages, videos, photos, and music your friends are sharing from around the web. You begin by setting up an account and adding various services you use including flickr, twitter, vimeo, youtube, brightkite and many more. If you are social geek, friendfeed is the place to go.

BuddyFeed’s clean interface and easy navigation allows easy browsing and engagement with content your friends are posting. You can comment, mark liked and view the links within the integrated browser. As you would also expect, you can discover people’s profiles, their feeds and subscribe to them. The latest 1.1 update has really made BuddyFeed complete with integration of lists and rooms. There is always room for improvement and speed might be one of those. Loading the content can be slightly sluggish at times especially when there are a lot of images in question. Another slight problem is avoiding to click on the content when scrolling. As you can see in the video posted comment is slightly too sensitive when trying to swipe you finger to scroll.  Neither of these two issues affect much the general experience and with future updates we are sure these will be addressed.

Features:
- View your feeds of home, lists, rooms and everyone.
- View your own feeds, likes and commented messages.
- Inline web browser for links in messages
- View comments and likes of messages
- View user profiles and feeds
- Search in your feeds
- Search in all public feeds
- Post messages
- Post message to a room
- Post images in messages
- Post comment to messages
- Like/unlike messages
- Hide/unhide messages
- Subscribe/Unsubscribe to a user
- Bookmarklet for Safari for posting messages

If you are looking for a FriendFeed client for the iPhone, BuddyFeed is your best choice.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.1
Cost: $2.99
Developer: Robin Lu

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Takayuki Fukatsu

You can download the app here.
Read more about QuadCamera here.

Did you know that QuadCamera gets around camera API limitations (fast shots) by taking screenshots of the preview? A very cool hack!

Platform: Flash
Version: N/A
Cost: Free
Developer: Takayuki Fukatsu

Deskography

Deskography is a dedicated site to people that love sharing their workspace photos. Besides the basic photo upload functionality, you can also create desks (folders) where you store all the images related to that desk. This may be your desk at home or at work.

Another great recent addition are organizations where you can get your co-workers to submit their own desk photos. What a great way to get an isight into the workings of a company we love than see their employees’ desks.

Things have been moving slightly slowly in the past few weeks but Gustaf and Johan are back working on the site and we expect some cool future updates, the most recent one being organizations.

See where people you admire spend their days and nights. Thinking about realigning your office and need some inspiration? Browse photos of desks that people in your industry have uploaded.

Go on, upload picture of your desk and share it with the world!

Platform: WebApp
Version: N/A
Cost: Free
Developer: Distrop
Deskography

First released in October last year and most recently 2.01 version, ToyCamera is about point, shoot and share. In this process, by default, you are greeted with surprise effect applied to your photo. Every time you take a shot a random effect us applied to it. If you do wish not to include some of the effects you can change this is the app settings. If you prefer to use only a single effect you can do this by disable all those that you do not want to use, all but one. ToyCamera brings you a set of image editing workflows that are automated for your convenience to produce exciting modifications to your photographs in a single click. The app takes photos in 800×600 or 600×600 resolution (crop option available) and they are automatically saved into your Camera Roll library. Available effects are: Vintage Green effect, Vintage Warm effect, Vintage Yellow effect, Low Saturation, High Saturation, Toning Sepia, Black & White, HiCon Black&White. In addition, uploader is included to the BigCanvas Photoshare.

Some may find ToyCamera lacking features and options but this is precisely the point.  If we think about photoshop as a worflow tool, thee are a number of steps required to take a photo, edit it using tools available in PS, optimize size and upload to a social networking site or Flickr. Now this is a task may take anything from 15-30 min. Trying to replicate this process on a mobile device giving a number of choices along the way would be wrong. Instead, as demonstrated by many apps in the appstore, these workflows are usually translated into single functionality apps that provide a quick way of automated workflows to create content. A good way to think about this is saved actions in Photoshop that may include photo import, effect and upload to a site of your choice. This is exactly what ToyCamera is.

ToyCamera for the iPhone is the modern version of what the original name suggests: simple, inexpensive film box cameras made almost entirely out of plastic, often including the lens. The term is misleading, since they are not ‘toys’ in the sense that these cameras are actually capable of taking photographs….. Many professional photographers have utilized toy cameras and the often strange optical effects of their inexpensive lenses to take award-winning photographs….such as the annual Krappy Kamera show at the Soho Photo Gallery in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York City. Wikipedia

If you love taking photos, regardless of whether you are good or bad at it, ToyCamera is a great way to create images that will surprise you and amaze others. A must app for all in love with photography. See some examples below, photos I have taken, and much more on this Flickr group.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 2.01
Cost: $1.99
Developer: Takayuki Fukatsu

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Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras. In many cases, it refers to tilting the lens relative to the image plane and using a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field (wikipedia). See this great tutorial on how to achieve this effect using Photoshop and these groups on MacRumors , Flickr  and this group dedicated to TiltShift iPhone app creations.

The apps basic function is to create a focus on a linear or elliptical region in the image, interactively adjusting the amount of blur for maximum effect. The size and orientation of the focus can be adjusted by the multi-touch gestures pinch in, pinch out and rotation of two fingers around a common center. With dozens of images that are included you can practice so when it comes to applying it to your own photos you have mastered the technique. 

Besides using the app for Tilt-shift effect, it also works great when you are trying to give more depth to the pictures created on the iPhone. Here are some examples from yesterday’s live gig of Manu Chao. Where normally photos would end up pretty flat, a bit of focus gives a much better feel to the photo especially considering that this photo was created on the iPhone at low light level conditions. 

  

TiltShift is a great tool to add to the arsenal of apps you have on your iPhone. Whilst many photo editing apps available in the AppStore replicate functionality of desktop editors, TiltShift provides an easy and quick way to enhance your photos in a way that is both creative and fun.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $1.99
Developer: Michael Krause
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Here is also a great video made using Tilt-shift technique (Music: Robot High School (In Digital Form Remix) by My Robot Friend robothighschool.com)

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.