“Software To Make Photos Artfully Worse” in the NY Times

If your photos don’t look as crummy as you’d like, there is new software that will wreck them for you.

That’s not a bad thing if you are a devotee of the “lo-fi” photography movement, which considers the effects achieved by toy cameras, pinhole cameras and other crude photo devices to be artful. There are even contests dedicated to lo-fi work.

via gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com

I do like to make my pictures look “crummy” and enjoy it a lot, in fact. It’s my latest obsession and I have added 100s of photos to my collection (of which I’ve posted a small fraction here) since getting a smart phone late last fall. Smartphone apps that mimic the pinhole, lomo, lo-fi, holga, and a host of other such effects are so easy to use and so versatile that a lot of users out there will probably find it hard to be satisfied with “just regular” pictures after using the apps on good mobile phones. But you’ve gotta have a good smartphone or your photos will turn out crummy, good app or not.

The alternative is using desktop apps, as mentioned in the article, but having used Piknk and Picasa and some other applications for photo manipulation, I have to say it is way easier to just select a setting a point and shoot then have to manipulate the images afterwards.

The invention of smartphone camera apps has totally revolutionized the way visual information is recorded and stored. Just hang out on instagram or picplz or search for “mobile” “android” “iphone” of “hipstamatic” tags in Flickr. My eyes were majorly opened and I’ve never shut them since.

An online journal that made me go back on my word

So, last week I wrote this post on my posterous mini-blog:

via 280daily.com

I love the visuals, UI, and concept behind this application.

Too bad I’ve already set up a tumblog exactly for this – a daily log. The only features right now that Tumblr doesn’t provide me with are:

- the ability to print to PDF
- the very attractive, minimal input panel
- reminders to post

The last I can live without, the first has a workaround (not pretty, but can do it) and the second…. well, at least Tumblr has an Android app right now. It’s not rockingly beautiful, but it’s still pretty simple.

I’ve been uploading a daily photo, some with entries, for just over 2 months now into my tumblog, and because I’ve gotten into the habit, I don’t really want to switch at this moment. If I hadn’t already started a 365 photo journal, I would sign up right now.

And then, this weekend I go and sign up for 280daily.

Now, why would I do that?

Well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try a new writing tool/record keeper that, most importantly (in this case), looked SO beautiful. Really simple, really minimal, and very attractive. The application actually came to mind a few times after I had first looked at it and I kept thinking about the UI.

So much for sticking to my wish to keeping things simple.

But right now, I don’t regret it, at least not at this moment. I’ve tried different journalling applications, and truly, simplicity is a feature I really value: I want to just write and then be able to flip through and easily see those entries. To this day, I think pen and paper was the best way I’ve ever journalled. It’s just that I find the electronic medium much more efficient and accessible, since I always have a smartphone on me, but not necessarily a notebook and pen.  But I haven’t found a digital journalling application that was as easy to browse and print out as it was to write the entries (with the exception of SkoobySoft’s viJournal, which I really liked, but didn’t want to pay $29 CDN for, at the time).

The fact that 280daily is on the web means it’s accessible anywhere with internet. I have mobile access to it. I can backup and download a pdf version, neatly formatted with the photos as well as text entries. The fact that it’s limited to 280 characters does something to my psyche: instead of being a challenge to write everyday (I love love love the concept behind 750words but found it too long in practice for a daily writing tool at this point in my life) it’s like “ha – you only have double one tweet length to fill in for today,” which, really, is a cinch. If I really want to write longer, I have this wordpress blog to fill in the rest of the day.

What I do look forward to is an Android app where I can snap a picture and easily upload it to the main entry with some text. The web version is very slick, but it takes a few extra clicks than I would prefer to add one photo to the current entry.

I’m excited to test out my quick writing chops with this journal. Here’s to conscientious daily reflection.

Skill vs. Better Tools

It is easy to invest hours in finding a new tool that might make us marginally faster and overlook the real gains that are possible from increasing our skills at a particular task. I’m not saying that looking for better tools is always a bad thing. However, it is easy to invest a lot of time in a new tools, while overlooking the very real return on investment from increasing our skills.

via Skill vs. Better Tools | Productivity501

Yes, yes, yes. Something I am thinking about more and more, especially the more gadgets I get.

I have been suffering from app overload. The last I looked, I had about 30 apps downloaded on my Android phone. 4 are games for Le Petit, so let’s not count them. The others are mine, among them apps for: note-taking (4), camera & photo stuff (5), calendaring and tasks (4), and social networking (5).

And yet, this is the sorted version. I really tried to pare them down, and use FolderOrganizer in order to keep my home screens minimal and group/label like apps. I’ve been thinking my phone sometimes gets slow, and that I need to move to a better, newer shiny phone (oh, the drool-worthy new phones released at CES 2011) that has 2 processors and a larger screen.

But why: will I then have room and space to add MORE apps?

Mon mari looked at me texting and snapping away on my phone the other day and he asked me, “Are you actually being more productive this way?” It stopped me right there.

I know this is an ongoing theme in my life: to achieve simplicity, to have less stuff, to learn to let go. This totally applies to digital media and gadgets as well.

And the fact is, skills we can all develop are better time-management and mental discipline. If those are in good shape, I’m sure I would need LESS tools.

Evernote, I’ve lost that loving feeling

The title is an exaggeration: just as I will always be interested in the original Star Wars film, even after the next installment, The Empire Strikes Back, became my favorite, I will always love Evernote and will harken back to it fondly when I think about my introduction to info collection applications. And I mean, you can’t have Empire Strikes Back without the first Star Wars, right?

It’s just that I’ve become infatuated with a new (well, newer) kid on the block: Springpad.

I stumbled across Springpad recently when I went looking for viable alternatives to Delicious when I thought Yahoo was setting it adrift (Yahoo has since announced they were looking to sell Delicious, not nix it, so my momentary dismay was for naught).

I didn’t end up migrating my Delicious bookmarks there, but I did explore a bit and signed up to put Springpad to use in some other ways. A great number of other ways.

Though I signed up for it on my browser, I didn’t start using it until I installed the Android app, added the widget and voila: TOTAL usecase love.

The Evernote widget has been replaced on my homescreen. Why’s that?  I can still take pictures and add notes via the widget, but for me, the primary advantage of the Springpad widget is that I can scan barcodes of objects and snap, they are imported into Springpad, taggable and with the ability to add notes and assign it to a notebook.  Then, get this: the imported items automatically link within Springpad to Amazon or Netflix or some other shopping site to give you further info or price comparisons on the select item. PLUS, you can set an alert to watch an item if, say, it drops in price somewhere online.  Love it. (Too bad that as a Canadian, I can’t take advantage of the shopping deals [well, I have workarounds -- ].)

Springpad also has a web clipper extension for Chrome, or a bookmarklet for Safari  which I have been using for a couple of weeks now. It lets you tag and categorize the item as you clip it. Handy. See how similar it is to Evernote?

Another bonus with the Springpad application, just look at its eye-candy dashboard:

This is the home screen of the application. You can click on any notebook, or “All My Stuff” which provides an overview of everything, sortable by date or name.

And what does the notebook look like?

To me, this is much more visually appealing than Evernote’s notebook layout. And both notebook and home screens have customizable backgrounds, with layout options as well.

I’ve been using Springpad for about 3 weeks now and it seems like I am still learning all the capabilities of this little application. For example, yesterday, I just read that I can add tasks via the web or mobile app and set up alerts on the tasks that sync with Google Calendar.  I set up a notebook, “ToDo” to catch all my tasks and will see how well it works over the next couple of weeks.

I’ve yet to even try Springpad’s location function. If I tap it on my phone, it will bring up places around that I can try/note/rate and it links directly to Yelp. I’m a bit overwhelmed with location-based social media apps right now so not really keen on trying a new one, but in time I will get around to playing around with Springpad’s version.

Anyway, for now, I am using Springpad for a lot of the things I used to do with Evernote.  I’m still using Evernote mainly for work, but Springpad is my new go-to pal for the rest of my life.

Something to get me REALLY excited about writing, another app

As a newbie Apple fan, I eagerly look forward to all the new Apple product releases and spec sheets, as does the entire world of mac fans. (Not that I can afford the new products, but it still makes me feel good to LOOK.) But something else I’ve started to anticipate over the last year is the release of new application versions, especially if it’s an app I use a lot.

Just today, I saw on Twitter that one of my all time favourite apps has just released its new version, I guess its official release now, since it was in Beta (but a very very functional beta) for the longest time. It’s Ommwriter, which I’ve crushed on before.

The new version is called OmmWriter Dāna. What’s different in the new release?

From their website:

Very little. Fortunately. Most changes are too subtle to be noticed or to write home about. But they add to the overall ease of the OmmWriter experience. Some that you may notice are:

• Monospace font support.
• Larger text size option to improve accessibility and for visually-challenged users.
• Access to Menu bar from within OmmWriter by scrolling to top of screen.
• Ability to create a new file using the file menu or with command + N.
• Compatible with spaces.
• Dual screen support that blanks out the second screen when in use.
• Ability to return to the original text box size (in view menu).
• New file formats to save to: .pdf or .rtf.
• Improved user experience with horizontal cursor

It also now comes in 2 versions: the free and the paid. The paid version will have a few more audio and visual scapes to work with, including this one:

New "Blur" background for Ommwriter Dana

The pricing model? The user can choose with the only condition being that the price should end with a 1 (i.e. $4.11 or $11) because the number 1 “is auspicious” in some cultures.

Aren’t the developers a hoot? I mean, how many developers name their application after “the practice of cultivating generosity”? I love their vision, their narrow focus and their no frills approach to their business.

I’m still waiting for the email with the download file so I haven’t had a chance to try it yet but I know it will be a totally cool experience.

Just notes, really

In my endless quest to simplify life, I’ve been increasingly drawn to simple looking software applications that do few things well, and look good.  The look good is aesthetics only, but I find that if the user interface is cleaner, then I am more motivated to perform next actions instead of getting distracted on a button or a function or a border that just seems to get in the way.

A recent discovery that fit that bill, and that I am finding extremely useful, is JustNotes. I had read about it from a Smoking Apples blurb a few months ago and just lately downloaded it. It does what its named after: it’s only for notes.

It’s a super small application, and runs in the menu bar and/or dock, as you wish and has hotkey triggers, always a plus in my books.

It also provides users with a choice of fonts, which is really nice in a free app.

I was initially using it for to-do lists, but I recently started a class, and for the first time in my life, wanted to try working with lecture notes/research/reading notes in a digital format rather than trusty old-fashioned ink and paper. So I starting recording all class related emails and notes in JustNotes. And I wanted to get into syncing. (Normally, I use Evernote and don’t worry about syncing, but I had recently read quite a few articles (i.e. here and here) mentioning SimpleNote and Notational Velocity and that got me thinking about testing syncing out.)

Syncing saved my life. I forgot my macbook one day but the room where we have our seminar is a computer lab and I was able to go online to simplenoteapp.com and get my readings and homework notes.

Other than the “Beta” heading in the frame of the app window, I think this great piece of software has gorgeous presentation as well as terrific functionality. And despite its beta moniker, it has yet to bug out on me.

Good job, developer. If and when JustNotes moves out of beta and becomes shareware, I’ll be happy to buy it AND recommend it to others.