Hipstamatic on the iPhone gets new lens, flash and body

Remember the iPhone photo app Hipstamatic? An app that attempts to give the experience of an older simple camera. Where there was no fine tuning options of the digital cameras of today. Instead you matched the camera lens, film and flash… what you had is all you got. So, images where simple with hot spots, bits of blur and areas of different contrast since there was no perfection. These photos are sought after now since they capture a different look of a moment in time.

The Hipstamatic app offers several lenses, film types and flashes to use. You choose which of each to use. The viewfinder doesn’t show those effects applied. After you snap the picture, the process happens and you get what you get. Maybe something unusable for a print ad, maybe something that has pulled out a look you had not expected.

The recent update to Hipstamatic has a new method for managing the iPhone4 flash between software and hardware. As well, a new limited edition package available for in-app purchase. Called Wicker Park, the pack includes the Lucas AB2 lens, Jolly Rainbo 2X flash and even a ‘Damen’ camera case.

Color Social app on the iPhone gets cool with the help of the new Facebook

Two things… I never tried Color before at SXSW or back in the town I worked in. There wasn’t people around that I ‘connected’ with so it was an app that wasn’t giving a very positive experience when I launched it. You can only search for so long to connect to someone… anyone… before you give up.

And… today Facebook made big announcements at the f8 conference. Facebook is going to allow you to see your whole ‘life on Facebook’ history. The also announced ways opened up for systems to feed your daily experiences into Facbook to share with others. Color is tapping that second item so that you get the fun side of Color using information Facebook already had on your and your friends.

There isn’t a link to download the Color app here because it isn’t as it was previously. Now, you can go to their site and you can request an invite to the new beta via Facebook.

Robert Scoble was as f8 today and submitted a bit of video where he interviews Bill Nguyen, founder/CEO of Color about the path forward with Facebook.

Your iPhone is screaming… download the Instagram 2.0 update for me!!

This update is a full number update to the free iPhone photo sharing app. The features have enough of an impact that I found myself taking pictures with Instagram and uploading directly from the app rather than spending a lot of time pre-editing photos.

Launching Instagram 2.0, you will notice right off a whole new look.

The filter options across the bottom apply almost as fast as you sweep through them, super fast application so you can decide quicker which filter best suites the image. These Instagram 2.0 filters are also available prior to taking the picture by choosing the button on the lower right corner, see what the image will like with the filter before you snap the shot.

The 2.0 upgrade includes four new filters; Amaro, Rise, Hudson and Valencia. Also, ‘Frames’, which are turned on/off via the new button in the upper left corner of the screen.

Tilt Shift effect is from a pull down. The effect can be applied to an image like it previously, but now Instagram 2.0 lets you apply the filter to the image you are taking so again you can see the effect prior to shooting.

But wait, theres more! There is now a ‘rotation’ button, second on from the left at the top of the screen. And, Instagram 2.0 supports much larger photo sizes, from 612×612 to 1936×1936 on the iPhone 4 (1536×1536 on the iPhone3GS).

 

Using your iPhone to move pictures to Google+ from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Photobucket

So, your a HUGE fan of the new Google+, your like taking pictures and posting them up for folks to see, and most of your ‘greatest’ snaps are on other social networks. Why not just import all those photos onto Google+? For me… that would mean looking through tons and tons of iPhoto photos, hunting around folders across a desktop iMac… and there may be a few that went up on social sites and didn’t make it back to a desktop. Maybe the best answer is to just move the photos directly from those sites directly to Google+.

That is the answer the folks at Dropico Mobile came up with when they developed Google+ Photo Importer. The app on your iPhone allows you to move individual photos or full folders/albums of folders with a tap. The ‘other’ social sites they cover are Facebook, PhotoBucket, Flickr and Instagram! Along with the photos is their Meta info too.

The ‘trick’ of the Google+ Photo Importer app is that it doesn’t download the photos to your iPhone from one service to another. It moves the images directly from one Cloud Social service to Google+. This means it won’t impact your iPhone Data Plan.

Paypal on the iPhone, everyone at lunch pays their part

Paypal has an update to their iPhone app to help that uncomfortable request for money when it comes time to split the bill from lunch or dinner. No need for folks to throw money on the table and look for change, some paying more than their share. And, no more worries about someone not having any cash for their part… this time.

Paypal on the iPhone is a free app, you just need a free Paypal account to go with it. Most folks you will deal with will have an acct to so it’s isn’t going to be strange when you ask for their acct ID (try using their email address if they ‘forgot’).

The app has the usual selection of options to send money, request money, your account history and others for collecting money. Previous to this update, you would either ‘Request a Payment’ or ‘Collect Money’. These are both valuable options but they work best for requesting money for your services or when you sell something to someone.

The updated Paypal app option to Split a Bill is key to all the things that happen when you eat at a restaurant. The bill, split by the number of the folks at the table, including the tip!

Just enter how many folks are dividing the bill up, what percent of tip should be included and what the total amount to be split is. The ‘total amount to split’ doesn’t always have to be the total of the bill on the table, sometimes others will still be able to pay their part so you may need to collect a partial, enter just the amount to have the Paypal app divide up.

Prior to sending the request, you can view how much each person will be requested to pay. Paypal included the option to ’round’ each person’s amount too. Round up, down or non. When you happy with the split amounts, tap request money to go to the screen to enter who will get the request and ‘send’.