Posts Tagged ‘iphone apps’

Tilt-Shift Photography On the iPhone, Sorry Starving Artists [IPhone Apps]

Tilt-shift photography, the popular but fashionable method of making big objects look like tiny models, is now on the iPhone. That’s good for pretty much everyone who isn’t planning their innovative tilt-shift art show.

The application is aptly called TiltShift. It costs $2, and while it doesn’t use traditional tilt-shift lenses, the software adds some blur filters to create the illusion. The user selects the part of the image to be in focus/tiny, and the software feathers the surrounding area appropriately.

We’re not sure that TiltShift’s simple, even if effective filters are worth $2 to us, but the free clone app that’s surely just days away will be a fantastic way to kill 10 minutes. [TiltShift via Wired]


Google Adding Advanced Voice Search to the iPhone [IPhone]

Google has created an app for the iPhone that will give the handset advanced voice recognition, reports John Markoff from the NY Times. The app can answer location related questions (Finding the nearest Starbucks), give driving directions, respond to generic questions, and even search local data from the address book.

It works by recording a soundbite, uploading it to Google’s servers, which will crunch the data and return an answer “within seconds on a fast wireless network”. Saul compared the function to that offered on Yahoo’s, and found Google’s to be more accurate, but still return junk results sometimes. AT&T and Microsoft also have handset voice recognition beyond simple dialing that many other phones offer. The app will be free and might be available to download as soon as Friday. [NYT]


The Week in iPhone Apps: Body Modification Edition [IPhone Apps]

Light a firecracker, listen to Steve Jobs’ Mercedes peeling out, grow a mustache, make a disguised-voice phone call with your various illegal demands. All in a week’s work in the App Store. Let’s have a look at the fruits of the last seven days.

Sonic Vox: Just in time for Halloween (or your upcoming anonymous ransom note telephone call), Sonic Vox is a real-time voice shifter that can add echo and changes in pitch. Hook your iPhone to line-out for Deepthroat Skype calls.

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG App: Surely fast-tracked by AMG fan Steve Jobs (head of the queue!), for the rest of us, this is a reminder of what we will not soon experience first-handphotos and videos of a sleek, six-figure Benz, and sound clips of it peeling out.

Sonic Boom: Those folks behind the Sonic Lighter (and the voice-shifter above also, coincidentally) just can’t stop innovatingSonic Boom gives you a virtual firecracker onto which you can map a photo, adjust the size of the charge and length of fuse and spin around before making it go boom in a different-every-time explosion. $1.

Mustache: I haven’t shaved in days, but what’s on my upper lip is barely perceptible as anything beyond 7th-grade fuzz. As the developer of Mustache states: Mustaches are a symbol of power and virility, who wouldn’t want to grow one! Sadly, not everyone one can. Hand over a buck, hold a picture of a mustache in front of your face. If you’re not bold enough for this tattoo.

This week’s app coverage on Giz:
Our Android App Liveblog is going strongexpect weekly updates to commence once the store opens to developers, which is happening Monday.

The NDA keeping developers from discussing the ins and outs of their apps is dead.

Free landscape-mode emailing via Firemail

Brightkite, a location-based social network, seems perfect for stalkers.

A legal imbroglio over those silly beer apps like iBeer escalates. Yeah.

A stylophone app is coming, bringing Kraftwerkian joy.

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.