The Pinged Hobbit » Online Apps

5 Apps To Add Effects To Your Photos Without Photoshop

Andy — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Everyone likes to make pretty effects on their photos but not everyone can afford Photoshop (and lets face it not everyone has the skill to use it properly). But fear not there are plenty of tools out there that give you the ability to add some pretty neat effects to your photos with out needing to have PS. We thought we would bring you a few of our favourites.

Original Image

Poladroid:- Most people who were born more than 20 years ago will remember polaroid cameras. Those handy little things that removed the need to wait ages to see your photos (for you younger ones this is before the age of digital cameras). You pointed the camera, took your shot and then waited as the camera spit out a little sheet of card, you’d watch as the image magically appeared on the blank sheet, developed infront of you. Feeling a little nostalgic? Missing those slightly tinted photos from the 80s? Well Poladroid gives you the chance to recreate that effect on your brand new digital photographs, all you have to do is drag and drop your image and let Poladroid do the rest, you even get the white border just like those old pics. There are a few settings you can alter if that picture’s just not quite right too. (Downloadable app: Windows, Mac. A free beta edition)

Poladroid Version

FotoFlexer:- An online photo editor, probably one of the best online editors. It has some nice effects that can be applied to your photographs. Doodle on your photos or add those oh so ‘lovely’ sparkle starts that seem to be on every one’s myspace page (there not annoying at all, honest). You can upload a file from your computer or pull one in from web based services like Flickr if you wish. (Web app: free to use, you don’t even need to join if you don’t want to)

FotoFlexer

Photoshop Express:- Okay the title of this post says “Without Photoshop” but we are sure you realised that we meant the desktop based application, not its slimmed down web based baby brother, right? We’ve talked about Photoshop Express before and in the year since we did there hasn’t been too much updating done to it. It’s still got a nice set of basic features but now in beta testing on there are some decoration options. Not the best things in the world to be sticking on your photos but still whatever floats your boat. It can link with services like Flickr (Web based, Free to use but you have to register)

Photoshop Express

Be Funky: Another web based photo editor we’ve mentioned previously. Be Funky has none of the basic photo editing tools of Photoshop Express but it does have a few more effects that can be added straight to your photo. There’s no need to sign up to use this one, but any photos you do edit will be stamped with the Be Funky logo and web address at the bottom (Web based, free, watermarks photos)

Be Funky

Photo! Editor: The last one on our list for today is Photo! Editor again its a web based application. Photos can be uploaded from your local PC and edited on line. There’s scope for various techniques to be applied (including one to denoise images shot under poor lighting). Unfortunately we cant show you an after shot as our test image doesn’t work too well with the app having facial recognition for applying effects.

Got any more you think we should add to the list, let us know in the comments.

Tonido: Cloud Computing Under Your Control

Andy — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:35:50 +0000

Cloud Computing is the new buzz word. It’s all over the place as people believe that in the future desktop apps will be replaced by web apps. Instead of having Word and Excel installed on your local system, you will use something like Google Docs to create and edit your files. Instead of using Oulook you will keep all your emails in a web based email solution like Gmail.

For mobile workers like me this is ideal. No matter where I am working I would be able to access the apps I usually use and the data I need to work with. But putting my other hat on, that of IT admin and data security ‘expert’ it’s a bad thing. With cloud computing you lose control of your data and your what your users are actually doing with it because the apps and the data are no longer on your server. You cant track who is doing what and you cant effectively back up your data because it is stored on somebody else’s server.

The obvious answer to this is to host the Cloud Apps on your own web server. That’s where Tonido comes in. Tonido is a browser based operating system, or web OS, that runs on your server rather than some third party server.

It comes with a host of apps installed on it such as PIM, photo sharing, browser based media player and even the ability to share a folder on your own Tonido network but the data is still stored locally, no longer are you relying on some third party supplier having a secure data center.

Sizeasy: Making buying online easier

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:00:26 +0000

Most people are quite comfortable buying goods online these days. They will happily use sites like Dabs and Amazon to purchase the goods they need. One of the things I have always disliked about shopping online is knowing exactly how big something is before I buy it. Just about every item ever has its size listed in it’s description. This is great but sometimes it’s very hard to actually work out how that looks in real life. Well enter Sizeasy. Sizeasy is a nice site with a simple concept, you give it the dimensions of the item you are looking at and a real life objectand sizeasy then shows you a diagram with the two objects draw to scale side by side. Can be quite useful for working out just how big that phone you are ordering is!

Be Funky Photo App: Cool Photo Effects For None Photoshop Users

Andy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:55:16 +0000

Sometimes a bad photo can be saved by adding an effect to it. Now not everbody has the skills to use a program like Photoshop or can afford to buy it (and a lot of people don’t trust open source so wont use Gimp. If you want to add some simple drawing style effects to your photos you can look at a tool very much like the Be Funky Photo App.

After

The site is easy to use, and can be used with out logging in. It’s possible to upload a photo from your local computer or import an online picture if you wish. There are 8 main effects each with various sub effects that can be applied to varying degrees with different results. Once you’ve finished editting the image you have the choice of downloading it or saving it to an online gallery (requires creating a free account).

For the user who is a little sacred by Photoshop or just needs some basic effects it is a really useful tool.