The Cortex Camera app by Whimsical Productions is the latest in the growing number of camera applications. And although you may be experiencing some app fatigue by now, we think this one is worth checking out.

Cortex Camera App for the iOS

Nothing produces better images than the human eye, except maybe Hubble. Now, cameras may very well do things that the human eye cannot do (for example, selective depth of field, art filtering, etc). But what they cannot do, as of yet, is produce the kind of clarity that are own optical mechanism can reproduce ─ that is, of course, if it comes equipped with 20/20 vision.

The Cortex Camera app is the first camera application we have seen that has found a novel way to approximate what the human eye does so effectively. It does so by combing 100 frames of video into one noise-free still photograph. The inspiration for the Cortex Camera app comes from our own visual cortex, which has over 140 million neurons in each sphere of the brain that continuously process visual information and turn all that data into images.

The Cortex Camera app will greatly reduce noise, especially in challenging light conditions. It can also be used on the iPad, where it will help increase the pixilation from 5 megapixels to 8 megapixels. Some of the other features include tap-to-focus and pinch-to-zoom (without further loss of detail). Another great feature is that you can optionally save your photos to PNG format for maximum quality.

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The Debt Snowball app for the iOS will not only put you on the road to being debt-free, it is also an application for our times.

Debt Snowball App, Easing the Snowball Effect

We have all been there. Your bills start to pile up. You are making minimum payments. You are shifting money around from one account to another to keep on top of things, maybe to keep afloat. The last thing you want is a call from the collection agencies. It is an awful feeling, to say the least. Now with the Debt Snowball app, you can do something about it.

The basic idea behind Debt Snowball+, as it is called officially, is that you once you pay off one debt, you shift that payment to another debt that is still outstanding. In other words, you act as if that one credit card or account is still owing and shift those payments you were making to another card or account. This is a technique that many financial advisors advocate.

The Debt Snowball app has a very clear and intuitive interface that lets you easily stay on top of your accounts. You start by entering in all your debts along with account information, such as the original amount of the loan, current balance, minimum due, and the interest rate. You then select one of the icons for credit card, auto, mortgage, education, or medical expenses.

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Another application making a name for itself at DEMO 2012 is LiveAll. The social-media application has been operational since 2011 and invites you to “relive all your best memories.”

LiveAll App Makes a Case for Nostalgia

So the concept may not be entirely new, but the layout of the LiveAll app brings a certain nostalgia to photo sharing. Remember when we used to sit around the living room flipping through old photo albums that may or may not have had a particular order and were really just a collage of pictures on a page? Scrapbooking may have injected a good dose of creativity into sharing photos, but if you have ever seen a crafty scrapbook, one sometimes gets the sense that all the little artwork surrounding the pictures are actually the focal point.

The LiveAll app seems to get that and brings back a little old-school charm to photo sharing. LiveAll is both a Web and mobile application and is integrated with Facebook. That means that creating an account is as easy as logging onto your Facebook page. Of course, you will have to share some of your basic information, but this is no different to what Instagram or any other social-media application does.

The great thing about the LiveAll app’s integration with Facebook is that friends can also add photos to ‘albums’ that you have created. So there is no need now for all your friends who attended a particular event — say, your wedding — to email you all their pictures. They can simply add them to the album montage (of course, you will have to trust that your friends will use discretion and not add that compromising photo of you from last year’s Christmas party).

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Dabble app for the iOS launched worldwide yesterday at DEMO 2012. Dabble is the product of fledgling social-media company Daemonic Labs, though considering the pedigree behind the operation, the company could hardly be considered a ‘green’ startup.

Dabble App for the iOS

So you are asking, “Yet another photo application? Another social-media app?” Well, yes, but this one is a little different. Dabble app for the iPhone is a photo and social-media application, but that would be the broad category to help slot it somewhere. The app, however, has a lot more than just a picture-taking and socializing component.

The idea behind the Dabble app is that anywhere you are in the world, there are gems all around you — the perfect romantic restaurant, the best place to shop for shoes, a nice spot to have a picnic. So think of Dabble as a Lonely Planet Guide but with pictures.

Basically, the idea is that you snap these “social postcards” of yourself or loved one wherever you are. You don’t even need to be in the shot. These postcards then get left behind, so to speak, so that friends and family (or other Dabble app subscribers) can retrieve them and learn from your experiences, maybe even just to see the spot from a different light.

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Smappsoft, creator of the hugely popular Mensa-like Look Again app for the iPhone and iPad, has another application in development called Wave Rave. The Bay Area–based mobile-app developer released a teaser trailer for the Wave Rave iOS app two days ago. There does not seem to be a lot of buzz yet about the game, but we predict that this title will be a big crowd pleaser.

The game looks like a combination of Guitar Hero and the modular-synth waveforms cooked up in a 70s-era Moog. Rave music in the form of sine-waves appears on your iPhone screen. You, the wave raver, have to match the different waveforms by hitting four different keys.

The keys appear to be used in combination, and once you get one of area of the waveform correct, you lock that key. There also appears to be a time limit, which clearly is part of the challenge to this funky puzzle game.

The Wave Rave iOS app will appeal to anyone who likes doing Mensa spatial-recognition games, where you have to look at one object and find the corresponding object that has been flipped and turned, which incidentally is the premise of the Look Again app.

The rave music thumping in the background will add a little Run Lola Run drama to the gameplay as well. No further details are given about the Wave Rave iOS app, but we will keep you posted as the release date nears. For other Smappsoft titles, head to their website or to the App Store directly.

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Okay, so no one actually makes calls anymore. That’s a real bummer. If you are a little old school like me and feel bogged down in the quagmire of texting, then the Jawbone Thoughts app is for you. The Jawbone Thoughts app is a messaging service that allows you to send voice messages instead of texts. Jawbone is also the maker of the Jambox we recently reviewed.

Jawbone Thoughts App for the Textually-Challenged

I have to admit: I hate texting. There, I said it. I know this is not cool for a twenty-something-ish techie writer, but that’s just the way it is. Now, that doesn’t mean I will be using pen and paper to send out my messages to friends anytime soon, but call me old-fashioned; I still like to hear a voice.

The Jawbone Thoughts app lets you do both: send and receive messages as well as hear the voice of your favorite people. We wrote about a similar service called Six3, but that infinitely cool application involved video messaging. The Jawbone Thoughts app pares things down even more.

The app is very easy to use. Once you have downloaded and installed the application, you can start recording and sending out messages. Your iPhone contacts are listed in alphabetical order and all have a red dot next to their name. If you click on the red dot, you can instantly record your message. Once you have finished recording, you can choose to where you would like to send it: an email address, a landline, or a home phone. It should be noted that messages to landlines incur a charge of $0.15.

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iOS app development may soon be as easy as copying and pasting. The Cupertino, California–based company has filed a patent that will give non-programmers the ability to develop their own apps with the ease of an expert.

iOS App Development for the World at Large

Apple wants to help you make your own apps. The patent filed by Apple that details these new iOS app development tools was discovered by AppleInsider.com. In the intro to the patent, the authors, members of the Apple team, state the following:

“In many instances, computer-programming languages are a hindrance to electronic content creation and, ultimately, delivery to content consumers.”

This is interesting coming from Apple, who has always been notoriously protective of their proprietary devices and platforms. However, Apple better than anyone understands that to be at the forefront of innovation, more than just a privileged elite needs to be involved in the creative process. The iPhone and the iPad, in particular, have shifted the frontiers of technology a little closer to the side of the user:

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Springpad 3.0 is one of the latest productivity applications on the market for the Web, iOS, and Android. It may be getting a little hard to sift through the maze of Web and mobile applications, but every now and again one appears that offers a fresh new look on an old idea.

Productive Apps

The number of productivity apps on the market is reflected in the numerous articles we have done as of late on some cool note-taking applications and the like. Similarly, the Readability app offers an effective way to keep track of articles and sites on the net without the necessity of overloading your bookmark bar.

Now there is a new application that is upping the ante on productivity.

Springpad 3.0 for the Web, Tablet, or Phone

Springpad brings together the best elements of your average productivity apps and fuses it with the intuitiveness of Flipboard and the social-networking nature of Twitter. The basic idea behind the app is to keep track of all your favorite things ─ movies, books, websites, music, recipes, or whatever you fancy ─ but it also lets you share them with friends and other Springpad users.
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Tastemaker X music app is a social mobile game for the iOS that is tucked somewhere between American Bandstand, fantasy football, and the NYSE. The developer behind the app, ex-A&R man Marc Ruxin, set out to build a “taste graph” that plays like a game and that provides a cross-platform experience. In other words, it is a ‘fantasy’ game for music and culture.

The Genesis

The Tastemaker X music app was an idea that probably got its origin the better part of 25 years ago when founder Marc Ruxin was a boy and first discovered The Beatles in his parents’ record collection, “wedged between Joan Baez and Brahms.” Since that day, Marc has been, quite frankly, obsessed with music.

“If I were to look back at my life and choose the one thing that has mattered the most and defined me as a person, without question it would be music,” says Marc, writing on his blog, Snoozebutton.com.

“Those familiar sounds carry with it memories, the times and places all but forgotten, triggered by a few notes or choruses. It transports you back to great loves, crippling breakups, perfect summer nights, endless road trips, or the birth of a child. There is nothing in this world that even comes close to the associative power carried in song.”

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The iPhone apps PicFrame and Diptic make it a snap to combine multiple photos into a single ‘frame’. You may be a little saturated with the over exposure of photo apps these days (sorry for the photographic word play), but these two iPhone apps are worth a look.

The New Photographers

Apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic have helped create a new movement in photography. Now, the purists might decry the use of such apps (in some cases, rightfully so), but these applications are just a tool, a technology no different than the camera itself. Ultimately it’s not the medium that defines you (despite what McLuhan said); it is indeed the message.

It may be true that a photograph is only as good as the person taking the picture. But what these apps have done is made that process just a little bit easier. Instead of having to shoot a picture, upload it to a computer, and then tweak it using photo editing software, you can now do this all in one place.

All of the rules of photography, like composition and lighting, still apply. The only thing that has changed is that instead of having to figure out complicated cameras and software, the average user can point, shoot, and with a few finger taps create a lens flare that would have made László Kovács proud.

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