Time Lapse Maker ($1.99 in the App Catalog) is a slick utility that allows users to utilize the camera to create, as the name implies, time lapse video sequences. Configuration options include initial delay, interval, and audio cue. Unfortunately, Time Lapse Maker doesn’t automatically create a video sequence out of the captured images, but there are a number of free and inexpensive utilities, such as Windows Movie Maker and Apple’s Quicktime Pro, that will accomplish this task. When all is said and done, you’ll end up with a video similar to the one embedded above.
Everything Palm Pre, We Feed You!
Photo Effects, Quick App, news
May 20th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
How do you build a webOS app that can perform advanced photo editing tasks when the platform isn’t quite capable of it yet? You let a remote server do all of the heavy lifting, of course. Photo Effects allows you to rotate and add effects to any picture in your photo roll by uploading them to the cloud to the developer’s servers for processing. Those concerned about privacy need not worry, as the files generated cloud-side have random file names and are deleted after an hour. After your changes are applied and the photo is downloaded into the app, it’s easy to set the modified picture as your wallpaper and send it along via MMS or email. It’s a rather ingenious solution to the current limitations webOS has in this space, and best of all, it’s free.
There’s also a plus version of Photo Effects for $.99 which adds photo resizing and cropping.
Gobico Games, Poker Drop, Quick App, apps
May 13th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
The folks over at Gobico games that brought us the excellent Wobble Words puzzle game are back at it, this time with a combination of of solitaire and poker with Poker Drops ($1.99 in the App Catalog). I’m always on the lookout for a game that I can quickly jump in and out of to pass a few minutes while in line or on the bus, and Poker Drops fits the bill nicely. The premise of the game is to find as many poker hands (the better the hands you find, the more points you get) before the timer runs out. Not only is game play fast paced and engaging, you get to brush up on your knowledge of poker hands while you play.
BugMe!, Quick App, apps
May 13th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
I’ve been looking for a way to attach alarms to notes in webOS, and the only way I’ve been able to accomplish that so far is to create events in the calendar app with a reminder – a process that is a little too involved than perhaps it needs to be. Enter BugMe! ($1.99 in the App Catalog), an application that functions like the memo apps of old that allows you to quickly create a note, set an alarm for that note, and be done. Preset alarm intervals help to speed up the process, giving you options such as top of the hour, five minutes, thirty minutes, tomorrow morning, and so on, making the process of entering a note and configuring an alarm vastly more efficient than using the calendar app for the same purpose. Of course, if those presets don’t fit the bill, you can add custom presets complete with alarm repeat options.
Other features include the ability to forward a note via email or SMS, copy an event to the calendar, mark notes as important and done, and sort notes by name and priority. My only real complaint about the app is that you can only set one alarm sound. In all, BugMe is simple, it’s less than two bucks, and most people will find its functionality essential after using it just once.
Notes, Quick App, apps
May 6th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
The memos application Palm built for webOS is simple, elegant and efficient, but there often comes a time when we’d like to include other things in our notes, such as pictures, sound and even videos to complement the text in our notes. Notes ($3.99 in the App Catalog) finally allows you to do just that. You can save hyperlinks, photos, videos and audio clips inline with the text you’ve written, and you can categorize notes by type and filter them accordingly in the main screen. Then, if you’re interested in sharing your note, you can send it along in email form complete with all of the media contained within the note.
Defensive Warfare, Quick App, Tower Defense, apps
April 26th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
Yes, ladies and gentleman, my wish has finally come true: a proper Tower Defense type of game has hit the App Catalog. Defensive Warfare ($2.49 in the App Catalog) is a full on place upgradeable towers (guns, AA-rocket launchers and slow- ‘em-down emp weapons) and prevent different classes of vehicles, both air and ground, slow and fast, from reaching the other end of the map.
Gameplay is enjoyable for the most part, but the game does get rather frustrating in the more advanced levels as the AI has a tendency to stop concentrated fire on passing units and aim at whatever units come into range, diluting the effectiveness of my towers and preventing me from advancing through the last few levels. Still, it’s an exciting (and very welcome) entrant into the App Catalog, will most certainly get better as time goes on, and is a great sign of things to come.
PowerNap, Quick App, news
March 10th 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
Scenario. You’re gearing up to take a quick 20 minute nap. You lay down, and just as you’re about to fall asleep, the inevitable happens: the phone rings, an important email hits, or some other distraction pops up to rob you of your well deserved rest. Blast! Now you’ve got to open the clock app, and reset the alarm for another 20 minutes away using the sometimes cumbersome number pickers.
Rinse, repeat, and soon enough you’ll just give up on napping and move on with the rest your day. One solution to this rather inconvenient cycle comes in the form of PowerNap ($0.99 in the App Catalog), an application that allows you to quickly set the desired duration of your nap using a cleverly implemented dashboard control. Tapping the plus or the minus instantly adds or subtracts 5 minutes from the duration of the alarm. You can also select the duration of your nap by using a slider as opposed to the drop down pickers you’ll find in the clock app, making the process of getting back to sleep even faster. Custom alerts can of course be selected, and the program even randomizes the vibration pattern so you don’t confuse your nap alarm with other vibration alerts if you run with your phone on silent.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m feeling a little sleepy…