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Friday, September 30, 2011

How to Enable Facebook Timeline just in Few Seconds

Sone days back Facebook announced Timeline, a crazy (and kind of creepy) omnibus look at everything that has ever happened in your Facebook lifespan. It’s like a story book of your life — or at least the online, documented parts.

Facebook said that Timeline would be on the way for everyone sometime in the coming weeks… which is great and all, for everyone else. You’re the type of person who reads Borntohack, and are thus likely the type of person who likes their new and shiny things right now.

That’s okay. We can make it happen.

Fortunately, enabling Timeline a bit early isn’t too difficult — but it’s not at all straight forward, either.

You see, Facebook is enabling Timeline early for open graph developers. You, too, can be an open graph developer — even if you’re just looking to dabble.

A few things to note:
 
- You probably don’t want to do this unless you’re actually a developer. Expect bugs.
- Only you will see your timeline at first (unless you decide otherwise), but it will automatically go public after a few days. My timeline was automatically hard-set to go public on September 29th.
- It seems that if you login into Facebook on another machine, Timeline gets disabled automatically on all of your machines. With that said, it seems you can get back to your timeline (but ONLY after following the steps below) by navigating to http://www.facebook.com/YOURUSERNAMEHERE?sk=timeline
- You’ll need to have a “verified” account for one of the steps, which means you need a credit card or phone number attached to the account.
Here’s how to do it:

1. Log into Facebook

2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.



3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)

4. Create a new app (don’t worry — you

Monday, September 26, 2011

Integrate your FACEBOOK into YOUR GMAIL ACCOUNT_

1. Activate “Add any gadget by URL” in Gmail Labs — you’ll find it near the bottom of the list from settings.
2. Now go to Settings –> Gadgets. Here you’ll find a place to add Gadget URLs.
Add the Facebook Gadget. You can add Facebook to your Gmail. While Google has an official Facebook gadget, it doesn’t play nicely with Gmail, so i suggest using the app Ari Milner users: Facebook Gadget by iBruno. It will expand into the rest of your Gmail for easy Facebook management.


To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings
http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml
That’s it! Facebook is now in your gmail.enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

No, Facebook Will Never Demand Money from you to Get New Profiles





A completely untrue rumor that Facebook will soon start charging users is making the rounds yet again.
Ever since Facebook introduced Timeline profiles, several Facebook status updates have been spreading on the world’s social network that claim Facebook users will have to pay for the new profile changes.
Here’s one of the messages currently spreading on Facebook:
“THIS IS OFFICIAL… IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS… FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES… IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON, IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY!!”
And here’s yet another:
“FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES”
These rumors are simply untrue. “It’s free and always will be” is still in giant font on the Facebook homepage.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

100 would be the Maximum Number of SMS you can Send Each Day

Beginning September 27, you will not be able to send more than 100 SMS in one day. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced Per Day Per Sim (PDPS) rule under which telecom service providers have been asked to withdraw their SMS service packs that allow customers to send over 100 SMS per day. According to TRAI, the move is aimed at preventing telemarketers from bombarding your mobile with unwanted calls and SMS.
 
TRAI's latest move will certainly prompt mobile users to make phone calls instead of sending SMS. Withdrawal of SMS service packs will also hit the pockets of users who get unlimited free SMS by paying nearly Rs. 100 monthly. However, TRAI believes the capping SMS will be the best way to protect the interests of customers. "In case of prepaid users, you can monitor it on a day-today basis but for postpaid customers , you will look at the number at the end of the month," TOI quotes Rajan S Mathews , director general of COAI.

The SMS cap comes weeks after TRAI ruled that telemarketers cannot call subscribers registered with the National Do Not Call Registery between 9am to 9pm. Telemarketers cannot call subscribers, who have registered under the “fully blocked'” category. However, telecom regulator has allowed users to access information on selected sectors such as sports, real estate and consumer goods.
 
Short messages are particularly popular among the youth. Presently, all the telecom companies offer SMS service packs, which allow users to send more than 100 SMS daily. These SMS packs are popular for their ultra low prices, which are under Rs. 100. Restriction is likely to disappoint a number of mobile users, especially those who cannot afford smartphones such as BlackBerry.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 with Windows 8


The Windows 8 developer preview is out for all to try, but installing it over your main Windows setup is a scary (and unrealistic) prospect. Here's how to dual boot Windows 8 with your current Windows 7 installation so you can run them both side by side.
If you've ever dual booted a machine before, this shouldn't seem too foreign. All you need to do is create a new partition for Windows 8, install it on that partition, and then edit your new boot menu so Windows 7 stays the default OS. Here's how to do it.

Step One: Create a New Partition

Before you start, make a backup of your data—you're going to be formatting drives and installing OSes, so anything could go wrong, and you don't want to lose your whole system. When you're ready, we'll need to create some space for Windows 8 on your hard drive. Assuming you have at least 20GB of space free on your drive, you're going to use Windows' Disk Management to set partition those 20GB for Windows 8. Open the Start Menu and right click on the "Computer" option. Click "Manage", and in the window that appears, click on "Disk Management" in the left sidebar.
 
Find your system hard disk in the graphical list that appears in the bottom pane. Right-click on it and then click "Shrink Volume". Shrink it down so you have at least 20GB of space left on the end of the drive, and click OK. Then, click on the "Unallocated" block of that drive that appears and click "New Simple Volume". Click Next on the next few windows until you get to the "Format Partition" window. Here, give it a volume label you'll recognize (like "Windows 8") and click Next. It should format the drive for you. Now you're all set to install Windows 8.

 

Step Two: Install Windows 8

If you haven't downloaded the Developer Preview ISO yet, head over to the Windows Developer Center and download it. Burn it onto a DVD using something like Windows Disc Image Burner if you don't have a DVD drive in your machine. Make sure your computer is set to boot from CD or USB, stick in your installation media, and reboot.

How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 Side By SideIf you get a prompt to "Press any key to boot from DVD", then hit a key on your keyboard. You should boot right into the Windows 8 installer. It actually looks almost exactly like the Windows 7 installer, so it should seem a little familiar. Just pick your language, hit "Install Now", and choose "Custom" when asked what type of install you'd like to perform.

On the next screen, find your new

Download Windows 8 for Free

 
Microsoft has released its Windows 8 Developer Preview operating system, for PCs and tablets, to the public as a free download.

This is the same software which Microsoft gave to developers on prototype Samsung tablets this week at the company's Build conference in Anaheim.

And while this pre-beta version of Windows 8 is not close to ready for consumer consumption, and meant to be used by developers who are looking to make apps for the desktop and tablet OS, anyone can download the software -- no developer registration or anything like that needed.

The move to release Windows 8 so early on can be seen as a testament to just how much Microsoft wants, and needs, developers to get into building apps for the new OS before it is actually released as a retail product that will compete on tablets against Apple's iPad (running iOS) and Google's Android software.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, made a surprise appearance at

Friday, September 16, 2011

Here’s Why Windows 8 Will Boot Much Faster than Windows 7

If there’s one thing that drives geeks crazy, it’s a slow-booting system. That’s why for Windows 8, Microsoft went back to the drawing board to redesign the boot process for speed.

What they came up with was a hybrid of cold booting and hibernate mode – essentially the internal Windows processes use hibernate all the time, but the drivers start up like they would on a cold boot. The difference looks something like this:

Windows 8 is definitely going to be awesome. Click the link for more details.

Delivering Fast Boot Times in Windows 8 [MSDN]

Compare and Merge Different Versions of Your Presentations in PowerPoint


Did you know you can compare two different versions of your presentation in PowerPoint and merge the changes? This is a very handy feature you can take advantage of if you work a lot with PowerPoint presentations with your team.

After a person has made changes to your presentation, you can compare your original with the one that has been changed. Just open your original presentation and go to Review  and click on Compare.
sshot-20
Select the new presentation to check on the changes that have been made to it.
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You will now see a new pane on your right, which highlights the changes that have been made to your presentation. In the Slide changes box, you will see what changes have been done to the text, animations, pictures and other content changes. In the Presentation changes box, you will be able to review changes as deleted or moved slides or transitions.
sshot-25
Every change will be shown with a box that tells you what the exact change was. You can select or deselect to approve or deny the changes.

sshot-22

Thursday, September 15, 2011

How to Convert Videos with Transmageddon in Ubuntu Linux


Whether you want to listen to music on your smartphone or watch movies on your iPad, you may need to convert you media files from one format to another depending on what your devices support.

Transmageddon Video Transcoder is a great media converter for Ubuntu. It converts audio and video files, it has a simple interface, and it’s free. Installation is easy. Just type this command in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install transmageddon

Or use the Software Center:

Transmageddon is now installed, so let’s start converting videos. Launch it from the applications menu. The application looks like this:

At the top you choose the input file which you want to convert. Click the button and navigate to the file you want it converted then click “Open”.

You can see the input video properties just below the “Choose Input File” button. If you have a specific device you want to play the video on, then select your device from the “Preset” drop-down menu so the program adjusts the conversion settings appropriately otherwise leave it blank. Now select the target format you want from the “Output Format” menu. Right below that are the settings for audio and video codec.

Choose the settings you desire. You can choose different audio/video codecs with different qualities and formats.  At the bottom of the window you can choose whether to rotate the video image or not. This might come in handy if you were shooting a video then found out later that you were holding that you were holding the camera upside down (or if you like to watch videos upside down which would be weird).

After you finish choosing the settings you want, hit “Transcode” to start the conversion process. It may take a while depending on the length of the video and the setting you choose. You will find the output file in under Videos in your Home directory. Easy, isn’t it?

Battle of the File Copiers: Windows, TeraCopy, and SuperCopier

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We’ve covered two popular file copying programs for Windows: TeraCopy and SuperCopier. But how well do they really work, and do we even need them? We pit them in battle for your amusement, readers, so check out who won.

Both TeraCopy and SuperCopier are How-To Geek favorites as alternative file copiers. Both offer extra features, such as queuing files, pausing and resuming transfers, and more. Perhaps most importantly, both make the claim of boosting copying speed. We put that claim to the test against Windows 7’s copying ability.

How the Test Was Run

In order to test fairly, I ran four distinct copy actions with each program and with the default Windows 7 copy function. First, I copied a file of 4.4 GB from one external hard drive, A, to my internal one, B. Then, I copied that file to another external hard drive, C. Then, I copied a 24 GB folder (3300 files, with an average size of about 8 MB) from external A to my internal drive, B. And lastly, copied that folder from my internal drive to external C. This was done in order for each of the copying methods. The external drives were ejected and the system was rebooted between testing each program. All partitions used NTFS. The 4.4GB file I used was my Wii disc backup of Donkey Kong Country Returns. The 24 GB folder was a portion of my music collection, mostly .mp3s and some .flacs I ripped over the years.

Why did I decide to do that? Well, there are quite a few factors to this test, including hard drive speeds. All of the drives I ran this test on were 7200 RPM hard drives and had a cache of 8 MB. External A was a 2 TB internal drive in an enclosure, and external C was a 750 GB store-bought drive. Copying the files in order the same way each time discounted any advantage one program would have had over another by way of caching. A clean reboot ensured near-optimal performance for each task. I also configured TeraCopy and SuperCopier to be the default copiers, and I clocked from the time I hit Ctrl+V. This minimized the influence of pre-caching before hitting the Start button on each. I did my best for you readers, and ultimately it came down to the copying programs themselves.

Test Results

win 4gb
The default Windows 7 copier proved to be pretty snappy. Copying a single 4.4 GB file from A to B took only 3:13 and copying from B to C took 2:42. Windows 7 seems to prove itself with large files. When copying 24 GB of my music collection, the process took 18:21 from A to B, and 18:09 from B to C. As you can see, Windows 7 is no slouch.
win 24gb
The one thing that seemed pretty consistent was that as the transfer pushed forward, the rate of transfer would drop over time, ending at about 2/3 of what it initially was at. In numbers, this was roughly 26 MB/s down to about 17 MB/s.
teracopy 4gb
Testing TeraCopy yielded some interesting results. Copying the 4.4 GB file took longer than Windows did, at 3:41 from A to B and 2:53 from B to C. While copying 24 GB of smaller files, however, TeraCopy undercut Windows with 17:32 from A to B and 17:02 from B to C.
teracopy 24gb
The transfer speeds fluctuated quite a bit compared to Windows 7’s copying mechanism. The rate would drop sharply at times to half, then shoot up for a brief time only to even out a bit. It was like a roller coaster, going anywhere from as high as 31 MB/s down to 12 MB/s.
supercopier 4gb
While using SuperCopier, I immediately noticed the sustained transfer speeds. It never dipped too low, even towards the end of the longer copying process, and stayed between 22 MB/s and 18 MB/s. Copying 4.4 GB from A to B took 3:21, beating out TeraCopy for second-place. However, copying from B to C took 4:01, significantly longer than either TeraCopy or Windows.
supercopier 24gb
24 Gb of smaller files took the longest, at about 19:20 from A to B and 18:53 from B to C. I did like the steady transfer speeds, though, so this might be noteworthy if you’re paranoid about backups.

Crunching the Numbers

It seems that copying large individual files works best using Windows 7’s copying ability, at least if speed is what counts. On the other hand, when copying a large amount of smaller files, TeraCopy seems to have the edge. Our test wasn’t anywhere near scientific, but we did our best to make sure we could rule out interference while still trying to emulate some real-world use. Your mileage may vary, of course, as there are quite a few variables at play here. The numbers were all over the place, so lets take a look at why they might be the way they are.
First and foremost, since we are using mechanical drives and not solid-state storage, seek times and the like come into effect. Copying a single large file can be a simple matter or a complicated one, depending on whether the file is in contiguous area or split up and written in the gaps on a fairly full drive. The same thing applies when considering multiple-file operations. Essentially, you can consider single large files and multiple smaller files to be two separate types of copy operations depending on your hardware.
supercopier 24gb2
Another thing to look at is the fact that TeraCopy has an arguable advantage over SuperCopier in that it has 64-bit support. SuperCopier is only 32-bit. Both programs are also a little out of date – TeraCopy hasn’t had an update in a year, and SuperCopier’s last version was in 2009. So why bother using them at all?
TeraCopy has a nice list of features, which we’ve covered before. You do have to pay for a license to be able to remove individual files from your copy queue, selecting files with the same extension, and using favorite folders. On the other hand, SuperCopier is free and offers more features, like file prioritization and custom responses for overwriting or skipping files. It also has pretty good sustained speeds from our tests, which I suspect will go a long way when copying a large number of large files.

Verdict

It may seem crazy if you’re coming from XP/Vista, but our tests showed that Windows 7 is more than capable of handling large files on its own. When shooting for a larger number of files, TeraCopy ekes out ahead of Windows by a small margin. SuperCopier’s not without its advantages, however; its sustained rates and decent performance for large files makes it ideal when working with a multitude of them.
features tc
If anything, the results were mixed. If I had to pick, I’d say TeraCopy wins for day-to-day performance, since I’m usually copying more small files than single large ones. It’s got a ton of features and the performance gain is worth the € 14.95 it cost me. That’s just me, though, and you may have a definitive winner considering your use, especially looking at SuperCopier price tag (free).

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Should You Get A Solid State Drive (SSD)?

If you’ve kept up with some of the latest news about new computer parts, you may have heard about SSDs, or solid state drives. These small, nifty pieces of hardware are designed to replace your clunky, slow hard drive and give your system a major performance boost. However, some people have experienced some hiccups by using these new pieces of technology, including usage and price.

Here we’re going to discuss the exact pros and cons of owning a solid state drive and whether such an investment would be right for you.

Pro: Performance

The greatest selling point for solid state drives is, in fact, performance. SSDs use the same SATA I, II, and III ports that regular hard drives currently use. So where does the performance increase come from? To put it into layman’s terms, SSDs eliminate any moving parts, so the entire device is completely electronic. Without any moving parts, the speed at which data can be read and written increases dramatically. If you need an analogy to better understand, think of it as RAM but made for permanent storage of information, although this isn’t quite correct from a technical standpoint.
You can see the speed improvements in the video above by how quickly Windows 7 boots, and then loads all of the programs that show their face in the task icon area. That’s a lot of them!

Pro: Easy Transition

It is also easy to transition from a hard drive to an SSD. Retail packages should include the necessary software needed to image the partitions from the hard drive over to the SSD. That way you can keep all your OS, files, and settings without reinstalling everything.

Pro: Innovative

Another selling point is the fact that it’s modern and innovative. SSDs seem to be the future of storage, and for good reason, as hard drives relatively old pieces of hardware that haven’t seen much design improvements at all except larger and larger amounts of storage space. It’s great to see that this area is finally getting a major upgrade, and I doubt that we’ll just stop at SSDs.

Con: Price


While the advantages of using an SSD are great, there are still some cons to them. For example, one of the major problems with SSDs are their price. As they currently stand you could get an SSD that has a little over 100GB for the same price as a regular hard drive that has 1-1.5TB. Therefore, buying an SSD isn’t an economically viable solution for some people.

Con: Storage Space

The next issue is storage space. Compared to regular hard drives, SSDs have very small storage space compared to similarly priced hard drives. Because of this, a large amount of data simply cannot be stored onto the SSD. If you wish to get larger ones (500GB models do exist), you’ll be running into sums much larger than $1,000. Some people “solve” this by deciding to place their operating system and important files onto the SSD, while keeping low-priority files on a separate hard drive.

Con: Possible Compatibility Issues

Finally, some people have rare compatibility issues with certain computer models. Although I am not sure what causes them, I have heard of those kinds of problems a couple of times, so there must be some slight truth to them. If you decide to get an SSD, I recommend that you first Google around to see if people have problems with your computer model (or certain computer parts if you built yours from scratch). Once you buy one, I’d keep the receipt in case you need to return the item.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve been introduced to the pros and cons, what should you ultimately do? If you’re an enthusiast or a heavy computer user with a powerful system, I’d recommend getting an SSD. Just keep that extra hard drive in your system to store all your extra files. If you’re a mainstream or low-end computer user, then I’d recommend that you wait on buying an SSD. Buying one wouldn’t provide any performance increase because there will most likely be a bottleneck somewhere else in your system that needs to be addressed first. SSDs should become viable options for you when today’s high-end systems become tomorrow’s low-end systems.
What is your opinion of SSDs? Was there a pro or con that I forgot to mention? Let us know in the comments!

The Top 7 Angry Birds Hints & Tips To Help You With Your Frustration

angry birds hintsEven though I love computer games, there’s a very good reason why I’m not keen on trying on new games. It’s because I love games too much that it’s hard for me to stop once I start playing. That’s why I try my best to resist every temptation that comes my way.

But if there’s a game that can lure me to start playing, it would be Angry Birds. Starting out as an iPhone game, it has now taken the world by storm with versions for the PC, the Chrome browser and three versions for Android. I helplessly gave in to the temptation as I had to know what all the fuss was about.  Big mistake!

Stop The Frustration

Lo and behold, I’ve finished all the currently available worlds and collected all 26 Golden Eggs. But I’ve also lost many a good night’s sleep and was tempted to break a few things along the way. Believe me, the game can be very frustrating sometimes!
angry birds hints
I’m not an Angry Birds expert, but I’ve spent a good amount of time playing the game. So, here are a few general tips and hints to help you with your frustration in surviving the world of Angry Birds.

1. Spare The Time

angry birds tipsThis is the one thing that I know for sure – you need lots of spare time to play. I know people who needed tens of tries to pass one difficult level. I also know there are people who claim they’ve repeated a level hundreds of times just to get three stars and the highest score possible.
So make sure you have time to spare before you play, or don’t start playing at all. Having to stop before being able to finish a level will only make you even more frustrated.

2. Know Your Birds Well

We all know that every character in the game is unique, and knowing the personality of each one of them will help you a lot throughout the game. And I don’t only mean their special moves, but also their strengths and weaknesses.

For example, we can accelerate a Yellow Bird’s speed by tapping the screen while it’s still in the air. We can use this ability to reach difficult and far away places. The Yellow Birds are also strong against wood, so use them to break through wood structures.  Black Birds are literally flying bombs so use them to smash through concrete structures.
angry birds tips
Another example, we know that one White Bird can drop one egg bomb, and we can use it to destroy something. But have you also noticed that the White Bird will accelerate up after dropping the bomb? We can use this acceleration to knock down another part of the pig structure.
angry birds tips

3. Try Different Angles – Literally

If your efforts to knock down the structure from one angle ended up in failure, try different angles. Don’t be afraid to hit the repeat button. Repeat the effort and learn from the mistakes. Don’t let the mistakes frustrate you.
angry birds tips and tricks

4. Observe The Environment & Take Notes

Continuing from the previous point, you can use the background environment to help locate the perfect “action point”.

For example, take note of the position of your finger (or mouse pointer) when you launch the bird. If the attack is successful, remember the position and move on to the next bird. Or take note of the bird position in the air when you tap the screen to activate its special move, so you can repeat it if necessary. This step really helps me every time I use the Boomerang Bird.
angry birds tips and tricks

5. Think Outside The Box

One of the fun things I found in the game is its creativity. You don’t always have to do everything by the book. For example, there are times when you simply use the White Bird to hit a part of the structure without having to drop the bomb. Or situations when you have to shoot the Boomerang Bird backward and let it curve in order to hit the otherwise unreachable target.
angry birds tips and tricks

6. Seek & You Shall Find

When you are stuck, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your friends are just a phone call away. Socializing is always a good way to take a break from the endless gaming hours. The Internet is also a wealthy place to find discussions, tutorials, and walkthroughs to help you overcome difficult levels. A quick search will give you plenty of links to visit, but my favorite places for my Angry Birds needs are Rovio’s YouTube Channel and AngryBirdsNest.
angry birds hints

7. Cross Your Fingers

Luck plays a heavy part in Angry Birds. Once in a while, you’ll make an unrepeatable lucky shot and are able to complete the level with flying colors.

I know. It’s weird to put “luck” as one of the tips to reduce the frustration level in playing games. But sometimes, luck is all it takes to put the smile back into your stressful and frustrated face. So, always keep your finger crossed throughout the game.

Don’t Get Angry, Have Fun

In the end, the one thing you have to remember is that this is just a game. It’s silly to get so worked up over a game so have fun. If the fun is taken out of the game, then there’s no point in playing it.
If you are also an Angry Birds fan, please feel free to share your own hints and tips, experience, anything, using the comments below. Do you have any favourite online sources for Angry Birds tips?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

EyeEm: Another Fun & Useful iPhone Camera App

You may have heard that Apple’s iPhone 4 is the most popular camera used by members of the international photo sharing site Flickr.com. Even I can attest that my three year-old compact Canon Power Shot G9 rarely sees the light of day, while my less expensive iPhone camera is used on a weekly basis.

Much of the iPhone camera’s popularity is due to its portability, but its appeal also stems from several of the hundreds of third-party iPhone camera apps that enable users to not only take photos, but to also process and share them from within the phone itself.
If you’re an avid iPhone camera user, you no doubt have heard of or use the popular Instagram app which seems to have a cult following. With over 150 million downloads of that app, it’s not surprising to see similar iPhone camera apps come onto the market.

Thus a new camera app called EyeEm may very well attract its own users and followers. EyeEm’s features and capabilities are similar to Instagram’s, but it has a few unique approaches. Let’s check them out.

Taking Photos

Like most iPhone apps, EyeEm is ready for use right out of the box. The opening screen asks you to set up a photo sharing account, either using your Facebook account or EyeEm’s own set up. The simple, well-designed interface presents you  with a nice size camera and “My Vibes” icons, on which you tap to get started.
best iphone camera app
EyeEm provides a slightly different approach however for taking pictures. Before you snap a photo you can select one of ten retro, lo-fi photo filters (Normal, “Magix”, “Wintage” B&W, Strawberry, etc) which are popular with many of the artsy iPhone camera apps.
best iphone camera app
Though your selected filter is applied after you click the shutter, you can replace it with another filter before the photo is saved. This approach saves you a tap or two, and it also provides you a preview of what your photo will look like before it is taken. You can also just shoot in normal mode and change to another filter after a shot is taken.
These type of artistic photo filters are becoming a little clichéd amongst iPhone camera apps, but they certainly save you the trouble of applying similar effects in Photoshop.
iphone camera app
Unlike some camera apps, EyeEm also includes a built-in “flash” to brighten photos, and a front-facing camera option. However, there is no zoom slider or self-timer for setting the shutter release.

Saving and Tagging Photos

After photos are taken in EyeEm, they are saved to the camera roll on your iPhone, at which time you’re provided with the app’s tagging, photo management, and photo sharing features.
iphone camera app
EyeEm uses the geo-location component of your iPhone to tag where a photo is taken, e.g. at home, at an outdoor location, or say at an event. Of course EyeEm can’t read the content of your photo, but it does provide an easy-to-use tagging process useful for managing and sharing your pictures. You can apply one or more tags to a photo as well as customize and add your own.
iphone camera app
In terms of location tags, EyeEm also presents you with a list of places—such as street names, schools, and popular businesses—near and around the location where you take a photo. If an appropriate tag does not pop up, you tap on the “Check in” button a few times to see more tagging options. All this is to save you the trouble of having to manually type tags yourself. Depending upon how particular you are about tagging, you may or may not like this approach.

Sharing Photos

Similar to other camera apps, EyeEm provides options for sharing your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, and Tumblr. You can also share your photos privately with selected friends.
iphone camera
Also, as you probably expect, EyeEm includes photo sharing streams in which you can view photos uploaded by other users. Selected images can be tagged as favorites and shared via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.
best iphone camera app
There is also an “Edit Photo” option, but the title is misleading, for it only allows you to delete selected photos from your EyeEm account.

All in all, EyeEm is a well-designed and fairly straightforward iPhone camera app to use. It is not much different from Instagram, but it may well develop a huge number of followers, particularly since it is a free download from the App Store.

Let us know what you think of EyeEm. Will it be added to your folder of existing camera apps on your iPhone?