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Plotagraph iOS image animation app review

The iPhone’s camera can take amazing pictures, but if static images bore you and you want to take your photography up a notch, you need to check out Plotagraph.

What is it?

Plotagraph is an easy to use image animation app for the iPhone or iPad.

How does it work?

First, you take a static image that can be improved with an animated element. The image above looks fine as it is, but wouldn’t it be cool if the water showed movement? Plotagraph can’t do that with just a few clicks.

The app has a very simple interface with the tools at the bottom.

I like to anchor or mask all the parts of the image that I don’t want to animate first. This is can be done using the mask or anchor tools at the bottom of the screen. I like the anchor tool best. All you do is tap around the areas that you don’t want to move.

Then you use the animate tool to draw little lines in the direction that you want the image to move. That’s it! When you press the play button, you’ll see the results which are pretty freaking cool. I’ve exported this example as a 3 second MP4 video clip below.

Pretty cool right? The app will also let you crop the image and adjust the speed of the animation.

Let’s do another.

Water and cloud images are a good choice to animate.

Load the image from your existing camera roll.

Mask off or anchor the area of the image you don’t want to move.

Draw some animation lines.

And check the results. This app is a lot of fun because it’s so easy and fast to use.

Here’s another one saved as a PNG.

In the Plotagraph app, you can choose different time lengths for the clips and export them to your device’s camera roll as an MP4 video or animated PNG. You can then submit them to your favorite social media sites like Instagram or Facebook. Unfortunately, you can’t share directly to those sites from the Plotagraph app.

Watch the video below which shows the whole process.

Final thoughts

I had a lot of fun playing around with the Plotagraph app on my iPhone 7 Plus and my iPad Pro 10.5. Animate images like this remind me of Harry Potter. 😉

I found it was easier to use the app on the iPad Pro just because the screen is larger and it’s easier to do a better job masking off areas that you don’t want to animate. With the iPad Pro, you can also use the Apple Pencil to make things even easier.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned using this app with Android device, that’s because this app is not available for Android devices yet. Supposedly a version for Android is in the works but there’s no info when it will be available.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Plotagraph Inc. Please visit their site for more info and App store to buy it.

 

Product Information

Price: $4.99
Manufacturer: Plotagraph
Retailer: App store
Requirements:
  • iOS device
Pros:
  • Easy to use
  • Transforms old photos into living photos
  • Can't see where there loop starts and ends
Cons:
  • Can't share directly to social media from app
  • No Android version

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Plotagraph iOS image animation app review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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The Curiosity app – for the “things that make you go hmmmm…”


Did you know that having only 5% of self-driving cars on the road can improve start-and-stop traffic jams? It can according to the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Physical Systems program. Click here to read more about it. Did you know that cats meow for us? They do it to communicate to us and rarely do it to communicate with other cats. Click here for more information. These are just a couple of fascinating short articles that you can read about every day on the Curiosity app (Android, iOS, Kindle, and web versions). This awesome app has something for everyone. The app spotlights five articles per day in their Daily Digest. In addition, it has hundreds (if not more) articles and short videos on subjects like Animal IQ, Aztec Empire, Beards, Beer, Dogs, Drones, Etymology, Finance, Hair, Jobs, Memory, Myths, Pain, Painting, Parenting, Rain, Relationships, Social Behavior, Teeth, Tickling, etc. The articles and related videos are short and to the point and there are links to additional articles and videos. The app cites many reputable sources for their information like the National Science Foundation, NASA, National Geographic, World Health Organization, several scientific magazines, and several university studies to name just a few.

The Curiosity app even has mind puzzles like this one: “Alice comes across a lion and a unicorn in the forest. The lion lies on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and speaks the truth the other days. The unicorn lies on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and speaks the truth the other days. Today, the lion tells Alice, ‘Yesterday I was lying.’ The unicorn replied, ‘So was I.’” Which day of the week is it? Find out the answer here.

This wonderful app has even enticed both of my children (middle school / high school age) to read almost every day solely for enjoyment purposes (one of which who professes to hate reading)! Both think it’s a treat to read the articles and if they miss a day, there is even more to read about later. WIN!!! Even younger readers may love this app with articles like “Dogs Have Music Preferences, And Most Like Reggae“. Give it a try! The Curiosity app is available for free in the following formats: Android app, iOS app, Kindle app, or the web version.  I’m sure you’ll get hooked on it just like my family.

Filed in categories: News

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The Curiosity app – for the “things that make you go hmmmm…” originally appeared on on May 31, 2017 at 8:00 am.

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BusyKid lets parents pay their child’s allowance with Apple stock


When I was a kid, I got a wallet-busting $5 a week allowance and I was lucky if there was anything left at the end of the week to put in my piggy bank for a rainy day. Now BusyKid is enabling parents to help their children earn money from chores that can be used to buy stocks, donate to charities, buy gift cards, or trade for cold hard cash. 

BusyKid charges a family $12 a year to use their service. It allows parents to choose from a large selection of predetermined chores (or create their own). When kids check in with the app to mark chores as completed, an SMS message will be sent to their parent to approve the payment for that chore.

On Friday/payday, kids can then use their earned allowance to buy fractional shares of real stocks which can increase or decrease in value as the market rises and falls. The child can even sell the stock with their parent’s approval and a $2.99 transaction fee.

If they don’t want to invest their allowance in stocks, they can donate it, exchange for gift cards or get cash.

 

Parents fund the BusyKid Account by linking to their checking account. The funds are held at a FDIC insured bank and are insured up to a balance of $250,000.

You can learn more about this automated allowance system at busykid.com.

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BusyKid lets parents pay their child’s allowance with Apple stock originally appeared on on May 5, 2017 at 10:32 am.

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WalletHub daily credit score Android app review

A good credit score is important if you need financing for a big ticket item like a home or car. If your financial health has been a little weak in the past and you’d like to keep an eye on it and even get tips on how to improve it, you need to check out WalletHub for Android.

What is it?

WalletHub is the first and only Android app that offers credit scores and full credit reports that are updated on a daily basis for free.

What can it do?

If you’ve heard that doing multiple credit checks can show up as a red flag when trying to get a loan, you won’t have to worry about that with WalletHub because it does “soft” inquiries that do not show up on your record.

Note: the screenshots in this review are from the app’s page on the Google Play Store. For security purposes, WalletHub will not allow you to take screenshots while in the app. So all the info in these screenshots is fake.

I installed the app, verified my identity, set up a PIN and was immediately shown my credit score. The app even show outstanding loans and balance amounts. I thought this was pretty cool because I wasn’t sure how much was left on my MINI Cooper car loan or the fact that my home loan is almost paid off.

You can view a history of your credit scores to see how you’ve improved (0r not) over time and will show you how you compare to others in the Americas, others in your state, others of your age and others in the same income bracket.

The app also provides tips that can help you improve your score, a list of past credit inquiries (it showed a hit from me from T-mobile last July when I bought a SIM to see if the coverage in my area had improved from the year before). It even provides a list of previous employers and past addresses.

Final thoughts

WalletHub is an easy to use and secure app that provides information that you can use to monitor your credit score all for free.

I really like this app. I like that I can easily keep an eye on my credit score without worrying about it showing up as a “hard” credit check. I installed it a few weeks ago just to try it and don’t have any plans to remove it.

Source: The app for this review is free from WalletHub. Please visit their site for more info and the Google Play store to download it.

 

Product Information

Price: Free
Manufacturer: WalletHub
Retailer: Google Play
Pros:
  • Free daily updated credit scores
  • Does not show up as a credit check
  • Shows outstanding loans and balances
Cons:
  • None

Filed in categories: Android, Reviews

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WalletHub daily credit score Android app review originally appeared on on March 17, 2017 at 2:18 pm.

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Developer with visual disability creates Big Keys iOS keyboard app with emojis

As I get older, I find that I often look over my glasses instead of through them because I’m at that glorious age when it’s tough to see small things like text on my phone without taking off my glasses first. Even though I wear bifocals, it’s sometimes really tough to see tiny things close up. It makes me wonder how people with real vision issues are able to enjoy using their smartphones and tablets without a lot of frustration.

One software developer, Hassan Hattab has taken matters into his own hands (eyes?) and created Big Keys, an iOS keyboard app that not only allows you to resize the characters for easier viewing, but the keyboard app also has emojis!

Accessibility is a big deal to the app founder, Hassan Hattab. He has a visual disability which contacts or glasses can’t fix. For years Hassan wanted to be able to see his keyboard better (and those emojis too!). He created this app to help himself, and many users in using and seeing their keyboards on their iPad and on the iPhone.

Big Keys Features:

Adjust the font size and emojis size on the keyboard.
Numeric Keypad for faster data entry.
Track the last pressed key.
Use gestures for faster typing.
Free selection of color combination to make it easier to see and work with the keys.

Check out the video:

You can read more about Big Keys at http://www.youapps.co/BigKeys and buy it for $2.99 through iTunes.

Filed in categories: iOS, News

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Developer with visual disability creates Big Keys iOS keyboard app with emojis originally appeared on on March 10, 2017 at 4:12 pm.

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