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TUAW's Best of 2012 Personal Picks: Mel Martin
Well, it's time for the year-end best-of post, and this one is a pleasure to write. There is a real explosion of useful apps that can make our lives easier or more fun. Happily, since the apocalypse didn't destroy us all on December 21, we're all here to enjoy them. To get on my list, the app had to either come out this year of be significantly enhanced in 2012. These apps also have to be apps I use a lot, not just on occasion. Navigon and Glympse These are my go-to apps for travel and local navigation. Navigon is not new but continues to have continual worthwhile updates. Apple Maps and Google Maps are free, but both have their weaknesses. Navigon has its maps loaded in the app, so I can be in the middle of nowhere and still navigate. When I have data services, Navigon offers Google local points of interest, and street-level maps. There are also destination weather, parking info and the ability to send your route to others. A great new feature is the addition of Glympse, which is a favorite all by itself. It lets your friends or family know when you are going to arrive, and they can see your progress via smartphone, tablet or computer. Glympse is free as a standalone app. But built into Navigon, it's doubly useful. Navigon is a paid app, with lots of options and a range of prices to fit your needs. Snapseed There are hundreds of photo editors, but I keep returning to Snapseed, which started as a Photoshop plug-in and now is on iOS for free after being bought by Google. What I really like about Snapseed is that you can improve your photos without making them look garish or like op-art posters. Yes, you can do all that with Snapseed too, but I like the light touch I can get from Snapseed. Photoset It pulls photos off your camera roll and publishes them to the web. No charge, no signups. You can re-arrange your photos the way you like and upload them. You'll get a URL to send to friends and family. This app is free and easy to use. The only downside is you can't select multiple photos at once. Just Landed This app gets my vote as the most innovative travel app for people meeting planes. Just Landed tracks a flight, gets arrival gate information and tells you when to leave for the airport, taking current traffic into account. It's a clever and useful idea. I've used it several times, and it always makes meeting a flight a lot less stressful. It's worth spending the US$0.99. All the apps have been optimized for the iPhone 5. All but Just Landed are universal apps or have iPad versions. Happy Holidays to all our readers, and here's looking forward to 2013.
Photoset is a great free way to share photos
Photoset hit the App Store today, and I am pretty impressed. The app comes from the Tumblr folks and lets you select multiple photos from your iOS device, arrange them, add a caption and put them on the web. When your photos are uploaded, you'll get a URL you can email or share through Tumblr or Twitter. Check here for some example photosets. The app requires no registration, however if you do have a Tumblr account, you can login via the app, select a default blog and upload your photos to it. It's a lot simpler and less cumbersome than many of the photo sharing services out there. The web page produced has your caption at the top and a nice dark gray background so your photos stand out. Any browser on a mobile device or a computer can see your images. My only gripe is that when you are doing multiple photos, you have to keep going back to your camera roll each time. It would be much better if you could just check the images you want and then they would be loaded into your presentation. You don't get much control of your layout. You simply drag your photos into the order you want. After a photoset is created, you can't make changes unless you made a Tumblr post from your app. Then, you can make changes to the Tumblr post via the web browser. The only thing I found to be unintuitive was moving photos around. You have to tap on the photo and wait a second or so until you can change its position. Photoset is highly recommended, and at a price of free, it is a no-brainer. The app is universal and requires iOS 5 or greater. With a few changes this app would be perfect. As it is, it is very, very good. Grab it if you want an easy and free way to share photos. Check out the gallery below for some screen shots. %Gallery-168167%
