Fotopedia
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Fotopedia is closing, but Evernote wants to rescue your photos
Last week Fotopedia announced it would be closing its doors on August 10, leaving fans of the site wondering where they could take their photos. Well, you're in luck Fotopedia users: Evernote is here to help. The note-saving turned data-saving service has launched a special website explaining how Fotopedia users can connect their accounts to Evernote to transfer their pictures. In a statement to The Next Web, Evernote developer Matt Carroll explained why the fix is just happening two days before Fotopedia shuts down: This is a Fotopedia importer into Evernote. I started working on this after the announcement and just finished testing and deploying this morning. Traffic is still early and I'm trying to get the word out now to help the more casual users of Fotopedia that may not want to go to the trouble of downloading and keeping track of the zipped HTML files Fotopedia is providing now. You can find the Evernote-Fotopedia importer right here for free.
Tour Italy via your iPhone or iPad
Fotopedia has added another luscious app in its travel series. Fotopedia Italy is a free universal iOS app that is like a coffee table book with some interactive features. The app features a large collection of high-resolution images optimized for the Retina display and iPhone 5. A Trip Builder allows you to create personalized tours, and has interactive maps. It's great for planning a real trip or just doing the touring on your touch screen. There are tours of the Sistine Chapel and the Italian Alps, and some spectacular views of the cliffs of Capri. All the images can be saved for use as wallpaper. The app supports nine languages, and allows you to save your tours or forward them to friends or family via email, Facebook or Twitter. Along with the images, there is text giving background on the things you are looking at, and while there is not a lot of depth, you can certainly learn something about Italy. A couple of minor quibbles. I'd like to see links to Wikipedia for more information, and the app doesn't contain any help. When you select help, you get a catalog of other Fotopedia apps. Video would also be nice, but it's not a feature of this app. The app is an 8.2 MB download, and most of the content comes via the Internet. At times the app reacted slowly, even on a WiFi connection, but streaming the content seems a good idea because otherwise the app would be pretty large. There are some sample screen shots in the gallery below. %Gallery-170516%
Fotopedia offers National Parks iOS app for free
Since it's almost National Parks Week in the US(April 21-29), we're seeing some iOS apps offered for free that normally have a cost to them. I've already mentioned the Chimani series of National Parks guides, and now I want to call your attention to Fotopedia National Parks, a universal iOS app that contains almost 3000 superb images taken by renowned photographer Quang-Tuan Luong. This app is not a detailed guide to the National Parks, but rather the equivalent of a coffee table book filled with dazzling photographs. All 58 US parks are covered. The photographer spent 10 years collecting the photos, traveling more than 100,000 miles. The originals were shot with a large format camera, and the images support the retina display on the iPhone and the new iPad. The app features slideshows, the ability to share the images or use them as wallpapers. You can also use a simple trip planner to highlight places you'd like to visit. You can view the locations the images were taken on a map, which features smart tags and some basic interactivity. A couple of notes. First, using the app requires an Internet connection. The images aren't built into the app and need to be downloaded. I think that's a good thing, as I don't want my iPad filled with 3,000 images that sap storage for other things, but be advised the app won't do much without that connectivity. My other issue is with the design of the app. I used it quite awhile before I realized there were photos from all the National Parks. When you first come in, you only see three highlighted parks at the top of the screen. You need to click on the search icon to see what's available, and it's not very intuitive. This app used to be US $0.99 and now it's going to be free indefinitely. Free is good, and I think the app is certainly worth a download. If you're like me you'll be inspired by the natural vistas and start planning that trip to take some photos of your own. By the way, during National Park Week admission to all 58 parks is free. There are some screen shots in the gallery below. %Gallery-153468%
