photos

Review: PBS KIDS Photo Factory creates kid-friendly photo decorations

Inspired by the shows that air on PBS Kids, PBS KIDS Photo Factory offers a very polished and well-crafted way to make your child's photos into a work of art. This nifty sticker app even features many children's favorite characters, but it won't amuse the older kids.

This app mixes about a dozen different photo frames with some of the most popular characters from PBS Kids. Sesame Street, Clifford, Super WHY, and more can all be pasted to your child's photo. There isn't a built-in camera, but you can snap photos using your phone's … Read more

Review: Photo Collage lets you take and create cute photos, but not collages

Though Photo Collage doesn't let you create any actual collages, this misnamed app offers a fun way to customize your photos with all sorts of borders and stickers. There are plenty of weird quirks, but the sheer number of options you have, make this application worth exploring.

Whenever you load the app, it makes you sit through an animated opening sequence. This wouldn't normally be notable, but Photo Collage's lasts for almost a minute. It's really bothersome if you frequently open and close the app. The app's built-in camera lets you put a border right … Read more

Review: Photo Collage Creator creates great collages, but takes some effort

Photo Collage Creator features dozens of great frames, borders, and editing effects to show off your photos. However, it's a little hard to use and even harder to dodge its incessant ads.

The app makes you submit to not one, but two different ad agreements before you can use it. It has pop-up ads that are nearly impossible to close without an accidental tap or two, as well. You are rewarded with dozens of different frames for your collage once you make it through the ads, though. There are plenty of effects and borders you can use on each … Read more

Review: Photo Editor for Instagram has all the usual features and ads

Photo Editor for Instagram will let you edit your photos with different effects and frames, but it makes all the wrong moves to get you there. All you get for putting up with the annoying ads are some run-of-the-mill features and shaky performance.

This app appears with the name "Color FX" in your app locker and "Photo Makeover" in all of its menus. Whatever you call it, Photo Editor for Instagram has nothing to do with Instagram, so don't expect any of the look and feel of that app. It does co-opt some of Instagram'… Read more

Review: PhotoFram.es HD welcomes users with all the decorating fun and no ads

Unlike most apps of its ilk, PhotoFram.es HD is an ad-free framing app that really works. There aren't many downsides that come with these great, high resolution frames. You will have to pay a pretty penny to unlock them all, but the free app has a lot on offer if you choose not to upgrade.

There are about 50 or so frames in each of this app's seven categories. About one-third of the app's frames are locked behind a paywall that will cost you $5 (or $1 per category) to lift, but you shouldn't bother. … Read more

Google Glass gets camera update, caption support

Google Glass just got a little bit better.

The search giant on Tuesday announced new software for the Google Glass camera that will improve photo taking. The update gives Glass the ability to snap multiple photos at once and combine them, so users can get the best shot. The camera can now also detect low-light environments and will automatically brighten an image to make it clearer. It's also capable of doing a better job of capturing movement.

In addition to the new camera features, users can now also add captions to photos they take.

Of course, there's one … Read more

Twice in two weeks: Another Web app for processing raw photos

Web-based photo editing took a second step forward Tuesday with the release of WebRaw, a tool that uses Mozilla's ASM.js technology for the computationally intense process of handling raw photos.

Raw photo formats, available on high-end cameras, offer better image quality and more editing flexibility, but they also are much more of a hassle than standard formats like JPEG, in part because they're so burdensome for computers to decode. That's why the demo, from Mozilla's Vladimir Vukicevic, is interesting: processing raw photos is the sort of chore that only a couple of years ago would … Read more

The quickest way to share photos

Analog Camera is a simple photo editor from RealMac software, the same folks who made the to-do-list app Clear. Like Clear, the app is as bare bones as it gets, but the minimalist design and intuitive controls make photo sharing incredibly quick and easy.

Analog Camera is not a full-featured photo editor in the same vein as apps like KitCam or PhotoToaster. Instead, it offers only a couple of features in the interest of convenience and quick sharing. When you launch the app, you immediately see the viewfinder so you can take a picture right away. But at the top … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers asked about using drives attached to a Time Capsule as separate shared backup destinations for Time Machine, how to deal with managing photos both in the Finder and in iPhoto, and managing a completely black MacBook screen.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Using multiple shares on a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups MacFixIt reader Gregg asks:

I was wondering if I … Read more