Poses and pins in the pocket

P is for Plenty

A-Z challenge – Apps in April

The problem is where to start with P.  A plethora of P apps have populated my iPad and phone so I cannot possibly pretend to present a proper peep at Periscope, Pages, PDF forms, Paper, Photospector, Photomapo or Phonto. Presently I’ve settled on these three peas out of the pod - Photofunia, Pixlr and Pocket. I’ll finish with a brief reference to Pinterest.

Photofunia

Add some fun to those selfies and portraits. Put yourself on a billboard, create a fake breaking news TV screen, view yourself on a rainy night poster reflecting in the city lights. Put a friend on a wanted poster or hang your picture in a gallery. These are just a few of the fun effects found in Photofunia.

I added the picture of a grandson to the side of a London double decker bus after a visit there much to his parents’ amusement.

Have some fun on iOS, Android or the web.

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Pixlr - Photo Editor for Collages, Effects, Overlays, and Filters

An excellent free photo editor that claims to have over 2 million combinations of free effects, overlays, and filters. Auto fix, recolour, add text, frames, stylise and draw on photos. There are hundreds of variations within each of these options. No two pictures need ever look the same. Finish off by adding an overlay to add extra excitement to photos.

Each change can be progressively undone as changes are not added to separate layers.
The Pixlr suite of products are available on iOS, Android and the web.

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Pocket

When you find something you want to read or view but don’t have the time, put it in Pocket. It will sync across phone, tablet and computer so you can save from anywhere and come back to it even when you are offline.
Customise the reading interface to suit you. I often use Pocket to save articles to read later then decide whether to keep them and send them  on to Evernote.

The app is free, you can upgrade for extra space and permanent storage but I find the freemium model is more than adequate for my needs.

Available for iOS, Android and as an extension for web browsers.

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Pinterest

I couldn’t finish a post on P without mentioning Pinterest. To view and get the best out of Pinterest one does need a free account. Follow your interests and pin to keep track of them.
Available for iOS and Android

Here’s my Pinterest board on the A-Z of apps in April.

Follow Carmel's board Apps A-Z on Pinterest.

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Next up Q – Quick response

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2016/04/poses-and-pins-in-pocket.html

Over and over

O is for Over and OverDrive

A-Z Challenge: Apps in April

Over

Here’s another graphic design, creative typography and photo editing app to enhance your text or photos. There are standard and custom fonts with some excellent artwork text. Nudge, size, rotate, fade, add shadows, reposition text and choose colours to blend by using the colour picker. Each element of your design has its own layer so can be edited individually.

Use your own photos or the stunning hi-res photos supplied by Unsplash. This is a paid app with various bundles to enhance your output. Share to social networks or save for local use. Available for iOS and Android. Click/tap on the images to view full size. 6 min video demo.

Made with Over using artwork text

Made in Over using text variations

Photo by crgalvin - text added in Over

OverDrive

OverDrive is an app for borrowing library ebooks and audiobooks and is used by many libraries worldwide. Check to see if your library has this. Each library has its own collection which is available 24/7  via the app. Search for books, place reserves, loan and return. Some libraries also loan streaming video through OverDrive.

Check back on Love a Library for other library apps.
Enjoy an eread today. Available for iOS and Android.

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Next up P – Poses and pins in the pocket

Notes on the News

N is for Notegraphy and News

A-Z challenge 2016: Apps in April

Notegraphy

Add text to Notegraphy then choose one of more than 40 styles to create an image to share to your social networks or for instant messages. Images are stored in an online gallery which can be public or private and they can be downloaded as .png and saved for local use.

The news image below was created in Notegraphy. I’ve used this app many times for images for blog and Twitter posts. Below I’ve combined a screenshot from a news app and added the text in Notegraphy.

Available for iOS, Android and on the web. View this one-minute introduction. Enjoy creating and sharing.

Here are a few of the styles using the same text. Each style offers 3 variations in colour.

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News apps

There are dozens of news apps in the App store and on Google play. Find your local papers and broadcast outlets. I’ve found by customising the Google News app on Android and the inbuilt News app on iOS one can have the major news stories of the day delivered to any device. 

This image shows the local news sources I’ve added to the iOS news app. For more detailed coverage major newspapers operate apps behind a paywall.

Choose from a range of financial news, sports news, technology news, or media conglomerate news apps to keep up to date.

Experiment with personalising the news apps built into your device to add local news and your particular interests.

Next up O - Over and over

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2016/04/notes-on-news_17.html