If you’re looking for a photo editor that will clean up, sharpen, add text, etc., you’re looking in the wrong place. But if you’re looking to make some really different and fun pictures, it will do much better. Its best feature is that it has so many options, it’s questionable if you’ll ever use all of them. It allows you to either take a photo through the app, use a photo from your camera roll, or import a photo from Facebook or your documents.

I decided to use this picture of my daughter and one of my dogs. Upon importing or snapping the desired photo, the app takes you to a screen where you can crop the photo to being square, or leave it as is. The next screen is the main editing screen. Along the bottom are standard editing screens such as cropping, rotating, and brightness and contrast, etc. Along the top, it has the option to do any of nearly 200 effects.

Once you choose which effect you want, there’s more options after that. You can either use it as is, or you can change the amount, brightness, contrast, etc., depending on the effect.

Additionally, you can just apply the effect to certain pieces of your photo. It has a brush to paint the effect on certain pieces. It also has an eraser to take it off of certain pieces. Additionally, there are a few buttons to create a mask around a shape, with it also allowing you to invert the mask. Where it falls short is that it offers your some brush options, but not different sizes. It’s hard to paint the effects in such broad sweeping strokes.

Once you’re done setting the effect the way you want it, hit Apply, and while you wait for it to finish, it gives you a trivia fact, a different one every time. It’s a fun little extra. At this point, you can choose to finish or continue. You don’t have to stop with just one effect, and can add effect upon effect.

Once your image is set the way you want it, as with the rest of the app, it gives you plenty of choices. You can save the image to your device’s photo album, documents, or clipboard, or you can print it as well. You can also share it via:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Email
• Tumblr
• Instagram

The app works on both the iPhone and the iPad, but the size of it is more suited for the iPhone, meaning it’s most likely a native iPhone app that works on the iPad. However, I found it hard to do the brush strokes on the small iPhone screen, so I did the work for this picture on the iPad and just used it at 2X the size. I ended up not using the brushes for this, so I definitely still could have done it on the iPhone, however.

FX Studio (iTunes link)

My first foray into the world of e-reading was with the Kindle app on the iPhone. I wanted to be able to read e-books for that portability and cheaper price, but at that time Kindle devices, and most other e-readers, were well over $200. I just didn’t want to spend that much. Not only is the Kindle app free, you don’t have to have the Kindle device to be able to use the app.

The Kindle app works well in conjunction with Amazon. When browsing e-books on amazon.com, you can buy them while on the site, and it automatically sends them to the Kindle app. The next time you launch the app, it’s there. Or, you can shop for books directly from the app itself. If you click on Kindle Store, if takes you to amazon.com on Safari where you can shop for books the same way.

With the books downloaded into the Kindle app, you can read them and not have to worry about losing your place. The app automatically holds that place for you where you last left off. It will also hold additional bookmarks for you if you want to remember other pages other than your current location. Additionally, you can leave annotations to certain selections, and anyone reading the book after this point can see your annotations as well as any others that have been left.

Once Kindle came out with apps for a Mac and PC, the Kindle app for iPhone increased its usefulness. Now if you didn’t want to read a book on your phone, you could read it on your computer and vice versa. Whipersync will keep the two at your most recent reading location so that you can transfer back and forth with ease. It makes reading e-books every bit as mobile as reading a hard copy book.

While I still don’t have a Kindle device, I bought one for my sister for Christmas. I actually started with an off-brand e-reader as a way of saving a few bucks, but with it being nearly impossible to work with, I returned it and bought her the Kindle instead. A voracious reader, she couldn’t have been happier with the Kindle. Amazon ships the devices already synced to your account, so it shipped pre-loaded with all the books I had already bought and read on my Kindle app. We kept it synced to my account, and it seamlessly updates between the iPhone app, the desk app, and the device itself.

After I had already downloaded the Kindle App, the iPhone came out with their iBooks app. Trying both, the iBooks app doesn’t have near the ease of use that the Kindle app does, which is odd for a native iPhone app. It’s on my iPhone, but I rarely ever use it, unless it’s to read something that the iPhone sends to the application. I definitely don’t ever read books in it.

Aside from the fact that some users think reading a book on a smaller screen like the iPhone can be cumbersome, the only other disadvantage to the Kindle app for iPhone is that you can’t read magazines or newspapers on it like you can the regular Kindle device. You also can’t read them on the Kindle apps for the Mac and PC. If that’s the sole reason you’re considering the download, to read your news, it’s not worth it. But if you’re looking for an easy way to read books, a way that is as every bit mobile as you are, then this is the way to go.

The Kindle App can be downloaded from Amazon and iTunes.

For those who are not aware, the Breeze platform is a new iPhone app from Standard Chartered Bank that lets you manage your money right from your mobile phone. Unlike most online banking app, Breeze comes with feature such as issuing bank cheque over the phone, pay bill on the go, reminder and wishlist.

Note: Breeze is currently applicable for Singapore and Malaysia only

Here’s the press release:

11 October 2010, Singapore – Standard Chartered upped its ante in its hiring strategy by leveraging on new social media in its latest “World’s Coolest Intern” competition. This is an innovative recruitment drive for talent in Asia to help promote greater awareness of Bank’s latest online and mobile innovation, Breeze, in the social media space, like Breeze Blog and Twitter.

The winner of this competition will work with the Group Remote Banking team, based in Singapore for six months to develop and implement a social media communication strategy for Breeze for six months.The winner can look forward to an attractive prize package which includes a SGD 30,000 six-month employment contract with Standard Chartered, and more importantly, valuable learning experience with some leading social media experts including Google, Christophe Langlois from Visible Banking and prominent blogger, Goodstuph’s Pat Law. Google is supporting Standard Chartered with technical knowledge and training in Search and Display advertising. This internship will offer the winner the opportunity to gain deeper knowledge and insights and develop core digital communicator skills.

The recruitment for the role of the ‘World’s Coolest Intern’ will be conducted entirely online. The contest is open to recent graduates or undergraduates in their final year across Asia. Applicants can apply from outside of Singapore, but if successful, will be based in Singapore for the duration of the internship.

For those who are up to the challenge, here’s the application procedure:

1. Follow @StanChartBreeze on Twitter
2. Create a blog post, video, podcast (it’s up to you really) explaining what makes you uniquely qualified to become the ‘World’s Coolest Intern’, make sure to mention breeze blog link so that we can track it (http://breeze.standardchartered.com/blog)
3. Direct Message us the URL of your post, so we can take a look and see what you’re all about

Applications for the ‘World’s Coolest Intern’ role close on 15 October, 2010 (4 more days to go), so you’ll need to act quickly. Remember, it is open to all recent graduates and undergraduates in Asia.

For more detail, check out the World Coolest Intern site.

Disclaimer: MakeTechEasier is in no way affiliated with Standard Chartered Bank

Tungle.me helps relieve the pains associated with scheduling a group meeting by gathering the best common times for all of the invitees.

Getting started

After you enter in the username, email address and password you want to use, there is a setup wizard you will need to run through to get you going. Alternatively, you can sign in with other IDs such as Facebook, Linkedin, and your Google account.

In the setup process, you are given chances to sync with different sources: Gmail, Outlook, iCal and Lotus Notes can be synced.

How Tungle works

Once you have made your way through the wizard, it is time to schedule some face time. Scheduling a meeting is simple, even if you did not sync your calendar. Start by clicking on the purple button at the top.

Fill in your basic meeting information; name, location, length of the meeting and any message you want to send along with the invite.

Once you have all of the basics set, its time to invite some people. If you have imported any contacts, this step is a little easier. If not, just type the name of the contact or copy and paste the email addresses into the box.

When you have the invitees added to the mailing list, you will need to suggest some times.

This is the part where importing your calendar is handy. Your other appointments will be blocked off in the calendar. You can however show suggest times when you are not available; be careful not to show yourself being available when you aren’t.

At this point, everything is ready to go, you can click the button to send the invites. The people you are attending will receive an email with a link specific to your meeting.

In the email there is a link for them to choose times that work for them. One thing I like is, just after the link, Tungle reassures the invitee they do not need to sign in or download anything. This will help get a better response to the email.

Tungle Blackberry app

I like they have a free Blackberry app (there is also an iPhone app [iTunes link]) available. I played a little with it and it is super nice. It is remarkably similar to using the site. Plus your calendar and contacts are shown when creating and meeting request.

Extras

Tungle offers several other ways to integrate their service into your digital life:

• download add-ons for iCal, Outlook or Lotus Notes
• add Tungle to your Wisestamp signature
• add a widget to your webpage or blog

Conclusion

I have tried out a few scheduling applications recently. I have to say, Tungle take the majority of what is great about the other applications and adds to it. For those of you who are still addicted to your Blackberry, this is a fantastic way to productively schedule meetings while on the go.

How do you productively arrange meeting times with multiple people?

As you all know, iPhone and Linux are never a good pair. iPhone needs iTunes to sync, and iTunes is not available for Linux. Well, with the new Ubuntu One Contact [iTunes link] iPhone app, it is easy to sync your iPhone (contact) with your Ubuntu machine.

Configuring the iPhone-Ubuntu One synchronization

Before you install the iPhone app and start the synchronization, you will need to register for a phone synchronization account.

1. Go to http://one.ubuntu.com and login into your Ubuntu One account. If you do not have an Ubuntu One account, this is also the time to sign up for one.

2. Once you are logged in, go to https://one.ubuntu.com/phones/.

Choose Apple as the manufacturers and iPhone as the model. Click Choose.

3. You will be issued an username and password. Record it down. You will need this info to login to the mobile app later on.

4. Next, install Ubuntu One Contact from the app store on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

5. Activate the app. When prompted, enter your Ubuntu One Phone account login credential.

6. Back to the app main screen, tap on the big Sync Contacts icon to start the synchronization (you will need to connect to the Web for the synchronization to start).

The synchronization will now take place. You won’t see the synced contact in your Ubuntu One folder. Instead, log in to the web-based dashboard and click on the Contact tab, you should be able to see your contact list.

If you decided that you don’t want to do any more synchronization, you can remove the phone from your Ubuntu One account via the Edit Phone Setting link.

One way or two way sync?

In the Settings pane within the app, there are several preferences that you can set. The more important one is the ability to specify whether a one-way sync or two way sync should be made. You can specify to do a two way sync, or just phone -> Server, or vice-versa.

Currently, the Ubuntu One Contact app only syncs your iPhone contact, but I believe that in the future, it could extend its service to your Notes, emails, SMS or even your call log.

What do you like to sync most with this Ubuntu One mobile app?

In the fast-pace, social media infused society that many of us live, it would be nice to be able to apply such photo effects on the fly, directly on our digital image capturing devices (i.e. pocket cameras and mobile phones).

TiltShift Generator is an Adobe Air applications that allows users to manipulate their photos directly on their mobile devices, whether their devices are netbooks, laptosp, or mobile phones. Because it is an Adobe Air app, it will work on any device that can run Adobe Air. Furthermore, it is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch in Apple’s App Store for $0.99.

TiltShift Generator comes with a handful of options, namely:

• Choice between radial and linear blur
• Adjustment of the center radius, either using the slider or clicking the white circle on the image
• Color adjustments, including saturation, contrast, and brightness
• Vignetting, which makes the image darker around the periphery
• JPEG quality, which you can adjust to reduce file size, if necessary

All of this combines to give what the project’s website describes as retro miniature pictures. You can import pictures directly from the camera, manipulate them to your taste, and then post them to Facebook, Twitter, or email. As it is generally considered a mobile app, the base resolution is 800px. On my desktop, it gave warnings about images sizes that were larger, but with my more powerful processors, I was able to edit them with little trouble.

In addition to the downloadable versions, TiltShift Generator is also available on the web through artandmobile.com’s site, making use of the Adobe Flash plugin in your web browser. The Flash version functions very well, without any noticeable decrease in speed or functionality.

The product is available for free from artandmobile.com, but I saw no indication of what type of license the software is distributed under or if it can be redistributed. It takes only seconds to install the Adobe Air version and is simple enough to be easily controlled with a mouse or finger, depending on your device.

It takes a little practice to get it the way you want it, and not having a photographer’s eye myself, please forgive my examples. Once you do get the hang of it, however, it is enjoyable and easy to use.

Below are two examples:

The original Taj Mahal picture is available at Wikipedia. My TiltShift edit makes use of linear blur and dark vignetting.

This picture of a street corner in Granada is available at Wikipedia as well. This TiltShift edit uses radial blur, light vignetting, slightly increased contrast, and intense color saturation.

If you would like to learn more about tilt shift and see 50 better examples than mine, visit smashingmagazine.com.

As in all RPG hack and style game, the main character (Tehra) has to go around killing monsters, trolls, dragons in order to save the humankind.

At the early stage of the game, you are limited to a simple hack and slash style and also a firebot magic. As you reach higher game level, you will pick up more armors and magical skill that grant you higher destroying power.

There is no experience point in the game, so you can’t power up your character’s traits nor equip your character with better weapons. However, with more gold, you can upgrade your armor and magic to higher level. A powerful armor is the demonic wrath that you get after killing the boss in stage 2. This demonic wrath gives you the ability to transform into a brutal devil with devastating killing power and immune to all attack. It gives you a sense of invincibility during that short period of time.

Initially when you first started the game, there is little guidance on where you have to go and what you have to do. There is no map for you to see and no arrows (like Gameloft style) to guide you. You just have to figure out the way yourself. The orcs is the most common enemies you will face and they never seem to die. When you kill one, the next one respawn. The undead (skeleton) is slightly more difficult to kill, but they don’t respawn. The undead archer is rather annoying and their lightning arrows is difficult to avoid at close distance. You often have to suffer several damages before you can kill them. One good thing, Tehra always run faster than the enemies, so if you are sick of fighting, you can always…err…run. Not a very glorious thing to do for an heroine, but when you need to complete the mission and all these enemies keep pestering you, running seems to be the best thing you should do.

One thing that I dislike is that there are very few recovery potions around. If there is any, their recovery effect is dismal. In places where you are dealing with the bosses, you only have 1 life potion around and it only recovers less than 10% of your lifebar.

The graphics is expected of any RPG games and is nothing short of spectacular. The sound is normal stuff and nothing to wow about (it almost sound similar in all RPG games).

It was stated that there is an online mode that allows people to compete worldwide, but I can’t find such options in the game itself. There are still very detail about this for the moment, probably the online world competition mode refers to the submission of your high score to the scoreboard (If that is the case, that is kind of disappointing). It will be great if you can play in a MMRPG setting.

All in all, this is not a bad game, but it is just a tad bit of difficult and lack of several features (such as more recovery potions, able to change weapons, upgrade character’s traits etc) that can make it even better. At a price tag of $3.99, I would say it is a steal.

Tehra Dark Warrior [iTunes link]

The objective of the game is to move a small black ball from the left to the right of the screen. Each screen comes with different obstacles that you have to bring your black ball to cross. There is nothing much to control except tilting your phone up and down and touch the screen to make the ball jump.

As easy as it looks, some of the area can be quite challenging. Often, you have to crack your brain and use your wit (and some trial and error) to complete each stage. Occasionally, you’ll also recive aids from friendly forces and also get to ride in different type of vehicles.

One thing that I love about the game is the dark ambient background and soundtrack that make the gameplay very soothing.

Trundle is a short game that can be easily completed in one (or maybe two to three) hour. It is definitely not enough to keep you occupied for a long period of time, but if you are looking for something free, fun, addictive and suitable for all age groups, then Trundle will be the one for you. For your info, additional levels pack will be make available for purchase in the future.

Trundle [App store link]

The creator of OMG Pirates! is Mika Mobile, also the creator of the popular Zombieville USA. The story is simple. You fight and kill pirates to defend your home. There are a total of 9 missions and 3 bosses. Each mission get more difficult than the previous. Once you have completed the 10 missions in the normal mode, the Hard and Survival mode will be unlocked and you can play it again at a more challenging level.

The gameplay is set in a 2D sidescrolling background. A good thing is that you are not defined to 2D movement. You can move up, down, left and right and they have been useful in dodging the enemies’s bullet and cannon. The control is easy. There is a joystick to move around, a green button to jump/block and a red button to attack.

The best part of this game is the leveling system of the character. As you kill a pirate, you gain experience points. When your experience bar is full, you level up and gain a new skill/combo to fight the pirates. The higher levels you achieve, the more powerful is your attack.

There is also a special power meter that fills itself up as you inflict damages to the pirates. When the meter is filled, simply tap on it to unleash the special power and send devastating lightning bolt to your enemies.

Like you, the pirates also can move, block and even attack you. They can be outright despicable too, always get behind you and attack you from the back (You can’t block attack from the back). One of the trick is to keep jumping (since they can’t hurt you when you are in the air) to the corner of the screen and make sure that none of the pirates get behind you.

At the end of each mission, you will be ranked from Apprentice to Master, depending on your performance. If you die too often, which you definitely will at the start of the game, you will be ranked as “terribad” that really show how bad you are. If this invoked bad feeling in you, you can always go back to the same mission and improve your ranking. Also if you achieve several 5, 10, or 15 master levels, you can unlock some cheats, which add more fun to the gameplay.

You don’t get to see stunning 3D graphics here, but the cartoony characters and effects can be quite visually pleasing too. The soundtrack for each mission is exceptional. You can hear the sound of sword swaying, the rumbling of the cannon explosion and the realistic “arrggghhh” when the pirates are cut up into half. Well done!

Unless you are not into fighting game, this game can easily take up every second of your time. To complete the normal mode is not a difficult task, since you can always continue after you die. The challenging part is in the Survival mode where there is no end to the waves of pirates. The excellent gameplay is what makes this game shine and I think it worths every single cents you pay for it, especially when it costs only $1.99.

OMG Pirates – $1.99 [iTunes link]

Friday Mobile Game Review is a new section that reviews mobile game (iPhone and Android) on a weekly basis. Game developers who are keen to get their games reviewed can submit your requests here.

Defender Chronicles: Legend of the Desert King is not the latest game in town, but it is one that makes me yearn for more. I can’t remember how many hours I have spent trying to complete the maps and power up my heroes. Like any other tower defense game, your aim is to build obstacles along the enemy’s path and prevent them from reaching the destination.

There are seven maps for you to crack and each map comes with four different difficulty levels: Novice, Casual, Master and Heroic. The easiest being Novice and the most difficult is Heroic. You can first start with Novice or Casual. The Master and Heroic mode are only available when you have completed the Casual and Master mode respectively.

Defender Chronicles is a fixed path TD, which means you can only place your guilds at predetermined location. There are three kind of guilds that you can build: warriors guild, archers guild and mage guild. The mage guild is not available for the first few maps and is only unlocked when you achieved a certain level. The archers guild is the most versatile tower as it can hit both land and air creatures, but it can’t stop enemies from walking pass it. Warriors guild is effectively at stopping down the enemies. The mage guild is the most powerful tower, but it is also the slowest.

Throughout the game play, I discovered that the emphasis is not on where to put your towers, but which tower to place at each location. There are plenty of locations (too many that I can’t fill them up  in some maps) where you can place your guild, so it is in a way similar to those freestyle TD game. The pace of the game is very fast and it requires you to make quick decision. Yes, a lot of trial and error is required too.

The control of the game is extremely easy. Tap on the specific location follow by the guild that you want to build. Upgrading and selling of guilds is also a matter of simple tapping. As I mentioned earlier, this game is pretty fast-paced, so it is necessary to simplify the control as much as possible.

The RPG element is what set DC apart from other TD games. At every map, the hero is always positioned as the last gate and acts as the last defense to your guild obstacle. When you have completed a map, your hero will gain experience points and skill points. The experience points level up your hero and improve its stats and its army stats. The skill points allow you to improve the stats for individual skill. (Tips: Improve the Cunning skill as much as possible. It will help in the later part of the game.) You will also gain tokens where you can use it to buy special items/inventory/armories etc.

Unlike many other games, this game is rendered in 2D view. But don’t be fooled by this, it has visually beautiful maps and well-animated characters. There won’t be any moment that you’ll feel the graphics is lacking.

Conclusion

If you like both TD and RPG type of game, then Defender Chronicles is definitely the one for you. The RPG elements set itself apart from other TD game. Not only is it the first of its kind, it is also the best. Be warned, this game is ADDICTIVE. Be prepared to spend hours after hours on this. There is even a community that discusses the strategy of this game. So if you have difficulties with any of the levels, remember to visit the forums for walkthough and strategy guides.

Defender Chronicles is currently available at the app store for $2.99 (originally $4.99) [iTunes link]

Friday Mobile Game Review is a new section that reviews mobile game (iPhone and Android) on a weekly basis. Game developers who are keen to get their games reviewed can submit your requests here.

Yes, iPhone/iPod Touch does not come with Copy/Paste function and despite countless pleas to Apple to implement this feature, there is still no news that this function is going to be included in the future firmware upgrade.

Nevertheless, if you are willing to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch and void the guarantee, you still can get the Copy/Paste to work. For those who are yearning for the Copy/Paste function, here is how you can get it working on your iPhone.

1. Jailbreak your iPhone

2. On the home screen, you should see a Cydia icon.Tap on it to run the installer application.

3. On the Cydia main screen, navigate to Sections-> Keyboards Extension. You will find hClipboard. Tap and install it.

4. Once you have finished the installation, exit Cydia and go to Settings. Navigate to General ->Keyboard->International Keyboards. You will see the hClipboard function. Slide the button to turn it on.

5. Now, go to any text application (such as Note). On the keyboard, you should see a globe button. Tapping on this globe button will turn the keyboard to the Copy/Paste mode.

Now type some text on the Note. Go to the Copy/Paste mode. Tap on the first icon (on the right) to copy all the text. To copy only a portion of the text, first place the cursor on the starting. Tap the second icon. You should see a sentence “Select from here…”. Next, move the cursor to the end of the selected text. Tap the second icon again. The selected text should now be copied to the clipboard.

To paste the text, simply tap the entry on the copy/paste keyboard. To delete, simple swipe the clipboard entry to the right.

You can also save the copied text as a template so you can use it over and over again, without having to retype it.

That’s it. Enjoy the Copy/Paste function in your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Note: Another application that gives you the Copy/Paste function is Clippy. You can find it in the Cydia installer.

It takes advantage of the iPhone’s hardware capabilities using a pinch and slide interface for zooming in and out, as well as the accelerometer for tilting terrain in 3D.  Not only that – you can also check click on Panoramio and Wikipedia entries which are embedded in relevant locations within the map so you can check out photos and learn more about the area which you’re viewing.  All in all, this app is a MUST have for anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Check out the following video for more details.

Do you like Google Earth?  Share your thoughts with us in the comments!