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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Give Radiant Touch to your Clicks with Windows Phone 8 apps

Thanks to smartphones that have made every one an amateur photographer. Capturing small moments and then creating the desired effect is so much fun. To make it more interesting, there are many superb photo editing apps available for Windows 8 users.

Here are some of the best photo editing Windows Phone 8 application for you.

Photosynth

It enables capturing interactive panorama of places, people and events. The app pops up as a lens within the camera app. The user needs to tap the screen to select his first frame, move the phone up, down or around, and tap again to end. The app will stitch all the shots together into a seamless panorama. The user can geo-tag the results and upload them as interactive images to Bing maps. The images once created can also be easily shared as an interactive panoramic experience on Facebook and Twitter using the Photosynth.net service.
Free | Download from Windows App Store

Phototastic

This app lets the user to add various types of effects to the photos (colors, vignettes, brightness, vintage appearances, etc). However the most interesting feature of the app is its ability to create collages from numerous pics. There are numerous handy templates to help to arrange the shots. There are over 30 different image effects and over 50 frame collages to choose from. The result of the pictures can also be uploaded to the social media networks.
Free | Download from Windows App Store

Fhotoroom

Basically, this is a photo sharing network that provides a basic image editor along with some custom manual controls for the camera. The users can manipulate the exposure, ISO levels and exposure timing to get the desired effects. There is a variety of styles, brushes, filters, and many other effects to edit the photos. Meant for the manual control over the camera, this app also includes more than 50 different image filters and custom designed frames to be added to the resultant photos. The images can also be shared over the social networks.
Free | Download from Windows App Store

Fotor

It allows editing photos that are already there in the Pictures Hub and those that have just been captured. Editing tools include a one-tap enhance to automatically adjust exposure, contrast saturation, etc. The cropping tool comes with preset proportions or free-hand cropping. The special effects include analog, lomo, neon, retro, art, vintage, black & white, scratch and old picture filters (around 76 filters), picture borders, tilt shift controls, and manual edit controls (brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness). Edited images can be shared through Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Messaging, etc. Most interestingly, all the images are saved at their original resolution (no resizing).
Free | Download from Windows App Store

Check-out the Best Photo Editing Apps for Windows Phone

So, what are you waiting for? The App stores for iOS, Android and Windows have recorded more than 100 billion downloads in 2013 and more to come this year. Download these apps now and flaunt your photography skills. All these apps are available at the Windows app store.

Get more such amazing Windows Phone 8 apps developed at HBMobileLabs, one of the best Windows mobile apps development company rendering mobile web solutions across the world.

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Apple Watch May Give a Boost to Wireless Charging

Apple Incs embrace of wireless charging for its new Watch may be a defining moment for a technology thats languished for years amid competing standards and consumer confusion.

Supporters of wireless charging see a future where people no longer worry about topping up their gadgets; are free from tangled power cords and low-battery warnings and where terms like "outlet" and "plugged in" will be as anachronistic as "dialling" a phone.

(Also see: Apple Watch Unveiled as Comprehensive Health and Fitness Companion)

Users seem to like the idea too: in a recent survey by technology consultancy IHS, 83 percent were interested in wireless charging; in China, the figure was 91 percent.

But, while the technology is largely there to do this, competition to set a global standard is getting in the way of delivery. Its reminiscent of the Betamax vs VHS videotape wars of three or four decades ago, or the more recent battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD for supremacy in high definition optical disc format.

For now, there are three alliances, but not much to show. Last year, fewer than 20 million phones were shipped with wireless charging built in, according to IHS - less than 2 percent of the billion smartphones shipped around the world.

"There are a lot of bees around the hive," said Omri Lachman, CEO of Humavox, an Israeli start-up with its own wireless charging technology. "Up to now weve not seen a mass aggregation of wireless charging in devices. Theres a good reason for that: three standards for the same form of technology."

While users clearly see wireless charging - where mobiles, tablets and other devices are charged by laying them on a mat or other surface - as a natural next step, some industry leaders have cautioned that having to still plug in the charging device may prove fiddly for some. "Having to create another device you have to plug into the wall is actually, for most situations, more complicated," Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said just two years ago.

(Also see: Everything You Need to Know About the Apple Watch)

Beam me up

Maybe, but others say the wireless vision remains compelling. "Look at Star Trek," says Geoff Gordon of the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), one of the three competing alliances. "They never talk about their batteries dying on any of their devices. If you look far enough into the future were looking at a world where you dont even think about power."

But to catch on, wireless charging has to work seamlessly. That means a user can easily find a wireless charging zone and not have to worry whether their device is compatible, or properly connected or even secure from theft.

Intel Corp, a member of A4WP along with the likes of Samsung Electronics andQualcomm Inc, says wireless charging is a lot like wireless computing. Just as the world has largely ditched network cables for wireless hotspots, so we will leave chargers and cables at home as well never be far from a charging pad.

But getting there, the chipmaker argues, will require someone with its clout to set the global standard for wireless technology. "History will tell you its what it takes to get mainstream lift-off," said Intels Leighton Phillips.

Among the competing standards, A4WP uses something called magnetic resonance, while the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) - which includes tech names such as Nokia and Philips - champions its Qi standard using inductive charging, a method which is also used by the Power Matters Alliance (PMA).

They are all variations of the same technology: a coil inside the device picks up an electrical charge from a transmitter coil in the charging surface. Apple, which sits outside the alliances, appears to have used a version of induction charging in its Watch, further muddying the waters.

$8.5 billion market

Sparring in a battle for leadership in a market that IHS reckons will be worth $8.5 billion by 2018 - as the technology is incorporated into devices, furniture, cars, restaurants - the alliances fling accusations at one another.

The WPC accuses its rivals of trying "to benefit from intellectual property they think they own," in the words of WPC vice president for market development John Perzow, instead of "what benefits the consumer."

The WPCs Qi brand is the only one to have made any real headway on the market, doubling its annual shipments to 20 million devices last year. The PMA has a couple of products out, while the first devices carrying the A4WPs Rezence brand are expected to be shipped this year.

A4WP supporters say the WPC has had its chance and blown it. "Very quickly the momentum behind A4WP will dwarf anything that Qi has accomplished," says Alex Gruzen, CEO of U.S.-based WiTricity.

The PMA, meanwhile, has focused less on the hardware and more on the application programming interface that would allow others to connect to it. Its main backers are companies like Procter & Gamble and Starbucks Corp , which promises to roll out charging surfaces in its U.S. outlets by the end of next year.

The groups all agree on one thing: squabbling over standards has kept smartphone manufacturers, furniture designers and car makers from building wireless charging technology into their products as much as they might if the technologys future were clearer.

The Jeep Cherokee , for example, includes a wireless charging pad, and Cadillac has announced plans to add wireless charging in 2015 models - but drivers will only be able to use the feature if they have compatible phones.

There are signs of progress: the A4WP and the PMA in February agreed to ensure their two standards work well together.

But for wireless charging to take off, Intel says, it not only needs compatible devices and charging mats in homes and offices, but also a broader public infrastructure - coffee shops, hotels, malls.

"The vision we have and that Starbucks has is that it becomes part of the slipstream of your life," says Powermat president Daniel Schreiber. "How do we make power come to you rather than have you think about power?"

"Nothings happening"

There are other issues. One is that the technology still needs to be easier to use. In some cases, a device cant just be dropped anyhow onto a charging pad - it needs to be aligned or it either wont charge, or will charge more slowly.

Also, fitting charging coils into devices isnt as simple as it may sound. "Coils have a physical limitation that wont change with size," said Humavoxs Lachman. "A lot of people have been trying to fit that into the device."

"All the companies are working around the clock to figure out how to pull in that technology and make sure it works," says Pavan Pudipeddi, CEO of PowerSquare, which in July launched a charging pad using Qi which allows users to recharge multiple devices. Pudipeddi welcomed the launch of Apples Watch with wireless charging. "Others will feed off that and its good for the technology in general," he said.

Meanwhile, the dithering over an industry standard is opening up opportunities for others.

Some companies like uBeam, for example, use ultrasound, converting electricity to sound and sending that over the air as ultrasound. Others, like Humavox, use radio frequencies, where the coils are replaced by antennae.

"Our decision to build this technology from the ground up is proving the right choice," said Lachman. "Wireless charging has been out there for five years and nothings happening."