5 Awesome iOS Photography and Video Apps You’ve Never Heard of
Working in the mobile space, I am exposed to some of the biggest challenges that the industry faces. When it comes to developers, I work closely on helping them generate revenue from their free apps (you’d be surprised to hear that free apps make more than paid ones), but the biggest issue developers face today, is definitely traffic. Call it discovery, call it buzz, call it PR, the bottom line is, without a lot of help, most mobile developers struggle with reaching mass audiences.
There are many companies and products that deal with app discovery, and we are among them with our checkins SDK (sign up here), but in all honesty, no one has truly cracked the code of getting a new app discovered and downloaded by millions. Yes, there are many tips, but there are no real shortcuts. Here is thing, there never will be either.
It is for this reason developers have to focus on what they do best, and that is, make great apps. Once that app is out there and it deserves the hype, a few emails to bloggers and online publications will help your cause, but there are no guarantees. However, if your app is really good, and it excites the people that use it, call me naive, but I believe it will get the attention it deserves. If it REALLY good, users might even make a birthday cake themed after your app…
The following are five iOS apps that I came by via a press release or a pitch from the developer, and as soon as I opened the app, I knew I would be writing about it to help it get discovered. I am sure you will love these apps too:
- ToonPaint: I found this app via Chris Pirillo when he took a picture of himself and turned into a cartoon that looked like it was made by a professional designer. I had to test out this app, and suffice to say, I was not disappointed. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw a whole bunch of pictures created by ToonPaint in my tweets. This app is just fun and the photos it creates are truly amazing. I even bought extra features using the in-app purchasing mechanism, which has to be a first for me. It is just that good.
- Cartoonatic: This app is ToonPaint for video. With a seriously awesome cartoon interface, Cartoonic lets you take cartoon videos using the back or front facing camera of the iPhone. If you upgrade to the premium version, you get rid of the in-app ads and get to take photos as well. Cartoonic has some great features and the results look professional and downright awesome.It is no surprise that Cartoonic was developed by MacPhun along with many other cool apps, including Silent Film Director mentioned below.
- Videolicious: One of the most resource intensive tasks that we do on our computers today, is video editing. When buying a computer, one of the questions the sales guy will always ask you is, “Do you do video editing”? If the answer is yes, you need a more powerful computer. Well, with Videolicious, you have a really nice video editing solution in the palm of your hand, and believe it or not, the results are superb. I have some feedback for the developer, namely that not every type of movie wants to have a narrator, but now I am nitpicking. This is an awesome video editing app. Oh yea, and it’s free!
- Silent Film Director: I already wrote a review of this app here. If you are an iOS user (or even Android), you know there are those apps that when shown off always get the “Oooh” and “Ahhh” response. This is that app. You take a video and seamlessly and effortlessly turn it into an old fashioned video that truly looks like it came out of your parents’ or even grandparents’ home video collection. I have not bought too many apps for $1.99, but I bought this one, and it was well worth it.
- QuickPix: I have been using this app as my iPhone default camera for a few months now (before it was called QuickPix), and I absolutely love it. Basically, QuickPix makes the whole photography experience of iPhone much easier, quicker, and more seamless. Some of the features include burst mode, which enables you to take two pictures per second, the ability to take a photo in the middle of a video, and the fastest startup time I have ever seen in any app. It is no wonder David Pogue from the NYTimes named this app first in his latest column.
Now, I do not work with the developers who made these apps, I don’t even know of any of them personally. However, these five apps are so great, that I wanted to write about them both for you, the reader of this, as well as the developer who did some fine work and deserves traffic. If you are a developer looking to get your app discovered, focus on making the app as great as it can be, then find me on Twitter, and I will try my best to take care of the rest (assuming it is really that great!).
