photoshop mobile on iphone

photoshop mobile came out a few days ago at the iphone app store and although there was anticipation for a mobile app from adobe, this one doesn’t really satisfy. the paltry set of effects is actually quite disappointing, considering the amazing breadth of photoshop. my own personal bummer was that there were no layers - imagine something as cool as a single type layer where you can type a name (or phrase) and position it on a photo wherever you want.

the app allows you to open or take a photo via the camera. then gives you the choice of the crop/flip/rotate tool or 3 main sets of effects you can run. the choices are a little more than canned color overlays and a couple of blur effects - the blurs which I actually like a bit. I just wish that I could layer something over the blurry images. and c’mon adobe, do we really need the ’sketch’ effect? it doesn’t even look good. just for that alone i can’t really give it more than 2 out of 5 stars.

for now though, i think i’ll still use some of the other graphics apps - like doodle buddy - that i like (and my kid loves!) and then bring those images into ps mobile. but really, i’m already ready for the update. of course this is probably just adobe signaling the beginning of their cloud apps along with their online service at photoshop.com, but more on that later…

the russian version of shca.com

we love wordpress, we really do. we love working with the platform and all the things it can do. we just finished a pretty complex build that required a lot of customization. about a year ago our friends at 4corners, designed and built a site for their client Swanke Hayden Connell Architects at shca.com.

they also love wordpress  - as you can tell by their cool site too -  and they did a great job of pushing all the data into a flash front end using the WP cms.  this year they asked us to help them translate shca.com to russian. the task was pretty daunting as the request was to use a single admin login to update both russian and english versions simultaneously. since the site is graphics heavy - with images shown in multiple places and in multiple sizes we had to make sure that all relations were kept AND doubled to display in both version.

the english and russian input fields

first chris implemented qtranslate and had to go through and make sure all the tags were compatible with wp2.5 of the original build. qtranslate is a great plug in and we highly recommend it for anyone looking to do a multi-language build.  we then had to enable russian text fields for every variable entry and hand code whatever wasn’t. the media upload area was particularly difficult, but with some custom plug-ins and general hacks it all came together.

overall radian said that once he learned ‘all the hooks in wordpress’ it wasn’t that bad. we think it came out really good. but if any of our russian friends find any mistakes let us know. and now, if only shca can resolve their dns and have their web address show up in the url bar instead of their ip address, it’ll be even better.

as all parents know, our kids LOVE the iphone. they probably love it even more than some adults. of course, iphone application developers know that and there are countless games out there for kids. my six year old daughter loves one game in particular - and to be perfectly honest, so do i.

developed by walaber, the name says it all. jelly car is a soft body dynamics-based little game where you drive a floppy, gooey, tiny car through an obstacle course in order to hit a target. there are many levels from beginner to expert for hours of play. there may be many very cool and complex iphone games out there, but the simplicity and wackiness of jelly car makes it stand out. it was actusally voted the best kids game on the iphone. plus, it’s free and you can’t beat that. i give it 5 stars and recommend you download it from the iphone app store.