BW Communities

Frame Your Story

Mala Bhargava Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[When you start to describe it, Diptic is only a bunch of photo frames. Many of them, admittedly, but just straight forward frames. There are varying layouts: four small frames and one big one; five frames of equal size, etc. You can get additional frames with a one-time in-app purchase. But like many extremely popular apps, Diptic has got some secret sauce. There are dozens of Diptic-like apps and some with flexible frames and patterns, but for the foreseeable future, you'll find people loving Diptic. It presents a choice of collage layouts. You choose and tap to select or take your photo. You can resize but not reshape the frames and you can customise their borders, even making them invisible. When your photos are in place, you can edit some parameters like brightness, contrast and tint. And in a matter of moments, you're ready to share, save or send. The final result is something satisfyingly neat and geometrical — just the kind of thing users like. It's not like you can't be creative with this app, though. The very way you position your images can make them a work of art. You can even smarten up images to put into your presentations. Smart, and yet effortless. Diptic is an iOS app for $0.99, the usual for many amazingly feature-rich apps. <table style="width: 100px;" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="/businessworld/system/files/images/june_12/diptic_150x75.jpg" height="75" width="150"></td> </tr> <tr> <td>NOTESY IS A TEXT EDITOR FOR THE IPHONE BACKED BY THE POWER OF DROPBOX</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Drop It In The Box Note-taking apps are a dime a dozen. There are so many that one goes through several purchases before settling on a favourite. If syncing notes is top of your priority list, Notesy may be a good one to consider. If you are a Dropbox user, that is. Notesy's USP is that it auto syncs with Dropbox, letting you put your notes in your chosen folder. You can also opt to see when your notes are synced, just to be sure. While most apps have a Dropbox send-to option, Notesy does an automatic job of it after you set it up. But Notesy offers a pleasant note-taking experience in itself as well. First, you can choose your paper style from among a collection featuring textures and colours. Then there is a selection of fonts and sizes. You also have word count information, an essential for every notepad. There seem to be a few unnecessary buttons here and there, but nothing that detracts seriously from usability in an uncluttered interface. Notesy is $1.99 for iOS and is an alternative to Simplenote. Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional Contact her at mala at pobox dot com and (at)malabhargava on Twitter (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-06-2012)

Mala Bhargava

BW Reporters Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.