ZDNet App Wrap: March 4, 2013
Photoshop Touch
Price: AU$5.49
The grandaddy of digital image manipulation software has at last arrived on mobile platforms.
This app brings with it standard Photoshop features, such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters.
Connected to Adobe's Creative Cloud, the theory with this app is that you could take a picture with your mobile device, start adjusting an image on the device, then head back to your computer to polish it all up nicely. The app comes with 2GB of Creative Cloud storage.
Images of up to 12 megapixels are supported.
Dev Center
Platform: Windows Phone
Price: Free
As a developer, who wouldn't want an app to tell you about how many app sales and crashes are occurring?
This preview app on Windows Phone provides information on downloads and crashes in five day, one month, six month, and one year windows. It also shows app details and reviews.
Being a Windows Phone app, it is armed with a LiveTile that shows download and crash counts.
Terminal IDE
Platform: Android
Price: Free
The Android development environment for Android, Java, C, HTML received an update over the weekend. The big improvements were upgrading GCC to version 4.4, links web browser to v2.7, and the addition of tutorials.
This self-contained development environment won my heart when I tested developing an Android application from within Android. Use of a physical keyboard is recommended.
UniTucker
Price: Free
Mooching from the free food on offer is all part of a university student's life. But the days of having to smell your way to free grub seem to be numbered, with apps appearing to replace noses.
This app is currently restricted to the University of Sydney, so there is room for copycat apps to service other unis.
Coast Guard SafeTrx
Price: Free
We have a bit of fun with some of the apps on the App Wrap, but here is one that could be deadly serious.
The app is used to register vessels and trip planning with the Australian Coast Guard. It has the ability to add start and end locations, an optional waypoint, and ETA.
Registering a trip will activate position reporting in the app, which will send the vessel's position to the Coast Guard server and will alert the Coast Guard if a journey goes beyond its ETA. Thankfully, you can end your trip at any time and/or revise the ETA to avoid having the Coast Guard needlessly looking for you.
Andrew Laming: Have Your Say
Price: Free
When it comes to communication bungles, Andrew Laming has got you covered.
There was that time he asked where the Prime Minster was when Tony Abbott was in Brisbane before its recent flooding. Answer: She was in Victoria with bushfire victims. Or on Saturday, when a brochure produced by Laming contained a questionable image.
And then there were those comments that Laming made on violence in the suburb of Logan. And all this from just the first two months of the year!
With such a cavalcade of schadenfreude on tap, why wouldn't you want an app that allows you to connect directly with the source?
This app contains the member for Bowman's Facebook and Twitter timelines, as well as a news feed.
The app's page asks, "Why sit on the sideline when you can actually be part of what's happening?" And further claims that "This is Democracy in action — in fact, if the ancient Greeks had invented this ap,p they probably would have called it.... 'Have Your Say'."
Given Laming's history, I'm not sure I want to be a part of "what's happening", but if you do, there's an app for it now.
Guzman Y Gomez
Platform: iOS
Price: Free
Here's an app for a food franchise that contains loyalty programs, locations, and social feeds.
But that is all pretty useless until this app tells us when Guzman Y Gomez downstairs from ZDNet's Australian outpost is finally opening!
Saying it is "coming soon" and that it will be offering free food on opening day is a big tease. Until it opens, I guess one could use this app to find another location.