The popular photo filter iPhone app, FX Photo Studio, has recently partnered with Sincerely to include the ability to send physical postcards from directly within the app. For today only, they’re allowing users to order one card for free!

FX Photo Studio has always been one of my favorite apps for adding filters to my photos because with 194 filters and effects, plus the ability to mask and layer the filters, there’s a countless number of possibilities for each photo.

To mask an effect, you simply tap the paintbrush icon and start painting with your finger. To adjust the brush size you zoom in and out of the photo — the brush size will always be relative to your finger. Although it isn’t the default, you can easily turn on the outline of the brush so that you know exactly how big the brush is. You can also elect to show a small square in the corner that shows exactly where your are applying the effect. This is a great feature for those fine details since your finger is making it so you can’t see.

FX Photo Studio also include a selective coloring tool called Color Splash that lets your convert parts of your image to black and white. Again, this is done by painting in the color with your finger.

Also included is 9 stylish text labels for adding personalized text to your photos. Although these labels are very nice, I do wish there was a plain text option that didn’t include a label behind the text.

When you’re done editing your photo, you can share it to Facebook Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, open in another app, or send to Sincerely to make a 4×6 postcard. Postcards are $1.99 each and very easy to send. You can add your own personal message to the back as well as a profile picture.

The Good

• 194 filters and effects
• Color Splash tool for selective coloring
• Filters can be masked on and off specific areas of the photo
• Text labels

The Bad

• Can’t add text by itself without a label
• Cannot make traditional adjustments (like exposure and white balance)

The Conclusion

FX Photo Studio is a great app for adding effects and filters to your photos with endless possibilities. The ability to send affordable postcards through Sincerely is a great new addition that, even though you may not use regularly, is nice to have as an option when someone’s birthday is approaching or for those random times you want to send a smile to someone’s doorstep.

Today is Free Card Day!

If you decide to pick up FX Photo Studio, today is Free Card Day and each user is allowed to send one postcard for free!

$1.99 – Download Now

Back in the 1990s when I was writing for martial arts magazines, one of my editors told me that any time they could put Bruce Lee on the cover, their sales would go up exponentially. So, no matter what, there was a huge incentive for them to run as many Bruce Lee covers as they could a year. Mercifully, magazines only came out once a month, and they couldn’t do it every month, but it was still done just as often as the market could bear.

That’s exactly what’s happening with Apple in the personal technology space right now. Put Apple in a headline and you’ll get more clicks. Truth, logic, intelligence, relevance — none of that matters compared to getting Apple in the headline, baiting the links, and garnering the click-throughs.

And that’s all of our fault.

Twenty years ago customers voted with their wallets and bought exponentially as many magazines when Bruce Lee was on the cover. Now readers vote with their clicks/taps and visit exponentially more tech stories if Apple is in the title.

A publication’s job is to serve the reader, stories about Apple are what the readers want, so that’s what publications are going to serve. If it’s something like a keynote where a new product is launched, it benefits Apple tremendously in terms of immediate and extended coverage and enormous amounts of free publicity. If it post product-launch. when outlets are trying to look for anyway to keep the stories going, it can harm Apple tremendously as also sorts of problems, real or imagined, get their turn in the spotlight. And since sensational stories get the most attention, most of the stories will get sensationalized to get that attention.

Since the web means no longer having to contend with monthly magazine publications, or even daily newspaper printing, we just get it from everywhere, all the time. It’s even bleeding out of the technology section and onto front pages.

It’s a vicious cycle.

Even smart readers and savvy journalists end up visiting — and sharing! — even the most absurd, objectionable, and outlandish dumb Apple stories. They do it in droves.

That feeds them, encourages them, and condemns us all to more of the same. Again and again and again.

So the next time any of us roll our eyes, grit out teeth, clench our fists, share our disbelief, post our retorts, or simply shake our heads at a stupid Apple story we’re reading and wonder why it got written — that’s the reason. Because of us. Because we not only give them attention, but we give them most of our attention.

Apple’s being put on as many covers, in as many ways as possible, and we’re racing to buy up every copy.

(For my part, I’m not linking to any of it here on iMore any more, and I’m not Tweeting it, sharing it, or doing anything to help spread it. If we have to disprove out-an-out BS, we’ll do it in a stand-alone way, or we’ll link to someone who’s written something smart, inspiring, or admirable instead. And if there was a rel=”unlink” attribute that would actually reduce the spread of the dumb, we’d use it.)

Apple Vice President of iPad Marketing, Michael Tchao, has set the record straight on allegations that the new iPad either fails to report the proper charge level, or over-charges and risks damage if left charging for too long. Speaking with AllThingsD, Tchao explained:

That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like. It's a great feature that's always been in iOS.

Ina Fried goes on to explain:

Apple does, in fact, display the iPad (and iPhone and iPod Touch) as 100 percent charged just before a device reaches a completely charged state. At that point, it will continue charging to 100 percent, then discharge a bit and charge back up to 100 percent, repeating that process until the device is unplugged. Doing so allows devices to maintain an optimum charge, Apple VP Michael Tchao told AllThingsD today.

Regardless of when the charge cycle is interrupted, the iPad batter will last about 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Apple chose not to show the cyclic fluctuations on the battery indicator.

So we can add “batterygate” to “warmgate” on the list of blow-out-of-proportion non-stories consumers have had to endure since the new iPad launched on March 7. What’s next, LTE boiling water? Retina displays causing sun tans? Dictation leading to scratchy throats?

Source: AllThingsD

Harry Potter fans everywhere can now enjoy their favorite wizards and witches right on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch exclusively through the Pottermore shop. All seven of the Harry Potter books are now available for download. The first three books in the series are available for $7.99 each while the last four books are available for $9.99. If you’d prefer to purchase all of them, you can save yourself a little bit of money by buying all of them together for $57.54.

While it’s great to be able to read the Harry Potter books in eBook format on many platforms, I’d have to say I’m a bit irritated with the process users will have to go through in order to get them on their devices.

Since they’re only available via the Pottermore shop, you’ll have to download them to your computer and either transfer them to iBooks via iTunes or open them natively from your device (for example, from a Dropbox or Box.net directory) and choose to open them in iBooks. It’s not the most convenient way to download a book and definitely a bit more aggravating than just opening the iBooks store and making a purchase with your iTunes account.

The Harry Potter series is also available for many other eBook readers as well. If you prefer using the Kindle app for iOS, you can choose to download them into your Kindle account and access them normally from there. I’d almost prefer using this method as I’d always be able to sign into my Amazon account on a new or freshly reformatted device and be able to access them without going through the iBooks process all over again.

I have a feeling a lot of hardcore Harry Potter fans will probably overlook the minor annoyance of getting the content onto their devices and will just be glad to finally have Harry Potter available in digital format. I’ll personally be using the Kindle app as it seems to be the most convenient as of now. Any of you plan on picking up HP in digital format?

Note: The website only seems to work for people in the U.S. and the U.K. right now — anyone else isn’t able to purchase. Anyone know a good avada kedavra curse for prehistoric licensing and commerce models?

Source: Pottermore

Foxconn, Apple’s infamous manufacturing partner, today invested heavily in Sharp, a prominent Japanese display manufacturer. Hon Hai, Foxconn’s parent company, now owns 46.5% of Sharp, while Sharp will retain another 46.5% and Sony keeps their 7% stake. As a part of the agreement, Hon Hai will be able to acquire up to half of the large LCD panels and modules made in Sharp’s Osaka plant. The factory will be managed by a third company agreed upon by all of the stakeholders.

Foxconn spent $US 1.6 billion (132.5 billion Yen) buying 121.65 million shares from Sharp in the deal. Incoming president Takashi Okuda explained Sharp’s move, particularly in light of their steep losses this year.

We needed to take action as we face a strong yen and a rapidly changing business environment. It's no longer an option to do everything from development, design, manufacturing, marketing and customer service. It's more important for us to collaborate with business partners to be competitive in the market.

As you might recall, Sharp was rumored to provide screens for the new iPad, but was unable to keep up, Now that they’re moving to being more of a manufacturing partner, maybe they’ll be able to refocus and get Apple the Retina displays they need.

Source: Sharp, Bloomberg,image credit

The PC market developed very differently from how the smartphone market is taking form. Because of this, it's interesting to think about how the tablet market will unfold.

Will it be more like the PC market, where we had one dominant OS (Microsoft) and one much smaller player (Apple)? Or will it develop more like the smartphone market where we have multiple viable platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone?

The way I see it, the PC market is not a very good comparison because by the time market share was carved up between Microsoft and Apple, there was no such thing as the Internet. There was no web browser. There was no HTML, or TCP/IP. Instead, PCs and Macs ran stand-alone applications and saved files to disks. You had to buy software in actual stores (or by mail). Everything was disconnected.

In contrast to this, smartphones were born in the web era. The first real smartphones were from RIM, with their BlackBerry solution. Sure, the web browsers were horrible, at least until the iPhone came out. Apple truly changed the game with respect to consumer expectations for mobile browser performance.

Today, modern smartphones have good browsers. This even includes BlackBerries, despite it taking RIM about 4 years to pull together a decent WebKit experience on their phones.

With the web becoming the center of our user experiences, it ultimately leads to less differentiation within the actual phone operating system. They can all make phone calls, they all have email clients, they all have highly responsive touch screen interfaces, and they all have great browsers.

These great browsers are now supporting the next-gen of web programming, which is HTML5. The game has only just begun, but we're seeing a pretty compelling set of capabilities coming out of HTML5 from gaming to video on demand to magazines.

Changes always seem to take a lot longer to unfold than the general population expects (and I'm no better), but I think great browsers + HTML5 will diminish the importance of the mobile phone operating system. The OS isn't a huge point of differentiation anymore.

If smartphones were born in the web era, tablets were born in the next-generation HTML5 web era. Their operating systems are not a big point of differentiation anymore. What matters are applications and end-to-end solutions. Ultimately I believe we'll see several successful competing platforms for tablets, and that's because they will all run very strong operating systems that simply connect the user to a wide world of HTML5 "stuff".

What makes Apple different?

Today, Apple has a huge advantage. They've got more native-coded games and apps for the iPad than any other tablet platform. This advantage is important because it leads to early market share gains.

Also, Apple has best-in-class apps of its own. The OS just runs apps, but you have to be a great software company to create these apps. Apple is a great software company. So is Microsoft. But Google's software brilliance has been more about organizing information and managing huge quantities of data (Goole search, Adwords, Google maps, etc) versus building amazing photo viewers, HD video editors, or music production software. And RIM? In many ways I feel they're not a software company at all. They're trying to become one through acquisition.

Ultimately, I think Apple's software advantage will diminish as publishers start using HTML5 instead of native development. I'm not saying it will go away — I'm saying the advantage will shrink. Obviously not all publishers will make this leap, but for the ones who can do so without compromising on quality, they'll do it to save money quickly be cross-platform compatible.

But then, even if HTML5 levels the playing field on apps, Apple is still left with an incredibly powerful solution set including music, TV, movies, cloud, and devices such as the Apple TV (and even the Airport Express, which I use daily to stream music to my stereo).

I think a discussion of HTML5 and what it does to the various mobile players can get really interesting. Will publishers move full force to HTML5 and sell via web apps so they can own their customers (versus Apple owning them)? Will competing platforms provide APIs so that HTML5 apps and open-standard hardware (think DLNA) can duplicate all of the advantages that I get from having an Apple-powered multimedia household?

Yes, of course these competitive threats can develop into something powerful. So the trick for Apple, today, is to grab as much market share as possible now. Fast. Because let's face it … we don't switch brands because the alternative is just as good. We switch only when the grass is greener, or significantly cheaper.

So that's my take. I think the tablet market is much more likely to develop like the smartphone market instead of the PC market. If I told you that up front, you might think I was bearish on Apple, because it would mean the iPad doesn't stand as much of a chance at holding onto its incredible market position. But it does, and I think it will. I just see other competing platforms succeeding too.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is going after Apple for advertising the new iPad as 4G capable, even though it’s not compatible with their 4G LTE networks. The ACCC says they’re after “injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective advertising and refunds to consumers affected” in this case.  Simply enough, Australian LTE operates on on 1800 MHz, while the two new iPad models currently available run on 700 MHz and 2100 MHz. Presumably, Apple will offer support for a wider variety of LTE flavors eventually, but for the time being, Australians and others will have to make do with 3G HSPA+ if they want cellular data on their new iPad.

Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus are both saying the new iPad has “ultrafast wireless” instead of 4G in their banners, but the proper model name for the new iPad in their online shops comes with “Wi-Fi + 4G” tacked on the end, so it’s easy to imagine some consumers being mislead. As AT&T has proven, the definition of “4G” is very flexible these days, but it’s good to see that marketing wordplay doesn’t fly in Australia; with any luck, the ACCC will win this case and get the carriers and Apple to change around the branding.

Australia was one of the first regions to get the new iPad, having joined Canada, the U.S., U.K, France and lots of others on March 16. In fact, it was the first country to put it on sale, and was where the new iPad was disassembled for our viewing pleasure.

Source: ACCC

For today only, the iMore Store has the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $28.95! That’s an amazing 42% off! Get them before they’re gone!

Get the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

The OtterBox Defender Series for the iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 offers rugged protection for your smartphone. The OtterBox Defender Series case will help keep your phone protected from drops, bumps, dust and shock.

All features, keys and ports are accessible through the case, providing you with a unique, interactive safeguard. Included with this case is a holster style swivel belt clip.

Features:

• Layer 1: Thermal formed protective clear membrane. Protects keypad against scratching, as well as dust intrusion (layer optional depending on the level of protection desired)
• Layer 2: Hi-impact polycarbonate shell for an added guard against drops and shocks
• Layer 3: High quality silicone skin to absorb bump and shock Full access to all keys, ports and functions

Your new iPad is a great way to stay organized and focused on the activities and events that matter to you most. The built in Calendar app has a lot of great features and tools to help you create, edit, manage, and share your schedule, including event invitations.

iCloud and Exchange

Before you can start creating and accepting proper event invitations you need to have set up either a free Apple iCloud account (@me.com address), or a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync account (including a Gmail account set up as Exchange).

• How to set up a free iCloud account on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

How to share a Calendar event

iCloud allows you to share an event when you create it, or share it later if you choose to.

1. If you’ve already created event you’d like to share with someone. Tap it and tap Edit, then skip down to step 4.
2. If you haven’t created the event yet, tap the “+” sign in the bottom right corner of your calendar app, or tap and hold on a time spot on the calendar, to create a new event.

3. Fill out at the information you need to about the event.
4. Tap the Invitees button.

5. If the person is in your address book, just start typing their name. If they aren’t, type in their iCloud (@me.com) e-mail address.
6. Once you’re done adding people, tap Done.
7. Now save the entire event by tapping Done again in the upper right hand corner.
8. iCloud will send the event invites to everyone. Once they accept or decline, you’ll see their name and status within your calendar.

While users with other types of accounts will receive your invites, they won’t be able to accept them into their Calendar and see your changes to events if they aren’t using iCloud as well.

How to accept an event invite

If someone has sent you an event invite, you can accept them straight from your iPad with just a few taps. Depending on your settings, you might get a popup notification or email alerting you when a new invitation comes in. Your Calendar app icon will also be badged with a number representing any outstanding event invitations (similar to how Mail shows you the number of unread email messages.)

To accept an invitation:

1. Launch the Calendar app.
2. Tap the Invitations button to view the pending invites.

3. You can either accept, decline, or say maybe. Your RSVP status will appear for the creatore of the event as well.
4. You can always change your status on the event by going back into the event in your calendar.

Additional resources:

• Everything you need to know about your new iPad
• Even more tips & tricks for new iPad users
• How to set up and send e-mail on your new iPad
• iMore new iPad discussion forums

Though Apple hasn’t announced when the new iPad will be coming to China, the Wi-Fi model has recently passed through the China Quality Certification Center. This bodes well for a launch in the next couple of weeks or months, but there are a few hurdles.

China has proven to be highly active app users, but it seems like Samsung is still leading the way in the area of smartphones. One significant roadblock to the new iPad in particular has been a claim to the trademark by a Chinese lighting and display manufacturer called Proview. Even though passing through the certification process bodes well for a new iPad launch in one of the world’s biggest markets for electronics, the trademark squabble is ongoing, and may hold up the release for awhile still. Eager Chinese consumers will also have to wait for a 3G model to pass through certification.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had recently visited China to talk with government officials, and I would be surprised if a big part of those discussions weren’t about getting the new iPad onto store shelves.

Source: PCWorld, The Guardian

A recent survey of 482 iPhone 4S owners found that 87% used Siri monthly, while a third used it daily to make calls, send SMS messages, and make web searches. 26% dictate e-mails to their iPhone 4S daily, but another 30% have never used Siri to send an e-mail. The most popular uses overall, according to Parks Associates, was making phone calls and sending SMS messages, but a whole 32% said they had never used Siri to schedule meetings, and 35% had never used it to schedule a meeting; even those who did did so with the lowest daily frequency out of any group. Satisfaction rate with Siri sat at 55%, while 9% were dissatisfied, and everyone else was somewhere in between. While the study indicates that most users aren’t bothering with Siri’s other notable features, like geofenced reminders, audio e-mail playback, and setting alarms, 37% said they would like to see some voice-activated TV remote control action (though that was counter-acted by another 20% against it).

Siri is still technically in beta so Apple can collect enough voice data to improve the service, so it’s reasonable to expect the satisfaction rate to climb over time. Although that also means we might see additional features coming down the pipe, will anyone actually use them?

Let’s face it, Siri is definitely cool, but for a lot of people, talking to your phone as if it were a real person, even if Apple has gone out of their way to give it a Pixar personality, is still a fairly foreign idea, and it’s hard not to feel a bit of a crazy when using Siri in public.

If you’re new to Apple’s virtual personal assistant, here are a bunch of Siri tips to help get you started. If you’ve been using Siri for a while, how often do you use it? Are there any feature additions in particular that you’d like to see?

Source: WSJ

SGP Kuel H10 is a compact, convenient, capacitive stylus for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It’s made from a special silicon with high polymer abrasion-resistant coating, which SGP says allows for smooth touch and incredible control. In my experience it’s the multitouch sensors in iOS devices themselves that are the limiting factor when it comes to any stylus, but SGP has certainly made a pen to be proud of.

In order to put the Kuel H10 to the test, I did what any self-respecting technology blogger would do — I used it to see if it could help me dominate at the game Draw Something. (What, like you wouldn’t?) It came in really handy, getting my hand out the way so I could see what I was drawing and giving me far greater control than finger painting alone would allow. I could generally get precise lines and smooth curves. Because the tip that allows for the capacitive touch is spongy, you do have to press harder than you would with a finger but it’s produced better results than other stylus’ I’ve tried. In fact, it’s currently my favorite stylus to use.

The Kuel H10 is smaller than many of the other styli on the market, but the outside has a good grip and it never caused any issues. It also has a cap to protect the silicon cap and its polymer abrasion-resistant coating, with a handy strap that attached to the 3.5mm headset jack. That keeps your stylus connected to your phone and makes it harder to loose. (Though I do worry that it might hit, grind against, or otherwise cause a problem with the screen.) Also, the cap on my review unit has loosened over time, so I worry it might slip out and get lost anyway if I’m not careful. There’s also a small metal edge on the top of the 3.5mm plug that I wish wasn’t there.

The good

• Cap protects stylus tip and attaches to phone to keep it handy
• Compact design makes it convenient to carry
• Easy to grip and comfortable to use

The bad

• Cap can loosen, leading to lost stylus
• 3.5mm plug has an unnecessarily rough tip

The conclusion

I love the SGP Kuel H10 stylus and recommend it. This is my absolute favorite stylus to date. That may change as we test more of them here at iMore, and as next-generation Bluetooth 4.0 styli come out that allow for pressure sensitivity. For now, however, the small size, beautiful finish, and convenient way it connects to my iPhone makes the SGP Kuel H10 a winner. (And not just because it’s helping me dominate at Draw Something, though that’s certainly a bonus!)

12.99 – Buy now

Back in December, 2011, Gannett armed their print and broadcast journalists with iPhones and iPads. Now, with over 1,000 iOS devices now in the hands of their print and broadcast journalists, they’re combining traditional broadcast equipment with some of the best in mobile technology. At this point, the iPhones and iPads have become an essential requirement in the day-today operations throughout the Gannett organization.

"Reporters and photographers need to collect and record things, do some rudimentary editing and transmit that content. This one device can accomplish some or all of those critical steps,” says Gannett's Director of Digital Content MacKenzie Warren.

The iTunes App Store plays a significant role here as well with Gannett making use of such applications as Apple’s iMovie, the more robust Splice and even working with Qik to offer viewers a multi-stream broadcast during a recent Florida State-Duke basketball game. This is all in addition to using various other tools available to publishers such as Brightcove’s mobile upload service that allows for raw or edited footage directly to Brightcove servers and then directly to viewers.

iPhone and iPad accessories play a big role for Gannett as well. With plenty of iOS device accessories out there to make use of, they have no trouble finding additional tools that help the print and broadcast journalists in whatever circumstances they may come across. Be it the need to get a POV shot from a car or bicycle and as noted by Patti Dennis, VP of news at Gannet’s KUSA Denver “the story dictates the tool," and that could mean anything from using a tripod mount to the widely used mCam, made out of aluminum and acts as a mount but also offers a wide-angle/macro lens as well as a microphone for recording audio.

Looking at the Gannett situation a bit, it’s easy to see how Apple devices are changing how news is brought to the masses. The next time you’re watching the news, those photos, those videos could essentially be coming to you from not only an iOS device but after having been recorded, edited and even uploaded to a server somewhere directly from one. The traditional tools are of course still playing a big role in the day-to-day operations but the landscape has changed now all thanks to Apple.

Source: TV News Check