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Shoot it! smartphone postcards app review

With the recent announcement of Apple’s new Cards service, it’s a good time to post about one of the original smartphone postcard services: Shoot it!

The concept is simple. Take a photo with your smartphone, upload it to Shoot it!, add a message, add a recipient, click “Shoot it!” and the service will deliver a real-world glossy photo postcard, for as little as $1.29 (previously a buck) for US addresses. The cost for delivering a to other countries is slightly higher.

These smartphone postcards are great for vacations, holidays, sending the parents or grandma a photo, sending a little something to a friend or for many other occasions.

So what do they look like? Here’s a sample.

Sample Shoot it! photo postcard – front

Please pardon the fatso photo. This was back in 2009, before I went vegan. Tera looks lovely as always, of course.

Sample Shoot it! photo postcard – back

Shoot it! postcards app review

Unfortunately, the Android app suffers from multiple issues, making it almost unusable. I tested the app using the Motorola Droid (original) with Android 2.1 and 2.2.

For starters, the screen layouts and design could use some help. On some screens you have to scroll past empty space for no apparent reason, just to get to the button that you need to press to proceed.

The biggest problems, however, are the session timeout and force close issues, which pop up frequently. If you’re taking awhile to prepare and submit your postcard order by adding multiple recipients or typing up your postcard message, the Shoot it! app often times out, dropping your session and completely losing everything you’ve worked on so far. It doesn’t even save work in progress cards to a draft section. The app crashes (Force close) and you have to start over again from scratch and login anew. Frustrating.

If you’re sending to someone in your contacts that has a second line in their address, like an apartment or suite number, the Shoot it! Android app will fail to import that part of the address and you’ll need to manually enter it in the app each time. Very annoying.

I have no idea how the iOS Shoot it! app performs, but if it’s anything like the Android app, I’d be surprised if they maintain any regular customers.

Shoot it! Positives

High quality glossy photo postcards
Send from anywhere in the world using a phone or computer
Support for mailing to numerous countries
Low cost
iOS, Android & web browser support

Shoot it! Negatives

Android app is buggy, unstable and almost unusable
No editing or crop control
Doesn’t support all countries (I could’t send to Peru)
Address book stored on website isn’t accessible in Android app
Can’t edit address book entries stored on the website
Postcard font size not adjustable to allow for more text

Disclosure: Shoot it! provided me with 50 credits for helping to beta test the Android app. I provided a lot of feedback on the many bugs & issues with the Android app, but they never did get them fixed.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich unveiled

Last night, Google unveiled the latest iteration of the Android OS platform, version 4.0, code named Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to Google; Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. The lock screen, widgets, notifications, multi-tasking and everything in between has been rethought and refined to make Android simple, beautiful, and beyond smart.  

Here’s a quick video preview of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, the first device to support Ice Cream Sandwich.

Google is highlighting the following as the primary features of Ice Cream Sandwich

Face Unlock

Android 4.0 supports facial recognition phone security! Now this is pretty cool. Using the front facing camera on the Galaxy Nexus, you can unlock your phone with a mere smile.

Android Beam

Using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, Android phones will now be able to “beam” information to one another quickly and easily when in close proximity. You’ll be able to share contacts, websites, apps, media, just about anything with another Android phone, no cables or network connectivity required.

Voice Typing

Google’s innovation with voice input and voice recognition continues. The new voice typing feature will allow you to “type” emails, blog posts, or any other text just by talking.

Google +

Google’s social networking service is getting another big push thanks to tight integration in Android 4.0. The Android app will offer easy sharing options, a messenger app that allows you to communicate with groups of friends and a video chat feature.

The debut device

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone itself will feature a dual core 1.2GHz processor, a 720p HD display, single motion panoramic camera, zero shutter lag, “top notch” low light performance, 1080p video recording AND editing!

Booyah! This is what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve actually be considering the purchase of an iPhone 4S lately, primarily due to the video editing capabilities. Now that the Galaxy Nexus is set to arrive in November, it’s looking like it will be my next phone.

For more deets, check out the Google blog post on Android 4.0 and the Galaxy Nexus website.

Are you looking forward to getting your hands on Ice Cream Sandwich?

Review: AirPlay on AppleTV

Apple released the iOS update to version 4.2.1 this week, which adds several desirable features to the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. I upgraded our iPad and AppleTV to the latest version and gave it a quick test. But first, an explanation of features.

Added features with 4.2

• Multitasking on iPad The iPhone and iPod touch has had multi tasking since early this year. With the 4.2 upgrade, the iPad now has multitasking ability. This is the most requested feature for the iPad.
• Folders on iPad Folders allows simple drag-and-drop functionality to organize apps and files.
• AirPrint This is one feature I was looking forward to. The print feature is available in the apps, but it won’t find the printer, and there is no printer setup screen anywhere. I’ve looked up a few sources to find out how to get it to work, and it seems Apple hasn’t released an accompanying AirPrint application for Mac or PC. We’ll have to wait on this.
• AirPlay Probably the most exciting upgrade, AirPlay allows content on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to stream to a local AppleTV wirelessly. I’ve used the feature and find it compelling. More on this later

• Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch Helps track down and secure lost devices and private data. This is a feature many new “smart” portable devices are adding.
• Game Center Game Center appeared on the home screen automatically after the update. I haven’t used it much, but it seems like a great gateway to find new games.
• iTunes TV show rentals TV show rentals are available. I checked it out on iTunes, but I’m still not sure why anyone would spend the money to do this if they already had cable or satellite. On the other hand, I cancelled my cable service and probably wouldn’t mind spending the $15.99 for the season pass to AMC’s The Walking Dead.
• Unified mail box All email accounts go into a unified inbox.
• Find text on web pages Exactly as it sounds. Helps find relevant information.
• Reply to calendar invitations RSVP to invitations directly from the calendar app. Works with Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft Exchange.
• Enhanced enterprise support Stronger security features and device management.

Testing AirPlay

How does AirPlay work? Simple. When viewing photos or video, or listening to audio, you just select the AirPlay button, and then chose where you want the content to go. I tried it out with AppleTV. See the video below.

With AirPlay, I would recommend the AppleTV to any iPad owner. It’s one of the cheapest accessories you can get for the thing, and it’s just so cool. It’s true that you can stream this content from your computer to an AppleTV or similar device (Roku, Boxee, etc), but if you have an iPad, you might be downloading stuff on the fly and want to watch it as soon as you get home.

Or even with the iPhone or iPod touch, AirPlay is compelling. Imagine this scenario: you’ve got music playing on ear buds, and when you get home, you simply hit the AirPlay button and transfer it immediately to your home speakers without having to fidget through a separate device.

With this new iOS update, iTunes has also been upgraded to also include AirPlay. I tried this out as well, and it works great. The only issue is there isn’t a conflict resolution, so whichever device selects an end point last gets immediate access regardless of whatever else was being shared. An example was streaming audio from the local PC to the AppleTV, and then using the iPad content. The iPad immediately streamed to the AppleTV. iTunes on the PC didn’t recognize this change.

Also coming to the market are audio/video receivers, speakers, iPod docks, and more with AirPlay. So from the portable device or from iTunes, you can stream audio to whichever device you chose. This seems like it has great potential.

There were a few other bugs with AirPlay, but I don’t imagine how an app developer wouldn’t include this in the future. It’s just too convenient.

Compare telecom services like cell phones, 4g internet and more

The hot cell phones these days are smartphones, devices that are more akin to computers rather than traditional “telephones”. In fact, more and more consumers are spending the majority of time using their phones for other uses other than talking. They surf the web, they use apps, they social network with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and many other services.

So what’s the next hot thing in cell phones smartphones? 4G service. The majority of the newer phones on the market currently support 3G (3rd Generation) data speeds, but 4G is coming to the masses in the near future. Sprint launched the first ever 4G phone with the HTC EVO smartphone running Google Android, but the 4G service is limited to a select number of cities (and my hometown of Phoenix is not on that list, or even in the plans for future Sprint 4G rollouts).

Personally, I’m highly looking forward to Verizon’s roll-out of LTE 4G services, which are rumored to be launching nationwide in 2011. Until then, I’ll continue salivating over the lightning fast data speeds promised by 4G technology. Compare Cell Phones.

Disclosure: This article was a sponsored, paid post.